16. The Problem With Cats and Dogs
One night, there was a tapping on the window. My cat and dog were staring intently at said window. I looked out the window and nothing was there. A few minutes later, I heard it again. Looked again, nothing. This went on for another four or five times. I decided to take my dog with me to look outside because I'm a wimp and started getting scared.
I leashed up my dog, grabbed a golf club and went outside. Nothing. There was nothing around the window that could have made that tapping noise. No trees with branches, no animals, no bugs, nothing. Went back inside still kind of spooked. The tapping never came back, but my dog and cat still stared at the window for the rest of the night.
17. Gone With the Wind?
When I was a kid my parents lived on the West Coast, and we regularly had hurricane force winds. The house was two stories, and we all slept on the top floor. When the winds hit hard, you could feel the house move. I hated storms because it sounded like someone was slowly pacing up and down the hallway, and the tone of the floor creaking didn't match my parents or siblings.
Was probably the structure flexing making the floor creak but scared the daylights out of 10-year-old me.
18. Haunting Under the Influence
Day off when working graveyards. It was just easier to maintain that sleep schedule, so there I was at about 3 o'clock in the morning playing video games (Resident Evil, I think) when I heard a scratching at my door. I thought about going to answer it, because I'm a big boy and I can be intimidating. Then I re-thought it because it was 3 AM, and I don't know anyone in the area, and I lived alone in a second-floor apartment in a fairly remote neighborhood. And it wasn't a knocking...it was a scratching.
As I stood beside the door, I could hear the person on the other side, still scratching, saying things like "I can hear you breathing!" and " If you don't let me in something really bad's gonna happen!" It was the only time I've ever been creeped out in my own apartment. I called the police. Turns out that three or four other people called the police too (I didn't know that many people were even awake at that time).
Apparently, the guy was a guest of a resident who was drunk and couldn't remember which apartment his friend lived in. He spent the night in the drunk tank instead.
19. Big Words from a Big Man
I work overnights with the mentally ill. There's nothing quite so terrifying as hearing a 350lb. man who's prone to violence wake up and start screeching incoherent words at 12 AM before falling right back asleep like nothing's happened.
20. Mom Says It’s My Turn to Use the PlayStation
I was sitting in the downstairs TV room, all alone, drawing. I draw comics for a living and when I have free time, I'm either drawing more comics or playing Skyrim. I'm all by myself and the only sounds are the wisps the lead of my pencil makes on the paper. I'm completely relaxed and in my element—like I'm in my own little, quiet world.
That's when I saw the ghost walk down the stairs in front of me. Honest to goodness, I look up and see this figure just walk down the stairs. It's gone on the last step and I'm frozen to the bone. My blood goes cold and I realize I'm seriously not alone. My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to faint. I make it to my bedroom somehow but can barely breathe the rest of the night and sleep with the light on.
Since then I've seen the same figure several times, walking down the same stairs, gone on the last step. It's only in the corner of my eye but I've seen it. I'm not scared of it anymore, but it still makes me jump.
21. Batteries Not Included
I had a Sleep N Snore Ernie doll. When you squeezed his belly he would say, "I feel great!" One night, it just did it by itself a few times. Ok, really scary but I'll just take the batteries out. THEN IT DID IT AGAIN.
22. Must-See-TV
My room is downstairs and my whole family has rooms upstairs. I was almost asleep in bed and heard the living room TV turn on. No big deal, my dad probably couldn't sleep and watching TV. Thing was, he had it too loud. After a little I expected him to turn it down...five minutes go by and I decide I am going to complain about the noise.
I sluggishly walk into the living room and notice no one is there, TV on and no doors and windows open. I think OK, whatever TV had a glitch and somehow turned on. Turned it off and headed back to my room where my dog was. I fell asleep and woke up to my dog in the living room barking. TV was turned on, but it was just static.
23. It’s a Hard Climb to the Bottom
Lived in a townhouse with super thin walls in college. My staircase and the neighbor’s staircase were beside one another, separated by only that thin wall. Girlfriend at the time and I went to the midnight premiere of Paranormal Activity, the original one. Afterward, we went and ate a late-night meal and I took her home.
So, I'm laying in bed alone, trying to not to think about that goddamn movie. All the sudden, I hear the slow, methodical THUD...THUD...THUD coming up the stairs. I'm closer to having a heart attack at that moment than I’ve ever been. Turned out to be one my neighbors had gotten home wasted and couldn't walk up the stairs with any expedience.
But that was the only time I ever heard them walk up the stairs like that. Goddamn, it scared the heck out of me at the time.
24. Six Minutes to Lights Out
I had my headphones on listening to an Iron Maiden song, “Back in the Village.” There's a bit in the second verse where you can hear a faintly whispered "six six six." And that was the exact moment the lights decided to go out for a second.
25. Unwanted Audience
A long while back when I was still a teen and living with my parents, I wanted to listen to some music, but it was quite late. I went downstairs to the garage and decided to listen to music in my car. After a while, it was quiet as I was deciding on the next CD to play when I heard what sounded like leaves crunching outside.
I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a figure coming up the driveway. The motion activated flood light on the garage did not illuminate as the figure approached the front door. I quickly and quietly head back inside and go up to the kitchen where I could get a view of the front door. It was still quite dark, but I could make out the shape of a person standing at the front door.
They stood there for a moment before I hear a knock. Obviously, this is strange for a quiet neighborhood at 3 AM. I reach for my phone and dial the police, but after waiting for another minute that felt like an eternity, the person turned around and walked away back down the drive and into the street, being careful to avoid the only streetlight.
Before the police had arrived, he was gone. They started to search the area but found no one. One officer came to ask questions and get a description, but it was so dark I couldn't make out anything useful. To this day, I still have no earthly clue why this happened.
26. Just Helping You Save Electricity
I was watching a horror movie in my room. I heard something crash in the kitchen. I went outside to inspect. Nothing was out of order. When I came back to my room, I swear the light was turned off when I didn't leave it that way. It messed me up.
27. Red, Blue, and Yellow-Bellied
When I was like in sixth grade, I was up late, as I always was, and was just about to drift off to sleep when I saw flashing blue and red lights. I then heard “stop!” And “back here!” And I look out my window to see a shadowy figure run up my street and jump into my backyard. Both of my parents were asleep at the time and I was too afraid to wake them as I feared that the guy was in my house.
I then go proceeded to see an entire police unit pull up to my street with a full search party to find this man. Parents slept through the whole thing and I still don’t know what happened to the guy.
28. Feeling Blue?
Back in my early teens, some buddies and I would get together to do weekend sleepovers. One night after getting bored from playing video games til 2 AM, we decided to go on a night walk. After saying goodbye to one of our friends heading home early, me and one friend start to head up to the top of the neighborhood hill. After a few minutes of walking, I turned around and hollered back asking about making plans tomorrow.
A giant, light blue orb of light flew down below the mountain line and took off diagonally into the sky and disappeared. All taking less than five seconds. Shocked, I hollered back if he just saw that. He repeated what happened, reassuring my sanity.
29. Can’t Retire This Sense of Creepiness
I'm a backshift security guard at a retirement home, and I'm starting to believe this place is haunted. I've been here since last September, and early on one of the other guards, a lovely young woman named Charlotte, made a passing reference to this place being haunted. I laughed it off, treated it as a joke, but no, apparently she's seen stuff. And in the months since I've started seeing stuff too.
Strange shapes moving just at the corner of my vision when I'm alone, or faces in open doorways that vanish when I try to focus on them. I brushed all this off, just the sleepiness catching up to me, right? A month or two back we had a resident pass away. His room is right behind where I am sitting now. The doorway isn't five feet from me. And two weeks ago, while I'm alone and reading Reddit to stay awake, I feel someone tap my left shoulder.
Other than me, there are four people in this wing. The resident I'm watching, whom I am directly facing and am immediately aware if he leaves his room. Another resident who is senile and has a room in the corner, well within my view. Another resident who is wheelchair bound and rarely leaves his room, so I would know if he left, and a fourth who is bedridden in the other room behind me.
So, unless the bedridden resident made a miraculous recovery, snuck out of his room, tapped my LEFT shoulder when his room is on my right, and then snuck back into his room before I could check, who the heck tapped my shoulder? That brings us to tonight. The plumbing in Ambrose's (RIP) bathroom spontaneously started running earlier tonight, as if someone was in there using the washroom. As long as I knew him, Ambrose was bedridden.
Some weird stuff goes on here.
30. Blast from the Past?
Went for a bike ride at 3 AM. This is normal for me because no one is out, and I love the cool breeze. Riding down the bike path I see a group of people in the distance. I pull over to the right so I can pass them without bothering them. As I got closer, I thought they were dancing to music, something, I don’t know, just lots of odd movement.
I get even closer and I see it’s a bunch of people dressed in long black goth-like trench coats, black spiky hair, white "Victorian" make up all over their face with black eyeliner. They were chanting in what sounded like Latin and worshipping the sky? I guess they were worshipping the dark or the moon? Just do what you like, I don’t care.
I passed them minding my own business and one of them screamed "You!" and started sprinting after me on my bike. I freaking booked it and got the heck out there down the track. I didn't stop all night, I just kept riding as fast as I could until I got home. Couldn't sleep all day.
31. We Have a New Position at the Company
I used to work as a Power Plant Operator and had to work night shifts. Every time, I would do my rounds up in the boiler house on the eighth floor the lights would flicker sporadically. I found out later that a contractor had died in that exact area a couple years earlier from a heart attack.
32. Restroom in Peace
I was eight and I needed to use the restroom, so I sneakily sneaked out of the sleepover pile of children and went to the in-bedroom bathroom. I opened the door, but the girl whose house we were staying at was on the toilet. She didn't make a noise but covered herself, so I quickly spun back around to go back to my spot to wait patiently for my turn.
Except she was still in her bed, completely asleep. I turned back around, and she was gone. I closed the door behind me, did my business, constantly looking around for that girl I "saw." The door never opened, and I saw no trace of any other human in that bathroom; not in the closet, under the sink, in behind the curtains, nowhere.
Of course, that freaked eight-year-old me out.
33. So Much for Neighborhood Watch
It was like 4 AM and I was on my beloved desktop doing whatever kids used to do on the internet. I heard screaming coming from upstairs. Then arguing, then more screaming. I went to wake up my brother and he started freaking out because he heard it too. We heard a couple thuds, then quiet. I thought about calling 9-1-1 but I was a freaked out 12-year-old. Heard movement near the door. Then nothing.
I lived in a duplex at the time and found out in the morning that a man broke into my upstairs neighbor's place trying to steal stuff and when she woke up, he assaulted her. Weird to think that the doors to her place and our place were right next to each other. Also, not great that my dad didn't wake up for any of this.
34. You’ve Struck Oil (and the Heart of My Anxiety)
When I was really young, I lived out in the middle of nowhere. There was my house and my grandma's less than a mile away, so I spent a lot of time with her. She is really religious and beat me over the head with religion. I was aware of my own mortality before I was four. Well, one part of the stories she told stuck with me, and I couldn’t get out of my head.
The part where the end of the world would be marked by seven trumpets. When I was about seven or eight, an oil rig was built not far from where I lived. And every night I’d hear the horns from the oil rig and freak out. I don’t know how late I’d stay up, but I’d only go to sleep when I got so exhausted that I’d pass out.
I knew it was the oil rig the entire time, but still, it’d terrify me. I’d have panic attacks about the end of the world and my own death.
35. Now My Watch Begins
I work a 6pm-6am night shift at a hospital for security. Honestly, the scariest thing is when you go upstairs, and the patients are sleeping. One time, I was walking by and I heard a dude snoring, so I didn’t look in. As I walked by no less than 15 minutes later, he was staring straight at me and made eye contact. I don’t make much noise while walking as I wear comfy shoes due to the amount of time that I tend to spend on my feet.
Really freaked me out though, I think he was sent to a better hospital for better care due to some mental illness. Freaky.
36. Don’t Have a Cow, Man
So back when I was living way out in the countryside, I used to have to drive a good 20 minutes just to get to a county-maintained road, and then another 40 minutes into the city to go to school and work. I’d go to school in the mornings and then work with a video production company filming weddings and Bar Mitzvahs and such.
The events tended to run well past midnight, and then we’d have to break down and transport all the gear, lock up the shop and then it’d be an hour of driving to get back to my girlfriend’s family’s home way out in the ranch land. I’m driving home one night—probably 2 or 3 AM, exhausted and probably in need of a tall glass of water (if you follow), and I get to the end of the pavement and start blasting down this tiny dirt road, in that real country dark where all you can see is a little cone of headlight.
Mesquite bushes and desert grass make this sorta wall on either side of the road so it’s like driving down a little chute of scraggly little branches—and I’m coming around this corner when up in the road is this messed up looking...thing. I slam on the brakes and shoot this wall of dust out ahead of me, but through the dust sitting centered in the beam of my headlights is this white, hunched figure. It has long legs and haunches like a jackrabbit, but it’s a good four feet high and kinda lumpy, like an illustration from those Scary Stories books and I am terrified.
It kinda rocks a little bit and shivers and I’m looking at this thing and it makes no sense at all the way it's shaped. I stare at it for a good minute, just idling in the middle of this road trying to make up some kinda story to myself to explain what the hell I’m looking at, but I am completely stumped. So I start creeping the car forward, and as I’m getting close enough to see the shapes of its muscles and the shine of fur the thing hops up, and the bit I thought looked like a head with a long ear stretches up and out changing its whole shape like something out of The Thing and I about screamed.
Still nearly invisible, except for its white striped legs and underbelly, this black cow that had been sitting at the edge of the road stood up, showing part of its body that had been hidden behind a folded black leg and staggered off into the bushes to find a spot to sleep where people weren’t blasting it with high beams.
I felt like an idiot later, but in that moment where it was rising up and like...unfolding its self—if I had run off before I saw what it really was, I’d be swearing to this day I saw a chupacabra or a demon or some craziness.
37. Late-Night Playdate
I recall a few months ago I was on my 3DS when I heard my little seven-year-old brother calling my name. This wasn't uncommon as he used to stay up a lot on his iPod watching YouTube and had questions for so-and-so thing in-game, so I put on a shirt and went to check on him. He was laying on the couch under his blanket, his phone still playing Minecraft videos when he looked at me and asked me to check his room for "the knocking.”
I'm usually paranoid about this stuff happening anyway so I went to look and turned on his light. As I glance at the window, I saw a kid—not a man, a kid, maybe 11-12 years old—just sitting there, smiling, looking like he just had the best day ever before running off. I ran to my brother and just scooped him up and took him to my parent’s room to explain what happened, but they didn't believe me.
I later learned that the neighbor’s kid had been sneaking out at night to play with some other neighborhood kids and wanted to play a prank.
38. This Isn’t Part of the Lease Agreement
Bit of Background: I'm a university student living in a house with three others near a fairly rough part of the city. One night, I was on my own, as two housemates had gone home and the other had gone out getting drunk for the night and said she'd be back home around 12. Now, the house is a bit old, so it naturally creeks and groans as the temperature cools at night. On top of that, there is a railway running past our house so I'm very used to sleeping through a variety of noises.
This night was like any other and nothing was out of the ordinary. As I was the only one in, I did the routine checks (locking doors, turning off lights, making sure taps aren’t on, etc.) and went to bed. At around 1 in the morning, I woke to a large thud downstairs, as I was the only one in when I went to bed this scared me for a while. I carefully picked up the swiss army knife on my bedside and walked onto the landing.
I peered over the railing to see the downstairs light was on and I could hear someone walking in the kitchen (directly under my room). I soon realized that it was probably my housemate getting back drunk and looking for food. This was a good enough excuse to not go and investigate and I went back to bed and fell asleep.
In the morning I wake up and the whole event has slipped my mind. While chatting with my housemate about her night she goes on to tell me about all the drama that happened and as such didn’t get home until 4 AM. It's at this point that I remember last night’s events and am quite freaked out, despite me being tired and her being drunk, there was no chance that our sense of time was that bad.
Someone or something was definitely in that house, and what it was we still don’t know over a year later...
39. Just Calling to Check-In
I’m a night auditor at a hotel, one night at around 3 AM the phone starts ringing, and the caller ID shows "Room 112," which is the hotel's fitness center. I pick up the phone, and all I hear is heavy breathing from the other end. Since all the rooms are outside entrance only, I lean over, while still on the phone and look out the security window towards the door to the fitness center.
Door is closed and lights turned off. After not getting a response, I then ask, "Is everything ok?" and immediately afterward the phone clicks. Without taking my eyes off the door, I leave the office and I head over to the fitness center. I shine a flashlight in thru the window to inspect the room, and empty. I walk in and look around the small room, and yep, empty. I checked the phone, and the handset was still on the receiver.
I then headed back to the office, and as soon as I sit down the phone starts ringing again and the caller ID says, "Room 112.” I whisper to myself "Screw that..." and pick up the phone and immediately hang up. Nothing else happened after that.
40. It Almost Happened Here
I was probably 14 at the time, and I was sitting in my living room playing Xbox. With the way my living room is, the front door to my house is basically right behind where our TV and couch were set up. I saw a shadow move across the wall that's opposite the door (we have windows on the sides of the door, and there's a street light directly outside) and at first I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but then I heard the doorknob rattle around for about 10 seconds straight.
I went into a panic and slapped my hands on my mouth out of terror. After the rattling stopped, I heard some talking, and then footsteps leaving my doorstep. I'm guessing they were just looking for houses with unlocked front doors, as my neighbors two streets down got robbed that night. But the pure dread of hearing the door rattle stills spooks me out to this day
41. Want to Hear a Knock-Knock Joke?
I went to bed around 3 AM as I usually do. Laying in bed for an hour or so, just started drifting off to sleep when I hear "knock knock." Doesn't sound like something falling down, it's perfectly in rhythm for someone knocking on a door. At 4 AM. That's bad enough but it wasn't on the door, it was on an outside wall of my bedroom, a few feet from my head.
My bedroom is on the second floor by the garage, so if it was someone knocking (and at that point I was sure it was) they were either in the attic over the garage or on the roof of the garage. I pull out my phone and check the garage door, it had been closed for hours. Not someone in the garage. On the roof? Doesn't seem likely.
I lie awake for a couple of hours but don't hear anything else. My best guess is it was a stick that was being blown by the wind, but it really, really sounded like someone knocking.
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