Looking into the past, there might be things you didn’t understand as a kid that you might understand now. But other times, those questions might still be unanswered. Whether these stories have explanations—disturbing or otherwise—these 50 Redditors share weird and creepy stories they experienced when they were younger.
1. 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!
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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!
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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 died. But here's where it's creepy: they would have died by the time I was talking to them. I never felt so cold, and we all agreed to never talk about it again.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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 5 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.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. 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
29. 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.
30. 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 died 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.
31. 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...
32. 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.
33. 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.
34. 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.
35. 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.
36. 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?
37. 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.
38. 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.
39. 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.
40. 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.
41. 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 7, 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.
42. 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.
43. 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.
44. 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…
45. 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.
46. 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 traumatizing 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.
47. 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.
48. 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.
49. 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.
50. 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.
Sources: Reddit,
