As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 079 - Scary Trucker and Stalker Stories - 09 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Hello and Welcome to the 79th 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 horrors on the open road, and stories where the scariest thing is the person sitting next to 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... JaggedlyBlind, Leah Maloney, Erin, ThankfullyFrilly066, S. Mercer, TheHam, Reggie, T. Spencer, The_Adopted_One, and any authors that request 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

It's something else here now, something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scary as 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. 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 to, as it does help. And of course, thank you. I used to be a trucker back in the early 2000s until somewhere around 2014, and I loved it. I was never the type to stay in one place for too long. I feel that I also tend to hit completely opposite ends of the spectrum. While my job was in a male-dominated field,

and I knew how to work and fix my own rig, I also liked to pamper myself. It wasn't uncommon to see me with my hair, nails, and makeup done while I was behind the wheel. Don't worry, never while driving. It definitely surprised a few people when I explained that I was the driver that pulled in. Some people tend to have a very stereotypical portrayal of what a trucker looks like, so I understand that I didn't fit the bill. Sometimes, I would even be hit on, but I was used to it.

One thing I hated, however, was the demeaning comments. The ones where people tried to gatekeep who could be a trucker. which is where the story comes from. This was one of the longest halls that I had been on, as it stretched across four states. I saw a lot of cool places and met some very sweet people. I was just about to hit Georgia, and I wanted to stop somewhere local to grab something to eat. I ended up finding a cute little diner that was off the highway, with signs saying that they were trucker-friendly, usually meaning that they had accommodating parking for them, and they did.

I pulled in, got a much-needed stretch, and then headed in. I ordered what was probably the best country-fried steak and enjoyed my time. My server even stopped for a while and talked with me about my travels, but after a bit, I started to notice this guy that was sitting at a booth a few down from me. I guess I walked by him when I entered, but I didn't pay him much attention. It became a bit more obvious that he was there, because he was facing away from me and kept turning around to look at me.

At one point I was trying to be friendly, but also acknowledged that I knew he was looking at me, so I held my coffee cup up in a cheers-like manner. He nodded and then turned back around. It was when I was nearing the end of my meal that this guy walked over to my table. He then asked me where my old man was, and I told him I didn't have one. Again, I got similar questions like this as people didn't think hi was the driver, so I always replied honestly. I'm also not easily intimidated.

He looked surprised and then started asking me how long I had been doing this, and again, I stayed polite throughout the conversation. Even when his questions started to seem more like a test. That's when he dropped the old You're pretty young to be out here by yourself And made other comments like Why wouldn't you want to be home making a family? Now, my parents can attest to this But I have a bit of a mouth on me

Always have And the comebacks just kind of roll out Before I get the chance to stop them So I said something along the lines Of not wanting to be tied down to an apron He didn't seem to care for the comment and replied with something along the lines of how young women shouldn't be in this field. I was done, amusing this guy,

so I stood up and walked over to the counter where the register was, and I paid for my meal. As I was putting my wallet away, the guy walked over and was rambling on about how women try to push themselves into every field, and then complain about the work and some other lovely comments like, that. I again smarted off with something about how he complained more in the ten minutes we talked than I had ever heard a female trucker complaining in my lifetime. I guess that he didn't like that one, because he shut his mouth with nothing more to say than a chuckle. I thanked the waitress

and I walked out. I was pulling something out of the back of my cabin when I heard the guy shout out to me. I was about to leave, so I decided to give him one more chance to just not be that guy from the diner, but I don't know which one was worse. He then asked me if I wanted him to take care of me and then offered to take me home with him. I, more or less, told him to go fly a kite and then got in my truck laughing. He stood there off to the side of where I was parked until I was on the road and he was out of my view. I chalked it up to another story to tell my friends and family and moved it to the back of my mind. At this point, I'm back on the road and just moving along like normal,

when I had a truck come up behind me. You're constantly looking at your surroundings when on the road, because you're behind the wheel of a potential death machine, so I took note of this in case he passed me. As expected, the truck got closer and closer. until it got over. I slowed down a bit to give it more time to pass, but then noticed that it was keeping speed next to me.

So I looked over at the driver, and, wouldn't you know it, it's the guy from the diner. I gave him a look, like, what do you want? And he made a kissing face at me and then slowed down to get back behind me. I was curious more than anything that this guy just happened to be going the same direction as me, and that he was able to catch up. I had to have a good head start on him, which told me that he was going a lot faster than he probably should have been.

That was the first dangerous action that I noted. The fact that he came up next to me and then slowed back down to get behind me, made me think that he was just trying to intimidate me. But this was also pretty dangerous, especially if there was a vehicle behind or in front of us. We were on a two-lane road with passing spots, so he could have easily hit somebody. I didn't waste any time, though, and immediately radioed it in to tell them what I was experiencing. They wanted info on the truck, but I unfortunately didn't see anything other than the front of it being a dark blue. They told me to get off at the next exit to see if he keeps going, and to let them know if this escalates.

That's exactly what I was wanting to prevent. Instead, I started to slow down, thinking maybe he would at least get in front of me so I could get his information. And it seemed to work. He got over, sped up next to me, but this time he had a bit more of an annoyed look. He continued accelerating until his trailer was almost past me, but not entirely. Notice what I said there. I don't know if this was done on purpose or if he just wasn't paying attention, but when he started getting over in front of me, no turn signal,

and then the back of his trailer hit me. I couldn't slow down enough to prevent it, and it caused the front of my truck to move. I know how to handle a truck, so I had it under control pretty quickly, and I slowed down even more so that I could stop on the shoulder. I noticed the truck didn't have any markings on it, so I immediately radioed the license plate number and what just happened, and they said that they would look into it.

I went ahead and called 911 as well to report his ass. He really did not need to be on the road. I stayed on the side for a while to give us some space, as this guy actually kept going. Once I finally got back on the road, I reported that it was. was clear and tried to get back to my drive. However, maybe half an hour in, I see a truck in the distance on the side of the road, and as I pass it, I see the dark blue front.

I didn't know what this guy's intentions were, beyond just trying to scare me, but I didn't want to give him the chance again. So the moment I saw the next exit, I took it. I stopped at a gas station nearby and just reported that I was going to stop for a bit after seeing that same truck. I was usually ahead of schedule anyways, but I would have rather been a little behind than deal with this guy and his dangerous actions. I went in to grab a drink and some things for the road, but when I came back out, I saw that same guy pulling in. I just swiftly walked back to my truck trying to pretend like I didn't even see the guy. As I sat in my truck thinking of my next move, this guy walked up next to my door and shouted at me.

I looked over and rolled down my window and waited for him to speak. He made some comment about how that was why we shouldn't be on the road, because we didn't know how to act under pressure. I basically just told him that what he was doing. wasn't normal, and that he was just being a creep. His reaction was to open his jacket a little, showing his peace, and said, Maybe I should just shoot out a tire then, while you're driving. See how you react to that. And he laughed.

He really laughed. I rolled up my window and called the cops, now having a good reason. He eventually walked away. I think he went into the gas station, then back. back to his truck, but I just waited there until a cop showed up. The cop was given a description of my truck, so he pulled up next to me, and I got out and explained a bit more of what was going on. He went up to this guy's truck who was sitting in it at that point, and asked him to step out.

I got back in mine, but rolled my windows down to hear what happened. The officer asked him to step out of his vehicle, but to leave the weapon, and the guy claimed that he didn't have one. This continued for some time, but then the guy actually fired at the officer. I immediately ducked while I listened to shuffling and the cop also radioing something in. I ended up dropping to the floorboard

in an effort to shield myself in case this guy started firing. After a while, I started hearing the guy yelling about how his rights were being violated, or something like that. So I looked up and saw that the cop had him pinned to the ground with two other officers nearby. I watched as they shoved him into the back of their car, and, after looking through his truck,

they then came over to ask me some more questions. They were trying to figure out why he would threaten me the way that he did, and really, their guess was as good as mine. We started with an innocent conversation, but then he quickly became aggressive and demeaning for no reason. My assumption is that between not taking his crap and turning him down, I must have been the one that got to him. I ended up leaving there a lot later than anticipated, but at least I was able to leave with both me and my truck in one piece.

While I may not have shown it on the outside, that guy definitely made me feel a bit on edge after hitting me. I knew that he had no intentions of leaving me alone, and I don't know how long it would have continued or escalated, if I wouldn't have stopped. Unfortunately, I know that people like that are everywhere, but I do my best to not let fear dictate my life on the road, or dissuade me from what I love doing. But, no matter what, even if you can defend yourself,

it's important to never be afraid to seek help if you find yourself in situations like this. A Bevenue at board of Via Rai, Embarked and profite, Embarked and celebrate, wriggle, public, savour, admire, and profite. Villaray, the voice that we love. A few years ago,

I used to live in an apartment complex that was attached to a really nice public park, one that was surrounded entirely with a walking path, that broke away on one part to go into a wooded area. I've walked this park hundreds of times, like literally hundreds of times. I used to walk that park every single day after work

for a couple of years. It was one of the safest places that I'd ever walked, and honestly, I never expected anything to happen to me while I walked it. But the day that this happened, my illusion of how safe it was was definitely shatter. I was about halfway through my usual route, which included about half of the branch path that took me out into the forest.

I didn't like to do the whole thing because it went too far out for me. But I would go until I reached the benches, which would be the halfway mark, and then turn around and head home. I was minding my own business when I started to get this weird feeling, like something was watching or following me. You know that creepy, crawly sensation that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I tried to shake it off, thinking that I was just a bit anxious, or that maybe there was a person there, but they were just walking. After a few more minutes, I started to feel a bit worse, and was thinking that I was just being paranoid,

until I turned around and saw that there was a guy that was standing on the side of the path, looking around like he lost something. But then, every few moments, he would glance up in my direction. He was a bit overweight, wearing a white and green track suit. I slowed down as I walked and half turned to look at the guy to make sure that he knew that I saw him. As soon as I did, this guy stopped looking at the ground and stood straight up, gave a small wave and said, Oh, hey. I didn't reply.

I just stood where I was and gave a small wave back. As soon as I did, he nodded and laughed and then started stepping toward me at an escalated pace. My instincts kicked in, and I took off down the path, starting at a medium run, but when I looked back and saw that this guy was now chasing me as fast as he could, I took off into a full sprint. For a few moments, this guy was running at me, and I was running away. Thankfully, I was definitely faster than he was, as I was able to get back to the part of the path that branched off. I ducked down into some of the thicker bushes, hiding and seeing if this guy was going to follow me this far.

After a couple more seconds, he actually did run down to the split, and he slowed down to a walk as he caught his breath and looked around. I just sat there, ducked down into these bushes feeling my heart pounced so hard that I might throw up. up, watching this guy look around the paths. Then, I heard something that completely confirmed my fear. He pulled his phone out of his pockets, pressed a button on the screen, and started talking. I couldn't make out the full conversation, but I heard enough to know that this situation was as terrifying as I thought. Hey, yeah, I lost her.

His voice was frustrated and angry, and I knew for a few. and I knew for a fact that had I not gotten away from this guy, bad things would have happened. After a few more words, he hung up and yelled a few expletives out into the woods, and then slowly walked back the way that he came. I stayed hidden in those bushes for a while, until it clicked in my mind that I should probably call 911. I pulled out my phone and dialed it and explained to them

that there was a guy on the walking path that had been chasing me, and explained what he had said on the phone. The woman said that they would send some police out to the park and to meet them there if possible. I got out of the hiding spot, and when I was certain that he was in fact gone, I walked back toward my building. I waited in the parking lot of the property for a while,

and, in an incredibly disappointing twist, the police never showed up. My guess, they probably got a call that was more important, Then, weird man followed me in the park. But I would have at least liked a call back or something. But, of course, it didn't happen. The whole thing really messed me up, and I never walked back to that park. I ended up taking my walks around the parking lot of the apartment complex

because I couldn't bring myself to go back into those woods just in case. It's scary to think about what might have happened had he gotten a hold of me. But thankfully, that didn't happen. I have no idea what happened, and honestly, I hope that no one ever ended up in that situation that I did. And I hope that I never run into him ever again. And to everyone else, be careful and stay aware because you never know who might be watching. I was 15 years old. I was coming home from a party with a couple of friends around midnight. We'd been out drinking and having a good time, and the party was pretty far away, so we were taking the bus home. The two friends that I was busing home with were going to have a sleepover at one of their houses,

but I was tired and felt like sleeping in my own bed for that night. My friend tried to convince me to come with them because it was late, and they didn't want me getting home alone. I assured them that it would be fine. We were the only ones on the bus at this time. However, about five minutes before we got off, a man got on. He appeared to be in his early 20s, and I could have sworn that I'd seen him before. Not from social functions or anything,

but just from around the neighborhood. When he got on the bus, he sat fairly close to us, especially considering we were the only ones on the bus, and that there were other seats that he could have chosen. I noticed that he kept looking at us, and it seemed like he was closely listening in on our conversations, but I didn't think much of it, especially since he seemed close to our age.

About five minutes later, it was my stop to get off. My friends stayed on the bus because they had a couple more stops to go. Oddly, the man on the bus got off at my stop, too, despite only having just gotten on the bus. To be completely honest, I didn't really think anything of it at the time. If anything, I actually felt safer that someone was walking in the same direction as me, as it was dark and late. My house was about a 15-minute walk from that bus stop.

The walk home was through a dark path through a park and then through what I considered to be a sketchy neighborhood. The guy was walking behind me, not so. too closely, but also not far away. At this point, I didn't feel uneasy at all. I was thinking about the night that I'd had with my friends and the best way to sneak into my house while my parents were asleep. About five minutes had passed, and he was still behind me.

I wanted to let him pass because I don't really like people walking behind me in general, so I started walking a lot slower. But the distance between us didn't change. After that, I started walking faster and the distance between us was still the same. Close, but not too close. I found it very odd how consistent the distance between us was and how attentive he seemed. He wasn't listening to music, or distracted by his phone. At this point, I started to feel nervous, and I felt like I was being followed.

By now there were a lot of paths that he could have turned down, but he was still. walking the same route as me. I thought of an idea to test this theory. This way I would know for sure if he was following me, and honestly, I was kind of scared to find out. The path we were walking on was about to diverge into two paths going in separate directions. The way home was on the left, but I started walking down the right path first. He followed on the right path as well.

Then, at the last second, I cut over the third. through the grass to the left path. And I swear, when I turned around and saw that he also cut over to the left path in that instance, I have never been more terrified in my entire life. I turned around and faced him, and I started screaming at him that I was calling the cops. By his reaction, it appeared that I really caught him off guard. He quickly walked away, and I've never seen him again since. I'm 24 now, but I still remember this like it happened yesterday.

I still think about what could have happened that night. I have a story that I've been wanting to share with the world for a while. A story that really taught me a lesson about trusting people and made me realize how things can go really bad, really fast. I am going to add a bit of a trigger warning here, as this story does end in a horrifying way. This happened a while back when my high school ex-boyfriend,

a guy were going to call Christian, came back into my life after close to a decade of being out of touch. Back in high school, Christian and I were really close. He was probably the most connected relationship I've ever had, if that makes any sense. he was actually the first guy that I got with, and multiple meanings of the word, and I thought that he and I had this really bright future planned out. In my head, we were going to get married, we were going to have kids,

and we were going to grow old together. In reality, Christian didn't want anything more than a high school fling, and he planned on cutting away from me the minute that he graduated. He ended up telling me as much only a quarter away from graduation. We were talking about the future, and when I asked if we were going to stay in state, he said that after May, there was no we. Needless to say, we broke up that day, and it crushed me. Fast forward around eight or nine years later,

I'm single, living my best life and just doing whatever life brings. When, out of the blue, I get a friend request on Facebook from a face that I hadn't thought about in ages. Christian. Being the nostalgic idiot that I am, I immediately went to accept it, but then hesitated when I thought about how our relationship ended. I sat on it for a couple of hours, but eventually decided that we were both young, we both made mistakes, and it wasn't anything more than a friend request on Facebook. If he had grown up enough to seek me out and to reconnect, then I could grow up enough to accept it.

What I didn't expect was that, clicking that button, was going to be the opening of my own personal Pandora's box. At first, everything was chill. We messaged back and forth, and it seemed like he really had his life together. After high school, he went out of state for college, and he'd actually gotten married and had a son. I congratulated him for all that,

saying that it was great to hear that he was doing well, and then he told me that he and his wife had gotten a divorce, and she had done everything she could to keep his son from him, so he was actually moving back in with his mom for a bit to get back on his feet. I apologized, and I told him that that was awful, and after a bit of talking more, he told me that he was actually in town and we agreed to meet up for lunch the next day just to catch up.

Now, nowhere in this conversation and nowhere in my mind, was there any intention of making this anything beyond just being friends? I didn't want anything beyond that. I just wanted a friend, and I just wanted to meet up to catch up with him. When we met at the restaurant, I went in for a friendly hug, and when he hugged me, his hand wandered way too far down my back. I immediately pushed away and looked at him like, Bro, what the hell?

He quickly apologized and said that he just got absorbed in the moment, and he didn't mean anything by it. I told him that this was his one warning, and that if he tried anything else this meeting was over, which I think caught him off guard. I think he expected me to be a bit more submissive, mostly because when I was young I was way more willing to go along with things. In the years since then, I've become a lot more self-sufficient and mentally sound,

and I'm not the kind of person to take that crap. I told him as much, and he nodded, saying all right and continuing to apologize. The rest of the lunch went pretty normal. nothing else happened and I figured that he knew his place. Of course, that was the wrong thing to believe. About two days later, I got a message from Christian on Facebook that said, Thinking of you, with a picture of something that I genuinely did not expect, nor want, to see.

The situation was very disappointing, for multiple reasons, and I told him that that was the end of it. I replied, saying, I told you that if you did anything like this again, that would be the end of it. He immediately said, Oh my God, I am so sorry. That was for someone else. I swear.

I messaged back saying that it was nice to see that he was doing well, but that that was the end of our conversations and immediately blocked him. I'm not stupid. I knew what he was doing, and I wasn't going to be this rebound fling for him. plus he's not exactly the kind of person that I'm into anymore. After that, the situation with Christian went off the rails and did so pretty quickly. One night, about two weeks later, I was out with some friends at a local bar just trying to have a good time,

and lo and behold, Christian showed up. He walked in and came straight over to us, acting like he was my best friend. The entire feel of the night changed immediately. My three friends all glanced over at me like, who's this guy? And Christian stood over me and smiled like everything was fine. I hit my limit the second he put his hands on my shoulders and said, How are you doing, babe? I shoved my seat backwards to make sure that it made contact with him,

stood up, turned around, and told him that I wasn't his babe, and that he needed to leave me the hell alone. He laughed and asked why I was being like this, and I went off on him. I told him that I had given him a chance to be my friend and nothing more, and he decided that he wanted to be a creep instead. I told him again to shove off and to get the hell back out of my life. After a few moments, he backed off and looked like he was about to cry, and just walked away.

I kind of assumed that was going to be. the end of it that he would understand, that I wanted nothing to do with him. Either that, or the next encounter, was going to end violently. Unfortunately for me, knowing him, it was more likely to be the latter. After Christian left, the whole night was ruined, and we all decided to head home. I had driven my friend Michelle out that night, and she'd planned on drinking a bit more, and I don't drink, so I was her driver. When we left, she asked me who Christian was, and when I explained everything to her,

she told me that he sounded like a creep, and then asked me if I wanted her to come over to my place and stay just in case. At first, I didn't think it was necessary, but after a bit of contemplation, I told her that it sounded like a good idea and that I would appreciate the company. I'm going to add a bit of a brief pause right here, for the first. the sake of anyone reading or listening to this. The next part of the story is the part that deserves the content warning. When we got to my apartment, I unlocked and opened the door, and both myself and Michelle were surprised to see Christians sitting on my couch. Now, I know that a lot of these stories end with the X standing there with a knife and attacking

the person, but that's not actually how my story ended. Christian was sitting on my couch. He did have a knife, but he wasn't going to attack anybody. He pretty clearly ended his own life right there. I was shocked, horrified. I felt like I was about to throw up. Right there on my couch was my high school ex, a guy that I had just sort of reconnected with

and had to push back out of my life because he was being a guy. creep, and he had ended his own life in my apartment. I cannot overstate how traumatizing this was for me at that moment, and every day since. Obviously, we called the police, and when they and the medics showed up, they confirmed that he was beyond saving. I couldn't stay there after that. They had to treat it basically as a crime scene with what had happened. and I didn't want to stay there anyways. This was enough to get me out of my lease, thankfully,

and I ended up moving in with Michelle in her apartment. I got rid of pretty much all of my furniture, as I couldn't bring myself to look at it and think about Christian. I've had nightmares about him since, about that moment. Opening my door, and to say that this whole thing has haunted me, is an understatement. I'm not looking for pity, and I feel terrible for the fact that Christian felt that ending his own life was the best course of action. I'm just not really sure what else to say about all of it.

Through all of this, coming to terms with the situation, and moving my few things out that I did keep, I handed up finding a note from Christian in my bedroom. He'd actually placed it in the drawer of my nightstand. It was a simple note that just said Every mistake in my life has led me to this moment And all that I can say is that I'm sorry Not exactly closure and Not exactly something that helped me move on from it

And to be honest I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to get through it Hello I've been a trucker for about 20 years now Doing both local runs as well as long halls. I listened to a lot of podcasts covering similar topics like yours, and thanks to my wife, she introduced me to your channel and she convinced me to send in a story that happens to us a while back. We work well together, and there's never a dull moment between us. This was something

we experienced on one of our trips. I was getting pretty close to my 11th hour driving, and my wife wanted to sleep in our cab instead of a motel. I had made some upgrades to the cab and added some simple amenities, so it was pretty comfortable. We were on a pretty flat and open area of the highway, so we stopped on the side and set out my cones for safety. One thing I did have in my cab was a refrigerator, as well as a small portable grill,

so we would often bring along our own food to make. We pulled out some hamburger patties in the grill and started making a late dinner for us. The night was actually quite peaceful and the only light on us was from our flashlight, or my clip-on light that I used went under the hood. We could hear the sounds of crickets chirping and the smell of Petrocor coming from the nearby vegetation. There was a massive storm the night before after what locals told me was a pretty long drought for them. as we indulged in our meals, we talked and relaxed in our chairs, staring into the trees and taking in the simple joys of existence. When our conversation started getting shorter and shorter, we knew that it was about time to pack up and head to bed.

That was around the time that something started to feel unusual. I was trying to figure out what it was when my wife said, do you hear that? I remained quiet to see if I could discern what she meant, but I didn't hear anything. But that was her point. Unlike how it was just a few minutes ago, it was completely silent. There wasn't a single cricket chirping, no sound from the slight breeze and trees swaying, not even a low hum coming from our light. All I could hear was our talking in my breaths.

We both agreed that it was an odd occurrence and chalked it up to maybe another storm coming, and mentally we both understood that we should hurry up and get back in the cab. As my wife was getting ready for bed, I was at the front in the driver's seat putting my wallet in the glove box. There was something in the distance that kind of caught my eye. It was a light. There was nothing but darkness surrounding us just prior, other than the one car that had passed by.

As mentioned, we were on a pretty flat stretch of highway, but I could clearly see a light just peeking up from the distance in front of us. As we were on the road, I told myself that it was just an oncoming car, turned off the cab light, and walked towards the back. From the time it took me to walk back to the bed and sit on it, that car should have passed us. But I never heard the sound.

so I asked my wife if she heard or saw anything and she declined. This had my interest piqued, so I stood back up to look out the front window and there it was. The light was still sitting there, like I had seen earlier. This time I was telling my wife what I was seeing, which caused her to join me. We both stared at this light trying to determine what it could be and thought maybe it was. was another vehicle that was stopped on the side of the road, too. We thought about it for a moment. My wife, being the altruistic person she was, wanted to see if maybe they needed help,

whereas I've heard and seen way too many stories of similar situations, and told her that we were not going out there. She suggested that we could just drive up to it, but that would involve me having to get out, get my cones, and really, to be honest, I was tired and being way too lazy to do that. So I told her that we should just leave it alone. And if they were still there in the morning, we could check it out. She reluctantly agreed, and we both went to bed,

but I still couldn't shake this thought that there was something more to that light. After my wife had drifted off, I still laid there awake wondering what it could be, so I ended up getting up to look again. It was still there, but this time, it was different. Prior, it was the normal color that I would expect for headlights. This was now a deep yellow color. The odds of it being another car in the exact same spot, right out of view with different colored headlights just seemed very unlikely.

Something told me that I needed to do something. something, to have a record of this. So I went to grab my phone and get a picture or video of it. As I quietly returned and opened the camera, I watched the light shift slightly and changed from yellow to red. This caused me to freeze and just watch. That's when I felt the vibration in the floor beneath my feet. I looked back at the light and watched as it grew wider and taller, until I was

hit with a bright neon red light. I couldn't look directly at it. It was so bright. But as it rose up, I could see a metal shape of some kind of vehicle, but I couldn't make out what it was. And as I was trying to shield my eyes from the light, it slowly grew darker until I was able to look again. That's when I noticed the road was now shrouded in that red light.

It was almost as if the source of the light was now directly above us, but the light was still so intense. Not only was it bright, but you could almost feel the heat coming from it. What the hell could possibly cause something like that? Lastly, in nearly an instant, I saw the light flash back to the deep yellow that I had seen, and the rumbling had stopped. I didn't understand how my wife hadn't woken up to this. It was almost like an airplane was flying very low to the ground. It was that kind of rumbling. With the light now directly above us, my curiosity got the best of me,

and I opened my driver's side door to try and look for the source of the light. I looked straight up and could make out what looked to be a dark triangle hovering above us. The light was definitely coming from this thing, and I felt as though I had just outed myself. I quickly shut the door, and I went back to bed, praying that what I saw wasn't real and that I was just dreaming. I was hoping that my prayers were answered when I was awoken by my wife, but something was wrong. She sounded startled, and I was on the floor, not the bed. When I finally came to and had my bearings, I assured her that I was fine and asked what had happened. She said that she woke up to an intense high-pitch ringing sound, and when she looked over at me, she saw me sitting on the floor.

She was terrified, but by the time I came to, the sound was gone, and I never heard it. In fact, even with the rumbling in the ground, it was still silent, all the way through. But one of the many parts of this that was bizarre was that I remember walking back to the bed again and getting in it. Yet I was on the floor. We climbed back into bed, and I told her everything I had seen, and she did the same, even though she was asleep through most of it. We both got up and looked outside, but it was now completely dark. There were no yellow or red lights anywhere.

The road was empty, and... We could even hear the wind and crickets again. Then we checked the time and realized that it had only been about two hours. I believe that I laid in bed for about half an hour before I got up, so all of that happened, and then I guess I passed out for about an hour, to an hour and a half. After convincing my wife that I felt fine, I thought that it was best to just try to get some sleep. I felt exhausted. When we awoke the next morning, I slowly drove in the direction of the light, and there was nothing there.

The road was fine. The grass on the side wasn't even flattened like something had been there. We talked about it a bit more as we drove, and we both agreed that it was possibly some kind of military aircraft, I guess. We didn't talk about it for the rest of our trip. In fact, we made sure that we were both in bed, and we only stayed at rest stops and never on the side of the road, secluded from others. It wasn't until we were back home in the privacy of our own house, that we finally said out loud what we thought.

With the lights and the way that it hovered without any sound, that was no aircraft that we were familiar with, but we were both still pretty terrified to think about what it could have been. Not to mention what could have possibly happened to me since I didn't actually make it to the bed. And honestly, I think I would rather stick to encountering weird people than something that I can't see or arm myself against. When I was a kid, probably around six years old, I had a summer experience that still sends shivers down my spine. It was one of those events that happened quickly,

and could have been much worse, but it taught me one hell of a lesson by the end of it. I remember that it was a really hot day. The kind where the air does that fun shimmering stuff off the asphalt. And I was home with my mom. She was a teacher at my school, and we were both on break. We were spending some time in the backyard, My mom was inflating and then filling the little pool that my dad had bought the weekend before, and I was just excitedly running around waiting to jump in the water.

My mom told me to go inside and get us a couple of popsicles, and I excitedly did what she requested. I was there digging in the freezer for a specific flavor, blue raspberry, of course, and enjoying the cold air blasting me in the face when I heard it, a light knock at the door. We didn't really get a lot of visitors where we lived, usually just my grandparents or our neighbor, Miss Shelley, whom I absolutely adored. Thinking it was probably Grandma, or Miss Shelley, I went over and swung the door open, expecting to be greeted by a warm smile and some cookies. Instead, there was a man standing there, a stranger, with a creepy yellow grin that seemed to be way too big for his face.

I may have been six years old, but I cannot forget that face. The smell hit me next. A sour stench that made my nose scrunch up. I didn't know it then, but as an adult, I now realized that it was probably the stink of some kind of booze. I bluntly asked this guy who he was, and he laughed and responded that he was a friend, and that he was there to see me.

I was a pretty social kid. so I just assumed that he was a friend of my parents that I hadn't met yet. When I asked him how he knew me, he leaned down, laughed, and said, I've known you for a long time. I was there when you were born. It was a weird thing to say, but at that age, I didn't really question it. He then followed this up with, Hey, why don't you come outside?

I brought lunch for us. You like pizza, right? Right? I did, in fact, like pizza. In fact, I loved pizza. And with the word pizza mentioned, I then really wanted pizza. I started to step outside, but just as I did, my mom appeared at the front door and put a hand on my shoulder. She asked this man who he was and what he wanted. I remember him flashing that ugly yellow smile at her and asking for someone named Melissa. My mom, clearly not convinced, told him, No one named Melissa lives here. I think you need to leave. He then responded with an, oh, of course, my mistake.

Still holding that creepy smile and turned to walk off. Without saying another word, he walked out our front gate, got into an old minivan and drove off. My mom immediately pulled me back into the house, and that's when I got my first lesson about Stranger Danger.

She explained that we should never trust people that we don't know like that, especially if they're asking us to go somewhere with them. I mentioned that he said he was a friend and that he was there when I was born. She told me that none of that was true, and that sometimes people will lie to get us to trust them. Now, looking back as an adult, I realize how close I came to a potentially dangerous situation. If my mom hadn't come in.

side to check on me when she did? Well, I really don't like to think about what could have happened. It's a really chilling reminder of how important it is to teach kids about the dangers of trusting strangers. And it's a lesson that I've held closely ever since. I used this story to actually explain to my own son about stranger danger. I never saw that guy again, thankfully, and I hope that I never did. do. The story does come with a content warning as it does involve sexual assault.

If you do not want to listen to a story that contains that, go down to the timestance below, and skip to the next story. I will give a few moments of silence here just so anyone who wants to do so can. I've been a long-time lurker on a number of true scary story groups and platforms, and after reading all the horrifying things that everyone else went through, I thought I should go ahead and share what happened to me my senior year of high school. Well, I guess it didn't happen to me. It happened to my friend whom we're going to call Lily for the sake of privacy. But it was a terrible situation, and I was definitely a part of it.

It also involved an instructor at our high school, who were just going to refer to as Mr. Smith. To set the stage a bit, Mr. Smith was a new teacher at our school. school. Our senior year was his first year teaching at our school. He wasn't the youngest teacher. He looked to be in his mid to late 30s, but he was charismatic and quickly became popular because he seemed to relate to us kids. He was one of those teachers that was in the know about pop culture and things that the students liked. And a lot of us students really adored him, and his class. He was an English teacher, and he actually made the class engaging and entertaining. My friend Lily and I were in the same hour with Mr. Smith, and from the beginning I couldn't help

but notice that Mr. Smith did seem to pay her an unusual amount of attention. At first I thought it was just him trying to help her out a bit extra in class, making sure that she was understanding things and not struggling, which I've seen before. However, there was one day that completely solidified all of the suspicions that I'd had and made me see that the attention that Mr. Smith was giving to Lily was not innocent or professional. One day, at the end of the school day, I realized that I had accidentally forgotten to turn in an assignment for Mr. Smith's class, and I made a beeline for the room so that I could get it turned in. When I opened the door, I saw Mr. Smith's class.

Smith and Lily in the room. And while they weren't doing anything obvious, the feeling of the room was definitely inappropriate. They were both clothed, obviously, but it was pretty clear to me that something was going on or being talked about that shouldn't be talked about in a classroom setting. I timidly entered the room and handed my assignment to Mr. Smith, and as I did, he thanked me and said something like, Anyways, Lily, if you need more help, we can set aside a time here in the near future to figure things out.

She said okay, and she actually walked out of the room with me. Obviously, I asked her what that was all about, and she just shrugged it off, saying that he was helping her with homework. That was obviously a lie, but I also didn't want to just jump to conclusions. Maybe it was innocent. Maybe nothing had happened and I was just looking at it wrong. Yeah, those justifications were completely wiped from my mind as the next few days went on. After having walked in on whatever that was, I started noticing everything that pushed me into believing that it wasn't innocent.

I noticed how close he would get to her, how much extra attention and extra help he would give her in class, which would require him to be, like, right against her. How he would randomly say things like, Oh, you look nice today, Lily. Things that would sound guiltless, just small compliments and the like. But these virtuous compliments to me were anything but. Then it came to a head. About a month after I walked in on their situation,

Lily came to me in tears after school. I was at my locker getting my stuff together, and she tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned around, she was a mess. Her makeup was running and she looked absolutely miserable. She asked me if I could give her a ride home, which was surprising to me. We'd always been friends, sure, but we weren't that close. I told her that I could and we made our way out to my car.

The way that she changed from in tears to sobbing uncontrollably, the second the doors closed was horrible. She exploded into telling me about what was going on between herself and Mr. Smith, basically what I anticipated. She said that it wasn't anything serious, that he'd flirted with her and she had reciprocated, but they hadn't gone any further than that, until that day. That day, she had gone to his room to ask about an assignment, to actually ask about schoolwork,

and without going too far into the disturbing details, he pushed himself onto her, and he had definitely gotten handsy. She said that she tried to push him away, but struggled with him, and he said something like, you know you want this as much as I do, she said that she reached up, slapped him,

and that's when he finally let her go. She then ran away from the room and found me. Of course, my first thought was that we needed to report him. She agreed initially, but then mentioned that she didn't think anyone would believe her. She said there was no one else in the room. There were obviously no cameras in the classroom, and she was worried that she would be labeled a liar, or that people would claim that she was just trying to ruin him.

We spoke about it a bit, and the conversation ended with her asking me to let her consider things for a couple of days before we did. For those few days, I genuinely tried to respect her wishes. But seeing how he was still making comments towards Lily, and how he was still trying to get close to her during class, even when she was no longer showing interest in him, my conscience wouldn't let me stay silent.

I couldn't help but shake this thought that he would go further and assault her again if they met in private, because it sounded like he was more than willing to escalate. So, I made a very difficult decision, and I went to the administrators and reported Mr. Smith. I told them everything that Lily had told me, and I told them about when I walked in on them meeting. The administrator that I talked to took my statements very seriously.

She asked me how certain I was of these allegations, stating that it was a very serious situation. I told her that I knew how serious it was. I told her that Lily had asked me to wait because she was scared that no one would believe her, but that I felt like I needed to tell them. The investigation was actually a lot quicker than I expected. It turns out that Lily wasn't the only girl that Mr. Smith had targeted. During their short investigation, after talking with a few other students,

there were actually three other girls that were willing to tell them about comments that Mr. Smith had made. One of them even told them that he tried to go further with them a few months prior. As the evidence mounted, the school actually got the police involved, and one day after school, Mr. Smith was arrested for what he had done, and was eventually charged with multiple counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. The whole school was definitely in charge. shock as the news got around. And a lot of people felt really betrayed by this guy.

My friendship, with Lily, however, was pretty much over. She was angry that I had gone behind her back and felt like I had taken away her control over the situation. I tried to explain that I did it to protect her and others, but she couldn't see it that way. We drifted apart, and by the time we graduated, we were no one. longer friends. It's been a few years since then, and I still think about Lily often. I wonder if I made the right choice, if I could have handled it differently, or if there was

something more that I could have done to help her. But, ultimately, I have to believe that getting a predator like Mr. Smith out of our school was worth the cost. 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 was 21 and in college in a relatively small town in western Colorado.

I lived in an apartment building on campus, and our doors opened up to the outside. I was out smoking a cigarette, and it was around 10 p.m. I had classed the next day, pretty early, so I was planning on going to bed right after I was done. Even though the town was small, there was a significant homeless population. There were a few shelters that would put up homeless people in hotels for a few nights, but they would have to go and request one during the shelter's normal business hours. As I was sitting there, planning out my next day, a disheveled homeless man walked up to me. He appeared to be in his mid-30s.

He asked if he could bomb a smoke, so I obliged. Normally, the homeless population would stay off campus because there were no shelters around the college. I have no idea why this man was there. I expected him to just walk away after obtaining his cigarette, but instead he sat down and started talking to me. Being the nice person that I am, I asked him about why he was there. He told me that he was just trying to find a warm place to sleep for the night, since it was late fall and the weather was turning cold.

I told him that there were a few shelters about two miles from where we were. He told me that they wouldn't let him stay because he'd been drinking that night. I then offered to get him some gatorade from my room because he told me that he was really thirsty. I grabbed the gatorade and he asked if I had any food. I told him no, because I got all my food from the food. cafeteria, and he then begged me to let him stay on my couch for the night. I told him that I wished I could, but my roommates wouldn't appreciate waking up to a random person in our apartment, and also it was against the apartment rules.

What I did next was, admittedly, very stupid. I offered to walk him to the student center, about a five-minute walk from my apartment, and see what they could do for him. When we got there, I asked the desk attendant if they could help him in any way. They told me no because he wasn't a student. At this point, I was getting some weird vibes from this guy. I tried to tell him that I needed to get back to my place because I had class early the next morning, and he insisted that I needed to help him find a warm place to sleep for the night.

Me, trying to be as nice as I could, proceeded to walk him all across campus, trying to find a good place for him to sleep for the night. He had a small sleeping bag. I told him the parking garage might be a good bet, but he said he had done that before, and security had banned him from campus. At this point, alarm bells were going off in my head. I couldn't just leave him, though, because I was in too deep.

We walked together to the soccer field nearby to see if any of the bathrooms were open for him to sleep in. They were all locked. so we tried the baseball field directly across the street. It had been around an hour since I met this stranger, and I needed to get out of this dangerous situation. There were no other people around since it was getting pretty late, and he begged me again to stay on my couch,

and, again, I refused. What I did next wasn't my proudest moments, by any means. I told him to try the bathrooms around the back of the basement, ball field, even though I had no idea if any were actually back there. As he turned to go check, I ran as fast as I could out of there and kept running for 10 minutes back to my apartment. I got in, and I looked out the window for a long time since the room was right next to the door.

The man did know where I lived since I'd met him right in front of my building, but I saw absolutely no sign of him. The moral of the story, no matter how nice of a person you are, please don't try to help random homeless people that you meet late at night. I have a story that

I have never shared online, mostly because it just never really felt like something I should share, but you convinced me that I should go ahead and get it out there. So, here you go. This is probably the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me, and it happened on what was a fairly normal day otherwise.

It happened about five years ago, in the middle of the summer. Back when this happened, I was attending evening classes to get an associate's degree, and after class, I went to work. I worked as a box truck driver for a company that produced car parts, mostly just the plastic ones, though. It may sound strange to some, but the biggest part that we produced, and what was probably our biggest moneymaker, were bumpers. For what they are, they're ridiculously expensive, and they break pretty easily. Anyways, my job amounted to nothing more than overnight parts delivery guy. I got to drive this box truck filled with parts to each of our partner dealerships in town,

and I would unload the parts for them. It was a pretty lonely job. It was an overnight job, so no one was ever at the dealership, so it was just me, my truck, and whatever audiobook I was listening to at the time. It was, for lack of a better word, fairly mundane. On the night that this happened, I actually remember that I was listening to the audiobook version of Ready Player 1, because the movie had just come out in theaters

and I wanted to hear the book before I went to go see the movie. I was just driving along, plotting out my route and glancing at the delivery log to see which locations I needed to go to that night. When, out of nowhere, this car came blowing past me on the small two-lane each-direction highway. It didn't surprise me.

People hate being behind trucks. I just didn't really expect to see anyone else, on the road this late. They gunned past me on the left, the headlights glaring in my side mirrors, and before I could even react or really process the car, they cut sharply in front of me. I swerved hard, narrowly avoiding a disastrous collision.

My heart was pounding, my palms were sweaty on the wheel as I veered over to the shoulder of the road. Interestingly enough, the other car also pulled over just in front. of me. Part of me assumed that maybe they wanted to apologize, or maybe they were freaked out, or maybe they were about to go off on me in a bit of road rage, but nothing happened. I sat there in my truck trying to catch my breath, and they just sat there a bit ahead of me, not moving or really doing anything. After about four minutes, two of the car's doors burst open, and two figures

years jumped out. I assumed that they were going through the motions the previously mentioned road rage, but then I noticed that they were wearing ski masks. I barely had time to process this before I saw them sprinting towards my truck, guns in hand. I was struck with this paralyzing fear. I really only had two options. Flore it and risk getting shot, or do whatever the hell they demanded.

I was a delivery driver, not a hero, so I decided that it would be less risky to just comply. I put my hands up, and I climbed out of the truck, my hand shaking and my breath ragged. The masked men did not waste any time. They nudged me out of the way, and two of them jumped into my box truck and then sped off. The third person that hadn't left the car, then gunned off down the road, following the truck. leaving behind nothing more than the screeching of their tires. Then there was me, just standing alone on the side of the highway, watching the taillights of both vehicles as they disappeared into the distance,

and thinking about whether or not I was going to get reprimanded for this. As I thought about that, and about work, my mind stepped over to, who do I even contact about this? I then realized that I still had my cell phone in my pocket. I pulled it out and dialed 911 and tried to explain everything that had just happened. I must have sounded insane because I remember the operator asking me to calm down, telling me to breathe, and then asking the same question a few times to clarify what I had said. She stayed on the phone with me while I stood there in the same spot the robbers had left me,

just waiting for the police. Within a few minutes, I could hear the sirens coming my way, and thankfully they saw me just standing there, and realized that I was the one calling. They took my statement and information, and one of them offered me a ride back to the warehouse, while the other officers mentioned that they would drive up ahead to see if they could find the truck. Worse yet, they did find it. But it was not the outcome that I had hoped for. They found the truck only about 15 miles up the road, abandoned off the side of the highway, and set ablaze. The truck, the parts in the back, and everything inside the truck was completely destroyed. The metal frame was completely warped from the intense heat of the fire.

To this day, I have no idea why this happened. Why me? Why did they take my truck? I can only imagine they did this for the hall, but the truck was very clearly marked as an auto parts delivery truck, and I can't think of any modern parts that would net that much cash that would be in a truck like that. I guess maybe catalytic converters, but I can tell you that my list had zero of those. So if that's what they were going for, then I was a poorly chosen target. Beyond that, it just felt so damn random and pointless.

Either way, it was the most terrifying experience of my life, and I struggled to get back into the cab of another box truck without thinking about that visual of them running at me with shotguns pointing up at me. The fear, the confusion, that mental feeling that I might actually die for some bumpers. I was just a dude driving a truck and doing it. my job. And it was painful to be pushed so suddenly into this nightmare. I do still work for the company, and I did move up when I got my degree, but I now work in warehouse, and the only thing that I drive for them is the occasional forklift.

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.

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