Childhood is supposed to be a time of innocence and learning. But what happens when a terrifying or disturbing event threatens a very young child? These Redditors carry demons from their youth with them and are here to tell their stories. These childhood memories are so twisted—they're unforgettable.
1. The New Neighbors
A new family had recently moved in and had set up a shrine with a face on a tree and candles in the backyard. We became friends with the girl in the family who began telling us that her house was haunted. We were intrigued, as any 10-year-old would be, but given their weirdness, we thought nothing of it. Well, it turns out that she was right. One day, playing in the yard with her, a disheveled-looking man comes running out the front door, followed by the family.
He proceeded to run, full speed, into the woods with the dad yelling at him. We go over and find out that the dude had been living in their attic and had been keeping it locked from the inside. The dad finally pried it open, and what we saw was the chase that ensued. TO THIS DAY, I check under, inside, above, behind, and outside of every house I have ever lived in and regularly clear corners when I get home.
2. Bad Influences
My mom and dad would lock my grandmother in the washroom and not let her out for days. They told me she was crazy and made me feel like her being in there was for her own good. She wasn’t allowed to come out for anything. She was hidden away from the world and I never knew why. I tried to be nice to her when I saw her and she was nice to me.
I was told to make sure she was locked up and couldn’t get out. She would sneak out at night and grab food, but if my parents saw her they would scream at her and my dad would hit her. She was around 80 and I was between 8-11 years old when this all happened. So if I saw her leave the room I would yell at her and shove her back in.
I was emulating my dad and how he treated her. I don’t know why she was kept in there. I know she had a house that we used to live in and then we moved. Were my parents cashing her social security checks? I don’t know. She was treated like a nasty secret and my parents made me be mean to her. I’ve never recovered from that.
3. The Hitchhiker
I’ve lived in a small mountain town in Colorado for 17 years. When my friends and I got our licenses, we’d drive around in the mountains when we got bored. This one area we went to frequently is beautiful, but it’s known to be pretty sketchy. We were driving around one night when we suddenly passed a man walking on the road.
It was weird because we hadn’t seen him in the headlights initially, it was more like he appeared out of nowhere as we were passing him. I thought he was walking a little weird as I looked back at him, so I asked my friend to stop, maybe he was hurt or something. He paused for like 10 seconds when we stopped, and then he started RUNNING at the vehicle.
It wasn’t a “let me catch up to them real quick” jog with a wave or anything like that, it was a full-blown sprint like he had a personal vendetta against us. It freaked us out and my friend hit the gas again. We did call it in just to make sure we didn’t leave him in danger but didn’t hear anything else about it.
4. Someone Pay Attention
My mom would spend the entire day on the computer in AOL chat rooms talking to her “friend” while dad was at work. She was so glued to the computer that my siblings and I could walk in the room and yell things at her trying to get her attention and she wouldn’t even notice us. We took care of ourselves. I was forced to bottle feed my baby brother during this time and take care of him because my mom just wouldn’t otherwise.
What I really hate is that I’m pretty sure I told my dad that I was having to be my brother's caretaker and he didn’t do anything to make the situation better for me. I don’t know if he knew she was having this emotional affair or not but how could he not have? Then this whole mess took a disturbing turn. One day, my mom decided we were going to leave my dad while he was at work so she could run off and be with this friend.
She took myself and my five younger siblings while my dad was at work and drove us on a cross-country road trip from Nevada to Ohio to surprise her online lover (who was also married). Once we got to Ohio and she told him we were there, he panicked and ghosted her. At the time, the situation was confusing for me because my siblings and I just wanted to go home.
5. The Night Woman
Walking with my grandmother at night along a gravel road close to where she lives out in the country. We were heading home to my grandparents’ house. Six-year-old me turns to my grandmother and ask who the lady who ran across the road behind us was. She turns around, sees nobody, and asks me to describe her. What I said made her turn white as a ghost. Down to a T, I described a cruel woman who used to live not far away who was now 10 years deceased.
I didn't live there, so I didn't think much about it but according to my grandfather, my description of the lady I had seen was so on point that my grandmother never walked alone there after dark. That was 29 years ago, and she still refuses to walk that road alone at night.
6. Turn It Off First
When I was 10, my family and I lived on the first floor of an apartment complex in Colorado. That year we had a particularly snowy winter. Every day following snowfall, the groundskeeper for the complex would make his rounds, cheerily using a snowblower to clear each and every path. I’d wave whenever I saw him pass by my bedroom window.
After one especially heavy snowfall, the groundskeeper was walking along clearing snow just outside my room when something got caught and obstructed the snowblower. I saw him struggle with the machine for a moment then walk in front of it. He bent over to look, and when he reached his hand in, a splattering hit my window like a hammer. I’ll never forget that horrifying sound.
We called the emergency services, but his hand was gone. Luckily, it was just his hand. He left the job shortly after and I never saw him again.
7. Disappeared
Back in 1988, I was committed to a psychiatric institution for a month. During that time, another guy who was there escaped. He was missing for a day or two. Eventually, the authorities discovered his body by some railroad tracks about 30 miles away. I've asked news anchors whom I remember reporting the story to look into their archives. I know the timeframe, and I know the kid's name, but...nothing. There’s no information to be found anywhere.
8. The Valley Beast
I used to holiday in the Scottish Highlands. Friends of my family had a cottage there in the middle of nowhere at the end of a valley. It was always creepy just because it was so isolated. Anyway, one day I went outside and heard the most unearthly sound I have ever experienced. It sounded like a robot demon cackling insanely while simultaneously crying in agony.
It just sounded... wrong. I went inside, white as a sheet, and told my dad. He grabbed a stick, said "come on"! and set off to find the source. We homed in on the sound and saw it was coming from the area close to the water tank which filled from the stream and supplied the cottage. There was clearly something not from this world stuck inside the tank.
We nervously approached and circled the tank. My dad suddenly said "Ahhhh" in realization and strides confidently to the tank. Now, I don't fully understand the setup of the water system, but there was some kind of small vent pipe on the tank. A large leaf had got stuck in the pipe, creating a reed, and the tank was acting like a giant amplifier and reverb chamber.
The sound was channeled down the valley the stream was in and straight to the cottage. I can still hear the sound in my head as I type this—it was absolutely demonic. I still want to know how my dad thought he was going to tackle a slobbering demon-beast with a stick!
9. Messy Behaviour
One day when I was 12, I was home alone, hanging out down in the basement as I often did. I heard the front door open, so I was about to go upstairs, assuming it was one of my parents or my brother coming home. But then I heard something that made me stop. It was my father's voice, followed by the voice of an unfamiliar woman.
Over the years, I've forgotten what I heard them say, but I do quite clearly remember that I felt very uncomfortable with the whole situation. I decided to just stay quiet downstairs. About a half an hour later, they both left, and when my father returned home another couple hours later on his own, I greeted him as normal and made no mention of what I'd heard earlier that day.
Fast forward to summer of last year, at the age of 21, I'd just gotten into a massive argument with my father in which he effectively blamed my parents' divorce on my brother. I showed my mom some of the text messages my brother had sent me, and asked her what she felt were some of the biggest issues that led to the divorce.
She told me that with the guidance of their marriage counselor, they had for a time experimented with an open relationship. They'd agreed to seven rules regarding that, and my father broke four of them within the first month. One of the rules that he broke was their agreement not to bring their other partners into our home at any time.
10. The Forgotten Figure
When I was around two years old, I remember going to the house we were building and walking through the construction. There was a little spot in the ground where it looked cool to place this toy Power Ranger. But every time I bring up walking through the construction site, my mom says the house was never under construction when we bought it.
We ripped out the cement in our garage, around the place where I had left my Power Ranger since it had started to crack to replace it. My Power Ranger was there. That is specifically the only thing I remember at that age. My parents still deny the fact that we had the house under construction.
11. What’s In The Kitchen?
So. I was kindergarten-aged, my family is at home in the evening, and I am in the hall. I probably hear something or want someone to pay attention to me, so I open the door leading to the kitchen and I see my dad and brother, who must have been around 16, holding my mom by her arms and legs, bending down and like…swinging her against the floor.
Mum has a weird expression on her face, and dad and bro are looking serious, concentrating, not violent or anything, but the process itself looked pretty weird to me. I look at them in terror and say: “Hey...Don't fight...” Dad tells me to go back to the hall, I get back, just sit there in the dark alone, listening, and...that’s it. Fifteen years later I still have no clue what the heck that could have been.
Physical violence never occurred in our family, and when I ask them now, they have no idea what I’m talking about.
12. Nothing Good Happens That Early
When I was around 10 years old, I was sleeping over at my best friend Juan's house. We usually stayed up really late playing and would sleep in until noon the next day. I loved this because I rarely got to do that at my house. At about eight in the morning, his dad comes into the room and tells me to get dressed because he needed my help.
His dad was a big drinker and he’d clearly already gotten into the beverages. He tells me he needs my help picking out a toy for Juan as a surprise and we were going to drive to Walmart. So we get in the car and drive down to the Walmart which was 10 minutes away from his house. It was a pretty awkward ride.
We get to the Walmart and he takes me to the toy section and asks me what I think Juan would like. I walk around and see Darth Vader's Tie Fighter. Juan and I were huge Star Wars fans, so I knew he would like it. Juan’s dad buys the toy and then we have another awkward car ride back. He thanks me for helping and asks me to keep it a secret.
I changed into my pajamas again and tried to go back to sleep, but about 10 minutes later, Juan’s dad comes in and surprises him with the toy and gives me a wink. At the time I thought it was such a nice thing for his dad to do for him. Years later, I learned the chilling reason we went on this mission. Juan’s dad had been drinking a couple of nights before and hit Juan, so he wanted to make it up to him.
13. The Water Drum
When I was around three years old, I fell into a 44-gallon drum filled with water that me and my little friend were looking into, I remember it being a beautiful sunny day and how clear the water looked. Apparently, my friend somehow pulled me out after I fell in but honestly, I don't know how another three-year-old could do it.
I don't remember anything else about it, and I'm not sure where mum was, and my dad was at work. For years I had nightmares about rust-colored clouds ballooning up, dark rusty clouds. It took me 30 years before it clicked. It was the rust being stirred up by me trying to get out of that drum.
14. The Circle Of Life
In New Zealand, the country schools have what is called Calf Club. It’s a school event that happens on one day, but you have two months to prep. Part of it is the kids have the option to rear/train a calf or lamb. You have to clean them, teach them to come to you when called, walk them on a lead etc. The point of this is that I reared a lamb.
My lamb was called Chuck, I loved him so much. One day mum said he needed to go live with our neighbor’s lambs so that he wouldn’t be alone. About a week later, I couldn’t find him and I got told he ran away. I was devastated. I found out a few years ago that he was in fact sent off to Lamb heaven. But that's not even the part that scarred me for life.
He was never lost as he had, in fact, been in our freezer and we had enjoyed him over numerous meals.
15. The Little Things…
I rented a terraced townhouse with my cousin for the summer so we could be close to our jobs. It was a college let most of the year and was three stories with a professional guy living in the basement year-round. He was sound, totally normal. But that’s when strange things started happening. We noticed weird unimportant things like bedroom doors being opened that weren’t in use, candles, and ornaments being moved around, oven door left open repeatedly…
It was all small and we both assumed it was the other person. Until…happy birthday balloons appeared scattered in the sitting room one day right around my cousin’s birthday. She thanked me for them, but it wasn’t me! I was alone one night and heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. I crept along to the bedroom door and saw shadows on the other side. I froze and they went away eventually.
After this, we asked the guy in the basement about the events who confirmed that the students always had strange things happening, but with 7-8 of them in the house normally, they all blamed each other. Turns out the attics of the entire terrace were linked and there was likely someone living up there. They had keys to the bedrooms and the front door of this house because the locks hadn’t been changed in years and years!
16. The Past Or The Future?
When I was small, my parents say I used to tell stories from when I was an adult, and that the stories were kind of creepy and specific. They told stories about their day at work or anecdotes from the day, and I chimed in with some of my own from when I was older. I don't know anything specific except that I insisted that I used to be older. I have no memory of it.
17. With Friends Like These
When I was in elementary school, I became close friends with a family that had children similar in age to me. I only ever saw them at school with their mom and my dad. The oldest daughter and son couldn't stand me and I never knew why, so I would cry and talk to my dad about it and he would reassure me that they did in fact like me.
During this time, we had a landline at the house and I happened to pick it up one day and heard my dad on the other line with the mom of that family. I wish I'd never picked up that phone. He was talking about giving her roses and spending time with her. When I asked my dad who that was, because it clearly wasn't my mom, he disconnected all the landlines in the house.
Turns out, he was absolutely cheating on my mom with this woman and I was inadvertently involved by becoming their friends. I only realized later that my friend’s older siblings knew and that’s why they hated me.
18. The Missing Pox
When I was really young, like three or four, I got chickenpox. All I remember was being in a darkened room at a relative's house long ago, while the relative and my mom inspected my pox-riddled body. This part is not a particularly creepy or disturbing memory. However, when I was 11, and it was time to get my vaccinations, the doctor asked me if I had had chickenpox, and my mom said no.
I reminded her that I did, and she didn't remember. Adults' memories trump kids,' so I got the chickenpox shot.
19. Bad Babysitter
My mum had to work when I was little and my older sisters were in school. I was locked in the bathroom during the day until my sisters came home from school and let me out. Sometimes they wouldn’t let me out, so they didn’t have to watch me. They were seven and nine years older than me and I was somewhat afraid of them because they were not very nice to me so I would often stay in the bathroom or hide in the hamper. It does explain why I’m perfectly okay being alone.
20. Sounds Like A Lovely Place To Stay
My great-grandmother lived beside this shady “hotel”. Growing up, I learned that we never left the house without one person staying behind, otherwise the house would be broken into. The explanation was that there were bad people in the hotel who would watch the houses and take any open opportunity. But that’s all I knew about it growing up.
I didn’t think much about it and just kept with the rule, and as I grew up I started to think maybe it was nonsense. When I was in my upper teens, I happened to look over at the hotel through the window. There was this lady at the phone booth, wearing a purple mini skirt and a blue tube top. I’d seen these types of ladies at the hotel all the time, so it was nothing new.
That's when the truth finally dawned on me. I turned to my boyfriend and told him how shocked I was. He just laughed at how long it took me to figure it out.
21. Garage Stories
My mom and I were the only ones home on this particular night, and around 2:00 AM, we are both woken up in separate rooms by a loud crash, as if a particularly heavy object had fallen on something. Both my mom and I were up and about looking for the source of the noise when we open the garage. Now, this is where my story begins to differ from hers.
She has the memory that the shelf fell on top of my car and spilled a bunch of cleaning fluids all over the garage. We supposedly wiped up all the fluid with a few towels and hung them to dry. I remember that my bike that was hanging on the wall fell down and crashed on top of the car leaving a sizable dent and mark in the car. I had to find a stud in the wall, screw in the hanger, and rehang my bike.
Neither of us remembers the other's story happening, but there is proof both situations happened. The towels in the morning were soaking wet and smelled of windshield wiper fluid while my car had clearly sustained a dent from the bike falling. How anything fell in the first place is another question. The shelf in question is on the opposite side of the garage as the bike and the door was down, no one was there. It was an odd, odd night.
22. Dress-Up Barbecue
Me and my parents were staying in a duplex temporarily after a house fire. Our neighbors had a Southern-style cookout, where everyone was wearing white clothes, in the giant backyard that was shared between the two units. I just remember being disappointed my parents wouldn't let me play in the backyard that night.
It looked like fun and I was disappointed I couldn’t go to the party too. I was three when this happened. Although I do remember grabbing something from my little bedroom at one point and looking out the window and yelling, "There’s a ghost party next door"!
23. Boxed In
My dad and I were driving home from something. I was about eight. It was a two-lanes-each-way divided highway and there were a lot of tractor-trailers. My dad went to pass one, but we ended up getting boxed in. And it wasn’t just a slow-truck-slowly-passing-another-truck thing, it went on long enough that it was clearly on purpose.
So here we are, one truck purposely going slow in front of us, one blocking the side of us, and our open side was against solid rock as they tried to push us off the road. I remember my dad being freaked out and trying to get the license plates of the trucks to give to the authorities, who he couldn’t call at the moment because we were in a no-reception zone.
I looked up from the book I was reading and made eye contact with one of the drivers. What I saw was terrifying. He had a big white beard and looked straight at me with a sinister smile that, had I not already stopped believing in Santa Claus, would’ve made me scared of Christmas. Eventually, we got to a town and were able to get into a parking lot, where my dad reported them.
We waited ten minutes or so to get distance from the trucks, then got back on the road and thankfully didn’t cross them again.
24. Just Be Honest
My uncle on the farm took his really old dog for a “walk in the woods” when I was about seven. He came back without him, and when I cried asking where he was, my mom told me he must’ve gotten lost. So every weekend for the rest of that summer I would put food and a blanket at the edge of the woods and sit and call his name.
I was convinced he was finding his way to the food because it was being eaten, but he was too scared of getting in trouble for getting lost so he was hiding in there.
25. Someone From The Past?
My father had just remarried to my stepmom. He asked me not to bring one of my close friends around. My friend was often in trouble with the law in his youth but has since grown up and straightened out his act. Apparently, my father's new wife recognized my friend as someone who randomly attacked her years before she met my dad.
I kept my friend away for a very long time and one day mentioned it to my dad. He had no idea what I was talking about and checked with his wife, who was also clueless. I was dealing with sleep apnea, and I assume I was experiencing hallucinations from lack of sleep.
26. It's Not The Same
When I was a young kid, my all-time favorite movie was Indiana Jones and it also got me interested in history because the Germans were such good bad guys in that film. One day, my friend whose parents had separated invited me to go to his dad's house with him. I'd never been there before as we usually would hang out at his mum's place.
I remember his dad having a whole bunch of historical German memorabilia and thinking it was so cool because he must have been a fan of Indiana Jones too. It wasn't until I thought about it again as an adult that I realized he was just a bad person.
27. The Reservoir Man
I grew up in apartments with a huge stormwater reservoir behind them. We would often hop the wall and play in there since it was always empty. The wall we would usually hop was lined with thick brush, so there were few spots to easily hop back over to the apartments. Anyway, one day after playing, it started getting dark and we are walking toward our spot to hop back over.
I’ll never forget what happened next. This man crept out about 20 feet in front of us on all fours wearing some tattered shorts. We froze, he growled and ran at us on all fours at incredible speed. I was around nine and the second fastest kid in school and the man was almost keeping up. We scattered and found some alternate routes. I remember running and yelling "I'm sorry I'm sorry" out of sheer terror.
We never told our parents because they probably wouldn't have believed us, and they would have whooped us for playing out there since it was kind of dangerous.
28. Trust No One
When I was a teenager, I was out late with my boyfriend who was driving us around. We got pulled over by what seemed to be an undercover cop (unmarked car but had the lights). But when the man approached the window, he was not in uniform and it was immediately apparent that he was not a cop at all.
He seemed surprised when he got to the window and mumbled that he was “looking for a suspect with my daughter” and then walked away. It was very peculiar and we just laughed it off. Looking back (and having listened to an abundance of podcasts), I think this guy was up to something very nefarious.
Some men abduct women using this method. My boyfriend had very long hair and I suspect the man mistook him for a woman and was caught off guard when he saw the driver was actually a man. I wish we had reported it.
29. Mind Flashes
When I was in elementary school, we were all playing on the playground. There were probably like a hundred kids throughout all the outdoor areas of the playground, teachers, basketball court, jungle gym, random field areas, etc. in the middle of the day at recess. It was bright and sunny and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
I was looking across the playground and all of the sudden there was a “flash” where everyone was running inside in unison, and then almost immediately, another flash where everybody was GONE, not a single other soul on the playground, and the sky was suddenly very dark and cloudy and stormy, and at the second “flash” there was an extremely loud crack of thunder that rumbled and echoed for what seemed like minutes.
It was clearly later in the day, and I was so confused. I made my way back to the classroom, and it was probably five minutes before the final dismissal bell rang. The teacher was asking me where I had been, and I got in trouble. I’m guessing I fell asleep or something but man. I’ve never experienced anything like that before or since.
30. Spirits By The Bayou
In my old hometown, we weren't allowed to play out of the yard. The highway was at one end and the bayou at the other. Like alligators walking down the road was a normal occurrence, ya know? So anyway, there was a girl who would ride her bike up and down the road and we'd chit chat. She was maybe seven or eight. I know I was like five or six, we weren't too far apart.
Anyway, she would come and talk and then we would part. Sometimes she came with other kids, sometimes not. One day, she invites me to her birthday party. I have to ask my mom if I can go, and she said she lived a couple of houses down, and it was no big deal. Mom says no. You don't know her, she doesn't live on this street, etc.
I was upset. It was so unfair, and she was my friend! I never saw her again and thought she was mad at me. I went back to visit family and brought up this story with my mom and aunt about how weird it was I never saw her after that. They got really quiet, and my aunt tells me that there was a girl by that name whose body was found in this guy's house along with a bunch of other kids.
He did awful things to them, and they passed. But here's where it's creepy: they would have passed by the time I was talking to them. I never felt so cold, and we all agreed to never talk about it again.
31. Curiosity Is A Dangerous Thing
When I was nine, I was at a friend’s house snooping through some unmarked VHS tapes stored under his TV. Most of them were totally innocuous, just recordings of TV movies and whatnot. The last one I checked out was, ahem, different. It showed like 4-5 ripped guys working out in a home gym, nothing too crazy. At first.
Well my friends, from that point things went 0-100 really quickly. Next thing you know these guys are taking off each other’s clothing. I freaked out and started fast-forwarding the tape. That was definitely a mistake. I shut it off, put the tape back, and my sweet summer child brain tried to figure out what I just saw.
32. Family Tradition
When I was little, my dad was a night owl due to his job. On weekends, he’d get my siblings and I and we’d do a lot of activities at weird hours. One thing we’d do was drive this stretch of road by the river to look at the deer. It was a pretty secluded area, very few houses mostly spaced far apart. One night we are doing our thing and we drove past this house that had big windows all over the front side.
You could basically see inside this whole house. My dad slowed down because something caught his eye. When I saw it, my jaw dropped. There was a man, totally unclothed, cleaning his living room. It was in the middle of nowhere so in retrospect, I’d be doing the same thing, given the circumstances. My dad and us kids thought it was hilarious. We watched for a while unbeknownst to who we now referred to as the Clothesless Man.
Cut to next weekend, we are looking at deer again and my dad drives by his house again. Sure enough, this guy is just going about his business in his birthday suit. Laughter continues. Next thing we knew, it became a ritual to drive by his house at night to visit our new friend. We had stopped asking to see the deer and requested to see the Clothesless Man.
33. Nighttime Guests
When I was about 14 years old, I was home alone while my parents were out visiting some friends. Around 9:30 at night, I suddenly hear some voices downstairs. I knew all the doors were locked and no one besides my parents could get in. I was afraid the house was broken into, so I start to listen. It sounds like at least a dozen people having some sort of dinner party, though I can't make out exactly what they're saying.
I make it halfway down the stairs, and I still hear the voices all talking. Finally, I yell out "hello" and all the voices instantly stop, and I didn't hear anything again. It was the craziest thing I've ever experienced.
34. Grandpa’s A Zombie!
When I was four or five years old, my parents would take me to my grandpa’s house every weekday so I wouldn’t be home alone. My grandma had work, but she would come pick me up around the time my sister got out of school so we could both go home. My sister wasn’t feeling well one day, so we both went to my grandparents’ house.
Everything was normal for a few hours, he made us breakfast and turned on cartoons for us. My sister wanted to watch something else, so she turned around to him and asked him to put on her favorite show. He didn’t respond. He had a weird look on his face, like he was spaced out but angry at us at the same time. He clearly wasn’t himself.
It was only a bit unsettling, so my sister asked him again. He started making groaning sounds, like he wasn’t fully aware of what was happening. My sister got up and dragged me down the hall. We had to pass by his chair and when we did, he grabbed my arm. It wasn’t like a playful grab; he was holding on tight. It hurt really bad, so I tried to get away.
I eventually did and we continued running down the hall. We got into the bathroom and my sister said he was playing a game. She said he was a zombie, and we need to find a cure for him while staying hidden. We stayed in the bathroom for ten minutes and then we tiptoed back. He was totally normal when we got back, and it seemed like he had no memory of what just happened.
This happened again when I was alone with him. I didn’t know how to use a phone because I was so little, so I just grabbed his flip phone and hid behind his chair. I tried to call someone, but I couldn’t. I had to sit behind his chair while listening to him make that scary groaning sound. My grandma eventually came home, and he was just suddenly normal again.
My family says he has a sickness. They call it a seizure, but I’ve tried looking for a seizure that has similar symptoms to the way he acts when he has them, but I’ve had no luck. Looking back, it probably isn’t that scary, but it has stuck with me for a long time.
35. Indoor Gardeners
I had a friend who lived across the street from me who I would play with. I always found it weird that his parents had a bunch of plants that smelled weird growing in their bathtub and all over their bathroom. One day, the family was gone. Just upped and moved and no one knew why...Though as an adult, I could probably guess.
36. Surprise!
I was about five, and I visited my grandmother. It was usually very boring there: no other children around, grandma was busy all the time, and her dog was old and too lazy to play. That day, grandma was away, and her brother brought a big basket and pulled out of it two big tins of tuna and three electric water heaters.
After wrapping stuff in old shirts, he put the package in the wardrobe and asked me not to tell anybody, because it was a surprise for the upcoming birthday party. 10 years later, I was watching a movie when suddenly recognized the familiar tin cans, it was a scene where men were placing anti-tank mines on a railway bridge.
37. Outside The Window
When I was 9 or 10, I was laying in my bed which was next to my open window. I was about to fall asleep when I heard inconsistent footsteps like someone had a limp. I thought it was my dad as he tended to get up at night, and he also had a limp from a football injury, so I brushed it off. When I heard it again, I started to wonder what it was.
It got closer to my window and stopped. I freaked out and slipped under my blankets. After maybe five or six minutes, the noise moved away from my window. It kept going on for an hour or two. The next morning, I asked my parents if they went for a walk last night, but neither of them did. When I told them what happened, they shot each other a terrified look and told me to keep my window locked from then on.
38. The Haunted Woods?
When I was around 13, my friends and I would constantly roam around our neighborhood late at night and just mess around. Right next to the entrance of our neighborhood, there was a cluster of trees that we called the forest. It wasn't really a forest, since it probably only stretched a hundred feet or so in each direction, but we called it that nonetheless.
We were riding our skateboards by the forest and my friend stopped right outside of the treeline. I thought it would be funny to mess with him by throwing his skateboard into the woods since it was pitch black inside of there and super creepy at night. He naturally got mad at me and made me go get it, but I told him it wasn't my board, so it wasn't my problem.
After bickering for a few minutes, we decided that the three of us would go in together to get it so that we could protect each other from forest demons. Now, even though this was a small cluster of trees, this place was creepy as heck in the nighttime. Just something about it threw you off. Even in the daylight, it was a little creepy. We slowly crept in and shined our flashlights around looking for the skateboard.
My friend saw it about 15 feet into the woods and made me go get it since I was the one who threw it in. I rushed over to go pick it up, and as I was bending over to pick it up, I heard my two friends start screaming and yelling. I looked up to see a homeless man about 10 feet in front of me. He had a really shocked look on his face. I too screamed, grabbed the board and bolted.
My friends had turned and fled with the flashlight before I could turn, so I stumbled through the dark and tripped over a bunch of roots and could barely see but I made it out in one piece. We took off and fled back to my friend's house all the while yelling about the ghost in the woods. Looking back at it, that poor homeless guy was probably equally as spooked as we were, just wanted to be in peace, and us kids came along and ruined his tranquility.
39. Fresh Air Is Good For The Health
I was probably about ten and I came home on my bicycle from a friend's house. I had joint visitation with my parents and only saw my dad every other weekend. When I went inside the house I couldn't find him anywhere, so I checked the garage. Next thing I know, I'm screaming for help. It was December so it was very cold and he had a gas space heater running in the garage.
On this day, he had all of the windows and doors closed. He was also apparently painting a door and had been drinking. Needless to say, he was out cold on the floor of the garage from the very strong fumes. I opened the garage door and halfway dragged him onto the cold concrete and smacked his face around until he woke up. He never thanked me. I never forgot about it.
40. Brainwash Them Early
I went to an evangelical church growing up. One day at Sunday school, when I was five years old, they gathered me and about 30 kids in the basement. The Sunday school lady sat in a chair in front of all of us and told us how babies were being removed from the world. She then made us all watch the clock in front of the room with her in silence.
Each time 90 seconds went by, she would say “a baby is gone” because she claimed every 90 seconds a procedure would happen. The counting went on for about five minutes. I remember being so sad. Now looking back on it as an adult, I know that was pretty messed up.
41. Frozen In Bed
Years ago, my bedroom was in the basement, and with the way my room was set up I could see the bottom of the stairs from my bed. I was napping one day and suddenly jerked awake, and a shadowy figure was sitting on the stairs, watching me. I could feel pure anger and hatred radiating from this figure as it watched me, and my instincts were screaming that this thing was dangerous.
My body was shaking and reacted on its own, moving my arms onto to a defensive position.
After a few seconds, the figure suddenly vanished, and I could move again. I was freaked out and went upstairs to watch TV. It happened again a few weeks later, and that time was the last time.
42. Sky Nightlights
I have a memory of waking up at night time when I was really young, probably about 11. I looked outside, thought it was weird that it was still light outside, and my parents went outside with me. Everything was cloaked in a green light. The trees, the pavement, the sky, the houses, everything. The wind rustled the trees a little and we went back inside.
After about five minutes, it was pitch black outside like everything was all normal again. It wasn't a dream, because I asked my parents about it a week later and they said "Yeah, that was weird". Then I asked them a few years later and they said they didn't remember, not denying that it happened but just that they didn't remember.
43. A Fun Adventure
When I was 11, my mom and I left my dad, and we were homeless. I did not realize we were homeless until I was an adult. I just thought we were on some kind of excursion. We were just sleeping in the car and at friends’ houses for a while. I just had so much trust in my mother, I was never once startled by the situation.
My mother is also very creative and would say things like, "Wow, I found these flavored tuna pouches, wouldn't it be cool if we acted like cats"?
44. New Friend
On a family trip to Washington DC when I was eight, this random lady came with me and my family to all the museums. She was really nice and friendly and hung out with my mom. I thought she was an old friend of hers. Years later I find out that this woman was being beaten and threatened in public by her boyfriend and my mom stepped in and rescued her.
She made the woman come along with us, called the authorities, and set her up with a safe house. My mom grew up in a scary home and knew the signs when she saw them. We don't know what happened to that woman but I like to think that my mom helped save her. I now look for subtle signs of unhappiness and will always step if I see someone uncomfortable in public.
45. Intruder Alert!
There was a loud crash in the middle of the night. I remember waking up and seeing my dad slowly walking past my room holding our wire-haired terrier over his head. I waited until he said everything was okay and went to go see what happened. Their memory is that the bottom shelf of dishes fell down and some of the dishes shattered on the countertop.
My memory is so much scarier. I saw that the sliding glass door was broken inwards and there were bloody footprints that went to the middle of the room and then stopped. The only part that we agree on was my dad holding the dog like a ball. She apparently stood up at the noise and then laid back down. My dad was like “Screw that, you're going to defend us..."
My mom and I will bring it up sometimes and he says he was just going to throw that dog at any intruder.
46. Just A Flash
This has happened to me two times in my life; once with my parents in a car and once by myself in my room. There was a very bright blue flash. It was for about a half of a second, but you could not see anything but bright blue, even a foot in front of you. There was absolutely no sound. It was like a camera flash of intense blue light from out of nowhere.
The first time it happened, I was maybe eight years old, and we were on the highway just talking and it happened (the sky was clear that night) and everyone just stopped talking. No one said anything for five or 10 minutes when I asked my parents if they saw this. No one has mentioned it since that day, and now my parents just say they don't remember/know what I am talking about. That was about 20 years ago.
It happened again when I was around 20. I was in my room with all the lights off, in bed about to go to sleep and there was just a bright blue flash. I don't know where it came from, but again, I couldn't see even a foot in front of me. It was the exact same thing I had experienced in the car with my parents a decade earlier. I have tried Googling this phenomenon, but I have not found anything that remotely can tell me what it was.
47. How Planes Work
My dad and I were in a plane accident (it wasn't quite a crash) where the front of the plane caught fire somehow. The whole cabin lost pressure and we plummeted from cruising altitude to around 1,000 feet at a 45-degree angle. The plane was going from Florida to Connecticut but we instead made an emergency landing in Savannah, Georgia.
One of the flight attendants said to tell your friends and family you loved them while sobbing over the intercom. It was pretty serious and the veteran pilots we had absolutely saved our lives. I didn't think it was bad because my dad played it like an absolute pro. I remember asking him why there was smoke coming from the front of the plane to which he told me that the pilots were having a barbecue.
When we were plummeting, I asked him why and he just said, "Sometimes you have to do that when flying". It could have been a very awful memory for me but my dad was awesome. To this day my dad can never get on a plane without being heavily medicated.
48. Thank Goodness For Manual Transmissions
My dad was driving us to school and stopped at the mechanic's shop on the way to check on my stepmom's car. He parked parallel to the front of the garage so he could easily go straight back onto our route. As he expected to be in and out, and it being 1988, he left the car running. After about 30 seconds, a man walked up to the car, got in, and tried to put it in gear.
My sister and I assumed he was a worker trying to move us out of the way of the garage. When he tried to get the care to go, it stalled as he put it into gear. My dad sprinted out of the shop with a couple other men, opened the door of the car, hauled the guy out, and wrestled him to the ground. I went to school that day and didn't really think about it until years later. I was about to be kidnapped.
49. The Worst Concert
Every year in grade school all of the classes would sing a song as a concert for the parents. One year, we had a horrible music teacher who told us throughout the year that we would be lip-syncing the song and not to worry about the concert. Then at the concert, we went on stage, and he hands us a microphone and says "sing".
So, there are about 50 fifth graders in front of all the parents and other students at the school going mumble mumble "CHORUS" mumble mumble. The thing is, I only know that was how it went because of the speech a classmate gave at eighth-grade graduation. What I personally remember is the concert getting canceled due to snow.
I asked my parents and some friends, and they not only remember it happening but that I was there as well. Apparently, my fifth-grade mind said "NOPE"! and blocked out the memory.
50. What’s In The Box?
I don't really remember exactly how old I was, but it was maybe around the third or fourth grade. I was at my middle school in Miami in line waking towards the field for recess. We had to pass the cafeteria hall and then cross a parking lot, so my teacher would take the lead and the stragglers would have to kind of go slower as we all crossed.
I remember being almost last in line when I was passing the refrigerated food delivery truck: It was an older, smaller truck. I remember it being white. Something felt really awful about it. As I walked past, the driver—a disheveled man with scruffy facial hair and horrible teeth—peeked around the corner and stopped me.
He asked me to help him with the last box in the back as his back was starting to hurt from the deliveries. I remember very clearly staring into the back of that truck with cool fog just hovering over the last box in the very back of the truck and feeling nauseous. I looked at him and said I couldn't help him because I had to catch up with my class. He then growled a "...but wait"!
I hurried away with my two friends who were waiting for me and had taken note that I wasn't with them.
51. Treasure Trail
When I was about nine, I was playing outside at a friend’s house. There was a row of shops further down her street and we would play ball games behind them when the shops closed because there was a large wall we could bounce our balls off. One evening we went down to play ball and found some money on the ground.
We happily ran to her house excited about our luck. On our way back up the street we found some more coins and a few bills, then some more further up the road. By the time we got to her door, our pockets were full of coins and bills. We ran in to tell her parents about our treasure, only to find more money on the floor in the hall inside the house.
We lifted it as well and excitedly told her father everything and showed him all the money. He took it off us and said he would take care of it and I shouldn’t tell my parents as we could get into trouble. When I got home, I told my parents everything because I was worried someone would come to my door asking about the money. My parents told me to never mention it again but wouldn’t let me play with my friend again. I often wonder what was really happened that day.
52. Quick Disposal
When I was a kid, my dad had a weird hole on the floorboard of his truck. I remember being a child, riding with him way out to a random house where I’d stay in the truck while he went in. He always came out with a grocery bag that stunk so bad. I had no idea what it was…at the time. Anyways, I remember the talk he had with me nearly every trip.
He would say, “Raise that floor mat and see that hole? If I ever tell you to, raise that up, then you rip this bag open and pour these vegetables through that hole, but only if I tell you to". Later on, I finally figured out what those veggies were.
53. A Special Lens
I had these cool night vision goggles when I was eight or nine years old that would only see stuff in black and white. It was late one night, and I was messing around with the camera function on it, taking photos and recording videos when I see this girl. I only have a brother, so it couldn't have been him, because this girl was wearing a dress and she was very thin, unlike my brother.
I take off the goggles and there's nothing in front of me, but I get this horrid feeling that I've seen something I shouldn't have, turn off the camera, and cry myself to sleep. The next day, I try to forget about it and start using the goggles again when I see this moving orange ball floating throughout my house. It was absolutely terrifying, and I get the same feeling.
Little me decides to not be as afraid and keep watching it and following it. I followed it to my garage where it disappeared, and the room got extremely hot extremely fast. I ran out of there and was terrified to go back for weeks. That was years ago, and I still have no explanation to what any of that was.
54. Follow My Finger…
I have stories from the same place we used to holiday every year: a tiny island half a mile wide and a mile across. There were no cars allowed and it used to be inhabited by monks, so there were many tales of hauntings. The first was when we used to stay on the campsite. I had been to the toilet, and I was walking back to our tent.
I passed through a small group of people sitting in chairs in the middle of the field. As I passed through, someone said something to get my attention. I can't remember what was said, but I was just chatting with them when suddenly this one man pointed his finger at me. All I could focus on was his finger. He kept on talking to me, but I don't know what he said.
All I know is I could not take my eyes away from that finger. I felt very afraid, but I could not move. It was like the entire world vanished and it was just me, him, and that finger that I could not stop looking at. I don't know what happened, but I'm sure that dude hypnotized me in an instant. I remember hearing a laugh from someone in the group and it was like the spell was broken.
I ran back to my tent with my heart pounding as they all laughed at me. Overall, it was the weirdest thing that has happened to me. I don't really believe in psychics and hypnotism, but that guy sure did something to my brain.
55. Sometimes You Have To Talk About Personal Business
When I was between the ages of five and 10, my stepmother would be watching me while my dad was at work. I would have to stand in the corner all day with my head against the wall or sometimes I would have to do other exercises like wall sits. I would do this all day until my dad got home from work and would tell me to go to my room.
I always thought this was normal until I said something about it at school. They sent someone to the house. All I remember was being pulled out of the school district and moving to a new house with just my dad. Later on, he told me that the social worker came and was appalled with the conditions. I guess my dad didn’t know the extent of it, and he left my stepmom once he found out.
56. Justified Feelings
I don't care for being tickled, but I tolerate brief moments of it from my sister because I love her and we tease each other a lot. But one time she kept going after I asked her to stop. She did stop eventually, and then I just didn't want to be around her for a bit. I cried when I was alone. It sounds so silly to cry over being tickled, but it happened anyway.
My best guess is that it wasn't about the tickling, but about the fact that I asked her to stop touching me in a way that made me uncomfortable, and she didn't, and she's never deliberately done anything like that before or since.
57. Sleeptalking
One time when I was around nine or so, we had guests over at our house for a few days, and since I had the largest room, which meant I had to sleep in my younger sister’s. Well on the second night of me sleeping in the room, at around two in the morning, I was woken up by the sound of muttering. I got up and looked over at my sister who was facing my direction, but her eyes were closed, so I just started back at her.
This is where it starts to get creepy. She then started to cry out of nowhere and said “Help me” over and over again, so I panicked and went over to her. She then started repeating in a kind of angry tone I had never heard her use saying to turn off the fan that was next to her. After I did that, she sat up again and turned it back on and start crying again.
I got into the bed and hugged her till she stopped. The next morning, I asked my mum if my sister ever talks in her sleep, and she said no. It was such a strange experience and I struggled to sleep the next few days.
58. The Dog Whisperer
My dad was walking our dogs kind of late at night, and a homeless person was standing at the end of a street nearby talking to herself in Spanish. She noticed my dad walking our dogs and began to say in Spanish, “Those dogs are so pretty, let me touch them, those dogs are so pretty, let me touch them” over and over and over again.
He said she followed him for a few minutes and her voice kept getting deeper the more she would say it, as if she got possessed…or was already possessed. Luckily, she was on the opposite side of the street, and she stopped following him eventually! We don’t live in the best area, so sometimes you’re going to see some sketchy stuff that makes you feel really uncomfortable, but it’s something to keep in mind and makes you more aware of things.
59. Not Reality TV, Just Reality
When I was four, I was watching TV at home with my mom. I thought we were watching some kind of competition where they would send up a remote-control plane and crash it down over and over. I even asked my mom if we could watch it again the next day. Years later, I put the pieces together and realized we were watching replays of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
60. The Negative Effects Of Parentification
Both my father and stepmom worked so I had to be in charge when they were at work. This included getting my siblings up, feeding them, getting them off to school, and enforcing chores and punishments. My stepbrother, who was only six at the time, was always in trouble with them, and one summer he was grounded the whole time.
Grounded meant that, after chores and worksheets were done, he would stand in the corner. No TV, no radio, no talking, no singing, no leaning, no moving around—just stand and stare at the corner. And I made him do it. I didn’t think it was wrong at the time, but now I know better, I am so sorry. So utterly and completely sorry.
61. Look Under Your Pillow…
When I was about five or six, I remember waking up in the middle of the night to my door aggressively going back and forth. This scared me, and I ended up hiding under my blanket for what seemed to be about a half-hour. I felt some sort of crinkling under my head when I brought my head back up to my pillow. That’s when I made a chilling discovery. There was this poorly drawn side profile of a man on this crinkled paper, and I forever remembered it.
I ran to my parents’ bedroom, but the paper was gone the next morning. It wasn’t until years later TikTok came out and the trend of “the man in everyone’s dreams” was everywhere. I had a panic attack when I saw him because it was the exact guy on this crinkled-up paper that arrived on my pillow 10 years before. I get chills every time I see him
62. The Contagious Dance
I was on a Christian retreat several years ago as a teen when at the end of the retreat, we were all standing around a circle singing, holding hands. I was really into it and sort of bouncing to the music as I was singing. One of the leaders came over to dance with me, I broke from the circle, and we started twirling around and do-si-do-ing.
When we finally stopped, I noticed that the entire room broke out into dance. For a moment I thought I must have been dizzy and seeing things, but I stood there for about a minute, and everyone was still dancing. Even the girl I was dancing with said "Look! We got everyone dancing"! I mentioned this incident a few months later to some people who were on the retreat, and no one remembers it.
63. Don’t Say Anything At All
My family would tease my grandmother while she was sitting right in front of us. They’d laugh at her for being forgetful in the midst of dementia. This was at the point where she would switch between being in the present and in the past, right before she got really bad. She was always confused about who we were to her.
My father, uncle, and cousins were all making fun of her. She was visibly upset that she was being made fun of, and the teasing turned into a downward spiral. I'll forever look back as adult me and wish 13-year-old me could have done something.
64. Knew Him Before He Was Famous
I once got a prison tour from Ted Bundy when I was seven years old in 1977. I lived in Glenwood Springs and my dad was an on-call EMT. He often had business at the Sheriff's office downtown. I went into the office with him one Saturday. There was a man at the door and I couldn’t help but stare. To this day I don't know whether it was the Sheriff or Ted suggesting me taking a look inside.
I remember being transfixed by seeing a real cell which prompted the tour suggestion. The Sherriff opened the door with his keys with Ted and my dad making the suggestions to go ahead and go inside. I walked inside the door and Ted put his arm on my shoulders. The worst part was the Sheriff closing and locking the main cell door behind me.
I walked the length of the short hallway and remember seeing an inmate watching TV with the chair tipped back. Ted himself was nice and I didn't feel threatened at all because my dad and the Sherriff were there. The whole thing lasted maybe five minutes tops. It wasn't until 1988, living in Wisconsin when Ted's upcoming execution was in the news, that I realized the full extent of what had happened.
65. Grandpa’s Funeral
One of my earliest memories is something that couldn't have happened. It's somewhat vague, but I remember being at my grandfather’s funeral and having these cheap little plastic toys that I put on the grave marker. I remember the mortuary, the grass, and the fact that there was a pop-up tent and lawn chairs. I even remember placing the toys on his marker.
However, he passed when I was two. Here's the kicker though. Nobody else in my family remembers the toys, because according to them, I never came to the funeral.
66. The Monkey Dance
About four years ago, I was working as a counselor at a sleep-away camp in Northern New Hampshire. One night at around 10, one of my coworkers and I decided to make a Walmart run. On the way, we’re driving down a back road in the middle of nowhere when my friend slams on the brakes. In front of us is a monkey wearing a fez, doing a little dance.
It then stops dancing and runs into the woods. We both looked at each other unclear at what just happened and exclaimed "Was that a monkey!?!?" No one believes us, but we both know what we saw and simply can't explain where that monkey came from...
67. Anything But Merry
One year, on Christmas Eve, my mom let me stay the night with my dad at a hotel because it was his turn to have me for Christmas. My sister and I had brought our Christmas money because he said he was going to take us to get toys. He ended up inviting over two women of the evening and his friend, and they all started snorting powder in front of us.
Then the next morning, me, my sister, and my dad were going to my grandmother's to get our presents. He ended up taking my sister’s and my money and picked up more powder with it while we were in the car with him. Then later on Christmas day, he was so out of it the entire time. It never really registered to me how open he was with his substance issues around me and my sister until I was older.
68. Too Much, Too Soon
When I was six, my family lived in a pretty isolated area in the countryside. No neighbors for miles type situation. My dad’s a contractor and remodels houses for a living, my mom worked hours away in the city as a lawyer. One day, my dad was up on a huge extension ladder fixing some siding on our house during the summer. That day will haunt me forever.
I guess the ladder wasn’t safely positioned because it tipped backward when he was 15 feet up. He fell back on the concrete and was injured really badly, unable to move. I was the only other person home and came running when I heard him screaming. When I saw him, I couldn’t cope with the condition he was in.
He kept asking me weakly to go to the phone and call for help, but I was young and didn’t really understand how bad the situation was. I was crying inconsolably and kept insisting on bringing a bandage to help him. My six-year-old mind was completely panicked and couldn’t cope. I don’t remember the rest, I guess I got him the phone eventually. He didn’t suffer any permanent damage, thank goodness.
69. Unwanted Childhood Memories
I was living in a youth facility for troubled teens for four years. It was privately funded by the Mormon church. I saw a lot of messed-up stuff. They performed wrap sessions (a type of attachment therapy that is now banned) in front of other kids. I saw a staff member force a kid to brush his teeth with a toilet brush.
I didn’t realize how messed up it was or the lasting impact it would have on me. And I was there for so long I became pretty desensitized to it. It also became second nature to lie to others and myself just to gain some meager comforts in life. Seems like a bad dream when I think back on it now.
70. The Girl In The Room
When I was around nine years old, my family decided to go shopping, but I didn't feel like going with them, so I stayed home with my grandma. I decided to take a shower, but I forgot something in my bedroom, so I went back to my room. That's when I saw a little kid, younger than me by maybe two years, just standing in the room right next to mine.
It took me like 10 seconds to react, but when I got there, the room was empty. The window wasn't open and even if it was, I would have heard the noise it makes when you close it. I immediately told my grandma, and she thought I was just pranking her. She told my mom when she got back, and they just laughed. Anyways, I know it was real.
I wasn't joking or anything, and for a few days, while walking to my room, I felt that little kid was there, just invisible.
71. At The Bottom Of The Pool
I don't remember how old I was, maybe seven or eight, but this one time I was swimming in the pool my family had at my childhood home. I had goggles on and was swimming around staring at the bottom of the pool "exploring". At one point I looked down and saw this odd white sack-looking thing. It was about the size of the palm of my hand, which means at that time it was pretty small.
It was maybe three or four inches? I picked it up and held it out of the water. As I was holding it, it began to pulsate. It was almost like a heartbeat and it kind of wriggled around a bit. I got grossed out and threw it out of the pool in the back where nobody really goes. I actually remember sort of forgetting about it until after I was done playing around in the water.
I got out of the pool and walked the perimeter looking for it but was never able to locate it. I still think about it from time to time and have absolutely no idea what it could have been.
72. Having A Talk Might Also Work
I had two exorcisms at 15 for having pre-marital relations. My mom said she found out by testing my urine. She had an idea that I was getting intimate, so she said she did the test and lied that I was pregnant. And of course, I came clean. I didn’t realize how wrong it was and how much it affected me.
73. Never Look A Gift Horse In The Mouth
When I was a kid, I saw bags of stinky plants around my house on a regular basis. I vividly remember days where I would barge into my parent's room, it would be a haze with smoke and people would be laughing, my mom would be on the bed with a scale and bags, money neatly stacked on the bed as my dad talked about this-and-that with his "friends".
Quite honestly, they were extremely friendly for their line of work. My parents were jovial all the time and would love to show me things they got while traveling and give me pocket change. I never saw anything bad about any of it.
74. A Frigid Field
I went to a summer camp with some friends when I was 14 or so and volunteered to do the "newspaper". It basically meant we could wander the grounds looking for stories. One friend came with me, and we wandered for about 45 minutes and found a clearing LITTERED with refrigerators. It was super weird; there were 20 to 30 full-size refrigerators scattered about.
We stayed for maybe ten minutes. I pointed out that we shouldn't write about it because we were way beyond the campground boundaries at this point and didn't want to get in trouble. My friend remembers going with me and wandering for a long time, but not that there were refrigerators. We were definitely there, and I think I even took pictures on a disposable camera.
The counselors denied knowing anything about it and were even curious about where it was. I tried explaining but they said they never found anything.
75. A Foggy Night
I was nine years old. I lived in a small town far from the city, where we all knew each other. Summer was cold, rainy, and windy. It was a rainy day, and I was in my bed until I heard a loud noise coming from outside. It was like a shot or a firework. I went out to check and noticed a chilling message written on the glass. It said: "Run, watch out for her".
I thought it was a joke from a friend or something, but when I came out, I heard a loud scream coming from my parents' room. I went as fast as I could, but they were just sleeping. I woke them up scared and told them what happened. My mother went with me to look at the letters on the glass, while my father went to get his gun.
When we went, the glass was just badly fogged up and there was nothing written on it. My mother thought it was a dream, but I swear I heard that strange sound and saw that sentence written on it. And the story doesn’t end there. My mother started to become more distant, until one day she left the house. Only a few months ago I was informed that my mother was in an asylum and had committed several crimes. It was the most surreal thing that ever happened to me.
76. Um, Sir?
Once I was watching Coldplay at a music festival when I was around 10 years old. I was standing on a fold-up camp chair in front of a tree and an old man stumbled up to me (not seeing that I was there) and proceeded to start peeing all over my legs and feet. I was too stunned and scared to say anything so I just let it happen. I didn’t tell anyone until recently.
77. A Quick Ride
My family left a bowling alley and there was a woman standing out front looking rather lost and stranded. My dad asked if she was okay and if she needed a ride somewhere. She said yes and asked us to take her to the motel nearby. She gets in our car and that's when we all notice that she is very overdressed for a bowling alley with her slinky dress and high heels. We drop her off at the motel, mom turns to dad and says, "Was that a call girl"?
78. A Spooky Silhouette
I was like seven, and to this day I don’t know if this was a real person or not, but my mom constantly had people over or was taking me to other peoples’ houses that I didn’t know. I was asleep once and I was on the couch. I think my mom was either asleep or absent, because I didn’t hear her walking or talking when I woke up to this, but I woke up to a dude standing above me and just looking at me for like five minutes.
I pretended to be asleep in case it was an actual person and in case I get in trouble or something by being awake but was peeking and they didn’t go away. They just stood there, so I just opened my eyes and they never moved until I closed my eyes again and tried to “hide” myself with blankets. I was freaked out, and when I looked again, they were gone.
It was dark so it was more of a silhouette, but I really think it was a guy standing above me because I had that feeling or sense you get when someone is close to you, and there was also a distinct smell that was only there when they were standing there. It kinda looked like they were wearing a jacket...but who and why??? Why are you staring at someone sleeping for five-plus minutes straight in the dark?
79. Grandma’s Old House
We lived in my grandparents’ house after they passed. They had a nanny who cared for my mom and her sisters, lived with them her entire life, and was a part of the family. The family wasn't rich, but they were well off, and they supported her throughout her life. She had come to them under horrible personal circumstances.
Also, this was a normal-sized house in a regular suburban area, not some house on haunted hill type dwelling. One day, as my mother was getting ready to go out to an event of some sort, we took a picture of her in front of the house. When we developed the photos, we were greeted with an eerie sight. Her nanny had passed on many years prior but we could see her sitting in her old room’s window.
This was my room growing up and would have freaked me out if she wasn't the wonderful and kind woman she was. Still the creepiest thing I have experienced to date.
80. Naps Aren’t Always Good
In elementary school, I went to a daycare for a year or two that had mandatory two-hour naps. This involved all of the kids getting locked in the basement for two hours and forced to sleep on the floor while the owner smoked upstairs. We weren’t allowed to talk or even sit up. Not sure how she knew when we did, but we always got caught, without fail.
Every day, two kids were chosen to instead sit on a couch in the basement and watch cartoons if they were really good. Those kids were usually the owner’s son and daughter. Kind of forgot about the whole thing until a year or two ago, I brought it up to my mom and all she could recall was the fact that the daycare got shut down a few years later.
81. Scapegoat
My mom took me with her to cheat on my dad. She would tell him she was visiting my godmother and was taking me to play with her kids. I remember sleeping on a strange couch multiple times overnight and mom making me lie to my dad about where we had been. Funnily enough, after the divorce when she married the other man, she did the same thing to him.
She took me on a trip with her hours away to visit "family," but was hooking up with a Marine at a base. She left me to wander around the housing neighborhood for hours until some strangers realized I was by myself and took me in, fed me, and let me play The Sims on their laptop until my mom eventually remembered I came with her and called me to find me.
82. The Sleep Phantom
When I was around 11 years old, I would stay with a friend of my dad’s while my dad would work away. I slept in the study which had no door. One night, I opened my eyes and could not move. It was my first time experiencing sleep paralysis. My eyes start to focus on the darkness at the end of my bed and I see a silhouette that was darker than the rest of the room lean over the bed and start to impose itself upon me.
This thing was about the size of my bed, and I was so panicked already from the sleep paralysis I instantly went into a hyperventilating panicked attack type state. This shadow just keeps leaning over me and I knew it was trying to tell me it wanted to hurt me. It was projecting terror into me. I eventually got so exhausted from being scared that I started screaming at the shadow in my head telling it to hurt me if it wanted to and to hurry up because I was so tired of being scared.
It kept just leaning and doing nothing and I realized it was bluffing. Once I realized it couldn’t actually do anything to me, it retreated, and I eventually was able to wiggle my toe and recover from the sleep paralysis. It was the most terrifying experience of my life and I am not superstitious. I assume I was still half asleep and it was a nightmare but that didn’t make it feel any less real.
Now I do not belittle people when they tell me about supernatural experiences they have had because even if they are manifested by our own brains and simply illusions. They feel so real when they are being experienced that I think the experiences people have are still valid.
83. The Land Of Lost Toys
I distinctly recall having a fourth floor in my house, which would only appear very rarely. Just thinking about it sends a shiver down my spine. It was a small, castle-tower-like staircase that went up from my attic. it was empty, with just me and the cement walls. However, it had all the things I had lost from my childhood.
It had a very overall eerie feel to it, and I remember having to go there when my parents weren't looking, as if it was forbidden or something.
84. Something’s Wrong With Her
When I was five, I lived with my mother in Spain and would often play with the other kids my age in the park, which was visible from my kitchen window. My mum would always watch over us when she was there. One day, I fell off the climbing frame and broke my leg. I was crying and screaming in pain and my mum was just staring at me from the window smiling.
I went home and told her what happened and to take me to the doctor as I thought I'd broken my leg. She told me I was overreacting and sent me to bed with no dinner. But this nightmare was just beginning. In the night, I hopped to the bathroom to go pee. On my way back, I fell over...causing my broken bone to break through my skin. In shock, I started screaming and then I hear my mum cursing me from another room.
She comes to see me there with my bone poking out my leg and says that I'm a baby for waking her up and goes back to bed. I laid there in pain for two more hours before my dad came home from his night shift to find me and rushed me to the hospital. My mom said she didn't hear me. My dad took me away about a year later to protect me.
85. Always Remember What’s Important
My sister’s father had $3.5 million in warrants against him when SWAT raided our house. I was home alone in my underwear watching an animated dinosaur movie when 10 dudes, fully decked out, started knocking on the door. One was even equipped with a ballistic shield. My mother and stepfather at the time had been in Vegas vacationing.
I wasn’t scared at the time when they came in with all kinds of equipment because I love that type of stuff. Anyway, my sister’s father has been in federal lockup ever since. I asked the men if I could take my brand-new Lego kit to my grandma’s house. They let me, but they escorted me the whole time and before I left, they opened the box and thoroughly searched it.
86. The Watching Shadow
My brother and I were kids, probably around 10 and 11. We went to stay at my aunt’s house for a few nights during the summer to visit our cousins. My aunt had a converted garage that she used for an at-home daycare. The door that went from the garage to the house was one of those daycare doors that opens halfway to where the top half is open, and the bottom is closed.
On the other side of the door was their kitchen. The first night there, my brother, my cousin, and I made pallets in the garage for sleeping. I remember it being dark in the room, but the top half of the door was open, and you could see the glow of the microwave light from the kitchen. I was rolled over facing the other way, trying to get some shut-eye, but my brother and cousin kept horsing around.
They were giggling and saying “Hey. Hellooooo. HELLO. Mom? MOM?? Aunt—?! Stop freaking us out"! Finally, I turned around to see what was up and I could see the outline of a person standing in the doorway. It looked like their elbow was resting on the top of the half-door with their chin resting in their hand. Like they were just there looking at us.
The figure stood out because the glow of the microwave light illuminated them from behind. The boys kept calling out saying “this isn’t funny"! Eventually, the shadow just got up, turned around, and walked away. We all looked at each other in alarm. We got out of bed, went through the door through the kitchen to the living room where my aunt usually slept.
She had sleep apnea and slept in a recliner in the living room with her C-PaP machine on her face. We got there and woke her up and asked if she was watching us. She said no, she had been sleeping. We four were the only ones in the house. She asked us if the shadow looked like it could have been a man, and when we said yes, she told us that sometimes when she wakes in the middle of the night, she would see a man in the hallway from her chair.
She said that it must have been him watching us. We saw a ghost.
87. Behind Your Ear!
I grew up in Manila, in the older part of Makati city. The apartment we lived in was right next door to a boarded-up house; a bedroom window lined up perfectly with a window into that creepy old house. One summer day, when I was around seven, I was watching television while my nanny was downstairs making lunch, and my sister napping in the other room.
Sitting there, I started to feel a flicking on my ear that would start and stop. Unfazed, I kept watching TV until I start hearing “Psst…psst…psst” coming from inside the room. I turn down the volume, and as if the voice was next to my ear, I hear “Sino ka"? (Tagalog for ‘who are you?’) followed by more “Psst…Psst…Psst…”
I immediately ran downstairs, thinking it was my nanny or sister. It was not—both were downstairs. This core memory is forever etched in my mind.
88. There’s A Time And A Place For That
I was around seven and on holiday with my parents. We were all sharing an open concept room. I woke up to the sound of them getting busy five meters away from me. I didn't know what to do or what was happening so I just stayed quiet until they finished and pretended to be asleep after my mom called my name to check if I was awake.
I didn’t realize how weird it was until I started working with kids. Like, imagine getting intimate with someone in the same space as a sleeping seven-year-old. They weren’t even under the covers.
89. Things Left Unsaid
There was a girl I knew when I was younger, though I never saw her much. My family was religious, and I met her at our church. One day at the church, she was there joining our after-church class. It was unusual, because, as I've said, her family was rarely there. While we knew each other, we weren’t friends or anything.
She and I were alone in the classroom, waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. She looks scared and nervous. She says, "Can I tell you a secret and you have to promise not to say anything"? I replied, “Yes, of course". Before she could tell me, another kid walks in and that was that. She bailed and her family never came back. I have no idea what happened and I will never know what she was going to tell me.
90. Hiding Under The Bed
I remember I was four or five at the time. My mom was visited by this guy she was dating. Well, she was outside the house hanging out with this guy, and I wanted to join them, but I was barefoot. So, I went to the bedroom to fetch my flip-flops, but I didn't find them. For some reason, I didn't turn the lights on. Then I took a look under the bed.
A bald, disfigured man emerged from under the bed, took me by the wrists, and tried to pull me under the bed. I remember I was screaming for help and crying but nobody came, and suddenly he disappeared. I eventually found some shoes and went outside. I don't remember if I told my mom about what happened, but then they took me to a nearby park and bought me some sweets and that's all I remember.
91. A Midnight Drop-Off
I was a freshman in high school. My friends from work lived a mile away, and I would periodically walk home from their house late at night. It was a well-lit residential area with homes and fences on the left, and across the street was a creek that ran along the right. One night, I was walking home around 2 AM. I see a van pulled up in the distance approximately 60 feet away dropping a bunch of things along the sidewalk and pull off down the street.
I pull my hoodie tighter and approach slowly only to find an inordinate number of children’s shoes scattered along the sidewalk. Probably around six or seven pairs of used kids’ shoes dropped off at night with not another person in sight. I freaked out and ran back to my house. I never heard anything about it in the news or on the internet at the time. I can’t make sense of it and the memory still haunts me.
92. A Boy Named Lucky
My dad and I were driving somewhere and we were sitting waiting to turn left onto the road along with a lot of cars behind us. As we were waiting, I see my dad visibly start to cringe and there was terror on his face. I look at him and say, "What"? I see that he's watching some kids very slowly riding their bike across the crosswalk from our left.
My dad looks in the side view mirror on our right and says, "Oh! He's not stopping! He's not stopping"! Then two seconds later, I see it. A pickup truck rolls past and hits one of the kid’s bikes. Luckily, the kid walked away without being hurt. I didn't realize at the time, but this kid was probably inches from severe bodily injury.
93. A Terrible Plan
When I was small, we lived with my great-grandmother. She was a hard woman. We had a dog briefly. One day we came home from school and she told us we left the gate open and the dog was probably run over in the road. I cried for a long time. When I was in my twenties, my mom told me she gave that dog to a farmer because she was convinced we couldn't take care of it.
It was a terrible thing to do, also for my mom to not tell us until we were adults. For years, I thought we were horrible kids.
94. Screams For Help
I had a major hallucination problem that is now better because I have medication to treat it. I always saw a weird man staring at me, watching, camera flashing when I least expected it. He was everywhere. I hallucinated voices screaming at me to save them and it really scared me. I didn’t know I was hallucinating. I thought I had a very weird stalker watching my every move and hurting people near me that I may not know but they know my name somehow.
I don’t really know how I should explain this. From when I was five years old to when I was ten years old, it was the worst. I hallucinated the man staring at me from the windows, I once woke up and saw him breaking in through my open window. I screamed, and my mom came of course. She was very confused and worried as to why I was screaming in the middle of the night.
She then went to let me get checked for any type of mental illness because how would a man possibly break into a window that is at the top floor of a five-story building? But the scary thing for me is that I still hear people screaming on occasion…
95. In The Cats’ Eyes
I was riding my bike and there was like a courtyard with plants. The path through was like a Y shape, you went in, and the middle could turn left or right to go through and out. I went in, and just before I got to the middle, a cat walked out of a bush and sat in the middle of the left path and stared at me. I stopped my bike, as I'd never seen a cat stare so much and act like that.
In my experience, cats absolutely hate staring at people, but this cat held my gaze for an age and did not move. I had been going to go left so I changed my mind and went to turn right. ANOTHER cat came out of another bush and sat in the middle of the right path and stared at me. They both stayed put I was looking back and forth between them, and I just had a feeling.
These were not ordinary cats, they looked at me like they were people in a cat’s body, and it freaked me out and gave me chills. I ended up turning around and going back the way I came. When I looked back, I could see both of them going back into their bushes at the same time. I ended up going all the way around the block to get to my destination.
96. Some Jokes Aren’t Funny
I was bullied pretty badly all through elementary school and junior high. When I was around eight years old I was walking to my grandparents’ house from school with a group of girls from my grade that travel the same route. They dared me to stick my face in a deep snow pile. When I did they all grouped up and pressed my face deeper and piled snow on top of my head, burying me.
I remember feeling panic and struggling to breathe for a few minutes before my grandfather came and pulled me out. He’d seen the girls all walk past and I still hadn’t come after almost five minutes so he came looking for me. As a kid I wrote it off thinking they played a joke on me, but as an adult I wholeheartedly believe I would’ve suffocated if my grandfather hadn’t pulled me out when he did.
97. The Opposite Of Healing
I grew up in an evangelical unaffiliated church. They believed in speaking in tongues, demon possession, and exorcisms. A local boy that I befriended lived in the apartments near our church. He was poor and rough, he cussed and smoked and was generally on his own, but on Sunday and Wednesday nights, he started coming over to the church.
One night, for some reason, someone decided that they needed to put healing hands on him and pray for his soul. He didn't like that so he jumped back and yelled profanities at them. That apparently was clear evidence that he was possessed, so several adults wrestled him out of the pew and held him down while he screamed and flailed and cussed at them.
The hundred or so onlookers just all started praying and crying and dancing around it. That was just a pretty normal church night, maybe just a little more spirited than usual. He didn't return and things like that happened multiple times throughout my childhood.
98. Add Two And Two Together
I was the quiet kid in elementary school. My grades and behavior were always good, so my classmates liked to pick on me. The teachers tried to find ways to keep me from having to deal with those kids. I got sent on lots of errands. So for a few weeks in 7th or 8th grade, I was this one popular girl's "chaperone" around school.
Kids weren't allowed out in the halls alone during class time, but she was getting sick a lot and had to use the bathroom during the day, mostly mornings. We'd make small talk here and there while walking downstairs to the bathroom, I thought she was nice. Eventually, she was out of school for maybe a week or two, and when she came back she wasn't getting sick anymore.
She didn't talk to me after that. She wouldn't even look at me. At the time I just figured I had served my purpose and was no longer needed, so I forgot about it. I'd completely forgotten about it until my college years, when I bumped into her somewhere. She gave me a hug and said something like, "You were always nice to me. All everybody else did was talk about me".
99. Peacock Feathers
I was about five at the time, and I had a nightmare about this scary lady who was dressed in peacock colors and slightly resembled Mulan. She followed my family to a park and chased me around trying to grab me. It was pretty upsetting to my five-year-old self, but I can’t really describe how scary the dream was to me.
I forgot about the incident, but around five years later, I was on the highway driving to my Nana’s for Easter. I looked at the car that we had been driving next to. What I saw made my blood run cold. In the driver’s seat was the same lady that was in my dream who is trying to grab me. she was wearing the same peacock colors and her hair was styled in the same high bun.
I was staring at her in shock, then she looked over while driving give me a slight smile, and then zoomed away.
100. Trailer Park Affairs
I grew up with a single mom until l was 12. We lived in a rundown trailer park where the owner of the park lived on-site. On the first of the month, there were always a few women who would go into the owner's trailer, be in there for half an hour or so, and come out. The owner had some fierce arguments with my mom because she never went into his trailer.
He would shout at her to get in the trailer, and she would refuse and scream at him, saying that she'd have his money Friday or whatever it was that month. I didn't figure out what was really happening until I was older.
101. A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
I found a very large, colored-in black and white photograph in an ornate gilded frame in the attic. The photo showed a young child in a white lacy dress, wearing a cowboy hat and boots, standing on the steps of a city building with a pony. The building in the photo was clearly a style of architecture that isn’t found anywhere near where I live.
Also, the child was the ugliest child any of us had ever seen. Scary ugly. I wasn’t even envious about the pony—that kid was just so ugly. We hung the photo in a prominent spot, and would make up a story about the person/pony/photo, taking turns. We left the thing in the attic when we sold the house. Didn’t seem right to take it.
102. Gone, Baby, Gone
On a day out with my dad when I was little, I was playing in the park with a girl the same age as me. I didn’t know her, but she was on her own. We left after an hour or so, leaving the girl on her own. Again, my dad asked her where her parents were. Later on that night, there was a big story on the news that gave me chills—it was about a girl who had been abducted, and all my family members kept asking me questions about this little girl.
It went right over my head at the time, being about five years old. 40 years later, I still think about her.
103. Left Out In The Cold
When I was about 13, like many other teenage girls, I worried about my weight. One dish my family always had for Thanksgiving was candied yams with big marshmallows on top. I opted out of eating the marshmallows. My family's "punishment" was so disturbing I'll never forgive them. They locked me outside on the porch, while I was only in light PJs, standing in the snow.
They enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner in front of me because the table was right in front of the glass porch door. I was very lucky to somehow not get frostbite, but I learned that day that frostnip can be quite painful. The most crushing thing however is that my grandmother was visiting for that holiday, and she sided with my parents and saw no wrong in this.
She even joined in their later berating. This kind of punishment wasn't abnormal but having someone witness and not care was one of the worst experiences of my life. I don't talk to any of them anymore.
104. He Stood Corrected
When I was six or seven years old, I visited my dad at the place where he worked... or so I was told. I remember remarking about it at the time, and people laughed at me because I said it looked just like a prison. The people laughing were the guards, and I was indeed visiting my dad at the Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution, where he was a federal inmate.
105. The Great Deceiver
When I was six years old, my aunt, who was my guardian, faked my grandmother’s passing. She lied to all of us—local churches, her friends, and strangers—for sympathy and money. She wrote to multiple people asking for support. She needed money for a headstone and the funeral, etc. People bought into it hook, line, and sinker.
So you can imagine our surprise a year later when we received a letter from our grandma saying she was coming to see us.
106. Sudden Loss
I had my first ever sleepover with my best friend in the first grade. Things at night were awesome. However, when I woke up the next morning, everyone at his house was super distant, and they called my mom to come and pick me up ASAP. I didn’t know what was going on. As it turned out, unfortunately, his father had an aneurysm that night and didn’t survive.
Shutterstock
107. A Sweet Treat Before It Ends
When I was in kindergarten my dad would routinely show up, sign me out of class, and take me for ice cream. Best memory ever. In retrospect, my dad knew he was dying, and passed when I was 6. He routinely did stuff like this. I feel as if I missed nothing, I’m now 35.
108. How Awful
When I was little (around six or eight years old, maybe), my mom, brother, and I were on the train traveling home from visiting family. Suddenly, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere, and we just sat there confused for a minute until my mom saw something outside and gasped, “Don’t look out the window".
Naturally, this piqued our curiosity, and we clambered all over our mother to get a look out the window while she tried and failed to hold us back. There was nothing there—just some sticks and maybe some paint. We were like, “What gives"? My mother laughed and said, “Gotcha! Were you scared"? We both slumped back into our seats, disappointed, and waited for the train to start moving again.
She told us years later what she really saw that day... The truth sent chills up our spines.
It had been an intentional death by train that we had happened across. There was just no way we could have recognized what we were seeing as a human being, and my mom managed to just play it off like it was nothing, even though it must have been a truly horrifying sight to somebody who knew what they were looking at.
Wikimedia Commons, Vince pahkala
109. Not A Normal Thing To Share
When I was a kid, my friend's mom used to use the toilet with the bathroom door open. Number one or number two, the door would be wide open and we could just go and have a chat like it was normal. Another time, I stayed at their house and the following morning, I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth and washing my face.
The parents saw me and asked, "have you washed your bum"? I was a bit confused, as it's not a normal thing to ask a guest. Then they said, "the flannel is there for you to wash your bum". So yeah, this family had a bum flannel that they all used to wash their buttholes with and then expected me to use it.
110. Something Much Worse Than A Ghost
I was about seven years old. My brother was about 10. It was well past our bedtime when our mom woke up off the couch to put us to bed. Our dad worked construction out of town back then, so it was often just us three at the house for weeks at a time. Up the stairs and to the immediate right was our parents' bedroom. Going left put you in the middle of a hallway.
Taking another left down that hallway led to my brother's room. The opposite end was my room, which was also across the hall from our upstairs bathroom. At either end of the hallway are windowed doors that we always kept locked and rarely used. The door on my end led to a balcony overlooking our front yard, and the door on my brother's end opened to our back porch.
My brother and mom both had a habit of waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I only knew this because I was always a light sleeper and they just couldn't help flushing with the door wide open. This night, however, my brother stopped on his way to his room and came back towards the bathroom. That’s when he made a comment that chilled me to the bone.
He told me: "I'm gonna try to pee before I go to bed tonight. The past few nights, I've been too afraid to walk to the bathroom. I keep seeing a man wearing stripes at the end of the hallway". I don't know if my mom wrote it off as my brother telling ghost stories to try to scare me, or if she was already half asleep and didn't catch it, but she didn't react at all to my brother's confession.
I, on the other hand, was terrified by it. The fear of seeing a ghost-like that at the end of the hallway or through the windows is the reason I started running from the stairs to my bedroom at night. Years later, when I was about 18, my mom and I were having a conversation in her car about a dog named Max that we’d had for a very short time when I was little.
We were sharing stories about Max's tendency towards destroying my shoes and other unruly behaviors, when my mom blurted out, "Do you remember that time I opened the front door for the authorities and Max ran inside to the kitchen and started tearing open that big bag of dog food we had"? This really caught me by surprise.
In all the years I lived in that house, we never once called law enforcement as far as I was aware. I asked her what she was talking about and she looked equally surprised, as if she had just revealed something by accident. Then, she said: "Oh, that's right! I never told you about this because you were too young at the time…”
She continued: "One night, I woke up hearing noises outside my window and, when I looked outside, I saw a man staring into my bedroom". She went on to describe how turning on the lights caused him to take off running, and how she had grabbed my dad's pistol before calling the authorities. I started to ask some more questions about the experience until something clicked in my head.
My mom said she couldn’t remember all the details she gave them when they showed up, but she remembered describing the man as a tall white male, wearing a striped shirt and jeans, with short dark hair, or something like that. They said it matched the description of a man they were looking for in the area. It turns out he had just escaped from behind bars, where he’d been charged with murder.
Now, I know it sounds so obvious hearing those two stories back to back, but it wasn't until a few years ago, in my mid-20s, that I pieced together that my brother had unknowingly warned us about a murderer who had spent multiple nights staking out our home. Who knows what he had been planning to do…
