As The Raven Dreams Podcast - Scary Stories For Dark Dreams - Vol 40 | ATRD Podcast

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Today we have 19 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; Rainy night stories from Nov 2023, Gas Station stories from Dec 2023, and some misc true scary stories from January 2024. 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. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your own supports it! I upload episodes every 3 days, so there are 2 days between new uploads. The podcast consists of new scary story collections, Glitch in the matrix collections, and also what I call the "Dark Dreams" collections (which are older stories, remastered and layered with rain sounds). If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at [e-mail] Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube TIMESTAMPS One Ad After the First Story, No ads after that Story 1: 00:24 Story 2: 7:09 Story 3: 16:50 Story 4: 21:33 Story 5: 32:18 Story 6: 39:57 Story 7: 47:56 Story 8: 57:40 Story 9: 1:02:14 Story 10: 1:09:38 Story 11: 1:17:59 Story 12: 1:26:14 Story 13: 1:34:52 Story 14: 1:44:05 Story 15: 1:51:40 Story 16: 1:54:30 Story 17: 2:01:28 Story 18: 2:10:05 Story 19: 2:11:38 ----- Disclaimer ➤ Episodes include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Listener discretion is always advised. ALL Audio and visuals on this podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format. Bless This Mess. None of my audio is AI Generated, I am a real person reading real stories into a real microphone. #ScaryStories #UnexplainedMysteries #GlitchInTheMatrix ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lazzang sur-gillet, Puisance-Moyerned 15 minutes. Oh, you'd say that's the Dojo. Prere to play? Vive the pleasure with Leo Jo.

The casino in-line that proposes the most recent machine-a-sou and the games of Casino in direct. Profite of 50 tours on Bix Bonanza, without the

payments instantane. Hey, I've gained! Woo-hoo! Scenture the pleasure! Play-O-Jo! 18-10 and plus, 1-Depoos only depose only depot-LINNNNus

50-tour-Bus $10 dollars, If you have a true scary story you'd like to share with the podcast, go to as the raven dreams.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.

Hi, my name is Aaron, and I've worked the overnight shift at a small out-of-the-wake gas station for quite a number of years now. It pays enough for what I need, and I've made it work with my fiancé. Honestly, like most people have said, it's an uneventful job. For the most part, it's just me, the fluorescent hum coming from the ceiling, and the occasional late-night customer. Most people just coming off the later shifts and cops that are on their routine drives. But I do have one story that was weird more than creepy, and I really don't. don't have much of an explanation about it, other than that.

It was a pretty quiet night. It was a bit chilly and cloudy out, so a pretty standard autumn night here. I hadn't seen any customers for about an hour, and none had used the restroom at all during my entire shift, which may sound like a pointless fact, but it is important. Around 3 a.m., as per my cleaning routine, I decided to check and clean the floor, and then do a quick check and clean up the restrooms. We have a buzzer system that rings throughout the store, so no one can enter without buzzing the bell,

and waiting for someone inside to open the door. So I didn't have to worry about anyone coming in and ransacking the place, thankfully. The men's restroom went about, as one would expect. It was a bit untidy, paper towels in the floor and such, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The women's restroom, however, was a mess, like a major mess that I won't even describe. Thankfully, I did have time to clean it up, starting at the front, as you do.

I got the whole room picked up in record time, and everything was fine until I went in to clean the last stall. There in the toilet was what looked like a baby doll. At first I thought it was a real baby and my heart stopped, but... As I got closer, I realized that it was just a doll. However, this doll was grotesquely mutilated. Its once blonde hair was matted and partially torn and cut off, leaving these ugly bald patches. The plastic skin was marked with what looked like burn marks and deep cuts,

but the most disturbing part of it was the face. The eyes had been gouged out, leaving these dark and empty sockets. The mouth, which looked like it was once a cute smile, was cut into damn near a joker-style grin. It looked like someone had taken their time to systematically deface and destroy this poor toy. I kind of stood there frozen for a few moments

trying to process what I was seeing. Who would do something like this? And how did they manage to get it in here without me noticing? I'd been one of two people at the store for a few hours, and then the only person for a few more, and none of the customers had come into this restroom the whole time I'd been alone. And my co-worker had cleaned the restroom at 11 right before he left. While it could have been placed by him, he's not really a prank kind of person. He's a 60-year-old dude that, while polite, is also very work-oriented while he's here.

After a few moments of just thinking about it, I was able to finally get myself to pull it out of the toilet, wearing gloves, of course, and it looked even worse up close. When I pulled it out, I noticed the stomach had words written on it that were partially gone because they were saturated, but I'm pretty sure it said,

My hopes and dreams. I wrapped the doll in a trash bag, not wanting this thing to just sit in the trash can out in the open, in case this was some kind of cursed toy situation. I've seen enough horror movies to know that it could start with this thing coming to life. I then took the trash out, and the whole time I was playing the night over in my head, trying to figure out who could have put it there,

and when they would have had the chance to do so. I even checked the camera footage for the back hallway, since there's usually nothing going on back there, and since there's no way to get into or out at the store, they only record when there's motion. I checked the security footage and clicked through all the recordings for the entire day to see if I could figure it out. And it was the weirdest thing.

Not a single person had gone into the women's restroom during my entire shift. And going back further, there hadn't been a single customer to enter that restaurant since 8.30 that morning. Doing the math, that was almost 20 hours prior to me finding the doll. There had been employees that had entered to check the restroom and see if it was clean, and to mop it, which we had to do regardless of cleanliness,

but not a single customer entered the women's restroom at all. The person that had entered at 8.30 didn't look the type to leave a mutilated doll in the stall. She looked like a pretty normal older lady. So, through all of this, I have no idea how that doll got into the restroom. And I have no idea why the restroom was a disaster, as it had been cleaned and checked a few times since that last person used it. It's also not possible that they didn't just trigger the camera, as the doors are pretty much centered on the screen. And you can't get to the door without walking in front. front of them.

So, by every measure of possibility, the stall just happened to teleport into the stall, and at the same time, it caused the restroom to become an absolute disaster. I have zero in ways of explanation for this, but I will say that it was creepy as hell. Thankfully, nothing like this has happened since, and hopefully it never does, because if it does, I might honestly quit right then and there. This happened a few years ago, in the autumn, on a night that I would personally call pretty typical. It was pretty deep autumn. All the trees had shifted to their pretty colors, and it was starting to get cold. We hadn't gotten snow yet, but we'd gone through a few bouts

of pretty heavy rain here and there over the previous month. I was a scene, senior in high school at the time. 17 for a few more months. I lived with my mom in my childhood home still, and it was just the two of us, as my dad was KIA overseas when I was a little girl. I remember that night was a pretty creepy and dark one, and we were getting hit with those storms that I previously mentioned.

It was raining like crazy. I had decided to go ahead. and stay home instead of going out with my boyfriend because of how bad it was out. Plus, I was exhausted after all my schoolwork, volleyball practice, and then having to study for midterms. By the time I got home, I was looking forward to a quiet evening just doing whatever I wanted at home. My mom was a nurse at a local hospital, and she had to work the night shift, so I had the whole house to myself. I made myself something to eat and watched a couple episodes of something on Netflix before I decided that I would just go to bed early.

By early in this situation, I mean around eight. It was still downpouring when I went up to brush my teeth. By the time I crawled into bed, it had turned from just rain to some pretty heavy winds and a lot of lightning. I remember thinking that I was going to wake up to the tornado siren. That's how bad the storm was getting. I plugged my phone in to make sure that I had a charge in case the power went out, and I laid there with the TV on the news, but down low enough that I could barely hear it.

I put my head down on my pillow and stared at the ceiling. I must have dozed off because the next thing I remembered was being jolted awake by what sounded like a loud bang. Disoriented? I looked at my clock, and it was a bit past 10 p.m. The storm was still going, though it had definitely slowed some. I paused for a second thinking that the bang was probably just thunder from a close by lightning strike, but then I heard it again, a distinct, sharp bang coming from downstairs. My heart started racing. I wasn't sure if this was someone banging on the door to get my attention,

or if it was someone hitting the door to break it down. I wasn't fully awake nor 100% sure what to do, so I exited my room and walked out into the hallway to see if I could figure out which it was. As soon as I opened my door and stepped out, I heard one more loud bang in the sound of wood splintering. It was pretty obvious at this point which one it was. Unfortunately, I was upstairs, and there were no exits up there. If I went downstairs, I would pass by the front door no matter which direction I tried to go, meaning that I would pass by whoever it was that had just kicked the door in. I ultimately decided to run back into my bedroom, lock the door, and call 911 with my cell phone,

which, thankfully, I had on my end table. I ran back down the hallway into my room, locked it up, and grabbed my phone dialing 911 as I crawled under my phone. bed, just trying to hide in any way that I could. The silence of the room as I laid there breathing heavily and waiting for the call to connect was insufferable. I didn't know if the person that had kicked the door in was now in the house, or where in the house they were.

The 911 operator finally answered, and I explained what had happened in a hushed but terrified tone. I told her my address and said that I was upstairs and that someone had kicked in the front door. She told me that the police were on the way and asked me for a bit more information, specifically if I had seen the person at all, or if I knew they were in the house. I told her that I didn't know, and that I had not seen him, because I had just heard the sound of the door being kicked in and then hid. She told me to stay where I was, and to stay as quiet as I could,

and did everything to keep me calm and keep me informed in how close the police were. I just stayed right where I was trying to keep my breathing stable, but struggling to really pull in any air. It was dark, quiet, and the only sound that I could hear outside of my phone was the rain as it smacked my window. After about five minutes, the dispatcher told me that the officers were in the driveway, but to stay where I was until they called out to me to come out. I told her that I would, and she waited on the line with me until that happened.

When the officers called out, I told her that they were there and thanked her before disconnecting. I walked out of my room and went down the stairs to meet the officers, as they stood in the doorway and were looking around. at the damage to the door. The deadbolt was completely splintered and destroyed. There was wood on the floor, and I could see muddy shoe prints on the front of the door as it sort of just swung there,

seeming to be barely attached. The officer took some information from me and said that they had looked around the yard already but didn't see anybody. They then came in to clear the other rooms and make sure that this guy wasn't hiding somewhere, but there was nobody else there. Based on the amount of mud on the front door,

I think we would have been able to figure out if he'd walked in. So, based on that, it looked like they had just kicked in the door and walked away? I honestly have no idea why someone would do that, why someone would kick in the door to a house and then not enter said house. Was this just to scare anyone that was there, or was it some kind of messed up prank? I'm honestly asking, as I have no idea.

I had to call my mom and tell her about what happened, and the officer stayed for the extra 20 or so minutes when my mom got home. I explained the whole thing to her, and the officer gave her information for a case number, but basically said that there was not a high chance of us finding who did this, because it kind of looked like a random act of vandalism at this point. My mom had to get into contact with someone to come out the next day to repair the door, which was an expensive hassle, but thankfully it was able to get done quickly. One more thing to note about the situation.

The next day, the neighbor on the side of the street actually came over and mentioned that his ring camera had picked up what happened, and he didn't notice it until that afternoon. He showed us the video, and you could see this man in a black hoodie and black pants walked down the street until he got in front of our house. He just stopped there in front of it, seemed to stand there for a couple of moments before walking through our yard,

stepping up on the porch, and literally giving the door three solid kicks until it gave way. He leaned into the house, like just his head, and seemed to glance around for half a second, before turning around and walking back down the sidewalk, and continuing down the street like nothing had happened. We couldn't see his face because of how dark it was, but we had video of what had happened,

and obviously gave it to the police for all the good that it would do. It was just crazy to watch this place, play out. It was so random. It was as if this guy just was looking for a random door to kick. Like he didn't want to break in,

he just wanted to let some frustration out. And I guess our door looked perfect for it. That night gave me some anxiety and I didn't really like being home alone anymore, thinking it could happen again or that he would come back.

My mom actually had a security camera, installed on our front porch as well. I think that she was as freaked out as I was. It never did happen again. And it's been about three or four years since this took place. So I guess it was just a one-off random act of destruction. One that terrified me and left me thinking that something terrible was going to happen. This happened to me a few years ago.

Probably back in 2017, I was 14. I still think about this encounter almost every day. My dad lives near a small lake in Wisconsin. There are only about 100 people who live in the neighborhood. My brother and I spent every other weekend up there, so we knew pretty much everyone. My dad's house was the second house on top of this large hill,

at the very top is a gas station and a diner, where I would work over the summer. At the bottom of the hill was the lake and a small beach. That morning I was waitressing at the diner, and at the end of my shift I bought a slushy from the gas station and was planning on going down to the beach for the afternoon. Parked outside the diner was a gorgeous teal vintage car. I'm not sure what brand is I'm not good with that stuff,

but it seemed to be from the 60s, and it caught my eye. There was an older man in the driver's seat, and his wife in the passenger seat. They had their windows up, and I wasn't too close, so I didn't get a great look at them, but I did notice that they were looking at me. I didn't think anything of it, and I started walking home. On my walk home, I remember wondering where they could be from.

We don't get many tourists, and I would have remembered if someone drove a car like that. The diner was off of a pretty quiet highway, and it was really used by out-of-towners. But I assumed that they were just driving through. My younger brother and I went to the beach that afternoon and hung out for a few hours. When we decided to head home,

I packed up my stuff, probably a minute before he did, and started walking home before him. On the walk up the hill, there was probably half a city block's distance between us. He could clearly see me, but we were too far to talk. I heard a car coming towards me and looked back and moved to the side of the street.

It was the car that I saw earlier at the diner. They slowed down as they approached me, and I started to get nervous. The woman in the passenger seat rolls down her window, and I nearly crapped my pants. They both seemed to be wearing hyper-realistic latex face masks. There seemed to be no beginning and no end to the mask. There weren't any noticeable holes for the eyes, yet their eyes definitely seemed real.

And there was no seam at the edge of the neck. If they were wearing masks, they were some of the best masks that I've ever seen, and must have cost a fortune. But it definitely was not their skin. There's no way. Something about them was so... The woman asked me for directions to a highway that I've never heard of. I didn't drive yet, so this in itself wasn't weird,

but I pointed them to the highway by the diner that leads out of town. They thanked me, rolled up the window, and drove away. I ran to my brother and told him what happened, and he said they looked pretty normal when they drove past him. But they looked normal to me that morning as well. The masks were too good. You had to be close enough to notice how strange they looked. There was just something so unsettling about them.

They didn't really do anything odd except ask a girl who was clearly too young to drive for directions. But it was a very small community. I might have been the first person they had seen in ours. It was just the way that they looked. I had never seen anything like it, and I haven't seen anything like it since then. I mentioned it to my dad when I got home, but he didn't have much to say about it.

I still feel deeply unnerved when I think about it, more than six years later. I don't believe in much of the paranormal stuff, and I do think that they were human. But why the masks? What were they doing there? And why ask a child who is obviously too young to drive for directions to a highway.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this before? I want to explain that I grew up in a time without computers or internet, or video games, or much of the things that you younger people take for granted. I barely know how to use email on this laptop. My wife has to help me with a lot. I don't know how to find these sites or blogs or much of anything,

so sending these stories, to this site is the best that I can do. I'm lucky that I can almost type. From reading some of these stories, I gather the person that has this place or site is called Raven. I tried to send in some other things for my time on this earth, and I hope they made it through. I just feel that I need to get some of this stuff out there before I'm gone.

I really don't care if anyone believes me, but I thought that maybe someone out there would maybe have experienced something similar. I've told a very few people about this. Only two others. I've never written it out. First, let me tell you that this happened quite some time ago. It was 1968, and I was in high school. I had several friends and we all hung out together. Did the usual stuff that young guys do. But back then, it was our misfortune to have to walk. pretty much anywhere we wanted to go in town. Not everyone was born into money.

None of us, anyway. There was a scenic drive park slash golf course that was five blocks from our area, and most all of us guys lived within a block or two of each other. I was close friends with one kid. I'll call him Guy. He was a year younger than me, and we used to hang out,

go fishing and check out the girls. Usual young guy stuff. One day, something happened that changed us inside. We used to go to that park and just walk around and see what was going on there. Maybe someone might be flying their model planes. It was common to cut through some of the wooded area for the shortcut. Heck, we knew that park better than the back of our own hands. Guy and I had walked clear around the park and got bored with being there

and decided to head back home. So we got to this one trail that went up and led through a wooded area. It was a fair-sized area, maybe half a football field, five or six large old trees in the middle of the area, with trees and bushes all the way around the edge, and three side slopes downward, steeply. The other end is flat, and opens out to the park blacktop drive.

And one of the exits is right there within a couple hundred feet. There was a dirt and gravel drive that led into the area from the park's road. And there was a stand of medium-sized trees and sticker bushes and downed limbs. It was on the east side of the drive. The other side of that dirt drive was fairly open. We could take the path and take a shortcut or go on the park road. and then have to walk up a long hill and around some curves that would take longer. So, short cut it was.

The trail was partially covered, being more just a pathway through and up. We got to the flat area, where it opened up and kind of followed closer to the east side, and we're almost to the other end and close to the drive. As we got close to a tree, we heard a noise down the hill to the east. We thought that we could hear voice. and we figured that it was just some kids coming up an old trail that was never used anymore. We knew that there used to be a trail because there were very old logs for steps that were there. But it was so old and overgrown that no one used it anymore.

It sounded like someone was coming up and it had to be kids. What adult would want to use that? So, we decided that we were going to scare the crap out of some kids. We climbed up in the tree about 25 feet and waited for them to come out into the clearing so that we could freak them out. Well, it didn't turn out like we thought. We waited for a few minutes.

It sounded like someone was almost to the top and then nothing. Our attitudes were mild back then. We kind of said bummer and just sat up in the tree for a while. Just talking about stuff. And then Guy made this really strong. strange gagging sound. I looked over at him, and I didn't know what the heck was wrong with him. He made a funny gagging and gurgling sound, and his eyes were pretty large, and he was looking down.

Then he pointed and said, look. I looked where he was pointing, and I saw it right away. There was a hand, partially sticking out from under the bush at the top of that old trail. It had kind of long fingers that were grayish brown color, kind of hair colored. But then I caught the eyes. There was a pair of red colored eyes looking up at us. We watched for a few seconds, and when it looked like the eyes blinked, that was when we went into panic mode. We were trying to break off branches that we thought we might be able to use as a club or a weapon.

well, the tree was winning. When we looked down again, whatever was there was gone. I looked all around but couldn't see anything. We waited for a few seconds and then decided to make a run for it. We climbed down slowly, watching all around, and when we got to the last eight feet, we jumped and ran for the drive that led into the area. Now, this is the part that I can't forget.

get. We were running fairly quick, I thought, across the clearing to that drive. Guy was just behind me when I heard him scream. I looked back as he passed me up. I saw something run from that bush, across the clearing, and into the trees and sticker brush on the east side of the drive to our left. Guy was ahead of me now, and I definitely made the attempt to catch up and pass him. What I saw was just not right. The top half was built like a person, but that's where it stops. It was hairy all over, at least inch-long hair. No clothes.

The head was kind of oddly shaped. The face looked long. I mean, the chin seemed longer than it should have been. I thought that it had a small curved horn, at least on the side of the face that I saw. It had arms, but the legs did not look right at all. They looked like they bent backwards, and it kind of loped along on all fours, really fast. I'm not sure, but the feet looked like they might have been hooves. It went through that brush and trees and stickers like it wasn't even there.

I shot one look over and saw it running through it, not even looking where it was going, not 20 feet away from us. The head was turned toward us, and it was looking right at us as it ran. I didn't know if it was going around trees and other things or just passing through them. It was just wrong in every way. It's hard to express the whole thing any other way. It's not supposed to be. That's it.

It is not supposed to be. We got to the edge of the park road that led to the exit out of the park. The stand of trees stopped right there at the edge of the park road. We were running faster. than you can imagine. Whatever it was that was chasing us, it stopped at the tree line. We did not see it come out, but we still kept running at full speed. I sure was not going to slow down.

We ran five blocks to my house at full speed, and still didn't feel safe by any means. Trap. We were looking out windows and trying to find my baseball bat, and anything else that we could that would protect us. My mom knew that something had happened, and I recall her saying that we looked very pale. I don't know about Guy, but I could not stop shaking for a long time. We told her what had happened and what we saw,

but I don't know if she actually believed us. I'm 72 years old now, and that was a long time ago, but I still remember it, like I just went through it. In fact, I talked to, to my friend Guy only a couple of years ago. We have kept in touch through the years. He made a career in the Navy and had been a master chief on a ship before becoming a recruiter.

But still, after all this time, I get to thinking about what happened, and I have to question myself about it. Did that really happen? After so many years, you actually wonder. So, I asked him. Say, guy, I need to ask you about something that has been making me question myself. He asked me, what's that? I didn't know how to bring it up, other than, do you remember that day that you and I were going through that park and saw something?

No, I'm not kidding you. This is a guy that was in the military for over 30 years. But I watched the color go out of his face. The look on his face told me all that I needed to know, but I asked him anyway. Did we really see that thing? All he did was stare at me for a few seconds, but he didn't say a thing. All he finally did was gnawed his head in the affirmative. We never said another word about it.

And, yeah, this was for real. One thing that people don't tell you when you go into working at a story, store, or really any retail job, you learn to read people quickly. I feel like places that are high targets for robbery or theft, like gas stations, make this doubly true. I used to work at a small convenience store gas station when I was in my early 20s, and working those kind of jobs, you see all sorts of characters. But nothing could have prepared me for what turned out to be my last shift.

and I don't think anyone will blame me for quitting after this all went down. It was a pretty typical night. Not sure what day of the week it was, but it was a weekday because we were pretty dead. And we would get fairly busy on the weekends. There was only the occasional customer pulling in to get some chips or a drink or fill their tank, but that was about it. Around 1 o'clock in the morning, a guy walked in that was wearing what looked like a security guard, guard uniform. He seemed like any other late-night customer, friendly, a bit tired.

We were situated near some hospitals and other facilities that I could see having a need for a security guard, so he really didn't look out of place or anything, and there were zero red flags. I watched as he walked around, browsing the aisles. He grabbed a few things, just the normal snacks and a red bull. he was even making casual conversation as he scanned for whatever he wanted, saying that he was working a double shift and that he was trying to get something to keep him going. I laughed, said that I knew all about that, and said that I hoped that it was at least entertaining work. There was literally nothing about him that made me suspicious, concerned, worried, or any other synonym for those words.

He walked up, dropped off what he had. I scanned the items and then asked if he wanted a bag for it all. I then leaned down to grab one of the bags out of the box on the floor, and the second I looked up, there was a gun pointed right at my face. He just stared at me with cold eyes and said, empty the register. For a moment, I couldn't move. I couldn't believe that this was happening. The transition from a normal transaction,

and a normal customer to a gun in my face was jarring, to say the least. I remember sitting there and thinking, this can't be real, this has to be a prank. He was such a nice and conversational person. But the gun in my face was telling me that this was very real, and that this was not a joke. After a few seconds, I came back to reality. I did as he asked.

I opened the register and started pulling the cash out of the register, which, being that it was late in the evening, wasn't that much. My mind was racing, as was my heart, and I was so worried about the whole thing going south and how quickly it could. He was so nonchalant, and at one point, the fact that he didn't do anything to hide his face or who he was crossed my mind. which actually scared me more. Like there was a real possibility that he was not planning on leaving any witnesses to this robbery. Once I got all the bills out of the register, he grabbed it and stuffed it into his pockets.

Then he did something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes with this cold stare, mimed pulling the trigger and shouted, Bang! I jumped. half out of my skin, and I swear I let out a yelp like a hurt puppy. I thought I was dead. I thought he was going to pull the trigger and just blow me away.

The feeling in my chest is one that I will never forget, and if I wasn't running on fear at that point, I would have blacked out and collapsed. Then he just turned away and walked to the door laughing, as if it was the funniest joke ever. He literally walked out of the store like nothing had happened, got in his car and took off down the road. And I was left standing there trying to process what had just happened. Once I was sure he was gone, I locked the door and called the police and sent a text to my manager telling them to get there immediately, that we'd been robbed.

The officers got there quickly. They took my statement, and I gave them all the info that I could. including the car and the logo on his jacket. When my manager arrived, he was able to get them in the back and got copies of the security tapes for them. The whole time they were there talking and discussing things with me or him, I just felt vulnerable.

And like everything was futile. The dude was brazen about this. Like he knew that he would never be caught. My manager then told me to go, ahead and take a couple days off, and I told him that I didn't think I could do the job anymore. I was hit with some major PTSD over this. He asked me to think it over, which I really did.

But when I showed up for my next shift, after those few days off, the minute the door chime went off, I nearly started screaming. I couldn't do it, and some people will call me a coward for it, but I told him that I had to quit. Thankfully, my manager was a good friend of mine, and he completely understood. He told me that if I ever wanted the job back, I could have it, and that he wanted me to just be okay with it. The robbery, though, it changed a lot of things, and I lost trust in people. The guy looked and seemed completely normal, professional even. He was dressed in what looked like a uniform. There was the blue-collar connection that I thought we had, two people working the

night shift and sympathizing with each other's struggles. Then, he pulled a gun on me and threatened my life for a couple hundred dollars. I actually had nightmares about the situation for a few months, after all was said and done, about the gun and him yelling bang like that. Thankfully, he was actually caught, but it wasn't in a good way. He tried the same thing in a neighboring town, but the clerk wasn't as cooperative and tried to physically fight him. He ended up shooting and killing the clerk, which made it worse. Knowing that he was willing to pull the trigger like that, it really made me realize how much of a brush with my end that this was. Knowing that he was behind bars did bring some relief, but I was still pretty messed up over that night.

I've always found walking at night to be relaxing. And when I adopted my dog, Mari, I gave myself more reason to get out and take a long walk every night. Mari was a large and very friendly German shepherd mix. Mix with what I don't remember, but he was mostly shepherd. and he was the sweetest dog that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. There was one night in the fall when we'd gone walking down one of our normal trails, where things went a bit sour, but thankfully we got out mostly unscathed, all thanks to Maury. It was a pretty typical fall night, mostly overcast, a bit chilly, and the wind was pretty strong,

which told me that we were probably going to get some rain. But I figured that we could get out and get a walk in before it hit. It had been a pretty crappy day at work, so when I got home, I ate my dinner quickly, grabbed Mari's leash and headed out. A little bit into the walk, it started to rain softly, which was fine. We weren't going to be stopped by a little water from the sky. Our trail took us through a number of residential streets before it looped back through a small wooded park. When we got to the park area, the rain had started to pick up, which prompted me to grab my umbrella, which I was thankful that I brought along with us, but we were going to finish the path, because Maury was very much wanting to keep going.

We got to the wooded end of the park, Mari happily trotting along and giving his soft barks randomly, his way of telling me that he was happy and wanted to keep walking. In the middle of his happy stomp's, he paused and lifted his head, perking his ears. I paused next to him and asked him what was up, assuming that he just saw an owl or a raccoon or something. He was staring very intently into the darkness beyond the path. I tried to follow his gaze, but whatever it was that he saw was invisible to me. I knelt down, gave him some pats, and pulled him a bit to get him to continue. He did, but he was slow as he pressed on. As we took a few steps forward, I couldn't seem to shake this growing anxiety that something was up.

He was being too cautious from my liking, and I was starting to feel off. I thought maybe it was just a mix of the cold, the isolation of the trail, and the weather, but making up excuses for the off feeling wasn't doing it for me. Mori stopped again, this time perking his ears up and the fur on his back was starting to fluff as well, which really made me feel a bit freaked out. He was normally a very calm boy, but the mood that he was displaying was one of caution and tense defensiveness. Around that time, I started to hear what sounded like footsteps mirroring our slow pace, but slightly off rhythm. I paused again, listening closely, but as I stopped, so did the other footsteps.

I scanned the trees and bushes around us, but I couldn't see anything. And at this point, I was kicking myself for not bringing an actual flashlight. My iPhone wasn't cutting it. It lit the path well enough in front of us, but if you've ever used an older cell phone flashlight outside on a dark and rainy evening, you know that it's wholly ineffective. At this point, I was feeling very uneasy and was beginning to panic. My instincts were telling me that we were not in a safe position, so I figured we could make the quick trip off the path and cut the walk short.

As we turned to the corner, I started to hear the sound again, and I was certain that it was footsteps. This time they were quicker, though, as if they were trying to catch up to us. I kept the leash tight and kept Mari as close to me as I could. He kept his body brushing against my leg the entire time and was definitely ready to protect us if necessary, something that I wanted to avoid if possible. I knew that he could tell I was freaking out by how he was holding himself.

After another minute or two of walking, I knew that we were at an impasse, that I was going to have to confront this person that was clearly, following us. I turned around quickly, and I shined the light as best as I could in the direction of where I thought the person was, and I loosened my grip on the leash slightly to let Mory's step forward toward whoever it was. He wasn't going to be able to actually get to them, unless they were within six feet of us, but he would be able to take a stance in front of me.

As I turned my light, it highlighted the shape of a person behind me. wearing a dark hoodie. Mari saw him too and immediately launched into an aggressive tirade of growling and deep-threatening barks. As soon as this happened, I watched as this person stopped, obviously surprised that I was confronting them. They immediately turned back the other way on the path and took off at top speed. My heart was pounding, mostly because I was right that I was being followed. and worse yet, their reaction tells me that they probably had malicious intent. It could have been a normal person running away because a dog was barking at them,

but I feel like a normal person that wasn't being a creep would have stopped and said something, not sprinted off into the rain. After this happened, I pulled on Mari and jogged the rest of the way off the path and back to my street. I was running on a lot of adrenaline and panic, so... I made pretty good time. That night put me in a bit of a panic over walking that trail, and for a few nights after that, we took the shorter path, one that was much better lit,

and we avoided the park. This also triggered a bit of common sense in me, and after that night, I never went out without something to protect myself. I know that Mari would have protected me with his life, but I also didn't want him to have to. I did end up calling the police about this. I informed them that there was someone wearing dark clothing that had been following me on the trail through the park.

I know that it wasn't much to report, but they said they would send some patrols to the area to see if they could find anyone. If them being around did anything to deter this person from doing this again, then I don't regret calling them. The incident did leave me. a bit shaken, but mostly unwavering, and Mari and I kept up with our nightly walks until he

couldn't really do it anymore. He did pass away in 2019, at the old age of 14 years old. But he was very well loved, and he was my protector up to the end. That said, I never forgot that feeling of that night. And every night we went for a walk on a longer path, especially on rainy evenings, I would get a bit of an uneasy feeling, thinking that something like that was going to happen again. This actually happened to me only a couple of weeks ago. I work part-time in a clerical job. It's not an exciting job, and it really doesn't matter to the story.

It just matters that I was working, and that on that day, I had gotten out late due to there being extra work for me to do. It was unfortunate that it was so late, because... I was hungry and didn't really want to stay up later to make something to eat, but I also have a bit of an aversion to fast food. Nothing against people who eat it, but any time I go to McDonald's or Wendy's, I end up getting really sick. Anyways, I decided that I would stop by the 24-hour supermarket on my way home,

pick up something quick for tonight, and then get something that I could put in the slow cooker tomorrow morning, since tomorrow was likely going to be as late as today. I pulled in, the parking lot was pretty much empty, with the exception of a couple of cars here and there. I found a spot close to the entrance that was under one of the parking lot lights. As I got out and was walking towards the door, I heard another car pulling in,

one that I couldn't help but pay attention to. It was making these awful popping and clanking sounds as it chugged into the line. lot. It was an old rusty-looking sedan that had obviously seen better days, but hey, we've all been there, right? I watched as it crawled into the lot and around to an empty spot a few down from mine, then watched an older gentleman, wearing a green jacket and a baseball cap get out, and that was pretty much the end of it in my mind. As I was walking the aisles, trying to think of something to make in the slow cooker, I turned and noticed that the green green jacket man was in the same aisle as me.

This wouldn't have been a big deal, except that when I looked back and saw him, he did the whole avert your eyes so they don't think you're staring at them thing. Except he was about as subtle as a drunk moose. He was staring at me wide-eyed, and very quickly turned his head to look at the shelf behind him. It was a bit weird, but I decided that he may have just been a bit of a creep and kept on, making my way out of the aisle and a few down to get away from him. I walked down the aisle and then out into the main opening towards the dairy section in the back. And, to no surprise, there Greenjacket was, staring at me in a way that made my skin crawl.

It wasn't just the whole stare. It was this weird, creepy grin that he had while he stared. I know some people will say that it wasn't a big deal. that I should have just gotten over it, that he was just looking at me or thought that I was attractive, but it was skeevy, and my instincts were telling me that he had ill intent. I thought about confronting him,

telling him to screw off, but decided against it, and decided that it was best to just get my food and go. I walked through the aisle that I knew I needed to go through, grabbed something really quick, and turned to walk toward the registers. but when I turned to walk that way Green Jacket was standing in the middle of the aisle with that same pervy grin

Now I'm normally a pretty reserved person And the only reason I even considered confronting him earlier Was because I didn't appreciate the look that he was giving me But beyond that, I do not like confrontation But part of me knew that I was going to have to face Green Jacket head on And that he was not going to go away or leave me alone. So I started walking toward him and said, very loudly,

Excuse me, I need to get through. I said it loud enough that anyone in the aisles nearby would have hurt me, hoping that at least making a scene like this would be enough to dissuade him. It did not. As soon as I said this and tried to push through, he put his arm out and seemed to try to hug me. I think that's what he was trying to do, but I'm not really sure. It was like he was trying to wrap his arms around me and put me into a hug.

I immediately jumped back and was able to get out of his attempted grab, and I asked him what the hell he was doing. He laughed and made a comment about how I looked like I wanted to have fun tonight. Which, I don't know if that was a comment on how I was dressed or something, but I was dressed as business casual, so no idea. I told him that I needed to get past him and that he needed to get out of my way and to not touch me. He once again laughed and said, What if I want to touch you? How are you going to stop me?

That was probably the most terrifying thing anyone has ever said to me. And the fact that this guy was willing to say this and make this scene in the middle of a grocery store, it was pretty telling. I reached down to my key ring that was in my pocket. I had a clip on pepper spray attached to them, and I pulled it up. As I did, I yelled, You need to leave me alone, or else I will pepper spray you. I yelled it loud,

loud enough that an employee walked over to see what was going on. When he noticed that we were being watched, he aggressively looked at me and said, as soon as you step out into that parking lot, you're done for. And then turned to walk to the end of the aisle and out the front door. The employee walked over and asked me if I was okay and what had happened. I explained that the guy was being a total creep and what he had said, and then mentioned that he had threatened me at the end there.

The employee told me that he wanted me to come up front and talk to the manager, and that they would call the police since he said. he had threatened to me like he did. I thanked him, asked if I could make my purchase, and he nodded saying that he would ring me up. We got to the front, I bought my food, and then explained to the manager what had happened. I told him what the guy had said and that he had attempted to grab me or hug me or whatever, and what he had said there at the end, and the manager agreed that I should stay inside and that they would call the cops to make sure this guy wasn't outside waiting.

I stood there and waited with them for what felt like forever, thinking that this guy was probably gone by now. I started thinking that I should go ahead and go, that this guy's threats were empty, that he was just trying to get to me, but my thoughts were interrupted by a police officer shouting, drop the gun, drop the gun, or I will shoot you. That pretty much dragged me right back to reality

and put a lot into perspective about this situation. After a few moments of watching something happened through the glass, I couldn't see all of it because we were off to the side, I watched the officers wrestle green jacket to the ground and put him in cuffs. So, to wrap this up a bit, they'd gotten the call about a suspicious man, and they were told that he mentioned he would be waiting for me in the parking lot. They started walking toward the building,

and apparently they noticed this guy standing off to the side in the dark. and he was very clearly holding a gun in his hand. There was a brief fight with him, but he gave up pretty quick when he was outnumbered three officers to just him. So apparently Greenjacket was 100% waiting for me to leave. He was hoping that I didn't take his threat literally, and he was armed. I don't know if he was going to just shoot me and leave me for dead,

or if he was going to drag me to his car, but I'm thankful that I took his threat seriously, and that the employees were willing to listen to me. There was a lot more talking to the police than I had ever wanted that night, but after talking to them about what he had done in the store, backed up by camera footage, everything was pretty well settled. They could see this guy had intent to do something nefarious, and that he was planning to make good on his threat.

They took him and one of the officers walked me to my car and followed me home to make sure that nothing else happened, though I'm pretty sure none of us expected anything more to happen. Considering the time I didn't even bother eating dinner that night, I just went to bed. I'm thankful that nothing more happened, that I was more or less saved by the employee and the police, and that this random dude ended up in cuffs. Obviously, I've been a slight bit haunted by this ever since, and I've been a bit nervous to go out at night alone.

But hopefully, this is temporary, and I can get back to life here soon. Oh, and creep in the green jacket, I hope you get to serve some major time for your actions. And I hope that we never meet again. This happened pretty recently. I, 23, female, work in... property management. I was not supposed to be working alone that day, but my manager and co-worker called in sick, and my other co-worker had requested time off that we all forgot about.

I voiced my concerns because the property is in a crime-ridden area, and I've had some bad experiences in the past. I actually transitioned to a different role because I no longer felt safe, but they offered me a lot of money to come back, so I did. The front doors stayed unlocked during business hours, so literally anybody could walk in. Also, it's a large and busy property. I needed someone with me just to help with all the tours and residents. Nobody was able to do anything, so I called one of our sister properties and begged for their leaser to help me.

They agreed, but the leaser was going to have to leave early. I agreed and was just happy to have someone help. Flash forward to an hour before closing, and the leaser had to go. Literally, as she walked out, this disgruntled man walked in holding a duffel bag. I hate to profile him, but he was clearly homeless, and not all there mentally. He walked up to me and handed me his ID. I asked how I could help him, and all he could say was, You don't respect veterans.

I again asked how I could help him, and he couldn't give me a straight answer. I was getting fed up when the co-worker, who had requested the day off, happened to come in just to say hi. My co-worker instantly knew that something was off, so he came over to investigate. The homeless guy didn't like my coworker asking him all these questions, so he opened up his duffel bag and started sorting through it. He pulled out a piece of women's lingerie and threw it on my desk. then he pulled out a box

and in that box was an SD card he was trying to put it into my computer and I told him not to do that he listened to me but proceeded to rummage through his bag he seemed very irritated because we kept telling him if you can't tell us

how we can help you then you need to leave at this point I'm getting scared that he's going to pull out a gun and just light us up instead of a gun, he pulled out a knife. Instantly both me and my co-worker start screaming at him to put the knife away and leave. He eventually put the knife away but refused to leave. I messaged my manager who was out sick, but lived on site, to please call the cops. And I told him there was a guy with a knife in the office.

My coworker who was with me didn't physically force him out, but he guided him out by walking towards him and making himself look threatening. Finally, the dude leaves, and we immediately lock the doors. He kept trying to come back in and was cussing up a storm outside. Eventually, he made his way to the convenience store that is attached to the building. Within 30 seconds of him going in, about four squad cars pulled up. We pointed at the store, and they ran in there. The guy got aggressive with the police, so they did beat him and ended up detaining him.

I told the police to look in his bag for the knife, and they found it. I identified the weapon and answered some of the police questions. I didn't press charges because this was clearly a mental health crisis, and jail isn't going to reform that. He needs serious professional help. The DA pressed charges on my behalf. and the courts granted me a protection order. They also let him go without bail. The last update that I got was that he didn't show up to his court hearing,

and now there's a warrant out for his arrest. Gee, I wonder why. I haven't seen him since this event took place, and that's all I really care about. I have a bit of a story from back in the late 80s, when I was about eight or nine years old at the most. I was definitely at that age where things became core memories, but not old enough to fully comprehend the situation,

so it had to be around that time. Unfortunately, the only other person that was involved with this situation, my dad, passed away a few years ago, so I can't ask him the exact date, but I can still tell the story about it. That year, my dad and I were on a long road trip. It was for a fishing trip that he'd wanted to take me on to teach me to camp and fish and all that. A father-son bonding experience kind of thing.

We've been driving for a few hours. I was tired. He was a bit tired. And I had no idea where we were. As the night came on, we pulled into a gas station in the middle of a small town in, I think, Colorado. It was a small station with a single flickering light overhead. and it kind of felt deserted. My dad told me that he needed to go to the restroom and asked me if I needed to go.

I told him no, and he then told me to stay in the car and that he would be right back. I would say that this was a different time and that this was a common thing back then, but honestly he shouldn't have left me alone. I will acknowledge that at the same time as saying that he would have never have done it if he thought that it would have put me in danger. A few moments pass, and I'm just sitting there reading a comic book and waiting for him to come back.

When the passenger door of the car opened randomly. Stardled, I looked up to see a man that I had never seen before, sliding into the front passenger seat. He was unkempt, had wiry hair and a completely vacant look in his eyes. I was stuck there watching this man just sit there, completely frozen in confusion. He didn't acknowledge that I was there, he didn't look back or say anything to me, he just sat there and stared eerily out the front windshield.

In what felt like an eternity, but was more likely just a couple of moments, my dad came out of the gas station. It took him a second to process the scene too, and when he realized, there was some random dude sitting in the car with his young son, he started immediately yelling. Hey, what the hell are you doing? Get out of my car. This guy did not react at all. He didn't flinch at my dad's yelling or even seemed to register that we were there with him. He just kept staring ahead, expressionless and distant. My dad saw that I was okay and that I was just as confused as he was, and he opened the passenger door to try to physically get this man out of the car.

As my dad did so, the man did finally move, but not to get out. He just turned to look at my dad. He wasn't looking like he was aggressive or angry, he just looked empty. My dad kept trying to get him out of the car, eventually lowering his tone and saying, look, man, you've got to get out of the car. You're scaring my kid. The man then turned his gaze to me and just stared with that same empty look. It looked like he was seriously disconnected from everything in every sense.

I will never forget that stare and how he looked. It was seriously etched into my memory for those moments that we made eye contact. My dad realizing that the situation was not one that he could resolve by force or being angry. decided to try a different approach. He knelt down and started trying to talk to the man calmly, asking him if he was okay, if he needed an ambulance or needed help. There was no response, but he kept trying,

just trying to reason with this man that he was causing a problem. After a few more minutes, the man slowly turned to look back at the windshield, gave a very subtle nod, and then turned to get out of the car. He walked away without a word, and just kept walking down the sidewalk. My dad immediately jumped into the driver's side and locked the doors.

He asked if I was okay, if that man had hurt me or anything. I nodded, telling him I was fine, and then asked him what that was. He just told me that he didn't know. And we sat there for a few silent seconds before my dad started the car and we pulled out to get back on the road. We got to a hotel and checked in, and my dad tried his hardest to lighten the situation.

I was kind of stuck mentally, just thinking about the man and what the hell had happened that evening. Later on, my dad actually used this to teach me an important lesson. He told me that the man was probably unwell or confused, and that some people have really hard lives. experiences that we could never imagine, and sometimes those experiences leave them lost. It was definitely a lesson in empathy, and I have always held that very close to my heart. It was scary at the time, sure, but there was so much going on that none of us knew about.

Now, years later, I often think about that man. I do wonder what his story was, what, series of events led him to climbing into a stranger's car on a quiet evening, and I wonder if he ever found his way back from wherever he was lost. I wish we could have done more to help him, but at the time there was nothing we really could have done. I guess my dad could have run back into the station and told them to call 911, but the man was gone by the time we started thinking logically again. Obviously, being the late 80s, we didn't have a cell phone to call them ourselves.

And I think that my dad's main concern was just getting away from it and getting me to safety. I don't fault my dad for it. I'm sure that if he could have done more than he would have. We did have our trip, and the events were eventually pushed back for the rest of the time out. I don't think my dad ever told my mom about the same. situation either, and neither have I, because, well, she doesn't need to worry. And I wanted to share the story with you, because I thought it would be a good one for your audience, if nothing else. Hopefully, they enjoy it. And if not, oh well. Thank you, Raven, and much love. I have a creepy and sad

story that I'm going to try and not make too long, about something that happened to me that freaked me the hell out, and it happened last month. Where I live, October and November are when we get most of our rain for the second half of the year. We have pretty hot and dry summers, and then when fall and winter hits, we have mild temperatures, and a lot of wet days. You can pretty much depend on October to be an umbrella month, and if you leave home without it, you'll be sorry. I recently moved into a new town home on a small property on the edge of town.

It's a nice little place, and I'm surrounded by a lot of retired people, so I love it, because they tend to not bother me. The townhome, while quaint, does have a bit of an eerie feeling to it, and I think the majority of that eerieness comes from the fact that they didn't install many lights. Most of the rooms do not have overhead lights. They just have an abundance of outlets for lamps. Unfortunately, I don't have very many lamps yet, so my place is pretty dark. When it gets dark outside, like during the stormy season, it is pretty creepy.

Plus, the building is a bit older, so there's some give to the strong winds and a leak above the window in the living room. But that's an annoyance. not a creepy thing. I was in my living room listening to music and just doom-scrolling on my phone when I heard my doorbell ring. I was a bit confused as to why someone would be at my door, especially out in the rain like this, and at first I thought about just ignoring it, thinking they would go away. I'm not a very social person, to be completely honest with you.

After the second doorbell ring, I got up and opened the door anyway. assuming it was one of my neighbors, and I really didn't want to be too much of an a-hole. I opened up to see an older lady that I knew as Betty standing there, drenched in the rain and just staring at me, with these empty eyes. It was a bit strange. We hadn't really spoken beyond passing hellos,

and she looked like she was a bit out of it, like she was sleepwalking, almost. I asked what she was doing out in the rain in a joking way, but she just stared at me for a moment and honestly looked rather somber. Like she was really upset. I leaned in a bit and I asked her if she was okay, if I could help her with anything. She very quietly said, I need help. I told her okay that I would help her and then asked her what she needed help with. She turned and just pointed to the townhome that she lived in, keeping that same somber look and not speaking.

After a second, I just nodded and said, Okay, yeah, I can come over. Let me just get my shoes and my jacket, and we can go over there. Why don't you step inside and get out of the rain? I said this and turned away from my door, walking into the hallway to grab my shoes and slipped them on. When I turned back to my door, she was gone. I was a bit confused. She was just there, and I hadn't taken more than five to ten seconds to slip my shoes on.

They were slip-on shoes. They didn't even have strings. I stepped back to the door to see if she'd started walking back towards her unit, but she wasn't outside at all. She was nowhere to be found. I stared off into the rain, thinking, Where the hell did she go? There was no way that she could have gotten to her unit

and gotten inside in the time it took me to put on my shoes. She was rather elderly, and she was slow moving and walked with a walker. It was then that I realized that I didn't see her walker when she was at my door. I knew that she needed it, so for her to not have it, and to be there was a bit of a bit of, bit weird. I figured that maybe she'd somehow made it from my step back to her place while I was

turned away. Maybe I had taken a bit longer to put my shoes on than I thought. I walked out into the rain and over to her unit and knocked on the door waiting for an answer. But she didn't. I rang the doorbell, still nothing. I was so confused thinking I had just seen this little old lady at my front door. There was no way that she could have sprinted away from my door and gotten off the property in time that it took me to put my shoes on. I appeared in her window to see if maybe I was just losing my mind. And when I did, I freaked out.

I saw her. She was sitting in her chair in the living room, but she was slumped over, and she was pretty obviously gone. I could tell that she wasn't. breathing and that's when it hit me that what I saw at my door was not Betty it was Betty's spirit that's why she was so quiet it's why she didn't have her walker and that's how she managed to disappear so quickly and that's why she asked me for help because she passed away and she was worried that no one was going to notice I

I don't know why she chose me, but she did. And I had to do what I could for her. I called 911 and explained to them that I'd had an elderly neighbor that I thought had passed away from what I could see in her window. It was a bit strange to explain, but I told them that, from where I was, it looked like she might be gone. They told me that they would send an ambulance to do a check, and when I hung up from that call,

I called the emergency maintenance number for the property. I told the maintenance person that I had an ambulance coming and explained that we were going to need to get into Betty's place. Again, it was a bit awkward to explain who I was and why I was asking, but I mentioned that I could see her from her window and that I thought she'd passed away, and he said he would be there to help out the paramedics if they needed. Long story short,

The paramedics got there, the maintenance tech showed up, and he let them into her unit because, from what he saw, it did look like she was deceased. Sure enough, the paramedics entered and confirmed what we'd thought. She'd fallen asleep in her chair and had passed away. I stuck around to answer their questions, but I didn't tell them that her spirit had come to my door or anything. I told them that I'd come over to see her and knocked on her door, and when she didn't answer, I looked in the window and saw her. Thankfully, that was enough to satiate them, as they could tell that there was no foul play involved.

So, that's my story of the one rainy night, literally last month, where my neighbor's spirit decided to come over and let me know that she was gone, and asked me to help her. out. I would have to guess that the reason was because she thought she wouldn't be found for a while. Like I said, it's a very quiet and rather reserved neighborhood. I'm glad that I could help her out after she'd gone, and hopefully she's able to rest peacefully. I just wanted to say a little about coincidences. Some people may experience things that aren't usual, but later experience the same or similar thing, not shortly after, which then makes the usual into something more unusual.

Have you ever said something, a sentence, or just some random word, and then hear it just a moment's later on radio or TV, etc? I seem to have that happen a lot. I mean, sometimes three times in one day. Sometimes it can be a very average word or a whole danged sentence. Word for word. Just one example. My wife was talking to me about some things she was planning to do, and I was sitting in my recliner watching some TV.

I was flipping through the channels all the while listening to my wife. She had mentioned tasting some food at work that one of the other girls had brought. She punctuated her sentence with that sound that says, wow, this is really good. The good old mm-mm, followed with, I can't wait

to try that recipe. I had just turned to a different channel and a guy on the TV said I can't wait to try that recipe. Now, I have to say that that is kind of creepy. And it seems to go beyond coincidental. It was exactly.

the same words. I told my wife that I seem to be experiencing a lot more of these coincidences lately. She told me that she had to admit that she too was noticing this. She used to say that I was just imagining it

and that I was trying to find things like that. How the heck does a person do that? I sure didn't know that some guy on some random TV station was going to be saying the exact same words that she had just said at that very moment. There are some coincidences, though, that can pry on your mind. I'm 72 years old now, and I had something happened to me years ago, probably when I was in my 20s, and it has stuck with me

ever since. This is something that I had dreamed, and it really freaked me out. I was married back then, and my wife and I had gone to bed. I went to sleep, and for some ungodly, and for some ungodly, reason decided to have a danged nightmare. Here's my rather unsettling dream. In my dream, I was over at my mother's house and was doing some work for her, and she asked me to go to the basement and get something. I've been down in that basement hundreds of times, since I grew up there. It's just an unfinished basement.

Nothing out of the ordinary. I used to build model planes down there when I was a kid, had my weights down. there, so I really didn't seem to think anything of it. I headed down to get the item, and the stairs went down along a wall to the side instead of coming down in the middle like some places. I got to the bottom of the steps and turned left, and headed for the other room where she kept her shovels, rakes, and some other gardening tools. The furnace was in that section. I turned the light on in that room, and went in and across to the other side where a workbench sat.

I was searching in a drawer when I noticed a scraping and cracking sound, like cement cracking apart. When I turned, I saw what was making the sound. About a three-foot diameter spot in the basement floor was raising up like a bubble and was breaking apart, as it came up. Dirt was also being pushed out while it did this. It was happening slow, and soon, I saw a little. I saw something else in there.

There was cement and dirt that had been pushed outward and what looked like an off-white-ish-round thing, about the size of a basketball, was wiggling itself up through the dirt. I bolted for the other room and made it to the bottom of the stairs. I watched through the doorway and to the other room when the light in there flickered and went out. I froze and waited.

Then something went through the room. that room from left to right, but it was far enough back in that room so that it remained in shadow. But I heard a growling and, I guess what I can only call a slurbing sound. I watched the doorway for a few seconds, and then I saw it. It was headed my way, too. I can't say that I ever imagined anything like this thing. It was maybe three feet tall. It had a very large pale, off-white, somewhat gray head, which took up a third of its body. The eyes were large and just had a black spot for the pupils. I don't recall seeing any nose at all, but that mouth, it was nasty.

There were needle-like teeth lining the whole mouth, and it was wide. There were two very skinny-looking arms that were dangling down against the sides, and the hands were dragging on the floor. It had short legs and came towards me, shuffling quickly and tilting back and forth as it hurried towards me. Some brown liquid was dribbling down the chin onto the floor. I tried to run up the stairs, but there was something invisible in front of me. I couldn't get past it or through it to get up those stairs.

And that thing was getting really close to my right side. I could see my wife and my mother and my sister's. at the top of the stairs waving for me to run, to get up there with them, hurry. I could see them yelling to me, but I couldn't hear them at all. I kept pounding on this barrier trying to get up those stairs, and that thing was almost on me. I remember screaming. The next thing I knew I was waking up, and my wife was slapping the hell out of me trying to wake me. She said that I was staring straight ahead and just screaming.

Why the hell would I dream something like that? That was my dream. Well, nightmare. That said, I'll finish this up. I didn't go down in my mom's basement for weeks after that dream. Well, yeah, I was rattled. But eventually I was over there one day and had to go down there to do something. Reluctantly, I went down and headed into the room that had the tools.

I went through the door and turned on the light to that room. and I froze. I'm not sure, but I may have stopped breathing. I think my eyes almost popped out. Right there before me in that exact spot in my dream, the cement floor was broken out, in pieces in a three-foot diameter circle, and dirt was piled out around the area.

I flew out of that room. I went up those basement steps in maybe two stride, and I ran outside. I remember my mom followed me so concerned and wanted to know what had happened. I told her about my dream and about finding the hole in the floor. I guess I was pretty worked up.

She finally got me calmed down a bit and told me that she had been down there and had broken that spot up and dug it out to try to put some new cement in there because it was cracked from surface water. I just looked at her for a few seconds and said, You're kidding.

That had to be the worst coincidence anyone could ever have. I sometimes wonder, what might have happened if I hadn't gotten slapped awake? I used to work the late shift at a local gas station. The shift where all you get is regulars and random people passing through. We were just off an exit by a major freeway, so we would typically only get people that were just going into work early in. in the morning, or people that were driving through town and needed to stop for gas.

It was a decent job. Most people were decent, and really there wasn't much to complain about. We had this one customer that would come in a few times a week named Tom. Tom was a nice dude. Late 30s or early 40s, seemed kind-hearted and always had something he wanted to talk about. Or he would have a joke that he really would. wanted to tell. From what I knew about him, he was just a night owl, and he'd been in a few times, and he just

kind of latched onto our station as a bit of a safe haven, a place to spend a few minutes away, socialize a bit, and then get on with his night. Over time, Tom and I had developed what most people would call friendship, though it only ever existed at work for me. He started being a bit more open with some of the hardships in his life, and he'd certainly been through some tough times. It never felt like a sob story, though. He just seemed like he wanted to share who he was, and that was that.

I appreciated it. We talked through some things. He gave me advice about my relationship based on his relationship with his ex-wife, that kind of thing. One of the topics that would always seem to know, knock his cheery demeanor down a notch, though, was his younger brother, Mark. Mark apparently struggled with addiction, as an on and off kind of thing. He'd been to rehab, he'd gotten clean, and then he relapsed within the same year,

something that had happened multiple times in the last decade. Despite this, Tom was dedicated to his little brother, and he had put in a lot of time and money to help him out, to the point that Mark was now living with him. From what I gathered, this was actually one of the reasons his marriage fell apart, because Tom was unwilling to let Mark die on the streets, and his wife basically told him it was her or Mark. Tom wasn't willing to give up, and he really believed that things would get better. One evening I was sweeping up the floor and wiping down some of the stations,

surfaces, when I heard the bell chime. I looked down at my watch and saw that it was about 3.30 in the morning, which typically meant it was going to be a regular over a traveler. I glanced over, and I see Tom's head over the shelf. I shouted out, Hey, Tom, I'll be right up in a moment. Let me just finish wiping this down. He didn't say anything, so I quickly finished wiping down the soda fountain, and made my way to

the front, but immediately paused when I looked over at Tom. The first thing I noticed was that he looked like he'd been crying, and his eyes were wide in shock. The second thing I noticed was that his hands and shirt were covered in blood. I rushed over to him to ask him if he was okay, what had happened. He lifted his hands to stop me from approaching and shook his head before just saying, call the cops, please, just call the cops. I hesitated for a moment, not really sure what was going on, but after a few seconds of thinking it over,

I just told him, okay, and walked behind the counter to call 911. When they answered, I told them that I had a customer that was requesting the police, and Tom broke down sobbing uncontrollably. He slumped down to the floor, and just kept saying, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt anyone.

I didn't mean for this to happen. I was in shock, but just kept trying to relay what I was seeing to the dispatcher and told her that I needed an officer there ASAP. It really was not something I would have expected to have to deal with. Tom was such a kind-hearted and gentle man. But the thought of him hurting someone, and to do so in a way that covered him in blood like that, it just seemed impossible.

After the dispatcher disconnected, I tried to talk to him to ask him what had happened, trying to keep him calm and connected to the real world. He kept apologizing over and over, saying that he didn't mean to do it, that he didn't mean to get me involved, he just didn't know where else to go. I told him it was okay.

that it would get figured out, and that I wasn't mad at him. He just stayed sitting on the floor with his knees curled up, crying his eyes out and apologizing. After a couple of moments, we heard the sirens, and that seemed to push him to a sobering point. He'd stopped crying, wiped his face on his sleeve and cleared his throat

as he watched the officers walk to the door. Obviously, they were as confused as I was, asking what exactly was going on. I guess the look on my face told them that I had no idea, as they turned their attention to Tom, sitting on the floor and covered in blood. They asked him what had happened, and he stood up saying, I'm not going to cause you any trouble.

I'm not going to fight back. Please just arrest me. The officer asked him why he needed to be arrested, and I will never forget the dark and painful tone he took on when he responded with, I murdered my brother. The officer asked him a few more questions, just trying to clarify that he was saying what he thought he was saying, and he confirmed with them again,

and again that he had murdered his brother. After a bit of back and forth, they did lead him out of the store, and one of the officers came back to ask me some questions. All I could offer were the fragments of his life that I was aware of, that he lived with his brother Mark, that Mark was an addict and was a cause of a lot of stress for Tom. None of it really seemed helpful,

other than to confirm that he did have a brother, and that the possibility was there. The rest of the shift after they left was eerily quiet, and I was mentally in a weird place. I found out a few days later that Tom had actually gotten into a very violent altercation with Mark, In a moment of desperation and confusion that was fueled by years of pent-up frustration, Tom had attacked Mark. He left him really, really messed up after attacking him, to the point that Tom thought he was dead.

Mark actually did not die from the attack, but had come rather close to death. He was in the hospital and was going to need a lot of work in recovery time, but he was most likely going to live. The news hit me kind of hard. I was forced to think back on all the nights that I'd spent having aimless conversations with Tom and how much he had wanted his brother to get better. It is terrifying to me to really think about how quickly and how sharply things can go from I'm doing everything I can to help you get better to attempted murder.

And Tom was not a person that I would have. ever anticipate getting violent. In the end, I guess we all have our own demons, those voices inside our head that lead to those intrusive thoughts, and unfortunately for Tom those demons won that night. I guess I just hope that that night was a turning point for both brothers, and that they both got the help they needed. I used to work the night shift for a 24-hour convenience store, in a fairly close. quiet suburban area.

The job was typically uneventful, which is a welcome thing to a 20-year-old college student that needed the work-life balance that I did. I've always sucked at studying, and I'm horribly prone to stress, but since the job was pretty do-nothing most of the time, I was able to get some studying in while sitting behind the counter. The boss didn't really care, as long as I was a little. as the register closed out accurately and the store stayed relatively clean. There was one rainy night in the spring of 2020, though, that I thought something bad was going

to happen. I will say that it did end up as one of those stories where nothing really happened, thankfully, but that was pure dumb luck, and if things hadn't gone the exact way they had, it would have been a terrible situation. It was one of those nights, where it was coming down in buckets, and it was coming down for pretty much the entire night. It wasn't a violent storm, just one of those early spring storms where it's steady for hours on end. When it started to rain, I immediately knew that this was going to be the perfect night.

I had a pretty major midterm coming up, and I needed to study for it, and a heavy rain typically meant a dead store. Most people that would come through for their soda and candy in the middle of the night would just stay home, which meant that I had several hours to do absolutely nothing. We had a few brave souls come through, but it was so few that I think we made three transactions in just as many hours. A slow night, for sure. Around two in the morning, when the rain was starting to slow down a bit, a man entered the store.

He was drenched from head to toe, water literally dripping off his coat onto the floor. I know this because I remember as he walked in, I went over to get the wet floor sign in the mop. While I was setting up the sign, he walked over to where I was standing and said, Hey. It made me jump because I was struggling with the damn clamp on the sign that held it up, and I didn't realize that he'd gotten that close. I apologized for jumping like that and told him that I'd ring him up in a second

and that the sign was a pain just trying to make a slight joke to ease the tensions. When I glanced up in him, though, he didn't seem to get the humor. His eyes were wide and were darting and he almost had this nervous energy about him. I tried to ignore it. Maybe he was on something,

maybe he was just hopped up on caffeine, it was honestly none of my business. I finished what I was doing and walked back around the counter and looked at him, waiting for him to approach. But he just stood there staring at the sign that I had just put up, and then nervously glancing around the shop. I asked him if he was ready to check out, and he quickly turned his head toward me,

and stared without saying anything, then turned and walked back to the soda cooler for a second time. time. I just watched him like, okay, this guy is a bit weird. But again, we got weirdos pretty frequently. After a couple of moments, he walked up to the counter with a bottle of soda,

a few candy bars, and a few other various snack items. I scanned the items and tried to make a bit of small talk, mentioning the storm and laughing that he forgot his umbrella. He responded in monosyllables. not even full words for half the conversation. And the whole time, he would not look at me. His jumpiness was starting to make me a bit nervous, but again,

I just had to accept that he was awkward and move on. As I handed him his change, he suddenly leaned in close, close enough that I could smell his breath and whispered, You shouldn't be here alone. His stare and words sent a chill down my spine, and I just sort of stammered and mumbled that I had a co-worker out back, and that they would be back in momentarily. He didn't respond.

He just stared at me for a long, uncomfortable few seconds, and then turned to leave. I breathed a sigh of relief when he left, thinking that the situation could have ended badly, had he not believed me. A few hours passed, and by the time 4.30 rolled around, I had mostly forgotten about the whole interaction, shrugging it off as just a weird thing that happened. About that time, I was on the main floor sweeping up some of the aisles,

and making sure the store was tidy and organized, so that I could spend my last couple of hours stalking and getting back to my studying before I went home, when I heard the door chime again. I looked up, thinking it was going to be one of our early morning regulars, but my heart sank when I saw that it was him again. This time, he didn't even pretend to shop. He walked straight to the end of the aisle that I was sweeping, standing between myself and the front counter, and looked me dead in the eyes.

You're still here? I told you it's not safe to be alone. His tone was almost accusatory, like he was angry at me for still working. I swear he was giving me this malicious smirk like he was about to commit something terrible, and of course my main thought was that he was going to attack me and rob the store. I once again stammered out that my co-worker was in the back, and that they would be out at any moment, hoping to possibly deter him. but I could very clearly see that it wasn't going to work a second time.

He just laughed out a cold and hollow sound that made me feel sick. By some miracle or manifestation, as soon as he took a step forward, the door to the back swung open and the morning manager, Jim, stepped toward me, saying, hey, morning, Morgan, how's the night, Ben? without looking up and seeing the situation that was unfolding. When Jim stepped out and the man saw him, he looked back at me and shook his head slightly, then quickly left the store,

which did catch Jim's attention. He watched the guy walk out of the store, looked up at me, and I was pretty obviously distraught. He asked what that was all about, and I told him that I was pretty certain that that guy was about to rob the store before he walked in. At first, Jim thought I was joking, and he kind of chuckled, but he quickly realized I was being very serious.

He asked if he should call the police, and if the guy had actually made any threats or anything. I told him that he was just being aggressive and that he had warned me saying that I shouldn't be here alone, which, when I said it, sounded kind of weak and silly. Thankfully, Jim took it seriously. He said that he would get the guy's picture off of the security camera and would let the other managers know that this guy was trouble. He also said that he would talk to the general manager about getting a second person for the overnight shift,

because he agreed that one person working the entire shift alone was a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, I never saw the man again. But the event definitely made me feel vulnerable on the overnight shift. The general manager did take Jim's advice, and within a week, we had a second person on the overnight, and every shift from then on had at least two people. I know that it cost them more in labor, but it was nice that they realized how serious

the situation was. I'm grateful that he wasn't given the opportunity to follow through on his vague threats, but at the same time, I know how much. much it was dumb luck that saved me that night. If Jim had been running late at all, he would have had the chance to do what he was going to do. And I would have ended up injured, or much, much worse. So, this experience has stuck in my mind,

and I remember it like it was yesterday. When I was probably 10 or 11, the year was probably 2000 or 2001, I was at our local park with a friend riding our BMX bikes, and this particular park was super awesome because it was practically a skater-slash-BM-sard's dream. There was stairs and ledges and natural jumps built into the layout of this patio plaza, which then led down to a sandy beach line of our local lake. So, normally it's pretty busy, and you'd get kicked out by random hero adults or lifeguards,

telling you that you can't have fun here and to go elsewhere. Go figure. But this was an overcast kind of cooler, mid-to-low-low-50s kind of day, so the park was completely empty, besides me and my buddy. So after an hour or two, we're starting to get bored and noticed that it was getting late in the day, maybe about 5.30 to 6 o'clock, and sunset was about an hour, maybe hour and a half away as tops. I'm talking dark. No more sun, street lights on kind of sunset.

About 30 minutes prior to this, I had noticed a van. I think it was either white or possibly off-white, like eggshell, colored, pulling up in the parking lots and park facing us directly, which was probably about 300 to 400 feet away. I couldn't see the driver too well, but I know for a fact that he never got to... out, and nobody got in. At first, no big deal, but after 30 to 45 minutes, during which I would occasionally look

in his direction every five or ten minutes or so, and every last time he was staring straight dead ahead at us. He wasn't preoccupied with anything or anyone else. My buddy started to notice this, too, and while I started to get this weird feeling that something wasn't right, I didn't mention it in such a way that would seem like I'm thinking this guy is going to kidnap us and do weird crap to us. I simply replied, yeah, I noticed him too. That's odd, but left it at that. So it's now about 20 to 30 minutes before dark, and we've gathered our things and decided to leave. Luckily, there was a really busy gas station

across the street from the park, maybe a quarter to half a mile from the parking lot slash plaza area. But as we start making our way down, one of the multiple paved walking paths that lead to the exit, me and my friend noticed this van had started its engine and was proceeding to back out of the parking spot. So now we're a little on edge, and we rush in to the mini-mart. We go inside and both were like, what the hell? and thought that was kind of startling, but proceeded to wait in line to buy our candy,

and momentarily forgot about what had just happened. Unfortunately, as we walked out the door of the store, we saw the same janky van sitting across the four-lane roadway at the park's turn-in entrance, with his blinker on, just sitting there. And mind you, we were in the store for a good five to seven minutes. There's no way he couldn't have safely merged into his own. to traffic. Luckily for my friend, he lived maybe five minutes away from the mini-mart.

Just had a ride straight behind the minimart about 10 to 12 blocks, all of which was two or three heavily lighted residential-type road straight home. And unfortunately for me, my house was probably about 15 minutes away. Maybe less, but I had to ride north of the gas station minimart, along this kind of rural highway slash higher speed road, like 40 to 50 miles per hour, with no houses directly on it, and a streetlight every, like, half mile if I'm lucky, before turning on to a different 25-mile-per-hour rural kind of road that was sparsely daunted with houses, before taking a third turn onto my heavily populated normal neighborhood, that has eyes and ears and would certainly see a child

kidding abducted. My friend pretty much was like, best of luck, I'm out, and took off towards his, while I started my short ride back home as well. So I'm about to turn off of the higher speed highway kind of road and look over

my left shoulder as I turn right. And what do I see? The same van driving by my road. And after passing me, also immediately starting to slow down. It was like slow motion. I can still picture the fear that I felt when I saw the brake lights on the van. Mind you, he didn't slam on the brakes or do anything that would draw attention,

or be considered erratic or reckless. But my first instinct and thought was that he's slowing down to turn around and double back. At this point, I'm scared witless. Growing up, my mom would always watch murder shows and unsolved mysteries, that kind of stuff. So I was well aware of the idea of people, especially kids, being taken by strangers and defiled, tortured, killed, assaulted, etc. And I swear on my mother's grave, bless her soul, I never even to this day had ridden or peddled a bike as fast or as hard as I did that evening. Literally every ounce of my being was put into going faster than I had ever gone. the entire time thinking this van is going to pull up next to me and do whatever.

I was pedaling so hard just staring straight at the ground, focusing on my feet that I almost ran into a parked car like two blocks from my house. It was literally inches away from running head on into the car. I never bothered to look back once I saw those brake lights. I didn't want to know how close or how far whoever was driving that van, was from me. All I knew was I was scared and best believe I'm not going to be kidnapped without

the burp having to work for it. Anyway, I made it home, but never told my parents, even to this day. I never brought it up, and I don't know why. Sometimes, I think, was I possibly kidnapped?

Or was it a fiction in my imagination, and maybe just an odd set of coincidence? I know Unsolved Mysteries and various other shows about murder and mayhem that my mom watched. It didn't help the situation. But, yeah, that's my story. Just thought that I would share it. Opinions very much welcomed.

Stay safe out there. Too many people go missing or disappear each year. I'm sure that I'll sound crazy, but I'm super creeped out from a recent interaction at a grocery store. I was shopping with my toddler, and an older lady, maybe 70-ish, who was by herself, just came up and said, Ma'am, just so you know, all canned veggies are on sale for 50 cents this week, and went on about how it's a great deal and they don't run it often. I said thanks that I appreciated the heads up, and that I'll definitely grab a few on my way out. then she begins to walk away

and is almost out of sight when she stopped and looked back and smiled at my son she then asked how old he was I said oh uh just over a year and she then asked if he was my only child and some other random questions about him then she goes hey I just remembered I have some clothes in my trunk all boy stuff in the two T to three T range and asked if I wanted them. I politely declined, and I said we would be shopping for a while,

and that I didn't want to hold her up. She then proceeds to say, Oh, not a problem. I'll just wait outside, and then I can come back in and find you before you leave. Are you a single mom? Would you need them? I got this gut feeling that something was off about this lady,

and I just said, Nope. Not a single mom, and we have all the clothes that we need. And then thanked her for the offer. She tried a few more times saying things like, I just don't know what to do with them. If you could use them, I'd be happy to give them all to you. At this point, it really felt like she was trying to lure me in my son to her car. I continued to decline the offer, and then walked away.

I did a few more laps around the store looking for things that. I needed, and at one point I saw her standing in an aisle in the center of the store with a younger man, just people watching. I could just be super paranoid, and she was just a sweet old lady trying to be nice. But something in my mind just told me to get out of the conversation as quickly as possible. I feel like parents will know that having small child with you make strangers talk to you all the time, and make small talk about your sweet kiddos. But this conversation did not feel the same as the others I've had while out and about with my son. Has anyone else ever had a similar experience?

I have a story about a night a couple of years ago that was a pretty chilling experience, and not just because it was a cold and rainy night. It was the middle of September, which meant the temp was trying to get a little lower, but it was still the end of summer, so it wasn't anything more than light jacket weather. Due to some circumstances mostly out of my control, I no longer had a car, and was reliant on public transportation for pretty much everything, which was a pain because I worked from 10 to 9 at my job, and the bus here was very prompt.

so I needed to get out of work on time and make a dash to the bus stop to get to the bus. Or else I would have to wait quite a while for the next one. On this particular night, I actually got out of work at 9.10 p.m. And I knew right away that there was no way I was making the next bus, so I was walking slowly in the rain to the bus stop and feeling a bit ticked off at the world. I was moody back then. Cut me some slack. I was still pretty young. I sat there at the bus stop, messing with my phone and thinking about plugging in my earphones to listen to some music and pass the time. When I heard something that sounded like a slight groaning sound. At first I thought it was just the wind, or something like that with how faint it was,

but then it happened a second time and at that point I realized that it wasn't. my curiosity was piqued because it was definitely some kind of groaning and it was a bit weird to hear i stepped off the sidewalk and over to the end of the street where there were some trees and brush initially i thought it was just some drunk guy that had passed out in the bushes and i was kind of laughing to myself like damn dude you chose a bad night to get hammered and sleep outside But as I got closer, the groaning got louder, and it sounded less like they were drunk, and more like they were in pain. I followed it to a pretty thick part of the brush, and was shocked by what I saw. It was a man, which I anticipated, but his clothes were soaked, and not just from the rain. There was a large red stain on his shirt that was coloring the dirt around him as well. Panic set in and I rushed over to him, asking if he could hear me. He was conscious, but barely, and his breathing was very labored.

He was able to whisper out, Oh, God, please help. I told him that I would help him and to just hold on. I grabbed my phone and immediately dialed emergency services. I struggled to explain the situation beyond, there was a guy that was bleeding out on the ground. and where I was. She told me to stay on the line and asked me if I could do anything to apply pressure to the wound

and to try and stop the bleeding. I was not prepared for this situation. I didn't know the first thing about first aid, and I was so worried that I was just going to make it worse. Thankfully, she talked me through what to do. I pulled off my jacket and informed him what I was going to do. I tensed up when he gasped as I was going to do. pushed on the wound, but I told him that it was going to be okay.

I explained that, based on how he was injured, it looked like he'd likely been stabbed, but that I didn't see a knife anywhere. He nodded at me and quietly whispered, stabbed, which confirmed what I saw. As we waited for help to arrive, the man's gaze met mine and I could see the fear in his eyes. He tried to speak, but I couldn't really hear him. I leaned closer and told him that he needed to go ahead and just stay calm, not speak, and that the ambulance was on the way, which the operator continued to assure me was the case.

He was able to whisper out. He ambushed me, didn't see his face. I just nodded in confirmation and told him to hold on that he would be okay. The whole thing was surreal. I had just gotten off work thinking I was going to be sitting and waiting for the bus for half an hour, yet here I was, knelt down in the rain and holding a stranger's life in my hands. The sirens as they approached was the most welcoming sound I have ever heard. The paramedics arrived quickly, taking over within seconds, trading places with me and getting the man into the ambulance.

One of the medics actually thanked me for calling them, as I may have saved this man's life, and that I did a damn good thing. Then the police arrived and started asking me questions about what I'd seen, what I'd heard. I told them what I could, but I couldn't offer a lot, as I had only heard him groaning and pretty much stumbled on to the situation. It was pretty clear that whoever had attacked him was long gone. and they had just left him for dead on the side of the road.

They also told me that he was lucky that I had found him, that if it had been a few more moments, there was a good chance that he wouldn't have made it. After giving my statement and telling them everything a couple of times over, I was left at the bus stop to sit there and replay the entire event over in my mind. The bus did arrive, right on time, and I got home without issue. but that night was a rough one.

I learned later on that he did survive the attack, but that the assailant was never caught. It's a terrifying thought that I've had multiple times over. The fact that, had I left work on time, there was a chance that that guy would have died there in the bushes. I don't know the exact time he was attacked, but I would have likely been running on the bus and gone on without even noticing

he was there. It's the one night that I'm glad that I had to work a few minutes late, because that inconvenience may have been the saving grace that kept that man alive. I'll start this off by saying this. Me, and all other people mentioned, are neurodivergent. But I'm 100% sure that these stories are true, at least the ones that happened to me. But no one else had any real reason to lie about their first. stories, so I believe them as well.

This will be a few different situations that have happened over the span of almost a decade. For context, all of this happened on the same property, which is owned by my grandfather on my father's side. I will keep area descriptions vague, as I don't want to accidentally docks me and my family. I'll start with my first paranormal encounter. I was probably about four or five when this happened. Now, just as some more context, we live in a double-wide trailer with a few add-ons attached to it,

an extra room and two porches. In the middle of the trailer is a hallway, and off of this hallway is a door leading outside. During the fall-slash-winter, we always cover the door with a huge, really thick curtain to help keep the heat in. Now, to the story. I was walking down the hallway and suddenly a gaunt, pure white hand, with long nails reached out from under the curtain, and grabbed my ankle. Strangely, this is where the memory ends.

I have no clue what happened after it grabbed me. No matter how hard I tried to remember. Ever since then, I noticed that I've subconsciously tried to avoid going near that curtain. Like, I walk on the opposite side of the hall whenever I have to pass it. A few years later, when I was about six, I saw a black humanoid dash across my bedroom walls and then disappear. I mean this in the sense of it floating from one corner of my room to the other extremely fast, and then disappearing. Naturally, I was terrified, and I ran to my parents' room crying about how I saw a ghost in my room. They told me the generic, it was just your mind playing tricks on you BS to try to calm me down.

Admittedly, that worked, and I soon stopped crying and went back to my room to continue whatever it was that I was doing. Later, when I was about 10 or 11, I saw another black humanoid. Only this time I was with my mom. We were walking over to my aunt's property. She's our neighbor, so it's maybe a two-minute walk from our trailer. to her camper to see about picking some apples off of one of her trees. We turned left to get off the road and onto her property, and about 20 feet away from us was a black humanoid.

It was just hovering there with its arms out, almost in a T-pose, except its arms were turned up. It also didn't seem defined. For example, look down at your arms. You can clearly see where it ends and what behind. it begins. This thing didn't have that clear end of its mass. It seemed almost to blend in with its surroundings.

It was also more like a person's silhouette instead of a person. I didn't feel like it was malicious, but I could feel its stare, even though it didn't have eyes, or any features for that matter. I could feel it staring at me, like it was trying to tell me something, and it disappeared soon. after. I didn't know what that something was at the time, but now I think it was an omen for what was to come, based on the next event that I'll tell you about. The next event that happened, happened when I was 12. As a basic description of our trailer, when you enter through the front door to your right, will be the kitchen and dining room, and to your left will be a sort of living

room. Basically, it just has a rocking chair and a wood stove. In the kitchen slash dining room area, there's a large window on the same wall as the door. I was just pacing walking around the table with no real purpose. When I looked out the window, to see a gaunt, pale white figure. Now, because of how the window was set up, I only saw its top half, but that was enough for me. Its arms were two different lengths, and it had two massive leathery wings sprouting from its back. Its face was worse, however, with no hair, mouth, or nose. Its eyes were just six black slits in its face. It wasn't all bad, though, considering it, or shall I say, she, had impressive assets.

Look, don't judge me. I'm a straight male, of course, that was the first thing I noticed. Anyway, as all these encounters have gone, she was gone in an instant, leaving me with some very mixed feelings about it. My last encounter, though not the last story I will tell, is when I talked to her. Admittedly, this is the lamest encounter to top off a lot of already pretty lame encounters. Basically, she had tried to intimidate me. I don't remember how. and then I had turned the conversation into a, let's say, erotic experience.

Yes, I was 12 when this happened, but it was not at all innocent, and also going through puberty, so moving on to something more interesting. This happened with her standing on the roof above me. I was in my bedroom and us talking back and forth, like how a person talks to another person, and it all ended in her just stopping to respond. I was talking to my dad about some of the above experiences, and he told me some of the things that he had experienced. Now, my dad also grew up on this property. Hell, he was literally born here, as in not in a hospital, but literally on this property.

He said that when he was growing up, he would often see a man walking around, only for him to disappear shortly after he saw him. and one time he saw this man walking up a hill. Later on, this was actually fairly recently. It was really foggy out, but he had to water the greenhouses so he went outside. He watered the first one and started walking to the second one. After a while, he said he was thinking, man, I should have made it to the other greenhouse by now.

What's going on? He was walking up a hill when he decided to check his phone, and he noticed it was an... hour later. He then realized that he was wearing the same clothes that the man he saw when he was a kid was wearing, and that this was the same hill. Now, I know that this could have just been my dad trying to scare me, but he's not the type of guy to joke about the supernatural like that.

And we were exchanging stories, so I have no reason to think that he was lying. And that's all I've got. I hope that even if you don't believe me, you at least found this entertaining. As a quick update, I now believe that the hand from the first story belongs to the creature from the last two stories. But I don't really have any proof of that, or any of this. So, oh well. I should note that at one point in the middle of the night,

I woke up to what sounded like a person walking around on the roof above me. What's weird is that no one else heard this. It might sound normal to someone that's never lived in a trailer, But these things literally have no sound protection. So if someone is talking at one side of the trailer, there's a good chance that you'll be able to hear them on the opposite side of the trailer. Well, that's all for me. I love the stuff you make, Raven, and I hope you keep it up for a while yet.

You're probably my favorite narrator at this point. Oh, thank you very much. And I plan to. When I finally moved out of my parents' house, I always said that I would have a budgie for a pet, as you can leave them to their own devices whilst at work, and there's no cravings for food or walks. The first one I had was called Marty McFly.

Now, two things you need to know. One, he knew what the biscuit tin was and what was inside. He would go nuts until he had a piece of digestive. Two, he adored my mother. which brings us to Christmas Eve. Marty would come with me to my parents' house over Christmas, so whilst I was at work, my mother came over, put him and his stand in the car,

and then started back home. On the journey, Marty hung on for dear life and never made a sound until she reached a junction which had traffic lights, which were on red. All of the sudden, he chirps and squawks, causing my mother to look at him. Upon looking back up, the lights had changed to green, so she moved forward. Just then, from the right, came another car, straight over the junction, running the red light.

To this day, I think Marty saved my mom's life and stopped a trip to the hospital. Hey, okay. My boyfriend was driving, and I was sitting in the passenger seat. It was nighttime, and we were traveling across the state to stay at my parents' house for a while. Our rent got too expensive, and we needed somewhere else to stay so that we could save up to get our own place again. Not relevance to the story, but it provides some background. We were casually listening to the radio and chatting between ourselves when it started to rain. Okay, it wasn't too bad.

Driving in the rain wasn't a big deal. We had our headlights on and we drove through the country road. Unfortunately, our trips slowed down when my boyfriend couldn't see anymore. We stopped at one of those 24-hour service stations that had warm food. We sat inside, ate, and other than the clerk, there were no other customers in there with us. Then a beat-up-looking truck drove into a parking spot. A scruffy and wet-looking man with dirty clothes came into the station, and we noticed the smell.

A musty foul and almost fishy odor hung in the air. I thought maybe he was a fisherman, or just didn't have decent hygiene. We tried to be polite and did not look at him or anything. He walked around, looking at the items, and then came and looked at us. Whenever we would look at him, he would drop his gaze and then look elsewhere. I noticed him doing this a couple of times.

I figured he was going to ask us for some change or something, so I ignored him. My boyfriend and I forgot that he was there during our conversation. Finally, we finished our food, and the rain was beginning to ease off, so we went out and got in the car and left. After a bit, we noticed some headlights driving behind us. My boyfriend recognized that it was the same man from the service, station. Since we were driving on the highway, we didn't think too much of it. He was probably just headed towards the same place that we were. It was only when we drove into his parents' suburb

that that beat-up-looking truck followed us. We pulled over by the side of the road, and he did the same. He didn't get out of the car. He just sat there and stared at us with the headlights still on. My boyfriend was going to get out, but I grabbed him. his arm and told him not to. I didn't know if this guy had a gun or some other kind of weapon, and I didn't want him to get hurt. He stayed in the car with me, and after a while, we drove off. I wasn't surprised when I saw those same damn headlights following us in the rain.

I really did not like this. We drove around for a while. We couldn't really speed up, and we didn't want to crash. It's hard to explain, but he just seemed to disappear. We saw the headlights, and then we didn't. I don't know if it was some kind of weird glitch that happened, whether he drove off or what exactly happened. It's honestly a mystery.

Maybe people in the comments section can help me work out what happened there. So from there, we spent some time at his parents' place, and we had to go get some extra blankets and towels for the house. While we were out, we actually noticed a missing poster for that man. He looked cleaner, healthier, and the poster said that there were grave concerns for his health.

We reported it to the police, but there were no leads. The posters for him are still up around town, and through the small town gossip, I heard that his truck was stolen and never seen again. I think it's one of those stories. where there is some truth to it, but there were some other reports of him being seen, but that he was a ghost.

I don't think that's the case. And it's in bad taste to say that he is a ghost, or make up some BS story about it. So I don't know if it was actually him or not. Maybe he was staring at us because he wanted help. I do feel bad if we were his last chance, but we equally did not want to get hurt either. It sucks how you have to be careful about who you help,

because some people are crazy, or predatory. But you gotta do what you gotta do. I don't know if he was ever found, or if he remains a missing person. And as strange as it sounds, I don't think it would have been anywhere near as unsettling if it hadn't been raining. The thick rain made it difficult to see,

and we had to go slower unless we wanted to get into a car accident. I'm not really sure how to end this, but I do want to say that you're one of the best in the narration game, Raven, and I hope that this story was good enough to narrate. It was, and thank you.