Snook - Horrifying Forest Reddit Stories

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

These were some Horrifying Forest Reddit Stories! These stories were so scary! What was your favorite story? And would you like to see me make similar videos in the future? Leave your thoughts down below in the comment section, and make sure to like and subscribe! Credits! Go give some support to these talented authors! Pendle-Affinity27 - https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1r0e8yy/i_saw_a_deer_with_forwardfacing_eyes_it_followed/ SapphireLion15 - https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/uvzg2o/i_asked_my_best_friend_to_tell_me_the_scariest/?sort=top Hokons - https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/1t4u636/my_smart_home_says_my_door_opened_at_215am/ I was granted permission to use all of these stories. Make sure to check out all of the original authors. Timestamps! 00:00 Intro 00:53 | I saw a deer with forward-facing eyes, it followed me home 54:41 | I Asked My Best Friend to Tell Me the Scariest Thing That Had Ever Happened to Him 01:20:14 | My Smart Home Says My Door Opened at 2.15AM 1:30:44 | Outro Make sure to subscribe to the Patreon for early access videos and many more perks! patreon.com/SnookYT Also! Go follow me on Spotify and Instagram! Yes, my voice is human. The channels subscriber goal is 1 million, so subscribe! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink. Pre-K drop off. Then straight to the gin. Back home to meal prep before heading to the fire station for my shift. When the three alarm comes in, I'm ready. Celsius. Live, fit, go. Grab a cold, refreshing Celsius energy drink at your local retailer. Or locate now at celsius.ca.

Enjoy Celsius responsibly. Designed for occasional energy boost, not as part of your daily diet. Please adhere to recommended serving limits. guys and welcome back to the channel and today we're getting into some horrifying forest reddit stories and oh boy do i have some scary forest stories for you guys today these stories range from skin walkers to creatures to weird people in the woods and these are just some of the best forest stories i have ever read and you guys have been asking for some of these more forest and cryptid and skin walker related videos for a while now so here you go i really hope you enjoy today's stories they had me on the

edge of my seat the entire time, so I'm sure you guys will enjoy them as well. And make sure you like the video and subscribe to the channel. The channel's subscriber goal is one million subscribers before the end of the year, so please subscribe and write. This video will be long enough already, so sit back, relax, grab a drink or grab a snack. Without further ado, let's get into some horrifying forest Reddit stories. I saw a deer with Ford facing eyes. It followed me home. I first saw the deer a week ago. My boyfriend and I went hiking last weekend. It was for our anniversary,

and we finally had some time off work to spend some time with one another. My boyfriend, Aaron, was so excited. He'd grown up in the mountains, and so he loved the idea of us heading out to his hometown to hike. It was sweet seeing him this happy. We'd been in a bit of a slump in our relationship because of work. He'd been put on nights and I still worked days, so we rarely saw each other. We had tried our best to see each other at home, but it was hard.

This is exactly what we needed. Some quality time together. You're going to love this place, he had told me in the car. I promise. God. I wish that was true. It didn't take us long to reach his hometown. town. Smooth sailing, all things considered. Traffic was light, sun stayed up throughout, and the

tunes were on point. It was your standard rural town. It was quiet and reserved. The place adorned with adorable little mom-and-pop shops and a miniature fountain in the center. We found this cute little cabin on the outskirts of town. It was small but unbelievably cozy when you put the fire on. One thing that stood out to me was that the place was littered with huge pine trees. Aaron told me how proud he was when he climbed to one of them as a kid. I shrugged it off. I mean, it's a tree, but oh my God. I understood how amazing of a feat that was now. These things were massive. They pierced through the clouds like giant shards of green. My neck killed after watching them for so long. I had never seen trees this big before. It was like they kept rising and rising and never

stopped. There were tons of snowy mountains too. They encircled the town like a mighty wall, protecting it from outside dangers. It was simply breathtaking, much different than the desert I grew up in. His parents still lived there, so we went to their place for dinner when we finished unpacking. They are a lovely couple. I hadn't eaten that well in a while. His mom made a spicy meatloaf and I ate so much of it. I had to pop my belt afterwards. Aaron couldn't really handle the spice, so it was hilarious seeing him gulp down liters of water in between each tiny morsel. His face was flushed after. So was his dads. They looked so much like each other. Once dinner was finished, we all sat in their living room, nursing glasses of wine. Aaron drank the rest of his

water. We left around 8 p.m. I can remember it because we wanted to head back before it was totally dark. The sun was setting, plunging the streets into shadow. The moon had been up for a while and now it had begun to shine beautifully against the darkening blue of the twilight sky. Street lamps hadn't been switched on yet, so we had to drive slowly and be on the lookout for people or animals. The lights from the shops became pinpricks in the rearview mirror, and eventually we reached the western outskirts of the town. I was lucky that Aaron knew the roads inside and out. I would have crashed as soon as we reversed out of his parents' driveway. We were quiet on the trip back. I think we didn't know what to talk about. Well,

I'm full. Aaron's voice broke the silence. Yeah, me too. I gave a soft laugh. The car was noiseless again before we both spoke at the same time. Are you okay? We matched each other. For the first time in a while, the pair of us laughed together. It was gentle, but genuine. It was nice. Yeah, I'm okay, I giggled. You? Yeah, not bad. Aaron chuckled to himself. Hands relaxing on the wheel. The silence wasn't as tense anymore. We knew we were tired. That's all. The trail's going to look so pretty tomorrow, he chirped. That big smile of his returning to his face. I was going to say something when he immediately stuck his arm out and hit my chest, creating a barrier to hold me back. He stomped his foot on the brake, hard.

He had held his arm out across my chest to keep me from plummeted forward into the windshield. It was so abrupt. I fell into his arm and had the air knocked out of my lungs. When the car jolted to a stop, I snapped backwards against the seat, narrowly avoiding banging the back of my head into the headrest. Aaron's arm was still shielding my chest when he fell backwards. Luckily, his head missed a headrest like myself, and he slowly leaned his neck back to put his head against the leather.

We sat there, panting after the sudden stop. Aaron was looking forward. Eyebrows furrowed and his mouth contorted into an open scowl. Came out of nowhere, he muttered under his breath. I stared onwards. Eyes fixated on the object in the road. It was a deer. She was an average doe.

Antlered less, and she had pretty white freckles dotted on her back. She wasn't looking at us, though. Her head was facing the road ahead of us. Her ears were completely still, not even a quiver at the sound of the car screeching to a halt. A deer, I gasped out. Aaron had his lips pressed into a tight, thin line. I noticed his chest wasn't rising, and then came to the realization that he was holding his breath.

His eyes were wobbling, tears forming. He hadn't blinked once since he slammed the brakes. In fact, he hadn't moved. What? He murmured in a wispy tone. He was breathless. I watched him with wary eyes, awaiting his reaction. I had never seen him this fearful before.

It reminded me of a child staring into his closet when he heard a bump in the night. We sat there for another few seconds before I decided to take action and honk the horn. Looking back, I think this was the worst thing I had ever done. I pushed Aaron's arm towards him and I pressed harshly down on the horn. A quick beep echoed into the woods. I waited. The dough didn't move. I furrowed my brow and started to feel a strange discomfort in my skin.

It was as if I had done something stupid. Hell, even illegal. This awful feeling ran up my neck. I was scared of a deer. of all things. The woods were pitch black by that point, and this unease made me want to head home as soon as we could. Aaron was obviously shaken.

I hated feeling so afraid. So, out of embarrassment and anger, I yelled. I yelled at a deer. I moved back over to my side of the car and put the window down. I leaned out of it and yelled, with as much power as my vocal cords could muster. Move.

Fear definitely put some power behind my voice. As soon as the word left my lips, a rough hand ragged my shoulder back into the seat of the car. I looked back with confusion, only to see a horrified errand glaring at me. He put the window up and hissed, What the hell are you doing? It's a deer.

I snapped back, desperate to get away from the road and head home. You haven't scared off a deer before? Aaron shook his head in disbelief and turned back to the animal. I did so too, hoping that the deer had taken the hint and galloped off back into the undergrowth. It hadn't even flinched. The thing was still stuck there. Neck twisted to the side and thin legs pinned straight. The dread washed over me.

sending a horrible shiver down my spine. Maybe it was deaf. Then, as if it heard me think, the deer ran off in the most awful way possible. It made me recoil so far back in my seat I was practically moving the chair back. It kept its legs straight and lobbled back into the bushes, like a crappy stop-motion movie.

The deer kept its head facing away from us, bobbing back and forth. It looked like a spring bouncing around after you pull it back and let it go. It was jarring, seeing an elegant creature moving in such a disjointed way. It was slow, too, taking its time to carefully applaud back into the woods. Aaron and I looked at it disappearing to the abyss of the pines, wide-eyed with disgust. He continued to stare at the animal before I had to shake him out of whatever trance he was trapped in. He shook his head and thrust the car into first gear. The pair of us eager to get into the cabin.

It took another ten minutes for us to reach it. Aaron was driving slightly above the speed limit, but I didn't blame him. I kept thinking about any logical reasons as to why the dough had behaved like that. When we eventually arrived, the pair of us sped walk inside and locked the door. Aaron double-checked all the windows were locked, and we stayed the night snuggled up in our bedroom watching a random drama on my laptop. The thought of the deer was fading now, with my consciousness nailing the whole thing down to tiredness. I had seen weird deer before. The idea of one being deaf or injured made more sense.

to me than it being anything unnatural. It was our anniversary tomorrow, and that was the main thing on my mind. Aaron, however, was twitchy all night. He was the one driving, so I could understand why he was unsettled. He's a good driver, and I guess that he was shocked he didn't see the deer earlier. The next morning was much better. Aaron woke me up with a breakfast in bed, much to my delight. He seemed much more calm than the night before.

There was still a hint of nervousness behind his eyes, but I shrugged it off. I can't describe the happiness I felt just being there with him. The pair of us set off around one, and the hike was supposed to last us for about two to three hours, depending on how long our breaks would be. It was supposed to be a wonderful couple of hours in nature. It was much longer than that. We told Aaron's parents that we'd be done by four

and that we left a key under the dormant outside. We also told them which trail we were heading on so they knew where we were if the worst case would happen. They then told us to look out for mountain lions and we assured them we would. I was eager to get out there. Despite last night's events, it had been a while since I went hiking.

But with Aaron by my side, I knew it was going to be a safe but fun trip. The first half of the trek was perfect. We walked around the forest, the great pines covering the mossy floor and shadow, the place was teeming with life, with squirrels dashing past our heads, heads in the trees and birds chirping sweet songs in our ears.

Aaron tried whistling back to little response. Guess my pitch is off, he chuckled. I gave it a go. And surprisingly, a couple of birds twittered back. Aaron feigned shock and snatched me up before running with me down the trail, shouting, you can have her, and she's mine. I was in complete stitches and laughed even harder. when bewildered hikers walked past us.

Eyebrows raised and some giggling at our frantic display. At the end of the first half of the hike, we were rewarded with a scene of a beautiful lake. It was around there we stopped for a quick break. We sat on the side of the trail, watching the sun shimmering on the surface of the water. There were people all over it. Some were on canoes, some were windsurfing,

Quite a lot of people were actually swimming. I could see their little heads bobbling around in the water. I think I took 20 pictures of the place. We stayed there a while before we set off back down the trail. The sun wouldn't go down for a while, so we took our time. I had completely forgotten about what happened last night. Aaron seemed a little bit on edge, but he was still grinning ear to ear. Sometimes I would see him look behind us.

He disguised it as looking at me, but I knew of the real reason. The thought of that deer was still playing on his mind. In hindsight, I should have been more cautious to. Aaron lived here all of his childhood, so he knew what was normal around these woods. If Aaron was still anxious, I should have been too. The trail was still relatively busy. It was still early afternoon, so most people probably started hiking then.

We'd walk past them, greeting fellow travelers. We could hear them behind us chatting about work or whose birthday it was that week. Normal things. We had less than half an hour left on our way back, and Aaron texted his parents to let them know. I looked up at the pines. The sun's rays tried their hardest to shine through the dense needles, showering the floor with little pinpricks of light. Then I heard a voice.

It came from somewhere. I originally thought it came from in front of us. It could have been a hiker coming up the trail. The voice was faint, hardly above a whisper, although I would call it more of a groan. It was a rattling sound. I didn't think anything of it and waited to see who was walking up the trail. We went on, smiles still stretched across our faces.

Unfortunately, no one ever walked past. I could see Aaron tense in his shoulders. He stuck his hand out and waggled it, prompting me to take it. I sped up and walked closer to him, holding his hand. He didn't look down at me, but he acknowledged my presence with a squeeze of my hand. I was going to turn and see if it was someone messing with us, but Aaron squeezed my hand again and looked at me with big eyes. He gave a soft shake of his head and gestured with his eyes to remain looking.

ahead. The voice grew louder the more we walked. It wasn't actually saying much. Just a bunch of babbling. Sharp breaths punctuated every syllable. It kept changing its intonation too. One moment it would be as happy as a child. Letting out stifled giggles. Other times it would be nervously whimpering. Sometimes it would be angry, like letting out growls and cut off yelps. It was almost as if it were speaking to us from all angles. Sometimes hisses would come from the left. Some gasps would come from the right. It wanted us to look at it.

It got colder. The sun was still high in the sky, but a grim cold wind had picked up. and I ended up having to put my hands in my pockets. We entered an area where there was debris on the ground, needles and sticks, that kind of thing. We walked a bit faster through this part, hoping to reach the exit as quickly as possible. We had to be less than 15 minutes away now,

so we were close. Along with the crunching underfoot, the voice followed us. It was actually getting more vocal now, yipping and letting out whoops couldn't tell if they were happy screams or annoyed ones it was close to us though horribly close a rancid smell had started to permeate the air rotten meat with a hint of ammonia last time i smelled something like that i went camping with my dad shot a buck right in front of me and I can remember the sound of the bullets going past.

He didn't even do anything with its corpse. He just slept by it for three nights, and that dreadful smell grew. I didn't sleep a wink. Instead, I watched it every night, imagining it, jerking to life and taking its revenge. At the time, I wanted it to. It was one of the last times I ever went camping with him.

Thankfully, old drunk. The crunches were clear, coming from all sides. I wanted to look, I really did. Aaron, however, kept a hand on my back and was almost pushing me along. So I kept looking forward. I wanted someone to come past us, a regular person, just so we had some company, to prove that this wasn't real. Then, we found out where the voice was.

A loud snap of a twig echoed from right behind us. It caught us so off guard, we halted to a stop. Whatever was following us did as well. My heart hammered hard against my chest. It had been behind us the entire time. It had ceased its warbling and now was completely silent. But there was no breathing, nothing. I looked over at Aaron, pleading.

He looked at me back, eyes locked on my face. His breathing went quiet and he mouthed, Don't, to me. I returned my gaze to the road ahead and swallowed. I saw a marker on the left of me. We were close and could probably sprint to the exit. I was running through each of the signs and where they were when I heard a sound that sent an ice-cold shiver down my back. Aaron

The voice was so horribly familiar yet so alien. It was my own voice, deep and gravely. It was like whatever was behind us drawing out the sounds, testing its ability. Aaron bristled at the sound of the grimace. It sounded so much like me, except it was throaty and aged. It tried again with a higher pitch. It sounded more like me, but just not quite. The foul smell lingered, almost making me gag.

It smelled so pungent and strong. I believe now that the smell was its breath. We didn't really smell any. anything like that before the voice came. And it must have been so close to us, we had began to pick up on the scent. I don't know. My eyes made their way to Aaron's,

who was looking back at me with a fear I had never seen before. He mouthed to me. Run. That's all I needed. Before Aaron could react, I had already began sprinting down the trail, running as fast as my legs could take me. I jumped over the roots of the tree, trying not to fall.

I heard Aaron behind me, his feet stomping against the ground. Soon, my legs were aching and my heart was desperately thudding, trying to keep up with the fact that I had sprinting for a while. I'm a desk jockey and do zero cardio, okay? I ran and ran and ran. I kept frantically looking for the markers. Hell, I was looking for the exit. Nothing but the endless road.

of pine trees and the odd bushes dotted around. I had to stop. I didn't know where I was and the sounds had gone quiet. Surely it would be okay for me to turn around. So I slowed to stop, legs wobbling from the adrenaline. I turned around and scanned the area. Aaron was nowhere to be seen. I had lost him. My stomach dropped to the floor. I spun. I spun. I around and watched. He was nowhere. How had I gone the wrong way? This trail had one road. I didn't change trail or reach any crossroads, but somehow I had managed to go further into the woods. It was impossible for me to not be at the opening. I took in huge ghosts of air and started to look around and yell out for Aaron. My throat hurts so much. It was useless, really. My mind began to

race. I had to figure out how to find the exit. I stood up and breathed in. Aaron? My blood froze. In my panic, I had totally neglected the fact I wasn't alone. The voice was ridiculously close to mine now. And the only thing holding it back from being an identical copy was the fact it hadn't nailed down my accent. I have a southern accent. This voice had something, akin to someone with Valley Girl accent trying to do a Southern one. It was a terrible impression, but it genuinely sounded like something I would come out with. Then, the next sound it made caused me to jump so far in the air, my knees cracked when I landed. It made the sound of a car horn honking.

It was so ear-piercing and loud, my ears rang afterwards. It was short and punchy, like a little pip, you used. do if the person in front hadn't moved when the lights go green. Now, I would have laughed at that. It's a car now, I would have thought. Instead, I thought, it's our car now? The warning beep I had given the deer that night just rang out in the middle of the woods. It did it again, louder this time. I think it was trying to make me scream or something because it kept making me jump when it did that. It kept on hopping from one place to another, searching for me. When I got closer, I backed up to one of the pines and held my breath.

For all I knew, it could have been behind me. I just breathed. I kept my eyes forward like Aaron told me to, and breathed in, in, out. In, out. It's all I could do. The place went silent again. fear swirling in my stomach. I thought it found me. Then I felt something touched my shoulder. The fingers were long and they buried themselves into the flesh. Slowly, my eyes crept towards the hand

until eventually I followed the arm. It went up above me. When I saw what was there, I nearly screamed. There, crouched on one of the bigger branches of the pine, was Aaron with a finger to his lips. He held out his hand and braced himself against the branch, moving from a crouch to a seated position. I grabbed the hand hard, pushing myself upwards and towards the branch just below him. My right hand made it onto the branch, and I reached up with my left hand. Aaron pulled me upwards,

careful to not fall himself. Just as I thought I'd made it safely onto the branch box, my left foot slipped and I smashed my knee against the bark. I bit back a yelp and bared my teeth. Oh my God, that hurt. I didn't even want to imagine looking down, so I weakly pulled my leg back up and made my way up the tree. The voice was further away now,

the sound of Aaron's voice calling for me. It made us shudder. Eventually, we made it to a branch high enough to be safe and thick enough to hold us. We could see the ground through the gaps of the needles. I took a seat and looked at my knee. Blood made my blue leggings go a vile purple. Scratches in the fabric showed my ripped skin, as deep red trickled from the gashes.

It stung like hell. Aaron placed a hand on my lower back and kissed my forehead. I fell into his touch and put my head into his neck. Wet dribbles of tears dripped into my scalp. Aaron was crying. He was always the more emotional one out of us. We established that quite early in our relationship when Aaron had held me, bawling over a nature documentary where a lion took down a gazelle.

That was our second date. I can remember how I stared at him with disgust. A few years later, and I still do, but now I hug him back and laugh. Growing up in a poor household teaches you to control your emotions. One wrong look and shit hits the fan. I guess that's what drew me to Aaron in the first place. He did stuff like that and nothing happened. His parents would chuckle instead of screaming at him.

It was the nicest kind of weird I have ever experienced. The voice had rounded back to our tree, and it was back to mimicking me. Move. Once again, using what I told it last night to coax us out. It did this for about a minute, and then we saw a flash of a brown blur speed past the tree. The blur waddled backwards, reversing. Then, I heard. saw it. This deer wasn't a deer. We established this, but it didn't make the reveal any less

horrifying. It didn't look at us and was looking deep into the forest. Then it heard something and faced our way. Its eyes weren't on the sides of its head. They were at the front, like a predator, like a human. They didn't look human. They were regular deer eyes, which I feel made it worse, small and beady. The sun was just setting, so the last bits of light reflected off the eyes. Once darkness began to hit, they changed. In the light of the sunset, I squinted in the light of the sunset, I squinted in the last.

saw how it shook its head around violently. It looked up in an instant and faced away from the tree. Then it turned, and I saw how its eyes were blown out. Visibly they had grown a lot. And now they were almost black. Better for searching. It spun around again and leapt off into the undergrowth. I heard a roaring sound before I heard a hoarse I didn't recognize.

It was a little boy. Aaron. Aaron let out a gasp and slapped his hand over his mouth. Tears were in full flow now and his hands were shaking. Over here. Then a giggle. A childlike cough. And a, the worst sound of the lot.

A young boy screaming bloody murder. Aaron clapped his hand. hands over his ears and sucked in wet breaths. I wrapped my arms around him, stroking his flank. I could hear him muttering. It's not Jake. It's not him. Over and over. Aaron. It continued to wail. Mom. Dad. It was awful.

Its voice kept on wavering back and forth between voices. It had seemingly perfected the Jake's. voice, as Aaron kept on choking on his breath whenever it copied the boy. It had pretty much decided that we were close because it stayed in the same position for the rest of the time we were up there, right next to the tree we were in. The sun had set fully then, so it was hard to see anything. My eyes adjusted, but it was still difficult. It went on and on, drained. the pair of us. It got to the point where we were used to the screams and now realized that whatever was making the voices was doing it on a loop like a broken record. My voice, Aaron's,

unknown boy, and then Jake. It was so mentally draining. I was fully considering jumping down and getting it over and done with. Now at least I would be dying or going missing with the one I loved, as dismal as that seems. I really couldn't think of anything else in the moment. It messed with me. As soon as I was going to close my eyes, a loud bang shot through the air. We heard a loud, warbling scream and the thundering sound of feet underneath. A gruff voice yelled our full names and ran around the tree. A couple more pairs of feet followed. This had to be the Rangers.

Up here, I called down to them. The flashlight beams shone around until they brought them up to our tree. Thankfully, it was the Rangers. We clambered down and were greeted with the sight of three park rangers and Aaron's dad. their faces ashy. I almost fell to my knees in joy and exhaustion. Aaron just caught me at the last second and choked out a sob. We had been found.

Aaron carried me back to the entrance of the woods. The place looked so different in the dark. Aaron's mom was waiting for us with the other officers. She had been in floods of tears too, immediately running towards us. I had never felt so tired in my entire life. One of the officers took us to the hospital. I had splinters all in the gashes, and my muscles were exposed. Seriously gross stuff, but nothing was broken, so I wasn't worried.

Everything happened so fast, you know. Aaron was fine, and that's all I cared about. It was our anniversary, after all. It may surprise you to find out we have. headed home the very next day. We were quiet on the way back. I had so many questions to ask, but with one look at Aaron's face, I faced forward and closed my eyes. We were both too tired for talking. Once we got home, Aaron checked the house and collapsed on our bed. I stayed up and numbly watched a crappy comedy. No matter how much I watched, I could still hear the

screams. Some time I dropped off, don't know when, but when I woke up, Aaron was boiling some water, and the smell of coffee wafted its way to the living room. He walked in and handed me a cup, pressing a soft kiss to my temple with a warm smile. We sat in silence, dumbly watching the TV, when he sighed. I'm sorry I took you there. I cocked my head. It wasn't your fault.

Silence. I knew what was in there. I held the cup of coffee and stared at him. What? He sniffled and coughed. I remember everything. What? He turned to me.

Eyes watery. Seeing it again. He shook his head. Everything came back. What did that even mean? I opened my mouth before Aaron spoke again. They told me his family moved away. His eyes were glassy now, swimming with memories.

Jake's family? I was gentle, hoping to not set him off crying. He nodded and took a sip of his coffee. One day he was there, the next he wasn't. Now you know why? He nodded again, Morrisley. We sat there for a while. We were camping for our birthday.

We had the same birthday. Aaron looked up. Recounting the events like they happened yesterday. It was our 12th. I let him speak. We were so excited, Al. His eyes fluttered. Then we heard it.

The deer? Yeah, the deer. He let out a cruel laugh. If only. What happened? He took another sip before he started up again. It called to us in our voices, saying stuff like over here and our names. Aaron placed the cup on the table.

We thought it was funny. I get that. You guys were kids. kids. Yeah, well, we found it so funny. We asked it to come out and wish us a happy birthday. And? I have never seen something more horrible in my entire life. He shook slightly. Face gradually going pale. We screamed. So it didn't look like a deer, or it did. And we just didn't see its real. form? We ran away, or I did. It's hard to remember. He wet his lips. I can remember hearing Jake fall, and I turned to look at him. I reached over and rubbed his arm when he became emotional.

He brought a hand up to his lips and stared at a corner of the room. I ran over and tried to pull him up. He gasped, and it just batted me away like a fly. His eyes were downcast. There was so much blood. He looked at me to respond, but I didn't and let him speak. It dragged him away, and I ran so far, ended up climbing a tree and camping there for a while. How long?

He shrugged. All I know was that I sat there, until the sun went down and the noises stopped. Then I ran home. You tell your folks? He nodded sheepishly. They told the police, they went and checked it out, found blood and blamed it on a cougar.

He forced out a laugh. Then it spoke to me. It spoke to you? I was leaned forward in my seat now. Yes, when I was about to dripped off to sleep, He lowered his voice to a whisper. I'll come back to you. Then you can join him.

I swallowed it thickly. Why hadn't it come earlier for him? Was he trying to ripen him up? It just made me feel sick. Did you see it again? No. I stayed out of the woods and it didn't bother me anymore. The air was thick, hard to breathe.

It must have used this hike as a chance to take him. I could have saved him. You were a kid, Aaron. So fucking what he snapped at me. I could have saved him. Could you? He paused and watched me intently. His eyes bounced from one side the next,

seemingly going through every possible outcome With a furrow of his brow, I guess he realized that he couldn't have done anything. He sat back in his seat on the sofa. His eyes were still cloudy, clearly still thinking. I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder, holding his arm. Strange what the mind hides from you. Huh? I didn't say anything.

I mean, what can you say to that? We tried to get on with our lives. I went back to work, so did Aaron. We acted like we had the best anniversary of our lives, because what else could we do? Tell my manager that we had some kind of monster deer chase us down in the middle of the woods, and we kept hearing it mimicking us and Aaron's dead childhood friend. See how ridiculous that sounds? So we put on our happy faces.

It was harder for Aaron. obviously. He's looking to see a therapist. He's also talking with the police from his hometown over Jake's disappearance. Jake's parents are yet to say anything. Can't imagine what they're going through. He told me he couldn't live with himself if he stayed quiet. I try to look more on the positive side nowadays. I used to be very cynical and I blame my up. bringing for that. When I met Aaron, stuff changed. He was just so enthusiastic about life. Car broke down in the rain. Well, at least we have shelter. Lost your wallet. Well, we can always get a new one. You feel guilty for cutting contact with your parents. You had to do that for your safety.

Always, he's been able to turn bad situations on their head and find the silver lining in the cloud, even if it's barely visible. He brought out that optimistic part of me that I hid for so long. He helped me out of that horrible pit and made me see the light in life again. Since that day, I've been seeing less and less of that happy go lucky guy. I'm not complaining at all, by the way. Please know that. I'd be more disturbed if he just went on with life like nothing happened. But I feel like I've been taking him for granted. I want to help him through this. He helped me, so I'm going to help him too. He assures me I don't need to, but I will anyway. I love him. And if that means I wait on every hand and foot for him, I'll fucking do it. I thought we were in the clear after we left that place. Turns out I was wrong.

This happened earlier today, and I'm still shook up riding this. I was at home after work, and I went upstairs to go change. It looked like Aaron had just left before my arrival because he left the bathroom light on. I was about to flip the switch when I saw something. It was a bit hard to see because of the frosted glass, but there was something outside. It was a dark, fragmented blob. I was tempted to open the window to see what it was. I mean, it could have been a piece of clothing that came into the backyard.

Suddenly, a shiver. ran down my spine and I writhed in my spot. I halted and watched the blob. It was completely still, which put doubt on my clothing theory. It was quite windy outside, so the clothing would have wafted around or flown off. This thing stayed deathly still. It had four little stumps under it like table legs. Maybe they were legs. Cats often came into our yard with the next-door neighbor having two of them. It looked bigger than a cat, though.

I blamed the frosted glass for the distortion, but that theory didn't last long either. The thing began to move. It lifted each of the stumps one by one, which now solidified my belief that this was indeed an animal, and then crouched down. Then, much to my horror, the thing lifted itself up onto two legs, body rising high into the air. It stood straight up, the stumps now longer.

What the hell? It didn't wobble or fall, but instead went stiff as a board and ray, its fifth stump, which I figured out was its neck. So this thing was either staring away from me or directly at me. It was hard to see, but I think it was looking at me. Then an awful thought came to my mind. It couldn't be that dear.

It couldn't. The thing and I were just staring at each other, and I seriously hoped that it couldn't see me. Then I realized something. I had the bathroom light on, and I was standing at the window. It could definitely see me. Thoughts of the screaming and hollering from that night

played over and over in my mind. Had it followed us home? my body tensed up and refused to breathe. I had gone very much into pray mode, and I was now trying my best to hide myself, which, let's be honest, isn't going to go down well when you're stood under a spotlight. I don't know how long I stayed there.

After a while, the thing gave up, and whilst still on its hind legs, it staggered off into the bush behind the house. I cried. I cried so hard. I ended up squeezed into the corner of the bathroom, shaking like a leaf with tears running down my cheeks. I can't remember the last time I cried like that.

It must have been when I first moved in with Aaron, and that was a long time ago. After this release of pent-up emotion, I pulled myself together and called Aaron. I gushed, spilling everything to him. I thought we'd lost connection because he was so quiet. He eventually told me he'd be home soon and that I should start to pack a bag. I didn't have any time to respond before he hung up and I was left baffled. When he came home, he came into our bedroom and started piloting.

piling clothes into his duffel bag. Where are we going? I asked. Staring at my boyfriend in surprise. He had never been this serious before. I'll tell you in the car. He didn't even bother looking away from his bag. Babe, what's going on? He shushed me sharply.

I'll tell you in the car. I went back to folding my clothes and chucking spare glances at him. His face was completely blank in his hands were working on autopilot. We left the house that evening. As soon as we packed. Is it bad to say that Aaron scared me a little? I had never seen this part of him at all. It was almost like he was angry.

We got settled in the car and he pulled out of the driveway. Are you going to tell me where we're going now? He stayed quiet and faced the road. Aaron, I was getting irritated now. He pursed his lips and flicked his eyes over to the rearview mirror. Aaron, will you answer me? Shut up, he hissed, eyes bobbing from the rear view to the windshield and back again. I sat there, speechless.

That was the first time he had told me to shut up and meant it. There wasn't any venom behind the words and I didn't know what to make of it. So I did what I learned to do when people were pissed off. I stayed quiet and, much to my shame, I disassociated. He was stressed and I was making things harder. I think I must have disassociated for about an hour before I felt Aaron squeezing my shoulder. We were outside a dive bar. I had no idea where we were.

You okay, sweet? He was rubbing into the meat of my shoulder. Face full of concern. About an hour of time lost. I heard him call my name and I woke up from that familiar trance. Where are we? It was the only thing I was thinking about. Let's get inside first, yeah.

Something in me. just snapped. What was this? No, I bit. You tell me right now, Aaron. He threw his head back against the headrest inside. Can we just get inside, Elle? Aaron, please. I stared right at him. I'm scared. It was rare for me to say that out loud. Aaron knew that. He quickly looked around all the car, peeking in the windows before he turned to me. He beckoned me close to him, and I obeyed. Then he whispered something in my year. It might still hear us.

I had a full body shiver and made my stomach fill with dread. So we need other people to block out conversation? I whispered back. He nodded. I understood, even if it sounded bizarre. We grabbed a bite to eat and sat in the, the middle of the booths, multiple families chatting beside us. Finally, we could talk. That leads me to now. I'm sitting in the car. Aaron's driving. In the span of a week, my life has

been turned upside down. Life was good. It was good. I was with the man I loved and away from all this shit in my life. My parents were out of my social circle. and Aaron's family took their place. My life was good. Now we're running back to his hometown. It sounds stupid. However, there are a couple of reasons for this. Number one, home isn't safe anymore.

That thing knows where we live. Number two, we could vacate to somewhere far off, but money is not good at the moment. And even then, that thing could follow us. We have no idea where this thing can go. Finally, three. Aaron told his parents and they believed us, mainly because his dad saw the deer.

They know someone, someone who can help us. Hopefully, that makes more sense as to why we've decided to head back. We're going to stay to the highways, no backroads unless we have to. Hopefully, that thing either stays away, or if it follows us, it gets ran over by a truck. It probably wouldn't kill it, but it would slow down. I hope. I'm going to finish this post here.

Aaron and I are in the car now and we're close to the highway. I just hope we get there safely. Wish us luck. And this is the last time we have ever heard from the O.P. so hopefully the OP and the OP's husband are alive and safe and away from that monster. I asked my best friend to tell me the scariest thing that had ever happened to him, written by Sapphire Lion 15. Nate and I were at his parents' cabin in Ontario to celebrate the start of summer.

We'd both taken a week off of work and planned a four-day visit. vacation of nothing but hiking, biking, canoeing, and enjoying a break from our hectic lives in the city. I honestly don't remember much of the vacation itself. It was a lot of fun, sure, but we did so much of the same stuff that it's all sort of a blur. Whenever I think of that trip, the only thing that I can remember is that conversation, probably because I want so desperately to forget it. We'd finished a simple but tasty dinner of hot dogs and potato chips. We both wanted beers, but we'd blown through what we brought with us.

It was raining with occasional thunderclaps. I thought it was peaceful. We were sitting in front of a roaring fireplace. working through a pot of coffee. It was dark and fairly late, but neither of us felt like going to bed, probably because of the coffee, so we ended up just talking.

The first few minutes of our conversation were nothing noteworthy, just small talk. Somehow, I really have no idea how, the conversation turned to some of the weird animals we'd seen during the trip. Nate brought up how, while we'd been hiking the day before, a snake had slithered across the trail, most likely startled by us. I had let out a very unmanly scream and jumped a foot in the air. I chuckled and explained that I was afraid of snakes because, when I was nine, my brother's pet boa constrictor escaped its terrarium, made its way out of his bedroom, and ate my peat of my peat of his bedroom, and ate my peat of it.

pet hamster. My parents got rid of the boa and made my brother apologize to me. But I'd been afraid of the reptiles ever since. I said, without exaggeration, that walking in on that creature swallowing my still kicking hamster was the scariest thing I ever saw. Nate looked sympathetic and handed me a cookie from the package we'd been snacking on. We were surprised. We were for a minute, listening to the rain and fire, when I asked the question. What's the scariest thing that ever happened to you? Nate seemed to freeze. I wondered for a moment if he hadn't heard me.

Then I noticed that his coffee cup was violently shaking. The thankfully lukewarm at that point coffee had spilled all over his hands and onto the blank in his lap. Nate? The sound of my voice brought him back to reality. He sucked in a quick breath and noticed that his hand in blankets were soaked in coffee. He frowned and got up, swearing at these spilled coffee. I'm sorry, I just, uh, no, I'm sorry.

I didn't know you'd, you know, freeze up like that. You don't have to tell me if you don't. No. He was so blunt that it surprised me. He'd gotten rid of the ruined blanket. It was a cheap one anyway. Wiped off his hand and refilled his coffee cup. He came back and sat in his chair facing me.

We'd been friends for years, but I'd never seen him look so grave. It's been years since I thought of it. The scariest thing that ever happened to me? As much as I want to, though, I'll never forget it. Do you want to talk about it? No, but I will. I need to. Just remember something for me.

I'm not making this up. I couldn't if I tried. This isn't some campfire ghost story that happened to my brother's friend, sisters, mailman, or anything like this. I'm not making this up, okay? I nodded. Despite his warnings, my interest had tripled. He sighed and took a long sip from his coffee. He turned and faced the fire. He didn't look at me once through the story. I asked questions, and he answered every one, but he never turned away from the fire. I was 17, and feeling like I was the king of the world.

I just paid for, with my parents' help, a used but nice red pickup truck. One of the prettiest girls in my school was my... Across Canada in a Volvo. Destination. Vancouver. Turn left to leave. Travel west through. Approaching. Continue toward. You've arrived.

Adventure and comfort. with Volvo. Whether you prefer gas, plug-in hybrid, or fully electric, there's a Volvo for everyone. Learn more at VolvoCars.ca.com. Girlfriend, I had just gotten a letter of acceptance to my dad's Amateur. I thought things couldn't get better. To celebrate, Sabrina, my girlfriend, our friend, AJ, and a lot of our friends through a party. I don't really remember it, but it's where I first heard about the old raindrop in. The raindrop in? Yeah, it was some old hotel back in the 1920s or 1930s.

No one knew the full story, but rumor had it that the town founder had built the hotel for his wife. That it had been her dream to live in a hotel. On the opening night, however, the founder found his wife in their bedroom, fooling around with a bellboy. She screamed when she saw her husband, and apparently she opened the balcony door and committed S-word.

The founder never set foot in the hotel again and later sold it to the highest bidder. It was open for another 20 years. During that time, 18 people died in it. Most of them committed S-word. via the balcony, just like the founder's wife. A maid who saw one of them jump says that the guest screamed, Leave me alone into the bedroom before she committed S-word.

When the maid checked, there was no one in the bedroom. What about the other guests? The ones that didn't commit S-word. Only five of the dead guests didn't. I don't remember. the other two, but there was a couple that were found tied together in a full bathtub, fully clothed, with a plugged-in TV in there with them. The other was a young boy who just disappeared.

His mother told the police that she tucked her son into bed and heard some terrible squealing noise after she shut the door. She described it as a sort of squeal of delight, and it wasn't from her son. She ran back in and he was gone. No body, no blood, nothing. Apparently, that was the last straw. The owner was sick of bad publicity and closed the place down. I learned all of this the night of that party.

I didn't believe it and told the guys that they told a nice ghost story. They got defensive and told them. told me to go see it for myself if I didn't believe them. Then they told me where to find it. Everyone knew that it was just inside the forest behind the high school. I laughed it off and we continued to party. But I kept that story in my mind. The next night, Sabrina was over at my house. We were trying to watch a movie, but my little brother Pete wouldn't leave us alone. He kept saying that it was his turn for the TV, that he was going to tell mom if we didn't hand over the remote. Do you have a little brother? I nodded. Then you probably know how I felt. I finally threw the remote

down on the couch and went on to the porch with Sabrina. We were talking. She was suggesting we go to her house to watch the movie. I forget what exactly we were talking about. Anyway, my mom Mom walks out of the house and tells me that she needs to run out for a few hours. She was a vet and some asshole, her words, not mine, had run over a dog. She told me I was in charge and asked Sabrina if she wanted a ride home. She said no that we were going to finish our movie. Mom told me she'd be home by 1 a.m. Reminded me to watch Pete and left.

I told Sabrina that if Pete was going to do. be a pain and hog the TV all night, then I didn't really want to stay home. It was a Friday night, not to mention the start of summer. I told her that we should do something exciting, something cool. She asked me what I wanted to do. At that point, it was eight at night, and a few places were closed. I thought for a second before I remembered the night before. I asked her if she had heard about the drain drop in. Surprisingly, she hadn't. I told her what the guys had told me the night before. She listened, but asked when I was done, why I brought it up. I told her that. I wanted to go see it. She laughed at me. Very funny. I told her I was serious. If it was as close as the guys at the

party had said, then we could be there and back before my mom got home. She was quiet for a second. then started to look excited. She'd always had a bit of a fascination with urban legends, and I knew that it wouldn't take much convincing to get her to go to the old hotel. But then her face fell again. You have to watch your brother. Remember? There's no way that he wouldn't tell your mom.

I cursed under my breath. She was right. If Pete knew what we were doing, he'd want to come. The kid had read every goosebumps book twice and loved scary stuff. If he came, he'd ruin the fun. And if we left, he'd tell mom. Then I had an idea. When I was a kid, my dad got Pete and I into collecting these little hot wheels cars.

I kept up my collection even in my teens and had about 300 by that night. Pete had less than half of that, and he was sick. seriously jealous of my collection. I'd even caught him in my room once or twice, trying to steal the more impressive models. I told Sabrina that I knew what to do and went inside. Pete had turned the TV to one of those kids' channels and got mad when I paused it. But he heard me out. I told him that I would give him 50 of the cars from my collection. His choice, if he didn't tell mom about Sabrina and I going out for a while. He agreed, but asked where we were going.

Just some place some friends at school told me about. He seemed suspicious, but nodded. He then turned back to the TV and pulled his favorite red baseball cap down to his eyebrows, signaling that the conversation was over. I went up to my room to grab a flashlight and a jacket. When I came downstairs, the TV was off, and Pete was gone. I assumed that he'd gone to his room and went back to the porch. Sabrina was annoyed that I'd taken so long, but then smiled and said she wanted to go.

I turned towards my truck and was halfway to the driveway when Sabrina told me to turn around. I had left the front door open. I pulled my key from my pocket, shut the door, and locked it. But I was confused. I was sure I'd locked the door on my way out the first time. Hadn't I? I shook it off and went to the car with Sabrina. It was barely five minutes from our house to the high school, but we wasted ten driving around,

looking for the old, unkempt road that allegedly led to the rain drop. Finally, I parked my truck and we both got out. I turned on the flashlight, and we walked out. Finally, Sabrina spotted it. You wouldn't notice it from a distance, as a lot of grass had grown between the cracks, but there was a lot of really broken asphalt that made a trail leading into the woods. We looked at each other and grinned. We were about to start when I heard a sound like a car door slamming.

We both turned to my truck, but there was nothing there. I remembered then that I hadn't locked it, and pressed the button on my key fob. Sabrina, more eager now than ever, grabbed my upper arm and pulled me down the path. We walked for maybe 20 minutes before we found it. We both sort of froze when it came into view. I don't think either of us had completely believed that it was real,

but there it was. It looked like it had once been nice. It was three stories tall. It must have been really well built if it was still still. standing after 70 years, 50 of them with no maintenance. Still, the age showed. The building was being strangled by Kanzu, with every window being broken or having no glass at all.

The original color of the walls was impossible to guess, as the wind, rain, and time had turned them in earthy brown. The roof was missing multiple tiles. There were massive cracks in the wall. and the front porch was sagging. To top it all off, we clearly had it been the first people to visit the place. Graffiti, written in neon orange spray paint,

had been sprayed on several blank spots on the walls. Keep out, run, stay away, danger. Stuff like that was written whenever the artist could find space. We should have gone home right then and there. I was scared out of my mind, and judging by how tightly she was holding my hand, Sabrina was too, but we still wanted to go in.

Maybe I was being stupid that night. Maybe I wanted to look tough in front of my girlfriend. I don't know, but we went in. The hotel was even creepier inside. At first glance, I thought it looked more like an old barn than an old hotel. Then, as my eyes adjusted to the dark, I saw that, yes, it had been in the hotel.

There was the front desk, covered in mouse turds, there was the lobby bell, so rusty that it would never ring again, the half-eaten couch, lopsided love seat and upside-down chair, had been the sitting area in the lobby. There was even a luggage cart buried under so many dusty cobwebs that it looked like a sheer white curtain had been. been draped over it. From holes in the ceiling, moonlight illuminated the room. Well, this is inviting. Sabrina whispered. You scared? I whispered back. Hoping she would say yes so that we could leave.

No, she responded, still whispering. I knew she was lying. You don't burrow your fingernails into someone's shoulder if you're relaxed. Are you scared? No. I lied. Why are we whispering? I don't know, she said. Speaking normally. Do you want to try and go upstairs? I did not. What I wanted was to get out of there. Make a beeline for the truck, go home and wrestle the TV remote from Pete, but I didn't want my girlfriend to think I was a wimp, so I tried to look brave and nodded.

The stairs were in surprisingly good shape, considering the state of the rest of the rest of to the hotel. We had to dodge cobwebs, which hung from the ceiling of the stairwell like party streamers, but we didn't have trouble getting to the next floor. That's when things got really creepy. The first thing we saw when we got to the hotel's second floor was a lump in the middle of the floor. Sabrina glanced at me, and I walked over to the lump. I only took one look before jumping back and disgust. The lump was a rabbit, or it had been. It was dead, and I didn't have to be a doctor to see what had killed it. There was a hole in its chest the size of my fist.

From the two-second glance I took, I could see that the rabbit's organs were all gone. There wasn't even blood. The rabbit was nothing more than literal skin and bones. I did not tell Sabrina this. I just said that the rabbit had been killed by something, and that we should probably go. She was clearly freaked out by the rabbit, even if she didn't know how bad it was mutilated. We might have left right then if we hadn't heard something. Footsteps.

We both froze and slowly turned to look at the door to the stairwell. Someone was coming up the stairs. I threw open the first door I saw. The lock was so old that. it fell off when I opened the door. I sort of hugged Sabrina to me and pulled her into the room. I closed the door as quietly as I could, hoping that whatever was coming up the stairs hadn't hurt us in the hall. We both heard the door to the stairwell open. We looked at each other and both put our fingers over our lips. I've never seen Sabrina's eyes so wide, and I have a feeling

mine looked the same. We listened closely as the thing that had walked up the stairs began to walk slowly down the hall. I heard it stop at what must have been the rabbit's corpse. At that point, I realized that I heard a new noise. There were voices coming from the hallway. No, not the hallway. Those voices were coming from all over the floor. I wrapped my arms around Sabrina as we listened. From somewhere there came an inhuman squeal of delight, followed by the scream of a small child. From a bathroom somewhere up the hall, there was begging and screaming, followed by a violent splash in the unmistakable sound of electricity. A woman screamed, leave me alone, followed by a window shattering and a distant, heavy thud. My already hammering heart rate accelerated when I realized what I was listening to.

I remembered the story from the party, how a child had disappeared. A couple had been electrocuted. A woman had committed S word. We'd just listened to those people die. Those sounds finally stopped, followed by what sounded like a sharp draw of breath from the hallway. I noticed then that the room was cold, eerily cold, especially for a night in late May, and it was quickly getting colder, like the source of the chill was moving up the hall. There was a sudden scream.

I was so rattled that I screamed. So did Sabrina. At that moment, instincts took over. I forgot about looking cool and just wanted out of there. I grabbed Sabrina's hand and charged through the door like a fullback. It was so old that I actually knocked it off its hinges as I ran. I caught a glimpse of some shapeless white thing. I didn't look any longer than that, and charged for the door to the stairwell.

Considering how fast I was running, I'm amazed that neither of us hurt ourselves as he rocketed downstairs. Despite my panic, I noticed something in the lobby I had it before. There was a pile in the corner, a pile of limp, furry bodies. They all had holes in them. At that point, I didn't want to see anymore. Still holding Sabrina's hand, I sprinted across the lobby, flew out the front door and tripped on the porch. We both landed face down on the fourth floor.

I didn't know or care if I was hurt. I immediately got up, clawing at the dirt to get friction. Sabrina was a few steps ahead of me, calling at me to keep running, to not look back. Screams were pouring from the hotel windows. Screams of pain and terror. That was all the incentive I needed to pick up my pace. I ran so fast that night that I think I broke a few Olympic records. The second we saw the truck, we both jumped in. I twisted the key and stomped on the gas. My truck broke the speed limit three times over as we made a break from my house. When the school was out of view, I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road.

We took a moment to catch our breath. Sabrina was crying. She'd been so scared. Honestly, I was too. Nothing in my life had prepared me for that. I wondered how close we'd come to disappearing or dying that night. We stayed in my truck for a while, trying to get a whole. of ourselves in processing what had happened. Finally, we both felt stable enough to go back to my

house. At that point, it was midnight, and my mom would be home in an hour. I expected Pete to still be parked in front of the TV, and I remembered that I still needed to give him the cars he wanted. At that moment, I was ready to give him the full collection. After that night, toy cars didn't seem important anymore. Sabrina went in first while I parked the car. I went in and saw she wasn't there. I heard her upstairs and went to make us a snack. I just pulled out the chips and salsa when I heard her run down the stairs. I turned around with the chip platter, smiling. She must have been hungry. Then I looked at her face. That's when I saw how scared she was. She looked me in the eyes and practically shouted,

Where's your brother? Tears started streaming down his face. Pete had hidden the back of my truck. He'd overheard what I said on the porch about the hotel and he'd gone with us. He opened the front door. He slammed my truck door. He was making the footsteps we heard on the stairs and he was the one who screamed. I left him there.

For a few minutes he was silent. I sat back, stunned, I didn't know what to say. Finally, he spoke again. A week later, I went back to that hotel. I don't know why, closure maybe. As I drove up, I saw it on the porch. I didn't want to see it. I didn't want it to be there, but it was.

Pete's red baseball cap. He took a deep breath. and finally looked at me again. And that is the scariest thing that ever happened to me. We didn't speak for the rest of the night. The fire was still blazing, and the rain was still hammering down. But it wasn't peaceful anymore.

My smart home says my door opened at 2.15 a.m. written by Hokon's. I didn't always live alone. After Paul and I separated, I kept the house. A modest, four-bedroom mortgage paid off. Three months on and half his furniture was still piled in the living room, waiting for him to collect. How many times do I have to tell you?

He'd yell over the phone. I'll be back. You can count on that. And God help me if there's so much as a scratch. I changed the locks the next morning. There was a lot I didn't know about Paul. This was the first time I'd truly lived alone. No Paul, no flatmate, just me and three empty bedrooms.

Even in a gated neighborhood, break-ins happened. I'd chewed my nails down to stubs over it. I researched smart home technology. If I was doing this, I was, Going all the way. Smart bulbs, door sensors, automated security. I found a service that met all my needs and ordered with express delivery. It was all tied to one app that logged everything.

Every light switched on, every door opened, logged. There was a shortage of security cameras. The packages would arrive within four to six weeks, they said. That was two months ago. I'd have emailed the courier for an update, but I forgot all about it once I started skimming the logs. I'd been having a problem. Lights would switch on in random rooms.

The manual warned it might, but this was consistent. Daily. I'd be eating a salad in the living room and the gap under the laundry door would light up. The laundry leads to a back door, a rat, possibly. Something had gotten in and was triggering the sensors. Then it started happening more often.

The laundry, the garage, even the living room while I was cooking in the kitchen. I opened the app to check the logs. Bedroom door. Opened. 2.14 a.m. I stared at it for a long time. My bedroom was an end suite. I don't leave the room at night.

bedroom door closed 558 a.m. Just before my alarm goes off. False positives, that's all they were. Same as the lights. I locked the bedroom door and called my lawyer. Greg Duggins. Are you sure you still in San Francisco, I asked? Yes, positive, said Duggins.

You'll be in the States for another week. Okay, I said, if you say so. I set the phone down on the bedside table and looked at the door. San Francisco. Right. I turned the handle once to make sure it was locked. I returned to the app and scrolled further down the logs.

Laundry door, open. 11 p.m. Laundry light, 11.01 p.m. Entrway light. 11.03 p.m. Hallway light. 11.03 p.m. Second floor hallway light. 11.04 p.m. From then until my bedroom door opened at 2.14 a.m., nothing. I called the cops to report to break in. While I waited, I kept looking at the timeline.

What were they doing on the landing all that time? None of the rooms had their lights triggered. the only place to hide was the linen closet, but there was no space for anything other than a small critter, a rat, like I thought. I chewed my lip and opened the bedroom door. The linen closet was within an arm's reach. I reached for the handle. Knock, knock, knock.

Jesus. I let go of the handle and rushed downstairs to let the police in. Afternoon, ma'am, we're responding to a call for a break-in. Yes, come in. I showed them the logs. They agreed it was strange. Just me, new locks, I said. Well, there's no sign of forced entry, but there are a few scratch marks around the keyhole.

If you've got a new lock, it's not uncommon to scratch the keyhole while your muscle memory adjusts. But it's possible someone broke it. right? Well, the door was locked from the inside when we got here, so I doubt it, he said, chewing at his overgrown mustache. Show us the rooms and we'll have a look over. Ease your mind. I showed them all the rooms on the first floor and the bedrooms on the second floor. There wasn't much for them to do. They noted the break-in and advised me to follow up on getting those cameras installed. I dusted Paul's junk and made dinner. I didn't eat much, just poked at my food, scrolling through my contacts. I had four friends who would pack an overnight bag and be here

within an hour, but I hadn't spoken with any of them since the divorce. They'd bring up Paul, and all I wanted to was to forget about him, and all his shit he kept promising to pick up. I locked up and went to bed. After an hour of flipping my pillow to the cool side, I gave up and checked the logs. No new alerts. Part of me wished I had never installed the app. I would have been sound asleep by now. To calm myself down, I opened Google and started browsing apartments in my area.

Units, suites, something with a lobby and a night guard. Light flashed under my bedroom door. A notification blipped on my phone. Second floor hallway light. 10.58 p.m. I gripped the bed sheets. Hello? The light switched off.

For a second, I thought I'd seen two shadows, spaced about a shoe length apart. I refreshed the page. No new logs. No other lights triggered. I got out of bed and pressed my ear against the door. Nothing. I used the app to turn on the hallway lights and looked under the gap. The shadows were gone.

No one is there, I told myself. If someone were there, they'd be in the hallway. I'd see their feet or they'd have gone to another room, which would have triggered the light. The only other area on the same. second floor was the linen closet in arms reach from my door did i ever check it i gripped the bedroom door handle open reach grab open i cracked open the bedroom door bz fuck i slammed it shut bedroom door opened 11 o5 p m idiot I opened the bedroom door and peered through the crack. Floorboards, wall, no shadows.

I open it further. Looking at the linen closet. Grab open, that's all. Then I can go to bed. I gripped the handle. I've got a gun and I will shoot. I lied. No answer.

I'd been hoping there would be one. Then I wouldn't have to open the door. All right. It's your funeral. I ripped open the closet door. Sheets, blankets, a vacuum cleaner. A gap next to the vacuum that hadn't been there before. I looked closer.

Something wet, pooled in the corner. I sniffed the air. Ammonia. Urine. Light beamed up the staircase. Hallway light, 11.07 p.m. A shadow moon. move down it. Quick steps echoed off the walls. Entryway light 11.07 p.m. Laundry light, 1108 p.m.

Laundry door open. 1108 p.m. My heart was in my throat. I moved toward the noise, as if I'd convinced myself I really did have a gun. I stopped at the landing. Hey, I saw you. I went down. All the lights were still on. Paul's furniture cast long shadows across the living room. The shade on his lamp turned slowly. Both laundry doors were open. I could see through to the side yard. They'd left. I stood in the laundry doorway and looked out at the side yard. My phone burned in my hand. I'd been squeezing it. No way of knowing who was in my home. I moved to close the door. The smell hit me again.

Stronger. I looked back towards the stairs to the linen closet, right outside my bedroom. I hadn't checked it earlier. I had my hand on the handle. I thought about the hours where nothing had triggered. The time I spent lying in bed. The time they spent crouched in the linen closet,

right outside my door. I'm listening. waiting for me to go to sleep. And all right, guys, that wraps up some horrifying forest Reddit stories. I really hope you enjoyed today's video. If you did, please leave a like down below and subscribe to the channel. Your guys' support really does mean the world. And yeah, what did you think about today's stories?

I loved all of these stories so much. I love the forest stories, the Skinwalker stories, and just this type of vibe. You know what I mean? And if you'd like to see more videos like this in the future, please comment down below. And if you enjoyed this video, I'm sure you will enjoy some other videos on the channel.

So go check out some other videos on the channel. And yeah, make sure you also follow my Instagram and follow my Spotify. That also helps a ton. And all right, thank you guys so much for watching. And this was Snook, and I'll see you next time. Bye.