As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 074 - Scary RoadTrip Stories, Spring Stories, and Other Stories From YOU! - 16 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Hello and Welcome to the 74th 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 the Horrifying things that can happen on Road trips, scary things that happened in the Spring time, and other TRUE scary stories from Listeners! ➤ 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... LeonTheUberDriver, Adam P., E.H., Stacie Woods, T.I.A.A. , MariaJ, OrAmICrazy, BlessedButStressed, LDP, Ruby San Martin , Addie, Quin, Brooke, Collen Wasner, John Doe, NutMegSmileyMe ➤ 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. Via-a-Ra-Rae, the voice that we love. If you have a true, scary story, you would like to hear featured on this podcast. Please, go to ashtheravendreams.com and click the button to send it my way. Also, consider rating this podcast on whatever platform you're listening. as it does help. And of course, thank you. Back in the early 90s, when I was about 10 years old, I had a really creepy close encounter

with someone that honestly could have ended a lot worse than it did. And if I had been a bit more gullible, it likely would have ended really badly. At the time, I honestly didn't fully comprehend the potential danger of the situation, but, but as I've gotten older, it clicked pretty hard how unsettling this experience really was. As mentioned, this was back when I was about 10 years old. My parents both worked full time during the day, and most days when I got home from school, I would be in an empty house for a couple of hours until my mom was able to leave work and get home. They trusted me to be responsible enough to take care of myself,

I was the type of kid that liked to just spend time in my room playing my Super Nintendo instead of being a problem for other people. We lived in a neighborhood that was pretty much just a bunch of old people, so it was relatively safe. Honestly, it never seemed like that big of a deal. On this day, I'd been home for maybe half an hour. I'd finished my homework and had turned on the TV to watch something and grabbed pop up. tart for a snack, when I thought I saw something outside of the living room window. It was a pretty big window, and it faced to the west. So if you walked by it in the afternoon, it would cause a bit of a shadow in the room.

I glanced over for a moment to see if I could see anything. I saw a man, probably in his late 40s. He looked a bit older than my dad. He was slowly walking along the sidewalk. in front of our house. He seemed to be studying the house, staring at the ground, the roof, almost like he was seriously trying to memorize how the house looked.

Then it got creepy. As I was watching this guy analyze the exterior of our home, I watched as he put his face up to the glass with his hands cupped around his eyes. He was absolutely looking in the window and trying to see if he was. if there was anybody in the house. And, of course, he saw me sitting on the couch just staring at him.

He smiled and waved, and then I watched as he walked over to the front door and put his hand on the doorknob, then tried to push the door open. Thankfully, my parents had always told me to keep the door locked at all times, and I was pretty obsessive with doing so, so he wasn't able to get in.

When he realized that he wasn't getting the door open, he walked back to the window and started knocking. By this point, I was having a mini panic attack in my mind, screaming about how this was some weirdo trying to get into the house. But I kept trying to calm down and tell myself that he must have been a neighbor or something. He kept knocking on the window, rapidly, just tapping on it with his knuckle for several. moments, and then he started tapping hard on the door. At this point, I had no idea what to do. I walked into the kitchen near the front door and just stood there.

Because I was so unsure of what to do, I just figured that I could tell him he's at the wrong house and to go away. I did not open the door, obviously, but I did shout out to him saying, Who are you, and what do you want? when I asked this, I could hear him laugh a bit and then say, Could you open the door for me? I said no, and again asked who he was. He then said that he was a neighbor and he wasn't going to hurt me.

I may have been only ten, but I knew that this was a weird thing to say to a kid. You don't just tell a kid, I'm not going to hurt you, unless you plan to hurt them. at least not in this kind of scenario. I told him that if he was a neighbor, then he needed to come back later when my parents were home, which I now realize was a stupid thing to say, as this was me literally telling him that my parents were not home. When I said this, he paused for a moment and said, Look, I work with my mom's name.

I'm a friend of hers. She'll vouch for me. Can you please just let me in? Now, this is where things got a bit confusing for me. This man knew my mother's name specifically, and it's not a common name. So it wasn't like he could just guess a name and get it right. But I also knew my mother's co-workers. My mom worked at a hair salon.

She was one of the big names of the store, alongside my aunt. They had about five employees that they worked with. and I knew all of them because I would always hang out there during the summer, and I loved all of my mom's co-workers. The thing is, all of her co-workers were either older women or younger ladies trying to break into the industry. This guy was neither of those. I responded by saying that I didn't think I could let him in

and that he should just come back later. At this point, he got... really angry. He started banging on the door saying, I know your mom. Her name is mom's name. You need to let me in right now. When he started getting aggressive, I ran over to the cordless phone and hit the button to call the salon.

When they answered, I told her who I was and told her that I needed to talk to my mom right away. I explained the situation to her and she told me to hang up, go to the laundry room and lock the door and called cops. She then said that she would be there in a few minutes. I did exactly what she said. I ran to the laundry room, I locked the door and then called 911, telling them that a guy was trying to break into my house. After about ten minutes, I heard my mom yelling my name,

along with the voice of an officer. I came out to see them standing at the door and looking at a house. a pile of glass. Apparently, after I had run down to the laundry room, this guy had smashed the window on the front door and tried to break in. The officers took my statement, asking me a bunch of questions about the guy and what he looked like. I told them all that I could, and I told them that the guy knew my mom's name specifically,

and they said that they would drive around the area to try to find the guy, but I had to have no idea if they ever caught them. My mom thanked them, and after all was said and done, she told me that I had done everything right and kept telling me that it was all okay. I could tell that she was freaking out about this as bad as I was. After that, I wasn't allowed to be at home alone for a few years. My mom worked with one of our neighbors, an older lady that was actually one of the lunch ladies at my school, and I stayed at her house until they got home every day until I was in high school.

She was pretty cool, though, and she always had food for me when I got there, so I didn't mind. That day is something that has been burned into my memory, and when I was at that age, I was definitely scared, but as I mentioned, I now realize how serious it actually was. I'm thankful that even at that age, I was smart enough to realize that this guy didn't want anything good. I have no idea how he knew my mom's name specifically. Maybe he looked at the male or something, but I'm just glad that I trusted my instincts, and that I was able to avoid a much worse fate. So I enjoy walking at night, usually alone, but sometimes with a friend or

or two. When I first started doing it, I was 16 and living with my grandmother in a small apartment. It was my way of getting some space and also a little exercise. I never had anyone mess with me, probably because I'm a guy, but I've seen and heard some things on said walks that have freaked me out. I'm also going to include two sleepwalking stories that I think were caused by my night walks. So, on to the first event. I always walked the same route between the ages of 16 and 22. Even when I didn't live in the area, I would walk to my usual start point and continue the walk from there.

It was a couple of miles down a main road, down a residential road to a park, around the park, and then up another residential road to the main road, and then back to the start point and home. The first event took place at that second residential road. Leaving the park, there's houses on your left and a very dense patch of tall trees on the right. The whole area is covered by streetlights, so you would think that it wouldn't be creepy, but I have to admit that I never felt entirely safe on that section of the walk. 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. I would keep to the side with the houses so that if anything happened I could knock on a door. This time, though, I had my best friend with me, and she wanted to walk the treaside. We only made it about a block from the park when all of the sudden, all of the streetlights around us shut off. The nearest light on was about two blocks down. I was in the middle of saying something like,

that was weird, when we heard a loud roar behind us. It sounded like something both biological and mechanical, like if you mixed a bear roaring with the sound of a train hitting its brakes. We took off running towards the streetlight that was on as fast as we could, and as we ran, we heard branches breaking behind us. It sounded like this thing was right, behind us. When we finally reached the light and we both turned to see what was following us,

but then all of the other streetlights turned back on all at once. And there was nothing there. My best friend never went on those walks with me again. The second event was a different kind of horror, the humankind. I had decided to stop at the park during one of my solo walks. It was in the fall and the smell of the oak trees was really, really nice. I walked over to the play structure and up the slide to sit.

Only there was a couple of teenagers up there doing what couples do, so I apologized and walked well away so they didn't think that I was spying on them. I sat on the edge of the sandbox and stared at the stars, just enjoying the smells. I heard a noise behind me and turned to see a man walking into the park brandishing a shotgun. Not knowing who he was after, I yelled for the couple to get out of there and then ran in the opposite direction, specifically back the way that I came. I stopped at the middle school, which is about four blocks from the park by the road. There's a gate between the school track and the park, but going to it would have had me running past the guy with a shotgun, so I hadn't gone that way. I figured I could bang on the window and catch the night janitor, but I actually got one back.

better. A cop was looking around the school with the flashlight. He asked me if I had seen anything strange and what I was doing there in the middle of the night. I told the cop about the guy with the gun and explained that I always went on walks before bed, and he just nodded and ran towards the gate. I followed, slowly, and arrived back at the park just in time to see the gunman being put in handcuffs and pushed into a police car. I don't know what happens to the couple, but I don't know I never heard any gunshots, so I assume they're okay, though unlikely to use a public play structure for their couple time again. The last two stories are a personal nature. I had graduated high school, but I didn't know what I wanted to do.

Financial aid had declined me because I didn't have any contact with my biological parents to get their tax information. So, no college. My best friend said that she was going to job course, so I was. went with her. They put you in these dorms that were square in shape, four bunk rooms, two living rooms into bathroom slash laundry room slash shower room in the middle. I had really bad nightmares the first few weeks there and also kept getting trapped in sleep, as in I could not wake myself when I realized I was dreaming. One of these dreams still sticks with me. I sat up on my bunk and found myself surrounded by giant owls who were discussing if they should kill me or not.

I pled for my life, but they ignored me. I ran out of the bunk and into the bathroom area where I proceeded to vomit sand into the sink. I felt it burn and scrape my throat and could feel myself suffocating from the lack of breath. Then I felt a hand shake me and I woke up. I was in the bathroom, standing over a sink full of vomit, with a very concerned night guard telling me that I was okay, and just sleepwalking. This was the first time that I had ever sleepwalked. Job Corps couldn't get the sleepwalking under control, and I also started having fainting spells that they couldn't diagnose, so I ended up having to move back home. I couldn't move in with my family, so I moved in with the brother of one of my high school friends. I resumed my nightly walks, and things were pretty good.

Anytime I sleepwalked, my roommate would just gently guide me back to the bed, or to the bathroom, if sleep me said I had to pee. A couple of times I walked out on guests naked, but he just explained to them that my room was the hottest in the house, and that I sleepwalked, and it was fine. There was one time, though, that he didn't catch me. I had skipped. I had skipped. my night walk this night, feeling too tired to go after a long day. I'd put a movie on on my computer, stripped and got into bed. I don't remember dreaming, but I woke up being carried out of a cop car. They handed me off to my roommate and told him that we should put a lock on the outside of my bedroom door. I had walked, naked and barefoot, all the way to the park. A security guard found me,

realized I was sleepwalking from my responses and had the cops picked me up. My roommate had gotten up to use the restroom and found the front door open and that I was missing, so he called the police. Thankfully, they did put two and two together, brought me back, and handed me off to him. We did flip my bedroom doorknob so that the lock was on the outside, and also put a chain on it just in case sleepwalking me figured out how to use a key. This happened to me and my boyfriend when we went on a road trip a few years ago. It wasn't our first one, nor the last one, so we were pretty accustomed to the road.

We knew our limits when it came to how long we could drive without stopping, when we needed to sleep, things like that. We both typically stayed awake to keep each other company, but one of us would occasionally take a nap if we knew we were going to be switching out and driving through the night. That's actually what takes us to the incident that I wanted to share. We were taking a road trip towards the northeast to see one of our favorite bands, and it was only about a 20-hour drive.

We wanted to do it in one go, giving us more time and money to spend at our destination, so we made arrangements and planned out how long we would both drive so as to not have one person drained or driving more than the other. I feel like this is something that a lot of people don't think about, which can lead to a lot of accidents. So make sure to plan this out to some extent before hitting on the road. The drive started fine, and I agreed to drive first, and it would be more during the day, as my boyfriend, Wyatt, has better eyesight, and I also don't like to drive at night. We stopped as the sun was going down to fuel up and grab something quick to eat,

and then we started back on our path knowing that we still had a bit of a drive ahead of us. However, I was starting to feel a bit drowsy, and after letting Wyatt know, he suggested that I tried to sleep some to prepare in case we needed to switch out. I asked him if he was sure, and he said that he was, affirming that he didn't feel tired in the slightest, so I got comfortable in my seat and started to drift off. It started off as the light dozing where I could still hear the music playing, but then your body starts to feel heavy and you know that you're starting to really fall asleep.

Soon after, I was pretty clean out, as I remember I couldn't hear the music anymore. I don't recall the details of it now, but I know that I was sleeping. heavy enough that I was dreaming at the time because I remember thinking it was weird. However, I was abruptly awoken by the worst scream I had ever heard coming from Wyatt. I just remember it sounded like he was terrified and when I opened my eyes, all I saw was a bright light that pretty much swallowed us. It was dead of night, yet all I could see was this light. That's when Wyatt hit the brakes and swerved the car over towards the side of the road.

However, this ended up being a dream within a dream, I guess, because I woke up screaming, startling Wyatt enough to try to pull over and calm me down. I remember tears streaming down my face and asking him what happened, and what that was, but he looked confused and asked me what I was talking about. After I finally stopped talking and listened to him, I realized that everything was fine. He said that nothing had happened on the road. In fact, there hadn't even been any cars in sight, and I woke up, screaming, causing him to jump. So I explained to him what I had seen, or dreamt, I guess, and he comforted me again saying that we were okay.

Everything felt so real, down to even hearing the music playing in the low humming sound of the tires on the road. We sat there on the shoulder with our hazards on, just giving ourselves a moment to compose ourselves, talk and just calm our nerves before getting back on the road. Wyatt then made some kind of joke and then asked me to grab a snack from our bag in the back. I reached back to grab it, and as I was turning back around and, as I was turning back around and putting my seatbelt back on, we started to see some lights in the distance, coming from the opposite direction. It was one of those quick glances for me at first, and I went back to opening our bag of chips, when we then started to hear the blaring sound of a semi-horn.

Being on such an empty and dark road, it was odd to hear it, which caused us to look back up at it again. We watched, as we heard the horn get louder and saw the lights get closer and brighter. We watched and as it got closer, we were able to make out another light coming from the side of the truck. We continued watching as it got close enough to finally make out what the light was. It was actually sparks from where a tire should be. The truck had its cabin light and brights on and was practically laying on the horn. We watched as it passed us. We watched as it passed us. horrified as this huge semi-slow drifted through to the other lanes of traffic. It was grinding the cement barrier on our side.

We turned around and saw this until the light was barely visible and we could no longer hear the horn. I didn't know what's to say or what's to do. If we were still on the road, what would have happened to us? And my dream, it had to be related, right? I woke up to Wyatt's scream, but also a bright light, like what you would expect if a large truck was coming right at you, right? I think Wyatt was trying to keep me calm, or maybe himself, and said, Well, that was pretty scary.

I nodded in agreement, but we just continued to sit there. After a few minutes, he pulled out his phone and called 911 to report what we had just seen while I sat there silently. After the call ended, we got back on the road and drove in silence, practically tensing up at every car that we saw that came from the opposite side. I think that this incident did a number on both of us, because we ended up stopping at some grocery store and just slept there overnight. The next morning, I still felt a little shaken,

but I tried to move on thinking that we got lucky. we'll just continue being vigilant on the road and enjoy our vacation. The rest of the trip didn't have anything similar happen and why it seemed like he had gotten past it, but I still had this lingering in my head as to what all of that was about. I know deja vu. I've experienced that many times before, but this dream felt so real.

Like it happened, but we just reset. or something. Wyatt and I have since gone our separate ways, but we're still friends. We never talked about this since the time of that road trip, and when I had tried to bring it up before, he never really wanted to have the conversation. Other than my sister and a friend,

I haven't really talked to anyone about this because it's something that still disturbs me. But I finally felt the urge to share it to see if Anyone else has experienced something similar. That way, at least I would know that I'm not alone. I have an experience that has been with me since I was a little kid. I'm currently 35, and this must have happened when I was five or six. This was the 90s, so no phones, pre-internet times.

I live in South Central Los Angeles. I've lived there my whole life and continue to do so. In fact, I still live on the same property where this happened. On this particular night, there might have been around 6 p.m. It was already dark out. My mom and dad were home, and my mom had a craving for a specific cake from Marie Callender's. She sends me and my dad to go out and get it. I remember the whole trip, getting into my dad's minivan in the back seat,

being at the store, the cake, coming home. I remember holding the bag with the cake in it. I remember wearing a pink little tank top, some little flowered shorts, and little sandals with a big daisy on the top. Now, to understand the layout of my house, particularly the backyard, let me describe it. We have always entered the house from the back part of the yard,

the garage area. Between the house and the garage is a large area, it being the backyard. In the backyard, the grassed area at the time was in the form of a giant letter D, with a concrete outline which made a step. The bottom of the D being closest to the entrance of the house where we would enter. The back part of the D ran up closest to the side of the house, and the top part, the corner, aligned the end of the house where it would make a small alleyway which divided our house from our neighbor's house, separated then by a wooden fence. and a gate. When we finally get home,

my dad tells me to go on as he has to lock up the car. I went ahead and made my way. As I was walking to the house, I heard a little noise in the alley of the house. For some reason, I thought that there was a small animal there. Me, being an animal lover, made my way to the alley. The noise was a small rustling sound, as if someone was moving something without trying to.

to make too much noise. Once I reached the corner of the D where the alley was, I looked into it, expecting to find a cute little kitten or something. I was met with something that has been burned into my memory forever. The alleyway was illuminated by the moon

and partial streetlight. In the middle of the alley, there was a figure hunched over. My eyes adjusted to what I was looking at. It was the size of the side of the alley. of a man. It had hair covering its body, like dry, prickly hair. It wasn't facing me and was kneeled down looking at or inspecting something. Its hands were big. The light was enough for me to see its fingers. There were three giant claw-like fingers. I took a step back and I guess I

must have made a noise or something because it turned to me. Its face was small. I could see the texture of hair, and it looked like it had no mouth. Most of the space was taken up by its giant glowing red eyes. It looked almost alien-like. The moment that it slightly shifted its body to face me, I was able to see giant spikes coming out of its back, like porcupine spikes, but bigger and thicker coming from the back of its head all the way down.

As soon as this thing noticed me, it dropped whatever it had in its hands and leapt over the fence in one bound. I was frozen. All I could do was just stare. I got a chance to see its feet as it jumped over and they too were giant claws. They were big in size with three giant toes ending in a sharp point. At the moment that it jumped over, that's when I heard my dad making his way in. It all happened so quick. I felt like everything was in slow motion.

I remember seeing all of these details in the few seconds that it happened. I never actually heard it land on the other side of the fence. I just remember it going over in one leap like a dog would and then never hearing it run off. I, on the other hand, turned around and ran to my dad. I didn't know how to explain it to him, but I kept telling him that there was. there was something back there. He, of course, paid no attention to me, only assuring me that it was nothing.

Running into the house and straight to my mom, I told her that there was something out there, some kind of monster. I'm not sure why, but my parents didn't do anything until the hundredth time of me mentioning it. My dad finally grabbed the flashlight and went out. He came back about five minutes later

and said that there was nothing there. I don't remember the rest of that particular night. I do remember going out to the alleyway in the morning. I looked around and didn't see anything. Not exactly sure what I was looking for anyway, but I guess to just go look. Fast forward to when the internet is now the thing to have and dial up as in its prime, I decided to look up this kind of monster. Maybe I could find something or know what it was.

I typed in the description and got a bunch of things that looked like it, and people were describing it as El Chupacabra, or the goat sucker in English. This was a creature that was apparently terrorizing Mexico, and other places much too far from my home, by attacking farm animals and sucking their blood. Most of what turned up on images had wings or fangs and was scaly and green. I seriously don't know what I saw that night.

It took me a long time to tell people, and when I did, I was made fun of, so I kept quiet. I know there's a lot of people on here who probably got the same thing for seeing what they did, so I figured let me throw in my story of what happened, and we can all relate. I think if I were to see the same thing today, I would either stay frozen, like I did all those years, or try to at least get a hold of it. Somehow I would like to think that I'd be a rambo if my childhood trauma appeared to me again. I hope you enjoyed this thing that happened to me, and if there are any questions, please ask away. Growing up, I knew that I was adopted.

My parents were always very open about it with me, and they gave me as much information as they knew or could, when I asked questions. They have and always will be my parents to me, but as I got older, I was curious about my biological parents. I wanted to know more about them, who they were, and what they looked like. Not to mention I thought it was important to know about any possible genetic or health concerns. So, with the information I was given by my parents, and the adoption place that they went through,

I was able to learn more about my mother as she consented to be contacted by me if I wanted it. I spoke to my biological mother on the phone, and to my surprise, she was happy to hear from me, and the conversation just felt natural. Because of how well this went, I made plans to go and meet her in person. However, she lived in Utah,

and my family and I lived in Wyoming, so I made a solo road trip out of it. My parents were even happy for me and encouraged it. I was in a great mindset at the time. Things were going well, and I felt like I was both getting closure and filling some holes in my life. It was a great day to be on the road. The weather was perfect, and there was minimal traffic, and I was just enjoying the drive while also playing out different scenarios

and making plans with my biological mother. However, as the sun was beginning to set, I started to become tired. I guess probably because I was too excited, I didn't really want to sleep yet. So instead, I stopped to get a bite to eat, hoping that it would give me some energy and keep me going. It worked for a few hours,

but ultimately I wasn't going to be able to avoid it. I had taken long trips like this before on my own, and I didn't need much, so I typically just slept in my car rather than getting a hotel room. I took the next exit and pulled into the parking lot of a store that was 24 hours. I felt that those were at least safer as there was always someone there, and, in the case that I needed to use the restroom, I had one available. I actually did go in the store. I think it was like a convenience store but not a gas station, as there were no pumps. I grabbed something to drink and used the restroom and started heading back to my car. As I was walking there, I started hearing someone shouting from behind me.

It was as if they were trying to get someone's attention, but it didn't sound alarming, scared, or angry. But since it was shouting, nonetheless, I turned around to see what was happening. I saw a normal looking guy, maybe in his 40s. His hair was long and stringy, and he also had a pretty long beard. He was wearing jeans in a denim jacket with a dark-colored shirt underneath. To my surprise, he was waving me down. I stopped to hear him out, and as he caught up to me, he asked me if I had a cigarette. I apologized and told him I didn't smoke, and he seemed like he was trying to be.

to figure out something else to say or ask. He then looked at my hand as I was carrying my bottle of tea and asked if I had anything else to drink. The guy seemed completely normal, and maybe just a little down on his luck or something, or hell, maybe he was just a mooch and was trying to get away with anything he could for free. Either way, he wasn't being aggressive or annoying about it,

so I pulled out the change that I had gotten from my purchase, I paid with a ten, so I had a five left and some ones that I just shoved into my pocket and gave it to the man. He smiled and seemed genuinely thankful for it, making a comment about how he would be able to get smokes and a drink with it. I just kind of smiled back and said something like, yeah, no problem. Enjoy your night. He waved goodbye and headed back towards the store. I had parked close to the front and then drove it to the back of the lot. parked and settled in to sleep for the night.

I drifted off to sleep pretty quickly, but then I remembered hearing what sounded like scratching. I was still in half of a sleep state and thought that it was just part of my dream. You know the feeling, kind of like when you hear your alarm in your dream. But then when the sound became faster and a bit louder, it finally jolted me awake,

and I looked around to find the source of the sound. It didn't take me long to figure it out, because when I looked over at the passenger door, I saw the same guy from earlier messing with the door handle. I turned on my cab light and cracked the window on my side, the driver's side, to ask him what he was doing. The guy didn't even jump or look away from the handle when I did this, so I knocked on the passenger window to get his attention. He finally looked up at me, and with a deadpan look on his head. face asked if I would let him in so that we could talk. However, something seemed off. The monotone way that he said it and how he was persistent on trying the door put me on edge,

so I didn't unlock the door or anything, but I asked what he wanted to talk about. He refused to answer. He just kept saying in the same robotic voice, I just want to talk about things. Please. Open the door. Again, that uneasy feeling was still there. And even though I had given this guy some money, there was no way I was going to let this stranger in my car,

in a small enclosed area. I told him that I couldn't and that I needed to sleep, but he just shouted no at me and continued trying the handle. But then started getting more aggressive with it. After this was going on for a few moments, trying to figure out what I could do to get him to leave, I decided it was best to just leave myself. I had put my keys in the glove box, and as I went to grab them, this guy's demeanor changed. He began kicking the door and slamming into the window. I could see it slightly bending and began to worry that he was actually going to manage to break it.

With my hands shaking, I tried to put the key in the ignition. and start the car. I managed to get it started and burned out before he could break the window at least, but I had to go around a median to leave, which, unfortunately, gave this guy enough time to pick up a rock, chuck it at my car, and unfortunately caused my rear-view window to crack. I got out of that parking lot and saw the guy in my mirror chasing me for a second,

until I reached the intersection. I had only been asleep, around two hours, but with my heart now racing, I was fully awake and decided to just not stop driving. I didn't stop until the sun came up, which I finally took a break at a McDonald's. I called my parents from there and told them what happened, but I tried to keep it light-hearted so as to not worry my mother. After talking to them and a quick meal, I was feeling way more grounded, and I got back on the road to finish my drive. I arrived at my biological mother's home after that with no other incidents, but I also didn't

stop again, other than the normal food or restroom break. Obviously, I don't know what that guy's intentions were, but because of that feeling that wouldn't go away, I can't help but feel that it wasn't going to be to ask for more money or just an innocent conversation. The fact that his demeanor changed within a second terrified me even more, so I was just glad that I got out of there before he was able to get in, and even more thankful that I woke up to those initial sounds.

This was something that happened when I was around four or five years old. Of course, I know this was really young, so I didn't have all the details, So this was also put together with the help from my dad, as it did involve the two of us. I remembered parts of this from my perspective, but I'll also include what my dad saw and experienced too, so I apologize if it does jump around a bit. This was sometime in the early 90s. My family, which was my mom and dad, my baby sister, and myself lived near the border of Oklahoma.

Oklahoma and Texas. My dad had gotten a phone call about his mom falling ill, and they were afraid that she wouldn't make it much longer, so he wanted to go be with her in Mexico. Both of my parents were working full-time jobs, so they were kind of stuck. My mom wouldn't be able to watch both of us while working, but they also couldn't afford to have us all go, so they decided that my dad would take me with him since I was old. and my mom would stay home with my sister since she was a newborn anyways, and she could bring her with her to work. So my mom made us some food for the road, and after packing a bag for both of us and bringing my favorite toys,

we headed out late one night. That way we could get through a lot of the driving while I slept. Plus, it was a little cooler. It was the middle of summer, and it was unbearably hot. The AC barely worked and we couldn't have it on at all times. Otherwise, the car would start running funny. We also had a very old car that could fall apart at any time, so driving at night was almost preferable. Unfortunately, we started having troubles with the car in the middle of the drive. I remember seeing a lot of white smoke and my dad said that it was sputtering.

Thank God we weren't on a deserted and empty part of the highway, though. With his hazards on, he was able to slowly take an exit, got past and stared at by multiple cars, and then rolled into the parking lot of a run-down truck stop. I do remember being my younger self asking some form of, Are we there? To which my dad told me that he had to fix the car. Instead of pulling into a parking spot, he pulled up to the curb close to the building. There was a picnic table in the grass nearby that had an umbrella over it.

My dad pulled me out of the car and had me sitting at the table, and he gave me a few of my toys in a juice box. He told me to stay there no matter what while he looked at the car. As mentioned, it was very hot at the time, and when we talked about this when I was older, he told me that he didn't want to leave me in the car and risk me overheating, so he thought the next best thing would be for me to sit there in the shade. I was still pretty close to him, where all he had to do was turn his head to the left and he would see me, and he would probably hear me if I tried talking to him. The problem, however, wouldn't be with me overheating, but himself. He said that he was already feeling ill and felt like his blood pressure was high,

but he chalked it up to just being stressed out and hot. He said after finding out what was wrong with it, He would sit with me to relax for a bit before we got back on the road, but he wouldn't get that far. He popped the hood, got into the driver's seat to get something, and ended up passing out. I didn't know that anything was happening. I just sat on the bench as I was told and shared my juice with my stuffed animal that I'd had. At one point, I saw a man walk out of the store, and I remember thinking that he reminded me, me of my uncle.

My uncle, Lewis, was a truck driver, and he always had on a pair of overalls, a cowboy hat and sunglasses. This man was dressed the same way, so when he looked at me and smiled, I smiled and waved back. I watched him as he walked along the side of the building, seeming to be looking around, and then did a sharp turn and headed back in my direction. He then stood right across from me and said, Hello. I remember saying hi back, and I think I asked him if he knew my uncle Lewis.

He laughed and said that he thought he might, and then asked who I was with. I told him I was with my dad and pointed at our car. The guy then said something like, Looks like your daddy could use some help. How about we surprise him with some ice cream? It's really hot out here. Again, I was really young. I knew it was hot because my dad was.

dress was sticking to me and starting to make me feel uncomfortable. I could tell something was wrong with my dad by the way that he was acting and how much he was sweating. This guy also seemed very nice. And because he did appear to be like my uncle, I thought it would be okay. I also thought that this was supposed to help my dad, either with the car or to cool off, or maybe just to make him happy. And that's, of course, what I wanted. I wanted to help him, so I agreed to go with this guy. I stood up, and I went to walk around the other side of the bench and grabbed the man's hand. As we started walking, that was about the same time that my dad woke up.

He said when he came to, his immediate thought was me. He didn't know how long he had been out, so he jumped out of the car and saw me walking away with an unknown man. That's when he started running toward us, but he said that his legs felt like concrete. So his next option was to yell. The only thing he managed to get out was Maria, Pelligra, which was basically danger in Spanish. My dad's bilingual, and I was starting to learn Spanish alongside my English, but I didn't know it very well. However, one of the things I was taught was stranger danger. However, he would later learn this, but my dad was amid heatstroke, so, with being very weak, all he could muster was danger.

After shouting this, he stumbled forward falling onto the ground, hitting his head on the curb. Hearing the fear in my father's usually booming voice definitely startled me, and when I saw him fall, I immediately screamed, and the guy that I was walking with took off. My dad and I both remember the guy being white, but of course, we don't know if he knew Spanish and knew what my dad had just said, or if it was the fact that my dad had caught him, so he took off. I ran to my dad who was now on the ground and all I knew to do was scream, cry and shake him trying to wake him up. A lady in the truck stop heard all this and ran out to try and help, and after that, it all kind of ran together. I remember a few other people helping by putting cold rags on my dad.

I remember the ambulance coming and then my dad waking up. They had to calm him down as he was panicking because he couldn't see me initially. The lady was sitting on the bench with me trying to keep me calm and keep me out of the EMT's way. When I called out for him, though, he knew I was okay, so he calmed down too. I know the EMTs wanted him to go to the hospital to see if he'd gotten a concussion, but he refused. After he cooled down, he said he was feeling much better, and that he needed to fix his hot car still so that we could get back on the road. The lady that was with me had my dad pull the car into the truck garage to take a look at it while he rested inside in the AC. My dad said that the issue had something to do with the radiator,

and they only asked him to pay for the part, which they had, and that they weren't going to charge him for labor. I remember the lady being very kind. She asked me questions about myself, my family, all while the EMTs were there to keep me calm. She gave me a push-pop and some water, and let me keep the little pool stuffed animal toy thing she gave me. It was like one of those water.

footballs that you toss around in a pool, but it was a rabbit, I think. She'd soaked it in cold water to keep me cool as well. To wrap things up, the guy unfortunately fled. He was driving a big truck, so they had his license plate number, and knew the business thanks to the giant logo on the trailer. We used this to contact the company and police to report it, but my dad said that he never heard anything back, so we just assumed that they either never found him, or, more likely, didn't take it seriously. We did make it to Mexico, with only a day to spare before his mother

passed away. It was one hell of a trip for us, and I became even closer with my dad after that. It's like we really became partners, always watching out for each other. When I was younger, I was anemic and would often faint. This lasted about roughly four years. The funny thing is that every time I would faint, a yellow haze would tint my vision, as I would try to tell a friend that I was about to faint. But it would always sound like,

I'm about to fe, and I would drop. I never felt hitting the floor or ground. I would just wake up. up and be in a whole new situation with a different group of friends having a good time. Yet, after a few minutes, I would ask, Wait, how did I get here? And immediately my friends would give me an odd look and I would wake up from my fainting spell really confused. This has happened to me every single time I have fainted.

every single time. As the years progressed, my fainting spells stopped. I've asked other people what happens to them when they faint and all of them just respond with just darkness. I just want to find someone else that may have experienced the same thing or knows of someone who has because I can't be the only odd, Duck. Hi. My name is Addy. English is not my first language, so please do bear with me. For introduction, the story happened in 2019. My sister and I were international students in Sydney, Australia.

As we're on a tight budget, we rented a room for about four months. The house had three bedrooms. None of the rooms had locks. It had a shared toilet and shower. The first room was occupied by the brother of the owner of the house. Let's call him D. D was in his early 40s, about 5'11, brown skin, average body type. The second room was occupied by D's friend, let's call him F. F was in his early 60s. He was probably 6'1 and also average body type.

Then, lastly, our room, the 3rd. third room, me and my sister shared a room. It's not really a big deal since we're very close and, as I mentioned, we were on a tight budget. We knew Dee as he was a friend's friend of my aunt. So, here's the story. I arrived home from work, rested for a bit, and then I go to shower. It was probably around 7-ish p.m., and since it was winter, it's pitch black outside. When you went to our shower on the right side, it has a big sliding glass window painted with white so no one can see inside, unless you open the window.

Behind that window is our backyard, with table and chairs. So I went to shower and noticed that the window was slightly open, like just a little bit. I didn't give much attention as I'm thinking I can't be seen from the outside as it was a very small opening. So I've finished my shower, and I just go to the kitchen to get some food. Then D comes in from the backyard with his dog. I say hi, then continue what I'm doing. A few months pass. Me and my sister were studying and working, so most of the time we're not home during the day and just using the room to sleep at night.

One time my sister has her late afternoon shift, which was not her typical schedule, as she's always always. in early morning shifts. I left for work, and my sister is still sleeping covered with the blanket all over her body since it was winter. We have the same body type. We're both around five foot and petite,

so sometimes you can't tell if there's someone under the blanket, or it might just be a pillow. My sister then woke up as she heard some noise happening in the room. She opens her eyes and saw some of our panties were scattered around the floor. She thinks that I might be running late and just throwing everything on the floor,

but she then saw my housemate F, searching in our laundry basket, looking for something. Then she saw F sniffing our panties. She was horrified and scared as F is a big man. My sister then pretended that she didn't see anything and asked F if he was looking for for a charger. F was so shocked to see that my sister was in our bed. F then said that yes, he was just looking for a charger. After a few minutes, F went back to our room and then asked my sister to not tell anyone about what happened earlier.

My sister agreed as she was afraid that F might do something bad to her. She went to work and texted me about what happened. I was shocked and afraid. because I'm the one who usually gets home first. My sister then told Dee what happened. I didn't go inside the house without Dee coming home, and I was just waiting outside for him. We went inside without any conversation. He then installed a lock on our door that night.

After that happened, my sister and I moved out around a week later. But before we moved out, I was folding all of our own. our clothes and I remembered that I still have some clothes hanging outside in the backyard. It was pitch black, but when my eyes adjusted to the dark, I then went to get our clothes. My eyes moved to the shower window, as I see a very small opening. To my shock, when you're outside, even that very small opening, you can see everything happening inside that shower. That is why Dee was usually outside in our dark backyard

Because he could see everything inside the shower Without us noticing him Since it was pitch dark outside I have a strange and creepy thing that happened to me A while back And honestly it's something that I genuinely cannot explain I used to be a driver for a ride-chair service That's pretty well known

and because of that, I was out on the road for a lot of the afternoon and evening. I would typically do the job until around 10 p.m. at night, and then head home from there, and go to bed to wake up to do my day job. It was a rough schedule to follow, and I was losing a lot of sleep because of it, but it is what it is. This whole thing took place in mid-April, and we were getting hit with some pretty intense, spring storms. Where I live, we get the major rain and thunderstorms through April to the point of getting tornadoes. But money is money and I was at the point where I needed to get paid. Plus, rainstorms meant that there was a chance of more clients, because people don't want to

walk out in the rain. I was out taking the riders to where they needed to go, and I had finished what I planned to be my last ride, and I was heading back to the gas station. I then saw a young man walking on the side of the road, soaking wet. Part of me said that he was fine, but the other part of me thought that I should ask him if he was okay, at the very least, because I would want people to do that for me. I pulled over, careful not to splash him as I stopped, and rolled down the window asking if he needed a ride. At first he seemed a bit standoffish and hesitant,

but after a few moments he nodded and thanked me, then walked around and got into the passenger seat. I asked him where he needed to go, and he asked me if I could take him to the Walmart that was in town. I lived over in that direction, so I was more than willing to do so. I mentioned that I could get him there and mentioned that I did have to stop at the gas station,

though, because I was about to be on E. He said that was fine, and that he could use something to drink anyways. We headed off, and the whole time we were driving, he just kind of stared at the road, not saying anything. I didn't want to push him into any small talk if he wasn't comfortable. I just mentioned the storm and said it was pretty crazy, and he nodded with a slight smile. the whole ride this guy looked like he was really upset

like he wanted to cry but was holding it back which was why I really didn't want to push him into chatting we pulled up to the gas station and I parked at the pump and he just kind of stood around for a moment while I filled my tank I then asked if he was going to go inside to get his drink and he mentioned that he didn't have his wallet that he left it behind.

I could tell that this kid was going through a tough time, so I told him that I would buy his drink if he wanted it, and again, he seemed a bit standoffish. I said that it was fine, and that I would be happy to do so, so long as he paid it forward and helped someone else out in need in the future. He nodded and again thanked me. We walked into the gas station,

the guy at the counter greeted us, and as soon as we got in, the guy said that he was going to use the restroom really quick. I said okay, and I watched him walk toward the back where the restrooms were. I then went over and got my soda, and then waited near the counter. After a few minutes,

the clerk kind of looked at me and asked if I needed help with anything, and I said that I was just waiting for the guy that came in with me. He gave me a very confused, stair. I mentioned that the guy I came in with had gone to the restroom and then said that I was just giving him a ride to the Walmart. He then said, you didn't come in with anyone, sir. I described the guy in detail and mentioned that when we walked in, he went straight to the restroom. The clerk said that that was impossible because the restrooms were locked after 9 p.m. And in order to use them, you had to get the key, and he still had the key.

He then pulled the key out from under the desk, attached to a little keychain animal thing, and said that in order to get into the restroom, he would have had to have used that key. I was a bit confused. I watched the kid go into the restroom, or at least I thought I did. I watched him go to the door and reach for it

and then went to get my soda. which was by the front counter. The restroom was in front of me the whole time until I was standing there by the counter, waiting for the guy to come out, at which point I was near the hole where it was. I asked if I could go check on him in the restroom because I was certain that he was in there,

and the clerk said that that was fine. He handed me the key, and I went to the restroom. I knocked, and when I got no answer, I unlocked it. It was completely empty, and it looked like it hadn't been used for a few hours. I looked back at the hallway and there was no exit there. It was just the one door to the restroom

and the closet where all the soda syrup pumps were. There was literally nowhere to go in this area. He was nowhere to be seen. At no point could he have exited this hallway with the restroom without me. seeing him. There was no exit, hole, window, or method that he could have gotten out of the building. I walked up and just kind of stared at the clerk like, what the hell? He returned my very confused look and asked if I was okay. I kind of mumbled that I must have been losing my mind and

just paid for my soda, thanking the clerk for his time and help. I walked out to my car and sat there in the driver's seat, and just pondered what the hell this hall was. There was no way for him to have gotten out of that station without me seeing him, outside of him somehow climbing through the ceiling, which, yeah, I don't think that happened. The clerk said that he didn't see me walk in with anyone, which makes me think that this kid never existed. But he got in my car, and I spoke to him. and I drove him to the gas station.

I honestly have no idea what to make of this event, and it's one of those things that seriously messed with me for this last year. I swear that this kid existed. I swear he got in my car and walked into the station. But everything else seems to point at him never having existed. Was this some kind of spirit? Did I give a ride to a ghost? or some kind of paranormal anomaly?

I have no clue, and I honestly don't think I'm ever going to know. I have a story that honestly sounds like a bit of an urban legend, but it actually happened to me back whenever I had moved to the small town that I used to live in back in the spring of 2003. I don't want to give out my exact location, but I will say that I lived in a small town, in the southern part of the Midwest, in a town that was definitely more rural than urban.

It was a nice little community, and I chose to move there because the company I worked for was expanding into the neighboring city, which was only about a 20-minute drive. I wanted to be close to my new home office, but I kind of wanted to avoid actually living in the city itself, so I compromised and moved into the small town on the outskirts, Like I mentioned, it was nice. And for the most part, it was just the people who lived there, a general store, the church, and a few other small businesses. As is the case with most small towns, there were a few warnings to those that were new, specifically to avoid certain places outside of the town to the west, which is where the whole urban legends thing comes into play. nothing screams

campfire story like being told to avoid two places the old mines and the forest that had grown over it I actually asked someone why I should avoid the forest and if it was because the land was unstable from the mine

and they told me that there were things that were far worse in the woods than unstable ground again I know this literally literally sounds like a horror movie because that's what I was thinking the entire time. I had just moved there. I was being warned of things in the woods, and people were being ominous about everything involved.

This was literally the plot to a scary movie that I swear I saw back in the early 90s. And much like those movies, I was going to go ahead and just treat these warnings as noise. I wasn't much of a rebel. I just wasn't going to let some nonsense pull me away from the walking trails out in the unincorporated parts of the hiking areas. When I moved to the town, I told myself that, on the weekends, I was going to make more time to become in tune with nature. And that I was going to take my dog, Maddie, hiking out in the woods so that she could get used to it as well. About a month into living there, I finally decided that it was time to put my plan into action. It was a bright and beautiful springtime Saturday.

It was warm. The sun was out early and the air was just perfect. When I got up, I knew right then and there that this would be the day that I took Maddie out onto the trails for a nice hike. And that it would be the start of a new hobby for us. I got dressed for it, got Maddie all sorted out, got a backpack full of water and food just in case, as well as whatever essentials I thought we would need, and I was beyond ready to go. We drove out to the walking paths and parked in the lot near the park. I took a while to study the map that was posted and look at how the trail curved,

made a note of how things were situated in my head, in case I got lost and had to use a compass to get back. Being 2003, I didn't have a smartphone or GPS on me to get back anywhere. And then, after a good amount of debating, I went ahead with the plan and started out into the woods. Now, my plan had me going on the walking trail that would circle back from the west, around the south, and then reconnect at the east. However, at the furthest south part of the trail, you could keep going and could hit that spot of land that people had warned me about. I, of course, was going to check this area out. If for no other reason, I was going to prove that it was all just a bunch of balona.

Maddie and I got out onto the trails, walked around, and after a while I decided that I was at the right spot and started to head off the trail towards where the area was. was that I was told to not go. At first, it wasn't that bad. It was just a thicker area of the trees with no real distinct markings. But after a while, it started to get a bit strange. As I pressed on, I noticed that there were spots where the trees seemed to just be dead, completely lifeless. Which isn't necessarily too out there, but

it was weird to see random trees that were just completely void of leaves in the middle of this lush forest. As I moved south, the dead trees seemed to become more abundant, until I hit a circle of them that was completely brown and decrepit. At this point, Maddie started whimpering and pushing against my leg, as if she was trying to let me know that something was wrong. At this point, my courage turned to genuine curiosity. Something was really strange here, and I kind of wanted to go a bit deeper to see what I could see. I pressed into the dead zone until I got into an area where it was more open.

This circle of dead trees wasn't huge. It was just dense and obvious. And in the middle, there was a clearing that was decent-sized that seemed to have been cut out. As I entered into the clearing, the air seemingly grew colder, and it hit a level of silence that was painful. I could hear my heartbeat, my breathing, and the soft whimpering that Maddie was holding back. I stood there in the clearing, looking around and trying to piece together what exactly it was, when I noticed that the air felt, I guess, stale is the word I want to use,

and it had a smell to it that was just empty. I tried to walk further into the center of the opening, but Maddie was refusing to move, which was incredibly unlike her. She was an adventurous dog, and usually did not disobey me if I tried to pull her in a direction. And to see her like this made me hit that point that I was second-guessing my actions. If she was this scared, then something was going on. I decided that it was time to go ahead and go back. that I'd spent enough time investigating this mystery.

As I turned to walk back the way I came, the silence was broken by what sounded like a stringed instrument, like a violin. I know that that sounds really weird, but as I was walking away, I started to hear something that sounded like somebody playing a single, out of tune, and constant note on a violin. That was my absolute breaking point.

My slow pace doubled, and I pulled on Maddie's leash and told her to come. We started with the fast walk but moved into a jog to get back to the trail, which we did, thankfully. When we got back to the trail, everything seemed to be back to normal. It was warmer, the air was moving, and life had returned to the forest. I stopped to catch my breath, take a big drink of water, and tell myself that I would literally never go back that way again. After a few moments, I got back to my walk. We still had half the trail to go before we could get to the car. I felt fine.

A little freaked out over what we saw as it was definitely unnatural, but Maddie, on the other hand, was kind of freaking me out. every few minutes or so she would pause and look back in the direction of where we were and each time she would let out a whimper and try to pull me to keep me going she did this for the rest of the walk back

to the car like she was waiting for something to follow us or like she thought there was something there in the distance thankfully she stopped doing this after we got home and she hasn't had that level of paranoia since then

We also haven't gone back on that trail since that day. Because I didn't want to get too close to it all. The whole feeling was unnerving and terrifying. But I think I was actually feeling a bit more scared with how Maddie was acting on the rest of the hike. I feel like she felt something was following us. Like she knew it was there and she was keeping a close eye on it the rest of that hike. Part of me wonders if something did try to follow me out of there, but just didn't, for some reason? I don't know.

Obviously, I wasn't the only one to have dealt with this. Considering people had warned me, which just makes me more curious as to what exactly it was. Some kind of break between our world and the supernatural, some kind of demonic ground? I have no idea. I no longer live in that town, and unfortunately, Maddie did pass away a couple of years ago. But the memories of that hike, the feeling I got when I found that clearing,

and the way that she reacted, that sound that I heard and just everything about it, those memories have never left me, and they probably never will. There's something else here now. Something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scarious Hell.

Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From Binge All Episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. This is something that happened to me a long time ago, when I was a freshman at college. But it was like no other college.

Though I suppose there were plenty of other esoteric places then. It was 1980, exactly. The college was barely accredited. It would sometimes lose standing and be called institutes. instead of college, making it all the more impossible to grasp. It had started in the 1960s, with hippie-C-I-A roots. It was a world college, a world institute, and the headquarters were on an old estate gracing the northern harbor.

Years later, I would learn that the money which built the main house, the show barn up the road, the servants' quarters, It all came from a fortune hunter who struck it rich under the employ of the East India Trading Company. He had offices in Hong Kong but later came to settle on the eastern seaboard. The family was eccentric, and they donated an austere quasi-religion who, in turn, gave it to a corporate visionary who made it his Disneyland, this institute of frugality and utopian idealism. It became filled for a time. with bearded, bespectacled men,

and passionate in their beliefs and discussions as they talked about world events in the beautiful but rotting chambers of the main house. A mansion full of original French doors and moved in 1970s, office environs. Women and scarves and overalls going through files, the odd man in the suit, clean-shaven on the new push-buttoned phone.

When I came there, though, it was as if it were brigadoon at sea. existent only in the mist. I took a limo from the airport and the man driving had never heard of the place, but as I gave him directions, we found our way to a dirt road, with a small sign only noting the lane name. There was no signage of the college. Going downhill in what was now forest, there was one sign that was a yellow yield sign with three handwritten words upon it, animals at play. and suddenly it was as if time itself was different. I was sent to live in Don House,

a house that was on the bottom part of the campus, or the main campus, as it was known. It was across the giant dirt circular driveway for the main house, with a gargantuan tree in the center that every class would climb for a group pick with the swinging, daring ones at the top. Dawn House was a single-story place that was unusual because of its paint job.

It was bright orange with black trim, like Halloween, and it stuck out from the graceful aging estate, with its algae clumped ponds and crumbling formal gardens. It also sported a wreath on the front door, plastic, hung over a picture of some naked hippies in a semi-formal pose. It was a weird look, aberrant, in this otherwise bucolic place. I would learn soon enough who was responsible for the paint. My house father, V.

He wore the same black pants and bright orange turtlenecks. Had jet black hair slicked back like the 1950s. At the end of his maintenance day, he would sit in a ragged, overstuffed chair, eat his mono-diet meal of elbow noodles with one solid can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup stirred in. He paid for that. He went to the hospital, and that is a little bit of a hospital. as what they told him was wrong. So, never go on that mono diet.

And from that chair, he would watch this big TV far away at the other end of the room. It was furnished with a couple of dusty couches, a few cheap end tables, and a payphone. Sometimes a glowing orb made of plastic with colored lights inside would appear on the coffee table, a creation of V's. Mainly, it was idyllic there. We would sit in comfy places and listen to lectures about Pulpot or whoever they chose that day. There was this guy who had unruly hair, and he asked me to weave chopsticks into it, and it was very meditative. Students were from all over the globe. They were laughing because no one could really understand each other or the lecturers who were also from all over.

There was one student there who was different from the rest. Instead of falling into the good fields, he was breaking into the main house at night and reading old and new student files. Some had lost their minds in third world huts overseas, overcome with malaria, madness. There was one student in our class who thought they were an alien from space. He invited me to go with him one night. I didn't want to, but it seemed more fun than watching V watch TV,

his favorites, prison flicks, old black and white, prison flicks. I had no idea that there were so many, or that they were even a thing. I think I only saw Cool Hand Luke and Papillion, but these were more prison-like than those. It was weird that he got into those movies, late at night with his TV guide to search for them, but I was scared of old dark, creepy mansions at night. I knew how unpleasant it would be, rummaging around that creaky place with its shadowy corridors, long, narrow halls. He had a couple of flashlights that were not super great, and we headed down to the old main house. We only stayed on the first floor.

There were executive offices upstairs, but I got too scared of the third step up, so we went to the lower admin and records area where he had been before, but in no way had exhausted. Soon, the old metal filing cabinets were creaking open. I found a drawer that had been part of the original house. It was built in, probably for silver in the old dining room. It had manila folders, and I held the flashlight and began to go through them. It didn't take very long to find something so startling that I just gasped and begged for Jeff to come over. He saw it in an instant.

this beginning to yellow newspaper clipping, but from some sort of private paper, like a journal of professionals type of paper. We couldn't see where it was from. There was a photograph as well. I think it went with the article. It was of several men walking in business suits and hats, older, almost from another era, but they could be from now, conservative dress,

and the heading was something about an experiment. They were going to take an axe murderer out of prison and put him into society without society knowing what he had done. It was part of their reform theory. His base? Where did they put him? Yeah, at the Institute. Who was it? You guessed it. V.

I felt sick. I was only 18. A new freshman in a new state in an already surreal environment, but this? I was shaking. We got out of there not before looking down into the basement and switching on a light to a high-backed psycho-style wheelchair, and even that could not rattle us the way that we were rattled.

We walked for miles to an all-night diner. We were too creeped out to even be on campus. The walk was so long that we had to laugh. I think the sun was beginning to rise by the time that we ordered food and listened to Sugar Sugar on the little jukeboxes. I later moved to Upper Campus, an old military installation with a dome put on top by a nudist doctor who lived there,

in a glass dome of plants upon the roof. And then, I was gone, traveling, not to be back there for years. But I did go to visit the campus. I'd been living in New York, and it was hot. Summer came with no spring, and I grabbed a friend and we hopped a train to that rather magical place. When I came to see old Dawn House, it was painted a modest white, and as we appeared, so did a couple from inside. School was on break, but they stayed as parents of the house.

I told them that I lived there when it was orange and black. The woman opened her mouth wide, and then they both began to talk at once. V. Oh, the scandal. V had gotten grants for free camera equipment and video equipment when he came. He was to flourish in his hobbies. But there was nothing wholesome about his media grab worth around 30,000 or more. He had set up the house as his own Peeping Tom film studio, with small holes that no one ever noticed,

especially in the bedrooms and the bath. It's so chilling now to think of those afternoons when I thought I saw something and would turn and there would be nothing there but the tree. But I know now that he was spruce. The secret experiment murderer sprung from prison by reform theorists after chopping someone to bits with an axe had made me, us, or whoever was in Dawn House, his experiment. Hey there, I've been listening to your channel for a few months now, and hearing some of your older videos reminded me of an event that happened to me and a friend last year, actually. This happened when me and my friend Morgan took a road trip to Las Vegas. It wasn't the first time we had done this,

and we've also learned a few things since our first trip, so by now I felt that we were a bit more prepared. I took my car to the shop to make sure everything was working as it should be, and then we made a well-prepped cooler of healthy snacks and drinks, as well as a few energy drinks, We packed our bags and probably overpacked, but made sure that we had everything as well as some extras. I even refilled my emergency kit that I kept in my trunk. It had the normal first aid stuff as well as a towel and a blanket, things like that.

I had a few people making fun of me for my kits, including my boyfriend, saying that I was overdoing it. But I always said I'd rather have it and never need it than, and, well, you know. I was living with Morgan and her sister at the time, which made it even more convenient for us, meaning we were able to leave when we wanted without wasting more time for meeting up. We stopped to have a light breakfast and coffee

and then got on the road. The drive for the most part was pretty uneventful. I mean, it was a great drive. We did it in early spring, so it wasn't cold and not too hot. It was honestly pretty, perfect. We just didn't have anything crazy or hectic happen or get in the way. We had several planned stops on the way, including a national park and a museum, both of which

were fantastic. I got to make my own geode, and it had a beautiful amethyst in it. I believe we had just hit the Nevada border and decided to stop at a hotel for the night. We still had probably a day's worth of driving to do, so we wanted a place. to stay and freshen up. The hotel was your average-looking hotel. We took our much-needed showers and enjoyed the included breakfast the next morning, then just headed back to our room to get out of there. This is where things got pretty chaotic.

We had probably only been on the road for about an hour, just talking or whatever, on a pretty open highway. There weren't many cars whatsoever on the road, which was pretty nice. But then I had a Jeep with dark-tinted windows come up behind me. They weren't riding too close or anything, but it was just something I took notice of. However, they did start getting closer,

and I again made a mental note of it. However, it wasn't consistent. They would get close and then let off, and this would repeat. That's when I mentioned it to Morgan, because I thought if they were in such a rush, why not just go around? It wasn't a single-lane highway or anything, so they very well could have. Morgan said something about them either just being an ass or trying to be intimidating and said not to worry about it too much at the time.

However, it kept happening, and they were pushing it with how close they were getting, which made me lose my train of thought. while we were talking. I pointed it out again to Morgan, and she turned back to look at it. We both agreed that it was getting weird and said that we should slow down. I was using cruise control, so I wasn't going under and was probably going slightly over. We were hoping that they would grow impatient and finally just pass us. It looked like it was finally happening when the Jeep went around and was then in the lane next to me.

They were parallel to me, and because of what they were doing, we both looked over at them. The side windows were also dark, so we didn't see the driver until they rolled down their window. What we saw was some normal-looking guy, completely bald head, wearing some kind of plain t-shirt and sunglasses. Yet, I could tell by the wrinkles on his forehead and clenched jaw that he looked furious, and I had to be. no idea as to why. I kind of looked at him with a, can I help you, look, because I didn't know what his problem was. As mentioned, it's not like I was driving erratically or stopping him from going around. The guy then motioned for me to pull over, and I immediately shook my head no. This only seemed to enrage him more as he began to yell at me and telling me to pull over. I think I speak

for both of us when I say that we were starting to grow a bit uneasy. There weren't many cars around, and at that exact moment, we were the only ones. The guy then slowed down and got back behind us, so Morgan immediately pulled out her phone and started recording it. I just continued driving, hoping to see an exit soon. I was trying to change the GPS to the next exit, or gas station, or anything that would put us around, more people when we felt the car jolt forward a bit. This guy had now hit my car. Morgan started screaming and we were both asking what the hell this guy was trying to do.

Then he rammed us again. I'm trying to keep us on the road while having a panic attack when Morgan said that she was going to call the cops and turned back around in her seat. She was trying to explain to the dispatcher what was happening, and we were struggling to give our location. I knew the name of the highway but kept missing the mile markers due to being so obviously distracted. I was able to find it thanks to my GPS and the operator instructing Morgan to check it. As they were talking to us about what to do, the guy again went to the next lane,

windowed down and started shouting something that I couldn't make out. I guess he wasn't satisfied because he then hit my car from the side, which made me swerve. I had to try to correct it so that I didn't run off the road. Morgan again was screaming to the operator what was happening when he hit us one more time, closer to the back, which caused a very hard fish tail to start. And yes, I know how to correct a car when that happens, before someone says something, but my efforts were in vain because the guy again managed to hit me, causing us to careen into the oncoming exit barrels,

right at the exits that we were going to try to take. We slammed into it on the passenger side. Both of us were still conscious, but hurt, so we were completely aware that this guy had driven past, but backed up to look at us with a creepy smile before taking off again. That was the last time that we saw him, We sat there, sobbing, terrified that this guy might come back. And I was, of course, worried about how damaged my car was.

We weren't even in the same state that we lived in. How would we get home if it was totaled? It wasn't long before another car approached us and stopped to see if we were okay. It was an older guy, like a lot older, so we weren't exactly afraid of him. he just looked like a normal good Samaritan honestly. I started explaining what happened while also trying to help Morgan find her phone that, of course, went flying out of her hand. Once we found it, the operator was still on the phone,

which, by the way, after hearing the screams in the crash, I applaud them for still being there with us. We told them what had happened, and they explained that officers were almost there. I was able to get out of my door, and Morgan had to climb over to my side to get out. The old man stayed with us until the police arrived, and we gave him a hug thanking him for trying to keep us calm, and offering his coffee to us. We gave the police as much information as we could about the man and the vehicle,

and how this came out of nowhere. They tried to play it off as road rage taken too far, but if so, It was only one-sided. Like I said, I never even saw the Jeep prior to him tailgating me. I didn't recognize the man, nor did Morgan. We tried to explain this to the police, but whether or not they believed us, they did agree that this was taken way too far.

We had my car towed to the nearest auto shop, and the cops gave us a ride there for us to wait. Sadly, the whole right side was smashed in, and we were unable to open the front passenger door, but just about everything under the hood was still fine. They did replace the wheel on the passenger side since it was bent or something, and they tried to pull out some of the dents on that same side, but the door was still pretty difficult to open. Overall, we were really shaken up, and the fact that we were really shaken up. and the fact that we were so close to our destination, we thought it would be a waste to turn back. Once we calmed down and the car was done, we took it slow, driving on some side roads until we were ready to get back onto the highway. I was still super nervous about it, worried that somehow this guy may have exited or been in the same area, but, thankfully, we never had any more incidents.

That's not to say that I didn't have a slight mental freak out any time I saw a Jeep or someone that was following too close. We did give the police our information in case they ever saw the Jeep or the guy, but as of me writing this, neither of us have heard from them. This experience was terrifying for both of us, but it also left us confused. Again, I get road rage. I've shamefully flipped some people off for cutting me off, but I would never try to risk their life. On top of this, I have no idea what the hell I could have done to set this guy off. We do still go on road trips, Morgan and I together and with others,

but I don't think that I'll ever forget the feeling I had that day, or feeling like I was being targeted, or even the feeling that someone wanted me dead. or at least severely injured. So, if you're out on the road, just take precautions. Make sure that people know where you are and how to read mile markers. Oh, and always wear your seat belt. Before I tell this story, I want to preface it with the fact that this is not a typical scary story where something freaky or crazy happens.

Rather, it's more of a cautionary tale. and the scary part is what could have happened, had things gone differently. When I was five, my family and I moved from a suburban neighborhood to a little farmette. There were still houses around, and our neighbors were in pretty close proximity. However, we had enough land for horses, chickens, goats, etc. When we first moved in, I remember my parents getting acquainted with our neighbors, who were around their age, late 20s, early 30s. Let's call them Mr. and Ms. Nelson.

They would come over a lot, and I even remember Mr. Nelson putting up a tire swing for me and my sisters. Mr. Nelson seemed like the coolest adult in the world. He would swing us really high on the swing, toss us up in the air, take us for rides on his four-wheeler. He would always joke around with us, too. and we thought he was the coolest guy. At our new house, we had a big field, which was a hill, and down the hill was a creek. A small lot, and then there was a fence separating our house with Mr. Nelson's. Me and my sisters would play down there a lot, and Mr. Nelson actually made us a little fort made out of old wood.

He also made us a treehouse in the woods by our house, and even dug a swimming hole for us in the creek. Overall, he seemed like a great guy, and my sisters and I loved being around him, but, looking back, I have a few memories that made me believe that his intentions may not have been pure. First, when my parents started getting to know our neighbors. I specifically remember my mom telling me to be careful around Mr. Nelson and to not sit on his lap. I thought this was super weird because I didn't understand why that would be a big deal. I was a kid. That's just what you did with some adults. To me, I thought my mom was saying this so that we didn't think that Mr. Nelson was our dad.

Weird thought process, but I was a kid. Another memory is that Mr. Nelson would say stuff to us like, one of these days, I'm going to pick you guys up in the middle of the night and take you to Sonics. He said that a lot, actually, like multiple times. He would also tell us that he was going to buy us a phone, give us $100, just things like that. We would excitedly tell our parents this, but they just said that he was pulling our leg. Another time, Mr. Nelson came by and took us on a ride in his Jeep. I think that we drove around the block and weren't gone for very long, but when we got back, my mom freaked out.

He took us without asking my parents, and I don't even think she knew where we went. I don't remember at all, but I just remember my mom getting really upset and being very confused. I didn't know what she was so worried about. It's all kind of fuzzy, but looking back, I remember my mom never liking Mr. Nelson. I never knew why, because he was so nice. I honestly thought that she was just jealous because maybe she thought that we liked him more than we liked her. Anyways, after that,

we saw less and less of him and my parents' friendship with them kind of fizzled out. Him and my dad stayed friends, but he wasn't around us much. The last incident that I remember is one that I've always looked back on and wondered, what could have happened? My sister and I were swimming in the swimming hole, which was in direct view of his house. When he saw us out there, I think we called him over to the fence to talk.

He then said that he was going to go get his swimming trunks on to come swim with us. We waited a few moments, and he came walking out the door, shirtless, when my mom rang the dinner bell. That always meant that we had to come inside. So we called to him saying that we had to go and that we could maybe swim another time, and then ran home.

I always remember that because I was sad that we didn't get to swim with him. As you're reading this, alarm bells are likely going off in your head. Mine never did. Until recently when I started thinking about all of these things, I started feeling weird about it. I want to stress the fact that Mr. Nelson was around a lot, and the vast majority of my memories with him are ones where my parents were not around. I started to ask myself,

What was a grown man doing hanging out with five and seven-year-old girls all the time? Why did he always do such nice things for us? Why was he going swimming with two little girls alone? And why did my mom not trust him? Why would he tell us he was going to pick us up in the middle of the night to go somewhere? I'm old over all of these things for several months, and talked to my sister about it, who, also thought it was weird, but didn't have any information to offer.

I think that we just decided to not think too deep into it and give him the benefit of the doubt. But I still kept thinking about it and how weird it was. Finally, I recently talked to my mom about it. I said, hey, I've been thinking about this a lot, but do you remember when you told me not to sit on Mr. Nelson's lap and that we should be careful about him? Immediately after saying this, she got this disgusted look on her face. She said that she got weird vibes from him from the start, and didn't like the way that he acted around us. She said that he seemed creepy, thought that he didn't have pure intentions, and that he always came sniffing around. I guess he would come to the house when no one was home, and stuff like that.

She told me that he was even a little inappropriate with her at one point, I guess she had called him about doing a potential project at the house. He was in construction, and I guess they talked about that. The second time that she called, he answered the phone in a sensual way. She didn't go into detail, but she implied that it was in a way that you would answer someone that you're trying to start something with. Gross. Basically, she didn't trust him around us, and she felt very wary about us spending time with him. After she shared that with me, I told her about all of the stuff that he said to us,

about picking us up in the middle of the night, in the swimming situation. She said she doesn't remember us telling her that, but that if she did, she would have freaked out. Basically, the conversation I had with her confirmed my suspicions about his character. I think it's safe to say he was probably grooming us, and working up to potentially doing something harmful. It makes me sick to think about all the time we spent alone with him, far out of view of our parents. I also wonder if he intentionally dug a deeper hole into the creek

so that we would spend more time there. There were many times when my sister and I would go out there in our bathing suits just to swim in the hole. He most likely was able to see us from inside his house. I know that this is kind of anticlimactic, but I hope that it serves as a warning to parents or anyone out there. This man was married, has a job, had kids now, and regularly went to church. On the surface, he seemed very normal and kind, but I think he secretly was a creep who wanted to pray on younger girls. I was lucky to have had nothing happened to me, but many are not as fortunate.

If you take anything from this experience, go with your gut and be careful who you let into your life. Oftentimes, predators don't lurk around in dark corners wearing trench coats. They could be your friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members, etc. I honestly hope that maybe this is all just a misinterpretation and that he really was just a friendly neighbor, but something tells me to not hold my breath. Hello, everybody. My name is John. I'm a 17-year-old high school student with short brown hair and brown eyes.

My sister Kathy, who everybody calls cat, is a year younger than I am with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Anyway, Halloween time a few years ago, I was watching television late at night when I heard a knock on my bedroom door. It was my sister, Cat, who had wanted to come into my room and talked to me about something important. I told her the door was open and that she could come inside. When she did, I noticed that she had a worried look on her pretty face. She told me to turn off the TV because she wanted to talk to me in private, with my bedroom door closed.

I agreed to this as I quickly turned off my TV and joined her on my bed. I sat next to my sister and she began to talk. She told me that she went to a diner for burgers and fries with her girlfriend Jody. Afterwards, the girls grabbed flashlights from Jody's car and wanted to check the cemetery out since there was a full moon and the place was very spooky at night. Kat continued that further off, in the Seventh-Semitism, in the deep woods, there was a coffin just sitting there. The girls were curious, so Kat decided to open the coffin door up to see if it was empty or not.

But when she did, her friend tried not to scream on what they saw inside. Kat said that it looked like Nosferatu, or Count Orlock the vampire that Max Shrek played in the 1922 silent movie classic. Nasseratu. Cat told me what I already knew, that the vampire was very ugly with a bald head, long sharp teeth and long claws. Its eyes were closed, and arms were crossed around its stomach. She said that she immediately closed the door as she and her friend Jody exited the cemetery.

It was near closing time anyways, and the girls knew that they shouldn't be in there any longer. So the two girls got back in Jody's car and headed home. Kat said that she had to tell me this fantastic story that nobody would believe. It was hard to believe. I told her that she probably saw a very old man inside the coffin, and that it wasn't Count Orlock. I mentioned that if it was really Nosphoratu, then all of humankind may be wiped out.

My sister then looked at me with her worried face and just looked down and nodded as I hugged her. I then told her that she should go to bed since it was a school night and just dismiss this Nospharatu stuff. She nodded, I kissed her on the forehead and said good night. A few days later, Kat came into my bedroom once more and told me that that day, she and her friend Jody were walking to the store, and they saw a very thin man. wearing a black overcoat and a big black fedora hat on his head. The man was very pale, and the girls instantly recognized him as Nospharatu the vampire. It was particularly frightening because it was daylight out, and typically vampires just come out

at night to suck peoples or animals' blood. Cat went on to say that the girls were really scared now, so that night, they went back to the cemetery. This time Cat wore her gold cross around her neck, and Jody had a stake in a hammer to kill the vampire, if he was still inside the coffin. But she said when they approached where the coffin used to be, it was not there anymore. There was just a big old-fashioned truck with tenor more coffins in the back, and the driver starting the truck was ready to leave. My sister and her friend Jody tried to tell the driver what one of the coffins in the back probably contained, but the truck driver just laughed it off and ordered the two girls out

of the cemetery before he went and got the guards to escort them out forcefully. My sister and her pal had no choice but to leave the cemetery, mad that they didn't have a chance to kill the vampire if he was still in there. I thought that this story was far-fetched, and I told my sister so. I told her what I thought that it was probably just an old man. She mistook him for Count Orlock. But I also know that my sister loves me, and she would never lie to me. And it did have me thinking about what she and her friend did see.

Could it possibly have been the Prince of Darkness? Whatever my sister and my friends saw, hopefully it does not come back to haunt them, or us, or will all be in trouble, if what she said was actually real. I've been a fan of your content for quite some time, and I thought that it was a good time to go ahead and finally share an event that happened to me several years ago.

Hopefully it can be a good lesson to others, and I know that I didn't handle the situation the best, and one lesson I learned from this was that sometimes it's best to just keep your mouth shut. Some people out there have ill intentions, and it's best to remember that and avoid situations where you can act on them, if possible. Anyways, on to the story. Back in the spring of 2012, I had taken a quarter off from school in order to kind of find myself, which sounds sort of dumb. But I was newly 19 and struggling to really decide what I wanted to do with myself as far as careers go. I had completed a couple of quarters of college already, but it was all core classes.

And I was feeling the stress of having to figure everything out, so I decided to just take a couple of months to myself. During this time, I had also decided that I should look into part-time work, so that I had some sort of. some extra money as I didn't want to fully depend on my parents. I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate them. I just didn't want to be a burden. I ended up landing the night shift at a local convenience store, which was really just a small gas station that sold pizza. It was a decent job.

It paid okay. But I think the biggest benefit was, in fact, the pizza. The only part that I struggled getting accustomed to was the fact that I had to work until midnight. And working that shift meant that I was the one that had to go do the thorough cleaning. I'm not much of a night owl, which may sound a bit contradictory to the fact that I took this job,

but I was young and, like I said, still trying to figure stuff out. One night, in the middle of May, which would have been about two weeks into me working there, I was manning the front of the store by myself when my other co-worker did the stocking. We had already finished up the store cleaning, which meant that, for me, it was pretty smooth sailing for the last half hour of the shift. At one point, this muscular-looking guy comes in

and stares at me really intently as he enters the store. It was one of those, if, low, looks could kill moments. I had never met this guy, never seen him before in my life, and I had no idea why he seemed to have a problem with me. As he walked by, I asked him if I could help him, not even in a snarky way, in a sincere customer service way. He stopped walking, stared at me, and just slowly shook his head while clenching his jaw,

and then walked past me without a word. I was a bit confused, but I just thought that maybe this guy was in a really bad mood, and my asking him that was too far. I ignored it and went back to sitting there doing what I was doing. After about five or so minutes, this guy walks back up to the counter with a soda and a bag of chips. He goes to drop them on the counter,

and I go to grab them. but before I could he opens his mouth and says get your co-worker to ring me up I stared at him for a moment just like my man what he repeated his demands

I relented and stepped down to shout for my co-worker Dylan when he asked what was up I told him that I needed him up front he came up I mentioned that he needed to ring up the customer and he made a comment about how I was on the register.

I then mentioned that this guy specifically requested that I get somebody else to ring him up, and though I could see that he was frustrated, he shrugged and went to ring this guy up. The whole time he was ringing him up, this dude was giving me the side eye. His jaw was still clenched, and his fist was balled up. Like, he really wanted to attack me. I stood off to the side, just passed. the counter, sort of awkwardly waiting for this to finish so that I could go back to doing my job, and Dylan could go back to stalking.

Dylan finished ringing him up, took his money, and then wrapped up the transaction. As he turned to walk away, I told him to have a good night, which, yes, it was a bit of a jerk thing for me to do. This guy clearly was not happy with me for whatever reason, and I should have just kept my mouth shut. When I said this, the man stopped dead in his tracks and turned back towards me. I lifted my hands and said, my apologies. But this guy started walking in my direction and stopped with his face right at mine.

At this point, I realized that I had really made a mistake by being such a smart ass. And how much larger this guy was than me was way more obvious. when we were on level ground and he was right in my face. He grabbed my shirt with his free hand and pretty much lifted me off the ground slightly, which, again, made me realize that this man could probably crush me. He then stared me straight in the eyes and aggressively said, I swear to God, Jeremy, if I ever see you again, I will break every bone in your puny little body.

got it? I just sort of nodded like I understood what he was saying, and as soon as I did, he shoved me, hard, into one of the racks. Hard enough that, when I hit it, it fell over and I went with it. Then he turned and just walked out of the store, got in his car, and left. All the while I was lying on the floor, staring at the lights, wondering who the hell Jeremy was. My name is Adam.

It's always been Adam. I have always gone by Adam, and I don't know anyone named Jeremy, nor have I seen this man before. There's no way that I could have done something to warrant this aggression. Dylan came over to help me up and basically had the same thought that I did, and he asked me who Jeremy was. I told him that I honestly had no idea. and explained that I didn't know that man, that I had never met him nor seen him before. We both kind of went back and forth about how confusing this was,

and by the end of it, we agreed that there must be some guy out there named Jeremy that looked just like me, and he did something to make that man very mad. We got the store all cleaned up and got the rack back up, and I wrote a note to the boss to explain what had happened, just in case he watched the tapes and saw the whole thing play out and had questions. In the end, I came out of this encounter mostly unscathed,

and I never saw this guy again while I worked there, which was, admittedly, only for the duration of that spring quarter. I will say that about a month after I quit, Dylan texted me to tell me that he ran into the guy once after I left, and he seemed completely normal, which then tells me that I was definitely the cause of his distress. I'm glad that he never had to act on his threat, and to Jeremy, whoever you are, I want you to know that you owe me one, and that you should be a bit more careful about who you piss off. I have always been more of a lurker than someone who is active in groups like this,

but I finally come to a point where I thought that sharing the experience that happened to me a few years ago was a good idea. Honestly, this whole thing haunts me still to this day, and I've never been able to come up with anything rational to explain any of it. And I understand that it may not be too exciting to some, but to me, it was terrifying. I figured sharing my story here would be a good idea, since a lot of you seem to have a lot of insight to offer. So, if anyone has an explanation for me, please do share. A bit of background. I live in the north, where spring storms are pretty common.

You know, the kind with really heavy rain, explosive thunder, raging lightning and the occasional random tornado that will fly through and rip everything apart. As terrifying as they can truly be, I've always found these storms to be both thrilling and eerie. But I never really thought that I would have an experience of something genuinely terrifying during one of them. The story takes place on one of those very stormy spring evenings. I was home alone. My parents had gone out to visit some friends a bit before the storm started, and because of how bad it was getting out there, it was unlikely that they would be home anytime soon.

They left me with the short list of chores to do around the house, which, while annoying, was good enough to keep me occupied, since I wasn't going to be able to go outside. I was 16 at the time, so being home alone wasn't a big deal, even during storms. As the evening progressed, the storm got, even worse. The wind was blowing like crazy, rain and hail were smacking the sighting, thunder was shaking the glass each time it hit, and it was nearly pitch blackout at 6.30. To put it lightly, it was a

really intense storm. I was doing the dishes, finishing up my chore list with an episode of SpongeBob playing in the other room for noise. The lights flickered, and the TV actually shut off. the old TV had this really annoying feature or something that would cause it to completely power down if the lights flickered like that I don't know if it was to protect it from a surge or something but it happened any time we got a strong storm like this annoyed I rinsed off the plate I was washing turned off the sink and went to dry my hands so I could go turn the TV back on

as I walked into the living room I went to reach for the remote when I realized how silent and creepy the room was, despite the storm. And I think I noticed this because the silence was broken by what sounded like a whispering sound. I stopped for a second, trying to see if I could pinpoint where exactly it was coming from, but when I actually tried to listen to it, it was gone. I shrugged it off, thinking it was probably just something to do with how the wind was catching the house, and decided that I would leave the TV off while I went back to finishing the dishes.

When I started washing the dishes again, I heard another voice, but this time it was above a whisper. It was very soft, but it was at least audible, and I swear I heard it say, I'm scared. I remember when I heard it, I jumped, and I turned around thinking there was going to be someone standing behind me,

but there was no. I looked down the hallway, checked the front door, looked out the front window, and again, there was nobody. Then I looked out the back window and nearly needed a change of pants. Out in the backyard, standing by the back corner where there were a few trees, I saw what looked like a little girl. I squinted to make sure that I wasn't just seeing things, but my assumption was 100% confirmed and when she lifted her hand and waved at me,

and then walked back towards the trees at the back fence. I had two thoughts go through my mind immediately. One was, where the hell are her parents, and how did she get in my yard, and the other was, she's going to die if she stays out in this storm. Then I started thinking about what I should do. Should I call the cops? Should I go out and try to help her?

I ultimately ended up choosing the second option, grabbing my rain poncho, which with how bad the storm was, did nothing, and grabbed a flashlight and started out into the backyard. I walked out and was immediately pelted by cold rain and hard winds, to the point that I was almost blown over. I kept on into the yard and started shouting for the little girl, but didn't get a response. When I got to the tree line in the back, I turned on the flashlight and looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. I kept shouting hello, looking around to see if she had just run off, but it was as if she had never existed. There was no way that a girl her size could have climbed that fence either. She looked like she was about four or five and we had a wooden privacy fence around the entire yard, which, again, made me question how she could have ever gotten into the yard in the first place.

I looked around only for a couple of moments. The rain was getting to be a bit too much for me, and when I was basically satisfied that I was crazy and that she wasn't there, I went back to the house. I stopped on the back deck standing there, drenched and confused, just trying to piece together whether or not I had seen the girl, or if I had been hallucinating. Almost as if on cue, I hear the voice again saying,

It'll be okay. But this time, it was coming from behind me, which was the house. I immediately said nope and went back inside, shutting and locking the door behind me. I dried off, turned on every single light, and went back to watching SpongeBob at a volume that was way. too loud. I just sat there completely ignoring every other sound that I heard from the storm,

or the house creaking, and focused on the show. When my parents got home, they asked me why I was still awake, and when I tried to explain the whole thing, they laughed and said that I was probably just seeing things. I laughed and said, yep, and then went straight to bed. I have no earthly idea what exactly this all was. Part of me is screaming that it was paranormal, as the girl didn't seem to really exist. But I don't think that it was a black-eyed kid. As she wasn't at the door or begging to come in or anything, she was just there. I need to do some more research on them, though, because I don't know enough about them to confidently say that it wasn't. But that's my story.

Does anyone here have any thoughts? Was this just a spirit out in the storm? Or was this something potentially much more malicious? 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. 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.