Horror Stories - 10 Terrifying TRUE Stories

Starting point is 00:00:06 Hello everyone and welcome back to horror stories. I know many of you use these episodes to fall asleep so before you drift off, I'd love it if you could leave a comment letting me know where you're listening from around the world. Also, don't forget to like and subscribe if you're enjoying the episodes. Story 1. A few years ago, something really strange happened to me and my best friend. I was 15 at the time, and that night I decided to sleep over at his house. After watching several horror movies, we got the urge to do something exciting. Very close to where my friend lived, there was an area marked for demolition,

Starting point is 00:00:47 an entire block of houses in a deplorable state that would be torn down the day after tomorrow. The local government planned to demolish them to build new housing in their place. The whole area was surrounded by a fence and warning signs saying no trespassing were posted everywhere. The houses were completely boarded up. doors and windows sealed tight. No one could get in. Still, we decided to go for a walk around that old block and take some random pictures. My friend knew a spot where we could sneak into the property.

Starting point is 00:01:19 When we got there, we noticed that all the homes were heavily boarded up, making it impossible to go inside. However, we saw one house with a window on the upper floor that wasn't as tightly sealed. From there, we could see into a room. We took a photo with a digital camera and then went back home. to check out the pictures we had taken. Suddenly we came across the photo of that window, and what we saw left us frozen. There was a woman dressed in a brown raincoat, with very pale skin and long black hair that fell as far as we could see. The woman had an incredibly sad expression. The most disturbing part was that we hadn't seen anyone there when

Starting point is 00:01:58 we took the picture. We clearly remembered that both the windows and doors were sealed. We decided to go back to the house to check it with our own eyes. After carefully inspecting the place, we confirmed that everything was completely locked up. There was no way a woman could have been in there. Story two. This story isn't mine. It belongs to a friend of mine who used to live in Japan. I'll call him Rita. It all happened when Rita was only 11 or 12 years old. He was quite an attractive kid for his age and had no shortage of admirers. However, there was one girl in particular whose obsession went far beyond normal. Let's call her Ayano. Ayano was much older than Rita. She was 17. She was an acquaintance of his and lived just a few houses away. At first, Rita didn't think much of

Starting point is 00:02:53 her until she started following him day and night. One way or another, she was always watching him, either in person or through social media. Rita began to feel uneasy when Ayano started sending him more than 20 messages a day. At first they were things like, take care, are you okay? Sleep well, etc. A little creepy, but nothing alarming. However, over time, the messages became much more disturbing. They were no longer simple greetings, but eerie phrases like, you should eat your lunch, right after he had skipped it. Or I think your little sister is hungry, just as his younger sister started crying. That's when Rita decided to stop using his phone and shut down all his social media accounts. But the most terrifying part was yet to come. Rita's mother was almost never home, so he was

Starting point is 00:03:47 usually left in the care of babysitters. One day a new babysitter showed up. It was Ayano. At first, it didn't seem that strange, since she was also watching over his siblings. However, Rita noticed that Ayano began getting too close to his mother, and he didn't like him. at all. One day while he was at school, Ayano approached him and said that his mother was leaving the country for a week and had asked her to have him stay at her house during that time. Rita hesitated at first, but in the end he agreed. After all, if it was his mother's wish, he couldn't say no. Ayano assured him that his mother had already left, so that afternoon he went home with her. When they arrived, he noticed that Ayano's parents weren't home. From that point on, the memories became a bit

Starting point is 00:04:33 blurry. When Rita told me this part of the story, you could tell it still terrified him. He said Ayano started playing very strange games with him, like pretending they were a married couple, where she was the wife and he the husband. They also played cops and robbers, or a game to see who got scared first. In that last one, she would blindfold him and leave him alone in a silent room for hours. On the fifth day of staying at her house, Ayano left for her part-time job. She locked the behind her and the windows were too high to try to escape. Rita sat in front of the TV, and that's when he saw a news report that froze him in place. A report of a missing child, and that child was him.

Starting point is 00:05:17 Before he could memorize the number to call, the TV suddenly turned off. Ayano was behind him, holding the remote control. Rita panicked. Crying and screaming, he managed to break free from her arms just long enough to open a window and yell for help. Luckily, a couple was walking nearby, heard his screams and called the police. Within an hour, officers arrived. They found Rita locked in Ayano's room blindfolded and with his hands tied. Since Rita was a minor at the time, he doesn't know exactly what happened to her.

Starting point is 00:05:50 The only thing he remembers is seeing the police taking her away while his mother held him tightly. After that incident, he moved to Australia, and he's never seen his kidnapper again. Even today he shudders at the sound of her name. Story 3 About five years ago, I lived in the downtown area of a large city in the United States. I've always been a night owl, so it was common for me to feel bored after my roommate, who was definitely not a night owl, went to sleep. To pass the time, I'd often go out for long walks while reflecting on my thoughts.

Starting point is 00:06:29 For four years, I kept up that routine, walking alone at night, and I never had a real reason to feel scared. I used to joke with my roommate that even the city's drug dealers were polite, but everything changed in a matter of minutes one night. It was a Wednesday, somewhere between one and two in the morning. I was walking near a police-patrolled park pretty far from my apartment. It was an unusually quiet night, even for a weekday, barely any traffic and almost no one walking around.

Starting point is 00:07:00 As usual, the park was completely deserted. I took a short side street planning to loop back toward my apartment when I saw him for the first time. At the far end of the street, on the same side I was walking, I spotted the silhouette of a man, dancing. It was a strange kind of dance, sort of like a waltz, but at the end of each step, he'd do a sort of bow and then move forward. You could say he was walking while dancing, and he was coming straight toward me. thinking he was probably drunk I moved as far to the edge of the sidewalk as I could to give him plenty of room to pass but the closer he got the more I noticed the grace in his movements he was very tall thin wearing an old suit and moved with an eerie smoothness

Starting point is 00:07:44 he kept coming closer until I could clearly see his face his eyes were wide open with a crazed expression and his head was tilted slightly back staring up at the sky his mouth was twisted into a an exaggerated smile like a cartoon, forced an unnatural. Between that grotesque grin and the look in his eyes, I decided to cross the street before he got any closer. I looked away from him as I crossed the empty road. When I reached the other side, I glanced back and stopped in my tracks. He had stopped dancing. He was standing with one foot in the street, perfectly aligned with me. He was facing me directly, though still staring at the sky, that wide grin still on his face. I felt completely shaken inside. I started walking again, keeping my eyes on him. He didn't move.

Starting point is 00:08:37 I got about half a block away, and when I turned my head for a moment to look ahead, I noticed the street was still empty. Still uneasy, I turned back to see if he was still there, and he was gone. For a moment, I felt relief until I saw him. He had crudely. He had crudely. He had the street and now he was slightly crouched. I couldn't see clearly because of the distance and shadows, but I was sure he was watching me. It had been no more than ten seconds since I looked away, so it was clear he had moved very quickly. I stood there frozen staring unsure of what to do. And then he started moving toward me again with long exaggerated steps on tiptoe, like a cartoon character trying to sneak up silently, but he was moving incredibly. But he was moving incredibly

Starting point is 00:09:23 fast. I wish I could say I ran that I pulled out pepper spray or called someone, but I didn't do anything. I just stood there, frozen, watching as the smiling man approached me. And then he stopped again. He was now about a car's length of way, still smiling, still looking up at the sky. When I finally found my voice, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. I meant to out confidently. What the hell do you want? In her firm challenging tone. But what came out was a shaky whisper. What? What the hell? I don't know if humans can actually smell fear, but they can definitely hear it. And I heard it in my own voice, which only made my panic worse. But he didn't react. He just stood there smiling. After what felt like an eternity, he slowly turned on his heels and began to

Starting point is 00:10:18 walk away, dancing like before. I didn't want to turn my back on him, so I kept watching until he was far enough, nearly out of sight. And then I realized something. He wasn't getting farther. He wasn't dancing either. I watched in horror as his figure began to grow larger. He was coming back toward me. He was running. I ran too. I sprinted out of that side street and onto a brighter avenue with some traffic. I looked behind me, and he was gone. The hallway back home I kept glancing over my shoulder, afraid I'd see that absurd smile again, but I never saw him again. I lived in that city for another six months, and I never went out for a walk at night again.

Starting point is 00:11:03 There was something in his face that haunted me from that moment on. He didn't look drunk. He didn't look high. He looked completely and utterly insane. And that, believe me, is something very, very terrifying to see. Story 4. In the mid-1980s, my mother worked as a cleaning lady in Australia. She was responsible for cleaning houses in suburban areas and occasionally took jobs in rural locations or wine regions. She used to leave business cards in local shops, and most of her clients found her through those or by word of mouth.

Starting point is 00:11:43 One day she received a call from a woman who, judging by her voice, sounded to be in her 60s. The woman asked her to clean her old country house. She made a large number of strange requests, which wasn't very common. My mother typically met new clients in person before accepting any job, but in this case, the woman firmly refused to meet with her. She told her she'd leave the keys under the front door mat. Despite how unusual the situation was, my mother agreed, mainly because the woman gave the impression of being very wealthy

Starting point is 00:12:15 and offered significantly more money than what my mother usually made for a cleaning job. She went to the house on a Monday morning, and from the moment she arrived, she said she felt an odd sense of unease. The driveway was incredibly long, and the house sat almost at the center of a vast, completely uninhabited property. She found the keys where the woman had said they'd be and began cleaning. About an hour after she started, she heard the back door close. She had been assured that no one would be in the house that day, so she instantly felt a strong sense of danger. She froze in the kitchen for what she described as three or four minutes, though she thought it might not have been that long in reality. She looked through the windows. There were no cars anywhere around. She wanted to leave immediately, but there were only two rooms left to clean. Both were bedrooms.

Starting point is 00:13:06 Several minutes passed without any more sounds, thinking it might have been nothing or that something had simply fallen, she decided to keep going. She walked down the hallway and entered one of the bedrooms. What she saw on the bed made her blood run cold. There were piles of black and white photographs scattered everywhere. As she got closer, she realized all of them were pictures of her. Some had been taken at our own family home. Others were from various houses my mother used to clean. There were images shot through windows over fences.

Starting point is 00:13:39 It was clear that someone had been watching her for a long time. Panicked, she used the house's phone. to call the police and then immediately left, driving all the way down the long driveway. The woman was investigated but always claimed it had been a break-in and that someone had entered the house without her knowledge. After a while, the authorities stopped pursuing the case. Four months later, we moved to another town. Story 5. I'm 22 years old, and this incident happened about a year and a half ago. I had just moved into my first apartment and was in the middle of settling in. The front door of the apartment locked automatically when closed, so I went

Starting point is 00:14:23 downstairs to the building's entrance to pick up my mail while chatting on the phone with a friend. I returned to the apartment and sat on the bed while going through the mail still holding my phone. In a moment of distraction, I dropped the phone, and it rolled underneath the bed. I leaned down to reach for it, lying on the floor and stretching out my arm. That's when I saw something that froze me to the core, there was someone under my bed. My eyes widened, and I had to fight with everything in me not to scream. The person lying there was completely still, facing away from me with their head bent down toward their chest, so I couldn't see their face, and they couldn't see mine. Trying to stay calm while a thousand thoughts raced through my head, I grabbed my phone and

Starting point is 00:15:09 said in the most natural voice I could manage. Sorry, I dropped my phone. I'm going to take a shower and I'll call you later. The bathroom was right next to my bed, so I walked slowly toward it, quietly locked the door, turned on the shower so the water could be heard running, and climbed out the window as quickly as I could. From outside I called the police. They told me to wait nearby but to go across the street and watch to see if anyone exited the building. It was summer and still light outside. I hid behind a parked car from where I could see both the open bathroom window and the building's entrance. I called my friend who arrived just before the police did. I handed the officers my keys, and they went into the apartment. Just a few minutes later, two officers came out holding a thin,

Starting point is 00:15:57 scruffy man with a completely deranged expression on his face. He didn't try to resist. The officer who stayed beside me to keep me calm while they searched the place explained that the man had been waiting right in front of the bathroom door with one of my kitchen knives in hand, ready for me to come out. That man, apparently homeless, had somehow managed to slip through the front door of my apartment while I was downstairs getting the mail and hid under my bed with intentions I'd rather not imagine. He was taken to a psychiatric hospital, and I've never felt the same being home alone again. Story 6. I was 21 when my girlfriend and I decided to spend a few days at my family's vacation RV. It was the middle of winter, and a heavy snowstorm was raging out. We were cuddled up on the couch next to the heater, watching TV late at night.

Starting point is 00:16:54 The place was completely surrounded by forest in all directions, and the only thing separating us from the outside was a wooden door with a broken lock. The last time my grandparents had been there, my grandfather placed a few cement blocks in front of the door as an improvised barrier, since the door opened inward anyway. As we kept watching TV, my girlfriend started shaking me nervously, saying she had heard. something outside. I assured her it was probably just a deer or a bear or some other animal. But five minutes later, she looked at me again, eyes wide open, and this time I heard it too. I paused the TV to listen more carefully. The sound was coming from the small shed where the lawnmower was stored, next to where my car was parked. All the lights inside the RV were on, so if someone was outside, they definitely knew we were inside. My girlfriend urged me to go check

Starting point is 00:17:47 it out, but I told her she was crazy if she thought I was going out there in the middle of a snowstorm with that sound. Suddenly the noise stopped, only the howling wind outside remained. A few minutes passed, and I figured it was safe to turn off the interior lights, slightly open the blinds, and take a peek outside. But it was pitch black. I couldn't see anything. I turned on the porch light which illuminated a good portion of the front yard. There in the snow were footprints. There in the snow were footprints. They weren't animal tracks. They were clearly human footprints, and they were leading toward the backyard. I walked to the back window and pulled the curtains aside.

Starting point is 00:18:28 A chill ran down my spine, and though I wanted to scream, my girlfriend did it first. Even though no lights were on in the back, we could clearly see a man dressed completely in black, wearing a Guy Fox mask, one of those from V for Vendetta, standing right in front of the window staring at us. I slammed the blinds shut and told my girlfriend to hide in the bedroom. I ran to the closet and grabbed my grandfather's hunting rifle. I pushed the cement blocks and every heavy object I could find against the door to reinforce it, turned off all the lights, closed the remaining blinds,

Starting point is 00:19:04 and hit with my girlfriend in a corner of the bedroom. Then we heard a loud bang against the front door. He was trying to break it down. I don't think he even tried turning the doorknop, but it didn't matter. With that kind of force, he could have gotten in if it weren't for the makeshift barricade. After several failed attempts to break through the door, everything went silent. It seemed like he had finally given up. I, however, stayed awake the entire night with the rifle in my hands,

Starting point is 00:19:33 while my girlfriend exhausted eventually fell asleep. The next morning, as soon as the sun came up, we packed our things and left immediately. But there was something even more disturbing. In front of the front window, there was a new, new trail of fresh footprints leading into the woods. Since then, I've never gone back to that place. My grandparents have, and they claim there were no signs of forced entry, and nothing was missing. Still, I have no intention of ever going back. Story 7. When my grandmother was still alive, I used to walk to her house every day. It was just a block away to help her with the various

Starting point is 00:20:15 tasks. One day, as usual, I went to visit her at the same time as always, and decided to let myself in. I was surprised to find the door unlocked. My grandmother was a very paranoid woman and always kept everything securely locked. From the entrance, I noticed that her bedroom door on the second floor was open, and I could hear noises, like someone opening and closing drawers and closets. I walked up the stairs while calling out, Grandma, and when I was about five steps from the door, it slammed shut. I knocked gently and asked if everything was okay,

Starting point is 00:20:51 and just then my phone started ringing. The name on the screen was my grandmother's. I was completely confused, but I answered anyway. On the other end of the line, my grandmother's voice told me not to come to her house that day, that she was on her way to the senior center. I felt my heart drop. I hung up without saying another word. I stood there in total silence.

Starting point is 00:21:14 In that moment, I realized exactly what was happening. I acted like I didn't suspect a thing and called out, Grandma, I'll be downstairs. I walked slowly to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and dialed 911. Upstairs in the bedroom, not a single sound was heard again. A few minutes later, the police arrived. They stormed into the bedroom, and in that instant, a gunshot echoed through the house, making me jump. Paramedics arrived quickly and took the intruder out on a stretcher.

Starting point is 00:21:45 When I saw his face, I recognized him instantly. It was my grandmother's next-door neighbor. Apparently, he had noticed she had left and took the opportunity to break into the house, searching for jewelry or valuables. When the police entered the room, they found him hiding right next to the door, holding a large knife. If I had opened that door and walked in, I wouldn't be here to tell this story. Story 8, this is without a doubt the most chilling memory of my entire life. My wife and I were returning home after going out for dinner.

Starting point is 00:22:23 As soon as we got out of the car, we noticed something that immediately put us on alert. The front door of our house was open. I asked my wife to wait outside while I went in quickly. I ran straight to our bedroom, where I kept a shotgun. I loaded it and began checking every room on the second floor. There were no signs of anyone. Then I went downstairs and finally into the basement, scanning every corner carefully. Everything was in its place.

Starting point is 00:22:51 Nothing had been stolen or moved. I called the police and when they arrived I explained everything that had happened. They started their own inspection going through the rooms on the upper floor and then the basement, but they didn't find anything suspicious. They asked if we were sure we had locked the door before leaving. Even I started to doubt myself. I couldn't say for certain, but my wife insisted with absolute certainty that we had. The police concluded that if someone had entered, they had likely left right away,

Starting point is 00:23:22 since there were no clear signs of a break-in. My wife was devastated. She cried saying she no longer felt safe inside the house. I did my best to comfort her, repeating that if someone had come in, they were gone now and hadn't done any harm. After tossing and turning in bed, I finally managed to fall asleep,

Starting point is 00:23:42 but not for long. A blood-curdling scream from my wife jolted me awake. I turned toward her. She was staring directly at the closet. And then it hit me like a lightning bolt through my body. I had forgotten to check the second closet. I looked over and for a split second I saw a head peeking out between the closet doors before they slammed shut violently. In under five seconds I had the shotgun loaded and ready.

Starting point is 00:24:09 I cocked it loudly so whoever was inside would know I was armed. I shouted, When come out right now. And then the closet door opened. But instead of surrendering, the man bolted toward the. the front door in a panic. I could have shot him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. He got away. He was never caught. He walked away free. Still, I firmly believe that having that shotgun in the house saved us from a terrible fate. Story 9, about a year ago, when I was still living under my

Starting point is 00:24:46 parents' roof, I began experiencing strange occurrences in the house, particularly in my bedroom. One night while I was lying awake in bed, I heard a creaking sound from the other side of the room. It was the door of my closet, which had somehow opened by itself. I got up to check and almost instinctively glanced inside the closet as if I actually expected to find someone there, even though I was already 26 years old. Of course, there was no one. I closed the door and went back to bed. Later that same night, strange noises began, soft thumb.

Starting point is 00:25:22 and vibrations coming from the ceiling. It sounded like something was moving inside the air ducts. It was an odd noise. I had no idea what it could be. But as soon as it stopped, I quickly forgot about it and fell asleep. The next morning I told my father about the sounds I had heard in the attic the night before, but to my frustration he didn't show much interest, or simply didn't take me seriously. That night as I lay awake again, reflecting on life, the silence was once again broken by the slow creaky sound of the closet door opening. This time I felt real fear. I knew for certain that the door had been completely shut and that you needed to turn the knob to push it open. Carefully I checked inside the closet again, even though it wasn't very big

Starting point is 00:26:09 and there wasn't enough space for anyone to hide. I convinced myself that maybe the doorknob was loose or broken and that idea calmed me down a little. That same night I heard the noises again, from above, exactly like the night before. The following morning I finally convinced my dad to check the closet door, but after inspecting it, he concluded there was nothing wrong with it. When he closed it and pulled on it, it held firmly in place. As expected, he suggested I had probably not closed it properly, but I knew that wasn't true. That night I decided to stay seated waiting for everything to happen again, and as if on schedule, the closet door creaked and slowly opened. I waited for the sound from the ceiling, but this time it never came. There was only a long silence.

Starting point is 00:27:00 I turned on the lamp on my nightstand and looked toward the air vent. What I saw made me scream with all my strength. Through the vent, I could clearly see two wide open eyes staring directly at me from inside the duct. My parents came rushing into my room, alarmed, asking if I had lost my mind. I explained everything in detail, but their faces said at all. They thought I was imagining things. It was no surprise when they chalked it up to a dream or my lack of sleep. They even started scolding me for staying up too late, but to this day I know I didn't imagine it. It was too real. The fact that the closet door opened again and again wasn't something my mind made up. I've never been a believer in the paranormal. But honestly, I have no one.

Starting point is 00:27:45 other explanation for what happened during those three nights. Story 10. I live in the Poconos with my wife and kids. Just a few blocks away, about a quarter mile from our backyard. There's a small lake. Up until last week, I used to take my kids there to swim all the time, but that's over now. I'll never let them go back there again. I haven't told anyone about this, out of fear of sounding completely insane. It was the last Saturday. We went to the the lake as usual and set up our chairs on the sand. It's like having our own private little beach in our backyard. It's always been incredible. My wife and I sat in our beach chairs enjoying the sun while the kids splashed and played in the water, laughing happily. I always remind them not to go out

Starting point is 00:28:37 too far since they're still small. One is six, the other is eight. That day we stayed there for quite a while, almost two hours. Neither of us felt like getting in the water. Eventually, my wife got tired and decided to head back home. I agreed to stay a bit longer with the kids, since they were still having a great time playing in the sand and the water. The sun was starting to set, and I was beginning to feel tired myself. I noticed they were waiting in a little deeper than I felt comfortable with, so I shouted for them to come back toward the shore. But they didn't seem to hear me. I stood up to walk closer and call them again, but that's when I saw something in the water.

Starting point is 00:29:18 a round black shape and it was moving it was moving toward my kids i ran into the water as fast as i could yelling at them to get out when they were close enough i grabbed them and pulled them out myself i turned back toward the water to see the thing and it was gone it had vanished my kids were confused they didn't understand and i didn't know what to tell them i just said it was time to go home We packed up our things and walked back in silence, but once we got home I didn't feel calm, quite the opposite. What I had seen in the water didn't look like any kind of marine animal I know. Dinner was already on the table when we got back. I ate slowly, turning it over and over in my mind, unsure if I should tell my wife.

Starting point is 00:30:07 She noticed my behavior and asked what was wrong, why I was eating so slowly. I decided it wasn't the right time, and I said, nothing. After dinner, I grabbed a flashlight and went back to the lake alone. By then, it was completely dark. When I arrived, I just stood there for a moment, not even sure what I expected to find. I pointed the flashlight at the surface of the water, scanning across the lake, searching for that black shape. And then I heard it, a loud splash coming from the water. Not just any sound. It was the kind of splash something makes when it rises out of the water. maybe it was some animal. I swung the light around in all directions, trying to find where the

Starting point is 00:30:50 sound came from. And then I saw it, and in that moment I knew beyond any doubt that I had been completely wrong. Standing there right in front of me was the silhouette of a humanoid figure. It had long black hair covering its face entirely. It just stood there staring at me. Or at least it seemed like it was. I'm not even sure if it was really looking at me. I couldn't see its eyes. I dropped the flashlight in pure terror and ran immediately, not looking back, all the way home. I slammed the door shut, heart pounding in my throat. I haven't told anyone about this. Not even now can I bring myself to say it out loud.

Starting point is 00:31:32 What scares me the most is that the lake is just a quarter mile from my house, and for all I know, that thing could be watching me right now, through the window as I write this.

Horror Stories - 10 Terrifying TRUE Stories

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.