ATRD Ep. 133 - Internet Creep, Stalker, & Paranormal Stories 01:47:30

If you have a story you would like to hear featured on this podcast, please go to astheravendreams.com and click the button to submit your story. Also, if the platform you're listening on has the option to rate this podcast, please consider doing so. And thank you. Hey Raven. So, this is actually an ongoing event, but I wanted to share it because, well, frankly, I feel like it should be out there.

I'm doing what I can on my side legally, but so far there isn't much that can be done. I do apologize if some details are vague, like locations, for reasons that will make sense after hearing the story, but here we go. I'm 22 years old and quite active on social media, particularly Instagram. I share photos almost daily, using it as a sort of visual diary.

I'm very vocal in the comments of friends, family, and others that I follow. I'm not afraid to speak my mind or share my thoughts, and it's honestly just fun to me. I don't use it for political stuff or other nonsense like that, just genuine things in life that interest me. You could definitely say that I'm one of those typical users. Because of this, I have a lot of followers and friend requests that I usually just accept after a brief look over the profile.

If I see them spouting off about something like politics, or one of the other things that I tend to avoid, I won't add them. But a few months ago, I received a friend request on Facebook and a follow notification on Insta for a guy that I will refer to as Aaron. His profile picture was of a dog looking over a cliff.

When I scrolled through his page on both, I noticed that he posted a lot of the same pictures. Landscapes, sceneries, and about half of them featured the same dog from his profile pictures. I thought it was pretty sweet. It looked like a guy who really loved his dog. And I'm a sucker for animals and photography. I didn't see any harm in it at the time, so I added him and accepted the follow and went about my life.

After adding him, he would like or react to all of my posts and sometimes comment on them. They were all simply responses such as things like "nice pics" or saying that he liked the same song when I posted the lyrics or link to a song. We even had a brief conversation about sunset pics that I took, talking about the colors and how it all looked. He honestly just seemed like someone who had added me due to a mutual interest.

From then on, Aaron seemed to comment on more and more of my posts. And around three to four weeks in, I noticed how his activity had started picking up. What I mean by that is that when I would make any kind of post, I would get notified of his reaction or response within seconds of me posting it. It was almost like he was watching and waiting. I know you can turn on notifications for specific people, and that's likely what had happened,

But with how quick he was always with it, it made it seem like he was... waiting. Who has time to react immediately and every time to someone's post like that? At first, I just thought maybe he had a lot of downtime, or maybe he was a big social media person too. Besides, his comments were still all the same. All harmless and nothing striking me as alarming. But of course, I was obviously naive to think that...

When I would post a picture of myself, Aaron would compliment my appearance, and even once said something about being the best looking one in the picture of me and some friends. That was about the time that I started getting the private messages from him. He would ask how my day was, what I had planned, or even questions about my daily routine. I would give some pretty normal and even vague responses, because I still didn't know him. And who asks someone their daily routine?

When he took his messages to DMs, that's when I started getting this nagging feeling so I tried to keep my responses dull and professional, hoping to not mislead anyone. But his direct messages wouldn't stop. He would start messaging every day. "Good morning Annie, how's your day going? How are you doing? Good night and sweet dreams." No matter what I said, he would constantly message stuff like this.

I should have taken a screenshot so you could see how timely they were. It was strange. But being me and not wanting to be rude, I would reply. After about the third day, it honestly got old. To ask someone day by day how they were doing was just annoying to me, and it just seemed like he was looking for a reason to message me.

So, I decided that I was not obligated to message anyone, especially someone who barely was an acquaintance, so I ignored his messages. But that seemed to bring out the side of Aaron that I wasn't aware of. When I didn't respond, he would resend the message several hours later. If I still didn't respond, he would try to tag me in the message and even had the audacity to ask why I was ignoring him.

I finally responded to him by saying that I was busy, and I didn't have time to talk. I wanted to be a lot meaner, but I hoped I wouldn't have to, and that he would either be understanding or realize that he was being a little possessive. But instead, he just said that he forgave me and then continued on to his normal messages. I once again gave short answers until he finally quit asking.

But one of the more unsettling things I experienced since meeting Aaron was two weeks ago. I had gone to a coffee shop to meet up with a male coworker. We were working on a large project for work and we wanted to collaborate on it a bit more so we could get it right in to the next day at work. Once we wrapped up there, I got in my car and noticed I had a new message from him. I ignored it so I could get home first. Once I was home, I checked the message and I had the chills.

Aaron had sent me a string of messages saying that he saw me at... name of local coffee shop. He said I looked gorgeous in the outfit that I was wearing, describing in detail what I had on. Then he also said that he wanted to sit with me and say hi, but he didn't want to interrupt my date. But there was definitely things wrong with this thought. The biggest one being that I never said anywhere online that I was going to or would be at said coffee shop. So how did he know I was there?

And he had to have been there because he described what I was wearing to a T, even down to the earrings. And the way he worded and used quotes around "date" made me think his comment was sarcastic. And then he ended his string of messages with a, "Next time, I'll just make sure to introduce myself properly, no matter who you are with." I don't know, maybe it's just me, but this message did not sit right with me.

The fact that he described what I was wearing made it seem like he was trying to prove a point. The way he seemed to mock the idea of me being on a date and mentioning a next time made it sound like a threat. These were all red flags for me, but I was somewhat honest with Aaron. I told him that I was no longer comfortable talking to him, wished him a good day, and unfriended him.

I didn't even know this person. I had no obligation to be nice to him nor leave him on my friends list, so I did what was best for me. I just hoped that he understood and maybe he would again see that that was far from okay and we could just move on. I got a follow-up message from him where he did a broken heart reaction to my message and just put, okay, and that was it until last week.

I got a new message from Aaron that included a short video that still creeps me out. It was of me walking around a local grocery store that I frequented, wearing the same outfit I wore two days prior when I had gone to said grocery store. It showed me looking at a box of macaroni, and then it moved as it followed me to the next aisle. It was maybe 20 seconds long, and there was text on it that said something like, "'I wish I could snatch you up and make you mine.'"

I know we have a connection, but I don't know how to prove it to you. And then it ended. There was no message sent with the video. I just wanted to cry when I saw it. It's something that I never would have expected to happen to me. I'm a nobody. There's nothing special about me. I'm not popular and quite average looking, but here I am now with a bonafide stalker. I don't even know what this guy looks like. He'd seen me in at least two places, but...

How many other times has he followed me? Hell, what if he approached me and talked to me as I waited in line as I filled my tank at the gas station? What if it was someone I worked with? He could approach me and I could be none the wiser. Now, I've listened to enough of these stories to know what to do. I called the police. It was late at night and I was afraid to even leave, and by the time they got there, I showed them the video and explained everything to them,

And they said that they would make a report, but since he hadn't done anything and he hasn't actually threatened me, they couldn't really do much. They did suggest a restraining order, but of course, I would need to provide at least this person's full name. All I knew is his possible first name, because that's all that was on his profile. I was angry, but I told them that I would see what I could find out.

Unfortunately, Aaron had deleted his account or blocked me. I'm not sure, but our messages were gone. Just showing something about a quote-unquote user. And that's it. The video was gone. The message about the coffee shop was gone. So I had no more proof. I feel incredibly stupid for not taking those screenshots. And I'm still angry at myself for it, but I honestly didn't expect him to delete them.

So, here I am today. No more cryptic or creepy videos from Aaron, but it's done its damage. I feel paranoid, always watching people around me, seeing if anyone is watching me or has their phone pointed at me. No luck so far, which I think has only made it worse. I don't like going places alone, but I refuse to let him control me.

I recently got myself some mace, and I did change up my routine a bit, hoping to throw him off some if he was still following me. I wanted to write this out so I have it all anyways, but I also know that you do stories like this, and maybe some may find this informative as well as entertaining. I'll let you know if I find out any more information, but I'm hoping that it was just some jealous jerk that is too much of a coward to approach me, let alone snatch me up.

thanks for listening i have a bit of a creepy internet story that i wanted to tell i've always been fairly cautious about my online presence i like to share but i don't put my stuff out as public it's friends only for the most part this was pretty much the one time that it did get creepy for me and it was probably the last time that i did any sort of posting on a public forum

I was a member of a pretty active photography forum, sharing some of my amateur photos and getting some feedback from other enthusiasts. Pretty much all of my photographs were of landscapes and public areas. I never really shared any photos of myself, and I didn't have any information on my account that could tie directly to me.

One day, a user named Adobbs left an incredibly detailed comment on one of my landscape photos. They pointed out aspects of the composition and commented on the lighting, sounding like an absolute pro, and telling me things that I hadn't considered. I was very amateur at the time, still kind of am, but I had a basic idea of what I was doing.

I was honestly flattered that someone with so much knowledge was giving me any attention. We started chatting a bit on the forums. Anytime I posted a photo, Adobbs would comment on it with minor pointers or praise for the shots. After a couple more days, Adobbs had sent me a direct message. It was polite and very direct, basically saying that they loved my photography and that I had real promise in the industry.

Their DMs were insightful, and they had never pushed to take the conversation off the site, nor were they digging into my personal life, so I didn't think much of it. They gave me a number of pointers on my photos, telling me small things I should consider changing with lining up things and so forth, and I really appreciated it. Then I did something really stupid. One evening, I had taken a close-up selfie with a camera.

It was during the sunset, and there was light coming down at the perfect angle through the window, and I was doing some experimenting with golden hour lighting. I wasn't going to post it to the forum, but after looking at it, I figured it was a close enough shot that you really couldn't make out my features, so it would be safe to post. After I posted it, I got a comment from Adobbs that kind of creeped me out.

They posted,

I told myself that I was overreacting and maybe they just had a really good monitor or something. I responded by saying, "Yeah, a bike wreck when I was a kid." Adobbs then sent me a DM again saying, "Yeah, I thought you got that when you were young. By the way, have you tried that new sandwich shop that opened up near your apartment complex? It looks pretty good." And he signed it off with a winky face.

My blood ran cold when Adob said this. I had never posted anything that would give away my location. I had never told anyone on the forum the city or even the state where I lived. I knew which sandwich shop they were talking about. It was literally right across the street from my apartment, as they had literally just finished building it as part of a strip mall area they were developing. I ended up signing out and shutting my laptop.

This had to be a coincidence, right? Maybe I had mentioned it in passing at some point? The next time I had signed on, I had another message from Adob's that kept up the creep factor. He'd sent me another DM saying, "I wasn't trying to scare you, Amanda. I'm sorry if you took my comment the wrong way." This is when I got thoroughly spooked. I had never put my name on anything. None of my pictures had any ties to me on a personal level.

I never posted them on Facebook or anything, so there was no way to do a reverse search on them. Yet, somehow, this random person on this photography forum knew my first name and exactly where I lived. I messaged him asking who the hell he was, and he replied instantly with another winking face.

I went ahead and contacted the admins on the site, sending them screenshots of the DMs, telling them that this person was pretty clearly stalking me and was using their site as their main way to get to me. The admins seemed like it was serious, but basically said that they couldn't do anything because beyond warning or banning him, he wasn't doing anything illegal.

They said they would keep a hold of the screenshots and keep the logs, just in case he did do something illegal. Yeah, that was really helpful. I ended up deactivating my account, but the damage was done. Adobes had gotten real-world information on me, and I felt seriously exposed and vulnerable. For a little while, I was a bit jumpy and didn't want to do much outside of my apartment. Now, I know that it wasn't much of an event,

But it was still terrifying to me, and I'm grateful that nothing more ever came of this. Adob's never reached out to me in any other way, and I never got any creepy, unexpected visitors. But it still does freak me out to know that I, more than likely, was in the same building or business as this guy at some point after this. There's a chance that I went to that sandwich shop that he mentioned, and that he was there. And I didn't know it, but he did.

He could have been physically stalking me for a while after and there's literally no way that I would have known. Though, I like to think that I would have noticed someone that was constantly in my background, but honestly, who knows? Hey Raven, I've enjoyed your videos for the greater part of a year now, and I finally have a story to contribute to one of your topics.

This is about an ex of mine who I've been in some rather frightening/intimidating situations with, but this is not necessarily one of those times. I was 24 when this happened. He's 9 years older than me. Definitely old enough to know better, but then again, so was I. It happened on Easter the year after we broke up. He had already had a different girlfriend for a year and she was treating him the exact same way he had been treating me.

It drove him bonkers. So, eventually he hit me back up and we were talking here and there while they were broken up. It was a decision that I regret, and thankfully a decision that I won't ever feel tempted to make again. After realizing that I was a fallback, I stopped seeking conversation with him and wouldn't take him up on his offer to see me.

Easter came, I knew he spent the holiday alone, and I knew that family-centered holidays are some of his favorites, because he's passionate about his family. So I had said Happy Easter, and when he replied to me, he was very drunk. He called me and kept trying to keep me on the phone, and I kept telling him that I couldn't talk because I was busy.

By night time he had stopped contacting me for a few hours, and then suddenly told me he wanted to see me, way more intoxicated by this time. I told him no, and he told me he was going to come to my house to see me, which I told him not to do because, well, duh. My parents know how he treated me, and he was honestly just not welcome at this house.

He told me he was on his way in an Uber and I didn't actually believe him, but eventually I got the call that he was here. I was scared because he just showed up at my parents' door at 11:00 PM and we've had physical issues in the past while he was this intoxicated. Once he saw the fear in my eyes, he tried to guilt trip me into spending time with him and he looked like a lost puppy.

Which now is laughable. But I have a tendency to fawn, and at the time I kind of fell for it. At the same time, he really was nearly 20 miles away from his place at a random small town that doesn't have a bus stop of any sort, and struggles to get Uber drivers in the middle of the day to take rides, let alone at midnight.

So, I sat with him while he tried to order an Uber and he couldn't afford one because he had spent the last of his money on an Uber to get to my place. I didn't know what to do and I needed him gone. I didn't have a car and I didn't have my license. Neither did he. I could drive, I just didn't have a license because I had rough teenage years and I just wasn't as much of a priority. After hesitating a lot,

I decided that I would borrow my mom's car to take him home. I grabbed the keys, and we left. While we were driving, he turned the radio down, and my mom's car has something wrong with the volume knob where turning it down actually turns it up unless you do it very slowly. So, it started blasting. I was already so anxious, getting distracted easily, and it was late enough at night that my ADHD meds were well worn off.

So the sudden volume increase threw me off and I jumped. I turned the radio off fast and tried to focus on the road. Luckily my ex realized the burden he had placed on me by starting all of this and he was encouraging through the whole drive. Not usual overly critical and judgmental self. We got about halfway through the drive and I realized that the gas gauge was on E.

So I told him that we needed to get to a gas station, and we found one just a few blocks ahead. As soon as it came into view, the car cut off, and I had to drift into the turning lane, and I didn't make it into the gas station parking lot. We got out, and immediately saw two men booking it to the car. Thank god they were asking us if we needed help as they ran, because that would have been a terrifying moment.

Seeing two men running towards me in the middle of the night at an empty gas station parking lot? Oof. However, if you live in a decent-sized city with a homeless problem, you'll know that homeless people do like to hang around gas stations and do favors of any sort for anyone, for the chance to score a couple dollars. Especially at night, when the only transaction can be made through a service window.

People are forced to wait in line outside, and it can be an easy way to panhandle. People already have their money out, and it's harder to lie that you don't have money. They guilt you into it, etc., etc. No shade. I do respect the hustle, to be honest. I just know that it's intentionally manipulative. So, these men help us push my mom's car into the gas station parking lot, up to a pump so I can get some gas.

They asked for some money, but of course, it's okay if I don't. They just knew that I needed help, which was true and untrue at the same time. I give them some change out of my mom's console, because the $5 in cash that I had was going into the tank. I walk to the window to pay for my gas, and accidentally pull out a single with my fiver while I waited in line.

and the guy who just helped me noticed and said something along the lines of, "You don't have to lie if you didn't want to give it." Honestly, I didn't want to hear it while I was waiting in line and pumping gas, so I said that I didn't realize I had more than a five, and that I was grateful for the help, which realistically was true. I don't know what I would have done without them there. Then I handed him the one.

After I paid and pumped, we got back on the road, and I got him back to his place. He wanted me to come in, and I told him that I couldn't, but he started getting persistent, and I was so out of energy for arguing that I just went inside for a minute. He then proceeded to try and be affectionate, but this goofy dude really looked me in the face and said the girl's name that he was crying over.

So, I laughed, pushed him off, took him up on his offer for a line. I know that wasn't a wise decision, but we all know that ADHD meds are just stimulants for a reason, and I was ready to just be out of there with any kind of compensation for my inconvenience. I then got back in the car. I was so annoyed, and after I relaxed and got my head back into the game, I started heading back to my house.

I was about a quarter of the way, and I heard a metallic clank that I thought was another vehicle that had just driven over a flat inside. Then I heard a metallic scrape following me well after the passing that car. I looked into the rear view and saw a couple of sparks from the back of my mom's car and freaked out immediately, and pulled over into a parking lot. An auto parts shop, funnily enough.

I got out and got to the back of the car and saw that I had dropped the whole muffler's tailpipe. It had been held on by some wire at the time, already needing to be fixed, and now it was just hanging from the back of the car, scraping along the road as I drove. So, I sat down and honestly just cried a little. I realized that there would be no way that I could keep it from my mom that I had used her car without her permission.

to take my ridiculous ex all the way across town because he showed up at our door drunk, expecting me to be happy to see his abusive ass. Once I finished crying, I took the tailpipe the rest of the way off, threw it in the back and texted my mom what had happened. Then I finished my late night's joyride, heavy on the sarcasm.

I put a few more dollars of gas in the tank at a different gas station, grabbed a snack and made it home with a loud ass muffler. To top it off, my vape died as I got home. In the morning I had to tell my mom what happened, and despite being stressed and ashamed of the whole occurrence,

We did have a good laugh about how ridiculous every step of this event was. We still laugh about it sometimes, and joke about how it would make a funny adventure movie, like Are We There Yet?, where he keeps running into obstacles driving cross-country and rolls up in the frame of his Lincoln Navigator. But writing it all out like this has definitely made me stressed enough to want to smoke, and I quit vaping or smoking everything over half a year ago.

This all goes to show that God had me protected that night, because it all could have gone so much worse at any and every point, but I just barely scraped by. Literally. Thanks for reading my story. Sorry if it's not written well. This was a somewhat traumatic event that I had to write in a couple of different sessions. I hope that this can be a lesson for someone to just... block him. I promise. No one is worth that much stress.

Hello all. I recently made a post of an experience I had in Astral Projection, which I'll link here. I haven't written any real experiences besides that one, and after the feedback I received from it, it encouraged me to be open about other real-world situations that have happened to me. I tend to stay away from relating these kinds of experiences because they aren't very measurable in our current understanding of the world.

I shy away from relating these experiences for a fear of what people may think. After posting to Astral Projection, though, I've felt a sense of relief in doing so and the community has been very kind and resourceful. To give background on paranormal experiences in my life, there have been a handful of instances that have happened to me that will forever stick with me. I do feel I have an innate connection to otherworldly phenomena.

I don't say this to sound arrogant or pompous, I say this to reveal that I consider myself open to things beyond our realm of understanding, and that by being open to it, experiences are able to manifest. While previous experiences had happened before this specific one, this one in particular had me shook. I've thought about keeping specific details a little under wraps.

I don't know if it's right that I speak about things that make people want to check it out, or inquire with the property that could be tied back to me and would give them a headache. I'm not saying anyone would do this. I just would like to keep my relationship in good standing. This is also in part because it is tied to my career. I will do my best to give as much detail as possible without compromising this. It was December in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2018 on the verge of 2019.

During this time period, I was contracting at a particular place that necessitated staying a year in Cincinnati. I was living at a spot on Mount Adams. Cincinnati was an absolutely gorgeous city. I truly loved it there. It had a small city feel with a very nice community of people that were passionate about the city. For me, it felt like so much energy had been around a long time. Long before our current society exists there today.

I say this to let people know that there was something about Cincinnati that, for the first time in my life, had given me the most paranormal experiences I have ever had from living anywhere else. I've lived in Texas, Chicago, New York City, Indiana. To be honest, all of these places I have lived haven't offered me paranormal experiences in the way that visiting a couple of other places have.

The first experience I had was at someone's home in New Jersey, and another experience in a condo in Sarasota. Around 9:00 PM, I arrived at a coworker's spot, which was also located on Mount Adams, in a different location. It was a holiday party where a group of us gathered. It was an apartment complex, and their unit was located on the top third floor of a building.

I looked into the building recently, through the city's tax records, and the report gives the insight that it was built in the 1920s. The internals of the building that I saw heading up to their unit reflected renovations that probably occurred in the 70s or 80s. Rundown carpet lined the hallways and stairs. Doors had been replaced with cheap orange-colored laminate oak siding. Bannisters had been repainted to match the doors.

and some of the building had left art deco wood engravings from the time it was built in corners that lived on. The interior of the unit had been the most renovated, with hardwood flooring, updated kitchen appliances, lighting, electrical sockets, etc. As soon as you walked into the unit, a large living room opened up with a window to the left that viewed the street.

To the right you could see an entryway that led into the kitchen, a small hallway to the left of the kitchen that led to the bathroom and eventually the bedroom. About ten people in total showed up to this holiday party, and it never felt overly cramped. It was probably around 800 square feet the units sat around. As time moved on we found ourselves in different locations of the units to interact with people. I eventually made it into the kitchen and sat at a table and had a conversation with someone.

It felt damp in there. Something was off about it. And the longer I sat there, the more I began to wonder what it was about this kitchen that was so odd. My eyes wandered around until they eventually landed on a dark door that had a curtain over a glass window on the edge of the room. The hostess came into the kitchen and I said to her, "I've been staring at that door. Where the hell does that go?"

She replied along the lines of, ''It leads down into the basement.'' I stood up and walked over to it, and in the process she said something to the effect of, ''But don't go out there. We don't use that door. The people who own the building told us not to use it because it leads to a stairwell they haven't updated, and it could be unsafe.'' I said, ''Well, what's in the basement?'' She said, ''There's a laundry room down there, but I never use it. I go to the laundromat.''

"If you want to go down to the basement, you can go out the front door and it'll lead you down there too." I wasn't going to let this fly. Anytime I'm put in a position where I'm beholden to someone else telling me what to do, I feel compelled to defy what I interpret as a power trip. I also had a couple of beers in me. "Nah, come on." I responded and made a move to unlock the door. As I was doing this, there was a girl who shared the same curious personality as mine in the living room.

I let her know from the kitchen, "Hey Rachel, check this out, there's a weird door in the kitchen that goes to the basement." She walked in and it was game on. The hostess responded, "If anything happens to you going down that stairwell, it is not my fault." I turned the knob and slowly opened the door. It was clear that it hadn't been used in a long time. Paint from the door peeled itself off the weather insulation and popped open.

I looked out before I physically made any moves to check the structural integrity of the wooden staircase and the surrounding area. It was dark in there. I opened up the flashlight on my phone and looked around. Old, grey, stained wood was what the entirety of this stairwell was made of. Brick lined the walls. And as far as the degradation of the wood staircase structure, I didn't see anything to cause extreme caution. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have continued.

The wood felt fairly sturdy. We entered slowly and started a slow, precautious descent down the flight of stairs. After about six steps, you would hit a landing, turn the corner and visually could see the next six stairs to the next landing. Upon reaching the first floor, the wooden staircase structure ended and a concrete staircase structure began in a straight line. At the end of the concrete staircase was a rickety white door not fully closed.

I remember feeling a surge of energy hitting me and looking at Rachel. We exchanged intuitive knowledge of what the other one was thinking without any words. We made it down the steps to the door and slowly pushed it open. The open room was dimly lit by a single lightbulb, uninhabited by any shade covering. It hung by an extension cord from the ceiling with an operative on-off by means of a beaded metal pull cord.

Indeed, this was the laundry room as a side-by-side washer-dryer sat next to each other on the right side of the room. Small slits of a window that led out to the street side of the building about a foot above my head lived above the washer and dryer. A small round table and a chair on top of a ragged old outdoor carpet lived in front of the washer and dryer just off-center of the above lightbulb.

From a distance, I noticed a pad of paper lightly sprinkled with dirt and dust on the table and a worn-down classic sharpening pencil next to it. We approached the table, and I looked at the pad of paper. I reached down and picked it up, and I pulled it closer to my eyes. The only faint words written on this pad of paper and pencil was the sentence, "'Don't look behind you,' written in all lowercase and seemingly dulled from the amount of time it had been down there."

My initial reaction was along the lines of "That's funny." I would do the same thing to put people on edge in a place like this. I showed Rachel and she likewise laughed it off, but we both instinctually looked around us, and behind us. We knew that there was more to this area than the eye could see, but we didn't have a clue as to how big. Above us, we noticed fluorescent bulbs in a track that followed each other and eventually disappeared off into the darkness.

We searched the room and found a light switch next to another staircase, the one residents actually used. We turned it to the on position and one by one these fluorescent bulbs lit up in succession, turning the darkness into view. What resulted was the fullness of the laundry room, a long corridor at the end of the laundry room that led to an opening up to another room the same size as this room at the end of the corridor, all in a straight line.

The best way I can describe this from an overhead view is the shape of a dumbbell on a floor-plan map. In total, I would say from the far end of the laundry room to the far end of the other room was about 50 yards in length. I looked at her, she looked at me, and we knew what we had to do. She grabbed my arm and interlaced hers and mine. We began to slow and, in tandem, pace past the edge of the laundry room and into the narrower corridor.

There were wooden structures that had been built that worked as private storage areas for residents on either side, and lined this hallway and created this shape. They were probably 5x5 units, and each side had around 7 or 8 units. The doors on them varied from solid pieces of wood to metal chain link. Some had cheap metal locking mechanisms that utilized padlocks for security, and some weren't in use.

We darted our eyes into the chain-link units and saw baskets filled with old clothes, rolled carpets, cardboard boxes. Besides the eeriness of the corridor and the setting, nothing about these storage units took our attention for more than a few seconds. We made it to the other end of this portion of the corridor. The room now opened up as it was in the laundry room.

At the very opposite end of the room from where we now stood was a relatively new built standalone wooden storage locker. It lacked a padlock. I say newly built because the wood didn't look as aged. It looked fresher than anything through the corridor. Off to the right side of the room was another room. It was about ten foot by ten foot and lacked a door. We both looked at each other, and we walked over. I could feel the tension in her start to stiffen on my arm.

We got to the edge of the room and stood underneath the doorway. I felt an immediate drop in temperature. My initial instinct about this drop in temperature was something wasn't right in this room, but I quickly shook it off and logically told myself in my head that it was just old and lacked insulation. The room reflected it because it was all concrete walls and had the same above-ahead windows. The floor was littered with junk.

We couldn't even walk into it without fear of a rusty nail. Wood scraps, a broken toilet, half-built or half-destroyed wooden furniture structures, a lone ratty old baseball hat sat on top of the left window seal. It was blue and orange and was of the NY Mets. Rachel leaned into me and said, ''It just got colder.'' It felt like that was enough for both her and I. We had done our exploration.''

We began making our way over to the corridor in pursuit of making it back to the unit. By this time, a couple of other people had made their way into the laundry room at the far end and stood there calling out our name. We responded that we were coming back. I don't know what it was, but my intuition told me that we were not done here. I stopped walking while simultaneously gripping her arm a little tighter. I said, "'Wait.' I turned around, moving her in tow."

I locked eyes on the stand-alone wooden storage structure on the opposite end of the room from where we stood at the corridor. Again, we both looked at each other and intuitively knew. We began a slow, laborious walk over to this structure. Something was off-putting about this basement, and inherently we knew it. Inch by inch, I could feel her start to tense, and I recognized the same in myself by making me self-aware.

At about four feet away, the tension was palpable both physically and mentally. I very slowly started to reach my free arm forward. I was aiming for the door handle. My heart was racing and she was trembling. The vastness of this wooden structure started to overwhelm my peripheral vision. My hand made it onto the frame. I got to around five inches of this door handle with my hand. Bang. Bang. Bang.

The reverberation from the physical impact shook the entire structure rippling the wood. The sound waves coming from the impact shook me to my core. Instinct took over, and I took off as fast as our body would carry us down the corridor to the laundry room. The people in the laundry room screamed and took off up the concrete staircase in pursuit of the unit. There was absolutely no time to look back at what had just happened before we reached the laundry room.

Once we did, in a panic, I spun around to look back and see what had unfolded since the sprint back. Silence. The door still stood in the same position. From this vantage point, the structure looked menacing in narrow view down the long corridor, lit under the fluorescent lighting. Before Rachel made it to the concrete staircase, I yelled, "'Wait!' I turned to look at her briefly. She looked at me aghast like I was out of my mind."

I swiveled back to the structure. "'Who's down there?' I yelled at it. At this point, the only logical thing that could come to my mind was that someone from the party knew we were down here, and in order to get their rocks off, decided it would be funny to enter that structure from a different entry point to the basement and wait for us to check it out. There was no response. I yelled out, "'I know you're messing with us.' "'Nothing.' Rachel said emphatically, "'No one's down there. Let's go.'

"Seriously?" I responded. "We have to go back down there." It took a moment. No other words were exchanged, just the silence of this basement. She agreed. She didn't need convincing and I wasn't about to lay that on someone. Before the journey back, we yelled up the staircase to one of the people that was in the laundry room to please come down to watch us from there. She hesitantly agreed and came down, still convinced someone from the party was in that wooden structure

I began walking with more certainty and less hesitancy. I reached the end of the corridor, all of my physical senses now on the absolute brink. The only thing that stood between me and that door now was my own courage, or lack thereof. I reached a tipping point and stopped, stared at it, all the while waiting for Rachel to get closer to me. Tension was again palpable. I jutted my arm out quickly and without thought, thought would only slow me down.

I yanked the door open and jumped back as far as possible. Nothing. Not a single physical object was behind that door. The only thing there was the back concrete wall that the wooden structure butt up against. There was absolutely no way in or out of this thing from any other way but through this door. The only other thing was a drain that you would find in a shower, that had a metal plate over it with small holes in a pattern throughout, laid in the floor.

I looked at Rachel. She looked at me. We both went pale white. I turned to look back into the wooden structure and was absolutely dumbfounded, shocked, and lacking words. ''What's in it?'' yelled the person down the hall from the laundry room. Rachel and I both turned to look and replied at the exact same time. ''Nothing.'' I looked back and made sure of it. ''Nothing.'' I looked around this room.

There was absolutely no way someone could have made it into this room besides the laundry room area that we came in from the concrete staircase, or the staircase the complex deemed safe to come down. We slowly inched backwards, hitting the passage through the corridor, turned around, and worriedly made it back to the unit, all the while looking behind us. And that's one of the most insane things that has ever happened to me in this paranormal world.

that I will never be able to explain on this physical plane of existence. Before I wrote this, I texted Rachel about this, as I have many times in the past, to confirm this actually happened, that there was no way in which she banged on the door without me seeing it. Her response has always been the same. I can 100% say that all this did happen, and it was not me. Hey Raven.

I heard the recent co-worker stories, and one of them reminded me of a guy that I worked with a long time ago, and his unfortunate and tragic fate. Upfront trigger warning, and there's no easy way to say it. And I understand if you don't use it because of this, but it involves the tragic deaths of two children. So, to my listeners, this is your trigger warning for this story. This does contain some very deep subject matter.

As I said in my comment, the story is way worse than it already sounded. So, in the TARDIS, we go back to 2008 to lay out some background. In 2008, I was working in a call center here in my city. It wasn't super big back then, but we ran three campaigns out of there when I first started. I worked on the Frontier campaign during phone and internet predominantly on the East Coast.

We also did a Wells Fargo campaign, well, until the big Wells Fargo scandal broke. But the Wells Fargo was run by the manager that Will called Dale. He was an older fellow, very prim and professional, but approachable. When Wells Fargo stopped running with us, their whole team was absorbed by the Frontier campaign, and Dale got promoted to the front office. I worked there about a year, and I left for what seemed a better opportunity, and that didn't pan out.

and I got a different job for a while when one day, out of the blue, Dale calls me and convinces me to come back. After that, he and I were pretty tight for the next year until I left for good. My cousin had also worked at the same place for quite a while after I left, and one day, about two years after I had left, he and I were hanging out, smoking, and playing video games, when out of the nowhere he was like, "'So did you hear about Dale?'

I told him no and asked what he was talking about. He pulls out his laptop and shows me a news story that left me pretty stunned. So, Dale and his wife had split up, and it was a messy divorce-slash-custody situation, with her threatening to keep his kids from him altogether. Well, one weekend during a court-sanctioned visitation, where his two sons got to spend a weekend with him, things really spiraled.

when his soon-to-be ex came to pick up the boys. The prospect of losing his whole family had made him snap, and it turned into a hostage situation that went on for several hours. The police forced entry when they had heard a single gunshot, and what they found was tragic. Both boys had been dead long before the mom showed up, single gunshot to each as they slept.

The single gunshot they had responded to was Dale turning the weapon on himself. I would have never have pegged him as that type of guy, but when you get into those intimate family matters, I guess anyone can be pushed past their limits to do unspeakable and unforgivable things like this. DTA and CYOA. Don't trust anyone, and cover your own ass. Much love, Raven. Hi.

I, 22, female, have always been really sensitive to the paranormal. I grew up in a house that was very active. My siblings and I loved the paranormal and loved to go ghost investigating, or just go to abandoned buildings to explore, and we never really had big experiences until after the old rec center.

I was having issues with my mom at home. We weren't getting along and it was starting to get physical, so I moved in with my older sister for a few months. And during this time, my whole life and relationship to the paranormal has changed and is definitely stronger. My older sister, let's call her A, she wanted to do a creepy photo shoot at an abandoned rec center. I think it was built in the 70s but got shut down for unknown reasons.

We went and bought some white dresses and did my makeup like dark rings under my eyes, but anyway. We made it to the rec center and we had to go through a fence with a hole cut through it and find a door or window that wasn't boarded up or locked with metal bars. We finally found a broken door and snuck our way inside. We turned our phone flashlights on and started exploring to find a good place to take creepy pictures.

As soon as we walked in, the air felt heavy, and I felt a lot of dread. But I just put it off because we needed these pictures. We ventured in, climbing over years of garbage and crumbled ceiling that had fallen. We stopped to put our stuff down so I would pose in a doorway to a hallway when my foot slipped, and I fell. I was dumb because I was wearing sandals, not real shoes, and because it would be easier to photoshop out than a whole shoe.

but I looked on the ground to see what I had slipped on, and lucky me, it was a piece of Ouija board. The only word on it was no. The sides were burned. I started giggling in a panic and told A. She walked over and her face dropped. She grabbed my hand and we walked to a different spot. We went around taking pictures in different spots, like the old pool that was on the top floor, and very hard to climb to.

We made it to a staircase that was cleared out, like it was dirty or covered in trees or anything, which was kind of unsettling for some reason. I stood at the top, and I went to go on all fours so it looked like I was crawling up the stairs I guess. I was doing it right because A started laughing in excitement and told me to stop because I was actually scaring her. It was so good, and then I heard someone whisper my name from under me on the staircase.

I panicked and jumped towards A, and I told her that I heard someone whisper my name. She told me to shut up because I was scaring her, and she asked if I wanted to go down there to the basement, all the way to the bottom of the four-floor rec center. By the way, the whole layout of this rec center was really strange. Like, the pool was on the top floor, and there was a look down to the hot tops right below the pool, but the thing is, it was like a cliff.

Like, there was no glass and no place to put glass, so it was a little strange. And the supposed to be hot tubs were two floors below the pool. And there was three of them, like right next to each other. And when we adventured down there later on in the night, we found three weird rooms under the pool. They had the plastic strips on it, kind of like a walk-in fridge or freezer or a meat locker. And it was just a plain concrete room.

There was nothing else in there. We thought maybe it was a sauna, but there was no place for the steam to come out or to go. Anyway, sorry. I told A that I didn't want to go to the basement, because I had a really bad feeling. She agreed and we grabbed our stuff, and started to head out of the building when my dress got caught on something, so it pulled me back. I cursed, looked down, and I could see the skirt to my dress being pulled back. I wasn't by anything for it to get stuck on something.

I started waving my hand around it, thinking maybe a thread got stuck on something, but no, it wasn't. I started screaming and ran out. A was right behind me. We went home, looked at our cool pictures, which I'm still proud of, and a few hours later, A came up to me smiling and said that she wanted to go back tonight and explore the other half. I knew that she meant the rec center. I was nervous, but I said, "Sure."

and told her that I'm going to shower and get the makeup off. And when I was showering, the curtain had gotten pulled to the side like something was peeking at me. I laughed in nervousness and thought that it was just A picking on me, trying to scare me, but I washed the soap out of my hair when the curtain was pushed all the way. I screamed and started yelling. A came in running and asked what had happened, so I told her.

We were kind of freaked out, but we pushed it aside, saying that maybe the wind blew it open. Later that night, we picked up my little sister V, and A's best friend L. We brought flashlights this time, and when we were adventuring around, we went to the gym, and there was a huge pentagram burned into the floor. We walked around it to a door on the other side of the gym, and these rooms were weird, and we couldn't figure out what these rooms were used for.

They were thick concrete rooms with the ceiling so far up that I couldn't see it, but the door was a small passage. Not even three feet tall. I had to crawl on my hands and knees to even get into the rooms. I looked around the room to make sure it was clear so V could join me, and I noticed there was no other way into this room. So I told the others. And I told them that something felt off about this place and these rooms.

When I said that, I heard something in the corner shuffle, like moving around. I hurried and flashed my light to the corner when I saw an old lady curled up. I gasped, panicked, and hurried and crawled out of there. I could hear her crawling behind me. I didn't want to scare V, so I didn't scream. I just looked at A and L and said, ''Someone was in there, dude.'' They hurried and bent down to look, and of course no one was in there.

We were kind of scared, but we kept on going because we were stupid. Eventually, we found a staircase that led outside and downstairs, and when we were walking on the stairs, I felt a lot of comfort, like a huge hug. I was really confused, of course, but I wasn't going to complain. It was comforting after all. Once we made it to the basement, the whole vibe was super dark and heavy, and everything was burned from an old fire that almost destroyed the building.

We kept walking and found the old laundry room. There was a mattress in there and a suitcase that had clothes in it, and a blanket. We were scared that someone was sleeping, and we didn't want them to get scared and try to protect themselves, so we called out just saying that we were sorry to intrude, and that we were just adventuring, but that we would leave them alone. No answer. So we kept walking. I was in the very back of the group, and I heard someone behind me whisper...

It's okay, Wit. I had Ellen asked if she heard that, but no one did. I kept hearing footsteps and whispers. When we made it to the main location of the fire, and we found small pentagrams carved into the wood down there, but the weird thing is that they were the only things that were not touched by the fire, which is impossible, because everything was pitch black burned. I had a strong feeling to touch one.

And before I knew it, my hand floated up to the little star and my finger traced the grooves. And let me tell you, as soon as I did that, I didn't remember anything else. I came back too when we were in the car to leave. After this night, my whole family has been affected by whatever followed me home. My best friend at the time was also affected. Like, not just paranormal stuff, like mental stuff. Our thoughts were super dark.

One time when my friend was asleep, she woke up on her mom's floor, and her mom was restraining her. My friend came into her mom's room at 4 in the morning with a huge kitchen knife, and tried to stab her own mother. I will admit that I almost took my own life, and my brother's. I would look at him and get so mad. I didn't understand why, but one day he was sleeping on the couch with his baby girl, and I found myself grabbing a pillow,

and I was putting it on his face. He's a really deep sleeper, and he didn't wake up. What snapped me out of this was my baby niece crying. I picked her up and went outside to clear my head, when I felt a warm, comforting hand on my shoulder. I've done a lot of investigating and found out that this warm entity came from the rec center, and he also followed me home to protect me. I still have him here over six years later.

Anyway, I tried to figure out his name with spirit boxes and stuff like that, but he doesn't know his name. But he does know that he did pass at the rec center. So I googled any deaths at this rec center, and sure enough, I found a teen that was running on the roof with his friends having fun. He didn't see the end of the building and fell off and passed away. They didn't mention his name because he was a minor, but I call him my buddy, and he's my guardian angel.

He helped me fight off this really dark entity, but it's way too long of a story and I just wanted to tell this part because it was creepy and unbelievable. Most of the time I still doubt myself that it was real. Thank you Raven for reading my story, I appreciate you. And remember everyone, you matter and you have a purpose here. Like most people, I have social media accounts.

One that I used to be active on was Twitter, or I guess X as it's now called. I'm not going to say what my account was. I had a small cake baking business based in my local hometown where I would bake cakes and other pastries. So I would post pictures of the food, baking process, and any smaller challenges to bring attention to the business. A friend recommended it to me as a way to get some business rolling in.

It got some, but most customers tended to come from Instagram or Facebook. Previously, I only ever used social media for family and friends as I valued my privacy. I don't like how society has changed things up, but you need to adapt. Using social media has also helped bring influencers to the store too, which is its own story, but not the one I'm telling here. Anyway, back on topic.

I made several international friends, and we would share about our days and lives. There was a group chat with other bakers, and it was nice to get to know people. I made a post about learning how to decorate cakes because I wanted to expand the business, when I got a reply from someone who was eager to talk to me about it, a little too eager looking back. He told me his real name was Steven and that I could contact him anytime if I needed to talk.

that he was always there for me. I thanked him once I worked out where he lived. I only tried to message him through reasonable hours. Every time I sent a message, I noticed that he would reply back almost immediately. I thought that that was strange considering he said he was married and had a family.

I quickly noticed that the conversations were increasingly less about baking and cakes, and more about my personal life. My hobbies, what I like to do, and this doesn't necessarily bother me. He would always compliment me, even for the most trivial things, and he would tell me how talented and beautiful I was. I would thank him for the compliment, but I wouldn't reciprocate.

I'd always be polite and friendly because it was my business, and I wanted to give a good impression. Word of mouth is a powerful tool. Until the questioning took on a more... lustful? Or intimate line of questioning. Example, what size bra do I wear? Or you would estimate for my cup size. I posted pictures of me baking so you could see my hands, arms, and chest.

Not that it matters, but my shirt wasn't tight, nor did I show any cleavage. It has never been a problem before with him. In fact, when another guy made rude comments, he'd actually come to my defense. Maybe he felt like I owed him something? I told him that it wasn't okay to ask me those kinds of questions. He apologized, and I didn't want to contact him. I still spoke to him some, but it was brief and didn't have the same familiarity as before.

But he apologized sincerely, and he promised not to do it again, telling me that he had seen the errors of his ways. Since it was a professional account, I didn't want to fight with people, and I've never really been good with conflict. About a week later, he sent me pictures of his genitals, and that was the final straw for me. I told him no. I blocked him and told other mutual friends about what had happened.

I then heard that he was on his profile telling people that I was trying to seduce him, and that he had kept telling me no. I noticed some of our mutual friends were going between us both, which was disappointing. It didn't remain online. My business emails started blowing up, as did my phone number with abusive calls. I debated calling the police because I figured it would die down soon enough.

I noticed my account started to be followed by new accounts that would then harass me. He emailed me repeatedly, begging me to forgive him and telling me how horrible I was. Didn't I care how he had felt? I had to threaten him with legal action for him to stop. It then died down. I did notice a few suspicious accounts following me, but they haven't said anything to me yet. After a while, they unfollowed me and must have moved on.

I have to admit that I check out every new account that follows me, just in case. I still sometimes post and promote on social media to generate interest in my business, as I won't let some weirdo try to stop me from doing what I love. And thankfully, he hasn't spoken to me since. I was a security officer at a university. I'm a 5'5 female.

I had an administration building to lock up and walk through, and I kept getting a feeling of someone beside myself being inside for several nights. And I walked the length of the hallway, and as I passed each classroom, I peered in and then closed the door. I saw one already closed and dark and entered, triggering their motion light. I wasn't expecting to see a guy seated there at a laptop.

I asked why he was there, and he gave me some BS about someone knowing all about his insomnia and allowing him to be there. I worried that he couldn't have even been a student there at all. Plus, I considered that it was just him and me there now, and that the door was locked. I couldn't seem to reason with him to vacate. I had no one else working that night. It seems regardless of the type of work, if you're dependable, you're often alone, and understaffing can be the norm.

I wrote up the report and didn't challenge him, because my guts told me not to. The next night when I worked, the supervisor told me he checked out that same room that I'd noted to find the guy doing something inappropriate to himself in that dark classroom, looking at adult content on his laptop. The supervisor had retired from the military and then retired from a police force, and was now second in command at the university with a wealth of experience.

I was really glad that he had been the one to encounter him that night and not me, because it could have been a really dangerous situation had he transformed his fantasy into a reality and dragged me into his fantasy. Meter readers for gas and electric check neighborhood house meters monthly and then move on to the next house with no time to spare.

One day I felt someone looking at me and looked out the kitchen window to see a guy who didn't look professional at all standing right in my yard looking past me into our sunroom. No one was inside it and there were no real items of interest either. I finally realized that it was a meter man but I wondered why he was gawking. Another time he didn't see me again observing him

He stood maybe seven minutes staring into that sunroom, and then he finally moved on to the next door lot where he walked high upon a hill on the side of their property where they didn't have their meter and continued to gaze at our sunroom. This gave me the total creeps. I have always seen things around that may be ghosts or spirits, usually cats, for example.

I'll call my three cats in for dinner and see a fourth cat come in with them who quickly vanishes. Or I'll see one sleeping in the room near me, and look to see who it is, and there's no cat there. There's phantom meowing, etc. And I seem to see shadows out of the corner of my eye more than other people do, and hear my name being called frequently when no one is there. But I never thought it was definitely paranormal until we moved here.

About a year and a half ago, and my mom started experiencing things too. We both hear heavy footsteps throughout the house. The back door slamming shut when it was closed and locked with no one in the room. My four-year-old brother's toys going off in the middle of the night, and random crashing and slamming noises. One day, I was walking past the bathroom and heard my brother whispering, "'Gotta hide. Gotta hide." And moving things around."

So, assuming he was getting into something, I turned on the light and he wasn't there. I looked behind the door and under the sink and no one was in there. Then I heard his laugh outside in the front yard and I got a weird sick feeling. It was as though something was imitating his voice in the bathroom. Several times I've heard him running through the living room and crying and run in to comfort him but he's not there.

The other day I saw him reaching up to grab the hot pan off the stove, and I rushed in yelling for him to get away from the stove, only to hear him laughing behind me. I turned to see him sitting in the chair in the living room. Another time I heard my cat meowing at the back door in the laundry room, and as I went to let him in, I heard the door slam, like usual, and saw a tall woman in pajamas run across the doorway and into the corner of the room.

I ignored it, and went to open the door for the cat, and out of the corner of my eye I could see the woman pressing herself into the corner, like she was trying to stay out of my way in the small space. The other day, my mom picked me up from work and we were rounding the corner to our house. My mom saw a little kid in our yard. I didn't see them, but I looked around to be sure and there was no one.

But as I was walking up the steps to the front porch, I felt a child's hand grab my leg. I turned around thinking my brother wanted me to hold his hand up the stairs and saw him playing on the opposite side of the yard. No one was near me. Now, the story that made me want to submit this happened last night. I was in my room with my cat, Pumpkin, and we heard my brother's barnhouse toy going off in the living room.

Usually it does three animal sounds, about three seconds apart, and then a ten second song. This time I heard the sheep sound, off in the living room as usual, and then a few seconds later the cow noise coming from under my bed. Pumpkin and I both jerked our heads to the foot of the bed in confusion, and then the rooster goes off, still under my bed. We stare at each other in disbelief. As the song started playing, still under the bed,

Pumpkin's ears flicked back and forth as though she could not comprehend what was happening, and she glanced from me to the bed, to the door leading to the living room, as I rushed to the foot of the bed and started looking for the toy barn. I moved the cat beds, moved my bed away from the wall, lifted the box spring. It wasn't there, and there was nowhere that it could fit inside of my room where I couldn't be able to see it.

As the song stopped, I looked back at Pumpkin and she was still glancing around the room. I went to pat her back and tell her it was okay, and I heard the animal noises start up again in the living room. I looked out my door. The barn was sitting in the middle of the floor, where it had been all day. Usually, I would just brush it off, but since my mom started hearing things, I've been paying more attention.

And now my cats are reacting to it, so I can't just deny that it's happening anymore. We are planning to move soon to be closer to the rest of our family, so hopefully whatever lives here leaves my cats alone until then. Sorry if this isn't a super interesting story, but thank you for reading anyway. And if you choose to use it for a video, thank you for that too. I really love your videos, and I listen to them while I draw and do chores and stuff. Thank you for your awesome content."

Thank you for submitting the story. My sister purchased a home built in 1923. I automatically loved the little two-bedroom stucco home. It had a full creepy basement, including a coal bin for the furnace that had been updated to steam heat. It had a fireplace and built-in bookcases, a tiny door in the hallway near the bathroom and bedrooms that was made specifically for an old candlestick telephone, and a little

and a little door kept it out of view with small decorative cut holes so you would hear it when it rang. Then you would place it in the nook to talk above it. I don't even know why I said it to this day, but I told my sister that I always felt her large living room and dining room felt... happy. She asked what I meant, and finally, I just envisioned that, at some point, the rooms had a group of happy friends in it talking.

Maybe playing cards or some sort of a club. Lots of laughing and talking. I had spent the night with her often since my university was way closer than where I lived, and we could talk or go eat that way and I could crash there. One day, a girl I had a class with asked if there was any way I could take her home. I inquired where she lived, only to find that it was a hop, skip, and a jump from my sister's house, so I told her this.

Going there, she said she'd known a lady who lived on that street. The more specifics we talked about, the more I realized it was the same house. So I drove right past it, and she pointed to her house, saying that either an aunt or grandmother had once lived there. She said that she had a card club that met all the time, and many happy memories were made there. I felt like saying I had seen and heard them in my mind's eye, but it would have sounded weird.

I don't care about that anymore, so I'm telling you all. It was like some energy of them was still in the home, and it was always warm and fun, but yet the basement was creepy. One odd thing did happen there, and I figure it was a ghost or a demon voice trying to scare me, and oh yeah, it did. My sister was a nurse and was working second shift. I had a key and stayed overnight a lot, as I said.

So sometimes I would make a run for some food at a nearby Taco Bell for a taco salad that I'd be craving. My sister's cat Sheba had to be the prettiest and sweetest cat in the world. She was a Norwegian forest cat with gold eyes and a striped mackerel silver coat. She was so sociable and sweet. And I talked to her and said, I'm going just down the street to the Taco Bell to the drive-thru to get a salad and I'll be right back.

I was right at that back door where I parked nearby, keys in hand, and Sheba was right by the door. She turned her face up to me, and in a sweet little voice, I heard, ''Okay?'' I couldn't move out of fear and disbelief. Then I closed and locked the door, gunned to my car out of there, and got my food and feared going back. I was petrified. It can't be the cat. A ghost? Worse, some kind of demon? No.

I'm one of those annoying people that are all about the spring and summer months.

I like to get out and go for walks, work on the yard and just spend all the time I can outside in nature. So the minute that it starts to get warmer outside, I break out my walking shoes and workout clothes. And I set time aside every single night for a walk. Most of the time I just like to walk around my neighborhood, but I also get those nights where I just need to get out and walk around in a place that isn't quite so familiar.

That said, I have a story about something that happened last year that I felt I should share, because it scared the hell out of me. Some people say there wasn't much that happened, but to me it was horrifying, and I think others that read this that have been in similar situations would agree to how terrifying it was. So, to start out this whole thing, the night that this happened, I decided I wanted to go walking around a nearby pond-slash-park.

It's a park that was built around a decent sized pond. It has a good sized walking path and it's incredibly calming. I like to walk it a couple of times to get two or three miles out of it. Most of the time when I go in the evenings it's not heavily occupied, and it was pretty much the same on this night. Though there were a few cars in the parking lot. I guess another important point is that the parking lot is near the start of the loop.

and there are some lights around it, so it's not like it's too creepy to be in at night. At this point, I was almost done with my first lap of the loop, which meant I was coming up on the parking lot. As I was about to pass it, I noticed an older beat-up pickup truck pull in and park in a spot near the entrance of the lot. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but I noted it because it was pretty rough. It stood out more than anything because of how battered it was.

I walked past the parking lot as I normally would, when I saw the doors open to the truck as I passed it. At the time, I didn't think it was too far-fetched. They were getting out, and the timing was just perfect for me to pass as they exited. The door squeaking open did catch my attention, and I glanced over to see the two guys getting out of the truck, both wearing fairly practical street clothing, dark shirts and jeans.

When they looked at me and I accidentally made eye contact, one of them lifted a hand in a friendly wave. I reciprocated because why not, and that was that. After a few moments of me walking past the lot, I heard them talking and getting on the path, and while I couldn't quite make out what they were saying, I did hear one part of it specifically that made me stiffen a bit. One of the men said, "'I don't know, dude. I bet she could take you.'"

Now, again, this could have been nothing at the time. Just two guys ogling and fantasizing to each other about a passing woman, which is creepy, yes, but also not uncommon. I tried to ignore it and just picked up my pace a slight bit, thinking I could put the distance between us and that would be enough. This is where things got scary for me. As I sped up, I had managed to step on something on the trail.

I don't know if it was a rock or a walnut or something like that, but it was hard and it made me stumble. I didn't fall or anything, but I stumbled and had to catch myself. As soon as this happened, I heard the same guy from earlier say, "Yo, now's your chance. I bet you could grab her," followed by the sound of someone starting to jog on the trail. Obviously, I looked back to see one of the men starting to run in my direction, which made me realize that the comment wasn't a joke.

This guy's intent was to grab me, as in take me. I immediately took off into a full sprint. I had one thing going in my favor in this case. I was wearing clothes made for running, and he was wearing blue jeans, which definitely made him slower. I kept up my fastest pace possible, glancing back to see if he was still chasing, which he had been. After running on the trail, I got to a part of the park where it veers off in two directions.

One way was the rest of the running path, and the other was a children's playground area. I was thankfully far enough away that I was able to turn around toward the playground and try to throw them off. I don't know why that was my decision, but it was what my brain told me to do. I ran towards the playground, climbed up the steps to the higher part where one of those tube slides are, and I crouched down waiting for them to pass.

I stayed there for several moments just steadying my breath and pushing away the adrenaline so that I could hear what was going on. Eventually, I heard the thumping steps on the path, followed by a man breathing heavily, and then a second set of steps followed by the other man laughing. He joked about how I was fast, and then made another comment that freaked me out.

Man, if you want to bag one, you gotta choose one that's slower than you. You can't go for the fitness chicks. They always get away. That sentence was horrifying in and of itself. They always get away? How many times had this other guy, quote-unquote, tried to bag one, in his words? Worse yet, how many times had he been successful?

I stayed there for a while and peered out after a few moments had passed, making sure that they had walked away. They had walked back towards the parking lot, so I pulled out my phone and called the police. I told them that I had just been chased in the park by two men, described them and the truck, and mentioned that they had made comments about potentially kidnapping me. I know I probably sounded crazy, but the dispatcher took me seriously, for which I was very grateful.

I stayed on the phone with her until the officers arrived. They walked up the trail toward me and told me that I could come out and that it was them. They talked to me about the whole thing. I described the men, the truck, told them what they'd said, and the officer definitely looked disturbed by it. They walked me back to the parking lot towards my car so I could leave without issue, and they told me they would keep an eye out for the truck. That was pretty much it.

I'm guessing they never found the guys because they never called or anything, but I also haven't seen the truck or those guys again, thankfully. And I hope that I never do meet them again. So, I have a bit of a creepy, or I guess more so really strange story that happened a good while ago. I say that, but it was still in the present time. It happened on Facebook of all places.

I don't and didn't have much of a Facebook presence. I have like 50 friends, and they're all my family or people that I graduated high school with. I had just turned 40 when this happened, and much like a few people my age, I'm not much of a social media butterfly. I don't care for the tech world, but I can navigate most things. It was a pretty normal day, nothing too crazy.

I logged into Facebook because my sister said that she had sent me something on there, and she is the social media type, unfortunately. So I went to the page and then went to my messages. I was a bit surprised to see a message from someone I hadn't spoken to in a few years. Okay, maybe more than a few years. Nearly a decade and a half. This guy that I went to high school with, that I used to be good friends with back then, and we're just going to call him Chad.

Like I mentioned, Chad and I were good friends way back, but we just hadn't spoken in a long time. The message was pretty simple, just a, Hey, T, how have you been? I responded to him, just thinking that he was reaching out to me to catch up. I told him that I was doing well, that life was going alright, and then asked how he was doing. He responded with, Honestly, not great.

I asked what had happened, what was wrong, and he told me. Well, T, I lost my job a few weeks ago, and I've been struggling with a lot of things. I haven't been able to pay my rent or for my car, and it's just really difficult to keep going. It was an unfortunate story, and I felt terrible for him, but my mind immediately went to, he's going to ask me for money, isn't he? I was actually surprised that he didn't.

I had told him that I was sorry that things were rough, and mentioned that I could sympathize, and that I wasn't immune to the stresses of life. I expected the message that he sent back to say, can I borrow 20 bucks, but instead, he said, It's rough out there. I just wanted to reach out to you to say that I always appreciated you, T.,

I was a bit taken aback by this. Definitely not what I had expected. I told him that he was a great friend too, and that I appreciated him and that we could always catch up. I tried to basically say that we could make up for lost time in the near future, and he just responded with, Yeah.

It was...concerning. It sounded like he may have had plans to...do something to himself, but there wasn't much that I could do about it. He said that he had to go, but that he looked forward to catching up, and I told him the same, and that was that. Again, I was worried, but what more could I do for him? I decided I would wait a couple of days and check in on him again on Facebook and see if he was doing any better.

Maybe set up a time to get lunch. You know, the things you do with old friends, if that makes sense. As it turned out, I didn't have to reach back out to him. Three days later, I got another message from him, and once again, it just said, Hey. I responded with a hi, and then said, I was just thinking about you, man. I hope you're doing alright. I expected the conversation to continue from there, but his response was just a URL.

A seemingly random link to a page that I can't remember. I know now that clicking random links is a stupid thing to do, but at the time I was concerned for my friend and didn't think anything of it. Thankfully it wasn't malware, but what it was... Well, I kind of wish that it was malware. I clicked the link and it loaded a video page like YouTube, but it definitely was not YouTube.

I don't recall the site, but it was a video repository like YouTube or Dailymotion. I hit play on the video thinking maybe this was just going to be a funny video or something, but it was... weird. It was a video of a dimly lit room at first. Nothing happened for a few seconds. But then a man walked into the frame. Not just any man, but a man wearing a ski mask and literally nothing else.

Literally nothing else. This was weird and kind of creepy in and of itself, but then I watched this man in all the glory of the day he was born grab a half gallon of chocolate milk off a table and chug it. It was more like he poured it all over his face and got some of it into his mouth, making a really gross chocolate milk mess. And that was the whole video. It just ended after that.

I just sat there for a moment, trying to figure out what it was that I had just watched. I closed it, went back to Facebook and sent Chad a message saying, "Hey, so... what the hell was that?" He just replied with a smiley face, and then he went offline and didn't say anything more in that conversation. I was confused. I was very, very confused. What was that video? And why did Chad send it to me?

Worse yet, the next day when I checked my messages again, I was thinking that I was going to ask Chad about it. I found that his account had been completely changed. The name was no longer Chad. It was another name. The profile picture had been changed, the bio had been changed, and everything about him was something completely different. So, with this, I have to assume that his account was hacked or compromised. But...

I have questions. My first question: What the hell was that video about? And did Chad send it to me? Or was it sent by the person that had compromised his account? And then, if it was Chad, why? And if it was the hacker? Also, why? I never got any answers as the account disappeared not long after that. And I have never found another account for Chad, so I have no idea what happened to him

nor do I have any closure on that video. I've never found it again, never heard anything about it from anyone else, and I have looked, because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't crazy. If anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this, I would love to hear them.

I once watched a YouTube video of an FBI agent who was a behavioral psychologist because I was trying to figure out why certain people stalk others. We had experienced a creepy scenario. A guy my sister had merely worked around called her many years after last working with her, and it had been five or even more years since she'd seen him. He explained that he would like to take her to dinner, saying that he'd lost his wife, and she told him that she would think about it.

Her coworkers wanted to encourage her and egged her on, so eventually she caved, despite her better judgment. He seemed to be polite, and they had a very nice time, and after several times seeing one another, he started playing termite bopper games, acting like there was something wrong when there wasn't. She doesn't suffer fools, and said, "'Okay, let's forget it, that's fine.'"

After this, he drove by her home, a far distance indeed, and one morning when I'd been attending to something at her home for her, saw him on the new security equipment that he drove up and rang the front doorbell, when he knew she would never answer if unannounced. Plus, she was working extra that morning at her job. I then saw him move to her back door and try it, and because I was inside, I heard the knob jiggle as I was watching the video.

He glanced all around to see if anyone had noticed him first. I wondered if it had been open. Would he have searched her home? Planted a camera or a transmitter to listen in? Would he have waited there and then scared her to death or attacked her? I shot out of the garage locking the steel door of entry into her kitchen and waited for him to round the corner to where I stood.

He realized I was there, but thought that it was her, and called out her name, saying hello, seeing my reflection in the glass of my car's windshield, I suppose. I said no, it was me, and he kept asking questions. Where she was. Why she would be at work, as if he highly doubted it, if she was seeing someone else, to which I replied yes. He then challenged me, asking the person's name.

As if it wasn't creepy enough, he kept gazing into the open garage to the entrance to the kitchen that I'd locked. It had been several years back and he wouldn't drop it. Then, five years after, I got a call at 3:30 AM. I was at another location entirely, but not but ten minutes away. I answered and he asked if I thought she was possibly at her computer right then. I told him no. That she had to get up for work at 5:00 and that he knew this as well.

It was absurd. I told him that she leaves the computer in that room light on routinely. I even worried that he may be standing right in front of that window and could have done, well, anything. Regardless of how long passes, he seems to resurface again in time, and as the psychologist on the program noted, it feels like yesterday to stalkers when it may be 15 years. There have been four to five incidents. Calls, voicemails, emails, and a letter.

And she has repeated simply stating that she is not interested. You just can't underestimate some people's offbeat perceptions of reality and how it affects them to make them feel justified to bother the hell out of someone else. And it is a very creepy behavior. Hey there, friends. I hope that you enjoyed this collection of scary stories on this episode of the As The Raven Dreams podcast.

If you did, make sure that you follow the podcast on whatever platform that you're utilizing. And if the platform you are on has a rate the podcast option, please consider doing so. Those ratings push the podcast into the algorithm, and we all know how the algorithm controls everything, so yeah.

I also do have a Patreon, if you go to patreon.com/AsTheRavenDreams, you can support the channel further. For as little as a dollar a month, you can get early access to all of my content in audio format. The content's a little different, as it's based on what I upload to my YouTube side, but it's the same stories, just in different collections of stories than how they're presented here.

Speaking of stories, if you have one you would like to submit to me, please go to astheravendreams.com and click the button in the middle of the screen that says submit your story. These stories are mostly sourced by listeners, so let's keep the podcast alive. If you've got one, I'd love to read it. Anyways, friends, I hope you're all having a beautiful day and a lovely week, and I hope I see you again very soon. But until then, remember you're loved,

You're valid. You're important. You're the best you can be. Never forget it. And until next time, much love and sleep well.