As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 192 - Creepy After Dark Stories & Humanoid Stories From Reddit

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

Today, on the 192nd episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast, we have 12 True Chilling stories. These stories come from the shadowy corners of reality, where everyday life takes an eerie twist & ordinary people experience the extraordinary. Today we will be diving into the horrors that happen after dark as well as some terrifying humanoid/cryptid encounters from reddit. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your own supports it! I upload episodes every 3 days, so there are 2 days between new uploads. The podcast consists of new scary story collections, Glitch in the matrix collections, and also what I call the "Dark Dreams" collections (which are older stories, remastered and layered with rain sounds). If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at [e-mail] Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in todays episode... seth, Peach_Gfuel, Plaidweasel, saladgoats, IcE_cHiLlEd_WaTeR, HollyTheDovahkiin, EternalReverie1, Southern-Jello2390, OhMeOhMya, OldFarmer, Tom k As Well As Any Author That Has Requested Anonymity. TimeStamps… Ad breaks after Story 1 & Story 5 1 ➤ 2:15 2 ➤ 13:30 3 ➤ 18:21 4 ➤ 22:19 5 ➤ 25:09 6 ➤ 40:22 7 ➤ 45:33 8 ➤ 49:20 9 ➤ 53:15 10 ➤ 1:02:46 11 ➤ 1:05:57 12 ➤ 1:08:19 ----- Disclaimer ➤ Episodes include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Listener discretion is always advised. ALL Audio and visuals on this podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format. Bless This Mess. None of my audio is AI Generated, I am a real person reading real stories into a real microphone. #ScaryStories #UnexplainedMysteries #GlitchInTheMatrix Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and happy Sunday, my lovely friends. I hope you're all doing well. I'm doing pretty good, so far. Bit of sinus issues that come with the seasonal change. It's kind of chilly. Got to 38 last night, I think. I got to close the windows. I need to remember to do that,

because I'm going to end up getting sick if I don't. I'm just that kind of silly goober. Anyways. Today we have some after. dark stories or late night stories and some humanoid encounters from Reddit. Some interesting stuff. Humanoid's being human-shaped cryptids, I believe for the most part. I don't recall all of them.

I'm going to be honest with you. It's been a minute since I actually recorded them because there's a bit of a delay. But anyways, yeah, some late night stories, cryptid-ish stories, just all around bizarre and strange stories today. And I hope you like them. I really do. As always, if you do have a story, consider sending it into me. Go just go to as the ravendreams.com.

There's a big button to send it into me through the website. Or you can email me as the raven dreams at gmail.com. That's also an option. If you're not busy on Saturday, come on over to the YouTube channel. Same name as the Raven Dreams. I do live streams last night, so Saturday, the 6th, September. I started playing the game called The Classrooms, which is very much like backrooms meets SCP.

It was fun. I'm not good with horror games. I don't know why. I like scary movies and games and such to some extent, but for some reason, it scared the crap out of me at several spots. You can always go over and watch the live stream if you want. It's not as fun as being there, but it's an option.

Yeah. Check me out. Like you said, YouTube, as the Raven Dreams, same name. Saturdays. We live stream 6 p.m. Central Standard Time. That's pretty much every Saturday. Most, I would say most Saturdays. Sometimes life gets in the way, but that's just how it goes.

Anyways, enjoy the scary stories. This is too long of an intro. Much love and sleep well friends. This was something that happened to my friends and I back when we were teenagers. Most of us were around 16 at the time, as we were all just getting our licenses. I had mine. My friend Tori had hers for a few months as well as Mallory, and Elondra was still 15, so she hadn't gotten hers yet, but she did have a driver's permit.

Getting our license was another step for us into adulthood. We felt mature and probably even a bit invincible. I didn't have my own car, but my parents did have two, and would occasionally let me take one to school or my friend's place. But Mallory was our lucky friend who got a car for her 17th birthday. It wasn't anything fancy. An older used Dodge something, but we still felt cool riding around in it with her. It was actually one of our favorite things to do.

We would drive a bit after school or when we stayed over at each other's place. We would always offer to run errands, just to get out. Now, none of us were stupid about it, however. We didn't speed and swerve around or anything crazy like that. In fact, Mallory wouldn't even move until we were buckled in. The craziest thing we probably did was when we drove by a group of guys, we hollered out the window at them. They were from our school, so it's not like we shouted at strange men either. But there was one time on one of our drives that we had a pretty unsettling experience that we still don't have true answers for.

It was the end of the school year, and we were really. all having a sleepover at Mallory's to celebrate the beginning of summer. It was pretty late, I think like two in the morning. We were all wide awake and bored because we didn't want to sleep. We actually wanted to try and stay up all night for no reason other than we wanted to. So with nothing else that we could think of doing, we decided to go for another joyride. We all quietly left the house, her parents. clearly in their room asleep, and piled into her car.

Mallory was driving, of course, Elondra called Shotgun, and Tori and I were in the back. Tori on the driver's side, me on the passenger. Also, this was quite some time ago, so I had one of those prepaid Nokia's, and Mallory had a similar phone. So no cameras with us, and I had even left my phone at her place. I don't remember if Mallory brought hers or not. not. Anyway, we started by just driving around the block, and then we started giving suggestions on places to drive by. We stopped by my old house, as well as Tories. We drove by our old school

that had been demolished and rebuilt as a community center, and then we drove by this old abandoned house that was supposedly haunted. It wasn't open to the public, and none of us were brave enough to even consider trespassing, so we just stopped in front of it and shared a few stories that we knew about it. Supposedly, every family that ever lived there was met with some kind of tragedy. Anyway, after that, we finally stopped at a gas station near the house. We bought some snacks, and with nowhere else in mind to go, made our way back to Mallory's house. But it's what we saw on our way back that kind of creeped us out.

Walking down the sidewalk on the side of the road was a guy, dragging behind him a large trash bag. And yes, it looked just about what you're probably thinking. Now, this would be where most people would probably nope out of the situation and burn out to get as far away as possible from them, but not us. We wouldn't break into the house, but we had enough bravery to stop and talk to this stranger. I guess we felt more safe than that.

the car, which probably wasn't too far off. We slowly rolled up next to him, now at a crawl, and then roll down the passenger window and greeted him. That's when I got a better look at his... Trashbag. It was long, like multiple trash bags tied or taped together, with what looked like some kind of string or rope wrapped around it. The guy looked pretty normal, however.

He was wearing jeans, a thin green jacket, and a... ball cap. He was older based on his graying beard and the wrinkles on his face and hands, but the man himself didn't look scary at all. To be honest, he reminded me in my own grandpa, except my grandpa hated wearing hats. Once we greeted the man, he stopped walking, looked around, almost like he was looking for someone, and then while still dragging the bag behind him, he turned toward us and approached the car. He gave a slight smile, and with a southern drawl, he greeted us back and asked, y'all out for late-night Cruz?

We confirmed, said that we were bored, and told him where all we'd been. Mallory then asked if he needed any help. I don't know why she asked, because I don't know what we could have done to help him in the situation. He thanked us for asking, but declined, saying that he was just taking care of some business. Then Mallory seemed to push it and ask why he was doing it at two in the morning. He shrugged and looked down at his watch and went, Huh, and then said that it was the best time to do it,

because there was less traffic and less heat. None of us could really argue with that reasoning, so we didn't. He asked us if we lived around the area and we said not really, which wasn't a lie. We were technically in the town over from where we lived. There was a little small talk, talking about why we were out at two in the morning, what grade we were in, our plans for summer break, everything very casual feeling, to be honest. He didn't ask where we lived. He didn't ask our names or even our ages, even though he could at least figure that out by our grade.

It just kind of seemed like a normal conversation. until Tori decided to open her mouth and ask, So what's in the bag? He leaned over to look past me at Tori, then looked down at the bags that he was dragging behind. He seemed to stare at the bags forever and then finally sighed and looked back at us. And with a smile, he said,

It's a body. We all fell silent. Tori smacked my leg and then we all looked at each other. he let that moment linger on for way too long before he finally broke into laughter. He said, Oh, geez, y'all should have seen the look on your faces. I remember this huge weight being lifted off my chest as I looked at the other three, and we all had an awkward smile on our faces.

After he caught his breath and calmed down, he then leaned towards Alondra's window and excitedly asked us if we wanted to see what it was. None of us spoke, thankfully. I remember looking at the others and trying to make them agree with no, with my mind. Finally, we shook our heads, and then he said, Good, because I don't want to have to kill y'all. That time, we all giggled first. Ha, of course, he was joking with us, right?

Then the man tapped the roof of the car and said that he should probably get going. Mallory agreed and told the man to have a good rest of his night, and he told us to get home safely. Mallory drove off slowly, immediately turning down the next street to break the view of him. The drive-back was silent. No one said anything until we pulled into the driveway. That is when Alondra asked us if we really thought he was dragging a body. Mallory laughed and said no way.

I immediately agreed and explained how it was long, but it wasn't body-shaped, and that he was definitely messing with us. Mallory agreed and said that we should all just go in and never talk about it again, which we were all accepting of. We didn't know if we would get in trouble for being out anyways, so we didn't want to tell her parents. We went back in. The house was just as silent, and we quietly made our way back to her room.

We tried to get the mood back by sharing our snacks, and talking about other unrelated things, but I think that man was lingering in the back of all of our thoughts. He was certainly lingering in mine. I kept telling myself there was no way that it was a body. He was dragging it behind him, pulling it along by a rope, so with it dragging, he would have torn open the bag and whatever was in it then would have been leaking, right?

I have no explanation as to what it could have been, considering where he was. It was near a neighborhood, but on a main street. We didn't pass a car on the side of the road, and we didn't see any ahead of us either. So where did he come from? And why was he dragging whatever that was behind him? After that night, we did finally talk about it, not feeling like the guy was going to show up when we didn't expect it.

The only thing that makes sense to us is either, maybe he was going to dump whatever that was in some kind of commercial dumpster, like illegal dumping. There was an older gated community nearby, and they had signed about how dumpsters were for residents only, so it was entirely possible. The other option was that he was literally just doing that as a prank, to just disturb someone.

But the problem with that one was, why would a man his age, one, want to try to prank someone, and two, choose to do it at two o'clock in the morning. What are the odds that he would run into someone at that time, and that the person wouldn't call the cops or be the cops, for that matter? The good thing is, we never saw any stories about a body being found wrapped in trash bags, so that probably was a lie, but I have no other reasonable explanation for what he was doing that night, And to be honest, I really don't like to think about the possibilities.

So, let's just hope that we never meet again. Lazzangue sur-gillet, puissance-moleaned for 15 minutes. We're like to dojo. Fere to play the pleasure with Leo Jo. The casino in line that proposes the more recent machine-assed and games of casino in direct. Profite of 50 tours gratu on Big Bas Bonanza,

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if it was just my childhood imagination. I used to tell friends that I saw something in my house. Usually I would say that it might have been a ghost, but honestly I have no idea. I can't say exactly how old I was, but I was definitely.

Definitely still in primary school. It happened in winter, in Poland in 2009, most likely, probably a few days after Christmas Eve, because I was playing with a Lego set that I got as a gift. It was already dark outside. The lights were on in my room, and I was playing on the carpet across from the door that opened into a lit hallway. From that angle, looking out the door, I could see a wall and the banister around the space above the stairs. I was really focused on playing. My eyes were down, but for some reason, maybe because I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye,

I looked up and glanced at the door. That's when I saw it. From the left side of the doorframe, a figure slowly started to emerge. It must have been over a meter tall, but no taller than a meter and a half. It had a strange color. Not so much the figure itself, but more like an aura surrounding it. kind of a mix between purple and celadon. It was floating in the air, maybe half a meter off the ground,

hard to say exactly. I was just a kid sitting on the floor, so I had to look up slightly. It had bent legs and a bit of a hunch, and in that position it slowly drifted to the right through the air. I don't remember what it was wearing exactly, but I know that it had clothes, purple for sure, pants and black leather shoes.

It looked like a formal outfit. It appeared to be male. I remember it had a fairly large head, so big that it looked disproportionate to the rest of its body, with a black mop of hair and big ears. The face features were hard to tell. I saw it from the profile, definitely very prominent cheekbones and a big nose.

I froze for about three seconds. I couldn't move. I was in shock. And then a wave of chills hit me and fear took over. I immediately looked back down at the Lego bricks and started pretending to play. In my head I was thinking, just pretend you're playing, maybe I won't notice you and pretend that you didn't see it.

But after a few seconds, I couldn't process what I had just seen, or even whether I had seen something, or if it was just my imagination. I might have believed that it was all in my head to this day, if not for what happened next. Curiosity won out, and I looked up again, without lifting my head too much because I was afraid it might still be there. And then I saw that from the right side of the door frame, part of the figure was still visible. After a short moment, it completely moved out of view. I was stunned, terrified.

I sat there for a while trying to gather the courage to run to my parents who were in the living room downstairs. When I finally managed to do so, I ran out of the room not looking to the right out of fear that it was still there, bolted down the stairs, and sat on the couch next to my parents. I didn't say a word to them. I just took comfort in the feeling of safety, and I was scared they wouldn't take me seriously. I didn't have the strength to try and explain it to them because the emotions I had just gone through had completely drained me. That thing never even looked at me.

It was like it didn't know that I had seen it. I didn't tell any of my friends at school either because I didn't want to be laughed at. For the next few days, I felt uneasy any time I played in my room, afraid I would see it again. It took years before I finally told anyone, usually after a few drinks and only in vague terms just saying that I had seen something I couldn't explain without going into detail, so I wouldn't sound like a weirdo.

Has anyone else ever encountered something like this? Was it just my imagination? What keeps bothering me is that when I looked again, it was still there. If it weren't for that second glance, I wouldn't even think twice, and I would have just assumed that it was just my imagination. Hey, first time posting here. Helpful that someone's had a similar experience or can help provide any answers or insight. So, I'm located in Akron, Ohio, in the USA.

This happened in maybe 2022 or 2023. I can't exactly remember the year. I had just gotten home from working late one night. I used to test gas stations and would work late into the night most times. I got home around 245 to 3 a.m. And let my dogs out to go to the restroom. And when I was standing there, I got the overwhelming sensation to peek around the corner on my house toward my neighbors.

And so I just barely peeked around the side of my house and looked into their backyard and saw something that truly freaked me out. Like the worst feeling I've ever experienced to date. And so for context, it was laid into the night. and it was a dark night. Maybe a crescent moon or even a new moon, either way, very dark outside. So I had stepped back out with my dogs to get my stuff out of my work truck, and while they did their business, I set my stuff inside the side door of my house

and walked back outside to them. After they finished up, I let them back inside, but before I could follow them, I got such an overwhelming feeling that I had to look around the corner, of my house to my neighbors. I didn't know why, but I felt compelled to do it, so I just barely peaked my head around and saw this creature standing inside my neighbor's fenced-in backyard. It was standing at the back of the yard facing towards the woods, behind our houses. So it had its back toward my neighbor's house, and I was looking at its side profile.

It stood maybe six to seven feet tall, pale white skin, but was like, bright, like a light, was shining on it. But again, it was pitch black outside. I could see it perfectly like I had shined a flashlight on it. It was very human-like, except that it had no clothes on and was muscular but smooth. Sorry if it's inappropriate, but it's necessary for the description. I could see it from head to toe, and it had no genitalia. Just a smooth body, bright, pale skin, and was just standing there,

staring into the woods. As I was staring at this, just an absolute disbelief and shock at what I was seeing, while still hiding behind my house, essentially, it snapped its head toward me and stared directly at me. I didn't get any thoughts in my head besides, run. In a full panic, I ran inside my house, slammed the door behind me, and locked it just waiting for whatever this creature was to come and get me. I've never felt fear like I did in that moment.

I truly thought that it would come and get me and take me or kill me. I've never seen anything like that before or since. So, in summary, it was a six to seven foot tall, bright, pale, white skin, muscular but smooth body, completely naked, but no clear genitalia. It stood staring into the woods inside the fenced-in backyard at the edge of the yard-slash-fense. It didn't make any movements besides to snap its face toward me, and the closest thing I could find online to what it reminds me of is the creature from Prometheus,

but it's still not the same at all. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts, I am all ears. I would love to know what this was. Thanks. Hello, long-time lurker in here. This happened back in 2009, in Puerto Rico. And we still don't know what it was, and recently another user shared a picture similar to what we saw. The encounter.

It was back in 2009, four friends and I were walking home from a basketball game in a suburb that is near our neighborhood. It was around 8 p.m. and it was pretty dark. There were two ways to go into my neighborhood. The first one was the, quote, shortcut, which consisted of cutting through the middle of an abandoned paint. ballpark in an open field, and it would take around 10 minutes to arrive to our homes. The second was the long way, which takes 25 to 30 minutes, walking in a bright area surrounded by houses and endless illuminated rows that finished right at the entrance of the abandoned park, and then about five minutes of walking in a semi-illuminated area.

We took the shortcut, like we did every time, but this time everything was quiet. No animal sounds, abandoned dogs took shelter there, no car sounds from far, just pure silence. One of my friends decides to start talking about how it must be cool to play with a Ouija in the middle of the field as a joke. We tell him to shut up collectively because we were pretty scared. We all see the entrance of the park, and we all start getting less stressed and start talking again. We were about 100 feet from the entrance when we all hear and feel stumps coming from behind us but not regular stomps

heavy stomps like an elephant or a bull running. We looked back and there was this strangely shaped creature with really dim red eyes. At first it looked completely dark but as it got closer it was grayish and charging towards us. We collectively looked at each other and ran. ran as fast as possible toward the entrance, and we managed to get out. While walking, there is a part of the street that briefly overlooks the field, and we all looked to see if we could see anything, but all we saw were the dim red dots looking directly at us.

We all went home, and the next day tried to figure out what had happened. Four out of five of us can confirm this story. Sadly, one of my friends passed away a couple of years ago. I also moved but have to travel every weekend through that area to visit my family, and it still gives me the creeps going through there at night. This happened to me back when I worked nights at a gas station. I used to live in a very small middle-of-now-where type of town. It's one of those that most people drive right on through. We had two grocery stores, the second one was fairly new, which was the talk of the town,

even though it was literally the same grocery store with all the same stuff, except it had a pharmacy in it. We didn't have a local pharmacy prior, so if you had a prescription, you had to go to the next town over, and that was at least a 20 to 30-minute drive. Our little gas station was everything. The parking lot was the spot for high school students to hang out at.

We had better prices on some things like egg, and butter, and of course, we were the only place to get gas. It's one of those places that if you were on the road, you would pass it by for a popular chain instead, but everyone in the city knew the place and each other and just felt comfortable for all of us. That also leads into the whole Everybody knew everybody, which was more true than I would like to say. My gym teacher in middle school went to school with my dad, and he was at a little bit of the

at my house near weekly, to help him with whatever he was working on at the time, helping with the farm, or just to come over for dinner. It was a different time, for sure. But to explain the story or what led up to this event, I started working at the gas station at the age of 17. I wanted a job so I could start making my own money, especially after my parents helped me get my own car. I now needed an income to help keep gas in it, and for the upkeep. I didn't really know what I wanted to do after school, but when my dad had a serious health scare, I decided that I wanted to stay close to home to help my mom take care of him and the farm. I began working full-time at the gas station and took classes online, at least my core classes, until I figured out what exactly I

wanted to do. The thing was, the gas station was desperate for overnight help. As my generation got older, they realized the shift in clientele was changing, and many of us were up late, worked late, or even overnight in nearby towns. And there was a chance for good profit. So I took on that shift, which worked for me. I could help out my parents and take my courses during the day. and while they were asleep, I could work without worrying about them.

The gas station also had internet, and they installed a line that the owner and manager often plugged their clunky laptop into, so they could play their stupid online car games. They didn't care if the rest of us did it too, so I often brought my laptop with me to do schoolwork at times. It was actually a pretty comfortable gig for a tiny middle-of-noware gas station, and I was content with it. So, there I was, one random night working per the norm. It was a little after midnight because one of my regulars had already come by, and he usually showed up there around then. I knew it was going to be pretty slow after him,

so I settled into the old computer chair behind the counter and booted up my laptop to see what I could work on. That's when a car pulled up that I didn't recognize. It caught my attention because it looked very new, and very shiny. New cars like that were not something we were used to seeing. It was like the town was stuck in this

time bubble where nothing was newer than maybe 2001, and that was pushing it. My car was a 98, and I thought that I got lucky on that. But this car looked like it was from the future. The parking lot was pretty lit up, and I watched them back into a spot.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the tag because of this. I couldn't tell what the make was either because it didn't have any logos on it. It was a sedan that was either black or very dark blue or gray. The car itself looked very sleek and I honestly didn't know how else to explain it other than it seriously did not fit in, which is why I watched it so closely. I watched for a few moments, but they didn't immediately get out of the car. I went back to my laptop, glancing up a few times, wanting to keep an eye on them. We had never had a robbery, probably because we'd recognize them by their voice or face if it wasn't hidden.

But not knowing who this was, I was feeling a little on edge. But after about five or so minutes, someone finally did get out of the car. When he got out, he closed the door, walked to him. around the entire car and then went back to his driver's side window and seemed to rub it with his sleeve. He looked around like he was in a panic, as he did it, too. My first thought, when I see people acting like this, is that they're clearly under the influence of something. Our town is not without the one or two people that are heavy users, but they also don't rob or do anything violent, probably because we'd all know who they are and where to find

them. But this guy, I didn't recognize him, so I didn't know what to expect. When he finally walked toward the building and entered, that's when I got a good look at him. He was wearing a gray business suit, but his jacket was unbuttoned and the white shirt underneath was extremely dirty. It had what I assumed to be dirt on it, and two large tears near the chest. His sleeve cuffs were caked in something dark, like mud. He only had socks on, no shoes, and his hair was a mess. It seriously looked like it had been singed, all sticking up with part of it darker and short on one side, like in patches. And when he entered the store, he had that crazed look in his eyes. I greeted him as I normally would,

and he nodded and then walked to the side of the store. I watched him from the side or in the mirrors in the store and realized that, of all the aisles, he was in the one with the miscellaneous household goods, like baby stuff and housewares like wipes, Ziploc bags, and so forth. He looked up and down the shelves, moving stuff around quickly and then sighed heavily. He seemed to stand there for several seconds, breathing slowly like he was trying to calm himself down. Then he walked back up towards the front. I once again greeted him, trying to be nice, and asked him if he needed help with anything. That's when he asked me what day it was.

No big deal, I told him it was Thursday, and then he stared at me for several seconds like a deer and a headlight type of stare, and asked me what year it was. I told him the year, curiously, and he looked down, shook his head, and then mumbled something. I asked him if he was all right and he quickly looked back up and asked me if we had any foil, pepto, and traps. I tried to clarify what he meant by traps like mouse or bug traps, and his response was, yeah, that should work.

So I pointed to the aisles for each and he ran over to them. I watched as he went through each one mumbling something and reading the packages. Then he brought them all back up to the first. front. He put his items on the counter, he grabbed exactly what he had asked for, and I told him the cost. As he went through his pockets, he asked me if I had called anybody. I didn't quite understand what he meant by that, so I asked him, and he looked around the store and commented how he didn't check for other people either. That is where I started to get worried. He asked me about calling someone, and if anyone else was in the store.

Was this some kind of weird robbery? Never having been in that situation, I just told him that he could take whatever he wanted, but that I didn't have more than $200 in cash on me. I remember how confused he looked. He shook his head and explained that he wasn't going to rob me. He could just hear the voices, and he wanted to know if it was just him again.

I told him that I hadn't called, called anyone and he seemed defeated. He made a comment about them following him here and how he didn't understand how. But then, he held up, of all things, the bug traps, which were just glue slides, and said this will help. I know, I was expecting some comedic joke with the foil, but instead, the bug traps seemed to be the clutch.

So, he finally made it. managed to scrounge up enough cash, but he also threw down some non-US currency, which was pretty strange. I don't remember what it was now, though. After he paid, he shook my hand saying that it was nice to meet me, and then apologized for bringing them there. I asked him what he meant by that, and he leaned in and said, Them.

You know who I'm talking about. Then explained how I just needed to hide if. they showed up, and that they can't see me in the cold, so I should hide in the freezer. I remember pulling my hand away from him, and he stepped back saying that he should go quickly and then left the store. I watched him go back to his car. He opened up a few traps and put them on the hood of the car, fastened there with some kind of tape that he had pulled out. He then covered his windows with the foil and then balled it up and shoved it in his wheel well. The entire time, he would stop and look around to see if he was being watched.

I remember thinking, this guy has to be insane. I've clearly never seen him before. He was in a car that looked way too advanced, and even though he was messed up and dirty, he was dressed way too nice to be from around here too. So, why did he choose my gas station? I looked away for less than a minute. I wanted to try to get a picture of the car with the crappy camera we kept under the counter. The owner kept one there to take pictures of damages to the buildings or items to have proof for ride-offs.

I wanted to see if I could look up the car later and maybe see the license plate and find out what state they were from. But in the time it took for me to bend over, move a few things, and grab the camera, I heard a very loud horn and the lights flickered. It sounded like it was right at the building and it startled me. So I looked up and that car was gone. There was no way with him being in the middle of doing whatever he was doing that he could have left that fast. It was hard to believe and then I was just left there just as confused

and no proof that anything in the past 15 to 20 minutes had happened. Nothing else happened for the rest of the night, at least not physically. No one ever showed up at the station, but I kept getting this weird feeling like someone was going to. I kept feeling like I was being watched, but no one was ever there. I even took a short break outside and walked around the building, but there was no one around, and no sign of anybody. So where did this feeling come from? I remember laughing at myself, that this guy came in with his paranoia, and left it at my feet.

But that feeling just would not go away. I went home that morning and slept harder than I ever had before. When I woke up, everything felt normal. And I didn't feel like I was being watched, thankfully. I did tell my parents about my experience, and they also thought that it was strange. But they chalked it up to a person passing through, probably with mental health issues or possibly drugs. I agreed with them and moved on pretty quickly.

but every night I went to work, that feeling would start to come back. So, I decided to humor myself. I pulled out one of the bug traps that he bought, placed it by the door, and then shortly after that watched feeling actually went away. I felt like I was going crazy. Why would that make the feeling go away? It made no sense. I immediately threw it away, and I swear that feeling came back.

I was losing it. I had to be. There wasn't a single bug on that trap, so how did they help? I wish I could give a better ending to this, but honestly, it never went away. I laid out a few traps a few times, and that feeling would go away. I started telling myself that it was just a placebo effect and did my best to ignore it. Until one day I came in, didn't put out any traps, but that feeling wasn't. there. I felt like I had finally gotten over it. But then as I was cleaning up the store in the back, I spotted a few traps. Of course, they were empty. I hadn't put them there and had no idea who had.

So, how could the feeling be connected if I wasn't aware? I stopped fighting it and just left the traps where they were. I don't know what it was about them, but part of me thinks they were actually doing something. And maybe that man did leave some kind of trail for someone or something to find. And maybe that person or thing latched on to me instead. So I did the only thing I knew how to do. Didn't talk about it. I just dealt with it as I worked there until another opportunity came up and I quit the gas station,

leaving that place and that feeling behind. I never got any actual answers. and I never saw that man again, but boy, I wish I would so I could get some answers. At five, I encountered, spoke to, and physically touched the sand-down clown. My experience was the subject of a listener episode of the Crypto-Nots podcast, but I will do my best to give the cliff notes of my experience. At the time of the event, I was four or five years old, and the sun was beginning to descend.

So late afternoon at best. My memory of what happened sticks out because it would shape the things that I would draw as I grew older. I was sitting on a large boulder in my grandparents' backyard. It had been dug out for some time before me to make way for a large decorative fish pond that, by my time, was rarely used except to entertain me. My grandfather had just gone inside, and I knew enough to not go swimming in the gross water.

It was at this time that I heard a noise to my right and turned. To the right of my grandparents' home was a neighbor's massive field. I can't remember what crop they grew, but the tall grass at the time probably means that it hadn't been used in a while. Standing in the grass was a figure with a scarecrow pose. arms out, straight body. His hat was cone-shaped. His face features were wooden. He had a jack-o-lantern face with an empty nose hole, but he still looked alive.

When he talked, his mouth didn't move. I could hear him in my head, like telepathy. He gave off major clown vibes, which I was comfortable with, as both parents did charity events as clowns. I would say that he was roughly seen. six to seven feet tall with wide shoulders. He wore scarecrow clothes, with patches of bright colors over pale brown and black.

But what he said to me was what your podcast re-sparked in my memory, and left me with the distinct knowledge that not only was I not the only one any more to have seen him, but that a vivid experience could have been something more sinister. He waved a wooden hand, and I heard a voice say, Hello, Sam, we are all colors. I remember distinctly that he asked it as a question, and I responded with,

My name's Luke, not Sam. I wasn't scared. I felt calm and relaxed until the end of the encounter. He pointed at himself, ended a short bow, and then reached out into the field next to him and opened a door. The door had not been there before and was not attached to anything. I could see inside the gap of the door and the room inside was green with wooden chairs. He motioned for me to come with him.

I remember getting up off the boulder, walking with him through the door and being enveloped by bright red and green Christmas lights. They were as bright as the sun, and I had to close my eyes to keep from going blind, or so I thought. I woke up lying on my grandparents' couch. It was dark outside and my parents rushed in when I called out to them. They'd found me half an hour before asleep in the middle of the field, having called out for me and not hearing me answer when things got dark. It was last year when I first started hearing about the Sam the Sandown Clown encounter, and I remarked how similar it was to my own encounter.

I honestly believe they were either the same or slightly different entities as my own encounter. As it's been months since my encounter appeared on that podcast, I've been able to deal better with the newer information connected to my experience. Sam didn't try any tricks with me, like with the children from the Isle of Man. Sam's voice wasn't vocal, if that makes sense. It was like an echo hitting off of something and hearing that inside of my head rather than through my ears. Thinking it over, I believe the full sentence was,

Hello, Sam. We are all colors. Skip the starlight. The inside of the green room has come up again in my mind. I've tried remembering other details, and when I sat down and tried to nail down anything else about it, I distinctly recall that there were two empty wooden chairs and two occupied chairs further back. The door was seethru. I never saw a knob. I couldn't make out the details about the other people sitting in the chairs, But they had the same outline as, well, Sam. The hat, the head shape, long arms and legs, but details are just a void.

Like when someone's face gets blurred to protect their identity. I thought that I would share my experience here, finally, as I feel much better about it than I did initially. This experience is one that I never shared with anyone beside my brother. When I was about 13 years old, I was living in rural British Columbia. One night, I was in the hot tub on the deck outside, just watching the woods, taking in the silence. It was wintertime, and we just recently had a snowfall that left around knee-high deep snow. It was around 2 to 3 a.m., and out of nowhere this very large wolf, bigger than one I have ever seen so far, came out of the woods. I remember its coat being a shimmering silver and its bright piercing green eyes.

As this wolf was walking along the fence of our paddocks, it locked eyes with mine, and we just kind of stared at each other as he walked past me, both alone in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. What happened next to this day instantly makes my spine shiver. As the wolf walked past, he walked towards our barn with our horse, in it. It became darker as it entered the barn, but the other side of the barn still had a bright light illuminating the outside that I could clearly see. This wolf, as it entered halfway through, it went from the shape of a wolf to a very large, broad-shouldered person.

The horses didn't make a single sound, and this person now stood roughly seven feet tall, rounded the corner toward the open field, but didn't emerge from the other side. and I never saw it again. My brother had his own encounter with the same wolf, I'm guessing. He told me that he woke up randomly one night from the feeling of being watched. He then looked out his window to see a very large wolf walking away from his window. So I'm guessing it was watching him sleep. This place we lived at was old native ground.

Our barn was an old school house where the Catholic priest would put the native children and teach them the lessons on Christ. It even had the old desk and chairs still inside. My brother and I both saw children's faces and the panes of glass from that barn and lights turn on randomly. We had closet door slammed repeatedly for minutes at a time, footsteps, and feelings of being watched. In my room, I saw glowing eyes on the ceiling and hid under my covers until morning. Anyways, my main subject of this post, and my main subject to this post, and what I'm more so seeking answers for,

is what did I encounter outside in the middle of the night? After I looked around myself, the closest thing I could find was Skinwalkers or Wendigows. But from what I read, these creatures have deformed features or things that make them uncanny or straight up horrific. What I saw, nothing struck me as of normal about this wolf

besides its massive size until it literally changed its entire form in front of me. I know this is a long-winded read. Sorry, I'm not a great storyteller. And there's just so much that I experienced at this property that this just scratches the surface to everything. The wolf incident is just something I've never really been able to grasp. And I always wanted some kind of answers

because it feels and sounds unbelievable. I also understand that the term Skinwalker is Navajo Lur, and doesn't correlate with British-Columbian tribes, but this is just a representation of what I saw with the closest accuracy. Me and four of my friends were in the Russian countryside this winter. We stayed at one of my friends' houses from mid-December to the beginning of January, about 20 kilometers east of Moscow. On the night before New Year's, we had a terrifying encounter with something horrible.

It was 1.30 a.m. and we had 7.m. and we had 6.000. stayed at the house all day, ate pizza, watched movies and played Mortal Kombat. We had also been to the sauna and had all been in good spirits, as later that day it would be New Year's. We were outside my friend's house, which overlooks a very small valley, about 10 meters in depth and 60 meters in length, and we were blowing up some firecrackers that we had prepared. His house is quite isolated with the nearest neighbor about 100 meters away. We blew them up one by one by throwing them into the valley that was next to the house. As we were doing this, I was the first to notice a black silhouette with a glowing cigarette in the distance, moving toward us extremely fast.

I immediately notified everyone with me and told them to get inside the house's courtyard. My friends saw the figure. We were confused as to who it may be and what they were doing, but weren't worried as the figure was a very long way away. And we had at least two minutes before he got close enough to the property to see our faces or do anything. I looked back at the figure and immediately noticed that his eyes had a faint glow. Nothing crazy or bright, just a very faint, yellow, goldish glow. Similar to the way a cat's eyes reflect light in the darkness.

I also noticed that the figure had traveled a very, large distance in the five seconds it I took to turn around and inform my friends. This was especially worrying as he was walking, not running. I immediately knew that it was time to leave. I ran towards the gate to the house and yelled for my friends to follow me, which, after witnessing what I had witnessed, they obliged, except one of them. One of our friends looked frozen in fear. His eyes were wide open, his mouth slightly open too, and he was not blinking.

This entire time he was looking at the figure, I ran and pushed him in order to get him to move, which made him snap out of some sort of light trance, as he was slightly lost. By this point, the figure was about 100 meters away, and nearly at the same time all of us were filled by a visceral feeling of dread, not fear, but more like, whatever is happening right now is very, very wrong. We later realized that this probably emanated from the man. As we were entering the garden and ducking behind the fence, we noticed that the man was moving a minimum of five times as fast

as a regular person running, while making absolutely no noise even though he was walking. We hid behind the fence for ages and managed to get a picture of him from underduring, He then walked into the nearby woods, leaving behind absolutely no footprints, and making no noise at all. I have no clue what this was, but we're 100% sure that whatever this was not human. Quick update.

I forgot to add, but one of my friends said that the man apparently turned into smoke at one point, like white smoke and then materialized again. I'm not sure if I believe him as nobody else saw it. Anything can happen in the middle of the night. In the old Cherokee culture, the knight was the domain of the spirits and was not to be intruded upon by mortals who claimed dominion over the day. And indeed, over the long history of humanity, bad things tend to happen more frequently to those that dare to brave it, and its many mysteries and horrors. and while Cherokee culture isn't necessarily relevance to this particular story, I do enjoy bringing a little cultural context to the table.

After all, I am here to both entertain and inform. All that being said, let's take a trip into the deadly night of one of my absolute favorite places on Earth, the land of the rising sun. I'm of course talking about the country of Japan. And of course, since we're going to be talking about a grizzly troop, crime, I'm going to say that while Japan has one of the lower crime rates of most developed nations, that crimes can happen anywhere, and at any time. So, wherever you may live, please stay safe. Listen to your instincts when they say something is wrong. I'm going to do something a bit different

here and actually talk about the area where the killings occurred, just to give everyone a bit of background. So let's have a brief look at this special ward of Tokyo. The first record of Sittagaya was in the middle of the 15th century long before Tokyo itself even existed. Today it exists within the Tokyo metropolis and operates pseudo-independently as a city within a much larger city. Settigaya is also the name of a neighborhood and the administrative district within the larger ward. With the population of over 940,000 in 2003, it is the second largest of the most of the most of the most of the largest of the most of the larger ward. multiple special wards of Tokyo. The ward is definitely an upper-scale area, with Rakuten having its headquarters there,

as well as Toho and Alm Incorporated, having studios there. It has five districts, which house numerous sub-neighborhoods with low crime rates even by national standards, which only makes the crime in question all the more chilling. Around 11 p.m. on the night of December 30, 2000, an unknown person entered the home of the Miyazawa family in the Komisoshiayayah neighborhood of Sedaayaku. Over the following hours into December 31st, this assailant would in the lives of four people.

The horror began to unfold around 10.40 a.m. on December 31st, when the mother of 44-year-old Miko Miyazawa entered the home and discovered the grisly scene. as well as Miko, she found the bodies of 41-year-old Yasuko, 8-year-old Nina, and 6-year-old Ray. When the police arrived and began their investigation, they quickly found a lot of evidence. The killer had not been terribly careful in his conduct following the murders,

and it was evident that he had spent several hours in the home, making himself quite comfortable and enjoying some of the amenities in the Miyazawa family home. It wasn't long before they came up with a fairly clear picture of just what had transpired overnight in the Miyazawa household. At some point, between 11 and 1159 on December 30th, someone climbed the fence of the backyard, climbed on top of the air conditioning unit, and cut open the second floor bathroom screen and entered the home. On the second story, they found young Ray asleep in his bedroom, and they ended the poor boy's life by strangling him as he slept.

Some people theorized that Mikio had heard some kind of disturbance upstairs and found the killer in Ray's room were a struggle ensued. Regardless of whether there had been any audible commotion from upstairs, Mikio did have a melee with the killer, and her life was ended by a knife wound to the head. The force of the stab actually broke the tip of the knife off. The killer would go on to attack Yosico and Nina with the broken knife before taking a knife from their own kitchen

and ending their lives with it. Now, the true audacity of the killer really begins to shine through from this point on as he went to help himself to the food from the family's kitchen, use their internet for a few minutes, and even took the time to ransack the home, although not much was stolen. A small amount of money was missing,

but the amount left behind was much greater than what was taken. The killer even took the time to relieve him, himself in the bathroom without flushing the toilet and treated whatever injuries he had sustained in his fight with Miko, leaving no small amount of his DNA behind at the scene. Also left behind was the murder weapon, a sashimi knife with the tip broken off, a scarf, a hip bag, shirt, gloves, jackets, and hat. There's also some speculation that the killer took a nap on the second floor sofa and then exited the house prior to Mekio's mother arriving, although, as I said, this is pure speculation.

While the police were certainly able to get their hands on the killer's DNA, there has never been any luck in actually identifying who the DNA belonged to. And while there have been clues that suggest who the perpetrator was, they have never actually produced or apprehended a single suspect in this case, which is astounding when we look at all the evidence they had to work with. Among the first things the police found were footprints in the mud leading away from the Miyazawa home. There was the fecal matter left behind in the bathroom, numerous samples of blood belonging to the killer, and then there was the clothing and weapon that had been left behind.

The police were able to learn a lot from the articles left. The clothing and knife had been purchased in Kanagawa Prefecture, and the shirt was particularly telling because only 100, 130 units of that particular shirt had been produced and sold, although police were only ever able to drag down a dozen of those people. The hip bag also yielded some very interesting clues, namely in trace amounts of sand that were actually traced all the way back to Edwards Air Force Base, as well as sand that came from a skate park in Japan, while the shoes were made in South Korea but marketed by a British sports shoe company. Due to the sheer physicality required to enter the Miyazawa home and commit the murders themselves, police had originally estimated the killer to be 15 to 35 years old. But as of 2019, they have narrowed that estimate down to 15 to 24.

DNA evidence also had a lot to say about the killer. They were able to determine his blood type, type A, and also that the killer was of mixed race with European DNA markers on the maternal side, and a father that was of East Asian descent. The European markers are theorized to be from a distant ancestor rather than a mother that was full-blooded European, as the Y-chromosome present also showed haplogroup most commonly found in those of East Asian descent,

about one in four Koreans, one in ten Chinese, and one in 13 Japanese. Since it seemed that their killer may not even be Japanese, and had possibly already fled the country, Japan began reaching out to various international law enforcement agencies for help. And this, to date, is one of the largest criminal investigations ever launched in Japan. Operation Roller was launched, which entailed officers, including those who usually did things like riot control, being called in to collect fingerprints from the locals. In the years since the tragedy, over 200,000 investigators have collected and analyzed,

Over 12,000 articles of evidence in the case, with a 20 million yen reward still being offered for any information resulting in the capture of the killer. The legacy of this case is very far-reaching, as at the time, it caused Japan to remove the statute of limitation on cases that qualify for the death penalty, which was removed in 2010. And as of 2021, law enforcement officials make a pilgrimage to the Miyazawa family home for memorial rights, and to show that they have not forgotten the terrible fate that befell them on that night so very long ago. For this one, we of course want to sign off by once more recalling the names of the people who so tragically and pointlessly lost their lives, in what was nothing less than an act of pure barbarism. Miko Miyazawa aged 44, father, Yaska Miyazawa, aged 41, mother, Nina Miazawa aged 8, daughter, and Ray Miyazawa, aged six, son.

And may we never forget this family who had so much potential for the future. And may they all rest in peace. My grandmother died almost 17 years ago, and I was recently talking to my mom about the stories that she would tell me. And there was one story in particular that had slipped my mind until she reminded me about it. It always creeps me out. I've never really experienced paranormal things, but I've always been interested, albeit skeptical.

This happened in Manchester, England, around 1953. A few hours after my grandma had just given birth to my uncle John, which was a home birth. During the night, my nana was lying in bed trying to sleep with my newborn uncle, but had struggled to drift off due to the baby fussing. She told me that she was laying on her back with my uncle on her chest, and the room was pretty much pitch black aside from the streetlights coming in through the net curtains. She tried to drift off, but then started to feel a little uneasy as though she was being watched, that sort of feeling that makes your skin prickle and hairs stand on end.

The next minute, she heard a whistling coming from the side of the bed, so she looked to her right, and she said that she said that she was. she saw a really tiny man in a suit and top hat grinning at her from the floor below. She said that he seemed full of mischief and almost seemed to be mocking her and the baby by pointing at them and making a hand on the stomach and laughing motion. He then was kind of dancing around and tipping his hat and jumping from one foot to the other still laughing and pointing. And he jumped on the bed and came even closer to them and then did the same. emotions. She remembered feeling a sense of dread, as though it was trying to get across the thought

that she wouldn't have that baby for very long, or that it knew something she didn't. She was terrified and closed her eyes thinking it was some kind of hallucination due to exhaustion and ended up drifting off to sleep. My uncle John, sadly, died via brain aneurysm after being beaten with a baseball bat by Carthy, in 1980, and she is adamant that the being knew his fate and was rubbing it in. She didn't feel it was a warning, but a celebration, almost. She said that she constantly thought back to the little man and it gave her the creeps. She had quite a lot of paranormal experiences in general, but unfortunately I've forgotten a lot of

the stories that she told me. It made my hairs stand on end when she told me this story for some reason. She said that it was dancing-like and resembled the little man from Twin Peaks, but obviously much smaller. Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon? And drug-induced hallucination was a thought that crossed my mind, and thanks for reading. This happened a long time ago. I was around 13 or 14 in northwestern Georgia on the corner of Alabama and Tennessee. For context, I'm 22 now.

I was at my stepdad's house, which is situated down a long driveway in the woods. There's a house just ahead of his separated by a thin veil of trees, but no other houses or buildings for a good few miles on either side. And the woods in the back go on for a good while, so it's very isolated. I had taken my dog Jack out to pee, ripped Jack he died a while back, and as I walked down the stairs of the deck with him, he stops and starts to growl and whimpers toward the woodline, along the right side of the house. I thought maybe there was a coyote or something,

so I walked towards the woodline to get a better view to see what he was freaked out by. I see something just barely in sight. It stood a good six to seven feet tall and had patches of fur like mange, a short snout, was very canine-looking, but kind of had a human-like face just staring at me. I backed up, grabbed Jack, ran up the stairs, and locked the front door behind me. I never saw it after that, and it didn't make any moves other than when it was looking at me,

but it spooked me so bad that I refused to go outside or even anywhere within the house by myself, to the point that I was too scared to even leave my room to use the bathroom. Yes, I did have a few accidents. I know that's gross and embarrassing, but I was a kid and was freaked out. Now that I'm older, I've started to wonder, maybe I imagined it, or maybe it was misidentified, but who knows? Edit, I'm now able to go outside and stuff. I even avidly hike and work for the State Park Service now, so don't worry about that.

But even now, I don't like to be at my stepdad's house as it gives me. me the creeps, and I always feel like something is watching me. My friends and I saw this on the night that I'm writing this, in the late hours November 30th and the early morning of December 1st, 2024. We live in Southern Arizona, and are all staying the night at one friend's house for a birthday party. Her house is known between all of us as the haunted house, since we're always experiencing weird things there. But this time, right after the sun had set, we were sitting on the porch in the backyard when one of us yelled and pointed at the chest high brick fence, saying that she just saw

a bald white human head poke itself over the fence. Two of us immediately ran over and looked over the fence to see nothing. We laughed that off, but it was the first sighting of the night. We hung out outside a little longer until we decided to check over the fence. fence again. And while we were doing so, we heard scuttering on the other side of the fence out of view. We joked about it and just went inside instead. And skipped to a while later, we went outside again and almost right away someone saw a head pop up around another fence. Again, we all thought it was nothing, but more of us started seeing a head, hands, and part of a

back. At that point, we were scared as hell and started going back inside when one friend stayed back and scared the living crap out of us, but she was just standing and looking. We stayed there for a while, now with one friend holding a broom. They lost their broom privileges soon after, and we kept seeing small things of white and some of the same things from before. Our other friends, previously inside, came out again scaring the crap out of us, and we all started talking about things that we saw and what it could have been, when we kept seeing things. And eventually two people heard a growling?

It was very clear they both weren't faking. We all ran inside and started panicking, trying to reason with the fact that there was a skinny, bald, white man crawling outside. We eventually found this, and thank goodness, because, believe it or not, it made us all feel much better. This was our story. Do you think it's real, or are we just crazy teenagers? Hey there, friends.

I hope that you enjoyed this collection of scary stories on this episode of the As the Raven Dreams podcast. If the platform you're on has the option to follow podcast and you enjoyed my work, please do consider doing so. Also, leaving ratings and reviews are super important, for the algorithm to support the growth of the podcast. I'm just one guy doing this. I don't have a team.

It's literally just me doing everything. So any supports like that is greatly appreciated. Never expected, though. So if you go above and beyond with that, I do appreciate it. Some platforms also allow you to leave comments, and if you feel inclined to do so, please do. I would appreciate that. I do have a Patreon in a merch store that you can also check out

if you want to support a little further. The Patreon side of things get you early access to all of my content. It is formatted differently as it goes in line with what my YouTube channel is, but it is the same stories, just different collections. There is also a website astherravendreams.com, where you can check out pretty much everything about me, my social media platforms, fiction stories I've written if you want to read those, as well as submitting your own stories,

which there's a big button on the front page you click to do so. And those stories basically keep the podcast alive, to be honest with you. So, yeah. All that said, friends, I do hope that I see you again here very soon. Until then, remember that you are loved, that you are valid, that you are important. You're the best you that you can be. Don't forget it. And until next time, much love and sleep well.