As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 109 - Scary Call Center and Other True Scary Stories - 12 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: January 28, 2024

Today's Episode features Marie's Field Of Nightmares (Also known as my other half) - She doesn't have a podcast set up, but please do check her out on YouTube, just search for Marie's Field Of Nightmares. Welcome to the chilling 109th 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 stories about the horrors of working at a call center, as well as some other true scary stories from listeners! 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... ThankYouForCalling, Jason, OnlyCatPics, ShawnaDee, Isaiah, William, MH, Bill, Cathy, 0therun1t108, 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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to submit your story. Also, if the platform you're listening on has the option to rate this podcast, please consider doing so. And thank you. This was probably one of the most terrifying things that has ever happened to me. I work in a call center, and I actually still work at the same one to this day. So it makes a bit more sense. I will just say that the call center was for a bank in the U.S.

I worked on the escalations team, so I took the calls. when the customers asked for a supervisor, or if the procedure called for an escalation. So, getting complicated and upset customers was pretty normal for me. At the time of this event, I had been working there for about seven years, and in escalations for three of those, so I was pretty well used to it. I had thick skin, and had probably heard every insult you could imagine, so it never got to me. but this guy was different. It all started with an escalation from who we will call Mr. John Smith.

I don't remember his actual name, to be honest. He called in upset because his credit card was being declined. It was being declined because he hadn't made a payment. Just like any other service you pay for, if it's not made by the due date, services can be stopped or shut down. It's the same way with credit card. but it's not like it was due on the first and he was being declined on the second. No, he was almost a month behind. This wasn't unexpected.

He knew this was bound to happen. I'm probably giving more information than needed, but I feel it adds to why what he did was over-dramatic and unwarranted. He had been late many times, and he'd requested fees to be waived every time with no reason for being late past, I was late, so sue me, basically. So when he called and wanted to speak to a supervisor

because we were declining his card again, and he wanted it fixed and fees waived again, it was just another normal customer complaint, and it was going to be business as usual. However, the only way to be able to use the card again is to pay the past due amount, and he didn't want to hear that. After the call was transferred to me,

I listened to him yell and go off about how he felt like we were targeting him. I apologized but told him that the only thing to be done was to make a payment. So he began yelling at me again, calling me names and trying to belittle me. He even threw in some really strange

and unrelated political-related insults that I won't type out, but it helps to show that he was a bit unhinged, I guess. I just let him get it out and count down the minutes till he would finally just hang up. And, by the way, if you haven't worked in a call center yet, you might think that I was just cold and uncaring,

but those that have understand my predicament. This wasn't someone who was using it because it's all they had. They weren't not making payments because they couldn't. without really invading his privacy, I guess. I know, with everything that happened, I still protect their identity, right? But he spent a lot of money every month, and paid it in full almost every month. So he was just the type that felt that rules didn't apply to him. So, yeah, I may have zoned him out a bit as he yelled, until he finished.

And once he finished, I basically explained his options. No more fees would be refunded, and he needed to make a payment to use the card. And that's when the threats started. He started making comments about how he wouldn't act so tough if he was yelling at us in person, and suggested that he'd do just that instead. Not wanting anyone else to have to deal with this, if he went to an actual bank, I told him that they wouldn't be able to do anything in person either, which wasn't a lie.

They couldn't do anything different. That's when he said, Are you stupid? I know you're not at the bank. You work at the call center at street and road intersection, right off of Highway 99. Okay, so he knew where the local call center was. We had a couple, and yes, mine was in a neighboring city that he lived in,

unfortunately. It wasn't a secret or anything, so I told him that he was a... correct, but that none of us were customer facing. I still did try to de-escalate the situation, as we were all trained to take threats seriously, so I kept that in the forefront of my mind. I told him that if it would help him calm down, that I could refund the fee,

but that I really couldn't do anything about the block. Only he could fix that with a payment. But that was no longer good enough for him. Oh no, we're past that. He snapped. How about this? I'll just come up there and you can explain why I can't use my credit card to the barrel of my shotgun. And with that, he hung up.

So now I have a potentially real threat taking place. I marked myself as a way on my system and immediately went to my manager to tell them what had just happened. They took it seriously. When we have threats that could be acted upon, we have to report it to the authority. authorities. So we alerted security up front and called the police. They said that they would be there soon to get a statement and to patrol some to see if he showed up. I ended up taking my lunch a little earlier at that time, knowing that I was going to have to provide information to the cops, and I didn't want to be stuck on a call. After telling my manager and us reporting it,

it had probably been about 10 minutes, maybe 15 or so. I took my lunch right after that, and I was probably about 10 minutes into it, when I and everyone around me started hearing shouting. I had been eating at my desk on the second floor towards the center of the building, so I was close to the stairs and the elevators. As I listened to the shouting,

I could hear a man and woman yelling. Sir, you can't go through, through there. We're not going to let you through. Sir, we will call the police. It was the security people. Then we could hear another man shouting back at them, all kinds of expletives. I knew who it was. I recognized that voice. It was definitely John. And if he had kept true to his word to show up, then he may have a gun with him too. I was immediately freaking out. I didn't even have to tell my manager as I looked over, and they were already pointing to their phone that they held to their face.

I was honestly too afraid to go down there or even try to look. I wanted to, but what if he did bring a weapon? We had turnstiles where employees had to swipe their badge in order to get through, but what was stopping him from just jumping over it, and maybe even shooting security? They did not have guns. I don't know if they had some other. method of defense or not, but either way, I was afraid for them.

I started making my way to the emergency stairway which was on the edge of the building, instead of the center ones, thinking that I needed to hide if he got through. Granted, all he knew was my first name, but if he made it this far, all

he had to do was walk through the cubicle aisles until he found my name. There were three floors, though, so the odds were in my favor that he wouldn't get that far. but I wasn't willing to take any chances. I stood in that stairway for what felt like a long time, fearing that I would start hearing gunshots,

but thankfully I never did. My manager ended up calling me on my cell phone and asked if I was okay and where I was. They told me that the police arrived and everything was okay, so I went back to their desk, and they told me what happened. When the cops showed up, they had to taste him just, just to get him down, but they did restrain him. Thankfully, he did not have a weapon on his person. However, they did find a shotgun in his vehicle.

This guy was so mad that he was willing to show up here and possibly hurt or kill people. Because of something that was his fault. It was a crazy thought. We told the police what all had transpired from the moment that he called in, up to them arriving and the rest was really up to the company if they would press charges. While I don't know if anything like that happened, I do know that we terminated all relationships with him. He wasn't allowed in any of our branches,

so then he had to wait even longer to get a check in the mail with his money. And that was by far one of the worst days that I've experienced working here, and thankfully nothing like that has ever happened since. But I do take every threat that I ever hear very seriously. You never know when you might run into that one person that's waiting for that one little thing to push them over the edge. There's something else here now, something new. From, exclusively on Paramount Plus,

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Okay, so this just happened to me and my buddy over the weekend, and I wanted to share this here. I'm 22 years old and have been living with my grandma since I was about 11. Now that I'm a bit older, I've been able to take care of her. as her health has taken a downward slope. However, she is still able to get around on her own at home, and is still fully there mentally. So sometimes I go out with friends for the night just to kick it.

Sometimes there are recreationals involved, but we stay out of trouble. I couldn't imagine doing something to disappoint the woman that has raised me. So, anyways, this was one of those nights where Curtis and I met up at our local spot to enjoy a night of no responsibilities and no one depending on us to do something. Our go-to spot was behind a building that had been abandoned some time ago. There was a narrow alleyway that connected it to some kind of doctor or dental office, but it closed at normal hours so there wasn't another person in sight. We would sit back there to smoke and BS for hours before we would finally leave.

That night, we got on the topic of food, and as it goes, and we started craving some of our favorite junk food. We made our way out through the alley into the nearest gas station, and once we were satisfied with our purchase, we went back to our spot. Walking through that alley was normal for us. We walked to that spot from his place, since it was close, and that way, a parked car at an abandoned or closed building wouldn't alarm anyone. being in that alley in the dark didn't scare us, especially when we weren't alone. It may not have been the best place in town, but we knew how to take care of ourselves.

Not to mention, it was an unwritten rule that, if you kept to yourself, minded your own business, no one would bother you or say anything to you. So when we were walking through the alley and we saw a lanky and scruffy-looking old man, We didn't think anything of it. And we kept our conversation low and did not make eye contact.

As we passed to the guy, he let out a low, gravelly... So we slowed our pace, but kept walking and looked back at the guy. He held up his hand as if he was greeting us and asked if we had any smokes. I've been there before, so I stopped and pulled one out to give him. He then lit it with the matchbook that he had. had thanked me, and as we nodded, we continued on. Pretty simple interaction that we thought nothing else of. We got back to our spot and started talking and screwing off again,

when we saw that same guy walking out of the alley towards us. We weren't really going to be able to hide what we were doing, or rather smoking, so we just sat there, waiting to see how this would play out. The man approached and asked us, if we had anything extra that he could smoke too. If it kept this guy from snitching on us, I guess I was happy to share, so I gave him what he asked for,

and he was actually pretty cool. He asked us some general and not too personal questions, like if we hung out there a lot and how we found this place. He even told us some interesting stories that he knew about the building we were behind. He seemed totally fine while we were talking, but then he dropped his head like he was in deep thought. We sat in silence for a minute before Curtis and I started talking to each other again,

going on like there wasn't a third person sitting there with us. Everyone has their own things they're trying to work out, so I felt it best to let him sit there and not interrupt him. As we were talking, he started muttering to himself, but there was nothing that we could make out. After this continued for a bit, the guy slowly looked up and was staring right at me. Thinking he may have just had something to say, I looked back at him and just said, What's up, boss?

You shouldn't be here. I was confused at first, partially annoyed, thinking we were about to get some dumb lecture from some random guy about wasting our lives. But then it turned to confusion when I started to confusion when I started. started thinking about how he's been sitting here with us this whole time, too. What exactly was his whole plan here? Curtis and I looked at each other, and he asked the man, What do you mean? This is a dangerous place.

You never know what you might encounter. Still feeling annoyed and confused, I made a comment about him being here too, or something to that effect. That's when, without breaking eye contact, He smiled at me and said, I know. I've seen bad things happen here.

I know things you couldn't possibly understand. Curtis started talking about how he was killing the mood, and I agreed with him. This was supposed to be our time away from everything else, and now we got this stranger in our self-proclaimed spot talking about things that made no sense. We made a motion to each other to just get up and leave. When the guy once again spoke, I know things about you, Isaiah, things you don't even understand about yourself.

Now, when we're out doing what we were that night, we rarely actually use each other's full names. It was either us calling each other C or I or one of the nicknames we'd given each other, and I can guarantee you that night, we never set our names around this guy. So how did he know my name? I stood up and asked him how he knew me, and again, without as much as a flinch. The guy looked up at me smiling and said, It's easy when you have my eyes. Would you like to see into them too?

I hadn't noticed before, as I had no reason to pay much attention to what he looked like. But as I stood over him, and the single light from above us lit up his face, I noticed his left eye was glossed over and still, unlike his right eye. It was a fake eye. Call me a jerk, but normally that stuff I wouldn't even take notice to or care about. But between his cryptic talking, knowing my name and the night now feeling incredibly tense, I was pretty unnerved by this. Curtis looked at me in basically just motion that we should go, and I agreed.

As we started walking away, he continued to sit in the same spot, not looking at us, and said, The night will always find you. We picked up our pace and got the hell out of there. We went back to Curtis's house and tried to shake off the bad vibes. Our high already ruined. Shortly after I went home and went to bed, hoping that guy was just off his rocker and that I would never see him again. Everything was fine the next day, and even most of the week until I was walking home from the gas station. It felt like I was being stared at, and typically I just got this annoyed feeling.

You know, the kind when you want to look at someone like, you got a problem. But this time I was feeling more on edge. My fighter flight was kicking in, and I started looking around, all over. and that's when I saw him. On the other side of the street, standing next to a bus stop, it was that same man. I stopped walking and just stared at him as he was clearly already staring at me. I didn't do anything, but stood still until he lifted his arm to wave at me smiling. I just picked up my pace to get home quickly and thankfully he didn't follow.

I told Curtis about it too, so we've been a very very much. avoiding our normal spot, not wanting to run into him again. So far, neither of us has seen him since, but I don't want to take any chances. I don't know if this guy had bad intentions, if he was just trying to scare us, or maybe he was crazy, but whatever it was, I did not like the vibes I got from that man. I'll send you an update if I do run into him again, but to be honest, I hope I don't have to. I want to start this story by saying that I'm a bit of a broody person.

It's just who I've always been. I've always been a bit more comfortable in the night when the world is silent and everyone else is asleep. I like to enjoy the time to myself. I also struggle with self-image and anxiety, so in order to keep myself active and healthy, I like to go for walks when it's pitch black outside. especially on nights where I'm struggling to sleep. On this particular night, I was feeling rather restless,

and I decided that I would go out for a quick walk around the block. I grabbed my jacket, my headphones, and my flashlight, and headed out into a rather lovely night. As anticipated, there was nobody else outside, minus the occasional car that would drive by every here and there. and it was a bit windy, so the leaves were blowing about, which made it that kind of magical night that I was hoping for. I was about 15 minutes into my walk, when I was hit with this intense feeling that I needed to pause. It was a bit of a strange sensation, but I seriously felt like I just needed to stop for a moment.

When I did, I noticed that one of the streetlights ahead of me was starting to flicker. I wasn't sure if it was flickering prior to me noticing it, but it was definitely flickering at the moment that I noticed it. After staring at it for a couple of seconds, I heard what sounded like a person saying, Hey, from a bit of a distance. I was confused because I had my earphones in, and if there was someone that had said something from the distance it sounded like they were,

I shouldn't have been able to hear them. I immediately took my earphones out and looked around, trying to see if I could see someone nearby that was calling out. When I turned back toward the street light that was flickering, it made a popping noise and completely went out, which made me jump. I wasn't sure what to do, but thought that I should just keep going, right? It was just a light.

Surely that was just a really good timing on my book, part to be looking at it when it went out. I took a single step forward toward where the light was and once again froze. A voice called out again with, Hey, come here. My first instinct was to turn around and take off back home. But then my curiosity started to get the best of me. I know, stupid, but at the same time,

this was too freaky to just turn away from and ignore. I grabbed my flashlight and turned it on and then slowly lifted it towards the darkness where the dead street light was. Much to my relief, there was nothing there. I actually chuckled to myself thinking that I was just losing it and that I needed to get home and sleep. Just as I was about to turn off the flashlight and continue on, my eyes caught a glimpse of motion on the edge of the light, which shifted me from my relief back to terror. I watched as what looked like a shadow quickly darted away from my flashlight and over toward the wooded edge of the street.

I tried to follow it, quickly shining to the left, but I couldn't see anything. My heart skipped a beat as I stood there and just watched the tree line for what felt like several awkward moments. I just held the light, pointing it at the trees and waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately, something did. I saw what, again, looked like a shadow, leaning slightly out from behind one of the trees. I was pointing my light directly at this thing, and yet it was still completely dark. As it leaned out, I once again heard that voice whisper. Hey, come here. Please, come here.

For a single fleeting second, I actually considered going to be able to. towards it but then my brain kicked back in and I realized that that would be the dumbest thing I could possibly do I had no idea what the hell this thing was I had no idea what its intentions were and I was pretty much defenseless once that thought occurred to me I felt that wave of terror wash over me my legs felt like jelly but I knew that I needed to get out of there I started to turn to head back home but was interrupted by what really triggered my flight response. That voice once again whispered at me, but this time, it said, I won't hurt you. Nothing that says I won't hurt you in the way that it did actually means it. I immediately turned and took off at a full sprint.

I have never in my life run that fast, or for that long, but I made record time getting back to my front door. I fumbled with my keys, jumped in, and locked the door, and then paused as I caught my breath and tried to slow my heart down. After a few moments of just standing against my front door in silence, I decided that I would go to bed. And thankfully that was the entire experience. The rest of the night was uneventful,

and I haven't gone on a night walk down that road since. I thought about going back to see if I could find it. this thing again, but it kind of occurred to me that if I was that scared that night, there was a reason. It wasn't just because it was weird. It was instinctual. So, I've decided that whatever that thing was, someone else out there can take the credit for finding it. I've shared some of these stories with friends and on certain threads, and since they can be kind of creepy, I thought I would share them here too. I work for the fraud department at a local bank. I do both inbound and outbound calls, depending on the day and what I'm scheduled to do.

And I have had some pretty weird customers on my line in both experiences. The first one I want to mention is when I was making outbound calls. We basically get a list of accounts that are flagged for suspicious activity. After we review them, if we feel it's suspicious, we have to call the customer to see if they recognize the charges or activity in question. You get to see some really interesting things when you do this. Anyways, I prepared myself to call out to this customer. I'll call them Mr. Johnson.

I dialed up the number and waited, expecting him to pick up since I called his cell phone. However, a woman answered instead. No big deal. It wasn't uncommon, so... I just gave my normal spiel, telling the woman who I was, and then asked to speak with Mr. Johnson. However, the woman had a very shaky voice, almost like she was in distress as we spoke. Um, he can't talk right now. It's, it's not a good time. So, when we can't speak to the customer, we either leave a voicemail, or in this case, we ask if we can leave a message.

with her to pass along to him, which is what I did. The woman lit out a sigh as if annoyed by my intrusion. I could hear her mumbling to herself about finding a pen, and could hear paper shuffling in the background. The way she answered and said it wasn't a good time was an unusual statement alone. Usually people just say they're not home or hang up or whatever, so I listened closely as I waited for her to return to the phone.

That's when I started hearing a groaning sound, like someone was in pain. Then the shuffling sounds from the phone became louder, and I could tell someone was whispering something, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. It was as if someone was holding the phone to their chest to muffle it while they talked. but the groans were still present and since she hadn't come back yet, I felt the urge to ask if she was okay. I'm fine, don't worry about it.

She said quickly with her voice sounding strained. Ultimately, I know it wasn't any of my business, so I try to let it go, even though something definitely sounded wrong. So I provided her with the details of my message and tried to be as kind as possible, to her. Something was obviously going on, and I felt like I was definitely inconveniencing her. I couldn't help but notice as she sniffled into the phone, repeating my message with the quiver in her voice. I confirmed she had the correct information when the groaning picked up again. She tried to respond louder as if to talk over it. I don't know why, but something told me to try again with her,

so I asked if everything was okay and if she needed help. She quickly responded, nearly cutting me off with the direct, We're fine, anything else? With nothing else I could do, I declined and said my closing. A lot of people like to just hang up here without responding, which is something I'm used to. Sometimes people will also start talking to themselves or someone in the background before they hang up,

and sometimes, things they say are important or even damning in regard to the reason we call. That's why I'm usually slower to hang up. In this case, I don't know if it helped or not. I heard a light thud and wobble like she had set the phone down but didn't hang up. And before I hung up, I heard more talking. Now you've done it, damn it, Dale. What am I supposed to do, call the cops?

Then I heard several pattern thuds. I remained on the line trying to determine what I was hearing. After another minute or so, it sounded like the phone was picked up and the call ended. I couldn't really make sense of it, nor could I really prove anything was actually wrong or that the customer was in danger, other than the fact that she mentioned calling the cops. I didn't want to take any chances, however, so, I told my boss what happened on the call. He agreed that it was kind of odd, if not alarming, and said they would look into it. Unfortunately from there, it was out of my hands. What I can say,

based on the info I had, the customer was in his 70s, and his wife had passed a few years prior to this call. So it could be a case of elder abuse? And who was the woman that answered the phone? I don't know what was found out, if anything, unfortunately, as there was no way for me to go back and find that account. So I was just left to wonder about this and discuss with others. I'll share one more experience with you for now. This one was still pretty creepy, but I guess over time, everyone got used to it. On the inbound side of the world, it was normal to get a few prank callers. We had one guy that always tried to be inappropriate with the females, but would hang up on the guys.

Need I explain more about him? We also had one guy that claimed he could see us through monitors and would make creepy comments to anyone that answered. It didn't matter. Other pranksters just tried to waste our time. However, a common misconception with these people is that we're not allowed to hang up on them, but surprise, we can. Anyways, this guy, none of us could really figure out if he was trying to prank us, or if there was something else going on.

My main reason for being conflicted is because, unlike the other prank callers, he actually did have an account with us. So, the call would start somewhat normal, other than the way he talked that is. There is no way I can describe. the uneasy feeling you got when he talked. His voice kind of sounded warped, but there was no tinny or electronic sound to it, what you would normally hear when there was a voice changer or something similar present. He also had that upward inflection or a teasing sound to his voice

when he talked. The best way I can explain it is when you watch those shows where the person is darkened and the voice changed trying to mask their identity, but then he also had that upward inflection. Sorry, like I said, I'm not sure how to explain it any better. One thing that was consistent was the sick feeling he would leave me when I heard his voice. So after my opening, he would give his name in his weird inflection. I'll call him David. Then before I could verify him, He would start on his normal questions. Guess what I'm doing today. He typically wanted you to respond like you were clueless, and if you did,

I'm going to get my haircut today, is how he responded. Sounds like a pretty normal and innocent response, though. But as he talked about it, it just seemed like it was cryptic or code for something. something I could never figure out. He would then ask you to guess how short he was going to cut it, and again, if you feigned ignorance, he would explain it to you. He would say that he was going to get it cut as short as possible. He would describe how it would be so short it would make him bleed.

He would talk about how his hair grows so fast that he had the urge to get it cut weekly and that he would be mad until he could do it again. So, as I mentioned, the conversation for the most part seemed like it could be normal, but it was how he emphasized certain things, like the word cut, that always seemed off. But if you took calls from him and knew the answers to the questions, it only seemed to make things worse. I responded once to his first question that,

He was going to get his haircut, and he seemed more enthusiastic than normal. He would respond with, oh, so you know about haircuts too. Oh, I love them, and would then ask about the length and so forth. It creeps me out just thinking about it. A lot of people that get his call think he's just another prankster. Around the time of his calls, his account had recently been. closed by him, so he had no reason to call anymore. Or maybe he just had a mental disability and access to a phone. Both are definitely possible, but what we all agree on is that his voice

leaves us all with a sense of uneasiness, and I'm incredibly thankful I don't do inbound at all anymore. As mentioned, these were just two of many cases I've come across that seemed like there was something darker underneath the voice I heard and the situation at hand. Maybe I'll share some more stories with you later because Call Center work really never has a dull day. This is another addition to some other oddities that have occurred at or around my home. My wife and I moved in here three years ago. We found a nice, quiet place, and there's access to several services. Gas stations, emergency services, eateries, that are all within three blocks of us. Pretty handy.

There have been several things that have happened since we settled in, which I have written about before. I will try and jot some things down when I remember them. There have been so many creepy or just plain weird, scary, or wrong things that have gone. on that I forgot some of them, really. I've almost forgotten more than I can recall. A good friend of mine has told me more than

once that he thinks that I'm like a magnet for this stuff. And I told him that I don't want to see this stuff or have this weird stuff happen. I don't want to experience this crap. Someone told me that I'm probably sensitive and these things are attracted to me.

What the hell does that mean? Am I easily hurt? or sad for some reason, why do I have to be plagued with this? Do I have to expect this garbage for the rest of my life? Seems like it. So here is one that I remembered. I decided to get it down while I could.

This really odd and unsettling thing happened two years ago during the summer. It was almost 11 a.m., and I was doing some work outside, and I was dragging the garden hose out and was stretching it down the driveway. I was going to wash my truck after spraying off the awnings, and I wanted to get it done before I lost the shade. I was about 20 feet from the road that run past out front, and I just had that weird gut feeling.

Did you ever get that? You know, something is just not right? Well, for me, I get that. not just having to experience things I sometimes, for some nasty trick on me, seem to know when things aren't going to be as they should. I hope I could explain this so someone might understand, let alone comprehend. I heard a vehicle coming from the north corner of the block. I glanced up and saw a small, rusty, red-colored pickup.

I don't know what make. It was just one of those small single-cab pickups, with a bench seat, so it was probably made around the 70s. It sounded as old as it looked. The exhaust was making some noise, like it had some holes in it, and it was patched with a tin can.

I don't suppose anyone remembers those days. Side note and fun fact for you, William, you're describing my first vehicle that I ever owned, literally, 77 Dodge pickup truck, with a hole in the exhaust that made a popping noise. Sorry for the aside, I just wanted to add that. I stood there watching this small pickup coming down the road, getting closer,

and as it did, I thought to myself, isn't that odd? I was looking at the cab of the truck, and things just didn't look right. No, not right at all. That is wrong. Not happening. No. This is wrong. I could see inside the cab and see the seat, the steering wheel, dashboard.

However, I couldn't see the driver. I was kind of transfixed. Is that the right word? I mean, I don't know if I moved other than turning towards the truck to look. I don't know if I blinked, said anything out loud or even was breathing. I was just so intent on watching this truck going right past me. I don't know what else was going on. There was nobody sitting in the seat.

I could see the entire seat. The windows were down on both sides, and there wasn't anywhere for someone to hide in there. It was too small. It was only going about ten miles an hour. It came down the road, rolled past me, got to the corner and slowed at the stop sign. It didn't stop, but rolled through, turning left and headed east.

As I watched the whole damned thing, and didn't even think of my fault, phone with a camera. At the time, I was so stuck on watching this that I wasn't thinking. I missed out on that. I've told a couple people, but they just say the usual stuff. I know they probably don't believe a thing I told them. It's frustrating.

When you have something happened and you have no proof. I've seen and heard things through my life that I can't explain or prove. But one night I heard something very, very, very. bizarre, but this time I had a witness. I've spent a lot of time outside. By that, I mean like camping, hiking, fishing. I learned how to identify certain animal tracks and sounds made by them. Basically, I did a lot of stuff, heard a lot of stuff. I'm an outdoorsman. My wife and I were sitting in our living room watching TV, just having a nice, quiet evening at home. It was laid fall. and it was dark.

The windows are closed, and all of a sudden there is this screaming sound. It was behind our house to the south corner of the property. There isn't any way I can tell how it sounded and do it justice. It was a screaming sound, maybe male. Hard to tell. It was hoarse or gravelly, changed tones, and my wife said the same thing that I was thinking. It sounded like an animal and human being combined.

mind. It really sounded creepy. It was nothing that I have ever heard in the woods or in town. Not a fox, coyote, wolf, bobcat, weasel, raccoon, skunk, owl, hawk that I have ever heard. And it was moving. It progressed from the south corner near the garage and went past the room of the house that we were sitting in. And toward the north to the alley. We've never heard it again. no idea what it was, and I still can't identify what we heard. Hello. I wanted to share something that, while it didn't directly happen to me, I was involved,

and my part was pretty terrifying. I worked in a call center environment, but I typically made outbound calls. My job was to call the customer to confirm an issue they were having with our service, and to schedule an appointment with one of the ones. our texts to go out and try to troubleshoot, diagnose, and fix the problem in person. I was basically the last resort. If an escalated tech couldn't figure it out over the phone, or it was determined that something had to be physically done, then it would be sent to me to double-check all of the steps.

Then schedule that appointment. Pretty simple, really. Unless it was just requested because the customer refused to do any of the troubleshock. shooting with us. My shift ended at 10 p.m. And we can only do call-outs as late as 8 p.m. The customer's time. So, for the last two hours, I helped with the escalations.

It was about 10 till 8, so I took one more call-out, thinking that I could take my last break afterwards and then move on to the inbound calls, leaving me with less than two hours to go. And this was my normal routine day in and day out. so I was expecting to know where the call would go and how long it would take. Business, as usual. I dialed the number and waited for someone to answer, when I heard the voice of a sweet, frail, older lady answer. I gave my normal opening.

Hi, this is Shauna from Internet Company. May I speak with Linda? The voice on the other end answered in a quiet, calm tone. Oh, yeah, I've been expecting your call. there's been some strange stuff happening. I asked her to elaborate, thinking she meant with the equipment, since that's the whole reason for my call. I think someone's been watching me. I'm hearing whispers and seeing shadows in my home, but they move on their own.

It's not my shadow. My first thought was, okay, great. We have a crazy customer. We have quite a few customers that call in, only to accuse us of watching them through their modem, or wanting us to send a new one because they tore apart the other one looking for the microphone. So, as I tried again to question her and move the conversation forward, she began talking more, and something she said made me listen more.

Her voice had a sense of unease to it, as she said, they're not wearing your uniform. I probably shouldn't trust them, right? I asked her what she was talking about when I started hearing shuffling in the phone. I called out for her a few times and didn't get a response, until I finally heard heavy breathing, and she said, sh, I'm hiding.

Hopefully they won't find me. By now, everything she said so far is circling in my head. But when she mentioned the uniforms, I started getting these ideas. Was someone there? Is that what she meant by the shadows that she was seeing? But I knew that it couldn't have been anyone with us because I was calling her to make the appointment. And we don't do appointments that late either.

And when she mentioned hiding, I immediately became on high alert. I start thinking that someone is breaking into this woman's house. And maybe she thought that I was 911 calling her. Or maybe she just got lucky with me calling before she had the chance. chance to call them. I knew that I needed to try and confirm if this was real. First, I instinctually asked calmly and quietly if she was okay, where she was, and if someone was in her house.

She only confirmed my fears. She said that she was hiding in her closet from the two men that were at her door. I asked if she let them in or knew who they were, and she declined both. She said that they had something long in their hands, and she said that they had something long in their hands and started banging on her door, which caused her to hide. I told her to stay there and that I was going to call the police for her. Without hanging up, I messaged my manager to come see me ASAP, and she showed up quickly. I explained everything going on at that moment, as I heard the shaky breaths coming from Linda. She said that she would contact the police,

and I messaged her the address to get started on it. When she went to her to her. When she went back to her desk, I had to play the middleman of asking Linda questions and messaging my manager back the answers that the operator was asking. Then, as I listened to Linda's line, I heard a loud crashing sound, and Linda gasped. I was afraid to call out for her, not wanting my line to give her away. I tried my best to whisper into the phone if she was okay, and after some more shaky breaths, she responded. I think they broke a window.

I immediately told my boss that they were likely inside, and she came back over to my desk, talking to the operator on her personal phone. Per the directions of the operator, I told her to remain quiet unless she needed to tell me something, and from there all we could do was listen to the sounds around her. I started hearing banging and tapping noises, thuds like things were being dropped and thrown.

Then I could hear a scraping sound and loud thuds from a man. I was terrified. Terrified for Linda and just helpless. All I could do was sit there and listen with her, praying that they didn't find her. That was the longest day of my life, waiting for someone to show up and help her. My manager was still standing by me, and she tapped my shoulder saying that the operator confirmed the police were there. I quietly relayed the information to Linda telling her not to come out, until the police called for her.

From there, I heard shouting and more shuffling sounds on the phone. I called out for Linda to make sure she wasn't involved, but she didn't respond. Then, she finally responded, and said that one of the men ran into her room, the same room with the closet that she was in. But then I could hear the police calling out for her, and my manager relayed the same thing. I could hear the shuffling again from Linda's end,

and with a creak, she responded to the police. I asked her if she was with them now when she said that she was, and thanked me for the help. I remember her calm and happy tone as she thanked me, and she didn't sound like there was a single ounce of fear in her voice. It was incredible. I hung up the phone, as did my manager, And she hugged me saying that I did a great job, and told me that I could take an extended break or just go home if I wanted to.

I didn't hesitate to take that offer. I felt like I was more shaken up than Linda was. If the police hadn't gotten there as fast as they did, would they have found her? They did get to the room, so the odds were pretty high. And that was terrifying to me. I just worked support for an ISP. I was not a 911 operator for obvious reasons. I couldn't handle taking calls like that every day,

and I commend those that do. My manager and I both wanted updates on Linda and what happened, so through means of still needing to schedule her appointment, I know probably a bit sneaky of us, she allowed me to mark her ticket as in process, so I would keep it, and I would try to contact her again. A few days later, I was able to reach her and I started the call out as normal, trying to emphasize, it's me, Shauna, again, hoping that she might recognize my name or voice.

I could almost hear the light bulb go off when she said my name. I knew that she remembered me. Oh, you're the young lady that helped me the other night, she said cheerfully. I confirmed that I was and asked if she was okay and how she was doing. She told me how she saw the shadows from them coming into her bay window, as the motion light in her driveway went off. That was about the time that I called. She closed her curtains, and as she began talking to me,

she saw the men approach her door, and, with whatever they had, they started messing with her door. That's when she knew that she had to do something. Shortly after, they broke out her window and began rifling through her belongings. She explained that when the police arrived, she heard them shouting at one guy while the other ran into her room. Her room was towards the back of the house, so she thinks that he went there to get away.

But the windows in her room were really old, and people oftentimes didn't know how to open them. They had a crank lever, so there was no way that he could escape through the window. So he ran back out of the room. She told me that the police did catch them both, so while her house was a mess, she didn't lose anything. She said that she was still waiting for the window to be replaced,

and joked that her cable was the least of her concerns now. I told her that it wouldn't cost anything for us to come out, and she agreed, and we continued as normal from there. Afterwards, she thanked me again and we said our goodbyes. I was incredibly thankful that I was able to take that call that night, no matter how terrifying it was. I would like to think that, if I hadn't called, she would have called 911. But the way she was speaking so calmly at first, it seemed like it wasn't a big deal, and I worry that she may not have.

We do have the customer date of births on file, so I knew that she was in her late 70s. so it was possible that she wasn't quite thinking straight. But I try not to think about that, and rather I focus on the fact that I truly made a difference in my silly job for that day. I don't work there anymore, but my manager still does, and we do keep in touch. Thankfully, she said that they haven't had another call like that since.

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And profite. Villaray, the voice that we love. About a month ago, it was the night before I had a math exam. and coding projects to hand in both on the same day. As you can imagine, despite putting in a fair bit of effort, I was extremely nervous and felt like I wasn't really ready for either of them. Despite this, when it reached 10 p.m., I decided to go to bed and just hope for the best.

And while I ended up doing okay on both of these, that isn't what worries me. You see, when I went to bed that night, every single time I would fall asleep, have a nightmare and then wake up about an hour later, only to fall asleep and have that process repeat again, but with a different nightmare. This wasn't shocking to me as I was obviously nervous for what I had the next day, and my brain was conveying that through the dreams I was having, even though none of them actually had to do with school in any way. In one of the nightmares, I was in my backyard and it looked to be my own. When I saw, about five meters away, around the corner of my house, a long shadowy figure with a head that was an oval shape, sort of like a UFO. It had three white glowing eyes, one in the center of this oval and two a bit off to the sides, placed at positions that seemed fairly normal. I remember being aware that I was in a dream and not feeling scared. I thought to myself,

wow, for once this isn't even scary, or something like that. As I had that thought, the shadowy figure quickly zoomed into me while speaking. It had legs, but if I remember correctly, it didn't look like it walked. It just simply hovered towards me,

with no warning or anything. The moment this happened, it made me so scared that I woke up. I woke up before it could finish the sentence that it was saying. However, after waking up, it kept talking until the end of the sentence and then stopped. This terrified me, and it made me hide under the blankets, which is something you wouldn't normally do at 15 years old. The voice sounded like that of a middle-aged man, and it sounded like it was coming from my room.

It was very clearly a male voice, and it did not sound supernatural, but it was a voice that I have never heard before and have yet to hear since. Before anyone asks, no, I don't remember what it said to me, but I'm pretty sure the sentence contained the word, man. While I do think this was just a dream, and I was somehow able to hear the last word awake, because I was perhaps half asleep or so worried that I started hallucinating or something. I can't help but notice that I've heard of no one experiencing this same thing.

I would like to recount something that happened 25 years ago when my wife and I were buying a place in the country. It was an old farm property, but all that was left of it was a pole barn, used for a garage, an old barn that needed to be torn down and the house. It was located at the top of a hill that really offered a nice view. You could see 15 miles to the west and see the town that was in that direction. We had nearly three acres, and I had done a lot of work on that property to make it look better.

I had cleared a lot of brush, tore down the old barn, and was digging out an area for a small pond. I had mowed trails around the back of the property to walk around. I had my mower in the garage, working on the engine. I was taking off the points used for spark to the spark plug, and was replacing it. It was an electronic ignition system. A friend showed me how to do that because the plug would fire better and last longer. I had been out there for quite a while trying to get the flywheel off and get it redone. It was winter,

and there was a good foot of snow on the ground, but I had the door pulled down in a space heater going, so it wasn't too awfully bad out there. Besides, whether it was cold or not, I still had to get my mower fixed so I could use it to plow the drive out. It was getting late, about 11 at night. The garage was 40 feet from the house, and I was just basically focused on what I was doing,

not really thinking of anything other than making sure I wasn't screwing something up. All of the sudden, and I mean that, it was sudden. Something hit the door that led to the other half of the pole barn slash garage. From in there, there was a doorway to the back of this building. There was two small rooms in the back that looked like they used to be for animals. Whatever hit the door was heavy, and pretty forceful. It sounded like someone threw a cinder block at it, hard. It scared the crap out of me.

I was sitting down while I was working, but I was up and backpedaling, and at the same time I threw the breaker bar that was in my hand at the door. It smacked the door and dropped to the ground right in front of the door. I headed to the house and got my rifle in big flashlight and headed back out. I told my wife what had happened and she told me to be. careful. I went back into the garage and I opened that door to the other section. I only had the light of my flashlight because there wasn't any lighting in this other part. I had my rifle cocked and checked the other side of the door. There was definitely a mark on that side, but I couldn't

find anything that had hit it. There was nothing on the ground or even close to that door that would have hit it. I looked up to the loft area where there was some stuff piled up. Nothing. I went to the first room in the back and checked there, and then the last room. That room was always a little spooky for some reason. It had a low ceiling, and I had to stoop over to go in there. There was an opening in the last room, and I stepped out the back and shined my light around, all around the area, even upon the roof. There were no tracks in the snow, so nothing had come in or out that way. I walked all the way around the structure, and the only footprints were mine that led to the

house and back. I couldn't find a thing that could have made that loud bang against that door. I couldn't even find a raccoon. Nothing. But I had to get that engine back together. So I went back in and I was going to finish things up. But when I went to pick up my breaker bar, I could. couldn't find it. It had fallen to the ground right in front of the door. I saw it laying there

when I came back out with my rifle, but it was gone. I stood there looking at that spot that I know that it had landed. Then I spotted it. It was laying on top of the mower engine. Something was in there, and it placed my breaker bar on top of that engine. I picked up my rifle and sort of backed all the way back to the house. Needless to say, I didn't want to be out there anymore that night, and I never found out what could have hit that door. I have a weird stalker story that thankfully had a happy ending, I suppose. I used to work at a customer service center a few years back for a cable and internet company. I helped with normal support things like troubleshooting or even helping them set up the apps on their phone and TV.

The job was typically fine. I had some angry people, but that was usually only when they didn't pay a bill and service was shut off, or there was an outage. Anything else too crazy was escalated to someone else. I did like that they did not tolerate abusive customers, and it was even mentioned in the recording when they called in.

It at least made me feel like they respected us in that manner, I just wish they had better insurance, but that's neither here nor there. Anyways, I took this call from a new customer that actually got one of our package deals. Our service was actually new in the area that he was in, and he was on the internet and phone plan. I'll call him Alex because I can't think of his real name anymore. So Alex called trying to get help setting up our app on his phone. At the time of this event, I was 24 and he was 28.

That I remember because he made a joke about how he was too young to be calling and asking for phone support, and I was thinking the same thing in my mind. Not in a mean way, though. It was unusual getting calls from younger people for support beyond the question of, is your service out? So I laughed and reassured him that it was okay. that's what we were there for. I helped him set up the app, which he could use to make payments through,

manage his account and benefits from, as well as other things. The whole time, he was very kind and appreciative of my help, which was always nice to feel like what you did made a difference to someone. A couple times through the call, he would call me by name, but then he would also refer to me as love. It wasn't a big deal to me. a lot of people called in and would give you endearing names like that, especially when you have a unique or hard-to-remember name, I guess.

So I never called it out or would comment on it. As I continued with helping him, I did give him some pointers on certain things which he again seemed very thankful for. Then the call was wrapping up at this point, and I asked if he had any other questions. He said he didn't, but he did say, You just seem like a genuinely awesome girl to be around. I'd take you on a date if I could.

I laughed somewhat awkwardly. Again, not the first time someone has said something like that. I'll never understand people that flirt with others over the phone that you don't know, but I digress. I just replied kindly, oh, well, thank you, and tried to steer the conversation again. But then he replied with, no, I'm serious. You sound adorable. I'd love to. So I again stayed polite but dismissed it and tried to recap the call. He finally allowed the conversation to move on and the call wrapped up. From there, I figured it was the end of that and moved on with my shift. But then the very next day, I got a friend request on Facebook and a new follower request on Instagram. Looking at the photo, I didn't recognize the guy, but when I looked at his profile and saw his name and location, it dawned on me. This had to be the same customer I spoke to the day before.

It immediately startled me because all he knew about me was my name and the state I lived in. He asked where I was located and I gave him the state, something I did often without thinking about it. That was towards the beginning of the call, before his flirtatious comments, and he lived across the country, so what risk was there? I know, stupid me, I guess. I do have a unique name, but I'm also not the only one, so how could he have found me? Did he just try to add everyone with the same name? Either way, I declined his request and blocked him. I was in no way going to casually talk to a customer like that.

I even told my boyfriend about it. We lived together, and he basically made fun of him, calling him desperate, but that was about it, neither of us thinking any more of it. However, it once again didn't stop there. On one of my days off, there was a knock on my door. I wasn't expecting anyone, so I answered it curiously. It was a flower delivery for me and I immediately was all smiles. My boyfriend was at work, so I first thought he had them sent to me as a surprise,

so I accepted them and put them on the coffee table. I started looking for the card, wanting to see the cute and cheesy note he wrote, but then my mood quickly shifted. It wasn't from my boyfriend. It was from Alex. How the hell did he find out where I lived? I immediately felt uncomfortable, so I went out front and threw the flowers directly in the garbage can.

I called my boyfriend to tell him what just happened, and he told me I needed to check my privacy settings on Facebook. I don't know why I didn't do it in the first place. I guess maybe I thought blocking him would solve it all. Thank God I did, though, because I learned I stupidly had a... everything public. My name, photos, posts, where I worked and lived were there for anyone to see. Granted, my location only had the city and state. However, some of my photos were tagged with locations, and one of those was my home. I still don't know how he would have been able to narrow it down to

which side because I lived in a townhome, but somehow he did. The only thing I had locked down, was my phone number, which was only available to friends, thankfully. So I immediately did a cleanup. Only the state was listed for locations, occupation was now empty. I even changed my name, so I went by my middle name, which was a lot more common. And everything else that remained, including posts and photos, were locked behind friends only. If you use social media, I would highly suggest looking at your page from the outside and see what's out there. So once I finished, I at least felt a bit more protected, but the damage was already done. Unless I moved, he knew where I lived, but had no way to confirm, I guess,

unless his flower delivery had confirmation of said delivery. That I will never know. However, I assume he knew he was correct because I got a few more gifts, some candies, more flowers, and even a card. They all went to the trash, and I went to talk to my renter's office to see if maybe I could just switch townhomes, not really wanting to move as I loved where I lived. They said they could definitely consider it if they have one that's open around the time of my renewal, which I was thankful for, but that was still a few months away. But before that would happen, I would have one more event involving Alex.

One day, my boyfriend and I were at home playing a game when the doorbell rang. We got pretty used to us getting a gift about once a month around the same time, so we rolled our eyes and he made his way to answer the door. The door was right out of view from the living room. but you can still hear anyone talking from it. So I was surprised when after I heard the door open, I heard not my boyfriend's voice, but someone else saying quite angrily,

What the hell? Then as I heard both voices start to argue, I figured out who the other voice was. It was Alex. What the hell was he even doing there? I cautiously went to the door when the stranger spotted me and angrily called out my name. He started yelling, asking me why I had a strange man over,

and how he was disappointed in me. I told him he was my boyfriend and had been for years, while also saying he was a creep and there was nothing between us. My boyfriend was able to push him back enough to close the door, even as he continued to struggle with the handle banging on the door. We call the cops, and, I swear, it seemed like they were there in record time. Alex was still at the door when we heard the police out there talking to him too.

He continued yelling, now directing his anger toward the cops. They were able to arrest him, though, as he was all bark and no bite, apparently. I explained to the cops who I assumed it was, since he never said his name, and they said after talking to him, they confirmed it was the same guy. but of course he tried to give a different story. The cops suggested I get a protective order, and I immediately went to start that process that day in case he happened to try anything again.

The next day I worked, I told my boss what had happened, as I stupidly hadn't even mentioned the gifts because I didn't think I could really prove it was this random customer doing it. They told me they would look into it, and the next day, I had a meeting with my boss and two of the VPs, which was pretty scary. I thought I was going to be fired.

But thankfully, it was just them wanting to confirm my story, and then they told me they were going to be looking at ending his service, but it wasn't going to be immediate as they couldn't end it since his plan was a pay-in-advance type thing. So they said they would send the proper letters to him, letting him know that it would end automatically. They also said that they would take me out of the queue for that state, which was a surprise. I thought this was going to be a struggle that I would have to deal with on my own, but they really did come through for me.

I didn't have any other run-ins with Alex after that. Hopefully he realized how delusional and crazy what he did was, but either way, I'm glad that chapter in my life is over. I'll apologize now in case this isn't written correctly. I'm not good with computers. I grew up without all this technical stuff. I read a few of those stories that people had sent in, and I kind of stude on this for a while, but I finally decided to send it in.

It's probably my very first weird thing that has happened to me. This happened a long time ago when I was five. I just felt like I needed to get this out there before I die. I was home playing in the backyard. It was summer and sunny out. We had one of those swing sets that had just two swings in a teeter-totter. I was swinging and, I guess, lucky to be facing the hedge that was about 20 feet away, and I can remember this whole thing like it just happened.

The property on the other side of the hedge was like a junkyard. There were old car parts, a couple of old cars that were. used to play in, boards, old crates, etc. But it was a breeding ground for snakes. If you lifted anything up, there were a few snakes under it. Well, I spotted a garden snake coming out from under a bush at the hedge. It started heading towards me, so I jumped off the swing to run to the northeast corner of the house.

I watched that snake come to the spot where I had been, and then turn and was coming through the grass, headed towards me again. That would be another twenty feet to the house. I ran down the walk at the back of the house to the southwest corner, which was about 30 feet, so I couldn't see the snake anymore. I was only three foot something and the grass was covering it. I stood there watching, and sure enough, that damned thing came out of the walk, turned south, and was coming towards me again.

Now, you have to understand, I was five. That was pretty scary for a five-year-old. Well, yeah, I was scared. I ran to the front of the house to the corner where the steps go up for the front porch. That house is still there. They've added it on an enclosed porch. Back then, it was an open porch with solid wood railings. I again watched, scared out of my mind as that snake,

came around the southwest corner of the house. I could barely move, but when it got to about ten feet from me, I bolted up the steps to get into the house. However, my mom had the screen door locked, and I couldn't get in. I remember screaming bloody murder for, to me, what felt like a long time.

By then, that snake had come up the cement steps and was looking over the top step at me. My mom had been inside talking to the school nurse for the school that I would be going to. They came out, the nurse saw the snake, stomped her foot and clapped her hands at the same time, and the snake took off. I've never forgotten that, and no one that I have recounted this too has ever heard of a garden snake chasing someone. I would really like to know what made that snake follow me, because they just don't do that.

In 1990, when I lived in the old Masonic apartment building on Geary and Larkin in San Francisco, my roommate and I were both asleep when we both had the same dream, of an extremely attractive man who looked different to each of us, according to our tastes. Once he appeared, he started trying to seduce us, but when he got close he started to change into something so vile and disgusting it could put one off to adult relations for a long time and it kind of did for me

at the point that he was close enough to touch us both we tried to wake up but we were stuck in sleep paralysis trying not to be touched by this thing the only way I can describe it is a total sickening perversion of everything a person could find attractive in a man, according to your tastes, beyond your wildest fantasies. When it got to the point that he was about to touch us,

we both broke out of the paralysis at the exact same time and simultaneously called each other's names until we were both wide awake. We sat up talking about it for a while, and I think we stayed up all night, not wanting to go back to sleep. This was completely different from my normal sleep paralysis that can easily be explained by broken sleeping patterns. While the normal kind that I wake up with is because I have to go to the bathroom really bad,

or I can't breathe because my sinuses and throat are dried out from the heater. I only panic when I can't breathe, and I fight hard to get out of it. But there's no demonic anything going on, just a bad dream related to suffocating or peeing, myself. I'm aware of what's happening and it's maddening, but not scary. What my roommate and I experienced in that apartment can only be an incubus. Thank you for sticking with this rather personal story. I tried to make sure that it wasn't TMI. I would like to share this past life story,

or at least what I presume to be a past life story. When I was four or five years old, I I started referring to myself as Charlie. My name was not, Charlie. And in fact, I am female. Charlie was a dark-skinned boy. He was Native American. He did not look like the horrible depictions of Native Americans that I saw on Western television shows.

In fact, I did not even know what a Native American was. But I knew that I was a 12-year-old boy who had been taken from his family. The white people had cut my hair short, and I wore white people clothes. I could picture the clothing that my real family wore. It was beautiful, woven material, full of colors and ceremonial headdress. I was not allowed to wear those clothes, and I was not allowed to speak the tongue of my family. I remembered my family, but spent the rest of my life living as a white person.

That life was short, however. I died at the age of 15 when I consumed some type of food that poisoned me. Interestingly, whenever I turned 15 years old in this life, these memories faded. Later in life, I learned of the native tribes that once lived on what is now American soil. I learned of Indian children being taken from their families so that they could be assimilated into white society. I also learned that many foods, especially milk, killed many of these children because their bodies were not able to digest it properly. I don't know if this is truly a past life story. I only know that there is no way that growing up in the 1960s, I would have known of any of this.

Not only did we not learn it in school, but we didn't see it on TV. And at the age of four or five, I just... truly would have had no context for it. My parents just thought that I had an imaginary friend that I would eventually outgrow. To this day, I am educated in Puebloan history of the Southwest. I love the music, culture, food, and wisdom of what I consider to be my ancient elders. Thank you for sharing this story. 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 listeners, 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 can be, never forget it. And until next time, much love and sleep well. Oh.