As The Raven Dreams Podcast - Scary Stories For Dark Dreams - Vol 31 | ATRD Podcast

Episode Date: March 30, 2025

Today we have more than an hour and a half of true scary stories with a late night ambience. Scary Stories For Dark Dreams is a collection of older stories, remastered and put together in a long form episode. This Collection includes the following stories; Vacation Stories, Retail stories and Unexplained stories, all from late 2022. So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. Support the channel for Early Access AND more! Patreon ➤ https://patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out the Merch Store! ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Much Love, and Sleep Well... ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #RedditStories ➤ Stories include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Viewer discretion is always advised. ➤ ALL Audio of this Podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format, without explicit permission ➤ If you like any of the following stories, consider subscribing! - Dark Web horror stories, creepy lets not meet stories, stalker stories, Glitch In The Matrix Stories, Unexplained Horror stories, Paranormal stories, cryptid encounter stories, Crazy ex lover stories, creepy neighbor stories, quantum immortality, true scary stories from reddit, or any other True horror Stories! ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Story 1: 00:24 Story 2: 18:22 Story 3: 30:28 Story 4: 42:02 Story 5: 53:16 Story 6: 1:06:11 Story 7: 1:14:55 Story 8: 1:19:53 Story 9: 1:29:56 Story 10: 1:37:26 One ad spot after the First story Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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voyage, the conditions can't If you have a true scary story you'd like to share with the podcast, go to as-the-ravendreams.com and click the button to send it my way. Also, if the platform you're on has the option to rate the podcast or leave a comment, please consider doing so. And as always, thank you. Back in the 80s, my parents were living in Venezuela with my maternal grandparents. But when they found out that my mom was pregnant with their first kid,

me, they wanted to make a better life for themselves. So, with my grandparents' encouragement, they moved to the States. They moved around a bit, starting in California, since my dad already had family living there, and then we ended up making our way to Montana where they eventually settled for good. After I was born, they had my little brother a few years later. So, at the ages of 8 and 3, they took us back to visit Venezuela and meet our grandparents, and our other family for the first time. It was a lot of fun from what I remember.

There were a lot of cousins around my age, and we all had a blast. We played kickball, and I remember climbing this huge tree in my grandparents' backyard, and I just laid around on the branches. laughing at a few of my younger cousins that couldn't reach us. I remember eating way too many of these little pies that my grandma made herself. They had some kind of fruit glaze inside and were sprinkled with cinnamon on top. I have no idea what she called them. I could never remember, but they were phenomenal.

And I really didn't want to leave when we did. After we got back, my parents promised us that we would go. at least once a year and even told us maybe when I had asked if we could move there, not having any sense of distance and the difference between a state and a full country move. All I knew was, as a kid, I loved it. Unfortunately, things happened and we weren't able to go back there the next year, but then we did the year after, when my little sister was born. It was just as much fun that year as it was the last.

time. It would be a few more years before we would be able to go again, but we did have some family come and visit us, which also was a lot of fun. After that, my parents had two more kids, and they decided it would be too expensive, and not safe to travel with five kids and only two adults, so we stopped going as a family. I went one more time with just my dad when my paternal grandfather passed away. Of course, it wasn't all for fun, but it was still great seeing some of my family that I had only talked to on the phone or via email. After that, we pretty much stopped going.

We went on vacations as a family in the States, but it wasn't the same. I had fun with my siblings, but there was such a strong family connection between all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and traditions that I really hung on to. And I knew that when I was capable to do so, I knew I would be returning on my own. That way, I could do what I wanted, however long I wanted to, while I was there, and that was exactly what I set out to do. In my early 30s, I had completed my college degree and was at a pretty steady job. I was working my way into the position that I wanted. The place I worked for had great pay and benefits, as well as vacation time.

And, since I didn't have a family or even a significant other at this point, I decided I would make my vacation time useful and go on my Venezuela trip. My closest cousin and one of my best friends, Daniela, was going to be turning 34, so I thought it would make for a great surprise, to show up, and then we could all go out and have fun. I talked with my parents about it, as I at least wanted someone to know where I was, and I would prefer having a ride to the airport, and they loved the idea. They helped me with the locations and where the safest areas to stay were.

They were adamant that someone would let me stay with them, but I also didn't want to be an unexpected guest, and I still wanted to be able to explore on my own, so I wanted to find a hotel. Then I got it all booked and paid for. The time finally came for my trip, and my parents took me to the airport, but made me stuff some extra things in my case to give to people. It was a little nerve-wracking as I'd never flown alone, and I had a layover, so I had to check in, bored, do all of it on my own and quickly. But I did it with minimal issue. When I arrived, I got a ride from the airport to the hotel, which was about 45 minutes away,

and I checked in as normal. Now, I will say here that I do speak Spanish. I wasn't perfectly fluent at it, but I knew enough that I could hold a conversation, talk to people at the airport, on the bus, tell the receptionist about me and things like that. I just sometimes get tripped up on less common words or phrases. However, I think I surprise people when they realize that I do speak Spanish, such as the hotel receptionist.

She lightened up quite a bit with me when I did, and even gave some great suggestions on places to visit and areas to work. avoid. As we all do, in the States I'd been told by both my parents and this lady of certain little areas to stay clear from, as it was typically nothing but trouble. I got to my room, though, and it was beautiful. It had an older theme to it, but was very comfortable to be in. I called my parents once I checked in and decided to freshen up before I went to my cousins. After a few hours, I made my way over to their place. I was able to get a bus that took me most of the way and then a cab to take me the rest.

Just as expected, they were beyond ecstatic to see me. I'm sure part of them was hoping to see the whole family, which I would have loved to have been able to do for them, but we all still enjoyed our time together. We must have sat and talked for hours, going through photos, little trinkets and memorable times, and then swapping gifts. By then it was already getting late, so I ended up getting dinner for us all, and they gave me a ride back to my hotel after offering to have me stay with them.

We all agreed to meet up the next day, and Daniela and I were going to go around the area for some sightseeing. Daniela was up and at my room early the next day, barely giving me enough time to get ready before she yanked me out of my room. We had a great day, though. She took me to an old movie theater and a park that we went to as kids. We were shopping and even went to a nice place to eat. There were so many memories brought back in one day.

It was incredible. The next day was her birthday, and after having a celebration with the family, we were going to go out and have some fun. The next day went as planned, too. We had a party at her place, as she was still living with her parents, my aunt and uncle. Then, after they settled in for the night, we headed out.

She said she knew a good place that we could go to party, as she had been there plenty of times, and even joked about finding a guy there. When we got there, I was a little surprised by the way it looked, but I trusted Daniela since she said she had been there many times before. It quite honestly looked like a shack with a shoddy extension built on to the side to extend the size of the place. There were a few people standing around outside smoking. It all seemed a little sketch, but upon approaching them, they were all very friendly.

Everyone was well-mannered, most spoke Spanish, but also some English, which helped me a bit too. There were a few people there that Daniela knew already, so she introduced me to her friends. We all had a great time. And I tried drinks that I had never heard of, or tried in the States, which probably also affected my ability to think clearly, I'm sure. After some time, I felt like I was. going to just collapse with how exhausted I was. Somehow, Daniela looked like she still had hours left in her. I didn't want to leave her, but since she seemed to have friends around, I was less worried about it.

I told her in order for me to be able to function whatsoever the next day, I was going to have to head back to my hotel. She understood, so I hugged her and headed out the front. one of the older guys out there, old enough to be my father, I'm sure, offered to give me a ride back. He was really nice and didn't give off any weird vibes, but I declined, saying that I didn't want to be a bother and insisted that I would just get a cab. He understood, and he told me to be safe. I continued walking towards the street to see if I could wave down a cab to stop. There were a few that would drive a ride a car to stop.

around the area, but you could also call to get one. After waiting a few and with none driving by, I finally called the company and went through to get one. Shortly after, a car pulled up, came to a stop, and I got in. He asked me for the location, and after I told him, he headed off as normal. I was pretty bad at Smalltalk, unless they brought it up, so I just sat there quietly for a few moments. Not long into the drive, however, the driver asked me if I was going to be here long,

and if I was there for work or just personal reasons. All this conversation also took place in English. Again, for the most part, people have been very friendly and welcoming, so I didn't find it hard to talk to this guy either. I told him I lived in the U.S., but I was here visiting family. Then he started asking odd questions.

Like, if I was staying alone or if someone was waiting for me, how long I was going to be there, if I had other plans while I was here and other more prying questions. Even being under the influence, something didn't seem right. I started making my answers shorter and shorter and kind of looking around to see if I recognized any buildings or landmarks to tell me how close we were. But that's when I noticed that I didn't have a clue where the hell I was.

Nothing looked familiar, and there were very few streetlights. Then he excused himself from the conversation saying he had a call to take, which is when I noticed that he had an earpiece in. When he took the call, he spoke in Spanish. I was relieved to be done with the conversation, but that didn't really mean that I was out of the conversation. I started hearing some alarming things being talked about, just by my driver,

and I pretended to not know what he was saying. As mentioned, my Spanish isn't the best, but I knew enough to understand most of the things he was saying, such as young, American, pretty, small, should be easy how much, not enough, where should I take her? And similar, startling phrases. Again, I was trying to not look afraid, and I took out my phone to start texting everything I could about where we were,

what this guy looked like and what was being said. That's when I noticed the guy was looking over at my phone, phone to try and see what I was doing. Again, I was just trying to be sly about it all, so I was looking over at him in my peripheral, and I caught a glimpse of something shiny next to him, almost like it was in his pocket, or belt loop, maybe. I could see a handle sticking out, and it looked like a weapon. I'm pretty sure it was a knife. I quickly tried to send what I already had to Daniela when the car came to a stop. It was at a crossroad and there was some small homes to the side.

And I think the conversation with the person on the phone had ended because that's when I noticed he wasn't talking to them anymore. That's when, without looking over at me, he asked me if I knew Spanish. It may have been stupid, but I decided to respond in Spanish. If you let me out of here, you'll never see me again and I will not tell anyone. We seemed to sit in silence for what seemed like forever until he finally drove off with me still in the car. At this point, I thought I blew it,

and I started dialing 171 when he stopped in front of a building that looked like a hospital or a clinic of some kind. He got out of the car, walked around to my side and opened the door, and then leaned in saying, "'Americans are more trouble anyways.' Then he stood up with his hand on his weapon and motioned for me to get out. I quickly darted out of the car and into the building, watching from inside as he got back in and took off.

I stood there terrified that he may come back until someone came around and tapped me on my shoulder. She asked me if I was okay, and I said yes, and asked if I could stay there until my friend picked me up, and she agreed. She looked around outside and seemed a bit hesitant maybe, so I told her in Spanish, please, I just need a safe place. I won't be a bother. And she seemed to understand. She had me sit in the waiting room while I called my cousin.

She got my messages, thankfully, and did try calling back, but since my mind was all over the place, I had missed her call. I finally got a hold of her, and she was yelling at me terrified as she had driven into my hotel, and I wasn't answering, and the front desk said that they hadn't seen me either. I described where I was, and she talked to the lady that let me stay there and figured out where I was to come and pick me up. Before I left, the lady told me that I was brave, and I was also lucky to have escaped, and then in Spanish she said something about them not being so forgiving.

From there, Daniela insisted that I stay with them at their place, and I agreed. It sucked that I was going to lose money, but the guy knew where I was staying, and I didn't like that thought. So, we went up to my room together to get my stuff, and then went back to her place. The whole time, I kept apologizing, because I felt like I had cut her birthday fund short for being so naive. but she laughed and said that other than being scared that she may have gotten me kidnapped, that was the most fun she'd had in a while. She told me about the scary side of Venezuela and how there had been abductions, so she was surprised that they let me go and couldn't really make sense of it,

but we tried not to dwell on it. We decided to keep it to ourselves because we didn't want any of our parents to be afraid, or not want us to do anything like this, but we also did not take it lightly. For the rest of the week that I was there, I never traveled alone. I was always with someone that I trusted, or made sure that there were plenty of people around.

Plus, I got some pepper spray to at least give me a fighting chance. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was still a lot of fun, and no more really risky situations. I've gone back once since then, and Daniela has also stayed with me in the States, and she had a blast as well. We just know that when you travel somewhere you're not familiar with, anything could happen. So just stay safe, especially whenever you're traveling alone.

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and profite. Embarque and celebrate. Rigolet. Publié, savouré, admire, and profite. Vi-a-R-Ai, La Voa Kahn Em. Back when I was 18, right before I graduated high school, I got what I thought was a dream job at the time. It was a local computer store that sold anything

that you could possibly need from pre-built desktops and laptops to the materials you needed to build your own. I loved it. It was like being in a toy store as a child. The problems started arising when we had a new shift manager start. We'll call her B. Now, as mentioned, I was 18 when I started there and was 19 by the time B started there. I'm also a guy, smaller build, like I probably barely looked 19.

If it wasn't for my height, people would probably probably. think that I was still a kid. So it was kind of weird when B would say how I reminded her of her own kid, and that she was old enough to be my mom, but would also make comments about me being adorable or cute. She would talk down to me, like it was obvious that I was less than her and then would poke fun at me, and when I would look visibly annoyed, she would fake an apology, or just say, oh, You know I'm just messing with you. And leave it at that.

But I was the only person she did this with. So, yeah, it kind of pissed me off. I did my best to ignore her. I learned how much my safety and my feelings, I guess you could say, did not matter to her, though. One day, while I was zoning the shelves in front, a woman came in, probably in her 40s, maybe early 50s. Anyway, she looked close to my mother's age, so I assumed that's how old she was.

When she walked in, she looked up at the aisle signs and immediately looked confused. I saw that she was holding what looked like a laptop battery and a piece of paper, so I approached her to see if I could help. She immediately had a warm smile, thanked me, and explained how her laptop battery fried, so she needed a new one,

but she also wanted to get a new charging cable since she was using one that didn't go to the laptop, and her son thought that she may have killed it that way. Then, on the piece of paper, she had written down the name and details of a specific hard drive that she wanted, saying her son was going to replace hers because she had a very small one.

I confirmed that I could help her find everything she needed and led the way to the good. feeling confident about this. Again, this was one of the things that I loved to do, so I was smiling and laughing with her as we made our way to the first aisle that we needed. The first thing that we looked for was the battery. We go to the aisle and show her the ones that were compatible for her system.

There was a name brand that matched her laptop, and then other third-party brands. She asked me the difference in which one would be better, thankfully we didn't work on commission so I could give my honest opinion and not necessarily persuade them to go with the more expensive one. While explaining her options, I noticed that she wasn't looking at the batteries, or like she was thinking, but just making eye contact and smiling the whole time.

It was a bit awkward at first, so I would look over at the shelf and back at her to keep myself from getting distracted. When I finished, I paused for a second for her to decide or ask something else. But instead, she just giggled and said, Oh, you are too cute. Again, she had to be close to my mother's age, so it was a weird comment, and I didn't know how to respond.

Was she hitting on me, or just making a weird comment like B did? I gave an awkward chuckle, said thanks, and tried to move on. and she grabbed the battery that I had suggested and had me lead the way to the next item, which was the charging cable. We went to the aisle with the ones that we had, and after looking at a few rows, I couldn't find the specific one that she needed. There were a few bins on the top shelf that had random ones and extras in there, so I thought I would look around in them to see if we might find the one that we need. I had to get a ladder to reach the top, so I went and grabbed it and started climbing to the top to get to it. After grabbing a tub, I looked down to look at the steps,

when I noticed this woman is again smiling and looking me up and down. I got back down to the floor trying to ignore her looks, and continued shuffling through the tub. That's when she made a comment about having big feet and asked what shoe size I wore. I awkwardly told her, and she made the comment, Oh, you know what they say about guys with big feet right? And started giggling like a teenage girl.

It was a stupid comment that I would expect from someone my age, not someone hers. I again just gave a half laugh and tried to regain my composure and apologized because we didn't have the specific cable. I offered to have it ordered for her or suggested a few other places she could try as well I put the tub on the bottom shelf not wanting to climb back up there and suggested that we go to find her hard drive next

and we got to the hard drives that she was looking for and the one that was specifically written down was not cheap this was back in about 2009 and she was looking for a 500-gigabyte drive When she saw the price, she was pretty surprised, saying that her son failed to mention the price. So, I did what I usually did and offered some alternatives, like cheaper brands or maybe a smaller size. However, she was adamant that she got that one, specifically since that's the one he suggested, and she hesitantly grabbed it. She asked if there were any sales, discounts, or coupons that could be applied to it.

I told her there wasn't, but then remembered our store rewards club. When you signed up, you got a 10% off coupon for your first purchase as a member. I told her if she hadn't done that yet, she could sign up at checkout and then use that as a coupon. She seemed pretty happy about that and hugged me, saying that I was smart and something like, ooh, I could just kiss you. Again, I laughed and asked her if that was all she needed, and if so, said I could check her out up front. Cue the next cheesy comment from her, of course.

And she said, I've been checking you out this whole time, sweetie, and winked at me. I'm no good at flirting, and again, she was my mother's age, so it just felt incredibly awkward to me. So I led her to the front, smiling, when I saw B up there doing something at one of the registers. As I went around to the other side of the register to start the rewards page for her,

she shouted out for B using her actual name, which made her do the same. She came over and they hugged squealing like little girls. She asked B how she'd been, and they chatted for a few moments, when B noticed me standing there waiting. So they directed their attention to me. B said something like me being cute and patiently waiting, and the lady turned to look at me saying, Is this the guy you were telling me about?

She nodded, smiling. I'm sure I looked incredibly confused, because I was. They obviously knew each other, but she also talked to her about me, and what about, and also why? The lady then said, Well, he definitely is a cutie, but he's ignoring. all my advances while making a pouty face. Then B said something to me along the lines of,

Don't be a tease, Jake, she's just lonely in trying to find love. And her response was, or just trying to get lucky, and they both started laughing. They thought this was totally appropriate, and it just made me feel more and more uncomfortable. I tried excusing myself so that I could leave this conversation, to which the lady grabbed my arm begging me to stay, and B told me that I needed to ring her up.

I told her that I wasn't feeling well and that I would get someone else to come up if she didn't want to do it. She then mocked me about me being nervous, or scared, and that I shouldn't be because I was a guy and that I should learn to take compliment. I didn't want to say or do something that I would regret, so I just started walking away. away when the lady then groped me.

I jumped back, and then I took off to the back, leaving them both laughing. I didn't know what to do. I was pacing back and forth worried that B would be back there and probably give me an earful, and then I was worried what would happen if I reported it. Would it really even matter? It was a customer that really was the problem, but B's comments did not help. I stayed back there for a while until one of my friends that worked there came back

saying that B was looking for me. I asked him about the lady, and he told me that he hadn't seen her. I told him what happened, and he agreed that it was messed up, and that I should still report it, so I decided to just go home for the day and then report it the next day.

I managed to leave a note on the manager door, saying that I was leaving for the day, Dodge B on my way out, and get in my car. However, that was not the end. The lady was still in the parking lot and had noticed me and was doing a brisk walk towards my car smiling. I may have burned out of the parking lot. To not drag it out too much, I'll just say that that place lost a lot of my respect.

I reported the situation to the assistant manager, and he blew it off, basically saying that maybe I just misunderstood the situation and that he was sure B didn't mean anything by it. I even mentioned how the customer had groped me, and he partially agreed with B that I was a guy and that it's not like my life was in danger. I quit then and there. I grabbed my stuff and told them to shove it and left.

My friend was out front on his break, and I told him everything that had. happened. Thankfully, he agreed with me that it was messed up. I told him to look out for himself and left. He's the only person that I still keep in contact with, but I never returned to that place, not even to shop. Sorry, but that was just a really creepy experience.

How can you say someone remind you of their kid and then in the same conversation, flirt with them, and touch them? It's just gross. Although very amateur, I consider myself an avid ghost hunter. I love listening to and reading ghost stories, as well as watching a few shows on TV. I can only tolerate some of them, though, as I felt others were over-dramatized and made the real ones look watered down. I love looking for old abandoned places or haunted buildings to explore. Thankfully, I was never alone in my ventures.

I had two other friends that were just as enthusiastic as myself. Rachel and Harlan were typically with me in every building that I went through. I got a bonus at work, so I treated myself to a new and better EMF reader and a digital audio recorder. I had just been using either the recorder or a spare smartphone, or a cheap battery-operated tape recorder, and I had been wanting a professional one. Of course, once I received them, I was itching to go somewhere to try it out,

but I wanted to go somewhere new. So, after some discussing and planning, the three of us decided to check out a building that was supposedly haunted. We learned about this building through a site with a list of abandoned places in our area, There were comments saying that it definitely had some paranormal activity going on, and for the most part, it wasn't monitored or guarded and there were no signs saying you couldn't enter. So, we decided to go forward with it.

The night comes for our adventure, so Rachel and Harlan meet at my place so we could all drive out there together. When we arrived, there wasn't really much in the way of a parking lot or a drive-rifice, way because of how old it is. So we parked on the side where the grass seemed to thin out. The outside itself looked like it could tell a story on its own. It looked like a small castle. It was made of brick that looked in between a light gray to a white. It had rounded corners with really nice looking arched windows.

The side that we parked on looked like it shifted some, like it was starting to sink or maybe fall. But it didn't look like it was. be a safety issue, so we still went in. It had a heavy wooden door that opened inward. We had to push on it pretty hard, as it seemed to catch on the floor due to it being slanted because of the time that had passed. I mentioned this to keep in mind that it takes the little force to get it to move. I started by pulling out the camera that I had to do an intro, including who all was here

and where we were. Then I gave Rachel my EMF reader to use as Harlan had his own, and I set up my new recorder. We all stayed together to walk through the bottom floor. The living room still had an old couch in it. It had dust on it, but it looks like it had been disturbed recently. It was entirely possible, as others have checked this place out before, but there was still the idea that someone else could have been nearby. that was kind of unsettling.

There was a huge frame that hung above the fireplace, but whatever was in it had been cut out. There was a small kitchen with an old style oven in it, and then we saw a room that was pretty much empty, but it had bookshelves on all sides. I think it may have been some kind of library or study of some sort. We weren't getting any hits on the EMF, so we decided to move upstairs.

The second floor had a wide walkway that actually looked over to the bottom floor near the front door. To the right of the stairs was another small room that looked like a den. There weren't any doors, and there was another doorway on the opposite side. We started to go towards the left, which had, I believe, four doorways. One was to a pretty simple bathroom with a single disconnected tub. It had a curtain that seemed to go around it, but the bars. that held it seemed to have been eaten by rust and were barely standing. The next door led to a smaller bedroom, and judging by the decor it belonged to a child.

The trimming was a light pink or purple with the floral pattern carved out of it. There was no electricity in the place, so the only source of light was our flashlights that we were carrying. Nothing was really of interest there, so we moved on. one of the other rooms must have belonged to the adults or the owners of the house. There was a large bed frame in the center of the room, as well as a walk-in closet, that actually still had a few things hanging up. Rachel moved the clothes, and, as she did this, I got a strong smell of perfume. By the look on her face, I could tell that she could smell it, too. I figured it just came from the clothes, but she opened one of the jackets and smelled the inside and said she couldn't smell it.

We just figured it was an odd occurrence and moved on. Rachel was still looking through the closet, and I went back to the room to look around and ask questions like, Is anyone here with us? Harlan was with us up to this point, but then he said he was going to go on ahead to the next room. Not long after this, I hear the beeping sound from that EMF reader, and Rachel came walking out of the closet showing me the screen. We began asking more questions, but the only response coming out seemed to be static. Sometimes we could hear words or parts of them, but this was just garbled. So, we continued asking questions in hopes of getting answers that made sense.

Rachel and I left the room we were in and went to the one Harlan was in and his EMF reader had been going off as well. That room, it seemed a bit more generic. The walls looked in off-white. There was a smaller bed frame with a nightstand next to it and otherwise the room was pretty empty. We all went to the last room together

and both readers were going crazy. But was weird to me, was that there was nothing in this room but a chair. It looked like an old rocking chair, but the rocker part was broken and rotted out, so the chair was leaning on one side. I told Rachel to set the reader on the chair on a whim, and when she did, it stopped.

Harlins was still going as he held it, though. We began asking more questions like, was this your room? Are you still here? Did your life end here, and so on. Then, Harlan's reader stopped, too. We stood there for several minutes after that, waiting to see if something else happened. But there was nothing.

Rachel really enjoyed this. Like, she never hesitated on going on one of these adventures. But Harlan almost got into these more than I did. So when all the activities stopped, it seemed to upset him, like we had just lost a big catch. So he decided to go outside for a few minutes. minutes to gather his thoughts and to get something from my car. Rachel and I stayed in the room to see if we could get anything back. She asked for the recorder and began asking questions and just talking aloud.

After a series of questions, we heard what sounded like Harlan standing in the hallway and talking. I remember hearing, This is messed up. What are we doing here? Rachel and I looked at each other, just kind of smirking, as it was, one, unusual for Harlan to not feel comfortable in these situations, and two, something we've never really heard him say before. Rachel called out for him, and when there was no response,

she started walking towards the doorway and looked around. She said Harlan was nowhere nearby, so I walked over to her to confirm this. That's when we heard a loud slam, followed by banging, and Harlan yelling. We quickly started running down the stairs when I noticed the door was closed. We both stopped at the bottom of the stairs. For myself, it was definitely out of confusion. But it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, before I started walking towards the door,

and then it came flying open with Harlan on the other side. He had a look of confusion and anger, maybe more so annoyance when he gave us the normal spiel of, That wasn't funny, guys. We had to convince him that it wasn't us, because we were still upstairs until we heard him talking, and then heard the slam. It seemed the talking is what got him to believe us.

We explained what we had witnessed, and he said he experienced something quite the same. He heard what sounded like Rachel talking, and me laughing when the door shut. He was trying to open it, but it wouldn't budge, until it seemed like it was pulling him back into the house as it flew open. That's when the conversation turned to said door. It was slightly off and very heavy.

Rachel definitely couldn't move it herself, and if Harlan or I tried to, it took effort, as you had to hold it up as you moved it. So it wasn't possible to move it so quickly. He was definitely in agreement at that point, but then we explained to him that we heard his voice as well. He confirmed what we were already thinking, which was he never went back upstairs either.

Something was definitely mimicking our voices. We decided to leave since the door slammed, thinking maybe we were upsetting something, but made plans to go back with more equipment, like a thermal camera. A few days after our trip, I decided to go through the audio that we had gotten to see if maybe we could make out some words from the garbled mess.

To my amazement, there was nothing the whole time we were trying to talk to it, until we were outside with Harlan. I could hear parts of our conversation with him, but when we stopped talking and there was presumably dead air, you could clearly hear on the recording, Welcome to my home. We heard nothing of the sort while we were standing there. I showed this to the other two, and they agreed.

We do have plans to go back, as mentioned, but Harlan was in an accident, so just as soon as he is out of his cast, he wants to go. And I will be sure to share anything else that we experience. I used to work in an edgy and popular clothing store when I was younger. I shopped there all the time as a teen when I had the money, so I thought it would be really fun to work there and get discounts, right? While the discount was cool, I learned a lot about people, and I think that proved to be more beneficial in the long run. I had my share of bad and even creepy customers.

One of the worst times I remember was around Halloween. The one that I started at was in an outdoor store. strip mall. It went in a square, basically. You could walk around the outside area to the different stores or restaurants, and the one I was in was pretty much in the corner, between a shoe store and an ice cream shop. And we sold our fair share of spooky apparel and accessories, as well as a few costumes, so it wasn't abnormal to see people coming in wearing one, or all decked out in cosplay. We just really had a few basic rules, which were no masks could be worn inside the building,

and obviously no weapons. It was a few days before Halloween, on a Saturday night, and there was a group of people that came in that were all in costume, or their attempted costumes. Some of them were just wearing a shirt with fake blood on it, or a dress with a witch hat,

that kind of thing. They were being kind of left, laughing and screaming, knocking over some of the display items. I noticed in all this commotion that someone was wearing a Michael Myers mask and jumpsuit, and they were just standing over there with them. I hadn't noticed when they walked in if he'd had it on at the time, so I asked him to remove it. Instead of doing so, he just looked over at me and then looked away.

So I paged my manager Carlos to let him know, knowing that he wouldn't put up with it. He then walked over to them and told him he needed to take the mask off, or he would have to leave, as it was store policy. Again, the guy just stared at him and cocked his head to the side like he was confused. The other people nearby were all whispering and giggling, so he told them that if their friend, didn't take off the mask, he was going to make them all leave. One of the girls responded saying that he wasn't with them, and they just thought it was funny that this guy was taking it so seriously. The store isn't that big,

so I could see the back of the store from the front, and I could hear them from the most part if I'm standing in the front at the counter, which I was, of course, because I'm still nosy. With all this going on, he then told my... that he needs to leave, and ushers him to the front of the store with little hesitation or fight, thankfully. The rest of them seemed to carry on as normal. They purchased a few cheap things and left, making me think that the other guy really wasn't with them.

After about an hour or so, we got a call to the store that I answered. It was a guy asking really weird questions. He asked what time we closed. How many people were working there tonight, and if one of them was a manager? At first, they almost seemed like normal questions. We've had people ask how many were working in person, in case they had a larger purchase and needed help carrying it out. And, of course, you're always going to have people asking about a manager.

So I answered them accordingly. That night, however, it was two of us and the manager, But one person finished their shift about three hours before closing, so it was just going to be me and Carlos that closed up. Then, they said something like, Oh, I see, thank you, and hung up. Weird, but, oh well. About ten minutes later or so, we got another call.

I could tell it was the same guy by the sound of his voice and his inflections. This time, his questions were about. bit more suspicious. He asked if we locked the doors at all for any reason while we were open. I told him no, only when we were closed, of course. And then, he asked who normally locked up the store and had the key. It was weird, but I really didn't know how else to avoid the question, so I just said that that was all on the manager's list of responsibilities.

But then he asked, what do you do if there's an emergency? Curious and probably falling for something, I asked what he meant. Then he asked, What if there was a fire? What are you supposed to do? Or perhaps a robbery or hostage situation?

At that point, I just said that we would act accordingly and then hung up on him. Even though it was kind of weird and creepy to ask, I was more so worried about hanging up on a customer, so I hollered for Carlos to come to the front, since there weren't any customers at the time. He came up, and I explained to him what had happened, and he agreed that those questions were pretty suspicious,

and that he thought I did the right thing by hanging up on him. He said to page him if the guy calls back, and then headed back to what he was doing. A little on edge, I tried to forget about it, it and continued playing the game that I was playing on my phone. I already did my rounds at the shelves, and there was no point in sweeping until we closed, so I really had nothing else to do. So about 20 minutes in, we get another call.

I answer it, prepared to go get Carlos, but this time the voice seemed muffled, like something may have been covering their face or their phone. This time, the person asked where the manager was, but the way that they said it was creepy. You know how there are some voices that are just unsettling, and that one, or at least how they asked the question, made me really uncomfortable. I started to get up to walk to the back, but the phone still wasn't a cordless one, so I was going to have to put it down to get Carlos. I wasn't going to tell the caller that, though, so I just said, they're right here. Would you like to talk to them?

Hoping to get out of the conversation as well, I was expecting a yes or a no, but instead, their response was, it certainly doesn't look like they're with you, Bridget. So, my thoughts, how the hell did they know my name? And how the hell would they know that my manager wasn't up front. Now, they definitely could have been fibbing on one trying to call me out, but since they

used my name, I was kind of creeped out again. I tried just asking again if they wanted to talk to the manager, but they didn't respond. Thinking they hung up, I started pulling the phone down from my ear and yelled for Carlos. I turned to put the phone on the receiver, which would put me facing the front doors in the wall of glass when I saw someone standing in front of it. It made me jump because I wasn't expecting it, of course, but it only got worse. That's when I realized that it was someone in a Michael Myers mask and jumpsuit holding a phone to their ear.

I noped out of there real quick and ran to the back. I didn't know if I would make it to the front doors to lock it in time, so that was my first reaction. Carlos was coming up front, so being the young small girl that I was, and freaking out, he tried to calm me down to find out what was going on. After explaining what happened, he told me to go ahead and use the phone in the back to call 911 and said he was going to check out the front. I called them, gave them the info, and after waiting a few minutes,

I left the room to make sure that Carlos was okay. He was standing right by the doors looking around, but the guy was nowhere to be found. The cops came, and after getting the information, they stayed around for a bit to see if they would call back or even come back to the store, but they never did. The store phone didn't even have a caller ID, so I don't know if they were able to do anything with the phones. We weren't allowed to close early, but Carlos, Carlos, must have a caller ID, so I don't know if they were able to do anything with the phones. Carlos must have been able to tell that I was pretty shaken up, so he let me go home early. A police officer escorted me to my car, and I went straight home, locking all of my doors and windows. I worked that next evening with Carlos, even though I didn't want to be there at all, but at least this time someone was working with me the whole night.

However, it wasn't much of a relief, as when I got there, I was in full. formed that someone was trying to break into the store that last night. There were visible scratches all over the door and lock, as well as even the glass, like someone was scraping it with something really sharp. I don't know if this person was just doing it to pull a prank, or if they were trying to seriously harm us or do damage, but either way, it was not funny, at all. Not to mention, I still have no idea how they knew my name.

If it was the same guy as earlier, I wasn't even close enough for them to see my name tag. Some people take their stupid Halloween pranks too far. I really didn't feel safe there after that, and it was no one's fault but that guy, so thankfully I was able to transfer to a different store, and I never had any similar experiences at that one. And so, Mr. Myers, I hope that we never meet again, and also, your jokes are not funny. This happened when I went to visit my sister, Alexa, and her husband in Texas. My family had always lived in Colorado, but any chance that she got, Alexa could be found outside, exploring and always on the move. So, the first chance she got after high school, she started moving around to better see the country, I suppose.

She ended up meeting her husband, Edgar, when she lived in Utah and they moved back to Colorado briefly before finally settling in Texas, due to his job. They didn't have kids and didn't plan to, so they still roamed around a lot when they could. She was three years older than me, and I always lived vicariously through her. I still lived in Colorado, and the thought of moving to another state was kind of nerve-wrecking to me, but watching her was good enough for me, especially when she would invite me over to at least see the area, and try to convince me to move as well. So one year my boyfriend at the time, J.P.,

and I decided we would take a vacation down to Texas and stay with them for a few days. It was my fifth anniversary with the company that I worked for, which gave me an extra week of vacation. I was itching to use it before the end of the year, like I usually did, and I wanted to actually go somewhere and do something. Alexa invited us to stay with them and offered to pick us up from the airport if we flew. which would save us a lot on a hotel and gas, so hell yeah, we took the offer. JP had actually been to parts of Texas a few times, so I was the only one that had never been. I was excited and nervous about it all at the same time.

The flight was fine. There was mild turbulence, but it was fine otherwise. Airplanes make me nervous. Like I said, I'm kind of... of a wimp. I hadn't seen Alexa since Christmas, which was nearly six months prior, so it was no surprise when we flipped our lids in the airport. We got back to her place and she showed us to the spare bedroom and then walked us around the rest of their home. It was gorgeous. They had a huge fenced-in backyard with a garden full of produce, and she even made salads with the stuff that she had

grown. And her dog, Ray, which she had brought with her for Christmas, he was a cute little corgi with a lot of energy. We sat and chatted for a while, and I helped her prep dinner, while we waited for Edgar to get off work. We flew out on a Friday, so we would be able to spend time with them over the weekend, while he was off, and Alexa took the week off as well, so we weren't sitting around with nothing to do. We had a cookout and sat out on their back patio, just having a good time and talking and reminiscing. We then got on the topic of camping,

and they suggested that we should do it over the weekend. We weren't expecting this, so, of course, we didn't have any camping supplies, like a tent or sleeping bag. However, they were set on this idea, and while they had an extra tent, We went and bought some other equipment so that we were prepared. So after we got back from shopping,

we stayed at their place that night since it was already late, and then started packing stuff for a camping excursion. We got the tents and sleeping stuff put together, and then we packed a couple of coolers with food and drinks so that we wouldn't run out while we were there. The reason they wanted to pack so much was because it wasn't going to be equipped, trip back to the city if we forgot something. We were going to be staying in the very south parts of Texas, like close to the border.

She said that at night it gets really dark and quiet, and there's rarely anyone around to intrude, so it's a beautiful place to get away. However, it also tends to get cooler, so they warned us to be prepared for that. Otherwise, we got all packed up and took a... Edgar's truck out there. He had a bench seat in the back, so we could all sit in there and have our stuff in the bed. It was perfect. So when we got there, she was absolutely right.

There were trucks every once in a while, where people were patrolling. We saw some guy on a bike with a huge tub-like thing on the back that he was putting trash in. He was picking stuff up, which was pretty cool. But to my surprise, people really did leave a little bit of. us alone. We got the tents set up and then made a fire since it was going to get cold and just kicked back again, talking and having a good time. The guys were constantly trying to one-up themselves, doing push-ups and backflips, so Alexa and I were cracking up, making fun of them. Everything was great until we had a van pull up, and three guys got out of it. I was a little

nervous because I had asked my sister if we would be trespassing, and she said no in that people do this all the time. I know it doesn't make it right, but I trusted her and didn't have any reason to think otherwise. The guys stopped and stood up, dusting themselves off and looking over at them. As two of them approached, I could tell as they got closer that they were in camo, but it was the digital stuff. So they were out in the... the desert-looking area with no green to hide in, as is, but it wasn't the natural-looking stuff. I was already a little nervous, but when Edgar went to welcome them, the guy immediately yelled at him to shut up and not move. He then asked us what we were doing there, and my sister tried explaining

that we were just camping. That's when the first guy waved the second guy over, and we noticed he was holding a gun and started walking over to the guys. J.P. started saying something when the guy raised the gun to his face telling him to shut up again. At this point, I'm freaking out internally and looked over at my sister to gauge her reaction, and the fact that she looked just as terrified did not bode well for me. The first guy told us we weren't allowed to be there, and they made the two guys get on the ground and started restraining them with something other than handcuffs. Then, the first guy made Alexa and I stand up

and had us lean against Edgar's truck. He said we would all have to go with him to make a report and asked us if we had anything illegal on us. We said no. He then started patting us down, but it wasn't a normal pat-down. He was very aggressive, and he seemed to linger when he was touching our hips and our thighs. I then saw that he got close to my sister's face and whispered something.

When he pulled back, she looked over towards me, and I could see that she was about to start crying. He then yelled over to the second man to have them stand up, saying he would be waiting here with him and that we would be going back with him for a strip search since we could be smugglers. The third guy that was standing by the van then came to us and started pulling us over to get in. This is when my sister started pleading with them, saying we weren't here to do anything other than camping, and promised to leave if they would just let us go now. All I could do was nod in agreement as I choked back tears myself.

But the guy wasn't having it, and he started threatening to shoot us if we didn't shut up. As we were stalling to get into the van, the first guy was going through our coolers, and we noticed some lights approaching in front of us. They seemed to slow down as they curved around the area that we were in, and the third guy that was with us started waving at the car. I was beginning to worry it was someone else that was with them and that we were screwed for sure. But then Edgar started yelling out to them.

It made the guy that was with them start to look out frantically, as he didn't know what to do and looked over to the first two guys who were now standing and looking at the strange car, and then back to Edgar. He then started walking swiftly but calmly towards the van, saying, let's go. And the second guy started running over to him. The guy with us said something to the effect of, watch what you tell people, pushing us back. They all got in the van and drove off. The car that we saw had stopped, and the van slowed down as they passed, and then they sped away. Once they were out of view, we ran over to the guys since they still had their hands behind them, but they had them out by the time that we got there.

They had only tied them in a knot with what looked like shoestring, so it wasn't very good or sturdy, thankfully. then the person in the car got out and came over to us. It was an older man in a cowboy hat, and he asked us what was going on and if we were okay. We all frantically started explaining what happened, and the man ran back to his car where he set his phone was and he called for help. After he got off the phone with them, he explained that he was a retired cop,

and he liked to drive out here as well and watch the, sunset, and that he had seen plenty of people doing the same thing as us. But he said that he felt something was off when he saw the van and the man standing with JP and Edgar, so he decided to stop. I could not thank that guy enough, either. When the police showed up and we explained everything, they didn't really seem shocked by any of this. I know they're probably trained to not really.

show expression, but it was just a terrifying situation for us. They seemed like it was just another day. But when Edgar started to become upset about the whole thing, they finally told us this wasn't the first time they've had this reported. They've been telling people not to do this, apparently for this exact reason. But of course, some people don't listen, and some others, like my sister, and Edgar, hadn't heard anything about it. So they took our report and suggested that we leave in case they come back, and we did not

hesitate. We drove back almost in silence to their place, with Edgar trying to lighten up the mood, and then we all went to bed. I tried asking Alexa what the guy said to her, but she refused to acknowledge the question or just wouldn't tell me. I didn't push it beyond that. because obviously it was terrifying. The next day was a bit awkward,

but we quickly pushed forward so that we could still have a good time. We ended up going to an arcade-style bar thing that weekend, and then just hung out at their place. The rest of the week was still fun as well, and by the end of it we had put it behind us. They tried apologizing when we left, but hell, it's not like they expected any of this to happen. The bad part is they never found or caught the guys either.

I just hope that they were never successful in getting someone into that van. Back in 2016, one of my best friends was getting married, and she wanted me to be her maid of honor. I was so ecstatic for them as her girlfriend was a sweetheart, and if there ever was a couple that was meant for each other, it was them. There was no way that I was going to miss it, so I made plans to drive out there. They moved to Michigan and I was living in Wisconsin. They had already gotten themselves a nice little house, so thankfully I was invited to stay with them,

which also meant that I didn't have to leave my little pup Lenny at home. He was a shelter rescue that my mom had been fostering, and I fell in love with him. I was working on training him, so I didn't want to leave him with my mom or anything, and lose the progress. I couldn't afford to take the boat across the lake, so I was planning on driving around it, which meant about seven to eight hours on the road. That wasn't a big deal, though, as I was a grade school teacher, and we were on summer breaks, so I had no real time restraints either. So, I packed up my things, and I headed out for a great week.

I was actually looking forward to sightseeing, and since I had left ahead of schedule, I was able to make my own stops along the way. I may have also gotten carried away and lost track of time, too, as it was starting to get late. I made sure to have extra money so that I could stay at a hotel, either on my way there or home. I thought I would drive as much as my eyes could stand, that way I had less to drive the next morning and more time to explore. I was planning on going another hour or so, but Lenny started whimpering. He was still young, so I knew I was going to have to pull over as soon as possible.

The road was pretty empty where I was, and maybe it was because it was so late, so I stopped on the shoulder that had some trees and grass on the other side of the guardrail. I carried Lenny over the side and stood next to him, stretching some while holding on to the leash. I suddenly started getting this weird feeling like I wasn't alone, like I was being watched. It was odd because I was on the side of this random highway with no one else around. I looked around the trees, though, thinking maybe there was a deer or other wildlife in the area that I was honing in on, but I couldn't see anything. Then I noticed that Lenny seemed to be doing the same thing. I watched as he scanned the field in front of us, and did a double take in the direction of one cluster of trees.

I tried focusing as much as possible to see if I could see something. something, when all the sudden I saw a small figure run between two trees. It startled me, so I gasped a little and immediately looked down at Lenny. He kept turning his head to the side and whimpering. I was not comfortable with this situation, especially since Lenny was confirming that something was there, so I snatched him up and rushed back to my car and drove off. Lenny sat up, looking out the window, going back and forth from the front to the back, like he was trying to find something.

It definitely was not making me feel any better, so I wanted to keep going until he stopped, thinking maybe if he couldn't sense it anymore, then I was safe to stop. When he finally gave up, I stopped at the next exit for a hotel. Unfortunately, I kept running into ones that had no vacancy, or no pets allowed, and the one that did was way too expensive for me. So, I decided to find a well-lit parking lot and just sleep in my car. I found a grocery store that was closed, but had lights in the parking lot, so I parked in the furthest one in the back, took Lenny out one more time, and then positioned to be a lot. myself to sleep for the night. The next morning, I started waking up and was still in that half-asleep, half-a-week state,

and I could hear the nearby trees moving from the wind, or other cars passing by, but was still trying to sleep while I could since I wasn't hearing Lenny yet. But then, I started hearing what sounded like whispering. Again, feeling like I was asleep still, I thought I was asleep. just dreaming. All I was seeing was darkness and hearing whispers. Some were louder than others, like they were closer, but all were incoherent. I couldn't make out any words or conversations being had, until I heard, wake up, being clearly whispered in my ear. It was almost as if I could feel the air being pushed by my ear. Not only was this whispered, but it also felt like someone had

yanked on my arm. This made me jump up immediately to see that I was still in my car, alone, besides Lenny, who was now wide awake looking out my window behind me. I turned around and didn't see anyone there, or anything there. I sat there for a minute gathering my thoughts and catching my breath. The sun was just coming up because it was still a little dark, but there was no way that I was going to be able to sleep anymore, so I set off. I found a McDonald's close by and stopped, so we could both gather ourselves, and get ready for the rest of the drive. Between the night

before and my abrupt awakening, I was done with Michigan, and I was ready to get to my destination. I made minimal stops along the way, and when I finally arrived, I tease them about Michigan being haunted and explained to them what had happened. They had no explanation at the time for the things in the trees, but they said that the place I stopped to sleep in was known as the dangerous part of town. Lots of break-ins, robberies, and there was even one store that was set on fire

due to a disagreement between employees and management. So, they teased it was probably a spirit protecting innocent people in the area, and it was trying to get me out of there. It was really weird, and that's where I left it. I was indifferent when it came to the paranormal, because I had never experienced anything, but I don't know how else to explain what happened. The wedding, the after-party, all of it was fun, and very little went wrong or was stressful. It was a good time after that, but...

I made sure to leave early so I could get home the same day, because I didn't want any more run-ins with whatever was living out there. Now, the reason that I was reminded of this was because I was watching a video on YouTube with different cryptids by state, seeing if there were any interesting ones in Wisconsin, when I learned about melonheads. They were apparently seen in a few different states, and one of those was Michigan.

It was mentioned that they escaped the felt mansion, as they were being tested on there and now they live in the woods, attacking people. I wasn't far from where the mansion was, and all I could think about was the thing in the woods. Did I encounter a melonhead by chance? It still doesn't explain the weird whispering. All I know, though, is that the next time we get together, they're either coming to me

or I'm saving up to take the boat across the lake. 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 glided 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 past 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 instead 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 worked at an old video rental store in my early twenties. No, it wasn't the blue and yellow one though, but one that could be found in smaller rural cities. At one point I had an accident

outside of work causing me to break my tibia. I, of course, was put in a cast and had to be on bed rest for a few weeks. As expected, though, my manager, called me during this time, knowing I'm supposed to be resting, to ask if I could come in for about six hours. There's usually at least three people working, and one person had called in on this day, and the other then decided that they wanted to quit when they went to lunch. They left and just never came back. The manager had to do the schedule and something else, so he didn't have the ability to man the register at the same time. He said he would give me an extra break and that I could sit down, of course, while I was there.

I agreed, since I really couldn't afford missing a lot of work anyways. Thankfully, my roommate helped me in was kind enough to drive me there since I knew my mom would refuse to let me go. Once I got there, my manager helped me get set up in a chair and a prop for my leg to rest, on the bottom shelf behind the counter. It was definitely wonky, but it worked, and I really appreciated his efforts when he could have just told me to suck it up. Anyways, the evening was fine for the first few hours.

People actually noticed my leg since the swinging door on the side was by the entrance so they could see my leg and the crutches leaning against the counter. Surprisingly, this made people more conceiving, considerate in getting stuff themselves, or leaning in to hand me their payment method. It was about 8 p.m. when my manager came out saying they had to go get the key, because the person that quit was a shift manager and opened that day, so they had the key. It was a Tuesday, I think, or another weird weekday, so I knew that it was going to be a slower night,

and I didn't have any problems being there alone. We weren't supposed to lock the door unless there was an emergency, but they told me I could in case I needed to, so the store wasn't unoccupied. They left saying that it shouldn't take more than 20 minutes or so, and left. As I usually do, I brought a book with me to read and had music playing on the old radio that was up front. Shortly after, a guy came in and immediately looked around the store after greeting me. me. He made a quick comment about my leg, as people did, and after answering him, he walked off to look at the movies. He walked over to the horror section. He looked like an average guy,

short hair, jeans, a shirt, average build, and height. Basically, he didn't stand out and didn't put off any weird vibes either. There was also a younger couple in there as well, so I just looked up at my book at times to watch them. After the couple left, the guy approached the counter, smiling, and asked if I was the only one here. We weren't supposed to be left alone, so I told him no, and that my manager was in the back working on the books. He raised his eyebrow like he was confused, but then just shrugged and walked away.

I was curious, but then started wondering if he was going to ask him. for a manager. That typically happened when they wanted to complain, of course, or get a fee waived, so I zoned out trying to think of an excuse as to why my manager couldn't come out, or why I couldn't go get them when he made his way back up to the counter. It made me jump, because he had tossed a few different movies onto the counter, said, I got a question for you. I looked up, smiling, and before I could respond,

He leaned in asking in a deeper, slower voice, which one of these movies would you watch on a first date? I kind of chuckled, as this was the first time I had gotten this question and looked down at his choices. I immediately noticed three of the four were not ones that I recognized. One was a movie that I knew and actually liked, whereas the others looked a bit more risque.

We didn't have those kind of adult videos, but we did have rated R ones. When I saw him in the horror section, I figured that's what he had picked out, which made me laugh. When I looked up at him, he had a flat look on his face, like he was waiting for an actual answer. So I chose the one that I knew, smiling, saying that that was a good movie. I looked up to see that his face had now changed to one of disappointment. I just kind of waited a few moments to see if he would say something. But when he didn't, I tried to break the silence by saying, Sorry, I've just never seen the other ones.

Then he seemed to come back to the conversation with a smug grin. He said, Nah, I get it. The other one would probably put you in the mood, right? And let out this little laugh. It was a bit awkward, as I'd never been asked something so personal by a complete stranger, so I looked towards the computer screen to try to ignore the question. He didn't get the hint, though, and continued to stand there.

In fact, he leaned in even more with his chest nearly on the counter and said, You are the only one here, aren't you? I looked up at him, pushing myself back as he was close to my face, After seeing his grin, I looked back down at the computer and asked him if he was going to get one of those videos, hoping to get him out of the store. This seemed like it was lasting forever. I continued looking down at the monitor, praying that he would just go away or something would happen, because I didn't have anything to defend myself with other than my crutch. I forgot to have my manager bring the cordless phone up front, so I didn't even have to have my manager bring the cordless phone up front,

so I didn't even have a phone on me. My phone had broken in the accident and I couldn't afford a new one at the time. Thank God, someone finally walked into the store, and it was one of our regulars, a guy named Tom. I looked over at him, and I'm sure that I must have had a look of relief on my face. He said hi, calling me by my name, and I did the same. The creep wasn't in my face at this point,

point, but was still leaning on the counter. Tom then walked over to the new releases, which were the aisle right in front of the counter, by me. They were typically the pricier rentals, so he kept them closer to the front. The creep noticed this and let out a slight chuckle as he grabbed the four videos and slowly walked away, watching me the entire time. Every so often, Tom looked over at me and then to that guy. He made a motion towards me as if saying,

What's his deal? And I just shrugged wide-eyed. The guy eventually walked out without even renting anything. Shortly after, another person walked in and Tom came up to the counter to ask what that guy was doing. Without going into detail, I told him that he was being really creepy. That's when he told me why he came over here. He was usually here on Fridays. and he always checked out one of the old Western movies and a kid's movie.

He had like a six-year-old girl. So it was odd seeing him in here on a Tuesday and looking at the new releases. I understood what he was doing at that point. He said he was at the McDonald's across the street and that same creep was over there, being very weird to one of the workers there, and making really suggestive comments. Tom was an ex-cop. So he watched the guy closely as he left and saw that he walked across the street and was worried that he would try to start something over here too.

And that's when he decided to come over here to check. I was never so thankful that he came in here because I didn't know what else this guy may have tried. Like I said, I'm a smaller girl, and I was in a cast. I wouldn't be able to literally stand my ground very well, let alone defend myself. Tom stayed until my manager got back, and after explaining everything to him, he went and looked at the area where he went, and noticed he had sliced open one of the cases and stole the DVD. Funnily enough, it was the movie that I had suggested. Lucky for us, this was enough to ban him from our store, and my manager promised he would make sure that no one was ever working alone again. even though we weren't supposed to in the first place.

And to the creepy guy, I just hope that you and I never meet again. Back in 2014, I, 24 male, lived in this small apartment complex by myself. The building went in a U-shape, with a park and a pool in the center of it. It had a small playground in it, but it also had some benches and cover. spots. I liked to go running or jogging around the building and then would occasionally sit on one of the benches to cool off before going home. This happened when it was just starting to get cooler out, so I was wearing a light jacket. It was sky blue with a reflective strip down the outside of the sleeves, and I was wearing black sweatpants at the time. Don't worry, it's relevant.

After my jog, I sat in my normal spot on the red bench on the far right. I sat there with my head slumped back, just trying to relax and catch my breath. I hadn't been feeling well, but I still wanted to do my normal routine, so it was more like a brisk walk. After a while, I started doing something on my phone, like playing a game or texting a friend most likely, when someone sat on the same bench next to me. He had on jeans and a hoodie, which he had pulled up over his head.

I just did a quick take to see who had sat next to me since there weren't many people on the benches, so my initial thought was, really, you had to sit at the same one that I was on? But I just looked back down, continuing to do what I was doing on my phone. That's when I heard the guy say something. but I couldn't quite tell what it was.

So, I just looked over at him. He was leaning back on the bench with his arms crossed, and his legs stretched and crossed at the ankles. He stayed in that position, but looked over at me. He had those reflective sunglasses on, so all I could see was the dark stubble on his chin. His hairline looked dark, but I don't know if that was just from the hoodie or not. There was no emotion in his voice as he talked, but without looking away, he said,

She's being held at the union building off of 54th. I had no idea what he was talking about, or if I had even heard him correctly. So I just stared at him, curiously. When he didn't say anything, I just said, what? He continued looking at me for several seconds when he said, said, really? White jacket? Which caused me to look down at my shirt. I looked back up at him and said,

Bro, what are you talking about? This guy then pulls his glasses down a bit, staring at me, then pushed them back up and immediately got up and walked off like nothing had ever happened. After watching him walk away and out of view, I went back to my phone as I had been texting my phone. friend and I told him what just happened. As I was reading his response, another person

showed up at my bench. He put his foot on the bench and leaned over as if he was tying the shoelaces. I looked at his foot and then back down at my phone with a slight scoff of the situation when I heard the guy say, you didn't hear anything.

As with the previous conversation, I just looked up at the guy waiting for more of an explanation. but after staring at each other for a few seconds, he just walked off. So, I again told my friend what had happened, and he started coming up with all of these theories. I took it as a joke, but he said maybe I was in the middle of a setup or hostage-slash-ransom situation, and they went to the wrong guy. Like I said, I thought it was just a joke, as this was in some rural city that didn't

have a lot of criminal activity, so I just blew it off. One of the last things my friend said to me that night was basically, hey, just watch your back, worried that someone might try to get rid of possible witnesses. I blew it off and continued talking to him for a bit, and then decided to head home. My building was on the left side of the U-shape, towards the center, and I was at the edge of it, where the park started, so I didn't have much of a walk. However, I started getting the feeling like I was being watched, so I stopped and looked around when I noticed the same guy that was tying his shoe was leaning on a car and staring at me.

I was probably just in denial, and I told myself that I was just imagining things and continued to walk home. The buildings have a main door in, and then the doors into the apartments are inside. So, I went into the main door, and as I walked up the stairs, I looked back through the main entrance. I saw that same guy slowly walking by and trying to look into the building. I walked a little faster to my door and went in. Again, I chalked it up to me not feeling 100%, and my friend trying to put the building. things in my head.

So I just decided to go to bed. But several times throughout that week, I felt like I was being followed. I never actually saw anyone, but I would go on my walk and would see a random guy by himself, seemingly just standing around. There was a similar looking guy at the coffee shop that I stopped at a few times, and even when I went off-site for lunch, I saw that same guy. This really started making me feel paranoid,

as I work in a construction area, so if you didn't work in the building or weren't part of the construction crew, there was no reason for you to be around. I told my friend about what I was experiencing, and he told me that I should tell the cops just in case. I told him I would if they kept up or got any closer, but of course it stopped.

Not that I wasn't thankful, but it was just really strange that after about a week of this, it all just stopped. I never saw the guys anymore, and I never had any run-ins with anyone at the park. My friend and I still talk about this sometimes because it was so bizarre, and it was pretty creepy after I thought about it more. I don't know what I was part of, but if it was real, Someone definitely messed up. But I guess I'm glad they deemed me to be trusting, I guess. I grew up in a family that very much believed in the existence of the paranormal. My grandmother was very religious, and my family ourselves have experienced many things, strange and unusual.

We've experienced quite a few unsettling things. I personally have seen shadow people to waking up to three scratch marks running down my back a shadow entity of some descriptions sitting on my bed when I opened my bedroom door my sisters reporting seeing similar humanoid shadows my mother also had a very confronting encounter with some sort of ghost or spirit suddenly appearing in her bedroom

screaming how do you know so much about us before quickly disappearing as quickly as it came. Due to these instances, there was not much that phased us. In around 2015, my family experienced what would be one of the strangest and eerieest things in our lives, once we pieced it all together. For background, my grandfather escaped Hungary when the Nazis were in the prime of their power, and he came to Australia. His passion was always cooking, like many chefs he did have his vices, though. His were cigarettes and horse racing.

Even after the indoor smoking ban, he would be regularly caught smoking while doing paperwork in his office, after service in the kitchen was done, or while looking at the day's races looking which horse to bed on. He smoked the strongest tobacco that I had ever tried, ride myself called White Ox. I started smoking as a teenager myself, however, it was too much even for me. Fast forward to his retirement, he had nothing better to do than gamble and smoke, and he started

doing both more, even driving to get more despite his driver's license being taken from him on doctor's orders. In around 2015, he wasn't doing very well. He was struggling to breathe due to emphysema, had cancer, and he was still unwilling to give up cigarettes. He was fine, even though he would have to throw his head back to get a lung full of air. One of my sisters and I were talking in the hallway of our house. We were discussing how I, as his only grandson, could potentially have the best chance at getting my grandfather to come to his senses about his smoking. having kicked the habit myself around a year prior at age 24.

Meanwhile, my mother and father are in the living room around 10 meters away. Mid-conversation, my sister and I get interrupted by an extremely loud, drawn-out, wolf-howl. It was almost deafening, and it lasted for around 10 seconds, though it felt much longer. This shook us quite badly for a couple of reasons. One, we live in the Australian suburbs. There are no wolves native to our area. And two, the sound was coming from between her and I inside the hallway. We freaked out.

Hairs standing on end, and we ran for the lounge room. We practically burst through the door, my mother and father staring at us in stunned silence, while we recounted what just happened. They had heard it themselves, but they assumed that we were playing video games too loudly or watching YouTube. Skip forward a couple of weeks. My grandfather is now in and out of the hospital with his breathing issues,

and eventually it got so bad that he ended up there full time, with two breathing tubes in his mouth, feeding oxygen down into his body to keep him alive. At around the same time as he was being admitted via ambulance to the hospital, hospital. For this now much more serious progression in his illness, I was in my bedroom listening to some creepypastas on YouTube, trying to keep my mind off of things for a while. In between scenes and a story, I hear people running around the house, talking frantically to each other. I assumed they were just being dumb, chasing each other around when my mother opens

my bedroom door, and nervously asks, did you hear that howl? I told her no as I had been wearing headphones at the time. She explained to me, now accompanied by the same sister who heard the first one and my father, that it was almost identical to how we described the first time that we heard it in the hallway. Only this time, it was in the lounge room with two new people to witness this odd phenomenon. Around three weeks later, my grandfather is finally showing signs of strength, and they have now removed the breathing tubes so he can breathe on his own. But he has otherwise shown barely any improvement in his condition.

Back at home, after we had all been to see him, the whole family, including the older of my two sisters, were eating our fast food dinner in the lounge room. She had not heard the howling yet. That changed that night. Now, with all five of us present in the lounge room, the howling wolf decided to make itself known one last time. This, like previous times, was just a single howl.

This one was just as loud as the others, just as drawn out, but had an almost scream-like quality to it, as if the wolf was in pain. Needless to say, all of us collectively lost our minds. We all were covered in goosebumps, and the surge of energy and adrenaline that comes. comes from a fight or flight response to an event. It was only around a week after this that my grandfather passed away in the hospital.

We didn't think the events were related at the time. Talking about it afterward, however, we put it all together. The howling, his sickness, and the fact that we had never heard it before or since does make me wonder what exactly this meant. Was it a sign of his upcoming death? Was it a hellhound? Was it a friendly spirit come to escort him to the afterlife? Since talking it over with each other,

we still get chills to this day thinking about the wolf's spirit that took our grandfather.