As The Raven Dreams Podcast - Scary Stories For Dark Dreams - Vol 60 | ATRD Podcast

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

Today we have 16 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; True Scary stories from Dec. 2022, Stalker & In The Woods stories from March 2024 So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like or rate the podcast, and leave me a comment with your thoughts if the platform your own supports it! I upload episodes every 3 days, so there are 2 days between new uploads. The podcast consists of new scary story collections, Glitch in the matrix collections, and also what I call the "Dark Dreams" collections (which are older stories, remastered and layered with rain sounds). If you have a story to submit, would like to find where to listen to the podcast, or want to find me on social media platforms, all of that info can be found at https://www.astheravendreams.com You can also send stories into my subreddit (r/theravensdream) or email them to me at [e-mail] Want to check out some ATRD Podcast Merch? ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Or for signed merch ➤ https://ko-fi.com/AsTheRavenDreams I wrote a novel, "The Insomniac's Experiment" by Raven Adams! Check it out on amazon (Or you can email me for a signed copy!) Join Patreon to get early access and support the Podcast! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Check out my gaming channel with my pal Ghost_Ink ➤ @superNefariousBros On YouTube TIMESTAMPS One Ad After the First Story, No ads after that Story 1: 00:26 Story 2: 7:28 Story 3: 13:42 Story 4: 17:49 Story 5: 24:10 Story 6: 30:25 Story 7: 34:52 Story 8: 41:26 Story 9: 52:59 Story 10: 1:06:18 Story 11: 1:11:17 Story 12: 1:19:04 Story 13: 1:22:16 Story 14: 1:32:24 Story 15: 1:35:34 Story 16: 1:41:31 ----- 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 #GlitchInTheMatrix ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey there, friends. Today's episode is a Dark Dreams episode. For those that are unaware, Dark Dreams episodes are older episodes, remastered into larger collections, with some nice and calming rain sounds in the background to help you just kind of relax. So, sit back, close your eyes if you can, and just take in the scariness that is our existence. And hopefully you sleep well. Hello, Raven. Thank you for doing such great work. I hope you're having a great start to the year. I am, though, it's March, so I'm not sure if it's where the start anymore. I thought about sending you this story, but I needed to check my facts with my sister beforehand. This was in the early 90s, and I don't remember why my sister and I were

home alone. My sister was around 14 years old, and I was 11. At this time, we lived in a small town in the Pacific Northwest, and we were bored. We decided to take a walk. After leaving a note for my mom, we took off. Now this town was about 20 houses at most. The only thing it had was a post office. There was an old school that was overgrown, but had a basketball hoop that was still standing. We walked past the school, and made our way to an old rail crossing. The tracks had been removed, but it had not gotten overgrown yet.

We followed the old trail deeper into the woods, and caught sight of a rock wall that looked easy to climb. So we decided to climb up and see what we could see. The climb was taller than we thought. It was only about a hundred feet or so, but it was steep. I think it was a hill that the rail company had blasted out of the way. This left a rugged cliff that was pretty sheer. The old drill holes left us away to climb.

They had rough edges that we could grab. This made the climb seem easier than it really was. As we were going up, my sister had knocked a rock loose that hit me in my face and knocked my glasses off. I had wanted to stop then, to at least get my glasses. But my sister just said that we would get them on the way back. At the top of the hill, we realized that it was the edge of a plateau, I guess. It was a flat spot that had been cleared by logging. It's hard to explain.

from below it looked like a small hill, and that we would get a good look of the valley. Instead, it was a foothill of a small mountain range, this flat spot leading to mountains in the distance. There were no trees left standing. All the trunks were grayed and decaying. The undergrowth had run rampant, vines tried to catch your feet, old sticks covered holes in the ground. It would have been so easy to turn an ankle or break a leg. We wandered for a while and noticed it was getting dark. We needed to get home.

I think we were already late. Our mom was going to be worried. We hadn't marked our trails, so it took some time to find our way back to where we came up. Looking around was hard for me. Without my glasses, anything outside of three feet was blurry. When we made it back, I was trying to find a place to climb down, or at least where we climbed up. When we couldn't figure it out, my sister suggested jumping. Without my glasses, I couldn't tell if it was a really long way down or not, but I was not going to jump.

We stood there and argued for a time. I finally told her, jump if you want, I'm going to find a house and ask to use the phone. I started to walk away afraid that my sister was going to jump. She was headstrong like that, but she followed. I had a hard time in the dark. Neither of us thought to bring flashlights. Eventually we found a house with lights on. Apparently, either people went to bed early around here, or it was mostly vacation homes.

I was almost ready to try to break into a house, just to use the phone. My sister took the lead and knocked on the door. A nice woman answered the door. She wouldn't let us inside because her daughter was sick with a fever and she didn't want to pass it on to us. So she brought out her phone. She even wiped it with alcohol before handing it over. My sister left a message from my mom.

She was out looking for us and handed the phone back. The woman asked if we were able to get a hold of our mom and my sister said no. The lady asked us what we wanted to do, and I said, if you can point us to our town, we'll start walking. I didn't think we could be that far from home since we walked here. When I told her what town we were from, she was shocked. Apparently going over the cliff and through the flat rise took us about 25 minutes from our town by car. The road back had to go around the rise and then double back to get to our house.

When we said that we would start walking, she objected. She went back inside real quick and checked on her child, and she then told us that she would drive us home. The lady was so nice. She left her sick kid at home to drive us lost kids home. When we got home, our car wasn't in the driveway. But not five seconds after, our mom pulled up. Mom was so happy to see us. Apparently she'd been out driving the route, we said,

said we were going to use in our note. From what she said, she'd been driving on the shoulder at like five miles an hour trying to find us. Not only that, but our little lapdog, Holly, who was the size of a cat, was sniffing the air and barking like she smelled us. My mom would stop the car and get out to let Holly try and find us.

She'd been coming back every so often to check the phone, or see if we made it home. So, when we were standing in the driveway, she rushed to hug us. After exchanging some words with the lady and profusely thanking her, mom let the lady leave. The next day, we went to look for my glasses, because we couldn't afford to buy new ones. When my sister saw the cliff and how high it was, she looked at me and said, I'm glad you talked to me out of jumping. When my mom heard this, she looked at it.

mortified. You thought about jumping down? That's like a hundred feet. In reality, it was only about half that. It's still enough to seriously damage or kill us. At the base of the cliff, we found my glasses, too. They only had a small scuff on the metal where the rock had hit them. Anyway, thank you for reading this, Raven, and I'm a huge fan of your work. Leaving my friend's house, I accidentally backed into a brick mailbox. My bike rack hit the mailbox, so my car was okay, but it completely demolished the mailbox. No big deal, right?

That's why we have insurance, right? I went to the neighbor and told them what happened and gave them my insurance, phone number, and name. All I got was his first name. From the get-go, this dude was creepy. He kept hitting on me, trying to date me, specifically trying to, quote-unquote, feed me. I left. On my drive to my moms, I'm attending out-of-state college and parents are divorced.

The guy I backed into, Robert, began to text me and call me. He was insistent that it was better for both of us to just pay out-of-pocket for the mailbox, sending me links to companies that could fix it for $500, and demanding I go on a date with him so I could give him the count. for the repair, and he could feed me. I don't know what his deal with the food was, but I declined everything, but was starting to get annoyed by his constant text and calls.

Finally, after two days of it with my responses only, please contact my insurance, I sent him a text saying that he was harassing me. I blocked him, but he made a new number and threatened to report it as a hit and run to the police. I'm in law school, okay, this wasn't a hit and run. I blocked the second number, and then he used a new number to ask me if I wanted him to send a screenshot or video of the accident to his insurance. I admit this made me angry.

I called this number and dug my nails so hard into my thighs that I drew blood as he threatened reporting things, asking me on a date and trying to entice me to just pay cash. I finally screamed Don't contact me again, you effing inbred POS. My dad heard me and was upset that I said that to someone I wasn't an accident with, and that I said that to a guy who thought I was cute and just wanted a date. I then blocked the third number. Next day, he reaches out again to tell me I gave him the wrong policy number.

I told him I didn't. He then said it would be easier to pay. cash and that I was the problem, etc. He was talking to his insurance, I guess, and began trying to validate my info. He had my mom's name, address, and phone number. I verified it. I told him to not contact me again and blocked his new number. Next morning, super early, I get a text basically saying he finished the claim, and I was awful for making it harder than it needed to be by going through insurance and not going on a date with him. He then included,

You're so beautiful and ugly at the same time. Don't take risks. Stay on the good path. Goodbye. At this point, I got scared. Fifth number, blocked. Then at midnight, he texts, You up?

I know where you live. Don't try and screw me over on insurance. I'll report it as a hit and run. You should have just gone on a date with me. I took the phone to my dad, showed him the texts, and filled him in. My dad, a pretty scary dude, then calls the guy. He answers, shoot, I knew you were into me, when it come over. My dad got very mad.

My dad said that this was beyond harassment, that this was his final warning to not contact me, that we didn't care how he reported it. Robert began saying that I came onto him and offered sex as a payment. invited him to my house and that I was a horny B word. Instantly blocked. Police contacted, insurance notified all the things. Next day, talked insurance. Protective order filed.

Get another text telling me I shouldn't have involved the police. Block the seventh number. Notify police and then go stay at my dad's because the dude doesn't have his address. My dad is a very tall and very scary dude who, loves his Second Amendment. Late last night, I'm watching Star Wars with my dad and older brother and the doorbell rings. The dad goes to see who it is, and it is freaking Robert, with a trash bag filled with things that I, quote, left at his house. I call the police.

My dad goes ballistic, just all the things. The police come and arrest the guy. The bag? It was filled with lingerie a night. lip-bomb, and Adida Vontes' Fetish Book. So, I just met with an attorney. Plot Twist? The guy doesn't own the house.

He's an illegal immigrant, is married, and is being deported. I feel awful that he's being deported, but I genuinely think that he wanted to assault and or kill me. I go back to school in a few days, and I'm so terrified that he or someone else will follow me. edited to add I've kept my friend his neighbor informed through the whole process he hasn't reached out to her

except for video of me backing into the mailbox I don't know if an illegal immigrant can be charged with crimes but he was arrested for stalking trespassing felony assault as he tried to push my dad and then spit at him insurance fraud

as he lied about the accident to his insurance agent possession of a deadly weapon with intent, the knife in the bag, and attempted breaking and entering. They just kept adding on the charges. To give some background information, I run a pod simply for fun or to bring awareness to the dangers of the world and people around us. But learning about weird occurrences and true crime has made me more weary of people and behavior. I'm usually really good at chopping occurrences, as people, just being people.

But I do work in an area known for sketchy behavior, drugs, abductions, and stuff like that. That being said, this happened while I was working the store alone. We have cameras, and I'm a fairly big person. I'm six-foot, and a heavyweight athlete. I'm female, though you really couldn't see that due to the amount of layers that I was wearing. Around 12, my friends, who will call them A, came to keep me company and sat behind a trash can we have in the corner of the store next to a heater. A man pulls up in a black Lexus and is making wide-eyed contact with me the entire time, which kind of made me uncomfortable, but with my size and appearance, I'm used to men gawking at me. He kept up the staring for a couple of minutes, and then the short man slinked.

out of his car. I say, welcome in, which was met with him starting to swiftly walk around and behind the counter where I work. I was cutting an avocado for my lunch and had a knife in my hand. I got a very strange feeling and told him sternly, if you need anything, I can help you over there. You cannot be back here. A looked up and coughed. The man whipped around looking at A and briefly said, I don't need anything, and speed walks out, which left A and me with a terrible feeling. So A eventually leaves, and I sit down and study on my break where we are pretty dead for at least the next hour, usually. These three teens, around my age, probably a year younger, come in. The one that started talking to me was visibly sweating and shaking with nerves, which was strange.

because it was freezing outside. Like, you could throw water and it would turn to ice cold. Thinking nothing of it, I asked what I could get them. He then blurts out, Can you give me an Uber? I said that I could order him one, which was met with, No, I have cash.

Can you give me an Uber home? I said, no, I can't leave the store. And I was absolutely not going to be driving strangers on God knows where. He points at the phone in a charger that his friend was holding, and I said there's an outlet over there that you can use. He went to plug it in by my computer, which I said, hey man, use the one over there.

He walked all the way to the back to get right next to my stuff, which was a little weird, but whatever. The girl with the two guys pipes up as soon as they sat down. No, you can't see. say that, you'd weird her out. While the other guy said, just go ask her. And then continued to whisper something about their

plans. And, you know, I'm always happy to help, but I started feeling uneasy. Then they stand up, I kid you not, like five minutes after they sat down. They just get up and leave and say, bye, thanks for the help.

And the main guy pulls keys out of his pocket, and continues to get into the car that's been parked in front of my store the entire time. Also, very uncomfortable feeling. Luckily, my manager came in shortly after. It was all fairly strange. This happened in York, Pennsylvania, about 15 years ago.

A guy randomly stumbling into my house ended with me and a friend being shaken down by a drug dealer in a really bad part of town. Here's what happened. I had recently moved to York from Tennessee to be closer to my then-girlfriend. We had rented a house just outside of town. It was a single story but had a walk-out basement that faced the fenced-in backyard. It was a pretty cool setup. The basement had a kitchen and there was a nice patio as you walked out of the basement,

perfect for hosting get-togethers. After we got settled in, we decided to invite some fun. friends over for drinks and a barbecue. We had five people over. We drank quite a few beers and had finished eating. We sat around the patio talking and eventually moved inside. It was a nice cool evening in August, so I left the sliding glass door open, screen closed, to allow the breeze to blow in.

It was getting late and our guests began to leave. Eventually it was just me, my girlfriend, Kyle and Stephanie. Kyle and Steph were dating. Kyle had not been drinking because he was driving that night. It was nearing midnight, so they were also about to head out. Important to note, Kyle was not from the area either. He and I knew nothing about what streets or neighborhoods were safe. Suddenly, the screen doors slid open and in walked some random guy.

He looked to be in his early 20s, but was in rough shape. He had a white t-shirt on that was stained with, what I assumed was dried blood. His pupils were huge and his movements were abnormal. I jumped up and said, Who the hell are you? He said, you're Chris, right? I need help, man. These guys just beat me up.

My name is not Chris. I had quite a few beers flowing through me, so I definitely didn't handle this like I should have. I was more curious what this is. guy wanted when I should have been alarmed and frightened by this disheveled man barging into my house. Kyle and I questioned him further and eventually told him to get out. This guy swore that if he walked down the street, there were guys waiting to beat him. He said that he needed a ride to his dad's house and would pay us $100 for giving him a ride. He then proceeded to pull out a $100 bill.

Kyle and I were both pretty broke, so he had our interest. His dad only lived ten minutes away, and it was a safe part of town, according to my girlfriend. Kyle was sober, so he said that he would drive. Our girlfriends would wait at the house for us to return. We get in the car, Kyle's in the driver's seat, the random guy in the passenger seat, and me in the back. I brought a knife in case things got crazy. We get to the house and the guy says, Hold up for a sec.

Let me make sure my dad's home before he take off. He runs up to the house, knocks, and a guy answers the door. The guy that answered the door starts screaming at this dude and tells him to get the hell off his porch. A random guy comes running back to the car and says, A change of plans? I need you to bring me to my friend's house on Princess Street.

We protested this request, but he pulled out another $100 bill, so off to Princess Street we went. Like I mentioned, Kyle and I knew nothing about York, Pennsylvania. What I now know, Princess Street is not a place that you wants to visit at one in the morning. We pulled up to a bar that had a big Colt 45 neon sign glowing in the window. The guy said that his friend lived upstairs. He needs to go make sure he's home, and he'll be right back, so we were just to wait outside.

Kyle and I start looking around and see women standing on the street corners. A random guy is stumbling down the sidewalk and rambling incoherent. We start getting majorly freaked out and are about ready to bail. Just when we were about to punch it out of there, the random guy comes walking out with five other dudes. I noticed that our unwanted guest has a fresh stream of blood, coming out of his nose. One of the guys approached the vehicle

and motioned to roll the window down. Kyle, like an idiot, obliges. This new character leans into the open window and says, Your friend here owes me a lot of money for products that he hasn't paid for. So settle his debt now, or this car is mine. Now, get out of the car.

We sat there frozen with panic. I explained that we didn't know this guy, that we just gave him a ride, as if these guys cared. I was certain that we were about to lose a lot of money and or get shot. I told the guy that I'll get out. I just needed to open the door so I could get out of the back seat. The car was a two-door, so I had to push the passenger seat forward in order to open the door. The guy took a step back, and I went to open the door.

Kyle realized that we had an opportunity to get away, so he floored it. All I remember is our unwanted guest screaming, Don't leave me here with these guys, as we sped off. We stopped at the police station on the way back to my house and filed a report. The cops didn't seem to care. They were more interested in why I was out in public while intoxicated. We never did hear from that random guy again. And I can only guess what happens to him after we left.

I used to live in a small town in Michigan that was surrounded by forest. The woods were literally our backyard playground. And sometimes the backdrops to some strange and unnerving experiences. I've seen UFOs. I've seen creepy people in the woods. And maybe someday I'll write those out, though some of them are pretty basic and uneventful. This experience is also kind of uneventful, but it was weird and I figure it's worth telling because I seriously have no idea what I saw. One afternoon, on spring break, I was incredibly bored, which happened often as a 16-year-old.

I was bored to the point that I was thinking about things, and I recalled my dad once telling me about a cave that he and his friends would hang out in and get a little. stoned. My dad was the hippie type. I'm not. But I am into wilderness and wanted to check this cave out to see if it was still there or if it had collapsed or whatever. Again,

I was a bored teenager and figured I would kill time if nothing else. I only had a rough idea of where the cave was, but I figured I was well-versed in the art of hiking, so I would find it eventually. So, there I was, in the deep woods with the sunlight gleaming down on everything, and making it a bit warmer than it had been all week.

It was eerily quiet out in the woods, but I kind of liked the seclusion. So, I pressed on. After a couple of hours, I hit a point where I figured I would find Bigfoot before I found the damp cave. So I took a minute to sit on a stump and eat my sandwich that I had packed for my lunch. While I was sitting there, just staring out into the woods and gnawing on a ham and cheese sandwich, I heard this strange rustling coming from down in a ravine near me. It was a pretty shallow ravine. It looked like it had been dug up and left for whatever reason.

Like someone was going to expand a sewage line in this direction, and just gave up. It was pretty wide, like it went on for a while, but it wasn't too deep. maybe five foot at most. I figured the rustling was a deer or some small animal, and I was curious, so I went to check it out. I crouched down to be small and quiet as I could, and walked over to the edge to see if I could spot it, thinking I was going to see a deer or a raccoon or something like that.

What I saw, though, I have never been able to identify. This thing, whatever the hell it was, slinked out of a small brush in the ravine, and then stood up. When I say stood up, I mean that it was crawling on all fours, and then stood up on two and started walking normally, almost human-like. It wasn't very tall, maybe two feet at most. It was covered in fur that looked kind of matted, I guess.

It looked rough, like it had mange or something like that. When it stood up, I noticed how long its front arms were. They were the length of most of its body, and it looked like they were not part of its normal anatomy. They were thin, bony, whereas its legs in midsection were thicker. It had what looked like inch-long claws at the end of each of these elongated arms. The head was even worse, and more out of place. It looked almost reptilian. It was flat, featureless, and it had some fur, but if I had to place it, I would almost say that it had the head shape of an iguana, or a bearded dragon.

Nothing about this creature looked right. I sat there and watched it over the edge of the ravine, trying to figure out what kind of chimera this little beast was. I watched as it reached down into the brush, and it grabbed the dead carcass of some small animal. maybe a rabbit or squirrel, and it started eating it, bones and all. It just sat there devouring this seemingly long-deceased animal, and I couldn't help but whisper, What the hell is that? This is right about the time it perked up and looked back to notice me. The screech this thing let out was mind-numbing.

It sounded like a three-year-old child screeching for their mother. It was high-pitched, loud, and it was, and it was a three-year-old child screeching for their mother. and it sent this disgusting chill down my spine. After it screamed, it lifted its arms and actually threw what it was eating at me. It threw the carcass in my direction. I then watched as it got back down to all fours and took off at what I can only describe as an unnatural speed. I ran back to the house, the whole time trying to figure out what kind of messed up, freaky, mutated otter I had just discovered.

But otters have faces that are cute and distinguishable, and they don't have long mouths like that thing did, and I don't think they eat dead carcasses. I know raccoons are scavengers, but there's no way this thing was a raccoon. Its arms were way too long, and the head was just wrong. I'm thankful that it didn't decide I was a threat, because if it had rushed at me with those claws, I don't think I would have gotten away unscathed. If anyone has seen this thing up in Michigan, please let me know. And if anyone has seen it anywhere else, well, then that means there's more than one of these,

and that's a terrifying thing to consider. This seriously happened to me last year. I was home alone. My two older brothers are always in our local church, which is very near to us. It's like one street away. We also had no electricity, and it was daytime. We couldn't pay our bill on time. So, I was home alone, and I'll have to admit that I'm not in the church with my brothers,

because I'm too lazy when it comes to religions, and things that need me to go out and talk to people. I would always choose to be home alone back then. So, yeah. I was home alone, no electricity, just using my phone drawing stuff on my sketchbook, music, etc. My brother came home, and he went straight to the bedroom, no word or anything at all. But it wasn't very fast. He walked very normal with a normal face.

So, after a couple of hours, it was almost getting to nighttime. We do have candles, but I couldn't find any, so I was asking my brother, who said, still not coming out of his bedroom. He came out quickly and went outside the house after he told me to follow him and fix the electricity. I was like, what's your plan? And he asked me to get a screwdriver and pliers. He taught me how to get back electricity when it was cut off. He told me to cut the hanging thing that was a lock for the electricity meter.

It's a circle-shaped thing that's attached to a wall in every house that has electricity. He told me to remove the seal after the lock and pulled out the whole cover. This revealed a plastic chip that was in between this metal that's supposed to be in contact with the cover I just removed. So I removed that chip and put the cover back on and the lights came on. I was like, oh wow, that's it? That was easy. My brother went straight back to his bedroom again.

Then I received a call on my phone. Hey, we're going to spend the night here. You should come here. We've got electricity and food. My brother said. The one who's speaking. Of course, I know his voice. I know my brother's voice.

This voice is the one who just helped me fix our electricity. I asked him where he was, and he told me he was in the church. I told him, stop it. You're obviously joking. You're so lame. but I wanted to go to his bedroom just to throw a pillow at him, but then I realized that I'm not hearing any voice from his bedroom while I'm talking to him. He was talking normal.

He wasn't being quiet. I should have heard him inside the room, but there was no voice at all. I couldn't run. My legs turned so weak. I didn't even want to make any sounds at all. I slowly as a snail grabbed my pants. and slowly walked outside while looking at every single corner. I was tearing up so bad.

My lip was shaking while I was thinking, If this is a prank, I swear, but it wasn't. It was not a prank. I arrived at the church trembling. I even cried worse when I saw both of my brothers. They had never seen me cry like that before. I'm actually crying while I type this out. It has got to be the most traumatic memory of my life.

I've been with someone, I'm sure, that is not human. That thing was not my brother. I talked to him. I followed his orders to fix her electricity. I followed a non-human's command. My brothers thought maybe I was just hungry or I just needed some sleep or rest, but no, I know myself. I was fine. They believed me that someone assisted or helped me at home because they saw the lights were back.

I was also crying so hard that I couldn't even construct a sentence at that time. I have always wanted my own dog. I put a lot of research into it, and I decided to get a Bernice Mountain Dog, which my mom graciously paid for part of as a graduation present. One thing to know about this breed, and my dog in specific, serious, is that they are very friendly and don't know a stranger. Before getting him, I saw videos of the same breed just napping while repair people came into the backyard. This was not an issue for me. We have a very protective St. Bernard at home,

and I didn't think we needed a second guard dog. And as I wanted to be able to take my dog out, it was better for him to be friendly. Around October, when the chill was just starting to form in the air, a friend and I decided to get some pumpkin-flavored coffee for us and a pup cup for serious, and then go to a local park to get him some exercise now that it wasn't too hot for him outside, and smoke some. This is not one of the nicer parks. It used to have a dog park attached, but due to continuous flood damage,

It was closed down, and now the area where it used to be is mostly secluded. And there's plenty of people who use that for their advantage and do drugs there, like we had planned on doing. There's also lots of families on the weekends. But this was the middle of the week during school and work hours, so the park was pretty empty when we got there. As we walked, we passed a man who was training for something that I'm not sure I'd like to know about. He was carrying a full army pack and was drenched in sweat, and when I later told my stepdad about this,

he said that he had seen the same guy running along the main road, where there are no sidewalks. Sirius completely ignored him. We also met a couple who had a Rottweiler puppy a few months younger than my dog, and we stopped to let them play for a moment and talked to the couple. Sirius had absolutely no issue with the pair, and was very happy to receive pets friends. them eventually we got to the location we were planning to smoke at directly underneath the train tracks which is the most secluded location in the park as there's only one path to get to it unlike the rest of the park that loops around this area used to be a road but was purchased by the city for the

park so it's empty besides a house or two just past the barriers we're there for around 30 minutes before an older man walks by, gives us, how's it going, the way people do when you pass them on a walk, and then turns around and walks back the other way. A little while later, he passes back again and notices us still sitting there. It stops and then says, Are you girls all right? Are you waiting on a ride? This creeped me out slightly, but I tend to be overly cautious, so I say,

no, we're okay, which was true. I had driven there, and I was still nowhere sober enough to drive, and we were just enjoying the nice weather before it got too cold. He responds by telling us to have a nice day and turning around. Serious, through these interactions, just continued to play with the stick that he was chewing on. I mentioned these encounters, just to solidify how absolutely strange the next one was.

Soon after, a man who seemed to be in his late 40s or early 50s started to walk towards us. Instead of turning around like the other man had done, he starts to walk directly towards us. Sirius absolutely loses it, barking and growling at this man, and attempting to lunge at him. Despite the fact that he was only around seven months at this time, Sirius is a big dog, probably around 70 pounds at this point, and the man was very freaked out, and just continues past us walking faster and keeping his distance. However, like I said earlier,

there is nothing behind us, besides an empty road and thick, heavy woods. My friend and I continued to sit there talking until I was sure enough that he was gone. That was weird, right? I asked my friend about 30 minutes later. She agreed with me. Where did he even go, anyway?

That was something I hadn't considered at the time. But looking around, I couldn't think of anywhere he could have gone. Because we were high and stupid, we come up with the brilliant idea to wait and see if he passes us again. And if he doesn't, we'd walk toward the road behind us to see if there were houses that he could have gone to. However, him living in one seemed unlikely. He was dressed for hiking, with one of those backpacks specifically made for it. And if he lived so close, I didn't think he'd be dressed up for a hike. He doesn't pass us again, so we walk up the small hill and pass to the barricade.

There's around three houses just past it, all pretty run down. And the second we get to the first one, a man comes out on his porch with a gun and just stares at us. So, safe to say, the people who live there aren't a fan of people from the park on their property. I think the only solution is that he went into the woods. I had never seen my dog act like that before, and I haven't seen him act like that since. Every other time he acts like everyone he meets has known him for his whole life. I've always thought that dogs have better instincts than us, and this just proved it for me. We're both pretty small girls, around 100 pounds and under 5'5.

And it's scary to think what could have happened had my dog not been with us, and we had no way to defend ourselves in such a secluded area. I know this is not some paranormal story, but it is true and mine. I have never posted this story anywhere online. I have told the story to friends and family, and was thinking about telling the story on a YouTube channel that I am creating, but I realized it was not the kind of story for what I want my channel to be. After hearing what happened to you about getting your video copyright claimed, I figured I would give you a story that you could use free and clear. Today, my words are about something that happened to me. Back in 2003, I was 22 years old.

I was a merchant marine. These are the people who crew import and export ships. You know those ships with huge amount of containers. They require a crew, and I was one of those. This was my first tour, so I was working a lower-paying job. We were delivering equipment to Kuwait for the Iraq War, so we had to travel through the Mediterranean Sea, and at that time, we had a fuel stop on the island of Crete.

I was excited because this was the first time I would set foot on a different continent than the one of my birth. So, I made sure to ask ahead of what I would be expected to do if I wanted to be able to go ashore and experience the port. My first engineer told me that I was okay to go ashore, but told me that we would only have a few hours. I had also talked to other guys about what I should take with me and various pieces of advice. Some of this advice I took, like sticking with a buddy, but some I disagreed with and that, in the end, saved me a lot of hassle.

So, come that night, I knew that a launch, a small boat, would come aside the ship, and we would be taken to port. One of my shipmates told me that he would show me around. let's call him Chip. But he insisted that we get me a new jacket. My current coat was stained with oil and fuel, so yeah, I agreed. When it got to be the time to go, we all went down to the launch by way of the gangway, which is a movable stair attached to the side of the ship. Once on the boat, I got my first real look at Crete.

I could still see the place, a hilly island that just seems to drop it, into the sea. We ended up hitting dirt and waiting for a bus and some kind of shelter. While we were there, I was watching snow fall on to the ground. Across from where we were was a hill that had all the small, multicolored homes that I forever think of when imagining Greece. Once we went into town on the bus, we were dropped off at some town square-type area. Just across the way was a clothing shop that Chip made a beeline for there was some nice clothing, but we had to go into the basement to find a coat that would fit me. I'm six-five, and at this time, about 300 pounds.

It was hard for me to find clothes that fit at the best of times in America, so I had to settle for a mohair jacket that made me look like an English professor. Then, on to the drinking. Chip had a favorite bar when he was in town, and he knew the staff. It was a small place, but had to be a small place, but had to be a little bit of the drinking. a nice atmosphere. I liked it. Chip and I started drinking and had ordered a bit of food, and after a bit Chip was dancing with one of the ladies there. I spent my time talking to the bartender, who was a Belgian woman, who was more than happy to take my US dollar rather than the

euro, even if it cost a buck 25 for every euro at the time. This woman was also happy to have someone to talk to for the evening, because it was slow that night. Chip warned me that we would need to think about leaving soon, so I switched to cola. But the bartender kept putting shots next to the cola because they couldn't just sell cola. So she said. I can drink cola like water, and I had already had a few. The shots were a cinnamon sweet liquor. I was told it was probably Ozo, but I don't know.

What I do know is that they went down easy and tasted good. I get up to use the restroom, and the room shifts. Oh, crap. That was my first warning that I might be drunker than I thought. Once I got back, I realized Chip was gone, so I paid my tab and ran towards where the buses were. Somewhere in there, I vaguely remember getting into a fight, but that may have been just me being drunk. What I do remember was two guys beating up on one guy, And I rushed one knocking him into a wall and then throwing another into a trash bin.

The guy that I rescued said something in Greek, but it sounded like, where are you from? And I told him Montana. I don't know why. By the time I get to the buses, they're gone. I head back to the bar, drink some coffee, and have them get me a cab. I hop into the cab and have them take me to the port. When I get there, I ask some other sailors who are, standing around if my ship was still there, and they point to light slowly being lost over the horizon. At this point, I didn't know what to do, and I asked one of the sailors who pointed me to

the J-Tock Station, Joint Tactical Operations Command. They then told me that I would have to go to the naval base that was here. I got another cab and went to the base. I remember talking to the gate guard, and they directed me to the hospitality area to get a a room and to talk to MSC in the morning. MSC stands for military sea lift command. They're a paramilitary group who oversees civilians who work with the Navy. They were overseeing my ship. Once I got in touch with them, they called my ship via sat phone.

They talked with my captain for a bit and then handed the phone to me. Do you want to go home or get back on the ship? The captain asked me. Sir, I want to get back on the ship. I'll see what I can do. That was it. That was all I knew. I handed the phone back to the commander, and he talked with my captain for a bit more.

The commander mentioned something about how much easier it would be if I had my passport. This is where ignoring some of that advice came in handy. I brought my passport, stuffed into my cargo pockets. Now, I did this because of all those old movies and cartoons that had some of the ones. someone in a foreign country and some policeman asked for their papers. Well, I didn't want to be without my papers, so I brought them. I told the commander that I had my passport and pulled it out. At this point, he grabs the phone and calls someone.

I find out that it was the port agent later. This port agent is the guy who organizes everything at the port for the sailors. He comes by and picks me up and takes me to a hotel and tells me not to leave. Looking out my room window, I see the bar that started this whole thing. I shut my curtains and watch TV. And I mean just watch. I couldn't understand a word. The next day the agent comes and gets me, takes me to the airport, walks me through customs, and I board a plane.

Keep in mind, no one told me where I was going. I could have been heading home or to the ship. The flight I was on was going to Athens. At Athens, I met with another person who handed me a ticket for Cairo. At this point, I assumed I was going to my ship. When we landed in Cairo, I met another gentleman who guided me to his truck. Now, I'm from America, and trucks are common. I had seen small trucks before, but not one that was this small and an extended cab.

The guy apologizes and I get in the back. I had to stretch sideways to fit. They then take me down what I guess. to be a highway to a small hotel. My room is up and in the back. Like, I felt ridiculous. It was up an external flight of stairs and in an overhanging room,

and the stairs went between two walls, and I had to squat and walk sideways like a crab to get through. The room was decent, though. The next morning, bright and early, like, as the sun was rising, I got to see just the tip of the pyramids. We drove to this half-recked,

building near the water. At this point, I'm told that I'm at the end of the Suez Canal. The building is being guarded by men in green fatigues, AK-47s and aviator shades. I mean like right out of the movies, and they're standing in front of a half-wrecked building. I have no idea what is going on, other than they're trying to get me to my ship. The driver asks me for my passport, I'd give it to him. I don't know what else to do. This was so weird to me. Like here I was trusting all these random strangers to my fate. I didn't know these guys.

I trusted them because at the airport they had a sign with my name on it. After what seemed like forever, the driver came out and handed me my passport and told me to get out. We walked over to a wooden boat. Like those ones out of Indiana Jones, in the third movie, we got on and took off. This was crazy. I saw my ship looming in the distance. If you've never seen one of these ships from the water line up close, they are huge. Think watching a five-story building gliding across the water at like 35 miles per hour.

Oh, and we're rushing to meet it. As we get closer, the gangway drops, and I'm directed to hop across. Now, I know it was only inches, but imagine you're on a skateboarder. and you're supposed to get close and hop on to a bus as it goes 35 miles per hour. The water rushed below my feet, and I just hopped across. The boat takes off even before I'm all the way up. At the top was one of my shipmates, working the gangway. He was surprised to see me.

I found out later that he was told that someone was coming aboard, just not who. He asked me how I got there, as he couldn't see the boat from his angle. I told him I just flew in. not meaning to joke, just jet and adrenaline lag. He responds with, Okay, Superman. This is when I look down and see that through this whole thing

I've been wearing a Superman symbol shirt that my kid picked out for me. The nickname stuck with me for the rest of my time on that ship. I've been on this subreddit before, and I'm starting to realize I've unfortunately been a magnet for this stuff my entire life. So this happened. a few years ago, and my brain is still fuzzy because, honestly, I've kind of blocked this out from my

memory. My older sister, 23 at the time, and myself, 20 at the time, went to Washington, D.C. one year, and I was super excited because I'd never been before. We started the trip with a private tour of the Capitol building, where one of her friends worked at the time. I was honestly super stoked, even though I had already become disenchanted with politics at that age, it was still really cool to be in the building and learn about the history of the country. After that, we went to the Smithsonian, and just genuinely had a lot of fun educating each other in different subjects we were always into. I was always more math and science-oriented, and she was English in history.

At the end of one of the days, we were headed to the metro station to get to, get a train back to our hotel. Now, I'd been on train platforms like this before, having visited my uncle in NYC a couple of times, and since then been stationed in Chicago with their metro system, so I have a pretty good understanding of how trains and stops work. My sister said that she needed to go to the bathroom and to wait for her before I got into the train, and I told her okay before making my way to the kiosk to reload my card. While I was at the kiosk, I got this feeling

that someone was looking at me. That overwhelming feeling of just being watched, and it was uncomfortable. I turned my head a little, and there standing in the corner, was what I can only assume to be a homeless man based off his appearance,

staring right at me, with huge eyes. At first, I thought nothing of it, as we had people like this back home in Florida, too, and went back to what I was doing. I pulled out my phone and started playing a game or something while I waited. Before long, my sister came back, and we got on our train. We talked for a bit about what time we were getting up the next morning to catch our flight back, since it was later in the day, around noon. When she started to open her mouth, I froze,

standing in the back of the train car staring at both of us was the same man I had seen earlier I'll never forget his outfit he had a dirty grey hoodie matted brown hair and a face that looked like he suffered from heavy substance abuse dingy skin ragged blue jeans and shoes with holes in them I leaned in not breaking eye contact and said

that guy was staring at me earlier and now he's still watching us on the train. She looked at him and whispered, if he gets off when we do, we'll make a dead sprint to the hotel. Honestly, I don't know why we didn't call the police, but knowing where our hotel was, on the end of town where things started to get sketchier, I don't think it would have made much difference for response time. The train stopped at our station, and we got off. I didn't see the man following us, so I thought we were fine. It was still about a five-block walk to the hotel,

and in a really sketchy part of town. It's not that we were cheapskates, it's just all we could afford in all honesty. As we walked, we continued our previous conversation, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. I turned around, and I saw that man, hidden behind a brick wall peeking out like Kilroy. I froze. My sister turned around and saw him too.

When he realized he'd been busted, he stood straight up and gave a big, cracked grin, and just kept staring. I wanted to challenge him, being 6.3 and 215 pounds at the time, and yell, What the hell do you want? But I remember my previous encounter with someone following me and just froze, barely squeaking out an F-bomb. It was about this time the man started walking towards us. I wasn't frozen anymore. We both started a dead sprint toward the hotel.

As terrifying as the situation was already, what happened next still makes every hair on my body stand straight. The man screamed absolute nonsense, loudly before letting out a joker-esque cackle, chasing after us. I was lagging behind my sister a little so that she could get to safety before me. She was smaller than me, and I knew that if I needed to, I could maybe fight this guy. I grabbed my wallet from my pocket and pulled out the room key,

since it was one of those hotels where you needed to have a key to access the building. Once we were inside, I realized just how far the guy was away from me. I played football in high school, and I was still pretty fast. and I had to have about 10 or 15 yards between us, even if I was running slower. We didn't say anything. We just went upstairs to our rooms and made sure it was locked in every way possible. We left super early and took an Uber to the airport. I don't know what it is with people chasing after me,

and I still don't know what that dude wanted, but I really don't want to find out. I made this account to post here. Anyways, this happened around like 2021, and sometimes I still find it hard to grasp. For context, I now live in a different place, and along with most of my relatives, so I feel safer saying this on here. The reason I'm posting this is for people to learn and possibly caution themselves from my experience. I'd say the place that I lived in was just pretty old. It wasn't densely populated nor empty.

It had wooded areas around it. You could cycle to the mall, school, and other normal places, but you would have to take a car to go to places like the hospital. I was basically in my last year of high school. Being an only child and a girl on top of that made my parents overprotective, and I was naturally more cautious than the rest of my friend group. I didn't really mind being that way, though,

because I always thought that that was the better option. So, teenagers from school would have these outdoor get-togethers, in the woods a few kilometers away from the school. It was just common for people to lounge out and about, chilling until 3 a.m. or something. Including me, it was a group of four. They decided since it was our last year that we should probably drink together in the woods. Obviously, looking back, stupid freaking idea.

But it wasn't unsafe. And it wasn't deep in the woods either. There's a pretty clear trail in a small open-ish area where people would like to get their dogs and whatnot. We planned to do it on a Thursday because my parents would be out, and the rest would convince theirs that we were having a sleepover. Now, we bought the alcohol and some other stuff to just chill out. There were no others that day because it was a weekday, and quite chilly out as well. It was pretty lively. You could see the houses from the distance, and people would be driving around as well.

So, naturally, we felt safer. We walked on the trails for about one minute when I felt uneasy. I felt like we were being watched or something like that. and I looked over to one of my friends. She looked a little distressed, but we just shrugged it off. We walked only a few minutes more and found our spot. We started drinking and basically spent like one hour and approximately 30 minutes of gossiping and having those deep talks while being drunk.

I didn't drink too much, and neither did my other friends. We were just a little tipsy. Now, we forgot about the brief weird feeling we had felt while walking, until we heard something from the thick trees in front of us. Even though we were loud, we all heard it. It was this weird snicker-slash giggle. I got up from this tree log that I was sitting on and dragged my friends back a little. We had a fire going and two torches, but still really couldn't see into that area. It wasn't that close to us.

Think around four doors away if you placed them horizontally. So, the fact that we heard that laugh was just insane to me. I pointed the flashlight straight into the area and no one came out. I sat back down, and when I turned the flashlight off, there was a silhouette coming out. I switched the flashlight on to blind that person while my other friends did the same. We started yelling and getting ready to run when I saw the most horrifying sight of my life. It was this man who we had never seen before. He had this plastered on smile, and his hair was covered in dirt.

He was pale, and his eyes were almost like he was not looking at us, but just in our general direction. I can't really explain it, but it was just textbook. creepy. We all ran for it. My very drunk friends even managed to snap out of it. We got to my house. I lived the closest to the place and said that we would call the cops. We were absolutely scared of our parents, but it didn't matter. We called the cops, and they found nothing. Word got out, and people pretty much stayed away from the paths at nighttime, and a couple of the guys in our school managed to get their dads, and all with guns, to find the guy. But nothing ever came of it.

Fast forward to, like, one month later, we didn't talk about it much and never did anything like that again. I got a pocket knife and a pepper spray to keep. I went home after school and was exhausted, so I decided to take a nap. My dad was at work, and my mom was visiting her sister. I suddenly woke up to this weird sound. We only had one story and the walls were not too thick. I locked all the doors and even the windows out of habit.

Still, fearing for the worst, I locked my room door and kind of looked out my window. There was nothing. I grabbed a bat and my phone heading out of my room. I looked at all the doors and everything was locked. There was like this weird shuffling outside of my house, and I looked out through the window of my living room. I kid you not, it was the same dude from the woods. He was just outside walking in this erratic, eerie way, which sent me into a spiral. He somehow saw me and started saying,

Hi there, very loudly. I called the police, and after that, I told him to screw off. Then he started saying my name and all of my friend's names. The police came and questioned him. He has no history of mental illness. He had no clinical disorder. And after enough torture, he confessed to, quote, liking young women. He's in jail now.

Probably will get out in a couple of years. Edit, by torture I meant interrogation. My dad has a friend who's a cop, and the cop told him that the guy would scream when they asked him things. He was also guilty of attempted essay and harassment, but that's all that I know of. This happened a couple of years ago to me and two other friends, 21 female. We were probably 17 at the time. It was summer, and we had plans to go to our friend's house. There's this park that is halfway from mine and hers.

so my friends and I decided it would be nice to sit in this hut in the park and have a smoke on the way to our friends. This was in the evening, so it was getting dark already, and time passed it was dark enough for the streetlights to turn on. It's important for the story to explain a bit how the hut was situated in the park. The park was shaped like a big circle around a lake, so the hut that we sat at had two entrances from left and right side. These entrances then connected to the main park path.

The hut is open and just has bench seats in a circle and a roof, but open air, if that makes sense. Anyways, the streetlights on the right side were not working, so it was extremely dark on that side. My friend and I are chatting away and people are walking past like normal. Nothing strange. Then this man comes from the left, and is walking really slowly. Now, normally this wouldn't catch my attention, but it's the summer, and he had on a long, thick trench coat with a top hat that had a feather and sunglasses. He walked super slowly into the dark, and just stood there in the dark. I could make out his silhouette just standing there.

At this point, all of my friends are quiet as well, and we're feeling uneasy, as we're all girls. Then the man begins to walk back towards the streetlight that has light on the left side. He stands there for a couple of seconds, staring again, and then he proceeded to walk slowly down the path to the hut, still staring at us. We thought maybe he would just walk through and want to scare us, but no. He then sits down in front of us and begins to talk. For context, we live in Brussels. He started speaking French and said, What a lovely evening, ladies.

We speak and understand French, but in that moment, we knew it was smarter to pretend that we didn't. So we just say, sorry, English. You can see him get agitated and mad. He starts going on this whole rant about how we should speak the language of the country and stupid English people think they're better than everyone else. As I said, he was quite mad while saying. all this. I began saying to my friends that we should probably leave. Now, our friend is expecting us

at her house soon. Since my other friends were so scared, too, the minute I said that, they said yes, and started to walk the path to the main park path. But they left their bags and everything, and I had to call them back, like, guys, your bags. And they came running back. And while we were quickly gathering our things, he's just staring at us. We got our things and started walking, when suddenly we hear, Hey, hey, come back here. We turn around and see him holding up a can of Coke that my friend had left, and he said that we shouldn't litter and to come back and throw it away.

We began to run at that moment, and we didn't look back. The whole way to my friend's house, we were so creeped out and scared, that we thought he would follow us or something, and any person who walked behind us, we panicked. What scared us the most was that he had his hands in his pocket the entire time. And the moment he held up the cocan, there was something else in his hand that shined with the street light. None of us could make it out, but we assumed, with the shape of the object, and the way it shined from the light, his behavior, and him having his hand in his pocket the whole time as well as calling for us to come back,

we think that he had a knife. We've never seen that man since, and all of us refuse to go around that area at night now. It really scared us. I know the story might not be as creepy of an encounter as some of the others that are posted here, but this has stuck with me and my friends for a while, to the point that we've named him the hat man. We're not sure what that man would have done if we had stayed longer, or had come back to throw the Coke can out, but I'm glad that we didn't do it. find out. Be safe out there. You never know people's intentions. And if you've read the whole

thing, thank you for taking the time. Apologies that this story is a bit messy, or I may forget bits, but I'll try to be as detailed as possible. This happened when I was around 12. I'm 22 now. We were still living in our previous house at the time, and we had one of those old-school kinded desktop PC computers on a desk, or computer stand in our hallway area. So by the time I was about 11 or 12, I had a Facebook account, which a lot of people my age did as well. I had all my friends and people from school on there, as well as family members, mom, sister, sister's boyfriend, etc. I never really did much with it back then, other than talk to friends and family, share quotes and random things that I liked or found interesting, share a few pictures,

etc. Just regular kids slash teenager stuff. One day, I got a friend request from someone. I looked at it and saw that it was a guy named Jake, if I remember correctly. From his profile picture, he seemed normal and decent. He was slim, had dark hair, dark brown or black hair. He was slim. He and I think maybe some tattoos, too. He didn't have a lot on his Facebook, just a few things here and there, but that's fair enough, as not everyone does have much on their Facebook profiles. Some people are more on the private side or just like to use it to talk to people. My innocent, naive young self decided to accept his friend request, as I didn't see anything wrong with it.

he started messaging me and we started talking. Just casual conversation stuff like, Hey, how are you? How's your day going? What are you up to? Et cetera. I was a sweet kid and was being pleasant and friendly, but he was also being friendly and pleasant. We spoke for a little while. He seemed fairly normal and decent. And I didn't mind talking to him in between going to school and every day.

life. Then, after a little while, he said that he wanted to see more of me and wanted to see pictures. I can't remember how soon it was, but we hadn't been talking massively long, a couple days or so at most. I was not exactly comfortable with doing this, and I'm pretty sure I said that I wasn't sure about doing it, and that I felt really weird about it, and it didn't seem quite right. But I ended up saying yes and said that I would take and send the pictures as soon as I could. I don't know why I said yes. I just did. But in my head, I knew that I wasn't going to actually do it. I just said it. I had no plans to do it. I think I said yes because I wanted to get him to shut up. and I think that I thought if I said yes but never did it,

he would eventually get bored and leave me alone. But he brought it up a few times in our conversations. And I was trying to avoid it as much as I could, but I didn't know what to do. And even if I was going to do it, I wouldn't have known how to. Our computer didn't have a webcam. I didn't have Facebook on my phone, nor did I have a photo camera. I don't think. Luckily, he never asked for, and I never gave him my phone number.

I never told anyone. Not my mom, not my sister, not my friends, nobody. I didn't want anyone to know, and I was embarrassed. I knew that I was going to stay at my sisters into her boyfriend's house quite soon. They lived in a different area, a fair ways away. So I would be away from home, away from my mom, away from my mom. mom and away from the computer. I only had a little basic phone at the time.

I can't remember if I had a button phone or a touchscreen, but I know that I didn't have Facebook on it. So I knew that I would not be talking to this Jake guy for a while. I got to my sister and her boyfriend's house, and we were having a nice time. We used to get along well, and I would often visit her. wherever she lived while growing up, up until about the age of 14. We would do things at home together, go out and do things,

and just try to make the most of our time together. Roughly a couple days into me visiting my sister's house, I remember being in her kitchen, and she brought up this Jake guy. Her partner was nearby, too. To start with, I was confused to how she knew and found out. but I was also scared and embarrassed and anxiety kicked in a bit too. I tried to avoid saying too much, and I just didn't really know what to do or say. I went to the bathroom and just sat there for a bit to try and avoid it.

I think my sister's boyfriend, now husband, tried saying or asking me something about it while I was sat in the toilet as well. I ended up coming out of the toilet after a few minutes. I can't really remember what happened after that. I don't think much else, if anything else, was said about it while I was staying there for the rest of the week. We just carried on with our days, hung out, tried to enjoy our time together, and then I went home after a week of staying with my sister. Once I got home, I dropped my stuff off, got settled back in, and carried on as normal. At some point along the way, I can't exactly remember when or how long after I got home, but my mom ended up mentioning this Jake guy.

Again, I was embarrassed. Anxiety kicked in and I didn't know what to do or say, and I was confused on how my mom knew or found out. The only thing I could think is that somehow, even though she wasn't good with technology, she must have somehow got on to my Facebook account and snooped through and saw my messages, even though we had two different profiles on the computer, one for me and my stuff and one for her and her stuff. I think I tried to explain it, at least somewhat, and I was trying to defend myself,

but I just didn't want to talk about it, and I just wanted it all to be done and gone. I can't remember exactly how the conversation went or finished or what happened after. But I deleted and blocked Jake on Facebook, as well as deleted the messages and went on with my life. Luckily, things carried on as normal, and I've always been very cautious and more aware since. For all I know, it could have been some old, weird, creepy guy pretending to be someone. one else and trying to prey on minors. So, dear Jake or whoever you were, let's not meet again. I, 22, female, was on vacation in San Antonio with a friend for New Year's.

In retrospect, I would have picked anywhere else to celebrate, but I had never been to San Antonio before, so I thought it would be cool. When we pull up to the place, it's very obvious it's not in a great neighborhood. But it was extremely cheap and within walking distance to the riverwalk. I'm no stranger to questionable neighborhood, so I wasn't too concerned about the area, as it was very quiet. On the day of New Year's Eve, my friend got food poisoning and asked me to get them some stuff from the gas station down the road. I wasn't comfortable taking their truck.

and since it was only an eight-minute walk, I started heading out. I got to the gas station, no problem, but they didn't have pediolite, so I started walking to another gas station only five minutes away. This is where it gets sketchy. I'm halfway to the next gas station, and I noticed there's two homeless guys walking around outside their tents next to the street that I'm on. Originally, I was going to walk past them and pay them no mind, but when I got closer, I could tell that they noticed me, and were staring at me, hard. I'm 5'5, not super athletic, pretty strong, but I'm not taking my chances with two grown men.

Instead of going straight past them, I turned to the corner. I assumed they would go about their business and leave me alone. I hear one of them say, Hey Randy, come over here. And I glance behind me, and I see three men now following me. They're far enough away where I'm not worried, but extremely cautious. I glance behind me again after a few minutes, and they're hunched over huddled up like they're trying to sneak up on me,

much closer this time. I make the smart decision to say screw the pediolite and round the corner back towards our place. I may be one to two blocks away when I check behind me again, and they have also rounded the corner and are walking quickly. I start booking it, and I hear the men behind me yelling at me. I didn't look back this time, but I could hear shuffling feet breaking into a run.

Thankfully, I made it inside before they could see where I went. I peeked out the people in the door and watched in horror, As these three men came barreling around the corner and frantically looking around for me. They're arguing and pointing around, but eventually they screw off. If I wasn't so alert, I shuddered to think what would have happened. And no, I did not get the paedia lights. I had to get it delivered. This happened the summer that I turned 15.

And I learned a pretty strong lesson. A lesson that's etched into my very bones, and a reminder that sometimes you should just mind your own business. Being a teenager, I thought that I was invincible, and that I would never be confronted with the horrors of the world. Scary things only happened on TV and whatnot. Obviously, anyone can experience scary things, but it's probably important to highlight that I had this dumb, invincible mentality as a 15-year-old girl. which, I would say, made me way more vulnerable than a lot of people. And some of the things I did were incredibly stupid. This was one of those stupid things.

My name is Riley. And back then, my whole world was a small town cradled in a lot of forest and state preserve that hadn't yet been turned into shopping centers. That summer, I landed a pretty decent summer job at the only diner. in town. It's not relevant, but I loved that job, because people knew that I was a high schooler, and they tipped super well when I told them that I was trying to save up to buy a car for my 16th birthday. I was hired on to the late morning to afternoon and early evening shift, so I had to be there typically by 9 a.m. Obviously, I didn't have a car, and both of my parents worked. So I typically

walked or cycled to the diner. When I walked, I would typically go down a path in the woods, because it was quicker, and there was a lot of wildlife to enjoy. I would take the trails until they got to a small railroad track, and then take a left to follow the track to the diner, which was right next to them on the main road.

The whole shortcut took about a half mile off of my trip, which, to a 15-year-old, is a lot. I took this trail for about two weeks, which, I guess, lulled me into more of a false sense of security. Nothing had happened yet, so nothing would happen, right? There were a few times while walking the trail that I felt like I was being watched, or like somebody was nearby. But I never saw anyone, so I gradually convinced myself that it was a deer or something like that. And I was just being paranoid because of how secluded and quiet the trail was.

Again, nothing could happen to Riley. Then, one day, that illusion of seclusion and safety shattered. I was walking the path like normal, when I paused because something looked out of place. For more than 14 days, I did this walk on the trail when nothing had changed. Then there was suddenly something different. Off to the side of the railroad track, a few feet of the road track, a few feet. feet away was what looked like a lawn chair with a backpack sitting in it. I know now that I should have just kept going, ignoring the chair and the backpack.

But I was curious as to why someone would have left a backpack by the tracks like that. I took a second to think about it, and I figured I would look into the pack, justifying it by saying that I could see if I could find an ID in it and return it to whoever owned it. Surely that was the right thing to do. I say now with very heavy sarcasm. So I stepped over to the backpack, and I unzipped it, thinking it would be full of someone's paperwork, or clothing or something. Boy was I surprised when I found it full of several tightly wrapped and taped bricks, of a white powder of some sort. I now know what it was, yes, but at the time I, I was sitting there thinking,

Who put a backpack full of powdered sugar on a lawn chair in the woods? I didn't touch any of the bricks. I just stared at them for a second and tried to piece it together. My thoughts were then broken by the sound of footsteps behind me, and the feeling of something cold

and metal being jammed against the back of my head. If you've never had a gun pushed against your scalp, it's a strange feeling that you instantly recognize as a gun. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's almost like the feeling of a gun barrel

is an instinctual trigger in your brain, like you just know that it's a gun and that you're about to die. As soon as the gun hit my head, I threw my hands up and yelped, only for a hand to go over my mouth. The person behind me was very quiet and meticulous as he spoke.

Do not scream. You scream, you die. I nodded softly, and he moved his hand away and then continued. What's your name? I told him that my name was Riley, and that I didn't mean to touch his stuff, that I was just stupid and curious. He ignored my comment and asked me how old I was,

and to this day, I cannot help but laugh at my stupid answers. I told him that I was 15 and then rambled on that I was going to be 16 in October as if the fact that I was going on 16 was going to mean anything else He gave a slight chuckle and then said Okay, and where do you live, Riley?

I told him that I lived at the end of the path And that I was just walking to work He cut me off and said, no Address I want your address I wasn't sure what to do, but when you think you're about to die, you tend to kind of just go along with it. I told him my exact street address and said that it was a bright blue house, like it really mattered. He then replied with,

All right, Riley, I now know where you live. You look like a good kid, a smart kid, and I can understand that you were curious. It was a mistake, but I think this is a good educational moment for you. So I want you to listen to what I tell you and really understand it, okay? Despite the edge and aggression in his voice, I remember that he almost sounded sympathetic, like he felt sorry for me being in this situation. I just nodded in agreement, and he then finished his side of the conversation. You're going to keep walking forward.

You're going to go to work, and you're going to live your day like nothing ever happened. You will not turn around. You will not look back. If you look back, or I think that you even got the slightest look at my face, I will kill you. You were never here. You never saw the backpack. And this morning never happened. Do you understand?

I once again nodded emphatically trying to convince him that I was more than willing to do what he was asking. Okay, good. Good girl, Riley. I'm also going to need you to promise me that you aren't going to go to the cops about this, or tell anyone that might. Because if you do, I will know. And I know where you live. I'm also going to have to ask you to not take this trail for the rest of the month, until the 1st of July.

After that, I don't care if you take it again. But until then, you find another way to work. Do you understand? When he said this, I actually spoke and said, Yes, sir, I understand. He gave a slight chuckle, and then told me that I was going to be okay, and then told me to go,

and to remember what he said. I absolutely remembered. and there was no way that I would literally ever forget those words because I knew right then that he was completely serious. He would come to my house if I told anyone about it, and I wasn't going to risk it. I didn't look back, I didn't turn around, I kept my eyes forward and walked down the track to work and just lived as normal.

I don't know who this man was. I never figured out who in town it could have been, And honestly, I prefer it that way. I'm fine with never knowing. I never told the cops. I never told my parents or my friends. I told no one about this until I was much, much older, and had moved far away from town.

I learned a very valuable lesson that day. The main one being that minding your own business is a big deal, and if you decide that you're not going to, it could lead to a gun to the back of a year. your head. I'm strangely grateful that this guy realized I was just a dumb kid, and that I had made a mistake, because he could have easily pulled the trigger and dumped my body, and I would not have been found for a couple of days at most. It's strange to say that you're grateful that the person threatening your life decided you weren't worth the bullet, but that's where I ended up with my

experience. Back when I was a sophomore in high school, I used to be very close friends with this girl, Kay. Kay and I met in middle school, and we instantly clicked. We would hang out after school very frequently. Kay had a very turbulent childhood. Deceased father, foster care, substance abuse mom, and Kay's family would househop a lot. Our sophomore year, Kay's family was staying with their step-aunt's ex-husband. My parents never really stressed about me hanging out with Kay, because she was such a kind soul, and a great influence on me. Now, the man Kay was staying with, let's call him R, was interesting to say the least.

I remember the first incident that made me scratch my head. It was when we all went out to dinner with Kay and her family, and R tagged along. K and I were sat at the table with him, and he was venting to us. I was 16, K was 16, and he was venting about his dating life and showing us pictures of his Tinder bio, and all the women that he was chatting to. We both kind of laughed it off, and engaged with him, not thinking much of it. Sometimes when K and I hung out, R would have us come to the basement, and he had his room with a drum kit. and he would play them for us with the lights off.

Anyways, the strangest encounter I personally had with him was when I went to Kay's house to hang out for the day, and she went to take a shower. While she was in the shower, I was sitting in her room, and R wandered in and told me he wanted to show me something cool in his room. Kay's room was on the first floor, and R's room was the only room on the second floor. being the naive girl I was, I agreed and followed him up the stairs.

When we got to his room, he realized it was locked and seemed very annoyed and jittery, because his key was downstairs. Now, instead of going downstairs, R takes a credit card out of his wallet and tries to unlock the door that way. Thankfully, it didn't work, and something clicked in my brain. I decided to go back downstairs and sit in the bathroom with Kay until she was done with her shower. I'm now 23, and looking back at it, I honestly don't think there was anything cool to show me in that room. And I think the moon and the stars is that he never got it unlocked. I never told Kay, but as we got older, I casually asked her if she had any weird encounters with him, and she said no.

I'm not really sure how to end this, but I'm thankful I never got to see what was beyond that door. For the purpose of this story, names and room numbers will be changed. I'm a small 18-year-old girl. I feel like that adds to the fear factor of this story. This happened on a Saturday night literally last week. My friend Leah and I attended a football game, and we got bored. decided to head to a haunted house with our friends Terry, Dawson, and Emma. It was a haunted corn maze, and we had a blast. Eventually, the night started to wind down, and me, Leah, and Terry decided to go back

to Terry's dorm room so the hangout could continue. We had dyed Leah's hair and were currently watching a movie when there were three loud slams on the door. Terry's roommate went to answer the door, we heard someone grunt and then saw a man who none of us knew, walk past Terry's room door, and into the bathroom. We were all so confused, and we poked our heads out the door to see Terry's roommate on the floor. The man had pushed him to the ground just to enter the common area of the room. All of us agreed that we did not know this man. We started laughing and making jokes about the situation,

and because that's how we coped with it at the time. Terry's roommate went to go tell the front desk that someone had come into our room and started taking a shower. Again, it was a Saturday night, so we just assumed the man was drunk or something and was in the wrong room. Eventually, we started hearing rustling in the bathroom, and loud scratches and bangs coming from the door. We started to get scared, so we locked ourselves. in Terry's room. Eventually, we heard the bathroom door open, and we all turned towards the locked door. We all jumped as this man began to bang on the door with his fists.

He was breathing so heavily that we could hear it from the other side of the door. Leah and I screamed as the banging proceeded to get louder and louder as he began to throw his full weight into the door. Terry was in the back corner of their room, as they were starting to spiral into a panic attack. Holy crap, what's happening? Elia questioned all of us. We had no clue. At first we thought it was just a drunk guy,

but no guy who's hammered out of his mind has enough coordination to take a running start into a door. Finally, the banging stopped. We thought the man had left, but we didn't dare leave the room. It was silent for three minutes, and then the scratching started. This man was scraping his fingernails

down the freaking door like a dog trying to be let into a house. Let me in, he whispered. Please, let me in. Please, I know you're in there. Let me in, damn it! He began to yell and bang on the door again. How was no one else in this dorm floor hallway coming to help us?

Fear was crawling up my body. I didn't know what to do. I have a stress disorder that I take medication for, and this is not the situation for me to be in. I slide down the wall and sat on the floor with my head and my hands to try and calm myself. It had been almost ten minutes since Terry's roommate went to get campus security. We finally called the front desk of the dorm. Apparently they had already called security the minute the roommate got down there.

How was it taking them this long to get there? The man continued to throw himself into the door for another ten minutes. We thought the thing was going to break, he slammed into it so much. But finally, after 25 minutes, campus security arrived. They sat the man down and started to have a conversation with him instead of taking him out of the freaking dorn room. At this point, I was pissed. What if we were in a place where we couldn't lock a door? Like, outside?

Would they still have taken 25 minutes to show up? The man tells them that he hasn't been drinking, that he hasn't smoked anything, and that he's fine. They continue to question him, and with each question he begins to get more violent. They finally are able to escort the man out, but not before he's scuffled with one of the cops. We could hear it all through the door. Campus security then knocked on our door telling us that it was safe to come out. When we opened the door, something hit the floor. The cop's eyes widened as he realized what it was.

It was a pocket knife that had been lodged into the door. Not only did it take these people 25 minutes to show up, they also didn't check the man or the surrounding area to see if there was a weapon. What a freaking joke. Leah started to cry as we left the room. The security decided to check the rest of the dorm, and lo and behold, they found it crumpled up. ball of tinfoil with what they concluded to be heroin in it.

Yeah, great job. This dude was methed out of his mind with a freaking pocket knife. And all they could do was say, have a safe night before leaving the dorm room. Have a safe night, my back end. We're all complaining to the campus next week about how the situation was handled, mainly because I know that that man is still on campus. I saw him walking down the road yesterday, just like nothing happened.

So screw you, campus security, and screw you methed out, man. Nowhere near as creepy as the other stuff I've read on here, but still very strange, and I have no idea. Me and my mate, Dee, both 17, are both cruising around our local area in his new car. It's important to note that Dee had not passed his test, nor had to have him. insurance, therefore we usually drove at around two or three in the morning. We pulled up to our local petrol station to get some cigarettes. I had a goatee and didn't get ID'd, so we came here often. As we pull in, this pretty built dude asks us to roll down our window. We roll down and get chatting to him. He tells us that his wife is very angry at him because he's been on a bender and can't get home.

and is desperate for a lift back. Then he offers us 500 pounds for a lift to a city that is only 40 to 50 minutes away. I'd be lying if I didn't say that our dumb 17-year-old brains immediately thought that this was an easy payday. Then the reality set in that we were driving illegally. But we didn't want to tell him that, obviously, so we politely declined. He then gets really insistent. that we have to give him a lift. Like, really, insistent.

I finally realized that surely he can just get a taxi. A guy working in the garage would definitely call him one, and it's not like he's short on cash, nor would the taxi even break a hundred pounds. So I say this to him, and he genuinely has no answer to it, and just insist that we give him a lift. The actual conversation went on for almost 20 minutes,

but unfortunately I can't remember the details. I offered to book him a cash taxi, and after many attempts of convincing him on how much cheaper it is, he accepts. We say, we're leaving now, as we were both weirded out, and he just turns to us and says, You guys are freaking idiots. We just kind of smile and then start driving.

Out of nowhere, a guy, even bigger build, runs at our car, and just throws his drink all over Dee through the open window. Obviously, Dee is fuming and jumps out of the car, and I follow. We walk up, and the guy that was talking to us profusely apologizing for his mate's actions. I remind Dee that we're driving illegally, and the last thing we want to do is get in a fight and have the police be called. So we get back in, drive off, and cancel his taxi. The rest of the night, we were just... trying to make sense of what just happened.

It just never sat right with me. I don't know why he was so insistent. Maybe so when we got there he could just jump out and run so he gets a free lift for him and his mate. It could have been to rob the car. But then knocking out two fully grown lads for a beat-up dinger seems a lot of effort. I've always been genuinely curious as to what would have happened if we accepted and how bad of a situation. It could have been.