As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 048 - Creepy October and Reddit Horror Stories - 10 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: October 20, 2022

Hello and Welcome to the ##th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have some intriguing and terrifying stories submitted by everyday people. In Today's Episode we will have stories about some terrifying stories from the month of October, as well as stories straight from everyday Redditors and Subscribers.  ➤ Want your story featured? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/Submit ➤ Want to know where to follow me on the internet? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/the-nevermore for all my links! ➤ You can also get EARLY ACCESS By joining my Patreon! https://patreon.com/astheravendreams Today's Video contains stories by the following Authors... Hannah, Professional_Buy6686, Andre_Luc, Delilah, MyNameIsntMaisie, numba1gyal, Anthony KM, JaimeBaby, ItsKatelynn and authors that requested anonymity.  ➤ All stories within are used w/ Either direct permission from the author- or under some level of CC license (where noted) True Stories are not verified, and should all be considered 'supposedly true'.  And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And profite. Viarai. The voice that we love that we love. If you have a story you would like to hear featured on this podcast, please go to as the ravendreams.com and click the button to submit your story. Also, if the platform you're listening on has the option to rate this podcast, please, consider doing it. doing so. And thank you.

I used to live in a pretty small town with my grandparents around 2013. I had my little girl, Summer, at the time of this event. She had just turned five. I'd split up with my ex, so they agreed to let me move in with them while I finished my degree and found a better job. He wasn't too fond of being a father figure, and after finding out that he was a father figure. and after finding out that he spent more time with his ex than looking for a job, I was pretty over it.

I didn't want to be the one paying for everything as well as taking care of our kid while he got to spend my money. The only downside was that, when I say it was a small town, I mean small. They have one grocery store, which is also their pharmacy, and the town clinic is a cross the street. They have two gas stations, but everyone agrees that one is better than the other. And the most exciting thing to happen there was that they got a pizza buffet that also delivered.

So, if you needed to go anywhere, it would take a few hours to get into town, get your stuff, and get back. Needless to say, it was easy to get bored. Summer was pretty occupied, though. as my grandma watched her during the day, but I felt bad that I didn't often get to go out and do anything with her, so when I learned a nearby town was having a small Halloween festival,

I knew that I wanted to take her there. It turned out to be, like, a cute little carnival. They had a few small rides, like the ones that went in a circle, a kitty, roller coaster type thing, and they even had games. They had a hayride, a small, spooky haunted house, as they called it. It was the first one that she would be going to, so I was ready to do anything that she wanted. I will say that I definitely had that first kid syndrome, where I was very protective over everything and anything she did. I think we were both pretty clingy because of it.

So I always had my eyes on her, and I didn't let her get too. close to anyone that I didn't know. I brought the stroller, knowing she would probably get tired, and that way while we were walking, I could at least have her in my sights at all times. She did great for the most part, too. There were a few times that she wanted to walk, but she knew that she had to stand next to me with her hand on the stroller, basically like she was pushing it with me, which was fine. We'd toss her baby doll into the seat, and she set.

So she got around to a few games and treats and had a few people approach me, mentioning how cute she was. We were getting towards the end because she was starting to get a little cranky. She didn't want to walk anymore, but she also didn't want to sit, thinking that she was going to miss out on something. Before we left, we stopped at one of the restrooms in the food area

where we had to leave the strollers and wagons outside, because the entrance was too narrow. So, when we left the restroom, I grabbed the stroller and offered to put Summer in the seat so that we could leave. That way, she wasn't walking through the parking lot. She didn't want to sit, so we agreed to push the stroller together. While she was standing to my left, I bent down to put my purse back in the undercarriage,

and when I stood back up, summer was gone. I had first thought that maybe it was because she was getting tired and she moved to the seat anyways, but she wasn't in the seat, nor was she to my right. I did a quick 360 scanning the area close to me, and to my horror, I still didn't find her. That's when I started to panic. I called for her, screaming her name, and I didn't get a response. A woman with her own kid was nearby. and asked me what happened, and she tried to keep me calm and help look for her too.

We checked in both restrooms, the area around it, and even all over the food area. I know that I was freaking out, and rightfully so. My kid just vanished within seconds, and no one claimed to have seen her. I know she was a kid, but I also knew her, and I knew that she wouldn't just walk off around people that she didn't know, and she wouldn't willingly go with someone that she didn't recognize. I called the police, and someone at one of the food vendors alerted their security people, too. I didn't want to go much further outside the area that I last saw her,

just in case she was still close so she could find me, but they suggested that I go to the front so I could speak to the police and take a report. Reluctantly, I agreed, and as I headed to the front, I saw two cops, and the ticket person at the entrance, and also summer. I remember yelling her name and hearing her scream, Mommy, as she ran to me, which was one of the most gut-wrenching feelings ever. I ran over to the cops with her in my arms, asking if they knew what happened. The ticket guy said that he saw a guy approaching the exit with her,

and that she was crying and screaming and pushing him away. He was trying to do anything that he could to keep her quiet without looking suspicious, I guess. But the ticket guy said that it didn't seem right and stopped to ask if everything was all right. He tried to give some line about her being his kid or something to that effect, and Summer kept saying things like, No, Stranger, I don't know him, which alarmed this guy, and he then tried asking him for ID and threatened to call the cop. When he said that, the guy shoved summer at him and took off.

He didn't get to see what car, if any, he got into, as he didn't want to leave summer alone. I couldn't have been any more grateful that this kid went way above his job to stop this guy. Anyone could have just looked at it and thought it was a kid throwing a tantrum, but he actually paid attention, and he realized that that was not what was happening. I was also incredibly proud of Summer for screaming and fighting this man and speaking up, too. I had taught her not to approach strangers, so she understood what that meant.

But it's just not something you think you would ever have to remember. They never found the guy that night, and I was never contacted about it, so I don't think they ever did. But, my God, that was single-handedly the most terrifying day of my life, and I will never forget the fear that I felt. I know Summer remembers it too, as she is still a happy and playful child, but she didn't really fight sitting in the stroller or holding my hand at all times again.

Just hold your kids tight, and be sure to teach them stranger danger. It can definitely save a life, or at least change it within seconds. For some backstory, My father died in February of this year for reasons that can be simplified as the result of years of debilitating alcohol addiction. I have two older sisters, and out of all of us, I can say for certain that I've had the most difficult relationship with my dad. His alcoholism didn't get really bad until the late 2000s,

when a number of compounding factors likely led to him drinking more intensely. the recent loss of his mother, my older sisters growing up and moving out, him getting his position and his job change to a very unsatisfying one, and the compounding financial troubles that he always had with regards to my mom's lack of employment benefits. This coincided with the latter half of middle school for me and my entire high school life, so for most of my adolescence. I only knew him as this deeply despondent. man, who seems to have nothing to live for. While my sisters were able to grow up and move out, I did not have such an opportunity, and I had to bear the brunt of his neglect.

Flash forward to September, and my mom makes an appointment with the psychic that we've seen before for similar reasons. We want someone to assess the spiritual state of the family, and give us some advice going forward. Me, my mom, and my sisters all arrive sequentially to the home where she does her work. The first thing she notices when starting her session is that she felt a very heavy feeling of apology in the room, and that whatever was causing this seemingly walked into the room before we even arrived. She distinctly wanted to point out this feeling of apology towards each individual person in the room.

This alone wasn't really noteworthy, but then she started being able to bring up details that were pertinent to his death, like a strong aroma of alcohol, and seeing blood clotting within someone's body. She was also able to bring up

the fact that he was found deceased by my mother, down to the exact detail of being able to sense that she stopped momentarily before opening the door, having a strong instinctual feeling that he was dead. But what really got to me was that, in elaborating on this apologetic mood, she sensed that

these emotions were directed towards me in particular. She made her to point to emphasize that this feeling of apology was directed towards me the most out of everyone in the room, even my mom. At this point, the unemotional days that I was in for the beginning of the session went away, and I nearly broke down sobbing on the floor, but I was able to control myself before that happened. I still don't believe she was 100% accurate with what she was telling me, as it comes with human error and the ambiguousness involved in the messages she received.

But that, I'm most certain that was real. That had to have been my dad in some form, and it completely matches the Apollison some other thing he had in his life. Some other things worth mentioning, she was able to parse that we collectively wrote and contributed to a farewell letter to him that we placed in his casket during his funeral before he was cremated.

Of course, it was in the vague language of he's pointing towards something to do with writing like a written letter, but I still think that it was worth noting. So, for some bad words, background information, me and my friend are both reasonably scrawny teenage girls. We were camping, and it was very foggy outside, and it was like mid-evening. So my friend and I were hanging out at the beach looking at all the sand castles from the

competition that took place earlier that day, and we had to use the bathroom and wash the sand off of our feet, etc. So she was washing her feet off. and I was going to the bathroom, and I heard the distinct sound of keys jingling. Keep that in mind as I think it's important. So, after I got out of the bathroom, my friend was waiting for me just outside, and I asked if she had seen anyone leave the bathroom,

but she had just gotten there apparently. We were just standing around when I heard the keys again. I looked up and saw a man. He was in his mid-tebrose. to late 20s, early 30s, the latest. He had extremely greasy blonde hair, sunken eyes, a hoodie on with the hood up. Overall, just a pretty sketchy-looking dude. He circled the bathroom that me and my friend were standing by a few times after that,

but he was always watching us when we were in view, which I took note of. My friend still didn't notice, though. Anyways, a minute or two later, she asked me if I wanted to go sit at a picnic table with her, and I accepted, because I wanted to get away from him. So we walked over to the table, but he followed us, and I know because of his keys. We sat at the table and she was talking to her boyfriend on Snapchat,

and I was reading over her shoulder as I normally do, but while I was reading with her, I told her that the guy was watching us, and about what I noticed before we went to the table. As I was telling her about it, I felt like I was being watched, so I looked over and made direct eye contact with the guy who had the keys. After we both gave an awkward smile, he broke eye contact,

and he walked over to another man who I didn't get a good look at, and they kept looking at my friend and I, so we got up, and walked over to the little playground near where we were, and we just kind of talked, but this time she was paying attention to where the guys were. Not even a minute later, the two men walked by over to a small patch of woods

that had a red car parked near it. Due to where I was sitting, I couldn't see the men anymore, but my friend could, and she said that the blonde one kept peeking back at us from behind a tree. The other one was out of sight. So we decided to use this to our advantage and ran over to the little restaurant-type thing, which gave us a clear view of them and them a clear view of us. The blonde guy got into the car with who we believed to be the other guy.

Now, our fighter flight was kicking in, and we both chose flight. So when we went behind the restaurant, which was closed and had been for around an hour, We both ran down the stairs to a spot behind a transport truck that had been there since earlier the day before, so we knew the driver wasn't there. My friend looked out from behind the truck and saw the car from earlier circling around the area. As soon as it was out of sight, we ran as fast as we could. And, thankfully, there were other people around. So we calmed down knowing that the guys probably wouldn't come for us with other people there. We made it back to our campsite safely and watched movies and stuff before we went to bed,

and we didn't see the guys for the rest of the trip. Now, I know this probably wasn't the scariest of encounters out there, but it left us shaken to the core. Because who knows what would have happened if I wasn't always hyper-aware of my surroundings. Lazzangue surgellied, puissance-moid, for 15 minutes. We'd say that's their dojo. Pre-to-joo? This is the pleasure with Leo Jo, the casino in line

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Play-Ojo! 18 and plus, 1, 1st, Excluen on Ontario. 50 tours gratu on the machine-assoubik bas-Binza. Depos minimum of $10. Beyeye show in a fashion responsible. The conditions apply. This actually happened to me just a few years ago,

when I had started a guy that I knew back in high school. named chance. We added each other on Facebook and started talking and had agreed to meet up. We were both very different people in school, and I think we definitely matured and changed, which made it work out. He was typically in the spotlight in class, but he wasn't really a jock or anything. He was on the wrestling team, but he didn't make it his personality. He just had a way.

with people. He was very charismatic, so everyone got along with him. Me, on the other hand, I was the quiet girl that always avoided attention. I had friends, and I wasn't bullied or anything, but I just kind of kept to myself. Our paths didn't really cross much while in school, so it was a bit of a surprise when he added me and wanted to have dinner. I had no idea why he would have had him. I had no idea why he would have had an interest in me, but I decided to move forward with it. Color me surprised when we actually hit it off. He was quiet when we went out and didn't act at all like the person from school.

He said that he gave up wrestling after school because he wasn't really interested in it. His mom wanted him to play football, but he was actually afraid to play and get seriously injured, so they both agreed with wrestling. He was actually a graphic designer now and was making decent money. I told him what I did after school, which was more schooling, as I wanted to be a veterinarian, but then realized it was a lot harder mentally than it seemed. Seeing injured and dying pets was very hard, so instead I became a vet tech. I pet house sat, and I volunteered at shelters a lot.

I got to see a lot more of the happier side of animals that way. He didn't make fun of me and said that that was very honorable as well. We actually started dating after that, and I realized he was completely different from who I thought he was in high school. We started hanging out a lot, him at my place more than anything, because he also lived with his mom still, but we still had a great time.

I learned that he was very affectionate. which was really sweet at first, but then he started becoming more and more clingy. It started as just asking me where I was going when I left the living room, but it got kind of annoying when he did it every time. Like, when I was making dinner, I would go sit down for a bit and then get back up to check on it, and he would still ask me.

Of course, that was just something small, so it wasn't enough to make me end the relationship. or anything. But then, it would just get worse. He would call me at 601 on the dot, when I got off work, to ask me what I was doing. If I was out too long at the grocery store

or visiting my parents, he would call or text me consistently. I was under some stress as my mom had been battling cancer, so when he did this when I was with her, I got pretty upset. I talked with him about it, too, telling him that it was too much. He freaked out and kept apologizing and pleading for me to not leave him.

Again, I had no intentions of leaving him. I still thought that it was something that could be worked on and assured him of that, but we just needed to make some changes, to which he agreed. Things started getting better, though. He wasn't as cleany, but he still did. half his moments. I even stayed at his place one weekend, and that was when I met his mom, Lynette. After meeting her, I could definitely tell that he was a mama's boy. He was very sweet to her, always willing to help her do anything strenuous, helping with setting the table or doing the dishes.

Lynette always involved me with making dinner, too, saying it was a woman's job and that she had to make sure her baby was well fed by making sure I could cook. The way she said it, I just thought it was a joke at first. I know that we were in a pretty steady relationship as we had been together for about six months or so, but I wasn't making any life plans just yet. She often talked to him like he was still a kid, too, which that was weird to me. I also wasn't allowed to sleep in the same room as him, and she made me sleep in her room while she slept on the couch.

I mean, come on, we were grown adults. Anyways, still, I got past it and moved on from there. Apparently, me not immediately running after meeting his mom was a sign of acceptance to him, so he started talking about long-term plans, as he put it. He started asking about getting married and how many kids I wanted to have. This caused me to finally slam the brakes. I told him that I was in no way ready to think about any of that, as we hadn't been together for that long,

which did seem to upset him, but I was sure to put my foot down on the matter. Unfortunately, things got even worse. while he didn't make plans, he still continued talking about marriage, and to add to the stress, my mother passed away. I was grieving, and it was very difficult as I was so close to her. I thought for sure that I would be able to rely on chance because I needed comfort. I needed someone to help me get through this, but that would never happen.

He comforted me the first day, but then, after that, He always tried to one-up me. I'm a mess, going through my mom's stuff, and he just kept complaining about being bored or feeling tired or this and that. I told him that he didn't have to stay there if he didn't want to, and he started complaining more, wanting me to go somewhere with him. I let it go, but I started noticing that he was taking advantage of my vulnerability. He would try to convince me to do that.

things that he wanted, and he would always phrase it like I was neglecting him because of my mom, or even saying things like, don't you think your mom would have wanted this? All the way to the point that he was trying to convince me to have kids. Maybe part of it was the grieving, but I'd had enough. I told him that we needed some time apart so I can get through this, and then maybe we could try again. I thought maybe I was really being a bit much, but I also had just lost my mom. To my surprise, he understood, and he took it way better than I thought. Maybe it was the fact that we had agreed to get back together that he held on to, but either way,

I appreciated that he didn't make it difficult. So I decided to try to move forward. I went to the funeral alone. I finished going through her stuff alone and was just alone. One night while I was home, I actually got a phone call from Chance's mother, Lynette. She wanted to give me her condolences and said that she wanted to make a wellness basket for me. I thought it was very kind of her, and I agreed, but what I thought was a genuine care call turned into a almost a stern talking to about when Chance and I were going to get back together

and how selfish it was of me to break up with him. I told her to forget the baskets and hung up. This didn't stop her from showing up at my work, and even my dad's house looking for me. It was typically easy to get her to leave, but then her appearance was getting worse. Instead of just asking for me to talk, she started saying things to others about me,

like telling guys that she saw at my work to avoid me because I was a harlot and I wasn't a virgin. I was so mortified, but I went out there and personally told her to leave in a not-so-nice way. She then started stalking me, watching me as I left work, when I went to the store,

and even to my doctor's appointments. I'd finally had enough when she actually showed up to the Halloween party my work was having. She showed up stopping people as they entered to warn them about me. I won't repeat what she called me, but she was claiming that I had numerous diseases. When I did confront her, I told her to leave me alone and reminded her that chance and I were not together anymore. She would just ignore that and talk about how we were meant. for each other, and that I could just be baptized to become a virgin again. I told her that I was not interested in her son or her crazily obsessed family anymore, and I left.

I reported it to the police, but of course they said they couldn't do anything about it because she hadn't actually done anything to me. Of course, I finally got them to do something, when she started hanging up flyers on and around my neighborhood. with my picture and some pretty awful things being said about me. I got her restraining order, and she was also told that if she made any flyers or anything of that sword about me again, it would also violate the order.

To my surprise, that actually seemed to stop her. I don't know whose idea it was, either Chance or Lynette, but after the order, Chance tried calling and texting me too. except he was a little easier to get to back off. I told him I didn't want anything to do with him or his mom ever again, and he just stopped calling. I later told some of my friends about what all had happened, because all they really knew was that we were dating.

He was clingy, and we broke up. One of them thought that he had a few screws loose as she remembered the way he acted when she was taking pictures in high school, for one of the wrestling games. They were both very affectionate towards each other, like more than just a mom and son should be. Like, gee, I guess thanks for the warning, right? Anyways, it may not have been all that creepy for some,

but being stalked by my ex would have been one thing. Being stalked by his mother was even worse. The humiliation that she caused was bad enough, but I was just thankful that I had worked at that company for so long. It at least didn't hurt my reputation with them. They even joked about it with me, thankfully. I've stayed single since this happened, and I'm not sure that I want to even think about dating any time soon.

But as for Chance and Lynette, I really hope that we never, ever meet again. I had the most bizarre experience, and I cannot stop thinking about it. I'll preface this by saying that I have always been a great sleeper for most of my life. However, I'm having interesting sleep experiences that seem to be escalating more and more lately. I'm 35 years old, and until recently I was one of those lucky people who could fall asleep within 10 minutes of lying down, and sleep through the entire night without waking.

over the last year or so, this has not been the case. It began as an occasional occurrence, but over the past couple of months, has become more of an every-night thing. I wake up at 3 a.m., wide awake, and I have a lot of trouble falling back asleep. It doesn't matter if I go to bed at 9 p.m. or 1 a.m., I will wake up at 3 a.m. almost every night. I've also begun sleepwalking in the past couple of months. To my knowledge, I have never done this before. I have no memory of the sleepwalking incidents. However, about two months ago while on vacation with my boyfriend and his family,

I woke up around 3 a.m. and went to his mom's room and stood over her while she was sleeping. She woke up and asked me what I was doing, and I told her I was lost. So she led me back to my room and I got into bed. The second time was a few weeks ago. Apparently I barged into my roommate's room and threw the door open so violently that it awoke both her and her boyfriend. I walked to the far corner of her room,

and I stared into the corner with my nose nearly touching the wall. I can't remember exactly. how the conversation between us went, as she told me about the incident the following morning, and I was still a bit groggy. But I recall her saying they asked me what I was doing, and I became agitated that they were questioning me. We spoke for a few minutes, and then I hugged her and went back to bed. Not long after the second documented sleepwalking incident, I had my first ever experience with sleep paralysis.

I'm honestly not fully convinced this experience was a dream, as it felt completely real, and I felt completely awake the entire time. I've heard of sleep paralysis, and I've even had a few friends that have talked to me about dealing with it on and off throughout their lives, and I've always heard that it feels like someone is pressing on your chest, you can't breathe or move, and there's a dark entity or demon-like presence in the room. I've only ever heard of it being described as terrifying and horrible. That wasn't the case for me at all.

The night that it happened, I woke promptly at 3 a.m. as I normally do, lying in my bed. I lived in the Virgin Islands at the time in a two-story bright orange and blue house, overlooking the ocean. It was a very old house, and as a lot of the old island houses tend to be, it had a lot of character and interesting structural qualities. I had the upper level, which was kind of a large attic loft-style space, and she had the lower level. My roommate and I had many strange, unexplainable experiences the year that we lived in that house, but those stories are for another day. The house looked like a dollhouse at the top of a big hill in a neighborhood called Marion Doll.

So we called it the Doll House. That night, my roommate was staying the night with her boyfriend, and I was home alone. After waking up at 3 a.m., I just laid on my back staring at the ceiling for a while. At 3.45 a.m., I texted my boyfriend to complain that I had woken up again, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Shortly after sending that text message, while still staring at the ceiling, I began to stare through the ceiling. Like, when you're staring at something, but you look beyond it and the thing you're looking at goes out of focus? I looked at it like that for a few minutes, and I noticed stars beginning to start showing up on the ceiling.

They were fading in and out slowly, and then patches of black sky with stars began to fade into focus as the ceiling faded out completely in response. It felt like 20 minutes or so that this was going on, and eventually the ceiling was completely gone from my view. I saw only a little bit of the ceiling. the night sky above. I had a slight moment of panicked amazement at the fact that I had managed to look through my ceiling,

and I lost focus, causing the night sky to disappear, and I was back to staring at my ceiling again. I decided to try it again, and I was able to bring the night sky into focus and lose sight of my ceiling entirely much quicker the second time. Suddenly, I realized I was no longer lying in my bed, but on top of my roof just above where my bed was. Every hair on my body stood on end, and it felt as if the static electricity was buzzing all over my body, and I wasn't alone. On either side of me was an entity. They were identical to each other, but I somehow instinctively knew the form they had chosen to show themselves to me. me, it was not their true form.

The best way I can describe it is that they were some sort of interdimensional beings, but they chose to show themselves to me as ethereal, human-like, or slightly angelic beings. I felt very strongly that they were not doing this to be deceitful, but they wanted me to be more comfortable with their presence and felt appearing to me in this way would achieve that. They almost looked like grown men versions of cherubs, with very pale skin and golden curls. In that moment, I thought to myself, it finally happened. They're here. And I tried to move or scream or speak, and I realized I was completely frozen.

I could only move my eyes and nothing else. The one to the right of me sensed my distress and spoke to me without moving or are opening his mouth. He told me that I didn't have to be afraid, and he put his hand on my arm. He and I began to levitate while the entity to my left remained on the roof of my house. The one who was taking me up into the air said,

We want to show you something. And I began to scream over and over in my mind. I'm not ready. I'm not ready. I am not ready. All of the communication between the entity and I was through telepathy, as I was incapable of moving or speaking. And each time he spoke to me, his face never moved. The entity who was still on the roof said to the other,

Bring her back, she's not ready. And as I was staring intently to the right side of me, to see what the entity who had a hold of me would do, he just looked at me with a slightly sad, yet sympathetic expression. as he began to slowly lower us back down to the house. I continued to descend through the ceiling and back into my bed, while the entities remained on the roof just above me. I couldn't see them as I could no longer see through the roof,

but I knew that they were still there by the goosebumps and static electricity feeling that I still had all throughout my body. I felt like they were discussing something amongst themselves, but I couldn't hear their thoughts anymore. Then, the entity who had tried to take me into the sky with him slowly descended through the ceiling and next to my bed, still on my right-hand side. He said, we just want you to know, you don't have to be afraid. And I responded with, You can't be real. I must be dreaming. He then said to me,

If you're dreaming, how would you be able to feel my touch when I take your arm? Close your eyes, and when you feel me touch your arm, open them. I did as he instructed and closed my eyes until I felt a warm pressure on my arm. Upon feeling it, I opened my eyes and I strained them to look down at my arm, discovering that he did have a hold of me again. He let go and said, we'll be back when you're ready. And he ascended through the ceiling.

The static electricity feeling went away, but I was still frozen for what felt like at least ten minutes. I was trying so hard to move or make a sound, but I couldn't. Suddenly, I was able to snap out of it and jumped out of bed. I felt thirstier than I have ever felt my entire life, and I ran downstairs to the fridge. I pulled out a full glass bottle of lemonade, and I chugged the entire thing. That's the last thing I remember before waking up in my bed at 7 a.m. I don't remember leaving the fridge or going back up to my bed or falling asleep. My first thought was,

Holy crap, what the hell was that? As it didn't feel anything like a dream. I immediately pulled up my text to see if I really woke up and took up, texted my boyfriend after 3 a.m. I did. I ran downstairs to check the juice in the fridge, and the bottle was empty. I really was awake just before the experience happened,

and I really did run downstairs to hydrate immediately after. What happened after the experience and before waking up at 7 a.m., I cannot say. I have no memory of anything after drinking the juice. I know that sleep paralysis is a common thing, and hallucinations are common during these episodes, but I have never in my life experienced something even remotely like this. I was completely sober that night, and if this was just a hallucination, it was completely immersive in a way that I never thought possible.

Has anyone else had sleep paralysis experiences with non-demon-like entities? I've never felt these two. beings were evil or trying to harm me, which seems unique from what I've read and heard about these types of encounters. I have a story from when I was young that is 100% true, but I honestly have no way to prove it, and I'd guess that a lot of people won't believe it. Obviously, you can use it if you want to. I just want to tell someone the story that might be. believe it, or at least enjoy it. So, here goes. When I was around 12, my best buddy, Jordan, and I used to spend a lot of time out of the house. Like, a lot of the time we would go to school,

and the minute we got off the bus, we would go in, drop off our book bags, and then would be out in the woods until almost nine, or whenever our parents yelled for us. We would typically skip dinner because we were both young nature enthusiasts and genuinely loved spending a lot of time out on the trails. Thankfully, Jordan had an excellent sense of direction and could almost always get us home without issues. Me, on the other hand, I was so bad at figuring out where we were that I could walk 20 feet to the north of where the forest started

and be completely lost. I liked bugs and trees, though, so I was always all for it. Now, all of that explains what I loved about being in the woods with Jordan and how we always had a good time. However, there was a stretch where things weren't quite so fun or comfortable. This happened back in the 80s. I don't remember when exactly, but like I said, I was around 12 or possibly 13, I remember it was in October because all of the trees were a bright red orange, and it was my favorite time of the year.

If you've never seen a Midwestern fall in the middle of the woods, I highly recommend it. The trees were all covered in oranges, reds, yellows, and the ground plants were starting to die off, so it was a major contrast between the dead tan and the colorful trees. The first time that I knew something was off was one of the random trips that we took out into the woods. We were playing and it was starting to get pretty dark pretty early by then. I think we were pretending to be soldiers or something, which is what we typically did,

and were stealthily treading through enemy territory. We were hiding behind trees and splitting up to take down the base when I remember hearing something in one of the trees. At first I thought it was just a squirrel, and I looked up to see if I could find it, but I didn't see what it was. I ignored it, and I moved back on with what we were playing. After a few more minutes of doing this,

I remember I heard a branch above me snapping and thinking, dang, that must be a fat squirrel. but when I looked again, the thing that I saw was not a squirrel. I couldn't tell what it was at first, but I remember laughing because I looked over at Jordan and said, Hey, is that a monkey? Which was a dumb question. I live in the Midwest, and we very clearly do not have monkeys here. We both kind of stood there and just stared at it, but we couldn't figure out.

out what it was. Because it wasn't really moving, just standing in the trees looking away from us, and swaying back and forth. And by swaying, I think the best way to describe it is like a praying mantis. If you've ever seen a praying mantis that feels threatened, they kind of sway back and forth. It was like that. We just watched it for several moments, and then we tried to kind of kind of.

of walk around the tree to see the front of this thing, but as soon as it noticed us, it ran up the tree and hid to the point that we couldn't find it again. We made plans to come back up the next day and try to see if we could figure out what this thing was, because I was stumped. I was pretty well versed in most of the fauna of our area, because that's what I was really into at the time. but this thing was weird. The only thing I could seriously think that it looked like was a monkey of some sort. I asked my parents that night if there were any monkeys or apes around us, just to be absolutely certain, and they confirmed that there weren't. Well, aside from the zoo.

Obviously, no one had heard anything about an escaped animal from the zoo on the news, so I was back to just being stumped. The next day, Jordan and I brought our binoculars to see if we could get a better view trying to spot this thing. We didn't do much beyond just sitting on a log and watching the trees, seeing if this thing came back. And it did, but it kind of seemed like it was trying to avoid the area that we were waiting in. So it was like it was aware of us, more than something like, say, a squirrel or a rodent or whatever. It wasn't until the fourth day of us staking out the woods that we actually got to see this thing clearly. It was a Saturday, so we had the entire day to stake out the area and see if we could find it.

And, much to our surprise, when we got into the woods in the morning, we did see it. Except this time, it wasn't in the trees. We walked into the wooded area in no more than a hundred feet or so, this thing was on the ground. It looked like it was eating something like a hedge apple because it was smashing it into the ground and peeling it apart. We went into full stealth mode and crouched behind some of the brush

and crept really slowly over to the side so that we could see this thing. This is where everything went from, this fun, what is this thing that we're seeing, straight to, I wish we would have never seen this. Whatever this thing was, it was definitely ape-like in structure, but its face looked way too human.

If you've ever seen a shaved ape, they do have faces similar to humans, but they're discernible. This thing was not. It had a human's face. It was structured like a person. There was nothing there. that resembled an animal at all.

The mouth was flattened down more like a person's, the nose protruded at an angle like a human's, and the eyes were inset like a human's. We watched this thing eat the hedge apple, and then slowly creep up the tree and climb out of sight. After that, I told Jordan that I wanted to go home, and he agreed. Something about seeing this thing?

It triggered some kind of deeply inset fear that neither of us had ever experienced up to that point. It was like our brains knew that this thing was not natural at all, and it wanted us to block it out and never think about it again. We actually took a few weeks off from going into the woods, mostly because we didn't want to run into this thing. We did eventually get the courage to go back, but we never saw it again. I have no idea what the hell it was,

but it was definitely not your standard animal from around my part of the world. And the fact that it switched on some kind of primal fear, it was just terrifying. I'm actually glad that we never saw it again, and I'm glad I was able to get this out, because thinking about this creature, it sends shivers down my spine, and it almost makes me feel that same level of terror

even this many years down the road. When I was a teenager, I went through the mandatory emo phase and collected empty cans of monster to use as bedroom decorations. Classy, right? They were on a cabinet just as you entered my room. Once, after coming home from school and walking into my room, one of the cans was flung a good two meters through my bedroom.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Maybe my backpack caught on it as I walked in. The wind from me entering my room knocked it over. I thought that too. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed off. One, I was already well into my room and had just stopped walking when the can was hurled across my room, a split second later, like someone had smacked it. If I'd caught it with my bag, surely it would have moved with me.

Two, it wasn't on the edge of the very wide cabinet either. It was snug against the wall, and none of the other cans seemed to be disturbed. The cans were stacked next to each other and touching, so for the direction the can went, it would have been impossible for me to knock over just that one and not affect the others. Three, no windows or doors were opened, so external wind knocking it over was impossible. I kind of forgot about it until one day in high school, a year later, I forgot my fairly large water bottle in one of my classes. I went in quickly before the next class to grab it. the art teacher, who was like a mom to all of us, looked kind of off when I greeted her.

Oh my God, O.P., that's your water bottle? Miss Smith and I were eating lunch in here and something really weird happened. What, did it move like something had smacked it? I laughed remembering what happened to the monster can. She gasped, nodded, and jokingly refused to let me into her class anymore. because I was haunted. Later, I talked to Miss Smith and confirmed that my water bottle was flung just like the monster can. It was sat a good few feet into the huge conjoined art desk that we all used, and not near any windows.

Even if it were, the windows in the art room were extremely tiny, like windows in a nightclub bathroom. This time, though, the bottle was half full, so... it would have taken some force to fling it. It's not super exciting, I know, just weird. I remember being quite stressed both times, so maybe it was something latching on to that? I don't know. I just wanted to be hydrated and decorate my room a little,

and it seems that something had an issue with that. It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe, with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone, Starts, begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. Westjet, where your story takes off. Just before my oldest daughter turned three, she finally found her voice. Let's just say it was a big deal because up until then, she'd been completely nonverbal.

Then, almost overnight, our girl was talking. Okay came first, then no, followed by Mama and Data. It was nothing short of a miracle for us. She hadn't been speaking very long at all, weeks at most, when I was giving her a bath one night. The bubbly water was filled with various toys, colorful pipes and jellyfish, foam letters and ducks. For as long as I live, I will never forget how my daughter glanced at two foam letters stuck to the bathtub wall. She pointed to each in turn and said aloud very clearly, B is for Barbara, D is for Deborah.

I froze. The hair on the back of my neck rose. Those were not names that I had ever mentioned. There were no great-aunt Barbara's or Deborah's. in the family, and all this was coming from a girl who had only just mastered simple words like more and please. Fast forward a few months, and my now-chatterbox girl started giving me snippets about this woman, Barbara, who had evidently once meant a great deal to her.

Barbara went to London after she got married. She lives in a big house. Barbara and I wrote each other letters. Barbara loves the ocean. Her favorite color is blue. Barbara loves swimming and is a good swimmer. Deborah taught her how to swim. And then there would often be tears because she just misses Barbara so darn much.

I also learned that Deborah was the oldest. Then Jane, I think. And then my daughter. And then Barbara. And her other mother was named Maisie. Finally, one January day when she was four and a half years old, my daughter came to me absolutely distraught, crying because she was losing her memories of Barbara. I promised her that I would treasure them for her, that I would remind her of them one day when she was older. It was a heartbreaking scene, the two of us holding each other, my daughter mourning a woman she'd once loved,

in another time, another place. She told me that she was keeping one memory, a very special one, and that she was going to bury it deep down in her heart forever. The strangest thing is that only a day or two after I had conceived my daughter, an older woman that I had never met named Barbara, had sent me a Facebook friend request. I wish that I hadn't declined her request so quickly. It may well have been nothing, but now I'm just not so sure.

If anyone knows a Barbara that meets this description, by the way, please do feel free to let me know. Okay, so this happened to me last night, and I'm still pretty shaken up and freaked out. I got home from work yesterday, ate dinner, and passed out super early. I'd had a super long day at work and was exhausted, so I was knocked out by 8 p.m. I didn't wake up at all, but at 2.30 a.m.

I heard a super loud, buzzing, motor or drone sound coming from my front yard slash the street. I was in a deep sleep, so it took me a second to register what was going on. The sound didn't fluctuate. It stayed loud the whole way through, maybe 1.5 minutes. Not very long. So by the time I realize what's going on and figure out that I'm fully awake and not dreaming, I open my eyes and there's this super bright blue light coming through my window.

It looked wavy, almost, similar to the way pool water looks at night, but super bright with blue and white. I jumped out of bed because I have a previous experience where a drunk driver crashed into my parked vehicle in front of my home a few years back. And ever since then, if I hear something around my car late at night, I immediately get up. So, as this all is happening, I assume that it's like a person that's gone crazy in quarantine and built their own go-cart and was driving around at 2.30 in the morning. But by the time I walked to the front of my house, the light is gone.

and there's no more loud sound. I didn't initially check outside the window of my room. I walked to the front door because we have a thick sun protector screen in the room so you can't really see out or in. This is where it gets weirder. I checked the front door, and there's nothing. While I'm checking outside, my sister comes out of her room, in our home you enter through the front foyer,

and there's a long hallway going right and left, and to one far side her room is at, and on the way other side is my room. The hallway's approximately 20 yards. It's pretty long, and the yards are pretty far away from each other. But she asks me, did you hear that? She's clearly freaked out the same way that I was, and she said that she also heard a super loud buzzing slash motor sound outside her window. The only difference in what we saw is that she said the light that she saw was white and scanning her window up and down.

We live in a suburb with a lot of houses. There are no empty fields or huge power lines or room for a helicopter to land. Drones can't produce the level of sound that we heard, so I don't think it was that either. And it sounded way too close and loud to be an airplane. Any idea what it could have been? I want to ask my neighbors, but I'm kind of embarrassed. I'm just glad that I wasn't the only one who heard and saw something because then I would think I was going crazy. All right, so I'm 22, female, and this happened nearly 13 years ago.

I still remember it like it was yesterday. When I was a child, I went to a birthday party when I was eight, while visiting my dad, for the weekend. The birthday party was for a neighborhood friend of ours, and we were really excited. The other kids' parents told us it was going to be held at Monkey Joe's. Me, never having been to Monkey Joe's, I was very much excited. Time skipped to the party here. I remember it being really loud and crowded.

And then, all of a sudden, I see the Monkey Joe's mascot walking out of the doorway, and a bunch of kids start screaming and running up to him. I didn't really care about that, and I wanted to keep playing, though a few minutes later I felt like I was being watched. It was like that funny feeling you get when you definitely can feel someone's eyes just watching you. Anyways, I turned around and the monkey mascot was standing in the middle of the play area, just looking at me. I was a little girl then, so I was frightened by many things.

I slowly shook my head as of signaling that I didn't want to play, and I was feeling very uncomfortable. The mascot just stared back at me, and then shook his head violently up and down as if saying yes. I swear, I am not lying. As soon as that happened, he took off straight for me, and I backed up into another kid who pushed me towards one of the indoor bouncy houses. So I took off running into the bounce house, screaming my head off, and, on the verge of crying, when I looked behind me, the purple monkey man was still chasing me,

and I was yelling at him that I was going to tell my mom. He persisted, however, and chased me all around the bounce house. When I realized he wasn't going anywhere, I quickly ran out of that bounce house and into another group, of more kids all jumping together, thinking maybe I could hide. Monkey Joe ran in after me and started jumping with the other kids, so I took this as my chance to slip away. When I exited that bounce house, I heard the other kids laughing and telling me that the monkey

was following me, and I just started crying and ran towards one of the king purple slides and crawled into it. I felt a felt hand wrap around my ankle, and I looked down to see Monkey Joe as he tugged me down. I remember banging my elbows really hard on one of the grooves in the slide. I kept crying and telling him I was going to get my mom if he didn't go away, and then all of a sudden he let go. I crawled up the slide as fast as I could.

I waited for like half an hour before poking my head out of my head, out of the slide, and then running to my mom crying about how Monkey Joe chased me and scared me, but she just told me that I was probably being sensitive and that it wasn't about me, and that it was my friend's birthday. After that, I sat at the table and ate pizza until we went home, and I never saw Monkey Joe again. I'm not sure why he chose to terrorize me, but I do know that I will never go back to Monkey Joe, Joe's ever again. So that was this week's collection of Glitch in the Matrix stories on the As the Raven Dreams podcast.

I hope you enjoyed this collection of glitchy goodness. If you did, and would like to listen to more of this, you can always check out the other episodes of the podcast, or support the channel further by actually going to my YouTube channel and checking out my videos. Just go to YouTube and search As the Raven Dreams. You can also go to Asther Raven Dreams.com. or lots of other good stuff. Ways to get early access, read stories that I've written,

submit your own story, and things like that. All that said, friends, thank you very much for listening. I do hope to see you in two weeks on the next Glitch in the Matrix episode, but until then, sleep well.