The Lets Read Podcast - 16: Episode 016 | Halloween & Text Message Stories | 19 True Scary Horror Stories

Episode Date: December 15, 2018

Welcome to the sixteenth episode of The Lets Read Podcast! This podcast includes narrations of true creepy encounters submitted by normal folks just like yourself. Today you'll experience horrifying stories about Halloween, Kids Seeing Ghosts, & Text Message Stories.  HAVE A STORY TO SUBMIT?► www.Reddit.com/r/LetsReadOfficial FOLLOW ME ON- ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsread.official/ ► Twitter - https://twitter.com/LetsReadCreepy ►YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/letsreadofficial ♫ Background Music: Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvrqVSJE8E PATREON for EARLY ACCESS!►http://patreon.com/LetsRead

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Find a Toyo Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there. Treadexperts.ca When I was 21, I lived with my two friends, Bruce and Ollie. We lived in a small house in a nice family-friendly neighborhood in the suburbs of our major city. Ollie owned the house and occupied the master bedroom on the main floor, and Bruce had the other bedroom on the main floor and Bruce had the other bedroom on the main floor. My bedroom was on the mostly finished basement which was great because I had a ton of privacy and a lot of open space. There was a side door that could be accessed from the basement so I could come and go as I pleased without bothering the other roommates. We were all pretty close but it was nice to feel like

I had my own living space even though there were three of us in the house. At the time Bruce and I were huge fans of Halloween and the fall season in general but being adults and having full-time jobs it wasn't really ideal for us to go out and attend Halloween parties like a lot of the other people we knew. Also Halloween fell on a Tuesday this year so instead we decided to just watch some horror movies in my basement bedroom and just hang out and relax. After we watched a couple of movies we started to get a little bored. It was about 11 p.m. and the trick-or-treaters were home and most people were in for the night. Knowing we had to work in the a.m. we decided it would be a good idea for us to go on a quick walk and call it a night. There is something about the air on

Halloween night. It's like when you go on a vacation to Florida and the night breeze just feels and smells different. That's how it is on Halloween. It's nostalgic and can almost give you a euphoric feeling. Anyway, as we started to walk in the quiet and somewhat desolate neighborhood, we approached the park. Now we walked through this park all the time during the day, probably at least 50 times at this point. It was a little park right in the middle of the neighborhood. The park had a main entrance from one of the busier streets and a back entrance from the street we lived on. The back entrance was covered with a lot of trees and a very small wooded area. About 30 yards from the entrance there were three baseball fields, a pavilion and a basketball

court. We walked into the back entrance where all the trees were and it was nearly pitch black but there was a low orange hue from the street light barely making its way through the trees. As we walked through the wooded area we both stopped abruptly. We thought we saw a man standing at the end of the path. The figure was completely still and it was so dark we couldn't be sure what it was. I called out, Hey!

to the figure but no response. I suggested we should turn around but Bruce said we should check it out which was unlike him because I was usually the braver of us too. As we got closer it was clear it was a man standing there. The man was completely still and had both of his hands in his front hoodie pocket. His head was down facing the ground. Trying not to freak out we decided to slowly back up and make our way to the street and our house without further confrontation. Before we even moved we heard a noise next to us coming from both sides. Trying to focus our eyes in the darkness we saw two more figures moving towards us in the woods. Unlike the other guy just standing there, these people were approaching us. I wish I could explain the feeling I felt

inside me during this point. It's like the sinking pit in your stomach when a cop pulls up behind you with his lights on but 100 times worse. Fighter flight kicked in and we turned and sprinted full speed out of that park and onto our street never looking back to see if they were following us. We ran right to our house and locked the doors behind us. While sitting in the basement, we had all the lights off and we were trying to look out the basement windows to see if we could see if anyone followed us or possibly saw the house we went into. We were so scared we didn't know what to do. Were we in real danger?

Was it someone just playing a prank? After about half an hour or so, we decided that they most likely didn't follow us and it was probably okay to go to sleep especially considering we both had work in the morning. At about 2 30 in the morning Bruce woke me up. He said he thought he heard something outside his bedroom window. I went to his room and looked out the window and I could see a pumpkin laying in our backyard. This was concerning because we didn't have any pumpkins outside our house. We didn't set any up for decorations or anything like that. For the second time tonight we were terrified and decided to go into the living room.

While in the living room we made sure we had the house lights off and began looking out the front windows. Within the first minute of looking, there they were. Three men standing in the middle of the road just staring at our house. We thought about calling the police but what were we going to tell them? There are three guys not standing on our property who may or may not have thrown a pumpkin in our backyard. We just sat in the living room for about ten minutes trying to think of something, anything we could do. We made sure the front door was locked and grabbed a baseball bat and I think a kitchen knife. We looked out the window again and the three men were gone.

Nothing but the illumination from the streetlights. For the rest of the night we stayed in the living room watching SportsCenter until we eventually dozed off. Morning finally came. As we got ready for work we just agreed it was probably just a Halloween prank and we should move on and forget about it. However when I got to my car there was a note on my windshield that said happy Halloween with a smiling face sticker on it. What I read next gave me the same feeling I just had a few hours before when I thought we were in real danger. At the bottom of the paper it said,

P.S. Good thing you lock your doors. What would these people have done if the doors were unlocked? Bruce and I both decided to call in from work and stay home that day. Nothing else of note happened regarding this incident, but it's just a reminder that it doesn't matter how quiet and nice a neighborhood you think you live in, on Halloween, anything can happen. As we slowly enter the fall season, I'd like to share a story with you that happened to me a few years ago. I have mentioned this story to some of my close personal friends and family, many of which don't believe me, and that's fine. They probably think I'm just joking around or trying

to scare them, but I know I experienced something that night and I wish I had a better explanation for it. At the time these events took place I lived on a quiet street a little outside the city but not quite into the suburbs. My street had a big run-down house at the very end of the block that was across from an unused parking lot and an out-of-business bar. The person who inhabited the house before it became dilapidated was Mrs. Morgan. Mrs. Morgan was an old curmudgeon in every sense of the word. Every time my friends and I would walk by the house she would yell at us and make some insanely random comment like we were trampling her garden or using her garbage to

play hide and seek or some other incoherent nonsense that wasn't true. Even though my friends and I did get into some adolescence trouble around the neighborhood, we never did anything to Mrs. Morgan. Our parents always told us that we should try and be nice. I mean, she was a widow and had no children, so it must have been a pretty lonely life. Rewind about three years ago and Mrs. Morgan unfortunately passes away and the house becomes abandoned and I believe eventually condemned. At least there were signs on the boarded up windows and doors but I never got close enough to read what they said. Needless to say it became an eyesore for the community and

what was a pretty quiet and uneventful street. My girlfriend at the time only lived a couple of blocks and I would usually walk to and from her house when we hung out. It was literally a four minute walk top so it was no big deal. I would pass Mrs. Morgan's abandoned house and the empty parking lot with the out of business bar every time I walked to and from her house. Now fast forward to a few years ago, the last time I ever made that walk. It was about 3am on Halloween night, I guess technically November 1st, and I was walking home from my girlfriend's house. I was supposed to be home way earlier in the night but we both fell asleep watching scary movies and pigging out on the extra candy her

parents didn't hand out. As I made it to my street and started my walk past Mrs. Morgan's house, I heard a noise. I stopped for a minute to make sure it wasn't a skunk because for some odd reason that's the first thing that popped in my mind when I heard the noise. I slowed down a little bit and looked at the house as I proceeded cautiously. That's when I noticed the front door that was usually boarded up and had a sign post on it was now open. I tried to rationalize why the door was now open, saying to myself it was probably the wind but then again it was a beautiful calm night. I then paused in front of the house and looked directly at the front door

and that's when I saw her, Mrs. Morgan right there staring back at me. I knew for sure it was her but how? She had passed away and the house was clearly unlivable for anyone else. At this point I was so scared that I just shouted something out, I don't even remember if it was words or just noises. The figure stepped onto the front porch and continued to stare at me. I broke my stare and just started running back to my house, turning back every now and then to see if she was still staring at me. I broke my stare and just started running back to my house, turning back every now and then to see if she was still staring at me or perhaps following me. I made it back to my house probably 30 seconds later and opened the side door and went down to my room. I didn't sleep for the

rest of the night. I'm not sure if I was overtired or just had scary things in my subconscious with it being Halloween and watching movies all night, but I know I saw Mrs. Morgan standing there only a couple of feet away from me. Whether it was a true paranormal encounter or something that my mind made me think I saw, I won't ever know for sure. But hey, they always say that the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest on Halloween. And now, I actually believe it. Alright, so you guys might not find this creepy or scary enough, but I thought it was worth sharing. This is something that I experienced when I was a kid probably between the ages of 10 to 14. Our Halloween tradition was that my parents and I would meet up with my godparents and their son and go trick or

treating around their neighborhood. This has been a tradition with my older siblings as well so it's fair to say this tradition has started even before I was born. Anyway, we follow the same route every year, the highlight being stopping at the local funeral home that was only about three blocks from my house. The funeral home had a big party in their parking lot every Halloween. They provided cotton candy, candy apples, donuts, cider, popcorn, balloons, and probably even more, all free. If you wanted a balloon, which every kid did, you had to shake the hand of the person in the full-on movie-set quality gorilla suit.

I hated doing it, because the gorilla shook your hand so hard I borderline thought my hand was going to break. So, every year it was the same thing. If you wanted a balloon, you had to shake his hand. I developed kind of an anxiety as it related to the gorilla so I would just grab the snacks to avoid the person in the gorilla costume. Also I was getting older and I really didn't care about balloons. But it seemed as though the gorilla would follow me around and put a balloon out in his right hand like he wanted me to take it. I tried my best just

to avoid it and hurry my parents on so we could continue trick-or-treating. They thought it was the funniest thing that I was scared of the gorilla. I really don't think I was, I think I just thought it was weird that a grown man dressed in a costume would shatter kids hands in order to give them a balloon. So this story revolves around one Halloween, where we followed the same routine as previously mentioned. I ignored the person in the gorilla costume when it came to that part of the night and had a pretty uneventful night trick-or-treating. I remember I was still at the age where I had a bedtime and my parents had to check my candy. Yes, they were those parents. I was still impressionable enough that horror movies scared

the crap out of me and I couldn't even watch them because then I couldn't sleep with the lights off. For whatever reason, that night I felt particularly uneasy and scared. I had avoided scary movies so I could get a good night's sleep but for some reason I was unsettled. I ended up sleeping on the floor with my chocolate lab and my dad passed out on the couch which gave me some sense of relief. I got up in the middle of the night to let my dog out. I knew she had to go out because she was pacing back and forth. She was quick and came right back in but on the way back to the living room I saw something in the street. It was a figure that seemed to be just standing there. I crept up to the window on

my knees to get a better look so I couldn't be seen. I swear to god it was that gorilla holding the balloons, literally standing right outside my house. I didn't know what to do. I was scared but more scared that this person was going to approach my house. I woke up my dad who was snoring so loud I was surprised the neighbors weren't awake. I told him there was someone outside and he got up immediately and opened the front door but there was no one in the street. No one around at all, at least that he could see. I told him what I thought I saw and he said it was probably just a bad dream or my imagination. We turned the TV on in the living room for a while because I think he could tell I was unsettled and was having trouble trying to fall back asleep. I can sit here today writing this and honestly tell you I don't know what

happened. I never had any other episodes where I thought I saw something that wasn't there. I don't sleepwalk. I don't often have nightmares. I don't know how to explain what I saw. It was a long time ago and now I'm an adult who takes his own niece and nephew trick or treating. But every time around fall I always think about this experience and try to come to a logical conclusion to explain what happened. I still can't figure it out and probably never will. I wonder if that funeral home is still open and if the guy in the gorilla costume is still there. Let me start this story by saying I have only shared this story with a few people up to this point.

I trusted a few close friends who I thought only shared this story with a few people up to this point. I trusted a few close friends who I thought would believe me, but that's about it. I can remember the events of this specific night vividly. My parents own a camp on a local lake about 25 minutes from my hometown. It's pretty awesome to go there, bring friends and basically do what we want. My friends and I would usually throw smaller parties out there all summer long. There was always activity on the lake but nothing that really ever raised any alarms. We kind of just chalked it up to either boats, wind or animals if we thought we saw something in the lake after it got dark. One Halloween night I decided it would be a

good idea to skip the Halloween party that was taking place in town and bring my boyfriend back to the camp house for the night so he could be alone. My parents thought I would be at said Halloween party and would be spending the night at a friend's house. We arrived at the camp pretty late around 9 or 10pm. One thing I remember about the camp is how dark it was, void of any streetlights and usually only illuminated by the stars in the sky. My boyfriend and I stayed up for a couple of hours talking, eating and I think we played a board game or something like that. I would guess we fell asleep at some point after midnight. After about an hour or so of sleeping I woke up suddenly to what seemed to be a loud blast,

like a gunshot but distorted somehow. I just remember it being so loud that I couldn't even remember where I was when I woke up. I looked over the couch and my boyfriend was somehow still asleep. I got up and looked out the back door window which had a view of the lake. I saw something that looked like a light or a ball of light over the lake. I stared at the floating light in confusion trying to figure out what it was. Was it a flashlight or something glowing from under the water? Without really thinking I slipped on my flip-flops and I went outside and approached the shore still staring at the light squinting my eyes trying to make out what it was. It was an orange colored light maybe 75 feet out

into the lake in what seemed to be floating a couple of feet off the top of the water. After about two minutes of continued staring and squinting the orange color changed to a bright purple and several white specks of light came out of the purple glow and hovered all around the glowing orb. As I started to freak out as to what this could be, I was forced to my knees by the loud blasting noise I heard earlier. I started to plug my ears, collect myself, and turn back to the house to grab my boyfriend. I saw a huge flash and the next thing I remember was waking up in Adirondack chair on my neighbor's yard the next morning.

My flip-flops that I wore outside to get a closer look at the lake were gone. I had no idea how to explain the events of the night and long story short I went to the doctor and after seeing neurological specialists they don't show any sign that I could have had an episode. I've been told that it was most likely a vivid nightmare, and that I was sleepwalking and that's how I ended up on my neighbor's porch. Also, that would explain why my boyfriend never woke up. However, I believe this night I saw something otherworldly. I don't believe in the paranormal and until this point, I didn't believe in the extraterrestrial.

But this didn't feel like a nightmare. It felt real. I can still see the images and hear the noises from that night. I know many of you may not believe my story and that's fine, but I feel like I wanted to share the experience I had that night. I'm no longer with that boyfriend and even though he was concerned for my well-being, especially immediately after the events, I don't think he really believed my story either. Needless to say, I spend less time at the camp and am reminded of this night every year around this time when Halloween decorations start popping up in the stores. The events of this story took place when I was 18 and in my senior year of high school. I'm 27 now and still have horrible flashbacks from that Halloween night.

My friends and I liked to party in high school and Halloween was obviously one of the best nights to go out and party. We got to dress up in sexy outfits and have an excuse to act a little crazy. My friends usually drew all the attention from the guys we went to school with. I was still friends with all the boys but none of them really ever showed any interest outside of friendship. Anyway on this particular Halloween we had a party at my friend Steve's house. Like a lot of high school parties no one knew how to handle their alcohol. At about 11 the cops had already been called for a noise complaint. The party scattered and everyone ran as to not get detained or get their information taken by police.

My friend Amy who was getting into a car with her boyfriend told me to jump into the car with her friend Dave and he would take us to another party, which I begrudgingly decided to do. The car ride was weird. Just him and I who didn't know each other and didn't really have much to say. Awkward. The car smelled like Slim Jims and body odor and looked rather messy. Dave had a mask, which was on his lap while he was driving. He had a hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and brown work boots on to complete the costume. He also had a scraggly beard and greasy hair. I tried asking questions to make the drive less awkward but he didn't really answer them and didn't seem interested in holding a conversation.

Finally I asked what school he went to and he responded, I dropped out of college a year ago. So I asked, well how old are you? He responded in a shaky almost nervous voice, I'm 25. This freaked me out a little bit because he was older than me and he just dropped out of college at the age of 25. Also, he was 25 and was just leaving a high school party. Trying not to let him in on the fact that I was kind of nervous, I asked, So, how do you know Amy? And he responded in his shaky and unflattering voice, he said,

Who's Amy? I sunk into my seat, pinching my sides not knowing what to do. She's the blonde who told me to get in the car with you. He responded with a very stoic, oh her, yeah, she told me you were single. I didn't respond, I honestly didn't know what to say did this guy really not know Amy or was he just tipsy and confused I texted Amy as we were driving to tell her how angry I was but she didn't answer about 10 or 15 minutes in the car which seemed like forever we arrived at a house it didn't seem to be a very nice part of town or at least an area I was accustomed to going to parties. I looked for Amy's car or any car I recognized but it was just too dark to point anything out. We approached a red door with chipped paint lit up only by a dull

front light. Dave didn't even knock and just walked into the house so I followed him hoping to see a familiar face. The house was cold and smelled awful. We walked into the house so I followed him hoping to see a familiar face. The house was cold and smelled awful. We walked into the front room which I assumed would be the living room. It was dirty and had an olive green shag carpet with an old brown couch. The walls were white with chipped paint and stains everywhere. Piles of pizza boxes and beer cans lined the floors. The room was only lit by one lamp that was on the floor and it gave off a very low light. On the brown couch there was a man and woman sitting very close together but not really moving. They looked to be passed out or maybe just drunk. We walked into the kitchen which was just more of the same. Trash and that horrid smell of

garbage. In the kitchen there was a man probably in his 20s who looked like he may have been using. He gave Dave a high five and introduced himself to me a skip. He looked at Dave and back at me and smiled. His yellow teeth and bug eyes made my skin crawl. The other man in the kitchen was an older gentleman maybe in his 40s or 50s, I couldn't tell. He said nothing and just looked at me. I felt sick to my stomach and the only reason why I didn't run out of this place was because I had no clue where I was and had no clue if these people were capable of anything dangerous. Again, I texted Amy with no answer deciding to not call as my phone only had 5% battery. Dave escorted me

into the back room which was kind of like a screened in porch. I felt a brief moment of relief seeing about 6 or 7 people out there. There were only 2 girls out of the bunch and they were half naked and looked like they weighed a maximum of 90 pounds. I could feel everybody staring at me but at least there was a group of people and I wasn't secluded or alone with this Dave. I know it sounds crazy but I felt almost safe being around this larger crowd but this temporary relief faded very quickly when the two girls left with all the guys who had been on the porch. They re-entered the house and disappeared out of sight. As I sat in this screened-in room trying to think of my options Dave finally spoke up and said, I think you're really cute. I said thanks

and kind of shrugged it off. He got up and started to rub my back and began breathing very heavily. After about five minutes of the most unpleasant back rub I had ever had, he stepped in front of me and asked if I wanted to go somewhere more private. I said to him in a terrified, cracking voice, I'm sorry, but I'm not that kind of girl. I could see the displeasure and anger in his face, and I could feel the tears coming. Then nothing short of a miracle happened. One of the girls who went inside just a minute before began to scream erratically, swearing and yelling at everyone in

the room. Dave ran upstairs leaving me downstairs in the back room alone and without even thinking twice I got up and climbed out the window and ran. I didn't care that I didn't know where I was. I wasn't going to stop until I was to a gas station or a 7-Eleven or something. I was running down the street, staying close to the sidewalk, trying not to bring any attention to myself. After what seemed like a few minutes, I luckily approached a 24-hour Walmart. I walked in and had the night manager call my parents as my cell phone was now dead. It was about 30 minutes from my house as my cell phone was now dead. It was about 30 minutes from my house and my parents were on their way.

Just as I thought I could relax and try to put these horrifying events behind me, Dave and his friend Skip walked into the Walmart. They didn't see me but I couldn't believe that they were in the same store. They were looking around like they were looking for something or someone. Was it me or was I being paranoid? The next day Amy called me and apologized all day crying and asking what she could do to make it up to me. I got some solace that she confirmed the person I got into the car with was actually Dave and not some random guy but was still left traumatized thinking about what could have happened. It's been almost 10 years since that night and I know it could have been a lot worse and I'm lucky that I was able to leave with no physical harm but still wouldn't wish the experience I had that night on my worst enemy. I haven't seen Dave, Skip or any of the people

I saw that night and hope I never do again. Halloween has always been one of my favorite nights of the entire year. From the pagan origins to the more modern take of trick-or-treating, corny movies and dressing up, I just can't get enough. One Halloween, similar to many others, my friends and I decided that we were going to go trick-or-treating. Now admittedly we were probably a little old but it was our tradition and we always had so much fun. We went from house to house getting candy and getting some looks from parents who probably also felt we were a little old. It was a largest group of people including my current crush at the time

which made the night even more fun. The houses in this area were the ones that gave out full size candy bars and most people had their homes all decked out in state-of-the-art Halloween decor. As we approached one of the last houses before we were going to call it quits, I noted a particularly scary figure on the front lawn. It looked like a person waiting to jump out and scare us as we walked by. It was a tall figure with a white mask and black covering the eyes. It was hard to tell if it was a mannequin or a person because it was so still. As I walked by, the tall figure grabbed my arm, causing me to almost crap my pants. The man got down to my face and said in a slow,

soft voice through his mask, tag, you're it, and then ran into the backyard of the house. We all screamed, laughed, and ran to the front door for candy. Of course, we just assumed this was part of the homeowners trying to scare people who were trick-or-treating. We got our candy and as I walked away I turned back to the lady in the doorway and said, that tall guy was really scary but you might want to tell him not to grab people so hard as they walk by. The woman looked at me like I had grown a second head. I asked if she was alright and she responded in an almost nervous voice. You're the second young lady tonight to tell me the same story tonight.

My husband's inside and we don't have anyone set up outside to scare you kids. Now I'm officially creeped out. I ran to catch up to my friend still thinking it was still all possibly part of a scare and the lady was just messing with me. The group of us stayed out for a little while longer. Some of us broke off from the larger group and began to walk back to my house. We decided that first we were going to walk by the house where the incident had occurred earlier in the night to see if the tall guy was set up for another scare. When we walked by it, the entire house was black, like they had ran out of candy or left for the night. From the sidewalk, I looked into the backyard and there, the same guy with the white mask. He waved at me and my friends told me to just ignore it and it

was obviously someone who lived there and was trying to scare us. Once we were almost to my house I looked back and saw the guy was following us. I yelled, hey what's your problem? The entire group then turned around and tried to duck out of the way so we wouldn't see him. At this point I think my friends could tell I was getting generally freaked out. Once we got inside I felt more safe and my mind was able to drift away from thinking about that guy. We all hung out for a little while, trading candy, gossiping and watching TV. Occasionally, someone would make a comment about me being scared of the tall man and we all laughed and just had some fun with the situation. Once my friends left for the night, I got ready for bed. I was sitting in my bedroom taking my

makeup off and I just glanced out my window and there in my backyard was a person. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought I was seeing things. I went downstairs into the living room to see if I could get a better view of the figure in the yard. The tall man in the mask was now at my back door and was trying to break into the house. He was shaking the door handle and trying to open the door. I screamed for my dad and then he saw I was standing there. He just looked up and waved at me again, just like before. My dad came barreling down the stairs and the guy didn't even move.

My dad called 911 and luckily they were nearby because they showed up in two minutes. They arrested the guy and took him in from the backyard to the cop car. I'll never forget how he looked. They removed the expressionless mask and somehow his real face had even less of an expression. He was clean cut with short dirty blonde hair. His eyes didn't even blink and his mouth remained shut. There was no expression, almost a lifeless look. But as they put him into the cop car, he took one last look back and a creepy smile came across the lifeless face. A smile of a person who clearly didn't have a full comprehension of what was going on. I still think back to that Halloween night,

and even with how bad that experience was, I am thankful it wasn't worse. Halloween night is always accompanied with a feeling of fear. Even if it's a small amount, perhaps it's just psychological. But there always seems to be an eeriness to the night, at least in my experience. During the events of this story, I lived in a small, quiet town in the upper northeast region of the United States. My hometown is filled with lots of forests, and being somewhat of an out outcast I would usually just hike on the trails around my house. I would get out of school and just walk for hours before I came home. The older I became the more deep into the woods I would go. When I was 16 years old I found this little cave tucked deep within the woods, it was

probably about 200 yards or so from the main road. The cave sat at the base of a small cliff about 30 feet high. It had a pretty big opening and the deeper you went into the cave the more narrow it became. The cave seemed almost man-made, like it was carved into the side of the cliff. About 20 feet or so into the cave was the back wall with all of these strange rock formations of all different sizes. Also off to the right there was a small little tunnel that I tried to explore one time, but gave up due to the fact that it was barely big enough to fit through,

and not to mention it was accompanied by pitch blackness. So for the next two years I would often visit this little cave. When I would have difficult days in school or just needed to get away from home I would go. I would read there, meditate or just listen to music. I would always think of crazy origin stories for the cave like it was some kind of special place with an interesting backstory. In reality it was probably nothing of the sort but it was fun to imagine the possibilities. My senior year of high school I decided I was too old to go trick-or-treating and I didn't have a friend who even asked me to do anything.

So I thought it would be a really great idea to get some candles and go to my little cave and read some scary stories. I figured since Halloween was on Friday I could stay out all night and read. My parents trusted me and really never worried about me because I was responsible and had never gotten in any kind of trouble before. At about 9pm I gathered all my belongings for the night and started my hike to the spot. I wanted to wait until about 9 o'clock-ish so all the kids were off the streets and it would be really quiet. From my house it would probably take me about 45 minutes or so to get to the cave. I know for some people that may sound crazy to walk that far but for me it was therapeutic to be outside in the crisp fall air especially on Halloween night.

Shortly after 10 I started to close in on my destination. As I approached the large opening of the cave I thought I could make out a low orange flicker coming from the walls of the cave. I turned my lights off and slowly approached. I immediately felt disappointment as I crept slowly to the opening. Someone else is using the cave I thought but what I saw was not somebody reading or just hanging out. There were four women in the cave, probably late 20s or 30s all holding hands. They were standing in a circle and seemed to be speaking in unison but I couldn't make out what they were saying. There must have been hundreds of candles lit because it was illuminating the entire cave, even several feet outside the cave. I couldn't make out what the women really looked

like but they sort of looked ragged or dirty, their clothes being loose and baggy. I sat and just stared at these women for several minutes trying to figure out what they were doing which turned out to be a huge mistake. As I sat from the bushes and observed, the women suddenly stopped chanting and abruptly turned and stared at the small hole in the wall. I swear at this point I heard a growl coming from the cave, not like a growl from a dog, but something different, something distinctive. I saw a movement from the small tunnel inside the cave, and before I knew it, the four women all snapped their heads back and looked right at me, looking at me through the bush. But how could they see me? It was pitch dark out for god's sakes. All four women in perfect sync slowly brought their fingers up

and pointed at me and in a flash they all began to run at me. I turned and ran as fast as I could. As I made my way towards the main road all I could hear was screaming and laughing, or was it crying? I don't know, it was hard to tell. As I was closing in towards the main road all I could hear was screaming and laughing or was it crying? I don't know it was hard to tell. As I was closing in on the main road I turned one time to see if the women were still behind me and not only were they behind me one of them was inches from me. Her teeth were yellow, her eyes were big and black and she had the most haunting smile I've ever seen. I turned and ran as fast as I could, never looking back again. I got home that night and just cried because I had no idea what else to do. I'm now 26 years old and still have not gone into another forest by myself.

I'm not sure what I saw that Halloween. People playing a prank. I honestly can't tell you but I know that I never went back to find out. Road Rage by Eric Kuhn Barreling down the exit at 80 miles an hour, for Josh, driving was a competitive sport for which he had no safety concern for himself, his Corolla, or anything else. Getting off the exit, he slams on his brake and stares down the trail of 5 mile an hour traffic that stretches out before him. He swears under his breath and instead of immediately merging, he races to the end of the

merge lane. Here, he ends up next to a green Honda Civic and tries to cut in front of him, but for some reason the Civic isn't letting him over. Josh moves forward, but the Civic matches his advances. What a jerk, can't he see him trying to get over? Josh hasn't lost a game of chicken yet and he wasn't about to let this be the first. This guy better have good insurance, Josh thinks, as the two cars inch closer and closer to each other. He would wear a scratch or two on his car as a badge of honor, but he didn't want to speak for the other guy. Right before the front left headlight of his Corolla kissed the front right headlight of the Civic, the green car stops and Josh pulls in front of him Winner winner chicken dinner Josh joins the sea of cars

Intending to forget about the green Civic And continue on his journey Honk honk honk Josh slams on his brakes And glares at the green car behind him Through his rear view mirror Oh man this guy Josh wasn't a stranger to messing with people in traffic Josh slams on his brakes and glares at the green car behind him through his rearview mirror. Oh man, this guy.

Josh wasn't a stranger to messing with people in traffic, and he could mess with this guy for as long as he needed. The Civic's front left turn signal flashes yellow, but Josh decides to be one step ahead of him and merge to the left lane, staying in front of the Civic and preventing him from moving ahead of him. Josh slams on his brakes and the civic does the same. If only his reaction time was a little bit slower I could claim he rear-ended me. Josh could feel the rage coming from the green civic and laughed.

He felt like Emperor Palpatine. This time not using his turn signal he saw the civic lurch to the right back into its original lane. No no. Josh slides into his right lane and slams on his brake once again, still ahead of the Civic. This time, the Civic stalls and lets Josh drive away. Smell you later. An hour later, Josh is sitting in Rockwood Diner, picking from a plate of chicken wings and fries. Thinking back to the incident with the Green Civic, he was proud of how he acted. He was perfectly calm during the entire thing. His heartbeat never even got up to a minor panic rate. He sloppily sticks a whole bone in his mouth, sucks the sauce off of it, and spits it back into the plate. The bone makes a loud sound when it hits the porcelain.

Other patrons are staring, but Josh doesn't care about them. He's enjoying himself, wiping barbecue sauce onto his shirt and belching like Jabba the Hutt. While sucking on one of the bones, a loud horn outside makes him jump and in one quick second the bone slides down his wet tongue and into his throat where his next breath freezes in place. For the next few seconds, Josh sits in silent stillness, trying to breathe in harder and harder, only trapping the bone in his throat more and more. Suddenly, his trachea clenches shut and Josh starts to bang madly on the counter. The patrons who were staring before angrily now stare in horror. Josh, feeling his chest and neck tighten and constrict,

falls off his stool and onto the floor. His vision becomes blurry as his brain loses oxygen. People around him start screaming and someone grabs the phone to dial 911, not knowing the gesture would be futile. Someone runs up to him and looks at him in horror. Josh's lips were turning a dark blue and his eyes are bulging out. Before he dies, Josh looks out the window. He sees a chorus of black dots circle around the setting sun and a tear rolls down out of his eye. Mainly because he can't hold them that high anymore, his eyes look down at the parking lot. Right in his field of vision he sees a skinny tall figure

standing in front of a green Civic. It was smiling. Ever since my son was little, he's now 20, he has had some very odd experiences. When he was just a baby, he often smiled and cooed at things that no one could see. But at first, I just thought he's a baby and who knows what he's really entertained by. But as he got older, he started talking to someone in his room and playing with them. I thought maybe it was an imaginary friend but if I asked him about it he was very matter of fact that his friend Austin was there and that he lived in his closet. He even told me what he looked like.

Again I just thought he had a great imagination. He was around 3 at this time. Then one night in the middle of the night all of my son's electronic toys started going off in his toy box while everyone was asleep. I went in there thinking he was awake but he wasn't and I tried to shut off these toys of which there was a toy race car steering wheel that revved up and a game animal noise thing and one other talking stuffed animal. I couldn't get them to stop and I didn't want my son to wake up. It got to the point I ripped out the batteries of the race car thing and it kept going.

I freaked out a little and threw it in the yard. When I came back in I heard another toy going off and my son did wake up this time and calmly told me it was his toy train in the closet and that Austin loved trains. Sure enough, I found the train in the back of the closet where my son said he put it for Austin to use because my son didn't like trains himself. I started to believe he was really interacting with someone and I didn't know what to say or do. This went on for years but my son also said and did other things like this. Around this same age a 17 year old boy from our neighborhood was in a car accident and died at this intersection we always passed.

I didn't know the boy personally and I never said anything about him dying to my son. But one night we were stopped at the intersection and my son calmly tells me that a boy died in this road. And when I asked him how he knew that he pointed out the window and said well he's standing right there and then he added but it's all right he's okay now and of course there was no one standing there to my eyes. I don't know how he would know this unless he really saw it. Then one time when he was with my mom driving, they stopped at a light in front of this wooded area near our house. My mom said he got very worried and told my mom there were secrets in those woods and we could never go in there. When my mom asked what sort of secrets, he shook his head and said he wasn't allowed to talk about it. Needless to say, I'd never been in those woods after that.

There were other things too, but once he entered school he stopped talking about it and I didn't know if he remembered it or not. I didn't ask. But when he turned 14 it seemed to start again and now he spends most of his free time in this supposedly haunted field near a house and he said he's helping people. I really don't think he's crazy or anything but he says he can talk to ghosts and spirits. I have to say that I believe him because he's told me so many odd things that keep happening and I've seen it for myself many times. I guess I just wonder a little if this is a good thing or not. Should he be doing this?

It's so interesting but I don't know what to think. I don't want him getting in over his head with this stuff. This is told to me by my parents. When my twin brother and I were six months old, we started crying as babies do in the middle of the night. They had a baby monitor sitting right next to their bed. My parents, both groggy and half asleep, debating who's going to deal with this one. The baby monitor is flipping out and, crystal clear in a man's voice, shh, it's okay, don't cry. My parents jumped out of bed as fast as they could and ran to our room. There was no one. We both had stopped crying by that point, smiles on our faces. My older brother and dad went looking around the house and backyard, finding nothing. This freaked them out for a few nights and so on. This wasn't the only incident. Fast

forward to when I was about three years old, I would always sit in front of the bathroom's doorway and roll a ball in there. My dad couldn't figure out why but blew it off to just be a kid's thing. He started noticing I was giggling and pointing at something in there. My dad finally asked what I was giggling at. I responded with, the man with the owie on his head is making funny faces. My dad said he felt his blood go cold, looking into that semi-dark room. My parents decided to reconstruct the bathroom, new bathtub, shower, etc. hiring some house remodelers. As they were destroying the wall of the bathroom they freaked out, finding pieces of a human skull in the shower's wall.

My dad started to remember what I said, the man with the owie on his head. My dad tracked down the previous owner of the house, lady in her late 40s. She had explained her husband had shot himself in the bathtub a few years before we moved in. He loved children but sadly he never had any of his own. It explained why he was so friendly with my twin brother and I. After discovering this my parents didn't mind his presence too much. We seemed to be happy when he was around. Almost feels like he's still around, even after all these years and moving. My kitchen has two entry points, one that leads to the dining room, which leads to the living room and the front door. The other leads to my hallway where to the left is a closet and the dining that leads to the dining room which leads to the living room and the front door.

The other leads to my hallway where to the left is a closet and the dining room, to the right is the bedrooms, bathroom, washroom and another closet. My daughter, 6 at the time, my nieces, 4 and 3 were chasing each other as I was making dinner and talking to my wife and cousin. Then my niece, the youngest one, stopped dead in the kitchen and stared into the hallway and started crying. Not like, oh they left me out of the game crying, more like, what is going on, wailing. She isn't looking at anyone in the kitchen, but staring straight ahead and walking forward. Like you can see she doesn't want to go wherever she is going, but she can't stop moving

her legs. I look at her and try to get her attention. Her mother is calling her back to her towards the dining room yet she ignored us and kept on slowly marching towards the hall. I was like a foot away from the entryway to the hall and stood in front of her. I tried to stop her but she kept walking and crying all the while looking up at the ceiling. I just said whatever. I grabbed her and carried her into the living room and held her. As soon as I picked her up she snapped out of it. She looked at me and realized where she was but she was still crying. I asked her what happened, what she saw, what she heard. My daughter who was still running around

the house during the commotion, said, Oh, she probably just saw the Spider-Man. I asked her to repeat herself and who the Spider-Man was. I don't know, Daddy. It's like a spider with a people face, not a bug face. He lives in the hallway and if he jumps on your head, he can tell you what to do and you can't fight him. This was about two years ago and while we may have had some strange things happen since then, nothing was as terrifying as my daughter telling me with full confidence that there was a malevolent entity in our home and she had been seeing it for years. We moved into this apartment about a year and a half ago. My daughter was five months old at the time. We moved to get the extra space since our old apartment, my daughter, husband, fancy rats, and I were all crammed into one bedroom.

Luckily, my husband worked graveyard, which eased the strain of us all sharing since the baby and I would use it at night and he during the day. Soon after we moved in, my daughter began doing strange things like looking into the corner of the room and laughing while waving her hands and kicking her legs as if someone was playing with her or just staring and smiling over my shoulder while I changed her. For a long time I thought nothing of this, just thought she was doing baby things. At about 8 months old she began waving at people and saying hi. Again she began looking off into that same corner near the coat closet in my front room and laughing like she was playing. Then she began looking into the corner waving and saying

hi, which I still thought nothing of. She began learning to walk and talk more and as she did so, she would walk over to the corner and begin going on and on her baby babble throwing in a few words like hello and baby. She sometimes would dance in the corner or clap or take her crackers there and hold them out saying bite as if offering someone a bite. Again I figured kid stuff, imaginary friend. Then my daughter began waking in the middle of the night when she usually would sleep all the way through. She was happy usually trying to play and talk to someone. Eventually though that went bad and she began waking up screaming and begging to sleep in my bed and acting very afraid of her room. So I'd wait until she was all the way asleep again and then put her in her bed. This is when I became concerned it wasn't normal for her.

We always had the running joke that there was a ghost in our house. At this point, I started thinking what if it was true and it was scaring her. After I put her to bed, I said out loud in a firm voice, If you're here to scare my family or hurt my family, you have to leave. This is our home and negativity isn't welcome here. Now get out. I had seen someone do this on TV so I thought I'd try it. As soon as I said this, I heard my daughter jump up in her bed so I went in the room prepared

to comfort her but she didn't reach for me or even look at me. She looked towards her window, reached her hand up and said, Goodbye Georgie. In clear perfect English. My daughter can talk but not that well. And we don't know anyone named George. So that was super weird. Ever since then though, nothing has happened.

Back in 2008, I was a student planning on going to university and needed some extracurricular stuff I could put on my entry applications. As most UK students know, one of the best to have on there is the Duke of Edinburgh Award. As part of this award, you have to embark on an orienteering expedition. Basically, a long trek through woodland and rural villages, following nothing but a map and compass, no GPS allowed. It's a teamwork experience, and you camp and overcome hurdles together. I was out of shape at the time, and so my uncle volunteered to take me out to the middle of nowhere to get some idea of what orienteering was. We didn't stay out overnight like I would have to during the real thing but we hiked maybe 10 miles through the woods and a small

village in pretty abysmal weather. By the end of the journey we were soaked to the bone and pretty miserable looking forward to getting back to the car and heading home. For the last part of the journey we were on a dirt trail heading uphill with bushes and trees on either side. We were marching onward in silence at this point when all of a sudden there was a rustling in the foliage to our left. From behind a large bush stepped an old man in a black suit with a red bow tie and dress shoes. He looked late 70s, early 80s, very pale, liver spots dotting his face and a grey white comb over. I was instantly weirded out. Who dresses like that to go into the woods?

The instant thought seeing a guy his age out there in those clothes and those weather conditions was, this guy has lost his marbles. There was something else that took me an extra moment to notice though that puzzled me. The guy was bone dry, didn't even have mud on his shoes. We stopped in our tracks and just stared at the man for a moment who appeared to be frozen and shocked at seeing us. My uncle made the first move, taking a step towards him, asking him if he was alright. The man continued to stare for a moment, not moving even a twitch,

then became suddenly very animated. It was like he suddenly snapped out of a trance. He started flailing his arms wildly, saying something awful had happened, that a good friend of his needed help. He began walking backwards into the woods, motioning for us to follow him, which we did. We started off at a brisk walk, then escalated to running as we struggled to keep up with the old man. After maybe a minute he disappeared ahead of us, but we could hear him, so we continued to follow the noise until we reached a huge slope. We stopped at the edge and looked down to see the old man standing at the bottom,

motioning us, pleading with us to follow him. I remember looking down and the slope was probably at a 40 degree angle, spanned for perhaps 50 feet or more and slick with mud. It looked like an accident waiting to happen, especially given that there were no shrubs or roots to hold onto or anything. I remember looking down at the old man on the other side of the slope and wondering, how the heck did he cross that so quickly and so cleanly? I mean, at that distance, it is hard to see fine detail clearly, but I swear he still did not appear to be wet or muddy at all. My uncle and I looked at each other and I saw that he was getting as weirded out as I was. Despite my feelings I made a step toward the edge and was going to try and make my way down when my uncle grabbed me firmly by the arm and pulled me back.

Under his breath he said to me, Something's wrong here. We took a few steps back from the edge at this point and the old man at the bottom started getting irate. He began pleading with us again to come down the slope, telling us he needed our help, his friend was in trouble. My uncle shouted down to the old man that we would head back to our car and call emergency services for him, that professional help would be on its way very soon, that they would have all the tools to help him, etc. The old man suddenly got furious. He began jumping up and down, demanding that we come down the slope right now

or there would be hell to pay. His voice had changed dramatically. He was practically growling his words, his hands bunched up into fists, pounding his knees like an angry toddler throwing a tantrum. I'd never seen a grown adult fly into such a rage in my life. His eyes looked like they were in the verge of bursting out of their sockets, his skin gone from pale to red in almost an instant. We began to hurriedly make our way back to the way we came, his demands and threats getting less audible as we got closer to the trail. Once on the trail, we practically power marched the remaining quarter mile or so to the car, all the while my uncle was on the phone to the emergency services explaining to them that there was possibly a mentally ill old man wandering the trail. We were ordered to get to our car and

await the police so we could show them where we had encountered him. About an hour later we met four officers, two whom had dogs with them and packs of supplies like first aid and emergency blankets. We led them to the exact spot and then pointed the two officers with dogs in the direction he led us through the bushes. The search lasted them all weekend but there was no trace of the old man. Officers said the only trail that they could pick up had been mine and my uncle's. They didn't find any footprints or anything belonging to the old man we had encountered.

One of the weirdest experiences of mine to date. When I was six and right after my mom got remarried, my sister and I went from living with our dad to living with my mom, stepdad, and brother. Immediately afterward, weird things started happening in the apartment we were living in. To put this into perspective, we lived in a two-bed, two-bath apartment on the third floor. Both bedrooms and one of the bathrooms were immediately next to each other and could be kind of seen from the couch in the living room area. The three of us kids shared a bedroom and a bathroom. The other bathroom was in the master bedroom. Two of these stories are about my stepdad. The thing about him is that as a tall bald man he's a very distinguishable guy. Story one. My grandmother was watching my sister in

the summer one day while both parents were at work. We all saw my stepdad whom was supposed to be at work 30 to 45 minutes away walk out of the master bedroom. He walked into the smaller bathroom, came back out, smiled and waved, and then walked back into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. My grandmother, surprised that he was home when she was told he'd be at work, followed him into the bedroom. Nobody was in the bedroom, or either bathroom, or the closet. Nobody else was in the entire apartment but her and us kids. We also lived on the third floor, but we all saw it happen. Story 2. Every night for several months, mom would come in to tuck us in, kiss us goodnight, and sing to us until we fell asleep. She would sing stuff from Sesame Street like Ernie's Rubber

Ducky song or Cookie Monster's Cookie song. She also sang You Are My Sunshine a lot. I asked mom about it when I was in high school and asked her why she stopped doing that. She got really uncomfortable and said, I have to tell you something. One morning she said my sister had thanked her for tucking us in the night before and could she please sing the cookie song again. Mom asked her what she was talking about and my sister, brother and I all confirmed that the night before she had come in to sing to us. Guys, my mom had never done that, ever. My stepdad has even confirmed this. Neither of them had any idea why we would think she was in our room after we went to bed, especially on nights she was working.

Story 3. We were living in a different house a few years later. I was playing outside in a field across from the house with some neighbor kids. One of the kids told me that my stepdad was looking at us from the upstairs window. I thought it was weird because he was supposed to be sleeping because he worked nights at the time but sure enough there he was standing in the bedroom window. I waved at him and he smiled and waved back. Going back inside an hour or so later stepdad was asleep in bed. I asked my mom why she had been up so late and she was super confused. According to her he'd been sleeping for the last three hours. She had been sitting at the computer in an area of the hall outside their bedroom and

could hear him snoring so was sure of it. Asking him later about it he had no idea what I was talking about. There were more instances of mostly my stepdad appearing in places he couldn't have been in. We also had a lot of paranormal things going on in both the apartment and that house like footsteps, shadow figures, voices, things being moved or thrown around. I never really believed in the supernatural or paranormal. But four years ago, something happened where my body would be in pain all the time. This led me to go to the doctors, and all the tests would come back fine, and no medicine would work.

This leads me to a very dark time in my life. The pain made me think of such negative and destructive thoughts about myself. I would say things like I am a nobody, I hate myself. I would think of all the ways I wanted to end myself. Terrible things, things I never thought of before chronic pain came into my life out of nowhere. My mind was the definition of demonic. I was in a very low vibration, nothing to look forward to but my death, counting down my days being bedridden. I was just overwhelmed in the flames of negativity. I was not monitoring

my thoughts or trying to make a difference. I felt like I was in chains and there was no way of getting out. One day earlier a healer came into my life. He used his energy to help his patients to loosen up muscles, knots and help get out emotional blockages and demonic entities. I never met anyone as strong as him. He would show me his talent by doing things such as asking me to put my fist into his stomach and push hard as I can. And then he would breathe deeply and he would push me, a 230 pound man, back at full force, almost knocking me over. I watched him beat an arm wrestling champion and competitor, take out lit candles just by using a motion of his arm, and a lot of other strange things.

When I saw him for a session, I was very low. I never felt like myself. There was a dark void in my heart. The session started and he was working on my left shoulder. I started getting mad for no reason. I didn't want to be touched. My teacher knew what was going on but he continued. He started working on me more and he pressed his elbow into my shoulder and I let something out of my mouth. I looked towards the ceiling and kind of made a puking noise for ten seconds. After that ten seconds, I felt a lot lighter. He told me by thinking negative all the time,

dark energies can attach themselves to you because you are a host feeding these dark energies. And it could not be just one attachment but multiple. All of a sudden after my shoulder released my left calf started tightening up. He told me to turn over and as he lay his hand on my calf I just started laughing. It was a high pitched laugh. I was hysterical. I cannot control my laughter. Just pure demonic is all I know how to describe it as. I could only witness what was going on with no control over this evil laughter. Just pure demonic is all I know how to describe it as. I could only witness what was going on with no control over this evil laughter. As my teacher worked on me, I can feel behind the mask of fear of this entity was pain and sorrow. It and I started weeping behind my voice. My calf was getting looser and looser. The laughter died down and my calf was back to normal.

I tried to replicate the laugh after and it was impossible. He explained to me it's kind of like those block games where you have to put the circle in the circle block, square into square. When you are thinking negative all the time like I was, dark energies and entities can attach themselves to you because when you are a high vibration and have a positive life, you can look at yourself as a triangle and a square won't be able to penetrate through your triangle. But when you are thinking negative and depressed like I was

all the time, you become the perfect shape for those entities to feed off of. They see you nothing more than food and a host and a meat block. They changed me forever. I was very skeptical about all of this, but there is no denying there is more to this world than meets the eye. My first duty station was Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I know, rough gig for a 19-year-old kid. As a military police officer. I was there from 2004 to 2007 and bounced between bases. Near the end of my time, I got reassigned to the Naval Magazine in Iwa Beach and patrolled that base from early 2007 until I transferred in October.

This base is comprised of the main magazine complex in Iwa itself, the old base at Barbers Point in Kapolei and another magazine complex in Nanakuli. For my first couple months as my welcome aboard and as the newest, most junior guys at the NAVMAG precinct, I got the lucky experience of patrolling the main MAG area on night shift, 10pm to 6am. This area is approximately 7,000 acres of pitch dark ammo magazine spread out through the woods, the only light being from your headlights and overheads. Once you make your way to the gate of the mag area, I always had to park the truck, get out and walk to the gate, open it, drive through, then get back out and lock the gate behind me. I always had the weirdest, creepiest feeling that I was being watched from the woods

when I had to get out and open the gate. Mind you, to the left of the woods was an abandoned base housing neighborhood that was closed down in the mid-1990s due to budget and completely overgrown with vegetation. Because I worked night shift, patrolling this large complex of row upon row of ammo magazines intermixed with dense vegetation was the scariest experience of my life. Normally I would just haul it from the complex gate down to the piers where the only lights were located and move all my vehicle mirrors so that they faced inward and there was no way I could look in them for fear of seeing something behind me. I absolutely hated making my rounds and those 8 hours from 2200 to 0600 was the most dreaded feeling while I was assigned to mag patrol.

There were times that radios would play music in the little shacks used by the day workers on the pier, maybe left on by the workers when they left, that I would shut off and when I made my way back an hour or so later, they would be playing music again. Buildings that I would just speed past because I swear to god that things were watching me from what was left of their windows. I never even turned my lights off, those poor patrol vehicles. I always had my interior lights on, my high beams, my alley lights, and my takedowns on, so I was a one-man light show spectacular. Some of the older DOD police would refuse to patrol the main mag complex because of stories that have been passed down over the years.

The reason why they never used their mirrors was because of the story of a white-dressed woman who wandered the complex and would appear in your rearview mirror at random times, a practice I quickly adopted turning my mirrors inward before heading out on patrol. And with total seriousness, I told my supervisor every evening that I was assigned to mag patrol that if my vehicle ever broke down out there in those woods in the pitch darkness, all alone with the only set of keys in and out, Well, it was a pleasure working with him because I wasn't going to sit in that dark and wait for help to arrive. Read between those lines. This is just the main magazine complex. I have stories for the other two bases and stories about Pearl Harbor itself. Those can be told on request.

Those were the three most interesting and scary years of my naval career. I was probably about 16 when the story takes place. My girlfriend at the time and I were driving back from a party on a very long two-lane highway in Tennessee. It was pretty late and there was no one else on the road. The most distinct characteristic of this road, and it will come into play later, is that there was no tree line on either side of the road, just flat fields as far as you could see lit up only by the moon. I looked over at my girlfriend in the passenger seat and she was falling asleep. I grabbed her hand, she looked at me and then the road and screamed, watch out! I looked up from her just in time to see a man standing in the middle of the lane with

his expressionless face. I tried to swerve to miss him at the last minute but my car hit him on the driver side door. I immediately looked over at my girlfriend to make sure she was alright, but she was pale and her heart was racing, naturally. I got out of the car and told her to wait there so I could go and check on the guy, who I was sure dead at the speed we were going. When I got out of the car and started to look around, I was so confused. There was no body on the road. My first thought was that we hit him so hard he had been knocked into the fields. When I turned back to the car to ask my girlfriend if

she had seen where he went, I noticed that there was no damage to my car. There was no dent in the door, no blood on the roof, nothing. That's when I started to get freaked out. I was so sure I had hit and hurt somebody badly that I called the police. The police came to the scene and started scanning the area. They asked my girlfriend and I if we had been drinking or doing any drugs, which we had not. We passed their sobriety tests and answered all their questions, which seemingly took forever. They told us that they were going to be scouring the area in a 5 mile radius for the man we hit, as well as looking in the hospitals in a 20 mile radius for anyone

coming in with wounds consistent with being hit by a car. Because there was nothing else that we could do, they sent us home. I called my parents and let them know what happened, and since my girlfriend lived about 45 minutes from my house, they said to just stay at her house instead of driving all the way home with how shaken up I was. After driving down the road for about a mile or so, I noticed a wooden cross with a name on it and flowers at the base. I didn't really think much of it on the way home. I just wanted to get out of the car and get sleep. But the next day, I remembered it and started thinking.

I've had multiple experiences with the paranormal in my life that came before this so I started thinking within that box. This was the day of dial up internet so it was a long and slow process but I started researching any accidents on that road. It took about two hours but I came across a story of a young man that died on that same road almost three years earlier to the day. But the thing that stood out the most was that he wasn't driving. He was walking down the road in the middle of the night and was hit by a car, instantly passing. The only thing that was available on the page as a hyperlink was the man's name.

There was something that was almost physically holding me back from clicking the link, but I had to know. The link took you to an obituary of the man, including a picture. I flipped the desk chair over and tried to get as far away from the computer screen as I could, because there on the screen was a picture of the man that I had seen on the road. I was completely floored. I thought there had to be another explanation,

because this happened to both my girlfriend and me. I know that things have happened to me in the past, but I wasn't sure about her. The only way to know for sure if I was seeing things was to take the picture to her, which I did the next day. I thought for sure I would show her the picture and she would have no clue who the guy was but when I showed her the picture she said, oh my god, that's him. Did they find him? Is he okay? My heart almost stopped altogether. I told her to turn the page over and read the article. As she did, I could literally see her face get paler.

She was so confused at first, but then it started to hit her. We had seen the young man's ghost walking the same street where he had died nearly three years earlier. The Let's Read podcast is brought to you by Robinhood. Robinhood is an investing app that lets you buy and sell stocks, ETFs, options, and cryptos, all commission-free. They strive to make financial services work for everyone, not just the wealthy. It's a non-intimidating way for stock market newcomers to invest for the first time with true confidence. Simple, intuitive, clear design with data presented in easy-to-digest

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I wish I was with you instead of in bathroom. Way, way, way too much info. Ugh. Why is it going crazy? Sub isn't here yet. Lucky. Hmm. Why is it going crazy? Sub isn't here yet. Lucky. Hmm.

Staring at Luke again. Maybe. But I don't think he even knows who I am. I can invite him to group chat. No! Lol. Just kidding. Substitute is so late.

I hear footsteps in the hallway. He's here. Can you text me during class? That would be cool. LOL. gotta go. Mr. Florenta. Savage. No, he said we can use our phones. What? Best teacher ever.

I knew it ugh he's giving a speech on school safety ugh saying we should walk in groups we should all be safer and more aware blah blah blah

he wrote fishing for kids on the board. Yawn. Oh my god. Totally creeping me out. Creeping you out? How? He's telling there are adults who fish for us. Hmm?

They use different bait to lure us to them. Lure? It's his word. Oh my god, so creepy. Like, they use candy, cute animals, all different ways. So scary. Or like the fish, and they put out worms. Oh my god, I so wish I was there. I love creepy stuff. They even told the creepiest story ever.

Bait phone. Bait phone. Bait phone. There's a kid who found a phone outside her school. She picks it up and there's a cute boy on it, her age. So she thinks it's a boy's phone. But it isn't. It was really some creep watching her from a nearby van. He put the phone there as bait to try and get her alone.

Teacher warned us to question things and to make sure we keep safe. Scary story. But cool teacher to let you text during class. Yeah, he isn't here. He went to his car to get boxes of fishing books. Fishing books? Fishing for Kids is a real book that teaches bad guys how to hook kids. Written by Nancy James. He said if we read it we'll know what to look for. And stay safe. Like to look out for people at parks without

kids. That's a place he says we let our guard down. No parks for me. Change of subject, please. I'm totally creeped out. So now you're just there staring at Luke? No, I wish. We went with Teacher to help carry books. And we're standing

against the wall anyway. Hmm? It's a safety challenge. We have to face the wall and not turn around until they come back. What happens if you turn around? Nothing. I already did, lol. I don't know. Well, teacher said he'll say when they get back.

Oh my god. Oh no. What? What? What? What? Woman walked in and asked why we were standing against the wall. Huh? Why are you both crying?

She said she was our substitute. Then who's the teacher with Luke? No one knows. They're both gone. School is on lockdown, police trying to find them. Luke has not been found. If you see anyone reading, fishing for kids, run. I'm a high school substitute teacher.

Last week I found a phone in my classroom. This creepy text conversation was on it. I did something really bad. Oh yeah? I snuck into school last night around midnight. Damn, lol. I could get in a ton of trouble for what I did, but I think she's worth it. She? Who?

She. The new P.E. teacher. Oh yeah, she's so hot. So, what did you do? I went into the gym office and replaced the mirror. I put in a two-way I got off the internet. A two-way mirror? It's a mirror that looks like a real mirror, but lets you see them, but they can't see you. Like what they have in police interrogation rooms.

And there's a tiny video camera built into it. She'll have no idea I'm videoing her. Seriously? Yeah. Oh my god. You're my hero. What gave you the idea? My vacation in Japan.

WTF? It's a public restroom in a park. Weird, right? What? It's upside down. How do you pee? I know, right? They have a lot of crazy stuff going on over there. This sign was outside the woman's. No peeping and peeping photo? Turns out they have a massive peeping tom problem in Tokyo with men trying to look up women's skirts. Men actually stick small mirrors on their shoes.

Get this, it's so widespread, there it's against the law if you take a photo and your cell doesn't beep. Wow. I was thinking how I could do something like it without getting caught and I thought of the mirror idea. Oh my god, how about that girl Ray in 11th grade? Hottest junior ever. I'd love seven minutes with her.

Yes, yes, yes. I'm buying another mirror online today. To put where? In the girl's locker room. I'll sneak back in tonight once everyone has gone home. Nice, they'll have no idea. Oh my god, I know where you have to put one. Where? In the girl's bathroom? Yes, of course. Just remember, no matter what, promise not to share the photos with anyone. We could get into a ton of trouble. No way would I say a thing.

You can trust me. Come by after school and we can get popcorn and watch what we've taped. Awesome. That's where the text conversation ended. I put up a flyer saying I found a phone. I waited, wondering what to say to the student who came to pick it up. It was a knock on my classroom door. The principal entered and asked for his phone back.

I could tell he knew I read his texts. The next day, I was told not to return to school due to a student complaint. I'm not allowed back on the premises. If you're a student reading this, please be warned. Check all the mirrors at your school someone may be watching you Anya's in middle school she texts her sister who is at a different high school. Jules, are you there? New lunch lady is screaming at Maya. In class, can't text.

She's making Maya cry. Nobody's doing nothing. Should I say something? No, not your problem. She's yelling at her in front of everyone. It's so sad. Maya is shaking. Why? What did she do?

She won't eat the food. She's vegetarian and don't eat meat. Oh my god, she just threw Maya's tray on ground. Screaming, lick it up. Maya crying so bad. Lunch lady coming back with glass of milk.

Oh my god, she poured it all over Maya. What? Everyone is laughing at her. Where are the teachers? Don't know, not here. Lunch lady threw glass against wall, smashed it, said anyone else who has a problem with her food to let her know. Find a teacher.

Maya ran out crying. Get a teacher. She says if anyone doesn't eat the food or stands up, they'll be next. Huh? Everyone's silent now. Get out of there. Okay. Oh my god, I ran out the door and she screamed at me to stay but I didn't look back. I see Maya. We're at the school office but no one's here. Maybe they're at a staff meeting or something. Try teacher's lounge. We're not allowed in there. Just do it. Inside, but no one is in here. Try principal's office. We knock, but he isn't answering. Go in. On our own? We'll get in trouble. Stop being stupid.

Go in. Okay. We're in his office. He isn't here. Hmm? Try the gym. The sports field? Just find a teacher.

Oh my god. Creepy lunch lady is in a hallway like she's looking for us. She went towards office so we went other way. We're hiding by vending machines. She is coming at us. No, she left school. One outside the street. She took off a wig and threw it on ground. Huh?

We're going back to lunch hall. The door is locked. Tell them you saw a lunch lady go outside. They're all dead. Cut up. She was feeding us. The teachers. Oh my god. I'm calling 911. Are all the kids okay? We're going after her. What? No, don't.

They're like 50 of us. Only one her we're all going together she won't get away with it we got hockey sticks and knives she's going down don't leave her to the police no we can deal please I don't want to lose another sis we see her she might have a gun don't be stupid don worry. I'll stay back. Please leave now. She's at the end of the street. She's seen us. Get your ass gone now. It's 50 versus her. She doesn't stand a chance no she got picked up

get the license plate it was too far away who picked her up a van who was driving don't know A van. Who was driving? Don't know. Oh my god, van came back.

Run! They might drive the van into you. It's okay, we're safe shielded behind the parked cars. Don't be dumb. Let the police get them. It's their job. Police aren't here. Oh my god, they're driving this way. They stopped.

Dropped something. Then reversed. Damn, they got away. What did they drop? Paper. Don't go into road, it might be a trick. They might come back and run you all over. Somebody already got it. What does it say? Hold on. Ugh. I just threw up. Maya feeling so sick what was on the note hold on I hope you enjoyed the Kool-Aid love Nancy oh my god Nancy as a Nancy James famous serial killer? Famous? Should I keep it? Maybe we could sell it. Or should I give it to the police? They're here now.

Keep it. When no one's looking, slip it into your pocket. We can make bank. Okay, done. Nice. In 1978, 900 people died by mixing a mixture of Kool-Aid and poison, creating the phrase, Don't drink the Kool-Aid. In 2017, the babysitter killer Nancy James killed cooked and fed teachers to an entire school before this she served the kids drinks unfortunately police did not know they were poisoned until it was too Peace Anya, 2005-2017. and click that notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations. If you got a story, be sure to submit them to my subreddit,

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