The Lets Read Podcast - 20: Episode 020 | Creepy Clown & Winter Stories | 26 True Scary Horror Stories

Episode Date: January 21, 2019

Welcome to the twentieth 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 Creepy Clowns, Fake Taxis, & Winter 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

If it's a flat or a squeal, a wobble or peel, your tread's worn down or you need a new wheel, wherever you go, you can get it from our Tread Experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at Michelin.ca. Find a Michelin Tread Experts dealer near you at TreadExperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at Treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at treadexperts.ca. So remember those clown incidents during 2016, where clowns would go around scaring people all over the US? Well, me and my group of friends were some of those people. I'm the first to admit we are scumbags,

however, I learned from this experience and I am far from a monster. I had many weird things happen to me while clowning, as we called it. One of those things was meeting this guy we referred to as Shaco, named after the League of Legends character. A bit of context, I lived in Texas with this same group of friends. We spent that whole month traveling around most of the state, going to various smaller areas to spook people while avoiding police attention. During one of these runs is when we met Shaco at Marble Falls. Shaco was dressed more as a jester than a clown. Hat with bells on the side, really colorful and puffy outfit, with a masquerade mask over his face which was painted gold in color. During our

clowning runs we actually met other clowns before, so we went to talk to him, cause even if we were all dressed as clowns, we are still human beings, couldn't hurt maybe to make a friend during this little prank, or so we guessed. Sheikah was hiding close by in a spot near the lakes. I couldn't see his eyes, yet I noticed him staring at a few people playing by the water. Judging by where his head was pointed towards, I assumed it was a small get-together. We talked to him and everything was semi-normal for the situation. He didn't act normal though. The lot of us figured he was just hardcore into acting.

Trust me, one of the other clowns we met before did the same thing. This guy acted like a madman straight from a horror novel which didn't mess with me at all. I thought he would be fun to tag along with. So when he started asking us to follow him no one refused. It was a large group of us with one single guy leading them towards the lake. So nothing happened to any of us at least. Going down this path we spotted two guys that seemed to be a couple judging by how they held hands and how close they were to each other they were talking loudly which is probably why they didn't notice us till shako made his first move this guy reached up into his hat and pulled out

a knife i kid you not this guy pulled out a knife like it was nothing i wasn't expecting it most of the other clowns I meet didn't try to hurt people, they just scared people at most, just like us. Yet seeing this guy with the knife caused me to hesitate. I looked at my mates who were all freaking out silently. Like I said, we're not saints, but we didn't want to hurt anyone during this little prank. The two guys kept going not noticing Sheiko charging them till it was too late. Both of them naturally started to scream. Despite this and obviously feeling terrified, me and my buds decided to cut them off and surround them. I guess due to us being

a-holes and not believing someone would actually get hurt, we felt the need to continue the horror. Now our group of friends are literally a dozen guys and two girls, adding Shaco made it 15 versus 2. There was no way they would get away once we got them in a circle. Once trapped by all of us, Shaco came in and then started screaming at the top of his lungs while saying weird things to one of the guys in particular. Darling, did you miss me? My sweet Eggo Waffle, did you miss my morning light? I miss you, my dusk. I want you back. He kept going on and on after this.

My friends all had mixed feelings about this situation. Some of them were laughing, enjoying how afraid these two dudes were the rest of us well bad vibes hit us hard what changed this whole situation though and where things got 100 real was when shaka went close to this guy a blonde male i'll call jeff be mine be my king and I'll be your fool, or I'll make you disappear in your little knight in shining armor. Shaco then put the knife close to Jeff's face. The second guy, a redhead I'll call Max, stood there bawling up his fist, tears streaming from his eyes watching the mad jester getting so close to his boyfriend. Well, we may be terrible, but none of us, however, were heartless. The two largest guys in my group basically grabbed Shako from behind.

Both of them were about six foot two. Shako tried to fight them off, but one of my female friends and I grabbed his feet. The couple stood there, stunned, seeing us turn on Shako when my mate Drew told them in his thick Australian accent, Listen, we came here only for thrills, not to kill anyone, dudes. Just get out of here. Run away and call the cops, please. The moment those words left my bud Drew's mouth, they booked it back to whatever camp they had just left, leaving us with the now screaming Shaco

cursing us and threatening to slit all our throats. None of us were afraid however, again it was 14 of us versus him. So we tossed that madman into the lake and ran off. We got into our cars and drove away from that spot. We didn't know what happened to Shaco or the two guys until recently. You see, what made me write this story was that me and my friends all went to the hookah bar near my house this weekend. Drew was telling us some story about how he lost his favorite baseball when some guy with red hair came and said, hey guys, did you go to Lake Marble during Halloween? I mean, like, during the clown crap? Apparently through fate, we ran it to Max. He and Jeff were, in fact, a gay couple who had been stalked by Jeff's ex-boyfriend,

aka, you guessed it, Shaco. Shaco was basically a stalker that had been stalking them for months, even before the Halloween stunt. In fact, the stunt didn't stop the creeping at all. Shako just kept stalking them both no matter what. For two plus years, he tracked them all across the state till eventually due to stress, Max broke up with Jeff. Max couldn't take a crazy guy like that, always watching them from the shadows every single day, so he bailed, leaving Jeff alone with no one to help beside his sister. What made this story terrifying to me was the sad ending. Max found out at some point in August, both Jeff and his sister ended their lives together. Without Max to help through the hard

times, Jeff and his sister couldn't take Shako's madness much longer and ended their lives by hanging themselves. Max broke down crying by this point in the story. He is now trying to leave Texas by saving money due to a mixture of guilt and fear. The reason for this fear is because he got a Facebook message from an unknown account telling him, I'll make you pay. I'll make you pay for leaving my Jeff alone. I'll make you pay. So now Max is just praying that Shako doesn't find him before he leaves the state I ended up buying him three shots that night and getting him an Uber home I admit I'm not a good person but I'm not pure evil Not like him

So to whoever reads this, believe it or not Please stay safe There are monsters lurking amongst us. And to you, Shaco, if me and my crew ever come across you, make no mistake, we aren't against beating up monsters like you, especially after the pain you put poor Jeff through to his final moments. I'm a pretty big girl, not extremely obese, but chunky enough that it's obvious, and it's not due to diet. I have polycystic ovary syndrome, PCOS, which can cause issues with weight due to the pituitary gland releasing the wrong type of hormones.

With this comes insulin resistance, which is like pre-pre-diabetes. It's reversible but not always effective. As such, in my 20s, I'm on a drug called metformin. Metformin or glucophage, depending on what name you know it by, isn't an addictive substance. It's used to control high insulin and I have to take it with my heaviest meals, lunch and supper, so I'm usually toting around this giant pill bottle full of white tablets. The reason why I do this is because I work part-time and attend university. I live in the dormitory of my

university and have to take transit to work and back with a bus switch downtown. Around the area where I have to switch my bus are numerous cafes and convenience stores. Needless to say, I've grabbed something to eat from there numerous times. And finally, I tend to dress goth or punk, my head shaven on the side and I've got a few piercings. Mostly I'm left alone, but there have been times where some idiots decided to have a go at me, particularly on Friday nights. It was Friday, the 2nd of November, to put things into perspective. My instructor was ill, so class was cancelled and I had an extra hour to get to work. I usually grab a quick deli sandwich and a coffee from a cafe, the closest to the bus stop, and stick it into my backpack so I can eat

it on my break. This Friday, with extra time on my hands, I decided upon arriving at my stop to stay at the cafe. I go in, order my usual plain latte and turkey bacon wrap, if you have to know, and sit down next to the windows so I can keep an eye on the stop. I have my earbuds in and I'm listening to a podcast just going through the motions. Once finishing my wrap I unzip the front pocket of my backpack, fish out the bottle of pills, pop it and wash it down with my latte. All at once this guy just comes up to my table and motions for me to take my earbuds out For a description, he's pretty tall, kind of burly

White as a sheet with his broom mustache, wearing clean civilian clothes Nothing that set off my alarm bells Being confused, I do so and he tells me Excuse me miss, but what exactly are those? He was talking about my pills. A thing with me is that I'm pretty confrontational when I feel threatened, so I said to him, None of your business? Then this guy pulls open his jacket, flashing me a police badge.

Only, he did it so quickly that I couldn't make out the details, just the shape and nothing else. I think it is. What are those, narcotics? At this point, I'm in complete shock. The rational part of my brain is shut off because I'm so caught off guard by this random man, potentially a cop, looming over me. No, is all I could get out. That's so. He says and picks up my pill bottle. Also, if you know the medication, you know they put your full name on the label, as well as what it is. Before I can tell him to give it back, he puts it in his pocket and quickly goes, You're right, I'm confiscating these.

If you want to come with me downtown to discuss this further, I suggest we do so now, before I place you under arrest. Okay, so at this point, I'm half calling him, half unsure what to say or how to react. All I'm able to say is flat out, no. Like a moron. Do you want to be placed under arrest? I'm a cop miss, I can do that. And then he flashes out his pair of handcuffs. They're not the fluffy, kinky ones either you'd expect a fake cop to have.

They're real and, as far as I can tell, metal. I'd recommend you just follow me to my car so we can have a chat. Of course, my sense of rationality is still undermined by the sheer ridiculousness of this situation. So I end up just blurting out, I'm not using drugs! bad ones, that's medicine. He says this cliche, that's what they all say, and proceeds to reach for my arm. When he grabs it, my senses finally come to me and I pull back up against the window. Give me back my medication, I yell, loud enough to get attention from the patrons and staff.

Miss, I'm asking you to come quietly. He says along those lines. I keep my mouth running. That's my medication for diabetes and I need it. It says so on the bottle. If you're a cop, give me my pills back and call for backup. Better yet, I proceed to grab my phone. I'll call the cops here because there's been a mistake.

That got him angry. He says something along the lines of you're resisting arrest and tries to grab my arm again. At this point I'm dialing 911 and one of the baristas is coming out from behind the counter. He asks this guy, what are you doing? It finally scares the creep and he takes off. Granted with my medication in his pocket. I speak to the dispatcher and the real cops show up within minutes. I speak to the cops and explain what happened. The barista also tells him that this guy has been sitting in the cafe for over an hour before I showed up but hadn't been bothering other customers, just me apparently. Cops took surveillance from the security cameras, though of course there's none pointing out into the road. I actually had to go to the station to file a report because, yep, there were no undercover narc cops in that area that day. So, 100% wasn't an actual one. I suspected as much but in our society, you're inclined to believe

and trust in authority figures. These days not so much but disobeying them isn't in our programming usually. It really isn't in mine either but the whole thing was fishy from the get-go. Considering of course it was my metformin he took and I had to replace the entire three-month bottle and go several hours between doses, something that puts me at risk for hypoglycemia, low blood sugar. I am of course quite angry at this idiot still but I'll admit I'm also fully aware and freaked out that I was in a whole lot of danger too. It's not common where I live but human trafficking is a thing and the fact that this guy wanted me, a lone female who looks the type to use some kind of illegal substance to go with him alone gets to me.

What if my common sense didn't kick in or the barista hadn't done something? The people around us sure didn't pull a what would you do and come to my rescue. The biggest thing that's freaky is that not only has this guy not been caught yet, but my pills were later recovered. The bottle was found a few blocks away still half full by eyeballing it, which confirms the cop theory that he wasn't some desperate junkie or guy trying to rob me. He wouldn't have dumped the pills if he wanted to sell them. So they dubbed this an attempted abduction due to his aggressiveness to get me to go with him.

Before anyone asks, no, I can't take them. Not that I could anyway. The cops are keeping the bottle for evidence because fingerprints exist. I've been keeping my eyes out in case fake cop comes wandering onto my campus and I did switch my bus route. I'm taking the long way which I don't enjoy, but until they catch the creep, that's the way it's gotta be, unfortunately. Otherwise, so far I've gotten no creepy phone calls, no random people texting me, no cryptic messages on my social media platforms, nothing. If this guy is smart, he wouldn't even try anyways. I'm really hoping he's smart for my own sanity. I'm in my early twenties. I work overnights at a group home for autistic children.

There were three boys living in the house. My job was to come in. If they weren't asleep when I got there I would get them to sleep. I would do some paperwork and do most of the cleaning. Then in the morning I would wake them up, get them ready for school, make breakfast and tell the morning person about anything that might have happened overnight or that the afternoon or evening person told me about what had happened the previous day. All told it was an easy job. I loved being with the boys when they were awake but largely had 5-6 hours to do 2 hours worth of work. So that was 3-4 hours where all I had to do was stay awake and hope that the boys slept through the night. Typically I spent that time chatting online or watching TV on my laptop or reading. However sometimes things did

get a bit creepy. There would be times throughout the day where I would be talking to one of the boys, getting him dressed, and he would stop what he was doing and just stare over my shoulder. I'm pretty short for a guy, only 5'7", so if someone is standing behind me they're pretty easy to see. Obviously there would be no one behind me or I would have mentioned it. There were a few times where one of the boys would actually point up toward the ceiling and say, Who's that? Who's she? I think those moments were the second scariest thing for me. Other times I could hear walking down in the basement.

The office was in the basement and the door was kept locked so the boys wouldn't go down there. Or times where I would hear the door to the laundry room slam. Sometimes when I worked mornings after the boys had left for school, I could hear children laughing in the house and other staff had mentioned hearing it too. The scariest moment in the house for me was a night shift. I was laying on the couch in the living room reading. The couch was against the wall and had a chair directly next to it so that they were touching, and the chair was right next to the doorway in the kitchen. The kitchen led to the hallway that led to the bathroom and the boys'

room. So I was laying on the couch with my head closest to the hallway to better hear if the boys got up. You had to react quickly if they did or you might have a big mess on your hands. When I heard footsteps. Now the boys who were down the hall were small boys and both needed help getting their shoes on. But these were heavy footsteps and they sounded like someone wearing heavy boots. I froze. The steps came down the hall, into the kitchen and into the living room. Then I heard the air leaving the cushion on the chair that was literally six inches away from the back of my head as if someone had just sat down.

I took a deep breath and turned around. No one was there. I was freaked out but I had a job to do and honestly if I was mistaken about the direction or placement of those footsteps and someone was in one of the boys room I would rather face them than let the boys get hurt. So knowing where I heard the footsteps I walked back just to be sure. I look in on the boys, they're all asleep. I didn't get much more reading done that night but I think that's the cleanest the house has ever been. The Shadow Man Ever since I can remember, I've had what I assume to be a dark entity attached to or following me. I call it the Shadow Man because it looks like a very dark silhouette of a tall man that appears to me, usually when I am going through a rough time in my life.

Now I think this is important to note that the entity appears to me mostly at night, but also during the day, usually when I am alone. But I must mention that I do not suffer from sleep paralysis, have never hallucinated, except after surgery, have never taken hallucinogenic drugs, etc. and I have seen it in multiple houses I've lived in and it's been a part of my earliest memories. I usually see the shadow man at night, sometimes walking with a jolt and it is at the foot of my bed just standing over me. When I was young my mother used to tell me to command it to go away but ever since I turned 12

that hasn't worked. When I was 12 I was in my bed at my dad's house when I saw it manifest through my sliding closet door that was a mirror. It started as a mist and the color slowly became darker and it seemed to take a more three-dimensional shape. I was terrified and hid under the covers with my eyes shut tight and felt the corner of my bed press down with an unseen weight that I moved as far away from as I could. I was too afraid to say anything aloud but in my head I was shouting get out, leave me alone as loud as I could possibly think. Eventually I fell asleep and didn't see it again for another few months. When I was 15 I started dating my current boyfriend.

He is a skeptic and always has been and has never believed my stories of the shadow man. When I was 18 we got an apartment together and the first time I saw the shadow man there I was home alone and called him. Hysterically crying because the shadow man moved towards me at warp-like speed and I dropped to the floor and closed my eyes, crying for it to go away. My boyfriend thought it was a ploy to get him to come home early from work and he just told me to get into bed and try to take a nap until we got home at about 3pm. This happened at about 12 in the afternoon. After much begging and pleading on my end we eventually got a dog because it would make me feel safer. When I was 20 I was in the kitchen

downstairs making dinner with my dog by my side and I got the feeling of static electricity on the back of my neck that I always got before I saw the shadow man and I turned to see it in the dining room and I looked down and my dog's hackles were raised and I called for my boyfriend scared but determined to make him believe me. He came down the stairs and by this point my dog was growling and barking something very unusual for him as we have heard him bark only a handful of times and he has only ever growled two other times when I felt I was in danger but those are stories for another time. And my boyfriend said he saw the air almost shimmer where my dog and I saw the

shadow man standing and it just faded out of sight when my boyfriend got to me but at least he believes me now. I'm so grateful to my dog for making enough of a scene for my boyfriend to come down because now I'm taken seriously and at least I'm not alone in this. I remember when I was 13 years old. We were living in Florida in the suburbs of Orlando. We have since moved up to Oklahoma to get back in touch with God as my grandpa pastors a pretty big church there in Tulsa. Anyway, I played in a soccer program called Upward. I loved every second of it, especially playing with my best friend at the time, Brandon. We'd goof off most of the time and neither of us

were too good at the sport, but we both loved it. Now some explanation. Brandon has a moderate case of autism. His was a bit worse than mine, however, and he'd often overreact to small situations and go off in his own little world. Normal stuff. He was really into Sonic.exe and Slenderman. All things horror. His parents didn't know how to deal with him properly. I imagine this is why Brandon did what he did on this particular night,

or it could have been his obsession with things of its nature. Oh, also, we're both homeschooled, so we did school whenever we wanted. So Brandon and I bugged his mom about letting me stay the night after a successful soccer game one night. She said it was okay with her. Then Brandon suggested a week. She said no and instead suggested three days. I agreed on that and Brandon did too. My parents knew them at this point and also agreed.

It was a done deal. I packed up and headed over there. When I was dropped off at the house, Brandon greeted me. He talked about what we were going to do, almost none of which we did, and we walked to his bedroom. We instead talked and talked about random things and his older sister, who was 15, joined us later that night. We all went to bed late at night. The next day came and we woke up pretty late. That is Ash, Brandon's sister and I did. Brandon

was nowhere to be found. We decided not to worry about it and talked to each other instead. About half an hour passed and I decided we needed to find Brandon. Ash went to her bedroom instead. I walked around the house and with no luck decided to look outside. Immediately my senses were attacked by a foul sour stinging odor as if the sources were right next to me. I remember recoiling in surprise. I got away from whatever the smell was going toward the lake they lived on. I saw Brandon walking along the shore holding something red and brown in his arms. It looked like a towel. It was about as long as his forearm. I faintly heard him singing something to himself as he walked. I silently made my way over to him, hoping he wouldn't hear me. I wanted to try and scare him not thinking at all about what

he was holding. He went toward the small kayak house that they had for, you guessed it, kayaking. I figured the perfect time to attack would be when he walked in there where it was dark. I smiled and dashed behind a tree to wait for him to enter. Brandon stopped right outside the door and locked it in both of his hands in front of himself. He lifted it to his side and I got a good view of the carcass of a rabbit. My eyes opened so wide in shock I couldn't blink. He started slamming it against the tin build of the shack, screaming. He opened the door and used the edge of the door where the doorknob was and slammed the rabbit's spine into it. A sickening

snap was heard and I felt dizzy. I walked back to the house and entered it and I began crying. It scared me so badly that I was bawling. I soon gathered myself and decided against saying anything about it to anyone because I truly thought no one would believe me. Brandon came in later on and we hung out as usual with the exception of my newfound knowledge. Night fell and we all talked and went to bed a little earlier this time so we'd wake up later and have more day to burn. Brandon wanted to show me something first though and got me out of bed. We walked outside on his back porch and the same smell from earlier that day stung my senses. I remember this night vividly. Oh what is that smell dude? I asked, cupping my hands over my nose and mouth. He walked over to a small box with holes poked in it, opened it, and picked something up out of it,

facing away from me. He turned around excitedly and held out what he picked up. This, he said, smiling. It was an extremely skinny rabbit rabbit red stains on its brown fur it smelled horrific ew dude what is that i shouted jumping back it did things moving in its fur its eyeballs were sunk into its skull almost to the point that they had fallen out of the sockets. Brandon had a sad look on his face. What? he asked curiously. What do you mean what? I shouted angrily at him. I killed it. Look at what's happening to it. It's cool, right? he asked me. No, you're a monster. I yelled at him. His face completely went blank after that. I'll kill you next.

My parents pulled up after I'd gotten Brandon's mom up and asked her if I could go home. I told her I was homesick. I know, I probably should have mentioned the threat, but the only thing I wanted to do was get out of there. I told my parents while we were driving home who in turn told his parents. I really haven't seen him since then. Like I said, we moved up to Oklahoma soon afterward for unrelated reasons. I used to live out in the country in Manitoba, Canada. Like real boonies. You had to bike or drive to go anywhere aside from a railroad side ice cream parlor.

At night it would get pretty dark too. With my mother and stepdad we had three small dogs and a cat. I was often left in charge of all of them. I was kind of resentful for all the work on top of the schooling and homework but I love the animals so I couldn't blame them too much unless they made a huge mess then I'd be pretty ticked but that's not entirely relevant. What is is that I would routinely take them all out before going to bed and I would go to bed very very late at night like any 14 year old with such lax parenting. Emma, Lady and my dog Carmelita would usually stay in the front yard

which was a vast acreage of flat land with a tiny ditch. It was easy to see the small dogs and call them back in. Sometimes Emma would wonder. My mother's Cairn Terrier had a bit of a rebellious side to her, but it wasn't her who took off this night. It was Lady, the Cocker Spaniel. She was a protective and watchful eye while the others were mostly divas. Frustrated, I ran off after her around to the back of the house, which is a steep slope toward a waterbed that is an offshoot of the Red River. What I saw slowly sprawling across the slope still gives me chills. These things were about chest height to me and twenty-five feet away, pale tan or grey mostly, no tails, no muzzles but on all fours with long legs that were longer in the front. They turned their almost featureless faces up to us at the top of the slope. Their eyes were large and glowed in the faint back porch lights like big marbles.

Luckily Lady had frozen at the top with me, her hackles raised like a hyena. The creatures were still walking but were bobbing their heads about looking at us. I grabbed the dog by crouching quickly, frightened we'd be attacked and bolted around the side to the front again, calling for the others to come inside. Emma and Carmelita were already sitting at the door waiting for us. I guess they'd figured it was too chilly for them to stay out so long, but truthfully, my out of shape self was boiling from the adrenaline. I refused to take them out after dark after that which unfortunately resulted in plenty of messes I had to clean up. I would

occasionally see those strange things crossing our backyard after that. They'd only look up at my house if I had the lights on and was obviously moving in clear view. Another night I woke up radio flashing 1am or something close to that. I wasn't sure why I woke up at that time until I realized I wasn't alone. I sleep in the basement at that time. My windows overlook the backyard but only slightly. It was located under the back porch which was able to be walked under if you simply stooped a bit. One of those things with pale skin and huge green eyes lowered its head as it looked through my window. I froze. I'm not sure if I moved at all after waking up. It sort of bobbed its head around for a brief time only and then quickly bolted off as if

something had frightened it. To this day I have no idea what they were. They almost acted like deer but they hardly looked like them. Their bodies looked closer to misshapen dogs or humans. Their faces were hard to see but from what I could tell they had no muzzles and very big eyes. I tried looking up what cryptids or myths were native to where I live but everything just sort of points to Wendigo or Skinwalkers and I'm not entirely sold on either. I saw them too frequently for them to be a random misinterpretation of another animal and aside from simple distance making it hard to discern their faces they stuck around long enough for me to get a really good look at their form. So what was I seeing out there? I grew up in a reformed Jewish household.

For those who don't know what that is, basically it means we want to feed the world and respect traditions but aren't really religious. Picture the typical grandma when you come in and of course she wants to feed you. Has to be thought in a stereotypical Yiddish grandma voice. You're so skinny. What? You never eat. Sit, sit, have some matzo ball soup. Chicken, I'm making brisket for dinner. Want some candy? Gosh, don't your mothers feed you? But multiply that by ten. I love my family and have always had a sensitivity to vibes my mom says I got from my great-great-grandmother who was a Sephardic Jewish gypsy. While my mom and biological dad divorced, I no longer recognize him as my father since no

man should treat his child the way he treated me growing up and we'll leave it at that. So I guess to clarify, I love my mother's side of the family. My biological dad would take me to his hometown growing up and let his parents watch me as he'd drink the day away. This was fine as I had friends in his neighborhood and they helped me learn to surf, fish and more. When I was 8 years old, my pop-pop had passed away as had my stepmother's mom. She was a rad older lady. Jewish too and always looked out for me on trips. Grandma S.

My biological dad had inherited his parents' home and was now helping care for my grandma. My pop-pop's wife, Grandma J. And by help, I mean his sister cared for his mother and he drank and did yard work. It was strange being in the house without him and his cigars and my grandma's voice singing through the kitchen. Bobula, you hungry? Shana Poonam, wanna watch Disney movies with me? It was silent, except for my aunt fussing over my grandma Jay who had Parkinson's and dementia. Poor woman.

I wish she and I had been closer growing up but she was always suffering from early onset dementia and was confused so often I found it best to sit with her but leave her be. So my next door neighbor Sammy was my age and she was a dead ringer for Rocket Girl from Rocket Power, the TV show from Nickelodeon like mid 90s to 2000. She asked if I'd bring my dad longboards and meet her at the beach and we'd catch the small waves and ride the line. This was and is Florida and we lived right on the beach so like a 5-10 minute walk with my little legs. I agreed and with my little 8 year old arms and legs this was a big undertaking by myself. Keep in mind this is the 90s so long as we were

vocal where we went and were back in a few hours we were fine. So I'm trying to maneuver this huge board about 8 foot 7 inches and my board 7 foot 10 inches across a busy intersection across the street to the beach. I put my board down and pressed the crosswalk button and pick up my dad's board and put it on my shoulder And smushed it against my head as I basically used my head as a prop Fiberglass at the age was heavy This was obstructing my view of oncoming traffic to my left I saw the pedestrian walkway light change green and I made my way to cross the street

This is where it gets interesting As soon as my little sandal touched the road, I felt a strong hand pull me back from the road onto my butt, as a huge red SUV came speeding through the red light, and most certainly would have meant severe, possibly life-threatening injuries. My mouth gaped open wide as I saw it zoom past, horn blaring presumably at me, like I was the crazy one. I sat up, pulling my board to my feet, quickly glancing for damage. As I dusted myself off to

thank whomever just saved my life, I heard a very familiar voice. You need to be careful, Bobola. I recognized the voice and the red hair as she disappeared as quickly as she had appeared. Her perfume that usually made my nose crinkle due to how overwhelming it was now wafted and hung in the air like a goodbye. I was speechless. How could this have happened? I grabbed the boards and carefully crossed the street. One or two patrons on the other side asking me if I was okay from their

seats of the beachside dive bar. I nodded and sniffled as I was too overwhelmed at my young age and I wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. I see Sammy making a sand kingdom off in the distance as my sore legs wobbled her way. She was a sweet girl and could tell I was distressed. Hey, are you okay? She noticed I was banged up a bit. You have scrapes on your legs. Come on, let's wash them off in the ocean. She took me slightly by the hand and let the waves lick my legs and the salt sting and clean my scrapes.

Dude, you okay now? She whispered as she had never seen me cry before, except the time I aided skateboarding but I had busted up my chin and blood dripping off my face was freaking me out. Yeah, I squeaked out. Do you still want to surf? She asked concerned. Yeah. So we paddled out in the lineup where I just laid on my board and quietly cried to myself. I caught a few bumps in and after two hours I told Sammy it was time for me to go. I sat in my grandparents house, the incident replaying in my head over and over. The weekend went by in a blur and I was back home with my mom in our shoebox of the house we had after the divorce. Okay, my mom interrupted, never ending thoughts. You are way too quiet. What happened?

Did your dad do something? She prodded. I turned and looked at her on our violet leather couch and let out a sigh I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Mommy, what happens, you know, when you die? I asked in a whisper. She looked shocked. I mean, what parent wouldn't when their child is asking about death? What do you mean? Why are you asking this? She now moved closer, moving my bangs from my eyes, looking so concerned. I sighed again, debating whether to tell her what happened.

Mom, I tried again. Are there such things as ghosts? I looked her in the eyes searching for an answer She sighed and said I don't know She said pulling me close, arm around me and settling in on the couch She told me her story. But when I was out of college, I was in New York working as the regional manager for J&M and it was freezing cold. Snow clung to everything.

It was sleeting and the sidewalks turned to ice skating rinks. She chuckled to herself. I must have looked so confused as she continued with, Anyways, I had six to seven white boxes of clothes stacked to bring to retail location just about three blocks down from the main office. I'd do this to check in and keep morale high. If I can trudge through the snow, you can trudge through your shifts and meet sales goals, you know, type thing. Mind you, I've made this walk countless times in my boots and heels with boxes stacked ten high. The weather was making it hard to see, though, and the sleet was stinging my face, not to mention the boxes impaired my view. So, I went across the street.

My heart stopped as my encounter played again in my head. And as I went across, I heard a voice I was so familiar with say, Don't cross, Shanapunam. Wait. I felt your great-grandma Esther. She was there. I was so stunned I took a few steps back and saw a taxi come zooming past, then hit a patch of ice and nailed the light post

not even ten steps to my right. I looked all around, baby. I didn't see her. And how could I? She had passed that month. I dropped the boxes and checked on the driver and called 911. I was very shaken up. She paused, her own confusion playing across her features and probably to keep from rambling. So to answer your question, I don't know what happens when we die. I wouldn't say I believe in ghosts, but I do believe in guardian angels and spirits. They are always watching over you to protect you and keep you safe, she said. She did again ask why I had'd asked but i didn't tell her

to this day i haven't told her my experience i am certain she'll think i'm making it up to match her story or something i wasn't a very honest child after all i hid my father's drinking and abuse of nature from her maybe now she'd believe me, but it's been so long. But it does give me such peace to know that our loved ones are never really gone. They're always watching over us. So I believe in the paranormal ghosts, spirits, and the like. But I believe over everything else, we have guardian spirits watching over us. My name is Lydia. I'm a 19 year old female. I live with my dad on the weekends, but I live at school during the week. That isn't really relevant to what I'm about to tell you but I thought I'd tell you where I stand. This occurred last July. I remember this time frame so well because it happened the day after I saw Panic at the Disco at MSG. The day after the concert, so the 25th I

think, I was playing Animal Crossing at my dad's house. He wasn't home so I was the only one in the house other than the cat. I heard a knock at the door. It was later in the afternoon, maybe about 6pm so I started to walk towards the door not thinking twice about it. My dad's house has a large one-way window next to the door so I was able to see who was outside. I assumed it was a kid from the neighborhood so I opened the door. It was a boy. He looked a little lost so I asked him if he needed anything. He said no and asked if he could come inside.

I asked why and he just shrugged and stood there with a blank expression. I was confused by this and was torn on what to do. This boy was a child, only about 6 years old. I then remembered the whole stranger danger thing even though it was a child and I'm a 19 year old female. The boy asked if he could come in again so I asked, Why do you want to come in? He gave me an answer and it was kind of unsettling. He said something along the lines of,

My parents will come looking for me soon. I was confused and thought this boy was just terrified to be on his own. I then looked at his eyes for whatever reason and the eye sockets were empty or black, I couldn't tell. My body began to speak almost on its own and long story short I ended up letting him in. I couldn't stop myself. It was almost like pressure or something was forcing me to say it even though I knew it felt so unlike me as I'm a pretty anxious person around new people never mind random children who show up to your house. When he came inside he sat on the chair in the entryway. I was uncomfortable and I could tell that this child did not want to speak at all. I opened my DS to resume the game and it froze. I tried to turn it off and back on without saving my progress and it wouldn't even do that.

I brushed that off as a coincidence and just me being paranoid. After what felt like eons the child stood up and said, They're here. He got up and walked out the door. I watched him get into the car and as he was leaving my dad was driving in front of our house to pull into the driveway. My dad got inside and asked who that boy was. I responded with the whole story minus the black eyes and DS part because my dad's a skeptic about this kind of stuff. I then made up that I called the boy's parents to come and pick him up. That was obviously a lie. I told my friend about this and she said

that I probably had an experience with the black eyed children. I'm no paranormal expert but this felt very unhuman like. I don't know what the children's parents were either. I asked my dad and he didn't see them or anyone driving the car. He blamed it on the tinted windows but I'm not sure. I couldn't see anything either. With all of that being said, I'm not sure what the child actually was. I haven't had any strange dreams or had any medical problems and I hope to keep it that way. I grew up in a haunted house. No big deal but it was built in the early 1800s as an ice house and like many ice houses of the time it was used to store dead bodies during the winter months,

particularly when the ground would freeze hard. Then when coal was struck and the power company ate up as much land as they could, it turned into a coal dump. The attic was built enormously and could have easily been two stories high and still room for all my father's pack rat crap. It had two huge roll-up garage doors about 8 feet from the ceiling of the apartment, which would make a solid 19 foot fall. The floor was jacked up a foot or two from the bedrock. I like the joke that I lived in a bomb shelter, and one of the timbers of the apartment walls had 1960 written on it. It had a strange layout where my older brother would have to pass through

my room. This caused a whole other bucket of stories. I had always been afraid of the closet in that room. It still gives me a phobia to this day. My brother would often tell me horrible things to keep me in the bed at night. Now that that's out of the way, I'll start with the little girl who had died of yellow fever. I was able to find her obituary at the library. They even had her post-mortem pictures. She is the one that I would say has been there the longest. I was never afraid

of her. I was a lonely child because of the huge age gap of my siblings. She wouldn't be what I would call an imaginary friend either. She came at clear times of the day and I actually miss her. At night she would try to lay down in bed with you. She would first sit, like trying to ease into the bed, instead of just flopping into the bed. Hear her breath just a few moments of fully laying down. She would play with certain toys, especially when new people came around. Girlfriends, boyfriends, best friends and sleepover parties all fell victim to the little girl that just wants someone to cuddle at night. I assume she was stored in

the ice house due to winter. The coal miner. He died in that house when a truckload of coal had been dumped accidentally, basically burying him alive in a dusty unwashed coal. He died of collapsed lungs. No pictures in the obituary, but he stayed in the attic, just over the master bedroom. He didn't wear a shirt, only overalls that had been covered in coal. He himself, just as dark as carbon with his eyes and mouths rubbed by a clean handkerchief. Red like a sunburn under the dust on his face, he wasn't a nice guy but he wasn't a mean one either. Only confusing and annoying at times with his loud boots around 3am. The last thing that lived in my house is the star of this show. This man-shaped being was not a good spirit in the slightest. In fact, I really don't think it was a spirit at all.

Something horrid and unworldly, under the cloak of a normal shadow man. It had substance and depth at times, but like the girl in the coal miner, it too would come out during special events. My parents had a toxic marriage for the better part of my life. Knowing that my mother had been having an affair for six years longer than my own life, I understood why. They would have screaming matches about the food my mom cooked, the stain on the shirt, the taste of the tea, money, bills, etc. When left in the care of my brother, who was more than old enough to be a responsible older brother, he would beat me to near unconsciousness when I bugged him a little too long, which caused me to just curl back up to my room under the bed, my sanctuary and

sometimes the little girl's meeting place. Only her energy, holding a hand or moving a toy. When I grew up a little and had thoughts that are hard for even adults to process, the earliest memory was when I was searching the toy box of hand-me-downs that was kept in my bedroom closet. My mom had just left the house, then my dad left, after a huge fight of course. The night before my brother locked me outside in the cold, he turned out the porch light, cackled like a hyena, then went to the other room. I broke through the glass that was closest to the doorknob by accident after beating a little too hard in fear and anger about staying outside

for god knows how long. I panicked about how cut up my hand was and I was finally let into the house where I was tortured further with rubbing alcohol on my glass filled fist. I screamed more about that than the initial cuts. I was threatened by my brother. Next time it would be worse. Sadly, a promise he kept. The spirit yanked back the clothes that hung over the toy box and tilted an egg-shaped head toward me. It examined me like a bug, up then down and over again. I just held tight to my littlest pet shop or pound puppy I had been searching for, looking at him in wonder, tinged with shock and fear. The door shut, closing me in the closet. Fear started to increase. But who did I fear more?

My brother. I only stayed with my eyes locked on the man. He snapped and popped with his movements, like arthritis had been building up for an eternity. He moved back into the clothes and straightened himself, adjusting. Popcorn in the microwave. When I let out a squeak and started to reach for the doorknob, it only looked hard at me for a moment, then slammed the clothes back together with a snap. Naturally, I was slightly relieved, but I still went for the door. The knob didn't budge. Don't panic, both hands. Still no turn in full panic mode. I screamed and thumped myself against the door smashing my hand in the process. My final heave I wound up tumbling out to my brother with his cackling laugh.

It gave me carpet burn down my face. The reason I panicked so hard, hurt myself, and was willing to break my shoulder to get out of that closet was that thing. It started growling. It stretched up towards the ceiling and was now leaning over the rack of clothes leering down on me. It felt like its darkness was going to swallow me. This actually became a go-to for my brother too but I disarmed him by not coming unglued. This came to an end when my mother came to wake me up for school and found me asleep in the toy box. She was on the verge of grounding me which consisted of no four-wheeler or video games. In short, I ratted on him, but that closet scared me more when I was out of it. The doorknob had this jingle from being loose. The jingle would

come and then the door would break open with force, but not slam. The shadow would ease out from the door and the closet would be left open a crack. I saw this twice as a preteen and once as a teenager. It would slink itself into my brother's room where he was probably tripping balls. One night I heard him jerk his playstation controller out of the port and slam it into the wall that faced my room. Following was a muffled cussing, then him coming out of his lit bedroom, crotch of his pants covered in pee. I sat up once he was out of my room and clasped my hand over my mouth to keep him from hearing my laughing. This small victory came to an abrupt resolution when I saw the shadow glide back to my

closet, then the door closed with a jingle. I haven't asked my sister what does the bad one mean because I'm scared of the response. I haven't asked my sister what does the bad one mean because I'm scared of the response. I haven't asked my brother because we have never willingly communicated with each other until recently when we agreed my sister was the favorite. Do you think my brother's teasing was just teasing or does he still have to make sure his closet door is completely shut before bed too. I live in a rural area in New England and nothing out here really bothers me. I've seen black bears, coyotes and have become used to the wildlife in the area by living out here for 17 years. But whenever you get used to something, mother nature always tends to mess it up. It was a warm summer day in July

and I decided to take my horse, Cheyenne, down a forested trail on my grandparents' property. We've completed this trail many times with no issues so I thought nothing of it at the time. I tacked up and started down the trail in mid afternoon, the heat and flies already getting to my horse and I. When trail riding you tend to lose track of time, you study the forest and listen to the noises all around you and that's what I did. As we carried on down the trail I noticed my mare became increasingly nervous and reluctant to move forward. I encouraged her the best I could but I started to notice a change in the forest. It was like a mood swing. The forest

noises seemed to dim which put me on edge. Up ahead of us was a sharp wooded corner so I couldn't see what was up ahead. The logical side of me was screaming. I've listened to scary narrations This simply wasn't a good situation The stubborn side of me however was encouraged to round the corner And with my horse on edge I did The forest was now silent and dread consumed me But I rounded the corner In front of me was a decently dressed man In the middle of the trail but he just seemed off.

His motions were almost mechanical, I dare say robotic. He lurched backwards. He didn't jump back. It was like something pulled his body back. It was almost like it wanted to act surprised or shocked that I was there. It just didn't look natural. It looked like a puppet. At that moment my mind was screaming. No one was supposed to be was there. It just didn't look natural. It looked like a puppet. At that moment my mind

was screaming. No one was supposed to be out there. No one should be out there. This was private property in the middle of nowhere. This trail wasn't even connected or near to main roads. Strangers couldn't access it. I didn't even get a good look at his face. I could feel myself avoiding looking at it, as if even the thought of it unnerved me. His clothing as I recall just seemed average, nothing special, but his presence made me physically sick. I've never had so much dread come over me. A person shouldn't enable that much fear into someone. As if my horse sensed my dread, she turned quickly around and bolted back down the trail as if spooked herself and we headed back to the barn. As I got to the end of the trail

and saw the barn I felt everything lift and the forest noises came back and most of the fear drifted away. I could finally breathe. I never untacked a horse that quickly in my life. I had to walk past the trail to make it to my grandparents' house, and I dreaded it. I got on the phone with my mom as I made my way down the dirt road to the house. I had boasted to her about how I saw a deer on the trail, trying not to make my voice crack as I walked past it. Too afraid to tell the truth of what I saw or even manage a glance back at it. Once I passed the trail, I sprinted the rest of the way almost like an invisible boogeyman was

behind me. I don't fear the woods, I don't fear people, but that man or whatever it was terrified me. He said nothing but still could enable so much indistinctive dread and fear into me. My horse sensed it. A person has never spooked her, but that thing did. I don't know what that was, but the motions were not human. Please, everyone be careful in the woods, and never get too comfortable. That's when the strangest encounters happen.

My dad passed away about two years before, which left only my mom, sister, and myself. To help me cope with my father's passing, my mom took me to the animal shelter to pick out a dog, since having a large dog was something that I always wanted. In one of the cages was a small shepherd husky, cuddled in the corner that I right away fell in love with. When this incident happened, he was about one years old, 90 pounds, and my best friend. My mom worked nights and my older sister, taking advantage that my mom wasn't home, would constantly leave me alone. I didn't mind though because then she couldn't boss me around since when she was home she would try to be mom, telling me what to do and when to go to bed. We live in a small middle class suburb with low crime so I wasn't

afraid to be home alone. I was sitting in the living room playing video games and got up to head into the kitchen to grab a drink. In the kitchen I had a clear view through the back door and could see the garage open. Thinking that I just left it open after putting my bike away I headed out the door to close it. My dog was sleeping in the basement since he liked to lay on the cool floor during the summer months and I didn't think to take him out with me. I step out the door and make it about 5 feet from it when I notice in the darkness a crouched shadow moving in the garage. I froze trying to get my eyes to adjust to make out what the shadow was. It finally hit me when I saw the figure stand up and turn towards me.

I was terrified and felt like I had been glued to the spot. I knew that this person could see me since the back porch light was shining above me. At that moment the figure started running towards me. I was too scared to move and let out more of a yelp than a scream. But that was all it took for my dog to hear and the next thing I hear is him behind me snarling and growling. But that was all it took for my dog to hear and the next thing I hear is him behind me snarling and growling. I could make out it was a man but not features when he now froze seeing the 90 pound beast

behind me. He turned and ran for the back fence with my dog right behind him. The guy made it to the fence and since it was only about 4 feet he hopped right before my dog got to him. After he got away my dog came running back to me and we went inside where I barricaded the doors. I don't know why but I didn't call the police and never told my mom or sister what happened. One thing that bothered me was that he had to have known that I was inside since the lights were on and the blinds open. So why take

the risk to hit a house when someone was clearly home? The morning after my mom was home, I went outside to finally close the garage and notice what he had been going through, my dad's toolbox. I locked up the garage and never told anyone about what happened. I walked my dog to McDonald's and got him a burger and ice cream cone for being my hero. My family loves traveling, like all the time. So about a year ago my family took a trip to France. At this time I'm a 9th grader in high school. Before the trip my mom spent a few months learning

French and my sisters had some basic knowledge on the language so we were set. So we flew into some country in Europe, I forget exactly where, and we took the train all the way to Paris. Once we arrived in the train station we took a few minutes to prepare ourselves before heading out and looking for a taxi. We were walking when suddenly a guy comes up to us. He knew some English and asked if we were looking for a taxi since he had a large van taxi. My family was happy since we have over a five person family and there isn't enough seats in normal taxis so we agreed and walked over with him as he points out a large black van with another guy sitting

in the driver's seat. Now that I think of it, there is no reason for two taxi drivers to be in one car. The weird part was that it had no taxi indicators or anything on the van stating this is a taxi service. I remember my parents exchanging glances with each other but going along with it. So at this point we haven't even discussed price or where we were heading. He just opened the rather large trunk and started chucking our bags inside there. At this point my mom was worried. She demanded an answer on why there was no taxi indicators. The man started switching between English and French and wasn't giving a clear answer. She didn't push it.

My mom then asked for the price. It was a bit costly but there are no other regular taxi vans around. At this point, the man is getting to the last of our luggage when we notice my dad's attitude change. He seemed more concerned. He went up to the man, stopped him at putting the last piece of luggage in the van and said to him, Show me your taxi license. At this time, I didn't even know there was a taxi license. I guess neither did the man. His eyes widened and he seemed nervous.

In very broken English, he said something along the lines of, Right, right, taxi license. He pretended to pat his pockets and acted like he left it at home. My parents at this point quickly grabbed our luggage and said, thank you but we don't need a taxi anymore. They quickly took us across the street and merged us into a large group of people getting away from this mysterious black van. We eventually found a taxi terminal and found a large van. We never spoke at that event again but I feel like I was that close to being kidnapped or whatever these people had planned on doing to us. This happened in 2016, a week before Christmas Day.

On this particular day, my mom decided to take me out shopping with her for some last-minute Christmas gifts and holiday deals. As we were leaving, I grabbed the handbag I was using at the time. A relatively worn but nice black leather fossil brand backpack. I didn't have much in it besides my planner, a journal, my wallet and my whole DS case. I'd gone to a gaming party that night before and still had it in there but I didn't think much about taking it out. I was prone to carrying it around in my bag regardless of what I was doing. I never knew when I was going to get bored enough to pull it out and start tending to my Animal Crossing village or training some of my prized Pokemon.

We made our rounds at the mall and whatnot and about halfway into our trip I received a text from a high school bandmate of mine. I was a big band nerd and was particularly close with a lot of people who marched with me. The text informed me that some people from my old percussion section were planning an impromptu get-together at the movies and I was invited to come along, as well as my mom. She was a well-liked band parent so they had no qualms about her showing up as well. We were both pretty game and after finishing up the last story we wanted to get into, we headed to the theater to meet everybody. We had a good time, caught up, took some funny pictures, all that jazz. My mother and I headed home around 9.30pm and as soon as we pulled up into our driveway, my mom asked me to retrieve the bags from our shopping endeavors.

I remembered that I was listening to music on my cell phone as I got out of the car and shrugged my backpack onto my left shoulder. I trudged around to the back of the car and stood there waiting for my mom to pop open her trunk. I glanced slightly over my shoulder, just in time to see what looked like an SUV whip up onto our swale. The first thought that came to mind was that one of my bandmates had followed me home as a joke. They were a meme-y bunch so I didn't put anything like that past them. I smirked a little and turned around to greet whoever it was. Instead of facing a friend, I instead came face to barrel with what looked to be a revolver. Holding it was a short guy.

I'm 5'7 and he looked to be slightly shorter than me. He had dark skin, a black unkempt beard and unruly curly hair to match. I remember shooting my gaze up to his face and staring at him, because I'd watched enough crime shows to know exactly what was about to go down. Give me money. He shouted as we made eye contact. I remember freezing out of what I could describe as shock and maybe some fear. My first thought was there was a chance the gun wasn't loaded, followed by the thought that I didn't wish to find out, followed by the thought that I needed

to keep my eyes on this dude until he got what he wanted and left. It was at that moment that my mom rounded the back of her car and yelped at the sight of her daughter with a gun to her head. According to what she told me afterward, she'd heard the man shout and assumed it was a joke and came over to give the alleged prankster a piece of her mind. Well, her yelp seemed to alert the gunman because he took his eyes off of me and instead ran over to her. She of course ran from him. This is when my fear really started to come into play. Given that the gun was loaded, I became very scared that the man would decide to shoot my mom if she didn't comply with what he wanted so I ended up yelling, just give him your purse. She threw it at him but then began begging to at least retrieve her car

and her house keys before he took it. Once again I became scared that he turned that gun on her and told her to shut up. However, the gunman didn't seem to care about her anymore because now his eyes were on me. He came back to me, waving his little revolver around and repeatedly shouting, give me your money. I calmly shrugged my bag off my shoulder and he hastily grabbed it before I even had it off completely. It was then that I glanced over at the car and noticed another man standing at the driver's side door. He was much taller and also dark skinned but despite the street light I couldn't make out his face. By this point my mother ran back toward our open garage and the gunman seemed to have gotten what he wanted and started heading back toward his car.

I however refused to move until they had sped off. I was still entirely frozen in place, eyes still locked on this dude robbing us dry. Just as I thought he was about to get in the car, he noticed that I was still clutching onto my cell phone. I was holding it flat against my chest with my palm covering a majority of it. I was hoping he wouldn't notice it but those hopes were shot when he came rushing back at me and snatched it out of my hand. He ran back to his car, got in and then zoomed off. The entire altercation lasted no more than 45 seconds. I'm rather nearsighted and it was half dark so I failed to see the license plate as they drove away.

Once they rounded the corner and my feet finally unfroze and I calmly yet hastily sped walked into my house and shut the garage door. My mom had turned back to get me as she realized I wasn't behind her when she ran inside. When I got to her she was already trying to dial 911 on our landline albeit hysterically. I ended up taking the phone from her and trying to dial on my own but just our luck our landline had been momentarily disconnected due to maintenance issues. This was when I actually fell into panic. I frantically had lucid nightmares about criminal altercations like the one we just had and in each one, every time I tried to call for help, the phone wouldn't work. It was just an odd reoccurring thing in my dreams and to have it

happen in real life is what really freaked me out. We somehow got it working and got the police on the phone and before I knew it our block was covered in cop cars and ambulances. I got questioned quite vigorously by the cops as they realized I was the star witness being that I had gotten a very good look at the gunman. They questioned me as I sat and deactivated all my cards and whatnot. As I was doing that, it dawned on me that the only real thing of value they got from me during that robbery, besides our purses, was my DS and case. I had at least 20 games in that stupid case, on top of the DS. 2000 plus of Pokemon, just gone like that. My hacked Animal Crossing village, gone just like

that. While I was more than absolutely thankful that I or my mother weren't shot, I couldn't help but be slightly chapped about it. I was even more peeved when I ended up having to go down to the police station to do a police sketch, which took over two hours. I didn't have a phone, a journal, or my stupid DS to keep me entertained, so you can imagine how excruciating that was. News of the event ended up going viral around our area. Apparently it had been over ten years since anything of that nature had happened in my neighborhood and people were pretty shook about it. Some idiots at the local news stations did a piece on it and ended up plastering our address all over the news scene.

They might as well have painted a target on our garage door. We had to call numerous times to get them to take it down. A few months later, those idiots struck again a few houses down. They caught the lady of the house in the garage one night and forced her inside, and ended up robbing them of a ton of jewelry among other things. All the while her husband and her young kids were asleep upstairs. She claimed the short one wore a bandana around his face that time. Since then we've heard nothing else from the police. As far as I know they've never been caught. Nowadays I frame the tale as

something more comical. At the time, it was rather surreal and even scary, but having to explain to people how I had my DS stolen at gunpoint inevitably got a few laughs, and I quickly learned to laugh with it. Even though I was, and am still fairly butthurt, I lost all that stuff. My friends even memed how the news channel spread around our address because of how utterly ridiculous it was that I even giggle heartily at that too when it's brought up. As for the phone not working when it needed to, that was more than a momentary fright. I got over it rather fast and never really thought much of it again.

This happened when I was in my early teens in the late 80s. My family lived in a very secluded, forested area. We had a long driveway and our small home sat on a square acre of mowed grass with woods on two sides. I was alone late one night, talking with a buddy from school. I often rode my bike to town over the summer and he invited me to come over and spend a night. It was a 20 mile trip over completely empty country roads but it was always an adventure

and I seldom hesitated to go when I had a place to stay. I told him it was a sure thing, I call my mother at work and then start my ride. But here's where it gets creepy. Once I hung up the phone and started getting dressed, in all black, I picked up the phone again to call my mom. The line was dead. This had never happened before. It was a sturdy rotary phone and we never had problems with it. My thoughts instantly went to the small phone box on the back of the house. It was a tiny round junction with nothing but a rubber covering. Behind the cover was the exposed connection between the phone pole and our insider line.

The wires were twisted together and capped but completely vulnerable. I questioned why I would even think about that. Why would I jump to conclusions about the case of the deadline? I was overwhelmed with a feeling of dread that didn't make sense and I was wrestling with my thoughts. I decided to behave as though I was in real danger but calm myself by focusing on how unlikely it was and how my imagination was probably getting the best of me. But I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in trouble. I finished dressing and strapped a buck knife to my hip, the old Rambo knives with a compass in the stock.

It was cheap, but very big. I moved quietly and planned how I would leave the house. I remember this very well. I would slide out the front door and pull it closed behind me, locked. I would not be able front door and pull it closed behind me, locked. I would not be able to get back in. I would grab my bike from against the wall on the enclosed porch, spin around and use my elbow to press the button of the handle on the screen door and jump down the concrete steps. I'd hop on my bike and speed down the drive. It was very dark outside, but there were

bright lights in the front and rear of the house that created big pools in the yard. That's all the light I would have. I executed my maneuver just as I planned but my elbow slipped off the button on the handle and banged into the door as it opened and within seconds I was pumping down the gravel drive. I turned my head to the left filling my ears with the roar of air I was cutting through and stopped pedaling, my eyes fixed on the rear of the house. I was 100% sure someone was coming. I don't know how or why, it was only a moment but I didn't look away despite my own skepticism. At the last instant, I saw him. A man wearing dark clothes and a ski mask came tearing out of the lit yard around the back of the house and plunged into the deep shadow along the side heading for the front,

where he had been only seconds ago. I was invisible, wearing black from head to toe, and instead of running straight for me, he went for the porch where the commotion I had just made had come from. I turned forward and leaned into the pedals. I could barely see the driveway but I had ridden my bike down it many times at night and I could make out the large stone gate posts before the dirt road. I almost wrecked turning the corner but recovered and speeded away. About a mile further and I finally stopped at the intersection at a paved road. My heart was pounding in my chest and my forehead was sweaty.

I stood there for a bit and got my breathing under control while I tried to digest what had just happened. My thoughts were racing. I knew for sure what I saw, but I was out of danger. All I could do was press on. My neighbors were Amish, no phone. I wouldn't have known what to say anyways. When I got to my friend's house much later I told him what happened and called my mother. She listened and didn't give me a hard time but I could tell she didn't know what to think. She wouldn't be home till morning and she said she'd be careful and

that was it. I had heard laughter once from the edge of the woods, and things in the yard had been moved on occasion, but no one else had had these experiences, and I assumed it was backwards Amish kids fooling around. Nothing had ever really happened before. I doubt Amish kids would know how to disconnect a phone line though. I'm a 10th grader in high school at the moment. I don't want to think of what could have happened to me and my friends when we were in 8th grade. It all started when I was walking home with four of my closest friends. We all live very close to each other so we walk home together. One of those friends was a girl and the rest of us were guys. The girl really liked dogs. She would stop and pet any dog she saw and that is what led us to meeting the creepy old

man with a cute dog. One day all five of us were walking home and we got off the bus and we were walking through our neighborhood. Now this neighborhood has very low crime rates and is very peaceful and diverse which means it's common curiosity here to just go up to your neighbor and talk. We were walking when suddenly the girls started running across the street. We followed her across the street and saw an old man around his 60s I'd say. He was walking his beagle down the street so we went up and talked to him. He asked a lot of personal questions while we were getting to know him but we didn't think much of it. Two weeks passed and we spoke to the old man every day. He always waited at our bus stop for us which now thinking about it is very creepy but he did live

right next to the bus stop. We got off the bus one day and the girl was talking about her poster board assignments she completed. The old dude joined the conversation and, oddly, knew all about the topic she wrote about. We stood there and talked for ten minutes. Me and the other guys were bored, so we were on our phones while she talked to him. Suddenly she started leaving, so we walked with her. She seemed upset, so we asked her what had happened. She said she was uncomfortable with the dude because he kept trying to give her a hug today and for the past week had apparently kept attempting hugs.

My friends and I, being idiots, argued he was just trying to be a nice old man. Boy, were we wrong. Another week passed and the girl would now stay out of the conversation with the old man. It was just me and the three other guys and she would wait for us though. Oddly though he would try and talk to the girl instead of us. One day the girl went ahead early so it was just me and the three guys. We got off the bus to find the old dude with a batch of weird looking cookies. Okay again, don't do this ever. Bad idea to accept cookies from strangers. Me being smart I decided to eat one. Halfway through the cookie I realized how

weird everything had been and spat out the cookie. My friends ate it all though and they were fine and so from then on we tried to engage the old man less since he was just a little creepy but it doesn't stay that way. A few weeks later things were weird. I was walking home solo one day when this random lady was standing at the crosswalk which I turn at holding the leash to a dog. I was about to pass her until I realized that it was the old man's dog. The lady I've never seen before was waiting for me. She said the dog knew me and wanted to wait for me. I idiotically believed her until I realized after I went home she was waiting at the corner for me before I was even in eyesight. I assumed she was waiting to see which way I would go home and I'll explain

why. About a week later, we stopped talking to the old man entirely. One day after school, the girl was gone and the three other guys were coming to my house for a sleepover. We saw the old guy. He had his dog with him and we waved. We nodded and kept walking. After a block, I turned around and realized he was right behind us, staring at us. I told the guys and they said, he's just walking his dog a similar direction. So I tested that. To get to my house, you have to walk multiple blocks and take many random turns. Next block we turn left, he's behind us. Next block we turn right he was behind us. This repeated with different blocks until we were approaching my house. The guys believed me at this point. I did

a smart thing and told my friends to keep walking past my house. The next block is a large roadway. He would have absolutely no reason except something devious to be out that far from his house. If he's still behind us, we book it to the next left and down an alleyway which leads back to my house. Sure enough, he was still there, staring and following. We booked it, we ran as fast as we could and waited in the alley for ten minutes. Now, I'm a person that doesn't normally get shooken up. I was freaked out. My friends were all laughing and joking about us possibly being a victim, but they were making sure I was okay.

I eventually laughed along and put it out of my mind. Now in 10th grade, we still walk by his house, but the weird thing is, I've never seen him since that last time in 8th. I don't like to think what could have happened to us us but I hope I never see that old creepy guy again. This just happened today and I'm still pretty creeped out. I'd had my first driving lesson today and I was pretty worn out after it. I'm also feeling pretty unwell, a bit nauseous as well as a sore throat and a cough. After the driving lesson, I came home, laid on the couch under a cozy blanket, and began practicing some driving theory from apps I'd downloaded. I was home alone. This means there were no cars in the driveway or out front of my house,

and I had the lights on low as my front room receives a lot of light from the large front window anyway. I'd been sitting there for almost two hours, barely moved, when I heard an aggressive knock on the front door. The postman had already been, and we weren't waiting on any packages to be delivered. I also hadn't heard a car pull up. This made me assume it was someone selling something. Recently our village had been somewhat bombarded with charity workers who, once finished their spiel, would tell you that they can't accept cash donations but instead you have to sign up for their direct debit and pay at least 12 euros a month. Being unwell, tired and too embarrassed to reject

yet another charity worker, I stayed put and hoped they'd leave. They knocked twice more, increasing more loudly than the time before. Eventually I heard them walk down the front steps so I crept to the front window to peer through and see who it was and where'd they go. Except I couldn't see anybody. I've read enough creepy stories and seen enough scary movies that multiple scenarios nagged at my mind. But as most people do, I assumed nothing of it and decided to make myself lunch.

I headed through to the kitchen, which I should mention faces the backyard. We have both a large window and a set of patio doors. The curtains were open on both. I immediately caught something out of the corner of my eye and my vision slid to the window, where I saw what looked like the top of someone's head, as if they were crouching as they passed the window. I froze, but I let my eyes follow until I saw the person appear at the patio doors, clearly ready to attempt to enter.

We made eye contact. He was a tall male, big build, wearing what looked like a track suit with a black jacket on top. As soon as he realized I was at home, he bolted. I heard him run up the side of my house, so I ran to the front room again, where I saw him continue to sprint down the street and out of sight. Being the big brave girl that I am I phoned my dad and begged him to return home which he did. My hero. This happened last Friday, and I'm still stumped. For reference, I'm a male in my late 20s and live with my girlfriend who's currently away on business.

I work for a large financial institution in the UK and often work till very late, as I hate bringing work home. For some background info, we bought our current house a few weeks ago and during the move in the process I was away with work, leaving it down to my partner and a few friends. My car has also recently had a complete electronics failure so we were down to using just her car. The house itself is located in a small gated community off of a country road on the outskirts of an upmarket town in the UK. It's surrounded by woodlands and if you didn't live there or know somebody who does, chances are you wouldn't have heard of it or even knew of its existence. In total there are eight houses in the community

and the main gate gives access to the first six. Where my house is located and then there's a further two gates at the top of the road which leads to two very large mansion style houses. The houses which haven't got individual gates are all about a hundred feet away from each other and have enclosed rear gardens and the neighbors are all business types who are very often in work and keep themselves to themselves. Anyway about two days after leaving for my business trip I get a call from my girlfriend who seems shaken and tells me that there's a man standing in the garden and that she can't see his face but he's walking around and crouching in the tree line. So concerned but not

100% convinced as she does have a vivid imagination and it's the first time she's been home alone in our new house, I tell her to lock the doors, go to bed and call the police if she sees him again. I return to our city's train station on Tuesday and agree with my girlfriend that she'll pick me up in her car. Then I'll take it home as she's scheduled to go to Manchester for a conference. I meet up with her, grab a coffee, see her off to her train then drive her back to her house. The time is roughly 9pm. I park the car on the driveway, head inside, shower, watch some reruns of King of the Hill then head to bed. Then get woken up by a light being shown into the bedroom window from downstairs. I get up to investigate, crouching

to avoid being seen and head into the study next to our bedroom and open the curtains that cover some French doors that lead to a small balcony. My heart drops when I see that a man has now moved towards the back door and is trying the handle. The house is in an L shape so, although I can see him, he can't see me without moving around from the back door. He stops for a while, begins flashing the lights on and off back into the woods before walking calmly back into them. I call the police and make a report. Nothing happens on Wednesday but on Thursday, when I'm giving our cat a bath, she's a sphinx, she needs them, I hear the garage door being messed with.

I'm in the bathroom directly behind the garage so I move into the kitchen to get a knife before heading into the garage to check what's going on. When the noises stop and I hear running down the driveway and away from the house. I call the police and they send an officer around to check the property. All they find is some knife marks and scuffs on the bottom of the garage. On Friday, I get my car delivered from the dealership and decide to work from home. I also park my car in the garage, leaving my girlfriends on the drive. At around 11pm, I'm in the upstairs study, listening to music and working when I find myself freezing. I thought I was going to stop breathing as I felt someone watching me, and turning to face the French doors,

I see a man, nondescript looking, around 35, wearing a coat and gloves, carrying what looked like a torch standing on my balcony. Our eyes meet. Now filled with rage, I go for one of my golf clubs from my golf bag and charge towards the door. He climbs down off the balcony and runs off into the woods. I've never seen this man in my life before, but I'm sure it's the man that's been causing problems recently. It's also dawned on me that he would have only seen my girlfriend before, and only seen her car. Maybe he thought she lived alone. I've notified the police and have bought some more security devices to install on the property as well as parked my car on the drive with hers. We don't know who he is or why he's doing this but we're

hoping it won't happen again. This was in the 90s when I was about 15. My mom, my best friend, and I were in Florida on vacation for three weeks. We discovered Sizzlers and really loved it, so we ended up going for dinner there quite often and also got to know the waiters a bit. One night we noticed a middle-aged man sitting at a nearby table who was staring and I mean really staring at me. He was with a young boy maybe five or six years old. They had already finished their dinner but the guy was just transfixed completely ignoring his kid. He wasn't smiling or frowning, just a blank-faced stare. My mom was getting really uncomfortable, so she spoke to one of the male waiters who'd we become friendly with. I don't know exactly what she said to him, but I think it was basically to help keep

an eye on it. It might be worth mentioning that my mother is usually quite comfortable with confronting strangers if required, but something made her choose not to in this case. The guy and the little kid eventually left, though it took what seemed like an eternity. Once they'd left, we were just relieved and carried on our dinner. I think we were there for at least another hour before we were ready to go. When we were getting into our car, I noticed another car parked a bit behind us with someone sitting inside. It was the guy from the restaurant. Without a kid in sight, even worse, when we started driving, he started his car without his headlights on and started following us.

We basically freaked out. My mom started driving in a different direction of the hotel as not to lead him to where we were staying. We drove around for a while before we eventually lost him, finally getting to the hotel. My mom went straight to the front desk to inform them about what had happened and to please keep an eye out. I'm not sure if she or they contacted the police but we were just glad to be safe. Thankfully nothing else happened after that, other than a terrible night's sleep, but it was scary at the time, especially because he seemed to have lost his kid and just waited for us. This happened a few weeks ago and I'm still a bit shaken up by it.

My husband and I like to take long drives in the desert with our dog. We live outside of Las Vegas and are fortunate to live in a city with abundant beautiful areas to stargaze or use a telescope. My husband just got one for his B-Day in October so he was excited to try it out. We drove our Kia up to a popular overlook and he took out the telescope. He showed me a bunch of constellations and we saw a shooting star. The doggo sat in the car, two windows rolled down. My dog is not nice. They weren't kidding when they named female dogs what they did.

She's an American cattle dog and she's saved my butt before from a home invasion. She's protective of both me and her dad. Anyway, hubby had to pee so he told me to wait in the car for him. So I got in and locked the door. Meanwhile, I'm browsing Reddit when I hear gravel moving, thinking it's hubby I remark. That was fast. Suddenly my dog goes berserk. She's snarling, barking. So I turn around and there's a dude that's not my husband. Idiot made a mistake though. He put his hand through an open window with a crazy 63 pound dog. She got his hand so he's screaming. I'm screaming. My husband is yelling as he runs towards us with his pants half on. The dog lets his arm go and the guy takes off as I call the cops. My husband tries

chasing after the guy but he's 6'3 and 280 pounds and this guy was fast. The cops do show up, tell us they will look out for him but to maybe stay away from that area at night. The cops in our town are kind of a joke. Needless to say, the doggo got a cup of Dairy Queen that night. Like a lot of people, the early days of winter are really tough on my immune system. I seem to always get sick either when the temperature takes its first big dip or when we get our first big snowfall. This past winter, I got so sick that I actually had to call into work which I have only had to do one other time in my career. My wife left for work at about 8am that day and I passed out on the couch shortly after. I was up for most of the night so this was some much needed sleep. I woke up a

couple of minutes after 10 with my throat sore and dry and my head congested and pounding. I laid there for a minute trying to muster up the strength to get off the couch to get something to drink. I walked to the kitchen and got a cup of juice and a cup of ginger ale. On my way back to the couch I walked by our living room window and noticed a light snowfall on the ground that must have accumulated while I was asleep. I stared for a minute admiring the snow and taking a chance to stretch my legs before I returned to the couch for the majority of the day. Right before I turned back to the couch, I noticed footprints that started from the bottom of the driveway and went towards the wooden gate

that led to our backyard. At first, I thought maybe they were for my wife. However, there wasn't snow on the ground when I fell asleep and when she went to work, so these tracks had to be fairly new. I went back into the kitchen and looked out the window into the backyard. I saw the footprints continue in the backyard and also noticed that the wooden gate was ajar, even though it was shut and closed with a padlock nightly. I threw my robe on and opened the sliding glass door to peek my head out and see if I could see anything else. The cold breeze and snow on my face only made me feel more ill. It made me want to retire back to the couch. But then I immediately got a rush of adrenaline,

seeing that one of my small basement windows was also ajar and left completely open. I now was in a state of panic and trying to think rationally or explain the situation to myself. My wife would never have opened the wooden gate or the basement window. No animal could have done this. The only logical explanation is that someone was in or trying to get into my house. I exited the kitchen and walked down the hall and peeked my head around the staircase that led down into the basement. The stairs had traces of snow and puddles of water on them. Trying to think quick on my feet, I quietly but briskly got into the nearest closet and called the police for my cell phone. I tried to whisper not knowing where the

intruder was or if they were even still in my house. Luckily the 911 operator was able to hear me and told me to remain quiet until someone was able to arrive at my house for assistance. She remained on the line with me as I heard someone come down the stairs from the second level of our house. It seemed like the person was walking around looking for something specific, walking by the closet door several times at a fast pace. I was doing my best to hold in any sniffle, sneeze, or cough that I thought was coming in order to remain silent and undetected. I remember thinking I didn't care what the person took. They could take anything they wanted, I just wanted to remain unharmed. After what felt like hours, but in reality was probably only a couple of minutes, I heard the whoop whoop of

sirens outside. The cops knocked on the door and after a few attempts must have come around back and entered through the now unlocked sliding glass door. Even though the police made their presence known, the intruder was still in the house. They arrested him and brought him out of the house. I didn't really hear much of a struggle, I just heard them say to get down and put your hands behind your head. I honestly just stayed where I was and didn't move until the cops opened the closet door and told me that it was alright to exit. Apparently the burglar hadn't tried to steal anything or at least didn't have anything of mine on his person. But upon further inspection

of the man's vehicle, it looked like he had broken into several houses in the neighborhood and taken packages and other valuables from their homes. The police did find a knife on him, but they told me they didn't believe he had intentions of using it. I think they said this just to make me feel better as I don't know how they would have known this person's intentions. My wife as well as myself were obviously shaken up by this ordeal. I can't put into words for those of you reading this story what effects an incident like this can have on you after the fact. Of course you're scared in the moment, but ever since this has happened I find it difficult to feel safe, to feel like my family is safe. It's a terrible feeling to not feel protected in your own home. We have

since moved from that neighborhood but the feelings of insecurity still remain. I have taken more proactive steps to try and ensure this doesn't happen again. We have state-of-the-art locks for our windows and doors as well as a new security system. I also have an Akita guard dog to protect the house when I'm not home. As traumatizing as this event was, I'm still grateful that I woke up when I did and that something worse didn't happen. Growing up and spending my entire life in the northeastern United States, I can confidently say that I'm no stranger to snow and driving in the snow. If you're from a similar climate, I'm sure you would agree that driving in the snow is both annoying and dangerous.

I live in a city where we are consistently in the top ten for nationwide snowfall each year. Dealing with this much inclement weather each year has turned me into a pretty good driver in the top 10 for nationwide snowfall each year. Dealing with this much inclement weather each year has turned me into a pretty good driver in the snow, or at least that's what I thought. On a night in February a few years ago I was driving home from my girlfriend's house. It was 8pm and had been snowing for a majority of the day. I went over there to shovel out her driveway and make sure it was as clear as possible for her to get up and go to work the next morning. It usually took me about 10-15 minutes to get to or from her house but so far this drive had taken 30 minutes and I was a little over halfway home.

The roads and highways were empty for the most part but I was forced to go slower than normal as I didn't want my car to get stuck or go off the side of the road. I had made it off the final highway and now I just had side roads until I got back to my house. I was approaching an intersection, I think one that had a four-way stop and of course after I stopped and tried to start again my car began fishtailing and wouldn't move. At this point I was pretty tired and started to get frustrated. I hadn't been home from work yet and really just wanted to get out of this car and weather. I tried rocking the car back and forth in the snow but it wasn't working. I was digging myself a deeper hole and probably taking some of the tread off

my tires. I didn't know what to do. If I should call someone for help, try and dig myself out by hand. I certainly wasn't asking one of my family or friends to come out and try to help. I decided to get out of the car and try to kick some of the snow out from beneath my tires, hoping to regain traction on the road. As I was trying to dig out my tires, a random woman came up to me. She didn't say anything or offer me help or ask what was going on. She just stood there and stared at me. She began walking towards the stop sign with her hood now over her head. I shouted, hey are you okay do you need anything? She didn't answer. I was a little weirded out but mostly

annoyed with my car and was focused on that. After a few minutes on my hands and knees using my snow brush to move snow out from under my tires, I got up to get back into my car. I saw the lady standing in the same spot and I yelled out, okay well have a good night then. Probably sounding sarcastic and annoyed as I was in a crappy mood. Right as I opened my door to get back into the car, she finally spoke up and said, Wait. In a monotone voice. I continued to open my door and looked at the woman waiting for her to say something else. Then, in an eerie, unsettling, and manic voice she said, that is my car. Not wanting

any part of the situation and the obvious crazy person 30 feet away from me, I got into my car and closed the door. I started the car and again began to rock myself out of the snow and then I noticed that the woman was now standing in front of my car, probably close enough to touch the hood with outstretched hands. If I tried to floor it and drive I would easily have ran her over so I started to honk my horn and put the car in reverse. She moved after a few honks but came over to the driver's side door and started pulling at the handle. The doors were locked but I was obviously still scared and confused as to what was going on. This is when things started to turn for the worse. She became aggressive and started to beat on the door, screaming loudly,

This is my car you beast! She kept referring to me as a beast or the beast and insisting I was in her car. Completely freaked out I tried to floor it and thank god I was finally able to fishtail out of that spot and move forward up the road. I looked back in my rear view mirror and the lady was running after the car waving her arms in the air. I tried my best to forget about the incident and to not dwell on what the intent or reason for it was. Either way, crazy beastmaster snow lady, let's not meet again. For a little bit of context, this story took place when I was 19 years old. I am currently 28 and no longer live in the state where this occurrence took place. When I was 19, I worked at a gas station convenience store that was only a few minutes away from my house.

I was enrolled in community college, so most of my shifts were evening or overnights. For the most part, the job was normal and boring. We didn't really get many customers during the later hours and if we did, they usually pumped their gas, paid with a credit card and were on their way. I decided to pick up some extra hours during our holiday break from school. I figured I could use the extra cash to get Christmas presents for my family. I was scheduled to work three overnight shifts in a row which was a pain because I always found it difficult to fall asleep when I got home in the morning. The first night of my overnight stretch was going by pretty uneventfully. I was biding my time by restocking the shelves and facing the products that had gaps in them. I remember I was bringing out a big box of Cosmic Brownies to fill our display case

when I heard the bell ring and someone enter the store. It was around 2 or 3 AM, so I dropped what I was doing and headed behind the register to assist the person. I hadn't seen them yet, but yelled out good evening to see if I would get a response. I didn't hear anything, so I proceeded to move behind the register to see if the would get a response. I didn't hear anything so I proceeded to move behind the register to see if the person needed assistance. When I got a glimpse of the person it looked to be an elderly woman with dark black hair. Her face was covered in wrinkles but it was hard to really make out anything else as she was bundled up pretty tight due to the cold weather. I saw her moving

slowly throughout the aisles not seemingly looking for anything but just walking throughout the store. After several minutes of watching her do this I decided to ask if there was anything I could assist her with. She didn't even bother to look at me or acknowledge that she heard me, she just continued to pace throughout the store. After another five minutes or so she suddenly stopped and stared at the clock that was above the cooler. Turned around and scampered out the door and disappeared into the night. To be honest, I didn't really think much of it. I assumed she was homeless and was possibly just trying to get some relief from the cold. We weren't technically supposed to let people loiter in or around the store but this occurrence seemed pretty harmless to me. The next night I was sitting behind the counter getting pretty drowsy,

wishing the sun would come up so that I could go home and try to get some rest. I was watching a TV show on my iPad around I think 4am when I heard the bell ring. I'm pretty sure I jumped out of my chair as I was not paying attention and dozing in and out of sleep. Startled and trying to regain my composure, I looked at the door to see who had entered and it was the same woman from the night before. She looked almost exactly the same except now there seemed to be several scrapes or scratches on her face. I greeted her and asked if there was anything I could help her with. Again, no response and she began the process of walking up and down the aisles with her head down. I figured I was going to have to wait a minute or two and then let her know that if she wasn't

planning on buying anything, then she would have to leave the store. Once a few minutes passed and I informed her, she stopped directly where she was standing, stared at me and said, The only thing worth bargaining for is your soul. Her voice was high and shrill and not at all what I expected. I responded by saying, Excuse me? And she didn't say anything else, she just stared at me with a menacing, almost aggressive look. After about 30 seconds, she exited the store and I watched her walk across the parking lot,

hoping she wouldn't come back. The final night of my consecutive overnights came all too quickly, and all I could think about was hoping that this crazy woman wouldn't show up again tonight. I never really had anxiety related to this job so for the first time I was uneasy about heading into work. I couldn't really focus on anything during my shift other than staring at the door and waiting for customers to enter. I didn't really leave the register even though I probably could have done some stalking throughout the store. The clock seemed to be moving so slow. It was only 3am and I felt like I had been there for 12 hours. Shortly after 3am I heard the bell ring and there she was, the same woman from the two previous nights. She looked even more

disheveled and the cuts on her face had increased and were also noticeable on her hands. Her hands almost seemed red like they were smeared with blood. I looked over to her and yelled out, are you okay? Can I get you some help? Meanwhile, really only concerned with my own safety, she looked up in my direction and mouthed the words, help me, and looked like she started to cry. I told her to hold on and went down to my purse to grab my cell phone to contact someone. I found my cell phone and was getting ready to dial 911, but then I heard the bell go and the door open, and when I looked up, she was gone. I didn't even see her scurry across the parking lot, it was that quick.

I decided to call my boss, not knowing what else to do. I had clearly woke him up but he seemed attentive when I explained what transpired during the previous three nights. He decided to come in and talk to me and check the property to see if we could locate her. When he arrived he decided to go to the back and check the video recordings to see if he could get a visual or description on the person in case we decided to contact the authorities that someone had entered our store, clearly in trouble and not in the right mental state. He came back up front about 10 minutes later and had a scowl on his face. Hand me the phone, I'm calling the cops. He said in a very serious tone. What? I asked, startled, slightly worried that she might be back. Come look at this, he said, leading me back to the surveillance room. He proceeded to rewind the footage that was overlooking the back of the building,

near the bathrooms. Upon playing it, I watched as the old woman walked onto screen, facing directly towards the store. Seemingly out of nowhere, her slow demeanor became explosive as she began aggressively thrusting her shoulders into the bricks of the building, falling to her knees and intermittently screen towards the front of the store and entering towards me. The timing lined up directly with when I remembered seeing her. I was in mild shock, with my hand over my mouth as my boss informed me about experiences he's had with various junkies in the past, explaining that some of them seem borderline possessed without rhyme or reason for their actions. We ended up reporting the incidents

and showing the footage to a few patrolmen, but there wasn't much they could do besides reassuring us that they'd keep an officer patrolling the area for the next couple evenings. The way that woman moved still baffles my mind based on the difference when I saw her demeanor when she walked in. Looking back, her asking for help really made me wish there was something I could have done for her, but needless to say, I haven't worked night for quite some time. I wanted to share this story that happened to me and a group of friends a few years ago. First, let me give you a little backstory on what we used to do for fun.

My friends and I loved playing outside during the wintertime. Our parents didn't mind how long we were outside, and it was the best time of year for some of our favorite games. Our twin friends, let's call them Ava and Andy for the sake of the story, have a beautiful home with tons of land on the property. There were at least five acres of forest that were located directly on the property behind the house. When we got together at their house, we would all play games like manhunt or even just hide and seek if we couldn't decide on anything specific. So on the day of this occurrence, we all gathered at Ava and Andy's house to play hide and seek. We had a snow day from school and my parents brought a bunch of us over so we could hang out and play for the day. The group decided to play hide and seek, so my friend Danielle and I decided to go and hide in the woods which was a pretty common hiding spot for our games. We decided to run out further than

we usually did but we weren't worried as it was daytime and we always made sure we could see the exit to the woods so we wouldn't get lost. We began making our way back and started to veer pretty far left hoping we could see whoever came, looking after us and make our exit before we were caught. However, we noticed what looked like to be a small wooden structure, a mix between an outhouse and a smaller shed. We walked up to it for a closer look and had to kick some snow and ice off the door to try and open it. Once we got the door open we saw that hanging on the walls was an assortment of all sorts of traps or I guess that's what they look like to me. They really didn't look like anything I had seen before so my best guess was traps of

some sort. They were all metal and had what looked to be blood or maybe some dark rust on them. To be honest with you the first thing I thought of looking at this room was that it was straight out of the movie Saw. Just a bunch of contraptions that looked like they would be used with sinister intentions. We immediately shut the door and made our way back to the house through the woods, not caring if we lost the game of hide and seek. Once we got back to the house house we asked Ava and Andy, hey do you know that there's a creepy shed in the woods on your property filled with some pretty weird stuff? Andy responded, oh yeah that's just our dad's hunting stuff. He doesn't like keeping it in the house so he keeps it out there. Danielle and I kind of just dismissed it and let it go but I still felt

a little disturbed and unsettled about it. My dad has hunted my entire life and I have never seen him with any equipment that even resembled what I saw in that shed. That night I let curiosity get the better of me and I tried to google some of these traps I saw in the forest. I searched for a pretty long time but really couldn't find anything that matched the mental picture that I had in my mind. The next weekend we went back to Ava and Andy's house. After a few hours of sitting in the living room drinking hot chocolate and just hanging out, we decided to play manhunt again. Just as Danielle and I were going outside, Ava and Andy's father confronted the two of us.

Heard you found my shed. He said in a somber sounding voice. We kind of just nodded and smiled, at least that's what I remember doing. He then bent his neck down to us aggressive and said, that's my shed. Don't go in there again and if I find you out there, there will be trouble. And then he walked away from us into another room. This was weird because their father was always super nice and treated us with a lot of respect so this seemed to be way out of character for him. As we joined the rest of our friends outside, I went and hid myself to try and get a look at the shed from a distance, hoping no one else would know. But when I got close enough to see, I could make out three different industrial-sized padlocks on the door that hadn't been there previously. I'm still not sure what those traps were or what they were used for.

Was he just looking out for us kids' safety? Or was he hunting something other than animals? I live in the northern United States, a state that lies on the Canadian border. In my hometown, there is an abandoned military base, or at least it's supposed to be abandoned. Back when I was in high school my friends and I would always hear all sorts of stories saying that it wasn't actually abandoned, and that dangerous cults met or even lived in the abandoned buildings, or that the homeless population had taken over the abandoned compound to get some shelter from the cold.

Pretty much any and all bizarre stories you can think of could be attached to this military base. Anyway, one frigid January night, my three friends and myself decided we were going to try and locate the base to explore and see what was actually there. It took us a bit of time and research to locate where we needed to go and how to actually find the location. This was mostly due to the fact that this base is located in the middle of a heavily forested area. Closed off by several fences and gates, we were only able to find it because my one friend John noticed a little sign sticking out of a dirt driveway that said no trespassing. If we hadn't seen that we probably would have never stumbled upon the base. The sign looked old and very worn down so we ignored it and proceeded to head in

what we thought was the right direction. We drove down a dirt road for a minute or two until we approached a closed gate that we were unable to get by with the car. This gate was also covered with no trespassing and no entry under government law signs. My friends and I had a little debate as to whether we should go any further or just turn back. My friend John and I were arguing to push forward and see what we could find, while the others were a little more reluctant. But we eventually agreed that we had come this far and we wanted to see what we could find. John got out of his driver's side door and manually lifted up the gate so we could pass through and continue

moving forward. After John got back in the car we drove for another five minutes. The road was full of twists and turns and barely went straight for more than a few seconds. Through the light flurries of snow out the window we could see all sorts of stuff on the side of the road. We drove fairly slowly to try to make out everything that was lying on the ground. There were beds, dressers and boxes of what seemed to be unopened food. Everything was becoming ruined from the light snow on the ground. It was a weird sight to see because none of the items looked like garbage or trash. It looked fairly new.

Perhaps it had just been placed there recently. After a couple of more minutes, we finally reached the end of the road and arrived at what we assumed was the abandoned base. It was strange looking and not really what you would expect when you think of a military base. There were three separate buildings. The one closest to us was a big building that almost looked like an old apartment building. There were rows of uniform windows that seemed to go around the building. The building right next to it was a tall building with a huge satellite dish on the roof. It wasn't very wide, but was the tallest of the three buildings by at least five stories. Lastly, the third building looked like a church. It was an average-sized building with two double doors in the front,

each door sporting a large cross on it, hence why I assumed it was a church of some kind. All three buildings did truly look abandoned. They were covered with vines and moss up the side. It definitely appeared as if the structures had been untouched for many years. We all sat in the car with this feeling of uneasiness. None of us really sure if we were going to get in trouble for being here and if the property was routinely monitored so we would get caught. Despite all the warning signs, we kept telling ourselves it was abandoned and that we were probably the only ones there and we wouldn't get into trouble. Finally, John opened

his door and said, I didn't come this far to sit in the car, I'm gonna look around. Trying not to seem scared I decided to go with him. Our two other friends were pretty scared at this point and decided to stay in the car. John and I went into the first building. The door was unlocked and of course the lights didn't work inside. We were using flashlights that I brought to navigate throughout the building. It was a strange and almost surreal feeling walking through the hallways. It was freezing and every little noise made us jump. But what was really creepy is that the place looked like it was actually abandoned all of a sudden out of nowhere. All the beds were still made, the dressers still shut. There were even pictures and art hanging on some of the walls.

We decided we had seen enough and moved on to the second building with the large satellite. The door to this building was locked tight. We banged on it pretty hard, but the door wasn't budging at all. We walked around the entire building, but we didn't see another entrance, so we gave up and went to the third and final building. Now it's worth noting at this point I had become a little paranoid and jumpy. I kept hearing noises that I would dismiss as nothing but I had that pit in my stomach feeling that something just wasn't right. I felt like we weren't the only ones there and that we were going to get caught and get into massive amounts of trouble.

We approached the church and the door was unlocked. We walked in and immediately noticed the mess. There were books and papers everywhere littered across the floor. I tried picking up a few papers to read them but it all just seemed like military code that I couldn't understand. Just an assortment of numbers and letters that made up a certain pattern. The inside of the building didn't have any kind of religious paraphernalia in it other than just one cross on the back wall. Just as we were getting ready to leave, John noticed a door in the floor that seemed to lead to a basement or a lower level of the building. John and I looked at each other with curiosity. I knew deep down we shouldn't open it but my curiosity got the best of me.

We opened the door and it was a ladder that went down a hallway that seemed to have lights or some source of brightness. We went down and started to walk through a long hallway that was lit up with orange lights, much like you might see in a parking garage. After about 30 seconds we made it to the end of the hallway where there was a door with a small window on it. There was a lot of light coming from the window. We walked up to it and slowly peeked in. To our shock, there was eight or so men, all in suits sitting around a table. We only looked in for a few seconds when one of the men turned his head and noticed us in the hallway outside of the door. We ducked immediately trying not to bring attention to ourselves,

but before we knew it, the orange lights in the hallway had turned red. We started to run as fast as we could knowing we stumbled across something we weren't supposed to. As we were coming up the ladder in the church, we could hear what sounded like a door slam and people running down the hall. Knowing the amount of trouble that we were in, we ran as fast as we could to the others. We got into the car and drove out of the area as fast as we could. Once we turned back onto the main road, we could see headlights shining through the heavily wooded area. At least we thought they were headlights. It could have also been flashlights. After this night, the four of us felt like we were walking on eggshells for what seemed like months. We figured it was only a matter of time before they found us or the cops would show up at our door knowing what we had done.

I've been out of high school for 12 years now and nothing of note regarding this incident has happened to me or any of my friends. I'm not sure what we found that night. John thought it was some kind of secret government base but I don't think you can just walk into an active base unnoticed like that. It seemed a little too official to be a cult but then again I don't have much cult experience so I'm not sure what happened that night. It's been almost 12 years since this occurred and I wanted to finally share my story and see what people think. What was all of that and should I still be scared and looking over my shoulder?

The events of this story happened to me about two years ago in the middle of December. I remember it because it was about two weeks before my birthday. I was working as a nighttime janitor for a church about 15 minutes away from home. It was a pretty simple job for the most part, but once every six months or so, I would have to do an overnight shift when we did a deep clean of the church. We usually did this once during the winter and once during the summer. Part of the job was to get ready for the winter holiday season. I was responsible for retrieving all of the Christmas and winter decorations from the basement of the church. It is just about as boring as it sounds, but wasn't very difficult for decent

pay. The church was very big and old-fashioned and to my knowledge it hadn't been updated in decades. It has many rows of pews adorned with antique religious statues and artifacts. In the far left corner of the church behind the altar was a small door that led down into the storage basement. On the right side of the altar was another door and this door led into a small kitchen. The evening started normal, just like any other overnight shift that I had in the past. The first thing I did was get all the decorations and winter items that needed to be hung and installed throughout the church from that basement. It's important to note here that I locked this door after going into the basement. I had a bit of OCD, especially when

it comes to my job, and I always check to make sure I locked up when I finished. After getting all of the decorations I spent a few hours sweeping and then mopping the entire floor of the church. It was about 3am by then and I had to do a few last things before I could leave, including vacuuming the carpet that was on the altar. While vacuuming I thought I heard a loud noise from the back of the church, something like a pipe or a ladder falling to the floor. Not seeing anything and figuring it was just nothing, I looked back down and continued vacuuming. Just before finishing, I heard another loud noise. At this point, I was admittedly a little startled. I thought maybe I had left the church door open, which isn't like me. Maybe if I

left the door open someone had wandered in. It was really cold out and it wouldn't be the first time someone had wandered inside just to try and get warm. So I cautiously approached the door and was reassured that the door was in fact locked and that wasn't where the noise had come from. As I started walking back toward the altar, I noticed that the basement door was now wide open, and the entire area was freezing all of a sudden, like a window was open right in front of me. Even though the church was very old, it was usually always warm inside, and for some reason it was freezing. I swear I could see my breath. I decided I had to go check the basement out since the door was now open and I was sure that I had locked it.

Perhaps the lock was broken and the door was able to swing open. As soon as I got to the basement I almost threw up due to the putrid smell. It smelled like spoiled or rotten meat. It was honestly the most repulsive smell I have encountered in my entire life. Now remember, I was just down there a couple of hours ago and it didn't smell at all and it wasn't cold. At this point I was really struggling to put the pieces together. Had a stray animal somehow gotten in? A skunk perhaps? After a moment of walking around the basement for a few minutes, the light suddenly began to flicker and actually went out completely.

I used the light on my cell phone to navigate the freezing basement. I reached one of the corners of the basement to find a pool of black sludge. It was really thick, like blood, but appeared to be jet black. While I was examining the pile of sludge to see if that was giving off the smell, maybe a bursted pipe, I heard another loud bang similar to those I thought I heard earlier in the night. I turned and looked back at the stairs and began to make my way back up them, and there appeared to be some kind of shadow at the top of the stairs. It looked like the shadow of a dog or an animal of similar size sitting down on the floor. I shouted at the shadow but it didn't move at all. I was yelling in hopes that the

figure would become more clear and I could make some sense of what was going on. I ran up the stairs towards the shadow and as I reached the top there was nothing. I couldn't even find anything that was making the shadow. I turned and locked the basement and as I walked off the altar I noticed that the big cross that sits on the front of the table was now on the ground. Well at least that explained the bang that I had heard moments earlier. As I went to pick up the cross I felt a burn on my forearm and as I yelled in pain and dropped the cross, I noticed that I had a small scratch on my arm. That was the final straw for me. I locked the church doors and left right then and there, not questioning my decision.

When I was asked why I was given notice and leaving the job, I provided no explanation. I didn't want to recount those acts to co-workers and superiors. I've reached out to mediums and other types of professionals who specialize in this area, but unfortunately I've been told I don't have enough physical evidence to determine what this could have been. Using the internet for research, the events that transpired that night seemed to be involved with those of a demon or a demon possession. But how could this be? Surely that type of entity wouldn't be able to survive or even enter a church. Either way, I have tried to move on from the traumatic events of that evening

and thankfully have not had another experience like it since. If anyone has any information or experience with a similar situation, please let me know. The story happened to me approximately 7 years ago. For the better part of my adult life, I have been somewhat of a loner. I don't have many friends and have never been married. After college I moved to a small city that is home to a lot of rural areas and forests. I have always been drawn to nature so this was a perfect living situation for me. I was able to partake in all of my hobbies like hiking, kayaking, camping and so

forth. My job luckily allowed me to work from home so whenever I wasn't working on coding inside I was out on a trail or exploring some new area that I hadn't previously been to. Well on this particular night it was a bitter cold evening. During the winter I had grown accustomed to hiking to the lake located in the main forest near my house. The lake was very large and I don't ever recall it freezing completely. From what I was told there was a huge salt deposit in the bottom of the lake which kept it from icing over. Another interesting fact about the lake is that nobody knows for sure if it was man-made or natural. There are apparently arguments for both

cases. As I started to slowly close in on the lake I thought that I could see someone up ahead. This wasn't abnormal as there was several major trails that could take you to and from the lake. I began to make my way closer but I was moving much slower as I was trying to focus my eyes in the darkness. As I got closer I could see that there was a figure about 30 feet away from me just looming and staring directly at the lake. They weren't moving and had their face fixated on the lake. The figure was tall, well over 6 foot and very skinny. The figure appeared to be naked or at least wasn't wearing a shirt. Their head was elongated and round on top.

Whatever I was looking at was certainly not human, but humanoid in nature. Paralyzed by a mixture of fear and intrigue, I just stared at the figure hoping I wouldn't be noticed. I was trying to squint and get a better look so I could figure out what I was looking at. After a few moments of silence, another figure walked up to the one that was already standing there. At this point I could see the entire side profile of the humanoid creature. Its legs were long and they kind of shot out slowly as they walked. Its eyes were larger than normal and took up a larger area of the creature's face. The figures both looked at

each other. They were moving their arms and bodies as if though they were communicating but weren't making any noise. Before I knew it I was forced to clench my hands over my ears. I heard a loud blast followed by a high-pitched ringing that forced me to my knees. Once the noise stopped the creatures were gone. I slowly made my way over to the lake where I thought I saw them standing to search for any kind of evidence of what I saw. Unfortunately, there was none. I saw no footprints or anything else that looked strange and out of place. I spent the rest of that night staring at the stars trying to understand what I saw

and what I had just experienced. Maybe these creatures liked the cold winter night. Perhaps they were attracted and drawn to the salt water. Either way, I know I saw something that wasn't human that night. Was it some sort of shapeshifter? Was it extraterrestrial? Or perhaps it was something even more sinister like a demon trying to take human form? I'm just happy I was able to live through this experience without finding out. be sure to submit them to my subreddit, our Let's Read official, and give and receive feedback from the community. And maybe even hear your story featured on the next video. And join my Discord to interact with me

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