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“I Sleep With A Light On To This Day”: 66 Unsettling Childhood Memories That Still Give People Chills Today
How much can you say that you remember from your childhood? Your first day at school? The first time you went on a rollercoaster? Or do you have trouble remembering from your early days at all? Generally, there’s not much we remember from our days as kids, and it’s usually things like pets, holidays, and games we played with our friends.
But bad things often are etched in our minds for the rest of our lives. 15% of Americans, for example, say that they have recovered a traumatic memory from their childhood. Sometimes our brains might block memories because they're so scary and horror-inducing.
In one recent conversation on Threads, one netizen piqued others’ curiosity with their question, “Tell me your creepiest childhood memory that your parents still completely refuse to talk about to this day.” And people didn’t disappoint: they came with tales of the strange, the supernatural, and an occasional laugh.
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#1
When I was teen my bedroom was on the ground floor. My cats used to sleep with me on my bed. One night Wilbur, my tabby boy, woke up and stood up on his haunches like a prairie dog. He was looking straight at the window. I was lying in bed reading so I turned off the light so I could see outside the window better, and the moment I did I saw a man standing outside looking in at me. I screamed and my dad came rushing into the room, the man outside bolted, we could hear him running away.
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#2
Sister had an imaginary friend, would always tell me at night that he was sitting at the foot of my bed. I thought she just did it to scare me. One day we’re driving past a cemetery by our house (all flat gravestones so to a 4 year old looked like a park), and said, “oh that’s where (imaginary friend) lives!”. We all looked at each other like wtH. My mom goes to the cemetery office one day to look up her friend’s full name. Surprise, there’s a kid buried there w the exact same first/ last name.
#3
My childhood room was upstairs. One summer in my teenage years at about 1am I heard my mother scream my name. I pop out the bed and as I’m running to the stairs my phone rings and it’s the ringtone for my mom. I run back in my room to grab it and answer. She in a panicked voice says “Don’t come downstairs I heard that too it wasn’t me.” I turned every light on upstairs and locked my door. My mom wakes my aunt up and they search the entire house and found nothing.
#4
When I was maybe 6? I was holding the hand of a "friend" and woke my Mom up to meet him. She jolted awake and blinked at me and then gasped and looked up way above my head and scrambled to get up. By the time she did, my "friend" was gone and my Mom was in a panic.
#5
I think I was 12 or 13. I got into a fight with my mom & I took off on my scooter down Ventura Blvd. A young man with curly blonde hair & an eyebrow ring almost hit me in his old blue mustang in the Petco parking lot. He got out & apologized profusely. I said it was okay, and he asked me if I needed a ride somewhere. I said no & started to leave but he drove beside me asking again, getting pushy, & I got scared. Ended up going into a Rite Aid to get away from him. It irked me to my bones and I can still picture his face. He was probably in his early 20s and I do recall his eyes being glassy but I didn’t register at that age that he was likely under the influence of something. For a long time eyebrow rings freaked me out. Just the correlation made my skin crawl. Something was not right with that guy.
#6
At 12 ish I woke up to my great uncle sitting on the foot of my Bed. He quietly told me " I love you, and wanted to say goodbye" this sounds so normalish, but he was supposed to be in a quadruple bypass in another city. I screamed, terrified and confused. My parents came in, and as they did the phone rang. My uncle had just passed during surgery...
#7
I was very young, maybe 5ish? I heard my sister say, “I’m in the closet, come find me!” So I checked the closet, she wasn’t there. Then, “I’m under the bed..” she wasn’t there. I went to multiple places before I got frustrated and told my mom that my sister was being mean and sending me all over. My mom got a confused look on her face & said that my sister wasn’t home and was at a friends house. Who or what I played hide & seek with I still don’t know.
#8
My mom told me that when I was a toddler I was having a conversation with “ someone” but there was no one there. When she asked me who I was talking to, I pointed to the picture of my deceased grandmother and told her I was talking to “ mama”. I was born in 96 and she passed away in 95.
#9
When i was seven, i was playing hide and seek with my older sister in our sprawling backyard. i hid inside an old, hollowed-out tree trunk. a few minutes later, my sister peered around the bark, smiled a really wide smile, and whispered, "found you." i followed her out, but she started walking silently toward the dense woods behind our property line instead of back to the house.
i trailed a few steps behind her until i heard my mom frantically screaming my name from the back porch. i turned around and saw my mom standing there... tightly holding my actual sister's hand. when i whipped my head back around toward the woods, the girl i had been following was completely gone, leaving only a set of bare footprints in the mud that abruptly stopped at the edge of the grass.
#10
My grandparents had a twisting staircase in their house. I was walking upstairs one day, misstepped, and started to fall backwards. Suddenly, it felt as if a hand had pushed at my back while another unseen hand grabbed my wrist and yanked me forward. There was no one else in the stairwell. When I told my grandma about it, she said that her house would never let one of her grandkids get hurt. Then the kitchen light flickered over us like the house was agreeing with her. Grandma just smiled.
#11
I was 14 and I had a cold. I woke up at like 2am to blow my nose and I sneezed. A man’s voice said “bless you” and I said thank you and then was like “wait a minute”.
Sometimes my parents would come check on us when we were sick so I reassured myself that it was just my dad. The next morning I told my dad that he had scared me when he said bless you.
He had no clue what I was talking about.
#12
When I was around 5, my backyard had a creek, my older brother and older cousins and I lined up at the ledge before the creek to race, as soon as my brother finished the countdown and they took off running, I was yanked back by my elbow, and dragged down into the creek, I screamed and when I looked up I saw what I could only describe as the Hat Man. He held me really tight and I screamed some more, I looked back up the creek to see my brother& cousins standing above me, but when I looked back to the hat man, he was gone. I was laying upside down on the ledge into the creek, my screams got the attention of the adults and my uncle was pulling me back up,I was crying about the scary man that pulled me down, which prompted my uncle and grandpa to go looking in the creek for the man. Didn’t find anyone, the cops were called and they did a bigger search and also didn’t find anyone. They did find what looked like a homeless camp with random stuff lying about. But never what I described. Later that night in an attempt to console the still freaked out me, my mom took us to the nearest gas station for snacks. I stayed in the car with my oldest brother. And in the street light across the lot, i saw him AGAIN! Standing under the light and staring right at me. I panicked and felt like I was nauseous, and when my mom came out and saw me in absolute terror, she looked in the direction I was and said she saw no one.
Never saw him again after that.
#13
When I was 6, my dad took me out for a night walk after dinner.
Then I pointed at a direction and said to him, “look Papa, there’s a dog…. But why he has a human head?”
My dad quickly took me home.
#14
My mom doesn't scream, she rarely reacts, she is too well disciplined to let anyone see her slipping. One night I heard her screaming, I hear my older sister get up and she's trying to get into our mom's room. I start trying to help, we cant get the door open, there are no locks. She's still screaming and then it just stops. The door shifts open. My mom's sitting on the bed but like her head was at a weird angle and her eyes weren't really seeing. My sister starts to approach and my mom says calmly "go back to bed girls" my sister moves closer, my mom sits up and yells "go back to bed! Now!" So my sister takes me to her room and she moves her dresser in front of the door and we dont turn off the lights. Morning comes and mom's in the kitchen making breakfast like nothing happened. She keeps telling us we must have had a nightmare. Nothing happened. Its been 30 years and she still won't tell me.
#15
Context: I was a teen, home alone in the middle of the day playing on the shared family computer. There’s a door in that room (the office) that leads to a back porch and the back porch also has a door connecting to our family room. Both doors have windows. In the family room is a staircase that leads up to my dad’s office and a set of French doors leading to my brothers room. Brother’s room is directly above the office I was in. Our house is old so everything makes very distinct noises. I’m just playing sims and enjoying having the house to myself. Brother is down the street at a neighbors going swimming but could be home any time. I hear the screen door on our back porch open and close but don’t look up because I’m expecting my parents or brother. I then hear the door to the family room open and close and someone running up the stairs and through the French doors into my brother’s room. I just assume he’s home. Mind that he also has an extremely distinct way of running up the stairs. It’s a very specific and kinda weird on all fours kind of gallop. I want to say he was maybe 12-13 at the time. But then everything goes quiet. Which is weird. Because all of our floors creak and we can hear the bathtub upstairs being turned on in every part of the house. I call out for him and get no response. I walk to the door overlooking the porch and is shoes are still gone as are his towel and other stuff. He was a pre-teen boy and usually just threw everything on the floor. Bro likes to talk too and usually starts a conversation the moment he walks thru a door but no one is responding. I end up going down the street to the neighbor with the pool. And there’s my brother, still swimming. I call my parents and they both confirm neither of them were home and suggest it was the wind.I refuse to go back into the house until they get home. Dad ends up searching the entire house, attic, and crawlspace but there’s no one there.
#16
As a young child I would wake up and see people in my room, just sitting there watching me. And growing up in California I was a victim of many an earthquake, yes victim, because I never asked for them! Anyway, one hit in the middle of the night, I was 6, and I saw three people at the end of my bed holding my bed still for me so it wouldn’t scare me so much. I asked them to go away and they did then rushed to my parents room who didn’t feel the quake and said I imagined it. I asked them about it in the morning and my brothers had felt the earthquake so they helped plead my case that it’s as real. I asked who was holding my bed for me and my parents just looked at each other and and then me. My mom proceeded to tell me I was just dreaming and didn’t see anyone there. I went on to tell them I see people all the time. More gaslighting. I think I just scared my parents because as a child I had a gift.
#17
I was about 7, my parents used to leave me home alone while they were working downtown (early 2000's brazil so totally normal). It was part of my routine to wait for my dad to come home for lunch and i loved watching him arrive, by the 3rd floor bedroom window. This particular day, I didn't see him coming but somehow he just opened the front door and as I ran to see him, he walked right past me into the bathroom, just locked himself there. He was shirtless and barefoot. That was strange, but I thought "maybe something happened and he doesn't want to talk about it?" Okay...
So I go back to watching through that same window, not thinking about anything specific, but this is where it gets weird: I just see my dad, walking down the usual road where i could always get a vision of. He's wearing his normal clothes, his work backpack, it all seemed normal.
But who was that man locked in our bathroom? I was so scared that for a moment, I actually couldn't move
Some minutes passed, my actual dad walked up the stairs, got inside and found me in the bedroom, where he saw me standing by the window, paralized!
He touched my shoulder to see if everything was fine, but I started crying and shaking. Later I told him what happened, then he looked inside the bathroom and didn't find anything so just thought I had a dream about it or whatever but till this day, I'm SURE that it was real!
#18
My friends and I used to play with an ouija board all the time. One night 4 of us were playing at my house. The board was insanely active, the planchette was flying with barely a finger on it, but it all seemed like complete gibberish.
Then it suddenly stopped and slowly spelled: TELL YOUR MOM.
We called my mom over. The second she was in the room, it started whipping around the board again. More gibberish. Then my mom got super angry and upset She looked at us and said, “Why would you girls do this? This isn’t funny” None of us had any idea what she was talking about. Turns out it wasn’t gibberish at all. It was Hungarian, my mom’s first language. I didn’t speak it at the time. It was saying things like: “I’m going to hurt them”. This was 30 years ago and last time it was brought up, my mom still thought we were pranking her. I’m still in contact with the friends & we still all agree we didn’t know what it was saying.
#19
My sister and I were like 4 and 5. Our parents moved into an old trailer house, that was used for teacher housing. One night we woke up to seeing a woman crawling down from behind the top of the door frame and stare at us. I can only equate her look to the grudge. She had long hair, pale skin. I cannot remember if she started screaming. But we started screaming for our mom. Needless to say our parents didn’t get any sleep that night with the two of use refusing the sleep anywhere but with them.
#20
I was 6 and my mom was pregnant with my sister. I had a dream that I was told my baby sister would pass away(just a voice, I couldn’t see who was talking to me). I slept walked, took the baby out of a Russian nesting doll, and threw it out my window. My parents came in as I was trying to crawl out of the window and they stopped me. My baby sister ended up passing away at two months old from a muscular dystrophy illness. Even though it would have been just outside, we never found the baby doll.
#21
My childhood home was haunted. We frequently heard footsteps on our upper level when no one was up there. One night when I was about 5, I woke up in my bed to a young girl walking across my room. She seemed to be wearing old fashioned clothes, like maybe from the 1930s. She sat on the foot of my bed and started to read a book. When I tried to talk to her, she stood up, walked away, and disappeared. I went and woke up my mom to ask “who was that little girl in my room” and she was freaked out.
#22
It was Christmas vacation and my cousins and I, aged 5-10, were up late talking quietly in a guest room at our grandparents house. We all went silent as we watched the tin reindeer they kept next to the fireplace “walk” past the doorway down the hall. Toe to toe, barely touching the carpet, and moving by itself. We just looked at each other and stayed awake all night. Too scared to do anything else.
#23
I once lived in a rental with a very active ghost as a teen. Two story rental, gorgeous old house. He would borrow things, but always return them, and unlock the door if I left my keys at home. I'm talking an old, heavy lock, not something you could jiggle open.
One night, Charlie wouldn't let me turn off the lights. I'd turn one off, and a light in another room came on. Finally every light in the house came on...15 year old me said fine, screw it, he could have the lights on. My mom came home from work in the early morning and asked why every light was on. I explained that Charlie wouldn't let me turn them off. Only when she checked every door and window could we turn them off.
Turned out some neighborhood older teens had intended mischief while she wasn't home. Charlie's light show freaked them out so much they went to the police station themselves.
#24
Back in the early 2000s it was my turn on the computer (iykyk), which was near the living room. I noticed my sister sitting on the couch near me reading, I could see the back of her head. Totally expected. But I noticed I heard my mom and sister in the kitchen talking. Confused and distracted I looked over and "my sister" on the couch laid down really quickly. When I went to check.. no sister. She was in the kitchen the whole time.
#25
My dad used to have a Jesus painting in a room we had that wasn't used anymore. The door faced the living room, and the painting was, obviously, on the wall right in front of the door.
The painting used to smile and blink at me.
I’m not kidding.
No one believed me.
The smile and the blinks weren’t peaceful or beautiful, they were evil.
He has the painting to this day, and I hate it so much.
#26
My mom was a nurse and sometimes worked the night shift. One afternoon before her shift we were outside on the porch swing, and I was laying with my head in her lap. We were just swinging and talking. I look up and her whole face changes she has this weird, wide grin on her face and her eyes are completely black. I jump up, get right in her face, and say you are not my mom. Then hauled to my Gigi’s who was our neighbor. My mom follows me confused. I tell her I saw her eyes change and my Gigi and her are so confused. For weeks I would test her and ask her only questions my mom would know. And ask her why her eyes changed and if she was an alien would she tell me. For weeks I kept my distance until I was sure she was my mom. It was the weirdest thing.
#27
I remember after we moved into our house (I think I was like 17 at the time) my parents went grocery shopping on a Saturday without me. I’m just chilling in my bed when I hear my dad shout my name from downstairs (They always used to come in through the basement door so they could put stuff in the storage room). I shout back “Yeah?” And get annoyed when he doesn’t respond. So I go downstairs and into the basement, thinking he needs help carrying stuff. Basement is totally quiet, back door closed and I open it to check if their car is in the driveway. No car in the driveway, no parents. I don’t know who called for me that day but it sounded exactly like my dad. I have a bunch of other weird stories regarding our house. We still live in it as well.
#28
My mom had a vintage fairy clock. The clock was in a waterfall shaped rock, and the fairy was sitting next to it. I always hated the clock because every time i stare at it, it makes me uneasy. It wasnt a wall clock or anything, it was an alarm clock.
One day, i felt someone watching me and it was the fairy. I saw a glimpse and immediately ran to my mom with the clock in my hand trying to convince her the fairy is alive and looked at me! She wouldnt believe me. When she left I was annoyed at my failed attempt to convince her. So i just stared at the fairy, hard. Trying to see if she is alive. It didnt take long, after 2 minutes or so, the fairy did not move but, her pupils did. She was ceramic.
Her eyes, actually flickered so quick, as if she was mocking me. But i caught it. I knew what i saw because right after she did that? My heart pounded so hard, and i just drew sharpie over her eyes so she wouldnt stare at me anymore.
My mom still doesnt believe me.
#29
I sleep with a light on to this day bc growing up I was convinced something was in my room. As a child I would "have dreams" about my stuffed animals being tossed around the room or seeing something watch me from my closet. As a teen I experienced horrific nightmares and sleep paralysis. I would tell my parents this and they just wrote it off.
Then, one day, my mom says she had this re-occuring dream for years of watching something walk down the hallway to my room and then leave.
#30
My mom doesn’t refuse to talk about anything cus she loves to recount how creepy I was as a kid but she definitely still gets the chills telling people about when I woke up and told her the angels said a family member died. Then she got the call they passed away. Or that time when I showed her that after my nana passed if I put my music box nana got me (closed) in a sunbeam in my room it would play the music while closed. Good times.
#31
I walked into the woods one day after school with a group of neighborhood kids and it was snowing & we ended up getting lost. We tried to follow our footprints back but they were gone. It started snowing harder &Everyone else started panicking and running in different directions. I stayed still staring straight up at the sky. I remember sitting down, crying being terrified that I was lost, alone and cold. I remember the snow suddenly stopping, not feeling cold anymore and somehow someway I managed to just walk right out of the woods as if I was standing on the edge the whole time. came out on the opposite side of the apartment complex I lived in. I had been gone for hours it was dark and the snow started again when I walked through my front door,( side note: my sister was supposed to be watching me & she didn’t notice I was gone ) I still do not remember how I made it out of there tbh.
#32
We used to live at grandma's house. The only place you could hang your clothes after laundry is by my auntie's window.
While my mom was hanging clothes, my aunt's cabinet door was shaking violently. It's as if something wanted to come out. I was horrified and I looked at my mom who doesn't see the shaking.
She asked what's wrong upon calling her attention for the nth. But I couldn't speak from fear I just look at the cabinet. Mom kept on hanging tye clothes and the cabinet continued to shake I screamed and cried and when my mom glanced at me my nose was bleeding. The cabinet stopped shaking after that.
Now that I'm an adult. I told my mom about it. And she was stunned. She told me the cabinet wasn't shaking but she did remember my nose bled.
Days later my my cousin told me that when we were young, aunt's cabinet would also shake violently.
#33
When I was 4 my real father passed ( keep this in mind ) my father now & my mother moved to New York ( that’s where my father is from also active duty military) after my dad passed we move there and go on with our lives as we thought till random shit started happening ( my real dad died unexpectedly wrong place wrong time type situation) so when we’ll come home from doing whatever oddly enough anything that belong to me would be put back in its place ( if I left my toys out , clothes etc ) then my mom started noticing everytime she’ll leave the pot of grease left on the stove would be completely empty when we got back . My mom started questioning me about the things I told her idk . Fast forward my room was at the top of the steps couldn’t miss it every time I would use the bathroom by my room the light in the bathroom would literally be red not for anybody else just me I bought it to my mom she started to worry I didn’t automatically gts I just stared at my mom till i unexpectedly immediately dozed off im not sure how much time passed but i woke up from my sleep again hearing my mother crying & talking . The only thing I heard my mother say was “ Terrence ( my real dads name ) she is going to be fine but you have to move on “ i literally watched the figure stand up , look back at me and walked into my mother … after that no red lights , my toys stayed exactly where i left them & that was that. rip dad
#34
My stepdad mom and I moved into a house in the country.I started having nightmares about a woman wearing a black and white striped dress with blonde hair . In these dreams she would try to hurt me . I only told my mom about it and she didn’t mention it to my stepdad . One evening my stepdads friend stayed the night on our couch . In the morning my stepdad and his friend and my mom were all chatting and the friend said he saw a woman in our kitchen . Described her dress and blonde hair. We lived there for about a year . In that time span I kept having nightmares about her . My mental health declined badly . It was really bad . We eventually moved and about 6 years ago - my mom got a call from the landlord of the house . She left a voicemail stating that her new tenant was “having strange issues like your daughter experienced” and wanted to ask my mom some questions. She didn’t want to call her back so she didn’t . Didn’t want to invite whatever is up there back into our lives . During that year we had neighbors across the forest that we shared . Our neighbor had lived in that area for about 20 plus years . He had a lot of experiences too . He would see a man walking out the forest carrying a baby. He would hear childrens laughter and the sound of running around his property . He had a huge Ash tree outside of his house and would see a woman sitting in it.
#35
When I was young, 2yrs old, we had moved into a new house and I would see “The Man”.
My mom said we came home one day and I went upstairs to play in my room and screamed at the top of my lungs and came running downstairs saying “the man” was upstairs.
So my parents went to investigate but no one was there. My mom had had enough at this point and she told the man that he needs to leave and find a new home because he is not welcomed here A few weeks later, my mom had us at this bus yard dropping off her school bus that she drove and we were heading to the car when I just started waving at something. (There was no one else there but us) My mom asked me what I was waving at and I replied “The Man” and she was like oh did he find a new home? & I replied “Yup” and she got us out there so fast.
#36
I had a dream I went to a really bright hospital to talk to my great aunt and she was hooked up to a bunch of machines. I told my mom about it and all the details and she said "How do you know that? You didn't go with us to see her there"
I also think she got creeped out when she found me sitting in front of my great aunt's empty recliner talking like someone was there after she had passed.
#37
My mom denies it but my dad and sister believe me because we have all experienced stuff in the house. When I was 18 I was home alone and decided to take a nap in my dad’s bed while I waited to pick my sister up from school.
When I was in that almost asleep stage I heard footsteps running towards me across the carpet. I panicked so hard I fell out of bed and BOLTED out of the house. I waited for an hour and a half at the school parking lot. Lmao.
My dad has also seen shadow people in his room and they would stand over him while he is sleeping. One jumped at him from the ledge that went around the room. My dad, sister and I all woke up Christmas 2023 in the middle of the night to something pulling our feet.
#38
When I was in 6th grade my school gave me an old computer. It was useless bc we were poor so no internet or really anything to do on the computer but I kept it and put my books on the keyboard. It was the kind that would clack clack when you typed. One night in the fall I was woken up to really loud cat meowing. It would not stop. As I tried to go back to sleep I hear “clack clack clack clack” I’m like wth is that my keyboard. The cat meowing got louder but it was weird our dog didn’t bark. And he barked for everything. Literally you sneeze he barked. We didn’t have cats so I was worried a cat got into our house but as soon as I got up to check the keyboard sound stopped and the cat meowing did too. I think the cat was trying to tell me something was in my room and scared it away.
#39
Okay a friend sent me this I have many stories from growing up but my grandparents owned a funeral home in Ohio and the basement was the motutuary anyway I was 8 and we drove from Florida to stay the weekend and the upstairs bedroom had a knight of armor in the right hand corner of the room. Lights go out and I not only see it moving but hear the metal cranking as it walked towards my bed. I screamed and my mom comes running down the hall to turn on the light and it instantly was back exactly were it was but she asked me what was that loud metal noise and I pointed at the knight and told the story and we left in the morning. This isn't the scariest but my mom to this day won't discuss it for some reason.
#40
I have so many stories, because I grew up in a haunted house. But this one was from when I stayed at my friend's place. She had a baby doll that we both were getting creeped out from. It had batteries in it and talked, and the eyes moved. We both agreed to take the batteries out so we could sleep. So keep in mind they were out by now! A few mins later it started laughing (it honestly sounded like dozens of kids laughing tbh), and a voice that just kept saying "we're gonna get you". We screamed and threw it in a bag, tied it up a secure to the closet bar, and blocked the door while we tried to sleep. We must have dozed off at some point, bc we woke up to the closet no longer blocked, the door open, and the doll on the floor. I never slept over at Mel's place again. My family still refuses to believe me. Mel and I know what happened though.
#41
I HATED my bedroom as a kid. I always kind of *felt* like someone was there, but never really saw anything to confirm that feeling. Then one night when I was probably 5, I sat up around 2:30 in the morning and saw a VERY tall man in a union uniform just standing in the hallway staring at me. I told my older sister about it the next day, and she dismissed it. I brought it up a few months ago (we’re now 37 and 40), and she said she saw him too but was just too afraid to admit it.
#42
My dad has VHS footage of this incident. I was a baby and my parents were getting home videos of me, when all of the sudden there’s a loud crash from the kitchen the next room over. All of the glass from the oven door had shattered, and the shards of glass were like vibrating/bouncing on the floor. The oven was off, nobody else in the house and no pets. Still can’t explain it.
#43
I stayed with my uncle for a couple months I slept in his garage on a couch. One night i astral projected when I came back I got stuck in that sleep paralysis state and saw a women standing in the corner of the garage. I could see her there even though it was dark because I had fallen asleep with the tv on. Well I got out of it eventually. Couple days later my uncle tells me a lady had passed away in there.
#44
Me and my sister was in bed together, we saw a demon. A white smiling face. Everytime we put the blanket over our head n looked again it was closer. We woke our older sister up who was on the top bunk, she stepped down the bunk latter and stepped on it! It turned into a mist then formed back into a face, it then went out the room into the hallway with that same creepy smile just looking at us. A few days later she ends up crushing that same foot under a massive boulder.
#45
I lived in a haunted house somewhere in rural UK. I kept telling my parents that something was wrong with the house—there were strange noises, things would suddenly fly out of the wardrobe, and other unexplained incidents. They refused to believe me until they discovered the bloodied bathroom 1 morning. We moved out the very next day and they never spoke about it.
#46
I have a distinct memory of an old woman scratching my back as I fell asleep, telling me a story of a witch who had a long spear fingernail and would eat the livers of children. No one in my family knows who this woman was, or the story, but the story is an old Cherokee legend called spear finger. I still have my liver so that’s good I guess.
#47
When I was seven or so my family lived in a very small three bedroom house (one of the rooms my mother rented out for the extra money). There were five of us kids (which is why the extra money was so needed), so personal space was nonexistent. Neither was available sleeping areas. Leaving my brother (10) and I to sleep on the couches in the living room.
One night, I just couldn’t sleep. Which was very unusual, because I could always sleep anytime, anywhere. I kept tossing and the first time i experienced sleep paralysis was when i was a kid. I saw a man walk in my bedroom door, and he leaned over me to tell me someone was gone. I couldnt hear him. I watched him leave my room. The entire time i was wide awake.
#48
When I was a kid, my mom’s friend, who was a doctor, had brought back a real human skull from South America. This was in the early ’80s. It was missing the jaw and the top of the cranium. He let me take it home. I became obsessed with it and treated it with total reverence.
My family eventually realized I had smuggled the skull to the beach, built a giant sand fortress, and placed it at the very top.
The horror this caused among onlookers and family members.
#49
I was real little and started having sleepovers at my cousins house.
One night I was laying next to my cousin. She had already fell asleep and I couldn’t sleep. She had a basement bedroom so like the moonlight would shine in the dark room.
I’d just lay there looking around and I heard footsteps coming in so I covered my face with the blanket (it was pretty see through. Like a stringy knitted blanket) and only would I cover myself would I see an elderly couple standing over the foot side of the bed. I’d take it off they weren’t there, I’d cover myself and they were there. I got freaked out and didn’t wanna wake anyone so I had a sweaty and suffocating night sleeping under the blanket huddled close to my cousin.
#50
When I was about 11 we rescued a German Shephard cross. She was clearly treated poorly before she came to us, and she was terrified of men. She slept in my room every night. One night, I woke up and the room felt wrong. I slowly sat up, reached for the switch and turned the light on. That dog was nose to nose with me. Not growling, but not calm. A few moments of intense eye contact, then she moved away. I did not sleep easy that night.
#51
When I was little, I spent the night at my friends house. I woke up to a girl standing next to the bed…. Wearing all white with no eyes. So I pretended to be asleep and rolled back over. That was elementary school.. years later, my best friend in high school spent the night and saw the same “person” in my room. I never told her the story yikes
#52
I know the house I currently live in is haunted because when I’m here I have awful nightmares where I wake up over and over again, and I feel like I’m being watched by something with horrible intentions 24/7. When I go back to living at college it just stops entirely. My parents have also had terrible nightmares and things, but they refuse to believe anything about this house being haunted. Things also disappear and reappear randomly in the house. It happens a lot with my makeup. I’ll look all over the bathroom counter for an eyeliner or my lash glue and it will be nowhere. Then after looking in other rooms I’ll come back to find it sitting in the middle of the countertop, not covered by anything or hidden at all. My dreams are also super vivid here. I can use all 5 senses in my dreams.
#53
A few years ago my dad was gifted various Native American trinkets. (Paintings, Lamps, jewelry, things to hang on the wall etc) about a week later my brothers family stayed the night. We were all up late talking, drinking, playing board games in the living room. When we hear chanting and drums. We all look at eachother and then to the hallway where the noise was coming from. I shit you not - we see about 6-8 shadows walking from the hallway out the front door.
#54
If I was playing downstairs in the basement, I would get creeped out at night and run upstairs as a kid. I never said anything to my parents because I was afraid of how they would react and I knew they would dismiss it.
So here later, my mom and I were talking about the basement and she shared that the former owner and his son had a massive argument in his son’s room because his son was gay and came out to his parents.
My parents mostly seal that room off and just used it as storage. My mom was like, I never went in that room. Did you notice I never spent any time in the basement beyond doing laundry or putting groceries away in the pantry? I never liked the feel of it.
Once my parents remodeled the basement when I was in high school, everything shifted in the feeling totally went away.
#55
For context, my bathroom was right next to my brothers room, then my room, then my moms; all down one hallway. i was really young and sleeping in my room when i heard my name being called by a deep, old man like voice come from the bathroom. i thought i was dreaming so i kept my eyes closed. i knew there was no way it was my brother, as he was young too, and my dad was always on night shift (his voice does not sound like the one i heard). soon, i heard it again and opened my eyes. then on the third one, i fully sprinted to my moms room in tears, telling her i heard someone in the bathroom. i slept in my moms room for YEARS after that. never heard his voice again either. ive stopped telling this story to people because itd mostly unbelievable, but i have never heard the voice i heard that night.
#56
When I was 14, I was standing at my mom's kitchen sink washing dishes while my parents were out at my brother's baseball game. It was dark outside and I could see my reflection in the window perfectly. I felt something brush my leg and looked up to see a tall, skinny, old man behind me in my reflection, when I turned there was nothing there and when I looked back to the window, the light above the sink shattered and he was gone.
#57
My dad brought home a green recliner he got from a friend. I kept telling him something was wrong with that chair, but like a lot of parents, he brushed it off. The chair would recline on its own, then slowly return to its original position. I kept telling him what I was seeing, and he ignored it until one day we were sitting in the living room when the chair slowly started to recline. Then it suddenly slammed all the way back with force and began spinning. We got rid of it that same day, and that’s why I’ll never accept used furniture from people or shop at antique stores.
#58
We lived in a very old, very haunted cottage in a tiny rural village in England, we all knew and felt the unpleasant vibe but we rarely mentioned it, even though none of us would go in certain rooms alone.
One night I awoke suddenly and noticed a man stood near the end of my bed, I could see he was wearing all black but his face was illuminated and he was grinning at me.
He vanished when I started screaming.
I still dream about that house and wake up scared.
#59
I saw an old woman in my room when I young. I had a square lamp that had fish on it sitting on a plastic table in front of my window. I vividly remember rolling over ,cause for some reason I could not sleep, to see a hunched old woman standing over that light. She just stood there. I covered my head and went back to sleep, I think I only saw her a handful of times.
#60
Growing up in a old house I experienced plenty of creepy stuff. Unknown footsteps in the staircase, doors open and closing on their own. Books falling off shelves and stuff rearranging and switching places on their own. But most creepy of all was whenever we all sat down for dinner there was the sound of marbles rolling across the upper floor without stopping, from one corner of the house to the next. Which should have been impossible since there was plenty of walls in the way.
#61
When I was 15 I was staying at my family’s lake house. I had my first sleep paralysis experience. I remember seeing a man in a black latex suit in the corner of the room staring at me, but I couldn’t move or scream. He approached me climbed on top of me and began to strangle me. Shaken, I snapped out of it and realized none of it was real. 5 years go by and my cousin brings up the same exact story I experienced at our lakehouse… the exact same figure, the same bedroom, the same situation.
#62
In the 80’s my cousin & I (probably 11/13) decided to have a seance while I was staying at her house for a summer visit. We lit candles & tried to be serious (not easy!) We couldn’t figure out who to contact so she picked her paternal grandmother who had passed away several years before. We asked her to give us a sign that she was with us - within a minute or two a doll flew off the shelf across the room. It was a doll her grandmother gave her. We were terrified & ended the seance immediately.
#63
When I was about 3, my sister was 5, we had a Barbie with purple hair and purple gem eyes. It got up and walked on its own - almost marching down our dresser. We screamed and told my mother’s boyfriend at the time. He picked it up and said - what this thing? And threw it in a paper heb bag. I asked my sister a few yrs ago if it was real or just my 3 yr old mind, and she confirmed it happened. We never played with that Barbie again. Now I have a haunted museum and I wish I had that doll.
#64
Have you ever heard a tree weeping? I do, my whole family heard it too. Happened during my teenage years, when my parent decide to buy & move to an old house that has not been occupied for a long time (yes, your typical cliche opening of horror movie). There's a mango tree in the backyard, it was large & shady. One night we heard a loud & long weeping sound coming from that tree, a very sad one. The very next day the tree fell down, the root were lifted by it self. It just fell.
#65
When I was younger I house sat for a ministers family from church. I showed up to take care of their house and when I got to the front door this really weird energy came over me. It felt cold and heavy. I go in and I walk around feeding their fish and whatever they needed me to do. I walk down the hall past one of the kids room and on the way back the door is closed and the light is on. I was like umm hello? The air was tense. The light turned off. I open the door and no one was there.
#66
I had a stuffed dog named puddles that I took everywhere with me. Its legs were weak/limp so it could not stand up on its own. Middle of the night I wake up and I look down from my top bunk and it’s standing up on its legs looking at me. I screamed and it fell over. And I NEVER saw that stuffed dog again to this day no one know what happened to it.
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