As The Raven Dreams Podcast - Scary Stories For Dark Dreams - Volume 10 | ATRD Podcast

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THE BACKGROUND AUDIO AND THE VOLUME OF THE STORIES IS BETTER! Today we have more than 2 hours of True Horror Stories with a lovely late night ambience. This is part of the "Scary Stories for Dark Dreams" series, which is a collection of stories put together for the sake of sleep or simple background noise. This collection includes The following true scary stories; Unexplained Horror stories, First Date Stories, And other True Scary Stories from Reddit/Subscribers. So, turn down the lights, tune in, and let the haunting tales of everyday people take you down that dark and creepy road. Remember, these aren't just stories... these are true experiences that remind us that our world can truly be scarier than fiction. Support the channel for Early Access AND more! Patreon ➤ https://patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams Join ➤ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkW0ihdMHfBUjQrMKjRto6g/join Or Check out the Merch Store! ➤ https://teechip.com/stores/astheravendreams Much Love, and Sleep Well... ----- #TrueScaryStories #AsTheRavenDreams #RedditStories ➤ Stories include a content warning for language and sensitive/disturbing content. Viewer discretion is always advised. ➤ ALL Audio of this Podcast are copyright of AS THE RAVEN DREAMS / RAVEN ADAMS and may not be duplicated, in any format, without explicit permission ➤ If you like any of the following stories, consider subscribing! - Dark Web horror stories, creepy lets not meet stories, stalker stories, Glitch In The Matrix Stories, Unexplained Horror stories, Paranormal stories, cryptid encounter stories, Crazy ex lover stories, creepy neighbor stories, quantum immortality, true scary stories from reddit, or any other True horror Stories! ➤ And Remember; You are loved, you are important, and you are valid. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I have a really weird story from way back when I was a very young lad. I think at the time I would have been around 12, maybe 13 at the very oldest. Back then, I lived in my parents' old house, which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the northern Midwest. I don't want to give the exact location, because I really don't know what this whole thing was about, and if it was more serious than I think, I don't want to, I guess, anger someone or a group of people. I know that sounds stupid, but to me it makes sense, especially with what I saw. saw and how it ended up. Back then, I used to spend a lot of time hiking in the woods behind my neighborhood.

There weren't any other kids in my area, and my only sibling was my older sister, so my childhood was honestly pretty boring and void of friendship. I made the best of it, though, and I used to make up a lot of fun games with myself. Not that I remember what I used to actually do, just used to play some dumb games, until I had to go home for dinner. This event actually took place in those woods. It was sometime in the middle of summer because I was out of school

and was home alone for most of the day, because my sister was always over at her girlfriend's house, so I just pretty much did whatever I wanted to do. On this day, I was doing as I always did and went out into the woods to see what I could get up to. I was out playing, doing a whole lot of nothing, when I noticed something out a bit in the forest. It kind of looked like a person,

like it was a person standing in the woods and they were of an adult's height and stature, but they were just standing there completely and totally still. I was a bit nervous at first. I hadn't seen anyone in these woods in the years that I have lived there, and most of the people didn't spend any time. back there. It was really strange to see this person just standing in the woods, and even

weirder that they were wearing all black from top to bottom. It looked like they were wearing a ski mask too, since the back of their head was covered and some kind of black cloth as well. Again, this was the middle of summer. It was kind of hot outside, so the fact that they were wearing all black in what appeared to be a ski mask, was even weirder. I started kind of creeping around to see what exactly this person was looking at,

because like I mentioned, he was just standing there, completely stone still. At first, I was kind of sneaking around, but again, he wasn't paying any attention to me, so after a bit, I just stopped sneaking, and I just kind of started walking around him from a safe distance. Honestly, I wasn't 100% sure that he was actually a person and not a mannequin that was placed there, because he didn't react to me walking around into what would have been his line of sight. As I got around to the front, I noticed two things that made this whole thing even weirder. First off, he wasn't staring at anything.

There was nothing in front of him. He was just standing there and looking down at the ground. Secondly, he was wearing a plain white mask with no details. It was a mask that was shaped like a person's face, but it was just plain white with no other details. So, to reiterate, this person was standing completely still, wearing all black, including some kind of head covering, and was wearing a detailless white mask, and he was staring at literally nothing. After just standing there for a few moments, I decided that this was actually terrifying, and I took off to go back home. Again, I kept my distance, but he continued to not pay attention nor acknowledge that I was anywhere nearby.

There was a point where I did get close enough to see that this man was breathing, and that this was a person, not a mannequin. I went home and I wasn't really sure what I should. do, or if I should actually do anything. Because he wasn't hurting anybody, or doing anything illegal or anything like that. I did tell my mom when she got home that there was a weird man in the woods, and she told me that it was public and that there wasn't anything wrong with that. I kind of just accepted that response and moved on. Now, it doesn't quite end there.

There is actually a little bit more to this story. A couple of days after that happened, I had actually gone back out into the woods because I wanted to see if the man was still there. I have no idea why I thought he would still be there, or again as it was a few days later. I guess I just thought that if he was there again, then whatever he was doing was certainly sketchy, and I could possibly get my parents out there to see what was happening. Of course he wasn't there, but when I went out to where he was standing, I did find something that I did not expect.

Right there where the man was standing, was a small wooden cross stabbed into the ground, and the white mask was nailed to where the two parts of the wood crossed over. There was nothing written on the cross, there was nothing else there, just the cross with the mask. Back then, it was just weird to me, and I had no idea what to think. But now, part of me thinks that it may have had something to do with a cult or something, because it was just odd behavior, and the whole cross thing was just bizarre.

And that's actually why I didn't want to mention the location, because if it was a cult thing, I don't want them coming to find me, because I still live in the town. and before anyone asks, no, I never went back to that area of the woods, no, I've never told anyone else about the cross, and I have no idea if it's still there. So, to me, this was the scariest thing that I've ever experienced, and I hope that I never experience anything like it again.

I actually have two dating stories that should be pretty quick, hopefully, and they're not necessarily horror as in scary. But they're horror in the sense that they were horrifying and turned me off online dating pretty much altogether. I don't think much backstory is really needed for me beyond the fact that I was in my mid-20s, have never really had luck with meeting people that I care to really spend time with,

and I wasn't exactly picky with who I swiped match on. When I say that I wasn't, I mean that as long as they were a guy above a two on a scale of ten, and didn't throw out any major super creep vibes. I was pretty willing to give them a try. I know that this may sound pretty dumb to some people, but I'm the kind of person that is really willing to give anyone a shot to see if we vibe, if that makes sense. Anyways, on to the first date story.

I had matched with a guy named Jake on one of the actors. and he seemed like a pretty straightforward guy. His profile was your basic mid-20s dude that was into tech and fitness, two things that were actually bonuses for me. He and I spoke for a while, sent a few photos, had a few phone calls, and he was pretty much the most average guy I've ever spoken with. I was totally okay with average. In fact, that's kind of what I was looking for,

more than anything. We agree to meet up for lunch at a small diner-like restaurant, and we set a date. The day comes, I show up first, and I get the table for the two of us. As I'm sitting there, just waiting, I get a text from Jake saying that he's had some car troubles and that he's going to be a few minutes late, but he was 100% not ghosting me. That was fine with me. I get it. I've had my shares of

Why Won't My Rust Bucket Start moments. I tell him I'm at the table and that it's totally fine, that I understand and so forth and so on. After about 20 or so more minutes, he finally does walk into the restaurant and

to our table. But he looks like he's having a panic attack. He's sweating. It was early spring so it was still pretty chilly outside and he just looked distressed and disheveled overall. He sits down and immediately just kind of looks like he's lost all sense of the situation. Like something has happened and he's freaking out.

But he can't make it not obvious that he's freaking out. I ask him if he's okay and what's going on, and he kind of just starts looking at me like he's about to start sobbing. As soon as this happens, I hear shouting. I see several cops running into the restaurant, telling him to get down on his knees and subsequently arresting him. It took me a few minutes to convince them that I was already there at the restaurant, and that I was not with him prior to the minute he walked in. Thankfully, the host and server could vouch for me on this.

As come to find out, on his way to the date, and Mr. Jake had actually hit someone with his car and then kept going. I don't mean like he sideswiped or bumped somebody else's vehicle. I mean he literally hit a person and ran over their leg, causing major injury and then kept going to meet up with me at the restaurant. I'm assuming I was supposed to be an alibi, or I guess I would have been if he hadn't already been being followed and looked for by the police. So, obviously, that date ended pretty quickly with him being shoved in the back of a police cruiser

and me just staring at the floor like, what the hell am I doing with my life? Thankfully, the waiter was sympathetic, and she didn't make me pay for my drink, which was nice. I guess at least I got a free Dr. Pepper out of the situation. The second one is one that's not necessarily scary, but it's still. what I would consider a dating horror story. It was, once again, a story where I met up with a guy that I had met on one of those dating apps. This one was a dude named Chris.

Chris's profile was a bit above the others that I looked at on the apps, because Chris was actually really attractive, and he was all about staying fit, as he claimed he was former military. Now, I've never been with a military guy. but I do know a few of them, my brother, for one, and I have found that most of them are fairly tolerable, and even pretty fun to hang out with. Talking with Chris went pretty smoothly, at first,

though he seemed to have a really strict, I can't chat with you before 8 p.m. kind of schedule about him, which, admittedly, had me initially concerned that he may have been a married man looking for an affair. I figured I would at least see it through to the first date and see if I could spot an indentation on his ring finger or try to ask him what it was all about. I mean, it could have been that he had a job that he worked until then and couldn't have his phone with him. Or maybe he just had other adult responsibilities that he had to see to. I was willing to be patient with him and to get answers, so we scheduled a date for dinner.

That 8 p.m. rule made it kind of hard to do anything else, and I was looking forward to it. Once again, I was early to the date, and I got a table for us. Then, when he finally shows up to the date, he walks in with another woman. I was a bit confused and taken aback, thinking he really had the audacity to bring someone else to a date like that, but it was even more awkward when he sat down and said, it's very nice to finally meet you in person. This is my mother. This man literally brought his mother on the date without warning me.

Now, mind you, if his mother had needed his care or been disabled, I would have had no issue with it, assuming he probably would have informed me beforehand. But this woman was quite fit and definitely able to take care of herself. And she was definitely there because she wanted to be there. Which was even weirder. At no point did Chris stop and think or act like this was a weird thing. He just kept up the conversation as if she wasn't there.

Then it hit the apex of, oh my God, this is so freaking awkward. when it came time to order. He tried to order one thing, and his mother told him no. Then told the waiter something else. When the waiter walked away, he tried to tell his mom that he wanted the other thing, almost whining like a little kid. But she told him that it was too fatty and that he needed to watch his carbs. I just kind of sat there like,

What? Was this woman really ordering for her adult, former military son like this, while he was on a date with another woman? Again, I know that this wasn't scary, but it was definitely my, nope, I'm done with this moment. The entire date was so strange, and I pretty much ghosted him after this. I tried to think that maybe I was just being shallow about the whole thing. but it was too much. Chris was actually my last date through any of those apps, and I kind of just embraced being single for a while,

for reasons that I think are pretty obvious. Bien-neau-R-R-R-Aye, Embarked and Celebrate, Re-Golet, Publié, Savoré, Admire, and Profite. Via-R-R-R-Rae. 27-year-old female here. I used to live in a small town where everyone basically knew everyone, and people in the smaller towns in the area. In 2018, after I had lost my job,

I was going to a place where people, 16 to 30, learned how to look and apply for a job and a lot else. There, I met a woman who all call Why. One day, Wye started talking about a friend of hers who lived out of town with her mom, her dog, and her creepy German stepdad. This detail is important. Her friend told her that she desperately wanted to move out because her stepdad makes her so uncomfortable. Her bedroom is right next to their bathrooms, so she would usually put on her new clothes in her bedroom.

But now she does it in the bathroom, because he would look at her. at her inappropriately when she walked to the bedroom. According to Y, you can see the bathroom door from the living room. Her stepdad would get off the couch and try to spy on her while she was in the bedroom. I had a gut feeling that this wasn't the last I heard of him, and I'm sad to say, I was right. I broke up with my ex in 2019, but shortly after that, I got a job at a thrift store taking care of jigsaw puzzles and board games. 2020 came along, and I became so lonely that I downloaded an app that was aimed for finding friends. I started talking to a guy in January who said that he was 26 to 27 years old, and that he was from Germany,

that he lived in the exact same town that Wye said her friend did. I thought that was odd, but out of curiosity, I talked with him some more. He said that he moved to Sweden with his wife and their dog. insert red flags here. He was looking for someone to talk to because they were going through a divorce right then, and he wanted to meet and perhaps go for a walk in the forest near his house. He then talked about hobbies that he had, like his motorcycle, and other things that I've forgotten about at this point.

This is also important. My crepe meter was peaking, and I ghosted him hard. Eight months later, When I was laying a jigsaw puzzle out, I heard a man with a German accent come in. I felt that something was off, but I continued to do my job. For obvious reasons, we didn't have a lot of people who worked there at that point in time. But this made me the youngest woman there. It was 25 at the time.

My male boss was going to do something before he went to show him around the place. While my boss worked, this guy roamed around, and then he asked me if he was going to do something. could sit down and talk to me. I said okay, because, of course, there could be more than one German person, even in a small community. Do you remember all of the important things? Yeah. He told me almost all of the same things again.

He wasn't the age that he said he was. He was old, if not older, than my father. And he's 53 now. The color disappeared from my face, and I started to scratch my neck and front of my face. fear. He then trauma dumped on me. He talked about how he had sex with a young girl in Germany, got her pregnant,

and then was forced to leave Germany because of this. Apparently she gave birth to a son and his son reached out to him when he was older. His son had told him that he was gay. And the creep was then blaming himself for somehow making his own son

gay. He talked about his dad's alcoholism and just other things that I don't remember he also asked if we could eat together but i declined hr came into our working room the room where we looked through the stuff that we get and she called my name i turned my head and she clearly saw that i was afraid she said that she needed to talk to me i only nodded stood up and walked over to her still scratching my neck and we walked to another room where she sat me down in a sofa and asked me if i was okay say was yes. I was afraid of this man, and when I had calmed down, I gave her the short version

of what happened, and her eyes widened. It was close to closing time, so she asked if I wanted to go home, and that she would make sure he only left ten minutes after I had gone. My apartment was only five minutes away. I didn't even look at her. I was so frozen in fear that I only stared at the wall while continuing to attack my neck. After a few minutes, I only nodded. She walked me to the employee entrance and stood there while I walked home. I then saw the damage I had done to myself when I arrived home. My female boss wasn't there until Monday, and unfortunately HR wasn't there that day.

My boss came over to my desk and said that she had spoken with HR, but that she wanted to hear it from me. I told her exactly what had happened, and I also told her that I heard about him before. Her response was, and these are her exact words, but in English, I've heard of him before, because I have an old friend who, unfortunately, is at a mental hospital right now. She told me that he's the kind of person who likes to attack young, thin, vulnerable, and insecure women. I fit that description. My fear turned into rage. I just looked at her and said,

Are you crazy? You know what type of man he is, and you knew that I'm working here, and you still hired him. She said that she had talked with the male boss who also knew about him, but that they had decided that people can change. I said that I agree,

but he has already shown that he is not willing to. She decided to make him work during the weekends and forbade him to come to work during the weeks when I was there. Of course, he showed him. up anyways. When HR was there, she would tell him to go out, but when she wasn't, you could clearly tell that he was looking for another victim, or for me. My bosses are lovely people, even though they are severely confused. I should have reported them, but it's too late now. I've since moved to a city that's over two hours away, and he doesn't work there anymore.

A couple of edits from the original poster. Sorry, but I forgot a very important fact. The thrift shop that I worked at hired people who are in vulnerable situations and are desperate for a job. And they still hired a predator knowing that fact. I don't know if this part is important, but I would also like to say that the company I worked for also helps people by buying groceries that are about to expire,

and then they make food bags that they give out for free. They also give clothing out for free if the person really needs it, especially if that person happens to be a single parent who needs clothes for their children. They also help in other ways, but I've honestly forgot the rest. About 15 years ago, I had something happened to me that has haunted me since the day that had happened. And I genuinely do not have an explanation for what exactly it was, or how things went the way that they did. This is the only time anything like this has ever happened to me,

and for that I am thankful, mostly because the outcome was not a positive one. And with how everything compounded within a short period of time, I was honestly ready to give up. Obviously, I'm glad that I didn't, but I was ready to. Let me explain how it all went on that day. As I said, it was a decade and a half ago, so it would have been back in 2007. Back then, on Sundays, I used to get together with a few of my girlfriends so that we could get brunch at a local hangout spot that we really liked.

It was decently priced, in a good part of town, and they had really good food for their brunch menu. When we went during the warmer months, we would always take one of the seats that was on the front patio. as it was always incredibly comfortable sitting outside and having our meal. It had pretty quickly become the main thing that I would look forward to every week, as the girls that I spent time with were my best friends from high school, and we would just talk and gossip about whatever was on our minds. On this particular day, we were there eating and just talking about our weeks. Then I noticed a man that was sitting on the ground in the nearby park,

just propping himself up against one of the brick retaining walls. This is not a judgmental statement, but he did appear to be homeless. And by that I mean that he looked like he was a bit unkempt, his clothes were dirty and a bit ragged, and he just had that weathered look, you know the one, like he had been through a lot and was just doing his best to get through it all. Again, there was zero judgment on my part. He just kind of fit the appearance of what I think of when I think of a homeless man.

I will say that my area doesn't have a large homeless population, so he definitely stood out and caught my attention. After noticing him, I went back to the conversation with my friends, and we were just kind of chatting, and then I looked back over at him, and I noticed that he was looking straight at me. As soon as we met eyes, he lifted his hand and gave me a slight wave.

At first I wasn't sure if he was actually waving at me, but when that thought entered my mind, he nodded, as if he knew that I was thinking it, and he was telling me that he was, for certain, waving at me. I felt obligated to wave back, and as soon as I did, the man stood up from where he was resting across the street and started heading toward us. One of my friends asked if I knew him and I mentioned that I didn't, and they were all kind of asking why he was coming over to us.

And again, I said that I didn't know. I just kind of sat there in silence as he approached, kind of like I was in a trance. I didn't know this man, I had never seen him. Nor met him, nor spoken to him, but I felt like I needed to hear whatever it was he was going to tell me. He crossed the road, walked over to where we were sitting, and he actually knelt down right by where I was seated. He reached over, grabbed my hand, and he said, I am so sorry for what you're about to go through. Stay strong. Don't give up. Everything will be okay.

Now, this in and of itself was actually terrifying. This man just walks up, kneels down, and gives me this cryptic and almost threatening message. But it was even more so when he just stood up without elaborating and walked away. He didn't go back to the park. He didn't stick around the restaurant. He didn't say anything else. He just walked down the sidewalk until we couldn't see him anymore. Obviously, my friends said that that was really.

really weird, and they asked if I was okay. I told them that I was fine and just kind of agreed that it was weird. And they kept talking about the whole thing, but after a while I asked to change the subject, because I was kind of starting to feel uncomfortable about it. Now, as I said, this was weird and kind of creepy, but what happened next was actually what makes this such a haunting situation. That week, the same week that this man told me that he was sorry for what I was going to go through, that was the week that I lost both of my parents.

It was exactly six days later on that following Saturday. They were out driving, just going out to do whatever it was they liked to do, and their car was struck by a drunk driver driving way too fast, and swerving into the wrong lane. They were hit head-on at too high of a speed for anyone involved to live. They both lost their lives and the driver of the other vehicle died as well. They were all three killed on impact. To say that dealing with losing both of your parents suddenly like this was hard

is an understatement. It was devastating. It killed me inside, to be honest. I'm an only child, and I had to deal with all of their affairs and their estate and everything, and I was only 24. I had no idea what I was doing in my life, much less how to handle things after my parents had passed away. Dealing with their stuff afterwards wasn't the hard part, to be clear. It was the fact that I had to sit there and try to do paperwork, and schedule funerals, and talk to lawyers,

and I was in that deep pit that grieving shoves you into. I couldn't really focus on anything, and I was holding back sobbing literally every moment that I was awake, which was all of them because, let me tell you, my sleep schedule was non-existent. I wanted to end it all, because my parents were my rock. I needed them for guidance in my life,

and they were just never going to be there ever again. On the day of their first, funeral, my extended family showed up and everything was so bleak. I felt like I was just empty. I didn't know what I was going to do the next day, the next week, or if it was even worth continuing. As I was sitting there mulling over the options, my uncle on my dad's side was up at the podium saying some final words, and he caught my attention when he said, we have to make sure that we stay strong, don't give up, and remember that everything will be okay. When he said this, the thought of that homeless man re-entered my mind.

Obviously, I hadn't really thought about him with all that was going on, but at that moment he was all I could think about. I remembered what he had said to me and was again reminded of his words, considering my uncle had said them almost verbatim. I got through the hard parts by just reminding myself that things would be okay eventually, that it was okay to feel pain, that it was okay to have these feelings during this time. So long as I stayed strong and kept going. And for the sake of my parents, I did keep going. I did stay strong and eventually things did get less painful. I won't say that it ever hits the point where things are fine,

and losing them is still devastating to this day, but I'm able to live my life for me and for them, and I'm able to keep a smile on my face and actually mean it most of the time. That all said, that day 15 years ago, when that man grabbed my hand and said that he was sorry for what I was about to go through, what was that?

Was he clairvoyant, and he was able to see it coming? Was there some sort of otherworldly connection that he and I shared, and he was able to tell what was actually about to happen? Or was this honestly just a really weird coincidence? In the end, I obviously never saw him again. I tried to find him. But if I ever do, I will thank him for the heads up. And I'll thank him for the encouraging message that he gave me

because, as haunting as it's been, it's also because of his words that I realized I needed to keep going. If he was able to see the bad that was going to happen, then I have to assume that he was also able to see the good. And encouraging me to continue was his way of saying that he knew things would be okay. Hello, my name is Cal, and I got a pretty creepy story for you. It was so bad that I ended up leaving my job. for another shortly after this happened.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's move on to some information. Like the title states, I was 16 when this happened. I was also working at the place where dreams go to die. Walmart. I absolutely hated working there. But thankfully, this encounter was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now, another thing I should mention, I look a few years younger than I actually am. I have a baby face, so even though I was only 16, I looked 13.

It was during the day when this incident happened. It was a pretty slow day. I had spent most of my shift wandering around, helping where I could. I was already done with everything in my department. I was in the middle of heading back to my area when a man approached me. He was a bit of a creepy dude, but I didn't want to be rude by not helping him. even though everything in me was telling me to walk away. Anyway, creepy guy was asking me to help him find a gift for his niece.

I asked him if he had any idea what he wanted to get his niece. He said he wasn't sure, so I took him to the kid's section so he could choose something. While he was browsing, he started asking for my name. If I lived in the city, how old I was, that sort of thing. I obviously wasn't overly keen on providing this information, so I was pretty vague when answering. Other times, I would completely avoid the question altogether, and redirect the conversation to his niece. It was evident that he was not interested in discussing his niece, so he provided one-word answers and went right back to his intrusive questioning. He started asking me more personal stuff, like if I had a boyfriend,

If I'd ever had sex before, etc. Now, I was horrible at communicating when someone crossed a boundary. I hated confrontation, and my managers sucked. They would give me hell for the stupidest crap, which made me really anxious whenever I had to talk to them. As a result, I did everything I possibly could to avoid talking with them. Anyway, I asked him if there was anything else that he needed, I just wanted to hurry up and end this whole interaction.

But, of course, he told me that he needed a card and a bag to put the gift in. So I begrudgingly directed him to the card section, all the while he upped the creep factor and began asking me extremely personal questions. He was now giving me compliments. He would tell me how beautiful I was, how I had such a great-looking back-end. Keep in mind, I don't look a day over 13, and yet that did not seem to stop the creep for making these crude remarks. While he picked out a bag and a card, I kept my distance, but I remember that he kept giving me, the best I can equate it to, is bedroom eyes.

It made me sick to my stomach, but I figured that he would eventually get everything he needed and be on his merry way. He eventually got a card and a bag, and he asked me to lead him to the till since he didn't know where they were. Obviously he did, but I just sucked it up and directed him to the checkouts. When we got within walking distance of a till, I politely excused myself and felt relieved to finally get rid of him. Unfortunately, he ran ahead of me and asked me for my number. Even go as far as making this horrible comment, I like my girls nice and young. They can just keep going and going. You and I will have lots of fun. It's not the exact word for word

thing he said. Nobody needs to hear the real things that he said. That made my skin absolutely crawl. I told him I didn't have a phone. I did, of course, and it was sitting in my vest pocket. He thankfully didn't seem to notice it, but I was beyond paranoid that he would spot the phone and call me out on my lives. Despite being repeatedly told that I, in fact, did not have a phone, he kept insisting that I give him my number or a social media where he could contact me.

It got to the point where I was backing away from him because he would get so close to me that I could smell his breath. Unsurprisingly, he didn't take the hint, and he kept inching towards me. Want to know the real punch to the gut? I had a couple of my managers walk past. They definitely saw this guy harassing an underage employee, and they did screw all to help. I was getting desperate. No one was coming to my aid, which made me feel hopeless on top of it. I thought I would never get rid of this guy.

My saving grace was my manager walking through the front door before this creep got handsy with me. My manager was my absolute favorite person. He was pretty intimidating, used to serve him. in the military. He was also a pretty big fellow. Pure muscle could probably break me in two with one hand, but he was a gentle giant. Whenever customers got rowdy with the employees, he would intervene. It was always hilarious to see people who were red in the face deflate the moment they saw him approaching. I spotted my manager, and I gave him a look of desperation when he glanced over at me.

I can't tell you how relieved I felt when I saw him make a beeline for us. He placed himself between me and the creepy dude, slapped on his customer service smile, and asked if he could assist the creep, since I was supposed to be on my break. I happily took the hint and practically ran to the back of the store. I went to the staff room and was shaking from the adrenaline and on the verge of crying. I was in the staff room for about 20. minutes before my manager called me into his office. He asked if I was okay.

I said I was shaken up, but fine. He assured me that he'd have me working in the back for the next week just to ensure that if the creep came back looking for me, he would not be able to find me. He then told me that the guy kept asking where I went, what my number was, what my name was, but my manager told him that he couldn't release that information. My manager literally escorted this guy out of the store and watched him drive away before coming back to talk with me. I never did see the guy again.

Then again, I left my previous job shortly after this encounter. I got another offer to work with my best friend at her dad's restaurant after I told her what happened, which I happily took. I admit, I was a little sad to leave, mainly because I really did adore my manager, but my hatred for Walmart, and my fear of that dude was ultimately what pushed me to leave. So to that creepy guy who harassed me at my job,

let's never meet again. And on the off chance that we do, I owe you a punch to the teeth. I had been using a few dating apps casually to meet new people. I've probably made more friends than a significant other, but it is what it is. I did have one pretty crazy experience, though, that kind of turned me off the whole thing for a few months.

I matched with a guy that started his message with a blurb from one of my favorite books that I listed on the site. I thought it was pretty impressive because it wasn't a mainstream or popular book either, so this guy either had to read it or looked into it just, to send this. To be honest, it was a cheesy mystery romance, so I doubted that he'd actually read it. But to take the time to look into it stood out to me, and I liked that. I'm a sucker for the grossly romantic stuff, so he had already piqued my interest.

We started talking, and probably after about a week, he asked me to dinner. I told him that I would go with him if he told him. me truthfully, whether or not he had read the book. And to my surprise, he admitted that he knew nothing of it, until he saw my profile and had looked into it. We both had a good laugh, and I appreciated his honesty, and we set a date. He said that he wanted to pick me up from my place. I lived in an apartment, so I just told him the name of the complex and the building.

That way, my exact unit was unknown. just in case. And I waited for him out front. I got a text saying that he would be there within two minutes, and I was in awe when I looked up to see not a fancy car or a limo, but a horse-drawn carriage. The guy got out, and while the carriage was gorgeous, I was actually thankful he didn't have on a suit and tie,

as I would have been way underdressed. He had said that this was the, proper way to pick me up since I was a romantic like himself. I thought that it was incredibly sweet and thoughtful, if not a little embarrassing, since it was starting to draw attention. It wasn't a bad embarrassment, but like when you're called out at work for doing a good job and you don't expect it. So he helped me up into the carriage, and we headed to the restaurant, which was in a very

upscale part of town. dinner was fantastic. I had never been to this place, as it normally would be way out of my budget, but after asking to go elsewhere, because I didn't want to assume that he was going to pay, or in the off-chance the date was a flop, I could pay and leave quickly, he insisted that we should go here, and not to worry about the cost, as he was covering everything.

So I just kind of let it go. He got a bottle of wold. wine, we shared bruschetta, and I had the best shrimp Alfredo that I still have ever had in my life. Our personalities clicked so well, we had many things in common, and even our pet peeves had lined up. After dinner, we decided to walk around the plaza where the huge fountain is. It was just a lot of fun, and I was pretty into the guy. After about half an hour or so, he said that we could just ride around in the carriage some, but said that he wanted to stop by this place to grab something.

I honestly wasn't ready to end the night, so I was more than willing to go with him. His place was probably about 20 minutes out of the plaza area. It was a cute little two-story house with a fenced-in front yard. When we stopped, he said that he would be right back and then he hopped down. out. But then the driver of the carriage also hopped out and followed him into the house. I sat there kind of curious, but again was probably clouded by how great the night had really been. I went to pull out my phone and start a text to my friend, and when I started hearing people talking and getting closer. I looked over, and I see my date, the driver, as well as an older woman and

four other people walking towards the carriage, smiling. They had all come out of my date's house. I stayed where I was until my date approached and offered his hand asking if I would step down for a moment. I didn't know what was going on, so I just accepted it and got out. As soon as I stepped out, he introduced me to everyone that was around. This was his family. His dad was the carriage driver the whole time.

the older lady was his mom, and the other four people were his siblings. While I did still think that the carriage was romantic, from what I got out of him, he didn't really choose it. That was just their normal means of transportation. None of them had a car. Then I started getting bombarded by questions from his mother and his two sisters. The mom asked me about flowers, what I liked, my dress size, what type of design I preferred

and said that she would be making it for me. I was confused as to what was going on, and then I saw his mom snatch the daughter by the arm to move her out of the way. I was face to face with my date, until he fell to one knee and held out this gigantic, old-looking ring that was pretty clearly not going to fit me anyways. Everyone was standing there, silent, smiling.

I didn't know where I was or what to even say. Obviously, I wanted to say no. I just met this guy, but it was so awkward that nothing was coming out of my mouth. When I did finally get my voice back, all I could really muster was, I need to go. I'm guessing they were all really expecting a straight answer by the look on their faces. But my date quickly stood up and brought me back to the carriage. I told him that I could get a ride so as to not be a bother, but he insisted on taking me home.

So we both climbed into the back, and his father was in the front. The ride back was pretty damn awkward. We hardly spoke, and when we did, I felt like he was just talking to talk. He mentioned how he knew a house nearby that was for sale. He told me some facts about an old grade school nearby that was now sitting empty, and of course started talking about the weather. Once we got to my place, he tried walking into the building with me, but I stopped him at the door. He asked me when we would see each other again, and I told him I wasn't sure, but I wanted him to have a good night.

He even tried to go in for a kiss, and I just backed up and went inside. I called my friend immediately and told her what all had happened, and she agreed that I needed to put an end to that immediately, so as to not lead him on or give him any ideas. We hardly knew each other, and he was already wanting to get married? That is insane. I messaged him that night, and I told him that it wasn't going to work out,

and that I wished him the best. That went on longer than it needed to. as he kept pushing me that I was wrong, since the date seemed to go so well. This guy really acted like this dating site was some kind of planned marriage or something. I basically explained to him, like I would my grandparents, how it was used. He was still adamant that I was the one and started spouting off some religious stuff that I couldn't follow. So I basically ended it at, we're done here, do not message me again, good luck in the future.

I figured that that would be the end of it. But other than the random text here and there, he also tried to add me on Facebook. And when that wouldn't work, he tried adding my friends, telling them lies about things that I apparently told him on our date. He even tracked me down on some future dates that I had gone on with other guys,

and even a business lunch claiming that I cheated on him, and called me some other colorful names. Thankfully, he didn't stick around when he started being threatened by my friends and coworkers. I did have one date leave during the event, saying he didn't want to be involved, but I can't say that I blame him. While this was all very stressful and ruined some potential things for me, the worst part of it all was when I saw him standing out front of my complex, just staring up at it.

He still had no idea which one I was in, and I think that that was probably the only thing that stopped him from going any further. I was just worried that one day he would be out there as I was leaving or coming home, and then I worried what his other intentions were. At one point, though, he did add my ex, and we were on good terms, so he told me about what he was telling him, too. My ex actually said a few things back to him. I don't know what exactly because he wouldn't tell me, but I never heard from him again. So it's probably best that I don't know. I'm sorry if this wasn't all that creepy,

but there was definitely a mix of emotion during this time. So, again, it was pretty stressful. I do still use the same dating app, and I'm still a sucker for romantic stuff, But I've made sure to drive myself from then on. So about a year or two ago, my best friend and I decided to stay at a motel that is as close as we could get to the cemetery that we love to do EVP and investigations at. We have had ridiculous amounts of things happen at this cemetery. Now, it's important to understand that the cemetery is in the middle of the country, surrounded on a lot of the country, surrounded on a lot of,

all sides by farmland. It's a very old cemetery in Texas. The motel is in a small town about seven to ten miles away. That's just a guess as I've never had to count the miles while doing this, but it's still the closest that we could get. So we booked the room for two nights, and on the first night we went out there right as the sun went down, trying to get a feel of the vibe in the cemetery, which we learned long ago is super important to do. On our way back to the hotel on the country highway, we see a beautiful blue falling star, or what we think was a falling star, and it was so close to where we were passing the blue of it, it was shining into the car on the dashboard. We, of course, thought this was awesome, and kind of creepy, but we continued on our way to

the motel. So we wait until about midnight or so, and we head back to the cemetery with all of our gear to begin our EVP session and whatnot. This cemetery is not vast or sprawling in any way, but it is a decent size and has very large trees to shade it all the way around. It has a dirt road that circles the entire graveyard with graves on both sides of the road all the way around it. The entrance is slim and has a metal pillar gate type entrance. It's open to the public so there's no door on it, so you just drive right in. It is the only entrance slash exit. So we like to circle the graveyard on the dirt road a couple of times

and make sure there are no wild animals or grave robbers. Yes, that is a thing that's happened to us, and yes, they were caught. or really just anything that we would need to worry about other than the supernatural. So we're driving very slowly in the back of the cemetery, and the road is straight for a bit until you have to turn to get back to the front of the cemetery. We're at the halfway point on the straight part of the road, and I can easily see when the road turns, and we're talking about coyotes, because that's what we're watching for at this point. and then the next thing I know, we're in the middle of the turn, and I can see a matching gate to the front entrance.

I thought, oh, when did they put in that entrance? And since there's an oil rig pump on that side of the cemetery, as this is Texas, why would they put it there? Then, I realized that something isn't right, because we're not on the side of the cemetery. We're at the front of the cemetery. The gate I was seeing was the entrance. Then, as if all sound returned in a rush, I could hear my best friend mumbling, as if she had been speaking and forgot what she was talking about.

Now, all of these revelations that are happening are in like a split second. So I looked down at the clock on my dashboard, and I freak out. I slam on the brakes and I look at my best friend who is looking very unsure of what is half. happening, and I tell her that something is very wrong. Then I start trying to figure out what was going on.

I asked her what was the last thing she remembered us talking about. She thought for a moment, and then she told me she remembered us talking about coyotes. I, too, remember this, but neither of us could remember anything after that. We don't know how we got back to the front of the cemetery, what we were talking about, and on top of that, she was recording video on her phone to document anything that might happen. Standard procedure for us when we arrive at the cemetery. Only, the phone recorded our conversation up to the point of the coyotes, and then stopped recording. And it's all blank.

There was no video recorded, just the audio. I looked at the clock right before this had happened, because we liked to mark our time for the video, and it was 21 after the hour. When we finally came to, I don't know what else to call it, it was 35 after the hour. We were missing about 15 minutes of time. This, of course, sent our minds reeling, and we tried to explain it away,

but we literally can't. So we go back to the motel and just call it a night. The next day, in the afternoon, we decided to try our hand at Randanautica, to see if there was really something to it like people say. We choose our intention in the radius. We figure it would be safer during the day to start out with. And we hit the roads following the map to the location.

Our intent was supernatural spot. I know not very clever, but this was our first and only time using this app. And I'll be damned if it did not bring us to the exact spot we were at when I first came out of it. the night before when we lost time. Thinking about this to this day, it gives me chills. And usually we were going to the cemetery in the motel at least twice a month. We've only been back one other time and that was even worse, and we haven't been back since. We have also never done Randonautica ever again.

We thought of everything we could think of, like both of us having a mental episode at the same time, which is just stupid, all the way to aliens. I just don't know what happened, and it really bothers the two of us. Was something done to us? Were we somehow attacked in drug? I really can't see that, considering drugs like that would take a lot longer to wear off than 15 minutes. And also, how the hell did the Randonautica app know? I have a strange story that occurred back when I was in middle school.

that I genuinely cannot explain. Back then, I didn't have many friends, but the friends that I did have were pretty close. We were a bit of a click, but when you don't have many people to talk to or do things with, that sort of thing does happen. My group of friends included three other guys. We'll just call them J, T, and P. The four of us were super close. all throughout elementary school,

and we were more like a small band of brothers than just casual friends. This continued up to middle school as well. We had several classes together, so it worked out pretty well for us. The second quarter of the second year of middle school, which would have made it the eighth grade, I think, we ended up adding a fifth person to our little group of friends, a boy named Mark. I'm using Mark's name because,

because he's probably the most important person in this story, as the event is about him specifically. And for other reasons, that may make sense later. Mark had apparently gone to the same elementary school as us, though he wasn't in the same class as the four of us, and we had never met him. I remember when I asked him about it, he had mentioned that he was in my class in fourth and sixth grade,

but I couldn't remember him being in the classroom. He knew the teacher's names, and he knew other kids in the classes, which told me that he probably wasn't lying. I felt bad, but I just couldn't recall him being there. Now, the reason that we added Mark to our friend group is kind of strange. He just sort of showed up one day during the morning, and at lunch, like he had always been there. He acted like he had always been part of our group.

He was talking to us, laughing about things that only we would have found funny. It was seriously as if he was one of us from day one. But he just kind of showed up and sat with us one day. I know that may not sound too weird to some people. Maybe he was just really charismatic. But it was weird. And it got weirder. Not because he was there, but because of what happened.

after that second quarter. In between second and third quarter is winter break, which is basically that week and a half, or so when we don't have class because of Christmas and New Year's. During this time, I had to spend the entire week at my grandparents' house, at my parents' request, so I didn't get to spend any time with my group of friends. I was bummed out about it, and JT&P promised that they wouldn't do anything too stupid without me, as I was always the one getting into trouble. I spent my time there, and then when it came time to go back to school,

I noticed that Mark wasn't there on the first day back. I didn't think too much of it. People get sick when they have all their holiday get-togethers. Maybe he was just sick and going to be back. the next day. Now, mind you, at this point, I didn't really mind Mark, but I didn't really feel like he was one of the boys, if that makes sense. I had an issue with him just kind of showing up thinking that we had to accept him as one

of us, but I didn't dislike him. He was an okay kid, and he was a pretty funny guy as well. Then, the next day, I noticed that there was still no Mark. I ended up asking Jay if he had heard from him, and he asked me who I was talking about. T&P both said the same thing. They didn't know anybody named Mark. I thought they were just messing with me at first, just trying to pull one over on me, and then when Mark came back, they would pretend like I was crazy,

and that they never said anything about not knowing him. That was, until I asked our math teacher. the only class that I had with Mark. I asked her if Mark was just out sick, or if he was okay. She had no idea who I was talking about. I described Mark, said his last name to her, told her he was the funny kid with the short dark hair and glasses that usually sat next to me, and she seriously looked at me like I was insane.

She said that the person that sat next to me was a girl in class, named Deborah, and that she would be back in class the next day, but there was never anyone named Mark who had sat next to me, and no one by that name in that class at all. This set me on a really weird and confused path. I actually went back to try to find Mark in any of my elementary school yearbooks, checked my seventh grade yearbook as well, and I couldn't find him at all. I checked my fourth and sixth grade books, and there was never anyone named Mark,

last name starting with the G, in either one of those classes, or the other classes for those years. In fact, there were no marks at all, nor any students with last names starting with G's in the entire year. It was like he was just wiped from the face of the earth entirely, and I was the only one to remember him.

It was really strange that this kid that showed up one day like he knew who we all were and had always been our friend, disappeared as quickly as he had integrated into our group. I really didn't know what to make of this, and I still don't. Like I said, I didn't mind the guy. He wasn't my best friend or anything, but to get to know someone over a couple of months, spend mornings and lunch with him and have math class with him, only to have him simply disappear without a trace? It made me feel like I was crazy.

I know that this was not a hallucination, as my other friends interacted with him, and it was seriously a couple of months. There's no way that I hallucinated a friend for that long. In the end, I just had to accept that this person did not exist and move on. Something I hated doing, but it didn't matter how much I talked about him because no one else knew who he was. I hope that nothing bad happens to him, and I hope that if he was from another timeline or something, that he and I stayed friends. Unfortunately, in this reality, he just simply never existed.

I've been bouncing between a few different dating apps for a few years now. And while I'm still not in a long-term relationship, it hasn't all been bad. I've at least met a few people that have become good friends, but I did have one date that was very memorable for different reasons. I'll start by saying that I found my date on an app that was heavily used by the LGBTQ community. I'm a female and I ended up coming across a woman that I'll refer to as Jody. She was gorgeous. She had a few pictures on her profile, but her bio was kind of lacking. She gave a few things about herself and what she was looking for in a partner, but that was about it.

Unfortunately, I'm used to seeing a fake profile on occasion and catfishers, so I was hesitant, but I guess I was thinking that I would either find a good date or find another account to report. I was surprised when I got a response back within a reasonable amount of time, and it didn't seem like a canned response. She greeted me and made small talk about herself and what her interests were. She even apologized if she seemed dull and short-answered, as she explained that she was new to this and just recently accepted who she was. This made me feel a bit better about her being a genuine person, because it's normal for people to be withdrawn and shy.

So, I was ready and willing to take her under my wing and help her feel comfortable with herself. We started talking more, and quite frequently, daily even. It all stayed within the app, though, as she said she wasn't ready to talk or text via phone. I could understand that, especially if she hadn't come out. to her friends or family yet. So it was probably about three weeks of us talking. I wasn't too confident that we would ever meet, or at least not in the near future,

so I started accepting the fact that she may just be a new friend, which was fine. However, she did finally ask about meeting up, casually, for drinks or something. And I was all for it. Jody and I agreed to meet at a bar and gritty, that was about midway for both of us. She was already there when I showed up,

and she looked just like her photos. Except her hair was a little longer. She was sitting at the bar, looking around the front for what I would assume would be me. I walked over to her, and she hugged me immediately, and had the biggest smile on her face. We ordered drinks and wings, and just continued our conversation

from the app. It was like we knew each other for years. We could finish each other's sentences, we had the same sense of humor, and she just genuinely seemed to have a lot of fun. Like, I could tell that this was the true Jody. This was who she wanted to be. She grabbed my hand a few times

and said that she really appreciated me being so patient with her. It wasn't a big deal to me. I would like to assume that anyone meeting new people, people would do the same, but I know that we don't live in a perfect world. Now, the date was going great, perfect, even in my opinion. But one thing that I noticed was how her phone went off quite a bit, and she would constantly look down at it. However, other than looking at it or swiping the notifications away, she stayed off of it. I'm sure many people would find it rude, and if she was constantly on it,

I would probably have a different opinion on it, but I couldn't help but notice that when she did look at it, her mood seemed to change. Her smile would slowly fade, and then she would look back up at me and smile. At some point in the night, her phone lit up with the phone number that I couldn't see the name on. It was pretty obviously a phone call. It was obvious that it was getting to her based on her size and how her swiping to dismiss it was getting more and more eccentric. So I just told her if you need to answer someone, I totally get it. She immediately started apologizing, and I assured her that I was not upset.

It just seemed like maybe it was important, and I suggested that she take it if she needed to. She thanked me, and excused herself saying that she would be right back. I watched as she walked to the front and started talking on her phone. From the look on her face and her hand motions, I could tell that this was not a pleasant conversation. When it was finally over, she walked back and again apologized for it, and now visibly upset, she explained that it was her ex, and that they had split up over a month ago,

but they wouldn't leave her alone. Given the situation, we were in, and since she didn't say much more about them, I just assumed it was a bitter ex and I didn't want to ask because she obviously didn't want to talk about it. So we pushed it aside, and continued with our date. After we finished our last drinks, we decided to head out for the night. I was pretty smitten with her, so when she looked down at her phone one more time and asked if she could spend some more time at my place, I agreed.

She wanted to leave her car there and just get a ride home with me. We walked to my car, got in, and continued our conversation on our way home. The parking lot at my apartment was pretty limited, and since I was getting back late, I was going to have to parallel park. There was a car behind me, so I rolled down my window to let them go by before I started. As they were passing, they slowed down almost to a stop right next to me. At first, I was about to make a comment about them being in the way, when Jody said, Oh my God, and then exclaimed that that was her exes' car.

It was too dark for me to see a person inside. They may have had tinted windows, too. It was kind of hard to tell. But they did have a lighter colored stripe down the side of the car. so I assumed that's how she could tell. I definitely was not ready to deal with an ex on a first date, but was ready to call the cops if necessary. So, after they finally passed me, I parked and got out,

ready for confrontation with some crazy lady. What I did not expect was this burly football player guy to get out of the car. Crap. All I could think in my head was he wouldn't start. a fight with a girl, right? He immediately yelled at me, demanding to know who I was and what Jody was doing with me. Before I could say anything, Jody jumped in and said that I was a co-worker, that we had just had dinner, and that I was going to show her my guinea pig because she was thinking of getting

one. I did have a guinea pig, though, so I guess that really wasn't a lie. I just stood there, letting her talk to see where this would leave. However, as his tone became more and more aggressive, I put my keys between my fingers and unlocked my phone. She was over on my side of the car, so as he got closer and closer to her, I could tell that she was visibly shaken. I really didn't like where this was going, so I approached them, saying that he needed to step back, but before I could finish, I was punched in the jaw with enough force to make me. me fall backwards.

I was trying to regain my composure and trying to figure out what exactly just happened when I heard Jody's screaming. I stood up and I saw that she had run to the other side of my car and this guy had just grabbed her by the hair and was dragging her to his car. I was terrified. I'm far from being a small girl, but there was no way I was going to be able to stop this guy. I quickly dialed 911, but thought that I needed to do something right then and there for her.

There was no way of knowing what would happen to her if he left with her, if he was willing to deck a total stranger and a girl at that. So I ran at them screaming for someone to call for help, shouting out my address and grabbing Jody from the fronts to hold her back. I was trying to hold her hair so that it wasn't ripped out, but he was fighting me the whole time. him. Thank God, someone walking their dog noticed this and immediately ran over to us. He started fighting with the X, and the dog was biting ankles until he finally gave up.

He let go of Jody, and he turned his anger on this good Samaritan. He didn't really get any hits on him before the cops showed up, though. He was detained, and I sure as hell pressed charges. Once he was out of sight, we all talked to the cops, and that's when I learned. that this guy was just as abusive to Jody behind closed doors as he was to us that night in public. Jody had finally gotten the courage to split up with him, but he didn't accept that. She was very apologetic and embarrassed, but it's not like it was her fault, so I still invited her in to calm down.

We talked more that night, and she did end up staying, so that way she knew that she had a safe place to go. in case he somehow got out. To sum it up, Jody and I became pretty close. A romantic relationship didn't really work out for us, but she's become a really good friend. And, in fact, we now live together. I at least was able to convince her to file a restraining order

and block him on everything, so that she could finally stop hearing from him. I do joke with her, though, that that was definitely the most amazing. memorable first date that I have ever been on. I'll hit the highlights to try to keep this shortish, but it took place over the course of 35 years, so be warned. It started when my college roommate clipped a runner from one of the philodendrons in the student union, and then stuck it in an empty jar with some water back in our dorm room.

A few days later, she delightedly showed. showed me the tiny rootlets sprouting from a joint and said, look, my baby's teething, and that's how baby got its name. The first incident happened the next semester, and I didn't link it to baby until much later. I had a paper due and had to type it up. This was before the time of PCs, and I kept my electric typewriter in a narrow space between the head of my bed

and the cinder block wall. But it wasn't there. I looked around at all the places that it could conceivably have been. Under the desk, on the desk, in the closet, nope. There just weren't that many places that it could have been hiding in that tiny dorm room. I kept coming back to the space between the bed and the wall because that's where it should have been.

And I couldn't understand why it wasn't there. I even went out to my car thinking that I might have taken it home with me over the weekend, though I knew that I hadn't. Nope. I went back to the room, again, looked where it was supposed to be, and still an empty space with no typewriter or case. I sat down on my bed racking my brain for where it might possibly be. I had looked everywhere.

I got up and again looked where it was supposed to be, and it was there. My roommate had been sitting at the other side of the desk the whole time working on her, own assignment, watching my frantic search. When I pulled it out, her jaw dropped. And no, there was no way she could have had anything to do with its disappearance, nor reappearance. I didn't have time to puzzle it over. I had an assignment to get done in time to get some sleep. A couple of years later, my roommate changed universities, and I inherited baby. The first incident I directly associated with Baby happened while I was living in a haunted dorm room. So again, I didn't associate cause and effect with Baby until later.

My sweetmate had a helium balloon that went missing from her room. Somehow, it got through two locked doors and into my room where it was wedged between Baby's hanging pot and the window. We joked that Baby liked balloons and let him keep it. Things disappearing and reappearing, sometimes in unlikely or too obvious places, it became a fact of life. Apparently Baby had a shoe fetish because often it would be a single shoe that disappeared.

But it could be anything. The most inconvenient of which were my keys or my driver's license. Usually I would shrug and wait for it to reappearance. appear because it always did. If it was something I needed in short order, or the disappearance became a hassle, I would buy baby a balloon. The needed item would then reappear, and things would calm down for a while. Time passed.

Years. Decades. Space ensued. Different dorm rooms and apartments. Different cities. Different states. I went through a variety of roommates and friend groups as well. And anyone who spent any significant time in my home came to know baby's kleptomaniac ways,

and just accepted as a running joke. Until a few years later, when, during a series of moves in rapid secession and a great deal of stress, I neglected baby, and it died. Despite my belated efforts, I could not revive it. You would think that this would be the end, but no. When things get misplaced, I have to find them myself. I can't just offer baby a propitatory balloon and have the item reappear someplace obvious.

And I find myself missing baby. Every time I see a philodendron, if it's the right shade, leaf size, and shape, and a variegated variety, I'm tempted to get a cutting. But would it be the same? Last summer, on my way to visit my folks, I drove through the town where I attended college. I drove around the university and I'll do it again next summer. I'm sure that in 35 years, the student union has been redecorated and the plants are probably long gone.

But I'm equally sure that any philodendron on campus that looks like baby is from the same cultivar lineage. Next summer, I will find one, and I will get a cutting. To answer any anticipated questions, no recreational pharmaceuticals were involved. Most of my friends didn't even drink. We found college to be a liminal experience on its own, without any mood-altering substances involved. No, this is not fiction. Every part of it is true. And yes, I have submitted the story of the haunted dorm room.

A friend was recently telling me about his visit to the UFO music. museum in Roswell, New Mexico. During the course of the conversation, I realized that he had never seen a UFO. So I told him about my first. It was late July or early August of 1978, a few miles west of Santa Rosa, California. I, my sister and our two friends, who also happens to be sisters, were camping out on the back lawn and sleeping bags. Mom and my brother were out there with us as we were getting settled. I was at least ten, probably closer to eleven. This was beyond the suburbs, and there were only four houses within a hundred yards of our house,

and only one who would have been in our range of sight in daylight. But the lights were off, and it was dark. We were talking and looking at the stars, and we noticed that one was moving on a vaguely northwest track. We figured it was a plane or a satellite. And then, it stopped. Planes and satellites don't just stop. It was pretty much overhead, too high to be a helicopter.

We couldn't think of what it could be. Now, I would say such a thing would be a drone, but this was 1978, so no drones. We joked that it was a UFO. It then moved again. A short distance southwest, at a right angle to its original path, Again, it paused still right overhead, and then it took off, just zip. It was gone heading west. Weird, right?

But wait, there's more. After a bit, Mom and my brother went inside. Gradually, the talking slowed and we all drifted off to sleep. Sometime later, I was really groggy and trying to sleep, ignoring the headlights flashing behind the back fence from cars passing on the two-lane highway. Then, behind the fence, I saw a humanoid figure covered in tiny lights, stepped from behind one tree trunk to behind another. The suit the figure was wearing was something like a reflective silver asbestos suit that my dad had from when he was on the crash crew in the Air Force,

complete with a draped helmet and a face shield, but it was also set all over with lights. Teeny, tiny lights, the size of rice grains. You shrug because you've seen lights this size all the time nowadays, but this was 1978, and the smallest Christmas tree lights for the size of your thumb. I only saw the figure once, and only for a moment. Eventually the headlights behind the fence stopped swinging around, and it got quiet. There had been some kind of vehicular noises back there, too.

Gradually, I became more awake, and it occurred to me that there was an orchard, a hill, and a forest between us and the highway. It was a quarter mile away and had very little traffic in broad daylight, much less the middle of the night. So what were those headlights? And the figure? I'm going inside, I said.

Apparently we were all awake because in moments and without discussion, we grabbed up our sleeping bags and we're heading in. Mom remembers the sound of us hitting the back door, she and my brother got up to see what was going on, and hung around as we settled in the living room. I didn't say anything about what I'd seen. It was too crazy, too unreal. Just a dream, right?

But wait, there's more. That camp out was the last hurrah before our big move. Eight months later, and two thousand miles away, halfway across the continent. My teacher was passing out the purchases that I in a class. had made from the scholastic book order forms, one of my classmates had a book about UFOs that I had missed. I borrowed it in class and was reading, and then turned the page, and wham, not one, but two grainy black and white photos of figures like the ones in lights that I had seen behind the fence the summer before. I have no explanation. I talked to mom about it the other day, and she's still stumped, too. Oh, and as a fun post script, that friend that I was telling about this, the one who visited the UFO Museum in Roswell, he has a copy of that UFO book from back then.

It's not a huge surprise, as he's only three years younger than me, and he grew up 50 miles from my then-new school, but it's kind of a cool lens to the story. I hope you enjoyed hearing about my experience, and if you have an explanation for either the UFO, the figure in life, or what was happening behind the fence? Please, do share. I'm still looking for explanations. I'm not exactly sure which topic the situation would be acceptable for, but I'm going to say it's leaning more towards creepy stories or paranormal encounters.

Also, extreme trigger warning. This is very disturbing. Please make sure that you're in the correct headspace to read this true, but extremely disturbing situation that is very much affecting my entire life. A little over a year ago, I found a video in my TikTok drafts. That in itself is weird, because I always keep my draft folder cleared out. Anyway, I noticed a video and of course was curious about what it was, so I opened it. The video was of myself.

However, I was staring into the game. camera and not saying anything. My eyes looked different, and they began to turn a solid black color as a strange grin crossed my face. The expression on my face was as if I was someone or something that had never seen myself in a reflection or on camera. The facial expressions were not mine. I immediately got chills all over, and my heart started to race.

Who or what was this? I've never sleepwalked, so I'm sure that it wasn't that. I was awake in the video and coherent, but the face was not mine, and I have absolutely no recollection of recording this weird footage of myself, just glaring into the camera. It was also dark, and there was absolutely no sound. I didn't speak. I didn't explain what the video was.

It was just me glaring into the camera with a wicked-looking face and black eyes. I still have the video and I've shared it on my social media, hoping to find answers from the paranormal community. One person claims I could be what is called a changeling. I didn't know what a changeling was, so I researched it. I got a sick feeling in my stomach as I learned what a changeling is. It's basically when your soul is stolen. and your body has taken over by something paranormal as a child. Without writing an entire book about changelings,

I'll leave it up to the listeners to look it up. There have been other incidents with me that also lead me to believe that this could be what is going on. My fiancé said that one time I was asleep in the middle of the night, and he was laying next to me reading. He said that I suddenly sat straight up in the bed, and I turned my head almost robotically straight at him and just glared at him. He said that it creeped him out so much that he left the room.

He said that it didn't look like me, and that it seemed like my body had been taken over by something dark. This has been one of the many incidents over the last year since I found that video footage. How long has this been going on? Could I be doing stuff at night and not even? know about it? It's another level of creepy knowing that something is taking over my body while I sleep. The worst part is, no one can help me, and when I tell people about it, they instantly become afraid of me and I get ghosted a lot. Can anyone tell me what is happening to me? Please,

if you can, I beg you, leave your advice in the comments. I wonder if this has anything to do with all the glitches that I have experienced as well. Either way, I did not make that footage. And whatever did is still around. Using my body to do whatever it wants while I sleep. I think I was an elementary school or just starting middle school. We lived in a pretty normal neighborhood at the time, across the street from an elementary school.

I have an older brother who was 13 years older than me. He was often out very late and would come home late, because he would go clubbing and whatnot, and sometimes not even come home until the morning. It was past midnight one day, and I heard the bell ring multiple times, as well as knocking on the door. He didn't have a cell phone.

It was the beeper era, so my brother couldn't have called anyways if he didn't have his keys. I got out of bed and ran downstairs just assuming it was him. Before I could get to the door, I heard talking outside and a woman's voice. I looked through the window blind, and I saw an older woman staring right back at me. My mother then grabbed me from behind and told me to stay away from the window. Just then, the woman at the door began to pound on the door and start screaming. Help, please help me.

Help, please. My mother took me upstairs and we sat on my bed, which was right by the window facing the front of the house, and she was holding me close. Thinking back now, I'm sure that she felt terrified, but she didn't seem that way to me at the time. We had to listen to the doorbell and pounding of the door constantly for a few minutes, before a man's voice behind the woman asked her, Where's my money? which put an end to the knocking. My mother later told me that the man was standing behind the woman

and that there was a car parked in front as well. The woman was maybe trying to stall and continued to bang on her door for a while before she gave up. Then they left together. It was a very odd encounter that left us shaken for the night. Nothing bad ever happened at that house again, but my cousins had previously lived at that house and were once robbed when nobody was home.

On another occasion, my aunt was in the kitchen by the back door and a naked man was standing outside the door staring in at her through the window, just smiling at her. After we left that house, the next residence were also robbed, so we dodged a bullet, I think. I bet that the man and woman that paid us a visit were working, together, but I don't know what the whole line about the money was supposed to do. Were we supposed to feel bad for her and come outside to give her the money that she needed?

I'm glad that I didn't open the door, and it gives me chills to think about what would have happened if I did. While writing a post on another subreddit, I remembered a creepy encounter that I had when I was around 11, and I just thought I would share. From ages 8 to 13, I was living in a small village where everyone knew each other. My brother and I spent the majority of our time playing with our cousins and the other kids. And since everyone knew each other, our parents never really watched over us while we played. But I'm kind of glad that they did this time. It was literally just a sunny day like the days before,

and we kids were all playing at the small grass field, just about the first. size of a football or soccer field. It's placed in the middle of the village with the two main roads of the village on each side. Some of our parents had decided to get together, drink a beer, and talk in one of the front lawns where they could see us play. In the middle of our game, we noticed a man approaching us from the opposite direction from where our parents were sitting. None of us recognized this man, so he was clearly not from the village. As he got closer, we started looking back at our parents, but none of them had noticed that we had stopped playing, nor the man. This was a time where kids my age started learning about stranger danger, kidnappers, and other creeps.

So I immediately thought the worst about this man. And since I was one of the oldest kids and was responsible for the younger kids, I started trying to get the others to back away from the man. I think he noticed the creeped-out look that we gave him, because he stopped up a few meters from us and started talking to us. And please, bear with me, this happened almost ten years ago, so I don't exactly remember the conversation. But he told us not to worry because he just wanted to talk to us.

One of the older kids told him that we couldn't talk to him, and I kid you not, this man actually started pulling some kind of classic, Do you want to see my puppies or kittens? He literally asked if any of us wanted a kitten. There was some more conversation between us and the man, but I don't remember what it was. I remember looking back at our parents again

to see if they had noticed anything by this point. They finally had. I have this clear picture in my head of our parents. All of them were watching. watching us with alarmed faces. Some of the parents were still sitting in the white garden chairs, and others were standing up and looking like they were mere seconds from interfering. I remember looking back at the man and saying, Our parents are watching and pointing towards them.

The man looked at the direction I was pointing, and then reached inside the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a single red lollipop. He tried to get one of us to take it, but I loudly told the others to not take it because it could be poison, which it probably wasn't, but it worked because no one wanted the lollipop. I remember the man looking in the direction of our parents again, and I feel like some of them might have been getting ready to come over because he took a few steps back.

He smiled and walked over to the small bench that we had pulled out from one of the other kids' houses, and he put the lollipop down and said, I'll just leave this here. Then he turned around and walked towards the direction that he had come from. I kept on telling the others to not touch the lollipop, and suddenly my uncle was standing next to me with one of my cousins, asking what the man had wanted. We told him what had just happened,

and some of the other kids started calling the man a creep. I think that my uncle didn't know what to do, so he just told us that we were allowed to go to his house, grab a soda, and then come back and continue playing. We quickly forgot the encounter with the man, but my brother and I have occasionally brought it up as a weird memory from our childhood. Four years ago, I trained a new worker who was honestly a nice guy at the time. Early 30s, seemingly healthy, very much into yoga and had a beautiful girlfriend, etc.

He seemed very balanced and healthy. I'll call him co-worker A. We had another longtime coworker who was sort of Mr. Popular with the managers, but honestly, super annoying. Really large personality. And people mutually could only take him in small doses. He was essentially the embodiment of a TikTok frat boy who would randomly dance on the job in freestyle.

Extremely annoying. Anyways, I'll call him coworker B. Now, before I explain, I should include that this workplace sucks. It barely holds a single star on Indeed. It's a large factory with no windows, toxic management, long hours. It was very hard on most people's mental health. So, anyway, roughly a year into co-worker A's stay, things started changing. He and I were mutually friendly to one another,

and we would have long civilized discussions about interesting things, but something was really out of place when he mentioned his new beliefs about the world being flat and a hologram moon theory. It was really unlike the old version of him who was super rationed. I sort of shrugged it off and said it's probably a phase or he's just trolling. Fast forward a few weeks. Co-worker A has seemingly took a lot of interest in coworker B, and sort of developed some of his manner.

mannerisms, but in a more endearing way. Kind of copying his silly dances and laughs seemed harmless. But as months go past, he continued to dance more and more to the point that he had to be asked to stop by supervisors. He would even be moving around at the morning meetings, using all the same mannerisms and phrases as coworker B. To the point that he switched shifts. We theorized that maybe he was on drugs. But co-worker A was very vocal against all substance use, including alcohol and weed. He was also a vegan.

Where things change for the worse is when co-worker B ends up getting with a new hire at work. She ends up becoming his girlfriend. They then move in together. This is when co-worker A shows up to work using co-worker B's name, even signing himself in on the logbook as him, referring himself as B all morning. Then, later that day, A stands up on a work table screaming, I'm in love with co-worker B's girlfriend, by name, with his arms spread out in a cross-Jesus formation, face to the ceiling.

The whole place was silent, and after he ended up standing in a corner with a broom, sweeping nothing for the next several hours. He wouldn't turn around from the corner either, not even when tapped on the shoulder or called by name. The only time that I saw him away from that corner was when it was time to go home. He was the last one out. Unfortunately, my job, being QC, I'm always among the last ones as well.

Despite both of us being the last in the building, I did my best to act normal when passing him in the hallway. I glanced at him. He was looking directly at me. Head tilted down, making a pseudo-snarling dog face, the eyebrows in a V, tongue and teeth out. The next day, our boss decided that the coworker A needed to go to the hospital. So we actually made an appointment and got him in with an Uber. He was put on leave for a week.

The security guards who I was friend with told me that A was showing up in the middle of the night, trying to sign in for work at the card reader, sometimes two to three in the morning. Anyway, surprisingly, a week later, Co-worker A comes back and seems somewhat normal. Almost like he has no recollection of anything he did. He even wrote an entire album on his phone in that time, which surprisingly was better than I thought it would be. But I noticed it was all love lyrics, sort of wanky, country love songs.

As things seemed to normalize with Co-worker A, he stated that he really wanted to hang out with me and go for a hike, throw axes at trees, etc. I sort of didn't agree or disagree and told him I would get back to him on that, as I secretly was a little on edge. He asked me later that day if I was still down, and I said unfortunately that I had other obligations. He said, well, I guess I can't throw an axe at your face then. And I laughed not knowing how to react at all. I told the manager about that, and he kind of just scratched his head uncomfortable. and shrugged his shoulders.

Anyway, co-worker A ends up finding co-worker B's address due to a work get-together where everyone was invited and someone leaked it to co-worker A. They eventually find rocks and sticks and weird formations on their doorstep like shrines, and we all collectively knew that it was A. Things got really weird when they actually found A looking through their windows at night.

He was also scratching the window with his nails, calling out B's name, repeatedly whispering, B, I need to tell you something. This is when our manager finally decided to take action and agreed to fire A. Four years later, co-worker A still stalks co-worker B's now ex-girlfriend who had to get a restraining order against him. He annually makes new Facebook accounts and adds all 200-plus workers

who used to work there, as the place got shut down. He uses a new name each time with a different selfie. He then sends a message to each one of us as well saying, Hey, you, it's B from work. So I guess that my question is, what would this behavior be called? And how did such a normal, likable, level-headed person turn into this?

Is there a term for this behavior? What would your diagnosis be? One of my friends had the gall to ask him in a reply, which I can share a screenshot of if he recalls anything, which he doesn't seem to. But he sure remembers B's ex-girlfriend and says some extremely concerning things. About how she's the one and the only, how he's the bigger one and she's the smaller one. He was put on this earth essentially to save her. He also seemingly has no support at all from family. or anything like that.

And he's working at a new job, living alone, unattended. I feel like this is sort of a risk. Anyways, I'm interested in some of your feedback of what he might be dealing with. I had a ton of stories about the time I lived in Scotland with my friend Jane. I've posted them to different Reddit subs and threads, by the way, but what I'm about to tell you is more terrifying than ghosts, since it's real life. Jane and I used to go dancing at nightclubs near Buchanan,

a popular area in Glasgow. We used to meet nice people there, often drunk yet funny and harmless. Until the day we crossed paths with a guy named Kyle. Kyle kept staring at my friend Jane. To reassure Jane and protector, I pretended to be her brother. But that didn't stop Kyle,

who started hitting on her heavily with his glass of whiskey and his weird looks. Jane laughed to cool the heavy atmosphere, because I could see how much it bothered her to be approached like this, as he didn't even respect her safe space. Eventually I broke off the conversation, but the guy followed us everywhere. With his dumb friend, he even took a picture of Jane in secret. That was too much.

I kindly asked him to stop in a quiet, no-pey-lawful. pressure way. He seemed okay. I just didn't want to start a fight in a club and be kicked out of the place we liked. While we were dancing with Jane, she noticed that the guy gave her a sign. He moved his finger on his throat like he was cutting it. She totally lost it. Told me about it, we immediately ran away and even managed to hide from Kyle, who didn't show himself for a while. When the club closed, Jane and I went to a fast food restaurant waiting for the first buses to go home. Jane felt very uncomfortable after this experience, as she had survived an attempted murder. Her ex-boyfriend's brother tried to kill her with a knife.

He even killed his own mother, wanted to stab Jane's ex. He's now in a psychiatric hospital and locked up. As she was very traumatized, I tried to make her laugh. to change the subject as she asked me to. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Kyle came back again. His shirt was stained with blood. He came closer to us with his friend and said, I bravely fought with a guy in the streets.

Luckily, I always keep a knife on me. After the trauma she experienced, Jane was not sensitive to this bad boy stuff, even if he was so proud about it. I asked him to go away. the situation was tense because he wanted to hit me. Bless the guard that kicked him out, though. That night, Jane was very brave. When we came back to France, this story seemed to be behind us,

but Kyle actually managed to find her on Tinder, after more than a year, and even recognized her. But I hope that we never see that bad guy again. This happened in the American Southwest to my parents while on vacation. They stopped at a spot along their travel route to get some food and got talking to a young local who worked there. He told them about a box canyon that was on the way to their next stop. For those who don't know, a box canyon is characterized by being narrow, having high vertical walls and a flat bottom. To hear my mom tell it, he described the canyon with an almost spiritual reverence,

saying that it was incredibly beautiful and had superfluing. herb acoustics, and that he loved taking his guitar out there to play. My folks liked doing stuff off the beaten path, so they decided to pay a visit. The canyon seemed to be quite isolated, with no buildings of any kind around it for miles. By the time they parked their car and made it to the canyon's entrance, the sun was just starting to go down. They said that they seemed to be the only ones there, with no parked cars other than their own. They made their way into the canyon. After the fact, my parents have both said that they separately, without speaking of it,

started to feel a touch of unease. Not totally unreasonable as it was starting to get dark and the canyon walls pressed closed on either side. Despite this feeling, they continued on, until they heard the noise. My parents report the nature of this noise differently. When I asked them to describe it, their faces sort of. of scrunch up. Like, it's an effortful task, or they're still uncertain. My dad says it sounded like a person, possibly a man, speaking a low, single word that he

didn't understand. My mom says that it didn't really sound like a word of any kind to her, just a strange, deep noise that rang out from somewhere nearby above them. It was accompanied by a brief, intense flash of pale light. neither of them knew what it was or where precisely it had come from. But they both were immediately filled with dread in an overwhelming desperation to get the hell out of the canyon. They turned around and they booked it back to their car. As they exited the dark, closed space of the canyon, my mom describes feeling certain that there was something chasing them,

and thinking that once they got to their car, they would find it sabotaged. That, thankfully, was not the case, and they were able to get in and speed away down the empty road. My mom said that she didn't feel safe until they had been driving for a while, still having the panicked but totally unsupported notion that they were being pursued. When they eventually spoke of it to one another, they weren't able to make any real sense out of what had happened. Neither one of them really has a theory. This is probably pretty dull as far as spooky experiences goes, but neither of my parents have a history of weird encounters or of telling tales,

so it strikes me to see them both get recreatped out by the mere memory of this incident. Edit, I've asked my mom clarifying questions since I first recorded this story, and I forgot to update it. She said that the flash of light was actually quite close to them, mere feet away, and that it sort of seemed to hang in the air for a few moments. She had a hard time describing it very clearly. I grew up in the 90s, in Minnesota. My parents divorced when I was eight,

and we spent every other weekend at my dad's haunted house in East Bethel. This house had every type of ghost that you could think of. A shadow man in a trench coat and brimmed hat, another separate shadow figure that danced down the hallway, a man dressed to go fishing, a doppelganger of my father, two giggling little girl ghosts and many other unseen entities. The dishwasher, radios and lights would turn themselves on and off randomly. Loud banging would be heard on walls and doors.

Door handles would jiggle and turn on their own. Feelings of being touched or caressed in the shower were reported. My father also had an incident where he felt someone crawl into bed with him in the middle of the night, when he was the only one home. My uncle reported hearing two little girls giggling and singing in the basement one night while sleeping downstairs. Upon awakening the next morning, he discovered that there were no kids in the house that night. Also, there was a salamander plague one night. The entire yard was covered in slimy, slithering salamanders.

it only ever happened once. I'm not positive if that's paranormal, but it's certainly strange. One sunny Saturday morning while visiting my dad, my brother, and I were up early watching cartoons. I was eight years old, and my brother was three. As we sat on the couch, we heard three knocking sounds on the wall five to six feet behind us. Just knock, knock, knock. Our heads quickly snapped back to look at the wall where the sound was. was coming from, but we saw nothing.

My brother and I quickly turned to look at each other with frightened eyes. I, being the bolder sister, tried to be brave. I told him it was nothing. As we turn our attention back to the cartoons, my little eight-year-old brain is spinning. What if that banging noise we heard wasn't just the pipes, as I'd been told so many times? What if it was a ghost?

I hate when the ghosts come around. Why isn't my dad around whenever this happens? As these thoughts swirl in my head, we hear it again. Knock, knock, knock. This time it is coming from somewhere in the kitchen off to our left. It's not as loud as the first time, and the sound is... Different. Like someone is knocking on the kitchen counter this time instead of the wall.

We quickly strain our necks to peek inside the kitchen, with lightning speed to catch whomever or whatever is making that noise. Again, there's nothing there. I take a deep breath, and once again I pretend to be braith and tell my brother, it's nothing, just ignore it. My heart is thumping in my chest, and there are butterflies in my stomach as the familiar anxiety grows worse and worse with each passing second. I tuck myself up on the couch and a ball not wanting my legs to tangle off the edge. I no longer feel safe, and nothing is to be trusted. knock, knock, knock.

This time the sound is coming from the dining room. I can tell the noise is coming from the wooden dining table this time. I can see the entire table from where I'm sitting with ease, and there is nothing on the table that should be making that noise. No one except myself and my brother are awake. There's no one in the dining room. There is no logical reason for this knocking noise to be moving around us. Just then, I realized the knocker,

sounds have been moving in a big circle around us. If the invisible entity is to move any closer to us, the next logical place would be for it to be in the living room where me and my brother are currently sitting. No sooner than that thought crossed my mind, it happened again. Knock, knock, knock. This time the noise was coming from the coffee table sitting less than one foot away from us.

I instantly flip over the back of my couch in a reverse somersault-like motion, and I run at superhuman speed to my father's bedroom. In my panic, I completely left my little three-year-old brother behind to fend for himself. Luckily, he wasn't too far behind. We sneak into our father's room and quietly lay on the floor. Our dad would have been super mad if we woke him up early on a Saturday morning, even for a ghost. In our commotion, we wake up our six-year-old sister who's sleeping on our dad's floor.

Us three kids always slept on his floor together when we were visiting. So we quietly whisper what just happened out in the living room to our sister. As we're telling her the story, something catches our eye. We could see a black shadow under the small space between the bottom of the door and the plush carpet. This black shadow is slowly pacing back and forth in the hallway just on the other side of the bedroom door. Just back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, like the shadow is waiting for us. Unfortunately, I don't remember what happened after this point. Somehow the rest of that memory has been lost with time,

but I know for sure that we did not open that door. As an adult, I often wish that I would have been brave and opened the door. What would have been waiting? Would the entity have entered the room and attacked? Would we have been shocked and confused to find the hallway empty? Would the gray shadow just keep pacing the hallway, oblivious to our frightened, curious eyes? I've done a lot of research on the home and property over the years,

and I can't find any evidence of a death or tragedy that would account for so much paranormal activity. I've also reached out to the previous and current owners to see if they had any strange experiences. The two families who lived there previously said they never had any strange experiences, nor did the family who lived there right after my family. The family currently living there did not respond to my question, and in hindsight, I regret even asking them. It wasn't cool of me to even put that thought in their heads. Prior to the home being built, all I can find is that the land the house sits on was part of a farm for a family that I could find very little information on. So, was my family haunted, or were we all suffering from a 12-plus year mass hysteria?

I hope my story has its place in this subreddit. I still don't know if it really happened or not. I don't even think I've told anyone this story. I've always been a shy kid. I didn't think anyone would believe me because I had a hard time believing myself anyways. So I kept the story for me. This kind of story stays in the back of your mind and comes back up once in a while having you thinking,

Dang, that was crazy. When I, currently 28 female, was around 10 years old, my parents, my little brother and my little sister, my grandma and I went for a road trip to Virginia Beach for a one-week vacation. During the vacation, one day we were at the beach, as you do in Virginia Beach, when we saw a bunch of wild dolphins in the water that seemed not that far away from the shore. My grandma and dad decided to take foam bodyboards to try to get as close as possible to them, which is kind of crazy now that I know how cruel dolphins can be. As a 10-year-old that loved water and was far from afraid of it,

I tried to join them a little later, so I took a bodyboard and started swimming to where they were. I remember swimming for a while, when I heard a lifeguard whistle and tell my dad and grandma to come back to shore, because I guess they were a little too far for them. I looked back to see how far I was, and I realized I had swam a good distance. It had been a while since my feet touched the sand at the bottom of the ocean. I wasn't afraid at all. I've always been a good swimmer and knew that I could come back to shore any time I wanted.

But I remember I started to panic a little, not really realizing why. I started thinking about the fact that there was. was a lot of water between the sea floor and myself. I usually don't care, but this time I started thinking about sharks. Since my brain started thinking about it, I had the reflex to look around me while I was on the board and looked down in the water. I was already telling myself how silly I was for being afraid of sharks, and that there would be absolutely nothing there when I locked eyes with it.

I honestly think that my heart stopped. I saw a shark's face underneath the waterline just looking up at me. Then I did something incredibly stupid, which was to try and get to the shore as quick as possible. Probably looking like running prey, but nothing happened. I managed to get to shore, and I don't think I have ever swam that fast. From what I researched and what I remember, I feel like the shark, if it was real, could have been a sand tiger because I have, I remember vividly that I could see its teeth even if its mouth was closed, and its size would

match the size of the head that I saw. I've never had hallucinations for things that I fear before, and I don't even especially fear sharks, and I have anxiety. So I highly doubt that it would happen only once and then never again. Don't really know what to think with that one. I'm wondering, did I have a premonition that danger was close? or did my brain make up a shark because I was scared. I would love to have opinions on that encounter,

even if I'm never going to know for sure if what I saw was real. I'm going to try to explain this as best as I can remember. This happened when I was in high school, probably around 16, 17, and I'm now 27, so please forgive me if I can't recall every detail. At the time, I had a girlfriend. There's a hip little neighborhood in our city called Kensington that we would always meet up at to spend time together. She lived far north in the city, and I was pretty far south. Kensington was right around the middle and a nice place to hang out.

We were walking away from the train platform, almost a full block away, when a man in a suit comes running at us with a panicked look on his face. Frantically, he says, can you help me? My wife just went into labor and I was supposed to meet my sister at her. at Starbucks in a couple of minutes, but I need to run to the hospital. Can you please bring her this bag? And he then holds out a plastic shopping bag. I believe it was for the makeup store Zara. My girlfriend kind of nudges my arm, obviously thinking this is a little sketchy, but I say, yeah, for sure. He tells me her name, we'll say that it's Sarah, thanks me and runs straight for the train platform. Starbucks is a few blocks away and we walk as my girlfriend is saying,

This is creepy. What if we're drug mules? Then I realized that the bag is strangely light. I tell her and she suggests that we look inside. I'm conflicted by this, but concede that it is reasonable, seeing as how odd this whole situation was. When we look in the bag, all that's there is a couple of crumpled up receipts and another crumpled up bag. We open the second bag and there's nothing inside. We're freaked out. We're considering just turning around and not going into the Starbucks, but my curiosity has gotten the best of me at this point.

We walk the remaining block or two, and as I walk into the Starbucks, I call out Sarah. A woman stands up, yells very emphatically, Thank you so much. I have to go to the hospital now to be there for the birth, but I appreciate this so much. She throws her arms around me in a huge hug and then runs out the door. And that's it. I looked up social experiments, TV shows, and every couple of years I remember in Google

to see if anyone has experienced something similar. But nothing. Never have had a reasonable suggestion that makes sense to me, and it's just something that bothers me when I think about it. These weren't university-aged people. These were adults in their late 30s or 40s at least. So, I don't think. think that it was a school project or anything?

Any idea what this could have been for? What the purpose of the whole interaction was? So, yesterday, my mom told me a story about something that had happened to her at work. My mom has always been a huge skeptic, as I have been myself, but this has properly freaked us both out as we can't explain it. I'm curious what others think. My mom works at a pharmacy as a dispenser. She has a colleague that she talks to every day, who is also a skeptic but has interest in the paranormal.

She told my mom's story about how she went to visit a graveyard to visit a loved one with one of her friends. They were the only ones in the graveyard, but they heard a female humming. They assumed it was someone crouching behind a grave, tending to it, and they had a look around. They eventually came to a grave where the sound appeared to be coming from, but nobody was there. They checked their phones and any other devices, nothing. A little freaked out, they went to the pub nearby and had some food. As they were chatting, they both went silent at the same time and froze as they could hear the humming again.

They carried on eating and eventually parted to go home. Later that night, my mom's colleague got a call from her friend who was hysterical. She cried on the phone and said, that she had heard the humming in her house. Mum's colleague calmed her down and reassured her that it was nothing and that she was probably just hearing things. After putting the phone down, she went upstairs to bed as it was late. She heard the humming in her bedroom.

My mom, upon being told this, wasn't that amazed, as she just brushed it off as a story, being the skeptic that she is. She left the room and walked down the long hall, leading to the top of the stairs. She said she heard a female humming right behind her. Different notes, but only lasting two to three seconds. She turned around to laugh at her colleague thinking she was taking the mic, but nobody was there. Her colleague was still in the room on the other end of the hallway, far too far away to be heard,

and nobody else was on that floor with them. There's no PA system or any kind of speakers, and she didn't have her phone or anything on her. I've never seen my mom so freaked out before, as she's a very straight-laced person and always tries to debunk anything paranormal. I can't think of anything either, so what do you guys think?