The Lets Read Podcast - 4: Episode 004 | Walmart & Shadow People Stories | 26 True Scary Horror Stories

Episode Date: September 19, 2018

Welcome to the fourth 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 Walmart, Intruders, Shadow People and UFO Encounter Stories! HAVE A STORY TO SUBMIT?► www.Reddit.com/r/LetsReadOfficial FOLLOW ME ON- ► Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/letsread.official/ ► Twitter - https://twitter.com/LetsReadCreepy ►YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/letsreadofficial ♫ Background Music: Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFvrqVSJE8E PATREON for EARLY ACCESS!►http://patreon.com/LetsRead

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being found in the river, people being stabbed and even one time someone had brought a live grenade directly into the police station. We had our fair share of WTF moments. Although these things have happened very close to home I have never found myself directly in the way of anything and lived a mostly boring life. I remember it was around April and my friend Sophie was staying over for the night. At around 9pm we took my dogs for a walk. The youngest is a pit bull crossed with a bull mastiff and is by no means small so we felt safe.

We went the usual route of doing a full 360 turn around the block which was usually only a 20 minute walk. We weren't even halfway around when my dogs started acting strange staying very close to me and Sophie which is unusual for her as she usually has my arm off from all the pulling. I didn't think much of it because we still had basically the whole walk to go. Sophie tugged my arm and whispered to me, I don't know but there's a man close to us. I of course spin my head around and sure enough there was a stocky, well over 6 foot grown man walking about

50 yards or so behind us. We crossed the street because we were both pretty paranoid and debated calling it a day and cutting the walk time in half but that would mean having to turn 180 degrees on the spot and walking straight past the man. Deciding against it we continued the walk and was mostly home when the dog stopped and wouldn't continue walking. I pulled on her lead and she just wouldn't budge. I figured she had seen a squirrel or something and was waiting to pounce, but she didn't take her eyes off of me. Eventually, after about three minutes of her doing this, she carried on walking and we made it home. The next day I woke up to my entire street surrounded by police

and investigators. I was groggy, confused, and mostly just intrigued as to why it looked like a scene from CSI outside my front door. Me and Sophie took a walk down the road and noticed that there was a complete forensics team in the house we called the Creeper Hut because it looked spooky at all hours of the day. Hazmat suits, white tent, the lot were piling into this house. It wasn't until about a week later that we heard through the news that a woman was attacked about a hundred meters from my house the night me and Sophie were walking the dog. The attack happened only a few feet from where my dog had stopped and refused to walk. The woman was left half naked and bloody

but alive and made it to someone for help. I can't help but imagine if the man who had followed us was the man who attacked and if my dog had saved our lives that night. I will probably never know but I do know that I don't want to be walking my dogs that late again. Last night I went to Walmart and as I walked in these two guys gave me a strange vibe. It was about 9pm and the store was busy so I shrugged it off. I was looking at candy and one of the two men walked into the aisle, looked at me and left. Okay, weird. I tried to shrug it off. About three minutes later I was still in the same aisle and I feel someone behind me. It was dude number two and I got jump scared. What's up? I say or something along those lines. I thought you uh work here. Well I don't. Why are you standing so close? Get away from me weirdo. Oh um my bad. Don't be scared. Then he walks off. I had gym clothes on but my shirt was greenish blue

so I thought maybe it was still an honest mistake. I continue shopping and I get out of the original aisle I was in and he's against the wall display of freaking tampons. Just kind of standing. We make eye contact and he starts looking at the products. Okay, whatever. Maybe he's buying for a friend. I was still spooked so I did a sharp

turn into the next aisle and start walking a little faster. For whatever reason I stopped at the end and he slowly approached from the opposite side. Dude, you're freaking creepy. Oh, what if I just thought you were cute? You don't have to be all worried. He's still smug and smiling. Well, that's no way to approach anyone. You just scared the crap out of me. Well, sometimes that's a good thing, right? I'm going to mess you up if you get close to me again. I was just scared and didn't know what else to say.

I decided my Walmart trip was done but I was paranoid so I walked around random aisles for another 15 minutes. I only saw him once again. When I finally calmed down I went to self checkout. I saw him from the corner of my eye staring at me as I waited in line. He was staring from the distance, the customer service area and returns to the farthest self checkoutcheckout. Most Walmarts look the same in regards to layout, so I kept myself busy in the clearance bins they keep by the registers for some time. I again calmed down and felt it was safe to proceed. I was at self-checkout and I looked up for a second and I see him at the exit leaning against the wall. This was when I

realized none of this was a coincidence and this guy was probably up to something. For a brief second I thought to myself I'll just walk to my car and if anything happens someone will see. I saw him against the wall and something didn't seem quite right. He was obviously trying to hide. I took a few steps then I thought about the girl that got kidnapped at Target. I did a u-turn and told the door greeter. I thought about the girl that got kidnapped at Target. I did a U-turn and told the door greeter. I just said the guy's been following me and I don't know what to do. She turned too to see where he was, and again he was standing against the wall trying to hide.

He suddenly took off running. She told me to walk back to the fitting room and wait for a manager. I waited 10 minutes and no one ever came. I was annoyed and I was scared out of my mind and ended up calling a friend and he stayed on the phone with me until I got home. This morning I called the store to see if they could review the cameras. I spoke to the assistant manager and she told me, well I can assure you nothing happened. I spoke to her manager and she was a bit more helpful. She said she could review the footage, but nothing can be done without a police report. Fair enough.

I doubt she'll even watch it, to be honest. I called my police department and the dispatcher asked me some ridiculous questions. She asked why I didn't just call 911. I told her I was scared and not thinking straight. She didn't really care what I had to say and I could tell she probably thought I was being overdramatic. I had a rough night and I just wanted to write this out. I'm usually a resilient person and don't really have anyone in real life to talk about this. So this is among the scariest things to ever happen to me in my entire life. To start, I'll set the scene.

This occurred in Florida about 3-4 years ago when I was 21-22. I'm a small dude, 5'6", but I'm relatively muscular and fit. The city I lived in was a pretty decently big city as far as Florida goes. I had lived there for about 10 years so I had become pretty dang comfortable there. I worked a lot of nights at the time, mostly 12pm to 10pm shifts. I lived on the outskirts of the city at the time so needless to say it was less busy and much more low-key. At the time I was preparing to join the military so fitness was a pretty big priority despite the long shifts I was working. I would wake up late, head straight to work, get home, relax and then run whenever I was ready.

This also proved an effective way to dodge the horrible Florida heat and humidity and allow for more enjoyable runs. So one particular night, I had just finished closing up my work, food service, and was ready to head home after a long day. I was really into GTA 5 online at the time, so I was dying to get home and play. Due to being off the next day, I played for longer than I usually would before my late night run and was almost tempted by my friends to just skip my run just one time. I eventually felt the guilt overcome me and decided to get up and go at about 2.30am to get this run out of the way. So as always, I put on my neon green Nike shirt, a reflective armband that holds my phone, my running shoes, also reflective, and my running shorts.

I stretch in the driveway as always, then I grab my water bottle and start the mile or so walk away from my house that I take to get back to the road where I do my run. I arrive, place my water bottle in the bush by a dimly lit church on the corner, and I prepare to start going. Now during my actual run, I would only use the two primary back roads. I would run down one road which was notable for having nothing but trees and fences on either side, take a right and then run down the dimly lit road with a few houses tucked away in the woods for about another mile. I would turn around after that and after about 4 miles of running I would enjoy my cool down walk back home. Anyways my run begins.

The weather is cool and windy and I'm about a half mile down the empty road when I hear a car approach from behind me. It passes me at about 40 miles per hour. While seeing a vehicle is somewhat rare in this area at this time of night, the dark, what seemed to be a Dodge Charger, going at about 15 below the speed limit doesn't strike me as unusual as there is always a risk of hitting a deer in this part of town. I keep moving and as this car is about 100 yards away from me, it comes to an immediate halt. This immediately sends shivers down my spine as there is literally nothing on this road worth stopping for. I stop running and just patiently watch the car. I squat down near the bushes on the side of the road to lower my profile as I watched. The passenger side door

opened on a tall dark figure stood next to the open door for a few minutes peering in my direction but I was hidden by the darkness. It occurred to me that my presence might be the reason for the stop, as they may be suspicious of someone running down the road this late. I quickly threw this idea out of my head as I was very obviously wearing running clothing designed to be seen late at night, and it would be absurd for anyone to think that I was up to trouble in a bright outfit. After another minute or so the passenger gets back into the car and the sedan suddenly whipped around and starts speeding in my direction. The very instant the vehicle started to whip around

I rolled from my squatting position into the bushes and stayed as still as possible. The car passed me and came to a halt about 10 to 15 feet in the other direction. I could see them turn their high beams on and turn back around in the middle of the road and start to slowly creep down the road at about 5 to 10 miles per hour and turn their lights off completely. After they passed me once again, I poked my head on a little just to see where they were. The car approaches the turn at the end of the road and turns right and stops there, only to flash their high beams down the dark road with the houses. Needless to say, I'm sufficiently creeped out and hoping it's just an unmarked police officer trying to talk to me,

but most vehicles in my area have spotlights, so searching for me with high beams would make no sense. The car turns around again as I pop myself back into the bush and proceeds to once again turn the lights off. Then, the scariest part happened. I hear the engines start to loudly rev and suddenly, the charger is shooting down the road nearly 90 miles per hour, headlights off and all. It whips around and does the same thing again back in the other direction of the road and in a panic I get my phone out to call 911. I can't leave the bush without risking getting hit and I'm honestly mortified. As soon as I get ready to dial the charger turns onto the dark road, flashes their high beams in another attempt to find me and disappears down

that road. I climbed out of the bush and made a break into the other direction desperately trying to get home. I sprinted down the road faster than I've ever moved in my life. As I approached the church I started to feel more safe so I slowed to a brisk walk and called 911 to report what had happened. I spoke to an operator who told me to try and stay put and hidden as there weren't any officers in the area for another 15 minutes. I hustle over to the bush to hide, still on the phone with the operator when I realize my water bottle is completely gone. This confirms the suspicion that I was being deliberately followed and whoever was following me likely had ill intentions. I stayed until the police arrived, gave my report and was given a ride home.

Needless to say, I started running during the day before work and never took that back road again. When I was 18 my family fell on hard times. We lost my childhood home, moved into the only apartments we could afford and had to relocate after 6 months. With no home set in place we split up and stayed with friends while we house hunted. The family I stayed with lived near a sketchy area but the house itself was a nice little pocket of the neighborhood. At that time I was in my first semester of college and didn't have a car. I would walk a little over a mile in the mornings to the light rail station to catch a bus to school and walk back in the evenings. Nearly half of the distance to the houses takes place on a main avenue known for its sketchiness. Trafficking, prostitution, shootings, etc. I'd get a few honks here and

there as I walked, which surprised me as I'm a bigger girl, but I never felt unsafe. That is, until I had a close encounter. I remember that it was still light out when I left the light rail station, so I must have not had a class that evening. As I walked to the first street that led into the neighborhood, I heard a honk. I looked straight ahead and continued to walk. As I was turning onto the street, a car pulls up to my left. Initially, I didn't pay much attention to it as the area was fairly busy. However, my eyes dart to the driver as I hear the window rolling down.

He appeared to be an older Middle Eastern man sporting a lazy smile. We made eye contact and I immediately look away out of habit but I could see that he was trying to get my attention. I glance back and he motions for me to come closer. I smile and shake my head. Growing up, my mother drilled politeness into me which I appreciate in general but also resent a bit in times like these. I'm a shy person and a people pleaser. I don't like to say no or disappoint anyone. That being said I wasn't about to go up to this dude's car. Again he motions for me to come to him. I shake my head again, laughing through my nose, still smiling politely. I then continue the walk home. My guard is up but I'm not too worried. If I walked straight

for half a mile, made a right and then a left, I'd be at the house. I took this route every day and usually zoned out as I walked. That's why it took me about a quarter of a mile to realize I was being followed. I wasn't sure if it was the same vehicle because I tend to look down wherever I go. However, this particular truck had passed my peripheral vision enough times to ring some cautionary bells. I gathered some courage to confront the driver with a frown set on my face. I turned to the truck, mentally prepared myself to say something, and it was a different person. I blinked, felt silly, and nodded as we made eye contact. This guy appeared to be younger and of Hispanic descent.

I gave a hesitant smile and he just stared. His face held no expression. I remember how dark his eyes were. He was far enough away that I couldn't tell if his pupils were dilated or not, but it felt like they bore into me. Now, eyes have always creeped me out in a way. I truly believe that they're the windows into one's soul, and from what I could see, his were just empty. It feels dramatic to say, but I could sense something about him was off. He didn't say anything,

only looked at me. I remember my smile faltering and raising an eyebrow in a silent, can I help you? He jerked his head as if to call me over. I shook my head and again continued to walk. He drove ahead of me. I sighed in relief and quickened my pace. As I come up to one of my many intersections, I see him parked near a ditch to the left, and quickened my pace. As I come up to one of my many intersections, I see him parked near a ditch to the left, his car facing my direction. Meanwhile, he had to have turned around at some point. I realized that it was on purpose and I had one of those calming chills roll through me, the kind you get when your body is trying to alert you of danger. He sees that I've noticed him and he drives past, slowly, staring. At this point any politeness in me is gone. He jerks his head again and I firmly respond, no. His blank expression didn't change and he continued to drive past, down a road that I knew

would lead him behind me. Instead of going straight I went left as I knew the alternate roads I could take to get to my destination. The streets in my neighborhood were empty and it didn't take him long to figure out where I went. As I mentioned before I'm not in the best of shape so I wasn't moving very fast even with adrenaline pumping through me. As I forced my body to move I focused on my irritation instead of fear and went over the description of him and his vehicle in my head. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, tall and thin, medium-length black hair with an attractive face and dark hooded eyes. He drove a small,

old beige truck with purple and pink lines down the side. I had lost count of how many times he had driven past me. I had a scowl set on my face and I didn't look down anymore as I walked. As he passed I would hold his stare with my chin up but it did nothing to deter him. I'd continue walking and he would be there, jerking his head, motioning for me to come to his car. He kept a distance, albeit a small one. He'd creep by and when I turned to glare he'd pass me and come around from another direction. The neighborhood is grid-like so it was difficult to know exactly where he'd come from next. Now as I mentioned before, times were rough. I did have a phone on me but my service had been shut off.

I relied on Wi-Fi. I knew I wouldn't be able to call my friend who lived down the way and that thought brought forth the anxiety that I was holding at bay. By this time my little rush of adrenaline that enhanced my bravery was faltering and I felt genuine fear. I began scanning homes looking for anyone. I saw a corner house that always stood out to me when we drove out of the neighborhood. It felt safe. When the guy in the truck passed me again I took my chance and ran up to the house. I was met with a disgruntled older man. I explained my situation and asked if I could please use his phone to call my friend.

When I pulled out my phone he grew suspicious and asked me why I needed to use his if I had my own. I explained that my phone was off but I needed it to find my friend's number that I didn't have memorized. I could tell he was still wary but he brought his phone to me and let me make the call. She didn't pick up. I left a shaky message hung up and that's where the tears started flowing. That may have helped my case but what solidified it was the moments later, the truck passed by the house. The older man said, Oh, that guy? And I confirmed that it was.

He believed me then and offered to drive me to my friends. I should have been wary of this stranger, but despite my mind being in overdrive, I could sense that he was a kind person with good intentions. I felt safe with him so I threw caution to the wind and took him up on his offer. That drive is a blur to me. I only remember thanking him profusely afterwards. I went inside and saw my friend sitting there. I felt anger which I knew was misplaced. I asked her why she didn't answer and she said it was because she didn't recognize the number. I felt so mad at that moment that I broke down crying, releasing all the tension and

fear that I had felt and explained what happened. We didn't contact the police, nothing had really happened, I was just spooked. Also for some reason I never thought to look at the license plate, something I still regret. Sometimes I wonder what could have happened if other people in the area had experienced this and if they didn't get out of it unscathed. After the fact a friend from church gave me her pepper spray and told me to keep it on me at all times when walking in the area, which I did. I lived with that family for a month or so or more and while I did get an occasional honk, I never saw the truck again on my walks to and from the light rail station. I still remember where that house on the corner is and think about the old man

and how thankful I am that he decided to answer his door that day. My girlfriend and I moved into a ground floor apartment outside of DC in December, which we thought was a good idea because the neighborhood is rated as very safe. It's full of families with young kids too. We'd been previously living on the ground floor in a city just outside of Baltimore for years and had never had a problem. Our back windows face a busy major road with street lights where there's a small hill and trees between the road and our windows. We thought it would be great for our privacy, no one walking by on the sidewalk can see

in. Towards the end of our first month there my girlfriend woke me up saying that there was a man standing in our window. This was around 3 a.m. We called the police but he had already ran off. The police told us they'd never had this kind of problem in their neighborhood before and to just call again if he comes back. It was snowing so he left his massive footprints in the snow. Now a few weeks later on one of the coldest nights of the year he came back i was watching tv in the living room when my girlfriend screamed from the bedroom she had been looking through the blinds to check if he was there and came face to face with him he just stared back blankly and only

walked away when she screamed again and bashed her fists into the window. She saw his face. I didn't. He was tall, skinny, and looked dead inside according to her. Police came again, this time they brought dogs. Nothing was found. They warned us that he might escalate his behavior since it was so strange to be outside in below freezing weather just to casually watch someone. I alerted everyone next door and several others have recently seen him too. Needless to say, we got blackout curtains and nailed the sides to the wall so there are no gaps. We haven't seen him since. But we had another incident with someone who matched his general description. I was walking to the metro in daylight and a man came up to me wearing sunglasses and a hoodie

and began to scream at me that I was ugly and disgusting. He grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me and then slapped me across the face. I was too stunned to do anything so I just ran to the metro to catch my train for work and cried the whole way there. I couldn't give a description besides him being tall, black, male, sunglasses and wearing a hoodie so I didn't bother calling the police. No other pedestrians nearby did anything at all mind you literally just walked past me as I was being screamed at and hit. It's been so long now over a month that I don't think telling the police would help. Every now and then we do hear things at night that sounds like someone shuffling around,

but we're too scared to look through the curtains. This happened when I was 12 to 13. I'm a female. It was the morning of the 1st of January so because of celebration the street was empty. Since our family came to town that year we were out of drinks and I was sent to the market to get some soda. I lived in a small town and we had this one giant market that always worked so I went in and bought coke and was heading back when this happened. Right after I came out I saw a man going to the opposite direction.

He suddenly looked back and legit changed his direction towards me. It wasn't too far, so he caught up pretty quickly. Even though he looked old, I assumed that he was a foreign exchange student because he asked me what time it was in English. Okay, whatever. I took out my phone and answered, but that's when stuff got weird. Before I could go he started asking me various questions. Do you live in this neighborhood? Which one? Are you alone? Do you have a boyfriend? I didn't want to be rude or make him feel

uncomfortable so I lied and said that I was staying at a friend's house as a guest and that I was from the UK so he didn't ask me to show him around. While he was talking to me I had my scarf on and was covering my nose to warm it up when he suddenly ripped it off. I didn't know how to react so I just muttered that I had to go and went back into the market. I don't know if he got scared or just gave up but he didn't follow me into the store. I stayed there for a good 10 minutes and went home. So to the stranger who ripped off my scarf, let's never meet again. So I was 14 years old and just finished work at the seafront.

I remember it was my nan's birthday and I had about half an hour to get home for her meal, which is how long it would take me to walk with no distractions. I stopped at the toilets on the seafront on my way back. One side of the toilets had cubicles and if you walk to the other side, it has all the urinals together. I went into a cubicle because it is quite well known that weirdos hang around the urinals and get up to all sorts in plain view of people coming in out of the toilets. When I came out of the cubicle a man was stood right outside the door facing me as I opened the door. I didn't expect anyone to be there when I opened the door so I walked right into him.

I apologized even though it wasn't my fault and he was really awkward and didn't say anything. He was just looking at me. I turned left to go to the sinks and he stumbled off right and I assumed he was going into one of the cubicles at the other end of the toilet. I was washing my hands and noticed out of the corner of my eye that he was standing at the other end of the toilet just watching me. As I finished washing my hands I walked over to the hand dryers and he was not trying to hide it. He was just stood there arms down by his side staring at me straight in the face. Fear came over me as I knew what kind of people hung around those toilets and I absolutely crapped my pants by this point

and left the toilets without finishing drying my hands. I had walked towards him before I could turn left and exit the toilets and as I came towards him and turned left out, for a split second I could see him coming towards me to exit the toilets as well. As I came out of the toilets I went to a slope to take me to the top promenade and as it was about 10 meters up I see him exit the toilets to my direction. I was absolutely crapping myself but it was a busy day so I thought I would be safe if I hung around for a bit when I got to the top promenade. I was quite tall for my age and really didn't want to cause a scene by bothering people saying I thought I was being followed. I sat on the bench when I got to the top and he came straight over and sat right next to me on the bench. I don't know what came over me.

I always thought I would be so tough in these situations but I froze. I still was trying to tell myself I was being paranoid and he couldn't possibly be following me. Why would he be doing this while it was so busy? I remember giving myself a pep talk in my head, trying to convince myself to be brave and look him in the face once more. I could see from the corner of my eye that he was still looking at my face while sat next to me. I didn't have the balls to look at him. I just knew he wouldn't look away and it would be so scary and awkward. I plucked up the courage to put it to the test. If I got up and went and stood over at the railings in front of me facing the sea,

surely he won't follow me and I might be able to leg it. So I went and leaned on the railings and the weirdo followed me over and stood right next to me, leaning over as though we were together. My body felt tense and I felt trapped. He slowly shifted along the railings closer to me, our elbows were touching. I swear to god he didn't take his eyes off of me the whole time. When his elbow touched mine it really startled me and I started walking hoping I would lose him in the crowd. I had the seat on my left and the gardens and bushes followed by the road on my right. I turned around and could see him through the crowds of people, still following me.

Every time I turned around, he seemed to be closer and didn't stop looking at me dead in the eyes. It was so creepy, like I was his prey, and it was relentless. He would not give up. Looking back, it was kind of like something from the Terminator, like nothing would stop him. He didn't care for people being in his way or walking around them. He just stomped through like he was on a mission. I couldn't really run because there were so many people. I finally came to an opening in the bushes on my right which led straight into the road that I just sprinted out.

Luckily there were no cars because it didn't even cross my mind to check I just wanted to get away. My friend's house was about a 20 second sprint away from this point so my plan was to run there if he crossed the road after me. When I got to the other side of the street I turned around and he just stood there watching me with crowds of people walking past him still just staring at me dead in the eyes. Feeling braver as I was near my friends, I maintained eye contact as I looked over my shoulder while walking in the direction of my friend's house, he just sprinted off in the opposite direction. I was late for my nan's meal in case he wondered and didn't have the balls to tell my family what happened. I didn't want to deal with the lecture of what I should and shouldn't have done. I don't know why but since this instance I can't pee in public toilets. I mean I am 6 foot 2,

a 25 year old man and this still sticks in the back of my mind. I feel really stupid but I just can't pee no matter how hard I need to go. One night my mom and her boyfriend had gone to the bar late at night and would likely not be back till 2am. I'm 20 years old so I'm not afraid to stay home with my little sister late at night but I do get a little worried because I'd be easy to take down if there was an intruder. Also a big problem is that our house has a sliding glass back door that doesn't lock properly. Thankfully it's only the back door and we live in an okay area, but it still made me a little worried. We also have another back door to my mom's room that does lock. So after they leave around 11ish, I climb into bed and after locking the front door and turning off the lights,

I start to drift off into sleep. All of a sudden I hear some noises like someone's in the house, but being half asleep, I shook it off as my mom must have came home early to grab something. This was very unlike me, since I'm usually overly cautious and probably would have texted or called my mom, but I was just so exhausted that I didn't want to worry too much. I went back to sleep and got up the next morning as though nothing happened. My little sister was already up and asked me if I heard weird noises last night at around maybe 12. I told her yeah but I thought it was just mom coming home. It turns out they hadn't come home until 2am and our screen to my mom's room's back

door was broken and the other screen to the other back door was off the hinges slightly. Why someone felt the need to mess with a screen door that doesn't even lock I don't know. What I do know is we need to get our back door fixed. For some reason the cops were not called, probably because nothing was stolen and no one was hurt, just traumatized. That night was creepy and the only time someone had made it in our house. And although they didn't take anything, we were still really creeped out. To make it all worse, about a month before that night my little sister was home alone for about 30 minutes and had heard someone trying to jiggle the front door handle and the passcode buttons being pushed.

We don't have a door key, we have a passcode that beeps when you enter the code. We haven't had any other break in like occurrences again and it's been about a little over a year. Thank god. To be completely honest, men never usually hit on me or approach me at all. This is because I am a very large woman. It is weird when they do. It has only happened twice in the last six or seven years. The first of those times is okay, but a little uncomfortable since I was in an elevator with this complete stranger in my apartment building and he kept asking me out for coffee. I know I'm not attractive so I never believe people

when they act like I am. I am also not looking to date. The second time however just happened within the last hour. After work I took the bus down to the grocery store. It was a few minutes in the opposite direction from my apartment but they have some pretty good deals so I like to go at least once per month. As I was just starting to walk away from the bulk food area, this is also the only store with sesame glazed cashews so I was getting some, I heard someone say something like, hey. There were other people in the area so I figured this person was trying to get the attention of a deli or bakery employee nearby. I saw him out of the corner of my eye but paid no attention and walked off to continue my shopping. I had used the phone in the store that automatically rings up the taxi company to call my ride before exiting

and walking off to the side where the benches are to wait for it to arrive. A few people walked behind the bench as they also left. Then one stopped and said hello. I still paid no attention. The only person I talked to, besides customers at work, is my sister and she was back at our apartment. He came a little closer, cleared his throat and said, excuse me. I turned. It was the guy. It was then that I realized he had been trying to get my attention inside the store. Oh, hello. I smiled. I really am anxious out in public, but I am decent at faking friendliness.

Do you live around here? No, I'm just waiting for my ride home. Ah, you know, I live just over there, he pointed at the townhouse complex across the street. I could give you a ride if you like. Well, that was fast and forward. Oh, thanks, but that's alright, I already called my ride and they're on their way. Are you certain they are coming? Because it is no problem to drive you. I assured him that my ride and they're on their way. Are you certain they are coming because it is no problem to drive you? I assured him that my ride was for sure on the way. He kept trying over and over to get me to come with him despite my polite refusals. He offered to put his phone number in my phone so I

could call him any time or day of night and he would come pick me up. Well, that was creepy. I told him the truth and said that I didn't have a cell phone. He immediately challenged that by asking how I called for a ride then. I said that there was a phone inside the store that I used. He chuckled and asked, Are you worried that if I gave you a ride, your husband would kill me? Husband? Yeah, right.

I'm 35 and I've never even had a boyfriend. Oh, I mean, he might. He can get like that sometimes. Better if I just take my cab when it arrives. I lied. Well, you don't have to tell them that I gave you a ride. That wouldn't be very honest of me. Besides, the folks at the taxidermy company know who I am so I can't just no-show them. Which is true, I've been a regular for the past six years and they know me by voice now. He then asked me where I'm from. I said I was from this general area. He then said that he was from Africa. I could tell that already so I just politely asked which country.

He told me and then started talking about being from a tribe and how the tribes would fight each other for things. Mostly about how whichever tribe won, they could marry women from the other tribe and not have to pay for that privilege and what not. I was just praying that my cab would come soon. I kept turning to check. Finally it arrived. I stood up and said, looks like my ride's here. He said it was nice to talk to me as I was putting my bags in the car. I hopped in the cab, thanked the cabbie for finally saving me and we were off. The guy must have offered me a ride at least a dozen times.

But that wasn't the end of it. As I was getting my stuff out of the cab once arriving at my complex, there are multiple buildings and our parking lot slopes down a hill and I am at the top of the hill. The man drove past me. He doesn't live here too. He followed me. I don't know what he hoped to accomplish since the buildings are secured and he doesn't know my first name, let alone my last name which is the only name listed beside the buzzer. I hustled my fat butt into the building and hope I don't ever meet that guy again. I just received a library science degree.

I was pretty excited to get a job as a librarian and went on my way to job interview as a newly minted LIS graduate. So I apply to a job at a public library an hour away and I hear back from a man who tells me he'd like to talk about a job. I feel good about this and he says he likes to meet down the street from the library. This is odd but maybe it's a very casual library. So I decide to find the address and it ends up being a coffee shop. I get out of my car and walk into the coffee shop where I see an older man in a nice coat sitting on the couch. He seems pretty laid back. Now I'm starting to think this is odd. If I was a young female I'd hightail it out of there. However, I'm a late 20s male and I decided to go talk to the guy waving me over. Looking back, even being who I was, maybe I shouldn't have. He asks if I'm Alec and I tell him yes. So I sit down and he sits on literally the

couch across from me. I gave him my usual speech about what I can offer him for the library. He says that sounds interesting. Same old, same old. All job interviews are fairly polite. However, this is odd and I can feel it. It seems more like a date than an interview. He tells me about the job which sounds very made up, writing press releases for the library. After that, he says he'll email me about the job,

but not before telling me that he would like a book suggestion from me. Well, he likes mysteries and I tell him I like the Devonport novels by John Sanford. He gives a creepy smile and says that sounds great. When I get home, as I was living with my parents at the time as the job search went on, my dad pokes holes in the job he gave me. He says why couldn't they just get someone already on staff to write a press release? My dad is right the whole thing sounded fishy. Well I never got that email nor heard or ever saw that man around again nor do I have any proof from the library website if he is even associated with them. I would say let's not meet but I'm not even sure what exactly this whole thing was in

the first place. This story took place when I was 19 in the early 2000s. I was attending university and had recently moved in with two other girls in a shared house. I had broken up with my boyfriend. It didn't go well as far as breakups are concerned and I endured threats of harm, which led to me moving into the shared house so I could escape his clutches, and so he didn't know where I was. This is relevant to the story because it perhaps explains my true judgment

and vulnerability in the following situation. The dialogue is paraphrased as best as I can recall. It was probably a lot more awkward, bumbling, and wordy than that which I have written. Since being a teenager, I've always been into online gaming and following my move into the shared house had reignited my passions for it. I had deleted all my gaming-related software prior to going to university, partly because I thought I should have grown out of it, and partly because I was hiding it from my aforementioned ex. I didn't want him to know about my nerdy pastime.

This was many years before being female and a gamer was something considered cool, and I was reluctant for people to find out about it, so I stopped doing it. After setting up a new terrible router in my new digs, this was before ADSL was around, I quickly found myself in an online clan with friends I'd played with when I was young. Now, you youngsters of today might not have a scoobies as to how online gaming used to work, but before Steam, in order to play clan games you had to use Chat Client, IRC for the oldies out there, in rooms to find games and organize servers, and that sort of thing. You would usually hang out in perhaps 10 different chat rooms, and this meant you always had plenty of people to talk to when you were bored. It was a great community, and this is how I met Marcus. Marcus was in a different clan to me, and he was a great player.

He was quite a bit older than me, at the age of 29. In IRC, he he was hilarious and he was always around to chat to. We quickly developed a friendship and he would murk, stand in for a player in our clan sometimes, although his skills far surpassed ours. As you can probably imagine, dear reader, this headed towards an obvious next stage. As a vulnerable 19 year old girl, who had just been through a traumatic breakup, getting attention from an older, popular gamer guy, although we private message frequently, I told him in no uncertain terms that I was just out of a terrible relationship and wasn't looking for anything like that.

He in fact lived with his girlfriend, which was the initial red flag I chose to ignore. I didn't really care like that. He in fact lived with his girlfriend which was the initial red flag I chose to ignore. I didn't really care about that, I was just somebody having fun online. If he wanted to spend hours gaming with and talking to me instead of with his girlfriend I wasn't one to question it. I suppose I was a bit of an a-hole back then. Marcus was a common visitor in our clan chat and he had befriended most of my clanmates too. We had swapped photos and he had never been inappropriate. And trust me, as a 19 year old girl playing largely teenage boy frequented team games, I had already seen a vast array of wiener pics, creepy messages, sexist remarks and been tricked by links to Goatsy, Tub Girl, and other classics. If I'm honest, I like

the fact that he was there to talk to. It progressed to us swapping numbers and texting each other. I confided in him and he confided in me. We told each other about our failed and failing relationships. We confessed to having done different types of drugs. He still dabbled occasionally. I did not. And we swapped game strategies. We talked about our families, future plans, pets, etc. He started calling me on my phone. We started chatting regularly, for hours at a time.

My housemates started questioning who my secret boyfriend was. Fast forward perhaps six months, and one night Marcus suggested we meet up as friends for a drink and perhaps a bit of gaming. I was nervous but I was also excited. After all our hours of conversation and bonding perhaps we were destined to be together. He still had his girlfriend though and I still maintain I only wanted friendship as did he so I kept these thoughts to myself. I decided to meet him and see if there was a spark or if I was attracted to him. If I wasn't, I reasoned, then no harm done. We were only meeting as friends. If I was, then, well, perhaps something could happen.

19-year-old me, as I've mentioned, wasn't really interested in the collateral. I'd been hurt in my breakup and I didn't give a crap about other people in the collateral. I'd been hurt in my breakup and I didn't give a crap about other people's relationships failing. I just wanted to have fun. Like I said, bit of an a-hole. We arranged a date in the university half term when I knew my housemates would be at their family homes and I'd have the shared house to myself. He planned to stay for a night. 30 something year old me still looks back on this scenario and winces. What was I thinking he expected here? He told me what kind of car he had. I'm no expert so let's say it was a heavily modded 3 liter beast thing. Of course idiot 19 year old

me found the prospect of a 29 year old man with a cool car very exciting. As the car pulled up outside the house my throat tightened and my anxiety kicked in. Heart pounding I went to open the door. It was too late to back out now. The first reaction I had was this guy was big and I mean perhaps six foot five and ripped. I'd seen a few photos but they had never shown the extent of his muscles. He didn't look big in the photos I'd seen but in real life he looked like a nightclub bouncer. My second instinctive reaction was a feeling of complete danger. He was actually good looking but something was amiss. It is hard to describe but there was a look in his eyes as he appraised me that made my blood run cold. I forced a smile and gave him a huge hug asking him to come inside.

I stupidly told myself it was actually my newly developed anxiety disorder from the breakup and being threatened working overtime and not him that was throwing my flight reaction into overdrive. And over the threshold he walked. I'd invited him in. I asked him to come into the kitchen and I have to be fair here. It is a strong possibility that he was socially inept and anxious too. In fact that's what I convinced myself as he sat down and I fetched him a drink. It is also likely he is high on speed or cocaine as he seemed very twitchy and nervous and was chewing gum like he was trying to beat a world record. I tried to engage him in conversation but unlike the online and phone personality which

was full of confidence he completely clammed up. I asked him if he wanted to grab some food and he made some weird comment about only being able to eat certain things like protein because he was a bodybuilder. I wasn't hungry at all. I felt nauseous with the adrenaline sloshing around in my system but I decided I needed to get him out of my house and see if we could be more at ease with each other or see if I could get rid of him somehow. He agreed to drive to find somewhere to have a drink. I got into his ridiculously pimped out car and strapped in. Heading out, I felt a lot calmer and more comfortable. I think it was because his eyes weren't boring into my soul any longer. My anxiety reduced somewhat and I started

to ask him about the journey up. He traveled about three hours to meet up. We eventually found a pub that was opened and he pulled up. We got out and grabbed a table. Again, he seemed very on edge and my adrenaline started pumping again. Those eyes. I couldn't decide if he was nervous, high, or deciding how he could murder me. We must have looked a strange couple to the other patrons in the place, of which the majority were old men sitting at the bar. A 19-year young looking girl with a huge muscly guy who looked like he might beat someone to death with his bare hands. I took a deep breath and did what any sensible girl in that situation

would do. I ordered a large drink and made a decision to get drunk. He ordered a coke because he was driving. I know, stop judging me. After an hour of the most awkward, stilted conversation and feeling like the whole place was watching our awkwardness, I asked to go home. I hate myself for referencing a teenager's crappy movie, but if you've ever seen the Twilight film when she's in the car and she touches his cold skin and shrinks away, I feel like that all the way back, although he didn't touch me. That palpable awkwardness hanging in the air between us, I felt so paranoid and I felt like I was in danger. When we pulled up to the front of the

house I decided to be honest and try to escape the situation and I said, look, I knew you were supposed to stay but I feel like you're on edge and I'm tired, so maybe you should go home and we'll talk about it tomorrow. He took his seatbelt off and turned to look me straight in the eye. I can't go home now. It's late and I don't want to drive three hours. I'm really tired too. Can I just stay here on the sofa or something? And that, my friends, is where I made perhaps my second idiot decision of the day and said

of course you can. This is where my housemate perhaps saved me from the jaws of the crocodile. As we trudged into my house me, a 110 pound girl and him, a 220 pound hulk of muscle, wondering how I was going to survive the night

yet not wanting to survive the night, yet not wanting to cross the boundaries into impoliteness, telling him to screw off. I heard a wonderful sound. One of my housemates had returned. Loud, brash, and gobby, my dear housemate Sarah, who I actually didn't know particularly well at this point, was there, right there. She eyed Marcus top to bottom and said, who's this then? Strangely, I felt embarrassed at the circumstances and paranoid I'd been completely overreacting due to my anxiety, so I just mumbled about him being a friend from home who was going to stay overnight in my room while I stayed in our other housemate's bed in the next room. Sarah's room was on the ground floor two flights down. She looked suspicious but to her credit casually flounced off into the kitchen asking

if we wanted something to eat. I said that we would be going to bed so that Marcus could get up early to set off. She said just shut if you want some food or whatever. In retrospect I think she wanted to give me an option if I needed help. This is where my story tips from uncomfortable into, oh no, this is bad. I am seriously getting palpitations writing this out. I've buried this memory of this day for over 10 years now. I showed Marcus to my room and told him to have a good night's sleep and I'd be in the next room. He sat on my bed and patted on the bed next to him with his hand to indicate for me to sit down. I just cannot forget

those eyes. He looked like a wolf. A disgusting, gigantic, muscle-bound wolf. I laughed awkwardly and spoke in a placating way. Come on, you know I'm not going to do that. Let's talk about this tomorrow. I'm not sure if it was survival technique, but I just felt it necessary to keep mentioning the next day like I was giving him a way out, because it definitely felt like we had crossed a line from awkward but friendly scenario into a possible assault scenario. I stayed near the door and he said, I just want to cuddle a little bit. His eyes bored into mine and I felt a sudden uncontrolled urge to break eye contact or he was going to pounce. I looked away and my eyes found my phone charger. Not gonna happen buddy, don't be daft. I said as I walked over and pulled it out from the wall. I then didn't dare glance in

his direction again as I all but ran out of the room and casually said good night see you in the morning. I closed the door on him still sitting on the bed. He hadn't moved thank god. If he had moved I think I would have fled screaming. I went into the room next door which belongs to my absent housemate. I turned and locked the door with the flimsy lock but I felt better. I was shaking from the adrenaline of the past few hours. I plugged in my phone next to my bed and climbed in, fully clothed. I didn't feel safe removing any clothing and besides, Marcus was in my room and I was in my housemate's. I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes. Suddenly, my phone lit up. He was texting me. Please come and lie with me, it said. I couldn't

believe it. He was lying perhaps ten feet away and he was texting me. I replied, stop it, not gonna happen. He then proceeded to text me around ten more times pleading that he just wanted to cuddle and didn't want anything sexual. A strange part of me almost believed it. He did seem so lonely despite having a girlfriend. It oozed from his pores. After the 10th time I was quite blunt replying N-O. I'm going to sleep now. Stop texting. My phone went quiet. I lay wide awake for around 20 minutes. This was before iPhones so I couldn't distract myself with the internet. I may well have had a Nokia 3310. I decided to wait until he was asleep, then I could breathe and begin to try and sleep myself. I felt my resolve crumbling and started crying silently. I was such an idiot for

letting this possibly dangerous man who was twice my size into my home and nobody even knew. Thank god Sarah had appeared. That thought gave me comfort. After around an hour I started to calm down and decided to sleep. Then I could deal with getting him out of my house in the morning. And then I heard my bedroom door creak open. My heart actually stopped, I'm sure of it. He's going to the toilet, I rationalized as the alarm bells clanged in my head and I struggled to fight the wave of adrenaline that was washing over me, telling me to run, get out. To get from my bedroom to the bathroom he had to pass the room

I was in. I held my breath, heard him creeping quietly and past the door he went towards the bathroom. I let go of the breathing I had been holding. I'm just overreacting. He's just a nerdy guy with a lack of social skills. He's not dangerous. I'm fine, I told myself. I heard the toilet flush and the tap go. Creak, creak. He was on his way back again. It was at this moment that the doorknob started to turn. I practically leapt out of bed, as silently as possible given the fact that I was absolutely crafting myself and faced the door in the darkness. I didn't know what to do. Should I get a weapon? Shout for Sarah? Phone somebody? Just then I heard his whispered voice as the doorknob kept twiddling. Hey, are you awake? Please, please let me come in. I need you. It was like the three pigs except my

house wasn't made of straw but rather some really terrible MDF wood and a crappy 2 euro brass lock and the wolf wanted to snuggle. I leaned on the bed to make it creak like I had just sat up and faked a sleepy voice. What? What's up? What do you want? I'm asleep. He made another plea whispering it through the crack of the door.

Did you lock the door please let me in for just a minute i need to talk to you i wheeled him away it's locked i'm sleeping go away the doorknob stopped i held my breath no footsteps suddenly the doorknob started turning one way than the other violently. Let me in, he whispered furiously. I ran at the door. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do, but I felt like I needed to attempt to hold it closed. He had wanted to smash his way in, it would have been easy enough for him, but I wasn't going to let him in without a fight. As he struggled and tried to push the door open, I turned to the gap in the door and with my most commanding voice said, you are not coming in here. Go back into the other room now, I mean it. And to my utter relief,

the doorknob stopped moving. I heard his footsteps skulk back to my room. Then I sat against the door and shook it. I ended up blocking the door with a set of drawers and lying wrapped up in a duvet behind that in case he tried again. I was desperate to urinate but I was not going to attempt to get to the bathroom and somehow I slept. The next morning I woke up, moved the drawers and pelted downstairs. People were outside on the street, the birds were singing, I heard Sarah stirring. I know it sounds stupid, but I honestly felt like I'd survived a natural disaster or

something. I was amazed I'd survived the night intact. I eventually heard Marcus lopping down the stairs. I stood in the kitchen with the TV on, and when he walked in, for some reason I felt the urge to act like nothing had happened. Morning, I said, and offered him a cup of tea. He looked like he hadn't slept all night. He declined and mumbled about having to set off to beat the traffic, and with that and an awkward hug, he was gone, out of my house and life. He disappeared off all our usual chat places soon after this, and one of our mutual friends kept me informed about what had happened. I was terrified that he had come back for me but

the three hour journey distance was somewhat reassuring. To his credit he left me alone after he drove away that day. I heard he split from the girlfriend and went traveling. Around five years later I found out from the mutual friend that I still game with to this day that Marcus actually later died. He got involved in drugs whilst traveling and was found dead. The authorities there concluded an overdose. His poor mother was apparently all over Facebook and local newspapers saying she wanted an investigation and was trying to get the British embassy involved. She said her dear son would never do drugs and he'd been an innocent man who was murdered.

Of course, I know better. He was not right in the head. He was exactly the type of person I would imagine to end up dead after taking drugs. And sadly, the news reports say he may have been subject to a honey trap. He met a girl online and flew to meet her. Then he was found dead. This made me really sad to hear despite my experience. I sometimes wonder if he wasn't just looking for somebody to love him. I still ponder occasionally about the what-ifs.

I flip between thinking he was a would-be assaulter to perhaps just being misunderstood, anti-social recluse. I still feel shame and guilt. I still feel like I narrowly escaped a very bad outcome and I still feel like I perhaps let him on. And because he was not sound of mind, perhaps he misinterpreted my signals. But then perhaps he should have known better. Perhaps he was taking advantage of my vulnerability. I feel like I needed help and I felt like my own need for a friend outweighed my common sense. All I know is that I was never that stupid again and I've never

met anybody off the internet again. You might be amused to find out that I still regularly play online games and still game with some of my friends from all those years ago, some of whom knew Marcus. He has an online memorial where they leave him comments. So, internet friend, we sure can't meet any longer, but I hope you found some peace before your tragic end. The past week I was on vacation at the beach with my entire maternal side of the family. I'm talking everyone. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and my grandmother. This includes my oldest cousin Orange's fiancée, Banana. The trip was his inaugural visit because we come every year. During the morning of our week-long stays, my cousin and I like to take bike rides to the different types of touristy attractions

there are to see in the island. It wasn't a hassle, as there were many different bike paths crisscrossing through the island. This day in particular was no different. We were planning to go see the lighthouse, which was a good 20 minute bike ride each way. A little backstory. All week on the beach I had been reading a book about Charles Manson. I know, I know, a little weird, but it was a great beach read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had loaned the book to Banana because he mentioned that he'd like to read it as well. On the day in mention, he was about halfway through the book. Also,

I was wearing a bikini with a pair of running shorts pulled over my bottoms and sandals. This wasn't usual attire for bike riding as it could get pretty hot and humid, and I wasn't the only one wearing this sort of outfit among my cousins. I like wearing bikini tops, sue me. So Banana and I are a little ahead of my other cousins talking about the book aforementioned. He seemed a little shy about being around such a big family, he's an only child, so I was trying to make it a point to him to be welcomed. Banana is generally a nice person, maybe a little reserved, so we made easy conversation. At this point, we had used a shortcut to get to our destination faster, which led us through a

sort of swampy area. There are about three houses along the bike path that people lived in for most of the summer, and across the street a little ways was the public access path to the beach with condos and houses. It was a secluded area, but it was bright and sunny and so I didn't really pay any mind to it. As we're waiting for the others to catch up, I hear a sharp call from the front porch from the middle house say, hey missy. Our conversation momentarily halted. Banana and I looked at each other, then back at the house where the call came from to see if the male voice was talking to us. Surely he must have, there was no one else around. We paused for a second and he called us again. Hey you, Missy. As I said before, me and Banana were a little ahead of the others, who were coming around the bend a little slowly.

It was a little hilly and we decided to wait in front of the house who were coming around the bend a little slowly. It was a little hilly and we decided to wait in front of the house where old guy called at me. Being the only girl around I knew he must have been talking to me. Instantly I got a bad feeling in my stomach, the same one I get whenever I'm walking around the mall at night alone or crossing the street in front of a car full of guys or driving around with my windows open. Silently I made eye contact with the guy who was sitting on the front porch about 20 feet from the bike path. Old guy was wearing an old navy flag shirt, jeans, and dirty sneakers as well as a baseball hat. I'm not good with guessing ages but I'd have to say he was around mid-60s. His eyes were squinting

at me and, more importantly, my chest. Uncrossing his legs, he stood and walked to the edge of the porch. My stomach churned once more and I began to feel a little scared. This could seem like nothing, I'm sure, but I've been wrong before about this sort of thing. I'm sure this will seem trivial to you all, but the way he was looking at me and my chest made me intensely uncomfortable. Meekly, I turned to Banana and nodded my head down the bike path as a suggestion for us to continue. He maintained a fierce glare, and just as he opened up his mouth to say something, Banana spoke up finally. Hey man, just leave her alone. We're just waiting on the others, then we'll leave you alone. The old man huffed at us,

still not moving away from his perch where he could easily stare at us, more specifically me. After a few silent seconds, the first of my cousins began to come around the bend, so Banana and I prepared to keep going. As we were pedaling away though, I swore I heard old man say in the still and silent humid air, cover yourself up next time. About five or six years ago, I believe I was eleven, I went over to my friend who lived down the street to ask him if he wanted to come play outside. Since neither of us had a phone, we usually just went over to each other whenever we felt like playing outside, hoping the other person was home.

This time was no exception. I rang the doorbell and waited, but nobody came. However, since it was a warm summer day, I thought that maybe my friend and his family were sitting in their backyard and couldn't hear the bell. Right next to the front door of my friend's house is a window that allows you to see all the way through to the other side of the house, including a backyard window, so I peeked through to see if they actually were in the backyard. There was no one in the backyard, however, I did see my friend's older sister sitting at the kitchen table behind her laptop, her back towards me. Excited I rang the doorbell again yet still no one responded.

Confused as to why no one came I stared through the window again to see my friend's older sister still sitting behind her laptop. I tried to draw her attention toward me by calling out and knocking on the window to no avail. The longer I kept looking at her, the more I started to notice something was off. Not only did she not respond to anything I did, she seemed to not move at all, as in not a single muscle. In fact, the longer I looked, the more certain I became she wasn't even breathing, although that would have been hard to see from that distance while she had her back towards me. She was also holding her right arm in a weird position as if she were in the middle of moving her cursor. From what I could see nothing on the screen of her laptop was

changing either. The longer I kept looking the more uncomfortable I became. It all just felt so unnatural. At some point I went to the door, opened the letterbox, and yelled her name through it. I repeated this process a few more times while staring through the window in between when I heard a sudden loud crashing noise come from inside. I immediately moved back to the window again to see what was going on when I saw that my friend's older sister had now stood up, her back still towards me, the laptop seemingly having disappeared. Needless to say, at this point I'm starting to get creeped out, yet I decided to knock on the window and call her name again. For a very short moment nothing

happened when all of a sudden she turned towards me. Her face was not that of my friend's older sister. It was a face I have not come across and have not since, but it looked furious. Before I could do anything else, she suddenly started running to what appeared to be the front door. I started walking backwards when I heard a loud bang against the other side of the front door, at which I just turned and ran. At first I believed it was just some dumb prank my friend and his family had played on me but when I asked him about it the next day at school he looked at me in confusion. He told me with a serious look in his eyes that he and his family including his sister hadn't been home for almost the entire afternoon that day but that when they came home they did

find his older sister's laptop on the floor and they had assumed it had just been too close to the edge and had eventually fallen off. When I told him what I had seen he didn't believe me, quite logically so. I wouldn't have believed something like that either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Even after all these years no one who I have told my story to believes me but I'm certain that what I witnessed that day had happened and I often spend quite some time wondering just exactly what had happened. It still scares me to this day and I can't find anyone who is willing to talk about it seriously. Maybe someone here has any idea about just what went down that day. This happened about 3 years ago but it still bothers me to this day.

I hope you guys can help me figure out what had happened. Three years ago I went traveling with my boyfriend through Peru. I had been traveling for 19 hours by the time I finally reached my hostel in Lima. I just passed out and slept like a baby. The next day I woke up and felt so jet lagged that I had to take a nap. My boyfriend felt fine so stayed in the communal room to use the wifi. As I was sleeping I sensed something in my room with me and I slightly opened my eyes to see some dark shadow crouching next to me. As I was too tired I couldn't open my eyes and I assumed it was my boyfriend.

Except my boyfriend came walking through the door 30 seconds later. Since I was so tired and jet lagged I didn't think much of it until that night. We were sleeping and in the middle of the night I woke up. I felt my boyfriend messing with the blanket but when I looked up I saw this humanoid figure dancing through our room. Really dancing from one side of the room to the other. I screamed to my boyfriend that there was someone in our room. He told me there wasn't and that it was just him messing with the blankets but I still saw the figure and I kept seeing it. Still freaking out my boyfriend turned on the light and of course there was nothing there.

The figure was gone. The next day we debated to ask for another room as we were going to stay there for one or two more nights. I didn't dare to ask the staff because I felt silly. As we were debating there was a knock on the door and one of the hostile ladies came to ask if we were okay with switching rooms as they were going to do repairs in this one. I've never felt so relieved. I don't know what was in my room. I saw it but my boyfriend didn't and I can't seem to figure out why they decided to fix the room that day. There wasn't something wrong with it in any way. Did they hear me scream that night? I hope you guys can tell me what had happened.

I am quite sure that it wasn't sleep paralysis as I was fully awake and able to move. That said, it wasn't a nightmare neither as I was awake. I hope that some of you might have some experiences with this and share your thoughts. I am open to anything that can help me solve this mystery that has been haunting me for the past three years. This happened about six to seven years ago. I don't remember the exact date, but I remember the events leading up to this in great detail and I'm interested in what other people might think about the situation. At the time I was 17 to 18 and had a little Russian doll on my bookshelf that my mom got from one of the friends she made in Russia when she studied abroad there. It's a super tiny doll, only about three

inches tall, a female dressed in traditional Russian clothes. The doll was sat on the top shelf about 3-4 and back and behind something else. Now ever since I was little the hallway upstairs always creeped me out. My bedroom is up at the left at the end of the stair hallway and the hallway leads up to my bathroom. In order to go to the restroom at night I have to go through the end and corner of that hallway. It started kind of subtly. Occasionally around six to seven years ago I would wake up to find something having fallen. I had a 3D heart puzzle on my makeup box and I would wake up to

find it had fallen on my dresser and split right down the middle. Sometimes I would wake up to find the tiny doll laying face up on the floor. This is where I started to get a little bit creeped out. This doll was set further back than it was tall. If it fell over, wouldn't it have fallen onto the floor face down? Why always face up? This is where things got really freaky and I'm still really creeped out by it all these years later. I was headed upstairs to the aforementioned bathroom and I turned on the lights to the hallway before I walked up. Like I said, the hallway always freaked me out and the lights turned on and then flashed out. When I flipped the

switch off, the lights flashed back on and then off. I figured, eh, it's an old house, whatever, and went up to the bathroom anyway. The bathroom light switch did the same thing. I got frustrated by this so I started to angrily flash the light switch on and off very quickly. During one of the bursts of light I saw a young man, probably early 20s standing directly behind me with straightish black hair near his shoulders. It didn't feel super scary or dangerous or anything but I still panicked, told my dad that the lights were having issues and when he flipped the hallway and bathroom light switches the lights turned on with no issue. I still feel that awful creepy being watched

feeling in the hallway to this day. I felt like I've been watched my whole life while in that hallway. The heart puzzle in the doll started to fall a little more frequently after that. I was clearly not happy about it so when my parents were gone I yelled for whatever it was to leave me alone. After that the puzzle in the doll stopped falling. I even moved the tiny doll downstairs and out of my room. The awful part is the top of the hallway still gives me this super creepy feeling like I'm being watched, though that might be the 50-ish family portraits hanging on the wall of the hallway. I've had friends who have stayed in the guest room downstairs say that they felt like

someone was watching them all night or that they heard lots of creaky noises. What this comes down to is, am I safe? I mean, I've grown up in this house, but this ghost or spirit, something that's biding its time, or is this all my super active imagination? Is this just me being super paranoid and seeing things that aren't there? Or is this a nice ghost, or are there other things I need to worry about? I'm scared to ask for paranormal investigator help for fear that my parents would judge me or that the investigator would awaken something that would make things worse. I'm just curious what you people think.

Did the ghost I see actually leave? Was he not real to begin with? Is there more ghosts or spirits at my house? And do I need to worry about them? A little backstory. I grew up in an old bungalow home in good old Milwaukee. Majority of these homes were built around the 1890s to my knowledge and have a lot of character. Certain areas of my house have always gave me an eerie feeling, such as my play area in the attic, and there were always odd occurrences. For example, my parents' wedding picture had slammed off the display once and a different time they heard the

glass doorknob to my bedroom door open, only to find me asleep. The bedroom is where the story takes place. My room was set up to where my bed was on the same hall as the door leading to the main hall, and across from that door was a different door leading to my parents' bedroom. On the wall in between was a radiator. I was about five or six at the time. At night I would sometimes see a black figure with a top hat, weird right, in the corner between my parents door and radiator. I couldn't make out any details or see a face but I knew it was staring at me. To this day I still remember that feeling. I would always hide under my covers and peek up to see it still standing

there. For the majority of my life I brushed it off as a dream and hardly thought of it. About five years ago my whole family was hanging out at my aunt's house which was a few blocks away from my childhood home. We had been moved out by then. My aunt had found a bunch of old newspaper clippings and photos hidden in her attic which got us all talking about how old the houses around there were, the history and our creepy experiences and I started to share my story. Once I was done my mom told me about how one night she was in bed, their bed faced the wall and the door that connected to my room and she saw a short black figure run across the wall into my room. At that

point I distinctly remember saying, wait what that wasn't a dream? My dad continued to say he always saw shadow figures upstairs when he was working. I'm not sure what or who that figure was, but knowing that was legit is something that still gives me goosebumps. This was about four years ago, but I figured y'all would like to hear this story. I was 18 and I was driving home from a church function. It was about nine at night and dark outside. I live in a rural area, so there weren't any other cars on the road. I was going about 50 miles per hour.

I wasn't sleepy, again, only 9pm, but I had the radio on in the car, just as something to listen to. Suddenly, I felt very chilled. I'd had experience with dark entities in the past, so I knew what it felt like, and I felt very, very scared. Then the song stopped on the radio and instead, from the car speakers, came the sound of laughter. It sounded like coyotes, honestly, if you've ever heard a pack of them laughing together. I quickly turned off the radio. Then, from outside the car, right outside the driver's side window, I heard a sing-song voice go, Hey, look over here. And then seconds seconds later from the other side of the car came a very loud, very high-pitched scream that went under the car and out the back.

Finally from my turned off car speakers came the laughter again as if they were laughing at how good they had scared me. I started praying and didn't stop till I got home and used some holy water and blessed salts on myself. I've always felt that this was demonic since the spirits seemed to be doing what they were doing simply to scare or hurt me. Maybe they wanted me to drive off the road. I've had other intense experiences but this one will always stay in my mind as the worst of the lot. This morning I was downstairs watching TV and my brother is playing in his room. He's almost four and just out of nowhere he comes running down the stairs yelling sissy hysterically and it wasn't

like he accidentally hurt himself he was genuinely terrified. I've never seen this kid terrified once and he's hugging me and I'm asking if he's okay and then he just stops crying and acts like nothing ever happened. I kept asking him what happened and he either just said nothing or ignored me but now he won't even look into his room and insists on keeping the door shut. We did have something happen about three years ago when he was just a few months old and I'm wondering if it could be connected. Here's the story. Basically what happened was my family and I lived in this super old house, the one before our current residence that was clearly occupied by something else but it was

friendly and playful. We respected his doings and he respected us and it was just things like the light switch turning on and off, physically not electrical or it would be footsteps down the hall. One of my friends actually ended up getting photo evidence, I'll have to see if I can find it but either way when my mom had my little brother is when things got a little worse. We have this mirror I think my stepdad calls it a scrying mirror. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the frame is black and the glass is tinted red and there's a skull on the top of it. Keep in mind this little stone skull weighs five pounds. One day I was just watching my brother and there was an insanely loud sound. The windows actually

vibrated and the skull flew across the room, eight to ten feet right next to my head. Considering how much the thing weighs, you'd think it would just fall on the ground if it were to become loose, not fly. So for obvious reasons, I was freaked out and spent the rest of the day at my neighbor's house until my parents came home. Fast forward a couple of months, my parents had gotten this old freezer from an estate sale where this old couple had passed. You see where I'm going with this. And once we got that freezer, is when things started going downhill. Basically little things happened like I would feel my hair lightly pulled and I would wake up with bruises. Keep in mind this

stuff was only happening to me. This entity was getting more and more violent and it was concerning my parents and I a lot. I ended up telling a friend about this and this friend's mom happened to be, I mean I don't know what to call her, but she had me talk to her mom and her mom could describe our backyard. This friend had never been to our house, neither her mom. Her mom could even tell us exactly where we had buried my mom's pig, a spiritual lady I suppose. So that caught my parents interest and we had invited her mom over and she automatically felt drawn to that freezer in the garage and she explained that the first friendly one is still

there but the older man that had passed away was attached to the freezer and had become possessive over my little brother and she had explained that he did not like me. So about two days after that my parents took a trip with my friend's mom up the coast to just do whatever I guess and that night was probably one of the most terrifying nights of my life. It's been three years since then and I can still hear and see everything in my mind perfectly. Since this post is already incredibly long I'm going to try and make it as short as possible. So I'm watching my brother of course, he was only 10 months old at this time and it was around 8 30 at night and he had fallen asleep on me and I was watching YouTube on my laptop, TV off, everything off except for the living room light and I swear

to god it was straight out of a movie. There was a loud bang, my brother starts screaming and the TV turned on and all his toys turned on and I just got out of there and ran to the neighbor's house, called my parents and they got home within two or so hours. So after that night she made a plan to bring up another one of her spiritual friends the next day and they wanted to do something with my parents at the house. They still hadn't told me what they did but they had me take my brother to a neighbor's house to do what they had to do, and after that day there wasn't an issue with anything or anyone. No, we don't have the freezer anymore, but I am curious, do you think maybe that entity had stayed hidden in something of ours and decided to show up again, and if that is the the case why would it wait three years? I work in property management. When people move out they leave stuff behind and it's like a treasure hunt sometimes. Well this particular home that my company owns had a house fire.

I was sent out with a fire inspector to oversee the damages. The fire inspector did his job and left and I was looking at all the burnt items. I came to the vanity in the bedroom. Watches, sunglasses, jewelry all melted and damaged. I saw a watch box and I ran my thumb across the face and to my surprise the watch was still ticking. It had a nice gold face to it. I picked up the watch and cleaned it up and it was in perfect condition. The fire didn't phase this thing. It was an Invicta. I tried it on and it fit. In my mind I was thinking, score right? A really nice watch. Usually I just sell items I find but not this. This was a really

classy one. I wore it a few times and started wearing it when I would go out with my girlfriend. After I got that watch me and my girlfriend started to argue and fight a lot. Feelings changed for each other for no reason and we eventually broke up. At this time I didn't suspect the watch. The next time I wore it, it was a few days before my birthday weekend. Happened to fall on a Super Bowl Sunday so I was excited. I wore that watch every day. I started to feel sick that Friday and by Sunday, my birthday, I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed. Still have not suspected the watch. So a week later I feel great and go out with friends downtown so you know I had to wear the watch. I departed early because I work

part-time at a bar. I get home after my shift about 2 30 and crash. About 20 minutes later I wake up to this beeping noise. I am so disoriented I am reaching around for my phone to shut the alarm off but it's not my phone. I hear some shouting outside so I look out my window and see people in the garage access road of the condos. I am still confused and don't know what was beeping. I get out of bed because I notice the light on in the living room coming under my door. I go to open my door and I couldn't believe my eyes. The entire living room was filled with smoke and then it hit me. The condo is on fire. I scramble to throw some jeans and a t-shirt on and run outside to where everyone else is and

sure enough our garage is in flames. People are all out watching the spectacle when the fire trucks show up. They go in and put out the fire. Luckily nobody was hurt thanks to the sprinkler system containing the fire in the garage. As the smoke clears we can finally assess the damage and lo and behold it was my roommate's drone battery that had exploded when he was charging it. It was charging on top of my plastic bins that had all my keepsakes, yearbooks, pictures, my artwork, ticket stubs, comic collection, memorabilia from trips, you know, just stuff that can't be replaced. I'm looking around and nothing else burned. Nothing, just my stuff and nothing was recovered. After the shock wore off I was lying in bed in tears because I lost everything and my

mind was racing and I was thinking why me? Then I rolled over and see the watch and start to put it together that every time I wore that watch something terrible happened and the fire was the final puzzle piece since I found that watch in the fire. Since then I have not touched the watch. It's been in the same place since February and everything has been going really good for me. I refuse to touch it or move it and have been wanting to get rid of it. The first thing I did was call the previous tenants and try to get a hold of them. I left several voicemails stating I recovered their watch and wanted to return it but they never called back or contacted me. I feel I can't give it away or

sell it as it may be bad for me putting that burden on someone else or spending the money from the watch and something bad happens with whatever I purchase. I have told my friends asking if anyone wants the watch with full disclosure of the events I went through when I wore it and everyone refuses, no surprise there. So my question is how do I rid myself of this item without causing any more sinister accounts happening to me? I live with my boyfriend in the house he grew up in. I would stay the night with him sometimes before moving in and from pretty early on he told me that at some point everyone always sees someone or something in this house.

I guess he wanted to warn me so I wouldn't be freaked out when or if it happened. He told me to let him know if I saw or experienced anything but wouldn't go into details of anyone else's past experiences. I guess so he would know if it was the same thing as everyone else without putting any ideas in my head. Fast forward to about two years ago right before I actually moved in all the way but was pretty much staying there all the time just waiting for the lease on my apartment to end. I was in the laundry room bent over taking clothes out of the dryer to fold and I felt what I thought was him walk up behind me and pinch my butt. I turned around and no one was in the room with me so I stepped out and looked into the living room and he was laying on the couch. No way for him to get there without me hearing or seeing him go from where I was to

where he was that quickly. So I told him about it and he asked me some questions but seemed a little surprised by what I experienced. I didn't know if he didn't believe me or what which was weird since he had already warned me of seeing things. I went to the bathroom and this happens frequently I often get the feeling of someone stepping into the shower with me yet there is no one there, no one in the bathroom at all. I have never seen anything up until last week. I was asleep and had been so for a couple of hours. My boyfriend hadn't come to bed yet so he stays up a lot later than I do. I woke up a little after 1am because I heard him come into the bedroom so

I looked over towards the door and there was someone standing next to my closet, sort of leaning against the door. I knew it wasn't him immediately. It was a silhouette of a man who was standing there watching me. I focused my eyes and tried to see better, to try to focus what in my bedroom could make it look like a shadow of a man but there was nothing different about my bedroom except him in there. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and opened them again and he was still there so I told him that I was going back to sleep and he could stay as long as he didn't bother me. I never felt threatened by him but I did instantly feel like this is who I had felt

in the house. I told my boyfriend about it the next day and again he seemed a little confused so he finally tells me that there had never been a man. It's always been a little girl but no one has ever seen a man. So now he thinks that this man came with me, but I had never seen or felt him anywhere before. Does anyone know why I am the only one seeing this man, and if he did come with me from somewhere, why had I never seen or felt him before moving into this house? I thought it might be fun to share the weirdest and scariest events of my life, of all types, natural and supernatural. My first post, but I do love spooky stuff, so I hope you folks find this interesting and or some insights to share. I'll start with the less ghostly stuff and work from there as best as I can recall. The Curious Cats. 17 years ago, five of us went camping in the wilderness. For most of us,

it was our first foray into the deep woods to spend a night instead of just drinking on a beach. We were all in our mid to late teens. We had found a deer trail in a clearing and decided to set up for the night, made a fire, and settled in. Three of us couldn't sleep and instead sat by the fire roasting some hot dogs and chatting. I can't recall the time exactly of course but it was quite late, between midnight and 1am. That's when we heard the low but very large snarl of a wildcat in the distance. The three of us got startled eyed and just shared looks at each other. Naive kids were not prepared for wildlife. A minute later the next growl came but this time from another direction followed shortly thereafter by another growl opposite like three points of a

triangle around and we got spooked pretty good. That worsened when another cat snarl came from the first direction, only closer, and the second direction, also closer, and the third, even closer. These bloody cats were each making a distraction in their one spot while the other two advanced, and the second would make a noise so the other two could advance as they kept taking turns. Outside of the situation now, it was actually quite remarkable to witness. The last snarl came at the Outside of the situation now, it was actually quite remarkable to witness. The last snarl came at the edge of the camp in the tree line. It was a very small clearing we were in, so it was basically no more than 10 feet from us at the fire. We kept waving our flashlights around, but could catch nothing. The only cats native to this area were cougars and lynx. We always assumed it was the latter.

We never heard nor saw anything after that last noise. I assume they just wanted to investigate the smell of cooking meat and were deterred by the fire and group of people. But man, wild cats scare the crap out of me. Needless to say, the three of us did not sleep that night. A path less taken and stalked. 8 years ago. Again wilderness fun. This one started off quite funny but changed quickly at the end. I was hiking with my friend in a national park, family area with lots of foot traffic and trails, very busy most of the year. The trails were quite easy however and we wanted to actually get some decent exercise so we were watching for the trails that branched off and looked a little more adventurous. All the trails had colored ribbons

and we spotted a small rup trail with a different ribbon down the way, so we decided to follow it. The trail became increasingly difficult, until eventually there was no trail and our only guide were the markers in the distance, climbing up harsh terrain and forcing through thick foliage. The trail finally ended as we reached a recess in the canyon wall with no other direction to go and a deathly plummet to the rocks and water below. What kind of god awful trail is this? And we looked at the final marker next to us at the end of the line. Search and rescue. It was search and rescue markers we thought were trail tags. Hilarious to us at the time but we were still kind of annoyed. We began our long descent back to our campground. About half an hour from the end I got a sudden panic. You know that feeling you get when you can just feel someone watching you? That only with malicious intent.

My mind was racing and I just knew we were being watched and stalked by something. I began looking around and watching the trees behind and beside us. What was really concerning was when my friend noticed my sudden shift and said simply, you feel it too. He said he felt that we were being stalked by something and he just knew it. Caveman's sixth sense ladies and gentlemen, it's real. Nothing ever came bounding out of the woods for us, thankfully, and the feeling subsided a couple of minutes later, but that deep-rooted feeling of instinctual danger is still vivid in my memories.

UFO, go figure. 18 years ago. The closest thing I've ever experienced to extraterrestrial, and there still may potentially be a good reason for what happened, but I just can't think of one. A friend and I were hanging out late night at a skate park, located inside a larger park. We weren't skateboarders, we just liked the quiet, and we were hanging out late night at a skate park located inside a larger park. We weren't skateboarders, we just liked the quiet and we were both night owls.

We would come here sometimes, have a drink while lying on one of the ramps and just hang out for a while, stargazing. This one night my friend pointed out a star that was moving at an odd speed. It took me a while to pinpoint where he was pointing but once I caught it I couldn't believe I missed it. Not fast enough to be shooting, in fact the speed was similar to that of a plane and we assumed it must just be that, a single visible light from a plane. When the star suddenly shifted 90 degrees however we both let out one of those, ah, in disbelief. It would coast along for a bit again, then every so often make one of those sharp angled turns. After a few minutes of watching the star move in impossible ways, it made one final snap turn, then shot off like a shooting star and disappeared. Did we just see a UFO? Yeah, yeah I think we did.

Ghostly Break-In. So here starts the truly spooky stuff. If you made it thus far and are still interested these are the things that give me that uneasy feeling and cold shivers when I think or talk about them. Again let's start with the easiest. 13 years ago I had just bought a condo with my girlfriend at the time but it was still being built. Word of advice don't ever do that. In the meantime we had been asked to house sit her grandfather's house until it was ready. The gentleman had recently passed away from skin cancer. It was quite a sad experience for everyone in her family and I had met the man only a few times. He was friendly and funny though and I was sad I hadn't got to know him better. One day I was sitting on my computer in the basement,

home alone in dead silence of course, when I hear a window shatter above me in the kitchen. Clear as bloody day, just the smash of glass and the tinkering of shards hitting the floor. There's no pets, no glasses left on the counter. This was someone who knew the owner had passed away and was trying to rob the place. I was angry, paired with equal amounts of being terrified, and ran upstairs with the only thing I'd find as a weapon on my way, a small plank of wood. Nothing, and no one was there. The doors were still locked, the windows intact, nothing out of place. I ran around and investigated every nook and cranny, every window, checked the outside, nothing. The shivers

came at the revelation that the noise wasn't an actual event and something else. All I can say is thank god it was midday and not the middle of the night. I later googled, or at the time maybe it was still called Metacrawler, haha, about the supernatural and sounds of glass. I can cite sources now obviously but do recall reading that it's a common sound to hear in spooked houses. Not rattling chains or moaning but glass breaking still gives me the willies. A church, a school, and a bad joke. 18 years ago, there's a lot of story here so I'm going to summarize the best I can. A friend of a friend lived in the basement in his mom's house. We were teenagers, that's what we did. The weird part about his house however was the history. It had a plaque by the front door as

a landmark. It was the first school in his town when it was established. How that worked I don't know. It seriously was just the size of a regular suburban home but I suppose depending on how was the first school in his town when it was established. How that worked I don't know, it seriously was just the size of a regular suburban home but I suppose depending on how long ago it was built perhaps that was the norm and sat behind the lot of an old church. The quick history I recall is this, it was a school that burnt down, it was rebuilt and became the dwelling of a pastor and his family of the church that was built next to the school. Fast forward to the present and the church still stands next to its offering service, but now this guy lived in the house behind it. The house is creepy, it's old and creaks with every step, and only gets worse when you go into the basement. One door in his

basement dwelling literally just opened to a small 5x5 space with normal height ceiling but no flooring, just dirt and much too small to be a closet. The framing was slanted down here too so when you enter the main living room door from the stairs, the door automatically and slowly closes shut behind you. That's important information. I wasn't particularly close with this person but I was enjoying hanging out with him and my buddy especially since I was fascinated by how creepy his house was. I've always loved this stuff. He mentioned the video he wanted to show us and while his computer booted up he'd show me the rest of the basement. My friend mentioned

this guy talks about ghostly stuff happening all the time and I didn't believe him I was also kind of a douchey teenager. So when he showed me his bedroom and stated Oh, is this where all the kids burnt to death? He was not very impressed To my knowledge no kids died in the fire. I assumed it was a tasteless yet harmless joke We went back to the computer and he went to load the video to show us when the lights and TV began flickering. I'm going to spoil it right there quickly, that was a prank. The idiot was kicking the power bar under the desk and it was causing this and my friend played along. I kind of laughed it off but was sort of spooked so I simply said, well let's see this video and

then I should get going. That's when the computer locked up and the door that always swings closed slowly opened until it was wide open. I gave a very clear okay then I'll just be going right now and walked out and the door swung slowly closed behind me as I left. My friend left too and we drove around until the sun came up. He confessed that the flickering was a joke but the rest of the stuff scared the crap out of him too and that perhaps my joke was in a really poor taste. The guy that lived there didn't care, he said stuff happens all the time so it's no big deal but I wasn't keen on going back, to which I only did once with less angry but still

unwelcome results. Recalling this event had me curious to learn more about the property, timeline, and people, but I don't think there'd be much to find. Emotional Hacking It gets bad now. Just recalling these two stories makes my eyes water. Even if I can't convey the terror I experienced in written form, I hope you get an idea of how absolutely bizarre and bone-chilling these events were to experience. 21 years ago, I was sitting with my girlfriend at the beach. It was about a 45-60 minute drive down a small winding highway to get to this small waterfront district. Late evening, calm and warm air,

and just the sound of water rolling in. We weren't talking, just sitting and cuddling while watching the water. This is incredibly tricky to explain so I hope this makes sense. Something terrible had happened, something catastrophic, like that feeling you may have felt in your gut hearing about 9-11 or when you hear a description of a car in an accident and it matches that of someone you love and now they aren't answering the phone. A deep-rooted sense that something awful had just happened. I became convinced that either something incredibly bad had just happened or was going to happen, or someone I love had just died. The girlfriend didn't understand what I was talking about as I got increasingly upset and panicky and then my eyes began tearing up. I explained that I don't know. I just know something's wrong. I have to leave right now.

I have to find a phone and make sure everyone's alright. This was pre-cell phone time of course. I still use pay phones. She got worried real quick and simply agreed. This was pre-cell phone time of course, I still use pay phones. She got worried real quick and simply agreed. This is obviously very out of character for me. As we were driving down the highway back the sickening feeling in my stomach kept growing and I felt positively ill. My eyes were just pouring tears and I felt like I was about to have a complete breakdown. I have to pull over, I can't drive,

I feel sick and began pulling over to the side of the road under a street light next to a telephone pole. Leaning against the pole was a man dressed all in black wearing a hoodie standing under the light and I assumed maybe waiting for a bus or a ride to show up and given the urgency of my need to stop I was going to be pulling up right alongside him. This guy's gonna think I'm nuts or something along those lines I uttered as I began pulling over doing a shoulder check and just trying to get the car safely to stop as soon as possible. What guy? She replied. Him. And I trailed off. I sat on the side of the road staring at the pole and no person was there. There was no one around anywhere. Of course my girlfriend was freaking out by now,

which was quite a turn of events because the horrible feeling in my gut, the tears and panic all vanished as quick as a snap of the fingers. The only thing left was an incredibly deep shudder down my spine. She still recalls that event, brought it up a few years ago as we still talk, and how that was the weirdest thing she'd ever seen. But not quite as weird as, the ghost who followed me home. Seven years ago. Again, a lot of backstory I'm going to quickly summarize. I worked in a group home at the time with two clients. We worked one-on-one with clients during the day, but the graveyard shift worked alone as the clients usually slept or were well-behaved. I had befriended

the full-time graveyard guy and thought I could prank him. Because I'm still kind of a douche that loves scaring people, I stuck one of those creepy noisemakers from ThinkGeek inside the top of the office door, the one that every so often makes a creepy little noise like a girl giggling, whispering, scratching, or a creak. The door was metal. It was also our safe room from the clients if things went completely bonkers and we needed to lock ourselves in and the door had a hollow top that I slipped the prank toy into. For a few weeks the staff began talking about strange scary noises late at night because of course the house was too loud during the day for anyone to hear it.

Everyone began getting very freaked out and I reveled in it like a true piece of crap enjoying the fear of my friends and co-workers. Then one day I found the device smashed sitting inside my office docket when I came in. I was clearly busted. My friend had been very methodical and logical about it. He timed the occurrences and right before he assumed it was about to happen he would listen intently moving closer to the source over a few days until he found it. He thought it was hilarious and the other staff not so much. Now nothing crazy had ever happened in this house before the years we all worked there aside from graveyard staff stating that they would occasionally hear what sounds like raccoons messing around in the attic. They hoped. For some reason, this jest of mine

made a blip to whatever was out there and came in like a moth to flame. I'm working the evening until midnight. My other staff has done and gone home as their client is asleep and it's now a countdown until I'm released by the graveyard staff, who just so happens to be my friend who found the device. Our office is on the top floor of a two-story house and littered with security cameras inside every room but the bathrooms in the office. The property is a large lot with a wooden area behind it. Some mansions sit beside it but a decent distance. It's quiet. My client's room is directly down the hall from the office. The doors stare at each other when closed and the bathroom sits between the two in the hallway to one side and the other an opening that leads to the rest of

the upstairs. Aside from the one bedroom the rest of the upstairs is hardwood floors. The office is the size of a small bedroom and has three of those standard computer chairs, the plush ones with the five-wheeled arms at the base. I walked to my client's room in dead silence and told him it was time to brush his teeth. He came to the bathroom and we followed his nighttime routine and he went back to his room to go to bed while I returned to the office. I was gone less than two minutes and was no more than ten feet from the office. All the while everything is quiet as you can possibly imagine. All the office chairs have been moved perfectly into the center of the room facing

inward. The legs of the chairs were all positioned in a way that they were touching and my gut sank. The first thing I did is yell out my friend's name. I was angry. I stormed around the house calling him out. Where are you? And the like. The clients were real champs and just stayed in their rooms despite my sudden disturbance. After I checked the doors and windows I figured I just watched the cameras. I rewound the tapes and reviewed the events. I left the office, did the stuff, came back then began charging about in a fury. There was nothing on any camera, nothing out of place, no person sneaking about. There's no access into the room from outside. It's screened off and again the top floor with a sheer surface outside. These chairs are heavy and make a ton of noise every time they're moved on

the hardwood. I heard no sound in the silence. I called my friend and began demanding he tell me how he did it. He was very good at playing stupid. Do what? He said. Come on man, you know, how do you do it? After a bit he confessed he was completely oblivious to what I was talking about and began live streaming me where he was was his garage at home just leaving for work believe me when I say no one else would have conceived a revenge plan like this the most annoying part being that people were mad assuming I made it up trying to scare everyone again how can I be so certain still that it wasn't someone else? Aside from all the aforementioned reasons that make it impossible, it's the fact that whatever did that lovely feng

shui in the office followed me home that same night and woke me up at 2am, spinning my office chair in a circle while my computer kept turning on and off rapidly. I did what I thought was best at that moment which was to be devoid of any strong emotion, roll back over, pull up my blanket and go back to sleep. Nothing ever happened at work or at my home after that night. Weird stuff happens to everyone but I hope you got some enjoyment and intrigue from my little terrors. It's nothing amazing as far as some people's stories go but I declare them 100% as truthful and accurate as memory allows. There's of course more interesting things to tell but I've been writing for like two to three hours and it's a good time to let

myself slip into a good dream which reminds me now of another awful story. I'm the Chancellor, President of my fraternity, Tav Epsilon Phi. Our house was built in 1886. It is supposedly haunted by a number of ghosts and the stories have been talked about amongst brothers throughout the years since our chapter bought the house in 1967. The older stories and background can be found by searching Tau Epsilon Phi Potsdam New York Hauntings. There are many links that will bring you to different pages that speak of the Sisson family that lived in the house originally and the real background of the supposed hauntings. I'm an engineering student at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. It's a college town where Greek life is very prevalent. I pledged this house because it was a great fit for me and I fell in love with the history and beauty of the house. I was told it was haunted before I even

pledged but it didn't bother me because I'm not afraid of ghosts nor had ever had a definitive experience. I pledged fall 2016 and started living in the house the semester after. It wasn't until the spring 2018 semester that I had my first real encounter that made me believe spirits are real. There are 14 bedrooms in the house. My room is the Chancellor's suite, which is the largest room and also has its own bathroom. Among multiple legends of the history of the house, the story to my room is this. Otis, an African-American servant who served for the Sisson family, the original owners of the property. The legend goes that there was a tunnel system

underneath the property that led to the other Sisson houses in town. The legend goes that there was a tunnel system underneath the property that led to the other Sisson houses in town. The Sisson family were very wealthy property owners in Potsdam in the mid to late 1800s. Otis got severely injured in a tunnel collapse and George Wing Sisson, the father of the family, asked Otis what his dying wish was. Otis' final wish was to live like the Sissons until he passed. George allowed Otis to stay in his room, the Chancellor's suite, for his final days. Before he passed, his last words were, I will protect this house. I will protect these walls. Otis is one of the many spirits to haunt the house and do things like open doors for people this is the supposed legend surrounding him there's no evidence that this story is real but

that's what I've been told now moving on to my story I was sitting in my room with my girlfriend we had no windows open and the door was closed we doing homework. I was at my desk right next to the door and the only thing separating us was a trash can with a lid that would spin if you give it a slap. It was a lid where you could just push through the lid and drop your waste in the trash. We had no music playing and out of nowhere it was like someone slapped the trash can lid hard and the thing spun around two or three times. My girlfriend and I were shocked. She started screaming and I was just looking at the lid try and settle down to equilibrium. There was no outside force that could have caused this.

Here's my hypothesis on why it happened. Earlier that week I was talking a lot about the ghost stories to my brothers and my girlfriend in the house. The spirits draw power from mentioning them or referring to them. I believe Otis or whatever spirit it was gained enough power to make a move like that and get me to realize that it was there and listening. I know this isn't a crazy story but it was my first encounter with something unexplainable. Especially after hearing stories from alumni that won't be mentioned in the stories you'll find on Google. I encourage you all to search my house on Google and read the tales behind the spirits that supposedly haunt my house. If you don't find

them believable, you'll at least find the reads entertaining. Every fall, my fraternity and our sister sorority host a haunted house event where we do tours and tell the stories of the mansion on the hill which is ironically our business name for utilities. I believe my house is haunted but if you respect them they will respect you. I don't feel a demonic presence but I certainly know that there are spirits there. So last summer I got a job as a museum tour guide in rural Ontario. This job required me to show up for and prep the museum for a few hours, cleaning, organizing, etc. by myself until a co-worker showed up after lunch to help with giving tourists a guess. The museum itself was a mansion built in the 1850s at the height of

trade on the Great Lakes. The owner and his family lived there and after his non-insured businesses burned and were destroyed, the house fell into disrepair until the 70s when it was rebuilt as a museum. Most of the family lived and died in the house until it was empty in the 1960s which is when the town bought it. The first experience I was not able to explain. I was there by myself in the morning as usual about a month into the job vacuuming under the couches. This was in the living room of the house and there was a table with the original kids toys, games like checkers, chess, miscellaneous board games on it behind me.

As I turned the vacuum off to slide the couch back, I heard several of the game pieces on the table move, like someone shuffled their hand on the box looking for one specific piece, making them all rustle. It scared the crap out of me for sure. The second one I was able to explain. I was moving chairs in the front hall of the house when I heard distinct and loud footsteps above me. In the morning all the doors would be locked, for my safety and so people couldn't snoop around the house. I went and checked and all the doors were still locked. At this point I actually said out loud, wow, okay, nice, part two, here we go, and went upstairs slowly. When I got up there, there was nothing. Went back downstairs and as I came around the corner, my heart stopped when there was someone there. Turned out it was

the woman who was supposed to deliver my check and she had locked the door behind her to go upstairs and look for me. The third and last one I could not explain and this is the one that really got me. This particular morning my co-worker, I'll call him John, showed up in the morning to help with a bigger job. We had to clean this scary old cellar but with the two of us we got the confidence to do it so we got started me on the vacuum John taking down cobwebs. Now old houses like this usually have staircases that lead directly outside from the cellar so the farmhands at the time could bring food that should be cooled directly to the cellar since there weren't fridges. I had to go up these stairs with the vacuum and clean up all the dirt and leaves that accumulated there while John was on the complete other side of the cellar at least 50 feet from me.

As I get halfway up the stairs I feel like what feels like footsteps are behind me. You know like how you can tell someone is in the room as they walk by. You can feel vibrations on the floor. Well it felt like two shoes stopped and stomped directly one step behind me on the floor. Well it felt like two shoes stopped and stomped directly one step behind me on the stairs and I could have sworn I heard someone clearing their throat as if I'm in the way of someone. So I turn off the vacuum and go back down the stairs and ask John if he was just behind me. There were cobwebs everywhere. He very well could have been and I saw him still at the other side of the room. Dude you were behind me like 10 seconds ago. I perceived a no or the confused look so I basically said alright then and went back up to where I was and started vacuuming again. I again felt like the

same stomp of feet on the steps this time in front of me up a few steps. I look around to see nothing again and just ignored it and kept going. Evidently whatever it was didn't like that and I felt what I can only describe as a person brush past and push me out of the way towards the wall. Like not grabbing me but it felt the same as someone just physically walking into me to push me out of the way. Not like a light push, but it threw its shoulder into me to push me aside as it continued down the stairs. That's how I described it. Many of the other workers described experiences of their own and when I started I was skeptical, but I really don't know how to explain the two.

Your thoughts? My freshman year of college I shared a dorm with one of my friends from home. We were both interested in the study abroad program at a certain school and so we both ended up there. It was convenient and nice because we always had someone to talk to and didn't have to deal with staying with some rando while also adapting to our first year of college. Around Halloween, the parents of a mutual friend sent us some cute purple skull lights to hang in our dorms. They were the kind of string lights that were operated by batteries and both of us taped them around the frames of our dess. They were the kind of string lights that were operated by batteries and both of us

taped them around the frames of our desks. They had different settings. They could be just on normally, could fade from brighter to dimmer, or could turn off and on at small set intervals. My roommates had another set. I don't remember how she got them but she had a red set in addition to our matching purple ones. On many different occasions we had gotten to our room and felt as though we had remembered to turn the lights off but convinced ourselves that maybe we had forgotten or remembered doing it at a different time. That worked for a while until it happened again. Both of her sets and mine were on another day before we left to go on one of our Walmart trips after both of

us were done with class. When we got back the lights were off and neither of us had physically turned them off. The following day the same thing happened except only my set and one set of my roommate's lights were on instead of both. We checked the switches to see if there were any type of timer but they were simple on-off switches. We then asked our RA and she told us that absolutely nobody can obtain a key to our room and that the only people who have a master key are the security department. Our door is always locked and they have only ever turned on or off when both of us were out of the room. At this point both of us were spooked so I decided to email my old astronomy

professor who was into paranormal investigations. He told me to put a piece of tape over the switch when it was in the off position to ensure that we really were not accidentally leaving the lights on and then in his words from the email, if the lights still turn on, you know something really odd is afoot. I followed his advice and it stopped. For a while. We decided to just take the lights down and keep them in our desks. Christmas rolled around and my roommate got more lights. The same thing happened.

We didn't bother taping at that time because it became kind of amusing. I watched them turn off at an opportune moment while we were watching a horror movie in which a character cut a power surge. Seems the ghostie had a sense of humor. But then we returned once to see that the magnets on a refrigerator were messed with too, all upside down and later all crooked and angled the same way, and my alarm clock fell seemingly without reason in the middle of the night. I tried to look up about anything about deaths in the dorms. My college was built in 1812, but I didn't find anything suggesting that there might be ghosts lingering around. To this day, I don't know why that happened in 136 Scythe. are Let's Read official, and give and receive feedback from the community, and maybe even hear it featured here on the channel.

And grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on Patreon, and maybe even pick up some Let's Read merch on Spreadshirt.com, links in the bio. Thanks so much, friends, and I'll see you again soon.