As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 088 - Scary Vacation, Home Alone, Camping and Paranormal Stories - 21 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

Welcome to the chilling ##th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today, we will step into the shadowy corners of reality, where everyday life takes an eerie twist & ordinary people experience the extraordinary. Today we will be diving into some terrifying Paranormal stories, as well as some creepy stories about Camping and scary things that have happened while Home Alone and on Vacation. So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. 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... Dan, DunnitAgain, Samantha C, IgniteTheNight1993, AndyM1878, M2AtBest, Debbie, Shi aka u/darkpr1nc3x, Sarah, Paige sherk, Cats-and_yogurt, Joshua Tadlock, Imnotglitchyyouare, Ben K., Dom J, FrumpyGemini, Angie&Hayley, MayaWentCamping, and any 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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made me want to share something that I experienced with my boyfriend at the time. He's now my ex. This happened back in the early 2000s, so forgive me if I'm missing some pieces. So my ex, we'll call him Keith, and I were planning a small road trip. At night we planned to stop at places that we could either sleep in my car, because I had a Jeep, or in a tent. That way we saved money on hotels. To be honest, the trip itself started out.

fine. We were far from professional when it came to camping, which we proved every time that we'd struggled to put up the tent. We got better towards the end, as it just became a routine for us, and I may have

kept certain rods together, but it all worked out in the end. There was a campsite that he specifically wanted to check out. It had a really big lake, and you could bring your own boat, or even rent a a small fishing or paddle boat.

I thought that the idea sounded fun at the time. As we arrived at the campground, it became evident that this place was not the same place that we saw in the pictures and reviews. The booth where you buy a parking ticket was replaced

by a rundown automated machine. As Keith fidgeted to get the machine to work, I looked around and noticed just how neglected this place had become. The road was cracked, in many places, there were overgrown vines hugging the signs, and there was no sign of others in the entrance. And even though I was seeing a whole lot of nothing, something was definitely feeling off.

Once Keith finally got the machine to work, we went through the gate, driving through to find a good spot to stay. Good news, as we drove up the path, we finally came across some people. Bad news, they did not make me feel better about the situation. We were driving very slowly as we discussed where we wanted to set up camp and drove past a woman. We both looked over at her, but I watched her as her head moved, following us all the way up the road and around the curve. She looked like she was trying to intimidate us,

like we would have probably been in trouble if we stopped there by her. As Keith kept driving, I explained how creeped out that she made me. He laughed at my statement, teasing me for being scared of some old woman. I really didn't think she was that old, and it wasn't that I was afraid of her. It was her stance. The way she watched us as we drove by. Like she was threatening us with her eyes. I don't know how to explain it.

Basically, he reassured me that it was probably just, someone being nosy or mad, thinking they would have to share the area with some strangers. I let it go as he said he wanted to go further in anyways, and possibly get closer to the boat docks. We followed some signs to the lake, and that's when we learned that the building where you would get a rental was all locked up. We couldn't tell if it was permanent, or if there just wasn't anyone available at the time, so we instead tried to find a place for us to stay. Thankfully, there was a plot nearby with no one else in the area that we quickly claimed a steak on. We set up our tent and even cooked some brats on a nearby grill.

While we were cooking, we saw a van slowly drive by us, and when they got to our plot, they slowed down to a crawl. They had their windows down and we could easily see two bald guys up front. The one in the passenger side was nearly hanging out the window looking at, us and smiling. Keith, being the genius he was, just greeted them and, without responding, they kept on going up the path, until we could no longer see them.

It put me on edge, making me feel like we were being watched like zoo animals. I remembered asking Keith why he reacted that way, and he said that he was just trying to show them that he wasn't afraid or intimidated by them. Maybe it's just me, but I would have rather stayed in the background instead of drawing attention to us. Again, I was a little uncomfortable, but I did my best to let it go and try to have fun still. After eating, we walked over to the docks to check out the water, even though we didn't have a boat.

We took our shoes off and went in the water up to our knees. We reached in and pulled out a few rocks and shells that looked pretty cool, So we took them back to our tent. Despite the eerie atmosphere in the beginning, it was actually turning out to be a pretty good time. That was until we went to bed. We were already in the tent and asleep at this point, when we were jolted awake by a loud, horrifying sound

that echoed through the campground. It sounded like something metal being scraped along concrete. This time, I wasn't the only one startled by the sound. Keith was sitting up, bug-eyed, looking just as scared. I whispered to him, What the hell is that? I don't know if he was trying to fake it, or if he really didn't care, but he rubbed his face as he quietly said,

I don't know, it's probably just a deer. I don't know of any deer that sounds like that, or what part of the deer that sound could even be coming from. I pointed this out to him, obviously irritated, and so he changed his assumption, saying it was probably just some rowdy and inconsiderate campers. As I continued to listen, I could at least agree with him that it was probably a person, and maybe they were purposely doing it to scare us. We stayed sitting upright, listening until the sound finally stopped,

and we didn't hear it again. Keith sighed, thankfully saying that it was over, so that we should go back to sleep and then he quickly laid back down. I tried to lay back down myself and fall asleep, but at that point, I was fully awake. I don't know how long it took, but I finally did start drifting off, focusing on all the sounds around me. That was until I started hearing more noises.

This time, it's... sounded like whispering. I laid still trying to listen, hoping that I could make out what was being said. I never could, but it still freaked me out, so I woke up Keith. I told him that someone was by our tent, and he said something half awake about it being the wind. I argued with him that I knew the difference, and that I needed him to go with me, as I was too afraid to check alone.

He told me to take his knife in his bag. and he refused to get up. Helpful. I grabbed the knife and a flashlight and slowly unzipped the tent, sticking my head out. I didn't immediately see anyone around, so I stepped out and walked over to our once smoldering fire. My stomach dropped.

There were beer bottles all around. Neither of us brought beer because we didn't drink. And then I saw the two headless, carcasses. I think that they were rabbits, but it was hard to tell. Obviously, I was mentally screaming and freaking out.

Someone had obviously been there so close to our tent while we were vulnerable and sleeping. I was thankful that we were okay and that we kept everything either in our tent or car, so nothing was taken, at least by my initial scan.

Our car was still there. I calmly, but quickly went back to the tent and I shook Heath awake. I told him what I saw and he still didn't seem worried about it, saying people were obviously trying to scare us. So I lied. I told him that I saw someone run into the trees. This made him finally get up,

but he still didn't look nearly as terrified as I was. Maybe he actually was, and was just good at hiding it. but I doubted it We'd been together for three years and I could easily read him He walked out and when he saw the animals He started gagging I finally got him to see my side of things

And we agreed to leave We quickly packed up And threw the barely collapsed tent in the back Carefully driving away We did a quick once over of the Jeep To make sure that there wasn't anything suspicious or dangerous I kept getting that feeling like we were being watched, so I kept looking out all of the windows and mirrors as he drove.

But of course, the creepiness couldn't end there. As we approached the entrance, waiting to turn out, I saw a figure standing by the campground maps. He was holding something, something that looked like a bat or a baton. Once we were finally out of there, I breathed to sigh. of relief, and told Keith what I saw and how absolutely backwood's scary movie everything we witnessed was. I could tell that he was concerned, too, but he said that it wasn't as bad as I was making

it out to be, instantly putting me in a worse mood. We found a hotel a few miles away and slept in my car in their parking lot right under a light. I was finally able to sleep behind a locked door and felt much better. The rest of the trip was nothing like that, thankfully. Keith and I are no longer together, but we are okay friends. I've brought it up a few times around him, and he still plays it off like I was overreacting. No wonder we didn't work out.

I haven't gone camping since, and yes, that experience is definitely part of the reason. It causes a bit of a panic attack for me to think about it, but I know that I need to move on and possibly try again. I still don't even know if those people were really just messing with us, wanting to scare us, or just being jerks. But there's still the possibility that they were planning something more sinister. I'm sure if I go with someone who trusts me more, it'll be a much better time, but...

Until then, I'll just be staying in a hotel. Back in the summer of 2016, I went on a solo backpacking trip across Europe, a trip that I'd wanted to do since I was a 13-year-old kid learning about Europe and history class. I say that it was across Europe, but it was mostly focused on one section, and most of that was Italy. There was one particular city that I wanted to spend time in, which was very very. Venice, the city on the water. With its maze of canals and historical architecture, it gives me the chills. I'm a nerd, I know. Anyways, Venice was my main destination, and let me tell you it did not disappoint.

But my story isn't about the beauty of the city. No, no. It's about one unforgettable and honestly bone-chilling encounter that I had while I was was enjoying my once-in-a-lifetime vacation. After a few days of sight-seeing, I decided to spend the day on the Lido, which is the island known for its beach. I arrived early with the intention of lazing around and just taking it easy. Now, I do what I can to not look too much like a tourist, but I am an American, and I hate to say

I know that I stood out. I'm sure that it was obvious that I wasn't a local. I speak enough Italian to order food and keep myself out of trouble, but beyond that, if the person speaking to me didn't know at least basic English, then we weren't chatting. While I was walking around taking in the sights the city, I accidentally bumped into this guy with a green jacket. I know that's a strange descriptor for him.

but it was a pale lime green, and it made him kind of obvious in the sea of people. When I bumped into him, I instinctively said, Oh, I'm sorry. I should have said it in Italian, but it was reactive to say it in English. The man looked at me with a bit of a grin and said, Not a problem. In English with a really heavy Italian accent. I nodded and turned to walk away, thinking that that would be the end of it, but it wasn't.

As the day went on, I started to notice that he was everywhere that I was. If it weren't for the green jacket, I probably wouldn't have noticed him, but I saw him numerous times throughout the morning. I thought maybe I was just crazy. Maybe he had a thing for me. Maybe he was an undercover police officer watching the tourist. I don't know, but I didn't want to assume the worst. A little voice in my head said to keep an eye on him, but I wasn't going to assume that he was going to do anything beyond just watch me,

and I would keep my guard up. But as the day went on, I kept noticing him. The cafe, the ice cream stand, even when I was at the beach. When I saw him at the beach, I'd had enough. I didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of, of another country, but I also didn't want to just lay down and accept some weirdo being, well, weird. I decided that I would confront him, show them that I knew that he was there, and that he wasn't sneaky.

But as I approached him, he looked me dead in the eyes, stood up from his seat, and walked away. That was strange, but I thought maybe he'd gotten the point. I stayed on the beach for the rest of the afternoon, just sitting there and absorbing the sunset, the sky being painted with this gorgeous orange and pink, and I was in heaven. After a bit longer, I decided that it was time for me to leave, but when I turned to grab my backpack, I froze. My backpack was missing. I jumped up trying to think about how it could have been taken.

I hadn't been in this spot for that long, but yet it was nowhere to be found. I started to scan the area with my panic rising. I needed that backpack. It had all my documents, my money, and my medications in it. And without all that, I was a foreigner with no papers in a country thousands of miles from home. But that's when I saw him. The man with the green jacket at a bit of a distance. holding what looked like my backpack.

He was walking away from the beach at a leisurely pace, not making it obvious that he was trying to escape. I took off after him at a full sprint. He kept on weaving his way through the narrow lanes of Lido, and I followed him. It felt like a nightmare, watching this man get away with basically my life, running but not seeming to make any progress on him.

Finally, he disappeared into a small, run-down building. Gathering every ounce of courage, I followed him in, figuring I was going to have to be aggressive to get my stuff back. The building was eerily quiet, my breathing being the only thing filling the silence. I turned the corner, and there he was. He was on the ground. He had dumped the contents of my bag and was sifting through my belongings. I confronted him yelling,

Hey, a-hole, anger overruling my fear by this point. He looked at me a bit surprised that I had found him, but he didn't really look too concerned. Then he started shouting at me in Italian, and I'm not even going to bother typing what he said, because I have no idea what it was. I just know that it sounded aggressive. He stood up, reached in his back pocket,

and he pulled out a switchblade. My heart skipped a beat, as I thought about the fact that I was now in a situation where I could very likely be killed or severely injured and probably not be found for a little while. He started walking towards me, waving his knife around, and continuing to say things that I honestly couldn't understand. As he approached me with clear intent to do me harm,

I had to think quickly on my feet to get out of this situation, and I did something that I was insanely proud of. He got within striking distance, and I lifted my leg, kicking him with all of my strength in the family jewels. I have strong legs. I was walking across a large portion of a country, so I'd been doing a lot of working out in physical training, and I know that I have a pretty damn strong kick.

He tried to swing at me when I made a lot of working out. to move, but I was definitely quicker, and my kick hit its target. Part of me thinks that he was expecting me to square up and we would just go man to man, or for me to just put my hands up in fear.

He really did not expect a swift kick in his manhood. He fell to his knees and he dropped the knife screaming in agony, and continuing to curse me in Italian. I knew some of those words, so

I knew that he was not in a good way. I ran over and shoved all my stuff back into my bag, and I booked it out of the building. I didn't even bother looking back, but I heard this guy yelling at me and groaning in pain. I got back out onto the streets, and honestly the cool evening air was rather welcoming. I ran back to the hotel,

and I did file a report with the police, but I don't think that. ever found the guy. Thankfully, that was the only bad thing that happened to me on this trip, and I didn't let it get to me, though I did keep my backpack around my arms at all times after that. Overall, I would rate the vacation a good four stars out of five. Italy is beautiful, Venice is amazing, and the Lido was an amazing relaxation spot, minus one star for the crazy guy in the green jacket that decided to swipe my bag, though.

In 2018, my girlfriend and I planned a fun and romantic camping slash road trip. We actually met on a group hiking trip that we both ended up on, so hiking and camping had always had a special meaning to us. This trip would be just as important. I was planning on proposing to her. I talked to my dad about it because I wanted to go to the same park slash campsite that he had taken me to as a kid. And he gave me directions and reminded me of the name of the place. I remembered how fun and peaceful it was, and I knew that I wanted to propose to Haley there. So we laid out our plans with that campground being our first stop.

I told Haley it was a good memory from my childhood and that I wanted to visit it. She understood and agreed, being none the wiser. The day of our trip came, and we set out early to beat the traffic. We lived out of state and the trip was going to end back up in our home state, hopefully being able to share the good news with both of our families, and then we would just have the drive back home. We only had one thing planned for our return drive, so it was going to be a more relaxed and unscheduled drive.

Anyways, the trip started off great. We visited a national park, climbed some rock walls, and rode horses. We tried a few local diners and met some pretty cool people along the way. Then it was the day for us to drive to the park where my plans were really going to take place. What I didn't account for was the thunderstorm that would be happening on our way there. Camping would not be an issue for us. We prepared by bringing some waterproofing stuff. knowing that's the nature of our home state, but you can never really account for how others will react in stormy weather.

Everyone was driving either way too slow or way too fast, and they would splash water at us, almost making us hydroplane at times. There were multiple accidents on the shoulders, and traffic was being redirected so much that it was just becoming a mess. We ended up getting off the highway and, for the most part, having better luck on backroads. It was getting pretty late, but we finally arrived at the park, and it had stopped raining. We'd stopped somewhere close by for food, neither of us wanting to make anything that night, so we got there on a full stomach, ready to set up our tent. We ended up just chilling in our tent that night, talking and reading until we were. we both fell asleep. When the morning came, I woke up before Haley and started making us breakfast.

After she woke up and we ate, we took some time to relax and prepare for our hike that day. When we set off, she was expecting to see new trails and hear stories from my childhood, I'm sure. I, on the other hand, was on a mission to find the perfect spot to propose. As the day was reaching its end, we made our way back to my childhood. to our camp to have dinner, and again relax for the night. I made sure to find a spot for us that was a bit more secluded so that no one else was around. But nothing was sacrificed for our privacy, as the sight was still beautiful. Being surrounded by the tall trees, that night was honestly perfect.

We had a fire going. It was actually a bit chilly as the storm had dropped the temperatures drastically. Haley stayed close by as we talked and listened to the crickets chirping and the occasional owl hooting and the rustling of the leaves in that same cool breeze. We relished in each other's company, and I knew that this would be perfect. I went to grab the small box from my bag in our tent, claiming that I needed something, but as I came out, I noticed a few things. The first thing was the confused look on Haley's face. I cocked my head to the side about to ask her what was wrong when she made a motion with her hands to listen.

I didn't hear anything. She said that was the problem. The park had fallen eerily silent. There wasn't a single chirp, hoots, or even the sound of leaves and wind. It was as if nature itself had paused. At first we tried to play it off as things being weird, but... Animals and insects can sense things, and maybe they could sense a threat. It could have easily been something bigger than them in the area.

I didn't personally feel unsafe at this point, as we had ways to protect ourselves, such as as bear mace. But the feeling I couldn't shake was the feeling of being watched by some unknown presence. I asked Haley about it, and she agreed, saying that something definitely didn't have to be. feel right. We both started looking around to see if we could spot someone or something, and it finally caught my eye. Across from our little setup, across from the trail, I could see the shadow of a figure in the trees. I didn't want to startle them and cause them to come running out towards me, so I calmly asked Haley if she saw it too, and she nodded. I continued to stare at

it's trying to figure out the best course of action. I still had the mace on me, so I pulled it off my clip and I held it, as I kind of greeted the shadow. I know it sounds dumb, but I didn't know what else to do. When they didn't budge, I walked a little closer to it, hoping to make out what it was that I was seeing. I still couldn't make out any details, but I could tell that the shadow was very short. It looked like something that was on all fours, so it had to be some kind of animal, I thought.

With this in mind, I thought that I could just scare it off, simple enough. My first attempt was to be as big and loud as possible, so I shouted and waved my arms. Now, all I saw up to this point was the dark figure. What I saw after I started shouting was the glowing eyes. that we're now looking in our direction. There was no light reaching that thing from our side, so how were the eyes glowing? Now getting a little unnerved,

I wanted to try harder to get them to leave, so I picked up a large nearby rock and chucked it at the thing. I started screaming again, walking a little more towards it, but keeping my car as separating us. You could tell the thing's eyes shifted downward, but then right back up towards me. This thing was not scared, but I was certainly getting there.

I was just about to direct Haley into the car, unsure of what this thing was and how dangerous it could be. I just knew that I would feel safer with us behind a metal barrier. As I turned to direct her to get in, I started getting this overwhelming feeling of dread, and I became horribly nauseous. Haley noticed, and she came to my side asking me what was wrong. I told her that whatever that thing is, it was not safe, and told her to get into the car.

She quickly got in, and without turning my back to that thing, I got in the driver's side and locked the doors. Knowing we were safe, I wanted to try to shine some light on this thing and figure out what it was. It was late enough that I didn't expect anyone to be coming up the path, so I was. so I thought I would try to do a sort of K-turn to face my headlights at this thing. However, as soon as I started my car, the thing started moving. We both froze as we watched to see where it would go, but watching this thing only gave us more unanswered questions

and creeped us out even more. We watched as it walked between the trees, heading down towards the way that my car was pointing. We caught glimpses of it as the moonlight hit it, and I was shocked by what we saw. It looked like a kid. It was walking on two legs, but was very short and small in stature. It had on either a hospital gown or maybe some old-looking dress, and it had long, unkempt dark hair. The part that took this back from shocking to unsettling was the way that they were walking.

It looked wholly unnatural. The movements were jagged and hard, almost like they didn't understand how knees worked or how to walk. It looked absolutely terrifying. I could tell that it scared Haley, too, as I noticed her hand tightly gripping my arm. We continued to watch as it walked through the trees and down to the other side of the hill, until it was completely out of view. Once we couldn't see it anymore, the overwhelming presence and sickness feeling led up,

and I felt like myself again, as well as relieved. We both agreed to sleep in the car instead, but we still needed to put out the fire. I agreed to do it alone, but she demanded to go with me. When we got out of the car, the sound we once heard had come back.

The breeze was there, and the crickets were right back at it, too. I really feel like they knew something wasn't right either. The next morning, everything was back to normal. There was nothing weird going on, and we both felt fine. We briefly recounted what we saw that night, and definitely agreed that in case it was an actual child, we should at least report it. We weren't planning on staying another night, so...

We packed up and drove to the front to tell a ranger what we saw that night. He seemed skeptical, but after showing him the area, he said he would look into it. Maybe I could have done more that night, but at the same time, that feeling was telling me not to approach it. I don't know what we witnessed that night, but I had never seen anything like it, and I hope that I never do again. Oh, and in case anyone is interested, we stopped at a cute little man-made waterfall that a lot of people took photos at.

It was part of that particular city's charm, and since my plans were a little skewed, that's where I proposed. And she said yes, so overall, still worth it. This happened to me and some friends, back when we took a girl's camping trip in 2013. It was a much-needed escape from our hectic lives at the time, filled with failed relationships, demanding jobs, and college stress. There were six of us total, and we were determined to have a blast together in the great outdoors. We had plans for a fire, some light drinking, swimming, and whatever else piqued our interest that weekend.

We found a great campground a few hours out of state. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, which kind of put some of us off to it, but after looking at the reviews more, it seemed like a pretty popular place, so we went to it. We all met up and squeezed into Dawn's SUV, preparing for a nice drive to our destination. When we arrived, there were already a few cars in the parking lot, so, again, it reassured us that at least other people were there. We wanted to hike through the grounds to find our spot, so we left the car in the parking lot. We only had three tents, and it didn't take much, so it was an easy hike around. Not to mention, this was in late spring, and it wasn't a very steep climb, so it was actually quite a pleasant walk. We got to one campground that would have been fine, but as we started plotting it out and talking about it,

the people in the nearby tents came back. The area was big enough for multiple tents, but the other occupants were two older couples, and they didn't look too happy with the idea of sharing the area with us. They were staring at us and looking pretty annoyed, so we decided to just keep walking. We didn't want people complaining and ruining our fun, so it was best to find a place just for us,

or with people closer to our age. Thankfully, it didn't take long to find one. We weren't entirely sure at the time if it was an actual plot for camping, but it was open and flat, and off the trails, so we figured that it would be okay. We set up our tents, started a fire, and we were ready to start our much-anticipated camping party. The first night we stayed near our tents, talking, drinking, The days and nights after were filled with even more laughter, bonding, and some pretty wild activities. We all started drinking pretty heavily, and as it normally goes, we started doing some pretty stupid things.

Val tried to climb one of the trees, and Jenna was really wanting to swim. The lake was pretty close by, so we all went for a late night swim, hoping that it would distract Val from trying to climb too. Once we got to the water, Jenna stripped down and jumped in, which caused a chain of reaction of everyone else following suit. It was pretty dark, and from what we could tell, we were alone. None of us felt scared, or like we were being watched, so we just enjoyed being carefree in the moment. Things got a little more intense, though.

When one of my friends got out first, put her clothes back on, and then grabbed the rest of our clothes, making us all have to get out and run back, wearing just about nothing. It was all in fun, though. Nobody was mad, and we were all still having a great time, not thinking about any of our responsibilities. At that moment, everything seemed perfect, and we thought that our worries were left far behind us at home. It wasn't until later that night, when we were all asleep, that things started to take a creepy turn. I woke up in the middle of the night for some reason. Maybe I was just adjusting, or something of the sort, but I started to hear a weird sound. It was a click, followed by a grinding or winding sound.

I heard this pattern three or four times before I finally sat up in my tent. It didn't sound next. and I was afraid to go there by myself, so I woke up Summer, who was sleeping in the tent with me. I told her to listen for the sound, but of course it didn't happen again. She was still pretty groggy, so she fell back asleep, but I was too invested at this point. I got out of the tents to look around, but instead of the clicking sound, I heard footsteps. I was startled at first, trying to find the source of the source of the same. the sound, when I saw Dawn running from out of the trees.

The look on her face told me everything. She looked just as frightened. She said that she had needed to use the restroom, but she started feeling like she was being watched, so she quickly finished up, but then she started hearing footsteps, footsteps that sounded like they were fast, like the person was running. This scared her enough to run back to our tents. We both sat awake for some time discussing what we had heard, and I brought up the clicking sound that I'd heard. She said that she heard it too when she was back in the trees.

When we ran out of ideas and the area was void of any weird sounds, we told each other that we should try to get some more sleep since we would be driving back the next morning. The next morning, the strange incident was pretty much forgotten about, and we continued to enjoy our adventure. We made a quick breakfast and some instant coffee and agreed to pack up so that we could take our stuff with us through the rest of the trail, expecting to just leave afterwards. As we started packing up, Summer pointed out a disposable camera that was on the ground. The only thing that struck us as odd at the time was that it was on the ground. Nikki was a photographer, she was going to school for it, and had already set her foot in the photography field.

field. However, Nikki preferred disposable cameras. She said that she liked the older look of the pictures, and she also developed them herself at her school. We all just assumed it was one of hers, handing it to her, and she agreed that it probably was hers as it was the same brand. She didn't know how it got outside, because she had several of them with her, but they were all in her bag, in her tent. We just joked about us being pretty. pretty messed up that night and left it at that. We packed up and finished our trip out of there and home, with nothing else significant happening.

A few weeks later, we were all back home continuing with our normal crazy lives. We started a group chat for the six of us, when we planned our trip, and decided to keep it going. It was a great way for all of us to stay connected. Then Nikki came into the chat and started asking us. asking who was taking photos of us sleeping. No one confessed to it. That's when she started becoming a bit more hysterical.

She was talking about how she was developing the film, looking at the photos, when she noticed certain things weren't adding up. She would be absent in a lot of the photos, as she was the one taking them, but there were times where she would hold it out to be in the photo too, or one of us would take it instead. But there was never a situation while we were camping that all of us could have been in the picture fully.

I think some of us were still in denial, me included, and trying to come up with some kind of explanation. So a few of us got together to look at them. I couldn't deny it anymore. As we went through the photos, there were far too many of us in candid moments. There were a few from us around the fire, but it got creepier when we saw the photos of us at the lake swimming. There was one of me running out of the water with nothing on. It was from a distance at the side, which was terrifying, because that would mean they were closer to the trees and trail going the opposite way of our campsite,

which means the likelihood of it being one of my friends was slim. There would be no reason for us to go. that way, especially when most of us didn't even have clothes on. And the worst ones we saw were the dark pictures of our tent. Then, it looked like the person holding the camera stuck their hand in the tent and snapped the photo of us. The camera was above us, angled down into the tent. And there were pictures of all of us, sleeping.

That's when it finally made sense to me as to what I was. hearing that night. The clicking was the camera shutter buttoned, and the winding was the winding from the camera. I woke up at some point while there was someone out there taking photos of us, and then Dawn said she also heard someone in the trees. We started piecing things together. Someone must have gone through our stuff at some point while we were walking around, and stole one of Nikki's cameras.

It had to be at that point because it had pictures of us around the fire, at the lake, and sleeping. But I'm guessing me waking up and talking to summer must have spooked them off, and they bolted. I'm assuming they meant to keep the camera, but dropped it. We were all thoroughly freaked out at this point. Knowing someone was close enough to take these pictures, we were all in vulnerable position. and anything could have happened, but I'm thankful that they at least didn't have the courage to do anything else. Nikki said that she was still glad we found the camera,

so that we knew someone didn't keep naked and sleeping pictures of us. But just knowing that it happened, it was still plenty enough to freak us all out. Everyone wanted her to get rid of the pictures, not wanting to remember that, but she did confide in me that. that she kept the ones of herself. The whole situation still creeps me out,

but I do my best not to dwell on it. There wasn't really anything we could do about it anyways, so we just agreed that we wouldn't ever return to those campgrounds, and I hope that I never find creepy pictures like that of me again. Reese's peanut buttercups are the greatest, but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's see, so... No, that's a good thing.

That's definitely not a problem. Rees is you did it. You stumped this charming devil. This encounter is the first of several unexplained incidents, which occurred during my time as a security officer at a large cosmetics facility between 2001 and 2008. I worked exclusively for the cosmetics company, rather than as a contractor,

and therefore was very familiar with, the site. And it's strange, often unsettling atmosphere. That said, I was not one who was phased by such things and had no issue being there. I was working a night shift on this particular evening and began a perimeter patrol of the site. At the time, only one department was working and they were scheduled to finish at midnight. The site was huge, having seven separate buildings, as well as an additional office complex and warehouse facility, and as such we usually operated a three-man security team. On this occasion, however, it was just me on shift, which I didn't mind at all, as I do prefer the quiet, truth be told. As all the other buildings were secured and alarmed,

I decided to begin an outside sweep of the remaining block of units, which were still operational. This was approximately 11.45 p.m. All exterior windows and fire doors were closed, and the outside canopy gates were padlocked, leaving just the main entry and exit door open. My watch beeped to signal that it was midnight, and, on cue, staff began exiting the building. I said goodnight to the procession of workers and had a brief chat with the shift supervisor, who confirmed that all staff had finished for the evening and that he had secured his office. With that, I entered the building and locked the door behind me, standard security procedure.

The next five or ten minutes were uneventful, as I walked through the units, turning off lights and double-checking the doors and windows were secured. I then needed to register that the fire alarm panel was code green and had no issues. The panel was housed in the furthest corner of Unit 32, so I headed down there, reaching the panel and confirmed that all was fine. I switched the area light off and turned to head back up to the main door when there was a sudden explosion of noise. I was initially startled, and then quickly composed myself enough to make sense of what I was hearing.

It was a song, coming from what I was a song. coming from what I assumed was one of the wall-mounted radios in the next unit. The volume was so loud that you could hear the speakers crackling, but you could clearly understand what song it was. Don't worry, be happy, by Bobby McFerrin. I knew the song, but not the singer. Now, I knew the building was empty. After all, I had watched staff leave and locked the door behind me,

as well as having walked through all the units checking doors and turning off lights. But even still, I reason that the radio had perhaps been set on a timer, to turn on after midnight as a jump scare prank to the security guise. I was about ten meters away from where the radio was when the sound abruptly stopped, from ear-piercingly loud to nothing. Complete silence. I instinctively grabbed my torch from my belts, now unsure if someone was in there with me after all. I turned the corner from Unit 32 into Unit 30, and my heart froze.

The radio was there, mounted to the wall, the power cable plugged into the wall with the plug switch off. I just stood there staring at it. My mind racing, along with my heart, who had turned it off? Who had turned it on? I spun around shining my torch in all directions, but there was nobody there. I glanced at my watch. It was 12.20 a.m. I was about to approach the intruder alarm panel when I heard a loud bang coming from the supervisor's office.

The locked supervisor's office. Then another bang, and then another, and then another. each getting louder and louder. The best way I can describe it is if you imagine someone trying to kick or shoulder down a locked door repeatedly. I reached from my mobile phone instinctively thinking there was an intruder in the building. Then the banging suddenly stopped. My heart was thumping.

I knew that the correct protocol was to call this in and have the police attend sight. I pressed the phone to a phone to a sudden sight. open up the call function and the screen said, no service. Something inside me said, maybe this isn't an intruder after all. I noticed I was breathing heavily and that I could see my breath. It was freezing. Yet outside, it had been quite a mild evening up until then. I walked to the intruder alarm panel, typed in the security code and asked the system to run a check.

no faults found. I activated the alarm, a loud beep, beep, beep, beep sound indicating a 30-second countdown time to exit the building before the alarm is live. I knew that if someone was in the building, any movement would be picked up by the sensors and the alarm would trigger, sending a signal to the monitoring company who would contact keyholders in the event that security do not answer. I stepped outside, locked the door, and waited. The final alarm beep sounded.

It was set. Then nothing. Where was the activation? Any movement would set it off. A minute passed, then two, still nothing. Again, that inner voice was telling me that it's not an intruder. I looked at my phone, full service. Do I ring the police?

And say what? A radio turned on and off by itself? The invisible man was trying to break down the door. That the alarm was set but had not been triggered? I did another perimeter check of the building. All doors and windows were secured. I headed back to the security office. The rest of the shift was uneventful.

No alarm activations. I did a handover with the table. day manager and I noticed he gave a funny look when I recalled the incident from that night. I was back on shift the following evening, but this time we were double-manned. I was paired up with a veteran called John. I told him what had happened and he seemed skeptical, asking why the alarm had not activated if something was in there with me. He then said that he didn't believe in ghosts and all that nonsense. "'Great,' I said.

"'Then you won't mind locking up that block of units tonight.' "'At this point, I still hadn't come up with a reasonable conclusion as to what had happened. "'I knew what I heard was real. "'I had felt the sudden coldness. "'I saw my breath. "'I still had a nagging feeling within that something rather than someone was behind those strange events. "'The shift proceeded with John. and I taking turns patrolling and locking the various buildings.

It was nearing midnight and John decided that we should both lock up units 26 through 32. I couldn't tell if he was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, there was something to my story. We headed down there. Same as the night before. We did our checks, said goodbye to the staff, turned off the lights, and secured all the doors and windows. There was no rebrand, repeat of the previous night. No radio, no song, no banging and no sudden drop in temperature. So, we set the alarm.

As we're walking away from the building, the alarm beeping away, John nudges me and says, so much for your ghosts, huh? Just as the alarm countdown ends. I was about to respond when the intruder's siren started blasting out, lights flashing, illuminating our faces enough for me to see the color drain from John's. John composed himself seeing my reaction to his.

Uh, let's go check it out, eh? We re-entered the building, the alarm deafening us as we approached the panel. John entered his code, the siren stopped. We checked the panel log which detailed which sensor had been activated. Unit 32 Wicket door. We turned to the corner and froze. John raising his torch to see the solid steel door unbolted and swinging to and fro. We both stood there in silence.

That door had been bolted by myself, and John giving it a kick for good measure to make sure the magnetic contacts touched. That's impossible. That door can't be opened from the outside when the bolt is locked. You locked it. I saw you. John and I re-secured the building, with no further alarms that night. We never did find a plausible reason for the radio, the banging, the cold spots, the door opening by itself. John left his position two months later.

I'm convinced it was because of what happened. As for me, I knew that something unexplained and perhaps even paranormal was at play. The next few months actually confirmed that suspicion. but that's another story. For another day. I have a strange but scary situation that happened to me back whenever I was 13. My parents both worked, and I didn't have an older sibling or any nearby family, so I was left home alone, a lot.

I know that's not the best parenting, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they did the best with what they had. If they could have afforded someone to watch me, I know that they would have done so. I wasn't a bad kid. I would just stay home and watch TV or play my PlayStation. And normally there weren't any issues. On this day, the sun was setting, lighting up the living room through the side window, and making me feel like I was about to doze off while I ate my pizza rolls

and watched some late afternoon cartoons. In the middle of me starting to close my eyes, I was jolted awake by a loud, pop. I shot up from the couch throwing my plate of pizza rolls on the floor. The sound was like a balloon bursting or a firecracker, but a hundred times louder. Looking around the room, I couldn't see anything amiss. The window was intact, the outlet hadn't burst into flames, nothing like that. I glanced out the window to see if someone was out there, but I didn't see anybody. I started picking up my pizza rolls and blowing them off to get the carpet bits off of them.

I was 13, so I was still going to eat them. As I was picking them up, listening to the sound of the TV and waiting to see if anything else happened, I jumped again at the sound of the doorbell ringing. I froze, but then it was right. rang again. And I figured that I should do something. I shouted, Who is it?

As I walked over to the door and reached for the knob. I heard a voice say something on the other side, but I couldn't tell what he said. All I could tell was that he was out of breath. I pulled the door open slightly, thinking that if I didn't open it all the way, whoever it was couldn't get to me. I asked him who he was and what it was that he was. wanted. The man on the other side of the door was a large and quite burly guy, sweating heavily, and his face was a bright red. His voice was weak, almost like he was trying to not let anybody hear

him. He asked, Are your parents home, kid? I should have lied, but in my nervousness I blurted out. Oh, no, they're not home. They will be soon, though. I still don't know why I told this guy that, but I did. But then the man spoke again after taking a deep breath. Uh, all right. Could you call 911 for me, son? I've been shot.

Wait, what? My eyes widened in shock. He moved his hands slightly, and sure enough, I saw the red stain on his shirt. He wasn't kidding. This wasn't some kind of joke or anything. He had been shot. Without another word, I dashed back into the house, fumbled with the phone and dialed 911.

The operator picked up and asked me where the emergency was, and I never knew how stressful calling 911 actually was. As I explained the situation, I could hear the disbelief in the operation. operator's voice, but she assured me that help was on the way. The man staggered over to our porch and dropped down sitting heavily against the side of the house. I think those sirens were the most comforting sound that I have ever heard. Paramedics rushed to the man, applying pressure to his wound and loading him onto a stretcher,

and they were gone as quickly as they showed up. Obviously the cops showed up too, and my parents came home in the middle of the chaos, returning home with a sense of terror, I'm sure. The cops were kind, but their questions were a bit pointed. I repeated my story again and again. The pop, the man, the blood. Eventually my parents took over, and I was left to sit on the couch, the adrenaline wearing off, leaving me feeling high.

hollow and a bit shaky. A few days later we got the news that the man had survived, thanks in part to my call. I felt pretty good about myself when the officer told me that I had probably saved that man's life. That pride was a bit short-lived, though. I was actually somewhat terrified to stay home alone, and my parents weren't willing to leave me there. I'm pretty sure that we all had a bit of PTSD. me from the whole situation, and them from coming home to a bunch of cops stationed outside their house. I was honestly okay with them not being willing to let me stay home anymore.

To be completely honest, I feel like this event made me grow up a bit quicker than I should have. I didn't really feel like a hero, though they told me I had done a good thing. I felt scared and vulnerable And like my home wasn't the safe haven I'd once thought it was It's one thing to see someone get shot in a movie It's another thing to see a gunshot wound within a couple feet of your face I had some nightmares about the whole thing for a while And I had this weird fear that I was going to wake up to one of my parents being shot

something that obviously never happened, but still weighed heavy on my mind. I know that all sounds a bit dramatic, but it's true. I was a bit too young to be thinking about my mortality, but if someone could shoot someone like that in my neighborhood, what was to stop them from doing it again? Would I get shot while walking to my friend's house? Being confronted with those kinds of things that early in your teens, it kind of changes you.

And while I'm now an adult and have never been faced with anything like that since, and seeing that man hold his stomach like that is a visual that I will never forget. Stacart makes grocery shopping easier. And just because you're not doing the shopping yourself doesn't mean you don't care how it's done. With Instacart shopper notes, you can get particular about what you want right in the app, Like rotisserie chicken that's extra crispy, cheddar that's sharp as your skates, and lettuce you to actually pick yourself. Just leave a note for your shopper so they can get it right for you without having to ask. That way, you can get groceries just how you like.

Download the Instacart app and shop today. I have a bit of a strange and potentially creepy story that I've toyed with sending into you. And after I worked out some of the details with my wife, I decided why not. The story is about a vacation that my wife and I took a few years back, one that I could probably never forget if I tried. We don't get the chance to really take vacations anymore, because we have a little one, but most of our vacations were fairly normal and uneventful.

This one, however, was anything but. After talking about what we wanted to do for some time away, We settled on a quaint little beach town for our vacation. It was a little picture-perfect kind of place, the kind where the houses have all those neat little flower boxes hooked to the windows, and everyone knows each other. We'd rented out this adorable little old cottage off the beaten path, surrounded by woods,

and only a couple moments away from the ocean. It was our first night there, and the place was dead quiet. Not the kind of quiet where you can hear the sirens or cars on the highway off in the distance. No, this was that deep and almost unnatural silence. I was sitting on the porch, the cool evening breeze carrying the scent of the ocean to me, with the moon illuminating the woods around us in this pale and eerie glow. It was probably the most soothing and peaceful thing I have ever experienced in my life. We were sitting on the swinging bench on the front porch, just taking in the beautiful night.

When somewhere in the distance we heard a soft rustling. Initially, I passed it off as the wind, but then I thought that I saw something, or rather saw someone, out of the corner of my eye. I turned to the left to look at the edge of the woods, and sure enough, there was a figure that was definitely human-shaped, just kind of standing there still as a statue. It kind of creaked me out. But after a few moments, my logical side kicked in, and I figured that it must just be a neighbor out for a late-night stroll. After a few seconds of them just kind of standing there, they turned to walk back into the woods slowly.

And this kind of put me in a weird place mentally. So I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to go ahead and head to bed. She agreed, and that was that. But that wasn't the end of it. The figure became a bit of a recurring sight, seemingly just there late in the evening, just standing on the edge of the woods. The strangest part was that every night we saw it,

it would just stand there on the edge of the woods. It never got closer to the cottage or really further end. into the woods at all. It would just stand there in the same spot until it decided it was done. Then it would turn around and disappear. Honestly, it felt like it was watching us. And as much as I wanted to believe

that this was just some person being a creep or whatever, I couldn't really convince myself of it. I remember one night lying awake in bed. The room was feeling unsettlingly quiet. it. Then, there it was again. That rustling. But this time it was louder, closer. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. My heart pounded as I slowly walked toward the window and slowly parted the curtain. The moonlight lit up some parts of the outside area, but not enough to highlight what I was looking for. As my eyes adjusted, I was able to see that the figure was

once again outside, only this time it was closer. It wasn't on the edge of the woods anymore. It was just on the edge of the yard. I couldn't make out its features, but I could tell that it was staring right at me, watching me in the window. I felt that cold dread settle in my stomach. I woke my wife up and we called the local police. I didn't tell them there was some weird creature in the yard.

I just told them that there was some weird creature in the yard. I just told them that that some person was creeping around the house. By the time they got there, the thing was gone. They did a quick sweep, and by the end of it, told us that it was probably just a local, mostly harmless, but definitely odd. He told me that, if it happened again, to just yell at them to leave. And if they didn't, then I should call them again. For the last three nights there, we were incredibly jumping.

and every single noise would cause me to get those same chills. But the thing wasn't around anymore. I thought that it was seriously gone. Like, they may have been right, and the police presence ended up scaring this person away. On the last night of our stay, I remember waking up suddenly, like some alarm had gone off in my head.

I sat up and listened, but it was pretty much just the normal silence. until I heard what sounded like a slight creaking sound. I knew that creaking. It was the sound that the front step on the porch made when you approached the front door. I jumped up, grabbed my phone, and turned on the flashlight, and I ran down the stairs. When I got down to the living room, there was nobody there.

I hit every switch on the way, lighting up all the rooms, but there was nothing in the house. However, when I got to the entryway, my heart stopped. The door was cracked open, like it had been unlocked, opened, and left slightly ajar. I yelled for my wife to call the cops, and I jumped out onto the front porch. But there was nothing there. I stayed outside and waited for the cops to show up again, and I told them about the whole thing, that I'd heard the boards creaking and that the front door was open,

and that I thought that it was whoever or whatever had been watching the house over the last week or so. They took the information and told us that they would patrol the area, which was great, except that we were leaving in less than eight hours. I did not sleep the rest of that night. I just sat on the couch in the living room and watched the window, thinking that this stupid thing had ruined my relaxation. I have no idea what or who that thing was. It didn't really look like it was a human, just human-like.

But the police said it was likely someone from the area just being a creep, and I'm certain that whatever it was, was capable of unlocking and opening the front door. I'm glad that nothing else occurred, that it didn't come upstairs and we weren't hurt or anything. but it was still the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me. In the end, I'm never going to know what it was, and I am never going to vacation in that town ever again.

I have a story from a while back, one time when I was home alone. I live in a somewhat old house with my girlfriend, and she was at her mom's house helping take care of her dad. Not really relevant, but he'd been in a small house. an accident and she wanted to get out there to see them. The house that we lived in was an older house, a single-story house with a basement that was built a long time ago.

It had its old house quirks, creaking floorboards, drafts that played tricks with the doors, so forth and so on. It was a chilly November evening, a real teeth chatterer, the kind where you could see your breath fog up in the air, even when you could see your breath fog up in the air, even when you were. were inside. Since it was just me in the house, the house was mostly silent, save for the occasional groan of the timber

and the pattering of freezing rain smacking against the window. Most times, that kind of night would have been perfect for curling up under a blanket with my Kindle and a cup of cocoa. And that's actually what I planned. I figured it would be a nice evening

of some self-care until all this went down. I had just finished my chapter in my book, when the power just completely shut off. I don't mean like flicker. I mean a full-on plunging into an inky and disorienting darkness. None of the lights were on, the TV shut off, and even the glow of the streetlights had disappeared. The only thing I could see was the faint shimmering of the ice and the snow in the moonlight. I sat there, frozen for a moment, just trying to really figure out what I should do.

I remember fumbling around for my phone, but when I hit the button, I saw that I was at 3%, and it wouldn't turn the flashlight on because the battery was too low. This was a pretty bad situation to be in. No power, no heat, and a phone that would last for probably five minutes if I had to to use it. I wasn't really sure what I should do. I figured that I should go ahead and check the circuit breaker in the basement, just to be sure that it wasn't a power surge or something.

I went over to the kitchen, and I rifled around to find a flashlight. When I finally found one, I opened the door and went downstairs into the cold concrete pit that we called a basement. I trotted around the boxes and things that we had down there, to get over to the circuit breaker. I opened it, and before I flipped the main breaker, I paused.

I heard what sounded like the floorboards creaking, like they were being walked on. I listened intently, thinking that it was just the house shifting, but being unwilling to just let it go. But after a couple of seconds, I heard a very specific click that happens when you walk from the living room into the kitchen.

There's a specific floorboard that makes a popping sound if you step on it, and only when you step on it. That sound doesn't happen as the house shifts. It only happens when the board actually has weight on it. So, at this point, I knew for certain that there was someone walking on the floor. But this made no sense. It was about 10 o'clock at night. It was snowing out, and why would someone be out in this storm?

And why or how would they have broken into my house? I slowly made my way back to the staircase to go upstairs, half expecting to see someone standing up there. I just stood there and listened for a moment, as I heard a very distinct sound of someone stepping slowly, opening the drawers and cabinets and shutting them and then moving on. I was even more confused on what to do. Now, I'm not the biggest guy, and I was in my boxers and a bathrobe, with nothing more than a dollar store flashlight to defend myself.

Should I go up and confront this intruder? Should I stay down here and hide and just let them do what they want to do? I decided to do the latter, figuring that if I went up there and they had a weapon, they would be able to take me down like I was nothing. I stood there, staring up into the dark stairwell, watching a beam of light shift around the room through the slightly cracked door. The entire time I could feel my heart pounding, hoping that whoever this was would not open the basement door

and see me standing there. After a few very long seconds of waiting, the lights popped back on. The motor of the fridge started up and the heater system kicked back on, the silence being completely broken by the hum of various electronics. I heard those soft steps change very quickly

to fast and heavy ones, stepping across the kitchen into the living room and back toward the front door. I took this operation. to run up the stairs, and if they weren't in the kitchen anymore, I could grab a knife to defend myself. When I got to the top, I grabbed the knife from the block and turned to the living room, half expecting to have to fight off some random person. But there was no one there.

I looked down, and I saw the trail of wet, snowy footprints. They headed towards the door that was now sitting wide open. the snow blowing into the entryway. So, at least then I knew that this was a person, and I wasn't losing my mind. From what I could tell, this person had entered and only gone into the kitchen. I don't think they had enough time to really go anywhere else. And the lights clicking back on probably spooked them.

I looked out into the front yard and down the street, and I didn't see anyone, so I assumed that whoever it was ran off to the side through the yards. In the end, I have no idea who this was or what they wanted, nor do I know how they got in. I swear that I locked the door, but I guess it's possible that I had forgotten to do so. The other thought that rocked my brain was that, if I had taken literally another minute or two, to go downstairs or just stayed on the couch, we would have come face to face,

and I would have been a sitting duck if he had a gun or a knife. I'm actually kind of glad that I decided to go downstairs, as that decision may have actually saved my life. Okay, I wanted to send this story in for ages, and I finally got around to it. I hope you and your subscribers like it, Raven. Right after COVID happened and things began to open back up, my family and I were going stir-crazy being in the house all day, every day,

for near enough years. We didn't and couldn't really do any international travel, so instead we decided to go down to one of the more secluded beaches in a friend's renovated van. It would give us privacy, and we could leave whenever we wanted to. We ended up getting into some minor debts afterward, and that meant we had to do some things on the cheap. I napped nearly the whole way down to the beach, ignoring everyone. I woke up to the windows open and the smell of the ocean coming through.

It was really nice to go out into the warmth and to run around on the beach. There were barely any people there. but that also meant that there were no lifeguards either, and no red or yellow flags to say that it was being monitored. There were some families and some older couples. I'm guessing retirees who were walking around with their dog. It was a beautiful day, one that I'm going to remember forever. When dusk started to settle in, my dad broke out the barbecue

and started to cook for the family, while mom and I prepared the salad. We ate together watching the waves come in and made sure that we weren't too close due to the rising tide. We got some videos for Facebook to send to our rellos overseas and for our social medias. I was going to send some beach pictures for you to show on the screen, but I don't want anyone to find us. We packed up and settled in for the night. Since I had already slept earlier, I was wide awake. and I couldn't sleep.

I sat using my iPad mindlessly trying to find something to do when I heard a noise outside the van. It sounded like a group of people walking past. They were being loud, and I figured maybe they were drinking. I frowned, turned up my music, and tried to drown it out, and jumped when I heard a loud smack on the side. My dad had already woken up, and he went outside with the torch. a flashlight, but that's what Aussies call them.

My family are Aboriginal, and let's just say there were racist slurs written on the side of the van. I'm not going to repeat them, but they were pretty disgusting. The next morning we cleaned it off and went to one of the local fish and chips shops. We got our food, and my mom loves to have a yarn or chat with people. She brought up what happened last night. The lady was pretty apologetic and said that the area had had an increase in racist groups in the town. When we decided to come here, we had no idea about this, and she asked how long we were going to stay. My dad said a couple more days.

I think if he was by himself, he would have stayed in the same area, but because he had us with him, he wanted to keep us safe. We drove to another area This time it was close to a strip of stores And we got permission from the owners to stay there Especially after we told them what had happened That night was uneventful We didn't want to let the racist win So we went back to the beach to spend some time there again

We had a good day And we didn't let things get to us as hard as it was There were a few groups of people walking around and we were people watching and trying to work out whether they were the racists who wrote the slurs on the vans. That said, so many people were welcoming and friendly to us. When the sun started to go down again, we started to pack up, and it kind of sucked. We had permission to be there, and being so close to the ocean was beautiful. But it changed the trip.

My dad was tense, and my mom. was worried the whole time. I wasn't too worried. I figured they would only try something again at night, because that's what cowards tend to do. Other than some suspicions and some dirty looks from some of the locals, I'm not sure who it was. When we came back home, we told our family about what had happened,

and they were honestly surprised about the area. Since I was curious, I decided to do some digging into it, and there was a supposed increase in hate groups in that section of town. The area was otherwise beautiful, and most people were all right, and I guess that things could have gone worse. Hi, Raven, how are you? I hope you're good. Oh, thank you, subscriber. I hope you're doing well as well. My family used to travel around the country a lot.

We're from the U.S. This was during the late 90s and early 2000s. My parents had a stay in an RV, in tents, in motels and hotels, anything and everything, because they wanted us to be well-grounded and get a chance to see the country. My parents were the easy-going hippie types that had a more lax method of parenting. So it wasn't weird for my siblings and I to curse, run around, not. pay attention, and it was kind of a mixed result with the three of us. I'm not going to name the town because a majority of the people who lived and worked there were great people, and it's not

fair for them to be associated with any of this. We arrived at a hotel room somewhere in the desert beside an old highway that had certainly seen better days. Fortunately for this spot, people were drawn here for tourism reasons. I didn't know what was so exciting about this old town. We got to stay in a hotel that was supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a lady who owned it back in the 1800s or something. I think she'd been killed by someone who was staying the night, but I don't remember. I wish I had paid attention, but as a kid, I didn't care, and I just wanted to run around. It was one of those old ghost towns that draws in tourists, if that helps.

We unpack our things and we settled in for the night. I shared a room with my little brother who only shuts up when he goes to sleep. He was chatting away and I was ignoring him when I heard whispering coming from the room. There was an old built-in closet, possibly in addition from the 70s. I thought it was my dad playing a trick on us. and I opened the door. But no one was there. I kept hearing it and looked around for the sound.

My little brother had already fallen asleep. When I woke up the next morning, I told my parents about it, and I asked them if it was them. They said no, and they teased me saying that the ghost must have visited me. I told them that it sounded like a male voice, though. We asked the lady at the front desk about,

it, and I hated how everyone took this as a joke. She said that this town has its fair share of violence, and there were a lot of people who died. Their bodies went unclaimed by the city morgue and were buried in the local graveyard. Maybe one of these ghosts were the ones who visited me. I hated her stupid condescending face, and as a kid I wanted to hit her so hard. I didn't say anything, and my family left to go about our day. We saw the sights, had lunch and dinner at the local places, and then came back for our final night. I was exhausted, and I wanted to sleep so badly.

I didn't care if there was a ghost in my room. I walked up to my room and saw that housekeeping had given us clean sheets. I started to change my clothing for bed, when I noticed what looked like that. like a red light on the wall that I hadn't noticed before. I got up off the bed, walked over, and stared at it. Now, around the room were random antiques to add realism, I guess, to the history of the place. I moved the wooden dolls out of the way and discovered that a camera had been placed there. The camera was much larger than the ones today, obviously.

My brother and I hadn't damaged anything in the room, and we only had a little bit of conversation. We were mostly quiet, nothing to warrant a camera, and especially not somewhere where two minors were changing. I ran into my parents' room, told them what happened, and I practically dragged them into my room to show them what I was talking about. My parents are normally incredibly easy-going people. Live and let live is their motto. But this, this made them incredibly angry. They asked us to call the police, and they took the camera. A report was made, but ultimately no one knew who had placed the camera in there, nor why.

We stayed in our parents' room, because we didn't have any other options, and we left as soon as we could. I think my parents just wanted to get us home to where we would feel safe. My parents actually changed after that. They became a lot less trusting of strangers, and they wanted to know what we were doing way more often. We also didn't go on as many family trips like we used to. I changed too.

I actually check rooms for cameras now whenever I go anywhere. But that was my experience, Raven. I'm sorry that this wasn't that long, but I hope that you and your listeners can all enjoy it. Back when I was around 16, my parents wanted to get out of the house and take a vacation for their 20th anniversary. They toyed with the idea of taking me with them, but I mentioned that, being 16, I could handle myself for a couple of days. and that they should just go take their vacation and enjoy their time together. They were a bit hesitant at first, but I pushed them into it. I didn't have any plans on doing anything crazy.

I just wanted some time to myself more than anything. So, I was happy when they said that they would let me stay home. The house was in a good neighborhood, one that had pretty much zero crime or issues. so there wasn't anything that I was worried about at all. It was a rarity to have some time alone, so I was taking this opportunity to work on my culinary skills. I decided that I wanted spaghetti, and yes, it was a challenge for 16-year-old me.

I was straining the pasta and stirring the sauce, and was happy that I had somehow managed to not burn everything, when there was a very loud knock on the door. I was a bit confused. I wasn't expecting anybody. My parents hadn't told me anyone was coming over. I thought that it might have been a friend of mine from school, but the knocking was very heavy and loud.

So it wasn't likely. I thought that it might have been maybe a delivery person, or something like that, so I figured I could just. ignore it and get back to my culinary masterpiece. I had just added the pasta back to the pot and poured the sauce over it when I heard the loud banging on the door again. When I glanced over at the door, I saw what looked like someone walking past the front window, and saw what looked like police lights out on the street.

This completely changed my thought process. The loud banging was probably an awful, officer at my door and I probably shouldn't ignore them. My mind went to why they were there, and for some reason, I immediately thought about the possibility of my parents having gotten into an accident. I turned off the stove and quickly stepped over to the door. What happened next happened very quickly, and I want to say that it was probably only a couple of seconds, but it felt like it was moving in slow motion. I unlocked the door and went to open it, half expecting the officer to tell me that my parents

were dead. But as soon as I had opened the door, I was met with the business end of an automatic rifle, and numerous men screaming at me to put my hands up, to get down on the ground and to not move. My mind was rushing, incredibly confused on how we were. confused on how I was supposed to put my hands up and get on the ground without moving. But I ended up just putting my hands up and getting on my knees as quickly as I could, thinking I was about to be shot.

I had no idea what was going on, why they were pointing guns at me, why they were even there, and I'm pretty sure that I started bawling immediately. One of the officers grabbed my hands and pulled them behind my back, and then pulled me away from the door, while the other officers, the ones with the bigger guns, pushed into the house and started shouting. I was so confused.

But the officer pulled me over to his car and put me in his back seat and then started to explain things to me. He asked me for my name, how old I was, what was going on, etc. I told him all I could, that I was 16. that I was making dinner and that I didn't know why they were there.

He then asked me who else was in the house, and I told him no one. I told him that my parents were out of town for the weekend, and that I was just home-making spaghetti. And at this point, I know for a fact that I was bawling. He tried to calm me down, and after the SWAT team had cleared the house, they came out and one of them decided to talk to me some more. He told me that they had gotten a call, saying that there were two men that had broken into the house, and that they were holding the family in the house hostage, and that these men had already killed the children.

He was very thorough with the details about what they were told. I told him that none of that had happened, that it was just me, and that I was making dinner for myself. This was such a terrifying and confusing, situation, and they had me call my parents so that they could talk to them. They confirmed the information that I had given them, and then they explained what had happened. Come to find out, for some reason, completely unknown to myself and my parents, I was swatted. Someone had called in a swat on my house, telling them about these murderous guys that never existed.

and what their overall goal was is anyone's guess. The whole situation is one that I will never forget. I will never get rid of the visuals of having multiple guns pointed at me, get the sound of their screaming at me out of my head. If any of those officers had had an itchy trigger finger, gotten the wrong idea about me or my actions, I honestly could have died. I am grateful that nothing went wrong, that they handled it correctly, but it doesn't make it any less terrifying.

I never thought that I'd be able to tell a story like this, and not be exaggerating or lying altogether. But I assure you all that word for word what you are hearing is a genuine retelling of an incredibly eerie experience that has been ingrained in my mind. I've experienced a lot of horrifying things in my years, but all of these are moments that life deals people sometimes. This, however, I just cannot seem to wrap my head around, no matter how much time passes by. When I was somewhere around seven years old, I had recently been into collecting dolls. I loved the ones with the pretty hair and fluttering eyes that were big enough to hold in your arms. The very first one I got, I picked out myself. She was a preppy pink ballerina that I proudly named Ivy.

Within the first month or two, I brought her over with me to visit my grandparents for the week. All was well, and I couldn't have been happier with my new toy. That's when things began to get strange. I would be out in the living room playing with Ivy and leave her to sit in one of the chairs. we would go out to shop for groceries or something of the like, and I'd come back to find her in a vastly different location, sometimes sprawled out, or positioned as if she was mid-task in somewhere like the laundry room or kitchen.

My grandparents refrained from saying anything for a while, as we all sort of collectively assumed that it was just a coincidence, or, even more likely, we had imagined the whole thing. It began to get more and more unsettling as we left several more times to come back to the same thing. It was getting more noticeable each time. Things like this started happening on an even quicker time scale as well, where, in a matter of minutes of leaving a room, Ivy would have her arms raised up by her head when I specifically remembered having them down.

I wanted to be big and strong, but I was scared. I didn't want to be dismissed or called silly, but I couldn't do it any longer. I went to my grandma, who turned out to be pretty chill about the whole thing. I asked her what I should do. She told me to keep pushing the doll's arms down so I could know for a fact that something was happening. So I did. They continued to move up time and time again. The general vibe in the household grew heavier and merely.

days. Things felt tense, stressful, as if we were always checking behind our backs. This was nothing but the beginning. More significant events started happening. My grandpa went for a nap in the bedroom at one point. I stayed in the living room with my grandma watching TV. I had stopped paying attention to Ivy at that point as she lay face down on the couch. That was until my grandpa came back, restless, in about an hour, saying that he kept being jolted awake by something, and that his face stung a bit. We then found Ivy on the floor next to a fly swatter. It was like she had teleported, and I just can't explain it.

I imagine that some of you must be thinking that this was some sort of practical joke played by my grandparents, which it wouldn't have been unheard of in the slightest. The thing is, that doll was left entirely alone and untouched in every scenario. I've considered every possible explanation as I've gotten older, but we've come up with nothing in all of these years. We absolutely would have seen him leave the bedroom, walk in front of us, pick up the flice water, and go back to the bedroom to stage the whole thing. It was just us three in the doll in the house.

and my grandma never left the room either. My grandpa seemed to have genuine distress in his voice, and as a heavily superstitious person, he was quite upset with the whole thing. He wanted Ivy gone. Occurrences like this kept happening over the next day or two. The true boiling point was on the final day of my stay. I'd had enough, and I put her away in the spare bedroom.

I vividly remember how I had her positioned, arms down, on her back, tucked under neatly made covers. The light was turned on. I left the room and I shut the door behind me. A few seconds later, not even having walked away yet, I felt compelled to double check. It's like something was urging me to take a look, so I did. I shouldn't have. The room was dark. The covers had been pulled back, an ivy lied on her side.

One arm outstretched towards the light switch. I didn't bother to interfere that time. I noped the hell out of there, and luckily was able to lock the door from the outside. That night, I dreamt that I was dancing with a life-sized ivy. She didn't speak, and she remained unblinking until her gaze shifted towards me, and she uttered the words, I'm always watching you. I was immediately shaken.

I began to cry and now my angry grandfather threatened to throw that thing straight on to the freeway. I sobbed and begged him not to. I loved my doll. I really did. And I only wanted to have fun together. Everything was so wrong. Eventually I went home and everything felt fine again. The house always brought me.

out the worst in just about everything, whether it be people, appliances, or paranormal activity. Fast forward a bit, and they've been moved out for many years. I got over the experience fairly quick, but I never forgot what happened that week. I have since exercised the doll multiple times, and performed many a spiritual cleansing on myself and my environment. I had a lot of familial issues as a child that I won't get into here, but everywhere I went was just absolutely writhed with negative energy. I haven't had any problems with Ivy since then. And I now plan to give her and all the other dolls that I have acquired over the years to my younger sister when I get around to visiting. We have quite a bit of an age gap.

as she was born when I was a teenager and has a different father, but we've always had a close relationship. I'm glad that I have a bit of life experience behind me as I watch her grow as a little girl. I wish the best for her, and I truly hope that I'm making the right decision handing down my most prized yet troubled possessions as a child. I was chilled to my core that week at Grandma and Grandpa's,

and I don't think that I'll be able to look at any seemingly mundane object the same again. My house is very haunted. Mostly from my sisters always using our Ouija board, I as well am to blame for some of the paranormal experiences in our lives. I have a few ghost friends of my own. They're around my age and there is three of them. Abigail, Addison, and Grace Grace is the youngest of them all,

and I don't really like her. She has red eyes and continues to knock my things down on my dresser. Abigail and Addison aren't as bad. They just scare me when they show up next to me without announcement, and I don't see them until I turn around. Their dad also follows me around. I asked Abigail if she knew and she said, you look like his daughter that's still alive.

As soon as I heard her say that, I knew that he meant no harm. These four ghosts aren't the main part of my story, though. There's much more than I will be explaining before the woman on the stairs. I started seeing ghosts at the really young age of seven. Because of how much they scared me, I would have to sleep with my mom almost every night. Or at least,

with someone. At my dad's, I wouldn't have those problems because anything that spawned into my mom's house stayed at my mom's house. And occasionally a few days after my grandma had passed away, I would see her smiling at me while I was sleeping. That would scare me even more, but not as much as it normally would because I had this feeling that she wasn't there to hurt me in any way. Instead, she was there to protect me from evil that comes in.

to my mom's house. Same thing happened when my great-grandma had passed away just a few months later of Alzheimer's. Thankfully, it was a peaceful death while she was sleeping. I never got to meet her, which made me quite sad. My sister's cat had also died a few days before my great-grandma, and I still see him walking around our house to this day, and sometimes still cry about it, because he was such a good cat. but this isn't all of the ghosts in my house.

My downstairs bathroom, right in front of the stairs, is a portal between the paranormal and the living. Many demons and angels, even fallen angels, have come through there during the night when it's most active. Sometimes when I'm having sleepovers with my friends, we will go down there, and a spirit will push something off of the counter,

and those things will occasionally break when they get pushed. One of the spirits managed to get out of the portal line and now stays roaming my stairs, making them creak and bang at night, sometimes even peeking over the ledge at the top to see what me and my friends are doing. The story is 100% real, and I'll ride again once something else happens.

Bejew at board of Via Rai. Embarked and profite. Embarked and relax. Syrotay. When I was a lovely And profite When I was a kid We had a lovely backyard with the full garden

That we actually didn't build It was all built by the previous homeowner Who had supposedly passed away in the house My parents kept it all intact They never really did anything extra with it they just left what the previous owner had planted and just let it do what it naturally did. It was actually quite pretty, and even being left to its own devices, it would end up being the loveliest little flower bed. To add to this, the previous owner had installed a clothesline around the flower bed,

and my mom was old-fashioned, so she believed that sun-dried clothing smelled fresher and felt crisper. One day she asked me to go hang the laundry outside. Normally, this was a chore, but I didn't really mind it. It was almost meditative, so I kind of enjoyed it. But on this day, for some reason, when I stepped outside with the basket of damp clothing, I stopped. I don't mean that I just stopped walking. I mean that I literally froze unable to move. I got hit with this intense fear, this strange and paralyzing feeling of unease.

It was overwhelming, so overwhelming that I almost started to feel like I was going to cry. I tried to keep going, I tried to take a step forward, but I literally couldn't. I was trying to think logically, looking around for a person in the yard that was maybe watching me, thinking about whether or not I'd watched a scary movie or read something that had me in an anxiety attack. Look, I was like 12, so I was just trying to piece together why I was feeling like I was freaking out in the backyard that I had spent countless hours in. At some point my mother must have realized that I was acting strangely, and just standing there in the yard and staring at nothing in particular, when she had asked me to take care of the laundry.

I heard the back door open, and I heard her stepping toward me, and then heard her say, Hey, Melody, what's wrong? Why are you... Then she just stopped when she got next to me. I glanced over at her, and I watched the color drained from her face, and her eyes got wide. She felt it, too.

I remember just looking at the garden. Looking for whatever it was that was causing this and asking, What's going on, Mom? To which she said, I don't know. Let's go back inside. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the house. We got back inside,

and she just stood there staring at that flower bed, looking terrified. I asked her if there was something out there, and she just shook her head saying that she didn't know. I asked her, if she felt what I felt, and she told me that she felt something, but she didn't know what it was. She ended up just throwing the clothes in the dryer, and we didn't talk about it after that. She didn't even mention it to my dad.

So, what the hell was that? We never spoke about it at all after that day, but I've obviously never forgotten it. My mom didn't hang the clothing on the line for a couple of months. months after this, and I think that whatever that feeling was, was the reason. I know that there was nothing physical there. It wasn't like a creep in our yard or some kind of animal or something. It was just our normal backyard, complete with the pretty flowers in the back, so why were we so freaked out? In the end, I'm chalking this up to something paranormal, because it was not normal.

I don't know if it was some spirit in the garden or some weird messed up shared hallucination, but it was horrifying, and definitely something beyond our understanding. I have a creepy encounter that I had when I was home alone one evening, back when I was in my early 20s. This was a while back, back when Halo 2 had just come out, if that tells you anything. and I was playing through the campaign for my second time, taking out the covenant forces like a true Spartan. I lived in a duplex by myself, one that was situated in a cul-de-sac, so we didn't get much in ways of foot traffic.

I liked it. I kind of miss living there because of how quiet it was. Things ended up going sour with the rental company, so I don't live there anymore, but it's not really really right. relevance to the story. Anyways, I was just playing my game when I heard a knock on the front door. I'm slightly annoyed by the interruption. I hit pause and went to open the door, assuming it was my connected neighbor coming over

to ask me something, or maybe a salesperson. I opened the door and come face to face with this scruffy, older-looking guy. His unkempt beard and worn-out clothing gave me a bit of an uneasy feeling. feeling. I'd never seen this guy before, and he had no reason to be on my front porch. This guy looked at me with a slight smirk and said, Hey, are you Dan? Now, I am, Dan, but I couldn't fathom how this stranger could know my name. I confirmed that I am indeed, Dan, and he hit me with a strange request. Awesome. Hey, I need a ride to work.

I was taken aback, because I didn't recognize him from literally anywhere, and I've never had some kind of arrangement with anyone to take them to work. Confused, I asked him how he knew me, and why he thought I was going to drive him to work. The guy then says, I was talking to Shannon earlier. She said you would give me a lift. Strike two. I don't know anyone named Shannon. Shannon. Thinking about it, I don't think I've literally ever met anybody named Shannon in all my

years. I knew it wasn't my neighbor. They were an older couple named Keith and Mary. So who Shannon was, was a complete mystery to me. I politely tried to explain that there must be some kind of misunderstanding, and that I was sorry, but I wasn't going to be able to help him. Instead of understanding my position, he got all riled up and stared at me with this intense and angry gaze. He wouldn't back down. He kept repeating that I needed to drive him to work, that I had no choice. Feeling a bit creeped out and not wanting to engage further, I apologized again and retreated back inside, locking the door as soon as I shut it.

From the safety of my home, I watched as he stood there, and threw his arms up flustered, and then threw himself down on my patio chair, lighting a cigarette, and just staring off at the street. It was like he was fixated on this idea that I would give in, open the door and say, Oh, you got me. Come on, let's get you to work, buddy. Time crawled by, and he was still out there, just stubbornly. sitting in my patio chair and watching the front sidewalk. Every once in a while he would look back at the door and shake his head angrily, like he was in disbelief that I wouldn't help him.

Three hours went by and he was not budging. It got to the point that I was half wondering if I should call the police, but he wasn't doing anything illegal, I guess other than trespassing. He was just being incredibly strange. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he gets up and just walks away without saying a word. I watched him walk down the sidewalk and eventually just disappear into the sunset. I was still bewildered about who he was, why he thought I knew him, and who this mysterious Shannon might be. To this day, I have no idea what the encounter was all about.

Maybe it was just some bizarre misunderstanding. Or perhaps it was something else. Something more sinister. Maybe this was some kind of trap, and when I didn't fall for it, he didn't know what to do. Whatever the case, it was one of those eerie moments that makes you question what the hell is going on, and let me tell you,

I had no idea what was going on. My husband and kids were across the street swimming while I was making dinner. I was sitting in the dining room charging my phone and I heard a weird snapping sound, so I went to the kitchen to see what it was. The one cupboard that I have is being held shut with two command hooks and a piece of wire. One of the hooks fell off. I tried to find the logical before I claim ghosts, so I chalked it up to the tension on the wire.

being too tight, and it's popping off. When I went back to the dining room and sat down, I heard what sounded like the back door push open, and someone running across the floor. Now, the kitchen is the only room in my house with these vinyl floors, from, like, the 50s. So they have a unique sound when someone walks on them, kind of like the sound of sticky shoes.

I got right up and went, to see if one of the kids was home and came in the back door. I knocked on the bathroom door that's adjacent to the kitchen, but the bathroom was empty. The way it's laid out, they would have had to have come past me to go to any other room of the house. I looked out the window, and they were all still in the pool, and the back door was still shut.

I would have heard it shutting. That wasn't my first encounter. About a month ago, I was scrubbing. the kitchen floor, so I had the back door open, and I saw a little girl in a red dress run out the door. I thought it was my youngest, but she was sitting on the living room couch, and she had black stretch pants and a yellow shirt on. So, yeah, you can believe me or not, but that little girl back there is not real. Yeah, I did just go there. To start off, I only I live beside a cemetery, so paranormal experiences aren't really surprising in this circumstance.

Anyway, when I was around the age of nine, and my sister was around 12, we shared a bedroom. To give you a bit of an idea, my bed was against one side of the wall and hers was against the other, and there was a window between our beds. So, one night, I had woken up, but I'm unsure of what time it was, but I turned over to see a dark figure of a woman standing beside the head of my sister's bed. She had medium-length hair, a tank top, and a skirt on. It took me a second to realize that she had no legs. I put my pillow over my head for at least a minute expecting her to be gone,

but when I took the pillow off of my head, she was still in the same spot. I was completely terrified and started kicking the wall. After a minute or so, my dad got up to check what was going on. So he decided that he would sleep in my bed and I would sleep in his with my mom. Eventually, I fell asleep, and when I woke up, the lady was standing beside me. I jumped and moved closer to my mom. Then I saw what looked like a little version of me sitting beside her partially on the on the bed, wearing the exact same clothes that I was wearing at that moment.

In the end, I found out that my sister's boyfriend's cousin was the dark figure that I saw. And unfortunately, a few days later, my sister's boyfriend Nolan passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning. Nolan's cousin had passed away many years ago in a horrific car accident. To this day, I wonder if she was looking out. from my sister. When I was six years old, my family moved into my grandfather's house. It was a small bungalow, and I shared a double bed with my eight-year-old sister and my four-year-old brother.

One night my brother woke me up to say that he saw something scary at the window. We talked about it for a minute, or so, and decided to shout to our mother to check it out. She was watching TV in the living room. and we called for her a few times. There was an old wardrobe in the corner of the room. The door of the wardrobe opened, and our mother stepped out. The room was very dark, so we couldn't see her clearly, but she walked up to the bed and sat on the edge.

We told her that there was something scary at the window. I hadn't seen it, so I'm not sure what my brother had seen. She gently pushed my brother's hair off of his forehead, and I asked her why she was in the wardrobe. She reached out and gently stroked my cheek with the back of her hand, but she never spoke. Then she got up off the bed and went back in to the wardrobe. This behavior frightened us. We started to shout for her again, and then our mother opened the bedroom door and came in asking what was wrong.

We couldn't understand how she went in the wardrobe and then came in. through the bedroom door. In the dim light, I saw my mother's light-colored hair and realized that her hair looked black just a few moments ago. We asked her why she was in the wardrobe, and I asked her why her hair was black. My brother then told her about the scary thing at the window. She reassured us, settled us back to sleep.

Years later, I was told about my auntie Claire. The wardrobe was full of her old. clothes and possessions. She had the same hairstyle as my mom, but she had jet black hair. Claire had died when I was just a few months old. She'd apparently fallen out the window of a high-rise flat, to her death. When my daughter was aged one to four years old, we lived in what had once been in army barracks, but was now just a row of nine houses.

The spare bedroom was used as her. her playroom with all of her toys. One night, in the early hours, I was awakened by music, round and round the mulberry bush. I realized one of the toys had gone off, playing the nursery rhyme. I went into the playroom and saw the toy, lights flashing, music going. It was a plastic pull-along tortoise. It had buttons teaching colors and shapes, and then one for the nursery rhymes. There was roughly 20 nursery rhymes that went in loops, so once a rhyme had played,

you had to wait for it to go through all the other rhymes to hear that rhyme again. I picked it up and pushed the off button, silencing the music and stopping the lights. I put it back on the floor and went back to bed. About five minutes later, just as I was drifting back to sleep, around and around the mulberry bush starts playing again. My heart skipped a beat as I had just turned it off. I lay there feeling too uneasy to go and turn it off again, but I didn't want it to wake my daughter, so I had to do it.

I could see the lights flashing, lighting up the playroom, and replaying that same rhyme. I picked it up. My heart was pounding. I felt scared. The toy was still switched off, yet somehow was still playing. I pulled off the battery lid and removed. the batteries. I went back to bed, but I was totally alert and listening. It wasn't long before,

for the third time, round and round, the Marlberry Bush starts playing. Now I was terrified. It was impossible. I crept back to the playroom and just stood looking at it playing from the doorway. I mustered all of my courage and quickly went in, grabbed the toy by the pull-along string, and ran downstairs with it. I quickly opened up the back door and just threw it outside. It stopped flashing and playing as it landed on the ground. The next day, I put that toy in the outside bin and thankfully never saw it again. When I was a kid, my favorite toy was a stuffed raccoon that I called Ricky, that I brought everywhere with me.

My mom had an ongoing joke, where she would take Ricky and say, shh he's saying something to me then she would hold him up to her ear like he was whispering something to her she would say what's that you want to fly and then she would throw him across the room and i'd have to go pick him up it was just a silly playful way that she had of teasing me many years later when i was 30 and my daughter was two years old. I ended up going through a bunch of my old belongings that I had in storage. I found Ricky in one of the boxes, and I told my daughter, oh, this was my favorite stuffed animal when I was a little girl.

I then handed him to her, and she said, he sang something. Then she held him up to her ear and said, He says he wants to fly. So I used to have this entity, follow me around for a couple of months. He never really did anything, but he was always around. He would always be in a hoodie and have the hood on his head, and his face was gray. This one time, I was in my room sitting in a chair, turned away from my bathroom door so that my back was to the opening,

and my ex-girlfriend and her best friend were sitting in my bed talking to me. They started freaking out and pointing behind me. So I turned around, and you know how when there's a door open and there's a crack? Yeah, well, he was watching us from that crack in the bathroom door. Then one late night I was driving home in a 2000s Monte Carlo, which has a very small back seat. I was coming home from one of those calls. You know how it is. and I was jamming out to some red jumpsuit apparatus.

I glance up and I look in the rear view mirror and I see the hooded figure in my back seat staring at me. It was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. Hey there, friends. I hope that you enjoyed this collection of scary stories on this episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. If you did, make sure that you follow the podcast on whatever platform that you're utilizing, and if the platform you are on has a rate the podcast option, please consider doing so.

Those ratings push the podcast into the algorithm, and we all know how the algorithm controls everything, so yeah. I also do have a Patreon. If you go to patreon.com slash as the Raven Dreams, you can support the channel further for as little as a dollar a month, you can get early access to all of my content in audio format. The content's a little different, as it's based on what I upload to my YouTube side, but it's the same stories, just in different collections of stories than how they're presented here. Speaking of stories, if you have one you would like to submit to me, please go to

as the ravendreams.com and click the button in the middle of the screen that says submit your story. These stories are mostly sourced by listening. So let's keep the podcast alive. If you've got one, I'd love to read it. Anyways, friends, I hope you're all having a beautiful day and a lovely week. And I hope I see you again very soon. But until then, remember you're loved, you're valid, you're important. You're the best you that you can be, never forget it.

And until next time, much love and sleep well.