As The Raven Dreams Podcast - Scary Stories For Dark Dreams - Vol 45 | ATRD Podcast

Episode Date: October 25, 2025

Today we have 15 More 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; Trick Or Treat Stories from Oct 2022, Halloween Stories from Oct 2023, & Night Shift Stories from Nov 2023 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: 0:28 Story 2: 6:02 Story 3: 12:24 Story 4: 22:55 Story 5: 30:36 Story 7: 37:22 Story 8: 48:51 Story 9: 58:11 Story 10: 1:05:02 Story 11: 1:14:14 Story 12: 1:28:33 Story 13: 1:39:43 Story 14: 1:45:16 Story 15: 1:52:01 ----- 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. Note: The podcast nor the host endorses any advertisements played during the podcast, ads are not chosen by ATRD or Raven Adams, they are chosen automatically by the advertisement systems by the platforms that host the podcast. I do not endorse, support, or promote any opinions or statements made in any adverts played during the show. #ScaryStories #UnexplainedMysteries #Halloween ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you have a true scary story you'd like to share with the podcast, go to as-the-ravendreams.com and click the button to send it my way. Also, if the platform you're on has the option to rate the podcast or leave a comment, please consider doing so. And as always, thank you. This happened back whenever I was seven years old. And at the time, it was the creepiest thing that I had ever experienced. I admit that it was kind of a nothing really happened event, and of course I didn't have much experience being seven years old, and the scarier things have happened further into my life,

but this was seriously terrifying at the time. It was Halloween, which is obvious by the fact that we were trick-or-treating at the time. We had a local park that was owned by a church, and they liked to do this big Halloween event that was kind of, of like a trunk or treat thing, but it was almost like a little Halloween carnival. My dad agreed to take myself and my little sister, and I was over the moon. I was a little girl that loved everything spooky, and I was finally going to what I thought was going to be the pinnacle of all the Halloween events, even though it was watered down and hosted

pia church. I was obviously amped, and I thought it was going to be the pinnacle of all the Halloween events, going to be an amazing evening. My dad was busy keeping an eye on my little sister, so at one point I had kind of wandered off to check out this haunted maze that they'd set up. I thought that I was old enough to handle it. I yelled to my dad that I was going to go to the maze, and ignored him when he told me to wait for him in Lacey, my sister, who was three at the time. I was so engrossed that I didn't think anything of it, and just to be a little bit.

and just assumed that he was right behind me. I entered into the maze and made quick work of it. It was creepy, but it was super quick to get through. I pop out the other side, and I'm amped because they gave me this caramel apple as a prize for getting through. I immediately unwrapped it and bit into it, and then looked around for my dad and sister, only to not see either of them. The crowd looked a bit thinner than I remembered, but neither of them were there. I walked around the side of the maze and out to the front, the main area of the festival,

thinking that they would be there waiting, but still did not see them. I was just kind of standing there like a lost puppy, looking around, thinking, where did they go? After a few moments, I walked over towards the entrance, thinking that if they were were looking for me, they would have me come to the front, right? They would go somewhere that I could be seen and was a common checkpoint. After a few moments of standing at the front, I saw this person wearing a mask standing off to the side, just kind of staring at me. He was wearing one of those exaggerated old person face masks, the kind that are really wrinkly and flabby. At first,

I just saw him standing there and didn't think anything of it, just a person standing off to the side in a creepy mask at a Halloween carnival. After about two or three minutes, I noticed that he hadn't turned away from me or walked anywhere else, and I was hitting a point of getting a bit worried by it, because, again, it was creepy. I knew that something was off at that point. My heart was starting to speed up,

and I could feel myself. starting to cry. Right about then, is when this creepy man in the mask started to walk toward me, and I choked, as I just thought, this guy is going to kill me. Again, I was like seven, so that was just the random idea implanted in my little brain by the horror movies I've seen. I just stood there watching this creepy person walking toward me. And as he did, I watched as he reached his hand into his pocket, and I watched as he reached his hand into

his pocket and pulled out what looked like a dog leash or a leather rope of some sort. I was starting to shake as he slowly crept toward me with this rope in his hand. Thankfully, at the point where he hit the midway point between us, my dad walked up to me and asked where I'd been. I looked up at him with teary eyes and I couldn't speak. I just burst into tears at that point. He picked me up and told me that it would be okay. but that I needed to stay by him for the rest of the night,

so that he didn't lose me again. I remember looking back to see if I could find the creepy man, but he was gone. What wasn't gone, though, was his mask. It was on the ground, as if he had taken it off and tossed it before walking away. I have literally no idea what his intentions were. The rope or leash or whatever it was was enough to scare the hell out of seven-year-old me, But the fact that he left the mask tells me, at least now, that he didn't want me to be able to point him out to my dad. I absolutely assume that this man had ill intent.

But thankfully, my dad showed up just in time. Like I mentioned, I know that this was kind of a nothing really happened story, but it was still terrifying to me at the time. There's something else here now. Something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus. It's the series Stephen King calls Scary as Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi Vision calls it the best show streaming right now.

We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. When I was a kid, I used to go try. trick-or-treating with my friends. I live in Australia, so keep in mind that Halloween isn't as popular here as it is in the U.S. A lot of people tend to think that it's an American tradition.

It has begun to grow in popularity, though, and more people do take part in it every year. It's something that I'm going to take my kids to do, provided things go well, and I do live in a safe area. People also sometimes dress up at work, or there are Halloween parties. This was in the late 90s, so keep that in mind that things were different back then. My friends and I were 15, and none of us had really been trick-or-treating before. I had a younger brother who I took out trick-or-treating, and managed to get some of his candy out of it, too. My friends and I dropped him off at home and told my parents that we were going to be out for a while long,

It was the weekend, so none of us had to be home to go to bed for school or anything. There were three boys and three girls along with myself, so seven in total. A couple of people commented on our lack of effort, and, well, they weren't wrong. We were also told that we were a bit old to be trick-or-treating, and, yeah, we were. As for our costumes, we didn't bother to dress up, and we wore our own. our usual street clothes. We were pretty lazy about it. All we wanted was some free candy, and maybe we could get a can of drink or something.

The area that we lived in was pretty safe. Mostly families, but it was in a low-income area, so the type of kids here tended to vary a lot. It wasn't uncommon for kids to be out playing late in the afternoon, or staying out until the streetlights came on. So, around 6 or 7 p.m. We generally had a good idea about the types of people who lived around here and adjusted our behavior accordingly depending on who was around. We walked and knocked on several doors along the stop.

Quite a few people told us that they weren't interested, and some just blatantly told us to screw off. We weren't surprised and joked about how we would come back later to egg their house. We were absolutely full of it because we weren't going to. We were laughing and carrying on like idiots while we walked, and walked toward the dimly-lid house at the end of the street. Usually, when people didn't leave their lights on, it was a sign that they weren't interested and to just leave them alone. We were being little a-holes, though, so I guess you could say that we did invite this to happen to us.

We ran up to the door, not. loudly and giggled. We could hear the faint sound of the TV in a nearby room. I can't remember what was on the TV at the time, though. There were no signs that this person was going to get up to open the door. No footsteps or sound of keys. And we knocked again, even louder this time, and a man came to the door. He opened it roughly and stared down at us with an exhausted and angry expression.

When he opened the door, I smelled the aroma of garbage, and I think that he may have been a hoarder, too. He looked rough as guts. He smelled like he hadn't showered for a long time. His beard was messy and had food scraps in it. His pajamas were stained and smelled disgusting. There were dark circles under his eyes, and looking back, he looked like he was going through a pretty rough time. I regretted knocking on the door and stepped backwards. I think I murmured an apology or something.

Before he had the chance to ask us what we wanted or what we were doing, my friends were being jerks and called out aloud, a trick or treat, at him while holding up their plastic bags open in hopes of treats being put inside. The man blinked to himself and murmured that Halloween was an American tradition and that he didn't celebrate it, that he wanted us to leave him alone, and that he didn't have anything he could give us anyways.

It was difficult to understand what he had been saying because he was mumbling under his breath. He tried to close the door, but one of my friends kicked at it and threatened to egg his house if he didn't give us anything. Sure, we were kids, but I have to admit that I was pretty shocked to hear my friend, friend behave like this.

We could be pretty obnoxious at times, but that was something else. I can't remember if I told them to stop or not. I was so surprised by what happened. My friend must have pushed the man too far, because the man reached for a baseball bat he had by the side of the door and swung it at our friends. He screamed at us, telling us that he was going to mess us all up, and not to come near his house ever again, or we would get what was coming to us. We all screamed and began to run away as fast as we could to escape him.

Yeah, we were cowards, and we wasted no time in running away as fast as possible. For someone who looked the way he did, he could move really fast. I looked back now and then, and when we went around the block, he must have stopped, and we all caught our breaths at one of the local parks. We were breathing and started laughing. I don't think we ever tried to go trick-or-treating after that. I'm a parent myself now, and you can bet that I make sure my children are always incredibly respectful

when we go trick-or-treating these days. This happened in 2018 on Halloween night. I was taking my two kids out trick-or-treating, and it was going to be the first year that my youngest actually went with us. Before then, he just stayed with my mom while I took my oldest, but now at the ages of six and four, they were both going and they were both really excited about it. Since my youngest didn't really care what costume he was wearing as long as he got one, I decided to do the cheesy mom thing and get matching costumes. What I didn't expect was my oldest wanting to do it with us, so he went with Cat in the Hat, and my boys were Thing One, and that. think too. We were really cute, and my youngest seemed to love the idea of my hat and whiskers.

We started at my mom's place so that she could see us and get pictures of us looking our best, and then we walked her neighborhood first. She lived in a nice area, and the majority of the people were retirees, so they loved seeing the kids and handing out lots of candy. We'd been doing well, and we were all in good spirits. My youngest, not showing any signs of slowing down. He was always trying to be in front of us and was adamant about trying to ring the doorbell before we got to it. This one particular house was no different. There were two carved pumpkins resting in the grass, lining the sidewalk, and the porch light was on.

Our typical signs that we could try knocking. We approached the door, and after my youngest, Rubin, rang the bell, we stepped back and waited as they excitedly held out their bags. After the enormous allotted time that you would wait, no one came to the door. Ruben was ready to press the button again, so I had to explain to him that if they didn't answer, you walked away. This all took place probably within the span of just a few minutes, so after explaining this, I told them it was time to go and started ushering them to the gate. As we started walking out, I could hear a door being unlocked, like the loud clunking sound of a deadbolt, and turned around to see the door being opened.

Rubin noticed too and immediately went back to the door, holding out his bag again. But the moment that the door creaked open, I was hit with a sight that would never leave my conscience. It was a frail-looking woman, and her appearance was nothing short of alarming. She had on this raggedy old tank top. You could tell it was once white, but was now a very off-white. There was a hole near the side in a dark brown or red-colored stain towards the unraveling hem. Her bottom attire looked just like a pair of men's boxers, also very dirty and old-looking. As bad as this sounds, her face just added to the unsettling feeling.

Her eyes were sunken in, one of them was bloodshot, as if something had happened to her. But her eyes remained wide open and constantly moving like she was looking for something or someone. Her hair was a tangled mess, bunched up, resting on her shoulder like it was once in a bun. I felt an immediate wave of unease wash over me as I read. rested my hands on my kid's shoulder. She seemed to notice this, which made me instantly feel bad for reacting the way I did. Maybe she was just ill or something, and we disturbed her. I smiled politely at her as my kids said trick-or-treat and waited for candy.

After staring at us, she looked over us, scanning the area as if she was trying to find someone. She stepped back into her home and grabbed something from behind the door and returned. turned with a transparent bowl full of loose M&Ms. She then took handfuls of them and threw them in my kids' bags. I don't mean packages of them either. I mean opened, poured into a bowl that you would keep and eat yourself, but just handfuls of it, now just tossed into their bags. I was already distracted enough by that and her appearance,

so I was taken aback when she started talking to me. but not because she was striking up a friendly conversation and commenting on our costumes. It was pleading. Help me, she said in a trembling whisper. I didn't know how to respond, or if I'd even heard her correctly, so I just responded with a, um, pardon me? She persisted, now whispering a bit louder as her eyes remained wide open and staring at me.

Help me, please. You won't let me leave. Help me. I was still in shock, racing to comprehend the situation. Was this real? Did she really need help, or was this some kind of ruse? Or maybe even a really bad prank? If so, I couldn't fathom anyone finding this kind of scare amusing.

I had young children. with me, and the way that Ruben backed up into me told me that he was already feeling uncomfortable. I tried to remain calm and speak in a controlled tone to not give away that I was either falling for a prank or scared. Are you okay? I can call the cops for you. Her eyes soft and summoned she let out what I can only describe as a small whimper. She looked so sad as she slowly shut the door in our faces.

I never saw or heard another person, even though she mentioned a he. But either way, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. People wouldn't joke about something like that, right? Or at least wouldn't end the interaction like that. So, with this heavy on my mind, I took my kids out of the yard, walked down to the front of the next house, and called the police. I tried to keep my kids distracted by asking them questions

and checking out all the goods they've gotten while I waited for the police. When they did arrive, I explained everything that I saw and heard, and they asked if I would stand by to confirm who came to the door, and I agreed. We stood behind one of the cop cars, as they approached the door and knocked,

but when she answered, I couldn't believe, I was seeing. It was the same woman that I had just met less than 20 minutes ago, but she looked completely different. Her hair was now pinned back, but the ends were blunt, like it was obviously just cut. She was wearing a long black dress and appeared to have applied makeup.

I couldn't see the dark circles around her eyes, and she was obviously wearing dark lipstick. She said they're smiling at the police officers, talking with her hands and even laughing. My heart sank as I watched her offer the officers a candy bar, not some loose M&Ms from a bowl. After a few minutes, the officers returned to us explaining that the woman did confirm the incident was a prank.

She claimed to live alone and assured them that she was perfectly fine. I couldn't help but feel skeptical. If it was all a prank, why had she changed her claim? clothes. Why not simply say, yeah, it was a joke, especially to the person you're trying to prank, the same person that said they were going to call the police? And there's no way that she didn't see me standing there. Why not apologize to me? And even more perplexing, why would she cut her hair? That's not something you can undo, so what was the purpose of it? I shared my doubts with the officers, trying to emphasize the gravity of the situation and how sincere her pleas

were. What if she was in genuine danger? What if she had to change because the person she spoke of noticed her? However, they told me they would look further into it, assuring me that they would reach out if they needed further information. We finished our night shortly after that, the exhaustion catching up to us after that whole event. And as days turned into weeks, I never got a call or update from the police. My mom said that she never even heard or saw anything in the week or two that followed.

She said she even drove by the house a few times and there was never any motion going on out there. I want to believe that it was a prank, but the fact that she's never even seen outside only cements my thoughts that someone doesn't want her to be seen. I've even disturbingly looked over obituaries and missing person reports to see if maybe I could spot her, but there was nothing. Of course, we have gone trick-or-treating since that year, including that same neighborhood. My mother still lives in the same place.

However, since then, the porch light has been off, so we haven't even tried approaching the door. I just can't help but think about it. I often think about her, especially as Halloween approaches. I hope that it was just a terrible prank, and that she was terrible at it, but I still fear that something sinister was happening, and her one chance that she took failed, and that she still could be in trouble.

So, I have a story that I wanted to tell, Because my actions were a bit severe, and they probably would have landed me in jail had there not been a camera that caught literally the entire interaction. We'll get to that. But to start, I want to explain who I am. My name is Julian, and I'm not a very large man. I am, to put it lightly, a bit flamboyant. And I've been targeted for this in the past. mostly just hateful words and such, but at least one other time, I was attacked because of who I am.

Unfortunately, that event left me with a bit of PTSD, and because of this, I think I did overreact when this recent situation happened. But at the same time, my actions were deemed legally justified. This happened on a fairly routine Friday for me, at least, work-wise. I work at a local tech shop, one that does phone repairs and sells various accessories and such. On this particular Friday,

I was a closer, and my roommate was supposed to come pick me up. I ended up closing at normal with my boss, and after we were done, he asked me if I had a ride home. I told him that I did, that my roommate was going to come get me, and he asked if I wanted him to stay

until he showed up. I stupidly told him not to worry about it that my roommate was probably just a few minutes late and that they'd be there any minute. He went ahead and left, and I was just standing there waiting for a few more minutes before I called my roommate. When he answered,

I could tell that he wasn't at home, and he asked me what was up. I asked him where the hell he was, and I could hear it click that he'd forgotten that he was my ride. Come to find out, he was at a party and was about three drinks deep. I angrily ended the call and just stood there thinking, Great, now I have to walk home.

It wasn't a crazy far walk, but it wasn't one that I was wanting to do that late at night. I didn't really have much of a choice, as I didn't have money to pay for an Uber right then, so I just bucked up and started walking home. I started making my way out into the parking lot when I watched a van drive down the road just outside the lot at a super slow speed. They were going at a normal speed, got out front of the shop,

and then slowed down and kept on going. I thought it was weird, but just shrugged it off thinking they were looking for something. Until I saw them hit a U-turn at the next intersection, drive back past the strip mall where our shop was, and then turn into the parking lot. I just stood there like an idiot watching them pull in, and then slowly pull up just past where I was standing.

As soon as the car parked about five feet to my right, I watched as this scraggly-looking man through the driver's door open and started walking back towards where I was. As he did, he said, Hey, are you okay? I was a bit confused, like, Like, yeah, why wouldn't I be? I told him as such, and he laughed and then said,

What are you doing out here all alone then? I'm not going to lie. This was such a weird interaction. This guy got out and just started hitting me with these weird questions, and I was just answering them with short responses like this was totally normal. It was absolutely not normal, and I don't know why it didn't really click at the time that something was un. but it didn't.

It clicked really about 30 seconds after his last question, when he reached out and grabbed my wrist and said something like, Why don't you get in the van? I'll take you home. I still just kind of stood there looking at him like I was offended, and said something like, No, thank you. I'll walk.

He then started mumbling something to himself for a moment before shouting, I have a gun. And if you don't get in the van, I'm going to effing kill you. There was obviously no way in hell I was going to get into that van. And I was pretty sure that if I did, he was going to kill me anyways. So I tried to pull away from him, telling him that I was not going with him. This is where the adrenaline kicked in, and things went sideways. As I tried to pull away, he started pulling me harder and trying to position himself.

to grab me and push me in the van. My mind then went into overdrive, as I realized what was about to happen. I grabbed my keys out of my pocket, putting them between my fingers, and I punched him square in the eye. He pulled back screaming in agony. I could see the blood on his face,

but at this point I really didn't care if I'd hurt him. I ran back to the front of the store, unlocked it, behind me and immediately called the police. I told them that some random guy had just tried to attack me. They asked where he was at that point in time, and I informed them that he was lying on the ground screaming in agony just outside the store. The dispatcher seemed a bit confused by that statement,

but I informed him that I had defended myself when he tried to grab me, and that I may have injured him in the process. The cops arrived, as did him. an ambulance, and they did end up taking him to the hospital, as I had apparently done some very real damage. I had to talk to the police for a long time. I ended up calling my manager back in so that he could show them the footage from the front door cameras, and thankfully, right there caught in 1080p, was proof that this guy had tried to abduct me, and that me hitting him was my attempt to get away.

I feel like the officers wanted to chastise me for messing him up like I had, but for me, this was life or death. I was fully aware of what would likely happen if I had let him take me. Thankfully, he went into lockup for whatever they charged him with, and I'm about 99% certain that he lost the use of that eye. But, in the end, that was the price he paid for his money. actions, and I do not regret it. If I'd gotten in that van, willingly or unwillingly, I promise you that I would not be around

to write this post. Did I overdo it? Maybe. But I only hit him the one time. And yes, I did use a key, and I did hit him in the eye, but I did this to defend myself. And if put in this situation again, I would absolutely. do it again in a heartbeat, if I had to. I have a bit of an unconventional scary story that happened on a night shift that I worked a long

time ago. I worked night shifts in the emergency room, which is a job that absolutely gives you a different perspective on life. Sometimes you have to deal with the darker side of human nature, and I've seen my share of strange, tragic, and unexplainable events. but there was one night that has stuck with me that was scary in its own way that I cannot shake off. The night started out a bit rough.

It was a crazy, stormy night, complete with non-stop thunder and hail actually smacking everything. Despite this, the ER was actually pretty quiet, which is certainly a rare occurrence on a normal night, much less one where conditions aren't favorable. But as anyone that works in a hospital will tell you, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, and you find appreciation for these rare nights. Around 3 a.m., we received a call that an ambulance was bringing in a woman

that they'd found on the side of the road, that she was unconscious and in pretty bad shape when they found her. When they wheeled her in, the sense of urgency hit us all, and I could see that she'd been through something intense. She was drenched, her clothes were torn, and she had multiple visible injuries. Even though she was unconscious, the look on her face was unsettling. She looked like she was in a mix of fear and agony, even though she was out completely cold. We all worked our asses off to stabilize her, to keep her alive and keep her going.

As we worked to keep her stable, an officer arrived to give us some extra information. She'd been found by a passing truck driver, no identification, no vehicles nearby. This offered up a few possibilities, namely that she'd been hit and the other person took off. While tending to her, I noticed a few peculiarities about her injuries. They were severe, but they didn't align with the person. person versus vehicle accident. I've seen a number of those, and the telltale signs of them are typically evident. But this woman had different injuries.

I also noted that she had bruises on her wrists and ankles, bruises that looked more like they came from restraints, not an accident. As we continued to work her over, I noted a number of other injuries that looked like they would have come from a struggle more than a hit and run. Of course, we passed information on our Jane Doe along to the police as we could, but nothing was conclusive. After a while of working and getting her stabilized,

she actually started to regain consciousness. Her eyes were wide, and she started freaking out and screaming. Not just a normal, Where Am I, kind of scream. It was a loud and blood-curdling scream that made my blood. run cold. She started shouting, asking what was going on, what was happening, and then said something that actually scared the hell out of me. And I'm sure everyone else in the room.

Let me go. They're still out there. Her panic was a bit infectious. The room jumped into overdrive to calm her down, trying to get her to stop thrashing and screaming, but it wasn't working. We tried to talk to her, but she was beyond consolation. We ended up having to administer sedatives to make sure that she didn't hurt herself further, or end up hurting one of us that was trying to calm her down. She slipped back into unconsciousness, and the room led out one hell of a collective sigh.

The officer obviously had questions about what she said, and he stuck around with us, waiting for her to wake up again to get more information. I really couldn't shake off this feeling of dread that came with her comments about them still being out there. Who was that she was referring to? The only answer I could think of was that she was being held captive and that she was running from them. A few hours passed and the shift was coming to an end. By the time I was off, the sun was starting to come out and the storm had thankfully passed. The woman didn't wake up for the rest of my shift, so I didn't get any immediate answers for my questions.

I was told by a co-worker that she did wake up later that day, but that her memory was terribly fragmented. She could remember running, she remembered hiding, but she didn't know what she was running from. The next thing she remembered was lying on the ground in the rain, thinking that she was about to die, but... not knowing why or what had knocked her down. The police speculated that it was a possibility that she'd escaped from a kidnapping, but without more evidence they couldn't really proceed on that front. She was moved out of emergency and into the step-down care. To the best of my knowledge, nothing ever came of that night,

as far as if she was kidnapped or hit by a car during the storm. They never figured out how she ended up on the road, nor where she may have been being held. She wasn't a missing person. After she was identified and interviewed a bit, there was no indication of what had happened, other than that she'd gone to the movies that night by herself, went to a bar for one drink and left, and that's where her memories of that night stop. We never figured out what happened to her,

and she never remembered. That's probably the most haunting night I've ever had working there, though I have a number of cases that some could deem as scary. This one, though, I think the mystery of it all really made it that much more terrifying. I think this happened back around 2003 when we lived in Mississippi. I was about 14 at the time, and my... little brother would have been around nine. We'd gone trick-or-treating for several years now, and last year we did a lot of it around our

neighborhood by ourselves. I always loved going door to door, and it was even more fun when it was just the two of us. I felt like a grown-up being in charge of my little brother. I was also really looking forward to this year because my brother and I really enjoyed the movie Lilo and Stitch, and he wanted to dress up as Stitch. I was really close to my brothers, so I decided I would go as Lilo and make us a cute, matching pair, as well as an easy costume for me. While I do love Halloween and trick-or-treating, I had a sensory issue, and still do,

so I don't like to wear a lot of things or layers at once. I already had long dark hair, so I didn't even really need a wig. Just a cute little red dress, really. The problem I'd had with this year, though, was what I was hearing on the news. There had been a report of at least a couple of kids that had gone missing that were close to my age.

I wasn't good with locations, so I don't remember what city it was in exactly, but I do remember that it took place close to us. It honestly scared me. as I realized how many times I was alone. My parents often left me at home with and without my brother when they had to run to the store or something short like that. I had to walk down the street to go to the bus stop,

and my parents wouldn't even be able to see me from the front door. I even rode my bike around the block or down to the little gas station by myself. Hearing the stories of the kids coming up missing alarmed me, but my parents didn't seem to think there was anything to worry about. When the new story came up, my mom would always make remarks about how stupid can you be, and would criticize the parents and blamed them for not watching their kids closely. However, she still told us to walk the block by ourselves,

and when I asked if it was safe, she pretty much said, Yeah, why wouldn't it be? Parents of the Year, right? and so we got all dressed up and I made sure to bring my dad's shop flashlight because it was made of some pretty hefty metal and I stuffed it in my candy bag I figured it would be good to have as both a light source and a possible weapon

I also made a mental note while we were out to keep a close eye on our surroundings I was a little nervous since this whole night involved us going to strangers' houses alone but because Halloween was also one of my favorite holidays, I was determined to remain vigilant, and also have a good time, so as to not worry or frighten my little brother. We made our way uphill first, as there were only three houses that way before we rounded the corner.

After the turn, there was an empty house, because I remembered them recently renovating it, and then the road curved into a coldestown. sack that has four houses on it. We went to each one of those, and between just those few houses that we had gone to so far, our bags were already feeling pretty full. Between our candy load and how excited my brother was, I was starting to loosen up a bit and have more fun with it.

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

gave us a big handful of candy, and asked us a few questions. After chatting, we left through the other side of the yard, and then back through the front gate. As we walked a bit, my brother was getting excited about one of the little toys he noticed the last house had handed out. And he started digging into his bag while we walked. He was wanting to carry it with him, but I was trying to get him to stop until we got to the corner

where there was better light. Unfortunately, the exact thing that I was wanting to avoid happened, when we nearly ran into someone in front of us. At first I looked up to see this tall man wearing some kind of hooded poncho or something. When I think back to this event, I start to realize that I had no idea where this guy had come from. There was a small group of kids and adults ahead of us, but they had already moved on,

and no one had walked by us since we left the house. I suppose he could have been behind us and got in head when we stopped at the house, but I don't recall ever seeing someone ahead of us. Anyways, I gasped a bit, as I stepped backwards and apologized to the man. His response to this was saying in a really creepy way, Oh, it's all right, baby girl, are you okay?

My parents don't even call me that, so it immediately made me feel weird. So I just said I was fine and grabbed my brother's hand and walked around him. I started feeling like I was being watched, so I looked back and saw the guy still standing there in the same spot, now facing towards us. I turned back around and tried to get my brother to speed up so that we could get to the next house. As we left the next one, that poncho guy was standing on the sidewalk right by the house. He was smiling and made a comment about our bags looking heavy, and asked if we needed help carrying them. Now, I wasn't very well-mannered when it came to being scared or people that made me uncomfortable,

so I just said, no, as firm and grown up as I could, and again pulled my brother a little. long. I was really starting to become more panicked at this point, wondering what this guy's true intentions were. Surely it wasn't a ruse to take our candy. He was an adult, or at least looked like it, so he could have just gotten some on his own. So if not the candy, what else would he want with young kids like us? It started freaking me out more when I thought about the kids that had been kidnapped recently. Was this guy responsible for them? Was he trying to find a good opportunity to grab us, too?

I started looking around to see if there were any adults nearby, or even the group of children that I saw earlier thinking we would at least be safer with them, but they were even gone. My last hope was Ms. Marcia's house. Marcia was an older lady that worked at the front desk of the office where my mom worked. She was very sweet, and she always gave my brother and I some kind of treat when we went there with my mom for any reason. She actually lived on the road parallel, or behind our home, basically, which was also the road that we were on. It was a few houses down after the corner, so I started telling my brother that we should go to her house first.

He didn't seem to mind, possibly because he was reading the situation too, Or he was just kidding tired. As we passed that first house, I heard the familiar creepy voice say, Hey, you missed one, didn't you? Before I could say anything, though, my brother yelled out, You're being weird. So I again held his hand as we ran. I was scared that this guy could get mad at my brother's comment,

although I was glad he said it, and possibly chase us, so I wanted to. to get there fast. We made it to her house, and I pushed my brother ahead of me, as I grabbed his back from him, and he started knocking on the door. Thankfully, she was home, and had a bowl of candy in her arms. I frantically asked her if we could come in, as I looked behind me and didn't see the guy. She, of course, invited us in, shutting the door behind us and asking what was going on.

I started explaining the situation. to her, and she said that I did a very smart thing by trying to avoid him, and going to her house immediately. She gave us both some water, and we watched TV while she went to call our mom. After a short time, there was a knock on the door. I was trying to keep calm, thinking it was Halloween after all, and was thinking it was probably just some kids. But when Marsha answered the door, it was the same guy.

He tried giving her some story about us being his kids, and apologized for us running into her home. Marcia, knowing our parents, of course, told him off, saying he needed to leave as the cops had already been called. I remember his face clearly at this point, trying to look past her at us, and I heard him say, oh, I must have the wrong house. Good night. And he walked away. She shut the door, but went and sat at the window, presumably watching where he went. It didn't take long for my parents to show up, and then the cops around the same time. We told them what had happened while we were out there, and described the guy to the best that we could since it was dark. I remember giving Marcia a big hug before we left, being incredibly thankful that she was there,

as I would have been shy just asking some random person to come in their house. As far as I'm aware, the guy was never found, which is still terrifying, but sometimes I still wonder what his intentions were. And could it have been the same guy from the news? Also, we just went home that night from there, and my parents followed us in the car the following years. I guess at least they agreed to do that. that. Admittedly, I was a foolish and immature teenage girl when I graduated high school

23 years ago. While others were focused on securing military futures and or furthering their education, I was really only looking forward to move out of my parents' home and moving in with my high school sweetheart. It would end up being a huge mistake that I regret to this day, but I digress. For the sake of anonymity, we'll call him Jack. Though we lived in different towns and attended different schools, Jack and I had been dating for a few years prior to graduation. When we weren't in school, we were inseparable, so it was no surprise to anyone when we started looking for a place to rent and move in together. What did come as a surprise, however, was Jack's suggestion, to share a place with two of his friends

so that we could all split the bills. It wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I was familiar with both of them, and eventually, against my better judgment, agreed to having roommates. The four of us soon moved in to the upstairs apartment of an old two-story house in a seedy neighborhood.

Of course, it wasn't long before stuff hit the fan, as neither of the roommates consistently paid their share of the rent, and the place was overrun by people who didn't live there. The constant drug use, fighting, property damage, kicking out random people sleeping on the couch, etc., it was pure chaos, and I was just snoutcast, living somewhere that I clearly didn't belong. But the worst part of it all for me was that Jack and

I had grown apart. It was as if I never really knew Jack at all, no pun intended. Living in a house full of potheads and drug addicts for several months made me hate drugs, and even weed, to be honest. Yet I continued to smoke it myself in an attempt to find some semblance of peace and happiness. My own friends would visit often, which also helped me to cope with the hell that I was living to some extent. But still, any time I had a reason to get out of that house, I did. And so was the case on Halloween night of that year. My friend Steph, not her real name, had stopped by to hang out.

We both smoked for a bit before getting the munchies and realizing it was Halloween. Being that there was never any food in the house, because someone would always steal it, We quickly recognized the solution to our problem and set out on foot to relive our youth and score some free chocolate bars. Now, I know what you might be thinking. Yes, we were too old for trick-or-treating. Yes, we should have been ashamed of ourselves for taking candy. That was meant for little kids. Yes, we were selfish and immature, and no, we did not care.

We were just hungry. The timing was perfect. as people had just started filing down the street with kids and goofy costumes racing from door to door. Steph and I weren't wearing costumes because, well, we were bums. And that's the answer we gave every time we knocked on a door and they asked. I'm sure the ones who didn't question us had already figured that out when they saw the used wrinkly Walmart bag that we held open for candy, though. Having satisfied our munchies while eating candy along our least,

little adventure, we decided to keep walking and knocking as long as we could to increase our future candy stash. It wasn't until the streets were silent and empty, with nearly every porch light turned off, before we finally called it quits and began our long trek back to the apartment in the dark. The mood soon changed on the walk back, though. Up to that point, it had been a fun and memorable night, but for some reason neither of us could shake this awful feeling of impending doom, as if we were about to star in our own real-life horror movie. From a rational perspective, this fear was simply due to walking in the dark on Halloween, but the fact that we never told anyone where we were going or what we were doing stuck in our minds.

We weren't even sure if anyone knew that we had left. the apartment. Not that any of them would have cared, but the mere thought of nobody having a shred of information to share if we went missing somehow, it was suddenly quite unsettling. The night air grew colder by the time we finally found ourselves speeding down the hilly block of houses that led to my apartment, and we were both glad to see that the porch light in front of my door was still on. We slowed our pace toward the bottom of the hilly. hill as we crossed the street towards the sidewalk, and our fears soon became reality. From behind a vehicle parked in our neighbor's driveway, a very tall man quietly stepped out of

the darkness. As silly as it sounds, he was wearing what appeared to be a large hairy werewolf mask draped over his entire head, paired with Freddy Kruger gloves on his hands. He stared intently, gently tapping the long, spiky claws of one of the gloves against his chest, as he rounded the bumper of the vehicle before slowly moving towards us with each step. It was actually quite terrifying at first, but I quickly assumed that it must have been someone we knew from the apartment trying to scare us. So, brave little me started laughing and mocking his stupid outfit. What the man did next, though, chilled me to my core.

Still silent, he stopped moving, cocked his head to one side, and lowered his hand from his chest. Then, he suddenly started speedwalking right towards us. A second wave of fear coursed through my veins as Steph and I instantly bolted across the sidewalk toward the front door. Steph made it to the threshold first, and I leapt in the moment. inside soon after, quickly trying to slam the door and lock it. I saw the wolf mask facing me immediately behind the door as I did so.

And just as I locked the dead bolt, he tried turning the handle from the other side of the door to get in. We were merely a split second away from whatever that was. Steph and I collapsed on the floor trying to catch our breath, as we heard him scratching at the door with his claws. Someone eventually looked down the stairwell to see what the commotion was about, but by that time the scratching ceased. As we made our way upstairs to see who was, and who wasn't in the apartment, I was shocked to see a room full of people that included both of the guys I suspected of pulling the prank, as they were similar in height and build to the man outside. One of the guys did go outside to see who might be trying to get in, but the man was long gone.

Everyone in the apartment denied having anything to do with it, and they all couldn't have cared less, including Jacks, so it really didn't seem like they were behind it. The only other possibility that crossed my mind was the guy who lived below us with his wife and baby on the first floor. but when I later asked the wife about it, she told me that it couldn't have been him because they were all inside that night, and they didn't have any company. Steph and I never did learn the true identity of the Wolfman, and we will never know what his true intentions were that night.

Perhaps it was a well-orchestrated prank by someone we knew, or maybe it was simply a prank by a random stranger. I prefer to think of it as a prank either way, because regardless of who was behind the mask, the thought of this being anything other than a prank is very disturbing. As for Jack, our relationship finally ended when I left him. After I moved out, he kicked his friends out of the apartment for not paying rent, and he was stuck cleaning up the mess they left behind.

Great time to man up, Jack. To anyone who made it this far, trust your instincts. Stay smart, stay safe, and stay sane out there. This happened back whenever I used to work the night shift at a bar and grill-type restaurant, which would put it back between 2002 and 2004. I can't remember the exact day and month that it took place, but it was definitely somewhere and there. I'd been working there for a while by this time that this happened,

and was definitely situated and understood the job. I'd been there long enough to know the regulars, the people that showed up every day or twice a week or so, and I'd memorized quite a few of the orders as well. To be honest, I hated the job, and I hated having to work until midnight, but it paid the bills, which was what I needed at the time. Thankfully, the rush of people usually came through

at the beginning of my shift. and then it was just surviving until it got to go home. I remember that on that night, we were actually quite a bit busier than we normally were. I was running around, taking orders, moving plates, taking people to tables, all the things I was asked to do because we were short-staffed. I had taken the order of a couple of tables

and was running over to the station to put them in. When I heard someone let out a scream, which obviously caught my attention. As I looked up, I heard a deafening crash and watched as a car plowed through the front of our restaurant. Glass flew all over the place, and all I could see were guests throwing themselves out of the way as the chaos unfolded. I stood there just watching this play out, as quick as it was. I never expected to be the kind of person that just stood there and watched to some of the same. something like this happened in front of me, but the whole saying about train wrecks and not

being able to look away was apparently true for me. When the dust finally settled, I could see the car. It was a battered old sedan, and it had stopped about halfway in the restaurant. By some miracle, none of the customers were injured. They were all shaken and scared, but none of them looked to be too. badly hurt. Our cook, Hank, a bit of a burly man, was the first to jump into action. He started shouting to call 911 and ran over to the car. I was actually the one that grabbed the diner's landline and called it in. The whole time I was trembling and trying to piece

together how something like this could have happened. That was actually about the time that I noticed Jenna, one of our waitresses, was actually pinned a... against one of the booths by the car. I wanted to panic, but I tried to remain calm as I explained to the dispatcher what had happened, and then told Hank that Jenna needed help. Thankfully, she was conscious. She was pretty clearly messed up and in pain, but it was just her leg that was trapped. That's about the time when the driver of the car stepped out.

He was an older guy, and I could smell the alcohol on him, from where I was standing. He shoved the door open and stumbled out, clearly disoriented, and started shouting with a slur. He yelled out at us, Sorry about that. I could pay for the door. I just need to get a burger to sober up,

because I have to work in the morning. I just stared at this guy with absolute shock. He really did not seem to notice what he had done. He just kept shouting that he wanted to be. her to double cheeseburger with mayonnaise, and started getting frustrated when no one was taking his order. Hank and a few of the customers were able to push the car back enough to free Jenna. She was pretty clearly terrified of what had happened, and I think that she realized how

close to death she'd actually come that night. She said that her leg really hurt, but for the most part, she looked like she was going to be okay. The whole time they were helping her, the old man that was. was driving the car, just stood there and watched them like they were inconveniencing him, until he decided to just sit at the bar and watch it all play out. Thankfully, the paramedics and the police were quick, and they showed up within a few minutes. Jenna was rushed to the hospital, the medics were treating the patrons that had some minor injuries,

and the police were very quick to arrest the old man that was driving, though he was pretty mad about that fact. He kept screaming that he wasn't even drunk, that he hadn't even been drinking and that he just wanted a cheeseburger. Obviously, the night was over for the restaurant, and the rest of the night was a blur of talking to the cops and explaining what happened, calling the owner and the slow process of helping to board up the front.

They told me that I could go, but part of me felt like I had to be. should help clean up after all was said and done. I think I was still in a bit of shock. After a little bit, though, I crashed pretty hard. I think the adrenaline started ebbing away, and I was drained. Working in food, for the most part, I feel like we meet and greet people and fully never expect them to have an impact on our lives.

But that old man impacted so many people's lives in the most destructive way possible. possible. Jenna ended up lucky to only have a broken leg, but she was alive. We all were, which honestly was a shock to me. That man could have killed multiple people. All it would have taken was a bit more pressure on the gas, being a couple of spots to the left where there were more people seated. It was a bit haunting to think about, and when the store finally reopened, I was still a bit nervous about pretty much everything. Jenna actually came back, too, albeit in a much less work-heavy capacity

since she was still in a cast and had crutches. Hank was given an honorary award by the owner for jumping into action, and both of those things were nice, but I think we were all still pretty freaked out about everything that had happened. Growing up in the 90s, trick-or-treating was a sacred ritual for us,

kids in our small suburban town. We didn't have urban legends about ghosts, goblins, or monsters. We were the type that would listen to the whispers about which houses in the area were giving out king-sized candy bars. There was one house at the end of the street that Tommy claimed was haunted by demons, a claim that he made without evidence or even reason. Not really relevant, but it does tell you the kind of kids that we were. Back in 97 was the year that this happened.

And this was a Halloween that was more than terrifying for me and my group of friends. That year was a cold year for trick-or-treating. It was a chilly evening with a slight mist that was threatening our night with rain, and the wind was starting to act like we were going to get storms. We were quickly marching house-to-house with our pillowcases. They were starting to get kind of heavy. our pack was four kids Tommy as I mentioned

Lily and her younger brother Jordan and myself The three of us were 12 and Jordan was nine years old And with how small our town was We were pretty much told to just walk the few neighborhoods And get the candy and get back to the house We were not supervised

None of the kids in town really were We'd been through most of the normal route and decided that we were going to head toward a neighborhood that was a bit out of the way, a neighborhood that we normally didn't go through and weren't supposed to go through. This was a bit of a different area of our small town. The houses were a bit further apart, and there were a lot more trees that lined the properties. In my mind, that meant that they were likely to give away more candy, because there were fewer people, right? It made sense at the time, to me at least.

We went to a couple of the first few houses and had decent halls. Nothing crazy, but we were not willing to give up. We kept on down the road until we got to a house that caused us to hesitate. This house was something else entirely. Old, slightly falling apart. And the entire yard was littered with animal statues. When I say it was littered, I mean there were no more than two or three feet of the yard that did not have a statue in it. Owls, cats, dogs, lions, birds, gnomes, just a bunch of random and slightly creepy statues in all directions,

all turned to face the walkway from the street to the door. We all just stood there looking at the house, waiting for anyone to go up to the house. basically no one in our group moved until someone else was going to move. Suddenly, Tommy said something stupid like, I think that it's a witch that lives there. I immediately scoffed when he said that, like, full-on, pf. I told him that that was dumb, because there was no such thing as witches,

and that it was probably just some old lady that liked animals a lot. I rolled my eyes and decided, that I would be the one to go knock on the door and get the candy, and that my lame friends could stay behind. I stepped down the walkway toward the door, and I will mention that, as I was walking toward the door, it felt a bit oppressive. I felt the eyes of all those statues on me.

It felt like they were all staring at me with malicious intent, and were going to jump at literally any moment. Of course, none of them did, but, it was the feeling that seemed to overwhelm me. I got to the door and I knocked, since it didn't look like there was a doorbell. I really didn't even know if anyone was going to answer, but after about two minutes,

there was a loud creaking sound that started in front of me. The door slowly opened in a manner that can only be described as unsettling. And, on the other side of the door was an older way. woman. I won't get insulting with my description. I will just say that she looked a bit ghastly. She was very pale and had large eyes that seemed too big for her skull, and was dressed in an old nightgown.

As soon as she saw me, she shifted to a large smile and looked excited. Ah, trick-or-treater, how delightful! And she just sort of stood there for a moment as we stared at you. other awkwardly. I was a bit caught off guard by her sudden excitement, considering the eerie vibe of the house. I tried to maintain my composure and broke the silence by saying, Um, trick or treat? She smiled again and commented, You're the first person to come to the house tonight. I haven't had any other kids come up and get their treats. I again just...

They're like, okay, that's cool. Can I get my candy, please? Obviously, I didn't say that. I just grinned and nodded slightly in agreement. She looked over to my group of friends that were standing at the end of her walking path, and then back to me and laughed. Huh, I see you're the brave one, huh? I once again nodded and just said, yeah, I guess. Then, it got creepy. She stepped forward slightly and said, Why don't you come inside? I have some special treats just in the kitchen.

Despite my initial bravado about approaching the house, I was starting to regret my decision, and I felt a chill run down my spine. Oh, no, thank you, ma'am. I think I should get going. Sorry. But as I said that, her hand shot out, and she gripped my wrist.

wrist like a vice grip. No, no, no. It's cold out here. Come inside and warm up. I felt as she started to pull me towards the house with what almost felt like inhuman strength. I tried to pull my arm away from her and was screaming help. I felt so small in that moment, lost in this creepy moment with this old woman trying to drag me into her house. At this point, George, and Lily's younger brother, became the brave one of the group. He started shouting, Hey, leave him alone!

Followed by the sound of candy smacking into the side of the house and the porch. The distraction was enough for her to briefly loosen her grip, and I was able to pull away. I turned and bolted, sprinting back towards my friends. As we took off down the road, we could hear this old woman laughing like a maniac,

and saying that she would find us. We didn't stop running for several blocks. Our breathing was ragged, and we were all running on pure adrenaline. As soon as we stopped, Tommy looked at me with a pale face. Dude, I was just joking about there being a witch living there. I didn't think she'd actually try to drag you into the house. When he said this, we all kind of chuckled, like, yeah, good call on that one, Tommy. Once we all caught our breaths, we decided to just head back home, that we'd gotten enough candy and that the excitement of the night was more than enough for the whole year.

When we got back to Tommy's house, we sorted through our candy, did some trades before we all went our separate ways to get home. We never told our parents, and I think that was because we knew that we would get in trouble for going that far from home, so we just kept it as a lesson amongst our group. That was the last year that we all went trick-or-treating, too. When we hit our teen years, it just didn't seem as interesting. Obviously, Jordan had a couple of years left before he was done, but he just went with his dad instead of going with Lily. About a year or so later, that house was torn down,

and all the statues disappeared. I would guess that the creepy old woman, passed away at some point, or maybe she moved away. I've only ever had one experience with anything paranormal. And prior to this, I was not what you would call a believer. In fact, I would say I was a skeptic. And I know that people will say something like, how can you be a skeptic with all the evidence or proof?

But honestly, I've seen enough people making arguments for obviously fake BS, that it's hard not to be skeptical. I find the stories and experiences that you see on TV to be fun, but not much more than that. And I will honestly say that I still am very skeptical of a lot of the experiences you see on those shows. But I'm much less skeptical about the experiences I've read online or heard in podcasts.

About 10 years ago, I started working for a comment, whose name I'm not really supposed to mention. I can describe it and give it a fake name, but there are reasons that I'm not supposed to mention the name of the company, which may be obvious to some. So let's just say that I worked for a company called the Data Factory, or DF for short. DF is a very large data center that services a lot of high-priority organizations. and while I may not be a tech person,

I understand that they are the backbone of a lot of commerce and online presences. D.F. was built in an old factory that had been shut down and was then repurposed. And it's kind of wedged between a town that no one lives in, in a large section of woods and cave systems. More or less, we are in the core of middle of nowhere, and we have several direct fiber-optic. lines to a very large service provider. It's kind of neat, the more you think about it.

I was hired on as a security card at DF through a third-party company, and I was brought in on the overnight shift. I've worked this shift for the entire ten years that I've worked there, and I think I'm the second most senior guard on the team, and the most senior guard on the night shift. It's a pretty straightforward job. Like I said, it's very middle of nowhere, so we don't have a lot to do, but we still have to keep our eyes peeled. The event that this story is about actually happened in my first year, about two or three months into my working there. It was a pretty normal night, around two in the morning, as that's when I went to my first break.

I was walking through the main floor of the data center from the guard post to the break room, thinking that I really needed some coffee if I was going to make it through the whole shift. I was about halfway there when I heard what sounded like someone talking. I jumped. I pulled out my flashlight and shined it in the direction of where I thought it was coming from. I called out, asking who was there, and slowly walked toward the back section of the data center. I paused for a moment listening to see if I could hear anything more to get a better feel for what I was hearing,

but there was nothing. I went ahead and called it into one of the other guards, mentioned that I thought I heard talking on the main floor, and asked them to go ahead and do rounds to make sure that it was nothing. They went to do their rounds, and I continued to go to my break. When I got to the break room, I got my coffee and was sitting there just mindlessly staring at the floor, and waiting for the 20 minutes to pass, when I heard another sound. This time it wasn't just a voice. It sounded like somebody yelling. My immediate thought was that it was one of the guards and that they had found someone in the building. I jumped up and ran out

to where it sounded like the yelling was coming from, but once again was met with nothing. I grabbed the radio and asked for a check-in, asking if someone found someone and all of them told me that their rounds came up empty. I asked if anyone had yelled at some point or if they'd heard yelling, and once again, nothing. None of them had heard anything, nor had any of them made any noise. I mentioned that I thought I heard someone, and one of the guards laughed saying that I must have just been losing my mind.

I went back to my coffee, finished it off, and then went back to the station, and just told them that it was really weird and that I swear I was hearing things. They told me again that they did the rounds and that there was nothing on the floor, and that they didn't hear anything at all. As if on cue, when my co-worker was saying that he hadn't heard anything, he was cut off by what sounded again like somebody yelling. This time it was less just yelling and more a mix of agonized screaming

and crying in pain. I watched as he went completely pale and realized that this time he had heard the sound. I told him that that was close to what I was hearing, and he just sort of nodded like, okay, yeah, that's a thing. I asked him if we should go check it out, and while he wanted to say no, he said that we did need to go at least have a look. We headed to the room where we'd heard the sound coming from and both checked. the whole floor. There was nothing.

We met back up after checking the whole area, and both reported that there wasn't anything there. When we went back to the guard post, we both kind of did what we could to shake it all off, and he made a joke about how if I was going crazy, then so was he, because he definitely heard the sounds too. Then, after a few moments of us calming down,

sitting there in silence, I looked up and I swear I saw what looked like an amorphous shadow just standing in the corner of the building, watching us. When I saw it, the hair on my arms stood straight up and I swear my heart started racing, like I was reacting to seeing this thing. I guess I must have went pale too, because my coworker asked if I was about to pass out. I just told him that I saw something and just left it at that. The rest of the night was actually uneventful. Since then, we've had a few nights where we've heard talking on the floors,

but nothing anywhere near as crazy as the screaming of that night. It's kind of become a running joke about the voices in the data center, but that first night was genuinely terrifying. I'm the only one that has ever seen. the shadow, much to my disappointment, as that would have added a lot of proof to my story. But it is what it is. Okay. So, I've been going trick-or-treating since I was a little kid.

It's something I love doing, and it is one of my happiest childhood memories. I lived in one of the few suburbs in my country that really got into Halloween and trick-or-treating, so I was really lucky to be able to go when I was young without being told people weren't interested. I still go, but technically I'm taking my younger siblings out, and I keep an eye on them to make sure they don't get into trouble. My parents don't like the idea of kids being constantly watched or overprotected and wanted us to grow up without needing constant supervision. And that being said, they didn't really.

want my younger siblings to be unsupervised. I was about 17 or 18 at the time when this happened. Anyway, about Halloween, I guess you could say that I'm a big kid at heart. I took my two siblings, Jake, who was eight, and Nala, who was six, out trick-or-treating. I was also roped into taking Nala's best friend, Stacey, and Jake's best friend, Thomas. I didn't mind, though. I've known the kids since they were really young, and it would give me some time with my girlfriend, Sarah.

I didn't bother to dress up, but Sarah brought some fake fangs in order to be a vampire. She and I held hands and talked while the kids would run in front, but we told them to always stay in view. They did, mostly. There were plenty of other kids and families around walking and getting lollies, Most people were dressed up. We took them from house to house.

Their bags began to fill up, and every so often they would run back to show us what they got. We got dibs on some tasty lollies, and overall it was a nice night. No rain or anything that would ruin it. My parents told me not to keep them out too late because they needed to make sure they would be ready to go to bed. Tomorrow was a school night, so she understood. understandably didn't want them to be too tired. A lot of people were making little goodie bags filled with candy and extras to give to the kids, mainly to stop one greedy little kid from taking a massive handful and not leaving any for anyone else.

It was what my parents did too. I only mention this because it is relevant for later on. The streetlights were on and it was darker than I wanted it to be. I heard it up the kids and began to be. to walk home. My girlfriend and I listened as my siblings both excitedly told me about how much they got, what compliments they received, and what other awesome costumes they saw. They were already talking about what they wanted to wear next year.

By this point, I'd already began to mentally drown out their conversation. It was pretty cute, but I dropped my girlfriend off and the other kids off at their home, and we stayed a bit for a chat. with her parents and then walked my siblings home. I stayed out too late and got a text message telling me to come back. My parents weren't very happy with me, and they told me to bring them home now. I guess you could say that I lost track of time. My younger siblings and I began to walk quickly back home.

I jokingly said it was time for them to pay up and reached into their bags to take some of the candy. The price of taking them out, I guess. guess. I reached in and opened their bags to their half-arced whining. I pulled out one of the small goody bags and opened it up. Expecting to see something tasty, I was confused by what I saw there. It was just empty wrappers. Okay. Kind of mean, but a trick, so pretty harmless. My siblings ran in the house screaming happily about what they received while I stopped on the front step. I tipped out the containers of the bag, and I saw a rusty razor blade. I held it in my hand for a few moments. There was also a rock, a piece of dried broccoli or something. I didn't

care about the random extras. Without the rusty razor blade, it almost would have been kind of funny. But a rusty razor blade? I was completely taken by surprise by this. I very well could have cut my hand when I reached in, and I figured that that was their plan, too. I could have needed a tetanus shot if it hurt me. I've heard rumors about old wives' tales of people trying to pamper with lollies, but I never believed it. I asked my brother which house this one came from, and he couldn't remember. I asked my sister, and she couldn't remember either. I told my mom about it, and she called her friends to her.

to warn them. Soon, it passed around the grapevine to check all the bags. A few other kids had rusty razor blades in their goody bags as well, along with other unwanted items. Fortunately, it wasn't anything more dangerous than that. None of the kids could remember which house they went to. There were so many, and do keep in mind that these were all our neighbors, and people we've known for a long time. No one really would have ever expected this to happen. Our local suburb went from being a place where kids felt safe to where parents ended up being more careful and even kind of suspicious of each other. I'd heard about the rumors of razor blades and candy in the U.S.,

but I didn't think it would happen over here in my country. From what I know, it never happened again afterwards, so it was a one-off incident, but the damage was done. My siblings grew out of trick-or-treating and didn't want to go anymore. I haven't heard of any tricks in the bag in the years that followed, and I like to think it was just some edgy teenager who wanted to cause issues, but you never know. I kind of worry sometimes that it was some suburban Karen who finally lost it

and wanted to lash out at kids. Who knows? Maybe she, or whoever it was, will start up again someday. I'm the second oldest of five kids, and while I didn't have a bad childhood, my parents were pretty strict, which I think was part of why I had a rebellious side. Those of you out there with similar parents should understand, or maybe you might remember being told you couldn't do something, or weren't allowed to go somewhere, and it only made you want to do it more, right?

So this happened to be the result of one of the, nights for me. My friends and I loved trick-or-treating. It started out as a small competition between a few of us to see who could get the most candy, and then we wanted to see who could come up with the creepiest costume. We started putting together some of our own ideas, and my mom was at least willing to let me use any old clothes that my older brother couldn't wear anymore. In this particular year, I'd put together a kind of a mad scientist look. Now, I was in middle school, I believe 14 at the time, so we didn't have class parties, but a lot, if not most, of the kids, still dressed up for Halloween. This year, it happened to fall on a Friday, and I was pretty excited.

I had dressed up, gotten everything ready to have a sugar-fired. filled weekend, and then I was hit with the, you're too old to trick or treat, by none other than my parents. That's what I mean by they were strict. Two years old, no more pacifier, no matter what. Six years old, no more nightlight. You should not be scared. I hated it.

While my friends were going to be out collecting their own goods, they expected me to stay home and hand out candy with my older brother. but I had better plans. If they weren't going to let me go, then I would complain until they let me go to a friend's house instead. That worked. So from there, I would be able to hang out and trick or treat with some other friends that lived in the same area.

I'm just going to make up some names here. I stayed the night at Zach's house, and Brian and Jeff rode their bikes over so that we could all hang out. Zach's parents were super chill too He was the oldest of three But his two younger siblings were too young to go out So his parents didn't care if we went around the block together

They were pretty familiar with the neighborhood And I even heard Zach and his parents talk about certain neighbors So I think everyone assumed it was a safe place for us to walk around And we weren't the only kids out there either But that didn't that didn't mean that we were always successful. Towards the top or end of the street, we started running into some other kids

that were trick-or-treating with their parents. When we saw other people, we were still polite. We let them go first, and we watched what we said. We may have cursed and probably said some inappropriate things when there weren't any adults around. However, there were a few houses that, when we were up there with the other kids, they would actually look at us funny and some even made those remarks.

Aren't you getting too old for this? Usually they would just give us a single piece of candy, unlike the younger kids around us. We actually had a few that just flat out refused to give us any candy. To say that we were pretty disappointed or annoyed was probably an understatement. We hadn't been doing anything wrong, and we were all even dressed up. I didn't understand why it was such a big deal.

However, we still made up for it. Before I continue, I just want to say that I know what we did was still wrong, even if those people chose not to give us candy, it was their choice. But at the time and age, all I saw was unfairness and I wanted revenge for it. So if a house denied us candy, we became a little mischievous. If there was a pumpkin or other decoration out front, we would smash it. We may take one of their fake bones sticking out of the ground or tear down their fake spider webs. We were always quick about it, not lingering very long in case they heard or saw us,

but it was our way of saying, next time just give us the treat. So we planned on circling the block By going to the right and back down the street behind Zach's house And back around There was one house on the other street that we stopped at just like all the others They didn't have any decorations out front, but they did have their porch light on So we all agreed to try it anyways We stepped back and talked while we waited for someone to answer the door

Shortly after someone did It was an older guy. He was shirtless and just wearing some shorts and slippers, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. We all let out some kind of laugh, taking in his appearance, and greeted him with our normal chant. However, in a gruff and unfriendly tone, the man declared,

I don't give out candy to little brats like you, and waved his hand in a way that I can only describe as a shoe motion. Brian then asked why he even bothered answering the door, and the guy only laughed, flicked his cigarette onto the porch, and then slammed the door on us. The disappointment of not only being denied candy, but the irritation of being called little brats, mind you this is the PG version of what he called us, had all of us pretty damn upset. Zach yelled out that he should turn his porch light off, and I remember yelling about how we should put a shirt on next time.

We all started walking away from the house, making fun of the guy, when all of the sudden we heard the door being slammed open. We turned around to look just in time to see that same guy, now pointing a gun at us. From that point on, it felt like it was all in slow motion. Before any of us could move, the guy fired. We all scattered. just trying to get out of his line of sight.

I remember I ran to the right, the direction that we were already headed, and tried to hide behind a large tree in the neighbor's yard. From that angle, the side of the guy's house was blocking the view. Unless he left his yard and actively looked, he wouldn't find me. But my bigger concern was where my three friends were. Were they okay? Were they hurt?

As I hid behind the tree, my heart racing, I saw the neighbor's door open and an older couple looked around. The woman spotted me quickly and pointed to me. The only thing on my mind at that point was getting help, and I needed an adult for that. I quickly yelled for them, saying the guy next door shot at us. The man walked towards me on the sidewalk and looked over at the other house, so I moved my head around the tree to look too. When I didn't see anyone, the man motioned for me to come over. I ran to them and started pleading with them that I needed to find my friends. The man told his wife to go back inside with me and call the cops.

Shortly after, the man came inside, pushing along Brian in front of him. He looked terrified, as he held up his bag with a big burnhole in it. We both sat silently in their living room as we waited for the cops to show up. When they arrived, we explained to them what had happened, and they confirmed they got a call from someone else that hurt the shots. They said they were going to go talk to the guy and then asked about calling our parents. As scared as I was, I did not want to involve my parents, so I just told them that I was staying with Zach and gave directions to their home. They put me and Brian in the back of their car, and we watched as they finished speaking to the older couple, and then the guy. guy next door.

Of course, he never answered. So, one cop stayed there while the other one took us back to Zach's place. Thankfully, Zach made it back to his place, and Jeff rode his bike home from there. When Zach got home, he told his parents, who had also called the cops and my parents. They arrived shortly after. That was one of the longest nights ever. explaining what happened over and over and trying to convince my parents that we did nothing wrong. Apparently, the guy claimed that he did it just to scare us off and defend his property,

even though we had actually done nothing to him nor his property. Yes, we may have smarted off to him, but it was because of the way he talked to us. But afterwards, we just left. And if he wasn't trying to shoot us, why did my friend end up with him? with a bullet hole in his bag. That seemed pretty damn deliberate to me. The police told all of our parents that they would look into the matter further, but my parents basically said that his actions and how scared we were was punishment enough.

They were not convinced that we were entirely innocent, but I still stand by the story to this day, now that I'm in my 30s. Nothing that we did that night warranted having a gun pointed at us. a bunch of 14-year-olds. So that ended up being the last night that I tried trick-or-treating. I even got nervous when my parents started taking my younger siblings out. Because, overall, who knows what his real goal was there? And what would he have done if he ended up hitting one of us?

And was that normal for him? Now that I'm older, I wish that I could talk to that older couple and see what their experience was like living next to that psycho. Anyways, my point to this is that that was a very traumatic experience for all of us. And I really wish people would just let all kids trick or treat and avoid anything like this happening to anyone. When I was in uni, I needed to pay my bills, and I got a job at the local Makas to support myself,

because A-study doesn't pay enough. I've always been a night owl, and I figured the night shifts would be perfect for me. It's either super busy, or really quiet. The other staff members teased me when it was going to be my first night, and told me that it was going to be fun.

All the online order apps kept ordering, you know, Uber Eats, menu log, door dash, and all the others, so I mainly spent time, organizing the orders, checking to see if they were legit and handing food over. Then, I was asked to work at the drive-thru. Now, late-night mackus runs are a big thing here. I've done them plenty of times with my mates, too, and yeah, we were dickheads to people.

The first lot of cars were okay, just some kids wanting some late-night munchies. The next car pulled up to order, and they used their horn right away. I could tell that they were going to be rude. I asked them for their order, and they called me a variety of names, but I went ahead and took their orders. Better to get them out so they don't bother anybody. I didn't see this part, but I heard them shouting at my coworkers, calling her a C word and a B word.

It's one thing to say it to me, but another to say it to someone else. They then threw their hot coffee and food bag at her. We closed the window, and we called the police. They weren't done yet, though. They then threw something, and it actually broke one of the windows. Then they sped off before the police got there. Maka's has cameras, so we passed along that information and continued with our night. I don't understand why people pull this crap, but they can't.

came back. They tried to get in, and they yelled at us through the glass window, banged on the doors, and said that they just wanted to speak with us. We did not let them in. They actually broke another of the windows, and then spray painted the outside. People tend to act feral at macas, and there have been fights and drug deals in our car park. It's absolutely wild. the best and the brightest come out, and I hope people can tell I'm being sarcastic when I say that. Anyways, the cops came, they got arrested in the next day I told people about the shift.

The next few couple of nights were pretty uneventful, same old, same old, but the next weekend, they were back. This time they came in during open hours, acting like nothing had ever happened. We served them, and, of course, there was a mistake with their order. So, the Bogan's threw it on the floor,

screamed at some 16-year-old at the cash register, and threatened to come back and stab us. Some of the other Bogan's told them to screw off, and then a fight erupted. I have no idea why people willingly come to Mokas at this point. Chairs were thrown. There was blood on the floor, and none of the people minding their own damn.

business ended up getting hurt. But it doesn't end there. Oh no. This stupid freaking saga continues with one of the idiots coming back after his brother got arrested because we dobed him in. I think it was about four, maybe five days later, not quite a week. It was after we were able to finally reopen.

This smooth-brained moron thought it was somehow our fault that his brother got in trouble for doing what he did. He came in at nighttime, when the late-night staff and the morning crew were switching over. Unfortunately, he wasn't as violent as his brother, and nothing got smashed up. It was just more of a nuisance. He was hurted out, yelling and telling us that he was going to come back,

but he didn't do anything. The family does come back every now and then. Most of the time they're okay. I don't understand how people can behave like this, and still expect to be treated well. My managers are all so nonchalant about it. So long as they pay and keep going back, it's fine, I guess. Part of the fun of working in a suburb next to a massive crap hole.

If you've seen the series Housos on TV, that's pretty much where I worked back in the day. People there can be so freaking rough. So, that's my story. I don't work at Maccas anymore, but it was mostly a good job. I even got free Maccas pretty regularly, and some of the bosses were all right, too. If you ever need more Macca stories, I got you, Birdman. So, yeah, that's my train wreck of a story.

I saw a few people on here talking about bad experiences they had as kids during Halloween, and it brought back a pretty terrible memory. that I'd pushed to the back of my mind. This happened when I was around 11 years old. Like any kid, I was excited for Halloween. I don't know about other places, but my school let you come in the day of Halloween in full costume. And then at the end of the day, the final class was changed out for a mini-trunk-or-treat-style event for us.

After school, we'd go home and hang out until it was around 7 or 8 p.m. and then head out for trick-or-treating. I remember being especially excited this year because my mom finally managed to find a Harry Potter costume that wasn't used or old, and it also came with the Quidditch broom. I was also very obsessed with Harry Potter, so this was a huge thing for me at the time.

We set out on the first round of houses, that being our neighbors, and since we all knew each other and hung out with the other family, quite a lot. We always got first come first serve. And they gave us the good stuff. Full-sized candy bars, Reese's, Hershey's, Snickers. It was a kid's dream. They only did it for the kids that they knew, and my mom told me it was because there was a chance other families started earlier. And we might miss out on some good candy later on, so they wanted to make sure we had something good by the end of the night. After we finished

with the neighbor's houses, we stretched around the block and hit all of the neighboring streets. We landed on the final street for the night at about 10 p.m. I had to get a second bag just to fit the rest of the candy. Being an only child had its benefits. When we hit the final street, we noticed that all the lights in the houses were out, except for one. It was late, so it wasn't unusual for other families to get tired of the Halloween festivities and bow out later in the night, shutting all the lights off so no one else would show up. Most of the houses would put out the rest of the candy in a bowl or a chair

so the kids could at least get something. We cleared out the bowls, and we hit the final house, the only one with the lights on. This one didn't just have lights. It had decorations blasting out of every side of the house. Giant blow-up go, and skeletons, orange and purple stringlights, even a giant Jack Skellington on the roof towering over the rest of the property.

My mom at this point was tired of getting out of the car, so she said that since it was the last house, and it was the most exciting to look at, that I could just go myself. We lived in a pretty pristine neighborhood, so neither of us were worried about something happening. I excitedly got out of the car and trotted through, the glowing path to the front door.

I wish I could describe how it felt. There was Halloween music blasting through speakers somewhere on the property, and the decorations enveloped you when you were dead center. It was a dream to a Halloween obsessive kid such as myself. I reached the door and pushed the doorbell that looked like a severed eyeball. It rung throughout the house and made weird bell chimes akin to that of a dinner bell. After a few moments, the door swung open, and a very tall, lanky man in a Jack Skellington costume, greeted me with a freakishly toothy smile. Hello there, little one, and happy Halloween, the man said.

I smiled, I couldn't help myself. It was all so theatrical and unreal. Trick or treat, I yelled out. I held out my bag and, waiting for the man to drop what I could only assume as the best candy hall I was going to. to get tonight, judging by the production budget of whatever was going on. Right, you are, Mr. Potter. Why don't you come inside and check out my full candy room? I frowned. My mom wouldn't like that. Sorry, I replied.

Oh, come on. It's Halloween. I have more candy in here than you have ever seen. I looked back at my mom's car, and she was staring at the road. I could see her nodding off already. All right, maybe just a peek, I guess, I said. Excellence, come get your treats. As soon as I entered the house, the door slammed behind me,

and the man picked me up and ran upstairs with me over his shoulder. I instinctively screamed for help, the man covering my mouth just after I got the first few pleas out. The man then tossed me on the floor and closed the door, locking it behind him. I pounded on the door, begging and screaming to be let out. That's when I heard a loud commotion coming from somewhere in the house. Then a loud crash rang through the house, and then the tumbling, bumps, and sounds of fighting and thrashing.

Sam? Sam, where are you? I heard my mom call out. Mom, I'm upstairs. Help me, please? I screamed and pounded on the locked door. I heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs, father. followed by the doorknob, jiggling. Honey, you have to unlock the door. My mom yelled out. I can't. It's locked from the other side. Honey, I'm going to need you to back up really far from the door, okay?

I got up and backed up from the door. Suddenly, loud footsteps pounded through the hallway on the other side, and something crashed into the door, sending it flying. Oh, sweetie, are you hurt? Oh, my God, baby. My mom cried as she picked me up and squeezed me. She carried me downstairs. The man was pinned on the ground by one of our neighbors,

who happened to see the man lure me into the house just moments before as he was coming up to send his kids to the door. The guy was arrested, and the news stated that he was some kind of known sex offender or threats to the local neighborhoods. I'm so very thankful for my mom, and that my neighbor happened to be there at the right time. I have no idea what would have happened if he hadn't shown up. About ten years ago, I worked night shift as a nurse assistant at an assisted living facility.

The building itself wasn't old. It was built just a couple of years before I had started working there. Even so, several unexplainable things happened there. Occasionally, I saw black shadows in my peripheral vision. In the middle of the night, the elevator would have. come downstairs and open with no one in it, and door alarms would go off with no one there. The experience that I'm about to share is the strangest thing that's ever happened to me. On night shift, there are three employees. One nurse assistant that stays on the memory

care side at all times, one that stays on the assisted living side, that was me, and a nurse. The nurse and I were watching TV on the assisted living side around 1 a.m. And all of a sudden, this old-fashioned 1910s style music started playing loudly in the distance. I didn't think much of it at first. I thought that someone was blasting their TV or radio, and I was afraid that they were going to wake the other residents up. We were on the first floor next to the front door,

and you can look over this area. from the second floor balcony. It sounded like the music was coming from somewhere on the second floor, so we walked up the stairs. When I reached the area where I thought it was coming from, the music faded away until I couldn't hear it anymore. I thought the nurse was playing a trick on me, but he genuinely looked terrified. He also looked harder for the source of the music than I did, looking behind pillows and books for a speaker. I didn't look with him because

it was clearly coming from a distance. We searched the entire building, but every time we would walk in any direction, the music would fade away. It was loudest where we were sitting when it began. When we'd given up looking for answers, we went back to watching TV,

and I tried my best to ignore it. After a few hours, I realized that it had finally stopped. The nurse and I worked together for two years after that, but we never spoke of that night again. The experience was so odd, and it's the main reason that I'm able to keep an open mind when hearing some of the more bizarre glitch stories

about things that I've never experienced myself. And thank you so much for sharing, if you choose to do so. 15 minutes. We're like it's the dojo. Prere to enjoy? Vive the pleasure

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