As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 078 - Scary Cryptid Stories, Yard Sale Stories, and Other True Scary Stories From YOU! - 14 True Scary Stories
Episode Date: June 9, 2023Hello and Welcome to the 78th 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 encounters w...ith cryptids and other unknown creatures, stories about the horrors of having a yard sale, and some other true scary stories from listeners like you! Have a Story To Submit? ➤ https://www.astheravendreams.com Or Post to the Subreddit ➤ https://reddit.com/r/TheRavensDream Support the channel for Early Access AND more! Patreon ➤ https://patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Join ➤ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkW0ihdMHfBUjQrMKjRto6g/join Or Check out the Merch Store! ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video... SpicySkeleton, MISSISBUGSIPPI, SheMeansWell, Dullardo, Samantha Diaz, Chad Twigg, Briana white , Heather Eagleson, SpyFoxB, SpuriousFunctionality, Jordan, Coffee Cartoons,Jenna P., and all authors that requested anonymity. 'As The Raven Dreams' is a community where we explore the darker parts of human existence through true and harrowing stories. From sinister encounters with strangers and stalkers, to terrifying experiences that defy explanation and unsettling mysteries that linger in the shadows, I am here to tell you the most haunting narratives ever whispered. Much Love, and Sleep Well... ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #RedditStories ➤ Stories include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Viewer discretion is always advised. ➤ ALL Audio of this Podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format, without explicit permission ➤ If you like any of the following stories, consider subscribing! - Dark Web horror stories, creepy lets not meet stories, stalker stories, Glitch In The Matrix Stories, Unexplained Horror stories, Paranormal stories, cryptid encounter stories, Crazy ex lover stories, creepy neighbor stories, quantum immortality, true scary stories from reddit, or any other True horror Stories! ➤ 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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So, I've been listening to scary story channels for ages.
And I've always been a skeptical believer in all the stories.
I feel like some of them are certainly fiction, but others sounded more true than some.
but I've always looked at them as probably made up.
That actually changed recently for me
because I had something happened to me
that I would have listened to and immediately thought it was fiction.
It's not super eventful,
it's actually pretty straightforward,
but it was seriously weird and is legitimately the stuff of nightmares.
It was a regular Wednesday night to begin with.
I had woken up somewhere around three,
to what I would say was the most annoying feeling in the back of my throat.
Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, your throat feeling like the Sahara,
and you absolutely have to go downstairs and down half a gallon of water?
Yeah, it was one of those nights.
It was my own fault.
I had eaten a whole bag of pretzels, and I knew that the amount of sodium I had consumed
was probably close to fatal.
I grumbled to myself, not wanting to leave the...
comfort of my bed, but after a few minutes of trying to ignore it and go back to sleep, I sighed
and I relented. I stumbled my way down the stairs in the dark, nearly eating the hardwood
floor in the hallway at the bottom. I made my way to the kitchen, grabbed a glass from the
cabinet, and then walked over to the sink. Now, like a lot of kitchens, there's a big window
over my sink that faces out into the backyard, and at night it's pretty much pretty much,
pitch black. There's a small light on the shed that's on the far left side, but that's about it.
Normally, I wouldn't even bother looking out back, or would and wouldn't think twice about seeing
nothing. But this time, something actually did catch my eye. Right there, in the middle of my
backyard, was a figure. Well, not a figure like something I couldn't make out. It was a person.
and they were just standing there.
Seeing someone in my yard was enough to startle me in and of itself,
but the creepiest part was that this person was wearing a mask.
This mask was terrifying.
It had a weird twisted jaw with spiked teeth that were stretched out.
The eyes were hollow and dark and really just was terrifying.
Now, my brain made me stand there and just kind of stare at this person wearing a weird mask
that was standing in my backyard for several moments.
At first I thought I was hallucinating or dreaming,
or that I was just seeing something else and only thinking it was a person in a mask.
But as I sipped my water, watching this person watching me,
my mind finally clicked in to drive,
and I realized that I was staring at a person wearing a creepy mask
standing in my backyard.
Like, this was not a normal thing to see at 3 in the morning.
I started freaking out at this point,
and I dashed back up the stairs to put on my pants and grab my phone on the way down.
I had 911 already dialed, and I ran back to my window,
but was surprised to see that the person was gone.
The backyard was back to being empty,
and there was zero trace of this masked person.
person. I had already dialed 911 at this point, and the operator was asking me where the emergency
was, and I didn't want to just say, oh, never mind, I'm just crazy. So I explained to her that I saw a person
in a mask in my backyard, but that they seemed to have left. She was a bit confused, but I explained
that I saw this person, and when I went to grab my phone, they had disappeared, and after explaining,
explaining things like the idiot that I am, she reassured me that they would send a unit to drive around my neighborhood.
After I got off the phone with her, I stayed downstairs and just kind of watched out the front window,
feeling paranoid and creeped out.
After a while, the police had pulled up to my house and knocked on the door, and I opened it to speak with them.
The officer asked me a few questions, mostly about what I saw.
I described to him the guy with the mask,
described what else they were wearing to the best of my abilities,
and I could tell by the look on the officer's face that he was as confused as I was.
He even said that it sounded really strange,
and then asked if it was okay if they have a look around the property.
I told them that I had no issues with that.
After a few minutes, they had actually come back to the door,
and the officer asked me if my gate had been broken.
and I looked at him like,
Huh?
He motioned for me to come out, and sure enough, my gate was busted.
The fence was wooden, and the gate was fairly large,
and the latch had been completely pulled from the wood,
like pried out with a crowbar or something.
I told him that, no, it wasn't broken like that before,
and he then told me to stay there while they checked the back.
backyard out really quick just in case.
They looked around for a few moments, and when he came back, he asked me if what he'd found
was the mask that I had seen.
It was.
It was that same creepy-ass mask the person was wearing.
After that, they seemed to take this a bit more seriously, and they asked if they could come
in and if I could give them an official statement.
That's pretty much where this ends, really.
they took my statements that gave me the report information for the insurance company, since the gate was destroyed, and they left, telling me to call them if I saw anything else.
I have no idea if they ever found anything past this, as they have never contacted me about it.
Now, I know that this sounds like some creepy event from some dumb B-rated horror movie, and I would have had that same thought had I read or heard this story.
story. But I lived it. And even though nothing further has happened, what did happen was enough to be
terrifying. I was paranoid in watching the backyard the entire rest of that night. But when morning came
around, I was feeling better. Now, when I go to bed, I double-check all the locks, and the gate that I
had installed is reinforced way better than the old one.
I have no idea how they pride that gate open, or why they did it, but they did.
I also installed a floodlight that is motion activated that shines into the backyard,
just in case I wake up at 3 in the morning again and feel the need to look outside.
This happened to me back in early 2018.
My wife and I were cleaning up our home,
and we were considering moving to downsize,
which meant that we had a lot of stuff we wanted to get rid of.
Instead of paying to have someone haul it away,
we thought we should try to have a yard sale,
make a little extra money.
When moving, any extra money helps,
especially when you have a kid on the way.
So we started organizing stuff,
setting up a few tables and containers, marked prices,
all of the basic duties of running a sale.
The items that we were selling were pretty standard.
I had a lot of tools that I was getting rid of,
old clothing from both of us,
and even some small home appliances and decor.
Saturday was our first day,
and while it started a little slow,
it picked up quite a bit around noon.
We had some people driving up,
people that were walking with dogs or kids,
kids, people that we recognized from the neighborhood, etc.
My wife had just walked inside to grab some things, so I was left outside to tend to the cash
box and customers.
While sitting at the chair by the garage, I saw a guy looking over my tools.
I had a few people ask me about them already, so I was prepared to be asked some more
of the same questions.
However, I noticed the guy picked up one of the kits and was looking all over.
it. He flipped over to the back. Granted, there was a label back there, so I thought maybe he was
just looking for a list of the items in it, and then opened it, moving all of the pieces around
inside. Then I saw him look up and around like he was trying to find someone or something.
We made eye contact, and while holding the kid up, he asked if it was mine. Kind of a weird question,
since I was sitting by the cash box.
But I was polite and said that it was,
and then asked if he had any questions about it.
He nodded and asked me if all the pieces were in it.
When he brought it over, I was able to tell a little better
that it was a socket wrench set.
I looked it over really quick,
and I was familiar with the set
because it was one that I rarely had to use.
It had sizes that I never really used,
as it had a lot of bigger sockets in it,
but there was one specifically that I used,
and I ended up just tossing it in my big rolling toolbox,
so that I didn't have to dig it out of that set anymore.
I told him a little about it.
I mentioned that I had gotten it as a gift,
but that I only used the one's size so the set was complete,
except for that one.
Otherwise, it was in great condition, obviously,
and even the wrench that came with it was in there.
I think I was selling it for like five bucks.
It wasn't much.
He mentioned that it was a pretty convenient set,
and he looked pretty happy to have found it.
I agreed with him,
and he then said that he had a similar set,
then asked what I normally used mine for.
Again, I thought it was kind of an odd question,
because I used them on whatever they were required for.
I told him that I used them mainly on our car,
cars or small projects around the house.
Then he asked where I got it from and why I was getting rid of it.
I remember this because I know that I mentioned as he brought it up to me that I had gotten
it as a gift.
So I just repeated myself and then said that I rarely used the sizes in that kit because
some of them were a bit large.
This was when I noticed that between his questions and his change into me, he said,
our friendly conversation was starting to sound a bit more like an interrogation.
He then asked me when I got the kit, why it wasn't a complete set, and even asked again
where I had gotten it from. He was rephrasing that last question differently each time,
to make it seem like it was never asked before. But the way he was asking this seemed more
like a parent trying to get a child to tell the truth. I backed up a bit.
to get him out of my face,
and even asked him if everything was all right.
He then said,
No, everything is not all right.
I know that you stole this.
I was taken aback by this.
Where would he get the idea that I had stolen that set?
So, at a loss for words,
all I said was...
I'm sorry, what?
And he responded with,
Explain to me,
how I had a set just like this a few weeks ago,
it ended up missing and now I find you selling the exact same one
with the exact same socket missing from it like mine.
I was shocked.
This random guy standing in front of me had the audacity
to approach me at my yard sale and accuse me of stealing.
Irritated at this point, I pointed out to him that it was a gift
and that I've had it for a few years now, and, in fact, I had never even seen this guy before,
let alone know where he lived.
He was adamant, though, that I couldn't give exact dates or something, so I must have stolen it.
I laughed.
I told him that he just needed to leave my property, but he had other intentions.
As I turned around to toss the kid into my garage that,
caused this whole interaction, this psycho pulled out a handgun and shot right into my garage.
I remember the sound was excruciating. It was way too close for me, and I had lost my hearing
for a good minute because of it. Now, I was terrified. There were a few people at the sale,
and I could hear the screaming and the sound of people dropping stuff and running. Part of me felt bad,
but I knew this guy was after me, so I ran into my house,
locking the door and yelling for my wife to call 911.
While I did this, I quickly ran to the back to lock the door
that connected the garage to my house, worried that he might try to come in.
I cracked the door open and looked into the garage, and I didn't see him,
so I pushed the button to close it, and then locked the door.
Our garage doesn't have much in it, as we were using it to store,
some boxes against the back wall, and then there was the sale stuff, so he couldn't really
hide behind or under anything either.
I told my wife to go upstairs in the bedroom and to stay away from the windows.
She was pregnant, and I was very worried about her and our child's safety.
I kept checking the windows to see where this guy went, but I never saw him.
I was beginning to think that this coward really ran off.
The police finally arrived and knocked on my door, identifying themselves.
They asked me what was going on, and they seemed to have some information already.
That's when I finally caught on and asked if they talked to the other guy, and they confirmed.
That guy was sitting in my driveway, and talked to the cops when they got there, as if he was the one that had called for them.
He told them that I had stolen the damn set again and wanted me arrest.
However, he left out the gun part, and when they asked about it, this guy completely denied all of it, saying that it never happened.
Of course, I explained to them everything, and I even led them to the garage so they could find the bullet hole, which they did.
He managed to shoot the back wall, and by some miracle, the bullet was still lodged into the wall.
I was incredibly thankful that it didn't go through, and even more so that my wife wasn't in the kitchen at the time, which was on the other side of that wall.
She was in the laundry room and ran upstairs when she heard the sound, thinking it was just something that fell.
So, anyways, they had checked the guy and, of course, found his gun on him, so they detained him and had him by their car and had me come out and talk so that they could see the item that started.
this whole thing. I showed them the set and explained to them how it was a gift, so I didn't have
proof of purchase, but I did pull the one out of my toolbox to prove it was the one from the set,
because the brand logo was etched into the socket. They handed me the setback, smirking, and
walked away asking me to wait there. They talked to the guy that was in the back of the car and
then came back to me and asked if I wanted to press charges. You could bet you. You could bet you.
your ass that I did, too.
The dude couldn't even prove that he owned the same set, and to top it all off, he lived a few
blocks over.
He was just driving around, and saw the sale sign and stopped by.
Why would I rob a house a few blocks over from my place, steal one specific socket set,
and then nothing else?
Hell, if he was nicer, I may have even given him the set of my place.
for free. Of course, he was ordered to pay for the damages, and we also got our restraining order,
even though that part wasn't as important. We moved about eight months later, but I'm quite
hesitant in having another yard sale. I guess from here on out, I'll just donate my stuff.
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This experience is one that I've kept to myself for a very long time.
And I've always wanted to put it out there,
but I've always had this concern of people telling me that I was lying or was just making it up.
I will say that I am not making this up at all.
It may sound like a crazy story, but it is something that happened to myself and my cousin when we were much younger.
I'm not much of an author, so if the story feels a bit stiff, I do apologize.
I'll try my best to make this detailed and written well enough.
But this is the story of the night that my cousin and I believe we ran into the Jersey Devil out in the Pine Barons.
As I've said, I was spending my time with my cousin back when I was about 20.
While I was there, we had made plans to go on this camping trip as a way to wrap up our summer.
As is only natural, when you're in that part of New Jersey,
I had told him that I wanted to spend a few night in the Pine Barrens,
an area notorious for those urban legends about how creepy the woods can be.
We were fully aware of all the stories about the Jersey Devil,
but being that age, and with him having lived there,
we all thought that it was just a joke,
or a story to tell the kids to keep them out of the woods.
We got to our destination, a spot that was a bit secluded,
far away from other places, and we settled in for the night.
The first day was great.
We did some hiking, cooked up our food over a small fire,
and we turned in pretty early.
The second day we spent a lot of time out enjoying the weather,
and we had broken out our case of beer,
so that we could party a bit over the campfire.
That was honestly the overall plan of the trip.
I was 20. My cousin was 22,
so we planned on going out into the woods to get drunk and have a good time.
That night, we started drinking and sitting around the fire,
and my cousin started telling me about his plans for college,
how he had actually gotten a scholarship for whatever sport it was that he played.
and in the middle of this sentence, we both paused and looked into the trees.
The silence of the forest was broken by a weird sound, a high-pitched scream mixed in with a low growling sound.
When we both heard it, I mentioned that it was probably just a wounded fox, that they make some really creepy noises, and it was most likely just that.
My cousin laughed and said that it was creepy as hell, and then we were.
we heard it again. Except
this time, the higher
pitched tone was less prominent
and the growling was way louder.
I then said that we should probably just go ahead
and get to sleep. Part of me
wanted to just ignore the sound and not
think about it. My cousin agreed, and we got into
the tents and went to sleep.
After a bit, I did doze off, but
I was woken up by that same sound again.
probably around an hour or so later.
I heard it and my eyes shot open,
like an instinctual reaction to the sound,
like my body was telling me,
hey, you need to wake up and be scared.
I just stayed there on the sleeping bag for a few seconds,
staring up at the ceiling of the tent,
thinking about whether or not this thing was actually a threat.
When I started hearing footsteps near the tents,
I glanced over to where I thought they were coming from, and sure enough, there was something there.
The steps were a bit heavy as this thing approached.
I started to get hit with this heavy fear when I saw a hand-like appendage pressing against the fabric of the tent,
almost like it was rubbing it, trying to figure out what it was.
The thick fabric crinkled and folded slightly as this thing started pushing against the walls,
and then the top.
I just sat there thinking,
it'll lose interest, right?
It'll walk away.
Thankfully, it did lose interest after a while,
and it did start walking away.
At that point, though,
I had to know what the hell that was.
And when I was satisfied that it was a good distance away,
I unzipped my tent to see if I could find this creature.
To my surprise,
my cousin was already standing outside of,
his tent, pale as a ghost under the moonlight.
It was at that point that I realized that this thing wasn't just a normal creature, nor was it
something I was imagining.
He had seen it very clearly.
I saw this thing too, but he saw it in much better detail.
What I saw was a very tall beast-like thing covered in matted fur, and I swear that this thing
had wings that were tucked in.
My cousin added two details to this that makes me think this thing was the Jersey Devil.
He said that it had glowing eyes that he saw as it walked away,
and he claimed that it had legs with knees that shifted backwards, like a goat.
I can't make that claim as I didn't see its eyes, nor could I really see its legs in detail,
but this thing was not a normal animal.
That much I am certain of.
Unfortunately, it was the middle of.
of the night, and we were both a bit tipsy, so driving away wasn't really a good idea.
We both made a conscious decision to start our fire back up and just wait the night out,
and then drive away when we were sobered up in the morning.
When the sun came up, we got our stuff together and got the hell out of Dodge.
To this day, I'm convinced that what we encountered that night was the infamous Jersey Devil.
I can't explain what it was or why.
it chose to check out our little camp like it had, but I'm grateful that it didn't go any further,
or decide that it wanted us, and not just to check our tents out.
I know that nothing really happened to us, thankfully, but it was still a scary moment.
That was the only time we ever camped out in the Pine Barrens,
and I will never forget that thing, whether it was the Jersey Devil,
or not.
Growing up, there was always something special about summers at my grandparents' house in rural
Pennsylvania.
They had an old farmhouse, one that was tall and proud in the rolling green fields, with the
backdrop of a fairly dense forest.
It was a place where my little brother, Josh, and I would spend way too many hours
adventuring out and playing dumb games.
When we got out of school for the summer, our parents,
would drop us off and we would spend the couple of months out there,
helping our grandparents out where they needed us.
They owned a pretty decent-sized property.
They had the fields and the animals,
and the backwoods behind the property
had a charming little creek that ran through a lower section of the land.
It kind of snaked its way through the back corner of the property,
and we spent a lot of the hotter days in that creek.
It wasn't too deep, and it didn't have too much of a current, so we would wade into it and splash around.
Sometimes we would find tadpoles or neat rocks that we would collect and keep.
Sorry for the tangent, but honestly, the innocence of those days are something that I've missed as I've gotten older.
There was one day once summer that I remember being blisteringly hot.
I was about 12 at the time, which would have made Josh around.
8. The afternoon sun had turned the day into an absolute oven, and that creek was calling us.
Once we finished helping our grandmother clean up the home, we asked if we could go out and swim in
the creek, and she told us to go and have a good time. We jumped into our swimming trunks,
and ran down to the creek as quickly as we could. We'd been splashing around for a while,
just having a great time with each other and enjoying the cool waters.
Around then, as when I thought I had seen something a bit down the way in the stream.
There was something that was there, but I couldn't really tell what it was.
We typically only ever swam around in this spot in the creek,
mostly because we didn't want to leave the property,
but I was a little curious and intrigued on what was out there.
So, as little boys do, I took the initiative to investigate what this thing was in the creek with us.
Josh, of course, followed closely behind me.
The closer that we got, the more it dawned on me that I really didn't know what the hell this thing was.
This thing was decently sized.
At first, I thought that it could have been some kind of giant rat, or maybe some kind of a beaver.
I don't even know if beavers live in Pennsylvania, but I just remember thinking that beavers were large and weird looking like this thing.
We kind of pushed over to the side of the creek as we got a bit closer,
just watching this thing doing whatever it was doing in the water.
The closer we got, the more I noticed that this thing wasn't really rat-like.
It looked more like a really hunched-over person.
You know how Gollum would crouch down in Lord of the Rings?
It kind of looked like that, but it was covered in coarse fur like a rat.
It did have some parts that weren't covered in fur, like the hands and the face, and I could see that it had this weird, grey, green, leathery skin.
Its arms looked like they were too long for its body.
Its fingers ended in these hooked-like claws that were short, but still looked deadly.
We just stood there watching this thing as it seems to forage through the pebbles in the creek bed,
picking one up every once in a while and then tossing it back down.
Then it looked over an hour direction.
This thing had a face that honestly haunts me.
It was dominated by these large, bulbous eyes that were pitch black,
and it had a small mouth filled with teeth, and it was moving it nonstop.
Like it was speaking, but it wasn't making any noise.
Seeing it look at us, my initial curiosity,
and fascination, were immediately replaced by fear.
I could see that Josh was just as scared as I was.
As we stared at it and it stared at us, it dropped what it had in its hand, and it seemed
to shift its attention our way.
As soon as it started coming towards us, I stood up and started to step backwards,
which I think may have scared it.
Like, it was initially curious about us, but when we were not,
no longer hunched over, it started to see us as a threat.
It stopped approaching us and turned away, and we watched as this thing scurried out of the creek,
and then darted into the dense underbrush that lines the stream.
We stood there in what I can only call shocked silence, neither of us really even breathing
as we just stared at where it had run off to.
After a couple of seconds, we both agreed that we needed to get out of there and get home.
We ran back to the farmhouse and we tried to explain what we had seen to my grandmother,
but she just laughed and told us that it was probably just a squirrel or something.
Well, I can tell you right now that this thing was not a squirrel.
This thing was some sort of creature that, to this day, I still cannot identify.
The rest of that summer was different.
The creek had lost its appeal.
It was no longer a place that we wanted to spend.
time. Every time we would talk about it, we both would be filled with those same thoughts,
like, what if that thing came back? We never did see this thing again, and we never figured out
what it was. I've tried to see if it matched any description of any animal that exists,
but the only thing that looks remotely close are sloths, and this thing was not a sloth.
It had similar coarse fur and kind of similar claws, but the face was all wrong, and it moved way too quickly.
Even today, when Josh and I talk about our childhood, that thing is always brought up in conversation.
We can both describe this thing with perfect detail, and we both have that same visual burned into our memories.
About a decade ago, my friend and I decided to take it.
take a break from the hustle and bustle of city life and spend a weekend in the woods.
We'd been planning this trip for months and were eager to leave our worries behind,
relax, and enjoy some quality time with each other.
What we didn't expect was that our peaceful retreat would turn into a terrifying encounter
that none of us would be able to forget.
There were three of us total, myself, Corey, and Ash.
The three of us had been friends since early high school, and always enjoyed spending time together.
Of course, life had made it complicated to get together, thus the camping trip was planned.
When the Friday finally came, we packed up our camping gear and set off early in the morning, excited for our weekend adventure.
Our destination was a secluded spot deep in the forest, far away from civilization.
It took us about an hour to hike there, but the breathtaking scenery and crisp fresh air made it all worthwhile.
When we finally arrived, we quickly set up camp and started gathering firewood for the night.
As it started to get dark, the three of us gathered around our little campfire, started roasting some marshmallows,
and Ash decided that she wanted to flex her storytelling muscles by starting in on some ghost stories.
As the fire started to die, and the three of us started yawning a bit more,
I made a comment about how it was probably time to turn in, and Corey agreed.
Ash said that she wanted to spend a bit more time out in the cozy atmosphere, taking in the stars.
Corey and I both gave her a look like,
Are you sure you want to be out here all alone?
But she waved us off and said that she wasn't going to leave the campsite.
Corey and I both went to our tents, and I dozed off pretty fast.
After a little while, I woke up to hearing Ash yelling for both of us.
She sounded pretty scared of something that was out there.
I opened my door flap, and I asked her what was going on.
Corey followed right behind me.
Ash was standing on the edge of our little campground and staring off into the woods.
It took a bit, but after the three of us stood there silently staring off in,
into the tree line, we started seeing something.
The only way that I can describe these things is to say that they were strange, dark
figures lurking at the edge of the tree line.
At first we couldn't make out their shapes, but as our eyes adjusted to the darkness,
it became apparent that these were no ordinary forest animals.
They were large and almost shapeless, with an unsettling and unnatural present.
Corry tried to say that we should just ignore them, that they were probably nothing,
or that maybe it was just a group of people hiking in the woods.
I would have agreed, but it was the middle of the night.
Why would people be out here hiking like that?
Corey decided to go back to his tent, and I sat out with Ash just watching these things,
trying to figure out what they were.
They were mostly motionless, but...
Every now and then, it would seem like they would kind of sway.
Honestly, I was feeling really uneasy.
Like, these things were watching us intently, maliciously.
After just sitting there for a while trying to decide if we should investigate or just go to bed and hope for the best,
I started hitting a hard wall.
Like, I was going to pass out one way or another.
I told Ash that we needed to try to just live and let live.
and that whatever these things were, they would likely move on.
She reluctantly agreed, saying that I should go back to sleep and that she would be doing the same here soon.
I told her good night, and I hopped in my tent, thinking that would be the end of it.
It was then that things went from a bit creepy to downright terrifying.
Ash let out a yelp-like scream and damn near jumped through the door of my tent.
I jumped up as she dove in and shut the door.
Her eyes were welling up with tears and she was very clearly freaking out.
I tried to ask what happened, but she said that she just wanted to go to sleep and asked if she could sleep in the tent with me.
I told her that that was fine.
She said thanks and literally curled up in a fetal position facing away from me.
Thankfully, the morning came without much in ways of anything eventful.
When I woke up, Ash was asleep, and I stepped out into the morning.
air and greeted Corey.
He asked about her and I told him that she was freaked out and how she had jumped into my
tent after screaming.
We talked a bit about what we saw and he admitted that he was pretty freaked out, but
he didn't really know what to do with the idea of there being those weird things watching
us.
I agreed.
I said that it was creepy and we started on breakfast.
When Ash finally woke up and came out, I said good morning and she and she and
immediately started asking about the night before.
She asked if we had any idea what those things were.
We both shook our heads.
I decided to ask her what happens to lead to her jumping into my tent,
and I could see the color drained from her face.
She said that she was sitting on the log by the fire, as it died down,
and she was starting to doze off a bit.
She said that one moment she had her eyes closed for only a second,
And as soon as she opened them, one of those things was much, much closer.
She motioned to a spot by a tree that was just outside of our circle,
like within ten feet of her tent.
She said that she could see this thing, but she couldn't tell what she was looking at.
Like it was some kind of living shadow.
She said that while she was staring at this thing,
she couldn't feel anything but pure dread and malice.
and that's when she screamed and jumped into my tent
because she wasn't about to get closer to this thing to get into her tent.
After discussing it a bit more,
we all agreed to cut the trip short, which, while disappointing,
I don't think any of us wanted to stick around in those woods.
It was a mutual decision.
We would cut it short and plan another trip another time.
In the years since that night,
I've actually tried to figure out what exactly.
exactly those things were, but I've yet to come up with anything.
Part of me wants to say that it was just a trick of the light or something, that they weren't real,
but without Ash said one got closer, I don't think that's it.
I don't think we're ever going to know the truth as to what they were,
but I think they may have been some kind of supernatural entity that resided in the woods.
That's just my uneducated opinion.
The three of us are all still close.
friends, obviously, but we've all opted to not really speak about that night. We decided it's best
to put the experience behind us, but it's definitely difficult to forget what we experienced.
And, of course, the lingering questions about the whole situation. Still, on some nights when I'm
home alone, I'll look out my window and almost half expect one of those things to be standing
there watching me. Thankfully, it hasn't happened yet. And I may
I may sound paranoid, but there's always that chance that one day, I'll look outside my bedroom window, and it'll just be there watching me.
Back when I was younger, my mom had a garage sale every summer.
I had three older brothers, and I was the only girl, so hand-me-downs weren't really a thing for me.
So after my last brother couldn't fit into the clothes or shoes, they were in the sale.
I honestly enjoyed helping my mom on these, as it was like playing a real-life shopkeeper.
I used to play that with my brothers a lot as a kid.
I also had this genius idea, like a lot of kids do, to sell lemonade and cookies, too.
When I got a little older, I think I was around 14 or 15, I was always trying to make my own money.
so when my mom offered to give me the money I made on my stuff,
I agreed to sell a lot more.
I had some old clothes that I didn't want to get rid of,
even though they didn't fit or were torn up.
They held good memories, so I didn't want to part with them.
I also had some toys that I didn't play with that I kept for similar reasons.
My mom didn't like the clutter,
so any extra stuff that wasn't necessary,
she always tried to get rid of it.
So I pulled out all the stuff that I didn't need anymore,
and she set up a table specifically for my stuff.
And they all had pink stickers, so I knew what belonged to me.
I was ready to collect my shopping funds at this point.
The sale started slow, but it was all right.
I sat out there by the cash box,
typically doing stuff on my phone while my mom organized.
put more stuff out, and then mingled with the neighborhood shoppers.
At one point, there was a guy who showed up alone in a small convertible.
He looked normal.
He was in jeans and a t-shirt, and just slowly made his way to each table and bin that my mom had set out.
He paused at the box of my dad's stuff, which I think had some old tools and shoes in it,
and then he walked by the table that had my brother's clothes on it.
He picked up a couple pairs of pants, and it looked like he checked the sizes, and then folded them back up and laid them back on the table.
The next table had my mom's clothes and my clothes on it.
He again picked up a few items, and one of those was a pair of my old jeans.
I remember him holding them out and looking them up and down, almost as if he was inspecting them.
Then he flipped them over to the back and kind of smirked.
I figured it was because the back had something written across the pocket, like Angel.
He looked around and noticed that I was making eye contact with him, and he smiled.
I smiled back and then quickly looked back down at my phone, thinking that it was awkward of me to stare.
I knew that it had been a few minutes because I had been watching a video that I was in the middle of.
He walked over to me and said hello, and I responded.
He asked if I was the manager, joking around,
and I said that my mom was, but I was just watching over as she got more stuff.
He asked a few innocent questions about the day, and myself,
but it was nothing weird.
So I answered.
I remember even making a comment about his car because I thought that it looked pretty cool.
It was a deep purple color.
He looked over at the car and then back at me and smiled and said that,
Since I liked it, he could take me for a ride in it if I wanted.
Now, even though he didn't seem weird and nothing felt off, I knew better.
So I just smiled and said,
Yeah, thanks, but no thanks.
He then asked if I was selling any of my stuff, and I confirmed.
I pointed to the table as he had already looked at my pants.
I also remembered this because I felt like my stuff was pretty obvious.
My mom was out there when he got there, and it's pretty obvious that there were two different sizes.
The tables were also sorted out by type of clothing and sizing, as my mom was a neat freak.
So he smiled again, thanking me and walked back over to the table with my stuff.
I snuck a few glances up from my phone to see him still looking through my clothing.
I thought it was kind of weird that he was looking at my clothes and nobody else.
else's. But I also tried to be reasonable in thinking that maybe he had a daughter around the same age.
Then, the guy came back over to me and had a few more questions. This time they seemed a bit more intrusive.
He asked how old I was, and I answered honestly. He asked me how tall I was, and I again was honest.
but then he asked me what size I wore, which was kind of weird,
because if I told you where my clothes were,
you could check the sizes on them and assume that I'm probably around that size.
So I just told him the same size on the pants that he was holding.
He kind of laughed a bit, and I guess he could sense my uneasiness
and claimed that he was thinking about his daughter.
I thought that it was still possible, so I tried to.
to be polite, but I was also starting to feel awkward at this point.
He stood there for a moment, so I was expecting him to walk away, but instead he leaned down
towards my face, looked around, and then quietly asked, are you getting rid of any old sports
bras?
I wanted to yell at this guy, but I was also afraid that he might try to do something.
If he was brazen enough to ask me that with other people around,
What else was he willing to do?
However, my dad was in the garage behind me,
talking to someone else as I could hear his voice.
So I decided to take the chance and call this guy out.
No, I'm not selling you my underwear, you creep!
I loudly shouted.
This was the exact reaction that I was hoping for.
I looked back at my dad who was already quickly walking toward the front.
The guy dropped the item that.
was holding on the table in front of me
and started walking away and looked at another table.
He really thought that he was going to be able to play that whole situation off.
My dad immediately approached him, shoved him back, and told him to leave.
No questions, no nothing.
He just told him to get the F off of our property right there.
The guy walked back to his car holding his hands up and looked offended like
my dad was in the wrong. He quickly burned out while other shoppers looked around at him and started
asking questions. I explained to my dad what happened, and he made my oldest brother sit out there
with me while he went in and told my mom. He didn't want me out there alone, nor did I want to be
alone. It wasn't even that long after that that they both came back out the front door.
We were all talking and helping people pay and leave when I looked up to see a
purple convertible driving by.
Really, slowly.
Before I could even say anything,
my dad looked up too and noticed and shouted
something out at the guy, causing him to take off again.
My brother was ready to go follow this guy in his own car,
but my dad stopped him.
Instead, he did call the cops to report him, which we did.
They said that they would drive around a few times,
but said that if we saw him again,
to call 911 immediately and they could patch him to one of the officers so that they could try and stop him if he was out front.
At this point, he was being intimidating, and with what he said to me,
and the fact that he was bordering on trespassing, they took it very seriously.
We ended up putting all of our stuff away early because we didn't want to give that guy something to look at.
But we didn't see him again that day.
However, my mom decided that she was going to try the sale again the next day, but I didn't want to be out there, so I ended up staying inside and cleaned and organized my room.
And yet, that same creep drove by again.
I was getting pretty worried, and every bump that night had me wide awake thinking this guy was going to come back.
My dad was getting pretty angry, too.
He ended up sitting in his car, parked on the street across the street.
my house and he waited for the guy to drive by again my room faces out into the front yard so i could
hear him talking to my mom and brother about it while my window was open and i could see him sitting in his car
i guess that must have really spooked the guy because he was brave enough to drive by one more time
and my dad was ready to follow him i heard my mom shout the convertible guy burned out again
And then my dad followed them.
We had more cops over as my mom explained to them what happened.
I don't remember how long it was when my dad finally came back.
He said he was following him for a while until he got on the highway,
going at some pretty dangerous speeds.
My dad wasn't willing to humor this, so he slowed down and came back home.
As far as I know, they never caught the guy,
but we never really saw him again after that.
The conversation I had with him was creepy enough, but knowing that he was driving past our home,
not only the day of but the day after that encounter, it was pretty disturbing.
It still creeps me out thinking about what he was planning, but thankfully we never did see him again.
I just hope he didn't try to do that or anything else to another unexpected girl.
I celebrate,
wriggoled,
publiced,
savoury,
admire,
and profite.
Via Rae,
the voice that we love that we have.
I took a spontaneous road trip to Arizona for a week several years ago
with a homeless stranger.
Let me preface this statement with
I only wanted to help him get something to eat
because he was looking through the trash outside the local library for food.
I should have just given him his requested meal, large French fry, and a large chocolate shake for McDonald's.
I was originally going to get him a subway, but he didn't want to eat that.
Anyway, he was super scrawny and was wearing a Jamaican-looking beanie, but he was as white as could be.
For some odd reason, I was inclined to see where he lived, because he made it sound like maybe he wasn't homeless.
I drove him to where he laid his head, which was an empty dirt field next to some trailer homes with a fence.
I don't know what happened, but he kept telling me these stories about how something bad was going to happen in California.
I really just thought that it sounded delusional, but I went along with him anyway.
I ended up burning my battery out that night, but I think it was drained supernaturally somehow.
I say this because a giant chunk of dirt or rock flew out of nowhere and hit my car.
Pat, which was his name, asked if I had a dead brother, which I did.
He told me that he was evil and that he had caused that.
I was so confused.
He then proceeded to tell me that my parents wanted to murder me and that they weren't my real parents.
I don't know why, but I knew this was.
wasn't the case, even though I hated my parents' craziness at times.
I can't explain why, but he convinced me to leave to Arizona from California, which I did.
I really don't know why. I told him I wanted to get some things in my check first, but he wouldn't let me.
This guy seemed to possess some sort of mind control over me, as if my good judgment was overridden by
paranoia, and I wasn't under the influence of anything.
I never drove that long without stopping in my life.
I didn't call my parents to tell them where I was leaving to, and they ended up putting out
basically an APB on me.
It was like I was an adult being kidnapped without force, but under duress due to mind
control.
In the week I was gone, I fasted the entire time, except for some fruits, and
a protein bar that I found in the trash, and I slept in my car.
It was probably Tampa, Arizona, but for whatever reason he was trying to get to Phoenix.
There was a school there, a school of culinary arts slash cordon blue.
On the night that I was found, in my vehicle by the police, I was parked next to what appeared
to be an abandoned train station, next to a railway.
The scary part about this was that it was also next to a vehicle bridge, running almost parallel to the train tracks, upping the creepy factor.
The kicker, and an ominous sign for alarm, was that there was actually a train running.
And I remember that on one of the cars there was an Illuminati pyramid with an all-seeing eye graffitied.
As soon as the police arrived, there was a female officer that spoke.
spoke to me as the male arrested the man in the passenger's side.
I told her that I felt that I was under mind control and that I didn't know this guy.
But he swore that I was his girlfriend.
Apparently he had a warrant for possession of meth.
Once he was accosted, they told me to go to the Albertsons just down the street
to throw away all of his nasty items in the dumpster.
He had dirty blankets crammed in my trunk, as well as,
one of those New Testament Bibles.
A part of me was still in shock over the whole situation, and nervous to think of what may have
happened to me.
I left out a major detail that creeped me out so much, and that's the fact that this guy
kept talking to someone that I couldn't see, as if he were on an invisible Bluetooth.
The weird thing is, the person he was talking to was named Heather, which is my name.
He was actually yelling at her and demanding for help.
It was very confusing, and I don't know if this guy was fully human.
Maybe he was some kind of alien hybrid.
I don't know.
Either way, I was happy to be safe, and I never set foot in that library again.
You know how some encounters in life are so extraordinary that they become sharply etched into your memory,
completely refusing to go away, no matter how much time passes.
I had one of those encounters, one of those interactions with what I think was accrupted of some sort.
I cannot explain what the hell I saw other than to say it was a creature straight out of my wildest imaginations,
and the whole thing was incredibly chilling for me.
I grew up in a rural town in Vermont, the endless expanse of woods,
was my playground for most of my youth.
I was always an adventurer pretending to be the first person to have ever ventured into the middle of nowhere.
For me, the trees always held these weird mysteries for my young brain.
However, the day of this encounter, my view of the woods was pretty much completely shifted.
This evening, it was starting to get dark and the sky was turning into that really pretty orange,
and it was about to be time for me to head back home.
So I was starting to head back towards my house.
I had my flashlight with me, but I also didn't want to be out there when it had gotten too dark.
So I was heading mostly in the direction of my home,
but was still pretending that I was an adventurer heading back to camp.
About halfway through the trail back to my house,
I heard what sounded a bit like a rustling in the underbrush.
My first thought was squirrel or fox or something like that.
It wasn't too terribly uncommon to run into something like that in the early evenings,
so I dismissed it at first, but then I started hearing what sounded like heavy steps in the leaves.
The rustling went from soft to hard stumps as whatever was out there was walking a bit out in the woods.
At this point, my mind started shifting to the possibility of it being a bear.
I didn't think it would be likely given my location in the time, but it wasn't impossible.
Then, I started hearing this low, guttural growl that sent the sharpest chill down my spine.
And from there, I knew that this was not a normal forest inhabitant.
I kept walking toward the house, but would frequently turn to look back into the woods,
looking for the location of this thing.
I paused for a moment and shined my flashlight out into the tree,
to see if I could get a glimpse of whatever it was.
My heart nearly stopped when my small light illuminated this creature.
This monster was unlike anything I have ever seen or heard.
It was massive.
At least six foot tall, hunched over behind a tree.
It had fur that was thick, but there were spots that looked like they were missing patches.
And where the patches were missing, the skin looked.
the skin looked irritated and almost damaged.
At first I thought it actually was a bear,
albeit injured or sick.
But I noticed that it was digging at the ground with a bit of aggression,
like it was trying to get at something,
and its hands weren't like a bear or any creature that I would expect to see.
They were human-like,
with normal, human-looking fingers.
It didn't have claws.
It just had these long, human-looking fingers that were digging into the dirt.
That's what really set it aside as something other than a bear for me.
I froze as I watched this thing tear into the ground.
This thing was paying me no attention, much to my surprise,
and I knew that I needed to run, but I honestly couldn't.
Until I watched this thing stand up and glance over in my direction.
It pulled itself up onto its feet.
turning away from whatever it was digging at,
and I swear it sniffed the air in my direction,
like it was trying to identify what I was.
As soon as I saw this,
I took back off toward the house as fast as I humanly could.
I swear that I could have set a new speed record
with how quickly I ran from that spot to my front door.
And when I finally got to the porch,
I stopped for a second to take a breath.
When I did, I looked at a moment.
around to see if this thing was following me, but it wasn't.
I ran in and locked the door as quickly as I could, and then stared out the window to see
if I could see this thing outside, but again I couldn't.
I had no idea where this thing had gone, but I was at least glad to see that it hadn't
followed me home.
I have no earthly idea what that thing was, but I can tell you with certainty that it was not
something that normally occurred in the woods of Vermont.
It was not an injured bear based on those hands and how it held itself.
And it wasn't some kind of wolf or dog or anything like that, based solely on how large it was.
Even now, I have no explanation for what I encountered that evening.
Was this some kind of crypted or something like a dogman, possibly?
I don't know, but it scared the absolute hell out of me.
I never ventured out that far into the woods after that day, and I no longer live in Vermont, so I have no idea if that thing is still out there.
I'm glad that I was able to get away from it unscathed, but I can only imagine what would have happened if that thing had been more interested in me than the hole that it was digging.
For context, I am now a 45-year-old man living in a Baltimore suburb.
I was 19 or 20 when this happened.
I just got off work at Sears Auto Center.
I was tired and covered in grease and all of that good stuff that comes from working on cars all day.
As I left the parking lot, I noticed a big older model Ford Bronco tailgating me,
and as I pulled up to the stoplight, I changed lanes to get this guy off my back end.
I felt the eyes these guys gazing at me.
I'm not going to lie.
I was scared.
I didn't want to look at them.
They started screaming at me and I still wouldn't look.
But finally, I was forced to look once they threw a beer bottle at my car.
I looked over and the passenger yelled at me,
You cut us off, and now we're going to kill you,
followed by a slur that I'm not going to repeat.
I immediately said, uh, no, dude, I didn't cut you off.
Stop throwing stuff at my car.
The light turned green and I thought they were going to follow me for sure.
I was right.
Now this was in 1998, way before cell phones, so I couldn't call for help.
These guys were as close to me as possible without hitting my bumper.
It was about 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, so there was hardly any traffic on the road.
I was terrified.
I did, however, have my softball gear.
in the car, and I pulled my aluminum bat close to me in case I needed it.
These guys seriously wanted to hurt me, and I didn't want them to follow me to my house,
so I desperately tried to lose them. Their truck was huge, and I couldn't outrun them in my 89
sundance. I wanted to drive to the police station, hoping these guys would just figure out what I was
doing and get lost quickly. However, I did have an ounce of weed on me, so...
I couldn't risk getting arrested again for weed.
I decided the only thing I could do was call their bluff.
If they wanted it, they were going to get it.
I could hear them screaming and throwing stuff at my car for what seemed to be forever,
but it was probably more like seven minutes.
They kept calling me the slur.
I guess that that was their go-to insult.
Now, I'm not a huge guy, but I'm not scrawny either.
I clutched my bat tight to my body as I drove thinking about the best place to stop and just get this over with.
I pulled into a small cemetery that backs to some woods.
The small road does a loop around the cemetery, one way in and one way out.
They kept screaming,
We're going to get you, slur, and laughing uncontrollably.
However, the laughing stopped when I slowed down and came to a stop.
Once I put my car in park, I heard the guy in the passenger seats say,
What the hell?
I knew it then that these were just scared little guys.
I opened my car and jumped out aggressively.
The driver then said,
Oh, screw this.
Since I was blocking the small single-lane road,
the only way out for them was to navigate in reverse in this really big truck.
They had to reverse slowly so as to not hit anything,
I walked them down as they reversed out.
I said, where are you guys going?
I thought you were going to kill me.
The passenger all of a sudden said with the shaky voice,
We thought that you were someone else.
Sorry.
I then took my bat and smashed one of the headlights of the truck.
They were both screaming in terror,
and I'm not sad to say that it gave me a rush.
They finally made it out, and it was over.
The next day I had to work again.
It was about 11 a.m., and I got the work order for a headlight repair on a Ford Bronco.
Yep, it's a small world.
This event changed my life and how I live it.
I've never backed down from anyone, and this moment molded me.
My name is Brooke, and I live in Ireland.
As a kid, I would visit my uncle on his farm down in Cork.
During the story, I was about seven.
My uncle was 46, my aunt was 45, and their kids were 30, 28, 25, 23, 16, and 8.
Note that, even though I call them aunt, uncle, and cousins, they're not really part of the family.
They're those type of family friends who bluff the line between familial and just platonic.
I was outside with my two youngest cousins as we played football.
As we played, I kicked the ball into a well that was on the farm, and when it hit that well,
my cousin went pale.
The well was boarded up and the wood was rotten, and breaking apart to begin with.
And the ball hitting it, it was the straw on the camel's back.
My cousin ushered the two of us inside as he told my uncle and aunt what happened.
That night I was sent to sleep with my 30-year-old cousin because he was the safest to be
with. I found this confusing as usually I slept on the couch. That night, my uncle put salt
around the house, the furniture, and each and every single door, and as the sun started to set,
we were all late into bed, which was weird as it was only 7.30 p.m. He instructed us that we were
not to come out of our room, unless he told us to, and then we all locked our doors and went
to bed. Everyone
except me and my cousin.
He didn't lock his door,
because he was too focused on making
sure that I was okay.
That night, I will never
forget. I woke up in the middle of the night to the
sound of chewing,
and I saw a figure in the corner
of the room. It was
hunched down and nearly
unseeable in the darkness.
As my eyes adjusted, I could
see it better.
linky-limbed and pale with backbones looking ready to rip out of its skin.
Its body was mostly frail, but its biceps and upper back was beefy as hell.
It had disheveled, messy, greasy black hair as it ate something.
As I slept, I prayed that I was just having sleep paralysis, but as I moved my foot, I knew that wasn't the case.
I tried silently waking up my cousin, but as he was ahead,
heavy sleeper I couldn't.
I just watched for what felt like hours before I saw this thing look at me.
It looked so human, but like a pale corpse that was left in the sun for too long.
And those eyes were sunken and white with red dots for pupils, like in photographs.
I ended up passing out from fear and, in the morning, saw something awful.
A dead chicken was on the floor half eaten, next to the ball that had been lost down the well.
Needless to say, I never wanted to return to the farm, especially since the farm closed a few weeks after, because cattle, chickens, and sheep were going missing.
My uncle and his family moved to Kilkenny, where they all lived happily to this day.
But me?
I never stopped seeing that thing.
I can't even look outside my house anymore at night.
It's always there.
It traveled nearly two days' walk just to hunt me.
But the thing's tenacity isn't what scares me the most.
It looked human, but it certainly wasn't.
So, logically, it must be some sort of monster.
And a monster is just an animal that we don't understand,
and if it's an animal, that means it has a species.
and if it has a species,
that must mean that there's more of them somewhere.
First, thank you, Raven, for all of your content.
I binge episodes while working my corporate job.
Well, I would like to say thank you, Samantha, for sending me the story,
and for the kind words.
I've been enamored with the paranormal since a very young age.
I wanted to be a paranormal investigator when I was a young child,
but I went to the corporate route instead.
The story begins in 2008.
My father's younger sister at the time, 39, passed away.
Through the years of her young life, she had lived what they call fast and very hard.
She was mixed up with drugs and alcohol, among other things.
Because of the abuse to her body, she developed some illnesses.
She knew that she would not live to be an old woman.
She had two young daughters, who she asked my parents,
parents to take in if and when anything ever happens to her.
This was a constant thought for her, and she would call my dad often to remind him about the
girls.
There had been a few scares where she would be put in the hospital, but she always made it out.
That was until 2008, when she succumbed to her illnesses and addiction.
I would get into the details of the death, but it's just an entire other story that could be
told.
Fast forward to a few months later, the girls lived with my family and things were starting to become normal.
One day, my mom, my sister, four at the time, and I were watching TV.
The way the living room was set up, the chair I was on was in front of the couch.
The couch is where my mom and my sister were sitting.
I was casually watching whatever program it was when I heard someone say my name.
I replied to my mom with what.
She said that she didn't say anything.
I was so confused because I was sure that I heard my name.
I shrugged it off.
A few minutes later, my sister says,
Auntie says that she loves and misses her babies,
and to tell them that she says hi.
My mom and I were stunned.
How could she possibly know any of that?
How could she think of that on her own?
She wasn't even in school yet at the time.
And then it hit me.
I had heard my name called first.
Could it have been possible that my aunt was trying to reach me first, but when she couldn't get through to me, went to my younger sister?
That is my belief.
So after that, things were calm again.
When one day I got a new digital camera, a friend decided to come over and we had some wine,
and decided to try out the camera.
We posed in silly fashion with the wine bottle, wine glasses, and so on.
We steadily added our photos to MySpace at the time.
The next day, I discovered that the camera was faulty and didn't work correctly.
So I returned it along with the memory card that held the photos.
A few days later, while browsing MySpace and adoring the new photos that my friend uploaded of us,
I noticed something.
In one frame, you can see me and him in the picture, and the TV was off.
The next frame, it's us again, but the TV appears on.
The next frame, the TV is off again.
In the image where the TV appeared on, I looked a little closer, and, in the TV, there clear as day, was the image of my late aunt.
My aunt was in the TV.
The TV was not on, but that one photo she is there in it.
We showed everyone we knew.
It was super emotional, and everyone agreed that it was definitely her.
It was the strangest thing.
Even more odd, a few months after that,
those photos were mysteriously deleted off of my friend's MySpace page before I could download them.
And I had returned the memory card that contained the originals, so it's lost in cyberspace now.
The strangest thing about that day that we didn't realize
was that those photos were taken on what would have been
my aunt's 40th birthday
Since you and Spukarya have been telling me to submit these
I figured I would
I don't remember which direction these two go in
So I'm just going off which one I remember first
Story 1
So my grandma had a house filled with my grandpa's ten-ish cats
She slept in the basement bedroom
With her cat Kiwi
Also she made sure that no other cat would get in
So when I saw a cat's tail pass by the couch
I was shocked
Also two things to remember
One grandma wasn't in the room
And two, the tail was an orange tail
Kiwi was a great cat
At the time
The only orange cat was named after one of her kids
Also, I should mention that I tried to look for the cat after it passed the couch, and the cat wasn't there.
When Grandma came into the room, I asked about the cat, the one named after her kid, which she then told me it had died.
Story 2. So this one happened in my old apartment. I had just woken up and was seeing, or more accurately hearing if my mom was up.
But whilst I'm doing this, I see my mom run into my room, go over to my bedside table, and do something with my phone.
I logically say hello, and as I say it, she slowly vanished.
Story 3. So this was in the same bedroom as in Story 2.
I was digging through my toy box, and I found my old Hobbs, which is a stuffed tiger who looks like Hobbs from Calvin and Hobbs.
he's deemed old due to being my first of those plushes,
and when I pulled him out, I was scared.
I have no clue why, but I knew that I didn't want it in my room,
so he went into the dirty clothes, into, not on top.
When I was walking into my mom's room, I had this weird feeling,
so I turned around to see him atop the clothes,
not where I had put him.
It wasn't that crazy since I did find out my mom moved it, but that feeling was the scary part.
Hi, Raven.
My name is Brianna, and I happened to come across your channel one day, and now I'm hooked.
You have some interesting stories, and I love your narration.
And with that being said, I think it's time that I submitted a story to you.
This should be under the paranormal category, as the story that I'm about to tell you happened under very weird,
circumstances.
I am a mother of three, I have one boy aged 13, and one girl aged nine.
I did lose my twin daughter to SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome.
My daughter was a fraternal twin, meaning not identical.
But anyways, after I lost my daughter, strange things started to happen.
First, it was just grief, and then I started to have dreams.
These dreams were terrifying, to say the least.
I remember the first time it happened.
My little girl was nine months old, and her sister passed at three months old.
So a couple of months after I had lost her, I would go to sleep and wake up in the middle of the night, and it always seemed to be 3 a.m.
I couldn't move or breathe, but I could see and hear everything around me.
It is the scariest thing I have ever been through, just not being able to breathe.
I was stuck to my bed and I couldn't move a muscle to even try to get out of whatever thing or dream I was in.
I started to fear sleep because, of course, I didn't want to go through that again.
I did eventually sleep, and this one started off as a strange dream of me and my baby daughter, whom I lost,
walking through the clouds.
It was very calm and beautiful.
I felt nothing but love and her energy.
But then out of nowhere I felt a dark presence,
and all of the sudden I have both daughters and were running away from it.
Then out of nowhere, I ran into a closet to hide my girls.
I have no clue how I ended up there.
I just remember in my dream that it was the only thing in the same.
sky.
This creature was evil.
I could feel its intent and it was not good.
To give you an idea of what the creature looked like, it was just all black and menacing.
It was this evil, dark figure that was trying to take my babies.
Once I entered the random closet, I couldn't breathe.
I woke up and I was under another sleep paralysis episode.
Once I was able to move and breathe again, it felt like my chest was going to explode.
That, to this day, scares the crap out of me, because it was about my baby that I loved and lost.
I sometimes wonder if I'm going through her last moments on Earth before she passed away.
But the entity came back one more time, and it was angry.
Maybe because I got away from it with my girls, I don't know.
but I do remember that it wanted my kids.
I remember I had a few months where I thought I had finally gotten away
from whatever it was that was haunting me at night.
I remember falling asleep, and at 3 a.m., I was woken to a strange smell
and noise that I can't even begin to describe because it was so high-pitched.
I was alone in my bed, and I couldn't move or breathe,
but I could hear, see, and smell.
And it was scary.
I felt it on the right side of my bed, and it wasn't even three feet tall.
I felt on the ground near me, and it had this evil hatred towards me.
I was so afraid.
I tried to breathe, but I couldn't.
I thought I was going to die.
I started to pray, and after what felt like an eternity,
I was able to move and breathe, and the figure was gone.
I searched online and the only possible thing that I can come up with is sleep paralysis.
I've had maybe one or two more over the past nine years, but that figure is gone.
I can now finally sleep good, but Raven, that is hands down the most terrifying paranormal event I have ever gone through.
I feel like my baby is protecting me and her sister and also her brother, and I'm.
and I believe that is why the entity has not come back since that faithful night.
Sorry if this was long, but I thought it was well over the time that I told my story,
and how I believe that there is something beyond death,
and to know that I can feel her around me is just beautiful.
I also have a glitch that I'll post soon, but I need to recover from reliving this event first.
Let's just say that I believe as a child I was somehow,
glitched into another timeline, and leave it at that for now.
And thank you, Raven.
I love your channel, and congrats on the 20K.
Oh, thank you, Bree.
I appreciate that.
My sister and I have always loved to get together and go thrifting or yard sale shopping.
It wasn't just shopping and getting new stuff for us,
but we loved finding old treasures that once held many memories for others.
We loved finding antiques and other items
and learning more about said items.
We loved hearing from the previous owners when possible,
and we honestly thought about starting a vlog with our finds and those stories.
But this story isn't about one of those stories, unfortunately.
This is a story of something we experienced on one of our shopping trips.
This took place in 2019,
in about mid-May.
I remember because her daughter was in her last week of school when this happened,
and we talked about how she would be with us after that week if we went.
I adored my niece, so I was absolutely okay with this too
and was excited to spend some more time with her.
I drove to her place and we took her car,
and we started around her area and slowly branched out.
We were probably,
about an hour into our trip, when we came across a community yard sale.
If you aren't aware, community or neighborhood sales are when a lot of people within the same
neighborhood have a yard sale on the same days. It's a lot of fun, and convenient for people
like us who like to hit up a lot of different houses in one run. We could park our car on one side
of the road, take our little wagon and walk around the block before making our way back to our car.
We actually had gone through most of the neighborhood and scored some pretty good finds,
but we started to get pretty tired. We lived in the Midwest, and it had been very humid,
so we started taking the car to each home, so we had less walking to do. We pulled up to the next
house with high hopes because of what we could see from our car. They had a lot of,
books, paintings, and toys.
We personally liked obscure paintings to keep for ourselves.
We found our share of valuable books, and even items left behind in those books,
such as pictures, postcards, and newspaper clippings.
And, lastly, the toys.
We found a lot of ones that were never opened, as well as ones that were, but were in great
condition. We sold many of them on eBay for a lot more than what we bought them for, and priced
many more that we've kept. As we got out and walked around, we made our way to the toys since there
were so many of them. The owners must have had a little girl because there were a lot of girl-oriented
toys. There was a dollhouse, a tub full of old Barbies, a kitchenette, and a play-make-up set,
as well as other similar items.
But then my sister gasped as she made eye contact with one item.
It was part of a set for these toys that we used to collect as children.
Some of you may be familiar with them.
They were called pound puppies.
The set we saw was the old van that folded out and collapsed flat to be a play area for the little pups.
You could also store them in it.
I remember us both wanting to get this as kids, but we never really did.
No hate to our parents.
There were a lot of us kids and knowing how expensive toys are now.
I get it.
But at that moment, we were reliving our childhood.
She still had all of her pound puppies, as she had many on a shelf and even more in a container in her basement.
She could never part with them, and she was hoping to one day share them with her daughter.
We were looking it over and discussing it when a man approached us and asked if we were familiar with the item.
My sister, Ellie, turned her excitement to him and started telling him all about how this van was always on our Christmas and birthday lists.
He explained that our assumption was pretty much right.
The toy belonged to his wife, who then tried to give it to their daughter, but she didn't really play with it,
so she just wanted to get rid of it at this point.
The tag said $10, and it was definitely coming home with us.
As Ellie was fishing out the bills from her fanny pack, I grabbed our latest find and walked it to the car.
Ellie was still talking with the guy when I walked back, and as I got there,
he mentioned to us that she had a whole collection of the little puppies in their spare bedroom,
but they didn't have the time or space to bring it down yet.
He then asked us if we were interested, and we could then change.
check it out if we were.
From the look on Ellie's face, I knew that we were probably going to go home with more.
We agreed and followed him into his house, as he motioned to a woman, I assumed his wife,
that he was going to show us the rest of the collection.
We entered a home that was very obviously well taken care of.
It had a very nice, rustic look to it, and you could also tell that a kid and a dog lived there,
based on the toy chest in the corner of the living room
and the dog bed next to the TV.
We walked through the living room and took a right up a set of stairs into a bedroom.
This was definitely one of those catch-all rooms.
There was a bed that was fully made,
but then there were a few boxes and tubs stored in the corner.
The closet doors were open and only had a few items that were wrapped in plastic sitting in them.
the man pushed the clothes to the side and pulled out a plastic container
that probably stood about three feet tall.
It had drawers and doors that opened on different sides with labels on all of them.
He brought it to about the center of the room and gesture to it
that we could look it over and pick out what we wanted,
if not take the whole thing.
Both of us were super excited about this
and started opening the little containers to see what all was there.
It was really exciting.
We found a lot of items that brought back memories and others that we had never seen before.
But then all of the serotonin seemed to drain from my body as I started getting this weird feeling.
I felt like something was wrong.
I looked over to Ellie to see if she was okay and she was still talking and smiling as she sorted through the various toys and stuffed animals.
But then I noticed the guy that escorted us in here
was now standing behind my sister,
who is bending over slightly to look into these little cubbies.
The problem I had with this was that the guy had his head cocked to the side,
clearly staring at her with his hand down his pants.
I felt so stupid at that point in time.
we'd willingly followed this man into his home.
I guess between knowing that he had a kid and a wife and us being too excited,
we accepted that as being completely normal.
I'm sure neither of us suspected anything at first,
so being the big sister, I had to do something.
I figured that I shouldn't try to act too alarmed,
because it was pretty obvious what he was doing,
and the fact that he was standing between us and the doorway was a bit problematic.
I stood up and walked around to stand behind Ellie.
I tried to nudge her arm to get her to stand up,
but she would just look over real quick and then back down to the items.
I pulled my phone out, typed out a message,
and showed it to Ellie acting like I was looking up an item.
I watched as the smile on her face slowly faded.
she finally understood.
She quickly stood up and we started walking out of the room just saying,
Okay, we're good.
You could hear the guy walking up behind us and he started talking about how we didn't look at everything
and was adamant asking us if we were sure,
or if there was anything else we were looking for.
I said no and I followed behind Ellie through the doorway and down the stairs.
This guy then shoved past us.
us and jumped in front of the front door, stopping us from being able to open it.
My sister asked him what the hell he was doing and sensing the desperation in his voice.
He asked us if there was anything else in the house that we were interested in.
I really felt like he was grasping at any reason to keep us in the house, which made me worry
even more.
My sister said that there wasn't and that we just wanted the few things that we were holding.
Then the desperation really started showing.
This man actually asked us if we were willing to have a quickie,
and if we were, we could just have the whole container for free.
Before I could react, Ellie lost it.
She started screaming at him, saying,
What the hell is wrong with you?
She mentioned his wife being right out front and then threatened to call the police.
I was already pulling out my phone at this point,
but the guy backed away from the door with his hands up,
and his only response was,
Okay, okay, but don't mention this to my wife, please.
Ellie shoved past him, and we both dashed out the door.
As we ran down the front stairs,
Ellie shouted to the woman that her husband was a creep,
and we ran to our car.
I watched from the passenger's side as he stood by the door,
and the wife was standing at the bottom of the steps with her arms out to her side.
her body language was pretty telling as to what was going on
that was the last time that we saw or heard from that guy
or went to that house obviously
we left and immediately started recapping all of what had just happened
we thought about whether we should call the cops
but figured they wouldn't be able to do much since he didn't touch us
and we were able to get away and we were in his house
We just shook off the creepy vibes that we had, grabbed some Starbucks, and chilled out for a bit.
We were definitely done for the day.
We both agreed that it was pretty stupid of us to go in there,
and agreed that we would never let that happen again.
If anyone wants to show us something like that, they would have to bring it out to us.
But at the very least, we did get a few of the little puppy stuffies at no cost.
We just took it as payment for the trauma that he caused us.
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, you 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.
