As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 071 - Scary Easter & Paranormal Encounter Stories - 8 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Hello and Welcome to the 71st episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have some intriguing and terrifying stories submitted by everyday people. In Today's Episode we will be covering some terrifying events that happened on Easter, of all days, as well as some terrifying Paranormal stories. ➤ 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 Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video... theelfatsolitude, @daddychells On Instagram, Brilliant_Crow_1193, Lydia, ALEXANDER CHASE, And any 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

It's never too early to plan your summer story in Europe with WestJet, from rolling countryside to cobblestone streets. Begin your next chapter. Book your seat at westjet.com or call your travel agent. WestJet, where your story takes off. If you have a true, scary story you would like to hear featured on this podcast, please go to as the ravendreams.com and click the button to send it my way. Also, consider rating this podcast on whatever platform you're listening to,

as it does help. And of course, thank you. So, this is something that happened to me when I was much younger. I recently watched a YouTube video that reminded me of this, and I wanted to share it with you. Back whenever I was about eight or nine, I believe, I went to an Easter egg hunt with my family at our local church. Now, at the time, we lived in the middle of nowhere within the midwere.

west, and the state or county had recently started projects to expand the area. It was mostly just open acreage, but wasn't even being used for agriculture. So I guess they just saw a lot of opportunity. Signs and fencing started going up all over where they were going to be building an apartment complex, some sort of strip mall, another grocery store, and even planned on expanding some of the roads. I was a kid, so I didn't really understand all of it. I just remember my dad not being too keen on the idea, and my mom was constantly being optimistic about it.

I just thought it was cool, because our teacher mentioned that we could be getting a new school eventually. Sorry for the run on there, but it is a little relevance to my story. We attended the same church for as long as I could remember, and every year they held an Easter egg hunt as well as their normal Easter service on this year

with one of the apartment complexes being completed and applications being accepted the church wanted to do something bigger to hopefully attract more attendees they had signs everywhere and kept mentioning that the egg hunt was going to be huge and it was

I remember my family which consisted of my parents, myself, and my little sister all being there. I had an older brother, but he was too old to do the egg hunt, so he was with his friends from church at the time. We all went to the yard behind the church to prepare for the hunt. The yard out back was huge. There were trees scattered within the flat grassy area, and then further back was another line of trees.

I think that there was a walking path back there, but I also never went, so... I wasn't sure at the time. They hid the eggs all over the place. Within the yard, in the grass, the bushes, in crevices of trees and branches, there was a small side parking lot that was blocked off because they had a few booths over there for games and food. And there were even some eggs hidden over there, too. Us kids had free reign of the area to hunt them, but we're told to try to leave the ones just sitting in the grass for the very young.

young kids, which was fine. I was very competitive at things like this, and maybe even candy motivated. They weren't all candy, though. Some had small trinkets in them, coins or small bills, and some had Bible verses. So, since they weren't all candy, that meant that I wanted to get even more, to increase the chances of the candy that I got. Anyways, as the egg hunt began, my parents told me that I could go wherever I wanted, while they held back to help my little sister. So, I immediately went by the parking lot and got a lot over there.

I even grabbed a few that I found from the trees. I liked to climb the tree in our front yard, so it wasn't hard for me to do the same to get the eggs. Now, because I was looking at my bag quickly filling up, it motivated me even more to continue, and I thought of the genius idea to check all of the trees. I climbed up several of them, and I found even more. This led me further away from the main group and closer to the forest of trees in the far back, and before I realized it, I had made my way in to those trees. after searching a few more and no longer finding any eggs,

I decided that I probably went too deep and that I should leave. However, as I looked around, I couldn't figure out which way I had come from, which way was the way out and which way was getting deeper. And even worse, I didn't see a path anywhere like I was expecting. I thought maybe I could remember a tree that stood out to me, one with some kind of memorable mark. or anything, yet I found nothing.

I continued to walk aimlessly, but it was getting me nowhere. Being so young, the only thing I had left to do was scream out and cry. I fell to the ground and sobbed for a bit, thinking of all the different things that could possibly happen. At the time, I didn't think about just continuing to walk in one direction until I found an exit. I just assumed that I would get deeper into the woods and get even more. more lost. As I sat there, I opened one of my eggs and I ate a piece of candy.

While I did this, I heard a crunch from the ground and looked up. Near a tree that was a few feet ahead of me, there was a woman standing there and looking at me. Seeing a random person in the woods with me startled me at first, but the lady herself wasn't scary at all, nor did she throw off any red flags. In fact, I remember thinking that she looked like she was straight out of a fairy tale. She was wearing a wispy dress. It's the only way that I know how to explain it, as well as a fluffy and patchy knit jacket. She had long-braided copper-colored hair that also looked frazzled towards the top.

She had a brown burlap bag strapped to her back and was also carrying another bag by hand. Her face looked kind and conserved. though. After my initial jump, I asked who she was, and she just asked, Are you lost? You shouldn't be in here by yourself, but you know that already, don't you? I confirmed that I was indeed lost and explained how the Easter egg hunt had distracted me. She slowly approached and said that she wasn't going to hurt me, and began to dig around in one of her bags. Then she sat down across from me and handed me something wrapped in paper. I stared at it for a moment, and she told me that it was a sandwich and that I could have it,

as a way to prove that she was nice. Again, a few things here, I was nine years old. I guess you could say that I wasn't really talked to about stranger danger, due to the small town that we lived in, and that everybody knew everyone else. I guess they didn't really find it was necessary. I'm not sure of that. their reasoning, but this is me, explaining my next actions. Also, I had breakfast that morning and we wouldn't be eating until later for our Easter

dinner. Combined that with running around and climbing trees, yeah, I was pretty hungry. I unwrapped the sandwich and took it apart to see that it was just bologna and cheese and mayonnaise. I didn't like mayonnaise, though, so I scraped it off the best that I could and just ate it with one slice of bread. As I ate it, she just watched me with her chin resting on her hands. As I finished it, she started asking me about things such as my name,

my age, if I had any siblings, where I went to school, just simple things. As I answered her, I started feeling more and more relaxed and calm. I don't feel like it lasted very long, but after some talking, I asked who she was, and if she was lost too. She just smiled and said, I'm just lucky. I remember at the time thinking that must be her name, partially because we used to have a dog named Lucky.

And I told her this. This made her laugh, and she seemed happy to hear me talk about Lucky. Shortly after, she then told me that my parents were probably worried about me and that I should go. I agreed, but then made a comment about not knowing how to get out. She gave me another one of her soft smiles, took my hand, and said that she would help me, and started leading me in one direction.

We came up to a tree that had a lot of vines wrapping around it, and she stopped. She told me to keep walking in the direction that we were, and to not turn whatsoever, and to not look back. She then said I would find my way out before I could count to a hundred. At my age I thought that that was an odd thing to say, but I just smiled, bragged about my counting skills, and began walking. It wasn't long after that that I found a break in the trees, and I could hear a few people shouting my name. But right before I continued walking, I heard the lady clearly say, Goodbye, Chase.

And since I wasn't good at following directions, I looked back. But the lady was gone. However, one of the reasons I looked back was because of what she had said. My name is Alexander, and I had told her that earlier. But I hate the nickname Alex, so a lot of people call me by my middle name, which was Chase. If anything, I would have expected this lady to call me Alexander, or maybe Alex, but not Chase. How would she have known that? and perplexed.

I continued through the trees and nearly fell over a small edge of dirt. I saw a few people that I recognized standing around and several people shouting my name, including my mother. She sounded frightened, so I shouted back for her and everyone turned to look at me. My mom ran over to me and asked where I had been, and I just told her that I got lost in the woods. She quickly disciplined me for going in there, but then just, asked if I was hurt or anything. I shook my head and told her about the lady that had helped me out.

She looked at me confused and looked back towards the trees, but then just picked me up and brought me back over towards the church. The thing I hadn't realized at the time was that it had been several hours since I went into those woods. It certainly didn't feel like I was gone that long, but that's why everyone was so concerned. They were about to call 911. Later that night, I tried to explain to my parents what had happened, and I described the lady that helped me.

I remember the look on their face was one of disbelief at the time, probably thinking that I exaggerated some details, but it was all real. Every detail I remember about her was so vivid that I have not forgotten. I've been in those woods since I've gotten old. both alone and with my older brother, but I've never seen that woman again. I've even talked to other people that have gone into those woods,

and they said they've never experienced anything like this before. However, since that experience, every time I've gone in there, I've had this strong sense of peace and felt safe, like there's someone that is always watching over me. Hi, I'm Michelle. I'm currently 22 years old, and I've always been interested in the paranormal. I set out to write about all of my experiences that I can recall,

the longest one being about a house I lived in as a kid. I'm from Denmark, so my grammar isn't going to be perfect, but I'll try my best. So these are some haunted house stories from my childhood home. A little background. My mom, my then stepdad, our dog and me moved into this house when I was 12. It was actually a basement apartment. There were people living upstairs that rented out their basement. It's kind of confusing, but it was actually pretty big.

We moved out when I was about 16, so this happened in the span of four years. So anyways, we moved in and everything was well. About a week after we moved in, I had a friend over to see our new living space and was really excited to show her. My dog, a very peaceful, quiet, lazy, and just not violent at all dog, went into my room and started barking his head off. He never barked. He was standing on two feet and barking at the corner of my bed. It was just really weird. So here I am trying to calm my dog, but he just won't give it up.

When standing on two legs, which he was, he was my height. For some weird reason, neither my mom nor my stepdad heard it, and we even had the door open. So I went out to get them while my friend is freaking out, and then he just calmed down like nothing happened. That was the first weird thing to happen in that house, but not the last. We would occasionally hear high heels walking above us, chairs being pulled out, and very loud bangs, all coming from upstairs, so we asked them if anything had happened, and they told us no, they were asleep. It would always happen at night.

It wasn't until they went on vacation and the noise continued that we started feeling weird. They had an alarm as well, and it would go off about once a week for no apparent reason. But they never spoke about it. I remember we would eat in the kitchen and all of us would turn our heads to the hallway at the same time because we all thought we saw someone. It was so weird. It happened all the time, and it just became the norm. We told ourselves that it was our imagination.

We often thought that someone had broken in and countless times my stepdad went up there with the flashlight, but there was no one. I would often wake up hearing noises in the kitchen, thinking that my mom had woken up. It sounded like people cooking. I would soon come to realize every time I heard those noises, there was no one. The noises would always stop when I entered the kitchen. The scariest thing to happen in that house, though, were to my stepdad. I went into their room, just woken up, and he says,

wow, you were up early today, and I was like, no, I just woke up. And as I said that, all the light from his eyes just vanished. He told me and my mom that he had gotten woken up by what he thought was me staring at them. And when he asked me what was wrong, and I didn't say anything, I just kept staring until I walked away. He said that the girl that he saw was wearing a white dress. and had long black hair. I have brown hair,

and I don't own a white nightgown, so I don't know why he would have thought that was me. So, sometime later, we had dinner with our neighbors, where this topic came up. They told us that there was actually a murder in the house. Like, a girl actually got killed, and they even had the newspaper articles about it. It happened right outside my room.

the girl who was killed was pregnant. The man who got her pregnant already had a wife, so he killed her, and tried to make it look like a suicide, which he apparently was really bad at. The time we lived in that house, I actually wasn't having the greatest years. I spent four years in that house, and all of those years were filled with depression and anxiety.

I never had hope, and it was always like a black cloud, of smoke was hanging around me. Only in the house, though. I remember clearly that every time I went out, I was happy. And I thought it was weird. I told my mom about it, and she told me the same thing happens to her. Another thing about the house is that things would go missing, and we would look everywhere

for them, and then the next day they would show up on, like, a table, or somewhere really obvious, where we had already looked. I was so attached to that house that I didn't want to leave my room. I always made up excuses not to leave the house, and I was just miserable. I would have really bad nightmares of a tall black figure in our living room, with the biggest grin on his face. I've never been so scared from a nightmare, and I was really scared to be in the living room alone. One time, and this is really dark, and I don't know why I'm sharing this,

but as mentioned, I was in a really dark period of my life, and I was in the bathroom, one of the darkest places in the whole house. I was looking in the mirror, and my eyes were black, and I started smiling. I swear I was crying dark, thick liquid out of my eyes. Honestly, it's so messed up, I know, but obviously this was a little. only happening in the mirror, not in real life. The last thing I remember is me reading a book late one night, and I saw a dark figure out of my eye. I turned to look and there's nothing.

It happens a few moments later again, and I look again, and my blanket on my chair is swinging back and forth, like if someone had walked into it. It was a summer night, and I had no windows open, so it scared me a lot. I just put my blanket over my head and tried to sleep. My mom also told me that when she went to go to the bathroom late at night, she thought that my stepdad was on the computer. So right as she was closing the bathroom door, the man sitting on the computer waved and smiled at her and she waved back,

thinking it was my stepdad. And when she got out, the computer was turned off and my stepdad was fast asleep. She woke him up, asking if he was just on. the computer, to which he replied no, very confused. Apparently he had been asleep for some time. The rest of this post, as the O.P. put it, are other random stories. From what I can tell, they are not related to the house, but they are good haunting stories, so I would like to include them.

It's hard to imagine it's real, but I remember this very vividly. We were moving into an apartment. I was around four. I was standing in my new room when my dad said, I'll turn off the lights, are you coming? And at the time, I was really afraid of the dark, but for some reason I told him I wanted to stay. So he turned off the light and everything got pitch black,

and I saw a girl. I wasn't scared. She wouldn't talk, but I tried to talk to her. She was a little older than me, maybe six or seven. and I thought that she was an angel because I didn't know what ghosts were back then, but I don't know. She was in this glowing white light, and it just felt so pure. I can't explain it. My dad got back and turned the light on again, and she was gone.

I never saw her again, but I thought about her a lot. One time me and my boyfriend were sleeping, and I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I opened the door, and I hear people talking. in the living room. I was scared witless, until I realized it's a video from my boyfriend's computer. The weird thing is, the screen is closed,

and he turned it off. So he had to turn it back on to close the video. It's still so weird, like, how does that even happen? It was so loud. Like, the volume was all the way up. He swore that he had turned off the laptop

and it made absolutely no sense. Another time, from 18 to 20, I lived in a place with staff who could help you, because of my anxiety and autism. One day I'm in my living room listening to loud music when I hear my front door open. I assume it's someone who works here, so I stop the music and look. It's a man in an orange vest, like worker clothes, if you're an electrician or something, and he has a tool bag with him as well. I'm hella confused and I just look at him. For some reason he does not look at me at all. We never make eye contact,

and he was probably just standing in my kitchen for like ten minutes. I was so confused, because I wasn't expecting anyone to come look at anything, and after ten minutes, again, without eye contact, he just walks out again. So I contact the workers and was like, Um, who is that guy that was just here? And they're like, what guy?

I explained what happened and she looks worried. So she asks her boss if they're expecting any handyman or something today and they weren't. No one had seen this guy. It was like he had just vanished. They go on and asked if I had dreamed it and I'm like, I was jamming out to music. Like, I wasn't sleeping at all. They could not explain it.

And I don't know if it was paranormal, but it was definitely weird. I've also had dreams where my mom was in the hospital. I call her and tell her about my dream, and she goes on to tell me that she was actually in the hospital that day. I've had so many weird dreams about my mom come true. It's just really weird. All in all, I think that me being autistic and a bit sensitive, I definitely attract these kinds of things. I've told this story once before, but I figured I would share it again. This was when I was a kid, middle or elementary school-aged, I can't remember.

It involves me and an old friend of mine, whom I don't see or talk to anymore, and we'll call him Adam. I was staying at Adam's house one night, and I planned on sleeping over that night. For some reason, at between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m., Adam and I decided to sleep at my house. I don't know why or what even compelled us to walk in the middle of the night from his house to mine. Alone, mind you, but we did. So we were walking up this hill, and the way Adam's house was positioned, it was at the bottom of two hills. hills, one on the left and one on the right. So as we went up that hill that led to my house, we had made it up the hill, and there was three ways to go, left, right, and straight forward.

So we turned left. My house wasn't far from the point that we turned. As we were walking, we both got this weird feeling that we were being followed and watched. I know that I did. I'm only assuming that by the look on Adam's face he felt it. it too. We both looked at each other and then looked behind us, and there we saw him, or it, or something. What was before us was a figure. Based on the body type, it was possibly male, with his hands in his pockets, and his hood over his head, and there was just pitch blackness. We couldn't see his face. It was as if there wasn't one. Both Adam and I were creeped out, so we turned our heads forward and kept walking to my house.

Then the footsteps got faster. We turned around once again, and that's when we saw this figure running at us. That's when Adam and I took off. We both managed to get into my house before he could get to us, and after we both got into my house and shut the door, we turned around and looked outside thinking that we'd see him again. But nothing. We saw nothing.

He was just gone. What's even freakier is when we first noticed him. We didn't see anyone walking on the road before we turned to walk to my house. This person, or figure, was gone as mysteriously as he appeared. Adam and I were freaked out. We looked around for him from the safety of the house, and we thankfully weren't that stupid to go outside after that scare. Shortly thereafter, we went to bed.

then we just drifted apart as friends. It was as if neither of us had the desire to continue being friends after that night. To this day, I don't know what we saw or why we drifted apart. But I still find it creepy how shortly after seeing the thing, Adam and I had no desire to be friends after that. I don't know if the two events are connected, or if we were just both creeped out or what. but thankfully I never saw that thing again.

Sometimes I do get a chill at my spine, though, as if I'm being watched. I have never seen or had anything like this happen. A little backstory, it was my ex and I living in a one-bedroom apartment, the one that I still reside in today. This older guy I had met, Dan, owned this house with four different units, all one-bedroom. Well, he got lung cancer and, boom, six months later he was gone. His grandmother originally owned this place, and I'm not sure of who owned it before her. Anyways, after he passed, my ex and a neighbor who lived in one of the other units, Sharon, decided to make a Ouija board and do it.

Now, Sharon was Dan's niece, and they were curious to see if they would get any answers. neither of them know how to safely use a Ouija, and when I had found out about this, I was a little upset, as I've had experiences with them before. None really good, to be honest. I don't like that you have to give an entity permission to use your body as a conduit to move the planchet. I prefer spirit boxes or other methods.

At this point, I've always been interested in the paranormal and have had experiences, but nothing quite like what I'm about to detail. So, a couple of days go by. I've forgotten all about the Ouija board. I'm getting home from work. I work the second shift, so it was past midnight, and my ex was also working so the lights were off. And it was dark when I arrived.

I come through the door to see shimmering bits of light reflecting off of my living room floor. I quickly turned on a light and was shocked to see a tempered glass pane that had come from a coffee table. I had put it on top of my wooden coffee table. Well, I start recording as I thought somebody had possibly broken in. I checked the place first, obviously, and it's not like it's a big place for anyone to hide. But the glass pane had exploded wall to wall with glass. I still find glass to this day from that table. Now, it had all spiedered out from a covered candle that happened to be used in the Ouija session.

I've dropped stuff on this table, and it's had its fair share of usage, but the only thing I'm aware of that can create the force that was needed for this glass pane to explode would be a rapid temperature change, which it was summertime in New England, or something contacting it just right to make it shatter. But this wasn't just a shatter. Entire chunks were blown off of the table in every direction. It was quite spooky, honestly. When my ex got home, I was recording the video,

and she was just as uneasy about this as me. Long story, kind of short, that event kicked off a month long of intense, poltergeist activity. that neither of us had experienced before. It was getting to the point where we were lost as to what to do. Get a priest? I had sage cleansed the place, but it actually made things worse. The last straw for me is when we had just gotten home from grocery shopping,

about a week after the table. And I know beyond a doubt that I placed the cat litter on the kitchen table. My ex left to go back to the store because we forgot something, So I went outside to have a cigarette. And I can see my front door, but I can't see inside the house. My cat was outside with me sitting by the window. Now, the cat litter bag was made of a plastic that had a very distinct sound, and then all of the sudden I heard what sounded like someone picking it up,

placing it on the floor, and then tipping it over. I heard and felt the thud as it hit the ground gently. My cat's ears were straight up and extremely focused on whatever was happening inside the house. I go up to the door, which has a window on it. Without entering, I look through in the cat litter bag was in the middle of my kitchen floor. I mean, we would have had to have walked around it. To be sure I wasn't going insane, I called my ex Becky and asked her what I did with the bag of litter. She said that I put it on the table, and I know.

that I did. There were a couple of other events that led up to this, so I'm laughing in just pure shock as to what the hell is going on, and then I decided to enter the apartment. As soon as I tried to take a step in, well, the only way I can describe it is that I felt something passed through me. I started shaking uncontrollably, and that persisted for hours, and then I started crying. but it didn't feel like my emotions. I was baffled and had no idea why I was crying. Becky got home and asked me why I was crying, and I was just like, I don't know. And then laughed.

But yeah, totally the most bizarre thing I have ever experienced. My conclusion is that I'm not sure if it was a coincidence or what, but someone gave me some Native American stuff to try. and it did taper off after that, which was a relief. My honest opinion is whatever they made contact with on the Ouija board was not our friend Dan who had recently passed. It was malevolent, for sure, as it was getting more and more aggressive, and it literally felt heavy in here. I would get home from work and would sit down, but would all of a sudden feel this overwhelming presence. like very oppressive.

Your body can sense this stuff. Like have you ever entered a room where people were just arguing or something and you can just feel the tension in the air? And your instincts kick in trying to tell you that something is off. No, that's what it would feel like. If I figure out how to add the video, then I will. Have any of you had similar experiences like this? I mean, this made me open my eyes quite.

a bit and started rabbit-hulling with the subject as I find it fascinating. So, yeah, I'm just curious what you guys think about this story, or if you've had any similar experiences. Lazzang sur-gillet, puissance-moleaned for 15 minutes. We're like it's their dojo. Pre-to-joo? Vive the pleasure with Leo Jo. The casino in-line that proposes the more recent machine-assizant Machines-Assu and

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brother and I are extremely experienced desert campers. And we've lived near deserts pretty much our whole lives. I have never in the 20 years of my life, for one second, believed in anything paranormal or anything to do with evil spirits.

Unlike my brother who has always sensed presences, and been able to see mostly what we call Jin, also known as demons, until last night, which is safe to say, marks the last time we will be camping alone in the desert. We always have the same place that we like to go when we went to camp with minimum effort. And our day started as normal as ever, but as we got closer and closer to our destination, I saw my brother's mood completely shift. And when I asked what was wrong, he just shrugged me off and told me to keep driving. When we arrived, I felt completely fine. But my brother was still unusually quiet. It was around 1 p.m. at that point, and we were planning on leaving at around 12 to 1 a.m.

Because of the heat, we made the terrible decision to set up under a few trees and a source of water, which in Middle Eastern culture is where the Jins live at night. Not that I believed that at the time, of course. However, we still set up our camp and continued on as normal. Now, my brother always says that we still said that we were still set up our camp and continued on as normal. when he feels a presence, or several in this case, he gets extremely unlucky. First, he almost dropped a box of coals on his foot. Then he spilled an entire bottle of coke on his phone.

Then he dropped it into the sand, and then proceeded to smash his elbow on the edge of the chair he was sitting on, which is now very swollen. And last but certainly not least, when he was looking through one of the boxes, he felt something cold and sharp pressed right against his arm, and he realized it was an unsheathed knife, which we packed with its case the previous night before, and he later said it felt like something pushed his hand into it, right where his veins are. All of these events consecutively, within a matter of a few hours, was certainly making us both uneasy, and I, for the life of me, could not figure out why he was suddenly so unlucky.

As I was starting to question his clumsiness, a random couple appeared out of nowhere, informing us that they were stuck in the sand and needed help. We drive a land cruiser and they had a Nissan Altam, so we didn't expect to encounter as many issues as we did. We first dug them out without any issue, but as we pushed them out of the sand, they ended up getting stuck again. If you know anything about dune bashing or desert camping, then you understand the physics behind how wheels get stuck in the sand, and the way this Nissan was stuck was incredibly unusual. It was literally stuck somewhere with plenty of space available for grip.

And later on, my brother said that as we were digging them out of the sand, that's when he really started feeling the evil presence around us, but didn't want to say anything so as to not ruin the trip and freak me out. We ended up having to tow them out of the sand, which again was far harder than it had to be. First, our toe strap broke off their bumper. Toe straps cost $200 and was fine, but their bumper was slightly damaged. Then we almost got stuck ourselves, and a 20-minute job took more like 90, which again was extremely unusual. And, in hindsight, was just the beginning of our own.

all the crap to come. When we came back to our camp, we noticed how everything around us had gotten unusually quiet. The area that we were in has hundreds of birds around, and as far as we have seen, three cats, who sometimes pay us a visit. But there wasn't a single noise at all, other than our fire, which was dying out unusually quick. It had gotten dark quickly, so we had to scramble to build a fire to cook our dinner. before we were asked to help the couple. And I had noticed the silence, but it hadn't bothered me.

However, my brother suddenly grabbed my hand as we were sitting down to eat and said with clear fear in his voice that we should go as quickly as possible and that he didn't feel safe. To ease both of our minds, we prayed. We're Christian, so of course we thought it would help us. But I think that it accelerated everything that happened. and just made whatever was there with us angry. We quickly finished our dinner, and me being the skeptic, I was completely fine.

I was pretty much just humoring my brother, until I started getting the nagging feeling that it was time to pack up and leave. It hit me like a wave, and I was quite taken aback by the feelings, so I voiced it to my brother, and he agreed that we should pack up right away and get out of there. We started packing up at a normal pace like we were just tired and wanted to leave. And that was when we heard a sound very close to us, on the opposite side of the pond, which wasn't that big. I can only describe it as the sound of death itself. And it seemed to go on for several minutes.

And when I say that we looked at each other in absolute fear, I genuinely mean that I was ready to have a heart attack right then and there. At that point, after being frozen for a few minutes, and quite reasonably so, after hearing that bellowing screech so close to us, we turned on the car, drove it back so we could see better with the headlamps, and just started throwing everything into the car, without much care, but with a whole lot of urgency. And it was like, after the screaming, that's when stuff really hit the fan. First it was the sound of twigs snapping and footsteps all around us. Then it was the shadows behind the trees.

I tried everything to try and get those shadows to change shape, walking around the trees and moving the lights, but nothing. It looked like there were people just staring at us the whole time. And you could really feel it, too. We really felt like we were not alone, and that we were not with friendly entities, either. We also noticed that all three cats were huddled right behind our car,

away from the trees, so they weren't the one snapping the twigs. But literally did not care if they were not going to move. I was still getting out of there. Thankfully, they left when we started reversing, but they too looked absolutely terrified, and were just staring at the trees too. It also felt like whatever was there was getting closer. I've never felt anything like it.

It was a gut feeling and you just know it's one of those natural instincts that you should not ignore. Thankfully, we were able to pack up quickly. Our tent was very close to the trees, though, and that was a nerve-wracking experience. And whilst we're packing, it's still very silent. It's very normal for the birds around that area to continue making sound until two or three in the morning. and at this point it was about 8 p.m., so it was highly unusual. I personally think that I was more terrified. As I was driving away back on to the main dirt path to leave the desert,

I know cars very well. I know how they drive in the sand, and I know our car especially well, because we've had it for so long. I could instantly tell that the steering was off and completely fighting against me, which fixed itself the second we were on the highway. The sound of twig snapping was still all around us, and it was loud enough to be heard over the sounds of the car,

and on the path was what seemed like every bird that was in the area, just standing there, staring at us until we got close enough to force them to walk, not even fly away. At one point my brother just grabbed my shoulder and told me very sternly to keep looking at first, of me, and under no circumstances to look through his window. It was the tone of his voice that told me to listen to him for the love of God.

We were in a part of the desert where we had to pretty much drive through the whole of the accessible area to get on to the highway, and there wasn't a single person around us. The only thing we saw was a very clearly abandoned Toyota Heilix, positioned behind a small dune and hidden by the trees, but that was far enough from our campsite to easily be ruled out as the source of the original screech. The worst thing that I saw was, as we were closing to the exit, now we know these deserts very well. We've both grown up here and have been riding dirt bikes and quad bikes in these deserts

since we moved here, and we know what wildlife to expect. Cats, birds, spiders, goats, camels, mice, foxes, and maybe you. even the occasional squirpian if you're really unlucky, or a snake, but that's it. There's nothing else in these deserts. But we saw, standing in the middle of the path, staring directly had us, a deer. A freaking deer. I've only ever seen one deer in 16 years of living here, and that was in someone's garden as a pet. It's safe to say that I was in complete shock, and the deer was just,

not moving at all, until I got close enough that we could practically smell the thing before it walked off the path whilst staring directly at us. We quickly moved past the deer, and again, my brother said with a gasp, but very sternly, to keep my eyes on the road. I asked him as we got on the highway what it was that he kept seeing, and he very reluctantly told me that he kept seeing large figures around us any time we went through a bend, and they were all either pointing right at us or ahead of us. I'm very glad that he didn't tell me at the time, because I would have lost it. We still were yet to encounter anyone, but we still very clearly heard sounds all around us.

And again, not the usual bird or cat, but very clearly big and unrelenting. When I saw the exit, I was as happy as I have ever been. but that quickly faded when, once again, we saw another deer standing right in the middle of the road, slowly walking away, looking right at us. Except, this time, it didn't really look like a deer. More like a kangaroo mixed with a deer, and its eyes were milky and just... It looked rotten and horrible. But I didn't much care. I just stepped on the gas, and fortunately it had gotten out of the way in time.

Now, when you exit the desert, you can either turn right onto a long stretch of highway, or you can go left and go through a small town and then take the back streets to a parallel highway, and as I was about to turn right, my brother, once again, with that same tone of voice, said to go to the town and to go to the right. Later, he once again said that he saw a line of figures pointing ahead of us, so if we would have gone that way, we wouldn't have made it home in one piece. Thankfully, as we made it further and further away and close to our home, the gut feeling of being watched was going away.

And, of course, having never experienced something like this before, I was distraught, and I wanted to talk about it. My brother told me as we were going home that because we were alone, the Jin wanted to mess with us, that they wanted to scare us and most likely cause us harm, and that the way they get to you in such rural places is to force you to stop and then do whatever they want, which makes sense as to why there were so many animals in our path.

He also said that they caused bad luck, and that he could feel them the second we entered the desert, which explains his clumsiness all day, and the car that got stuck in such an unusual manner. This is also my younger brother, by three years. And naturally, any time he ever told me about this sort of thing, I just always dismissed him as him scaring himself. I can excuse the sounds that we heard and the shadows that we saw last night.

I can excuse the gut feeling as just being scared, but I cannot excuse the two deer that we saw staring right at us. and I cannot excuse the car just randomly fighting against me as I was driving. The deer completely freaked me out, as did the tone of my brother's voice. I'm also sorry if this is written sporadically as I'm still shaken up, and trying to make sense of everything. And it's safe to say that we are not going camping there again, and it's also safe to say that I'm never dismissing my brother when it comes to this kind of thing again. and I am so thankful that we made it home safely. I also forgot to mention that as we were setting up our tent, it was fighting us.

We would secure one end of it into the ground and instantly another end would pop out. And after we finally managed to get it set up, it looked as if something was pushing it in and it collapsed once before we got it back up. And again, it looked like something was pushing on it, which is something neither of us have ever experienced before, and we've even set up tents in the middle of a sandstorm. This happened a few years back when I was visiting with my family for Easter. I was living on my own at this point, but since my grandmother's birthday wasn't April,

and we typically did a small Easter and birthday get together with my parents and siblings. This year I was bringing along my girlfriend, who I had been with for almost, a year, so that she could meet some of my family, so I was pretty excited about that, and thankfully she was too. My grandparents lived in a quiet little neighborhood that was basically like a retirement community. They lived in what was essentially condos, because they were connected, but they were also more house-like, more so than an apartment. They had their own buildings and even backyards and patios. It was a pretty nice area,

and their neighbors were your fairly typical retired people. They left you alone for the most part, but would always make sure to greet anyone they saw coming or going. I had been there and stayed overnight a few times when I was younger, so I had fond memories of the place. So we went over there on Sunday afternoon. It was about an hour's drive for us, and we got there a little earlier,

than anticipated. My parents were already there, so I introduced them and my grandparents to my girlfriend, Whitney, and we all just sat around and talked for a bit. Shortly after, my siblings started to show up one by one. My younger sister and older brother both had a kid, so my grandparents were pretty excited about hiding eggs for them. After the egg hunt, we had dinner about an hour or two later, and then we all just kicked back while the kids dug into their Easter baskets. At one point, my grandpa, my dad, and I were sitting in the living room talking while the rest of the family was scattered about. My dad was mid-sentence, when we heard what sounded like someone softly tapping on the door. It stopped my dad as we listened to see if there was maybe

one of the kids playing around when the knocking happened again. So, my dad got up and went to the front door to see who it could be. Yet when he opened the door, there was no one there. So we went back to our original thought of, It was probably someone messing around, and continued our conversation. Shortly after, the tapping happened again. So my dad shouted towards the kitchen and asked where the kids were. My mom responded that they were out back with my sister and Whitney Plains, so

my dad got up and walked into the kitchen and continued their conversation. My grandpa and I sat there silently for a moment, until Whitney walked back into the room and asked me what that knocking sound was. It caught me off guard at first because I asked her what she meant, and after she explained the same five-knock pattern that happened twice, which was similar to what we heard. However, what we heard was a quieter tapping sound. What she actually heard startled her and my sister, as it sounded like a very loud banging.

The condo was decent-sized, but it definitely wasn't big, so if there was a loud banging, we should have heard it too. After talking to a few others there, my mom and grandma in the kitchen said they didn't hear anything. My brother who was in the bathroom didn't hear anything either, nor did my brother-in-law who was out front smoking. My sister and Whitney heard a loud banging out back, and the other three of us in the living room just heard a tapping. It was odd to us that those of us that did hear something was so vastly different. Yet those in the kitchen,

who were in between the living room in the back door, heard nothing. With no explanation, we just continued with our night shrugging it off as something that was just weird. As it started getting a bit dark, Everyone came back inside, but we had the screen back door open because it felt nice out. As we were all talking between the living room and kitchen table, we then heard another knocking.

This time, everyone looked towards the door, telling me that everybody heard it. My grandpa made a joke about my sister-in-law being late to the party, and we all chuckled as he walked to the door. Yet again, when he opened the door, there was nobody there. He walked out front looking around and then came back in with the look of confusion. There was no one out there. We all had heard it clear as day, but my grandma tried to make a light of the situation saying that someone must just be playing a prank. My dad didn't like that idea, though, and said that he wanted to walk around to see if he could

spot someone. My brother-in-law agreed to go with him and they shut the door behind them. Shortly after they left, as we were starting to walk around, as we were starting to walk around, back up the conversation, we were all startled by a blood-curdling scream. It sounded like a woman screaming for her life. I think we all pretty much jumped up when we heard it and looked at each other to make sure everyone was okay. This then caused my brother to head for the door and I followed closely behind him. I was worried that something had happened outside or maybe my dad and brother-in-law found something or someone.

As we walked out, I didn't see anyone in the front yard, and the street was seemingly clear, other than a few parked cars on the side. That's when we heard it again, a very loud and piercing scream, but I couldn't pinpoint a direction that it was coming from. I called out for my dad with panic in my voice when I saw him and my brother-in-law approached the front yard from the privacy gate that separated the front from the back. He ran up to me and my brother and asked if we were okay and what had happened. We then explained to them that we had just heard the scream and wanted to make sure they were okay.

They pretty much told us the same story. However, they said that they only heard one scream, and that was the second one. How the hell could they have not heard the first one when it was clear to us in the house? They said that they walked around the entire condo and didn't see anything. They told me to go back inside and call the cops, while the other three continued to walk around. I ran back inside and grabbed my phone to call the police with trembling hands. I remember trying to stay calm as I looked over to Whitney and the rest of my family, to tell them that I was just calling as a precaution.

It felt like hours before the police finally showed up, but it was. It hadn't really been that long. My dad and brother-in-law greeted them in the driveway and explained what had happened. There were two that came, and they actually called for a few more so that they could check the surrounding area. They had us all stay inside, but my brother-in-law didn't really leave the front stoop. So this is where things went from terrifying to bizarre. They came back and asked us all specifically what we heard, when we heard it, and he heard it, and from what direction did it sound like it had come from.

We all described the exact same thing, except when it came down to where it sounded like it had come from. My dad and brother-in-law claimed that they never heard the first scream, but the second one sounded like it was coming from the front. While we were inside, those that were at the kitchen table, closer to the open back door, said that it sounded louder from back there. If so, it makes even less.

sense how they hadn't heard it. But for me, I could not pinpoint a direction. Both times it sounded like it was right in front of me. Like, I had my eyes closed and if I were to open them, I would see who the screams were coming from. The cops were trying to pinpoint a direction, but we really weren't that much help, so they said they were going to ask some of the neighbors, because clearly they would have heard this too.

but they came back shortly after and said that the about dozen or so other homes they knocked on claimed that they did not hear anything not a peep they also said that they didn't have anyone tapping or knocking on windows or doors either i think if it weren't for all of us having such a similar story they would have probably thought that we were lying so they looked around a bit more and even drove by a few nearby streets, but when they found nothing, they said that they would have to leave. They then told us to call back if it happened again, or if we spot anything suspicious. After they left, we were all dumbfounded by the situation, and had lost any kind of party mood. We all started dispersing and going home.

My mom later informed me that they ended up staying the night there, because after we had all left, they started hearing what sounded like someone pounding on a window in one of the rooms. But once again, there was no trace of anybody. The grass hadn't been pulled down near the windows. There were no marks or smudges on them. My grandma was getting worried and my dad didn't want to leave them alone, so they stayed. However, that was the last event that they'd had for the night. Thankfully, I guess.

We all kept an eye on the news for a while. wondering if there was going to be a report on someone who was injured, killed, or kidnapped in the area, but nothing ever came of it. My grandmother even went and talked to some of the neighbors herself, and they all told her the same thing. They had never heard anything. It was definitely a freaky situation, but it was the only thing that ever happened in the area.

It was, however, enough to spook my grandma enough to want to move, which they did a year after that. We still to this day have no explanation for the screaming or the knocking, but I just hope that there wasn't someone really out there in distress. And honestly, it's something that sticks with me to this day. Easter is not a religious holiday for my family. My family just tend to give each other a chocolate egg and hang around the house doing nothing to celebrate. especially as the younger kids got older and became teenagers.

And I was included in that group. There was one Easter event that we used to do that was stopped after this incident occurred. The adults in the family would wake up really early, or stay up really late drinking, depending on the night, and hide Easter eggs around the garden. We would all get tiny baskets to carry and to stash our eggs. My family would go all out. Occasionally we would invite cousins or friends over to take part in the events, and I loved it. They would be tiny eggs, big eggs, and it was the envy of all the local kids.

I also need to add that I don't have a small backyard by any means. I live on a quarter of an acre block, and yes, the Easter egg hunt took place on it, so we were out there for a long time. That, and there were a lot of trees and shrubs to hide in. This is important for later on. Like the rest of the kids, I grabbed my basket and sped off in the hunt of sweet, sweet chocolate. I may have pushed past my younger brothers, and I'm not the first to deny it is survival of the fittest when it comes to getting the chocolate goodness. At the end of the driveway was a boring-looking man holding a bunch of Easter eggs. He was hiding behind one of the trees, talking to himself, and just laughing.

I'd love to say that there was something really off about him, but he just looked so average, almost non-threatening. He didn't notice me at first. I was going to call out for the adults in the family that someone had stolen our eggs. When he did notice me, he told me that he had even more chocolate like this in his car. and I know that my reaction is weird, but I laughed. This was one of those weird style of pranks that members of my family would play on each other. I know, we all have a pretty sick sense of humor.

He actually looked angry that I laughed at him, and that only made it more funny. Again, we have strange senses of humor. He told me to hurry up and come with him. I told him no, and to give me back all that. the chocolate that he stole. He argued with me and he was getting really mad. Like he had somewhere to be in a hurry, and he wanted me to come along with him. Not a chance. Some of the younger kids heard what was happening and came to see what the fuss was all about. It was only when he asked them and tried to grab one of their arms that I knew

that something was up. I screamed and made as much noise as possible. He tried to tell me to shut up, He offered me money, and then he threatened me and tried to drag me away by the arm. I struggled to get away, and he actually left marks on my arm. The rest of the family did manage to chase him off. Fortunately, no one got seriously hurt. Now, the outcome of what happened. The police never found the guy. They took statements, and the community was warned about him.

I have no idea who he was, and I haven't seen him since that day. Rumor around town was that he was someone that was caught once torturing small animals, and that he was now moving on to human prey. There were also rumors that he was seen stealing random items off of clothing lines, and trying to spy on women while they changed. Typical small town gossip that may or may not have been true. Either way, no one saw him again. The unfortunate outcome is that now we don't do the Easter egg hunt and we're just,

given our chocolate eggs. I do miss how it used to be, how it was something fun that we all did, and I hate how one creep managed to change something so special. I hate how it ruined a family tradition for us, but better that than one of the kids getting grabbed. I worry about what could have happened if one of the more gullible kids had come up, and I dread to think of what that absolute creep's intentions were. The last thing that I remember from it is seeing a bunch of chocolate eggs all stomped on and mashed up into the grass.

I don't really like to eat the chocolate anymore. Beavenu at board of Viarai. Embarked and profite. Embarked and relax. Syrotay. Bookine. Oh, so see. And profite. Viarai, the voice that we love that we love.

Before going into anything, I have to say this. I do not affiliate to any religion or cult. My belief is that all life is to be respected and that all life forms possess an energy that one should be considerate of. Two years ago, my boyfriend and I decided to go camping on Easter morning. The weather was unusually warm and sunny, so why not spend it outdoors? We packed our stuff, got the dogs in the car, and set to the road. It was very spontaneous, so... we didn't really plan where we would set up camp,

just a general direction in a national park, more in Europe. The forest was breathtaking. We drove up a dirt road along a small river for about an hour. It was a rough ride and we couldn't find any spots, as on our left was a rock wall and on the right a river valley. To this day, I say the place presented itself to us. I was frustrated that we were wasting. light and demanded that we stop at the next turn.

We got out to stretch our legs, took the dogs, and noticed they kept going down to the river. We followed them and found the most beautiful clearing under a riverbank, right at a shallow bend of the river. We had a clear view up and down the river, but otherwise you would have no idea we were there. It was hidden away from the road. It felt like home. We found an old stone hearth, which made a beast. sapling grow on it. I replanted the sapling somewhere safe before making the fire. My grandfather taught me from a young age to respect the forest. Before the meal I made a small

gift to the forest with some tea. It just felt right. The day passed nicely and as the sun went down it got cold very fast. At some point we put out the fire and got into the tent for warmth. The one thing that will always stay with me from this outing is the pure darkness. It was so dark that I had to check with my fingers if my eyes were closed or not. I had never experienced anything like that, and I hope that I don't any time soon. It was deeply unsettling. During the night, I could barely sleep. The sound of the river was incessant yet low, like a constant buzz.

What kept me away was. awake, though, were the strange sounds around the tent. I understand that nature is weird and has a lot of weird sounds. More than once, I heard something brushing on the tent, like someone would trace their hand down on it. Top to bottom, on the left, then on the right, and then behind, all over it. I just played it off as leaves or bugs falling from the trees. The next part is what really freaked me out.

I started hearing muffled voices, sometimes paired with the brushing, other times on their own. There were a few voices, all obnoxiously happy. I could hear loud laughter, singing, people talking loudly. I couldn't understand a word, but their happiness felt off, menacing at times. At the same time, I felt like I was being watched, like something was taking watched, like something was towering over us and counting my breaths. I felt the need to cower and hide. I barely moved all night.

This kept going the whole night. Close to the morning, it seemed to quiet down, and I was able to sleep for an hour. I woke up at the first light, and I was so relieved that it was day again. I felt it in my bones. I felt as if a pressure had been lifted. I just felt...

liberated. At that point, I didn't mention anything to my boyfriend about the voices. I wasn't concerned that he would call me crazy, but I felt the urge to shut up, like I shouldn't speak about it there. The rest of the morning went by quietly. Just before getting the last bags, I stopped just near the clearing and said, thank you for having us, to the forest. It felt like the right thing to do. Not a second after, a bird started singing in front of us, like it was answering me. I whistled back and it sang back to me. I kept this going for a few more times.

By the time we were loading in the car, the canopy above us was full of singing birds. It did not feel natural in any way. Those birds were huddled around us, like sending us off. It felt like a goodbye. I can't put it into words, but I felt so melancholic, hurt, even. For a moment, I felt like I was leaving home, not for home. Once we left the woods behind, both of us relaxed. I wasn't even aware that I was so tensed.

I asked my boyfriend how he felt about the experience, and he said that he heard the brushing, too, and a few voices once or twice. He confessed that he too felt very much. very uneasy during the night, and that the bird thing was very peculiar. I don't know what all these things were, but I know that I felt a presence with us the whole time. I felt watched. I tried to reason it out, but somehow even the memories about it feel off. Hey there, friends.

That was today's episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast, and I really hope that you all enjoyed this collection of scary stories. If you did, please do consider checking out my YouTube channel where I do these same stories, but a little bit earlier than I do them here on the podcast form, and also in slightly different collections. If you really enjoy the podcast, please do consider giving it a rating of any sort if the platform you're listening on has ratings. Any honest rating is appreciated by me, be it five star, one star, however you want to do it.

it. Just know that rating the podcast helps tremendously. And if you would like to support further, I do have a Patreon and channel memberships if you'd like to do things on the YouTube side, where for as little as a dollar a month, they get early access to my content. Never ever expected, but always appreciated. That said, friends, I hope that I do see you on the next episode of this podcast. And of course, until then, sleep well.