As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 132 - Creepy Cookout & More Strange And Scary Stories - 12 True Scary Stories

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Welcome to the chilling 132nd 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 horror that can happen at family cookouts, as well as some other True Strange and Scary Stories. 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... WickedBeans, Anti-Fireworks, E.K., Jeciew, firstman1000, BatGriffin, Carla Base, Fanfictionmusiclover, Wednesdaynevermore, Flatus_Spatus, Dogmut... As Well As Any Author That Has 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're aboard Via Rai. Embarked and profite. Embarked and celebrate. Rigolet. Publiere. Savory. Admire.

And profite. Viarai, the voice that we love that we love that we have a story you would like to hear featured on this podcast. Please go to as the ravendreams.com and click the button to submit your story. Also, if the platform you're listening on

has the option to rate this podcast, please consider doing it. doing so. And thank you. This happened several years ago when my wife and I had a party at our home. We had just moved into our new home in a nice suburban neighborhood, and we were eager to meet our neighbors and make some new friends. So, we decided we would splurge a bit and host a barbecue for our neighborhood to get to know everyone. I was going to do the cooking with all the meats and the kebabs. My wife would be making the side dishes and preparing the drinks. We even set up

a small area for kids to play in with a slip and slide and sprinkler, things like that. It was summer and it was hot, so I knew that people could appreciate a way to cool off, maybe. We made up some pretty little cards with the basic details of the address, date, and time, and we walked door to door one weekend to hand them out and introduce ourselves. Most people answered the door, and there seemed to be a decent variety of people from some close to our age. some with kids, some seniors, but they all seemed receptive to the idea of a party with free food. However, there was one thing that came up quite frequently when we were going door to door that intrigued us. Multiple people asked us if we were inviting Kirk.

Obviously, we had just moved in, so I didn't know who Kirk was or a thing about them. I would just shrug or tell them that I probably did or will if they were within the block. Some would look around, almost like they were contemplating something at first, but then they would agree to come or thank us and let us know later, which was fine. We gave them our phone number and an email so they could RSVP to give us a better headcount. It was odd to us that we had multiple people asking about this Kirk person, but we didn't know who he was. Some folks introduced themselves, others didn't, and some didn't even answer the door, so we had to leave the cross. card. I couldn't recall talking to anyone named Kirkthos, so I had no idea who he was. However, we were both curious as to who this person was that made several people ask whether

or not he was coming. We continued to prep for our upcoming cookout, and to our surprise, most people did actually RSVP. We were prepared to accommodate a lot of people, but I was honestly surprised by how many were actually going to show up. You know how it goes. You invite 30 people, 20 RSVP, and only 10 show up. But we practically had everyone confirmed that they would be there, so we were expecting a lot of guests. Going to the day of the party, everything was looking great. We had everything we needed, everything was set up, and I had begun cooking, as our guests began to arrive. But again, as people showed up, we were asked if Kirk was there or if he was invited.

I just remember the look on one woman's face, looking concerned as she asked. Again, I wasn't familiar with Kirk, so I just said yes if he lived nearby. She looked disappointed, but was trying to be pleasant. She just said that he could be a bit much at times and then walked away afterwards to talk to some others nearby. I didn't understand. Why were so many people concerned about this Kirk? I know this is probably wrong of me, but my first thought was that he was just different. The neighborhood was in a pretty upscale area,

and I think that I just assumed maybe Kirk wasn't quite on their level and was singled out. I was never that kind of person, especially coming from a family that had very little. I had to work very hard to get where I was, and I hated people who judged others so harsh. because of how much money they made or the clothes that they wore. I wanted to get to know all of my neighbors, no matter who they were, and them all pointing out Kirk

only made me want to get to know him more. So, I was hoping that he would show up too. I just let it go and continued to enjoy the party and get to know everyone. The kids were loving the sprinklers and slip and slide. Several people brought extra sides, desserts, and snacks, and some even brought house-forming gifts. I was grilling like crazy and only had one critic, an eight-year-old boy who thought the hot dog was too chewy,

so I thought I did pretty well. As the evening went on, people came and went, so it was normal for me to miss people. I had been sitting in my lawn chair, talking and listening to those around me when I noticed a man standing by the large oak tree in our yard. He was watching the kids, and would throw his head back sometimes,

if he was laughing. I assumed he was one of the parents, but I couldn't recall ever having spoken to him, so I thought now was the time. I walked up to him and said hi, introducing myself. He shook my hand, but I noticed he didn't tell me his name. I asked him which one of the kids was his, but he didn't answer. Instead, he slowly looked back at me, smiling and said, you have a lovely family, Diego. You must be pretty grateful for them. Up until he talked, he seemed completely normal. He was wearing swim trunks and a dark blue tank top.

He had short, shaggy-looking hair and a short mustache. Pretty normal-looking, in my opinion, but the way he said that was kind of hair-raising. It was soft and monotone. And then he looked at me and smiled, and then back to the kids. I didn't really know how to respond at first, but when I did finally speak, I said that we didn't have any kids and that these were some of the neighbor's kids. He didn't respond to that. Wanting to get out of the conversation, but not be rude,

I just told him to help himself to any of the food and drinks at the table and walked back to my seat. When I went back to my seat, I kept watching the man. After watching the kids for some time, he walked away and looked at the trees, in our yard. It wiggled our fence as if he was trying to test how sturdy it was, and even stared at our house with his hands on his hips, while nodding. It was like he was taking it all in and seemed proud, or impressed, maybe. I noticed several neighbors looking over at the man, and even saw one woman nodding in his direction, and the others looking at him. Based on their looks in the fact that he didn't introduce himself, I assumed this must have been Kirk.

Maybe he didn't tell me his name in fear that I would make him leave or judge him due to the others. My first interaction with him was certainly unconventional, but I didn't think he was a bad guy because of it. Maybe he could just use some more friends. Who knows? I just pointed him out to my wife and asked if she knew who it was. She shrugged and said that she didn't, so I told her my thoughts as well, but otherwise we left it alone. But then, shortly after him looking over our place, he approached the food table and grabbed a plate. I was hopeful that he would get something to eat and maybe come over and talk with us so we could get to know each other and hopefully confirm who he was. I watched him grab some potato salad and chips, but I had to do a double-together. I had to do a double

take when he looked over the meat. I had a platter with a lid covering it, but then behind it, I also had a plastic container with the other uncooked meats. I had stopped grilling so I could eat and keep the rest in the container ready to cook more if we ran low. The man lifted the lid on the cooked meat container and then put it down, and then opened the container of raw meat. I watched as he smiled and pulled out two raw hamburger patties, and we were to be able to

one of the steaks and put them on his plate. Then he walked away and paused on the steps to our home. He then proceeded to eat it all with his bare hands. The potato salad, the chips, and yes, the raw meat. I elbowed my wife to get her attention and pointed him out. We both looked on confused, quite frankly, a little grossed out. The blood was running down his chin and arm as he ripped apart the small steak. I know people like steaks rare, but that thing was completely raw.

Why eat that when there was plenty of cooked meat? Other people noticed, too, and soon after, multiple people were watching. Again, I tried to ignore it. He wasn't harming anyone anyways, and I didn't want anyone to feel uncomfortable. Several hours later, that man was still lingering around, but otherwise people were were starting to make the exit. We made several connections and some friends we see regularly to this day. All in all, it seemed like a pretty successful party.

As we started picking up, my wife pointed out the man again to me. He was now crouching down, almost as if trying to make eye contact with my wife's garden gnomes and talking to them. He was scooping up fistfuls of dirt and licking it off of his hands, and the conversation was becoming very animated. He was talking with his hands, laughing and gesturing wildly. Again, very odd, but I didn't think he was creepy or worth outcasting. My wife, however, was starting to become uncomfortable.

The party was wrapping up anyways, so I thought I would walk up to him to try to wrap things up in an effort to get him to leave. When I approached him, I thanked him for coming, and said that I hoped that he had enjoyed himself. He quickly stood up and brushed off his hands and without acknowledging me, he asked to meet my wife. I called out for her and told her he just wanted to meet her and she reluctantly agreed. As we approached, she held out her hand to shake his, but instead, he touched her stomach and said, If you guys don't want it, I'll take it. We both looked at each other and back at him and my wife immediately backed up.

I laughed, not knowing what to make of this conversation, and I told him thanks for coming and that we were going to clean up and call it a night. He nodded and thanked me and walked towards the gate. Right before leaving, he hollered out that he would be back for seconds and then left walking down the sidewalk. Once out of sight, my wife and I had a moment to say, what the hell was that about? And she expressed how he didn't make her feel good at all.

We then walked back to the table to finish up where one of the last couples were waiting for us to return. They looked at us curiously, and I assumed that they would know more than us, so I just asked. So, uh, that's Kirk, yeah? They looked at me confused and denied it, saying that that wasn't Kirk.

In fact, they didn't see Kirk at the party, at all. They also explained that Kirk just drank too much and was a pretty mean trunk, and that's why a lot of people didn't invite him to things like this anymore. They told us a story about how he almost caught someone's house on fire,

stole one of the neighbor's kids' bikes, and started a fight with someone else, so they all just avoided him. They thought that man was one of our friends, and that's why nobody had said anything about his odd behavior. So, in the end, Kirk never showed up, but this strange, unidentified man did, and we have no idea who he is. Talking with the neighbors, we were able to put a name to all the houses that we invited, so we couldn't even place him.

Where did he even come from? After they left and we were back in our home alone, we started thinking it over even more. What did he mean by his comment he made to my wife? I joked that she wasn't telling me about being pregnant, and she also laughed and denied it vehemently. And no, over the next few months, we never had a pregnancy surprise either, so we really don't know why he said that. So, I guess there's the story of our strange neighbor, or I suppose he was just a stranger. I unfortunately don't know because we have never seen him since. But at this point, I feel like I would have much rather dealt with this Kirk guy over him.

So this happened to my friend, not me, in 2007. But she's here next to me recounting her story and I'm typing it out and posting it for her because she doesn't have read it. Sorry, it's long, but I want to share as many details as possible to hear you. your thoughts about it. We are adults now, and this happens to her when she was 16. To this day, she describes what she saw in the exact same way as she had right after it happened, and can still clearly picture it. So here goes. She was walking home from her friend's house at night. This is a town in southern Oregon, in case that's important. She doesn't remember the exact time,

but says it was definitely after midnight, and it was dark, so no one else was out. She says that she was completely sober and not sleep-deprived. So she's on her way home in just about two blocks from her house. She was walking on the sidewalk along the main street and was crossing between 5th and 6th Street, while her house is on 7th Street. Across the street is a safe way and a cemetery.

Right then, she noticed something about 50 feet ahead of her, crossing the street from the cemetery side to the side that she was on, and this is how she describes it. There were two creature things walking on their hind legs side by side. One was slightly shorter than the other, but they were both really tall, at least seven foot. They were hunched over, lanky, and extremely skinny. She says that her immediate first thought was that they almost looked like deer walking on their hind legs, but they didn't have any fur. It was more like a dark, grayish skin.

They held their arms and wrists kind of like how a T-Rex would, but their arms and hands were very long, almost as long as their legs. When I asked, she said that she didn't see any tails. I asked her if they had hooves, and she says that she thinks so, but she said, but can't remember that part for certain. Everything was quiet, and she didn't hear them making any sounds on the pavement as they walked. I asked her if they had antlers or deer-like-shaped faces, me thinking that maybe it actually was just hairless deer walking on their hind legs for some reason. She said no antlers, but that their heads were not shaped like dears,

or any animals, but more like a person's. She described their faces as looking human with human features, but that something was just slightly off. She had frozen where she was as soon as she saw them. Everything was quiet and there were no cars driving by or anyone else around, which is normal at night in our small town. She says that she stood there kind of in shock. She watched as the two creatures slowly walked side by side,

silently from across the street and over to the side of the street that she was on. She says they didn't seem to see her at all. Or if they did notice her, they didn't act at all like they did. She says they acted as if they were simply a couple going on a casual night stroll together. She doesn't remember feeling any negative energy or vibes. She just felt fear because she was pretty damned scared. As soon as they finished crossing the street, they continued straight down 6th Street, and she couldn't see them after they passed the first house and kept walking down. At that point, she said that she snapped out of the shock and started running the one more block towards 6th Street to see where they were going.

Once there, she turned down 6th Street to follow them, but they were completely gone. She doesn't know where they could have possibly gone that fast, considering they were just walking. and not walking fast, but like I said, almost as if the two of them were just out on a casual night stroll. As soon as she realized that they had somehow disappeared out of nowhere, she started running as fast as she could the one more block to her house on 7th Street. She told her mom and her sister the next morning. She says these creatures were like nothing she has ever seen or heard of before. The closest thing she can compare it to is the werewolf that Professor Lupin,

changes into in the Harry Potter movies. The hairless, superlanky, and hunched over, strangely. Except these ones had more human-like faces than a wolf. She's only ever told her family and a few friends, me being one of them. Oh, and she also has no history of mental illnesses. But whenever I ask her about it, she describes it the exact same way, and is still pretty shook up when she thinks about it. Nothing like that has happened to her before or since then.

Anyone know what this could have been? I've heard about quote-unquote not deers on Reddit, but I'm not sure that really fits because I think those are more like animal-shaped, and usually on all fours. If you guys have any questions, I'll ask her and get back to you, but any input would be greatly appreciated. for 15 minutes. We'd say that's the

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there for you know, I've told this story to friends and family, and people either think I'm

crazy or that a ghost lives in my basement. This was years ago while I was in

high school. I was playing video games alone in my basement with the Xbox playing through the TV. I had lost the TV remote a while back, so I had to adjust the volume by pressing the buttons on the side of the TV. The audio played through both the TV speakers, along with these cheap earbuds I had plugged into the Xbox controller. Even with the earbuds plugged into the controller, I had to stand up and walk to the TV to adjust the volume. One time while I was a little, alone, I took my earbuds off and placed them, along with my controller, down onto the couch next to me, and I went to the TV to adjust the volume.

It took me like three seconds to slightly adjust the volume, and when I turned around, the earbuds were unplugged from the controller and had vanished. Naturally, I look under the couch and in between the cushions for these earbuds, as I've lost stuff down in those places before. However, after about 20 minutes of searching, I could not find them. There is no way that someone came downstairs and took them, as the only way down was right next to the TV, and I would have seen them in my peripheral vision or heard them walking down. I asked my family just in case they did anything with them.

Of course, they all said no. I decided to give it a rest and just assumed they would turn up sooner or later, which is kind of what they did, but in a creepy way. The next two days, I went back and forth down to the basement, and I took apart the couch and even cut the fabric underneath to see if they were deeper in the couch. But nothing. I couldn't find them anywhere.

Even after looking everywhere else in the basement, I still could not find them. I gave up once again and put the couch back together and decided to just get new earbuds. I swear about two weeks later, I go down to the basement and the earbuds are sitting on the exact part of the couch that I left them. I immediately go ask my family why they're messing with me, and they swear they didn't do anything. This time they were not plugged into the controller. They were just sitting on the couch.

This seemed so strange to me and everyone that I told it to. It was like the earbuds were taken to another dimension and just brought right to. back. I did a Google search about similar phenomena, and I learned that it's a common trait among poltergeist folklore, that they will vanish objects and make them reappear at a later time, sometimes in the same spot, sometimes in another location. The only other thing that's happened in this house, similar to this, was a thing with my brother where his wallet went missing and was found in the top shelf of his closet, even though he didn't put it there.

But you'd have to ask him about that. I have spent two-thirds of my life trying to debunk this one or come up with a reasonable explanation. When I was in fifth grade, I rode the bus with a girl who was a grade or two below me. We lived on opposite sides of a rather large apartment complex, but could still walk to each other's homes. Let's call her Micah. Micah was born in Romania and had moved here a few years prior to me meeting her.

She had heterochromia. Micah had brown eyes, but half of one of her irises was blue. This is relevant later. Her family was... Off. I went over to her apartment a few times to hang out with her, and remembered seeing a lot of unusual decor in her home. Lots of candles, a few altars, and a lot of taxidermy.

Her mother would get very upset any time she brought friends over, so typically, she would sneak myself and a few of our friends in any time her mom went out shopping. My mom was pregnant at the time and often felt sick, so I never brought my friends over unless she was out shopping or at the doctors. She had never met Micah. A lot of the other kids were scared of her, or, for her. felt uneasy around her. None of our mutual friends could explain why. I did too at times for some unknown reason,

but as a fellow outcast, we stuck by each other's sides. After a few months of knowing each other, she started telling me that her family followed a belief system similar to paganism. I forget exactly what she called it, but it wasn't Wicca or pagan or any other common, for lack of a better word. spiritual belief system.

Micah started claiming that she had special powers. I immediately called bull and told her to prove it. She responded by saying that she would shape-shift into a cat and would visit me later that evening. My family and I lived on the third floor of our apartment building. There were no fire escapes, balconies, or anything like that. We barely even had window ledges. As a side note, I loved cute stuff, Hello Kitty, Care Bears, My Little Pony, all that good stuff.

My best friend at the time was very into fashion and loved to act like a high schooler. The few times that she saw me in cartoon PJs, she would make jokes. So I stopped wearing anything like that to school or sleepovers almost a full year prior to meeting Micah. I went to bed at my normal time of 9.30, wearing it. wearing some carebear pajamas that my mom had bought me a week prior. Nobody had seen me and them aside from my parents. Around 3 a.m. that night, I woke up to hear scratching at my window. I jumped out of bed, looked at my window, and saw a black cat staring directly at me.

The cat was sitting on the very thin window ledge and raised its paw as if it was waving at me. Freaked out, I told myself that it was a dream, went back to sleep. That morning, while my mom was cooking breakfast, she asked if I had heard anything weird outside the night before. I asked what she meant. I saw the weirdest thing last night. I heard scratching at my window.

I got up to see what it was and saw a black cat on the window ledge. It looked like it was trying to open my window. I sat there in silence, unsure of what to say. My mom continued. I was afraid that it was going to fall, so I brought it inside, carried it downstairs, and then put it outside. You should have seen its eyes. It had one eye that was half blue, and I've never seen a cat like that before. I felt so sick that I couldn't speak or finish my breakfast.

Not wanting to approach Micah after this, I stood off to the side away from all the other kids until she walked up to me. Hey, Gloomy Bear, why didn't you let me in last night? I was stunned. I could have died. At least your mom was nice enough to take me downstairs. I stopped hanging around her as much after that. Our building caught fire a few weeks after all this happened, and we ended up moving a few towns away.

I haven't seen or heard from her since. To this day, my mom still remembers the cat. She'll mention it in passing every few years, and to make comments about how weird it was that a cat could have gotten up on that ledge. For the last 20 years, I've been racking my brain looking for an explanation. If anyone has one, I would love to hear it.

I have a story that happened back somewhere in the mid-90s. I think it was 94 or so, because I was like 9 or 10 at the oldest. For a slight bit of context, this happened at my Uncle Dave's place. I have two cousins, one that is a year. older than me, also named David, but I'll call him Dee for the story so as to avoid confusion with his dad, and his little sister, Jessica. Dee and Jessica's mom passed away about two years after Jessica was born. Dave had to raise them mostly by himself. At the time of this story, Dave had just bought a new house with a fairly decent amount of property, and they had moved in

about two months before it takes place. He had done a good amount of work to the front of the property, but he had barely touched anything away from the house, which is important, I promise. So this took place around Labor Day. My parents and I were invited over to Dave's house to check out the new place. He was super proud of it and was excited to have the family over. There aren't many of us, so we're pretty tight-knit.

That weekend we all went over to Dave's house. Dave was grilling burgers and brats on his old grill, we all got situated into our random little family niches, and we were enjoying the evening. After we were all stuffed full of food, the adults leaned into that post-meal laziness, and my cousin D started complaining about being bored. He asked his dad if we could go walk around the property.

He told us that we could, but that we needed to be careful because he hadn't cleaned everything up, and he mentioned that we needed to look out for snakes. So, Dee and I got up to go walk, and Jessica sprung up saying that she wanted to go too. I didn't mind, but Dee didn't want her to. Dave told him that it was either she went, or we all stayed where we were, so she went with us.

We started off across the yard and toward the back of the property. after a while we got into the area where the grass was taller and started to brush against my legs. I mentioned to Dee that we probably shouldn't go back there because of the snakes that Dave had mentioned, but Dee told me to shut up and follow him, because he wanted to check out the shed. So we, of course, kept going, and I finally saw what he was talking about. On the edge of the property, half hidden by overgrown bushes and some gnarly-looking trees. trees, was this rustic-looking little shed. The wood looked like it was untreated, but it looked resilient, so I guess it had to have been. It was pretty messed up from what I remember. The roof

sagged a bit, and the exterior was rough, but as a kid, it looked kind of cool and creepy. Dee walked up and lifted the latch on the door and pulled the door open, struggling to actually get it open. I had to step up and help him pull it because it kept getting stuck. Inside the shed, it was dim and dusty, and it was filled with old tools, some wooden crates, and just random junk. I remember that it smelled moldy and just kind of gross. We all walked in and were looking at the random items.

Dee grabbed an old rusty saw and pretended to cut his arm off. I laughed, and we were talking about what. whatever kids talk about, when Jessica walked away from us to go into the back of the shed. After a few moments, we heard Jessica say, Guys, look, what is that? And when we looked over, we saw her on her tiptoes, jabbing the sharp part of a garden hoe at something hanging from the ceiling. It took a second to register what exactly was happening in front of us.

And in that second, the garden hoe pierced the exterior, shell of what we very quickly learned was a hornet's nest. A very large and very full hornet's nest. We watched it crack, and as soon as it did, a cloud of very angry hornets erupted from it. What followed was pure chaos. The hornets were swarming out, buzzing loudly and trying to get at us. We were all screaming and trying to grab the door, which Dee had pulled shut, which was just fantastic since, as I mentioned, it stuck pretty bad. Dee rammed into it, I was pushing it, and poor Jessica was behind us just screaming and swinging her arms.

I could feel them stinging my arms in my back. We finally got the door to open, and we burst out of the shed and ran into the yard towards the house, yelling like maniacs. We ran towards the adults, and they all looked at us asking what had happened. D.E. finally yelled out, We got into a hornet's nest. By this point, we were pretty much in the clear.

The hornets had stopped following us, thankfully, and we were just all in pain and sobbing from all the stinging. Dave hurted us toward the house, and my dad was already at the garden hose rinsing us off, trying to soothe some of the pain. My mom took Jessica inside to see how bad she'd gotten stung. she got it pretty bad on her head and face, more than D and I did. This was actually the day that we learned that none of us were allergic to bee stings,

which I guess is the only positive to come out of this. In between ice packs and our sobbing, Uncle Dave scolded us saying that he told us to be careful. Dee explained that he didn't know there were hornets in the shed, and that Jessica was the one that hit it, and of course Dave told her. him that she was younger than he was, so he was responsible. Basic parental scolding kind of stuff.

It absolutely sucked, and I can still remember the level of pain that I was in. It was fairly excruciating. Thankfully, we came out mostly unscathed, minus Jessica, who ended up having a couple of scar spots on her face. They're not really noticeable, but they are there. The whole thing became known as the Hornet event in my family now, and my parents like to bring it up at family get-togethers nowadays, mostly to make fun of us.

But I guess that's fair, and it's a small price to pay for that crazy event from when we were kids. When I was 13, I once woke up to a really weird dream of my dog biting one of my friends. The weird thing was not specifically my dog biting, because he was mistreated by his owner before we got him. He couldn't stand men and he would attack them if they came near him, but he was fine with us and was a really good boy. The weird part about the dream was that it all seemed so real,

and I could remember everything in detail, where it happened, when it happened, what clothes people were wearing, and so forth. So my mom told me a few days later that we would go to our garden for a couple of days to relax, and to work on the garden. Nothing special. We did this a few times a year,

but my brother immediately asked if he could bring a friend with us as well. I told my mother about my dream and that our dog will bite him if he comes, but my mom was like, boy, you're crazy. We'll just leash him and you just have something called deja vu. Don't worry about it. I was okay with that answer because I trusted my parents and such. We got to our place a few days later. Everything was fine.

We enjoyed our trip, and I almost forgot about my dream. When the situation started to happen, I realized what was going to happen. I was standing like 20 meters away from our friend who was walking towards me. In the second I realized what was going to happen, I shouted, Get out of the path, jump to the left. My dog, who was on the leash, jumped towards my friend. The leash broke, and he bit my friend in the left. the arm. My mother still to this day is telling me such things like seeing the future doesn't exist.

And I totally agree with her, but this wasn't just a deja vu. I had those often, but here I reacted to it. Sorry for issues in my writing, but I had to tell people because this event has been stuck in my head for over 20 years now. I wanted to share a strange and unsettling experience that I'd had a few years back, hoping to get some insight or hear if anyone else has had a similar experience. When I first got my phone number, I started receiving calls asking for Adam. Since that's my name, but I didn't know them, I figured they must be looking for some other Adam. I told them they had the wrong number, and I hung up. These calls continued intermittently, and each time the caller insisted that I needed to come

home, because everyone was upset, and that they knew it was me. I would respond with, I am Adam, but you have the wrong number. I just got this number, and hang up. Here's where it gets creepy. I have a distinctive voice. It's not particularly odd, but it's unique enough that you would recognize it if you knew me. Despite that, these callers seemed to recognize my voice and were adamant that I come home. repeatedly assuring me that everything was fine that I just needed to come home.

I've always been the kind of person who moves around a lot. I used to ride the bus frequently, travel all around the U.S., and visit various places. This made the calls even more unsettling somehow, because I left my family at 16. I've been in touch with a few of them since then, and they said they never called me. Unfortunately, I didn't think to save any of the numbers, messages, or call logs, because at the time, I didn't think much of it. But as I've gotten older, I've started to think back on it and realize just how weird the whole situation was. I've started wishing that I had asked them to meet me somewhere or tell me where to go. Instead, I just ignored it all.

How did they recognize my voice, and how did they know my first name? Why were they so insistent that I come home? It's been bothering me more and more as I think about all the strange aspects of those calls. Does anyone have any idea what this could have been about or experienced something similar? It's been bothering me for a while, and I would appreciate any thoughts or theories. I have a personal theory about a green-eyed woman who has appeared in a few of my dreams over the years. years, starting in 2014 and then again in 2017 and 2018. These dreams seem like past life memories because I find myself as different people

and genders in various historical periods. In these dreams, the green-eyed woman is always different, but always has piercing green eyes. Sometimes she's a family member and sometimes a friend or an acquaintance. The first time I saw her in a dream, she told me it wasn't time yet when I asked her name. In subsequent dreams, she appeared closer to me, such as a friend or a hospice nurse. Interestingly, in 2017, I met a real-life person with green eyes who became my best friend. Despite being hesitant due to the past betrayals and friendships, I invested emotionally in our friendship.

Over time, I felt increasingly uncomfortable and distrustful of her, even though our friendship grew stronger. Some of her mannerisms put me on edge. By mid-2019, her life took a downturn due to an abusive relationship, an increasingly hostile environment, or at least she became more open about it, and I tried to support her despite my own struggles. However, our friendship became one-sided, with her using me as a therapist while neglecting my needs, and my boundaries.

I felt emotionally hurt, ghosted, and manipulated by her, which reminded me of my previous friendships. She even started forbidding me from talking about topics such as my past, current political and global news, shortening the topics available to only things that she liked talking about, such as Lord of the Rings or various anime which I don't follow or interest me. And I have tried to be in order to be a good friend. Over time, my friend changed fundamentally, which made our relationship even more challenging. I believe these dreams featuring the green-eyed woman might have been warnings about this friend, suggesting a carmic connection and past-life interaction.

Ultimately, I feel that the green-eyed woman in my dreams was a harbinger of the troubles this friendship would bring. But what do you think? Every year, my family hosted a pretty big Independence Day barbecue. We always had a ton of relatives over from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I feel like it was bigger than our Christmas get-together, but I have no idea why. I was the youngest of five kids, and we had a pretty big head. house, including an in-ground pool. It'll be

importance to the story. The Fourth of July, however, was not my favorite holiday. I was never really a fan of the fireworks, and in fact, I was kind of scared of them. I didn't like any of the stuff that went high in the air, afraid that it would fall back down and hit me. I didn't like

the ones that were loud for obvious reasons, and I refused to do anything that you held. I liked very few fireworks, and sometimes it was a sensory overload, and I would just go back to my room to calm down. For the most part, people understood and left me alone. And in fact, I would have a sibling or cousin come check on me and stay to keep me company. That was always nice.

But one thing we could always count on was my uncle Pat. He was the epitome of a patriotic American, I guess. He always had on some flag-colored swim trunks and a matching shirt and hat. He probably spent way too much on fireworks, but he always made sure all of us kids had enough to shoot off. He also always bought the big and loud stuff that I don't like. I would watch those from inside or under the porch awning

so I wouldn't get hit by anything. The thing about Uncle Pat was that he could never party without alcohol, and he drank a lot of it. Thankfully, I always saw my aunt Ruth driving because I'm sure that he would probably start at home. But the problem with this was that he didn't seem to know how to control his intake, and if anyone tried to get him to slow down on the drinking, or stop him from doing anything, he would get defensive. He was never physical with anyone, and I truly believe that from knowing him,

but he would get loud. yelling was not out of the realm of possibility when he got too drunk and upset. And I think my family just decided it was best to let him be unless it truly was something dangerous he was trying to do. Well, it was 2003, and I was nine years old. I remember it being one of the hottest days that summer, so I'd been spending a lot of time in our pool. I thought that if I was in the water, I probably wouldn't catch fire,

and could go underwater to escape the loud sounds. People were already shooting off the day stuff, like the parachutes, which were already putting me on edge, but I was managing. I would also shoot off the few things that I actually enjoyed, too. Shortly after, Uncle Pat, Aunt Ruth and my two cousins showed up. I was happy to see one of those cousins, Beth, because we were really close,

but I also knew that that meant things were about to get hectic because of Pat. Pat immediately unloaded all of his fireworks as well as his drinks of choice for the night. He was already entertaining himself, shooting fireworks and trying to find different things that he could blow up. I just avoided him and his antics as much as possible. In the beginning, my parents and the other adults would just let him do what he wanted, as long as he wasn't hurting anyone or causing damage. As the night were on and his bottles emptied, he started to get more daring. He loved to hold Roman candles as they went off and my mom hated it.

One of my brothers always wanted to do the same, and my mom always told him no, thankfully. So I heard my dad talking to Uncle Pat, his brother, to tell him to basically tone it down. But Pat didn't like being told what to do, even if it was by his parents or older brother. He would get mad and defensive about it, but he was never physical towards anyone, just all bark. It seemed like everyone got tired of telling him to stop, so they just gave up, which I hated, but I digress. When it got darker out, I sat on the covered patio and ate while I watched everyone else light fireworks. Uncle Pat was firing off the large mortars without warning, which was about to make me lock myself in my room, but I decided to hold off since Beth wanted to light a specific fountain. As hers was going off, I was pretty entertained by it.

It didn't make any loud noises, but it was really pretty. The lights weren't blinding and they changed colors. Unfortunately, I was distracted by this and didn't realize Uncle Pat was setting up his grand finale stunt. hunt until everyone else made a commotion. I heard my mom used my dad's name in her angry tone and looked to where she was pointing. It was Pat, holding a Roman candle in each hand and a sparkler behind each ear. His son, my cousin, was lighting the sparkler, and then Pat lit the Roman candles with those. A small argument ensued between my parents because it was too late to stop him, said my dad.

and Mom was mad that he didn't in the first place. All we could do was watch and wait for this to be over. Then, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. One of the sparks had pat in the face, and he instinctually went to reach for his face. However, being as intoxicated as he was, he was still holding the Roman candle. Right as he went to touch his face,

the candle went off, and all we could see was a bright light, in the silhouette of his head. And then the screaming started. I couldn't look away at first, as I heard Pat's screaming. He dropped everything, and now it was on the ground and shooting everywhere. Pat now had a streak of fire down his shirt, and his screams turned into something nightmarish.

I looked away, shielding my eyes, as I heard the adult shuffling to his aid and my cousin crying out for her father. Then the last thing I heard was a loud splash. I finally looked up and saw my uncle floating face down in the pool. I was terrified. I was young. Was he dead? Did I just witness someone dying?

My dad got in the pool and helped him out, along with my other uncle who was there. My mom was already on the phone calling for help, and I stayed in my chair, fearing the worst for my uncle. The paramedics arrived and immediately helped him on a stretcher. I heard him groaning telling me that he was at least alive. Something told me to go see him and see what happened. I guess it was the curious child in me, but I still regret it to this day. When I got closer, he was holding something to his face, and he pulled it away for one of the paramedics to look at the damage.

All I could see was a black hole where his eye should have been, red welts all over his face, and his scorched shirt down his chest. The sight still gives me nightmares. I remember hiding in my room after that. I heard people talking, but I didn't want to join them. I assumed the party was over after that, which I was actually thankful for. I didn't even want to think about fireworks after that.

A bit of good news, I guess, for this story. Uncle Pat obviously lived. He came over a few weeks later wearing an eye patch. He did lose vision in his right eye, and he has a pretty big burn scar across the side of his face and chest. Apparently, he spilled some of his drink on his shirt, which is why he caught fire as well. He also seemed to learn his lesson pretty well. Pat really controlled his intake at parties after that, and I never saw him drink more than two beers. I guess losing your eyesight will do that to you.

In the end, my uncle learned his lesson, and I never never saw him. got over my fear of fireworks, especially after that night. I love my uncle, but seeing him like that, it looked like something out of a scary monster movie, and it absolutely scarred me, no pun intended. Just keep the fireworks far away from your face, friends. As always, this is a true story. I went to high school at Our Lady of Mercy Academy in Louisville, Kentucky. I live in the suburb of Fern Creek. Although it's moved way closer now, it was then downtown in its original building. My mother and aunt and older sister went there as well.

It was built there in 1901 through 2007 when it was relocated. This meant that I got up early and boarded the city bus and rode it to a corner with a large group of other girls and walked a block and then back in the afternoons. I had met a girl in high school who was very, very interested in ESP and dreams, anything like that. I told her that I fully believed in ESP, that I had it, and my mother and grandmother and an aunt definitely did too.

I've always had totally vibrant, realistic dreams, and recall them from four years old onward. She actually wanted to hear what I dreamt, so we discussed my nightly dreams. I told her that many times I would have precognition, which is simply knowing what's going to happen ahead of time. Dreams seemed to often have the whole mental video of events, and then they would happen. So it was not unusual that my friend asked me my dream that morning on the long, jarring bus ride. I told her that I'd had two.

Both could not be just rehashing old events of the day or metaphors or something else. As I explained, but this kind seemed a prediction type, or pre-cognitive sort, I said. I then began telling the dream. You know how we both take that art class first period? Well, I dreamed it was that class, but instead of being in the art building behind the school as normal, we were just all walking a lot outside and talking.

As we walked, I looked down in the ankle-deep fall leaves that we were sloshing through everywhere on the sidewalks and spotted a $20 bill. I quickly picked it right up. Then I spotted a $1 bill and then a second, then a third. It was very windy with leaves swirling, and we were at the back of this long line of girls, but nobody else had seen them. Then another 20 showed up, and then it stopped. Then there was the second dream.

I was coming home and was at the end of the block from the school at the gas station, that we would go in to get Coke, candy, chips, or hot chocolate. We loved to do that after school. It dropped cocoa powder, hot water, and that was scalding, and then dropped five tiny marshmallows on top. Well, I had watched a machine drop the cocoa and then saw it in my right hand, and it was bumped by this huge group of girls just pressing in on me as they huddled around all the machines in a hurry before the bus came by. I was burned badly on the hand by the scalding cocoa, right between my right forefinger and thumb, and I awoke to the pain of it.

She said, better not get hot chocolate today, and laughed. Well, the day unwound in our tiny art teacher, Sister Rosarita, said that we were going to go on a tiny field trip down to a world-famous place in our own city, Hadley Pottery, to see the pieces made there. She knew there was no prior mention of it or permission slip in advance, but she someway pulled it off. We all excitedly said yes. We filed into a long orderly line,

fully clad in wool-plad skirts, white-rounded collar blouses and dark blue Wesleyes, a four-go-buttoned vest with two pockets, and the embroidered school logo in red on it. We went in twos and went about three blocks, maybe, led by our teacher. Going home after the interesting tour, I was walking with my friend. We both looked at each other and then scanned the ground in the swirling ankle-deep leaves as the wind picked up. We were in the back of the entire line. Suddenly, I stopped down, picking up a $20 bill, and then a one, and then another, and then another. And Christy then nabbed the last 20.

It really started our day off interesting, as we had the dough now. So, after school, we noticed how cold it had become, still blowing so hard. A larger group than usual huddled by all the machines as I got a coat. Suddenly this girl thrust a blazing hot cocoa at me, saying, Can you hold this? She struggled to put her money away and find her gold medal blue motor coach token for the ride home. I said sure. I put my coke in my left hand and held her chocolate.

Someone then bumped me hard, and as I held onto her cup, a big spill burned down between my thumb and forefinger. I was infighted to a friend whose family grew up next door to us. We've known each other a lifetime. Greg was having one huge Halloween party, and my mom, sister, and dad were all invited. Now, he was grown with grown working kids. The artwork on his Halloween decor was outstanding, and his land was quite substantial. Every inch seemed adorned with neat and cute things, and everyone was in costume.

My sister, mother, next-door neighbor girlfriend, that hosts sister, and I sat at an amazingly decorated garage that was huge. We sat at a table big enough for us all, and my friend, Brenda, brought over her daughter. She said, after my sixth beer, that she had to have me read her adult daughter's tea leaves. She wanted to know if she was ever going to have children also. I admit it. I was bombed, blitz, inflicted drunk, or whatever terminology is current today. I told her yes. Then, what her husband to be looked like.

His last name, and how it was spelled very unusually. I drew a picture of him on her napkin, said his profession, and that she would have a son and then a daughter. She wrote all this down and kept it to this day. It all actually happened as I said, and I always felt afterward that it scared them of me, which was unfortunate. When I was a lot younger, I was brushing my teeth one evening getting ready to go to bed.

My house layout had a staircase that led to three immediate doors, left the bathroom, middle, spare room, and the right, my bedroom. So I essentially had the upstairs to myself. On this occasion, I was in the bathroom with the door open brushing my teeth. My dad was downstairs on the computer, situated just at the bottom of the stairs. My bathroom had a shower in it that had an old door that you would pull and it would fold in on itself to open. And then you would pull it back to close it. Being made out of glass and metal, it was often stiff and would always get stuck pulling open and closed. Even if you pulled hard, it would always get stuck here and there and would close in a stuttery fashion.

In front of my bathroom's sink was a mirror, and you could easily see the shower in. in it as it was a small square bathroom. As I was brushing my teeth, I saw the shower door slam with an insane amount of force and make a loud crash sound. I turned around and could see it visibly shaking from how hard it had shut. It scared the hell out of me,

and I immediately bolted out of the bathroom. I asked my dad if he heard what had just happened, and he was disinterested and just said that it was probably the cat. obviously completely oblivious to what had just happened. And he had just heard an annoying bang noise above him. But I honestly saw this stiff door slam like someone threw all of their weight behind it, right behind me. There was no wind.

But even if there was, there's no way that any wind would have that much force to close that shower door to the point that the whole shower was shaking. 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 that you can be, never forget it. And until next time, much love and sleep well.