As The Raven Dreams Podcast - ATRD Ep. 60 - The BEST True Scary Stories of 2022 - 42 TRUE Creepy Stories

Episode Date: January 6, 2023

Hello and Welcome to the 60th episode of The ATRD Podcast! Today we have a collection of some of the best True Scary stories from this year- In no particular order.  ➤ Want your story featured? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/Submit ➤ Want to know where to follow me on the internet? Go to https://www.astheravendreams.com/the-nevermore for all my links! ➤ You can also get EARLY ACCESS By joining my Patreon! https://patreon.com/astheravendreams Thank you to all of the authors that have stories in today's Video! ➤ All stories within are used w/ Either direct permission from the author- or under some level of CC license (where noted) True Stories are not verified, and should all be considered 'supposedly true'.  And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/astheravendreams/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And thank you. I want to preface this whole thing with, when you're lonely, sometimes you do desperate and stupid things. I am prepared to be made fun of, but I, also think that some things weren't expected, and let's face it. It was also a learning experience. This was a few years back. I was in a fairly serious relationship then. I was really into this girl and was actually planning on proposing to her

when I found out that she had been cheating on me. To add to it, before I could confront her about it, she left me, taking all of her stuff from my place while I was at work. work. I was pretty depressed and feeling sorry for myself for a good while, as my friends tried to cheer me up. They took me out partying to dinners, and they even invited me to a bachelor party that also had dancers there, and I will say that was the most fun that I'd had in a while, and I don't know what changed in me, but then I started thinking, what was wrong with living like that? As long as both sides were happy, I didn't need to have a long-term closed-off relationship, right?

And from then on, I didn't. I partied more. I had the free time to do so because my ex was also very controlling. I had one-night stands, I had bad hangovers, but it was always in fun. Then, I started using hookup apps, and that made it even easier to find plenty of encounters and parts. and that's what led me here. So I matched with someone, and we started talking for a bit. I looked at her profile and noticed that not only did she describe herself and what she was into,

she gave very specific details on her perfect guy. That included long golden hair, blue to gray eyes, no shorter than six foot, and also willing to do anything for her. So, the description seemed to fit me to a T, at least the physical side of it, but maybe not so much the second part. Again, my profile did say I was not looking for serious relationships, so I always get a bit hesitant when they start asking about that stuff or going out on dates. However, in this case, she said she understood my situation and was down for it too, but said she still wanted to hang out first and promised it would be worth my time.

I thought, well, why not then? And we scheduled a time for that Friday. We met up at a local bar and grill and had drinks and wings. No fancy dinner or anything like that, so I was already starting. to loosen up. After a few drinks, we started talking about ourselves. Normal things, like what we did for work, what we liked to do for fun, things like that. Then, she started asking me weird questions.

She asked me if I was religious, or if I believed in any higher beings. Then, hard left, she asked me if I liked horror movies. She also asked me if I was good with blood and gore and what my blood type was. Just really weird questions. Again, I was already feeling a bit tipsy, so I answered them the best I could. After a few minutes, she excused herself to the restroom and came back, asking me if I wanted to go back to her place. I agreed, and I followed her there in my car. When we walked in, there were two more girls that looked about the same age as my date sitting on the couch and watching TV.

When we walked in, they both immediately looked over at me smiling. My date introduced me to them as her sisters, and they offered me a seat on the couch. I could see where this was going pretty quickly, as they offered me drinks and the four of us all sat around talking and flirting. However, I was getting pretty wasted, as my head felt like it was spinning, more so than usual. However, the girls were still having fun, and my date was starting to usher me to her room. And we started walking back there, and as I laid on the bed, she turned out the lights. I laid there in the dark as I started hearing her giggle and crawling onto the bed, and as she got to my torso, I felt a very sharp.

pain in my left shoulder. It was the worst pain I had ever felt, and combining that with being intoxicated, I didn't really know what to do or how to process this. I started trying to get up, but she was holding me down. Thankfully, I was still able to overpower her and get up, and as I got to the door and opened it, the other two girls were standing right there and looked just as shocked. I started explaining to them what happened, and that's when I noticed there was a knife in my shoulder.

However, they weren't there to help me, but to help their sister. They tried to stop me from leaving, saying crazy crap about being a gift to their father. I will say, I pushed one to the ground and the other one tried to get her sister up. Within this time, I pulled the knife out of my shoulder, as she wasn't strong enough for it to go in too far, and I was swinging it around at them. They managed to stay where they were as I ran out of that house. I ran as fast as I could to the house across from them, banging on the door entirely unaware of what time it was. Thankfully, a confused old man answered, and before he could think, I rushed into his house. asking for a phone.

I'm sure he must have seen all the blood and quickly took off into another room. I could hear him talking to someone and then asking me for my name, but I had pretty much passed out at that point. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital with a cop asking me what the hell had happened. I was glad to explain everything to him, which started making more sense to me as to why she was asking such weird questions. I explained to them where they lived, and they told me that they had gone there, but the place was empty, as in the girls were gone, and so was my phone. They found my car keys, and my car was still there, surprisingly, but they had taken my phone.

I did file a police report, of course, but as far as I know, they still have not found those girls. That house didn't even belong to them. Apparently one of them was a maid or a cleaner or something, so they had a key to the place, but they weren't supposed to be there at night. I, unfortunately, do have a lasting reminder of my stupidity. I actually can't lift my arm up very high without pain, but I'm definitely more cautious now about my hookups. If I'm outnumbered, then I'm out. And if they ask weird questions, then I'm out.

These are the things that my parents didn't teach me crowing up. I've always been a bit of a nature buff, and I love to visit the national parks any chance that I get. My favorites are the ones that are the vast and open rocky areas out in the southwest, like Bryce Canyon and such. There's something about the bright red rocks, the big open canyon, and completely unincorporated areas. That gets to me. It's the isolation and the disconnection I think that I really love. If you're out there and you keep to yourself as best you can, you likely won't see another soul the entire day.

One summer, my boyfriend and I decided that we would go camping in the park and would then go backcountry hiking the next morning. We usually just spent a day in the canyon parks, but I wanted to spend the night because, well, I just did. It was summer. I wanted to camp. Pretty much the end of story on that. I hadn't been camping since I was in my preteen years and still talked to my dad. So I thought it would be a really fun way for us to spend some time together.

We found a part of the grounds that was accessible, but still pretty off to itself. and we started to set up our tent. The spot that we chose was, like I said, fairly isolated, but was also pretty close to a spot of the park that had a nice-sized drop-off. That may sound scary to some, but to me, it was all about the view. A drop-off meant that we would get to see the sky at night, and possibly the thick fog in the morning, depending on how the weather treated us. In my opinion, it was perfect.

My boyfriend wasn't a fan of being so close to a steep drop and so far away from other campers, but he relented when I told him how much I liked it. After we got everything set up, the sun was already starting to set, so we decided that we would make a small pit for a fire. We got the fire going and we're just sitting around, watching the sunset, and enjoying the view of the night's sky. After a bit of this, I kind of got this weird feeling like something was staring at me.

You know the one, that weird spine chill that happens when your instincts are scratching at your brain to do something. I mentioned this to him, and he told me that it was probably just a coyote or something, and that as long as we stayed near the fire and didn't pay it too much attention, and it would likely just go away. I nodded in agreement,

and we went back to watching the fire burn while enjoying a light breeze. Not long after that, I heard what sounded like someone whispering right behind me. This caused me to jump up and turn around, and as soon as I did, my boyfriend said, Oh, you heard that too?

I said that I did and that it sounded like someone was whispering. We both turned to look, but there wasn't anybody there. He mentioned that it could have been another camper, but that just didn't seem to feel right to me. Something about this felt off, like it wasn't a person or a camper that was just messing with us. No sooner than me saying that,

we heard what sounded like a yelling coming from the side of our campsite that was over the drop-off. When I say there was someone yelling, it sounded like someone was pleading for somebody to help them, like they had fallen down and were hurt. The thing about it, though, the yelling never really said the word help.

It never really said any coherent words. It just kind of sounded like someone was making noise similar to words, but they couldn't quite get it right. You know how little kids talk, but the words that they say aren't all there, like they're still learning? Yeah, it was just like that. My boyfriend said that we should at least look and see if we could see someone over the drop-off,

and then we should get someone that works for the parks to check it out. We got up and looked over the edge to see if there was someone there, but I couldn't see anyone. My boyfriend grabbed his flashlight and was shining it down into the ravine, and after kind of panning it back and forth, the light hit something. I don't know if it was a person or what. but the second the light hit it, the thing made a mad dash behind a tree. And we immediately heard the yelling again.

It was definitely coming from this thing, whatever the hell it was. And again, it wasn't using words. It was just making sounds that were close to words. And it sounded like it was in distress, but they were not actual words. My boyfriend said that we should go ahead and pack up, and head back to the Rangers and let them know that there was someone down in the ravine. He then shouted down that we were going to get help,

and we quickly got our stuff back into the car and drove down to the entrance. We got to the Ranger Station and told him that we thought there was someone down in the ravine that was yelling for help, but we weren't sure if we saw them or not. They said that they would go check out the area to see if they could find them and thanked us for the information. We got back in the car, and I asked if we were going to find a new spot to camp. My boyfriend literally laughed at me and said, Hell no, I don't know what that thing was,

but I know that it was not human. I'm not spending the night out here with that thing anywhere near me. As upset as I was that we weren't spending the night out in the park, I actually agreed. It wasn't worth it. We went back early in the morning, and my boyfriend said that he wanted to ask the Ranger if they found anything. He said that they got to where we had mentioned, and they heard something, but they weren't sure what it was. When they went down into the drop-off to see if there was someone down there, they didn't find anybody.

There was what looked like an abandoned tent filled with trash, but it hadn't been used for. for a while, based on its condition. I don't think this helped him feel any better, to be honest, but he asked, so they answered. We never went back to that particular area after dark when this all happened, and I haven't convinced him to go camping again yet. I think this actually freaked him out, which I get. It was unsettling for sure, and I don't think we'll know exactly what the hell that thing was. I love riding my bike at night.

Being able to go out with no music and just listen to the night's sounds, it was always so therapeutic for me. I didn't need any music to drown out the other people or cars passing. I could listen to the wind as it weaved through the trees or ran through my hair. I could listen to the crickets chirp and the frogs croak in the creek running along the side of the road. Or even just the sound of my tire spinning as I'd glide to. it along the road. I worked a later shift, so I was usually home around 9 or 10 p.m.

I'd go change and then head out for an hour or so before I went back home to shower and go to bed. On this night, I didn't have to work the next day, and I was really itching for something new, so I decided to ride a little further and off the path that I normally took. I went around the block as I normally do, cut across the street, and passed the gas station. I was now further than I had ever really gone. I didn't feel uneasy or nervous, though. I actually almost had a second wind in me, exploring a new area. There was an underdeveloped area nearby, as new homes were being built, so I told myself I would ride around and there and then start heading back.

That way, I didn't wear myself out, making the ride back exhausting. I was going over all of these newly paved roads, making it one of the smoothest rides that I've ever been on. It also made it extremely quiet to where it was just my tires and the crickets in the distance. Until I started hearing singing, or humming, rather, at first I thought it was just another person enjoying the night until it finally registered where I was. There were no houses here yet. It was just the road along the outside of the soon-to-be homes. There were a few foundations laid out, and frames set up, but no actual houses.

Why would there be people around? I slowed down a bit so I could hear the singing better. The song sounded familiar, but I couldn't. place it. It was just the music, though, as I mentioned, no lyrics. As I went around the bend, the humming got louder, and I could make out the song. It was stand by me. I could almost sing along with it, with how good the humming actually was.

I stopped my bike and began to look around between the few construction machines and frames, with the flashlight on my phone. as I walked past one of the plots and around a pile of dirt and rocks, I could see a woman sitting in the dirt swaying from side to side. I just stood there for a few seconds watching and listening to her. The song came to an end, and after a few seconds, she just started singing again. My clumsy ass, however, missed the dip in the ground in front of me, causing me to stumble a bit.

When I did this, I of course made a gasp, and there was probably a sound as I tried to regain my balance. All of this was enough to cause her to stop singing and swaying. She slowly stood up but never turned around to face me. The whole situation was pretty eerie, but I didn't really feel scared until she stood up. My fight or flight instincts kicked in, and I immediately apologized and turned around to go back. As I kicked the stand and got back on, she began screaming. It made me jump, and I took off as fast as I could on the bike. The whole time she continued screaming as I rode away.

Even after I was out of the new neighborhood, I could still hear her screaming in the distance. I crossed the streets, so I was on the same side of the lights the way home, and when I got there, I quickly put my bike on my patio and, out of my garage like usual, ran inside, and locked the door. I've told a few friends about this, and we all laugh about it now, but holy hell that was one of the creepiest things I have ever experienced. And no, I haven't gone back, but there are a few houses there now, and I guess good luck to them. I'm a 27-year-old guy, and I live in an apartment by myself.

I'm also a bit of a workaholic, so I do spend a lot of time at my desk, until something like three in the morning, and then I go to sleep and start the whole process over at nine. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I guess, I work from home, so I can pretty much spend every waking hour working. Yeah, I know. I'm wasting my youth, but that's all beside the point. As I mentioned, I'm usually up until close to three or four in the morning, and I live alone. I do sometimes get a bit jumpy whenever I'm tired, but for the most part, I manage.

The creepy thing that the story is about, though, happened somewhere close to a month ago. I was up late at night working on spreadsheets for the month so that I could give them to upper management, when I thought I heard a knock on my front door. At first I was sure that I was just hearing things, but then I heard the knocking again. I looked at my clock, and I was certain that I was losing it. It was three-something in the morning. Who the hell was at my door?

I got up and went over to answer it, and I looked out the peephole, and there was a woman standing there. She looked like she was dressed somewhat, professionally. She was wearing a nice shirt and a skirt, and from what I could see of her demeanor, she wasn't acting like she was on something or like she had something wrong with her. So I went ahead and opened the door and asked her how I could help her. She immediately goes into the spiel about how her name is Michelle Sanders and that she was an officer with the CIA. She tells me that she's on a special assignment, and she's a and that she's looking for a man named Douglas something or other. She then asks me what my name is, I tell her, and then reiterate that I am not the person that she's looking for.

She looks at me for several moments and then asks to see my ID so that she could verify that I was, in fact, not Douglas. I have to admit that it was stupid of me, but I agreed. I stepped back into my... apartment to grab my wallet and get my license. As soon as I stepped back, she pushed her way into the entryway. I will say again that it was half past three in the morning, so my brain wasn't firing on all cylinders. So while this was weird, I also really wasn't sure what I should do about it.

I grabbed my license and I handed it to her, and as she was looking it over, I asked her what her name was again. She repeated that she was Michelle Sanders with the CIA. It was at that point that I realized that she hadn't shown me any identification, so I asked to see her badge. She looked at me, looked back at the license, and then handed the license back to me saying, that won't be necessary. She then walked into my living room,

and through the hallway pushing each door open, and glancing into each and every, room one by one. Again, I just stood there a bit dumbfounded at the fact that this woman was walking through my apartment, glancing into each of my rooms, and just ignoring me. After about ten minutes of this, my brain finally started working, and it occurred to me that this was not normal. I pretty much said that.

I told her that it was weird to me that she had entered my home and hadn't shown. me a warrant or anything, and then mentioned that she should probably leave. She stared at me for a moment, nodded her head, and then walked toward the door. She pushed it open, looking at me as she went to leave, and said, Thank you for your time, sir. You will not hear from us again. And then she left. She just literally walked out the door and down the hall and outside.

I have no idea what the head. hell any of this was about, and I honestly don't know if she was legitimate or not, though I would guess that she wasn't. She certainly looked and spoke the part, but nothing about this was sensible. I don't think that the CIA would send a single agent to someone's home like that, and I don't think that they just peacefully enter and look through rooms. Plus, I wouldn't think that they would frequently get the wrong address for someone they were looking for. I mean, they're the CIA, not the local PD. So that's my weird story. Some random

professional-looking woman came into my apartment at three-something in the morning, claimed that she was with the CIA, and then snooped through my apartment a bit before just leaving. It was seriously weird. Nothing ever came of it. No one never followed through, never came back, or anything like that. I would guess that she was looking for someone, sure, but I don't think that she worked for any government agencies. I guess that I'm just kind of thankful that I wasn't the person that she was looking for. I was a park ranger for many years at a local park in my town. It was a decent sized, with plenty to offer. It had two different playground areas for the smaller kids. there was a decent-sized walking and biking path that went back into the trees and circled around the entire park,

and it also had a back entrance that split off to follow along the road. In the back, in the trees, there was also a secluded gazebo area that people had parties at, too. Then, there was a small water park and skate park on the other side of the path. There always seemed to be something going on there. year-round, which I didn't mind. I loved being outside, and I loved my job, so I loved just patrolling the area or helping out when someone called us for something. However, it wasn't always a happy job. I also got sent to check on or clean up some bad situations.

Most of the time, it was people being disruptive, like drinking and being loud or inconsiderate to others. people trashing an area, like at the gazebo in the back, and then leaving their mess, breaking up fights, things like that. But there were a few situations that stuck with me that I never really got answers for. This was one of the weirdest ones for me. So back by the gazebo was an open, grassy area that we tended to have school or scouts camping in.

There was a place where you could barbecue, but they usually got permits to do a campfire. I assume to learn how to start fires and stuff like that. When we had groups like this, we typically had one ranger staying overnight in the area to make sure that everyone was safe and also not doing things they weren't supposed to. I'd done this a few times and I loved it.

Because I got to hang out in the park all night, sleep under the stars, and typically got free food. So I was going to be staying one night since a group of Girl Scouts or something of that sort was going to be there. I, of course, drove there, but then all I had with me for the night was my backpack that had some of the things I would take with me when I was camping. My ID stuff to prove I was a park ranger and a fold-up cot that I had. I liked to literally sleep under the stars. no tent, no canopy, just me and a cot, and it was perfect. So, I did my rounds and answered questions that any of the adults had,

helped lead them to the restrooms, and then they all got ready for bed and headed to their tents. I did another round just to make sure that everyone else was gone and that nothing was wrong, and then I went and laid on my cot. It usually takes a while for me to fall asleep. sleep, though, so I laid there for a while, reading, before I finally started to get drowsy. As I went to put my book back into my bag and turn off my headlamp, I heard crunching like someone was walking. I immediately looked around to see if anyone was getting out of their tent, and I didn't see anyone.

I turned my lamp back on and started to look over at the tents again, but again I didn't see anyone getting out or any movements coming from them. So I started looking around the trees to see if there was someone around that shouldn't be or possibly even wildlife. We did have the occasional dears or raccoons that may go through, so I was thinking that probably is what it was. But then, my eyes met with something standing in the trees. There's a pretty thick area of trees that separates the front of the trees that separates the front of the trees. the park from the back, so it would be weird for anyone to be walking through them. Not to mention, when I did my walk around, there was no sign of anyone around, and not even any

extra cars in the parking lot. There was no reason for people to be here as we were long closed, so I just sat and watched for a moment to see what they would do. They had to know that I was staring at them, with my light facing right at them, but still they didn't budge. As I watched this guy, though, my eyes started to focus more in the dark, and I realized a couple of things. One, this guy was huge. I was comparing him to the trees, and his height was daunting. He had to be seven or eight feet tall, but maybe it was just because I was not.

tired. But other than just looking freakishly tall, I thought he was wearing a big fur coat. He just looked very furry. The problem I had with this, though, is that it was around August, I believe, so it was way too hot to be wearing a fur coat. I didn't want to alarm any of the kids, so I stood up and thought I would walk over there to see if they were okay, and then asked them to leave. if so. As I stood up, the guy backed up slowly and started walking away. That's when I noticed that it wasn't a coat.

This guy, or thing, was covered in fur. His legs, arms, everywhere. I started getting closer to the trees when this thing just took off in the opposite direction, but on all fours. He was standing and walking on two legs, but then when he ran off, off on all fours, it seemed so fluid, like an animal, not a human. I'm not going to lie, though. I was not brave enough to follow this thing, but was also not wanting to wake up the campers.

I didn't want to scare the kids and look like this psycho, so I walked along the outside of the trees, scared this thing was going to jump out at me, but I didn't see it again. I called out to someone that was on call, and I asked if they knew of anything. going on or anyone that was supposed to be here, and he said no. I told them that I saw something in the trees, and he immediately just dismissed it as a deer or something. So I tried to snap out of it and headed back to my cot and laid there. Unfortunately, at that point, though, every little sound would catch my attention. When the wind blew and moved a branch, I would look over at it.

I would look around if I heard a car driving by. anytime the girls shifted in the tents, I would jump up. So, needless to say, I didn't sleep very well that night. Thankfully, the girls were young enough that they woke up pretty early, so I wasn't alone anymore. Some of the adults noticed that I looked off and asked if I was okay, and I just said that I didn't sleep well, and I didn't mention anything else about it. I did tell my friend that worked there too about what had happened and what I saw, and of course he was adamant that I had seen Bigfoot.

I live in a state that's known for its sightings, and that's all I'll say about my location, but I never believed in that stuff before. Now I'm not quite sure. I don't know how else I could explain what I saw, though. Either way, I never saw it again while I worked there, thankfully. but you can bet that I was better prepared for future overnight stays. have. I was contracted out to work as the overnight IT guy for a group of car dealerships in my

downtown area. All of the dealerships were owned by the same people, and they were all a combination of the person's name and the type of car, so think something like Carlin's Chevrolet and Carlin's Mercedes. Not hugely relevant, but it helps you to understand that this was basically a very lucrative business for the owner, and they had quite a bit of money. And that said, for whatever reason, the owner and head of technology for the dealership group was adamantly against using modern technology for backing things up. And every single thing that the company did that was digital was put onto a magnetic tape drive. Most people born after the turn of the millennium probably won't even know what that is,

and just for them, it's literally a cartridge-like device that plugs into the server rack, and the data is written to it like a disk, but it's magnetic, and it's actually a tape. I know that that was a poor attempt at explaining what they are, but what it is isn't hugely relevance to the story. I just wanted to highlight that this place was incredibly retro with their technologies, though tape drives are actually pretty prominent in IT nowadays. being the overnight IT guy was, as I said, probably the most boring job in the world. The entire job was just me going to one of the dealerships, walking into the server closet,

and running the backup system to run to the magnetic tapes. Because their back-end system was antiquated, and every backup was required to be a full backup, I would start it at around 10 p.m., and everything would start at around 10 p.m., and everything would be done and verified by around seven in the morning. Because they wanted the most value for their money, I would have to start the backup, and then

would be expected to answer any support tickets that came in, or were pre-assigned for the dealership that I was at. This would oftentimes lead to me having to wander around the dark, and empty dealership to find the system, printer, or whatever, wasn't working

properly, and stay in that spot until the issue was fixed. This is when things would typically get creepy. We weren't supposed to disturb the dealership or turn on the main lights, all requests and requirements from the owner, so we had to navigate the place by flashlight, and whatever backup lights happened to be on. Now, before I get into some of the creepiness that occurred during my work,

I just want you all to visualize what every night was for me. My night started in a nice bright open server closet, and I would have to walk into a big, pitch-black and open building for the rest of the night. If you've ever seen the inside of a service department for a dealership, you know that it's basically like a big, empty warehouse. I had to walk around this with a flashlight to try and locate a single computer or a printer. I know I'm repeating things, but it was creepy as hell. It was like walking around an abandoned building level of creepy. As stated, there were several incidents that made me regret ever coming to work, some unexplainable and some pretty well grounded in our reality.

The first situation that I wanted to mention happened one night when I had a help ticket for one of the technician's machines. I don't remember the reported issue, but it was something simple like the computer won't turn on. I grab what I need for the limited diagnostics that I could do on the computer in the dark, and headed out onto the service floor, looking for which system I was supposed to be working on. I remember on this ticket, I was actually pretty thankful for the tech because he had the wherewithal to put a piece of paper over the screen that said, broken, which made it pretty obvious, which one I needed to fix. I went over to the computer and checked all the connections

to make sure that they were fitted well, unplugged, re-plugged, it tested the outlet. The outlet checked out fine, the cable worked on my diagnostics machines, so I determined that the issue was just the power supply for the computer, which then meant that I had to carry it out to the truck, and get a replacement set up. Not a huge deal, just tedious as I had to disconnect everything from the tower and then carry it outside. These things were pretty old, and they were designed to take a beating, so they were fairly heavy and bulky.

So I was getting the system disconnected and moving things to pull it off of the stand, when I heard what sounded like footsteps coming from the back end of the service floor. The area in the back was designated for the details team, basically the guys that got the cars that were for sale and cleaned them to look as shiny and appealing as they could. I shined my flashlight to the back for a moment to see if there was someone back there, but when I looked there wasn't anyone there. I shrugged it off and just assumed that I was hearing things,

but then I heard the footsteps again. I quickly lifted my lights to look, and I swear that I saw that I saw. saw a vague outline of a person walking behind one of the walls that cut off the break room. Obviously, there wasn't supposed to be anyone here, so I was a bit concerned and confused. But ultimately, my curiosity and thoughts of, I should really go see who that is got the best of me, and I walked away to go look. When I got to the back, I didn't see any trace of anyone, or anything that looked like it would indicate someone was there.

and then I looked over and noticed that the breakroom light was on, so I again just assumed that they went to the break room. I pulled the door open and started in with, just so you know you scared the hell out of me, but stopped mid-sentence when I realized the room was empty. There was nobody there. No detail guys, no texts, no intruders. Just nobody.

The room was completely and totally still, and honestly it was cold as hell. As someone that had a firm belief in all things paranormal, I noped out of there as quickly as I could. I left the light on, shut the door, and just told myself that I would finish the work for the ticket, and spend the rest of that night in the server room. That wasn't quite the end of it, though.

I took the old computer out to the truck and got them the replacement system, but I had to leave my diagnostic system and other items on the text desk as I took it out. When I got back onto the floor with the new system and started back toward the desk, my work system, and my tools were on the floor, scattered. The diagnostic system looked like it had been thrown onto the concrete, and I mean thrown hard. The case on it was bent, the tools and wires were scattered around it,

and it was pretty clearly damaged. I just shook my head, called myself clumsy, and was unwilling to admit that whatever happened was the doing of something paranormal. I got that new system set up and ready in literal record time. Probably a record for the entire IT crew, honestly, and I ran my happy behind back to the server closet and just kind of sat there.

The other story that I'm wanting to mention is kind of similar, but ended in a completely different way. I was a bit more seasoned in my work for the dealerships. At this point, I think I'd been working there for five or so years, and I'd experienced quite a bit of weird things, mostly paranormal or just weird, and that does include the support tickets. That said, this was probably one of the scary. thing that had happened while I was working there, mostly because it could have gone horribly. Like the previously described night, I was running my backups and had a support ticket for one of the service computers down on the floor. It was a network issue, which was typically just a bad cable, so I really didn't think much of it.

I grabbed my Ethernet cables and testing tools just in case, and walked down to the darkness, to fix the system. As I'm sitting there, replacing the cable, I heard what sounded like the door being hit or kicked, but I really wasn't 100% sure what it was. Like most nights, I decided to simply ignore it and say it was nothing important. But unlike most nights,

the banging was followed up by the glass on the door shattering. As soon as I heard that, I knew that someone was breaking into the dealership, and I immediately jumped into fight or flight mode. At first I was thinking, I need to confront these people and scare them off. But then it occurred to me that I was a scrawny guy in his mid-30s, with nothing more than an Ethernet cable to defend myself. And I decided that that would have been a very dumb idea. I ran as quickly as I could to get behind one of the half-walls that blocked the main floor from some of the same. some of the machines.

And I think I literally crawled underneath one of them. I just remember sitting there and thinking that if these guys found me, I was going to die. No doubt about it. The other part of this situation was me trying to figure out why they would break into a service department of a car dealership. Then I heard what sounded like more glass shattering. And then more. Whoever this was, it seemed like they were going around to all of the customer cars that were in the bays and shattering the windows.

After what felt like forever of them smashing windows, they stopped for a few moments, and then proceeded to start trashing the toolboxes and throwing things in all directions. I just stayed there where I was, under what I believe to be a rotor-turning machine, and tried my best not to breathe. After a little bit, it seemed like whoever it was had trashed the entire service floor, and I could hear them breathing heavily, and then it sounded like they had just left. I think I stayed hidden for around 20 more minutes before I literally moved at all, and then took another five or so to just stand up and see what the hell had happened. The service floor was a disaster.

I was right in my initial guess. Whoever this was had smashed every window on each car on the floor, and it looked like they had gone through every single toolbox, and just trashed everything. As soon as I was certain that the person was gone, I made a mad dash up to the main floor and grabbed one of the phones to call my boss. I told him what had happened, and he told me to call the police. He said he would notify the dealership's owner,

and then I did as he said. I called the cops. I waited for them outside of the door and explained the whole thing to them when they got there. Then I had to re-explain it because they were a bit confused on why I was there and what the hell had happened. My boss and the owner showed up at about the same time, and then I explained to them with the police there and showed them the service floor. I think the cops were confused or suspicious of me, but the owner vouched for me, telling them that I was. I was a contractor and had worked for them for a long time, and that if I said it happened the way it did, then that's how it happened.

Thankfully, and much to my surprise, they actually had decent cameras in the service area that saw everything, and it actually did happen like I had said it did. The guy broke the glass on the door, walked around and smashed as much as he could, and then he trashed the place, all without taking anything. or looking like he had any direction other than destruction. I remember having to sit with the owner as he made a note of everything and every one that he needed to contact in the morning. And I recall him doing the math and saying that the amount of damage this guy had caused was insane.

Apparently, this guy was actually a tech that had worked for the dealership, but had been fired about a week or so prior to the incident. I was told that he was caught stealing from a customer's car, and another tech by the exact same cameras that caught him smashing the windows. Apparently, this was him getting revenge, or sticking it to the dealership for firing him. Obviously, he was arrested and charged once they could prove that it was him. The customer cars all got repaired for free, and the techs that still had their jobs all got new tools. So I guess that's a silver lining to what happened, right?

So these are just two of the incidents and probably the two that stick out the most in my mind for my time working there. I don't work there anymore, at least not out in the field. I'm more of a desk worker for the same company now and manage a small team of field techs. Thankfully, none of them have had to call me with anything anywhere near this exciting. And before you ask, yes, they still use magnetic tapes. I have a bit of a camping story that isn't your standard scary camping story, mostly because what was scary wasn't a person, but the possibility of what could have happened versus what did end up happening.

When I was around 10 or so, my parents took me and my older brother on a camping trip to a grounds that we'd actually gone camping on before. To the best of my knowledge, there hadn't been, any issues in this area prior, and I think what ended up happening to us was actually one of the first. So this was just supposed to be a normal camping trip for all of us, as a bit of a family vacation. My parents had a small trailer that they slept in, and my brother and I got the two-room tent. I was ten at the time, and James, my brother, was twelve. He was more into some. He was more into sleeping on the ground than I was.

I personally preferred my bed, but I went along with these trips anyways, because I didn't really have much of a choice. He was the outdoorsy type. I preferred reading in my bedroom. That's pretty much the long short of it. Anyways, on the second day of this trip, my brother wanted to do some scouting in the area, which, for our age, more so meant that he was. wanted to walk around at the campsite and find things to take his souvenirs.

We never really took anything that could be damaging, just things like dropped feathers, small rocks, and every once in a while a flower or something like that. Basic things that we thought were neat or cool looking, but nothing that was ever too big. My parents were a bit hesitant at first, but in the end they said that we could go as long as we stayed close to the campsite. The first thing we did was break that rule, and we walked into the woods way farther than we should have, my brother taking the lead, of course. He basically said that we were still in the area, we just needed to go a bit further to find the cooler things. I wasn't going to argue with him,

it was his decision, and I would make sure that our parents knew that if we got into trouble. Anyways, we started heading out into the woods, and I was looking for random things like snails and frogs, just happy that I was actually enjoying my time, when my brother tells me to come over to him and to check something out. I get up from my spot and walk over to where he is, and he points over toward the tree line. I look over, and I was pretty psyched. I noticed that he was pointing toward a fox that was just, kind of sitting in the open, sort of walking around, almost in circles. I was happy just seeing it.

Foxes were cool to me, and to see one in the wild was good enough for me. James, on the other hand, did something that I thought was incredibly stupid. He started whistling to the fox like it was some kind of pet or something. I told him to stop and that we needed to leave it alone, but he just kept going. He was even more enthused with his own decision when the fox started to actually walk towards us. I knew that something about this was off. Foxes are typically pretty skittish, at least to the best of my knowledge. And he wasn't approaching slowly.

He was walking toward us at a decent pace. My thoughts that something was off was confirmed pretty quickly, when the fox ran up to my brother and immediately started attention. hacking him. It latched on to my brother's leg and no matter how much he kicked, it was not stopping. It was jumping at him, biting his leg, and trying to just genuinely cause damage and hurt him. I was standing there not sure what to do, trying to help him get away from this thing without getting bitten myself, but I was smaller than him and there was no way I was going to be able to help. Thankfully, all the noise and shouting got my dad's attention, and he showed up while the whole thing was going on.

He saw the fox attacking my brother and me just kind of standing there panicking, freaking out about what the hell I was supposed to do. My dad ran over and he was able to forcefully remove the fox and my brother from this situation. I'm not going to get into details because it was pretty, horrible, but I understand what happened and why he did what he did. They obviously rushed my brother off the campsite to the ER, and they explained all of what had happened. This led to my brother having to get a series of shots for rabies, mostly because the behavior

of the fox was abnormal, and after they did test the fox, it was a good thing they did get him on the shots for it right away. Unfortunately, this also meant that the campgrounds had to shut down. A rabbit animal had been found on the grounds and they couldn't risk the possibility of their being more, so they had to completely shudder for the season. In the end, my brother was okay. He survived the attack and the threat of rabies, and he now has a number of scars on his leg from where this thing went off.

Obviously, we're all very thankful that he was over. because the alternative would have been very likely fatal. This was also the last time that we went camping as a family, and the last time that I ever went camping in general. My brother is still a nature lover, but he kind of has a phobia of foxes now, for obvious reasons. I think this happened back around 2003 when we lived in Mississippi.

I was about 14 at the time, and my little brother would have been around nine. We had gone trick-or-treating for several years up to this point, and the year prior we did a lot of it around our neighborhood by ourselves. I always loved going door to door, and was even more fun when it was just the two of us. I felt like a grown-up being in charge of my little brother. I was also really looking forward to that year, because my brother and I really enjoyed. enjoyed the movie Lilo and Stitch, and he wanted to dress up as Stitch. I was really close to my brother, so I decided that I would go as Lilo and make us a cute matching pair as well as an easy costume for me.

While I love Halloween and trick-or-treating, I had a sensory issue and still do, so I don't like to wear a lot of things or layers at once. I already had long dark hair, so I didn't even need a way. wig, just a cute little red dress, really. The problem I had that year, though, was what I was hearing on the news. There had been reports of a couple of kids that had gone missing that were close to my age. I wasn't good at the location, so I don't remember what city it was in exactly, but I do remember that it was somewhere close to us. It honestly scared me, as I realized how many times I was alone.

My parents often left me at home with and without my brother when they had to run to the store or something short like that. I had to walk down the street to go to the bus stop and my parents wouldn't even be able to see me from the front door. I even rode my bike around the block or down to the little gas station by myself. Hearing these stories of kids coming up missing, it alarmed me, but my parents didn't seem to think there was anything. to worry about. When the news stories came up, my mom would always make remarks about how stupid can you be and would criticize the parents and blame them for not watching their kids closely. However, she still told us to walk the block by ourselves.

And when I asked if it was okay, she pretty much said, yeah, why wouldn't it be? Parents of the Year, right? So, we all got dressed up and I made sure to... to bring my dad's shop flashlight, because it was made of some pretty hefty metal, and I stuffed it in my candy bag. I figured it would be good to have as both a light source and a possible weapon. I also made a mental note while we were out to keep a close eye on our surroundings. I was a little nervous since this whole night involved us going to strangers' houses alone, but because Halloween was one of my favorite holidays, I was determined to remain.

vigilant and also have a good time so as to not worry or frighten my little brother we made our way uphill first as there were only three houses that way before we rounded the corner after the turn there was an empty house because I remember them recently renovating it and then the road curved into a cul-de-sac that had four houses in it we went to each one of those and between just those few houses our back were already feeling pretty full. Between our candy load and how excited my brother was, I was starting to loosen up a bit and have more fun with it.

We left the dead end and continued down the road, making our way to a house that had really gone all out. The whole yard was covered in creepy decorations from a gory graveyard, moving ghosts in the tree, and they even made a path that you had to walk through to get to the door. One guy was even in a grim reaper costume standing still until you walked by and would scare you. I was surprised that my brother wanted to go through it, and in fact, he laughed after getting scared. When we got to the door, the older couple complimented our costumes, gave us a big handful of candy, and asked us a few questions.

After chatting some, we left through the other side of the yard and back through the front. gate. As we walked a bit, my brother was getting excited about one of the little toys that he noticed the last house had handed out, and started digging in his bag while we walked. He was wanting to carry it with him, but I was trying to get him to stop until we got to the corner where there was better light. Unfortunately, the exact thing I was wanting to avoid happened when we nearly ran into someone in front of us. At first I looked up to see this tall. man wearing some kind of hooded poncho or something. When I think back about this event, I start to realize that I had no idea where this guy had come from.

There was a small group of kids and adults ahead of us, but they had already moved on, and no one had walked by us since we left the house. I suppose he could have been behind us and got ahead when we stopped at the house, but I don't recall ever seeing someone ahead of us. Anyways, I gasped a bit as I stepped backwards and apologized to the man. His response to this was saying in a really creepy way, Oh, it's all right, baby girl. Are you okay? My parents don't even call me that, so it immediately made me feel weird.

So I just said that I was fine and grabbed my brother's hand and walked around him. I started feeling like I was being watched, so I looked back, and I saw the guy still standing in the same spot, but now facing towards us. I turned back around and tried to get my brother to speed up so we could get to the next house. As we left the next one, the poncho guy was standing on the sidewalk right by the house. He was smiling, and he made a comment about our bags looking heavy, and asked if we needed help carrying them. I wasn't very well-mannered when it came to being scared or people that made me uncomfortable, so I just said no, as firm and grown up as I could, and again pulled my brother along.

I was really starting to become more panicked at this point, wondering what this guy's true intentions were. Surely it wasn't just a ruse to take our candy. He was an adult, or at least looked like it, so he could have. have gotten some on his own. So, if not the candy, what else would he want with young kids like us? It started freaking me out more when I thought about the kids that had been kidnapped recently. It was this guy responsible for them? Was he trying to find a good opportunity to grab us, too? I started looking around to see if there were any adults nearby, or even a group of children that I saw earlier thinking we would at least be safer with them. But even,

they were gone. My last hope was Ms. Marsha's house. Marcia was an older lady that worked at the front desk of the office that my mom worked for. She was very sweet and always gave my brother and I some kind of treat when we went there with my mom for any reason. She actually lived on the road parallel, or behind our home, basically, which was also the road that we were on. It was a few houses down after the corner, so I started telling my brother that we should go to her house first. He didn't seem to mind, possibly because he was reading the situation too, or he was just getting tired. As we passed the first house, I heard the familiar, creepy voice saying, Hey, you missed one, didn't you?

Before I could say anything, though, my brother yelled out, you're being weird. So I again held his hand, and we ran. I was scared that this guy would get mad at my brother's comment, although I was glad that he said it, and possibly chase us, so I wanted to get there fast. We made it to her house, and I pushed my brother ahead of me as I grabbed his bag from him and started knocking on the door.

Thankfully she was home, and had a bowl of candy in her arms. I frantically asked her if we could come. in as I looked behind me and I didn't see the guy. She, of course, invited us in, shutting the door behind us, asking what was wrong. I started explaining the situation to her, and she said that I did a very smart thing by trying to avoid him and going to her home immediately. She gave us both some water, and we sat there and watched TV while she went to call her mom. After a short time, there was a knock on the door.

I was trying to keep calm thinking it was Halloween after all, and thinking that it was probably just kids, but when Marcia answered the door, it was that same guy. He tried giving her some story about us being his kids and apologized for us running into her house. Marcia, knowing our parents, of course, told him off, saying he needed to leave as the cops had already been called. I remember his face clearly at this point trying to look past her at us, and I heard him say, Oh, I must have the wrong house. Good night. And walk away. She shut the door but went and sat at the window, presumably watching where he went.

It didn't take long for my parents to show up, and then the cops around the same time. We told them what happened while we were out, and described the guy the best that we could. could since it was dark. I remember giving Marcia a big hug before we left, being incredibly thankful that she was there, as I would have been shy just asking some random person to come into their house. As far as I'm aware, the guy was never found, which is still terrifying, but sometimes I wonder what his intentions were, and think, could it have been the same guy from the news? Also, we just went home that night from there, and my parents followed us in the car the following years. I guess at least they agreed to do that.

I got my first place shortly after graduating high school in 2009. I already had a stable job that I was working at while in school because they were very flexible when it came to us students, and the pay was decent. after school was out, I started working there full time as I wasn't planning on going to college, at least not immediately after high school. So, I wanted to make more money and save up to get my own apartment. I applied to a few places and finally landed on this cute little house that was actually split into two sides, making it a duplex, I suppose. One side was a two-bedroom and the other was a one-bedroom, and the other was a one-house.

bedroom. My side would be the one bedroom. My dad came with me when I did the walk-through to make sure everything was up to snuff for him, and then we met with the landlord, who would also be my neighbor as he happened to be living on the other side of the house. I thought he was around the same age as my parents. He had a buzzcut style hair, some facial hair, like it had just started growing out, and a pretty average build. But he had a He was short. I was barely over five feet, and we were about the same height. It was kind of funny how he had to look up to my dad.

We waited out front when we saw him walk out of the other side. He introduced himself as Kelly and said that he was given the house by his parents, but he knew he wasn't going to need a house that size, and he decided he could turn a profit on it by splitting it. after looking around and discussing rent and responsibilities, I went ahead and accepted it. The rent was decent, as he included the price of the utilities, so all I had to pay for was internet or cable if I chose to do so.

I started moving in sometime that same week. My parents helped me as well as one of my best friends, and even Kelly came over at one point. Once I got everything moved in, my friend stayed over to help me with some boxes, and I ordered pizza. When the doorbell rang, I went to get it and was surprised when I saw Kelly holding my pizza. He said that he saw the guy approaching and thought he would be kind and pay for it as a celebratory meal. He also said that if I ever needed anything, that I could call him or just knock on his door, especially if anything needed repair.

I thanked him, and I brought the pizza in, not thinking anything else of it. However, I would soon learn that he wasn't just some generous landlord and helpful neighbor. He seemed to be outside at the same time that I was. When I was leaving for work, he would walk out and say good morning, or he would actually be sitting out front in a chair waving as I drove by. He was also outside when I came home or would knock on the door if he missed me coming home. It was fine for a while, but then it started getting pretty tiring. After I got home before I would even take my shoes off,

I would stand by the door expecting him to be there shortly. I was right. I tried dropping a subtle hint saying that I would be sure to reach out if I needed anything, so that way he didn't have to waste his time coming over all the time. time. He seemed to get the hint, as I stopped seeing him as much in the morning or when I came home. I ended up having a few friends over one night once I got unpacked and settled in, kind of like a housewarming party. Now, none of my friends nor I drank. We preferred eating greasy pizza, drinking weird-flavored sodas, and playing video games.

So, a few hours in, we're all having a good time playing Monopoly, when I heard a knock on my door. It was Kelly, again. This time he looked annoyed, asking what was going on. I told him I had a few friends over for a housewarming party, and he said something about us being too loud. I apologized, saying that I would keep it dead. down, but before I could do anything else, Kelly was looking over my shoulder and shouting

something about the game and then pretty much let himself in. He sat down, helped himself to one of my rootbears, and cracked jokes with a few of my friends. The thing is, he started acting like he was actually getting buzzed. My friends were cracking up, and I was two, but maybe a bit more embarrassed than anything. After some time, I showed him the door, and he left. saying that he loved all of us. Shortly after my friends dispersed, the next day Kelly came over and apologized for how he acted.

He said that's why he didn't normally drink. I wasn't about to tell him that it was just Rupier, so I just accepted the apology and moved on. It progressively got worse when he would be outside, seemingly drunk, and he would start making comments about me being gorgeous, and making someone happy one day. He even asked for a hug one time when my friend was coming over. She teased me later that he probably liked me,

which meant I could get away with more. My first thought was gross, as he looked older and second, I'm not going to take advantage of that. Then he would apologize the next day, saying that he was embarrassed and that he didn't mean what he had said. I just tried to ignore it and move on. but I guess I didn't put my foot down firmly enough, as he thought it would be okay to even let himself in at times. I called him one time because the toilet seemed to be constantly running, and he asked if he could take a look at it.

I was getting ready to leave when he knocked on the door saying he was there to look at the toilet. I had to be somewhere, but I told him that it was fine to fix it, and that I would be back shortly. I was gone for a few hours, and yet when I came back, I found him still in my place. I asked him if it was something bad since it had taken so long, and he pretty much just explained yes. He said that he was going to have to get apart, so I couldn't use my toilet, but if I needed to, I could use his bathroom. I thought it was kind of weird, but I agreed, and he left for the night. The next day, I was going to my parents to have dinner and do some laundry. I didn't have my own machines yet.

And while there, I told my parents about what had happened, and my dad suggested something that was easy to fix. He followed me back to my place and checked the toilet himself and was able to fix the problem that night. He just chalked it up to Kelly probably not knowing what to do and said that I could call him any time. since he always did the repairs on the home. I was much more comfortable with that anyways.

Kelly seemed to be upset when I told him it had been fixed the next day, though. But, I mean, he didn't have to fix it or pay for anything, so I didn't understand why. However, he seemed to take this as a chance to do check-ins whenever he wanted. Like, when I was taking a shower and I heard what sounded like a door slamming. I wrapped a towel around me and looked down the hallway into the living room, not seeing anything, and I thought maybe I was just hearing things too, and made my way to my bedroom to get dressed. I had my pants on in a brawl, but remembered I had left my lotion in the living room

that I had just bought and it was sitting by my purse, so I went to grab it. That was when I saw someone standing in my kitchen, and, of course, It was Kelly. I screamed at him, telling him to leave, and he didn't even jump or look scared. He continued to stare at me, smiling, saying that he was just doing rounds to make sure everything was working properly. As I grabbed a pillow, or my jacket that was hanging up trying to cover myself, I continued screaming at him to get the hell out until he finally dropped his hands and just walked out

angrily. I locked the door, went back to finishing getting dressed, and then called him, yelling at him. I told him that he can't just come in any time he wanted to like that, and how creepy it was, and then mentioned the fact that he didn't even apologize for it. He said he had no reason to apologize, as it was his place, and he could go in any time he wanted, but that he didn't mean to startle me. I don't know if he just tried taking a advantage of me since I was younger, but I'd had enough. I told my parents about it, and my dad suggested that we changed the lock. The Deadbolt was the same, but he installed a new doorknob.

Kelly then threatened to charge me more rent since I wasn't allowed to do that. I told my friends, and I had one of my guy friends stay with me one weekend hoping to deter him, when again he threatened to raise my rent since I had someone living there that wasn't on the lease. Eventually, my parents convinced me to just leave the place. Screwed the deposit and get out as he seemed unsafe, which I agreed. It became a storage place for the most part, for my big items, but otherwise, I moved everything important either back in with my parents or into my friend's place. He continued to text me for some time, but I eventually had to change my phone number as he

would not let up. There wasn't anything really in writing, though, which I suppose should have been a red flag from the start, but because of this, he didn't really have any options to take me to court. I just wanted out of that place for good. Thankfully, I never had any other creepy neighbors or landlords like that afterwards, and I hope to maintain that streak. After high school, I started working as a lifeguard. at our community pool in the summer.

We had an inside and outside pool, so I worked there part-time, year-round, while I was in college. For the most part, it was normal, telling kids to stop running, jumping in the shallow side, just things like that. I rarely had to do anything life-saving,

thankfully, though. However, I did still have a fair share of bizarre occurrences that I will never forget. We had a few guys that thought they would succeed at picking up a date at the pool, but it was typically just amusing to watch. There was this one middle-aged guy that often came in,

and he always had his hair slicked back. It was obvious he used some kind of product, and even though he stopped every single time, he will always try to get in the pool without rinsing it out. pool rules. You had to shower first if you had any kind of hair product, body paint, etc. I've seen plenty of situations that made this rule important, even if it sounds silly to some. So, needless to say, we knew this guy.

He would come in, finally shower, and look smug as he walked around the pool looking for some poor girl that was alone. Most of the girls handled it themselves and were able to get him to shove off, but sometimes one of us guys would confront him and have him move along. And again, he would without any confrontation. So one time he came in, I walked over to the others warning that he was here and we carried on.

I saw him approach one girl and she ignored him. Then he found another girl that seemed happy enough to talk to him. I thought maybe it was the glorious day and that he was actually going to find love and just leave people alone. But things started seeming off. She got out of the pool, but he continued to stand there in the water. The water was about to their chest, so I could see his arms and hands when he brought

them up to pull back his hair that wasn't staying in place. She came back, and they continued to. to talk for a few moments, and I moved on, skimming over the pool. I would return my view to them every once in a while, and at one point, something definitely seemed off. She seemed to still be talking, but she was looking everywhere except at him. So I started paying more attention, and I noticed his face seemed to be almost glazed over.

He was staring at her, his mouth slightly open. in and not talking, or seemingly reacting to anything she was saying. So, I continued watching to see what was happening in this group. Then, I realized his hands were under the water, but towards his front, not his sides. I had a feeling that I knew what was going on. I blew my whistle and I hopped down from my stand. The lady made eye contact with me, and I think it finally snapped in her. to get out of there.

She threw her hands up and tried saying that she had nothing to do with this, and as she finally moved, he did not shift whatsoever. I tried yelling at the guy to get out, and at that point it was pretty obvious what he was doing. I called out in the Wauke for help because I wasn't confident I would be able to get him out by myself. Right as two of the other guards came over, he suddenly put his hands up and started smiling and laughing, acting like he had no idea what had happened.

We asked the lady what was going on, and she confirmed my suspicions. She said the guy seemed fine with, and even showed interest in a few things that she mentioned and enjoyed, so she thought it was going to just be a pleasant conversation, until she noticed the change in his face, and that his hands went down. Sadly, she said she just froze in place,

not knowing what to do or how to get out of it, so she just stood there looking around, hoping someone else would notice. Unfortunately, we had to close down the pool, not knowing what all he may have done, and he obviously got kicked out. Hopefully he didn't try to do that at another pool. Another haunting memory that I was less involved in,

but didn't make it any less terrifying to think about, the community center was built in a city that was no stranger to crime. It was built in hopes to give those an opportunity to grow closer, having something special and unique as well as create programs for youth groups, to help them while growing up to break the violent history that it had. I can't say it was a failure because it was always busy with people of all ages. but, unfortunately, it can't remove all of the problems. The outside pool is by a cement wall and a chainling fence to try and keep trespassers out.

The only way to get to the outside pool was through the main entrance of the building. However, there are some that cannot always follow the rules. One night, there was a group of teens that wanted to try and go for a late-night swim alone, They devised a plan to go over to the fence, but once over, they were surprised to find that they were not alone. Kind of. There was a body of a guy floating in the water, and they called the cops. I learned all of this when I went in the next day for work, and was told that I could just go back home since the pool was going to be closed today and for a while after. Sadly, it was actually one of the supervisors.

The story got around that he was a dealer or a buyer. He was closing up that night and was confronted by someone else. They knew what he was up to, and they shot him. Because it hadn't been broken into, the alarm, of course, hadn't been triggered, so no one had been alerted until that group broke in. I can't say it's a good thing that they did, but if they hadn't, he could have died.

He did live, but he had a lot of permanent damage done due to being shot and the obvious lack of oxygen. The pool was closed for the rest of the summer, sadly, and it did seem to hurt business a bit, but thankfully it did bounce back. It's still talked about, and we'll have to live with that one forever, but it did teach us a valuable lesson in security and safety, which definitely got better. So those were two that I specifically remember being pretty crazy, to say the least. I'll eventually have to write up some more for you because people can get kind of weird in the summer. I used to live in a pretty run-down apartment complex. I was pretty young in my mid-20s, but it was still a place of my own. It was a studio, so not much room, which was fine because I didn't have any furniture.

when I first moved in. I eventually got a futon, which became my couch and bed, and a pre-owned lazy boy-style chair. I really didn't need much, though, so I was fine with it. And when I say, run down, I mean it. Sometimes my bathroom lights stopped working, and I got tired of telling the office, so I watched a video on YouTube on how to fix it,

and I did it myself. The doorknob was pretty loose, so I never relied on that lock, and thankfully there was a deadbolt, and I just hoped that the doorframe held up. The neighborhood also wasn't the best, with plenty of robberies and car thefts, so what money I did save on the apartment, I put into a reserved spot in the secured parking garage. All in all, it was just a place for me to sleep, eat, and play my Xbox. However, it wasn't all bad. I had a pretty chill neighbor at the time, Stacey. He was a very laid-back, hippie-style guy. I remember when he introduced himself.

He told me what his real name was, but then said he didn't like that name because it was too corporate. So he went by the name Stacy, because he liked it. I saw no real reason to question him, so I knew a mistake. He never wore pants. He was typically wearing shorts, like cargo shorts, never jean shorts. If he wasn't wearing a tie-dye shirt, it was either some kind of poncho or just a jean jacket with no shirt underneath. He had dreads that went past his shoulder, and a beard probably equally as long. He had a pretty cool plant that he kept outside of his door. I think he said it was some kind of tree, and he took extensive care. of it. I often saw him watering it, replacing the pot, or even putting things like eggshells in it to help the soil, as he put it. He also liked to sit outside of his apartment with a beer and just look out the entrance door. He often left his door open, as he said he was trying to keep it cool in

there, and he always had incense going. I just assumed that he had troubles with his AC, as I always did. He also invited me over to smoke, but I always politely declined. That was never my thing, but I don't judge. We were also in a state where it was legal. But like clockwork, I would come home from work late at night, he'd be out there with his can, we'd have a small conversation, and he would invite me over. I would decline, and he would say it was a bummer and wish me a good night. For the

area in the building, at least I had a pretty cool neighbor, I thought. However, as expected, with an old place like it was, I started hearing a weird scratching sound. The first time, it was late at night, and it was after I got off work, so I figured I was just hearing things, so I let it go. When I heard it again, I thought maybe it was an appliance, like the fridge or the AC unit, so I made a mental note to check them the next day since I was off. However, during the day, it never seemed to happen, but it also didn't happen every night. So the next night that I was laying on my bed, and I heard the sound, I sprung up and started hunting for it. To my surprise, the sound wasn't coming from the unit, the fridge or the hot water heater. So I tried to hone into the sound and,

traced it to part of my wall. My futon was against the left wall with the chair at an angle facing the TV. The TV was in the corner on the opposite side with my desk and computer against the wall, opposite of my bed. The sound seemed like it was coming from the wall that my desk was against, but closer to where my TV was. This was also the same wall that I shared with Stacy, so the next day I asked him if he was hearing the sound too. He said that he didn't, but that he would keep his ears open and let me know. Whatever it was, I felt that I needed to let the office people know so that they could look into it. Since it was an old building, I was worried if maybe there were mice that managed to get in and were living in the wall.

If that was the case, then they needed to look into it quickly before it got worse. But, as expected, they didn't move. quickly at all. I continued to hear the sound for probably a week, and it was driving me insane. You could hear the little scretch and scrapes, and I thought I was going to lose it. I was already having an unrestful night due to other influences, so this was just adding to it, and I decided to figure it out myself. I didn't know what I was going to do, but in case it was a mouse, grabbed a big pot to use as a trap and some trail mix that I had as bait. I felt along the wall again and started moving my TV and the little entertainment center it sat on

so that I could get behind it. That's when I saw it. There was a small pile of wall, plaster and dust, and there was a hole in the wall. One of my cables was also being pulled into it as well. My first thought was, hell no, I wasn't going to let some rodent chew through the cable, especially if it was one that went to my Xbox. So I slowly knelt down, placed the pod into place, and quickly yanked the cable out of the hole. However, no mouse came running out, nor was there a sound like it was scurrying through the hole. But yet the scratching sound continued. It may have been stupid, but...

I angled my phone to shine the flashlight into the hole and leaned down into it. What I wasn't expecting to see was someone's hand with their fingers wriggling around. I barely had time to process this when I saw an extremely bloodshot eye looking through the hole making me jump back. I was kind of on alert, thinking it had to be Stacy, right? This was his wall too, but why would he be doing this? I shouted his name and asked him what the hell he was doing, but I don't think I really got an answer. From what I could hear, he started laughing,

a laugh that I had never heard from him before. Then he started spouting nonsense. I think I heard things like, It's there. I could see it. I made it. Oh, where'd it go? Where did it go? I can get it.

Get it, yes, it won't stop. I can make it stop. I found it. Where did it go? It was just the same things over and over, and I had never seen him like that. So I went out and knocked on his door, but as I heard him yelling, he never answered the door. So I tried opening it myself, and it was unlocked. I opened the door, but I didn't go in after seeing what I saw.

Stacey was still on the floor digging at the wall with a fork, and one of those small gardening shovels. repeating basically what I had been hearing. I asked him what the hell he was doing, and he stopped, stood up, and unlike his normal look, he was terrifying. His hair was a mess,

and he was just in his boxers. His eyes were red, but they also looked hazy. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but if he was lying down, I would have thought he may have been dead. My anger and confusion turned to fear and concern when he stood up and was just staring at me like he didn't understand how I got there. I told him to sit down and I motioned to his couch,

and he slowly walked over to the couch and started talking about hearing them too, and how he was going to find it for me, because I was his buddy, and his only buddy. Then, as if on cue, he looked at me and said, "'Good night,' with a smile and fell over and started to do. seizing. I knew how to handle people having seizures since my mother had them, so I immediately ran to him to lie him down safely, and I called 911. They came and got him to the hospital, and after explaining everything, one of them said that it may have been drug-related. I didn't want to get him in trouble, but I also didn't want him to die. So I mentioned the pot use, but the cop laughed and

said that he knew he used that, but that's not what this was. was. They left, and I didn't see Stacey for a few days, so I just shut his door and watered his plan for him. I told the office about the hole, but that I didn't know what happened. As expected, they said they would schedule to have it fixed, so I just got a small plank and put it over the hole in the meantime. When Stacey did come back, he came over and apologized to me for what had happened. He explained that. He had run out of his normal drug of choice, and he was given something else to try. And, obviously, he had some bad trips.

He said that he didn't feel like he was himself, like he wasn't controlling his body. I don't remember exactly what he said it was, though. It was a terrifying experience for both of us, and he promised that he wasn't ever going to use it again, and he thanked me for watering his plant. He then brought over some killer tamales that he had made the next night. I wouldn't want to have him experience that trip again, but honestly, I also wouldn't mind him as a neighbor again, if that were to ever happen.

I was a weird kid growing up, and I easily got way too attached to people that showed any interest in me. I think part of it was that I was an only child, and with both of my parents working all the time, I clung to anyone that paid attention to me, liked anything that I was interested in, or was even proud of the work that I had done. It was easy for me to make friends, but difficult to keep them, as I know that I could be overbearing.

I've worked on myself a lot since then, and I've gotten better, but sometimes I still struggle. Anyways, this is what led me to get close to one of my teachers. It was in middle school. He was our social studies teacher, Mr. Jay. He made history interesting, though. I struggled at times with other teachers when I couldn't understand something, and they would just refer me back to the textbook.

He was actually kind and patient when I asked questions, though. I was typically afraid to ask during class, so I would ask him after it was over, and he was always willing to answer them. It was a nice change of pace. I remember at the time I was very interested in the Cold War, and I had so many questions. Most of them were outside of the realm of what we learned about,

or what was covered, so the fact that he was into the conversation with me and giving me good books to look into only made me appreciate him more. Over time, I found myself spending more time after class and after school in his room and talking. I also learned he was good with math, and he helped me with my homework there, too. I pretty much looked to him as a father figure. As a guy myself, my father worked a lot, but I never really felt like I lived up to his standards.

So I loved the attention for Mr. Jay and how he put me up on a pedestal, telling me how intelligent I was and how I was sure to go far. Anyways, I had a decent time in middle school, and I had to make my way to high school. During our graduation, I went in to hug him, and instead he shook my hand. They had a ceremony for completing middle school here. Then I was off to a bigger and scarier world. High school was fine for the most part, though. I made friends with a few people, but I never really had one of them that was super close to me. For the most part, it was the friends you talked to at school, but never outside of it.

I may have run into a few of them at a store, or something. something but that was about it there was one girl in my neighborhood that I was close to but she was homeschooled so I only ever saw her when I was home of course I also had a few teachers I was cool with but nothing as close as I was with mr. Jay I tried to find someone to cling to like him as I wanted that connection again but it never really happened High school was even more confusing for me as I began to realize that I was gay, and the girl from my neighborhood was the only person I was ever comfortable enough with telling,

but she made me feel like it was normal and that there was nothing to be ashamed of. I slowly worked on myself during this time to learn who I was, and what made me the way that I was so that I could be more outgoing. Of course, you can only do so much on your own without a therapist, and when your parents just think you're weird, they just ship you off to some camp for boys to become stronger, I guess. So, during spring break, instead of getting to chill at home and be comfortable and happy, they sent me off to some camp thing for boys. It wasn't Boy Scouts, but was more so for the same thing for the boys. but was more so for those with special needs. Yeah.

Anyways, I gathered my things and my dad dropped me off at the rec center with the rest of the people. I started walking on the lines in the parking lot to keep myself entertained when I heard a familiar voice. I looked up to see Mr. Jay talking to one of the other boys. My mood completely did a 180, and I ran over to talk to him. This time he hugged me and it was the best feeling. He hugged me tight like my grandmother did, but never my parents. It was something that I had missed. He asked excitedly if I was here for the trip, and I confirmed, nodding.

He said he was going to be part of the leadership team, so I was going to get to spend four days with him. I then told myself that this was going to be a lot better than I would have ever expected. and I even helped him get everyone in line, the bus packed up, and all ready to go. We got to the location, and I again helped everyone get set up. We talked about some basic survival stuff,

like certain plants we could eat, and we helped start the fires, things like that. The first two days went fine. We played some kind of kickball game, and I was on the same team as Mr. Jay's, so he always celebrated with me when I got a goal and just made me feel valued. I loved it. It was the third day that everything changed for me.

We would be going home the next morning, so this was a day for us to choose what we wanted to do, and just have a day of relaxation. It was later that evening that I decided to walk around and see if I could find anything that I could take home as a momentary. I ended up at a small creek or runoff that had a small bridge that you could walk over. I decided to sit there and watch the water, as there were a few ducks in it trying to clean themselves. After a few, I heard someone walking up to me and looked over to see Mr. Jay approaching. I waved him over and he sat down next to me and asked what I was up to.

I told him I was just watching and trying to clear my head. as I was actually upset about having to go back home. He talked to me about how I was feeling lost in high school, in what was only about half an hour, maybe, and he made me feel normal. He made me feel like I was important, and that I was going to be able to make it through just fine. I thanked him.

I told him that his words really meant a lot to me, and he said that I meant a lot to him. I didn't know how else to react, so I hugged him and got a little choked up, as I told him that he was like the father I wished I had. That's when his tone and manners started to change. He said, is that how you really feel about me? But his tone just seemed off. I paused for a minute, and I confirmed what I said. I don't remember his exact result.

but he basically said that I meant a lot to him and that he missed seeing me all the time after school. He went on to say that he was glad I was there because he was hoping to see me when I was older. Mind you, I was 16 at this time. Then he mentioned how hard it was to wait for me. I leaned up at this point to look at him as I noticed that his hand was on my zipper. I didn't know how to react to this. I never really learned about this kind of thing, or even if this was okay. This was someone I trusted and cared for, so it was all right, right?

Thankfully, my brain was overloaded, so my instinct kind of kicked in, and I jumped up quickly running away. I went back to my tent, zipped it up without saying a word to anyone and just cried. I stayed there for the rest of the night, and when anyone came up to my tent, I told them I just wasn't feeling well. We packed up the next day, and I avoided everyone as much as possible. Thankfully, he seemed to avoid me as well, but yet he was all smiles and laughter. Within an hour, he'd completely destroyed me and was still over there having a great time. I went home and I was quiet for a while, not knowing what to do or if I should tell someone. I mean, who would believe me?

Did it really happen? Was I just overreacting to something? My neighborhood friend could tell that something was wrong, though, so she finally got it out of me. She told me that I needed to tell my parents or the school counselor immediately. I was terrified how they would react, but, I did finally tell my mom. She was a lot more understanding and sincere than I ever expected, though. He was arrested, and I never saw him again, thankfully,

but I wasn't the first kid that he had done this to, sadly. I just hate that it happened to any of us. I already didn't feel normal, and this just screwed me up even more. Thankfully, though, I have a great therapist now, and I've become a lot more stable with my emotions and who I am, but to Mr. Jay, I'm glad that we will never meet again. After having a horrible experience with a roommate, I got my first apartment by myself.

It wasn't the best as they were old buildings, so there were several maintenance calls to have things fixed. But the front office people in the techs were also friendly, and they were really fast at getting things done, so I couldn't complain. The buildings were small and had eight units in each, and my neighbors all seemed pretty chill. There were a couple of old people that I think had lived there forever, and a young couple that I usually only saw in the halls at night. I think they worked the overnight shifts or something,

but they definitely were not the social types, which was fine. It just meant that there were even less problems to worry about, as everyone typically minded their own business. While I did live alone, I started dating a guy that I had met through a mutual friend. Sometimes he came over and stayed at my place on the weekends, or if he wasn't working.

He was still living at home with his parents, who were also really cool people, but his drive to work was about an hour, and my place was almost the halfway mark. So, sometimes, he would just stop and sleep at my place if he'd had a long day and didn't want to make the drive all the way home. He was an EMT, and would often work late or overnight shifts. So if he wasn't catching naps at the hospital while on call,

it was just easier for him to stay with me. When he did, he would text me that he would be stopping by, and since it would be later, I was usually already asleep as I worked at 7 in the morning. He would come in, kiss me on the head, and typically take a shower, before finally passing out. He didn't have a key to my apartment, partially because I wasn't supposed to make copies myself, so I usually just kept the door unlocked. Again, everyone here seemed trustworthy, and there hadn't been reported. of break-ins are suspicious people, so I didn't really have a problem with it.

It was one of those nights where he was going to be working late, so on his lunch, he told me he was going to stay at my place, and I agreed. I made a large dinner so he could eat something when he got home, too, and around 10 p.m., I finally headed off to bed, texting him good night. after some time I woke up to hearing some noise outside of my room I figured it was him getting there

so I just tried to go back to sleep expecting him to be in soon I even faced away from the door as the bathroom was across from my room that way when he opened the door the light wouldn't blind me I heard my door creak open a bit and as I opened my eyes

to see the sliver of light on the wall as well as his shadow standing in the hallway. However, instead of coming to my room, he just walked away. I thought that was weird, as he never didn't do what I had mentioned, and it was kind of something I looked forward to. I continued to lay there for a bit thinking maybe he was going to go eat first, but after I closed my eyes again, I heard the shower running. Now, being an EMT, I know that he can be able to.

go to some pretty messed up scenes or even lose a patient, so I thought maybe that's what happened, so maybe his mind wasn't in the right place. I decided I would go in there and make sure that he was okay. I got up, and I entered the bathroom, and the clothes on the floor, they weren't the scrubs that he was usually in. They were regular clothes, but they were really dirty jeans. He didn't like wearing jeans. so I found it odd.

I asked him if he was okay, and he didn't respond. So I started saying something else as I opened the shower curtain, when, to my horror, the man in the shower was not my boyfriend. I don't know who was more scared as he started shouting something, but I was also screaming and ran back to my bedroom, locking the door behind me, and I called 911. I could hear some sounds outside my room like the guy was running around and I was terrified if he would try to get into my room, but I never heard the doorknob shake or the door even budge.

When the police finally showed up, I came out and explained what had happened. The guy was long gone. We walked through to see if he took anything, and I noticed the shower was pretty dirty. It looked like there was mud or dirt or something all over the room. the bottom of the tub. His clothes were gone, too, but there were wet prints in the carpet that we could follow. They came out of the bathroom, into the kitchen, there were no puddles and no carpet, thankfully. He had actually taken one of the pre-made salads in the fridge, and then the prince led back out

the door. I felt bad as it was late, but they knocked on my neighbor's doors to ask if they saw anything, and I noticed the younger couple was a little. already standing outside talking to the cops. I learned that they had heard the screaming, and when they opened their door to look around, they saw a guy completely naked, holding a bag and some clothes running out the front door, and they didn't know what had happened. They followed him out the door, and they saw where he went,

and they gave his description of the man, which also matched mine. They went around the area, and before they came back, my boyfriend had showed up and was obviously curious as to why I was awake. I explained everything to him. The cops came back to tell me that they didn't find the guy, but if they did, they would come back to ask me to identify him, and then they left.

Unfortunately, they never did call or come back, so I have to guess that he was never caught. However, a few weeks later, I started hearing stories about break-ins in the same city as me, but the person either didn't take anything, or it was just food. And they always seemed to take a shower. I don't remember ever hearing about this happening before my incident, but by then I had seen it a few times.

The news interviewed a few people, and someone mentioned that it may be someone who was homeless, just trying to help themselves, I suppose. I don't know if that's what happened in my case, but I could believe it by the shape of the clothes that the man was in. It was still a terrifying situation to be in, but it was weird to me,

that he definitely looked in my room and saw me. Why not leave at that point? I am glad nothing worse happened, but I went ahead and broke the rules to make a key for my boyfriend, and I never left my door unlocked after that. RBC Training Ground has discovered potential in over 20,000 Canadian athletes and counting. Your story could be next. If you've got the drive, they'll help you find your path to the Olympics.

Let's see what you've got. Sign up for free at rbc trainingground.ca. A few years ago, I went camping for the first time in my life. I was about 11 or 12 when we headed out to the forest nearby our house. house. We were in Poland for the holidays, as every year, and right next to our house was a huge forest. So, one day, we decided to take out my mom's old tent that she still had from the 90s, and just stay for the night or two in between some wildlife. Good thing, the place we chose to sleep at was only about 20, maybe 30 minutes away from the house.

Bad thing. There are a lot, and I mean, a lot of wolves, foxes and boars out in that forest. And honestly, I kind of regretted going there in the first place. We set everything up at around 6 p.m. And my sister and I set up the campfire. My dad chopped down a smaller tree earlier with his oak axe, and that's important for a later part of the story, and by now it had dried out enough to catch fire.

We sat around it for quite some time, probably around four hours, until it was dark, so we decided to just head to sleep then. My two sisters and I on one end of the tent, and my parents on the other. It was probably just the fear of getting eaten alive by some wolves, or maybe home,

sickness, but I couldn't sleep at all. I heard my dad tell my mom he was going to go out into the forest to get some wood for the morning, while it was still fairly dry, or it would have all soaked up the dew by then. The thought of not having my dad around made it even worse for me to close my eyes for a second. I'm not too good at telling what time it is by just staring at the sky, or trying to figure out how long it's been, so I'll just say it was around 12 or 1 in the morning. I was actually falling asleep when I heard some rattling outside the tent.

My first thought? Wolf. I was terrified. And so I just popped out my head through the little curtain that separated the two halves of the tent, basically a thin piece of fabric just hanging on some threads, to see if my dad was back. He was still gone, and it had been about an hour since he went.

I laid back down and just tried to fall asleep, but when I turned myself on my side and saw this faint human shadow outside of the tent, I froze and let out a tiny squeak. The person seemed to be holding some sort of axe, shovel thing in hand, and so I thought it might have just been my dad coming back. The shadow walked toward the entrance of the tent and just stood there at the zipped-up door for maybe 30 seconds. I began to wonder why he wasn't just coming inside. The person finally ran off into the forest, but they dropped the axe.

You could hear the footsteps fade in the distance and a thump just happened along the way. Maybe a minute or so later, I hear my dad walking back. back from the opposite side of the forest and enter the tent all tired and just fell asleep. It seemed kind of sketchy and fishy and scary to me, but it was so late that I couldn't even think anymore and I somehow fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up after my dad dropped his phone on his face, letting out an ouch. I peeped through the curtain at him, and he just smiled back.

while rubbing his nose. I needed some fresh air, because I was feeling a bit sick. Maybe from the nerves in the morning or homesickness, but I really couldn't tell. Both of us got out of the tent and walked around for a while. We circled around the campsite for around ten minutes until we came back to our tent. That's when I noticed something that ran the chills down my back. A few meters from the tent, in the corner of my eye, I managed to catch a glimpse of something red. It took me a hot second to realize that I actually saw something,

and when I turned my head to see what it was, it was a red and black rubber axe. It was not there before. I knew it wasn't my dad's, because his was by the pile of wood that he collected at night. From my dad's reaction, I probably turned pale because he started to freak out a little, like I was about to pass out or something. He turned his gaze to where I was looking, and we both just stared for a few seconds before he called out for the rest of the family to wake up and get moving. We were all packed up within an hour, and we rushed back home.

I later told my dad what I saw that night, and he wouldn't believe me at first. I carried on with the story until he finally realized that I was telling the truth. To this day, I still have no clue who the hell that was, but I'm just happy he didn't investigate our tent any further, or any other animal in that forest. So to the axe man who was outside my tent in the middle of the night, let's not meet. Back when I was 16, I saw.

started working at a department store in our local mall. I worked there for a few years after high school just because I enjoyed the job and the pay was decent. I started as a cashier and actually became a floor associate. It wasn't a commission job, thankfully, but I did enjoy being able to walk around, help people, as well as clean and organize the shelves. As expected, since it was a retail store, we had to take those computer trainings on what to do in emergency situations, the ones that you glaze over and never expect to have to follow through on. This took place after I had graduated, though. It was actually a Sunday, so we were closing early. I was in the women's section folding up the shirts that were displaced on the shelf, and this was also close to the front of the store,

making me also close to the register. The cashier had just gone to break, and I agreed to go over to that section to watch the register until she got back. At this point, since we were closing in about two hours, it was just me, another floor associate, Marco, the cashier Sam, and the store manager Will. I assume that Marco was closer to the back of the store

because I couldn't see or hear him. I had one customer that I rang up, and another one that I remember seeing come in, but they hadn't left yet. So while I was folding, I heard a loud bang making me jump. It came from outside of our store, and all I could think of was that it sounded like something large and heavy crashing onto the floor. Like, maybe a trash can. I just remember that I stood there for a moment, and noticed that it was that it was a little bit, and noticed that. that after the loud sound, it was eerily quiet, other than the very soft music playing over the intercoms.

Usually you hear people walking and talking, but it was unsettling. Then I heard the sound a second time, which was followed by screaming. I started to walk over towards the door when I saw a guy running from the left, and he looked terrified. Something told me to get away from the door. so I started to swiftly walk towards the back when I heard the sound again. That's when I finally realized I was hearing shooting. The fear finally hit me, and I fell to the floor crawling when I saw Will come out of the back.

He was motioning for me to get behind the counter, and I didn't hesitate. I looked around the side to see him running, trying to pull the barred gate down, when I saw someone run up to the door and start yelling. I immediately dropped down and held my knees to my chest. I heard them yelling about getting back up, hands up, and Will was trying to tell them to calm down and not go through with this. He continued yelling, so he walked over to the cash register and began unlocking it. As he was emptying it, the other guy asked where the girl was at the cash register.

He said they already took off through the back when we first heard the shot. The mall was only one story, so each store had a back emergency door, so it was definitely possible, and for their sake I hope that they did. After he finished, I assumed the guy didn't leave because Will stood there and started to say something like, I swear it's empty, when I heard another shot and Will fell to the floor. It made me scream, but I heard the guy run out of the store too. everything was a blur after that I remember trying to help Will Marco came out from the back

and helped as well and it just kind of spiraled from there lots of talking and people coming and going my parents showed up freaking out understandably as I still lived with them too I didn't work for a few days after that in fact everyone that worked that night was off to my surprise the place did actually pay for therapy for any of us that wanted it.

The suspect didn't get far, though. Thankfully, when others heard the first and second shots, they called for help immediately. So the cops were at the door when they tried to escape. Will was always a great manager, and after hearing that he was going to be okay and was actually going to return to work, it made me feel like I could go back too.

even though I thought about quitting. I continued to work there for a few more years before I got a job in my field. I took every single one of those safety training classes absolutely serious from that moment on, though. As a trucker, you can find yourself sleeping in some pretty weird places. For the most part, I didn't have a problem staying in run-down motels or in my cab on the side of the road. I didn't scare easily, and my doors are always locked, but it's more of the unexplainable situations that don't sit right with me. One time, I was driving on a long stretch of desert highway in a state that I hadn't been to before. I've been doing this long enough, though, that I knew my body and its limits, so not having a rest stop close by.

I made the choice to go ahead and pull off near an exit to sleep for the night. I got parked, and I made my way to the cabin, and I laid there, ready to get some sleep. I am a pretty heavy sleeper, so it doesn't take long for me to crash. However, even though I felt drained, it seemed to take some time for me to finally fall asleep. Then, it seemed just as soon as I drifted off, I was jolted awake. But I had no idea why. I thought it was one of those dreams when it feels like you're falling, so I just closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. But this time, I started hearing strange noises.

It started as a weird tapping that sounded like it was coming from the top of the cab. I wanted to dismiss it as something falling on it, like an acorn maybe, or maybe just a tree limb, but there were no trees on the side that I was on, and it was also too much of a pattern, like a subtle tap, tap, tap. This put me on guard, and I immediately started paying more attention to the sounds. As I laid there, I noticed the tapping. sound was getting fainter and fainter, like it was going towards the back of the truck. When I could no longer hear the sound, I slowly sat up, and without looking out the windows, I made sure the doors were locked. I then went back to laying down with my eyes closed, and just continued listening. There were no other humans around. I would have heard a car

pull up or stop. I would have heard someone walking up to my truck, and there was none of that. The sounds all started with the tapping on my roof. I'm part Native American, and I was told many stories of skinwalkers and other similar types about spirits by my grandparents and parents. And I was also told what to do if I ever came across one. So this immediately put me in fight or flight mode, and there was no way that I was stupid enough to try to fight it. I laid there, saying a native prayer that my grandmother had taught me, and continued to listen to find the right time to go. I started hearing what sounded like something running along the side of the trailer, like someone was running their hand across it, and then it got closer to the windows as I heard the tapping on.

the glass, assuring that I didn't look at it, and I waited for it to leave. While it was tapping, I swear that I could hear a woman's voice softly saying, as I laid there, I heard it go around to the other side of the truck, while the tapping got louder and almost more violent. Then, it stopped. It was completely still. I couldn't even hear the wind. I slowly got up, and just in case, I made sure to not look out the windows. It was a struggle, but I even crawled over to get into the driver's seat instead of getting out and back into the driver's side door. Then, as I started the truck, there was a loud thud from the top of my truck. It almost sounded like something had fallen on top of it. I tried to take off

as fast as I could with the big-haas semi, and I drove down that deserted, seemingly empty road while barely looking out the window, praying that it didn't try to stop me. I was thankful to never see it, and especially not in front of me, but it didn't hesitate to tap on my driver's side window again while I was driving.

I remembered my grandfather telling me to never look at it, never give it the attention, which is also, why I've debated submitting this, so I never looked over at it. I continued my prayer again and drove until I saw the sunrise. I don't even remember when it finally went away,

but after some time, I came across a little truck stop and pulled over. There were other people around, so all I could hear was the sound of people talking, walking, doors closing, and engines. But I did. didn't hear or feel anything inhuman. I decided that I was safe to finally get some sleep, and that's exactly what I did.

I was impressed with myself for staying awake and keeping my eyes on the road, but I guess that's also part of the fighting-to-live side of things. I didn't experience anything else on that trip, and thankfully I didn't have to take that road back. I also checked my truck and trailer when I arrived, and there wasn't a scratch or dent on top of it. Skinwalkers are not something that anyone should seek out. You're better off just listening to stories and leaving it there, because I promise you, nothing good will come of it. When I used to work at a small convenience store and gas station, we would get a lot of weirdos that would come in,

and even though some of the customers were less than desirable, we also had some fairly normal interactions. It really felt like we dealt more with the weird people than the normal ones, but after a while, you just get used to it. And the weird becomes the norm. Anyone that has worked retail will 100% understand what I just said. Anyways, because we were in an area that was mostly surrounded by homes and a lot of neighborhoods, we had a cork board at the entrance of the store where people could post what was essentially their ads.

For the most part, people would pin up their business cards for things like lawn mowing and legal services, but we would also occasionally get flyers for nearby concerts, or people wanting to fix others' computers, things like that. It was basically our own little contained cork board next door or Craigslist. The only requirement that we had with the board was that they had to have the manager's approval before they posted anything. So, when they came in to post something, we had to put it in the back office for the manager to hang up. It was, more than anything, a quality control process, so that we didn't get dumb things that had zero benefits to the community posted on the regular. The story is actually about one of the things that someone wanted posted to the board.

I was working a shift, and this older guy in a nice dress shirt came into the store. Nothing weird there. We would get a lot of people that came in just after work. to get a drink or something. However, this guy came up to the counter with the flyer and asked me if he was allowed to hang it on the board. I mentioned to him that I'd have to run it by the manager and that he came in first thing in the morning, but I could take the flyer and put it on his desk so he could approve it right away. He agreed, and he handed me the flyer.

It was basically a missing person's poster. There was a picture of a guy in the center, and he was well dressed, and this image almost looked like a headshot for a business. The information was a bit strange. It had his height, weight, blood type, and a number of other things, but there was no name for the man. There was a small blurb that mentioned, if you see this man, call this number, with what I'm assuming was the man's phone. number, and then there was mentions of a substantial monetary reward if he was found. Because I'm nosy, I asked if he was a missing person. The man laughed slightly and said, well, kind of.

I asked how someone could kind of be missing, and he responded with, We know that he's around somewhere, but we don't know where. He walked out on a job, and we need to find him. him so we can go over his exit interview. I thought that was a weird thing to say, but I just kind of accepted it, and told him I would give it to my manager to post. The guy thanked me and left, and that was the end of that, until a few days later. The manager posted the flyer as requested. It was posted front and center on the board since it seemed important.

Then, about three days after, it was posted. posted, a guy came into the store to buy some beer, and I know that I awkwardly stared at him for a few moments, because I was trying to place him. But then, I realized that he was the guy on the poster. He noticed that I was staring because he was giving me this weird look like he was uncomfortable. I mentioned to him that someone was looking for him, and I motioned towards the board. As soon as I said someone was looking for him, he went pale as a ghost. He walked over to the flyer and pulled it off, and then came back up to me and asked me if I knew who had posted it. I described the guy. Older man, military haircut, it was gray, he was nicely dressed, had large

rimmed glasses, basically everything that I could remember. I then meant to him. I then meant to that he had told me that he needed to do an exit interview, whatever that meant. As soon as I said that, he started yelling expletives about how screwed he was. He then looked at me and said, Look, I wasn't here. Please do not tell anyone that I was ever here. And he then ran out of the store, jumped in his car, and sped away without his beer. I was so confused.

I had no idea what the hell all of that was, but this guy obviously did not want to be found by the first guy. What's weird? I had never heard another thing about this. Neither man came into the store after this. I never saw anything about it on the news or anything, and I never saw his face in any other missing person's listing. I personally do see a few possibilities about this situation.

This could have been a prank. Both men could have been in on it, but something about the other guy's face makes me think it was serious. Either that or he was a top-tier actor. When he went pale, he seriously looked like his heart had stopped for a moment, or like he was about to puke. alternatively, if this was a real situation,

the men that were looking for him were not good men, and he had pissed them off somehow, and being found potentially would not have been a good thing for him. Either way, I kind of hope that he was able to get away, and he made it out okay, because I feel like if whoever wanted to do that, exit interview caught him, he's probably not around anymore.

I have quite a few horror stories from when I was a front desk attendant for a hotel, but most of them take place when I worked the overnights for the same location. I have a lot of experiences with genuinely creepy and weird people, but I think it would be more fun to share one of the experiences that was a bit more unexplainable, unless just this one guy was kind of creepy. So, as I mentioned, I worked as the overnight front desk attendant for this hotel for a couple of years, actually.

The schedule kind of sucked, and I had to really work to adjust my sleep schedule, and it made days off incredibly difficult, but the pay was decent for the time. And, to be honest, I didn't have much going for me in my life beyond working there. The nights typically consisted of sitting at the front desk for hours, dealing with one or two people that would show up in the middle of the night, because they spent too much time on the road. And sometimes, I would have to take things up to rooms if there will be. an issue or an emergency.

Beyond that, I would sit at the desk and pretty much just file out the paperwork that had to be done each night. The story that I want to share happened during my first year on the night shift. I don't recall the time of year, but I think it was early winter or mid-fall. The whole thing started when I got a call from the third floor of the building. It was a guest that I had checked in at the beginning of the beginning. of my shift, and when I checked him in, he seemed like a pretty decent person. He seemed sane, stable, and polite enough.

I know that it sounds weird that I'm saying this, but I am saying it to demonstrate that he probably wasn't crazy. Anyways, he called down and asked if I could help him, and he asked me if there was anything I could do about the temperature of the room. I mentioned that there was a thermostat in the room and that most of them were set to a pretty standard temperature, something like 73. He then said that it was set to 73, but that the room was feeling really cold by the door. Like there was a major draft coming in from the hallway. That was kind of weird since his room was literally in the middle of the hallway,

so he was nowhere near any draft caused. causing spots, like windows or exits. I told him that I would go ahead and come up to see if I could help him out and check it out shortly. After I had hung up the phone, I went ahead and placed the be right back sign on the desk and went up to the third floor to see what was going on. When I got up there, I was a bit annoyed. The floor was a pretty standard temperature, but then I walked toward his room and noticed that this guy was actually not lying to me.

As soon as I approached his door, it felt like the hallway went from this nice, ambient temperature to about 20 degrees or so colder. We weren't booked full, so there was only one other guest staying in a room near him, and their door didn't feel cold, so they didn't have the AC on or anything else. But for some reason,

the closer that I got to his door, the colder it felt. I knocked on his door to let him know that I at least felt what he was talking about. When he answered, I told him that he was definitely correct, that it was colder, but then said that I couldn't figure out what it was, as there weren't any drafts, and there was nothing that should have been causing the colder temps. I then asked him if he wanted to go ahead and just move to another room, and after a bit of contemplation, he said that he would. We went through that whole process.

I got him in another room down the hall, closer to the elevator, and I apologized for the inconvenience. He seemed satisfied with this resolution, so we moved on, and I thought that this was the end of it. Except, about 20 minutes later, he called down to the front desk again. This time, he was a lot less happy. He started going off about how someone had knocked on his door multiple times, but when he went to answer it, there was nobody there.

This was a really weird thing to have happening, mostly because, like I mentioned, there was only one other person near him, and that person was an older gentleman that looked like he was there for business, not the type to knock and run. I pulled up the camera system to check if I could see his door, and sure enough I could. I asked him when the last time it happened was, and he started telling me that it started happening almost as soon as he got settled into the new room, and that it had been happening every couple of minutes.

He said that each time it happened, there would be no one on the other side of the door, so he assumed that they were knocking and running away. He then said that he had even walked around the hallways and not seen anybody hiding. As soon as he finished explaining this, I heard, clear as day, three very aggressive knocks on the door of his room come through the phone. He then got up and angrily said, See, there's that SOB again. The problem was, I was staring at his door from the camera.

There was nobody there. I even kind of said that under my breath, and at first I don't think he understood what I said, because he responded with, yeah, right, because they knock and they run away. I then reiterated my statement by saying, No, sir, I'm looking at your door from the camera. There's nobody there. As in, no one came to your door and knocked at all. He paused for a moment, but came back with a much less.

angry and much more confused tones saying, But you, you heard the knocking, right? I told him that I did hear it, but I said that at no point in time did anyone come to his door. Pretty much right away, we heard another very loud knock on the door, and he started saying, is there anyone there now? to which I responded, no.

I could tell that he was starting to freak out, and to be honest, I was as well. Between the weird drop and temperature around his old room and now this phantom knocking, it seemed like some sort of spirit or ghost was following him and was seriously messing with this guy. I know it was just the two isolated events at this point, but they were bizarre and were not things that we had ever had reported.

The knocking was definitely more terrifying than the cold spot, but both events kind of had me leaning in to supernatural or paranormal territory. After a few seconds of silence, I offered to move him to one of the more expensive rooms on another floor, basically upgrading him for free because of this. He did agree. And when he came down to the front desk, he was pretty pale, and quite obviously freaking out. I asked him if he was going to be okay or if something else had happened.

And he told me that as soon as he left his room with his stuff, he started hearing something laughing. I kind of passed over his comment and told him that we would get him taken care of. I got him in one of our most expensive rooms, which was not on the third floor, and I told him that if there were any more issues, I would go ahead and offer him a full refund. He just kind of nodded and slowly stepped back to the elevator with zero energy in his step. A few things to wrap this story up. First things first, he did not have any more issues. When he checked out in the morning, I was told that he was told that he won.

wanted to give praise to my manager for how I handled his issues, basically saying that I went above and beyond for him. And to anyone that will say that he was faking the problems or doing something to cause them, I'm going to say that I highly doubt it. The cold spot issue, well, I guess he could have had the AC on in the room, but that would be kind of dumb to do if I was coming up to see why it was cold. Plus, it felt like it was more in the hallway than coming from his room. The knocking thing, I'm pretty certain, was not his doing. After I got him in the third room, I actually went back and watched the camera footage,

and unless he was so committed to the bit that he opened his door and looked around confused each time, and then left to walk around the hallway, and angrily threw the door open for his act, all without knowing that I could see him on camera, mind you, then I'm pretty certain that it was real. On top of that, after he left his room, I saw him start to walk down the hallway, and then I watched him pause to look back and around for what I'm assuming was the laughing. I literally watched the color drain from this man's face on the footage, and there's really no way to fake fear that intense. Also, this was the only complaint that I ever received about all this,

which makes me seriously think that whatever this was, it was directly attached to him. In the end, it was super weird and a genuinely creepy situation, and I kind of felt bad for the guy. By the time he got into the new room, it was already past midnight, and I'm concerned that he didn't sleep very well. I do hope that whatever this was wasn't actually attached, and was just messing with him for that night for some reason,

and I hope that he made it wherever he was going safely. And also, to that man, I'm sorry that your stay at our hotel was. so eventful. Back in the 90s, my friend Brent and I would go exploring old buildings that were abandoned or condemned

for fun. We didn't have cell phones at the time, and the most we had was his car, so trespassing and sneaking out alcohol was the most excitement we could really have. We lived in Topeka, Kansas at the time.

And if you're from there, you know there's a small area to have fun in, and then another that's just boring. Or maybe that was just us since we lived on the boring side. Either way, this was our idea of fun. With empty houses or buildings to explore, we had plenty of new places to choose from. One place in particular that we had been wanting to check out

was the Topeka State Hospital. It had been closed for a while, and with all the rumors of previous patients haunting the problem, place, we desperately wanted to check it out. We also had never explored in a place so big, so we had to try to figure out the best way to get in and when to do it. We drove by it a couple of times to see if there was any type of security around it, and to see if there was anything immediate that would hinder us. When we were convinced it was going to be an easy inn, all we had to do was find the time to do it.

So to not have our parents ask questions about what we were doing, we told them we would be staying at each other's house, and then would have the night without any suspicion. Friday night, Brent said he was leaving to come over to my place, and I told my parents he was coming to pick me up, and we were off. We each had a backpack with what our parents thought were our clothes, toothbrush, and deodorant, When in reality it had our flashlights, a few supplies that we brought like a pocketknife just in case, and a few snacks to eat while we waited. We learned over time that fewer things we brought the better, especially if we needed to get out quickly and ditch our bags. We parked several feet up from the building to try to make it not look so suspicious, and we sat in the car and ate.

We thought we would kind of scope out the place to see if anyone came by and to get any last-minute jitters out of us. After about half an hour, we decided it was time to go then, before we chickened out. We approached the building, and not to our surprise, the front door was completely locked and boarded up. So we walked around the side to see if there were any other ways in, when Brent noticed a window that had to be able to be. had been broken out and half-asily boarded up with a no trespassing sign attached to it. The boards weren't the best, so it was pretty easy to pry off with just our hands and the little hammer that we had with us. Brent went in first and helped me in, and that was the start of a very long night. Once in, we turned on our flashlight, put on our backpacks, and started looking

around. Immediately, the smell hit me. It was very musty, like what a damp old room would smell like. The paint or wallpaper was eerily peeling off the walls, but the honest part for me was how still the air was. I motioned DeBrent to stop for a second just to try to listen, and the only thing you could hear was our slight breathing. You couldn't even hear the sounds of the bugs outside. It was just one of those moments that was hard to explain. However, we didn't want to waste a lot of time and we started moving on. We looked through the rooms where the doors were already open and saw much of what you would expect.

Bare shelves, broken bed frames and chairs. The restroom stalls were all broken and some of the toilets were just busted. There was a lot of graffiti everywhere, too, so... We obviously weren't the only ones that had been here. As we looked around and just took in what all we were seeing, we heard what sounded like someone walking slowly above us. A little scared, but also not quite ready to leave yet. We decided to go up to the second floor to check it out.

The stairs were not something that I would want to walk on more than once, but the railing seemed sturdy enough. We made our way up there to see more of the same. Creepy, dark hallways, spray-painted doors and walls, and those yellow file folders scattered all over the ground. While here, we again heard more footsteps, but nothing else with it. We were just about to head up to the third floor, when Brent turned around to look down the hall again that we were just at.

Nothing there again. We got this far without anyone showing up. up, so we wanted to get all the way to the top. We climbed the stairs to the third floor, where we were then greeted by a door slamming. I think Brent was a little fed up at this point. With us both not really being phased by ghost stories, or at least not willing to admit it, he shouted, we're not here to harm anyone or anything. After wincing at hearing him unexpectedly calling out, we waited in silence but heard nothing, not even the footsteps.

We both led out a quiet laugh and continued on. Looking around the room, I saw some really old clothes that looked like they had been disintegrating over time, just sitting in the corner of a room. In this same room, I started smelling sulfur. It was almost like there were fireworks going off right in front of me. I walked out of the room quickly and across to where Brent was, who claimed he didn't smell anything at first. I brought him over to the other room where he could then smell it. As we started leaving the room, though, the door to the room that he was in slowly started to shut. As I mentioned earlier, there was no airflow in the place.

It was dead still. So there was no way that a draft had blown the door shut. We stared at the door for several minutes when we started hearing footsteps again, but they seemed to be quicker than before and getting louder. We walked over by the stairs slowly and waited. That's when I felt a really cold breeze brush my back, and I very clearly heard the word, out, whispered into my ear.

I was done. I took off down the stairs, Brent following right behind me, and when I got to the bottom, I leapt out the window that we came through, and waited as Brent crouched down to do the same. As he was doing this, it sounded like someone was running towards us. I yelled up Brent to hurry up when he nearly dived out the window to get out. We quickly took off to his car, not caring if anyone saw us at that point, and then we just sat there. staring at this place for several more minutes to calm down. After a while, we both asked the other if we had heard the voice, and that's why we both started running.

So at least I knew that I wasn't the only one. As mentioned, I didn't really believe in the paranormal, but after that experience, and reading more about what took place there, I can definitely believe former patients are sadly true, wrapped in there. Brent and I still remember this, but we really haven't told a single person about it.

We've kept this as a personal experience that we will never forget. This happened when me and my girl were on an impromptu road trip. At the time, we'd both taken some time off work, as I had time

I needed to use, and I could tell that she was in need of a break. We were planning. on just chilling at home, but we saw one of our favorite bands was going to be playing in the state over from us, and the drive was about five hours, so we decided to make a trip of it, stay at a hotel out there for a night, and then come back home the day after the concert. This was also in 2019, so we were a bit more carefree at the time. So, and we packed a small bag, got some cash to have on hand,

and for any toll roads, and then left. The drive out there was fine. We'd driven there multiple times before, so we almost had the route memorized. We decided to stay at our favorite hotel chain because they were reasonably priced, especially considering it included a hot breakfast and a dinner. We left early in the morning,

so when we got there and checked in, and we still had part of the afternoon and evening to enjoy the site. We did a few things around the town, including a little museum that we had never been to, and we just enjoyed ourselves. That night would be the concert, and I was really happy that we went.

Angie, my now fiancé, had a blast, and it looked like she was already feeling better, which made me feel a lot better. The opening band was local, and they were actually really good. We got a copy, of their album and even had the drummer as a friend on Facebook, which was pretty cool. Then we got to talk to the guys from our favorite band.

We bought shirts, and they signed them and took pictures with us, and it was all around a good time. We stayed as long as we could, just hanging out until they started closing, so then we headed out. It was midnight at this point, because that was when the venue closed, and we had to quickly leave. It was kind of weird because it was a 21-plus show, and the curfew thing seemed a bit weird, but not a big deal. Overall, we had a great time, and we were ready to head back to the hotel. Now, the venue that we went to, we'd not been to before. It was more like a little hole in the wall bar with the stage, so we weren't familiar with the area. We started up the navigation on our phone to get back, but, of course, it was having trouble finding a signal at first.

So we were driving around aimlessly, both waiting on the signal to come back, and also trying to remember what direction we came from. I was pretty tired, and she was tipsy, so combined, we probably didn't have the best sense of direction. As we came to an intersection, there was a guy leaning against the building, smoking. He made eye contact with us and nodded, and we continued on after the light turned green. Finally, the signal came back, and, of course, I was facing the wrong way, and it wanted me to do a U-turn. I don't really like doing U-turns, unless there's a specific lane for it. at least when I'm in an area that I'm unfamiliar with, so I decided to go around the block to circle around. As we did, we came back to that same intersection where that guy was, and once again had a red light.

This time, though, the guy decided to approach us, waving at us to stop or to hold on. There wasn't another car in sight except the parked ones across the streets at the CVS, so I wasn't worried about holding up traffic. I put on my hazards and Angie rolled down her window halfway so we could talk to this guy. I'd like to think that we're both giving individuals, and we help when we can, even if it means we may be gullible, but we also try to look for the best in people. So while some people may not have even stopped for this guy, the least that we could do was give him a minute of our time to just talk with another person.

The reason I say this was that the guy also looked like he had been standing there for quite some time. Like, he had a huge backpack on the ground next to him, as well as a few items sitting on top of it, like a jacket and a piece of cardboard, as well as a jug of what I thought was water next to it. He said hi and asked us what we were doing out so late. He asked it in a joking way, like what a parent might say to their kids, So we told him we were leaving a concert and that we were trying to find our way back to the hotel. He asked us which one, and we proceeded to tell him, and he gave us directions on how to get back there. He even suggested that we avoid a certain street because it wasn't the safest.

We thanked him, and as the conversation died down, I could see him looking around in our car a bit. It was a bit awkward, but I had a feeling I knew where this was going. Before I could react, though, he started saying something about our car and it being nice, while Angie pulled a $20 bill from her wallet and handed it to the guy. He smiled and thanked us, but then the conversation became a little weird. He tried to make a joke about Angie being loaded and asked why she would carry around so much cash in a strange place, knowing that it could be dangerous. I could tell that it became a little awkward for her with the way that she shifted in her seat

and the slight nervous giggle she had, so I responded that we didn't know if we would have to pay for parking at the venue. I just tried to think of something so she wasn't put on the spot anymore. Again, he told us that we should be careful then, and head back to the hotel as soon as possible. We agreed, and as we were trying to wrap up the conversation to leave, the guy interrupted me and said he could give better directions if he went with us, and asked if he could, since he needed to be somewhere close to that hotel anyways. At that point, I was very hesitant, and I was not comfortable with this idea at all. And I think Angie felt the same way by the way she looked over at me, hoping I would have an excuse.

Off the top of my head, I told him it was a rental so we couldn't have more people in it than what was written on the papers, which was just the two of us. He quickly tried to call me out on that, though, that there weren't any rental tags on the car, so Angie jumped in and said it was a friend of ours. so it wasn't actually through a rental place, but we weren't allowed to have anyone else in it, and we didn't want to risk it. He again tried to push the topic and say that he was just a homeless person looking for a ride, and I think your friend would understand that.

Then he said something that kind of chilled me, and part of it was the look on his face and the manner in which he said it. He said, Besides, it's not like I'm going to kill you and have my way with her or something. I just need a ride. Angie looked at me in complete fear at this point, and I was at a loss for words. What were we supposed to do?

Even if we drove off, would he try to come find us? He knew what hotel we were staying at, so it was a possibility. Before I could finish processing, Angie looked at him and said, Okay, grab your stuff and get in the back. He grinned and said smart girl, and as he was walking away, I could see something sticking out of his back pocket.

It had a handle, like a knife. Without taking her eyes off of him, Angie rolled up the window and just started saying, Drive, over and over in a completely monotone voice. So I gunned it. I looked back and I saw the guy turn and watch us as we drove away, and he just stood there, smiling and waving. We didn't say much, other than agreeing that we both saw what was in his pocket, until we got back to the hotel. Instead of parking next to it, I paid for the garage parking and we went to the second floor to hopefully hide our car a bit.

it didn't stand out or anything. It was an old silver Ford with no distinguishable features, so we were hoping that he wouldn't show up, and if he did, we hoped he wouldn't find the vehicle. I even took the necklace that was hanging from the mirror down in case he saw it. We sat there for a few, and then quickly made our way into the hotel, where we tried to relax for the rest of the night. The next morning, Angie called the front desk and asked if anyone came looking for us,

and she said that no one did, so we eased up, thinking it was just the night and we would never see this guy again, and then we went about our morning and left. It got worse when we got home, though. I found a story from that city that we were in about a couple that had been robbed from their car. The wife said they'd pulled over to help a guy that looked like he was in. injured when he pulled a knife on them. He demanded their keys and wallets, and when the guy tried to fight back, he was stabbed repeatedly. They were left on the side of the road, and the suspect took their car and left.

Thankfully, the husband survived, but they never found the suspect. Their car was later found crashed into a median, and it was destroyed inside and out. They had pictures in the story, and it looked off. I'd be surprised if the guy survived or wasn't severely injured from that crash, but it was a terrifying thought that it could have happened to us. Was it the same guy? Was he going to try the same thing? The way he looked around the car and made comments about the cache definitely seemed suspicious. We're a lot more careful now when we go to unfamiliar places, and we definitely don't linger around to be nice.

to strangers. The hospital that I worked for back in the early 2000s was old as hell, and I guarantee that there are other things walking around those halls that we cannot see. It was built in the early 1900s, but most of the building actually went through a major overhaul to update it, except for one part of it which housed the chapel, gift shop, and the bell. in order to keep its original roots, I suppose. But as for the creepy parts of this place,

we seemed to have a chain of deaths that followed in a specific room, almost like a curse. I still hate saying it because I'm always like, well, gee, if we did our job, then they wouldn't have died, right? But it's always been those crazy phenomena that led up to them. The first one that I remember was a lady that came in that seemed to have the start of dementia. She came in with burn injuries due to pretty much trying to set her clothes on fire to warm up as she was cold. Thankfully, someone was home to put her out, but unfortunately just wasn't nearby to see or know what exactly she was doing.

She was going through the normal treatment and was responding well to it. I even had a conversation with her that was fairly normal. But then, pretty much out of nowhere, she began seizing and died. I heard that her cause of death was unrelated to the burns or the treatments and medication she took for it, which I suppose did make those of us that cared for her feel a little better, but it was still one of those unexpected deaths that punches you in the gut and makes you feel bad. But life goes on in a hospital, and new patients come in, including a man that was being seen for a stroke. He was in a different ward and was then moved upstairs to our ward and into the room 224,

as the physical therapy rooms were up there too. Again, he had gone through some PT, come back, and was in good spirits, because he was starting to get feeling back in his arm and leg. That ended when the next day he coded And nothing we did brought him back and he passed His death was related to heart failure however But still It was upsetting

This continued to happen over a few months I believe it was Patients would go to that room Would be fine And then on day two or three they would die What's worse is that we thought we were smarter We had one day patient that after their first night, we moved him to a different room to try to prevent his

demise. He still ended up passing, and from then on, room 224 was fine, and then 226 was having recurring casualties. We all joked about it being a curse, but after the fifth or sixth, I believe, I think it became a little more serious for us nurses. We tried to avoid the room at all costs. We double-rooms or triaged out once, when we could, just to not use it. But unfortunately, there came a time that we couldn't avoid it. It was one of those strange occurrences where it was the weekend. There was some kind of show going on nearby. People were getting drunk and being stupid. Just one of those kinds of days. So we started filling up quicker than normal. One of the heads told one of the other nurses to move someone to room 226.

She hesitated, and she tried to come up with every excuse that she could to not put someone up in there. However, the head didn't give a damn, not believing in anything supernatural, and told her that if she didn't do it, then she would. She started making her way to move the patient there and gather her things. Then she started freaking out, causing her. the hair on my neck to stand. I was at the nurse's station when, suddenly, I heard the lady yelling, so I came over, already aware of what was going on prior to seeing what happened.

The middle-aged woman, who was soft-spoken and optimistic in her recovery, was now pale in pleading us to not take her to that room. As I remember it, she was saying things like, please, I don't want to go in there, please, I'll die in there, please. The other nurse tried to calm her down and told her that she would be okay and that she wouldn't die, although I could hear the shaking in her voice. The patient continued screaming, No, please, they'll kill me.

They'll all kill me, please. I don't want to die. She was unconsolable. So we got the head nurse and explained what was happening. So instead she put her back in her room and put the new patient in the other room. When we put her back in her room, her nurse tried consoling her again and asked her about it. She mentioned how she felt an overwhelming sense of dread in that room, and that she didn't want to be around it. That alone spooked me.

Sure enough, however, the younger-looking guy that went in for an ear infection died the next day from, again, something unrelated. The other nurse there was freaking out, and rightfully so. We never want to lose a patient, but then having this feeling that it could have been avoided really takes a toll on you. After some arguing and one nurse threatening to walk out, we finally got them to agree to not use the room anymore. To our relief and, unfortunately, our horror, the unexpected deaths seemingly stopped. We've talked about it on many occasions and even told a few new hires why we avoid the room. We eventually begin using it as a storage room. That way, there was no way that it would get used by a patient ever again.

I don't know what happened at that hospital, but after witnessing that, I honestly don't even want to know. This actually happened to me just a few years ago when I had started a guy that I knew back in high school. named Chance. We added each other on Facebook and started talking, and had agreed to meet up. We were both very different people in school, and I think we definitely matured and changed, which made it work out. It was typically in the spotlight in class, but he wasn't really a jock or anything. He was on the wrestling team, but he didn't make it as personality.

He just had a way with people. He was very charismatic, so everyone got along with him. Me, on the other hand, I was the quiet girl that always avoided attention. I had friends and I wasn't bullied or anything, but I just kind of kept to myself. Our paths didn't really cross much while in school, so it was a bit of a surprise when he added me and wanted to have dinner. I had no idea why he would have had an interest in me, but I decided to move forward with it. Color me surprised when we actually hit it off. He was quiet when we went out and didn't act at all like the person from school.

He said that he gave up wrestling after school because he wasn't really interested in it. His mom wanted him to play football, but he was actually afraid to play and get seriously injured, so they both agreed with wrestling. He was actually a graphic designer now and was making decent money. I told him what I did after school, which was more schooling, as I wanted to be a veterinarian,

but then realized it was a lot harder mentally than it seemed. Seeing injured and dying pets was very hard, so instead I became a vet tech. I pet house sat, and I volunteered at shelters a lot. I got to see a lot more of the happier side of animals that way. He didn't make fun of me and said that that was very honorable as well. We actually started dating after that,

and I realized he was completely different from who I thought he was in high school. We started hanging out a lot, him at my place more than anything, because he also lived with his mom still, but we still had a great time. I learned that he was very affectionate, which was really sweet at first, but then he started becoming more and more clingy. It started as just asking me where I was going when I left the living room, but it got kind of annoying when he did it every time. Like, when I was making dinner, I would go sit down for a bit and then get back up to check on it, and he would still ask me.

Of course, that was just something small, so it would go sit down for a bit and then get back up to check on it, and he would still ask me. just something small, so it wasn't enough to make me end the relationship or anything. But then, it would just get worse. He would call me at 601 on the dot, when I got off work, to ask me what I was doing. If I was out too long at the grocery store or visiting my parents, he would call or text me consistently. I was under some stress as my mom had been battling cancer, so when he did this when I was with her, I got pretty upset. I talked with him about it too, telling him that it was too much. He freaked out and kept apologizing and pleading for me to not leave him.

Again, I had no intentions of leaving him. I still thought that it was something that could be worked on and assured him of that, but we just needed to make some changes, to which he agreed. Things started getting better, though. He wasn't as clingy, but he still did have his moments. I even stayed at his place one weekend, and that was when I met his mom, Lynette. After meeting her, I could definitely tell that he was a mama's boy. He was very sweet to her, always willing to help her do anything strenuous,

helping with setting the table or doing the dishes. Lynette always involved me with making dinner, too. saying it was a woman's job and that she had to make sure her baby was well fed by making sure I could cook. The way she said it, I just thought it was a joke at first. I know that we were in a pretty steady relationship as we had been together for about six months or so, but I wasn't making any life plans just yet. She often talked to him like he was still a kid, too, which that was weird to me.

I also wasn't allowed to sleep in the same room as him, and she made me sleep in her room while she slept on the couch. I mean, come on, we were grown adults. Anyways, still, I got past it and moved on from there. Apparently, me not immediately running after meeting his mom was a sign of acceptance to him, so he started talking, about long-term plans, as he put it.

He started asking about getting married and how many kids I wanted to have. This caused me to finally slam the brakes. I told him that I was in no way ready to think about any of that, as we hadn't been together for that long, which did seem to upset him, but I was sure to put my foot down on the matter.

Unfortunately, things, got even worse. While he didn't make plans, he still continued talking about marriage, and, to add to the stress, my mother passed away. I was grieving, and it was very difficult as I was so close to her.

I thought for sure that I would be able to rely on chance because I needed comfort. I needed someone to help me get through this, but that would never happen. He comforted me the first day, but then, After that, he always tried to one-up me.

I'm a mess, going through my mom's stuff, and he just kept complaining about being bored or feeling tired or this and that. I told him that he didn't have to stay there if he didn't want to, and he started complaining more, wanting me to go somewhere with him. I let it go, but I started noticing that he was taking advantage of my vulnerability. He would try to convince me to do things that he wanted, and he would always phrase it like I was neglecting him because of my mom, or even saying things like,

don't you think your mom would have wanted this? All the way to the point that he was trying to convince me to have kids. Maybe part of it was the grieving, but I'd had enough. I told him that we needed some time apart so I can get through this, and then maybe we could try again. I thought maybe I was really being a bit much, but I also had just lost my mom. To my surprise, he understood, and he took it way better than I thought. Maybe it was the fact that we had agreed to get back together that he held on to,

but either way, I appreciated that he didn't make it difficult. So I decided to try to move forward. I went to the funeral alone. I finished going through her stuff alone and was just alone. One night while I was home, I actually got a phone call from Chance's mother, Lynette. She wanted to give me her condolences and said that she wanted to make a wellness basket for me. I thought it was very kind of her, and I agreed, but what I thought was a genuine care call, turned into almost a stern talking to about when Chance and I were going to get back together

and how selfish it was of me to break up with him. I told her to forget the basket and hung up. This didn't stop her from showing up at my work, and even my dad's house looking for me. It was typically easy to get her to leave, but then her appearance was getting worse. Instead of just asking for me to talk, she started saying things to others about me,

like telling guys that she saw at my work to avoid me because I was a harlot and I wasn't a virgin. I was so mortified, but I went out there and personally told her to leave in a not-so-nice way. She then started stalking me, watching me as I left work, when I went to the store, and even to my doctor's appointments. I'd finally had enough when she actually showed up to the Halloween party my work was having.

She showed up stopping people as they entered to warn them about me. I won't repeat what she called me, but she was claiming that I had numerous diseases. When I did confront her, I told her to leave me alone and reminded her that chance and I were not together anymore. She would just ignore that and talk about how we were meant for each other, and that I could just be baptized to become a virgin again. I told her that I was not interested in her son or her crazily obsessed family anymore, and I left. I reported it to the police,

but of course they said they couldn't do anything about it because she hadn't actually done anything to me. Of course, I finally got them to do something when she started hanging up flyers on and around my neighborhood, with my picture and some pretty awful things being said about me. I got her restraining order, and she was also told that if she made any flyers or anything of that sword about me again, it would also violate the order.

To my surprise, that actually seemed to stop her. I don't know whose idea it was, either Chance or Lynette, but after the order, Chance tried calling and texting me too. except he was a little easier to get to back off. I told him I didn't want anything to do with him or his mom ever again, and he just stopped calling. I later told some of my friends about what all had happened, because all they really knew was that we were dating.

He was clingy, and we broke up. One of them thought that he had a few screws loose, as she remembered the way he acted when she was taking pictures in high school, for one of the wrestling games. They were both very affectionate towards each other, like more than just a mom and son should be. Like, gee, I guess thanks for the warning, right? Anyways, it may not have been all that creepy for some,

but being stalked by my ex would have been one thing. Being stalked by his mother was even worse. The humiliation that she caused was bad enough, but I was just thankful that I had worked at that company for so long. It at least didn't hurt my reputation with them. They even joked about it with me, thankfully. I've stayed single since this happened, and I'm not sure that I want to even think about dating any time soon.

But as for Chance and Lynette, I really hope that we never, ever meet again. This happened back when I was a little, 13-year-old girl. I was planning to go to a friend's house for her birthday party, and then four of us were going to be staying the night for a sleepover. I was getting to the point that I cared about my appearance, and I liked wearing makeup, so I packed a little backpack with my cutest outfits and makeup.

I was excited to have a makeover with some of my best friends. I got to the party, and there were all. already about a dozen or so people there. My best friend Lacey was ready and waiting for me to arrive, and the birthday girl, Heather, greeted me and took the present from me. The theme for their birthday party was American Idol, if that tells you roughly the time frame that this took place. There were other mutual friends there as well,

and some that I didn't really know, and also my crush. We had cake, and Heather opened the presents, and then we played some games, and she was kind enough to team me up with my crush as well. One of the gifts that she got was a karaoke machine, so once all the games were done, and we set that up and all took turns with our god-awful pre-teen singing and trying to find songs with curse words in it since we would be allowed to say them. As the party started dying down and people left, we would then be left with just the four of them. us, me, Heather, Lacey, and Tamara. We helped clean up a bit, and then Heather's parents helped us get set up in her room. She had a bed big enough for two, and they put an air mattress in there for the other two. Her mom made us popcorn and laid out soda basically saying we could

have the run of the house, other than her bedroom, but after ten we had to stay quiet as her dad would have to work early the next morning. She also had an older. brother, but he had taken their van for the night. So it was just going to be us. We decided to watch a movie in the living room, a scary movie, of course, and then agreed to take it back to her bedroom so we could talk more and listen to music. We got set up in there, and we started talking about whatever young girls talked about, boys, school, home life, rumors that we heard, things we wanted to try, and just stuff like that. Tamara had brought some teen magazines for us to read, and they had some different makeup and hairstyles that we all wanted to try on each other.

We started doing each other's hair and makeup and gossiping about some of the teachers and other people we didn't like, and just ultimately we're having a lot of fun, when we heard a loud banging coming from outside. Heather lived in a neighborhood where the houses were all very similar and very close together, Their backyard was pretty much shared with her neighbor behind them, so when we heard the loud noise, she could pretty much pinpoint where it came from. We also had the window open because it was cooler, so the sound was amplified as well. She mentioned her neighbors argued a lot, so they were probably just fighting at the time. We continued on with our night when we again started hearing another loud, banging sound.

and that's when Lacey turned the subject to them, asking if she's ever been able to hear what the arguments were about, if they ever got physical, or if they ever had to call the cops before. Heather assured us that it was never that bad, but they did just get loud, so sometimes she listened to them. She couldn't always make out what they were saying, but sometimes they took it outside where she could.

Lacey was wanting to listen to it at this point, and she stopped mid-eye shadow application to go to the window. We just kind of teased her for being so nosy and tried to finish our makeup when Lacey said, Your neighbor is kind of creepy. Heather tried to say something about them not being all that bad, but then Lacey cut her off saying that he was trying to get in through the window. That stopped all of us, and we went over to the window to see.

Sure enough, There was a guy trying to open one of the windows from the outside. He was pulling on the sides, and when nothing was happening, we saw him pull something out of his pocket. We still don't know if it was a knife or key or whatever, but we watched him slice the screen and then beat on the glass. I remember looking over at Heather to gauge her reaction, but she looked just as curious as us, but also a bit nervous. We continued to watch as the guy broke the window and started reaching around and climbing inside. Then we saw a woman inside run to the window and start screaming at the guy. Once he got all the way in, she started shoving him back, and he grabbed her by the face or throat,

and they moved away from the window. We couldn't see them at this point, but we could still hear them screaming. Looking at Heather again and the fact that she looked scared, I asked her if we should tell someone as that did not look like a normal fight. And she agreed. She ran to grab her home phone, and we continued to watch to see if they would come back to the window. After a while, Heather came back and asked nervously if she should call 911,

as she's never had to do that before. Neither had any of us, so we didn't know if we should. should or if we should wake up her parents. We didn't want to bother anybody or get in trouble for calling 911, but as we discussed it, Lacey said, he came back. So we all went back to the window and watched as the guy stopped at the window, looked down at something, and then walked over to the door next to the window, and walked out of it. He seemed to stand there after he closed the door for several seconds, and then looked up at the sky

and wiped his face. As he turned away from the door, he looked around, and to my horror, he looked right at us. That felt like forever as we all just sat there and stared back at each other. And now, it was still dark

and there was a light above the door, but his facial features, we couldn't really make them out. Unfortunately, I don't know if we could say the same for him. The awkward stare was finally, broken when he looked around and quickly ran away from the door. However, instead of running towards the driveway to leave, he walked towards Heather's house. I think we all noticed it at the same time and immediately moved away from the window,

but Heather quickly ran out of the room. We then followed her to the living room where she was checking the front door to see if it was locked. As we all stood there, trying to figure out what was going on, we started hearing the doorknob rattling. I think it was Tamara that led out a small yelp of sorts, and I was just frozen in fear. Lacey looked out the window and confirmed that it was the guy, and I remember that I started crying.

I thought we had just witnessed something that we shouldn't, and now we were next. I ran back to Heather's room, planning to hide in the closet or under the bed, when I heard Heather yell and run into her parents' room, banging on their door. I was just standing in the bedroom at the time, so I heard them open the door and asked what was wrong.

Heather tried to explain as she pulled them to the living room. I followed behind them. Lacey was now frozen standing back towards the kitchen entryway, and Tamara was crying too. Heather's dad had a booming voice and said something like, You have five seconds to get off my property before I blow you to pieces. As he was saying, her mom made us all go back down the hallway where the bedrooms were,

and we could hear him opening the door. I heard him yelling as he ran outside, while her mom made us all stay back. At this point, I had grabbed the phone from her room and gave it to her mom, and she called the cops. They showed up, and we had to explain what we had seen, but apparently we weren't the only ones that called. Someone else had called the cops, too,

so while they were talking to all of us, There were cops at the neighboring house, and the house next door where the scene had taken place. It was a little hard to sleep after that. As it turns out, the guy actually was her old neighbor, or at least her neighbor's boyfriend, as he didn't actually live there anymore. He tried and successfully broke in, and she caught him doing it. He had apparently strangled her and stabbed her, but she managed to survive. probably because of everyone else that called the cops on him.

It was really strange because it wasn't a bad neighborhood or anything like that, so it was unsettling for something like that to happen. Tamara wasn't allowed over there at night anymore, but mine and Lacey's parents were still cool about it. Hell, I don't blame them. It's not like it was their fault either. But we definitely made jokes about it growing up, about how she had one hell of a birthday party.

Thankfully, that guy went to jail for a long time, so I do hope he's forgotten our faces and that we never meet again. You may have heard this time and time again, but I didn't grow up in the best environment. I ended up in an alternative high school after getting into a fight with one of the teachers. I'm not the same person that I used to be, though,

so judge me if you want. I don't care. Anyways, the alternative school didn't do us any favors either. The teachers all looked dead inside. They all had the same pissed at the world mentality. They didn't have any cares for us or what happened outside their own classrooms. And they barely cared what occurred in them.

If you didn't turn in work on time, then it sucked to be you. There were never grace periods or teachers willing to work with you. It was an old run-down elementary school that they had turned into an old school, while the little kids got a whole new one. It was drab and colorless, like they ripped out all the happiness, color, and cheer, and took it with them. I was definitely one that would occasionally skip classes, too. My home life wasn't any better.

I never knew my dad and my mom was hardly ever home. If she was, she was so blitzed out of her mind that she could hardly remember my name. The only thing I cared about or that kept me going was my little sister, Shayla. She was probably around six at the time, and I did everything for her. I was often left alone with her to bathe, feed, and change her when she was younger. Shayla's grandma, we had different dads. We'd watch her sometimes during the day, but then would drop her off around the time I got home from school.

I would ask her where my mom was and she never knew either, but would still leave us at home. So it was really just Shayla and I growing up for the most part. However, there was one other person that I did start to grow close to. that was Miss Grace. That was her first name. And she told us that we could call her by that to be more personal and less of an authority figure.

Grace was completely different from any other teacher. She was bright, happy and compassionate. She was never not smiling while in school. She greeted students in the hallway as they entered her class and as they left. She was always willing to help or explain the curriculum further if someone didn't understand. She was the math teacher, but she would also help kids with other topics

if they came to her, such as language or history classes. She was by far easier to approach than the others as well. She personally made an impact on me when she actually talked to me like another adult, rather than some delinquent's child. She would talk to me about what I wanted to do with my life. She asked me what in my life.

She asked me what inspired me, what my interests were and the likes. The fact that she didn't judge me or push me to go to a certain college, or any college for that matter, or give me some soapbox speech about wasting my life. I even talked to her about my little sister. From then on, I felt like I could talk to her like the mother that I never had. She asked me about school, how I was doing at home, and even about my little sister. If not for her, I probably wouldn't have graduated.

Anyways, while I was genuinely grateful for Grace, I was still hanging out with the wrong crowd. I didn't have a job, and there weren't many places in the area that hired under 18, so since I was often left to fend for myself and my sister, and without any food or money in the house, I had to get money somehow. So, we stole. We would go to stores in the next city over so we could potentially get away easier.

We would take anything that could fit into our pockets, cheap jewelry, video games, CDs, or movies. We also tried cars that were unlocked in parking lots. I know it wasn't right, and yes, I do regret everything I did, but at the time, I didn't know what other options I had. One thing that we never did, though, was break into houses. We never had any tools to do so, nor was I ever really interested in it. On this night, though, we didn't have much luck, so my friend suggested that we try to hit up some houses. He said that he knew a neighborhood that he had been casing recently that would be good for it.

It was a normal middle-class-looking place. Small houses, some in better shape than others, and most of them didn't even have garages, so he thought it would be easy to tell if someone was home or not. I still did not like the idea of houses, though, because I thought the charges for a B&E were worse than stealing a few cheap watches from a retail store. They were all pretty mad at me, but said that I could either walk home from where I'd I was, or I could just be the driver-slash-lookout. That way I would still get a cut of whatever we made. I ended up agreeing with the latter. We got through literally two houses, one of which they couldn't even get into. I tried telling them that this was a bust and that we should leave,

but they ignored me, and they made their way to the next house. They had me park on the road, turned the lights off and wait. After a few minutes of sitting there, looking out the house and back to the road in front and behind me, I started getting really nervous. Something was telling me that we needed to get out of there and fast, but I had no way to really alert them other than flashing the lights like they told me to. I decided that I would signal them and then just give some excuse about seeing a car drive by

or a person walking down the street. However, before I could do so, I heard a gunshot, and it was from the house that my friends were in. I started to panic. As far as I knew, my friends didn't have a gun, so my only thought was that they just got shot. I didn't know what to do. Do I leave? Do I try to get them out of there?

Before I had time to process, though, they both came running out of the front door, telling me to get out of there. I found out afterwards that one of them did indeed have a gun, but I had no idea. My other friend claimed that he didn't know he had one either, but I still don't know if I believed that. We burned out of there, went back to one of my friend's places, and checked out our hole for the night. I know it might sound stupid, but even though I'd gotten into fights, guns were never my thing. I cut contact with one guy because he was chilling at my place and brought one, knowing that my little sister was there.

I went off on him and nearly threw him out the door, so the thought that we may have hurt, if not killed someone, scared the hell out of me. My friend said that he heard something which made him fire, but claimed that he didn't see anybody. My other friend said that he wasn't in the room when he heard the shots, so he couldn't confirm. I didn't really believe them We had never done this before

So why would you immediately fire Instead of trying to leave first I couldn't get the thought out of my mind all night And I even told them that I wasn't feeling well And decided to walk home I personally decided to go to school the next day To try to make things feel as normal as possible However, that day

It would not be the normal that I was hoping for. Ms. Grace's class had a substitute. The thing is, though, Grace never missed class. She never had a substitute, so I found it strange.

I didn't put two and two together until it was almost spelled out for me. Rumors started spreading that Grace was into something bad and that's why she wasn't there. Then, it turned into that she had been shot. I got home and tried to look into it more, but I couldn't find anything on Grace.

However, they did gloss over the news that there had been a shooting in the same area that we had been in. It was, in fact, Grace's house that we had broken into. The guy that shot her dropped out or just didn't go to the school, so he didn't know her. The other guy did, but didn't have her as a teacher, so I don't know if he really didn't see her or the shot, or what happened. And I never will. The news was agonizing to me, knowing that I was part of the reason that she was hurt, someone that cared about me. Thankfully, she did survive. And in fact, she came back probably sooner than any other teacher would have.

She'd been shot in the back in her right shoulder. She had on a sling for a while, but otherwise, she was her normal, smiling and bubbly self. This added to the grief and guilt that I had. After talking with her over the next week or so, contemplating my options, I finally cracked. I didn't want to go to the police, being that my friends would find out, and I would have a label slapped on my forehead. So I asked to speak to Grace after school, posing it as help with homework. I had never cried in front of someone before, but Grace was the first point. person to see it. I broke down and told her everything that happened, and I apologized until I

didn't have a voice. The only thing this woman did was grab my hand, smiled, and forgave me. She shared with me a quote that was something like, when you forgive, you don't change the past, but you can change the future. I've held on to that since then, because not only did she say it, but she showed it. I asked her if I should go to the police and also asked her if she wanted their names, and she told me that was up to me to decide. I thought it was over, but before I could make a decision, apparently my friend that had shot her had been arrested, as he was bragging about it to others. I also came forward with my side of the story, but Grace didn't press charges on any of us.

The shooter had prior charges so he was looking at time, but was also shortened and given probation due to grace speaking to the judge to give them leniency. Me and my other friend had community service, which was deserved, in my opinion. This event definitely changed my life. She could have gone to the police and told them everything, getting us the worst possible sentences for our age, possibly ruining our last chance at a normal life, but she didn't. She forgave us. I know this may not have been too scary for some, but being that I was 17 at the time and having

crippling guilt that I may have been the cause of someone's death, it was overbearing. I wouldn't wish that on my enemies. And also knowing that something like that could happen to someone close to you, someone that mean so much to you was enough to make me realize that life is fragile. I was wasting my life, and if I didn't make a change, I could end up dead, or even put Shayla's life in danger. So, please, if you take anything from this, it's to not do what I did. make something of yourself or at least make it to where you've made a difference in the world or someone else's. Be someone's grace.

So I've been wanting to submit this for some time, but it's still always heavy in my mind, so it's taken me a while to put it into words. I will say that I won't be too detailed, but it is a sensitive topic, so pre-warning for you and anyone who hears this. Anyways, this happened to me while I was in college. I wanted to go out of state to get out and see what other states had to offer, and just be on my own. I thought it was a great idea for the longest time, too. I wasn't in a relationship at the time, and I hadn't been in one in a while, and all my other friends had plans, so I wasn't really worried about leaving anyone behind.

Not that I didn't keep in contact anyways, because I did, of course, and I usually went home during the holidays. My first year went as well as I expected. There were a lot of assignments, a lot of drama, and people breaking into dorms and pulling pranks. I tried to keep to myself, but that didn't last long. I had a few people that tried to get me involved in parties and things like that, which I would partake in at times. They were fun for the most part. I've learned college students drink way too much.

I did drink quite a bit, but I was always able to get home myself, without driving, of course. I was always afraid of getting drugged, so I always got my own drinks and just kept a hold of it. However, that didn't mean that I didn't get a little wild at times. I believe it was for Mardi Gras. There was a huge party at someone's house, and someone invited me to it. Once there, I had a few drinks, sang some karaoke, and just hung out talking with people.

Now, we're all adults. No matter how much some people didn't act like it, so we weren't really doing anything wrong. These parties also tended to be open to anyone that may be walking by. That may include teachers as well. We did have a few teachers show up and just hang out. We had a few that drank with us and shared hilarious stories about their pasts, and there may have even been the occasional hookups. Again, we were all adults, so it didn't really matter to any of us.

And that's kind of what got me in this mess. I had this teacher, he was a psychology teacher, Mr. Thompson, but I'll call him Quentin. It's less weird that way. He always seemed like a pretty chill guy. Easy to get along with, easy to talk to, and he was pleasing on the eyes, too. He was a little older, though. I don't remember the exact age, but I think he was late 30s or so. I always enjoyed talking to him, though.

He was kind and sincere, and a couple of my girlfriends that I had met there teased me that he definitely had a thing for me, so I guess that that kind of stuck in my head, too. I wasn't very good with taking hints or flirting, so I'm definitely not the type to initiate. If you had ever met me in real life, you might think that I was stuck up, but I promise it's just my dumb brain. Anyways, who would show up to this party, you ask? Well, Quentin, of course. It was actually the first time that I had seen him at one of these. He just came over and joined in on the conversation and started drinking with us.

After a while, it started getting a little more hectic. People were getting creative with their drinks and their stunts. And when some of them started fighting, I decided it was about time for me to go home. It was just going to be me, so Quentin offered to walk with me. And like I said, he was a nice guy, so when the flirting and the compliments started, it wasn't hard to get him to come into the empty dorm. Yeah, so what you're thinking definitely happened.

He left that night, though, because technically teachers probably shouldn't be sleeping in the dorms. The next time that I had his class, though, things were a bit awkward. While it was consensual, the school did have rules, so it's not like we could outwardly be in a relationship. So after class was over, he asked me to stay behind. He was still cool about everything, and he asked me how I was doing. After some really awkward small talk, he got to the point. He said that he really wanted to have more with me, but he couldn't risk his job for a relationship. I understood, though, and we went on with our days.

I thought that I had a great time and will forever hold this a secret, but apparently that is actually what he was counting on. It wasn't long after that that he again asked me to stay behind. When I approached him, he immediately groped me. and then tried kissing me. That was definitely unexpected, so I didn't know what else to do, but kind of push him back and ask him what the hell he was doing. We were in the school, so even if he had changed his mind, this was not the place for it.

He then said that he couldn't afford a relationship, but he needed more. So, back to his place we went. afterwards he made comments about how I was set for life and to explain it quickly he said I could do anything I wanted with my body I was kind of thrown off by this comment because it was unlike him to be blunt like that I understood more when we took a test in his class and mine already had an A on it but I hadn't taken it yet he winked at me when I looked at me when I looked at me when I looked at looked up and noticed it. This, though, I was not comfortable with. I didn't mind the relationship, but I did not like it for an easy pass.

As much as it might not have seemed like it at times, I took my classes very seriously. So I talked to him afterwards, and I told him that I didn't want any special perks like this, and I wanted to get my grades on my own. Surprisingly, he agreed, though, so I thought that would just be the end of it, and it would be left there, but no. Instead, I started getting worse grades. I did everything as normal,

and we even saw each other occasionally outside of class, but yet I got a D on the assignments. When I confronted him about it, He then smiled and said, Well, you want to earn your grades, right? And he had this just awful smile. I didn't understand because nothing had changed, but now I felt like I was being used.

He then explained that he wanted something more. So, being naive and scared for my grades, I went back to his house with him. He just wanted me to, play out something. Sure enough, that previous assignment turned back into an A. I confronted him again about this and said that I was not okay with it. It turned into a fight, and I suggested that maybe we should forget anything ever happened,

and just go back to how things were, but that was the first time that I saw a different person. And it was terrifying. He told me that this was all my fault that it started. and if I wanted to pass, I would do what he wanted when he wanted it. Thus began my struggles with myself and depression and trusting people. It was no longer something I enjoyed, or even something I could have benefited from, but something I feared and felt obligated to do in order to pass this class. It was one of my favorite classes, too, and...

At this point, I despised it. He even took pictures at one point, using it as a means to blackmail me. I became withdrawn, and people started to take notice, too. I was so afraid to tell anyone, though, in fear that he would spread those photos, or that I would just get expelled. There was a strong breakthrough for me, though. I finally broke down one day to my sister, as I knew that she wouldn't say anything unless I told her it was a strong breakthrough.

okay, and she explained that I either needed to report it as, even if I got expelled, it was better than putting myself through this, but she felt due to the circumstances I wouldn't be expelled. So, instead I confronted him and told him I was done, and if he tried to give me a bad grade because of it, I would report him to the administration. He wasn't phased by this, though, and the next day, there were photos of me, granted my face wasn't in it, posted on the community board. It was humiliating and terrifying. I was looking around to see if anyone realized it was me. I felt I only had one option at that point, and that was to just drop out.

I didn't know what to do, so I just stopped going to class. However, he had my number, so he would constantly call or text me, taunting me to come back or tell me how much I would have to make up for the missing assignments. Then, he would randomly be walking around the dorms like he was looking for me. I started feeling closed in, so I just moved out. The dorm was part of the tuition, so it was only a matter of time that I would be kicked out anyways, since I had stopped making. making payments. Thankfully, I had a friend that lived off campus, and after explaining to her that some things came up and I wouldn't be able to attend class anymore, she agreed to let me stay there

until I figured out what I was going to do next. I didn't stay there long, because he was still close by, and I found out that he was pestering my friends, asking where I was. that then got them asking me why he was specifically asking. The rumors started flying, and things were getting pieced together, so I went back home. I went back to live with my parents. My sister lived nearby, so she spent a lot of time with me, so I stayed out of my head. She also convinced me to at least tell my parents what happened.

Of course, they were confused and disappointed. that I dropped out so suddenly, so I suppose it was only fair since I was going to be living with them. And they took it a lot better than I expected. My mother held me like a child again and comforted me, while my dad was the normal dad type and he became furious. He wanted to contact the school, but I told him not to, since I did start it consensually. I really just wanted to move on.

But, to my surprise, while my parents promised to leave it alone, Quentin wouldn't. He managed to get my parents' contact information, from what I assume was my emergency contact details through the school. And he actually showed up at their house. My mom recognized him immediately and started yelling at him to leave. I wasn't home, thankfully. as I was with my sister, but my mom called us to tell us to stay at her place for a while until they were sure that he wasn't around. I don't want to dwell on this too much, so I'll just say that I couldn't avoid him forever. My parents and I had to file a restraining order just to keep him away from us.

So, yeah, this has really caused a lot of trauma for myself. I never went back to school until last year. I did some online classes, and I'm now working on having the life and career that I wanted. I'm also seeing someone now, and I'm incredibly thankful for their patience and kindness with my weird habits. I just have to take it one day at a time. I do hope that he's not a teacher anymore, but since he's not afraid to go across the country, I would suggest avoiding any teachers named Quentin Thompson and do your own schoolwork.

To start this story, I have to tell you a little about my sister. We were born exactly a year apart. Our birthday is on November 23rd, Jen being the older one. We've always been inseparable, but we did everything together and matched like we were twins. We even joked about going on dates together with guys, and as teens, joked about having a double marriage, things like that. We always said nothing could come between us, but people change as adults,

especially when you're smitten by someone. Love, truly his blinding. Jen met this guy named Eric at work, and they started dating. He seemed really cool at first. I went over to have dinner with them at her place, and he seemed very well-mannered and very sweet to my sister, so I joked with her that I hoped I could find a guy like him. Things seemed to be going pretty well with them. They were probably together for six months or so, before we started noticing changes.

Jen started becoming a little more reclusive, which wasn't like her at all. She was a very social person and outgoing, so it was weird for her to decline parties and dinners with family, or when I would invite her out for just a day together. We used to do this a few times a month, and she always seemed to have an excuse, and it actually kind of worried me. At one time she declined, saying that she wasn't feeling well, so I decided to surprise her with some homemade chili and cinnamon rolls. When I showed up, she was hesitant to open the door, but when she did, I learned her reason for hiding. Her left eye was black and blue, and her forehead and cheek looked scraped. I learned Eric was not the person that we met. It was your typical abusive relationship.

He would snap, apologize, he'd be fine for a week and the cycle would just repeat. It definitely caused tension in the family. I loved her and I could at least understand that it wasn't an easy thing for her, so I still tried to let her know I was there for her when others weren't. However, it was difficult at times when I was around both of them. I've always been a bit overweight, whereas my sister was always the taller and slim one. I'm very aware of it, and it's still.

very hard to offend me about it. That didn't stop Eric from commenting, though. He hated when I was around because he always knew how I and the rest of the family felt about him. He would crack jokes about my appearance, and my sister would try to defend me, but I ended up stopping her, in fear that he would do something to her. Anyways, after multiple attacks, he finally hurt her enough to put her in the hospital. My dad told her that she needed to leave this guy for good. Otherwise, they were done with her. My mom didn't say much either.

I was still there for her, but I pleaded for her to leave him. I even offered to let her stay with me, or I would stay with her just to make sure she wasn't alone. However, while feeling heartbroken, confused, and alone, my sister sat in the hospital with her thoughts, and of course he called her. pleading her to take him back and said that he was going to go to therapy and all that crap. Once she got home, he actually proposed to her.

In his cockiness, thinking he had her wrapped around her finger, she declined, as she had learned that he had been actually cheating on her. All the abuse that she took and she, of course, wasn't his one and only. She finally gained the strength and put her foot down, for being such a tough guy, he didn't argue much when my dad and a cop were at my sister's place when he got there to get the last of his stuff. A few prank slash threatening calls later, he gave up, and my sister never heard from him again. And with that, I got my sister back.

It took a while for her to be able to be herself again, but it was beautiful to watch her enjoy freedom and life again. after some time though she was feeling a bit lonely and said she was ready to start dating again I'd been looking on a few apps and sites so I thought it could be fun to get her profile set up

and maybe we would get lucky and like each other enough to double date we get it set up and she's enjoying herself and even talking about hookups hey as long as both parties are for it at least they're enjoying themselves So I had a few matches myself, but the dates just kind of fell flat.

But at one point, I did meet a guy named Corey. He seemed really cool and had a lot of similar interests that I did. I was starting to get into streaming games, and he said that he wanted to do the same but hadn't started anything up yet. We were talking for quite a while, and both wanted to meet, but he said he was out of the state for work. I appreciated him telling me this up front, and it kind of made me feel better about the situation as well. We scheduled a time to meet after he returned in a week, and in the meantime we continued talking, and I told my sister about him.

We did share pictures, so we at least knew what each other looked like. My sister even thought he was cute and said she approved. Once he returned, we made plans to go have done. drinks and see a movie. We were going to meet up at a pub that was close to the theater, so it was about 20 minutes from my place. I got there first after getting a message from him saying he was almost there as well. Instead of going in, I decided to sit outside and wait.

My bad habit was smoking, so I thought I would smoke one while I was waiting to calm my nerves as well. Don't worry. He said he was a smoker too. otherwise I wouldn't have lit up before a date. Anyways, while I was standing there, I looked up to see the people that were passing by, leaving and entering the bar.

It wasn't completely dark yet, but as the cars were coming towards me with their lights on, I couldn't quite make out the faces of the people walking towards me. So, when I saw a guy cross the road and walked towards me, I stared at him a bit harder to see if I could make out it was Corey. He definitely looked familiar, but not quite like Corey. I know pictures are still going to be a bit off from what you get in person, but Corey was tall and slim. He didn't have much muscle or form to him, I guess, but something told me to figure out who this person was. Thankfully,

a car was driving by the opposite way, so I could actually see his face a lot clearer. It was Eric, and he looked pissed. My heart immediately dropped, not knowing what he would do in public, and I immediately dropped my cigarette and dashed inside. I ran to the back as they yelled at me that I couldn't be back there, and I tried to explain to them that I was being followed. They didn't seem to believe me, or understand at first, until Eric came in and yelled out my name. I pulled out my phone and called 911, and I tried to stay low so he didn't see me. Someone in there, I think it was just a patron, tried to get him to leave or something, as well as a bigger lady that was behind the bar,

and then the place fell silent as I could hear scuffling and fighting. Thankfully, the police showed up and arrested him. The guy that was helping had to cut across his arm, because he apparently came in with a switchblade of some sort, But otherwise, everyone was okay. I noticed afterwards that I had a few missed calls from my sister. I texted her, and I gave her a brief rundown of what had happened, like, cops showed up at the bar, we'll call soon.

So she at least knew I was okay since I wasn't responding. I gave a statement, and I told him who the guy was and a little backstory. Apparently, one of the cops that showed up, actually knew his history too, and had even received a call from my sister to do a check on me at this place. Once things started calming down, and I called my sister to figure out what the hell was going on. She was freaking out, talking about how she was getting messages from Eric, threatening that he was going to kill me and kill her. My sister had her restraining order against Eric, so he instead tried to stalk her any way that he could,

other than physically. When he found her on a dating site, he decided to make not one, but two, fake dating profiles to keep tabs on her, and to try to get me as well. He knew exactly what she liked, and due to the info she talked about, he created the profile of someone that I would like as well. He had started messaging her from his fake profile, talking crazy, calling her all kinds of names, telling her she was worthless, and said that after he takes me out, she would be next.

She quickly figured out what was going on, and tried calling me, and then when she couldn't get a hold of me, she called the cops. I'm thankful that I decided to wait outside because who knows how much of an advantage he would have had if I hadn't been out there. Sadly, this damaged my sister even more,

as she felt like she put me in danger, even though I've told her that she could not have known. He used pictures of two different guys, and we still have no idea whose pictures he used. Nor would I ever have blamed her for it. We got off the dating sites just to be sure, though, and kind of let fate do its thing instead. This was all a few years ago,

and I could thankfully say that we've had no more run-ins with him, and he actually did some jail time. Just be careful out there to everybody. And not everyone is fake, and not all the fake ones are life-threatening, I'm sure, but you really just never know. And maybe just meet up for coffee in a police station parking lot. Just to be safe.

Me and a friend of mine used to get together at least once a month and go hiking in one of the forests. near us. We even made a few trips into the local national park because we wanted to get through all of the trails. The one by us has a few different paths in it. That can take some time to get through so we dedicated each trip to one path. However, that's also because we tend to divert off the trails so we can get away from the groups of people and tourists and actually look around and enjoy the view. This event occurred one of the times we were going through that very park.

We gathered our normal bag of gear that we took with us, water, a couple of snacks, a few emergency items like a small knife, first aid kit, things like that, and we met up at the park. I typically left my cell phone in my car because once we got deep into the trees, it was of worthless anyways. My friend Troy, though, always kept his on him, even though he always had the same result. So, we got there, and started heading to the last path that we hadn't tried before. This one was a bit more of an incline, so we found ourselves taking a few extra breaks on our way through. It was also towards the beginning of summer and was super humid that day, so I know that

That was probably part of it. We stopped and waited for people to pass and looked around to try and find a good place to divert from the path. We finally found one, as we estimated where the lake would run, and decided we wanted to head towards that. We walked over by some trees, passed a pile of dead branches and other debris, and were now no longer in view of said path. The trees provided some shade, too. which did make it a little easier on us as well. I don't feel like it was long after this point that we ended up running into this guy. We were laughing and joking about something,

and we were pretty loud about it, when I saw this guy just standing in front of the tree. I nudged my friend to get their attention, and they stopped and they looked at them with me. This guy didn't even look back at us, and the way he was dressed was even more bizarre to me. He had one of those thick, puffy jackets on, with some really dirty and ripped jeans.

He also had some long hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed in a while, as you could see the huge knot in the back of it. I didn't know what to do, so I just apologized for disrupting him, and when he still said nothing or looked over, I motioned for my friend to walk around him so we could keep going. As we did, I looked back to see his face, and I noticed that it looked just as dirty. But it was more the look on his face that confused me even more. He looked very cross, like he was trying to remember something or was extremely angry about something.

curious to know if he was really mad or possibly injured or lost, I asked him if he was okay, and I didn't get a response. As my friend was telling me not to, I decided to approach him to, I guess, get a better look at him. Still, he didn't take his angry look off of the tree in front of him. When I got closer, I also noticed that the dirt on his... his face looked flaky, like it was dried blood. So I again asked him if he was okay or if he needed any help, but still nothing.

My friend kept saying that we needed to go and that he was freaking him out, but part of me didn't feel right leaving him. So I pulled out my extra bottle of water and a bag of trail mix, and I set it next to the tree. As I started walking back, that's when I heard the guy mumbling something. So I turned back around thinking he was talking to me. He was just mumbling a bunch of nonsense, though, as I couldn't make out anything he was saying. So I just continued walking back to my friend when he did finally say something coherent. Not that it made much sense, though. He said, tell me.

Tell me your secrets. I replied with, I'm sorry, what? Him, still staring at the tree. He has secrets. Tell me your secrets. My friend was about ready to leave my ass at that point, so I just turned back and we made a brisk walk away from him. I looked back a few times and he never moved, so we carried on.

After a little bit of time, And we finally got through the trees, and we didn't quite make it to the lake, but did find a little offshoot stream of some sort. We sat there for a few, splashed water on our faces, and just kind of chilled for a bit. We noticed the orange and pink in the sky, and knew that we needed to start heading back, so we started making our way out. As we were walking, I was curious if that guy was. was still there so I could report it to someone to let them know, because that definitely was not

normal, and he probably needed help. I know we took either the same path back, or pretty close to it based on the trail of flat grass and dirt that we left, so it wasn't hard to trace our way back, and we definitely found the guy, but he was far from okay. As we approached, it looked like he had his hands on the side of the tree, and we could hear grunts or mumbling as we got closer. Again, my friend stayed back while I got closer, and this guy was seriously smashing his head into the same tree repeatedly. There was blood all over his face, his hands, his chest.

You could see the blood dripping on his shirt and coat, getting caked into his beard and all over the ground in front of him. On top of this, he was now screaming. Tell me why. Tell me why. What are you hiding? Over and over with every smash. While this is happening, my friend is yelling behind me, what the hell are you doing? Don't touch him. What is wrong with him? And I'm just trying to figure out what the hell to do.

If this guy didn't stop soon, he's going to cause some serious damage or even kill himself. I decided to basically pummel him, but it didn't even phase him. He started crawling back to the tree to keep going. I told my friend to run back to get help because I didn't want to leave him alone, but I wasn't going to be able to stop him and make him come with us. My friend didn't waste any time, though. and he took off back towards the trails. I tried a few times pulling him away from the tree,

but every time he would make his way back to it. With how many times I repeated this insane process, it seemed like my friend got back at record speed. Thankfully, he was accompanied by a park ranger who was able to subdue the man enough to get some ties on his wrists and get him to sit on the ground. From there, though, he just rocked back and forth sitting on the ground as he screamed and cried. Some police showed up, too.

We gave them our statement and had to try and convince them that we had nothing to do with him, except for trying to save his life. And then we were finally allowed to leave. We wanted to see what happened with the guy, though, so we sat in my car and waited to see him come out. When they came down to the entrance, the guy was sitting in the back of one of the little trailers the ranger drove around in, and he looked out of it. I don't know what happened to him from that point on, though. The only other update we got was when a detective called me and asked if I had seen anyone else with him. And he mentioned that because they'd found other items indicating that there may have been someone with him at some point.

I did tell them that I had left food and water for him, and I even mentioned the brand so they knew, and they said that that wasn't what they meant. They explained that they had found some clothing and a note. They wouldn't give more information than that, so I assumed it's probably important or serious, maybe, but I saw nothing else there. So, yeah, that was the last time that I saw that guy. obviously. And the last time I was ever approached about it, other than when my friend brought it up to remember or tell someone else about it. We did go back to that trail that same month.

I think it was about two weeks after. We went so we could see if we could find anything else to tell us what had happened. The trail, of course, was different due to some new growth, but once we got around the general area, the tree was pretty easy to spot. The tree had bark missing, and there was a gouge in it. It was at the perfect height for someone to be smashing their head into it. It was eerie seeing it standing right where he was, racking my brain as to what was going on in his head.

That was actually the last time we took that path. My friend thought it was too messed up to look at anymore, so we never went back. I know it's entirely possible the guy was just a little messed up and that there was nothing else to it other than he needed help, but that is just a scene that I can never get out of my head. I have a short but honestly terrifying story that happened to me about 15 years ago on Halloween night. For some background, I live in a fairly decent little town outside of a major city. It's more of a growing suburb than anything, and it's mostly pretty quiet. At the time of this story, I was 28, and my son was just turning 8,

so he was at that age where he still needed my help with a lot of things in life, but he was also wanting to be more independent. So I was doing my best not to smother him, but I was also still doing what I could to make sure he was going down the right path, path and didn't need help. I raised him by myself, without his father, so it was tough, but it's just part of being a parent. On this particular Halloween, he wanted to go trick-or-treating, and I, of course, was going to go with him. But he also didn't want me hovering over him.

He was, in his words, big enough to go to the door alone and knock. It was also rather cold and wet that year, so he and I made a compromise. I would drive the car to each road and direct him which houses to go to, and I would watch him from the car, and he would get to do it all by himself unless he physically needed help. I would drive him to each street, and we would do this until it got too late, or he started getting tired. For most of the night, things went smoothly. He was pretty happy to be walking between the houses on his own. I was happy that I was able to watch him and not upset him.

He would go to the houses, do his trick-or-treating, and they would ask where his parents were, and he would tell him that his mom was watching from the car because he didn't need help. Most of the older people would just laugh at these comments, and some of the younger ones, I think, had an issue with it, but we were both happy, so whatever. Every time he would get into the car, he would show me his bag and what they gave him, and he would tell me that he was having a lot of fun, so it was a great night. However, on one street, things went from really fun to actually quite horrifying.

We had pulled up on the street, and everything looked normal. A few of the houses were dark, and there weren't many trick-or-treaters, but I figured that, that was more because of the time than anything. It was getting late. There were a few houses with their lights on, so I told him to go to the three houses and come back to the car and then said we would make a game plan from there. He said, okay, hopped out of the car and started to the first house.

As soon as I saw him finish up at the first house and then make his way to the second, I felt something cold hit the side of my head. I started to look over toward whatever it was, but it clicked pretty fast. There was a guy dressed in all black holding a gun to the side of my head, and he very forcefully told me to get out of the car and to not make a scene. I was obviously panicking. My son was at one of these houses, and he was going to come back to the car at any point, so I wasn't going to do anything to make this guy pull the trigger.

I told him okay, and that I would do what he was asking, and I opened the door and stepped out. As soon as my feet hit the pavement, he shoved me off to the side and jumped into the car, and then took off down the road going way too fast. Thankfully, there weren't many people on this road at the time, because with how fast he was going, he wouldn't have been able to stop if a child had walked out into the road. I stood up, still freaking out, and I immediately ran over to the house that my son was at. He was still getting candy from them when I walked up, and the old man at the door looked up and smiled asking if I was his mother.

I said that I was, and I think that he realized something was wrong right away based on my tone. I started to tell him what had just happened, and as soon as I said it, I just started bawling. He told me to come inside, so the two of us stepped in, and he said that he would call the police. His wife came over and asked what happened, and he told her, and honestly, the whole thing was just such a terrifying and embarrassing mess. Here I was with my eight-year-old son in some random old couple's house, crying my eyes out because some Miranda had just carjacked me. Of course, my brain was sifting through those anxious thoughts about how it could have gone if my son was in the car at the time, how it would have traumatized him, all that. They called the cops, and the old lady got some water for myself and my son, and we sat there while she held a pretty nice conversation with him.

She actually gave him the rest of their candy, and they shut off their porch light, and then she showed him how to crochet or knit. I don't really remember. He was entertained, and thankfully didn't really understand the whole situation beyond something bad had happened. When the cops got there, I gave them all the information that I had on the guy. I didn't really see his face, but I saw the logo on his jacket and shoes, and I gave them all the information on my car. After they left, the old man said that he would take the two of us home. Thankfully, I had a spare key hidden in the front yard so I could at least get back into the house.

The whole time, I was apologizing to the man for the inconvenience, and he just told me that he was happy to help and sorry that the whole thing happened. After we got home, my son wanted to stay up and watch scary movies, and as much as I wanted to tell him no because it was late, I just said screw it and let him enjoy the night. I ended up falling asleep on the couch while he was watching some creepy movie, and the next morning when I woke up, he was passed out on the floor with candy wrappers everywhere. I ended up calling him out of school the next day,

and I called out of work so that we could just hang out together at the house, since I knew he wasn't going to be up to go to school, and I wasn't really in the right mindset to go to work. To wrap this up, they did actually find my call, after a few days, but they never found the guy. The car was abandoned on the side of the highway after he had blown a tire, and one of the wheels was pretty messed up, but thankfully, there wasn't any damage that couldn't be repaired. It was expensive, sure, but thankfully my parents were able and willing to help me.

I can't imagine how stressful it would have been if they couldn't have. When he got a bit older, I did finally explain to him. him what actually happened, mostly because I've always tried to be open with him. He said he didn't really remember that night, so at least I know he wasn't traumatized by the whole thing. For me, however, that was the most terrifying Halloween I had ever had, and it's probably the scariest thing to happen to me personally. We did go trick-or-treating for a couple of years after that, but we just stuck to our block. So, to everyone out there, stay diligent, and make sure that you don't let anyone sneak up on

you like I did. Halloween is supposed to be a fun night, so make sure you're staying safe out there so that everybody can enjoy the holiday's festivities. Hey there, so this happened last year while I was working at a local thrift store. We had always been one of the more popular and busy shops, so there was never a dull moment, but that also meant we were typically the go-to for donation drop-offs. I was a shift manager, so I was often there late, making sure all the donations were in, sorted, and put away, so that we didn't have to come back to a mess.

At the time of this event, it was November, and we were doing a coat drive. One of the hospitals nearby did an adopt-a-family-type deal each year, but they always started it early for this reason. They supplied the families with the coats that we got, as well as food and gifts for the holiday. Our facility was big enough to store all the coats for them, as well as wash and sort them, and they always brought us treats for our work,

so really it was a win-win-win. I liked all the feel-goods, you know? But this did not bring good feelings. This night, I already had two people working on the coats, and for some reason, we got slammed with donations. It was like a whole neighborhood moved out and just left us with everything they didn't want to take. It was probably about an hour after closing, and I felt bad keeping a couple of them after their shift.

Everyone was so kind and thoughtful of others when it came to covering, breaks or shifts, but I never expect anyone to stay longer than they're scheduled. This is why I usually stay late, so when we finally got everything in, I told them that they could head out. One of my guys, Ollie, agreed to watch the store so I could at least take a quick break before he left too, which I was thankful for. I went out to my truck so that I could smoke really quick and call my boyfriend. Afterwards, I usually just sit there with my window down, enjoying the night air, while doing something on my phone before I have to go back.

This time, though, I just cracked the window and never fully rolled it down. I guess I was just being lazy or just too tired to bother with it. They were manual windows after all. I think I was reading some article or story because I was pretty involved. involved in my phone, to the point that I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings. So when I noticed the time and went to get out of my car, I felt my soul leave my body, as I saw a kid standing by my driver's door staring at me. After letting out a hefty yelp, I caught my breath and realized that this kid had not budged. You know how when you scare someone by accident so you also jump from being startled?

Yeah, they didn't do that. They just continued staring in my truck. So, I say kid, because they definitely looked younger, not to mention the old-timey school uniform that they were wearing. They had long, straight, dark hair, and bangs long enough to cover their eyes. I always parked in the same spot, which was right below one of the few lights in the parking lot. Because of this, the light hit the top of their head, causing even more of the same spot. of a shadow on their face. After a few seconds that, honestly, felt like minutes, they hadn't moved from my door,

making it so that I couldn't get out. So I just asked, uh, can I help you? They didn't say anything, so I put my face closer to the glass to make out their face. And that's when they finally spoke. Can you give me a ride home? in a low, almost, monotone voice. I continued to sit there for a moment before they finally repeated, saying, Ma'am, can you give me a ride home?

Now hearing their voice, I was certain that it was a kid. They couldn't have been more than 14 years old or so. I had a son that was 12 at the time, and he was about the same height. But even though they were just a kid, something felt wrong, terribly wrong. I noticed that I started shivering, but it wasn't even really cold. I felt incredibly uneasy, so I slowly lifted my hand and placed it on the lock. I spoke as I locked the door, trying to disguise what I was doing, and I told the kid,

I'm sorry, hon, I'm still on working, just on break. Are you okay? Are you out here alone? The kid just said again with no one. emotion. Yes. Please, ma'am. I'm scared and I just want to go home. Can you let me in? For someone who said that they were scared, they didn't look, act, or sound scared at all. They didn't look around. There was no breaking in their voice and their breathing didn't even seem erratic. So I told them again that I was still on the clock and that I had to get back,

but I offered to call an Uber or their parents or even though. the police if they felt that they were in danger. They declined my offer, insisting that I should be the one to take them home. I was starting to become overwhelmed with fear. I couldn't get out of my truck because they were standing close enough to breathe on the window. I also did not want to get out with them so close to me. I didn't know what they were planning. So in case something were to happen, I wanted to make sure that I knew what they looked like. I took my cell phone and shined the flashlight on their face, and that made it even worse. I realized it wasn't their bangs or the shadow and the darkness covering their eyes.

Their eyes were pitch black. I could see their mouth and nose and followed it up to their eyes, and they just looked sunken in and dark, like they had no eyes at all. This caused me to say something a little unladylike, and I quickly rolled my window up the rest of the way, and called Ollie. There was no way in half. hell I was getting out of my truck now. As I explained to Ollie what was going on, this kid just continued staring into my truck.

He agreed to walk out to my truck to make sure that I could get out safely. At least I was hoping that if they tried anything, it would be a 2V1, so the odds should be in our favor. As Ali approached my truck, I could hear him shouting something in our direction. This caused the kid to look over at him, and Ollie stopped dead in his track. I cracked my window again and told the kid that it was best that they move along, and that we would call for help. They slowly turned their head back towards me, then opposite of Ollie, and slowly started walking towards the edge of the parking lot towards the road. I was still a bit torn, but maybe that was because I was a mom. I was terrified, that fear that caused me to barricade myself in my truck was not letting up, but yet,

I didn't want this kid to walk into the street. I quickly called 911, and when they were far enough away, I got out. I talked to Ollie for no more than a minute or so as I explained what all had happened. By the time I turned back around to look for the kid, they were gone. The parking lot was bare. There was a small median at the edge that just had barberry bushes in it. If you aren't familiar with them, they're pretty much just small, purplish leaves and things. thorns everywhere.

There's no way they tried to hide in it because of those thorns. There was nothing else in the lot, and I was in complete confusion as to where they could have gone. My shivering seemed to get worse, but again, I wasn't cold. I sure was terrified, though. We both went back into the store, locking the doors and waiting for the police. Thankfully, Ollie agreed to stay with me until they arrived. which made me feel better, and also made my experience more credible, I suppose.

When they got there, we told them what we had witnessed. I left out the eye thing because I didn't want them to think I was crazy or pulling some prank. I basically explained that there was a kid around here with no adults, and that they were asking for help but took off. They looked around the building, in that same lot, and even across the street. as you may have guessed, they never found them. But they said that they would make a report and check from missing and runaway children reports.

I never heard anything else about it after that incident. Ollie and I have never forgotten about it, and, in fact, we've talked about it on occasion. He told me about when he stopped walking towards me. When they turned to look at him, all that he could see was a dark, face with faint, glowing eyes. He said it was like the glare that some people's eyes have in photos,

but there was no reason for that to happen by just looking at them. Between that and the overwhelming dread he instantly got to, he felt his body made him stop, or something told him to not get closer. I kind of knew of black-eyed kids' stories prior, but I never really thought about it one way or another. I started looking into it more after I told a friend about this, and they were up in arms, thinking that I had just experienced one. I can definitely believe it now between the weird clothes, dark yet glowing eyes, not to mention the eerie feeling they brought with them.

If it was a black-eyed kid, then I hope to never experience anything like that again, because I don't know how I would react, and I don't want to know what would happen. if there wasn't a barrier between us. This story actually happened about five or so years ago, back whenever I was 16 and still living with my grandparents. This was back before I got out into the world on my own. I've always had a rough family life. My mom was in prison, and I've actually never even met my real father. Three years prior, my mom had done some pretty,

bad stuff, stuff that I won't list here. Because of this, when I was around 13, my brother Rowan, who was 16 at the time, and I ended up getting shipped off to live with Grandma and Grandpa. I wasn't a huge fan of my grandparents. They were both incredibly controlling and also incredibly dismissive. Basically, you had to live by their strict rules. but they didn't really care what happened to you. I know it sounds contradictory, but it is what it is.

This story takes place in late March of that same year, and I will say that it was during a really rough time in my life. I gave a bit of backstory, but during this year, when I was 16, my brother was actually killed in what was likely a mugging that went bad. It was assumed that some guys held him up, and he may have tried to fight them back. They didn't like that, so they killed him. He was found in a nearby park and was pronounced dead when he was found. We found out through the phone call from the police.

My grandparents didn't seem to really care, and basically just said, oh well, but I was devastated. my brother was the only person I felt I could trust at this point in my life and not having him meant that I was left to navigate everything on my own obviously this hit me like a sledgehammer to the skull I was struggling to sleep I didn't want to eat and I had sunk into a super heavy depression after a couple of weeks of just feeling dead inside I was at a loss of what to do.

All I could think about was my big brother and the fact that he was never coming back, and that there was literally nothing in this world that was going to undo what that person had done. One night, during this depression, I was lying in bed and trying to go to sleep when I decided that I was going to go sleep in his bedroom. Looking back, it was obviously just me trying to cope, but, It felt like a good idea. If nothing else, I could maybe just lie there and think of all the good memories that I had with him. So I grabbed my pillow and headed towards the hallway down into the basement stairs.

His bedroom was down in a small finished section of the basement, in a room that was connected to the laundry room, but he had its own door into the main area. It was small. pretty much just big enough for a bed and a dresser, but it was where he had slept for the three years that he lived there. So I got down there and I went into his room, and I just kind of sat on the edge of his bed and thought about him more.

I was sitting there and hoping that somehow he would respond. I just sat there and begged for him to talk back to me, to tell him that I was going to be okay, to let me know that I needed to move on. I knew that I needed to move forward, and I knew that I needed to keep living for the both of us, but I wanted him to tell me. It makes no sense from the outside, but to me, in that moment, it was the only thing that made sense. He had helped me navigate through my childhood while our mom would disson. appear for days at a time.

He was my guide through my early teenage years. It was because of him that I felt like I could take on anything, and with him gone, I felt like I was just going to fall apart. As I was talking to him and telling him how much I missed him, the whole room started to feel strange. The only word that I can think to describe it is charged, like when you're out to. sighed during a lightning storm just before it rains. The air started to have this electric feeling to it.

It was almost heavy on my skin. As I was sitting there and pretty much watching the hair on my arms stand up, the lamp that was on his dresser started to flicker down to a dim, almost like it was being disrupted. Then I heard a pop and it burned out, leaving the whole room dark. I was just kind of sitting there on the bed in the dark and staring at the now burned out lamp. I remember that I was thinking it was odd that had happened, and the whole feeling in the air was weird too. While I was just kind of sitting there and taking it in, out of nowhere, I heard someone laugh quietly.

It was kind of like the voice was far away from me, but also playing in my head. and it wasn't just any laugh, no, it was Rowan's. I went from a little bit freaked out to honestly laughing my back end off at this. I knew then that Rowan had done this from wherever he was on the other side. It may sound stupid to some people, but I honestly feel like my big brother heard me crying and talking to him in his room, and he wanted to make me laugh. So he played this dumb trick on me. I feel like it was him that made the air feel charged,

him that shorted the bulb to make me jump, and when he saw that he had successfully scared me, he couldn't help but laugh at my reaction. When that clicked, I couldn't help but laugh with him. He'd gotten me one last time and he was oh so proud of himself. Afterwards, I just kind of crawled up onto the bed and fell asleep. for the first time since he had died. I was actually able to get a full night's rest,

and I'll admit that after that night, I pretty much set his room up as my own. I moved my clothes down there, as well as a few belongings, but pretty much kept it how he had it. Kind of as a way to say, yeah, you got the last laugh, but now your room is mine,

just in case he was still around. I know a lot of people don't believe in the afterlife, but I do. And I really do feel like this was him playing a small joke on me to get me to liven up a bit. That was the last night that I felt miserable, and I only got better from there. I do still miss Rowan more than anything, but I've moved forward with my life, and things have been going pretty well for me since. and I'm much more at peace with his death. I used to babysit and do light housework for this family for many years. They had one kid named Jacob, and at the time, he was probably around eight, I believe.

I started watching him about a year earlier, so I had gotten to know him and his family pretty well. Jacob was your average little boy, nothing weird about him, and he was very soft-spoken and well-mannered. He was obsessed with SpongeBob at the time, so we watched a lot of that, but that was probably the worst it ever got with him. I was already out of high school at this point, so there were times that I watched him last minute when there was an emergency, or something they had to do quickly.

So when they called me asking if I could watch him the following day unexpectedly, I didn't hesitate. I didn't have anything to do that day as I was on summer break from my college courses, so at least I could make some extra money. When I got there, Jacob's mom, Anna, explained that she had to take her aunt Barb to the hospital for surgery. I don't remember what the surgery was, but it wasn't major. It had something to do with a vein in her leg, I believe, or something similar. Anna was planning to just take Jacob with her, but as kids do,

he became a bit upset at the thought of having to sit quietly at a hospital with very little to do. So she asked if I could watch him. I had to be there around 10 in the morning because her surgery was going to be around noon, and they wanted to get there earlier for check-in and paperwork. When I arrived, Anna and Barb were both there as she went ahead and stayed the night there. I'd met Barb before, and she was a very sweet lady, and seemed to be fairly close to Jacob as well. He was sitting next to her when I got there, and he was reading a book to her. Anna told me a few of the things and asked me to bring the clothes up from the laundry room.

I gave well wishes to the two ladies, and they were off, leaving us to our day. The day started out fine. I got the laundry out and even folded and put it away. I even helped him put together a little Lego set. Overall, it was a normal day there. Anna said that she expected to be home a little before visiting hours were over, so she could still come home and make dinner, and said that she would call when she was out of surgery to check in on us.

I was expecting to be there until around six, so I was thinking it would be a laid-back day of watching movies and playing around on my laptop. Jacob played in his room some, and then came into the living room and watched TV with me for a while. It was probably around two. We'd already had lunch, and we went back to watching a movie. But then, out of nowhere, Jacob started whimpering. I looked over at him, thinking maybe he was holding back from laughing because of the movie,

but he looked visibly distraught. I asked him if he was okay, and he was. didn't respond. So I put my hand on his shoulder to get his attention, and that's when he started bawling. The crying was just non-stop, and I had no idea what was wrong. I tried to calm him the best that I could and tell him everything was okay, and tried to find out what was going on. When he did finally stop to breathe, he said very softly, Barbie's dead. I didn't think I'd quite hurt him, so I asked him again, and he said, Aunt Barbie. He called his great Aunt Barbie. Knowing that she just went in for something simple, I tried to assure him that she was okay,

and that he would probably see her soon, thinking that Anna might take him up there tomorrow or something. He looked so sad for a little boy, like nothing I've ever seen on a kid before. I was almost choking up myself, but I held it together. I thought for him, but he put his hand on my cheek and smiled saying, it's okay. She's not in pain anymore. I was pretty confused at this point,

and I didn't know what else to say, so I just watched as he sat back down on the couch, led out a big sigh, and continued to watch the movie. I didn't know how to feel about all this, so I just sat there looking over at him, every once in a while, and saw him smiling and giggling. I thought that maybe it was just some weird thing he decided to do.

Maybe he overheard them talking about her surgery and was scared, not really knowing what it was, so I just let it be. And I thought I would just tell Anna and her husband, Tom, about it when they got home. It had been a few more hours and a few snacks later that I realized that Anna hadn't even called me to give me an update, but I just thought that maybe she had forgotten and would call when she got the chance. It was more for her to check in on us, so I wasn't really worried. But when it hit 5 p.m. and still no word from her, I thought I would call her at least and leave a message saying everything was okay, which I did since she didn't answer. I also called Tom

since I knew that he got off around 7 to give an update as a sly way of calling to see if everything was okay. Soon after, I got a call back from Tom, and he seemed a little disheveled in his conversation when asking how Jacob was. As mentioned, I got to know this family pretty well, so I asked if there was something wrong, and he said that Barb had had some complications and surgery, delaying Anna from coming home. He then asked if I was willing to possibly stay the night, or at least later, and that they would pay more and also offered to pay for dinner. Of course I agreed. I gave him well wishes, and then we waited for dinner to arrive. It was probably around nine or so.

Jacob had fallen asleep on the floor in his room playing when Tom finally came home. He apologized for making me stay so late, but then told me. that Barb had actually died during the surgery. I was shocked at first, knowing it wasn't supposed to be life-threatening, but she had complications with the anesthesia and stopped breathing. It's not something that happened often, I guess, but it was still a risk, and sadly a life was lost. That's when I remember Jacob's little episode he'd had, and I told Tom about it.

I told him about the time and how it was like a switch and the tears started falling, and he claimed that she had passed. He thought it was really strange, too, and confirmed that they never mentioned that she could die from the surgery or anything like that, so he had no idea where he would have come up with the idea. Other than that, though, he didn't really have much more to say about it, and he thanked me for my time. He tried to pay me double, but it didn't feel right, so I didn't accept it. He told me that Anna had gone to be with her cousins, so she wasn't going to be home that night. I actually talked to Anna about it many months later, not wanting to bring it up too soon, and it seemed to touch her a bit.

She said that Barb was like another mother to Jacob, and it feels like their bond was just that strong that she had reached him after she passed, and let him know that she was okay. It still gives me chills thinking about it to this day. Jacob is almost 17 now, and he has no memory of that day. But he does remember Barb vividly, and says that he felt like he already knew she was gone when his parents finally explained to him what happened.

Either way, it was quite the experience for a babysitter. This is about my father's sister, Susan. My aunt, Sue, as we called her. My dad had seven siblings, three sisters and four brothers. He was the middle child and Sue was the second youngest. Growing up, I knew my grandparents as being very self-reliant and independent. They lived in the same house since they got married in the 30s, and I even stayed the night there with siblings or cousins on many occasions.

They really were the glue that held the family together. We had parties and holiday gatherings there, and it was always a great time. The only problem that ever came up was typically started by Sue. Now, not everyone in the family was well off. One of my uncles had his own business, an aunt was a realtor, and I think another uncle was some kind of doctor, or did something in the medical field, but I don't remember. Everyone else, however, just had normal lives.

Like, my dad was a semi-mechanic. My mom was a school teacher. Another uncle did carpentry. All seemingly normal jobs, so it's not like any part of my family was wealthy. I think my grandparents just had good savings and retirement, I suppose. Regardless, everyone was able to support their own families. Everyone, that is, but Sue. She was the one that had odd jobs here and there,

and never had one for more than six months, probably. She didn't complete high school, she had a kid when she was 17, but she did get her GED. She started going to culinary school but never finished it. She used her son as a child, an excuse for that as well, but then his father actually won custody of him before she dropped out, so she didn't even have to care for him.

I was old enough to understand what was going on, because she would always end up getting money from my grandparents, and even my dad and other aunts and uncles before. Some of them, like my uncle Ben, always refused to give her money. I think something happened that I'm still unaware of to this day that made him put his foot down. Things really started taking a turn when my grandfather passed. He had underlying heart conditions, and his cause of death was heart failure, so I suppose the family knew that it was coming. He was in the hospital when he went, but I remember all of us going up there to see him and say our goodbyes.

When he passed, as expected, just about everything went to my grandmother except for a few things, such as a vintage car that he gave to my oldest uncle, and he even had these accounts set up for me and my siblings and our cousins, which there were 12 of us total. They each had $500 in them, and they accrued interest, but they couldn't be touched by anyone but us kids, and not until we were 18. Nobody was upset about it, because since my grandmother had survived him, why wouldn't she get most of it? It all made sense to my aunts and uncles, except for Sue. We had the celebration of life party the same day of his birthday, which was a little over a month after his passing, if I remember correctly.

That's when we learned about these accounts. This did not sit well with Sue. She was visibly upset and had made comments about how much she did for them and that she wasn't being appreciated. Uncle Ben told her that she needed to calm down because even her son, that she didn't have custody of, got an account, and that it wasn't about her. She quickly left, making the party a bit awkward, but my grandma did what she normally did and brought it back around so that we all could have a good time. A few years later, my grandma had a fall on her front stairs, and she had to have hip surgery. My parents actually picked her up from the hospital, and she stayed with us for about a week, until someone helped install a ramp next to her stairs.

As mentioned, my grandparents had always been very independent, and my grandmother even after my grandfather passed, so it was really hard to let go of the independence, when she was healed. It was quite the surprise to us when Sue kept showing up and staying at her place for days on end, saying that she was going there to help her. Even though a lot of people thought it was weird,

Sue actually seemed to be helping a lot. She helped her with her garden that she cherished, she mowed the lawn, and she even kept the house clean and dusted. Ben was even impressed, and we seemed to have a good time when we were over there. Then we learned that part of the reason that she had been staying there

was that she had been evicted, and she didn't have the money to find another place, as she wasn't working at the time. My grandma explained that she allowed her to move in until she was able to find a place, as long as she actually helped around her house. So she seemed to be under a spotlight, everyone watching what she did,

but it didn't seem to phase her, which seemed to make everyone let their guard down, I suppose. Then my grandmother started having complications. It started with her seemingly just having the flu, or something like that, so we would just have to cancel holiday plans or reschedule. She still called and talked to us, but the parties became more and more different.

When we did go over there, she looked noticeably different. She was thinner, sometimes she even had bruises on her arms and legs, and said that she was going through bouts of illnesses causing a loss of appetite, so that's why she was losing weight. Of course, being grandma, she always made jokes about finally being skinny and things like that. She said that she was fine, as she was taking medications that she was prescribed, as well as vitamins,

and we moved on. But she always seems to have something wrong with her when we talked to her or visited. I know that she was older, she was in her 70s when this all happened, but my grandma had always been in great health. No cancers or other genetic diseases really on my paternal side, so to see her going from healthy,

even after hip surgery, and slowly becoming this frail woman, It was alarming. She always had a reason for her ailments, and Sue always seemed to be right there to explain more in detail as to what was going on. She would always go on about all the different medications that she had to take, and I think everyone seemed to question it. How could someone's health change so much?

How come they always defaulted to these strong and sometimes harsh drugs for someone her age? My dad and Uncle Ben and Roger always became upset about the whole thing and mentioned talking to her doctor about it because they didn't think that it was right. Grandma, however, would always try to calm them, telling them that she was fine and to not worry about her. But I knew that it would still eat at them. My dad talked with my mom a lot about it, and what options, if any, they would have.

As time went on, her list of medications increased, and the worse she looked. It obviously ate away at her as she always dressed her best, but she stopped wearing her sun dresses and hats, and was typically just wearing pants in a blouse, covering as much skin as possible. She still talked to everyone, but she wasn't the outgoing self that she had always been. It was heartbreaking. I was really close to her, so...

When she seemed to not be able to focus on our conversations, it really started affecting me. Then, one day, while we were having dinner, my dad got a phone call from Aunt Sue. She was inconsolable, as she had told him that my grandma had died. I had never seen my dad so upset in my life. We weren't allowed to go over there, so we stayed home with the neighbor, and my parents went to the house. I was old enough to know what was going on at this point, not to mention the conversations my parents had at home and with my aunts and uncles. It was a terrifying thought.

They all thought, and still think, that Sue had something to do with it. There was apparently a fight between Sue and Ben when they arrived. The death certificate said that she had died of natural causes, but they also found no proof of any of the illnesses that Sue claimed she had. Yet, she still had all the medications prescribed to her. The other reason everyone believed that she was involved was because everything in her will, other than those accounts for us kids, was signed over to Sue.

My dad knew for a fact that the house was supposed to go to my youngest uncle, James. His wife passed away from breast cancer. so he'd been raising three girls alone, and my grandparents had talked to some of the others about it, asked what they thought about the situation, and they all agreed with the decision. So the fact that it was now going to sue was unbelievable. Their life insurance, the house,

my grandma's prized possessions, all for her to do with as she pleased. And she had no qualms with keeping it all for herself, either. She told the family that we could come and get some things that she didn't want or have any use for, which, in all honesty, most were of no value.

Old furniture, knick-knacks, clothing, things that she would have just thrown away. She had these beautiful dolls that I always loved holding and brushing their hair, and my grandma had told me that they would be mine one day. My

aunt Sue tossed them out, so I snatched them up in a heartbeat, as well as some of her dresses. Other than those items, she pretty much just mocked or tormented the rest of the family, acting like she was better than all of them and that she earned it all because she took care of her for so long. Everyone always offered to help, but sometimes my grandma insisted that she was fine, or Sue would answer her and never allowed it.

Shortly after everything was settled, she quickly sent a letter, delivered, and by a lawyer to all of the siblings, including my brother, saying that they were to leave her alone and never talk to her again. There was no actual court order or anything of that sort, so many people tried to contact her to find out what was going on, but she refused to ever talk to anyone. When I turned 18, I actually tried reaching out to her as well, but after saying who I was on the call, She acted like she didn't remember me and hung up. And that was the last time that I ever heard from her.

In 2019, she actually passed away, most likely alone, as she never had any other kids or ever got married. We only found out through a mutual friend that she had passed. If she had anything to do with my grandmother's death, she took it to the grave with her, and our family will always live with this whole, in our life. Okay.

So this happened when I was babysitting two kids just a few months ago, and I knew that I had to share this with you. I'm in my mid-20s and have been babysitting since I was probably around 16, between my own siblings and my other family members' kids. I started getting my own regular kids that I would watch too, so that pretty much took up a lot of my time. especially in the summer. But I didn't really mind.

Their parents typically paid pretty well, especially the ones that had multiple kids. So one of my regulars recommended to me their co-worker, and I started watching their kids too. They had a two-year-old girl named Macy and a six-year-old boy named Josh. Macy was still just a baby, so when I did watch her,

she was typically sleeping. If they were gone for longer periods of time, they offered to take her with them. But she was actually a pretty happy kid, compared to others that I've watched. So I really didn't mind watching her. Josh was a good kid, too. He was your average boy, just played with cars, Legos, and dinosaurs. His favorite food was macaroni and cheese, and he hated bedtime, but he always seemed to crash immediately. So when their parents had a corporate dinner party, they asked me to watch them, and I agreed, knowing that I wouldn't really have any problems.

So I got there around 5 p.m. and I saw the parents off for the night. I want to explain their house just a little bit since it will be relevant. From the front door was the living room, straight back was the dining room, and to the left was a hall. that led to the parents' rooms, where Macy was still sleeping at the time, Josh's bedroom, and a bathroom. Behind the dining room was the kitchen, the back door and another hall that led to their back office, another room, and then there was the stairs to the basement. The basement had been turned into a huge play area for Josh. All the big setups were down there like the playwork bench.

There was even a small play set with a slide and push, around cars. I know that if I was a kid, I would have had a blast. So that's the setup of the house. When I went over there that night, I was handed Macy as she was still awake and Josh had been in his room playing. I said hi to Josh and then went back to the living room with Macy. After some time, she fell asleep, so I brought her into her parents' room.

Josh was still in his room playing, but he'd started getting last. and I didn't want him to wake her up, so I asked him to come play in the living room or downstairs. He had no qualms with playing downstairs, so off he went. They had also had dinner already, so I was sitting in the dining room eating what I brought. I got carried away doing something on my phone, so I'd been sitting there for a while, but then I heard laughing coming from the direction of one of the bedrooms. I was curious because I know I asked Josh to play downstairs, and I never saw him walk by. I went to his room to see what he was doing, and he was nowhere in there.

I checked in the closet, under his bed, under the blankets, and even in his toy chest, and he was nowhere to be found. I was a little worried that he may have been in the room with Macy's, so I went into that room, and she was still fast asleep. I didn't want to snoop through the parents' stuff, so when I did a quick glance over the room and didn't see him, I closed the door and went to check his room one more time, and still didn't see him. Then I heard a thump coming from downstairs where I thought he was, so I went down to check. There were some toys sprawled around like he had been down there playing, but I still did not

see him. From there, I called out for Josh, starting to get slightly worried that I didn't know where he was. When I didn't get a response, I went back upstairs and checked the back door just in case, but it was still locked. Josh knew he wasn't allowed to go outside, and I don't think he would have been able to reach the deadbolt enough to really unlock it, so I didn't think that he went outside. Just in case, though, I went to the front door and I checked it too, and it was also locked. I turned around to an empty living room, and at that point I wasn't worried about waking Macy up, so I hollered out for Josh again, this time with a bit more serious of a tone.

I then heard another laugh coming from one of the rooms. I went back to his room, and still, it was empty. Now, I was starting to freak out. Josh, he wasn't the type to play little pranks like this, so I was confused and frustrated. Like, how was I able to clearly hear him laughing in his room? I went back to the dining room to grab my phone, ready to call his parents, to be honest, to ask if he hid anywhere to give me some kind of idea, but my phone was also gone. So, after searching the dining room,

I went to the living room and I didn't find it. I thought maybe I had took it with me, so I checked the basement and the rooms one more time. Nothing. At this point, I had entered the room three times and the basement twice. So my last option was their home phone. I know this had to be the only family I've worked for that still had one. They joked about it because it was cheaper for them to get the phone with cable than just cable alone. It was hanging in the dining room over by the closet, so I walked over to it, called my phone, and I started hearing my ringtone nearly behind me.

I turned around to see Josh sitting at the table, holding my phone. While I was relieved to see both the kid and my phone, I was also confused as to where he had been. From the position of the phone, I would have been able to see him come out of the bedroom, hallway or the kitchen. I would have heard him pull out the chair and sit on it, but yet, I saw and heard nothing. I tried approaching it in a friendly way and asked him where he had been, and he just started laughing and handed me the phone. I tried being more direct, and I asked him if he was in his bedroom or in his parents' room.

He shook his head, no. I asked him if he was in the basement. He said no, and same with the living room. He just kept saying no and laughing. I ended up letting it go because I didn't want to shake up this poor kid, but I did ask him to watch some TV with me in the living room. That way I could keep an eye on this little Houdini. From then on, when I watched them, I didn't have another disappearing act. But if I didn't have a hold on my phone, it would just disappear.

And I would either find it somewhere that I wouldn't have left it, or, Josh would find it. And I know that it may be asked, but no, Josh was not taking my phone. Again, he just didn't do that. And when I mean have a hold of it, I mean physically in my hand. If the last place that I had it was in my pocket, it would end up somewhere else. If I left it in my purse or even in my car, I would find it elsewhere. I don't know if this kid or my phone was able to break through.

matrix or what, but it has never been a dull moment since then when I have to watch them. If anything else significant does happen, I'll be sure to update you. I have a story from when I went to college back in the mid-90s. What happened didn't actually happen to me, but to the person that was my roommate at the dorm. And it's the reason that she actually moved on to campus and started living in the dorm. Obviously, I'm not giving out the name of the school or my city. I'll just say that we live in the southwestern section of the U.S. and leave it there. I lived on campus for the most of my time in classes,

but the school had it set up to where you didn't have to live on campus at all, and a lot of people took advantage of that, living with family, each other, etc. My friend, and eventually roommate, and the person this story is about, was a short gal named Stacy. Stacy's one of those girls that just never really grew taller than she was in middle school, and she had a very small frame at the time. So, she was often taken for being weak, or thought to be a teenager pretending to be an adult. That said, when I got to know Stacey, I learned that she was a bit of a firecracker, and she had taken a number of self-defense courses, so she knows how to properly defend herself if she ever needs to.

After a while of living with me at the dorm, she told me about her previous roommate, and what happened to get her to move on to campus. Whenever she was starting her first semester, she didn't want to live. on campus because of the additional costs to the tuition. So she went pretty heavy into the wanted ads. This was the mid-90s, like 96, if I remember correctly, so the internet wasn't really an option. She said that she met with a handful of people in the weeks leading up to her first week, and she was getting worried because none of the places that she looked at seemed to be worth paying for.

She said that she was then complaining about it to her mother over dinner, and her mom made a comment about having a co-worker who had a son that went to the same school. She mentioned that she was pretty sure he had his own place, and that the co-worker was just funding it for him, and she said that she would talk to her to get more information about him so they could see if it was an option. She was a bit desperate, so even though,

even though she had never met the guy, she was willing to at least consider it as a possibility. She ended up meeting with the son, who we're going to call AJ, and he seemed like he was an okay guy. Plus, he lived in a two-bedroom unit, and he didn't have a use for the second bedroom beyond storing his extra stuff. They had pretty much agreed that she would take the spare room, as long as she furnished it,

and his parents would just keep paying the rent as long as she pitched in for food. Basically, she had gotten in on a pretty sweet deal that seemed like it was going to work great. She said that the whole thing was fine at first, and that the guy would basically just keep to himself with little interaction. She was working part-time, and was attending classes full-time, so they didn't really interact much. For the first month, nothing really happened. AJ was friendly when they saw each other,

but about a month in, he seemed like he was trying to be a bit more forward with the conversations. It wasn't too creepy, but he was very intent on getting to know her better, asking if she had a boyfriend, asking her about what she was studying, what she wanted to do with her life, etc. She thought that he was just trying to get to know her better and trying to be friends, which wasn't a huge deal. But he kept asking things which, to her, was feeling a bit intrusive. She attempted to set some boundaries with him, basically saying that she appreciated him trying to get to know her,

but that she did kind of prefer that he not pry so much into her personal life. Having known Stacy as long as I have now, I can say that she can be a bit direct at times. She's very to the point with how and what she says, but not necessarily rude, just very straightforward in her presentation. She said that AJ seemed to understand what she was saying, and it was a respectful conversation, but that it only got worse from there. For a few days, AJ seemed to understand what she was saying, and it was a respectful conversation, and it was a respectful conversation, but that it only got worse from there. because AJ seemed to be a bit upset with her, but then he went back to just being himself,

including going back to asking the personal questions. At this point, Stacey started to just give short or incorrect answers because it was obvious he wasn't going to quit. It was annoying, but she said it wasn't enough for her to give up her living arrangement. That is, until about a week or so later. During one of the days where Stacey was off work and didn't have class, AJ was out of the apartment doing something else during the day. Stacey had decided to do some of the cleaning around the apartment

and started putting stuff away. She grabbed his backpack and went to put it in his room so it was out of the way and off the floor. She opened his door and she went to put it on his bed, and when she glanced over and noticed there was a pair of underwear, sitting on his nightstand. She said that, at first, she thought that it may have been his girlfriends or something. Until, after a few moments, it clicked and she realized that it was actually a pair of her underwear. Obviously, she was a bit grossed out about this situation.

It wasn't in a place where it could have accidentally come in with the laundry or something like that. It was on the nightstand next to his bed. At this point, she was pretty fed up with everything, him being nosy about stuff, being inappropriate, and now this, it was enough to get her to decide to finally find a new place to live. It didn't quite end there, though. When A.J. got home, Stacey said that she confronted him about the underwear that she found in his room, and the entire thing unfurled into something insane. She said that he told her he took it because he needed to know what size she was,

and that he had more of her clothing in his room for that exact reason. He said that he was going to give them back here soon, but that he had a surprise for her, which was the reason he needed to know her sizes. He walked back into his room, and when he came back out, he was holding what looked like a wedding dress. And then, he got on his own. knees and asked Stacy if she would, in his words, honor him by becoming the woman he would

spend the rest of his life with. Obviously, she said no, and immediately started looking into getting a new place to live. She said that she no longer felt comfortable being anywhere near him, and that for a couple of weeks that she lived there after that, she would sleep with her door blocked by her end table just in case. Apparently, after this event, he actually stopped speaking to her altogether, and was pretty much never home. She packed her stuff up and got a hold of the campus to move into the dorms, and then became my roommate.

She was shocked that he was that level of obsessed with her, to the point that he went and bought a dress for her after stealing her clothes. And while some people may hear this and think, well, that's not that creepy, in my opinion, I completely agree with Stacey. This was creepy as hell. If he was just into her and took it slow, it would be one thing, and he would have then found out that Stacey wasn't exactly straight. Instead, he went the route of being weird and obsessive, taking her clothes to get her size, and then spending money on a custom wedding dress to propose to someone that he'd only known for about two months. Obviously, not the best way to go about it.

Stacey got out of there as quickly as she could, and she never spoke to him again after that. So I have a creepy story that happened back when I used to do snow removal for a bunch of rental properties. so back around 2010. For a slight bit of backstory, I worked for a small company that did contract work for the aforementioned rentals. They would load us up two or three to a pickup. We would go out to the properties while it was snowing

or just after a snowstorm, and it would be our job to plow out the parking lots, shovel the main stretch of sidewalk, and drop some ice melt, and just make sure everything was good to go for the residents by the time they got up to go to work. We weren't exactly detail-oriented. We were pretty much just told to move the snow out of the way

and make sure that no one would slip, fall, or otherwise hurt themselves in the common areas. It was probably one of the most strenuous jobs a person, could possibly do. Wake up at 3 in the morning, load up into a truck, get to the sights, and start shoveling.

That last part was my main duty. I didn't get to drive the truck. I was the newbies, so I was told to run the shovels on the sidewalks and drop the ice melt. It was miserable, but it paid all right for what it was. Plus, I only had to work about five,

hours on the days where we had to do the removals. So, on the date in question, back around 2010, our area had gotten a lot of snow and we had four properties we were supposed to do, which meant that we were going to be out until around eight, removing the snow. We loaded up, and we got through the first three with relative ease. No real problems besides being cold as hell and dealing with the mildest. case of frostbite, and then we headed out to the final property, which was a bit of an uppity-style property.

By that, I mean that it was a full-on rental property that was owned by a big real estate company, and it was a bunch of townhomes and duplexes around what was essentially its own block. The part that makes it uppity were the people, prices, and the properties requirements. The people were snooty, the prices were outrageous for the area, and the property management were the only people that we ever had problems with.

For the most part, the properties we worked with had one requirement, make the snow not block the way of cars. This specific property, however, was super-anal about where the snow went, the direction that we plowed in, and the type of ice melts that we used. Yes, they had a specific brand that they required we used

because they claimed it was less harmful to the cement. We get the first half of the property done and cleared out, and when we get to the southeast corner, we notice that there's already a pile of snow in one of the parking spots. Like someone had used a small plow or a large shovel to move it into a pile about four feet or so tall, and they had filled the entire handicapped spot. We kind of sat there for a moment,

trying to figure out what to do. If we should call the office, tell them that one of their tenants had left a pile of snow shoveled in one of the spots, but I made a comment about how they would just blame us because it wasn't in the designated snow zone. My boss sighed and paused for a second, thinking about what we should do. The spot wasn't large enough for him to maneuver in,

and there were cars next to it anyways, which meant we were going to have to get out and move the snow back out into the parking lot, so we could then plow it into the correct area. This meant a lot of manual labor to move a pile of snow, just to repile the snow elsewhere. which then also meant that I was the one that had to get out and do it. I hopped out of the truck and walked back to get the shovel, and then went over to the pile of snow and attempted to push some of it off the top.

And of course, it had become a chunk of ice more than just a pile of snow. I smacked at some with the shovel to loosen it up, but had to climb over it and start breaking chunks off. But I was getting no way. where fast. I motioned for my boss and our co-worker to come over and help me. They parked and grabbed the shovels, and we all started chipping away at the parking lot iceberg.

It took us a few minutes to get a good portion of it out of the parking lot, but when we had gotten most the way through, I noticed that there was actually something in the snowpile. It didn't take long for all three of us to realize what we were looking at. It was an arm, and that arm was attached to a torso. This pile of snow that a tenant had packed so carefully into this parking spot wasn't done out of frustration of said tenant. This was a temporary grave. We immediately dropped the shovels and ran back to the truck.

My boss grabbed the phone and called 911 to report it, and he told me to call the property management. The management showed up first, then the police, and the EMS, though EMS wasn't going to be able to do much. This person was quite obviously dead. They had us help remove the ice as best as we could from around her, so they could get her out and attempt to identify. As soon as we were able to get her uncovered, it was pretty clear how she died. There were multiple stab wounds to the chest and stomach area. The management was able to identify her right away.

It was one of their elderly tenants that lived in the building that was just to the right of the parking spot. They told the police that she lived alone and that no one in the area had any problems with her or anything. We were pretty much told by management that our job was done there, and the police thanked us for our help. We packed our stuff back up and decided that we were done for the day. My boss said that he felt like we should take a couple days off because of how messed up this situation really was. After a few days when we all met back up, my boss had actually told us that he was able to contact the management of the property and talk with them about the situation. And they told him a little bit more about it.

This older woman was a decent tenant, but she had apparently moved her son into the basement without the knowledge of management. And her son had a drug problem. It was basically a case of her wanting him to live with her and get better, but he was set in his ways. And apparently they'd had a disagreement that night, and he killed her and then buried her in the snow

somewhere around three in the morning. If we had chosen to do our route backwards, as we sometimes did, and we went to that property first thing, we probably would have run into him burying her. We all kind of guessed that he knew she would likely be found eventually, in that it would be easier to just cover her in the snow, as it was likely to not melt for a couple of weeks. Plus, he may have thought that we would just pile more snow on to the spot when we plowed it. He was caught, thankfully, because he had taken his mother's car and attempted to get as far away as he could. Thankfully, he was the main suspect, and they put out a call for the car. So, when it was spotted literally two towns over that same day, he was pulled in, and he told them about what he had done.

I actually did this job for a couple more years after this incident, but every time we approached a pile of snow that was more than a foot high, I think my boss and I both kind of clenched, wondering if it was going to happen again. Thankfully, it never did. I've been a user of the dark web for quite a long time, going through the various deep sights and seeing what's out there. There are some interesting people and pages that exist, but if you don't know what you're doing, I really don't recommend getting involved. I've been into Deep for a while, and the story I'm about to tell you was at a time in my life where I was out of control and doing stupid things. Back in the day, I used to be one of those users that may or may not have been involved in some questionable activity. of this questionable activity

the worst was doing business with a website that was very similar to Silk Road it was not Silk Road but it was obviously trying to be as dumb as that sounds but the prices were more competitive than others thinking back to it now that probably should have been a red flag

the bigger sites had methods of verification of their sellers they knew who they were working with and the security was definitely part of the pricing structure. But when you're a broke college kid that's addicted to certain medications, you don't really think too hard on the security of your dealer. Basically, your only thoughts are,

do they have what I want and can I afford it? So, obviously, I knew what I was doing back when I got involved with these sites and these people. I knew it was illegal, and I knew that I had no way of disputing if my dealer didn't come through, and I would have no manner of taking legal action against the site or seller. The site did have an interesting system in place, though. The sellers wouldn't list what they had beyond a few cryptic user tags,

and they had what they called a traffic light system. Basically, the seller could mark their stock based on a color. Green was fully stocked, yellow was limited, Red was offline and not selling. If it was green, you could basically send them the money and get whatever you wanted. Yellow typically required a message to make sure they had what you wanted, and red just basically meant do not contact me. It was actually a pretty damn smart way of doing things,

and it cut out having to incriminate yourself by specifically listing what you had. And it also cut down on the communication requirements. you just bought what you wanted and moved on. In my time on this site, there was one user that I worked with regularly over the two years. They were very dependable, and strangely enough, incredibly polite when I had to message them. I know that sounds stupid, but they typically signed their messages with, Have a nice day and thank you for your business. Not something you would expect from a person committed to doing something.

that's illegal. They were the only person I wanted to work with on this website, and they always came through for me. In my time doing business with them, they had always been green or yellow. I couldn't recall once over the two years where they had switched over to red. Well, that is until the last time that I put in an order with them. I got on the site as normal, and I saw that he had marked himself as yellow. No big deal.

I sent him a message basically asking if my usual was available. Almost immediately after, his page had switched over to Red. I was a bit annoyed, as he had always come through for me, and I was, as I said, an addict. I went over to his page and sent him another message that basically said, Hey man, what gives? Within a few moments, I got a message back that said to, put it kindly, F off. This came as an honest surprise to me, as, like I said, he had always been so cordial before.

I responded with something like, do you not want my money anymore? I waited for an hour to see if he would message back, but I didn't get anything. It was a few days later that I went back to see if maybe he had stock again. I think part of me seriously thought that the seller was just having a bad day, or, maybe it was a partner of his that just wasn't as polite. When I logged in, I saw that I had a message from him. I clicked it, and it said, I have your usual send me the money.

I was a bit wary at first, but I was also naive and needed to keep my mind focused to study for exams. Despite my initial hesitation, I went ahead and sent him the money. I replied, told him that it was sent, and I waited. I think I messaged him once or twice within that week, but he had been offline since our last interaction and hadn't changed his account from Red. About a week after our last interaction, I got the package. The box looked like it was heavily used and trashy. This was in a complete contrast from what I was used to.

When I opened it, it was lacking pretty much all of the security the seller normally had. he would typically pack inconspicuous items in with the order, usually stuffed animals. I'm assuming it was because they worked as both security and padding. But instead, the box was full of packing peanuts and tissue paper. I dumped it out on the floor and checked it, thinking I was duped, but then I saw the pill bottle and an envelope with what appeared to be a letter. The first thing I did was open the letter. It said,

Consider this your last order. Jimmy is out of the trade. Thanks for your business. I was a little pissed off since I was going to have to now find a new person on the site to work with, but at the same time, it wasn't a huge deal. At least I had about 60 days

before that was going to be a problem. That was until I grabbed the bottle and opened it. I removed the lid and saw that inside the bottle were fingernails. I don't mean like fingernail trimmings. I mean fingernails that had been ripped out of the bedding of the finger. Ten of them, to be exact. The edges of them looked like they had dried blood,

which told me they had been forcibly removed. It was then that the letter's meaning became a bit more dark, with Jimmy being out of the trade. To answer any potential questions, I never went back to the site. I never went to any drug sites on the dark web at all. This scared me to the point that I pretty much abandoned all illegal activity. And to those that are curious, no, I did not go to the police. I wanted to.

I wanted to tell them that it was possible someone had been murdered, but how exactly does one explain that with what I had? I couldn't waltz into the precinct, slam my pill-bottled, full of fingernails down, and say, my drug dealer has been murdered. Technically, he could have pulled them out himself. Not likely, but possible. So, anyways, that's my story. Stay off the dark web.

Deep web stuff is probably okay, and don't do drugs. When I was a teenager, I think around 16 or so. my parents and myself were invited to a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. My mom was from a few states away from where I grew up, and I had never met most of her side of the family, so I thought it would be really cool to go and get to know the people that she grew up with and meet the people that I was related to and didn't know. My father was, unfortunately, not able to get out of a work trip

that they wanted him to go on, so it was just me and my mom that were going to be going to the reunion. I was still pretty excited, though, and when it came time to go, I was anxious for the whole thing, but in a good way. We got to my mom's hometown,

and we were staying with her parents, my grandparents, for the whole weekend. I had met my grandparents, and they were decent people, so that was a fine time overall. And the first day of the reunion was a blast. Everyone was kind. We all introduced ourselves to the family,

and I got to know some really great people. Then, around midday, I was talking to my mother and my grandmother, and they both looked past me with a look of complete and total disgust. I obviously turned to see what they were so upset about, and all I saw was some older guy walking into the room with a big smile on his face. He quickly made his way over to the three of us, and he put his arms out to hug my mom, who quickly just patted him on the back and pulled away.

He then went to hug my grandmother, too, but she turned to walk away from the situation pretty much immediately. After getting the cold shoulder from my grandma, He seemed to get the hint, and he turned to walk away from us and go mingle with the rest of everyone else. As soon as he walked away, I asked my mom what that was all about, and she told me that that man was actually her half-brother. At one point, my grandfather had had an affair with another woman, and they had a child from that affair. It was a rocky point in everyone's life, and it damn near split my grandparents up. But, after a lot of rebuilding, they ended up getting back on track, and this man was that child.

He was my mother's half-brother. I guess that this would technically make him my uncle. From what she said, he had done some really bad things, and he wasn't invited to the reunion because of his past, and they did not know why he was there. I left it at that because my mom didn't really seem to want to talk about what he had done, and, well, I respected that, but I told her to just do her best to ignore him and enjoy the time with family. She agreed and said that she would.

The second day was a bit more of the same, though I had told my mom that I wanted to go, out and get to know some of the other members of the family. She had introduced me to a lot of them on day one, but I wanted to socialize with them more and get to know them. She agreed, and she said that she was wanting to spend some time with my grandmother and her great-aunt anyways. We agreed that we would meet back up at lunch, and we went off to do our own thing.

About an hour into the whole thing, that man from the day before, my sketchy uncle, came up and asked me who I was. I was a bit reluctant to even talk to him, but I'm also not the type to do well in awkward situations. So I just quietly and reluctantly responded. I told him that my name was Cassie, and he then asked me who I was in the family. I stupidly told him that I was my mother. daughter, and his blank look changed to one that was beyond happy. He pushed his arms forward and pulled me into a hug, saying that he always wanted to meet

me, and that I was such a lovely young lady. This hug was really weird to me because I wasn't really hugging him back, but he held me way too tight and way too long for it to be comfortable. As soon as he let go, he said that he was my uncle, Nikki. And he then asked me what I had heard about him from my mom. I told him that I hadn't heard much about him at all, and he almost seemed relieved. He then told me that he wanted to get to know me better, and that we should get together at some point so that he could be a part of my life.

I just kind of smiled and laughed while nodding. He started telling me all about himself, saying that he didn't have much going on at the time, that he had made mistakes and that he doesn't have any kids, and that he had regretted that fact. He then made a comment about how he was single, like really emphasizing it, almost to a creepy degree. He then asked me if I had a boyfriend. I said that I did back home.

and then he started asking me if I was a virgin and that was where I decided the conversation was over I told him that I needed to go because I wasn't comfortable talking about it and he started laughing saying that that meant that I wasn't he then started asking me how many guys I had been with what my favorite thing to do in bed was and things like that I pushed myself away from him, saying that I did not want to talk to him anymore. As I started walking away, he reached down and grabbed my wrist tightly,

saying that I didn't have a choice in talking to him, and that he and I were going to get to know each other better. I pulled as hard as I could to get away from him, but he had an incredibly tight grip on me, and he was just sitting there laughing at the fact that I could not get away. At this point, I started screaming to let me go, just trying to get the attention of anybody else there. Then, as people started seeing what was going on, they all started approaching and he pulled me closer, and he seriously whispered in my ear,

If I catch you alone, you'll regret it. And then he shoved me away and started walking away from me and leaving the park. No one else could really see. see what was happening where we were beyond me screaming to let me go, so they didn't really do much to stop him from walking away. My mom came over when she realized that it was me screaming, and I told her what happened, and she told somebody to call the cops to try to stop him from getting away. They did call the cops, but by the time they got there, he was already gone, and they pretty

much said that if he came back, we should call them immediately. Obviously, I was freaked out because that was very creepy, and it was pretty clear that this guy was a predator. It was then that my mom started explaining more about my uncle and why they were surprised he was there. Apparently, my uncle Nikki, had spent a number of years in prison, and they thought that he was still locked up. The reason he spent those years in prison

was because he had actually assaulted my grandmother. He had broken into the house when she was home, and my grandfather was at work, and my mother was at school. This was back when she was still a teenager. He then assaulted my grandmother physically, and when he was caught, he claimed he did it because my grandmother had taken his father away from him. If I had known this at the time,

I would not have engaged in her. conversation with him, I would have made sure to avoid him at all costs. Unfortunately, with how he acted towards me, it was pretty clear that his behavior was not changed by prison, that he was still the monster that he was back then. Thankfully, this was the only time that I ever saw him, and he didn't come back to the reunion. My guess was because he knew he would probably get arrested. This was obviously also pretty traumatic for my grandmother as well, and she didn't really want to be involved in the reunion anymore.

This was pretty terrifying for all of us, to be honest. I'm glad it just ended with him being a creep towards me and that he didn't cause any harm to anyone else while he was there. When I was younger, I seemed to get sick a lot. If someone around me was ill, I would catch it. A lot of different foods also seemed to make me sick to the point that I would curl up in a ball and sleep. My parents would later have tests done to find out what could be wrong with me,

but I bring this up to explain the situation further. My parents weren't neglecting me because it was a normal occurrence for me, and I would just wait for it to pass. Not to mention, I was old enough at this point. to stay home by myself. One night in January, after dinner, I started to feel nauseous, so I took my medication and went to lay down on the couch. My little sister wanted to spend her Christmas and birthday money.

Her birthday is December 30th, but she couldn't wait any longer. I told my parents they could take her and that I would stay home and sleep. I wanted to be left alone anyways, so. so I didn't have a problem with it either. They finally agreed after convincing them I would be fine, and reminded my mom of their returns that she needed to make as well. They left around five or six. It wasn't quite dark yet, so they said they would call when they were close to home,

so I could turn on the porch light. Now, with them gone, I laid on the couch turning the TV on something to fall asleep, to and slowly drifted off. It had been an hour or so when I was startled awake by something on the TV. I grabbed the remote to turn it down, and as I readjusted on the couch, I looked over to the large window in the living room and noticed it was dark. Then I noticed that there seemed to be a figure in the window as well.

I wear glasses, and I didn't have them on at the window. time, so I just thought I wasn't seeing something right. So I just stared at the figure for the longest time, trying to focus and get my brain to figure out what I was looking at. After a few moments, I leaned over to the table to put on my glasses, and that's when I started to realize that it was definitely a person staring back at me. I could see the outline of a hood, their shoulders, and their arms. Then I started thinking, what the hell do I do?

This person is staring back at me and they know what I look like. Will they try to rush in at me if I try something? I slowly started to lay back down on the couch, like I didn't notice them, and grab my phone with my eyes close. I guess I thought I was being sneaky and making it look like I wasn't going to call 911, but that was when the window was smashed in. I just remember screaming and running to my parents' bedroom, which was in the far back side of the house.

I wanted to get as far away as possible, and since it was on the bottom floor, it had a window that I could possibly go through. I ran back there, immediately locked up. the door and called 911. My parents' room had a big walk-in closet, and the operator told me to hide in there until I heard the police show up. I was scared, and I had a million things going through my mind.

You always think you know what you would do in these situations, until they happen, and then you hope that the operator can save you and tell you everything you need to do to survive. I also wanted to call my parents and the operator was actually awesome enough to have someone call them somehow, which was also a relief. Like I said, it was already dark, so it had been a few hours, and I expected that they would be home soon. It felt like forever, but after checking the call records, it had only been about seven minutes, I think, before I heard the cops. calling out, and I hung up and came out with them. When I walked out, one met me at my parents' door, and there were two more in the living room. It was freezing in there with the window, of course, but my attention was averted when the officer

showed me this rock, with what looked like paper and tape on it. I asked them if it was a note, and they said yes, and asked if there was anyone they could think of that would want to hurt me or my family. And I had no clue. My mom was a nurse and my dad did construction. Not like they could really have enemies and then my sister and I were still in school. Last I checked, we didn't have people that hated us to this level. Thankfully, my parents showed up soon after and I didn't want to let go of my dad.

They asked them the same thing and then showed us the note. It said something like, next time it won't be your window, it's time to pay up. The cop asked us if we knew someone that would do this again, or if any of us owed someone and we all said no. My dad had to get the window boarded up, and our neighbor came over and helped. Because of this happening,

and not being able to get the window fixed that week, my dad went and bought some security cameras, and had one pointed at the door and window, both back and front doors and the driveway. He also wouldn't let me stay home by myself anymore. I felt safer with the cameras because we got alerted when someone approached the areas, but I didn't like staying home at night by myself anyways. Now, it had been two weeks or so since this had happened, and the window has since been fixed.

It was one evening I had gone to my room to just chill when I got an alert on the camera Most of the time I ignored them Unless it was the one at the front door And this one happened to be So I tapped on it And there was a guy that walked up to the door

Put something under the rug and took off I was about to go to check on it When I started hearing my parents shouting I went to the living room and saw my mom standing at the door, on the phone, and my dad is down the driveway. I finally learned what all happened when my mom showed me the envelope. It had a letter in it that said, Sorry about the window with a $100 bill in it.

My dad had seen the alert as well, and tried to chase the guy, but he got away. They called the cops to report it and showed them the video where the guy wasn't even trying to hide his face. It wasn't long after that they found and caught the guy. Apparently he'd felt bad and decided to try and pay for the window. I recently learned from my parents that the guy that broke our window knew our neighbor and was probably trying to break hers, but that's just old people gossip that I haven't been able to confirm. Either way, it was a terrifying situation for my teenage self. And now, I don't like sleeping in the living room unless the curtains are completely closed.

And if it's going to be dark soon, I recommend you turn on the porch lights, and you should always make sure that your doors are locked. I used to browse Craigslist all the time when I wanted to find something cheap, a quick and easy job, or when I was just bored. I got quite a few good interactions out of it, and I even met some new friends in a random get-together for a video game contest. Being a guy, though, a lot of the jobs I got were the dirty ones, or heavy lifting. Heavy-duty cleaning, like gutters.

I've had a small local pool cleaners posting job for assistance, basically grabbing supplies for them and scrubbing out tiles, just things like that. I don't often get chosen for some of the, easier jobs like babysitting or seasonal desk jobs, like helping people set up their printers or Wi-Fi. Easy stuff. As a teen, I wasn't too interested in finding a permanent job at the time, due to everything else I did outside of school. So between these little odd jobs and trying to fix and flip electronics, that was my life. So I was trying again for a babysitting job.

The week prior I was helping my dad basically gut an old commercial building, and my hands were still sore, so I wanted to kick it back a little. I answered a few of them, including one that was the next state over. I lived pretty much on the state border line, hoping I would have better luck because that city was barren, and I could imagine there weren't many people asking. Now, the wording was a little weird. weird, though, but I thought

maybe the person had just never posted something like this before, or were really proud of their kid. The title said something like babysitter needed immediately, possibly permanent. They then mentioned that there would be

an in-person screening, and if they liked us, it may become a regular or permanent position. Then, they went on to explain when they needed someone, and then described in detail what their daughter looked like that I would be watching. But it wasn't just eight-year-old girl long brown hair likes to play with dolls and watch cartoons.

No, no. It was, Sally is an adorable eight-year-old girl with dark brown to hazel eyes and tight, curly brown hair that sits right above her shoulders. She loves short, fluffy dresses and showing off her wardrobe. She will want to play house or hide-and-seek with you, can send a picture for proof. Maybe some people out there want to know a little about the kid beforehand, but I thought it was a bit too much information.

Nor did I feel the need to see her first. Otherwise, it was weird, but I still applied. They responded some time that same day and asked if I was male or female. I was a little upset at this point, thinking they were going to turn me down, but, to my surprise, they wanted me to come out the next week. So I headed over, and it took me about half an hour to get there. There was a man that answered the door that I assumed was the father. The house looked normal to me.

Living room with a couch and TV, kitchen looked fine, it was clean and kept up, and then the dad started going on about the rules. He said if she was hungry, she had a designated cabinet she could choose to eat from. All of her toys and clothes were to stay in her room, and I was welcome to go in and play with her too, but I had to make sure to thoroughly clean up any messes. Okay, weird, I thought. Maybe they were just a neat freak.

Then he said he would be home at exactly 11 p.m., and that she had to be showered and in bed by then. And he left. It was a weird interaction, but I decided to move on. And that's when I noticed I hadn't even seen the girl yet. So I started walking down the hall and saw a pink door with a sign with her name on it. I knocked on the door, and sure enough, a little girl answered it. For her privacy, I'm calling her Sally.

Sally looked exactly like the description, down to the eyes and dress. Her whole room was covered in pink. She had a shelf full of dolls and stuffed animals, a closet full of dresses and costumes. She asked me if I was her babysitter today, and I confirmed. I told her my name and asked her for hers. She seemed shy at first, but as I started asking her what she wanted to do, she seemed to loosen up more. I asked her what she wanted to do,

and she seemed confused that I asked, and then Shiley mentioned that we could play house. I asked her if that's what she wanted to do, and she again quietly said no. So I just asked her again and said that we could do whatever she wanted, and I didn't even have to play if it would be weird. I was fine just watching TV for the night to be on,

honest. She looked confused when I said that, though, and asked if it was okay to have dinner then. Easy enough, so I agreed and we went to the kitchen together. I started asking her what she wanted, to which she opened a cabinet and pulled out of a can of raviolis. That's when I noticed that in the cabinet were tons of cans of that kind of stuff, and also ramen, chips, granola bars, just things like that. At first, I thought that was kind of cool.

I was the oldest of three kids, so having our own cabinet and food and snacks would have been awesome. But then she started talking about how the fridge is Daddy's food only. So, what, she's just not allowed any other food? She confirmed this by saying that she gets in trouble if she ever tries to take any. This whole experience had just been weird and way off. The way the dad talked about her and the way she was acting and being treated, it just didn't make me feel good about it. I tried asking if she's had any other babysitters before,

and that's when she started going quiet and being shy again. So I let her finish eating and washed her bowl and spoon, and then I asked her what she wanted to do now. That's when she led me back to her room and asked me if I wanted her to change into a different dress. I was confused, and I asked her if she wanted to or if she got something on it, and again, she just looked at me funny. And that's kind of when things started to click. Thinking back at the description, what the dad explained, her reaction, I realized what I was in the middle of.

My fears were confirmed when I asked her about playing house, and she mentioned us being mom and dad. I quickly told her I wasn't there for that. I was there to protect her, and for the rest of the night, I sat in the corner of the room freaking out internally and just watching her play with her dolls and telling me about them. When Eleven came around, I had her shower still and go to bed and to not throw anything off, and I waited in the living room for him to get home. He asked how she did, and if she gave me a hard time, and I said she was perfect,

trying to get out as quickly as possible. He laughed and said he thought that I looked pretty young but was happy that everything was fine. I shook his hand and left as quickly as I could. And when I got to my car, that's when it solidified. When I realized, he didn't even pay me. When I got home, I hardly slept and then went to a police station with my mom

to explain everything that had happened. I told her everything because I didn't know what to do. They, of course, asked for any kind of proof, so I went home and tried to find the posting, or a new one to ask the guy if he needed another babysitter. To my surprise, he actually responded. He said he could use a babysitter in a few days, and I tried to be sly in asking for things that were allowed, and again he took the bait.

He wanted to text me, though, instead of through emails, and he confirmed more while still trying to be secretive about it. I gave the police everything that I had, and they said they would look into it further. I checked the local news and reports hoping they would move on this quickly, before the girl could be put in that situation again, but I never found anything. I can only hope they caught this guy because I stopped seeing posts from him after that. Thankfully, this was the worst and weirdest posting I ever responded to, but it definitely made me more aware and cautious of meeting strangers, no matter what the case may be. A few years ago, when I was about 17, I decided I wanted to go ahead and start looking for an easy job that could net me a bit of spending money.

I was still in school, obviously, but I was nearing the midway point of my senior year and was about, to turn 18 in less than three months. So, I figured I could find, at the very least, a decent retail job that would suffice. Given the time of year, late September, and the things that I'm personally into, scary, macabre horror things, I figured why not try to work at one of those temporary Halloween stores to get some experience. There were a few of them around my area, and I ended up to do. up getting hired at one that's pretty well known for taking over empty shopping centers.

Honestly, I loved the job from the first minute that I clocked in. The store was decorated with some of the spookiest things I'd seen. The manager was all about leaning into the scary season, and when October rolled around, she encouraged us to dress as creepy or horrifying as we could, within reason. basically no weapons or masks, but if we wanted to come in dressed up, we were allowed to. We still had to wear the orange aprons, but that was fine by me. Getting ready for work was actually fun for me, and working was something I was actually looking forward to. I didn't dress up every day, obviously, but I did on several occasions, and I absolutely loved it.

I could honestly sit here and type out how much I loved this job and everything about it all day, but the story is actually about the one thing that completely ruined it for me and for many others. Because I was one of the younger people that worked there, and the others all had families and lives outside of just going to school, I actually talked with my manager at the start of working there about being a closer for the store. Being a closer meant cleaning up the shelves were necessary,

sweeping, basically the normal retail closing checklist. She didn't mind. As long as we were out of the store by 11, she was entirely fine with it. We closed at 9.30 during the week, so it was definitely doable. One more tidbit of information

before I get into what happened, the layout of the store. store. I'll keep it brief. For the most part, the entirety of the stock was on the outer walls with a few shelves that we could see through to minimize the possibility of theft. There was only really one blind spot in the store, and that was the giant inflatable grim reaper that was dead center. It was one of those huge nine or ten foot tall inflatables, and my manager had built a little diaripers. And my manager had built a little diorama-like thing around it. So there was a small area that we couldn't see past.

It wasn't a huge deal, and the decoration was really neat. When I was cleaning the store, I would actually do it in two parts, the front half, which was everything in front of the Reaper, and then the back half. I feel like it made things go a little faster with just a little bit of structure, but that's probably just me. On the night in question, we were really busy from the time I got there to the time we closed. It was in the latter half of October at this point, so people were pretty much going into Halloween Overdrive. Thus, at this point, we were pretty much only getting out at 11.

Between closing duties and cleaning, we were going to the last minute. I always felt bad keeping my manager at the store so late trying to be. to finish up, but she was typically pretty understanding. So, on this night, I was cleaning up the store, putting things back, and then I moved on to sweeping and mopping. I was done with the front half and was cleaning up the back half. I was sweeping up the dirt from under and around the Reaper when I noticed what looked like headlights shining through the front of the store.

My mind immediately went to, some person thinks that. were still open and is looking at our hours. And, because I didn't want them to see me and try to ask us why we were closed or something, I stood there behind the Grim Reaper just waiting for them to go away. Much to my surprise, I heard what sounded like somebody pulling on the door and trying to open it. Now, mind you, the door was obviously locked. The lights were all off. the sign on the door said closed, and the hours posted said that we closed at 9.30 most nights.

Nothing about this door looked like it was open, at all. So, again, I was just standing there and rolling my eyes about the fact that this person clearly had zero situational awareness. After standing there for a few moments, I was actually starting to get annoyed with the fact that they weren't leaving. I could still see their headlights shining in the front, and then the unexpected happened. While I was standing there, I heard the sound of an engine revving, saw the lights moving slightly, and then I heard the sound of glass shattering as they literally drove their SUV through the front of the store. They smashed through the front, and they stopped just shy of the Grim Reaper, meaning that they were less than a few feet away from driving in to where I was standing.

I know for a fact that I screamed and shouted a couple expletives, and I immediately ran to the back office. Fortunately for me, my manager had saw what happened on the security camera, and she pulled me in and then shut and locked the door. She then told me that she was already on the phone with the police. My heart was racing like crazy while I just sat there. I watched the camera screen as these people ran around the store, grabbed as much merchandise as they could, and shoved it into their car, and then tried to drive off. I was actually able to see on the footage how close they came to me,

and they seriously stopped at the inflatable. So if they hadn't stopped at that moment, they likely would have pinned me between the, their car in one of the shelves. I'm not sure I would have survived that. They grabbed all the stuff, drove off, and then were pretty quickly caught by the cops. I had to guess that they thought nobody was in the store, so they figured they would have time to get away, but we were there, and that definitely caused a wrinkle in that plan. In my opinion, the plan was pretty stupid to begin with, to go through with a smashing graphing,

on a Halloween store where everything would be nearly half off in a couple of weeks anyway, it just sounds dumb even as I'm typing it. But it was what they planned to do, and it's what they were all arrested for. Unfortunately, this kind of damage wasn't exactly something that could be fixed in time for the season to end, so the store had to close. I got to work a couple more shifts, helping get all the stock packed up and ready to be transferred, and getting the store broken down, which was neat. But it was still a sad ending to what will always be the best job that I've ever worked,

even if it was only for a month. I have a weird situation that I wanted to tell about my life from when I was younger. I'm female, currently 33 years old, and I have a brother that is two years older than me. When we were children, I always felt like my brother hated me with a passion. Like for some reason he was hell-bent on ruining my life and making me feel like a terrible person. However, the more I've been reading stories about demons and possessive entities that attach to not just people, but bloodlines, I'm starting to wonder if everything he did was by his own doing, or if something out there was

guiding his hand. For the story, we're just going to call my brother Kay. Growing up, Kay was horribly aggressive and abusive towards me, but he wasn't always like that. For the first few years of my life that I can remember, Kay was actually the most loving brother that ever existed. My mother had photos and videos of him holding me as a baby, of him telling her how beautiful I was, and the video that I hold closest to my heart is one from the day that I was born. Mom was still in the hospital after giving birth to me, and my dad had brought Kay into the room

a while after everything was settled, and he looked at me, and then to the camera that my dad was holding and said, that's my little sister. My dad said that I was, and he just smiled, turned to me and said, Oh my gosh, I love her. It's the cutest thing in the world to me, and it honestly makes it even more painful when I think about how things went later on. I have to add a bit more context to my family, so do bear with me. First off, my grandfather and who he was. From what I've been told, my grandfather was a very hard-working man that did everything for his family, and he was part of the generation that worked hard manual labor day in and day out for 50 years straight.

When he retired from work, he seemed to have lost all sense of purpose, and then became an aggressive and violent man, not just to my grandmother, but also to my mother. It was like losing his job caused a switch to just flip, and he turned into a horrible man overnight. He, however, loved my little brother more than anything. Every time he saw him, he would light up and nothing else in the world would exist for those few moments. Now, when I was born, he had the opposite reaction to me.

He never wanted me around. If I was there, he would yell at my mother to shut me up or leave me outside. Yeah, he literally told her to leave a new brother. born child outside if she came over. Well, about three years into my life, my grandfather died. There was a small funeral, us kids weren't there, but my mom told me that my grandmother seemed like she wasn't even hurt that her husband of 55 years had died. In fact, she seemed happy, and she actually smiled after the whole thing was over.

This, however, was where things. Things started for me. My brother didn't really understand that my grandfather had died. My mom talked to him about it, telling him about life and death, but he was five, so it wasn't really a concept that he could grasp. Basically, it was just a situation of, he's gone, we're sad, but life goes on. That was when things started to change with Kay. After my grandfather passed, he started to become an aggressive and violent child. He would scream at my mother any time she tried to talk to him.

He would destroy things if he could get his hands on them, and his attitude towards me did a full 180. The first instance was when I was still three. My mother said that she heard me doing my best to have a conversation with him while we were in our room. He was laughing and talking to me as well. Then she said that he went quiet, and I kept saying his name in a way that was like I was asking for him, and then about five or ten minutes later, I started screaming.

She ran into the room and saw what had happened. Kay was sitting on my bed with me, my hands were covered in blood, and there was a very large, very sharp knife sitting in front of me. My mom was obviously panicked and screamed for my dad, who came in and grabbed Kay while my mom helped me. I had a cut across both my hands, and I was bleeding pretty bad for a small kid. My dad asked Kay what happened and how I got the knife,

and he said that Kay told him that he got the knife for me. He said that I needed it, that I needed to bleed. He then said that Grave, grandpa told him to give me the knife to play with because it was what I deserved. This obviously freaked my dad out, and after this we weren't allowed to play in my room unsupervised anymore. A few months after this in the middle of the night, my mom said that she heard me screaming and crying, and she got up to check on me when she saw Kay standing over me holding a stuffed animal over my face and saying something like,

it's okay, it won't hurt, over and over. Once again, my dad tried to figure out what was going on with him, and he just told him that grandpa wanted me to stop breathing because I was being too loud. Things like this happened a few times when I was young, but as the two of us got older, he stopped physically hurting me and started emotionally lashing out at me. I remember very vividly on my 12th birthday, making K-14 at the time.

He had actually walked into the room where my friends were with my dad's handgun. He then placed it on the table in front of us, and he said it directly in front of me, and then looked me straight in the face and said, You should end your life. No one here likes you, and no one here likes you, and no one once you were around. You're nothing but a burden on everyone here, and we would all be very much better off without you. I can't even begin to explain the emotional pain that that situation caused. Not only had he hurt me personally, but to do this in front of my few friends and on my birthday. Agony is the only word that comes close to how I felt. When my dad came back in with the

cake and saw the look on my face, his face, and then noticed the shock on the other girl's faces, and then finally saw the gun, he went off on Kay. He placed the cake down, grabbed the gun, and I remember him screaming at Kay about the situation. He asked him how he got the gun from the safe, and Kay just said that Grandpa told him the combination because he wanted him to give me the gun. I remember my dad yelling non-stop in the other room while I just stared at my cake and cried. My mom did her best to try and steer us back on track, but the party was effectively ruined, and my friends were pretty freaked out. Rightfully so.

There were a few more things that happened between Kay and I, a few events where he hit me and he did everything he could to make me feel pain, mentally, physically, emotionally. he made my life hell for so many years, and I'll never forgive him for all that he did to me. But part of me does kind of think that it wasn't all him, that there was something else that pushed him to do this, and that's based on what occurred a bit later. The last time that I saw Kay was when I was 17,

and while I don't want anything to do with him, that actually wasn't by my... choice. He was 19 and still living at the house, but he had managed to get a job and save up money to get a car. Then, he packed up his stuff, and he

left. As in he packed his clothes, got in his car, and no one has seen him since then. Like I said, I'm 33 now, so you can do the math on when that was, but it has been a very long time.

and my guess is that he's either no longer alive or living under a different name or whatever. The reason I feel like he may not have been in control the entire time was because of the note that he left behind. He actually wrote that he was sorry for hurting me. I actually still have the note somewhere, but a good summary of it was that he loved me and that he never wanted to cause me pain, but he always felt. like he had to. He mentioned in it that something in him wanted me to hurt, but that the other part of him wanted to protect me,

and he never seemed to win when the two sides would clash. It hurts me to think that there was a part of him that did love me, that wanted what was best for me, but then the other part felt compelled to cause me so much harm. I also hate to think that he was being controlled by a demon, or my grandfather or something, and that because of that evil entity, I never had the life with my brother than I should have.

I will never forgive him for all that he did. It really affected me well into my adult life, but I feel like I understand it a little bit more. If he's still out there, I hope he got away from whatever evil thing had its grip over him. And I want him to know that I do have a happy life. And if the trauma he caused me ever weighs heavy on him, he can be sure that I'm no longer held back by the agony that he caused me throughout my childhood. My mother has always been such a giving person.

My parents tried to have kids, and after years of no luck, they went to the doctor to learn that due to cysts she would probably never conceive. So, instead, they adopted me at the age of two. and fostered many children in between. This also led my mother to start her own daycare so she could be helpful to others in need, as well as be around as many children as she wanted. She was always so kind and supportive to everyone and all the kids that we watched. It was no wonder that everyone liked her. She ran the daycare out of our home for most of the time that I lived there too,

which meant that I helped a lot. But I didn't mind. It was like having little brothers and sisters any time to play with. My dad even built another large room to the back of our house, as the main play area for the daycare. He even built a new door to the backyard with a covered porch that led to the yard with all the outdoor toys and games. The daycare was doing great,

and since I grew up around so many kids, I found no reason to stop helping out. And, in fact, I started officially working there with my mom. And that's where the story took place. At this point, I was 23, and had been working there full time for a few years now, while I went to school for children's psychology. I ran errands for my mom, like picking up groceries, and I helped with scheduling and making meals and snacks for the kids.

We also planned special activities for the kids at least once a week. It was close to Mother's Day, so we had picked up some extra supplies for the kids to make gifts for their moms. We had materials to make cards, treat bags, and even paper flower bouquets. I loved walking around and helping them out, so we got them all in spots with like four or five kids at each table to split them up a bit. Now for the kids. We had about 16 kids there that day, because I remember one table empty, so we just put all the supplies on it.

We had quite a few regulars, but would have newcomers join every so often too, which is when I met Blake. Blake was about seven, I believe. He could fully talk and hold a normal conversation with you. He loved sharks, and he could tell you just about anything about, any shark that you named.

I will add, though, that he had a cochlear implant in his left ear, as it will be relevant later. But you would never expect that he had hearing difficulties, as this boy could hear me from across the loud room. Blake had been coming to our daycare for about a month or so, so I was still trying to get to know him at the time. I sat at the table he was at, and I asked him and the other kids what they wanted to. and make, and they all wanted to start with a card.

I laid out the markers, glue, stickers, and scissors, and I let them get started, and as I asked them about themselves and things their mom liked to help give ideas on what to make. Blake said that his mom loved tulips, but he didn't know how to draw them, so I showed him an easy way to do it. He said that he wanted to buy real tulips for her, because she was the best mom that he'd ever had. At the time, it sounded like a weird statement, but there could have been many reasons for having multiple mothers, right? So I didn't dwell on it. Then, one of the kids wanted to cut their card out in the shape of a heart, so I agreed and passed her the scissors. I noticed Blake staring at one of the

other kids using the scissors, so I asked him if he wanted to cut out his card too, and he said yes. So, once the other one was done, I went to hand him the scissors, and he reluctantly grabbed them and just stared at them. I started to ask what was wrong, when he dropped them on the table in front of me and asked me to do it. I tried reassuring him that he could do it because they were safety scissors and he was given permission to use them, because an adult was around, but I thanked him for being considerate or safe. He seemed a bit uncomfortable with the scissors near him, kind of like a kid would act when they saw an animal or something they were afraid of. So I asked him if there was something wrong, and he explained further.

He said he didn't like scissors because that was how he lost his ear. I was confused at first because, of course, he had both ears, but I knew about his implant, so really he just lost his hearing or never had it. So I tried explaining to him that he had both of his ears, and he was referring to not being able to hear out of it. He confirmed this by nodding and continued to tell me something a bit more disturbing. I may not remember the exact phrasing, but this is what he told me. In my old life, I heard a lot of girls.

I made them cry and I made them bleed, but one girl got away because I didn't tie the string right. I'm not good at tying my shoes either. I tried to catch her, and she grabbed some scissors and pushed them into my ear. It hurt really bad, and it made me bleed, and I couldn't hear anymore. Then she put the scissors in my heart, and I died. So I just sat there in shock of what I had just heard, and he must have seen the terror on my face because he followed that up with something like, but it's okay

I don't want to hurt anyone now I talked to God and he gave me another chance but I lost my ear for good because of how bad I was I'm a lot nicer now and then he continued to stare at me and wait for me to cut out his card after I looked at the other kids

and noticed that they had paid no attention to his story and were still focused on their own projects I just shook it off and cut it out I watched him from there as he carefully picked the colors for his card and talked about his mom. He was his normal self. He never brought that up again or anything related to it.

I had never heard him talk about anything so gruesome, so it really caught me off guard. Later on that day, I had a moment and I talked to my mom about it. She thought it was pretty alarming too, so she agreed to ask Blake's parents about it, thinking maybe he watched or saw something that he shouldn't have. They said they had never heard anything like that, and they also don't allow him to watch anything violent,

so they had no clue where he could have gotten it from. They were surprised by what he said because they had never said anything to him, but did admit that when speaking about his implant before, he would claim that they were wrong as to why he had to wear it, but never clarified or explained anything further. I don't know why I was the chosen one to hear that story, but it was truly creepy, hearing it from a little kid like Blake. I've been trying to find some kind of story on a kidnapper or killer that was stabbed in the ear,

but no luck yet. At the same time, I'm kind of scared to find something. Also, he's never mentioned anything since that day about, his past life and I'm not sure if I want him to or not.