While we have not all witnessed something that will forever keep us up at night, we've all seen or heard something that was terrifying.
And it seems the scarier it was, the harder it becomes to forget.
Redditor AncientTranslator405 asked:
"What's the scariest sound you've ever heard?"
Unidentified Animals
"A fox in the middle of the night. It sounds like a legitimate screaming ghost. I was in bed and chilled from the sound until I learned what it was."
- Due_Difference8575
Feeling Territorial
"My dog ran out the front door one night and didn't see the opossum on the porch until she turned around to come back in."
"That growl scream thing they do is horrifying, especially when it's a large opossum standing between you and your dog."
- mel2mdl
An Accident's Aftermath
"Two years ago, I witnessed a near-fatal accident. A truck t-boned a small sedan with kids in it."
"I'll never forget that sound of the crunch, the mom crying hysterically because she thought her kids were dead, and the sight of it all."
"The worst part is I knew the kids. They were students of mine. Everyone survived but not without permanent injuries."
- amahler03
Living with Dementia
"One thing my grandmother did when she was near the end of her dementia was to call out, 'Mama, Mama' in a long and drawn out 'Maaaaaaammaaaa.'"
"She passed in 2007, and now my mom lives with us and is also suffering from dementia. I was awakened one night by the same long drawn out 'Maaaaaammaaaaa...'"
- pastelpizza
Sad Goodbyes
"My grandmother passed last month. She was 96 and the absolute best."
"She was suffering from vascular dementia. Luckily she was peaceful with it and not violent or agitated. She remembered everyone but kept thinking people who died 50+ years earlier were still alive."
"The day before she passed, she sat up all of a sudden after being asleep basically for the entire previous week."
"She looked at me, a tear rolled down her face, and she said, 'Take care.'"
"I told her I loved her. She then said, 'I love you' back."
"I am so glad I was able to be there for that and to be there for her at the end."
- Gravath
Lost Partners
"I woke up in the middle of the night with my elderly neighbor crying and asking for help because she had just found her husband's body in their house."
"It made me horrifically sad, and when I finally went back to bed, I couldn't let go of my wife, fearing the day this might happen to one of us."
- TheAwesomePenguin106
Bad News
"I was at work and a mom got a call that her 19-year-old had just died in an accident."
"That sort of misery is a sound I hope to never hear again."
- Independent-Face-959
Missing Child
"When I worked in retail more than a decade ago, a woman came into the store crying for something in another language."
"Her cries were blood-curdling and it was her daughter's name."
"She lost her child somehow in the parking lot and hoped she wandered into the store (she didn't)."
"I can still hear her cries echoing in my head."
"Thankfully, they found the little girl wandering between parked cars. Happy ending."
- itsmarvin
Waiting for the Inevitable
"Sudden screeching car tires behind you."
"A few years ago, we were sitting at a stop sign and got rear-ended by a girl texting on her phone (going 60 miles per hour) and it was the scariest three seconds of my life. My two-year-old son was in the back seat too."
"We had been at the lake and had bags piled up, so we couldn’t really see out the back window, and all of a sudden, there was the sound of LOUD screeching tires erupting behind us."
"I just knew I was about to die while I waited a couple of seconds for it to hit us. Thank god it wasn’t a semi-truck or something."
- masterpate
A Mechanical Error
"A CNC machine I was operating made a horrifying screeching noise as it dropped a 10-inch saw blade and fired it at me. Nearly lost my leg that day, it missed the main artery in my leg by two millimeters."
"I still get PTSD dreams where I hear it screech, bang, and it whistling toward/through me."
- natha134
Storm of the Century
"My husband and I were awakened by a thunderstorm so loud and physical that we thought it was an earthquake, and a strong one. It was extremely loud and shook the house and everything in it, and the rumble that woke us up lasted for probably 10 seconds."
"It was such a violent shake, I was thinking, 'This will be the earthquake that kills us.' I swore that the ground was going to open. It took several seconds to realize what it was."
"I only have experienced thunder like that a few other times in my life, and I grew up in a high-altitude part of the Pacific Northwest."
"Where I live now, we have a fault line, and they always go on about 'the big one' and how devastating it will be. So in my disorientation, I thought it was the beginning of the big one that had woken us."
- SapphireHaze
Someone Approaching
"I was standing in the middle of Death Valley at midnight several months ago, with no light or anything else around me, as I was taking pictures of the Milky Way."
"I suddenly heard footsteps approaching. I grabbed my camera and turned to run."
"It ended up being another photographer who had been sleeping near me and then woke up and came to talk with me. It took a good two hours for my heart to calm down."
- jscheel
Breaking In
"Someone breaking into my home is genuinely my worst nightmare. It doesn't help when you have a cat that likes to do zoomies in the middle of the night, either."
- PlayerAlert
A Child in Need
"Hearing my seven-year-old scream/wailing from their room at 2:00 AM. That eerie sound of fear and despair and hopelessness calling for someone to stop whatever is going on. Hearing it come closer and closer before you can even get out of the covers to check on them."
"Fortunately, it turned out their hand had fallen asleep and they thought it was a dead hand stuck in the pajamas. They stopped screaming as we were yelling 'What?! What?!'"
"'Oh. It's just my hand.'"
"Still the scariest sound I have ever heard. I have nightmares about it sometimes..."
- mel2mdl
Houseguests
"When I was 13, I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep."
"I went to grab a drink of water from the bottle next to my bed, and my elbow bumped the wall next to it by accident."
"Almost immediately, a singular bump ‘responded’ from the other side of the wall."
"I froze, stared at the wall, and then knocked twice in the same spot."
"Two knocks responded a moment later."
"The other side of the wall was our lounge room. There was no one in there, and I know because I didn’t get another wink of sleep until the sun rose."
"Still freaks me out, and I occasionally knock the walls of my bedroom now, hoping I don’t hear anything knock back."
- Anxiety_bunni
While almost all of these sounds are explainable, if tragic or terrifying, they undoubtedly would keep someone thinking about them for a long time.
You know what's truly terrifying? The world.
It can feel like it's out to get you and based on some of these harrowing tales of death avoidance and last-minute escapes, you might be justified in thinking that way,
The world is scarier than anything you can see in theaters or watch at home. Clearly, real life is where the fear should be.
Reddit user, Shaneshev, wanted to know when things became too terrifying to handle when they asked:
"People of Reddit; what is your downright scariest real-life story?"
Keep A Phone Nearby
"I was home alone when I was 11. I had just fallen asleep and someone tried to break in the front door. I called 911 and hid in the pantry in the bottom shelf. They came to the door next to the pantry and tried to break into that door too. The police got there and one of them picked me up and held me until my mom got there. I wouldn’t let go and he made sure I felt safe. I’m 27 and haven’t stayed home alone much since. The day I signed a lease for my first apartment I got a dog so I wouldn’t be alone. It’s pretty traumatizing when you’re that young."
HistoricalHeart
Get In. Don't Ask Questions.
"Years ago in one of my first jobs, a colleague told me a story. The night before, she had gone out for some drinks and on the way home she had got off the bus and was walking down her road to her house. A taxi pulled up alongside her and the driver told her to get in the car, she obviously said no. He then said to her "call whoever you want whilst you're in the car, but please just get in and I'll explain". So she got in."
"Turns out, walking towards her was a topless guy with no shoes on and a machete in his hand. Cab driver had already called the police but then saw my colleague so had stopped to look after her."
– Good-Helicopter-9303
Bullet: Dodged
"I had a pulmonary embolism last year in late August. I was going to get a pain evaluation the following Monday, but the pain was so bad on Friday that I just went in. The doctor told me that I’d have died if I had waited."
– jeff_the_nurse
Unsure Of His Next Move
"This is very tame compared to a lot of the stuff on here, but when I was twelve I saw this huge man drop a dollar bill. He seemed not to notice, so I ran across the street to hand it back to him. He thanked me several times, and I could see that he wasn't right in the head. I was a pretty small girl, probably only 100 pounds at the time. This guy easily had a foot on me. All of a sudden, he grabbed me by the top of my head and wouldn't let go. I am so lucky that my dad was nearby, and he pretty much just picked me up and led me away."
– Simple-Muscle822
"dawg just open palmed your head like a melon? yeah, that’s terrifying-"
– ImThatMelanin
Not The Person You Want To See
"I was home alone (thankfully my kids weren't home) when my now ex husband's drug dealer came by. He busted I'm the door screaming at the top of his lungs that he's gonna f-ck us all up. I was hiding in my walk in closet under blankets on the phone to 911. He got so close a few times, I have never been so petrified in my whole life. The cops came very quickly and he ran off, they caught him just a few streets over."
– Mason3637
Close...Closer...
"I used to sleepwalk when I was a child. We lived in a rough neighborhood (Decatur, GA) and I would wake up outside in the middle of the night, not knowing how I got there, and would have to walk home and walk into the darkened doorway I had left wide open for whoever might be lurking around. However, the time that scared me the most was when I was about 9 years old. I woke up and found myself with the bedroom curtains drawn back and staring out the window. As I came awake, I noticed a very large and completely hairless man (no hair, eyebrows etc) staring at me and slowly inching closer to the window and closer to my face. He was looking bewildered like he wasn't sure what he was seeing."
"At that moment, I realized what was going on and I started screaming uncontrollably, frozen in place and peeing down my leg. The man freaked out and screamed, did a tumbling move, and then ran off in a weird zig-zag like he was trying to dodge bullets. My mom woke up and thought I probably had a nightmare. The next morning we found a screw driver on the front porch and damage to the door jam and door handle."
"I still just about pee my pants when I tell that story, but now it is usually from laughing. I will never forget the look on his face when I started coming to life and screaming or his high pitched scream or his duck and roll and dodging and bobbing all the way down the street."
– issamurcle
A Hair's Width Away
"I was riding my motorcycle on the highway, going through a major city. I was still pretty nervous about riding on busier highways since I was still pretty new on the motorcycle. I was in one of the middle lanes when about 250 ft in front of me an 18-wheeler (Semi) kicked up a plywood panel that was in the road in my lane. It flipped around, making it look like I was going to run into it like a wall. Didn’t have enough time to brake or move lanes since I was surrounded by other vehicles."
"Luckily another 18-wheeler passed by it, causing it to rotate perpendicular, making it barely graze my elbow as I passed by it. I don’t think I moved a muscle for a quarter mile in shock that I survived that."
– FuryFlurry40
You'll Wonder "What If?" For The Rest Of Your Life
"I always parked in a certain spot at my last job for 12 years that I was there. It was accessible to the public as it wasn’t company parking but they wanted us to park in the back of the lot so the closer spots could be available for customers."
"One day my spots taken by a dark tinted caddy and I’m immediately pissed because everyone knows it’s mine. It’s morning shift so 4am so it can’t be one of the others cause I know what they drive. So newbie? Or maybe another employee from another shop in the plaza? It’s still there on my lunch break and when I go home and the next day I come in at 1pm till close. Around 9:30. And then also the next."
"Something about it really bothered me. It smelled wrong. Literally, it’s the South and high summer and who knows what’s baking in there. My dad was a marine then a police officer. He always said if you feel something is wrong there probably is. So I dialed the non-emergency contact police number. I felt like an idiot but every time I walked by it bugged me. So. I was stuck waiting for over an hour before anyone shows and honestly, if I hadn’t been off the next day would have been like f-it. But I waited, mostly because I can be really a petty SOB and that’s my spot damn it."
"The police show, all annoyed because who knows how many “they can’t park here” calls they get. They run the license plate though and then things go crazy. They want my info, want me to contact my manager, does this lot have cameras, have I touched the car, etc."
"Apparently the car is on Amber alert as the last sighting of a missing person who was a minor. A 15 yr old girl. When they pop the trunk they find her dead, mutilated body under a blanket and the source of the smell. She had gone out with her much older, controlling and insecure boyfriend but had decided to get out of the relationship. She only made the mistake of getting into the car with him. He drove three counties over after torturing her, stuffing her in there and who knows what else, then parked and walked away, left her to die in the trunk."
"I never learned her time of death so it haunts me sometimes thinking she might have been saved if I’d made a fuss earlier. So yeah, listen to your gut even if it seems petty."
– Fubar-is-my-life
A Very Close Call
"I was held at gunpoint by a kid in my school. I’m still in the same class with him and when I ask him about the gun he says he makes them himself. I’m still wondering what would’ve happened if he pulled the trigger. The gun felt so real and it had loaded barrels wich he showed me"
– Virtual_Display_4842
In The Nick Of Time
"I was working with a friend of mine (we work in Security) and we had a nightshift at an empty festival site. I decided to do my usual round in the woods and I saw someone running. I quickly paged my friend and he came to me. We both didn't see him but we decided to keep our eyes open. A few minutes lster I looked to my left and I saw him running again but he was too fast ao we decided to call the cops. 30 mins later they show up,without sirens,without lights just quietly. I was smoking a cigarette when they approached me and they asked: with how many security officers are you? So I said; just me and my friend...their faces immediatly turned white....turned out when I was smoking and on the phone with my head of security,there was a person standing nearby me with something really big and heavy (don't remember what it was) ready to attack me...cops showed up just in time"
– hetisjanken
Abducted!
"More-so scary for my family but maybe would be scary for little me if it happened…my whole family had a big party at one of those trail parks that had camp sites and hiking trails. I was 5 at the time and a lady lured me away from my group with her cute dogs. My whole family caught her in time before she “took me to the police “ stating “I didn’t know where her family was so I was going to help her.” Idk what happened after that. I will update if I remember to ask."
– violet-ack
Was He Really There?
"When i was around 10 I started seeing like 7 foot tall black shadow people with glowing red eyes in the corner of my room and when I slept in the lounge room, down the hall. To this day I still dont know if it was hallucinations, my imagination, sleep paralysis or a demon or something like that."
– WhoG1vesASh1t
That's Why You Don't Sneak Out
"When I was 12 me and my friend sneaked out during a sleepover. We found a shopping cart in the woods, we drove the cart trough the city and our plan was to drive it under a bridge and leave it then head to my house but when we were under the bridge we heard a loud cough, we started running up towards a university I looked back and I saw two guys running after us. We lost them with running inside of the university's yard and hiding inside of a garage."
– The_Orange_Burger600
A Strange Man
"A years ago, my younger brother was playing with his toys in his room, while I and our mom were sitting in another room. Few minutes later, we both heard crying from brother's room. We fastly came to him and after he chilled down, he said he saw a scary man, but there were no one except of us. A few days later we pictured brother's room and showed picture to great grandpa (he was working with spirits and that stuff at the time) and he saw something unusual on this picture. Later, father also saw something weird, but in mirror. Even now our cat just sometimes stays in the middle of different rooms and stares at nothing."
– oyomoyk
A Real Man After All
"When i was in 6th grade i was chilling in the class with some of my classmates. Our class was on the 4th floor, which is about 30 meters up. We had a beautiful view. All of a sudden my best friend comes into the class crying and shouts that he saw a hanging man out of the window in the train. He could see the man's face and body. At first, no one really believed him except me and we looked right out the window. A man with an orange top and a bloody face was hanging on a small bridge next to the rails (the bridge was 50-80 meters away from the window). I calmed him down and told him that the person didn't look real. 10 minutes later he calmed down a bit and we asked a teacher if we could go to the office to ask if they could call the police. The secretary called the police and we went back up to our class. We could see the police officers go up to the man and pull him up. It turned out that it was actually a real man. So many years have passed and I still have the image in my mind's eye."
– GucciBananaKing99
Heroic Mom
"i was a about seven at the time, and was playing in my front yard. i was alone out there, but we lived in a nice neighborhood, so my mother wasn't worried. i heard a car screech to a stop behind me, and a guy jumped out, grabbed my arms, and started to throw me into the back of his van, all the while, im screaming. my mom came out and punched the guy in the face, and saved my ass. my mom had heard the car pull up and went to see what was happening, and when i started screaming, that's when her mother bear instincts kicked in. the guy was charged, and i don't know where he is now."
– the_hentai_merchant
I Swear It Happened!
"I was walking home from my friends house at around 10pm. it had just snowed a few days ago so the sidewalk was icy. as i was walking, a car pulls in and is driving by me. i don’t think much of it since i live in a relatively safe neighborhood, but i speed up anyway. the car starts driving faster and i begin to run. as i turn the corner i hear a car door slam and footsteps. i’m now at a full on sprint and slip on the ice and face plant on the side walk. i get up and run the rest of the way home. nobody believed me except my aunt when i told them."
– Ok-Calligrapher9997
Nearly Drowned
"I was in the ocean. the water went to my neck. it was fun. jumping over waves. low tide. the tide was getting higher. i was in my regular clothes. I was being swept away by sea. but some guy saved me. mind you i was 9/10. i owe my life to whoever saved me."
– mantheman433
Look Into Your Future
"Alright so this is the scariest for me that continues to scare the shit out of me."
"I was a bartender at restaurant and this was around 2007. I was going through a terrible time in life and during closing I was talking to a friend/customer about it and he suggests I go and see this psychic. I immediately dismiss it and go about life for another painful month or two. I ended up seeing this person again and ask for the contact information."
"I call this lady we’ll call her Janice. Says she doesn’t do phone readings and if I really wanted a reading that I would have to go to her apt. Now, I was nervous and intrigued at the same time so I say fuck it and plan to go and see what’s up."
"Fast forward two weeks and I make the train trek to where she lived. She lived in the projects so I was already nervous af."
"I go up to the floor she lives on and knocked. An older lady answered the door very nice. I was told to wait in her living room."
"After a few minutes she calls me into her kitchen. Now I’m starting to become really skeptical because it is totally not the set up I imagined. At all. Like it’s just a dining room table. No tarot cards, no paraphernalia, nothing. Just a notebook."
"She tells me the reading is 30 dollars. Now, I am really skeptical at this point because I had brought a few hundred with me and what can I really expect for such a small amount. I resign myself to the fact that this is probably a bunch of bullshit and I wasted the day but continue on to be polite."
"She asks me to write down my full name. She mutters a few words and dead fucking ass her eyes roll into the back of her head and another voice starts to speak. Like a mans voice. Not like she tried to sound like a man. But a mans voice. I am terrified at this point but I cannot move from my chair. All I can do is listen."
"Whatever this was speaking told me shit that is still coming true to this day. Told me my sister would die of an overdose which I dismissed because my sister was just fine. Ended up happening. Told me another family member would take their own life. Ended up happening. Told me no matter how hard life is to never commit suicide because “I didn’t want to end up in there with them.""
"Told me also good things that happened. Certain things predicted haven’t happened yet but a few things keep ending up to be true to it is still terrifying."
– Dizzy-Cryptographer2
When you're done reading this, maybe do a quick scan of your surroundings. Just in case, you know? Never can be sure what's coming around the corner or who might be standing behind you.
Good luck.
People Confess What They Saw As A Kid That Actually Gave Them Nightmares
Children are very impressionable. They're also little humans, remember, and all quite different. Some are more afraid of some things than others. When I was a kid, some of my classmates were utterly terrified of Chucky, the killer doll.
I think he worked the best in the first film and to a larger extent in the second, but after that? Those movies got a bit ridiculous, wouldn't you agree?
Well, the memories linger, as you can imagine.
People took us on a trip down memory lane after Redditor teacatpeng asked the online community,
"What’s something you saw (as a kid) that gave you nightmares for a long time?"
"Specifically..."
"The movie Signs. Specifically the scene where they are recording a home movie and catch the feet under the fence or something. Greetings from my nightmares extraterrestrials!"
Okenthusiam509
Oh Lord, this movie. I don't think it has aged well but it did pack a punch when I was younger.
"My young mind..."
The Fly (1986). My young mind was not ready for that movie.
thenightcrew88
To be fair, who is? Thanks, David Cronenberg!
"There was a TV movie..."
"There was a TV movie (Fire in the Sky?) I remember watching and all I can remember is a scary red sky and the guy laying on a table. Terrified me as a kid!"
Jefz
You are correct! The movie is indeed Fire in the Sky and it appears to have successfully traumatized an entire generation!
"My whole class..."
"I was around like nine or ten? My whole class saw one of the alcoholics in our town viciously beat his girlfriend right next to the school grounds. It was… a little bit traumatising."
UngusBungus
We're sorry you had to see that. This is devastating. Hopefully you were able to get some help afterward.
"I saw..."
I saw a car crash when I was about 7. I don't know if it is a result of that but I still have a phobia of driving and don't have a driving license at 26."
Lord-AG
Possibly? You'd be surprised how much is rooted in childhood fear!
"If you know..."
"Event Horizon. If you know, you know. If you don't know, you'll sleep better not knowing."
stx06
Oh, I definitely know. That movie was creepy. The final act loses its way a bit but wow, is the rest of the film effective.
"Scared the hell out of me..."
"The Exorcist - watched it during a sleepover at my friend’s house when I was 9. Scared the hell out of me and couldn’t sleep right for weeks afterward."
VictorBlimpmuscle
Who could blame you? It's amazing that this film continues to attract more fans each year. It's exceptional.
"Nightmares for weeks after..."
"I was about 7 or 8 years old when The Poseidon Adventure aired as a late night movie one evening when my parents were out and we had a babysitter. Nightmares for weeks after, and I wouldn't swim in pools that whole summer."
AmishH*eFights
Come to think of it, the 1970s disaster movie craze no doubt made some people think twiice about boarding a ship... or being in a high rise... or an airplane...
"I remember seeing..."
"I remember seeing a commercial for a horror movie when I was younger and it featured a scene where a woman's face was melting. It terrified me and gave me nightmares for weeks."
staffs-burglaries
Now I need to hunt this movie down! What could it be?
"My bedroom..."
"Poltergeist III. My bedroom had a wall of mirrors in it at the time. I still have a hard time looking in a mirror if the lights are off."
willowgrl
The scene you're mentioning is probably the most effective one in the film and by then the series had definitely overstayed its welcome.
Are some of these posts bringing back some unsettling memories? We apologize in advance. You probably saw more scary movies than you remember, come to think of it.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
Life can be pretty frightening sometimes.
And anything can happen: Accidents. Deaths. Other traumatizing experiences.
Believe it or not, everyone has a story. It's worth remembering that when you deal with total strangers.
But it's difficult for some people to open up compared to others. We get it though—why would you want to remember some horrible memory?
Nevertheless, people were kind enough to share with us after Redditor relaxito asked the online community:
"What is the scariest thing you have witnessed with your own eyes?"
"I woke up..."
"I woke up and saw a shadow man run then jump at me while I was in bed. I was so struck with fear I was unable to move but he disappeared right before he landed. The memory was so terrifying I still remember it nearly 30 years later."
BW_Bird
Wow!
The things we see as kids, real or imagined, can really traumatize us.
"One night I woke up..."
"One night I woke up to yelling and crashing and walked into the living room to see my dad fistfighting a complete stranger. He beat the absolute sh*t out of him and threw him down the stairs into our unfinished basement and locked the door since that was the only way in or out of there and called the police."
"Guy thought nobody was home and decided to try to burglarize the place and walked around the corner and bumped right into my dad in the dark who was half asleep on his way to the bathroom."
Victor117
Thankfully you all survived!
Having an intruder walk in is scary.
"I just thought he was worn out..."
"My fiance of 14 years dying in front of me, while I stroked his hair. I just thought he was worn out from trying to get up after tripping over his sweatpants, as his lower back had been hurting. Horrifically tragic, heartbreaking beyond all reason, he just went limp. I'll never be the same."
MrsEECummings
Sorry for your loss. There is no taking away that shock or pain.
"I was trying to nap..."
"I was in a bus that crashed into a house. I was trying to nap after a late-night flight when suddenly the bus shook, so I opened my eyes and saw us going off the road, knocking down a small tree and then colliding with a house."
"There was a strong smell of gas, so we thought the bus was going to explode. We all had to get out through the fire escape window, and I cut my hand on broken glass when I landed. Thankfully the bus did not explode and everyone got out with only minor injuries."
"Nobody was home in the house either."
Lewa263
It's good to hear that no one was seriously injured or killed!
"My grandfather's..."
"My grandfather's seemingly lifeless body as he was dying from stage 4 cancer. Never was the same when he left."
HolyRamirez
Cancer sucks. So devastating. Sorry for your loss.
"Forty years ago..."
"Forty years ago I got home very drunk late at night. The police had my house staked out waiting for me and tackled me in the driveway and took me to jail for burglary that they accused me of."
"Spent three days in jail before they figured out that I was innocent and just cut me loose about an hour from my home without my wallet which they still had at the county jail that I was originally booked into. Didn't have a cent on me but I was sure happy to be out."
This is terrifying.
The feeling of powerlessness must have been immense.
"It took me years..."
"When I was around 9 years old, I was on vacation with my mom. The hotel gave our room key, in the middle of the night, to some random man claiming it was his room. Luckily the chain was drawn, but the man was very drunk and stood there yelling into the room."
"It took me years before I would stay in a hotel again."
ChocoboToes
This must have been so scary to experience as a child and I can't say anyone would blame you.
"Arrived at an accident..."
"Arrived at an accident about 30 seconds after it occurred. A friend of mine was driving and rolled the car, she was thrown clear (no seatbelt - wear them FFS!) and hit a tree."
"I found her, did first aid and helped the paramedics lift her onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. Her body stopped functioning about a week later but it's pretty obvious she died there (massive brain trauma), it just took a while for the end."
Flight19Navigator
Sorry for your loss.
Thankfully you were able to be there for your friend.
Wearing a seatbelt saves lives.
"Was so strange."
"Saw the aftermath of a teenager who fell at a skate rink and hit her head on a concrete step that surrounded the skating surface. Dead right there. Ambulance came, carted her off. Then everyone started skating again. Was so strange."
9600_PONIES
Surreal!
I think I would have left after seeing something like that.
"Within 15 minutes..."
"Saw an old man slip and die at a bus stop in Portland early in the morning when I was a teenager. That was sad, but what really shook me was the way he was picked up by an ambulance, the sidewalk was washed off, and they left. Within 15 minutes people were occupying that space waiting for a bus, and it was like it had never happened."
Oozie_Nahs
Life goes on.
It's wild to think about.
It's a bit unnerving to know that something terrible could happen and life would continue with most people being none the wiser.
"At a job I used to work at..."
"At a job I used to work at, my boss had a heart attack in his office and died in the middle of the shift. The office lights were motion activated so we thought he left to go something as it was dark. I went into the office to get a new radio and there he was, leaned back in his chair with his eyes wide open. Scariest thing I've ever seen."
PunchlineHappy
That must have been so horrifying to witness, especially once the lights turned on.
"I was living..."
"I was living in Naples, Italy and got off a train to see someone shoot a man feet away from me. I’ll never forget the woman who was with them screaming."
Itsconosciuto
Horrifying.
I can only imagine and admit I am curious about the aftermath.
Everyone around you?
They have a story.
They've SEEN some stuff. Remember that next time you're out in public. You never know what others have experienced.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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I am very much a night owl. I quite like being up at night.
For one thing, it's quiet.
There's no one to bother me. If I want to watch television and vegetate, I can just do that.
If I want to do some work, I can get my work done without interruptions. It's pretty sweet.
Nothing particularly scary has ever happened either... yet. My fingers are crossed.
But others haven't exactly been so lucky.
They told us their stories after Redditor citric_acid asked the online community:
"What is the scariest thing you’ve witnessed in the middle of the night?"
"Driving through an abandoned section..."
"Driving through an abandoned section of Baltimore at 3 in the morning, my CB radio turned itself on and crackled for a bit. Out of nowhere some voice over the radio said in a deep southern drawl, 'I ain't got no panties on.'"
"I could see up and down the interstate for miles and saw not one set of headlights..."
THREEkoalas
What in the world?
No, thank you.
"It was a bright moonlit night..."
"I stepped in and fell over a cow carcass on a night hike. It was a bright moonlit night but I didn't see it in the shadows. Thankfully it was mostly dry."
Phantomtastic
I would not want to stumble into that late at night!
No thanks.
"Turns out..."
"When I was around 8 I woke up to hear my parents whisper yelling. Turns out someone was beating on the back sliding glass door with a baseball bat. Turns out he was drunk and mistook our place for his ex's."
cigarmanga
Imagine something like this happening to you because you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I cut down a tree..."
"I cut down a tree in my backyard one afternoon. The tree was in front of my backyard slider so at night there was a lot more light coming in from the neighbors lights and street lights."
"I get up the next morning before sunrise to make my coffee and I saw a shadowy figure down the hall. I yelled what the f**k?!"
"At the moment I didn't realize that now more light was being let in by the lack of tree it cast my shadow on the wall. So basically I was a 37 year old dude that was scared of my own shadow."
lookssharp
It happens to the best of us.
Fear of the unknown still gets us, no matter how old we are!
"Don't know who it was..."
"When I was in high school I was out late (around 2-3am) with a friend chilling in a park. We are just chatting on a bench and after about an hour there I noticed a silhouette in the distance move slightly."
"To my horror I realized there had been a person staring at us from the same spot for almost half an hour or more. As I told my friend and we started to run back to their place, they started chasing us."
"Don’t know who it was or what they were planning but probably the most freaked out I’ve been in my life."
Skytorn7
This is horrifying.
Thankfully you got away!
"Last week..."
"Last week I saw a shooting in the middle of the street while having a pint outside a bar, probably that."
Much_Committee_9355
That is terrifying.
Hopefully you've been able to see someone after seeing something so horrific.
"She had her own nightmare..."
"I once woke up from a nightmare about a demonic little girl to my little sister hovering above my bed. I freaked out and punched her in the nose."
"My sister had her own nightmare and was standing over me because she was debating whether or not to wake me up. I have a history of waking violently so she was weighing whether it was worth it or not. We spent the rest of the night watching Disney movies."
lizzyote
You must have been sleeping very deeply!
But Disney cures all ills.
"Remind you of a movie?"
"My daughter, 4 years old, black hair, pale skin, came into our bedroom in the middle of the night. Hair in her face. Middle of the bed by our feet. And started climbing up towards me and my spouse. Remind you of a movie?"
mutalisken
I've definitely seen this movie before.
Has your daughter ever emerged from a television?
"The police banging my door..."
"The police banging my door at 3am looking for a missing teenage girl... even though I knew my daughter was safe in her room. It still freaked me out."
Wshrig
Terrifying!
Thankfully she was okay and hopefully you were able to rest easy.
"Thought he was drunk..."
"My downstairs neighbour walked into my apartment at 1:30 a,m. I was only dressed in underwear and didn’t have my glasses on. Thought he was drunk and managed to convince him he was in the wrong apartment. He backed his way out, closed the door and went down the hall carrying something."
"A week later I run into him downstairs and laugh about how drunk he must’ve been. Turned out he’d been away. That wasn’t my neighbour who’d walked in."
tangcameo
This would creep me the hell out.
The last thing I want is anyone uninvited in my space.
I think I'm just going to lock my doors and never leave the house after reading these.
Or maybe not stay up so late. Not be a night owl.
What I don't know won't hurt me.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!