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63 Halloween Stories That Were Much Scarier Than Anything People Had Planned
Spooky season is upon us, and that means it’s time to send some well-curated chills down your spine. No matter how many horror movies you watch, video games you play, and books you read, you can never 100% prepare yourself for real danger and fear.
We are featuring the best stories that people shared in online threads about the most horrifying and unsettling things that they have ever experienced on Halloween. We’re all calm, cool, and collected until the moment something scary starts happening to us. Keep scrolling to get into the Halloween mood.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
When I was a kid we opened the front door in between groups of trick-or-treaters and a huge solid black cat ran in. It was terrified and cowered under the kitchen table. We made it a comfortable spot in a back bedroom so it could hide out the rest of night. The next day, we put up flyers and talked to the neighbors but no one recognized him. We named him Satan and he lived the rest of his life with us. Every Halloween we made sure he was in his safe spot in the back bedroom so he wouldn’t panic and run off again. Satan was a very good boy.
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#2
When I was in college, I sat out one Halloween because it was in the middle of the week and I had class the next day. I lived in an apartment off campus and was sitting in my living room playing a video game, when suddenly my front door burst open. A bunch of children in costume walked right into my living room and kitchen demanding candy. I didn't really have anything to give them because I didn't know that there were even trick-or-treaters in my building. I had always been out for Halloween. There wasn't an adult to be found among them. To this day, I'm convinced those weren't children at all, but adult midgets.
#3
Trick or treating when I was a kid there was a little shortcut through some woods connecting to parts of the neighborhood. After we got candy from all the houses on one side, most of us would cut through to the other side
One year, we were less than halfway through the trail (it was maybe 80 yards total) and a tree jumped out and scared the life out of us. Some man had built a fairly elaborate tree costume and probably had the best time scaring kids all night. It was amazing.
Not everyone’s a fan of Halloween or horror in general, and that’s fine. Many people, however, are very enthusiastic both about the holiday and horror-themed entertainment. The question is, why? After all, being scared isn’t a particularly pleasant experience. Or is it?
Well, for starters, consuming horror stimulates us mentally and physically in opposing ways. You feel a ton of negative emotions like fear and anxiety, as well as positive ones, like excitement and joy.
#4
I lived on this acreage for a few years when I was 9-14yrs old. The time I lived there was the worst part of my childhood, there was just bad energy and weird things happened out there. Animals were always just dying for no reason. I'd find cats passed outside but not eaten or anything like a coyote got them, but laying on their backs with their eyes & mouths wide open looking scared.
But that's not what my unexplainable experience was, it was that I'd always see in the corner of my eye what I thought looked like "outlines of people", that's how I described it in my mind. I never said anything about it though, it really scared me because as a kid I had this weird fear of the concept of spirits and I thought these things were spirits. I remember seeing those things, and when I'd look at them they'd look as though they were quickly running or moving away. One particular time I recall so well, was when I was sitting on the living room couch and there was a staircase up to a loft to my left. I saw one of the outlines standing there, and I quickly looked and saw it go up the stairs around the wall at the top of the loft. I looked back at the tv but was paying attention to where I saw it in my peripheral vision, and I swear I saw the outline "peek" around the wall at me.
As I got older, I started to rationalize my memories of it as .. maybe I was having a mild mental breakdown at the time cause I was highly stressed since my dad died before we moved there. It was a big change in my life. Once I moved away all the weirdness stopped though. Then one day many years later when I was in my early 20s, me and mom were talking about that place and she casually says.. "Your brother thought there was aliens out there, he would see shapes in the corner of his eye". I immediately without even thinking said, "They weren't aliens, they were spirits!". I asked my brother and yeah, we both saw the exact same thing. We never talked about it cause we both were scared at the time.
#6
Not really a specific event, but we'd go visit friends every halloween, and in their neighborhood there was a popular little haunted house complete with actors that would terrorize kids across the street. There was a guy in mask and a chainsaw (chain removed) and this guy always scared me. You can always hear the revving even driving away. Always made me think we were getting chased.
According to Harvard Business Review, another reason why some people crave horror content so much is that it provides novel experiences.
“Apocalypse horror films, for example, allow us to live out alternative realities — from zombie outbreaks to alien infestations. Some novel experiences can even contribute to our sense of accomplishment, like visiting a notorious haunted house. Being adventurous in this way makes us feel more worldly or daring (not to mention grants us bragging rights)."
#7
About fifteen years ago I was basically my parents’ live in nurse.
One night a couple days before Halloween, I’m in my bedroom and I hear my Dad’s “pained wail” scream (he had phantom pains from losing his leg, they could get pretty intense at times). I heard it clear as day, it was louder than usual but it was definitely the 10/10 super bad phantom pain scream.
I bolt up, run down the hall to my parents’ bedroom - Empty.
I look through the house and find them both watching tv in the living room, my Dad looks perfectly fine. I ask if he screamed, he said he didn’t and neither of them heard anything. The tv wasn’t loud enough to hear from across the house (plus they weren’t watching anything that would have a scream like that - I think they were watching White Christmas) and the scream sounded almost like it was right next to me at the time. They swore up and down they didn’t hear anything.
That’s probably the creepiest experience I’d ever had around Halloween.
#8
This isn’t crazy or anything but my wife and I drove around some backroads listening to Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen one Halloween. It was an absolute mood.
#9
Nothing spooky, sadly. But this one might hit you right in the feels:
When I was a college student, we had a small metropolitian area where all the college kids would hang out. And most college kids would wear a costume mostly because there was a Chipotle that offered a $2 Burrito if you wore a costume.
Anyways, I eventually make my way to the bar that served the cheapest drinks in town, and noticed this girl who was crying on the steps in the patio section. People were ignoring her and just walking past. I start to feel bad and decide to sit next to her. Just make sure she's okay and possibly convince her to move over one of the patio tables so some drunk kid doesn't spill drinks on her.
I find out she recently broke up with her BF and had originally gone out with friends to drink the night away. But at some point, she had wandered away from her friends and ended up getting drunk at this bar. I'm doing my best to legitimately cheer her up and used my self-depricating humor to try and get her to laugh (yes, I know self-depricating humor isn't healthy. Its just my default setting. I'll save that issue for a future prison psychiatrist to fix).
Eventually, she tries to call her friends to pick her up, but she's got no cell signal. I use my phone to call her friends and they ask me to watch her. I do, and I even get her to smile a bit with some of my humor. They eventually pick her up and go home.
Later that night, I couldn't help but reflect that this night was a real test of my character. That I had saw someone who was crying for help, and I acted with kindness.
Again, sorry its not a spooky story. But its defintely a reminder that some people are having hard times during our favorite holiday.
Thirdly, horror content provides you with a way to satisfy your curiosity about the dark(est) sides of humanity from the safety of your home.
“As an inherently curious species, many of us are fascinated by what our own kind is capable of. Observing storylines in which actors must confront the worst parts of themselves serves as a pseudo character study of the darkest parts of the human condition,” HBR explains.
#10
We were a little old to be trick or treating in high school, but we still went. Three of us. We ended up on a street with no houses giving out candy, no other trick or treaters. All of a sudden, we hear a vehicle approach from behind. They slowed way down once they passed, and the driver turned the interior lights on and looked back at us menacingly. He was dressed as a clown with an axe in his head. We laughed it off, but I was super spooked and went home shortly after.
#11
I remember trick n treating with my sister and her friend in San Antonio Texas. It was dark, and we decided to walk along this field near our neighborhood. It looked spooky already but at night it was worse. So we ding dongs, walk along the street. No house in sight, No cars ,wind blowing, full moon, perfect Halloween night. We are just laughing and of course talking about stupid stuff. All of a sudden, we heard some strange sounds coming from the field. Like twigs breaking. we pause and wait. Again crack, crack. I look at my sister and her friend, pale they turned. In just a second, we freaking ran home as fast as we could, and on top, both our parents were not home. We rushed through the door, slammed it shut and then turned on every single light until my mom came home. I was about 16, my sister 12. We still talk about that Halloween.
Some anxious individuals are fans of Halloween and horror, too. Mental health counselor, educator, and advocate Shainna Ali, Ph.D., LMHC, NCC, explains that Halloween offers a way to simulate fear while also helping you stay in control. In a way, fear becomes playful and normalized.
“On a typical day, people who live with anxiety disorders are artfully balancing their thoughts, aiming to discriminate the fine line between reflection and rumination. In a world that generally sends the message that it is unacceptable to have emotions, much less to explore your deepest fears, people who live with anxiety tend to be isolated with their often obsessive inner dialogue. Yet, on Halloween, all things eerie rise from the darkness and the experience of being frightened is normalized,” she writes in a post on Psychology Today.
#13
Not spooky, but genuine human fear.
The Halloween my mom was in the hospital, my dad flew back east because he didn't want to deal with her situation, and my sister was gone to England (the trip was planned months in advance so not exactly premeditated as a slight against my mom). I was home alone, was not well mentally, and just worried about my mom possibly passing away from her infection.
I left candy in a bowl outside the door (we never get trick or treaters out here but I figured it'd be a nice gesture just in case). Watched re-runs of Ghostly Encounters (probably not the best thing to watch at the time).
Thankfully mom pulled through, but that was probably my darkest Halloween from recent memory.
#14
We closed on our house and moved in during the first of August. We had an initial Whirlwind of upgrades like siding and windows, chain link fence around the yard for the dog, painting the walls inside and changing light fixtures and whatnot. So Halloween Night comes and we're new to this community and want to make a good impression with the candy. We have a sort of trough that we filled heaped over with all the good stuff and let kids take handfuls. About $600 worth of candy.. halfway through trick or treating, a couple of women were walking down the sidewalk chatting. We couldn't tell if the children very near them were with them or just part of another crowd that was slightly separated, but the women paused at our front porch and said, "We really love what you've done with this place! We've been keeping up on it peeking through your windows!" The only Windows you could see into from outside are a window facing the alley where you would have to stand on something a couple feet high to see in, or open the gate to come up on the porch and walk around the side to look in.
#15
My best friend slept over that night after trick or treating, we were probably 11/12 years old. We usually fall asleep to a movie in our sleeping bags on the floor in the living room during our sleepovers. I remember waking up to a light in my face, maybe around 3 am. We had the blinds to the windows closed, but I could see what I assumed to be a flashlight light beaming through the cracks in the blinds. I just closed my eyes and put the sleeping bag covers over my head. The next day I told my friend but she didn’t believe me. Spooky!
Halloween also creates opportunities for connection, empowerment, and preparation.
For example, this holiday allows anxious people to control their exposure to fear. It’s up to you whether to engage with horror content or not, and to what extent.
#17
One year when I was in my late teens I put on my father’s old trench coat, hid in a bush. As older kids walked past I ran out after them. I’m 63 now and can’t do that anymore. Kids will come back and probably vandalize my house or car.
#18
Calling it a night. No Candy left to give out.One Halloween,we kept get door knocks at 3-4am! We turned front porch lights off and within 20 minutes we had knocks again.When I went to the door there was grown people dressed up and asking for treats...no lie.I told them to leave and ended up staying up until the sun come up.Creepy stuff man.
“People who live with anxiety get to experience a closed cycle of anticipation, approach, startle, and relief. The decision to spin through this may feel empowering, and that sense of accomplishment may also spill over into one’s perceived abilities to manage anxiety,” Ali explains.
Meanwhile, curiosity about horror content can make you more psychologically and emotionally resilient to real-life stress. Though, of course, real-life practice and exposure beat media and entertainment.
#19
When I say younger I was scared of one person, my bully, that we will call....Jessica. (not her real name) so I was going truck or treating. It was my first Halloween as something other than a princess. I was a black cat. My mom was a witch. Then we saw Jessica at tge door to a house. I stood there hoping she wouldn't see me. But she did. And she screamed. And was looking at my feet. I looked down and saw something black and furry. (Most likely a cat or small dog) I couldn't really make out what it was but I said thank you to it with my 4 year old brain. And I preyed to the gods for like a week thanking that Creature. Because Jessica stopped bullying me. I was proud for being a Scary preschooler in her eyes. .
#20
Not technically Halloween night but a few days before Halloween. I was 17-18 at the time and there usually isn't much to do in our town at the age except go to this old abandoned factory that we used to go to all the time to explore and pretty much spend time.
Well me and a couple buddies decided to go and for once it was still kinda light out when we went. We did the usual cross the road into the bushes then make a bee line to the first building. Well this day it smelled like absolute trash inside and we all commented about it and continued being a bunch of dudes climbing on things breaking bottles being loud ECT.
Then out of nowhere we started hearing loud bangs and almost whimper like sounds so we shut up and started listening and started to go towards the noise well we rounded a corner and found a homeless guy on the ground with heavy blood loss to his legs and we immediately tried to help him and he kept asking us if ITS gone or if IT is still around we immediately called 911 and I took off my belt for a tourniquet. His legs looked like they went through a meat grinder is all I can describe it.
We figured rescue would have a hell of a time getting to where we were at so we all decided to just scoop him up and carry him out to the road well in the panic and the struggle of carrying this big guy I happen to look behind us and up to my right and seen the largest hairy black creature standing in a doorway on two feet and the sun was just hitting it right and I seen the man's blood on its face and chest. We don't have bears where I'm located and the only way I can describe it as is it was big foot but I dont believe in a big foot living in a suburb of a large city. Never knew what ever happened to that guy the police never said anything never asked us questions or nothing.
#21
I lived on the last street before you came to nothing but undeveloped land/wilderness whatever. No trees just sagebrush but we have been known to have a few rogue animals sometimes. I was (15F) and coming home from a friend's house. It was about 11 at night, super dark and not many street lights. The only street light on my street is the one on the corner of the street and then my house is another six houses down. Now there was a little inlet on the corner that went to the wilderness almost like an old camping sight. It essentially made the corner a T. I have to pass the corner light to get home. So I'm approaching the light. I can see it up ahead and I'm not really paying attention. Then the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. At this point I'm super close to the light.
I look around and I spot it. Just outside the light on the other side in the inlet is a very large mountain lion. I almost soiled my pants. I'm too close to it to back away. It's eyes are looking straight at me so I know it's seen me and the only way to safety is through the light. I would have to skirt around the light on my side and hopefully it stays on the inlet side.
I keep walking deliberately and slowly while never taking my eyes off of the mountain lion. As I'm walking towards her, she never moves, just watching me. When I get past the point of being able to see her and keep walking forward I slowly swivel and walk backwards. As I'm backing up, it takes a step forward eyes on me like it's going to stalk me. Oh no. I can't out run this thing. I just keep stepping backwards slowly. She stays put but only for so long. Every five to six of my steps, she takes a step forward. I know she's getting ready to pounce.
When I get to the edge of our yard I turn and dash to the door. I ran for my life, knowing she was going to pick up the chase the moment I turned. I know she did because I heard her paws thud after me. My heart was pounding. Luckily the door was unlocked. I ran inside and slammed it shut. Leaning on the door, I breathe deep, hard, and heavy then look inside the living room. My parents and older brother are staring at me. I tell them to look outside. They do and she's stalking in our yard. We all watch her from the safety of our window. She was a very beautiful creature but I never want to be that close to one in the wild again. I've had two other close encounters with mountain lions but that was the closest and scariest. It was also the only encounter where I was alone.
What’s the spookiest thing that has ever happened to you on or around Halloween, Pandas? Share your personal stories, no matter how small, funny, or terrifyingly serious, in the comments.
Meanwhile, recommend some movies, shows, games, books, and activities that put you in a thoroughly Halloween mood. We’ll be grateful for any suggestions!
#22
When I was 17 I lived with my friend and her family who pretty much took me in let me stay there in exchange for babysitting. Well my friend, her 8-year-old little cousin, and little cousins best friend who was also 8 went walking to get some face makeup for Halloween, and to get to the Walgreens they had to cross a major Street. They didn't take the crosswalk instead they jaywalked.
Well the car in the lane closest to them stopped, but her cousin and little friend went ahead and the very next Lane the car didn't stop. Her cousin flew I think 17 ft. Ruptured her spleen concussion, tons of road rash she had to stay in the hospital for a couple weeks. Her best friend gott it way worse, she was put into a coma because of brain swelling and trauma from the accident. That was an awful Halloween. Both girls are fine and have kids of their own now.
#23
This is harsh. And my own personal nightmare.
A phone call. Back to back. A text. And knocking. Seeing two police cars and my sisters husbands truck parked in my yard. In that moment I thought something awful happened to my nephew before Halloween trick or treating. In that moment I knew my world was about to stop. “It’s dad. Dads gone”
I hope someday I can enjoy Halloween again without the painful reminder. I hope I can find a way to separate the two.
Since my father’s passing there’s been… things. Odd things have happened. Hoping to meet with a medium soon and maybe have some answers.
#24
I've posted this story before, possibly on another account, if it sounds familiar.
TL;DR: something mimicked my mom's voice and slapped the life out of me.
I was like 7 or 8 years old and my mom had just tucked me into bed. I fell asleep, then I woke up sometime later to my mom's voice saying "time for bed, want me to tuck you in?". I was confused by this given that she already tucked me in. I don't think I responded, because I was sleepy, but then something slapped me across the face *really hard*. I woke up, looked around, nothing was there. Weird. Obviously that freaked me out, so I hid under the covers and tried to go back to sleep. I was shaking and I had that feeling like someone else was in the room with me, standing right behind me, even though no one was there. After a minute I got slapped again, 2 or 3 more times. This was even more confusing given that I was under the blanket, so what the f**k could be slapping me? And why did it have my mom's voice? I was pretty freaked out as you can imagine.
I laid there in fear for what felt like an hour, unable to sleep, then finally I got the courage to get out of bed and go to my mom's room to find out if the voice I heard was really her. She was asleep, and when I woke her up and told her what happened she had no idea what I was talking about. It was not her who came into my room, she was asleep the whole time.
I don't know if it was paranormal or not, maybe it was sleep paralysis or something (I definitely experienced that as a child). But I know I *felt* pretty awake after being slapped in the face, so I'm not sure. If it was just the one slap that startled me awake, I would say it was probably just a dream. But the repeated slaps after I woke up make me doubt that.
The memory of this event has always stuck with me quite vividly, and the details of the story have never changed. Personally I don't think it was sleep paralysis because I know what that feels like, but I really have no idea if it was paranormal or not. I've heard similar stories and people are very quick to attribute experiences like that to "demons", but I don't believe in that kind of thing. I'm not sure I even believe in ghosts, all I know is that experience scared the life out of me and I don't have a convincing explanation for it. There were a lot of other weird things that happened in that house, but that experience was by far the most extreme.
#25
A lot of unexplained activity in the newly built house my parents moved us to for a few years (we didn't last long in that house) but the most terrifying maybe not on paper but to me...
I was home alone that night and took a nap on the sofa when it was still light out. Woke up to a completely dark house and the sound of scratching.
Now, we had a cat but do you know how cats scratch? Quick quick quick with both paws. What I heard was a long slow scratch from one side of the sofa to the other behind me. Like someone dragging their nails sloooowly.
I was laying on my side with my back to the back of the sofa and too terrified to turn around. I heard it again, another sloooow scratch and just kept still with my eyes closed. Maybe it would stop? But after a while, I was scared something bad would happen if I didn't run so once I got the courage, I bolted for my room and locked the door behind me. Slept with the lights on all night and nothing else happened. Didn't leave my room until someone else came home the next day.
We had weird scratching noises in the basement before but never this up close and it just felt... personal.
As a side, I tried to do EVP once in the basement. Within the first 5 seconds you can hear what sounds like someone whispering "get. out ". I played it to many without telling them what it was and everyone hears the same thing I do. Never been brave enough to listen to the whole tape.
#26
I have a pretty weird one. Around 2011, I was 19 and newly married to someone in the Navy. His first duty station was Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was such a great house, right on base. Full garage, kitchen, separate laundry room, 2 bed 2 bath. Beautiful. My husband worked a lot of late nights and would regularly be gone for the bulk of them which added to my general discomfort there. That house was crazy. I would get a little creeped out there by myself.
The first experience was when I was upstairs in the bathroom washing my face. The bathroom was at the top of the stairs directly to the right, next to our bedroom. I was washing my face one evening while my husband was home. He came walking up the stairs pretty slowly and then stood right at the doorway to the bathroom just saying nothing. I was in the middle of scrubbing my eyes so I just said “what?” And he didn’t respond, so I washed the soap off my eyes quickly and glanced up to see no one there. I yelled his name and he called down from the living room “yeah?”. That nearly made me soil my pants but it’s just the precursor to this next part.
One night I had this strange dream. I dreamt that I was running up the stairs as fast as I could. I ran past the bathroom and through the open door to our bedroom. As soon as I reached the bedroom door I woke in my bed, completely startled! I was laying on my side facing the bedroom door. I always kept a night light on in the closet because I was such a scaredy cat so the room was very lightly Illuminated. When I woke up from the dream i saw that in the doorway to the bedroom there was a jet black blob that was nearly the size of the entire doorway, like I guess what you might call an orb? But it wasn’t. It was oblong shaped and irregular. It was like a cloud and it faded fast but it faded in on itself, like shrinking into a little ball until it disappeared completely. It was there and gone within 10 seconds. The way it shrunk though was.. just odd. The edges of the blob were pixilated and it was like the pixels from the edges just pixelated out. That’s how it shrank.
It wasn’t a dream though. I sat awake for a minute wondering was the heck that was until I just closed my eyes again. I told my husband about the incident and he *really* tried to talk me out of it and didn’t want to even discuss it, that is until a few months later.
Nothing much happened after the event and life just continued on as normal and quiet. One day, out of nowhere, my husband just decided to tell me that he actually had seen something too. He worked odd hours so he was usually in bed way before me but was a light sleeper. He said he woke up one night because I had come in the room getting ready for bed. He said he saw what looked like a black orb right next to me as I dressed and he said the edges of that orb were pixelated too.
Would LOVE to know what that could have been.
#27
Funny, I was going to post this at some point anyway. Seems trivial, but for someone who believes there's a practical explanation for everything, this is one of the only events I've never figured out, and it took place not that long ago.
I have a phone that has a stylus. I rarely use it, but sometimes it comes out of its hole on its own, which is totally normal. However, one day, it was completely gone when I actually wanted to use it. Looked everywhere and figured it finally fell out completely and maybe jumped out of my pocket when I took my wallet out at the store or something of that sort. It was just me at home, my partner had the day on and I had the day off. So, I set my phone down, annoyed that the stylus was gone when I actually wanted it. An hour later, my phone rang, I went to check it, spam call. And then I noticed the stylus was back, perfectly in place, but jammed so hard in its hole that while it's perfectly visible and I'd never confuse it for being missing, I haven't been able to remove it since that day. So now the thing is always there, but like Tantalus, I can't get it.
No idea how this occurred.
#28
For some background, I started seeing ghosts and hearing things when I was in high school. It had been going on for a few months at this point. I wasn’t sure if it was real or if I was hallucinating, so I just kind of kept it to myself??
I would see shadow people. They didn’t feel particularly bad or evil, they just stood there and stared at me and it would really creep me out so I tried to avoid or ignore them.
One day I was laying on the couch with my best friend. I saw a shadow person slowly walk over to us and lean over my friend’s face. It just like stared at her for a few seconds and then walked back out of the room. I didn’t say anything because 1) I didn’t know if it was even real and 2) I didn’t want to scare my friend!
But then she told me that she thought that something just leaned over her and looked at her. I literally got chills. This was confirmation that all of this was real!!! I had so many questions and I was way more scared than before.
Scarier stuff happened there, like things moving on their own and me being scratched. But this was the creepiest thing I’ve ever experienced lol.
#29
I lived in a house that we all agreed was haunted. There would be strange sounds in the night, doors opening and closing, sounds of footsteps, the typical stuff. but there was one spectre that multiple people witnessed independently, and we all had the pretty much the same description: not exactly human-like, black, thin and tall, almost like a large umbrella when it was rolled up. It would usually ambush you at the end of a hallway as you were passing by the entrance, or it would be at one end of a winding stairway.
But what got really weird was one day I was talking to my sister and her friends about our curious little interloper, as one of them had just seen him for the first time. Why do I say "him" for something that looks like an umbrella? For some reason I had just started calling him "Bob". while we were talking my sister blurts out "I've just started calling him bob" and my blood ran cold. this same situation played out later with a friend of mine who had seen him several times at this point. "I've just started calling him bob." None of us could really figure out why we had chosen that name for Bob.
Then came the weirdest moment. One night I woke up to this dreadful feeling. Bob was standing in the corner of the room. He let out this weird shriek, like someone suffocating, Gasping for breath/clearly inhaling. I turned toward the lamp on my bedside and turned it on, but he was gone when I looked back at the corner. I sat there for a moment trying to gather my thoughts when my phone rang, It was my friend who had also started calling him bob. I answered, he's panicked, "What the hell! bob just woke me up, standing in the corner of my room shrieking at me!".
#30
When I was around 12, my friend and I saw something that I could never explain. If someone told me they saw this, I wouldn’t believe them, but I know what I saw.
The house I grew up in was on the corner of a city street. The way the house was situated, from my bedroom windows looking out (I had two large ones side by side) you could see the street and the entire side of the house across from us. A guy friend of mine lived on the second floor of that house, and him and his family were gone for the weekend.
My friend and I were in my room playing Nintendo, and I was sitting on my bed facing the windows. It was evening, but must not have been later than 6 or 7 because my friend wouldn’t have been over too late. It was her turn playing and I’m watching the screen, but something catches my eye and I look out of my window and see something in the friend who is gone for the weekend’s home.
I kid you not, it looked like what you would describe a Yeti to be. It was white, as tall as the ceiling, and covered in hair. I frantically told my friend to look and she paused the game and immediately saw the same thing. We got down on the floor and crawled to my window to watch this thing. It was destroying the house. Like, breaking chairs, breaking dishes, ripping up the sofa, etc. I remember asking my friend if she was seeing what I was seeing and she confirmed that she was. We watched this thing for a few minutes and then kinda started diverting our attention to each other in like a oh-my-god-what-the-hell way, and when we eventually looked back, it was gone.
We both kind of seemed to instinctively know that this was something that should stay between us. It wasn’t discussed, but the vibe was there. In order to get home, she would have to walk past that house so she had her dad pick her up. I tried my best to sleep, but kept waking up and looking out to see if I saw it again, but I didn’t.
The next day, I was sitting outside my house waiting for the friend who lived in the house to come home. I felt I needed to be there when they eventually came running out of their destroyed home so that I could try to explain what we saw the night before. They pulled up sometime in the afternoon and I hid behind my door in some kind of fear. Like, I knew this was going to be bad, and I was scared to be a part of it. I watch them go inside and I wait. And wait. And nothing. Eventually the friend and his dad come out to get luggage from the car and look as nonchalant as you can be. At this point, I’m confused. The house was destroyed. We saw it happen. I go across the street to my friend and he greets me. I’m kinda like, “Um…what’s up? Everything cool?” And he starts talking to me about something and it hits me that the house is fine. Everything was as they left it. At this point I’m so confused because I know what I saw. And I have a witness! Later on the friend who witnessed this event and I talk and neither of us can understand what happened. But life just kinda moves on.
It wasn’t until I was an adult and I read about so-called glitches in the matrix that I started to think that might be an explanation for what I saw. Some poor prehistoric creature got whirled into a house, freaked out, and then glitched back, returning everything to its normal state. I mean, yeah it sounds crazy, but I racked my brain for decades trying to come up with something more based in “reality” and I just can’t land on anything.
I’ve only told two people what we saw that night; my mom and my husband. Neither outright say I’m lying, because they know me and know I’m not someone who tells stories, but they don’t seem to enthusiastically believe me either. I get it. They probably think I saw something that they can logically explain, but I swear, unless you saw it, it’s impossible to know how real it was.
Sorry if this is a jumble, I tried to make it as concise as possible.
#31
There’s a dude in the neighborhood over who’s known for every year taking the chain (the dangerous part) off his chainsaw and dressing up as some horror scarecrow and revving the chainsaw at kids as they approached his house. I avoided it for a few years until I thought I could handle it lol.
#32
I spent a year in a Christian based military school when I was 14. We didn’t have clocks or calendars so I don’t know which day was Halloween but something horrific happened every day so I’d say that. If youve never researched some of the messed up stuff that happens in the troubled teen industry, it’s worth looking up if you want some real world horror. My facility was called Thayer learning center.
#33
We once were dressed up and passed by a cemetary, few meters further I decided to take some pictures of my friend in her mask with my sony cybershot phone or something (that was like 2008?) - I didn't check the pictures until later. When I did I saw a huge foggy/smokey shape next to her that looked really close to a human figure. Well, or the ghost of one lol
Technically I still have the phone but it broke back then (can't turn it on) and I haven't bothered restoring any data.
#34
One misty halloween night a couple years ago I was walking home by the cemetery and the abandoned burned-down next to it. No one had lived in it for years and no one even noticed it. A low gurgling growl from something BIG inside made me freeze. I laughed and said "good trick" and hustled home before letting myself consider I was almost ended by a werewolf.
I'd like to think there was someone with a speaker in there tricking an extremely small group of people. Firefighters tore the house down a month later.
#35
This will get buried but if anyone who is a fan of these threads like me, I know they’ll read all the comments obsessively.
I grew up in a house in the UK built in the early 1800s. The original deed to the house was written on parchment and ink which my parents still have. It went through pockets of very bad vibes - footsteps with no source, seeing things in reflections out of the corner of your eye, sensing something in the room with you when nobody was around.
My grandma lived with us and had some rooms on the ground floor. I was in the house on my own, sat in her living room waiting for her to come home so we could go to the shops. This room is directly off of the front hallway when you walk into the house and we had this old, glass pane front door that creaked and made a very particular noise when it opened as it scrapes along the carpet. So as I’m sitting there waiting, I hear the door push open and I hear footsteps along the hallway right up to the living room. The door to the room is open so I turn my head expecting to see my nan walk into the room. But nothing. And then I hear the footsteps walk into the room, past where I’m sitting on the couch and stop on the opposite side of the room. I’m sat speechless.
My Nan had these little brass ornaments on her TV stand - 3 little monkeys doing the signs for “hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil.” She always kept them around since she was a child to bring her luck and safety. And one by one the little ornaments fell of the TV stand with little plops as they hit the carpet. They didn’t fall all at once. It was slowly and deliberately like someone was knocking them down in turn. I was totally frozen but when the last ornament hit the floor I bolted out of the door and outside to wait for my Nan on the front step. I wouldn’t call myself a believer in the paranormal. I think there is usually a logical explanation. But I know all of my family had weird experiences in that house.
#36
(Unfortunately this one turned out to be explainable so the ending is disappointing)
For the longest time I was convinced I had seen a ghost, or had some sort of out of body experience. I vividly remember waking up somewhere I had never been before, and a woman with long blonde hair and an old fashioned white gown entering the room and walking toward me and calling my name. I closed my eyes in terror and kept them that way until I fell back asleep.
This was my go-to ghost story for *years*, because I could remember every single detail and was absolutely convinced it had happened. No way it was a dream. No one else had an explanation for it either.
So for over a decade I would tell people that story any time ghostly experiences came up. And then one day I was looking through an old photo album...and I found the ghost!
It was a picture of my mom's friend Laurie who lived near us. She looked differently than I was used to, because she'd always worn her hair up since I knew her, and this was an older photo. I pieced together the circumstances and learned that when my mom was pregnant with my little brother, she went into labor in the middle of the night. Before driving her to the hospital, my dad scooped me out of bed and took me to Laurie's house, to look after me. I woke up confused, and Laurie heard me moving and came to check on me. It was late so she had her hair down and was in her nightgown. I was half-asleep, confused to wake up in an unfamiliar place, and had never seen her like that so I didn't recognize her.
So yeah, for over ten years I spun the memory of being babysat by a neighbor into a terrifying ghost story.
#37
The way my office is set up, there are a bunch of desks you have to pass before you can reach my door. Even if you skip across them, it would take you al least 3 minutes before you are out the door. So I was working in my office one afternoon. Everyone else had left already, it was Friday afternoon. I heard, clear as day, three distinct knocks on my door. I immediately went to see who it was. There was nobody. The hairs on my arm stood up. I thought it was weird, but maybe I was tired, so I moved on. About two weeks later, the same thing happened. It still happens from time to time, I just ignore it and go on. I have been told not to acknowledge spirit activity, so I guess I'm sharing an office with a knocker ghost.
#38
I was 13 and just moved to another school. I'm terryfied of new people so talking to them was really hard and all I wanted was a friend.
I had those dreams about a guy older than me, he looked familiar and reminded me of my sister. We were talking and playing together.
In my last dream about him he asked me if I want to be with him forever and I said yes. We started walking through a dark maze, walking was becoming harder and harder with every step.
Finally I saw the light at the end of it and heard whisperes telling me it's not my time yet and I have to go back but I continued to follow him. The whisperes got louder and louder and thousands of hands came out of the walls of the maze and started dragging me away, I tried to fight but I couldn't.
Finally I got so scared I ran out of the maze and when I got out I've heard him screaming "why did you leave me?". I woke up with an asthma attack.
After a few months I learned that my mum had a misscarriage before I was born so I think it was my brother.
#39
I’ve got a couple.
A Halloween one: my friends and I were kids trick or treating and it was getting late. We were walking the neighborhood for last minute candy and a man with an actual sword came running after us. No costume or anything. We weren’t at a house. Was not a prank. Luckily we were very fast. He chased us a few blocks until we ran into the nearby foresty area.
House is haunted. Saw a large shadow person with a tear drop shaped head just walk past my hallway at the end of my room.
Had a bad case of sleep paralysis when I was going through puberty. Kept seeing this awful thing on my ceiling crawling around and staring at me. Stuff out of nightmares. Horrible icy naked body crawling around.
#40
I shared this elsewhere already today but it's perfect for here-
My partner and I were driving down a steep hill in my city, myself in the passenger seat. Traffic was fairly busy as usual as it was only ahout 8pm and the road is one of the main routes for commuting out of the city. I'm just kinda enjoying the journey as the car was nice and warm and I was looking forward to dinner when I got home. I noticed out of the front window and to the right that somebody was about to walk in front of oncoming traffic. I panicked and shouted out loud to my partner that someone was about to get hit and potentially thrown into our path. But at the moment they were about to be hit by a small white van, their top half disappeared but their legs were still walking into the road. It is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in my 32 years alive. The legs took a few steps forward, they weren't solid as I could see the vehicles head lights through them, yet they weren't completely transparent. So strange. I had consumed no alcohol, no nothing, not even a paracetamol and I wasn't tired or stressed either. Still to this day I won't go on that stretch of road!
#41
I will add something here that happened during halloween when I was a teen.
Me and my aunt used to throw a massive halloween party every year. We would rent this building by a cemetery (for creepy factor) near our home. The last year we did it there, we had been up at the building decorating for 2 days and it was about 3 in the morning.
We had set up this owl by the front door that would hoot when someone walked by, so it was motion activated. We locked up the front door and went to close up the back as we were done for the night.
There was a stage in this building that we would put the curtains up and make it a mad scientists lab up there. We were way into halloween if you can't tell.
My aunt and I went up on the stage to turn everything off. All of the sudden, we hear the front door that we just locked open up and the owl makes the hoot sound. We were behind the curtain and couldn't see what it was. We stood there froze in fear and staring wide eyed at each other, not sure who just walked in.
All of the sudden, a massive gust of wind blew the curtains towards us. I have never been so terrified in my life. I was sure we were going to d*e. All of the danger flags were going off.
It got quiet for a while. We finally braved it out and came down the stairs to peak out and see if anyone was there. There was no one. The front door was shut and still locked. Nope! We got out of there so fast. We didn't book the party there again after that. It was so scary.
#42
Its not scary or (to me) creepy but it IS unexplainable and supernatural
I currently live alone in my great grandparents house, my grandpas childhood home. Its been in the family basically since it was built. My great grandpa didn't d*e IN the house but he was rushed to the hospital from the house and eventually died. Its important to note that a lot of the original furniture is still here!
so my great grandpa was a stern but affectionate guy. he was that trope where the big tough scary dude is secretly soft for kids and animals. Above all he was a known lover of cats. He ALWAYS had at least one cat, he rescued kittens constantly. My cats always seem to congregate where he used to spend his time. Where his chair used to be, in his old bed, at his seat at the dining room table
I've always sort of felt his presence in the house. I wasn't especially close to him because like I said he was a super intimidating type of dude lol but he was kind to me and my sisters and cousins. During hurricane Sally we lost power in my city for like a week, and on the first night, when I was trying to wait the storm out alone, SUPER nervous, his old alarm radio came on. It was static but it sort of sounded like a man was speaking, maybe on a talk show or something. Im sure there's a logical explanation (im NOT tech savvy) but this radio has no battery power feature like it HAS to be plugged in to work, AND no matter what I did to it it wouldn't go off or turn down.
I started living here with my dad shortly after his passing when I was about 15 and now I live here alone as an adult. Idk if its the memories or what, but I've never felt alone in the house, even when I for sure was.
#43
For 18 years of my life I stayed in the same childhood home without moving, and slept in the exact same room. Over the years, strange things happened in this room - from your typical “items falling off shelves.” Down to sightings of figures swinging from nooses.
The scariest thing to happen to me, was when I turned 18. I suffered from clinical depression and insomnia which left me in a pretty bad shape for years, so perhaps take this story with a pinch of salt, though now that I’ve left that home - my miraculous recovery from both suggested that my issues stemmed from something outside of my own control.
My bed was small, and had no “underneath.” As it was a wardrobe-bed combo with the drawers you can pull out. A few days after I turned 18, I had gone to bed at about 3am - early for me.
I decided to call my significant other (now fiancé) and sleep on the call for the night, because I had this uneasy feeling. The room was unusually cold and bitter. I had left the window open.
(I can’t sleep when it’s too hot.)
I was just about to fall asleep when something in my head set off, you know that typical “something is seriously wrong.” Kind or feeling? I heard this loud growl. And rustling from the bottom of the bed. However I didn’t have time to react, when these hands had grabbed my right leg and yanked me out of the bed and dragged me half way across the floor. I screamed, freaking out my S/O, who started shouting my name down the phone.
By the time I could fully comprehend what had happened, whatever pulled me out of my bed had vanished. But, what was left behind was a large, deep gash in my stomach.
I was rushed to hospital and admitted into the psych ward for 5 days. I’m convinced it wasn’t me. That’s not even the creepiest part.
When I returned to my room, I found several marks around the room. The most notable, were scratch marks in the curtains, and along the windowsill- leading outside and onto the roof.
I’m far away from that place now. It’s for the better. But the experience drove me into a career focused on psychology, cultism, and supernatural experiences.
TLDR: I was dragged from my own bed and had my stomach slashed. I was accused of harming myself, but the damage to my windows told a different story.
#44
I travel a lot for work, or used to anyway. In my travels, I have met numerous people who have needed aid of some kind. I have driven people to the airport, changed tires, etc. At some point, I will end up in a ditch in my own blood, but so be it.
I forget which town/state I was in at the time, if I remember by the end, I'll edit it in. But in driving from the airport to the town I was to work, I had to take this long local road. There were only a handful of houses along the entire thing, and it took about 45 minutes to drive it. About a third of the way down, I pass a man in a flannel shirt and jeans walking along the side of the road. I typically don't just pick up people, and I myself like to walk so I just kept on driving. After a couple of minutes, I am noticing that there is nothing around. No houses, streets or anything...so this dude is gonna be walking for awhile. So I decide to turn around and drive back to ask him if he needs a ride. As I'm going back, I do not see him. At all. It's getting to dusk, but it's not dark yet, still plenty of light. Along the road are just fields, so it's not like he went into the woods or anything. And finally, I get to a point which I knew was way before the point I had passed him, so I turn around and go back. I eventually get to where I am going. I pull into a gas station to fill up and as I am waiting, I look to see the same guy walking up the road. Now, I never saw his face...but same stride, same flannel shirt, and jeans.
It could very well have been someone else...I tell myself this. But the coincidence is ridiculous. But the time it would have taken for him to make that trip is simply impossible. We would have had to cover over 20 miles in half an hour.
#45
When I was 5/6 I had an invisible friend. Her name was Jen, she had curly brown hair, blue eyes, and I thought of her as my older sister. I thought she was pretty cool because I really wanted an older sister.
One day I mentioned her to my mom, who freaked out and told me never to talk about Jen ever again. It honestly scared me. Jen stayed around for awhile, but sort of faded after a while.
It was a couple years later when I was told that before I was born, my mom had a miscarriage pretty late in pregnancy. The fetus was a girl, and would have been named Jennifer.
It's totally possible I was told/overheard about the miscarriage way earlier and just don't consciously remember, but still.
#46
Scariest thing is always a phone call at 3am.
That being said, most unexplainable thing in my life is my father's tendency to see UFOs. Everyone in my family, including me, has seen at least one weird thing - I believe that you'll eventually see something weird if you spend enough time looking at the sky. But my father takes the cake. He's not only seen lights that move in impossible swirling patterns, but actual ships, once even two at a time, flying in a coordinated way and fairly close.
He's the stereotype of the serious dad with a newspaper and a moustache. Worked in a bank his whole life, atheist, likes reading books and mowing the lawn, barely drinks beer sometimes when someone comes over. I mean, not one who would make this up. He's been both fascinated and scared because of this. I think he was also quite relieved the day that my mom was with him in the backyard and they both saw a ship, like he had a witness now.
#47
I had this weird dream where we were walking on a crowded and dark street with a fine gentleman i had just met there. I was also thinking about "greatest common divisors and lowest common multiples" for some reason. This was a few years ago. That topic was a little hard for me on hs.
This summer i met my fathers high school friends son and we went on a crowded, dark street, at least %90 percent similar to the dream. We were talking about maths and he suddenly told about how he was having a lot of trouble with lowest common multiples and greatest common divisors. At that moment i felt like that one brief moment i remembered from that dream matched perfectly with the moment i was in. I felt really strange that this wasnt also the first time i had something like this. Of course i know its all a coincidence but its still so suprising.
TL:DR dreamt about the future totally accurately.
#48
Once we and my mates, about 6 of us including me, were taking a shortcut through a graveyard park at night. It was basically a cut through two seperate main roads with the park going through a fairly large block in between, but the cut going from one end to the other should have taken like 3 to 4 minutes max.
Anyways as we're walking we get to the part of the park that's right at the thickest concentration of graves in vicinity of the really old church, the first one to see something was a different friend of mine who usually gets a bit nervice in these situations. He said he saw a pair of weird shining eyes staring at him from a silhouette. One of our friends points their phone torch at the place he was pointing at and we see it's actually just a mildly scary statue of a stone angel above a grave. We dismiss it.
But as we keep walking along more of us seem to keep seeing it, I'm the third person to notice it, out of the corner of my eye I notice it, this weird featureless blank face in this entirely grey shifting human silhouette with the only thing setting it apart were those burning bright white eyes. I nearly screamed right in that spot. Each time we checked it and it was still only a statue or some other sort of graveyard ornament but after that it seemed we'd been walking through the area far longer than it should've taken and by the time our fourth friend notices the strange thing we break into a run. 6 grown guys just full on sprinting through the path of the graveyard at night like scared little kids.
We all kept running without looking back but the longer we ran the more it felt like something was reaching out to us from behind. Even though we should've been near the end it seems to take a few minutes of running before we even start to see the light of the street on the other side of the gate coming into view. We double down on our run and my first athletic friend literally jumps over the gate, a second before I reach it as well I turn my head back slightly and I swear someway in my mind or other, whether it was a delusion or a part of the hallucination I see the full form of this grotesque expressionless figure barely 50 metres behind us. I say this because within the next second I and the rest of our friends had jumped over the gate into the lighted street, but when I turned back to look at the last spot I'd seen, there was nothing there, no graves, no statues, not even a tree that I could've mistaken. It was just an empty open spot on the grass.
#49
This is a story of my mums from the late 70s early 80s when she was a little girl.
Mum,my aunt and my grandma and grandad were on a trip in Scotland near the Isle of Skye. They were driving on a main road and came to a little town. Can’t rember what it was called but all the houses there were small one story white houses with straw roofs like something from the 1700s . There were no cars and everyone looked dirty and were wearing dirty old clothes that were like what peasants from the 1700s would wear. As they drove into the village the road turned from tarmac to a dirt and pebbly track. All the people in the village gathered around the car as grandad drove slowly through and people began to gather round the car as it drove slowly all holding pitch forks, iron rods and other objects and began bowing to the car and shouting things that sounded like prairs as it drove through. People who weren’t gathering round were staring and screaming and shouting as they drove through. My mum rembers that her and her sister pulled faces and stuck out there tongues and they drove through. They assumed there was some ceremony going on and thought nothing of it except that it was strange.
A little down the road they stopped for a quick break to admire the scenery. My grandad was outside looking through his binoculars when my mum rembers him suddenly screaming “ GET IN THE CAR, GET IN THE CAR NOW!! In a voice that mum could only describe as terror. Well they all got in the car and my mum rembers seeing this figure. He was in a long purple coat, had long blonde hair and a kind face. The scary thing was he didn’t seem to be standing. He was hovering a few Center meters of the ground and when you looked at him he didn’t seem quite there. Like he was half there half not. Transparent almost. My grandad peeled out and was at full throttle and approaching like 30mph but he was still there. At my mums window staring in. Not in a scary way but in a pitiful way. He wasn’t running but floating and kept up with the car with no problem. After maybe 2 minutes If top speed where my grandad got to like 50mph he suddenly vanished. Like he was there then he wasn’t. And it’s not like he could just leap into the undergrowth because there wasn’t any.
After that they spent the rest of the trip enquiring people about it to see if there was any events in that area. Nobody knew of anything. And recently we looked up the town and showed mum pictures and she said it looked nothing alike to what it did on that trip. Also she looked into it and found there had been other sightings on that stretch of road in the past of a figure exactly how mum described and even people who had drew pictures of the figure and every single person drew and described the same figure. Some even speculated it was the ghost of bonnie Prince Charlie who escaped to safety on that road to the Isle of Skye wearing clothes simalar to those described by my mum and other people who had seen it.
So yeah, that’s my mums story and a bloody odd one at that lol.
The road was the A75 near Kirkcudbright. The A75 is apparently the most haunted road in Scotland which I forgot about till I looked it up again.
#50
One time i was sitting in my living room rewatching prison break , i had headphones on but i heard a somehow loud thump as if something fell in our backyard and i thought i heard this weak voice of a woman screaming or kinda crying , so i paused what i was watching to make sure and it sounded like my sister in law was crying her child’s name and my heart dropped i thought my nephew fell from their apartment in the second floor and as i was going to investigate my heart was beating so fast i couldn’t breathe , as soon as i was about to get out the phone rang (we have a land line) and it was my brother (her husband) i can’t describe the feeling of horror at that moment that came over me so he said “hey can you open the door i locked myself out” and the sense of relief i felt was comforting, it was all in my head nothing fell down no one was screaming i guess i was creeped out and my mind played me but it was so scary at the time.
#51
My ex had a breakdown and zip tied my wrists, drove me to the next town, threw my cellphone out the car window (which I later found and used my tongue to call my sister), and abandoned me on a dark country dirt road with no street lights and cornfields wearing jeans daisy dukes and a white t shirt, in the rain. Saw him circle back looking for me with the interior lights on holding a gun. I jumped in the ditch full of nettles every time to hide. Miraculously find my cell phone , walking listening to the trees scream (cicadas) and just determined to get out alive, I hear Sublime's Caress Me Down playing on this dark lonely road, it was my cell phone, and I missed the call cos my hands were tied lol but pecked at the buttons (flip phone) like a chicken till I got it to work. Still had to walk out after kicking my phone up high enough to grab. I had no idea where I was. He kept coming back and after a while I was soaking wet. -0/10.
#52
This happened 15 years ago when I was 14. I was trick-or-treating alone (still do) in a rich neighborhood. I came up to this house and rang the bell. An old guy opened the door, and he was *massive*. Bro was about ten to 15 cm (four to six inches) taller than me. He starting asking me some weird questions, moving from one to the next before I even answered.
"Are you alone?"
"Is anyone with you?"
"Do you wanna come in?"
Yes, I know the second question is equivalent to the first, but I think that's what he asked. I looked into his house, and it was just completely dark inside. My instincts told me something was wrong, so I made up some BS on the spot. I said I had friends waiting for me, and that I needed to go. The old guy offered me peanuts, which I declined. I couldn't wait to get away from that house.
No, I didn't call the cops. (1) I wanted to enjoy my Halloween without getting the police involved. (2) I was going through the "no snitching" phase. (3) I wasn't *sure* this guy was dangerous. I'm still not sure.
I'm male (in case you didn't read my username).
And *that* is the spookiest thing I experienced on Halloween. Even so, I'm always gonna love this holiday.
#53
Food Poisoning from Dominos Pizza. Halloween is my birthday too. Needless to say, I'm never touching Dominos again.
#54
Haunted house in Easley, SC. Complete with a haunted hayride through the woods, best fright ever!
#55
When I was 5 or so, my parents purchased a piece of land from our neighbor whose house and yard were behind ours (basically, making our backyard much larger). Part of that land included an old stone gazebo that dated back to around 1850 (this was around 2000, so it was about 150 years old at the time). Our neighbor didn’t have a ton of information on the gazebo. It predated her house and ours, which were built in the 1950s and 1930s, respectively. In fact, it predated the entire neighborhood: the oldest houses were generally from the 1910s-20s, and previously the area had been used as a military testing site for mustard gas and other things during WWI. It certainly seems odd that this big (~400 sq ft) gazebo was built basically in the middle of nowhere (at that time) and also withstood the development of the surrounding area.
Anyway, as soon as my parents bought the land, I started having horrible nightmares every night. In the nightmares, I would be standing in the yard at night and looking into the dark gazebo. I could just barely make out all of these pained faces in the darkness, as if people were sitting on the floor of the gazebo screaming and crying. Sometimes the fireplace in there would be lit, and I’d see someone jump into it. It freaked my mom out in particular because she was convinced I could sense things (my mom is a legit white collar professional with no spiritual background, but she still thinks this about me to this day despite my disagreement lol). The nightmares were vivid though, and it’s actually making me feel a little sick as I remember them.
All of that said, you asked specifically about Halloween, which is where this gets weird. My parents started putting a pool in the yard and also decided to change the flooring and add structural reinforcements to the gazebo. I kid you not, on Halloween itself, the people working on the yard were excavating behind the gazebo and under the flagstone flooring. They found human bones and a few large stones with names carved into them. We could not find any records on the names on the stones. The people that dug up the bones were understandably freaked out. The police came and were basically like “huh, weird.” Nothing else ever came of it but the nightmares did eventually stop.
#56
A couple years ago i was out at night w my ex fiancé. we were in a park with minimal light pollution just enjoying the stars, and all of a sudden he goes "what is that ??" and is pointing at a figure, just slightly darker than the sky, flying past the power lines. this thing seemed enormous, like it was easily as big as a pickup truck, about 150 feet up. it also looked like it had feathers, and was completely silent when it moved. it flew behind a power pole and didnt come out on the other side. we never saw it again. UFOs definitely exist bc that thing was absolutely flying and i had no idea what the hell it was.
#57
One night in 2006 or 2007 my wife and I were driving down a backroad in Florida in an Oldsmobile Alero. We were passing a large farm when we saw something in the road. I slowed down and we went around it but were close enough to see pretty well. It stood tall enough to be at eye level with us in the car and most closely resembled an owl. It looked directly in the window, my wife screamed, I gunned it, and we laughed our asses off.
We’ve talked about it several times but always assumed it was some kind of big barn owl. Well years later we go to a community event and an owl rescue organization had live specimens of rescued owls from all over Florida. The largest was a barn owl which was large but only about 16” tall and that was fully grown. The thing was saw had to be at least 3’ tall to be looking in our window. What ever it was didn’t appear to be in flight.
We’ve told a few family members but they always seem to shrug it off. I wish I’d have had a dash camera or something to capture pictures or video.
#58
This is more inexplicable than creepy and more of a glitch in the matrix type story.
for context, at my previous job, we went fully remote for covid but by late 2021 were forced back into the office, which proved unpopular enough that we ended up on a hybrid schedule, so we kept our work laptops issued during covid and were expected to bring them to and from the office every day incase someone in our small department got covid and we all had to quarantine. after this hybrid schedule, we kind of used our laptop as a 3rd monitor.
anyway, as i was leaving the office, i accidentally pulled up my notification sidebar as i was signing out and packing up my laptop. for convenience, i just leave my laptop in my backpack that i bring home without ever taking it out there except for our designated wfh day. when i get home, i get on my personal laptop, for a split second, the notification sidebar shows my work-related notifications. i was like w*f and click on my notification sidebar and it shows my regular notifications i'd expect on my personal laptop. work stuff is on an intranet that is accessed via VPN, none of which my personal laptop has access to, nor do i have outlook or chrome or any other program synced across my work and personal devices. my personal also runs win10 while my work ran win11 but not sure if that matters.
i could not explain this and it made me feel like we live in a simulation. nothing like that has happened before or since.
#59
Around 9, maybe, I had a dream of my mom bringing me down a path in some forest at night to meet a close relative for the first time. At the end of the path there was an old alien looking thing sitting in a throne that terrified me to my core. He opened his mouth really widely, while staring at me, and let out a scream that seemed to tighten and thicken the air around me. At that moment, I started to realize I was dreaming and knew I was about to wake up. I woke up (the scream fading away) and felt my body in the position I was sleeping in (curled up on my side), with my eyes still closed. I felt like, fixed in the position I was in, I was floating in mid air from about a foot and a half above my bed. I moved, in a smooth path, over to the side, about a foot, and slowly back down into the center of my bed. I instantly threw the covers, that I was under, off of me and opened my eyes. Everything was normal. I'd say the floating feeling lasted about 2 seconds.
I've had vivid sleep paralysis many times throughout my life and have never felt something like this.
#60
I moved into an apartment with my boyfriend at 19. It was an old building turned into apartments. Think early 1800s was when it was built. It used to be a market bc the train tracks went right by it. My very first night staying there was alone, and I watched a light slowly creep one way across the wall and then back again. I never saw it again for the next year. He texted me when I was at work one day to tell me that something picked up our cat's food bowl (while they were eating) and threw it across the apartment. We heard footsteps on the roof at all hours of the night, which shouldn't have happened because we were on the very top floor.
And I HATED our bedroom closet. I'm still convinced there was something evil in there. The ceilings were tall af in our apartment, so of course, it went all the way up into black nothingness. I had an old prom dress in one of those Dillard's bags that you get for nice dresses in there. I was home alone, chilling in bed with one of my cats when we heard the bag start rustling. The doors were shut, and I knew my other cat was in the living room. So my cat whips his head towards the closet and growls, which freaked me out even more bc I already hate the closet enough. I refused to open the closet doors if my boyfriend wasn't home. He was asleep once, and I couldn't sleep that night, so I was scrolling through reddit. I heard 4 distinct notes whistled from the closet. I could always just feel a bad vibe coming from it. No clue what it was, but I hated that stupid closet, and I was so relieved when we moved out.
I could be here all day with weird little stories that have happened to both my bf and I, but I do have a nice one from when my grandmother's ghost moved into our house with us. She passed almost 15 years ago, but I took her cremains from my parent's house about 2 years back. We think something from the apartment followed us into our house. The day after I brought my grandma's cremains home, my bf texted me to tell me that one of the gas burners to the stove was on, not ignited, and the whole house was filled with gas. We have two windows in our bedroom, one of which we usually never opened. Somehow, while he was sleeping, and while the gas filled the whole house, the window in our room was unlocked and opened. He woke up to the room being ice cold bc it was the middle of winter, so we obviously didn't open it. I think my grandmother opened the window for him :).
#61
My phone, which was on but not active so black screen, started to play music from the Sims game, which i sometimes played on my PC. I did not have phone connected to PC, my PC doesn't have Bluetooth and I hadn't been playing The Sims that day. Not sure how that happened.
#62
Not quite unexplainable, but definitely scary. I was in bed and my bed was right next to a window which I left open immaturely wide because I loved the breeze. I was facing the open window and I literally saw this black hairy creature with big eyes crawl in through the window but then stopped and made a hissing noise at me, I was terrified. I blinked as few times and it was actually a stray cat that saw the light of my open window and decided to try and get in. I never left my window open again.
#63
Pretty sure I had people living in the attic AND under the house I rented with some friends. The place was an old house turned into a duplex. The house was about 4 feet off the ground and surrounded by bricks except for a maintenance access door. You could pretty much get in and out without anyone noticing because the door was off to the side of the building.
The time the owner had to do work on the property he had to get under the building and found coolers, shoes, blankets, glass bottles, and so on.
The only reason we found out about the attic is because we didn’t know our outside storage closet ceilings could be pushed up on and lead into the attic.
Many of a strange things happened at that house. I felt like it was the Twilight Zone.
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