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48 Moments When People Instinctively Felt Something Was Wrong And Knew They Had To Leave
Listening to your instincts and knowing when to trust your gut are skills that can end up saving your life. Just like many animals can sense approaching danger, human beings, too, have an almost primal drive to survive. For some folks, it’s what kept them away from harm.
Internet users took to a captivating online thread to reveal the scariest moments in their lives when their inner alarm bells told them that they needed to leave, ASAP. We’ve picked out the most interesting cases to share with you. Scroll down to read them and to remind yourself that if your gut tells you something is wrong, it most likely is.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I was in high school when we had the Tohoku Earthquake in Japan in March, 2011. I lived in Mie prefecture at the time, so luckily far enough from the tsunami, but the earthquake was still strong enough that we had to evacuate the building. All cellphone data was offline, so we had no communication with our parents and no idea if there was a tsunami coming towards us (I could see the ocean from my school’s building).
I only got a taste of what the people closest to the epicentre must have felt like, and let me tell you, it was terrifying enough, I hope to never experience that again in my lifetime.
On a lighter note, I’m proud to say that, while staring at the face of such catastrophe, my community’s first reaction was NOT to hoard all the toilet paper that could be found.
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#2
In high school we were eating at a Burger King. A friend kept saying it was too hot inside let’s leave. No one else felt like it was but she insisted. We all walked outside and about 20 seconds later a car smashed through the restaurant where we were sitting.
#3
Not quite a leave, but....
I was living in Kansas. My boyfriend and I were sitting on a friend's front porch when cops came flying up the street, slammed on the brakes, and yelled "get in the house!"
We did. Our friend wasn't home, but thankfully the door was unlocked.
Turned out, there was a man walking around shooting anything that moved. We didn't know this at first - this was around 2002 so we didn't have the net in our pockets. Our friend came home maybe an hour later and told us what was going on. Not long after there was commotion in the backyard, it was the guy with the police on his tail. They arrested him a few feet from the back door.
Your gut won’t always be right... at least at first. You have to hone your instincts over time to make them more accurate.
According to psychiatrist and psychotherapist in training Dr. Alex Curmi, your instinctive reactions are the brain’s “best guess about what to do in a given moment.” However, the quality of those guesses can “vary enormously.”
“It is a biological miracle that the human brain can integrate so much information from its environment and produce guiding instincts that we rely on every day, yet those instincts are so easily distorted. Unresolved trauma, limited experience of life or emotional immaturity can all muddy the waters, steering us away from what is best for us,” Dr. Curmi writes in The Guardian.
#4
Climbing a 12,000 ft mountain and suddenly the horizon turned black. Then the black began getting closer.
By the time we got back to camp there was lightning, flash flooding, and hail everywhere.
#6
I was in Barcelona with some friends, ended up in a pretty "local" bar and having a few drinks with the barman, he talked about another bar and said he'd take us in a taxi as he was finishing soon.
Got in a taxi with him and started to drive a LONG way, started to get rural and I asked him how far? He just laughed and said something in Spanish to the driver, who laughed aswell...
We stopped at some traffic lights and I pushed my two (a lot drunker than me) friends out of the car and told them to run.
Found an other taxi luckily and jumped in, taxi driver was surprised as us, we were miles from anywhere we should of been as tourists. He was on his way home but took us back to the city.
However, if you engage in introspection and experimentation, over time, you’ll be able to improve and hone your intuition. You’ll be able to recognize what’s simply “unhelpful baggage of past experience” and what is actually useful and matches your expanding understanding of reality.
“In this way, our gut feelings can become indispensable tools rather than mental noise that leads us astray,” Curmi states.
“Much as weighing scales require calibration to be accurate, so do our minds. We can achieve this by venturing outside our comfort zones, testing our emotions against reality and sometimes opposing them, and seeking continual feedback. When it comes to life’s many complicated problems, by all means trust your gut – but only after you’ve taught yourself what’s worth trusting.”
#7
We were on the Indian coast when the tsunami hit. The waves rose like a wall, roaring and unstoppable, and we ran for our lives, terrified we wouldn’t make it.
#8
I was at the fair with my wife and 6 year old daughter. From the moment we arrived I had the feeling we shouldn't be there, I can't explain it beyond a feeling in the pit of my stomach that was telling me this wasn't the place for us. I told my wife, but she brushed it off because she loves the fair, the girls were having fun, and we had tickets for the monster truck show. Halfway through the monster trucks there was an intermission and I took that moment to say nope. We are leaving now, not going to argue about it, it's time to leave NOW. It was a 25 minute drive home and by the time we arrived home it was already on the news, the local papers website and all over Facebook that there had been a gang related shooting at the fairgrounds in the concessions area we had to walk through on the way out. Huge police response, EMS etc. It happened probably less than a minute after we had gotten to the car. We didn't hear the shots. We never told our daughter but needless to say my wife trusts my gut now.
Edit: For those asking: the feeling started in the car and grew stronger as we approached the fair. I can say to the best of my memory I spoke up before we even entered the gates and the feeling grew stronger over the course of the next 4ish hours we were there. We went on rides, saw animals, ate all the food etc but as the monster truck show went on it got to the point where I couldn't ignore the feeling anymore.
One of you is correct in your guess about where and when this took place. The USA is in obvious need of more sensible gun laws. Seeing the amount of places people have said this has happened somewhere else makes me sad.
#9
Was camping at a national park with two friends - three of us in a tent. One of those spots that you drive up to and has a picnic table and a fire pit, so it’s not deep woods camping.
Middle of the night I have to pee. Go out to a nearby spot and do my business no problem. Walking back I stop to look at the stars and light a cig. I’m there maybe a minute or two when suddenly I had a wave of what I can only describe as primal instinct. My adrenaline sharpened everything as I listened. Nothing had changed, no sounds around, but I just knew something was there and was watching me.
I calmly put my cig out and walked back to the tent without any sudden movements. Got in the tent and waited, listening. There was nothing so I figured I must’ve spooked myself out. Went back to sleep without issue.
In the morning we found our camp spot absolutely destroyed. Some animal had come through looking for food I guess, but not messed with the tent thankfully. Even my friend’s old baseball hat that he had been sweating in all summer was ripped to shreds. We found pieces of it all over. (It had been sitting on the picnic table.)
I know to listen to my gut from now on.
When you’ve read through these stories and upvoted the ones that left an impression, let us know in the comments below what you think, Pandas.
Which of these situations genuinely scared you the most? What are the most dangerous situations you’ve personally been in? How often do you trust your instincts, and has it saved you from danger?
#10
Sat in a pub in London with my friend debating getting one more beer before heading back to my house, he really wanted to get a half but I had this unbelievably strong feeling that I had to leave right then, it was like a tangible flood of pure anxiety to the point where I thought this is really f*****g weird. I just said to my friend nah, I'm good, let's go. We caught the bus just outside the pub and went back no problem. Two days later he messages me, 'Holy s**t look at this article!' that same bus stop thirty minutes later a homeless man randomly attacked a woman waiting for the bus and stabbed her repeatedly to death. If we had that half it's almost a sure thing we would have been right there where that lady was at that time. Could we have prevented it if we were there? Would one of us have died instead? Was that why I had that weird feeling? I can't explain it but it chills me to the bone.
#11
Woolsey Fire 2018. I evacuated our family at 7:45pm amidst heavy smoke and wind. Official evacuation order came at 2am, by which time fire was everywhere, power was out, and roads were gridlocked.
#12
I was staying over at a friend’s house for the first time- I was around 11 or 12. Her dad took us to a gas station and I grabbed some candy and went to pay and he got angry…not like jokingly angry but actually offended I was going to pay for my own stuff. After that, I felt something was off and let him pay for my stuff begrudgingly.
Before night, I just couldn’t shake how uncomfortable I was. I kept thinking I was super sensitive but I still called my parents and convinced them to pick me up.
Come to find out, the guy was a pedophile and had molested a few of her friends during sleepovers. I found out a few months later that he had r***d her and her little sister and she invited friends thinking it would spare her since he would focus on her friends instead.
I’m now a mom and I just feel so…angry but also pity her so deeply. She was willing to sacrifice her friends to spare her and her sister, and has to live with that now.
#13
I was sitting in my car after high school one day and feeling like I needed to stop texting and leave.
Then I started seeing people running down the street towards me - 3 or 4 people on each side of the street towards me. I bug out and drive like 5 blocks away to call 911 and then I can see that they have guns and are threatening or shooting each other.
So then I drive off a second time and don't stop.
But I almost got caught in crossfire twice in 5 minutes.
#14
My wife was about a month out from the due date for our first child. Something didn’t seem right to her, and she wanted to go in to get checked. I immediately drove her to the hospital. The baby’s heart rate dropped really low suddenly and they did an emergency c section. He came out APGAR 1 (0 is death), looked exhausted and wouldn’t raise his arms, and was in the NICU for eight days, many of them under an oxygen hood. Right after he was born, the anesthesiologist said to us that he might be disabled. I have never been so scared in my life, worried that we would lose him.
Many years later, he is in college now and perfectly healthy, thankfully.
Edit: wow, I have never in my life seen so many comments. Thank you all for your kind words!
My wife was in a room recovering for several days and was unable to see my son in the NICU. Every day I would visit my son in the NICU and then go visit my wife. On the third day, I brought her a framed photo of him from his first hour in this world, so that she could see him from her hospital bed. She broke down in tears.
On the fourth day, he was out of the oxygen hood and I got to hold him for the first time. I brought my wife down to the NICU in a wheel chair later that day and she saw him in person for the first time since his birth. When the nurse said “would you like to hold him,” she burst into tears again, sobbing tears of joy. It was quite an emotional time.
#15
1991 - first gulf war - I was 9 years old. The first night they started air raids my older brother woke me up telling me to grab my glasses and run to the basement.
Keeping a hold of those glasses became the most important thing for me to do ever and since.
#16
When my husband and I were teenagers, and first started dating, we were parked in an empty golf course for some privacy. We had been to this spot before and it was a great place to walk around at night and then make out in the car. Tonight was different. As soon as we pulled in, something felt wrong. I reclined my chair back to hide myself, paranoid someone was watching us. We sat for a few moments, making awkward small talk. I was suddenly filled with overwhelming dread and sheepishly asked if we could leave. My then boyfriend immediately obliged… a little too quickly considering the hormones of teenage boys and the plans we had to fool around. He peeled out of the parking lot, my seat still fully reclined because at this point I’m absolutely convinced we aren’t alone. The bottom of the Honda scrapes the ditch of the driveway as we pull out in a panic. At this point neither of us had communicated with one another what we were feeling but his reaction was enough to know we were on the same page. We were in danger. We speed a few miles away before we broke the silence, and I put my seat back in its upright position. I tried to laugh it off and admitted I wasn’t sure why I was scared. Neither of us really had an explanation for the sudden fear we both experienced, but decided not to question it too much.
We found out after the fact there was a brutal attack on a couple teens walking home from the burger joint by the golf course, by a schizophrenic homeless man. I’m convinced we both felt like someone was watching us because he was… and I know if we had gone on our normal late night walk something horrible would have happened. This happened almost 16 years ago, but I can still remember that fear so vividly.
#17
This was four years ago, right after Covid. Went to a well known Cancun all inclusive resort on vacation. It was super early morning, just past dawn. Had the infinity pool to myself and took advantage. Wandered to the infinity edge, which looked out over the beach and ocean. I'm there at the edge enjoying the view when motion below me caught my eye. Two guys were below me, behind the hotel sign, digging in the sand. They pulled up a box, a little bigger than a shoebox. Something told me not to move but also not to look. I shifted my gaze, feeling oddly both calm and terrified, so that I was looking at the horizon, like I hadn't even noticed them. My peripheral vision confirmed they stopped digging and were looking up at me. Nobody moved for a few minutes, then they went back to their work. I slowly glided backward away from the edge, then out of the pool and swiftly back to our room. Later that morning as drinks and loud music got into full swing three police officers came and were investigating the spot that they had been digging. I am positive my ability to look like I was just a dumb tourist enjoying the view kept me from becoming concerning to them.
#18
13 years ago. At the beach parking lot where everyone came to hang out as a young adults in the summer evenings.
Something just came over me. It wasn't dread or fear, but something just felt off. Overall, a bad feeling. I've never experienced anything like it before but my gut told my brain that it's time to go home.
Honestly, it wasn't strong enough of a feeling that I could have easily changed my mind due to my lack of fear. (Not sure why, I just have never been incredibly fearful person.) I said to my friend at the time, that I am leaving something feels off here.
I get home, and less than two hours later a gang shooting happened at the beach. Unfortunately, a few friends from my old high school were shot. Fortunately, they survived. They weren't the target, just wrong place, wrong time.
Luckily I left, because I was about 6 months pregnant at the time. Who knows what could have happened if I stayed.
#19
My family was living in South Sudan during the civil war some years back. I was 11 at the time and I remember waking up to shooting all around our house and in the village. Once it died down the whole village left and went to the refugee camps in Uganda. We followed them and moved to Uganda as well. It was a very scary and traumatizing time.
#20
I went to a house party in college with a group of 5 other friends…it was hosted in a lofted apartment and the whole drive there I kept saying we shouldn’t go because I just had this horrible gut feeling something bad was going to happen. An hour after arriving (mid beer pong game), there was a loud cracking noise and the floor gave out similar to the way the Titanic split in half. Myself and the group I went with all fell 12 feet to the concrete floor below along with the folding table and a bunch of glass bottles. The only people hurt? Myself and two of my friends. I remember looking up once I hit the floor and seeing the refrigerator about 2 feet from falling down on top of me. I think I said “I told you so” for the rest of the year haha.
#21
Years ago I had flown home to Denver and took the shuttle to the parking lot. There weren’t a lot of people on this shuttle but there was this one guy who kept asking me questions, some semi personal, and I couldn’t wait to get off that shuttle and get away from him. When the driver stopped at my area I stood up and then the guy stood up and got off the shuttle. I had a really bad feeling in my gut so I stayed on the shuttle and rode it all the way back to the terminal and back to the parking lot. The driver asked me why I didn’t get off the shuttle and I told him about the guy and I had a bad feeling in my gut about him and he said always believe those gut feelings. When we finally got back to my area at the park and ride, the shuttle driver waited until I got into my car and backed out before he left.
#22
In 2008, in college my friends and I broke into an old abandoned hotel from the 1930s
In mineral wells tx. It was straight out of a time warp. Out of I believe 12 floors, we made it to 3. We went up past the pool (apparently the hotel was famous for this because of the minerals in the water that supposedly cured illness), around the kitchen and massive ballroom floor, past the old elevator with the pull gate where a kid apparently got his head severed and by lots of old creepy bedrooms with furniture still in them.
Then we heard a noise. A super loud screeching noise down a hallway that was pitch black. We all shined our lights in the direction, saw nothing but the sound was getting louder and louder. We all bolted as fast as we could! No clue what it was but I’ve never been more terrified in my life.
#23
I’ve posted this before. Took a train and bus trip around Ireland in 78. Was going in to Sligo when I had an instant feeling of overwhelming dread, something I’d never had before (or since). It was heavy and oppressive. I just grabbed my stuff and ran across the platform to get a train going right back out. I ended up in Mullingar where I had a great stay and dinner with people I met at the B & B, so maybe that was what was supposed to happen for me. I have never been able to figure this out.
#24
I was in an old apartment building visiting a friend. We were just sitting on the couch when we heard a sound like tearing fabric, only ten times louder. Then we saw a massive, horizontal crack instantly appear and run across the ceiling above us, showering us with dust. My friend just yelled 'Out! Now!' and we bolted. It turned out the main support beam above their unit had given way slightly. We stood outside shaking for an hour watching the emergency crew work.
#25
When the lightening almost hit us and everything turned green for a second before a massive bang. And that’s when we went inside.
#26
In my early 20’s, first car. Myself and a friend went to a house party held by people that we knew well. The party was great, high vibes and everyone was having a great time.
Out of nowhere, I was overcome with a feeling of absolute dread, like a sense of impending doom that was totally impossible to ignore.
I told my friend that it was time to go. Now. He looked me in the eyes and didn’t hesitate, he said ‘ok, let’s go’. We both got in our cars and drove away, and when we rounded the corner out of the street we spotted about 15 cars all parked up on the side of the road.
Turns out a local gang, who were notorious for crashing parties and literally kidnapping people and torturing them, bashing girls as they held down their boyfriends, all sorts of terrible s**t like that, this gang had found out about the party and were waiting down the street to raid it.
After we left we heard that the gang had crashed the party, bashed as many guys and girls as they could, kidnapped a couple of people and even ran over a partygoer as they drove away.
A powerful lesson at a young age to trust those gut feelings.
#27
So my house is about 12 kms away passing very silent plantations. from my high school and normally I go back home for lunch before the extracurricular time started (school ended at 13.00, extracurricular started at 15.00). Usually I go back home with my friend but at that time I feel very scared on going back home so I successfully bugging my friend to not go back home early and wait like 30 more minutes.
There's robbery in the middle of the road we passed like 15 minutes before we reach that part and the guy robbed gets his hand slashed(like no more hand slashed), thankfully he's alive but seeing the blood smeared everywhere on the road churns my stomach. That delay I did might save our life.
#28
Was solo traveler one evening in Vietnam, Saigon maybe 20 years ago, walking relatively late at night. Somehow find myself being invited into a small store it was a few steps up off the street, very empty of product and just a handful of mid to older men sitting on milk crates playing cards. Was quicky seated and began being fed multiple shots of whiskey, there was an under current of aggression despite everything outwardly facing friendly. The old man sitting next to me was captivating my attention, felt evil and had this long thumb fingernail that he was jabbing into my kneecap and thigh trying to explain the game, while others were starting to lightly huddle on the other side of the shop, talking and glancing my way. At the opening to the store one of them gentlemen stood and put his hand up to grab the roll top steel door, like a garage door but for tiny shops. It was solid, so one quick pull and I was behind doors. Gut reactions had mounted enough evidence and I grabbed my bag and jumped out of there in a second or two, never looked back but heard the gate slam down when I was further into the street.
These moments can be common when traveling alone and not being too cautious. Maybe it was a harmless game of cards and I was being paranoid, I'll never know but I am glad I didn't wait around to find out.
#29
I was eleven, and me and my friends made plans to go into the city centre. Day of, my father told us to go to a shopping mall nearby instead, for no reason but a gut feeling (although he didn’t tell us that at the time) and we listened. Later that afternoon, when we would’ve been there, a man stole a van and plowed down a lot of people in the city centre shopping street.
We would’ve gotten caught under the wheel or gotten stuck far away from home since the man tried to escape in the metro so the city turned off the entire underground in search of him.
Instead we could go home to the closest friend and eat sandwiches and wait for the metro to reopen.
People died, and everyone knew somebody who was there. I love my dad.
#30
My fathers' story, not mine, but still. He was working in construction as a contractor, leading a team who were working on an old estate on a hillside. It was a clear day, weather was fine and they were up there on the scaffolding, working on the chimney. Rather suddenly, my father experiences this pressure to go down, right now. It's a hassle, you have to climb down this scaffolding, they hadn't been up there all that long, so he resisted for a bit. But it was just this tremendous push, this urging, to descend ASAP, so he told his team to go down. They asked why, they didn't understand, they were in the swing of things, why go down? My father finally just ordered them down. So they went, and a few minutes later they all stood on the lawn, looking at one another sheepishly. At that moment, completely unexpectedly, a lighting strike hit the chimney they'd been working on.
When he told me the story hours later, he was still upset!
#31
Not really a scary one but this past summer, me and my family were at the fair and this guy kept “running into” my grandma. My grandma was 79 years old at the time, I might add. We were just going through the fair and at 3 different times throughout the day/night, this guy just kept happening to find where we were at. By the 3rd time, we said let’s go cause this guy was clearly stalking us or, more specifically, my grandma. Why? I have no clue but we weren’t going to stick around and find out either.
#32
On a trail in the Great Smoky Mountains (I can’t recall the actual trail but something like Indian Grave) and out of nowhere we heard this noise that we thought could only be made by a large, severely injured cow. All three of our faces drained of colour and we booked it out of there. Later we were sitting in
a restaurant in Dollywood and via YouTube, we found the source of the noise…a baby bear. I’ve never heard that noise before or since but my heart missed a beat that day and something deep in my animal brain knew to leave that location immediately.
#33
Wife and I did a road trip down south in New Zealand to place called akaroa. It’s a cute little French town on the east coast of the South Island. We’re fans of hiking so we parked up at a nearby forest trail and started our walk. It was like 3pm in the afternoon on a beautiful sunny day. But we didn’t see a single other person on this track. We’re very used to bush walking in remote places. But at some point during this walk I felt goosebumps and a sense of dread. It was very weird. I haven’t felt like that very often. I noticed there were no birds chirping at either which felt very odd. It really felt like someone was watching us. At some point I told my wife I don’t like this feeling and I think we should cut our hike short and get back to the car. We both hurried back. Still don’t have any explanation for that day but I can very clearly remember how I felt. Everything in my body was screaming at me to just turn around and get back in the car.
#34
Two buddies and I had just graduated university and were out on the town one night bar hopping. We were feeling no pain from a night of drinking and while walking back to my apartment at the end of the night we spotted a pretty wild house party happening. Music playing, people hanging out in the front yard, and the front door open. We walked over and started talking to some guy out front. He invited us in and we found some beer in the kitchen and started to drink.
My one buddy started playing beer pong with this group of women. They had never played before. We were having fun but the conversations I was trying to have with these people just seemed off. I finally asked the guy that we had first met out front if he went to the same university we had just graduated from. He looked confused. He then told me that he was in high school. I laughed it off. No way. And as I looked around the house and at the people there I had this panicked realization…we were officially at a high school party. How did we not realize this walking in? My heart sank and I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Here we were with a house full of underage teens drinking in a strangers house. I felt like I was going to puke. Grabbed my buddies and yanked them out of there.
Thankfully nothing bad happened and we got out of there. But to this day we still laugh about this drunken mixup.
#35
I had been staying at my boyfriend’s (at the time) house and needed to pop home to grab some more clothes. As soon as I got inside I had this overwhelming feeling like the house didn’t want me to be there. Nobody was home, it was dark and silent. I ran upstairs, grabbed whatever was closest and got the f**k out of there. I remember standing in the driveway looking up at the house with the most immense sense of dread I’ve ever had.
One week later we had my 21st at home. A few strange things happened, one of them being when my sister, cousin and I were doing our hair and I smelled what I thought was smoke. My cousin insisted it was just the straightener so I let it go. Then my grandmother asked if I was cold because it was winter and my dress didn’t have sleeves (we were inside) and if I should put the heater on. For some reason I decided not to which was very unusual for me, I always have it on in winter. While this was all happening, one of the down lights in the main room started flickering which it had done periodically for a few weeks but we never thought much of it.
Later that night, when all the guests had gone and we were in bed, I woke up to the smoke alarms absolutely blaring. I remember being in denial and tried to tell myself it was the house alarm (it sometimes went off by itself) so I tried to key in the code but nothing happened. Then, accepting that it was in fact the smoke alarm, I went downstairs thinking “where is this fire. There’s no fire here.” Sure enough when I got down there and went to the main room (where all of us had just been) I looked up at the ducted heating vent and saw bright orange flames just frolicking around. It was unreachable. It spread between the two floors and melted a water pipe, making water fall out of the ceiling which made no sense to me at the time as I just could not process the danger I was in.
We all got outside including our two dogs and some guests that had stayed. We saw the whole house burn down. There was an explosion when it reached the gas. I have never felt such intense, acute terror since.
Later when the engineer inspected it, he said it started from a faulty down light and had been smouldering for at least a few days. That explained the smell when we were doing our hair. It explained the flickering light. And, if I had turned the heater on that night, it would have ignited with all our guests inside and who knows what would have happened if I did.
So my house burned down on my 21st. We lost everything.
#36
Not really scared, more like a NOPE moment. I drove for Lyft off and on for about a year, this was in charlotte NC. I took on a ride that was in an outlying neighborhood at the airport. So I go to the address and it’s on the road with a few houses, all dark. Streetlights were few and far between. I get to the address and I can’t find any house numbers. I pull into the driveway that’s listed, wait not even 30 seconds and get a feeling something isn’t right. No house lights come on, no message or call asking to wait… I don’t see anyone. So I back out and leave. Right as I’m get to the end of the street I get another ride request for the same location. I declined and got out of there fast.
Walking home one night, I try to take what I thought was a shortcut through an industrial park. I lived in the area my whole life. I knew there was a way through but couldn’t check as my phone battery was depleted. So I’m walking in what I feel is the right way and get towards the edge of the industrial park. The road keeps going but there are no street lights there. The road looked like a fairy tale description of what you expect a dark tree lined road would be. That feeling of a bad idea to travel down that road was so overwhelming that I went back and took the long way home.
#37
Seeing the second explosion go off at the Boston Marathon bombing.
The adrenaline dump was so massive that my brain couldn’t form memories for a few moments. It felt like no time at all and forever all at once between the boom and my trying to get inside of the bank I was in front of. (Obviously closed for marathon Monday.)
Once I started thinking, I ducked into the nearest alley, figuring it would be a lower likelihood for more bombs, and once there hunkered down in the deepest doorway I could find to text my family, breathe, and make a plan to get home.
#38
My girlfriend and I were hiking Mount Carleton ( 820m) when all of a sudden our phones started sending multiple warnings of a tornado in the area. Reception is terrible there so we only got the messages closer to the top and for a usually busy hiking area it was eerily quiet.
The top of this mountain has a lone fire watch cabin from many years ago and a 360° view stretching miles of land in a national park. This is a spot where people would usually relax after the long hike and take in the sights. While taking in the sights we could see clouds forming in areas and another warning sent to our phones. We were already on high alert but this was our "yep, lets get the hell out of here"
As we started our trek down the mountain into a more wooded area the sky all of a sudden turned pitch black and the loudest snap of thunder we've ever heard came just from above us giving us a nature jump scare. Seconds later pouring rain came down and turned our trail into a small river covering our hiking shoes. Soaked to the bone but happy we were getting closer and closer to our car. A hiking trip to never forget.
#39
I was out at the bar with my friends and I couldn't shake this "I need to go home now" feeling. We were having fun and nothing weird was happening, so I brushed it off for a bit but eventually I couldn't shake the feeling. So I went home super early. When I walked in the door, my whole house smelled like gas. One of my dogs had turned the gas on the stove on while I was gone but it didn't ignite. I quickly shut it off and ran around the house, opening all of my windows even though it was winter. I got the fans out to try to clear the gas. Focusing first on my bedroom, where I contained my dogs and cats. Slowly the house aired out... but I fear what could have happened if I didn't listen to my gut. I would have been out for hours.
#40
After COVID started my hubs and I would go to the lake more often, even in the cold/rain/snow etc. one day I was standing on the pier, like I did a million times, and there’s these metal bars that jut into the water (like stabilizing the concrete like a partial ladder without rungs). I’m staring straight down, into the water- there’s no barriers- nothing preventing cars or people from going off the edge- the concrete pier just ends and it’s completely black water. So I say, “don’t you wonder how many people have driven off here?”
Spouse laughs at me and was like, “no one,” Also “why would you say that.” I kind of back peddled because I didn’t want him to think I was being dark of paranoid. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
A day or two later, they were pulling the car of two missing people from the spot I was standing in- with said car pictured on the front page newspaper and a diver between the same bars I stood between.
There’s barriers there now.
Oh, and i had taken a picture. The calm black water, a bit of concrete pier, and the bars are all pictured but my feet are out of frame. I still have which idk if it’s creepy or just memorable, cuz I didn’t feel scared or have the “we should leave” feeling. I just felt strongly, something was down there. I’ve looked at the pic a million times and you truly can’t see anything, which makes it oddly more uncomfortable.
#41
Car full of naive young teenagers on a road trip. My friend driving decided to do a lazy three point turn on a corner on a winding road in the forest. He had fully blocked the road halfway through the turn and I piped up from the back seat 'hurry it up mate, a couple of motorbikes might come screaming around the corner'.
Just as he got the car back in its lane, two motorbikes came screaming around the corner...
#42
A few years ago, 4 of us tumbled into a city centre bar for a few drinks after a gig. I felt something seemed off, it was a karaoke night and 2 of us put their name down to sing a duet. I had a bad feeling about the place and persuaded the others to leave and not wait their turn. Reluctantly, we all had had a few drinks prior to our arrival and they wanted to sing. Had to be forceful but eventually we left. Later that night there was a shooting in the bar. We would probably have left at that stage anyway but I felt we had to leave immediately.
#43
I went to a nightclub that had a reputation for violence breaking out. My companion for the evening convinced me to go, saying it would be fine because they installed metal detectors.
Even in the parking lot the vibe was off. I would have preferred to go back to her place and drink there but I allowed her to change my mind and in we went.
The vibe inside was even worse. People were eyeing and sizing up each other and not a whole lot of dancing. After I finished my beer I told her we're leaving. We went back to my place for the rest of the night and she complained a few times I ruined her fun.
The next morning there was an article in the paper about either a fight or a stabbing (it's been 30 years so I don't remember, but both had happened there on the past) and it boiled over into the parking lot.
The town shut down that club a day or two later and it sat empty for years, which was probably for the best.
#44
I had a few, but the one I can't explain was when I was riding my bike to the shops for food and some beers while on vacation. Weather was pretty bad but still rideable. On the way there nothing felt off other than me being wet as hell and the bike not liking the wet. On the way back I got a crazy urge to just whack open the throttle and get it over with. Not something I'd usually do in the dark and rain on roads I don't know, but honestly going 15 over the speed limit felt too slow.
2 days later the weather cleared up, I rode the same road, and there was a 10 km pas stretch that had fully flooded, trees uprooted and trash in the branches at 2-3 meters high.
I'm not from a place with flash floods at all, and this area had never been prone to them before. I'm guessing the preceding drought dried up the ground and instead of seeping in, the water washed away a natural dam. What I don't get is how I felt it coming while cold, sleep deprived and on top of a very vibrant motorcycle.
#45
First and only time I went to the World Trade Center was like 6 days before they went down. Was in a fight with my boyfriend and pretty consumed with my feelings but as soon as we got to Windows on the World I felt intense panic and dread like I’ve never felt. I even asked what kept planes from flying into the buildings. It’s weird because I’m usually completely oblivious to danger and not prone to panic or anxiety but I couldn’t get to the elevators fast enough. I’ll never forget it. Had intense dreams about those spaces for like 10 years after.
#46
May of this year, myself and my best friend went to Spain for my 28th birthday. We stayed in Lloret De Mar, but decided to spend my actual birthday walking around Barcelona.
It got to around 7:30pm and we got to the bus station to go back from Barca to Lloret, only problem is the clerk was adamant there were no more buses or coaches going to Lloret that evening, and we would have to get a bus to the next town over, and then get a bus from there to Lloret.
Bit of a hassle, but it beats sleeping in the bus station! We go outside, and we are waiting for our bus to the next city for around 20 minutes, until we see a bus go past us clearly labelled as going to Lloret De Mar.
Me and my friend are confused, but we already had a ticket to the neighbouring town so we just waited for our bus to show up. I'd looked online and found that the bus we needed to get from the next town was at 9pm (that was the last bus to Lloret) So we HAD to make it.
We get to the bus stop, and we were both struggling to understand the timetable. My phone was on 2% and my friends was on 19% or so, but I could see '21:00' on the board, so I was pretty sure the last bus was due at 9pm. We saw a man walking up the street with a big hiking backpack on, and asked if he was Spanish.
He said yes, and we asked if he could tell us when the next bus was. He read the board for about a minute and a half which I thought was odd as clearly he could understand the timetable better than me or my friend could.
This guy then tells us there are NO more buses coming tonight going to Lloret (which again, I'd seen online and on this board that it was due at 9pm). I thought maybe I had read it wrong after all. The man said that he could book a taxi for us or we could get a lift with him.
Now, obviously two young women are not stupid enough to accept this mans offer to chauffer us home, but it really stuck out because as I mentioned, he walked up the street and had a huge hiking backpack on. Didn't seem like he was out via car if that makes sense.
We ask if he can book us a taxi. He gets on the phone and it seems to be a pretty long call just to book a taxi. That's when he said two words and my heart dropped into my stomach. "Inglesas chicas"
WHY would the taxi man need to know that we were English girls? The guy then gets off the phone and tell us that the taxi that will arrive will be silver. I said "how do you know that?" he stumbled over his words a little, and then said "most Spanish taxis are silver".
I just knew this did not sound right. We waited at the bus stop and thought about what we would do if this car shows up because we were DEFINITELY not getting in it. 9pm rolls around, and the bus to Lloret De Mar shows up. We jump on that bus and go back to the hotel.
I dread to think what could have happened if we had got in that "taxi".
Funnily enough, this birthday holiday was also meant as a way for me to release the trauma I had been holding onto since my 25th birthday. Happy 28th to me!
ps. sorry if writing is shoddy, I don't leave comments often.
#47
Not me obviously, but my grandad who grew up in Notting Hill (yes that one) in London during the blitz. They were frequently air sirened and had to sleep in the tube but one night nothing. But he insisted they go, told me that he was losing his mind insisting that they go sleep in the tunnels. His parents gave in because he was otherwise a pretty calm kid. The front of their house was blown off that night.
He told me they had a dog Winkie who could hear the planes too so if the dog started barking usually the siren would follow a few minutes later.
Crazy times.
#48
I was walking near a park that I had never been to for an ultimate frisbee league game. I had gone there early and decided to wait near the gates where there was very bright lights.
Then, there was this homeless looking dude that walked past me and grabbed a suitcase out of the bushes near where I was waiting. I managed to get a whiff of the dude and he smells like weed..? I instantly felt uneasy and fast walked out of there.
While fast walking, the dude turns around and fast walks in the same direction I am going. Internally, I was scared as heck, trying not to look spooked, and walked out to a much brighter area of the park outside with other people around.
The dude walks in a different direction and disappears into the darkness...
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