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Author of Unmasking the Face, psychologist Paul Ekman identified six basic emotions that he believed were present in all human cultures: anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise, and fear.
According to his research, the threat can be real or imagined, and while there are certain things that trigger most of us, people can learn to become afraid of nearly anything, including darkness, social interaction, spiders, etc.
Interested in how we experience fear in real-life situations, we went digging around Reddit for stories its users shared about the scariest moments in their lives. Here are the most memorable we've found.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
When I was about 12, I had a lot of issues with night terrors, and rarely slept a whole night through. One night, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I sat down, half asleep an thinking of nothing but emptying my bladder and going back to bed when I see movement out of the corner of my eye. There was a man standing by the other door to the bathroom staring at me, not moving. He was wearing a tattered grey jump suit and had a crutch, little to no hair. I don't remember how I got down into the basement where my parents slept but suddenly there I was, hysterical. My dad finally went up and looked in the bathroom and kitchen. Saw nothing but allowed me to sleep on the couch down there anyway. I didn't fall back asleep. About an hour or so later, I heard the sliding door to the bathroom from my sisters room and limping foot steps. The next morning my dad searched around and noticed that the fridge and pantry had been raided. Never caught the guy.
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#2
I once found myself in a cave, along with eight or nine other people. It was the middle of the Pennsylvania wilderness, and the only entrance was a small hole in the ground. To enter, you had to sit down, grab a tree root, and drop about seven feet down a steep wall to the floor. We all dropped in, and spent at least half an hour exploring this cave. My friend Dan taps me on the shoulder and whispers, "Dude, look at the ceiling." The ceiling was just high enough above our heads to hide the thousands of spiders crawling around on it. We tried to keep quiet about it, because we didn't want anyone to flip out, but there was no stopping it. Just seconds later the whole group noticed them. Everyone got silent, and you could actually hear the spiders crawling on the surface of the stone. It was an extra nerve wracking situation... because the only way to exit the cave... was to basically jump up and pull yourself out of a hole surrounded by spiders. Two of the girls with us were terrified, and refused to climb out. They just couldn't muster the courage to put their faces next to a giant spider nests. They came around though, and everyone got out safe. I had the honor of being the last one to exit. Alone in a dark cave filled with spiders, and nobody around to give me a boost. Fortunately, Dan was brave enough to reach down in and give me a hand.
When we first discovered that cave, we were all like, "I can't believe we've never heard of this place." Now I know why. A few months later, I found out the cave is off limits in the fall... because of the rattle snakes.
#3
Okay, I got contacts around the time I turned 21, and I had a real phobia of putting things in my eyes. If you live in the U.S., you know that they won't let you leave the opthalmologist with your first pair of contacts unless you can put them in at least one time. It took me having to come back 3 days in a row, before I could get it right. That's how disturbed I was about it, but I was determined to have contacts.
Anyways, I was real careful about rubbing my eyes with them in, because I had this paranoid fear that I would grind them into my eyes. I know. I know. Like I said, I had a real phobia. So, I go to take a bath, and I'm real careful about getting soap in my eyes.
Finally, I wash my hair and close my eyes as I douse water on my head. I rub my eyes and open them, and…I realize I'm blind. I can see absolutely nothing. I was in a state of sheer terror. I got incredibly still, and all the possibilities were going through my head. How was I going to get out of the bath tub without help? Was this permanent? How was I going to live my life blind?
Then the lights came back on. In the 5 seconds when I had closed my eyes, the power had gone off, and since the bathroom had no window, I'd been in pitch darkness.
tl;dr; I briefly thought I had gone blind, but it was just a power outage.
#4
I was in FLAX (an art store in SF) getting supplies, and this guy was following me around the store. I decided it was time to split, and he followed me to the check out line, and all the way to my car. I was 21 at the time and there were no cell phones back then (amazingly), so I was on my own.
So this guy starts talking about the machines in his head and how the government is following him. Crazy stuff like that. But here's the thing: I come from a crazy family. I know crazy. He wasn't crazy.
My best idea for defense was to use all those FBI techniques I have gleaned from watching too many cop shows, and be crazier than he was.
I started stepping closer to him, and never broke eye contact. I raised my voice when I spoke and was really excited when we "had something in common." I said I wanted to get to know him better, and where did he live? I could visit him! He said some homeless shelter and the address, and I got really excited and said I knew exactly where that was. I could visit him on Thursday!
He ended up backing up throughout the conversation, and at one point asked, "why are you talking to me." I looked away, wistfully, and said, "not many people talk to me. You know??"
This is all a totally true story. I've never done it again (thank goodness), but he left scared. I went home safely. Victory for me.
#5
So many many years ago I worked the night shift at a 7/11 in a neighborhood right next to a bad neighborhood. Until about 2 in the morning we had a security guard, but he didn't even carry a gun. From 2 until 5 you were on your own. After I was hired I found out this particular 7/11 had been robbed a few times and when family members I knew found out I was working there they tried to convince me to quit. Well as I worked nights I slept during the day and one evening I woke up from this very intense dream were I was shot, it was so intense I woke up sweating with this feeling that I was punched in the chest.
I decided to quit that day.
Well about a week later I go in to collect my paycheck and there's a new guy working the late shift. Seemed alright, I spoke to him for a moment and I left.
I found out that the next night he was shot in the chest while working and died in the hospital.
#6
I used to be a mountaineer, and I was on an expedition on Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Americas.
We were at camp three (around 6000m in altitude) and set to push for the summit in the morning.
I’d been feeling a bit nauseated and sluggish that day, but nothing too alarming. But I woke up in the middle of night and something was horribly wrong. My head felt it was split open, I couldn’t stop vomiting / dry heaving, and I was talking gibberish. The world was upside down to me, I felt overheated even though it was approaching -50C with the windchill.
I don’t remember much of that night, but I had a bit of clarity once my teammate injected me with a steroid used to combat altitude sickness. I was told I was developing high attitude cerebral edema and I would die if I didn’t descend. The problem was that a massive blizzard had come in. Even without the storm, helicopters could not get me.
By morning, the storm had lessened a bit and a guide from another team heard what had happened. He agreed to help me get down the mountain. But within an hour, the storm was raging again. I lost in the snow for a while and my body was depleted of energy. I slumped down into a snowdrift, realizing I was going to die. I wasn’t scared then, but felt a calm peacefulness.
Thank god something eventually kicked in, some sort of survival instinct and the sheer terror of the situation hit me hard. Thank god my guide followed my tracks, gave me more medicine, and over the next seven hours, made our way down.
The fear hit me really badly that night in base camp. That realization that I should be dead is harder to describe.
I got severe sun (high altitude is weird) and windburns on my face - lost chunks of my cheeks for a while. I now have signs of having a TBI from my brain swelling.
I still love the mountains, but I hike instead of mountaineer. My life is too precious now.
TCW Sam Vimes 2 hours ago
Always wondered what people want on those peaks. Why can't we accept that some areas are just not our territory? Everest is literally covered in frozen bodies and some are used as signposts for othe crazies that think reaching that peak is something special. It's not. Just a waste of resources.
#7
Okay, a couple of things you need to know first... When I was ~2 years old my parents and I lived in a house that my grandparents owned. Although only two, I apparently could speak quite well in full sentences. My parents' bedroom was connected to mine through the closet, meaning you could walk into their closet, go through a door in back and end up in the back of my closet.
My mom started having these terrible nightmares. In her dream, she would wake up surrounded by fire. She'd rush through the closet to my room, scoop me up and dive out the window. Suddenly it would flash forward and her and my dad would be sitting in a waiting room at a hospital. A doctor would come in, looking somber and say, "I'm sorry, but..." She'd wake up at that point, sweating profusely and her heart racing.
One night, she woke up to me screaming. She ran into my room and pulled me into her arms, calming me down and asking me what was wrong. My response was, "Mommy, Mommy, my room was on fire. I was on fire." Of course this freaked her out. (I'm willing to admit that me having some sort of similar nightmare may have been caused by me overhearing a conversation about my mom's nightmares, but that's not the freaky part.)
Not too long after this we moved out, though not because of the nightmares my mom was having. We lived in southern Illinois at the time, and my parents were having a hard time making enough money to support us living there, so we moved up to northern Illinois. My grandparents sold that house once we moved.
About six months after we moved out my mom was talking to my grandma on the phone. My grandma started telling my mom about how the house we used to live in had caught on fire. No one was home at the time, but the bedroom that had been mine had been completely destroyed. The fire had started because of an electrical short in the closet I spoke of before.
This story always gives me chills when I tell it.
#8
During finals week at college I left the library pretty close to midnight and decided to carry my laptop to my car which was a block and a half away down a side street. I was completely alone and my phone was dead, but it was pretty well lit so I figured I'd be okay. As I was walking, a pickup truck driving the opposite way slowed down and did a k-turn behind me and started following me. I immediately stopped, let it pass and stood by a lamp post until it made a turn (down the street where my car was). I went back to the library and asked public safety to walk me to my car. As we got closer, the truck that had been following me was idle in the space directly behind my car and sped off down the street as soon as he saw me and the cop.
I almost didn't go back and get public safety because I felt I was being too paranoid. Note: Never be "too paranoid.".
#9
Not me but a friend of mine (female, about 22 at the time) worked for Google Maps as some sort of surveyor or photographer. Google sends her and another female coworker to some remote location in Mexico for a few days for business. The hotel they were staying at was apparently nice enough, but literally outside the walls of the hotel was a really rough ghetto with people living in boxes lining the streets. Anyway, the first day of the trip she and her coworker are taking a taxi to the location they have to survey and at a red light, some crazy guy opens the door, tries to pull my friend out and then starts stabbing her in the chest with a knife. The cab driver pulled away but not before she'd been stabbed 6 times. She survived but has pretty bad scars and has become a much different and quieter person since.
Samantha H 8 hours ago
That is utterly horrendous! I cannot imagine sending young Women to some remote location in Mexico. So glad to read that she survived.
#10
I work the night shift at a hotel. Last night a young man walked in here. I didn't notice it immediately but he was chewing on a razor blade. He had slit his wrists and the razor had done significant damage to his mouth. He merely wanted to use the phone to call his girlfriend.
When I picked up the phone he said "why you gotta call the law on me?" and then promptly left.
I'm glad this is my last week.
S Bow 1 hour ago (edited)
"Chewing on a razor blade" omg. After reading many posts like this I wonder if people having a psychotic break are unable to feel pain. I've read of many cases of the horrific damage people do to themselves and wonder if they can't feel it. Does anyone know if this has been studied? Edit to add: I'm not referring to just cutting for example, I mean cases where they remove their own eyes, eviscerate themselves etc.
#11
An alpha male gorilla charged me in Rwanda. The guide had told us if that happened, not to run, but instead to bow down to show we aren't trying to challenge him. I started to do this, but the guy standing next to me freaked out, banshee screaming, arms flailing, and knocked me into a bush. Gorilla charged and stopped a hand's reach from me. Truly thought I was going to be torn limb from limb.
#12
If it makes any difference, I will preface this by saying that I'm female. That fact may or may not make the following creepier...
I used to live next to an eye hospital. One day, walking home, I was stopped by an old man who clearly had trouble seeing. He asked me to help him across the road to the hospital. I agreed, and he grabbed hold of my hand very tightly. At this point I noticed his fingers were stained brown from tobacco, covered in scabs, and his fingernails were very long and dirty. I started to think that my good deed for the day would be a bit regrettable...
When we got to the other side of the road he still had my hand grasped so tightly I couldn't politely pull away. "Do you want to see my eye?" he said. One of his eyes was squeezed shut. With his free hand he pulled the lids apart and I realised to my horror that he had no eyeball just an empty socket. I started babbling (still trying to be polite) about how that was very interesting, but I had to go.
Then he uttered the immortal words: "Do you want to put your finger in there?" He was pulling really hard on my hand trying to force my fingers into his empty eye socket.
At this point I gave up on politeness and struggled my hand free (it was difficult, he was really strong) and just ran for it. I could hear him laughing as I ran off.
TL;DR Stranger tried to force me to put my fingers in his empty eye socket.
#13
I was stalked by a mountain lion in the Santa Cruz mountains. I've had lots of experience with dangerous wildlife, been charged by many bears, but have never felt like I was dinner until then. It was disconcerting to say the least.
#14
I'm one of five kids, and so growing up I shared a bed with my little sister. She had intense nightmares, that were probably worsened by the fact that when she woke up screaming, my preacher father would come in and pray over us "so that the demons in the room leave this place". One night, I woke up because I felt someone staring at me. My sister was fast asleep with her eyes wide open and glaring at me, and this horrible expression. It freaked me out so bad that I shook her awake and she started shrieking "GET OUT" over and over, with her hands clamped to her face like she didn't want to see anything. Mama and daddy tried giving her a bath to calm her down (she was little, like 5, an baths helped sometimes) but when she wouldn't stop screaming, they took her to the ER. She was severely dehydrated, but the doctors never really figured out what was wrong with her. PS: this wasn't the only crazy stuff, she used to shake me awake, wailing " there's a snake in the bed!!" or "there's a spider on your face!!" and would be inconsolable for hours. Weird hallucinating 5 year old girl, FTW.
#15
I haven't retold this story ever. I used to work as a security guard. One night I got a real technical post at a local railyard. I don't want to give away which state I'm, but I can just say it was fairly large and next to a large city.
It was my first night, and this old timer is showing me the ropes. There's a lot to do. I have to watch a gate as truckers go in and out with brand new cars loaded up on their trailers. I had to do a patrol through a large gated outdoor area that enclosed 5 sets of tracks that unloaded these new cars.
It was a 12 hour night shift. 7pm to 7 am. Thankfully, I wasn't alone or I would have been seriously disturbed. There were drivers (who were d***s) and rail workers putting trains together. I forget exactly what time, but in the early AM I get a call from one of them in the security gate office. I'm told that someone, probably a b*m, had strolled into the gated area.
Now this area is the size of several football fields, filled with brand new cars with gas in the tank. This is a serious problem, and the whole reason I was there in the first place. To protect the probably tens of millions of dollars worth of cars.
As I show up in a little golf cart, I speak with one of the rail workers who gave me a very vague description. A man wearing blue jeans. I was then tasked with finding the man in this huge place with about 80 million places to hide. It was clear he was probably a b*m, and that the cars would offer a wonderful place to sleep for the night.
So there I was, going through a huge field of cars. I shined my flashlight into the tinted windows of at least a hundred cars. I was expecting to walk up on a b*m, sleeping in a car or listening to the radio. Or worse yet, maybe someone there to steal a car. They all had keys in the ignition and gas in the tank for moving.
I looked for almost an hour, and nothing. At last I went to the actual trains. They are huge, like the size of houses. Each one was easily taller than my house and half as wide. You don't realize how big trains are until you get there.
I found myself shouting at the trains, and walking around them looking for that same b*m. I was thorough, but I found nothing at all. Scared, miffed, and while having pissed off truckers honk their horns at me hundreds of meters away, I went back to the guard cabin.
I had an argument with a trucker who was pissed at me for keeping him at the gate, and then a phone call from the railway guys asking if I had found the guy. I told them I looked for a long while, and couldn't find him. I supposed he may have jumped a fence to get away from me. I had looked *everywhere*.
Another hour passes, and at 3 or 4 am (I forget exactly) I get a call. They found the man on the rail tracks. Right where I had been looking. I later learned that he was probably hiding *on* the tracks, where I wasn't likely to stick my head. Then when I said I couldn't find him, the rail workers moved the train again.
He was found in parts. The largest piece was a hand.
#16
I used to live near a large open stormwater drain with no fencing around it. Three drunk guys drove their car straight into it. I went out and found the driver trying to get his friends foot out of the windshield. On the field on other side of the drain I saw the third passenger who was covered in blood. I asked if they were ok and my neighbour called the ambulance/police.
The blood covered friend passed out and was twitching so I ran to the car, grabbed a towel from the back seat and ran to help him. I found a large, deep cut on the back of his neck/head. I rolled him to his back and used the weight of his head to put pressure on the wound. I was talking to him, trying to keep him awake and he went into shock, twitching and unresponsive.
This was the moment I thought an man died in my hands. I was able to wake him and the ambulance took over from there. That was the most harrowing moment of my life.
#17
That moment you know your going to be in a near/possibly fatal car crash and there is no longer anything you can do to avoid it. So you close your eyes and await impact. And so much happens in that moment, it's like time stands still. Then it stops, and you survived, and your cognizant and you look around to assess the situation. Look down at your mangled self... it's been almost 25 years. I've blocked a lot of it but I can still see all that blood on my hands.
#18
I was waiting at a red light at a four way intersection. It turned green, I looked over at a gas station and saw my friend pumping gas. I leaned out the window to give him the finger and yell at him. If I had just driven off I would have been in an accident due to a guy who ran a red light doing at least 65. Saved by being an jerk.
#19
My first job was working at a gas station. One night when business lulled after rush hour, a car drove up and the man inside it asked me for directions to a restaurant. I started giving him directions and he asked me to come closer because he couldn't hear very well over the noise from the street. I thought it was reasonable, so I took a couple steps closer to his car.
As I was explaining how to get to the restaurant from the gas station the man interrupted me and said "You have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen. I'd like to put them in a jar on my desk so I can look at them all day." The guy I was working with quickly yanked me away from the man's car and told the creep that he needed to leave or the cops would be called.
#20
When my son was born (c-section), he stopped breathing, the doctors managed to revive him, it felt like 5 minutes of sheer panic but in reality it was more like 30 seconds, I have the whole thing on video, I was recording when they lift him above the sheet and forgot to press stop on the recording, I watched the video back a couple of years later and you can hear the panic in my voice, I asked the nurse if he was going to be ok and she said she doesnt know.
Luckily 9 years later hes a very healthy happy boy.
Edit: Wow, I didnt expect that many upvotes and replies!
A little more on this and why it actually happened, my partner is type 1 diabetic and towards the end of pregnancy the baby started to take more insulin resulting in him growing rapidly from week 33, we then had to go for regular ultrasounds to determine when was best to get him out. Size was an issue as my partner is only 5'2 and slim, but they didnt want to deliver him too early as he wouldn't be fully developed.
He ended up being delivered by c-section on week 36 and weighed 7lbs11oz, basically he was too big to be inside my partner and they had to get him out.
His lungs weren't quite developed yet so he had to go on a ventilator for 11 days, after that he was fine and hasn't had any lung/breathing related issues since, he plays a lot of sports now too and it has never affected him.
We are actually having another baby boy in 9 days time, this time we have managed to reach week 38 as my wife has managed her glucose levels much better this time so he is growing at a normal rate so hopefully this time there will be no complications 🤞.
EnchantedEevee 9 minutes ago
Congratulations on the newest addition to your family. I'm sure Big Brother will love showing his new sibling the ropes! So glad it all turned out well for y'all!
#21
My husband forgot to close the baby gate at the top of our stairs and I walked out of our bedroom to see our 10 month old baby sitting right at the edge of the top step. When he turned to look at me he lost his balance and like a slow motion horror story he went over the edge and tumbled all the way down. I screamed and ran down after him and scooped him up to check him over. Thank God he was completely fine and he even stopped crying after only like 2 minutes. I was so certain he was going to be seriously hurt. Terrifying.
#22
Looking over to the staircase one night after I put my 3 year old to bed. He woke up. Got past the baby gate and tumbled head first down 10 concrete stairs. Bouncing and rolling. I screamed a scream that I still hear almost a decade later. I thought he was dead, as I finally reached his body. He was face down. Looked up at me and smiled and saw the hirror on my face. He then decided to cry. I will never forget how mortified I was. My son is my life. The only good Ive done in this world.
#23
My wife and I were backpacking in a semi remote area with our dog. We made camp and swam in a nearby river for a while before making dinner. As we’re eating, our dog starts barking and I look up to see a guy walking down the hillside toward our camp.
As he comes closer I see that he’s visibly tweaking. He’s not wearing a shirt and around his neck he’s wearing a double coil of thick chain attached with a combination master lock. At his waist he has a Japanese style katana, but the hilt/handle has been replaced with a large elk antler.
I walk over to see what he wants and my usually friendly dog is going crazy barking and growling at him. He won’t make eye contact with me and keeps stealing glances at my wife. We’re in the middle of nowhere and he tells me he’s looking for a place to set up camp and he has some friends coming up. He mentions something about a “goat” but he’s mumbling so I don’t really catch it.
I say uhhh ok and he starts looking around where we’re camped and says “this looks like a pretty sweet spot”. He turns around and starts walking around the area. He then pulls out the katana and starts hacking branches off trees. This isn’t some prop katana. It’s hacking off 3” branches in one fell swoop.
My hair is standing on end and my gut tells me not to stick around to see how this movie ends. He tells us he’s going to mark the main trail so his buddies know where to come down and find him. As soon as he leaves we immediately pack up our s**t and hike out 8 miles in the dark.
On the way out we have our headlamps on, walking down a single track trail. We come around a corner and a guy in a white tank top sees us, turns around and bolts down the trail back the way he came from-in the direction we’re walking. I’m extra weirded out now.
We round a curve and he’s standing there breathing heavy. My headlamp catches his face and he’s smiling. I pause and tell him we’re just hiking out. He smiles again, looks at our dog and says “nice puppy”. We sidle past him and pass a large cooler that he was obviously dragging up the trail. No idea what was in it, but it definitely had been used to store bloody meat at some point as the outside was covered in old dry blood.
No idea what would have happened but I imagined them camped next to us in the middle of nowhere, asking us to “party” with them. My dad always told me to trust my gut and I’m glad I did.
TLDR: possibly avoided a Deliverance scenario in the middle of tweaker backcountry.
#24
I worked at a Hooters. One day I was taken into the office and my manager showed me a note written from someone who claimed to be in jail. He said before he went back to jail he had seen me at a Walmart (and specified a day I remembered being there) and had recognized me as someone he knew when I was a child.
He then went on to talk about how he had asked my dad for permission to marry me and that my father never let him see me again. He talked about love notes that he sent me and that now that he had found me, he was going to reunite with me in a couple weeks when he got released from jail. He left a number to reach one of his friends and when my manager googled the number, the first result was a contact number for a white painters van that my manager swore he had seen in the parking lot some nights.
Needless to say I was walked to my car for the remainder of my career there.
Apatheist Account2 2 hours ago
I imagine this sort of attraction happens to many women who do jobs intended to appeal to the male libido.
#25
Seeing my dad collapsed on the floor and my mom panicking and crying trying to call an ambulance. Then seeing him die (he was clinically dead for just over a minute) there on the floor and be revived by the EMTs and be carted off to the hospital. He later died a second time and could not be brought back. I was 12 and I’m the one who called all the family members while waiting for the ambulance. I’m the one who had to tell my grandma her son might die.
Samantha H 9 hours ago
Very sad story and traumatising indeed, I was an EMT for many years and went to many scenes like this one.
#26
When I saw someone try and jump off a bridge, only to be talked down as i was driving past and then change their mind and jump at exactly the moment I passed. One moment they were there and then I looked in the side mirror, they fell and were just gone.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
#27
Oxygen tank cut off air while on a scuba dive 15m under water at NIGHT.
To this day no one knows how the oxygen tank closed.
It wasn’t malfunctioning cause I realised the problem 20 mins into the dive. For 20 mins there was absolutely no problem.
#28
My little boy, about 1 year old at the time, was in the shower with me and he fell lifeless in my arms and started to turn blue, quickly.
Long story short he had had his first seizure and he had two that day.
#29
Backcountry skiing in some moderate fog. I thought I knew where I was going until it thickened up a bunch and I realized I REALLY couldn't distinguish terrain features (white snow against a white fog backdrop). I was about to stop to figure out where I was until my eyes locked onto some sharp dark features that just materialized near my feet.
I looked down just as I felt this floaty anti gravity feeling and realized I was was looking at not quite vertical cliff face that I had just lofted off of. I decided to just look like a boss, track out clear of the rocks, and stick the landing after what felt like a 200m fall only to have my skiis bury in snow and just stick. I blew out both bindings and made a face first snow angel in deeeep powder.
I rolled onto my back to admire what was actually only a 8-10m fall and laugh my a*s off.
#30
I live in rural Ohio, and on my way home from work one night, driving a 94 Honda accord, I had to stop for 2 deer in the road. About 50 yards in front of me, a car in the other lane was turning left and the driver behind him wasn't paying attention, rear ending him pushing his car into my lane where i surely would've hit him had i not stopped for the deer. Less than a week later, I bought a brand new 2003 Jeep wrangler(16 miles on it when i drove it off the lot). About 10 miles away from the car lot driving home, a deer jumps in front of me smashing the front right panel, door, and denting the hood($1700 worth of damage). Effffff.
tldr; deer saves me from car accident in old car, 3 days later in brand new car i hit a deer. trolled by deer.
#31
My husband and I were driving home from a city two hours away, and since it is a drive that I have done many times in my life, I sat back and read a book.
Not even an hour into the drive, I felt the gravity of the car veering and I looked up from my book to see why my husband was pulling over. Unfortunately, my husband was NOT pulling the car over. When I looked up, my eyes saw a vehicle crossing the median and veering into our lane--each of us doing 70, head-on. Luckily, my husband doesn't use cruise control and he keeps a cool head, so his quick thinking put our car into the ditch, narrowly missing the man coming at us.
When the other guy ditched and while we were all talking to the police, the man said he had a blackout and didn't remember what happened. Much to our fright, however, the cop just told the man to get to a hospital, and let the guy drive HIMSELF away. Very scary day (and I don't really read much in the car anymore.).
#32
Tandem skydive. During orientation I was trained to pull the ripcord at the indicated moment. The instructor did not provide the anticipated indication. Instead he pulled it himself with no warning. The sudden, unexpected change in velocity convinced me that something had gone wrong and that I had disconnected from the instructor. I was, for the briefest moment, 100% convinced that I was in free fall without a parachute. Just as quickly, we were leisurely floating under the canopy. But that brief moment was the most frightening of my life.
#33
Earlier this year while backing our truck up at night on a mountain road, our rear tire slipped off the road. The truck rolled twice down the side of the very steep mountain. We miraculously landed upright on a fire road below the road we’d been on originally. The moment the first tire went off the side and I could feel us falling was by far the scariest moment of my life.
#34
A buddy of mine asked me and three other friends of our to come over and help him remove some trees, so we had two chainsaws going and the friend who owns the land was cutting down a tree when the tree I was cutting fell in the wrong direction and pinned his leg and hand to the ground. Instantly me and my other friend all had adrenaline running through us and three of us picked up a 15 meter tree and freed our friend. A couple days after that we tried to pick up the same tree and it would NOT budge, freaky how strong you can be when adrenaline is pumping through you, oh and my friend lived with a couple broken bones.
#35
I was a firefighter on an aircraft carrier during quite a large fire at sea. I was fortunate that the fire never reached my area, but I could hear enough of the communications back and forth (the ones going over the shipwide 1MC loudspeakers) to know that it had the potential to get really bad.
I heard later from some buddies up on the flight deck that 36 Sparrow and 18 Sidewinder missiles had been engulfed in flames for 45 seconds past their cookoff time (the time at which you must assume they could explode at any moment). So it came pretty close to being a bad, bad scene.
#36
When I was very young, about 3 or maybe 4, I was at a BMX race meet with my dad and my brother. I thought I was a big girl then and insisted that my dad let me walk the couple of hundred meters down the hill to the snacks van to get an ice cream. Since the whole walk, and me standing to buy the ice cream was all in sight of my dad, he said okay, gave me some coins and sent me down the hill.
I went down and stood in line, the lovely ladies helped me and I got the ice cream I wanted. I was smiled at by the couple of people lined up behind me to make purchases. And I grinned all the way back up the hill while I enjoyed my ice cream.
I sat down under our little tarpaulin tent/shade set up to eat the rest when BOOM
The snack van exploded into a huge f*****g fireball. The 2 ladies that worked there and 2 of the people who had stood in the line behind me died.
Apparently one of the huge gas cylinders on the side of the van that powered the burners inside had sprung a leak and just went up.
I dropped my ice cream and ran and hid under the tarpaulin at the back of our tent, and apparently was screaming for hours. My dad really had to struggle to get me out and home.
I don't remember too much of it really. I do remember the fireball, and being able to feel the heat of it, and oddly, I always remembered the faces of the lady who gave me my ice cream and the people in line behind me.
#37
When I was 13 I was staying at a hotel in new york with my family and decided to get some hot chocolate in the lobby. When I went back to the elevator there was already a man in it holding the door for me. He had pressed the button for a different floor than mine and I pressed my floor. The whole time in there he was just staring at me. When the elevator stopped at my floor I got out, the man waited but I had a weird feeling and noticed he had gotten out too, which immediately made me suspicious. I contemplated throwing my hot chocolate at him but decided to just run to my parents room. When he saw me knocking on the door he went back in the elevator. Thinking back, I was extremely lucky that the hotel had open floors where each floor sort of looks down on the lobby, i’m sure if it was more closed he would’ve done something.
#38
In the wee hours of a cold winter night in downtown Indianapolis, I (24) was riding my bicycle home to the dorms (2 miles) from my job as a night cook. It sucked bad enough as it was in that dry-ice Indiana cold, but I had no car. A car full of predatory men start harassing me. Driving along side me, taunting me, they suddenly brake, and I take off on my bike through the tree dotted university grounds, between some buildings and ‘round back to the dorms. It happened at the perfect place because they couldn’t drive into that area with the trees. What if it happened 1/2 mile earlier? What if I had hesitated a second? I took a taxi home every night after work after that. The last two hours of every shift therefore went to cab fare, but I’m still alive. Those were hard times.
#39
Well my sister "ran away" when she was 4 once. Our whole family checked the house for 45 minutes and still no sign of her. That's when we called the police. Our neighbors were checking around the woods near our house, too. I had no idea what happened to her. It turns out she was hiding under the side table in my parents bedroom. It had a happy ending, but I was nervous and protective of my family for a while after that.
#40
I live in NYC and work the graveyard shift. I get out about 4-5am every night. So I'm on the subway and I jump on the 1 train and there is this guy sitting alone with a fedora and a trench coat. we're the only two in the car.
I look at him right before I step on and we make eye contact. His eyes are bloodshot and crossed and I hesitate right before getting on and he notices clearly. I get on anyway and walk down to the complete opposite side of the car. I'm bigger than him (he's a small fat, pale white, middle aged bald guy) but he is just staring me down and hasn't taken his hands out of his pockets.
He has his eyes locked on me and it's making me uncomfortable so I just turn and start staring at him (thinking he might look away quickly). Instead, he stands up. I immediately stand up too and we are just standing at either end of the car looking at each other.
As we're pulling up to the next stop, I walk up to the door like I'm getting off. The car stops and the doors open (still no one in sight) and I jump off the train. He jumps off too. I wait for the *Ding!* the doors make before closing and jump back in right as they close. He doesn't make it. As the train starts to pull out this guy just stares me down through the glass. I waved goodbye with a big grin.
TL;DR: Had a staring contest with a cross-eyed freak in the NYC subway at 4am.
#41
A few years ago me and some friends hiked up a creek until we found a suitable camping spot. We just pitched up on a sandbar we found with a nice fishing hole next to it. Later that day we hiked up the creek a bit more and found an abandoned partially built house. Pretty much just had the walls and roof up. There was a notice of permit violation on the door from several years before. Everything inside looked like it had been undisturbed for years. There was a few cans of PBR that had expired two years prior.
The only way in or out was a primitive forest service road. We walked up the road for about an hour trying to find where it connected to a main road but couldn't find any evidence of civilization anywhere so we headed back to the camp site.
The next day we got completely obliterated and went back to the house. There was an old rusting car that was completely overgrown with brush. We had our fun destroying it, went through the abandoned house and kicked in the door to an old shed to explore it. It was a big drunken good time and we weren't hurting anything as this place had clearly been abandoned and it's natural deterioration was doing much more damage than we could hope to.
The next day me and one of the guys hiked a ways farther up the creek to find some better fishing. This would be a good time to point out that I'm almost always armed when camping until the booze starts flowing. So we were up the creek from the campsite with the old house between us and any hope of escape.
After finding a spot to drop our lines and sharing the silence and peacefulness that you have on the last day of a camping trip, we heard it.
Gunshots.
Ok, no big deal. We're out in the middle of nowhere, in NW Washington. People shoot everywhere all the time.
Then a dog. *Close.*
So we get behind a tree and start staking out our path back. There was a big group of people at the house with a dog, and they were shooting rifles. They also appeared to be taking a close look at the busted up car that we had gone to town on. They had driven in so they obviously knew the house was there previously. These were some quite authentic rednecks and there was literally no way to get help if something went down. We had hiked up the river for a couple hours, no cell reception, no one in earshot to call out to.
I had my pistol on me, and I'm one hell of a shot with it, but if these guys did want to mess with us, it was my eight round mag of .45's versus several of them with rifles.
So we got on our hands and knees and slowly worked our way through some blackberry vines trying not to make enough noise to alert their dog. At one point in the vines the dog heard something and started barking in our direction. I saw a rifle pointed our way while the dog was barking but the brambles were thick enough that they couldn't see us.
We barely made it back to the camp site without being seen. We immediately started packing up to the sounds of them shooting and loudly yelling. It was pretty terrifying and at several points I thought we were going to be seen and have to go toe to toe with a bunch of rednecks with guns asking why we were on their property.
Lesson learned: No matter how abandoned something *looks*, just leave it alone.
#42
When I was about 6 years old I went to this seedy carnival that was set up in a mall parking lot with my dad and my grandma. We were waiting on line for the infamous pirateship ride. My dad got off the line to get us drinks. Maybe about 5 minutes later a man grabs my hand and says "come on! This lines too long" and starts leading me away. I remember my grandma yelling after me "mel! thats not your father!"
I looked up and saw this man wearing matching a matching pair of faded denim jacket and jeans, cheap nascar sunglasses, and a fire fighter's mustache. When he saw that my grandma was screaming he let go of my hand and vanished into the crowd.
We told these cops that were standing by their cars and they said they couldn't do anything (??)
It actually bothered me for a very long time.
#43
I'm currently on a bicycle trip across America. I was riding in Southern lllinois about 6 or 7 days ago, trying to make it to Mt. Vernon. There was about 15 miles between towns, with noting but farmlands in between when a storm started rolling in. I'm from Florida, so I don't have much experience in Tornado conditions, but the wind started gusting at 25-30 mph, the clouds were dark and fast moving, rain began and was nearly horizontal into our face, and it suddenly got cold. My friend and I basically were constantly looking for what ditch we would dive into if we saw a tornado. Needless to say, the 8 miles to the next town went slowly, and I was scared shitless. This of course being within days of Joplin, and countless other tornados. Once we got to St. Louis a few days later we watched Twister, and with the teachings of Bill Paxton, I feel much safer if that situation should arise again.
#44
When I was a kid the street I lived was built on a hill. I would walk my bike up it and zoom down it over and over again. There was a busy intersection at the bottom/ end of the street so I knew to slow down and turn around at a certain point.
One day I had a friend of the family over he was around my age. I let him use an old bike of mine and we both started down the hill at the same time. Near the end of the street I turned to go back but he raced right past me at full speed. Unfortunately the bike I gave him didn't have hand brakes, it was the kind where you have to pedal backwards to stop. He was headed straight for the busy intersection and I remember yelling "PEDAL BACKWARDS, PEDAL BACKWARDS!!!!!!" He either didn't know what I was saying or he was going too fast to stop, so he kept picking up speed going right towards busy traffic. For about 2-3 seconds I thought at age 8 I was going to witness someone dying in front of me. Thankfully at the last second he bailed right and landed in a ditch on the side of the street.
#45
Doctors inform me that our 2 year old daughter has high white blood cell counts and is likely an indicator of pediatric cancer while wife is travelling for work.
Have to go get additional blood work and wait days for results.
Turns out she was fighting some bug and is healthy, but that precious few days was the scariest time of my life.
Edit: if I remember correctly, she had red dots everywhere or something else like that going on in addition to the white blood cell thing. This was 6 years ago, so thankfully, some of the memories have faded.
#46
I’ve had a lot of dicey situations in the world dealing with other people and animals, but the most scared I’ve ever been was when I got home after a long work weekend out of town 32 weeks pregnant and I started bleeding.
I’d had three previous miscarriages, but all super early. I thought I was finally in the clear, and my pregnancy had been healthy and uneventful up to that point. Laying in that hospital bed waiting to hear what the doctors had to say was the worst hour of my life. Full of fear, regret, anger at myself for working that weekend, anger at the world, grief for all my pregnancies.
It turned out I had an “angry cervix” from being so active and my baby was fine. She’s five years old now and perfect, but for that short time I thought my world was falling apart.
Kittehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 1 hour ago
I had a similar experience. That time waiting to find out if the baby is okay was endless.
#47
I've got a lot of ulcer-related problems. Stress, drinking, and smoking all play a really big part. This comes back into play later.
After a really long drive (10 hr+) me and my friend finally get back to my place. For whatever reason I decided to take acid with about an hour left in the drive. I get back to my place, messing around, whatever. Eventually my friend goes to sleep and I start watching Netflix or something. Around 4 A.M., still tripping, I go to the bathroom to take a dump.
What my friend didn't tell me was that he clogged it earlier with a big one himself. I walked in, sat down, and went on with my business. Now, as a result of my ulcers and a really long and stressful week, there was a lot of blood in my stool. At least half a cup of blood. I wiped, stood up when I was done, and flushed.
There was a horrific gargling sound as the toilet gasped desperately for more air...or water. Whatever. Then, before I could comprehend, the toilet discharged back at me. Blood and feces shot over me and the walls, the LSD still in full effect. I froze. I contemplated my life and what I had deserved to be sent to hell. I made zero sound, I did not move an inch.
About 5 minutes later I calmly walked out to the living room covered in blood, sweat, and tears...and doo-doo water... and nudged my friend on the couch. Quietly crying, I asked him if this was real life.
#48
I studied abroad in the US when I was a junior in high school and the first few weeks were just one scary moment tbh.
My host family forgot to pick me up from the airport so I was stranded there for hours and then they turned out to be part of some extremely religious cult. I guess the scariest moment happened around three weeks in when someone brought a rifle to school and made the school go into a full lockdown. I think I'll never forget the sound of the sirens, the crying, and the rattling of the barriers in front of the doors coming down.
There were some shots but luckily, no one got hurt and the shooter was escorted out by our "school cops".
#49
Losing my 3 year old at a crowded children's museum. I was tending to her brother and when I turned around she was gone. I scoured the entire 2 floors of the place and found her in the last place I looked, happily playing at the water station. She had even put a smock on herself.
Roberta Surprenant 58 minutes ago
Duh, always at last place you looked because you stop looking once found.
#50
I live close to the woods and I regularly walk my dog there. I was walking back there one day and I heard this growling noise. I looked around expecting to see someone's dog that had gotten loose, but instead I saw a freaking wolf stalking my dog. Well my dog is about the size of a kitten that is a few months old. I ran up to him picked him up and ran as fast as I could towards the road. The wolf did chase us for quite sometime but as soon as we got to the road some cars came and scared away the wolf. I thought I was going to die along with my dog! I swear someone was looking after me that day!
#51
My younger brother sleepwalks. He'd just stand by my bed silently, until I'd snap awake and see his silhouette looming over me. Sometimes, he turns on the lights when he's sleepwalking. I woke up one night, and he was standing there, turning the lights on and off ... on and off ...
I got him back to bed, and I went downstairs to sleep for the rest of the night.
At around 4:00 a.m., I woke up to see all of the lights downstairs were switched on.
#52
I was in India for work, staying at a fairly nice hotel. I don't do this often - I usually like to head straight to the room and order room service while watching a movie - but I decided to have a drink at the lobby bar.
I had a drink on my own, there was no one else around in the bar and I made small talk with the bar tender. I ordered another drink and decided to use the bathroom. I was gone a couple of minutes and when I got back I noticed that my drink (scotch and dry) had a cloudy white rim at the top which isn't normally there. On closer inspection, the cloudy froth was settling into a powdery residue on the side of the glass.
I asked the bar tender what was wrong with the drink and he at first acted like he didn't notice anything. I was suspicious now and kept at it until he acknowledged he saw something - I mean, it was obvious, there was this froth 2-3mm around the glass.
Then he said that it always happens and its nothing. I then looked him directly in his eyes and asked, did he put anything in my drink. It's hard to explain, but his response, though it was no, told me everything I needed to know. So I made out like I was more curious than anything, and asked him whether he would taste it. He said no and said he would pour me another. I declined and said I would drink it, but i just wanted him to tell me if it was off or not.
All this while, there was this awkward vibe where we both knew the jig was up but we were pretending like this wasn't happening. I paid up and left the drink where it was, locked and latched my door, the whole time picturing myself lying in a bath of ice, sans organs.
#53
My mom swears that one night when I was a baby, she woke up to me crying. She flicked on the light and I was covered from head to toe in blood. Needless to say, she freaked out. Anyways, she takes me to the bathtub and gets me cleaned and back into bed. The strangest part: she couldn't find a single cut or open wound.
She's a superstitious lady and believes jinn (poltergeist-like creatures in Arabic/Islamic culture that like to do all kinds of crazy things) had something to do with it. I just wish I was old enough to remember that night.
And no, she's not the kind of person who would troll me. Having known her for 20 years now, I *know* that she genuinely she has a memory of this incident.
#54
My mother's story, not mine, as narrated to me, a redditor:
"Me and my friends had just finished exams to close out our junior year at CS: Northridge and decided to go camping in Yosemite (or thereabouts) before we all had to start summer jobs. There were seven of us, three girls and four guys, including me, my friend J, and her boyfriend D.
We took two cars with the guys in the lead car and us girl traveling behind. They pulled off into the first campsite they could find because it was getting dark and they wanted to set up tents in an area they could clearly see. We all hiked into a field near a pine forest and set up our tents before we fanned out to start finding kindling for a fire. J felt uneasy and decided to stay at camp while everyone else searched.
When we returned, J was agitated but not enough for us all to be concerned. We assumed she didn't like the location of the campsite or that she was having problems with D or that she just wasn't fond of camping. We built a fire and sang worship songs (they were all involved in local churches).
After singing and joking around we went to bed. The boys went in one tent and the three of us girls slept in the another. Sometime during the night our tent was unzipped and someone slipped in and crawled up parallel to J. I thought it was D trying to wake J and talk to her about something because I could feel her body moving like she was being shaken awake.
I told D that he couldn't be in here, and that if he needed to talk to J, he should do it in the morning. Her body stopped moving, and D slinked out. I quickly fell back asleep.
The next morning we all woke up, and made breakfast but realized J wasn't with us. We called to her but she didn't come out of the tent. I asked D what he said to her last night. D said that he told her that once they started hiking and exploring, she would enjoy camping. I responded, "'Why did you have to tell her that in the middle of the night?'" He cocked his head to the side like [our dog used to do when he was confused], and replied, "'No, I told her that at dinner. The only time I got up last night was to pee."
Skeptical, I went into the tent to ask J myself. She was on her left side facing the wall of the tent. I grabbed her shoulder and rolled her onto her back. Her sleeping bag was spongy and wet with blood. She had been stabbed in the chest several times. They still don't know who did it".
#55
One time back in highschool i got an ulcer and i almost doed because i dodnt go to the hospital for 3 days. I spent 2 months in the hospital stuck glued to a bed, with an iv and they fed me through drip. The scariest thing was that I would lay there and i lost reason to do anything. Didnt need to eat, move, just lay there like a corpse. So all I could do was dream about how to die and escape the purposeless life which felt like a eternity forgetting what even being human is.
What do you think ?
monsieur mabel 55 minutes ago
....the catacombs in paris last december was the scariest place i have ever been to....the long tunnel getting there, the low ceilings and all those bones....scrambled out of there as fast as i could....really freaked me out.....😳
Sarah 8 minutes ago (edited)
How did the the builders ever find their way out? Those catacombs and nutty putty are stuff of nightmares
Load More Replies... Samantha H 8 hours ago
Fascinating and terrifying stories, not the best start to the morning though, time to check out some cute animal pics.
Sarah 9 hours ago (edited)
Was sick ( chest infection— unstoppable coughing at 5am . It was summer so bright Left house to not wake anyone and went to local Park. Like a fishbowl. One door in and out. As I walked in a man on his own was walking out . I got the creeps so turned to leave. He was standing in the tiny gateway staring down my path. Holding a rope. I stopped and stared and stared and was frozen in fear. He stared at me and suddenly it dawned on him… he shouted a name and a little doggie came racing up the path. It was so awful for both of us.. ( he knew I thiight he was going to strangle me) that it was beyond apology and ‘laughing’ abt it
monsieur mabel 55 minutes ago
....the catacombs in paris last december was the scariest place i have ever been to....the long tunnel getting there, the low ceilings and all those bones....scrambled out of there as fast as i could....really freaked me out.....😳
Sarah 8 minutes ago (edited)
How did the the builders ever find their way out? Those catacombs and nutty putty are stuff of nightmares
Load More Replies... Samantha H 8 hours ago
Fascinating and terrifying stories, not the best start to the morning though, time to check out some cute animal pics.
Sarah 9 hours ago (edited)
Was sick ( chest infection— unstoppable coughing at 5am . It was summer so bright Left house to not wake anyone and went to local Park. Like a fishbowl. One door in and out. As I walked in a man on his own was walking out . I got the creeps so turned to leave. He was standing in the tiny gateway staring down my path. Holding a rope. I stopped and stared and stared and was frozen in fear. He stared at me and suddenly it dawned on him… he shouted a name and a little doggie came racing up the path. It was so awful for both of us.. ( he knew I thiight he was going to strangle me) that it was beyond apology and ‘laughing’ abt it
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