I've lost count of the number of times I've been left SHOOKETH to the core of my being. Of course being scared seems to be structured into my DNA. I can be thrown off by a mild noise at night. And I faint at the sight of blood, mine or yours.
RIP
Acds2 Look Away GIF by Anime Crimes DivisionGiphy"My brother losing consciousness and falling down the stairs. He lay on the floor with his eyes open and blood coming out of his ear. He was fine after one day at the hospital, but I sure as hell thought I just witnessed the death of my brother."
The Long Driveway
"My dad and grandma waiting for me at the top of our driveway when I got off the bus coming home from kindergarten. My mother had breast cancer and the moment I saw them waiting there together, I knew she was dead. We had a long driveway to begin with but that day it felt like it took an eternity to climb. I knew what they were going to say but I still dreaded hearing it. I've never felt that kind of terror since."
The Blackout
"This happened just this past weekend."
"Came home to find my brother blacked out and when he came to he could barely stand, walk, was in an altered mental state talking like he was drunk. He hadn't eaten or drank anything but water in 3 days and had been sleeping pretty much around the clock. Turns out he's diabetic now and was experiencing Diabetic Ketoacidosis."
"Spent the weekend in the ICU. He blacked out because he was so dehydrated that his heart couldn't properly pump blood and his blood pressure was bottoming out while his heart rate was skyrocketing. His blood glucose was sky high. He's doing better now thankfully. But I thought I was watching my big brother, my best friend, die right in front of me at the time."
- kat4190
In Class
Scared Breaking Bad GIF by davidsaracinoGiphy"A 4th grade student of mine had a seizure, it was just awful and terrifying."
Oh yeah, those people should be thankful I was not around. That is a whole messy lot trauma. Having to be a witness to or a survivor of frightful experiences can leave you changed for life. Let's try to go on...
Pleading
Not Safe For Work No GIFGiphy"Another convict begging the co's not to let him die as he nearly bled out after having his throat cut from ear to ear. It was the begging that I can't forget. I had seen someone killed before and it didn't effect me nearly as much."
Up in Smoke
"The Black Saturday bushfires."
"We were in a small town where my grandmother lived helping her pack up to get to safety. The fire was moving so fast we had maybe 1 minute to move if they sounded the warning to leave. Watching the horizon change colour from black to a dark orange to a full wall of flames in a matter of minutes is freaking intense."
"The trees exploded from the intensity of the heat making these dull popping sounds amongst what sounded like rain from ash and embers falling everywhere. It's worth noting that the town is nestled amongst a bunch of hills in dense bushland with treacherous terrain and we were almost completely surrounded. Every hill glowed for hours."
Last Breathes...
"Finding this young dude after he'd been stabbed like 7 times and trying to comfort him. I knew the guy was going to die and I think he did too. About a year of sleepless nights and a moderate case of PTSD later I've come to terms with what happened."
Best Excuses For Late Assignments That Were Actually True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Oh Mom
"Seeing my sweet kind terrified mother crying out for death as she dealt with a huge tumor in her esophagus that prevented her from swallowing, after having had brain surgery to remove another tumor, to help with quality of life. I hate cancer."
Pulse Check
"I watched a girl get hit by a car and stopped to help. The panic I had when the guy who got there first said there was no pulse. Lucky in that case he just didn't know how to take a pulse. But 18 months later and I still wonder how she's doing. It's like the old Chinese/Buddhist proverb "if you save a life, you're responsible for it" only I can see how you'd still feel it even if you couldn't do anything."
Terror Cycle
"I survived a plane crash. It was far and away the scariest thing I've ever witnessed. Second behind that was watching a van full of people wrap around a bridge underpass pillar (the driver fell asleep behind the wheel). 6 of the 7 people died - the 7th person was laying in the back seat sleeping and avoided being crushed."
"Strangely enough, about 5 years after that accident, I was in Basic for the Army and met a girl that lived a few hours north of me. She KNEW the people who were killed and their funerals were in her high school gym. It's a small world, folks."
loop time GIFLife Saver
"Finding my husband in a full cardiac arrest. Thankfully I found him very quickly and was able to commence CPR and save his life. There is a slim chance of survival for cardiac arrest so I'm grateful it happened a couple of minutes after I got home. Most terrifying moment of my life."
In the Air
"I was a receptionist at a trucking company. I was sitting the front desk and all of a sudden there was the loudest sound ever and as I looked out the window I saw a small building fly up in the air. Found out later that a welder and his helper had tried to weld something and there was an explosion. They both died. That was pretty sad."
Remaining Scars
"I've seen my brother and another guy get blown up in a natural gas fire. Soaked/emerged in natural gas liquids and ignited Prob 70% skin/ hands looked like shredded white latex gloves with blood dripping from the tears. Lots of hospital time. Remaining scars are relatively Insignificant."
Up in Smoke
Sad GIF by PokémonGiphy"Watching 3000 houses go up in flames about a mile east of me. I had the cats in carriers in the car, ready to go west."
Hearts
"Someone already covered 9/11, so I'll add one that's more existential fear: seeing my dad in recovery after heart surgery. It was only then I really realized how mortal and vulnerable he was, and that he wasn't going to be around forever."
- Athrynne
"I remember walking into the hospital room after my dad had his quadruple bypass surgery. Seeing him unconscious with a ventilator down his throat made me feel so helpless."
PB+J
"When my son was 18 months old I fed him PB+J for the first time for lunch and my wife said he'd already had some at daycare. I laid him down for a nap a short time later like usual after lunch. About 45 minutes later he woke up crying and I could tell he was in pain. I rushed to the room to find him completely swollen. I instantly knew he was allergic to peanuts. I did a 10 minute drive to the hospital in less than 5 minutes."
"The whole time I was thinking his throat would close and I would have to watch my baby boy die in the back seat. I got him there and everything ended up being fine as they treated him instantly. Thankfully his reaction to peanuts, so far, has only ever been a surface reaction and no throat closing. He's 11 now and to this day I've never experienced anything more scary."
Door Issues
"Bus doors closing on me with my mother on the other side as a child and seeing her chase the bus down to get me out. It's not that my mother wasn't watching me, I just found a coin on the ground and of course me being a kid I picked it up and the moron bus driver was too impatient to wait for me to leave, it was literally a 6 second window between my mother getting off and the doors shutting. Thank goodness she made enough noise outside for him to stop and let me out".
Through the Crosswalk...
"I saw a guy on a bike get hit by a car. Guy blew through a crosswalk on his bike when he wasn't supposed to, car came to a stop and bumped him. Car was going maybe 2 miles an hour, but the dude still got flown a good 6 feet. You don't really think about how big and heavy cars are until you see something like that. Anyway, dude got up, shaky as all hell, waved at the car, then pedaled off. Nuts to see."
I would never be able to leave home after seeing things like that, heck just reading it is giving me anxiety. This is why therapy and Xanax are a must have for survival. Good luck out there. The clock is ticking for us all.
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I have so many memories I can't seem to expunge and I hate it. I can't tell what is worse, my abusive ex stepfather, the bullies or the times I almost died. I have such a plethora to chose from. It's a wealth of darkness. But my childhood was still happy, just flawed.
The Wall
ouch wall GIFGiphyI remember a day at summer camp where we were on a portage trip through crown land in Northern Canada and it was a super windy day.
We came to a section of the woods and for some reason the trees and foliage were completely still. For a few hundred feet there was just silence it was so weird. Almost like an invisible wall was hit. What made it creepier is how I could see how white our guide was getting. It was very creepy.
Aunt Liz
When I was younger (no idea how old) I had a dream that my aunt came to visit me. I was named after her husband who died a few months before I was born so she always loved me. So after the dream I went into my parents room and told them that Aunt Liz came to see me and she told me to say goodbye. A few hours later they got a call that she had passed away.
A few years later my grandfathers friend Mary got brain cancer and she lost her ability to speak and her face was paralyzed. The last time I saw her I told my mom I just wanted to see her smile one more time. A few nights later I had a dream where she was smiling at me. Few hours later, parents got a call that she had passed.
When I was 11-12 I had a dream my dad died. He was sh*tting bricks for weeks. 14 years later he's still alive though.
The Guy
A guy in a car asked me once if I wanted some candy. He was younger, possibly teenager, possibly in his 20s. I was about 10.
I was walking alone back from a friend's. I just stared at him for a few seconds and said no, he asked if I was sure, I think I just stood there. He drove off.
I've gone back and forth throughout my life about whether he was crazy or just a dude messing with me. Still not sure.
Change the Channel
My brother and I were watching TV one time late at night in the mid-90's. Suddenly the audio to the show we were watching cut out— we changed to various channels, and only the show we had been watching had lost audio. We flipped back to see if the audio had returned, and it was literally the audio of people having a phone call.
Not scripted, not associated with the show— like a LIVE phone call— like the way you can sometimes hear other people's chatter on a walkie-talkie. It was a man and a woman talking and they were trying to find their friend "Howard." Just this panic back-and-forth dialogue about where he could be— it was clear Howard wasn't their child, because they kept referring to him as "that motherf*cker" and almost sounded like they wanted to harm him.
I even wrote down some of the things they had said and Google searched them many years later to see it they were lines from a script or a show or something— nope. Not a result. The Howard conversation continued for about five minutes and my brother and I listened to the whole thing. Then the conversation ended. Click.
The audio for the channel didn't return until morning.
Haunted
The Conjuring Halloween GIF by ALTER – The Best Horror FilmsGiphyI was laying in bed one night probably about 6 and I swear on my life that my Ariel doll started floating and slowly floated through the wall.
I couldn't find it in the morning. I had a couple of weird experiences in that house. Another night I remember the feeling of someone laying their hand on my leg while I was laying under the covers. I grew up religious so when I was a kid I always thought it was God coming down and blessing me.
Yeah, I definitely would be seeking therapy for all of those moments. This is why I always hated dolls. I prefer stuffed animals. And don't get started on creepy neighbors and noises that go bump in the night. And they say "A Nightmare on Elm Street" wasn't autobiographical. Wanna hear more?
Silhouettes
soccer smoke GIF by Nike FootballGiphyWhen I was young, probably around six years old, I woke up in the middle of the night to see a dark figure just standing at the corner of my bed.
Rather than resembling a person, it looked exactly like the silhouette of one. Just pitch black, which was odd considering I had a night-light in my room. Never had experienced anything like that since, and honestly question whether or not it was simply a dream.
The Nanny
It was my nanny's youngest sons birthday, I was 4 years old. I didn't fully understand why but I hadn't seen my nanny in roughly 6 months, and had just returned to her that week. She mentioned the birthday and I asked if I'd get to play with youngest son, which she cried at.
I moved on to the next thing and hung out around the kitchen when the neighbors popped in, as well as my nanny's husband, and the youngest son. He was now 3 years old, and still didn't talk much but he smiled, and let a balloon go from his hand and it flew to the ceiling. My nanny later asked where the balloon came from, and I said it was "youngest sons's" and that he let it go up there.
She started crying again
As an adult I understand that youngest son died at 2, he and my nanny were hit by a distracted driver. Nanny survived but had serious injuries, her son died the day after the collision. I know what I saw in the kitchen, and I have no rational way of explaining it.
Mutants
Had an incredibly vivid reoccurring nightmare where I was constantly hunted down by a black dog with yellow eyes when I was around 5-7 years old. Always started and ended the same way. I eventually stopped getting them for a while and kinda forgot about it. Probably a year after I stopped getting them, I was sitting in my living room watching the new episode of monster quest and it literally had the exact same dog that I had been seeing in my nightmares. Was thoroughly spooked from that for a while. And for those who are curious, it was the mutant canines episode.
Not So Cheery
When I was younger, about 10 years old, my room was covered in posters.. posters of celebrities (you know the ones you tear out of the magazines) and I had a giant NFL cheerleading team poster. When I was in bed at night, my posters would move and the cheerleads would do backflips and cartwheels across the page... this scared me so much I gave my cheerleading posted to my older brother (which he didn't mind) and I kind of had forgotten about it for a while until now.
I also used to see visual hallucinations floating around my room at night when I was going to bed. They would never make any noise but they would be really scary and sometimes even interact with me. They were there when my eyes were open and closed.
Snap...
excited pokemon GIFGiphyWhen I was about 4, playing Pokémon Snap, I was on the main menu where you talk to Prof Oak.
One time, I remember the text box turning orange instead of green, and he had this frown on his face, and the game froze. That was years ago, and I've never been able to make it happen again, nor have I heard about anyone else having the same experience, so I conclude it was likely a false memory, though it seems real.
Ok, I've heard enough. I already have enough issues falling asleep at night. This is why we drink. I guess the key is to try and fill up the rest of our lives with happier memories and adventures. Post Covid of course. Sweet Dreams.
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Redditor u/Tiny-Dragonfruit7864 wanted midnight workers to share a tale or two with us by asking.... What are your nightshift horror stories?
The Birds
Tripping Seeing Things GIF by CBCGiphyWorked a parking garage at the airport. Cleaning the top deck and noticed about a hundred ravens all over a truck with a tarp over the bed.
Took my flashlight expecting something awful. Noticed as I got closer the smell and the ravens taking turns going in a hole they had torn open and popping out covered in gunk. some guy left a broke down beater with a couple animal carcasses in the back to rot. No heads.
Checked the logs and the damn truck had been there since November and it was April, so everything was just thawing and breaking down.
At the Depot
Used to work nights at a Home Depot.
There was one time where for a week or so our store stayed open 24 hours. For the most part this wasn't really a problem--typically nobody comes shopping for home improvement items at two in the morning (except that one couple that came looking for marble countertops at 1:30 in the morning and the woman was wearing a nice dress).
I guess there was also that one young lady who came looking for a toilet paper roll holder a little after midnight (I had just gotten off my first break) and she was wearing jorts and a one of those white-with-black-belt stereotypical karate outfits. She was oddly specific about which roll holder to get, too.
But the real story lies within the insulation. It was nearing three in the morning and me and another guy were stocking insulation, as well as fixing the bays and some such maintenance. A bunch of big R-30s had fallen in their bay and while I was sorting through them a freakin' hand came out of the mess and grabbed my arm. I lost my mind enough for not only the guy I was working with to freak out but also for my boss, who was across the store, to come check out the commotion.
Turns out a drunkard had come into the store at some point, and I can only assume before the night crew showed up, and had made a nest in the insulation where he fell asleep. The dude was in bad shape, too. Like, far-gone into whatever inebriation that we had to call the police to remove him. I was always a little more cautious around the insulation after at, for at least the time the store stayed open 24 hours.
The Dead Stare
Oh man, I hate recalling this story. I work nightshift at a rehab facility. We have a protected gate with a camera looking down from above and one of those doorbell cameras. In the office, the camera monitor is on one wall and the doorbell monitor is on another. I was doing some paperwork and see this guy walk past, stop for a few seconds, then slowly turned around, walk back and stared up at the camera. And he kept staring.
The facility is in a rough neighborhood so I'm fairly used to folks hanging out around the gate and usually ignore it. But the way he was staring was off putting. Like, his eyes and expression were hollow and dead, almost as if he were in deep thought about something horrible. I was pretty sure he was zonked on synthetics. I used the intercom to see if he was okay but he just kept staring directly at the camera.
We have a rule - if it's not hurt or trying to come through the fence, just let it be. No sense in engaging needlessly with somebody potentially hostile or f**king with the locals. Y'all, he stood there and stared at that camera for two hours. That same dead-eyed expression staring right at me. I did a round and came back to find him gone, which only creeped me out more.
The Reaper
I used to work the night shift as a care aide in an old folk's home. It was already creepy, the home was an old hospital that was converted. Some a**hole kept walking around the courtyard after dark dressed as the grim reaper knocking on doors. It was actually really scary, he ran off and the facility got a security guard for a few weeks.
The Roo....
Many many years ago, I worked at a regional radio station in the middle of freaking nowhere, Australia.
I was the overnight operator - keep the overnight playlist running, set up for the morning, do all the manual checks for the next day, and jump on the desk if anything funky happens.
I spent a lot of time sitting in what was essentially a tin shed in the middle of a paddock, with my dog, shoes off, listening to 50s & 60s music and doing crossword puzzles.
Except one night when the roo shooters came through. They spooked the kangaroos in the paddock, and one of them jumped head-first through our office window.
So there's me - barefoot and half asleep, when this 6' tall kangaroo smashes through the glass window. Blood and glass everywhere. My dog starts chasing the kangaroo, I'm chasing my dog.
And the kangaroo bounds around the office, knocking crap off desks in the dark, bleeding everywhere. I ran and opened the studio bay doors, and my dog chased it outside. Where, I'm assuming, the poor thing (the kangaroo) was shot.
Then I had to call my boss.
Edit: Bandit (the dog) was fine! She lived a long and healthy life, occasionally being bullied by our pet cockatiel.
Warning, medical gross stuff incoming.....
I worked in an emergency room. The worst night that comes to mind involves a patient that was bitten by a baby timber rattlesnake. He was bleeding out of every single orifice by the time he got to us. More blood than I'd ever seen before outside of a motorcycle vs 75-mph-headfirst-to-asphalt. I don't remember how many doses of Crofab we gave him, but it was the hospital's entire supply.
But trying to get him stabilized, arranging the helicopter transport to a bigger and better equipped facility, all the blood, those weren't the worst parts. The worst part was when the patient lost control of his bowels. I will never, ever, forget that smell. I spent the entire time standing by the door with a battery-powered fan and a handful of gauze pads saturated with cinnamon oil trying to reduce some of the smell.
The doctor occasionally stuck her head out just so I could waft the cinnamon oil in her face.
Yes, by some miracle, the patient did end up surviving, and as far as I know he made a full recovery. But the blood, the smell, and just the shock of it all. Yeah, never underestimate a baby timber rattlesnake.
Freeze Fright
Did hospital security for about two months. It was small hospital out in the sticks so we were responsible for removing patients who had passed from their rooms and transferring into the morgue freezer.
We had just brought a decedent to the morgue and right before we were about to transfer them to the freezer their cellphone rang. Granted, pretty tame compared to some stories, but at the time it gave us a decent fright.
I Think We're Alone Now....
Willem Dafoe Smile GIFGiphyWas an orderly in a hospital. Two of us were sitting in the basement office adjacent to the morgue.
A guy passed our office, looking at us a little shifty, came back again and asked if we had access to the morgue. We said "yes," thinking he was doing a pickup for a funeral home, but that seemed strange given it was around 12:00-12:30 a.m. Nope. He wanted to pay us to let him in, and leave him alone with the bodies for an hour. We escorted him up To security. Apparently he had tried it in the past, as security knew him.
ABSOLUTE SILENCE!Â
Many years ago I briefly had a job that started at 3:30am. The job itself was very boring, but the commute was wild. The world is at its weirdest in the very early morning. Road hazards haven't been called in yet, so one day I pulled off the freeway and discovered that the off ramp was completely flooded, deep enough that I have no idea how my car didn't stall.
But the most interesting discovery was that if law enforcement has to raid a home, they do it around 3 or 4 in the morning because that's the best chance of everyone being peacefully asleep.
One day I was nearly to work when I noticed something off ahead of me. I slowed down and came up to a massive police blockade, squad cars everywhere and absolutely crawling with heavily armed officers... but all in ABSOLUTE silence. They silently waved me down a side street. Just a creepy, unsettling experience.
crazy mickey mouse GIFStock person comes running into produce carrying mop handle screaming "you mother f**ker". Out of sight, he keeps yelling "f**ker!" and smacking handle at something, for like 5 min. I am ringing up customers, and freaking out because he was losing his mind, but I am not interested in getting involved in a murder.... so I ignore it. Later I find out he was chasing a rat.
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u/5cones asked:
What was your scariest experience home alone?
Here were some of those stories.
Urban Legends Do Come True
Backing Up Homer Simpson GIF by CheezburgerGiphyAbout 10 years ago my husband was gone overnight and I got an automated phone call sometime in the evening, after dark, from the county sheriffs department saying 2 inmates had escaped from the local juvenile detention facility. I live in a very rural area and this facility is only a few miles away, also in a rural area. And? The two escapees were NOT juveniles, for some reason, and they were armed.
They had somehow overcome the officer and gotten his weapon. So there are helicopters circling the area for HOURS. I was on the computer (before I had a cell phone) all night messaging my local friends and trying to find updates. All the while the helicopters were still circling within a mile of my house. Bottom line - I turned on all the lights, barricaded the doors and sat up all night. I finally went to sleep when the sun came up. Most scared I've ever been.
Ended Up Working Out In My Favor
I lived in an apartment by myself right after highschool when I was about 19 years old. I had lived there for about a whole month when something truly horrifying happened. My front door was locked, top and bottom locks. I'm sitting in my living room watching TV when all of a sudden I hear keys going into my door locks and I see the locks physically start to turn. My body froze completely and my heart sunk into my chest. I did not have maintenance or anything else planned, nobody to come by and visit, etc.
The door swings open and I see an older asian man with bags of clothes and a few boxes. He immediately started screaming at me in a language I did not understand.
He began repeatedly hitting me and he dragged me out of the apartment. He had me in a chokehold and finally my upstairs neighbor came down and pulled him off me. We called the police and long story short; By some bizarre mistake at the leasing office, they gave this man a key to my apartment and told him it was his.
He purchased it before moving here and had only seen pictures of an empty unit. He assumed I was some sort of squatter, in his unit. I was young and poor, I had a tv, a chair, and an inflatable mattress. I had almost no possessions at all, so I could see how he might've thought that I was there illegally.
He was actually meant to get unit 54 (empty) when I was in 56 (right next door). I was able to press charges on the man and also sued the apartment complex for them allowing a stranger to have a key to my door, which ended violently. He did not move in next door after the incident, and I actually stayed there an entire year rent free. Was able to save some money and bought everything I needed as an adult. I also bought a pistol for my own protection shortly after.
To Oz!
I was home alone around 12 years of age, my dad was gone often, on dates to "heal from the divorce" which he caused by cheating. I remember being outside in the driveway looking up in the sky, the air was warm but calm. Ive never seen a sky look green, then i watched the clouds start to turn in a circle. I hauled ass inside, and shortly after a tornado formed and stuck down very close to the house. I remember the familiar freight train sound. Thankfully it was short lived and an F1.
That's MY Tree
Lightning bolt hit the tree 10 feet out my window, as I was watching the storm from my bed. I was home alone, maybe 13 years old. It was the loudest sound I ever heard, and I admit, I went from loving lightning to being afraid of it (buy only when its close). The same tree got hit 2 more times in the following 10 years, also when I was home alone.
Narrowly Avoided
Used to work in one of the older buildings on my campus. Former dorm turned office building. I was working on December 23, so NOBODY was there (Lights were off, doors were all locked, etc.)
Once i turned our hall lights and set up in my office with my dog, I went to sit at my desk and set up the computer. Right after sitting down, I heard footsteps down the hall, but didn't think much of it. They started to get closer to my door so I looked over at my door to obviously see nothing. I listened as the footsteps went all the way down my hallway (And passed my office). Once they passed my office, I walked into the hall only for the door at the end of the hallway to open and slam shut as i watched.
I flipped.
Puppy Escaped
OMFG I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER GET TO SHARE THIS. This happened when I was eleven. My parents went on a date night and it was just me (and the dog). There's a knock on the door. I peer out the window and see an unfamiliar man. I panic and run to the basement. I call my mum and panic. I hear the knock again. She tells me to calm down.
As I walk back up he has a cute little dog. Btw I'm still on the phone. I panic because i think that he is trying to lure me out. This is how it went
Me : mom he has a puppy! What do I do?!
Mom : ignore him and make sure all the doors are locked
Me : wait...
Mom : what... WHAT IS IT ANSWER ME!
Me : mom the dog looks like our puppy's name
Mom : (confused sounds)
Me : Omg it IS our dog!
Turns out our dog got out the open back door and ran after my parents car. Our neighbor who I didnt recognized because we just moved found her running, saw her collar, noticed the adress was next to his house, and brought her to me.
All Was Well
While I was at my grandma's house, she left to go to the grocery store, so I was at her house alone, playing my Wii. While playing, I hear noises coming from upstairs that sound like footsteps. I get really worried, so I walk outside for a minute or two to calm down, then walk back inside. A few minutes later, I hear more noises, and this time the noises are coming closer to the living room door. All of a sudden I see a person walking, and I let out a loud noise.
Turns out the noises I heard were my grandma. She had never actually went to the store; I had misheard what she told me.
Watchful Eyes
It was my first time being alone for an undetermined time, I was maybe 16 or 17. My mom had to take my dad to a doctor in Alabama and took my sister with me. I had no idea how long they were going to be gone, so I'm sitting in the hall on the computer and our dog starts barking. Not like "Hey, squirrel, it's a squirrel!" but deep, angry barking. "Something is in my yard and it should not be here" barking.
I had the phone in my hand and went to check out the window looking towards where the dog was, plus to make absolutely sure the back door was locked. It was a box turtle. I had never heard this dog bark like this before, was pretty sure I was going to find a burglar or worse outside the door, and it was a freaking box turtle trying to get across the yard while the dog barked and snapped at it. I went outside and helped the turtle to the far end of the yard away from the dog, but he definitely earned some pats and treats for being that watchful over the house.
This Isn't Somebody I Know
bray wyatt horror GIF by WWEGiphyI lived in a basement apartment that had 3 windows and one of them was in our living room (left side of house).
Some guy, who I have no idea who it was, walked up to the living room window (had to walk around a big bush mind you) and started waving and saying hi.
Then they went all the way to the other side of the house where my basement door was and started knocking on it saying, "Let me in".
I was just trying to play guitar hero. Still to this day not sure if he was drunk trying to get to my upstairs neighbors house. Called the cops and he left before they could catch him.
An Important Thing About Myself
My SO works nights and wasn't home. I came home from a long night of gallery-hopping with no dinner, lots of wine and didn't eat enough food while I was out. Suddenly had a really strong blood-sugar attack and ended up on the floor being barely able to move. Super sweaty and cold all over. Felt like fainting only my heart hurt really bad and my whole body felt odd.
I couldn't even move get to the phone to call 911. About 20 minutes later, I finally was able to get to the fridge by crawling and got some OJ into me and a couple of bites of an old pie that was there. That got me strong enough to make a meal and get things back in order. Found out later that my whole system was out of wack and I have to have food about every 2 - 3 hours or it happens again. Hypoglycemia.
When Hinges Creak In Doorless Chambers
It was a short time ago.
As context: I'm 21, was 20 at the time, but I still live with my mother. So I was playing some ArmA III with a friend through Discord, completely alone, and I swear I hared the window in my corridor open (I live on a third floor). It felt so real, that I actually reached for my airsoft gun in case it was a burglar so I could scare him off, but everything was in its place. Was weird and that's the scariest I can remember.
Nape Of Your Neck
This was about a year or 2 ago but I felt a small breeze on my back while gaming and no one was home. I turn around and nothing. My door is closed, I don't have any windows in my room, my fan is off and the aircon wasn't functional at the time. Then I heard a thump coming from my mums room then extremely light footsteps slowly traveling but stepping fast. It reaches my door so I grab my weights (but made them light so it's heavy enough to be lethal but light enough to swing around) I open the door and it was my cat so I put 2 and 2 together and assumed that he jumped off my mums bed and wanted scratches. But it still doesn't explain the breeze...
A Ghost Or Just A Child's Mind?
When I was a kid I would always sleep with a closet light on because I was afraid of the dark. I remember that I used to see black shadows fly a cross my room when I was supposed to be sleeping which were too fast to see clearly, however one night when I was around 11 I remember waking up in the middle of the night and seeing the shadow of a man standing directly in front of my bed.
Now the part that still confused me and freaks me out is the fact that it was standing DIRECTLY infront of the closet door. It was blocking the light. I hid underneath my covers for the longest 5 minutes of my life but when I gained enough courage to look back up it was gone, sort of manifested. My grandfather died a few years prior but I don't like to jump to conclusions.
Yeahhhh We Had To Move
My sibs and I (ages 8-12) were upstairs when we heard loud knocking and a loud bang. We went downstairs and saw our front door was wide open despite having multiple locks from the inside engaged. Weird that our parents always left thru the garage so the additional locks inside wont be open. But when we saw the door all the locks were open.
And these were the locks that you have to lift and slide over to open. Idk if we just forgot or if something is in that house but safe to say we no longer live there. This house was new when we got it but I always felt something was there.
A Phantom Sob
Once when i was home alone doing homework i was listening to music. When i took a brake to relax a bit i heard a low level noise from downstairs. When i decided to get up and check, in the hallway i could hear the sound of crying but it was that crying of a woman trying not to be heard. I was so afraid that i had to take a moment before asking "Who's There?" And by then it had stopped. Till today my mom says she has no idea what it could have been.
Get Off My Lawn!!!!
Owner of a house very near mine was planning to demolish it and build townhouses on the land. He allowed some young people to hold a party there, which went viral. There were hundreds of people there.
The police had to get involved, ended up with full riot squad turning out and herding hundreds of people away from the property up the street. I lived alone and got scared when I heard people trying to get on to my property (I have a high, gated, fence at the front of my property).
Loads of news crews the next day!
Soccer Strikes
I've been scared of storms since I was a kid. Like a full on had to go to therapy phobia. It was mostly better when I got older, I just get really on edge. Then I was 18 and driving home from soccer practice that was cut short by a storm and a tree across the intersection from me got hit by lighting and it was terrifying.
Killer Shrews
Alone at night watching a B & W horror movie called Killer Shrews -- huge dog like creatures with 4 inch teeth menacing people trapped in a compound on a tropical island. For some reason a pile of books fell heavily to the floor in a nearby closet. If I could have jumped out of my skin.
Deep Breaths
breathe schitts creek GIF by CBCGiphyI was pretty young, and it was about 1 AM. My cat came in, and immediately hissed at something across the room. Then, my cat ran away. I then felt something like a human walking across the floor, and stopped at the end of my bed. The I just heard breathing, for about an hour. I then decided to get enough courage to look up, and I did. Nobody was there, but I still heard breathing. Checked under my bed, nothing.
Checked my closet, nothing. Checked my bathroom, nothing. I then went to bed, not knowing what to do. I probably just hallucinated, but it felt pretty real. I don't suffer from anything, and that was the only time I hallucinated, unless my dog just came in, and breathed like a human.
Cookies....
When I was about thirteen, I had the house to myself. I pulled out some Oreo cookies just before I went into the bathroom and, when I came back five minutes later, they were gone. I never found the cookies.
Staying Calm
I've never taken a prescription before, but finally got some antidepressants in Feb.
I didn't know I was supposed to eat food with my medicine for the first couple weeks, and the first day I took it, I nearly passed out.
My dad was at work, and I'm not supposed to call him unless it's his lunch break. But I called him anyways. He told me to eat some crackers and lie down. I felt better. Dads make everything better.
Just StaringÂ
Wasn't home alone, exactly, but everyone else was asleep so I hope it still counts.
I was pretty young, I'm assuming I was around seven or eight, and I just got back from the bathroom. I had one of those canopy-beds, and as I got in bed and looked in the direction of my door, I swear to God, I see this kid staring at me.
Straight up staring. For like five seconds, we stare directly at each-other and then it looks like she ducked down and hid behind the end of my bed.
So, at first I thought - for some reason - that my sister had snuck into my room to scare me. So I whisper her name and look behind the bed where the kid had hid.
Nobody was there.
To this day, I have no idea what I saw. I'm usually very skeptical about ghosts and stuff, but something about the whole experience rubbed me the wrong way.
The Shake Up
I was 14. my mom and twin were out of state, and early that morning (4 am) my dad left to go to Italy for work. my Gram was supposed to come pick me up that evening--I'd convinced my family I was grown enough that I could be on my own for a few hours, didn't need to spend the night before at grams.
4:30, my cat wakes me up, which was strange, she was usually happy to just cuddle on my feet. and my brain says " hey, animals know when a quake is coming..." and I roll off the bed and cover my head.
I lived in California.
so the house shakes, and shakes and the ceiling just comes down, slamming into my bed and the bookshelf near my headboard. glass breaking, I can just hear things crashing. my cat stayed cuddled up with me in this little sheltered pocket. I was terrified.
Called my gram as soon as the sun was up.
Walking About
Lived with my aunt for a year and she would leave for business all the time. I swear her house is haunted and only did things when I was alone. A couple of times I'd go to sleep with my door open and wake up to it closed. Seen a girl in white walk into rooms. Front door would unlock itself and door would open. Bags of chips would be thrown from a box on top of the fridge. Would scare the crap out of me.
My Sister's Car
I was about 11 and staying home alone while my mom and my older sister was out running errands. I was sitting in my living room watching tv when I heard two men arguing. It sounded like it was coming from my basement. My cat even woke up and started acting disturbed by the yelling. I freaked out. This was before cell phones. In my mind the best thing to do was go hide in my sister's car that was in the driveway until my family returned home.
After about of an hour laying in the backseat of my sister's car my family came home. I told them what happened and they called the cops. There was no sign of break in and no men in the house. They just thought I must have imagined it. To this day I will never forget the screaming and the look on my old cats face. I know I didn't imagine it.
Run
My best friend, her husband and I decided to get an apartment. It was a nice place, we all got on really well. It worked out great.
After about a month we'd notice food missing, that no one would own up to, but whatever we all brushed it off. My roommate's cats had a tendency to destroy the blinds on the windows, so it had a nice section missing out of the window that looked out from our living room to our front steps.
I was home alone, around midnight on a Wednesday. I was up late working on stuff for school in the living room. I'd been hearing weird noises all night, but brushed it off as the thin walls.
After awhile, I heard a noise out on the steps and looked over to see a mans face peering through the gaps in our front window.
As calmly as I could, I got up and locked myself in the bathroom. I called the police and then my roommates telling them they needed to come home.
After some investigating, we found evidence that there was someone living in our attic, which had outside roof access (with a broken lock).
We moved out of that apartment within a week.
The Patient
Something that happened about five years ago. My MIL who is a pediatric nurse had stopped by for a visit one evening and told us about a patient she had been treating that passed away that evening. Sometime after she left, I was doing something in the living room when something at the top of my stairs caught my eye. When I looked up, I saw what appeared to be a small shadow figure dart across the entryway to the second floor. Kind of like it got spooked and was darting out of the way to hide.
I wrote it off as my eyes playing tricks on me, but it did seem a little weird and my mind immediately went to the child my MIL told us about.
Dorothy Gale
wizard of oz omg GIFGiphyTornado came through the neighborhood. Took off part of the roof. We didn't have a basement. Could only sit in a doorway in the middle of the house and watch.
Within the Fire
I was almost 15. I lit a candle... my mom doesn't like vanilla scent. So I would light it when she wasn't home. I'd done it many times before.
I still don't know how this happened... I went into the next room for a minute at most... and I came back to the curtain on fire. And I froze. I can't say how long I just stood there. I snapped out of it and called 911.
I frantically look for boots because it snowed that morning. And I grabbed the 1st coat I saw. I remember standing outside watching the fire trucks pull up. Next thing I remember is that I was in a kitchen I'd never seen before. It took me awhile to realize I was across the street. I have no idea how I got there.
We lost everything in the fire. I went into therapy because I kinda started to shut down... and sleep was hard. Legit nightmares and waking up extremely panicked.
I'm 30 now. I have dreams about it once in awhile. Especially walking back into the apartment where it happened. It was fixed and remolded. And I pass it a few times a month... I've wanted to just knock on the door and asked if I could walk around and see it ... because my last time inside was seeing everything thing burned... and the smell... something that stays with you.
While the fire it's self was scary & traumatic... it's the fact most of that day and a day or 2 afterwards... I can't remember most of it.
2012
witchcraft lafayette reynolds GIFGiphyRemember back when people thought the world was going to end or some crap back in 2012? Well me and my siblings were home alone when the power went out. My parents came home to a group of children huddled around the table playing clue, by candlelight, during a power outage, on the day the world was supposed to end.
Not the Wind
Not sure if this qualifies as I wasn't all that scared. Was visiting my in-laws and dozing in the basement bedroom while everyone else was in church. Not really a church-goer, they're cool with that. Started reading a book when I noticed someone was tinkering on the old piano upstairs in the living room. Odd, I hadn't heard anyone come home and it was a small house, hard for anyone to have gotten in without me hearing.
But obviously they did, so I went upstairs as the person on the piano tried a weak cord or two, but then stopped when I got close. There was nobody home. Door was locked, and the piano was closed. Huh.
Told my wife when she got home and she smiled at me sympathetically. Must have been a neighbor or something. Nope it was definitely coming from upstairs, no question, and it wasn't a mouse or something as it wasn't just random notes. Odd.
Next morning my wife and I are lying in the same bed while my very-catholic in-laws are again at morning mass. We're reading and then ... the piano again. Definitely from inside the house and not random notes again. We look at each other with raised eyebrows and listen for a bit. "I think we can rule out the wind", I say. We go upstairs to check, again door locked and piano closed. Still wasn't all that alarmed but it was pretty strange.
Meth Days
My husband was working nights and I was home alone with my children in a small town. Someone started banging on my door at 2 a.m. Everyone knew everyone, and my father-in-law lived next door, so I just opened it in a sleepy state.
A man I've never met tried to walk into my house. I got the door closed just enough to block him. He had blood running down his face. For a moment, our eyes were within inches of each other. It was terrifying.
After a struggle, I got the door closed. And he started yelling at me. He said he wanted to use my phone because someone hit him. I yelled through the door that I'd call 911 but he had to stay outside. When I dialed, he bolted off the porch.
The next morning, I took my daughter to the bus stop and while waiting in the car, this same guy jumps out of the bushes and onto my car-cussing me out and trying to get in. Pure panic!
Turns out... he was on meth. The cops came and got him.
The Walk Home
I used to walk home alone at night from work. Part of the path was this old wooden bridge that I had to cross over. At just the right angle and light level I could clearly see a ghost standing on the bridge looking at me. Looked kind of like the grim reaper without the scythe. It would quickly disappear once the angle changed. It was interesting because if you look at the scene in isolation there's not really anything there that resembles what I was seeing. But the brain is good at pattern matching. Give it certain inputs though and things go haywire.
Untaglements
I remember I was alone in my house. I lived in rural Texas, and we had a shooting not long ago at that time. So I was pretty scared being alone, especially at night. I had a tangled pair of friendship necklaces that I meant to give to my friend. They were tangled PRETTY BAD. So, to calm myself down, I started untangling them.
A minute or two later my phone in another room rang. I went there and it was an unknown number. I didn't pick it up and went back to the room with the tangled necklaces.
But they weren't tangled anymore. They were perfectly straight and completely separate. Never figured out how that happened. Didn't sleep that night, either.
Off the Meds
I wasn't totally alone so not sure if this counts. I was with my older sister alone at home.
My mom called us and told us our grandmother had gone off her meds. They were told she took the car and was heading to us. Granted we lived three states away.
My mom told us to lock all the windows and doors and her and my dad where heading home as fast possible.
My sister and I did just that. We sat up in my sister room. We heard a noise of the door and went down stairs expecting our parents.
My grandmother got inside the house. She had a deck of cards and asked to play go fish with us. My sister locked me in my parents bed room and played go fish with grandma.
My parents made it home and grandpa made the next flight out to drive her home.
Yay mental illness!
Bad Vibe
One time late at night I was vibing until I saw my reflection in my glass door and thought someone was watching me.
HER
In the house that I'm in: in November this young woman knocked at our door. I recognized her from 3 years prior because she does this like clockwork every three years. She had her sleeves pulled up and all her arms were bleeding. She had cut all the way up her arms. She was demanding that her ex-boyfriend let her see her kid (he won custody). She was very drunk and drugged and bleeding everywhere.
The neighbors all came around and explained she was on meth and because she isn't sober she can't see her kid. I had to keep pressure on her wounds until an ambulance and police arrived. Her parents had driven down at this point and I could just see the disappointment in her mum's eyes. Her dad apologized profusely for her. I was just hoping she would get help tbh. I hope in time she will get better.
Be Back Soon
This thing still scares me. I was 10 at the time, and my mom and step-dad said "We'll be back in an hour." They took 9 hours. They never told us what went on. Also not responsible to leave a 10 year old home alone with their 12 year old sister.
Mickey?
dance dancing GIF by Mickey MouseGiphyIn my old home I was hearing movement in the walls. Like it sounded like small do it steps and it got so bad I had nightmares over the sound. Low & Behold it was a mouse in the walls... scarred me for life.
Creaks and Footsteps
This happened back in 2007 when I was 15. As I was doing homework on my computer, I felt someone blowing their breath on the back of my neck. It started off slow, then it was like a loud woosh, as if someone was trying to scare me. When I looked back, nobody was there. Since I was in my bedroom, nobody was behind me because I would've heard creaking footsteps. The window was on the other side of the room, so it can't be the wind from outside.
Forget It
im out GIFGiphyI heard something in my mothers room and was about to go in and check, until I realized i was home alone, so I thought 'forget that crap' and went downstairs and called my mom she came home and checked there was nothing in there, i sh!t you not redditors i had a knife under my covers, armed and ready.
The Neighbor
When my neighbor broke Into our house repeatedly, everytime our parents were gone, he would stand in the bush with a sharpened star picket and throw rocks at the house, he shot a crossbow bolt above my dad's head and my dad bashed the crap out of him, but the scariest time was he snuck in whilst no one was home but me and my younger brothers. He was walking into our bedroom about to get close to where we was sleeping and the alarm on the fridge started going off because one of my brother's left the fridge open, he then ran out of the house.
Late one Night
Sitting in my kitchen late one night watching a movie. I was sitting in a chair that has its back to a window. I was watching a movie when I randomly heard this tapping on the window behind me. Almost like someone was tapping their nails on the window. I freaked out and turned around not knowing what to expect.
here i saw our next door neighbor grinning at me. She was looking for my parents. So instead of knocking on the front door or ringing the doorbell she decided to go into our back yard and then to the window in the back where she found me sitting watching a movie, and then decided to give me a mini heart attack.
Grandma? Is that you?
Was home alone for a few days when i was 15, parents visited relatives while I didn't want to go. And my grandparents, who lived in the apartment beneath and besides us (they where separated by a door but it was basically one big house separated into an apartment, and the house of my grandma and grandpa) left for the same reason. It was about 2 days of being home alone and I was upstairs watching tv, when I suddenly heard something downstairs. It sounded exactly like the door, which separated our apartment from the house, was opened up and I was scared as hell. I ran Into my room and got a knife (As if a knife would help in that scenario) and looked through the rooms.
There was nobody. After being paranoid looking through every room in the house I heard the front door closing. Ran downstairs and saw nothing. As I found out a few years later, It was my Great-grandma looking for my Grandma because she just felt like seeing her. She lived nearby and her Alzheimers didn't help her remembering that they drove away for a few days.
Birds Flying
Not alone but everyone was asleep. When I was a kid of around 8 or 9 I had a small Hot Wheels metal trash can by my bed, a small single bed. Woke up one night from metal scratching noises, like claws scratching across metal, sounded exactly like it was coming from my trash can. I was petrified and couldn't move, sound just kept getting more and more intense, not louder, just more frequent. After lying there for what seemed like forever, I was finally able to scream out for my dad. He came into the room and turned the lights on, he looked in trash can and nothing there and made me look.
He says that I'm imagining things and to relax and go back to sleep, just as he's leaving the room and turning out the lights, he hears the noise! Ends up that the screen cover over the little chimney for our electric furnace had come loose on the roof and a bird had gotten into the furnace, which was right behind the wall next to my bed. Lucky for the bird that it was summer and not winter. Only time I have been petrified to the point I couldn't move.
Everyone hates Eddington
I was staying at my parents house, they had gone out, it was after midnight and stormy as hell outside. I was feeling a little uncomfortable in a house that was slightly unfamiliar with the storm and the lateness.
I thought I heard a voice but tried to deny it. A bit later I heard as clear as anything a voice saying "bye bye!" And this musical tune.
It was Eddington. The alphabet caterpillar that my dad bought 18 grandchildren ago and that we all hate because he just will not die. Eddington was speaking from the toy cupboard.
Eddington is only supposed to talk when someone pushes one of his many legs. I do not believe in ghosts but fully expected to open the toy cupboard to find some ghost child playing with Eddington. Eddington was switched on. I switched him the hell off and huddled on the couch 'til my parents came home.
Everyone hates Eddington but I treat that dude with respect. I don't trust that grinning purple creep.
The Look in his Eyes
I was 19 still living at my moms house, she was out for the night with friends, around midnight someone knocked at my back door and my dog started barking like crazy. I then heard my neighbor I've known for years, he was calling for my mom so I opened the door & told him she was gone & if everything was alright. He had a bat in his hand which I did not see before opening the door. He then began to tell me he had locked someone in his closet and they wouldn't stop screaming & it was driving him crazy & that he needed me to come look.
His eyes were glazed over a bit I remember, & I was totally freaked out. Long story short, I got him to leave & I called my mom. Few weeks later when everything settled down we were told by his mom that he has schizophrenia that was apparently getting worse over the years. I've since moved away & It's been almost 6 years since I've seen him or his family.
Montauk
My dad said, "I had a beach house in a very isolated spot of Montauk, and I had just seen the Blair Witch Project with a group of friends. They dropped me off at the dark, relatively isolated, unlighted house. I walked up onto the porch to find a cairn of stones, just like the one from the movie."
The Weight of Zues
I had gotten myself tense with scary videos when the sun was going down. My parents then texted me if I wanted to go eat something with them, so I said ok. I was already pretty freaked out because I kept imagining noises around the house. I was walking down the hall from my room towards the front door when my backpack fell from my bed and hit the floor. It was a heavy backpack, with 5 full binders and other assorted school crap, easily weighed 30+ pounds.
It slammed like the fist of Zeus onto my floor, making me give an audible yelp and bolt through the front door, not even to fully pull on the screen door handle before shoving it with all my weight. I ran full speed into my parent's van and had to take a couple seconds to recollect myself.
Take it from me, and don't leave items on the edge of surfaces.
The Jumper
Had been to see an alien horror movie. Stopped at grocery store on the way home to my apt. Parked in a dark area and carried in some bags. Came back out for more bags. When I pulled the door handle a cat jumped out of my car thru the open sunroof. Aaaaahhhh.
I'm Moving
haunted black and white GIFGiphyMy house is actually haunted. Once, all the cupboards were being slammed. Like all 6. No joke, I pooped myself.