Scary Stories For Dark Dreams - Volume 03 | ATRD Podcast 03:13:37

While I was helping a friend move a few months ago, it reminded me of something I personally experienced, and I wanted to send it to you. I guess while it may not have necessarily been creepy throughout, the possibilities of what could have happened definitely could be. Okay, so this was back in 2019. I had just gotten everything finalized on this duplex that I was going to be moving into.

It was in a nice community in the middle of one of the more populated cities in my state, which made it super easy to go anywhere. The duplexes, however, were all individually owned, or in my case, through a middleman. There was an owner, but all the property management and whatnot went through a rental company. They were easy to work with, and I was pretty excited to get moved in.

The first day of moving in, I was pretty excited, so I'd gotten a U-Haul the day before and filled it with as much as my little self could. I lived alone and that wasn't changing, so it was just me for the most of it. I had a few friends that were going to help me over the weekend, but I wanted to at least get started on it.

I met the rental lady that I had been working with at the new place where we did the move-in walkthrough, signed the final papers, and I was given the keys. As the woman left, I noticed the people across the street were sitting outside, watching me. It looked like just a middle-aged couple, and they waved, so I waved back. I was walking through my new place and talking to my mom on the phone as I got out those last bit of new home jitters.

before I started unloading the truck. It was probably about 10-15 minutes that we were talking before we finally hung up. I wanted to bring stuff in through the garage, since it was connected. So, as I opened the garage door, I saw feet on the other side. When it came up enough, I realized it was the neighbors from across the street that had waved at me.

It was pretty fast, but I figured by the kind smile on their face that they were probably just the sociable and outgoing type, eager to meet their new neighbor. They introduced themselves, and to keep it simple, I'll just call them the Jacksons. I told them my name and we started out with a pretty simple conversation. They asked if I was from the area, or out of state, and I told them that I used to live in the next city, which was only about half an hour away.

They asked me how I found out about the place that was for sale, and I told them that it was actually for rent, and that I found it through a realty company online. I thought the question was a little odd, but maybe they were just curious. Then they asked me if I had heard anything about the neighborhood. I was confused by this question because I really didn't know what they meant.

I just said that I didn't really know anything about this place other than it being in a convenient part of the city and the rent was within my range. That led them to ask me what was within my range. This caught me off guard because I just met these people and they were wanting to talk about money and income. I just said less than two grand and laughed and so did they.

It was kind of awkward to me after that, so I just said, "'Well, it was nice meeting you two,' and shuffled towards the back of the truck to make myself busy. They stood there for a few minutes whispering something to each other, then smiled and walked away. My first thought was, "'Great, I've got some nosy and intrusive neighbors. At least they're across the street.'

I got the truck unloaded into the garage, and before I started sorting them into their designated rooms, I grabbed a box from my bathroom and unpacked it. I wanted to grab a rag to put on my neck because it was a very hot day. As I walked back out to the garage, I realized I had left the door open, and there were two new people standing at the edge of my garage, very obviously looking in at my stuff.

I kind of laughed thinking of how these people all seemed to be very nosy, and then greeted them. They said hi and apologized, saying they were looking for me to introduce themselves. They were my neighbors to the right, and we'll just call them the Smiths. It was an older man and woman, at least compared to the Jacksons. I would guess probably in their 60s or 70s.

They said that it was just them at home with their four Pomeranian pups, because their kids had moved on a long time ago. They asked me where my other half was, and I told them that I didn't have one, that I lived alone, other than my two iguanas, which I hadn't brought over yet. Ms. Smith didn't like the idea that I had lizards by the look on her face, but, to be honest, I thought maybe that would make them just leave me alone.

After her soured face, she then tried asking me if I was planning on getting married or having kids. My parents haven't even asked or pressured me about that, so I just hesitated on responding and said that I hadn't really thought about it. So she said that I should really think about it because children are very important for the future and their community.

It was already a weird comment, so I didn't catch the whole community part at first. I just said that I would keep it in mind. Before I could put a stop to the conversation, Mr. Smith laughed and made a comment about how they shouldn't overwhelm me so fast, as we had plenty of time to get to know each other. I nodded in agreement and said that I should probably get back to work, thinking maybe he thought she was being too muched to.

But as I was going to wrap it up, too, Ms. Smith turned and said, "'Oh, I almost forgot to ask. What do you think of our president?' She had a huge smile on her face, as did Mr. Smith, and they both just stared at me waiting for a response. "'Now, I'm not one to really talk about politics, but who asks something like that within the first ten minutes of meeting somebody?'

I just stammered for a bit and said, "You know, I'm not sure I'm quite ready to talk about that yet," and again laughed a bit and they were the ones to have a softer, awkward kind of laugh. They asked the question. We all just sort of walked away from that and I left thinking how freaking weird my new neighbors were. All their questions have been so far out of left field, not to mention weird and inappropriate too.

I just quickly shut the garage door, ready to not have any more interactions with them. One of the things that I didn't get moved was my bed along with some other bigger items, so once I finished sorting, I went to leave and go back to my old place for the night. As I was getting in the truck, I heard someone hollering, so I turned around to see a man swiftly walking towards me.

He looked around the age of the Jacksons, and as he approached, he told me that he was the neighbor to the left, and we'll just call him Pastor Wilson. Obviously, he said he was the pastor for their local church, and even mentioned how the Jacksons and the Smiths attended the same church. He said that wasn't him trying to get me to join them, but just wanted me to know as this was just to introduce himself.

A bit burned out at this point, I just gave my name and greeted him back. He asked where I was from, and then actually asked me some pretty normal questions. It was definitely refreshing, because I felt like I could just have a conversation with him. He even mentioned that he had his own plumbing business, and if I ever needed anything, he would be willing to take a look for me. So I thanked him. That's when he brought up the previous tenant.

He said that I seemed a lot nicer and open-minded than the lady that lived there before me. I laughed again and said something like, "Huh, yeah?" Not really expecting that to open another weird conversation. He mentioned how she was very nice and open with the community, until she started becoming very hostile, so they had to report her. He claimed that she then became reclusive and seemingly moved out one night without anyone noticing.

I said that definitely seemed odd, and that was it. The conversation again started dying down, so he said he would leave me to it, but then mentioned that Ms. Smith told him I was single, and he said that he also helps with matchmaking in their community, and pulled out a pamphlet. He said that he would be happy to sit down with me to start an interview about helping to look for a future husband."

Pretty fed up at this point. I told him I was happy with myself and that I wasn't looking for a partner at the time, but thanked him for his time. Once again, he mentioned how time was running out for me and that children are needed for the community. I just dropped the pamphlet in front of him, told him I was gay, and got into the truck. The shock on his face as I drove away, though, was pretty satisfying.

All of this, everything that I just mentioned, happened literally on the first day of getting the keys to my new place. I wasn't even finished moving in yet, and they were already making me have regrets. And I hated it. However, I called a good friend of mine and told him everything that happened, and they made me recall how many times they referred to the community.

They said that it seemed odd to say that instead of just the neighborhood, or even the country. Like when they mentioned the children being important to the community. That's when they mentioned how creepy and cultish it sounded. And I couldn't disagree with that. So we both started looking into the previous owner of the place. My friend was very good at finding people, and sure enough, we were able to find a woman that used to live there a few years prior to me.

We actually found her on Facebook, and I sent her a message hoping that she would respond and be able to answer some questions. It took about a week, but she did finally respond. She said that she didn't like to talk about it, but we were right. She said that she owned the place, and sold it to the first person that she could, who then went through the leasing company that I went through. She said that they seemed nice at first, and invited her to their community.

and they had some very sketchy and creepy requirements. She said that it was pretty traumatizing for her, so she didn't want to get into it, but she did say to not give them any detailed information about myself, and to distance myself from them as much as possible. She also said not to accept any gifts or favors from them, as they will harass you saying that you owe them. When she tried to leave their little community, they made her life hell.

They were always walking around her place, trying to look into windows or wherever they could. They would call her non-stop. Just all kinds of stuff. I was appalled after hearing all of this. I just got this place and now I want it out. I called my leasing lady who said that I unfortunately really couldn't cancel or back out of it without losing a lot of money, but apologized because she said they had no idea about the neighborhood.

nor how much of that was true. I thought that was kind of weird because why would the previous owner lie about that? She had nothing to lose or gain from it. So overall, I just had to make it at least through the year, which I was thankful that I didn't sign a longer lease. I kept my guard up all the time while I was at home, making sure that all windows and doors were locked and the curtains were nearly always closed.

I even put cameras up, not wanting to take any chances. I never bought into their gimmicks, even though they tried for a few months, but after that, they seemed to do the same to me. There was always someone outside when I was, and that person would be on the phone. If I had someone over, I would end up with a pamphlet on my door talking about different sins. If I had more than two people over, the cops would be at my door talking about a noise complaint.

Nothing would happen though, because I didn't have parties at my place. I didn't want my friends to be harassed by them, so they would just always leave. So, that year was pretty hard for me, but I know the previous owner must have had it much worse, since she wasn't willing to talk about it. I moved out since then, and I love where I'm at now, and my neighbors are a million times better. But I can't help thinking...

What the hell do those people do? Sometimes, I wish I could just be a fly on a wall. Hey, Raven. Long time lurker, first time submitter. I never really thought that I would share this story with anyone, but figured that it would be a good one to get out there. This is pretty much the most terrifying thing that has happened in my life.

And it's the only thing like this that I've ever experienced, thankfully. This happened back whenever I was about 13 or 14, at some point in the early 90s. I had a buddy named Mason that I spent a lot of time with throughout my childhood. During summer break, I would stay over at his house, and he would stay at my house. And we were just the best of friends.

So, when his dad mentioned that they were going on a camping trip for a week that year, and told me that he wanted me to ask my parents if I could come with them, I was more than excited to do so. Of course, my parents were all for it. They were more than happy to get me out of the house for a while. We got to where his dad had decided to set up camp. It was a campground that was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and really didn't have many people in it.

I wouldn't say that it was completely remote. It had a convenience store at the entrance, after all, but it was definitely on the outskirts of civilization. At least, more on the outskirts than I have been in my time on the planet up to that point. Being that age, I'd been pretty well kept in the boundaries of our small town, so all I really knew was suburban life. We were a few days into the trip when the event happened.

We'd been enjoying everything that nature had to offer, hiking, cooking on a campfire, and of course, telling each other scary little ghost stories. That morning, Alex and I had been up since right before the sun had come out, talking about what we wanted to do that day, and Alex mentioned that we should go to the lake and go fishing. We settled on that, and then we mentioned it to his dad.

His dad said that he was pretty worn out from the previous day's hike, and said that he wanted to take it easy, but that we could go by ourselves, as long as we were back by noon. I had a watch, so I knew how long we had, and when we needed to head back, so we agreed. We got our fishing gear together, and I suggested that we take the quick hike up to the convenience store to get a soda first, so that we had something to drink.

Alex was really eager to get down to the lake, so he said that he would take the fishing gear down and told me to go get the drinks and meet him there. I agreed, and we went in separate directions. I got to the shop, bought what I wanted and got some extra snacks while I was there, and then started making my way back towards the lake. I was pretty excited as I made my way back.

thinking it was going to be a really fun morning, and that we were going to catch some really big fish. I got to our spot where we had planned on setting up our lines, and I was a bit surprised to see that Alex wasn't there. At first, I kind of thought maybe he'd found a new spot for us along the shoreline or something, so I looked around and started walking around the lake calling out for him. After a few minutes of me calling out and him not responding,

I started to get a bit concerned, thinking maybe something had happened to him. The more I looked for him, the more I started to feel this weird, unexplainable unease at the fact that he was nowhere to be seen. Then it occurred to me that he may have gone back to the camp for some reason. So I started my way back to where we were set up. A bit up the path, I started to hear what sounded like a groaning sound.

It was low and filled with pain, and it sounded like whatever was making this sound was struggling. Considering how quiet it was out on that path, it was kind of unsettling. As I glanced around, trying to see where it was coming from, it clicked. That groaning sound was Alex. Alex was in pain and struggling. I dropped the sodas and sprinted towards where I thought it was coming from.

My breath hitched when I approached Alex. He was crumpled over on the ground with an unmistakable dark spot staining his grey shirt. It was blood. He was bleeding. And it was a lot. I knelt down to him to make sure he was still mostly conscious. I was a young teenager and this was the mid-90s. I didn't know what to do with this situation.

I knew that I needed to get him help, but I didn't want to leave him in the underbrush bleeding like that. Being as early as it was, no one was out hiking the area yet, and I was starting to panic. I told him to stay there and that I would go get his dad, which, thinking back, was kind of silly. He definitely wasn't going anywhere. I sprinted to the camp, and I yelled for his dad. I explained to him that Alex was on the ground and that he was badly injured.

and then I took him to where I'd found him. He told me to run to the convenience store and tell them to call 911, and that he would take care of Alex. Those minutes that I spent sprinting to that little store were... mentally draining. I was pushing my legs as hard as I could, struggling to breathe, and my mind was racing over the fact that if I wasn't fast enough, Alex was going to die.

I remember just praying to myself, begging any deity that would listen to not let him die, to give me enough time and strength to get to the store quick enough. I swear, every second felt like minutes, and every minute like an hour as I made that fairly short run to that store, and trying to explain to the clerk what happened was difficult as I tried to catch my breath. I ended up just yelling, "'Call 911!'

which thankfully was enough to get him to spring into action. The ambulance got to us in record time. I had to direct them to our camping spot and then take them down the trail to where Alex's dad was holding him and pretty visibly sobbing. The park rangers also showed up to where this was happening, as well as the police, and I had to explain to them my side of the story, which wasn't exactly helpful.

At one point, one of the paramedics mentioned that this was a stab wound, that this wasn't just a natural laceration, that this was done intentionally with a blade of some sort. That's about the time where things kind of came together for me. He was stabbed. Our fishing gear was nowhere to be seen. He'd been robbed. Someone at the campground had stabbed my best friend and then stolen our fishing gear.

I actually ended up blurting out that the gear was gone and that I think he was robbed, and the police seemed to agree with my assumption. The officers told us that they would be sweeping the area, but they let us go with Alex to the hospital. Thankfully. They got him stabilized in the ambulance, and we had to take the 20 or so minute trip to the nearest hospital. I just remember staring at Alex as he lay unconscious on that stretcher.

He did survive the attack. They hadn't hit anything vital. He was at the hospital for several days while they made sure nothing internally had been damaged, and they got him all fixed up. His dad and I had to get a ride back to the campground, and we packed everything up. Camping wasn't exactly sounding like a good time anymore. It's crazy to me that, on this simple camping trip...

Something so terrible could happen so randomly. Alex wasn't a threatening kid. He was 13 and weighed nothing. He was smaller than me at the time. If this person wanted the gear, they didn't have to go to such lengths. He would have just given it up. I know him. When he was finally stable and mentally awake enough to explain things, he basically told the exact thing that I assumed.

He was walking to the fishing spot when he heard someone shout at him. He thought it was me at first, so he stopped and turned around, but the second he turned around, there was a knife going into his abdomen. He didn't get a good look at the person because all he could focus on was the pain of getting stabbed. He remembered feeling it, grabbing the spot and just falling over, and watching as this person grabbed the gear and walked off.

In the end, it was a case of wrong place, wrong time. Of course, I have those thoughts that if I had been with him, maybe this wouldn't have happened, but I can't dwell on that too much. This person was clearly willing to just straight up stab someone for like $50 worth of tackle, so they would have probably done the same thing either way.

We never went camping again, and Alex ended up with a gnarly scar and a story to tell when we got back to school. They never caught the person that was responsible for it. They did the full search, and they never found anyone. Obviously, the psychological scars of seeing my best friend lying on the ground bleeding like that, they really messed with me, but I try to not let it haunt me too much since he did make it.

Alex and I are still pals with our own lives, though neither of us has chosen to go out camping since that incident. I've been playing this MMO for a few years now, and I've definitely created some relationships along the way. In fact, a few of my closest friends I met through the game. So, when I started talking to this guy named Zeke on a dating app,

and he said he had instantly matched with me because I listed I was a big fan of the game, I was pretty excited. Not only did I find someone interesting, but I also found someone that played the same games as me, which was a big help. No fighting over what activities we would do in our free time, right? But thankfully, we didn't just have the game in common. We actually seemed to have very similar personalities.

And it wasn't even me saying "I like or dislike this" and him agreeing. He brought up a lot of things first, and I agreed with it. It was actually a breath of fresh air to find someone that was so much like me, in a way. We shared pictures back and forth and even started texting outside of the site, as well as, of course, playing the game together. That was the only time that we ever really talked, though, was in the game.

We talked a few times on the phone, but it was usually short. I think it may have been nerves, but it was also cute, so I could deal with it. Still, it was nothing weird to me. He was always quick to respond and never suspicious. That was until I tried to plan something for us to do outside of the game. I was ready to meet him and go on an official date, and when I suggested this, he was just as excited.

However, our date got cancelled by him due to something coming up. He said it was a family thing, so while I was bummed, I understood, and we just planned to reschedule. This happened a few times, and to be honest, I was starting to get pretty annoyed. I really liked him, but I was starting to think that he either wasn't actually interested in me,

Or I really did tell myself that maybe I was being catfished. I dismissed the latter though, because he would have gotten nothing out of it other than a new buddy in a video game, so what would be the point? So I confronted him. I told him to be honest, and if he wasn't interested in dating, then I would move on.

and I guess we could just be friends. He apologized and said that that wasn't the case, and that even more so, he had strong feelings for me, but he was worried that I wouldn't like him if we met in person. He was worried that it wouldn't be the same. I told him that was ridiculous, because unless his pictures weren't real and his whole personality was a lie, I would still be interested in him.

and even more so, knowing that there was a real person behind the phone or computer screen. So, finally, we made real plans, and he gave me a sincere promise that we would get together. I told him he better keep his promise because I was going to look my best that night and give us one more chance. So, there I was, the night of our date, waiting at the bar of a restaurant for him to get there.

He texted me five minutes till our meetup time, and said that he was still going to be there, but that he was running late. So, I grabbed a drink and waited, and waited. I was pretty annoyed, and I expected him to, again, cancel on me, and I was prepared to just be overall done with him too. But, while I was waiting, I heard my name and looked around to see someone that I actually recognized.

It was a guy that worked in the same building as me, but was in a different department. For the sake of this, we'll call him Brett. I was an admin assistant and he worked in our on-site tech support department. His department would help anyone in the office with hardware and software issues, replace systems, etc. I saw him a few times when our VP had to get a new system. He helped to get it set up and I had to actually let him in the office.

He even helped me with some new software that I had installed. Other than those specific instances, I may have seen him in passing, or in our cafeteria, but that was about it. But we did recognize each other, obviously, and he approached me to say hello. He even complimented me on my outfit and apologized if he interrupted something.

I assured him that he didn't, saying that I thought my date had cancelled on me, so he offered to buy me a drink and I agreed. He sat with me for a bit as I checked my phone on occasion, wondering if he was going to show up, but I never even got another call nor text from him. So instead, I ordered myself some food and just talked with Brett. It was strange because I started to notice things that we had in common.

Just like Zeke and I. Then, I started to notice his cadence and mannerisms were the same. I figured out what was happening. I grabbed my phone and sent one final message to Zeke, and then watched as Brett's phone lit up. He quickly grabbed it and acted as if it was something unrelated. Which, I suppose, without seeing the message, I couldn't say for sure, but it was pretty damn suspicious.

I tried to get him to slip up by asking certain questions, or talking about certain topics, and I finally succeeded. I brought up games, and I got him to bring up the MMO, as I acted like it would make me look weird. Then he brought up a very specific strategy that I had mentioned to Zeke in texts that I liked to use. Not many people know how I do it, because I don't just start talking about that randomly. So, I caught him.

and confronted him. He said that he didn't know how to talk to me or ask me out, so he created a fake profile, but all the pictures he used were of his roommate. Like I mentioned, I hardly knew him, but I didn't dislike him or have any problems with him. I never even got weird or awkward vibes from him, not even that night, at least up until I started piecing things together.

So, he apologized for misleading me, but then also confessed that he was in love with me, especially since getting to know me more. He thought it would be romantic to admit how he did this, too. He said that he basically studied me. He watched what I ate to see what I liked. He watched my Facebook and Insta pages to learn more about me, and even my family.

He even said he learned more about my hobbies, such as the game, so that we would have more in common. He explained how he would constantly hop servers over and over until he found the one I was in, and just listened to me and my friends talk. I was honest with him, and I told him that what he was doing was not sweet. It wasn't impressive. It was creepy and unhealthy.

I told him that he should have just been a man and approached me, and that this could have gone so much differently. I could tell that I had crushed him, and for a moment I felt bad. But then I realized that he actually did take something from me. He took the opportunity to start conversations with him, to actually get to know each other, agree with each other, relate to one another, because he already knew so much about me, and I hardly knew him.

In fact, I felt powerless, and like I had become some kind of human study. So, I told him to just leave me alone, and I left. He, of course, persisted though, wanting me to give him another chance, but he didn't learn. I blocked his number since he unfortunately had mine, but he started messaging me from a different number. So, I eventually had to just change my number.

He tried adding me on social media, and when that didn't work, he thought making a fake account would, and sent a message request. Now, since this all stemmed outside of work, I didn't report it at the time. But then, I got some kind of lockout on my computer, and it said that I had to call IT. And he just so happens to take the call and knew how to fix it, but said that he had to be at the computer. I was livid.

So, I went to my boss and I explained everything. They were quick to take action too, which I appreciated. He was given the choice of being laid off, or he would be moved to a different site across town. I assumed that he took the latter because his name was still in the directory. I didn't want to be the reason someone lost their job, but if he would have just dropped it, I wouldn't have reported it to my work.

The messages, requests, and calls all stopped soon after, so I assume that he moved on to a new obsession. Sorry to whoever that is. But I learned my lesson. Get more proof that someone is who they say they are, and if that happens to be a first date, and I get stood up the first time, there are no more second chances.

Now, I just have to watch out for creepy co-workers, I guess. This happened around the summer of 2017. I felt like I'd been having very little luck on dating apps until I came across a guy named Nathan. We matched, and he immediately messaged me.

The fact that he matched so fast and sent that message was a bit abrupt, and I at first thought, "Hopefully this isn't a desperate call." But I decided to give the guy a chance. I messaged back and we started a slow conversation, but everything was going pretty normal. He asked me about myself, and I did the same. He seemed like a nice down-to-earth guy.

He told me that he worked a lot, and explained how he was a tow truck driver that worked all kinds of hours as he was typically on call. It made a lot of sense, because our conversations would just abruptly end, and he would respond hours later. I mean, I could appreciate the fact that he refused to have his phone out while he operated a large truck.

After talking for a few weeks through text, and on the phone, and not really getting any weird vibes from him, I was really interested in a date. However, I'm dumb and shy, and would never ask, so I just waited for him to do it instead. And I guess that he did, in a way. I had been out late one night with a friend who was actually going through a pretty bad divorce, so we had drinks and just talked.

I regrettably got home around midnight, kicking myself because I had to work the next day. As I slid into bed, I got a text from Nathan. It just said, Hey. And when I responded, he apologized if he'd woken me up, and I told him that he hadn't, that I was already awake. He then texted me again, asking if I wanted to go party with him. I clarified if he meant that night, at that moment, and he did.

And I guess maybe in my slight stupor, I just laughed it off and told him that I couldn't, because I had to work tomorrow. He joked around, sort of teasing for a bit, but he didn't push it. He then wished me a good night, and I went to sleep. The next day, he messaged me again around noon, and apologized for the messages the night before, but it didn't really bother me.

Hell, I thought maybe he'd had a little liquid courage like me, and thought that was the best way to go about it. Overall, we did make real plans for an actual date that same weekend, and I was pretty excited. We agreed on a nice local restaurant that we were both familiar with. It wasn't too fancy, which was nice, because then I didn't feel like I had to overdress or anything.

I arrived there first, so I got us a booth, ordered a soda, and waited for him to arrive. However, it had been ten minutes past our meeting time, and I hadn't even gotten a message saying he was running late. I reminded myself that he does do an on-call job, and thought maybe he had one last minute, or one that was taking longer than expected.

But, once it hit 20 minutes, I thought I would at least message him as a sort of check-in. No response to the text. After waiting a few more minutes, I tried calling. No answer. So, when it hit 30 minutes, I texted him saying that we could reschedule, but I was going to leave. I was really disappointed, but I also really liked him, and as dumb as it may sound...

I didn't want to just give up that easily because of it. While I was waiting for the server to bring me my check for my one drink and croissants, he called me. He was apologizing profusely for being late, and said that he didn't realize it was as late as it was. I honestly didn't realize this until days later, but he never mentioned why he was late otherwise. He didn't even mention that he was working, or if something else came up.

He said that he was almost at the restaurant if I was still interested, so I agreed to stay. When he showed up, though, I knew something was off. He didn't quite seem or act the same way he did when we talked on the phone. He was very kind through and through, but as most people do, the first thing I noticed was his appearance. His hair looked like it hadn't been washed and was kind of just sticking up everywhere.

He was also wearing dirty jeans and a long-sleeved shirt that had holes seemingly cut out for his thumbs. The holes were uneven and distressed, which, to me, looked like someone put them there. Not that it was bought that way. I used to do that a lot to my hoodies when I was in high school, and that's what it reminded me of. It was also strange to see him in a long-sleeved shirt because it was summer in Arizona.

I was getting overheated just looking at him. I knew it wasn't a formal place that we went to, but I honestly didn't expect to see him like this. I also told myself again, maybe he was working, and that's not exactly a clean job, so I let it go. That's surface-deep stuff anyways that I wasn't concerned about. But then we got to talking, and I realized that his demeanor and attention was all over the place.

We would start talking and then he would go on a tangent about something completely off topic. He also seemed to get easily irritated at miniscule things, like how the butter wasn't spreading well enough on his baked potato. It was odd. I was really starting to feel a bit disappointed on our first date, but I tried to stay optimistic that maybe it was just a bad day.

When we did actually start to eat, I noticed that he just pushed his around a bit, and only took a few bites. Then he leaned in and quietly asked if I wanted to go somewhere after this and party with him. Apparently he must have thought the date was going pretty well to ask this, but the uneasy feeling wasn't going away, so I declined.

I told him that I had some things to do the next day, or something to that effect, and that maybe we could try another day. He looked disappointed in this as well, but I tried to continue with our current date. Shortly after, he seemed like he had a look of realization, and said that he needed to use the restroom, excusing himself. I just finished eating and just sat there waiting for him to return, and once again I was starting to feel like I did when I first arrived."

Five minutes passed, ten minutes, and he was still not back. Now, I really did feel like a fool. I thought that he must have not really been into me, or maybe I ruined his plans by declining his party offer, so he ditched me. I called the server over and shamefully asked for the check. At this point, I was probably waiting for about twenty minutes since he left.

I was waiting for our server to return with my card when another male server approached me, and with a bit more sense of urgency, asked me about the guy that I was with. I thought maybe they had come to comfort me or maybe get a good story to laugh about later, but either way, I started explaining who he was. The guy interrupted me to say that he was in the restroom on the floor with foam coming out of his mouth.

They also found a syringe on him. Their restroom had two stalls in them, and apparently someone else was in there, heard a thud as the door slammed open, and he fell headfirst onto the floor. I was in shock. I didn't know what to do or say. I didn't know him like that, and I sure as hell didn't know he was using anything. Before I could speak, I got up and followed them to the restroom.

The server said they had already called for an ambulance, and I just stood there, terrified. I didn't really know what to do at first. This guy that I had just been talking to was most likely ODing on the restroom floor of a restaurant. After hearing someone scream for a towel or something, it finally kicked me into gear and I knelt beside him to turn him over on his side to prevent him from choking. They then asked me to stay with him until help arrived.

I barely knew him, and now I might be the last person that he sees. Paramedics quickly arrived and kept asking me all these questions about who he was, and I couldn't answer them. Hell, all I could really tell them was his first name if that was even true. Once they left with him, I quickly went home and called my friend to help calm my nerves a bit.

After we talked, I decided to go to the hospital to see how he was doing, feeling like it was the least I could do. I didn't even know if he had any family or friends that would have or should have known what happened. To sum up the visit, it was not a pleasant one. He was very angry with me. He also made it clear that he was only looking for someone to more or less get high with and or supply him.

That's what he meant when he called me that night, and that's also what he was expecting when we went on our date. Apparently when he saw I was a pharmacy tech, he thought that meant I could supply him. And when I turned him down, I didn't take away his need for a fix, so he helped himself in the restroom. Now, I may have been a bit smitten with him at first, but I wasn't stupid.

There were no hints dropped of any sort that he was going for this, nor did I lead anything on to make him think that I was into any of that. So, yeah. He basically told me that it was my fault he ended up there, since I didn't go with him. I left the hospital, blocked him in the app, and his number, and I never heard from him again. It was definitely a weird situation that I ended up in.

But I guess I'll just remove my job and be more vague about what I do in the future. You know how some encounters in life are so extraordinary that they become sharply etched into your memory, completely refusing to go away, no matter how much time passes? I had one of those encounters, one of those interactions with what I think was a cryptid of some sort.

I cannot explain what the hell I saw, other than to say it was a creature straight out of my wildest imaginations, and the whole thing was incredibly chilling for me. I grew up in a rural town in Vermont. The endless expanse of woods was my playground for most of my youth. I was always an adventurer pretending to be the first person to have ever ventured into the middle of nowhere.

For me, the trees always held these weird mysteries for my young brain. However, the day of this encounter, my view of the woods was pretty much completely shifted. This evening, it was starting to get dark and the sky was turning into that really pretty orange, and it was about to be time for me to head back home. So, I was starting to head back towards my house.

I had my flashlight with me, but I also didn't want to be out there when it had gotten too dark. So, I was heading mostly in the direction of my home, but was still pretending that I was an adventurer heading back to camp. About halfway through the trail back to my house, I heard what sounded a bit like a rustling in the underbrush. My first thought was squirrel, or fox, or something like that.

It wasn't too terribly uncommon to run into something like that in the early evenings, so I dismissed it at first, but then I started hearing what sounded like heavy steps in the leaves. The rustling went from soft to hard stomps, as whatever was out there was walking a bit out in the woods. At this point, my mind started shifting to the possibility of it being a bear. I didn't think it would be likely given my location and the time, but it wasn't impossible.

Then, I started hearing this low, guttural growl that sent the sharpest chill down my spine, and from there, I knew that this was not a normal forest inhabitant. I kept walking toward the house, but would frequently turn to look back into the woods. Looking for the location of this thing, I paused for a moment and shined my flashlight out into the trees to see if I could get a glimpse of whatever it was.

My heart nearly stopped when my small light illuminated this creature. This monster was unlike anything I have ever seen or heard. It was massive, at least six foot tall, hunched over behind a tree. It had fur that was thick, but there were spots that looked like they were missing patches. And where the patches were missing, the skin looked irritated and almost damaged.

At first I thought it actually was a bear, albeit injured or sick, but I noticed that it was digging at the ground with a bit of aggression, like it was trying to get at something, and its hands weren't like a bear or any creature that I would expect to see. They were human-like, with normal, human-looking fingers.

It didn't have claws, it just had these long, human-looking fingers that were digging into the dirt. That's what really set it aside as something other than a bear for me. I froze as I watched this thing tear into the ground. This thing was paying me no attention, much to my surprise, and I knew that I needed to run, but I honestly couldn't, until I watched this thing stand up and glance over in my direction.

It pulled itself up onto its feet, turning away from whatever it was digging at, and I swear it sniffed the air in my direction, like it was trying to identify what I was. As soon as I saw this, I took back off toward the house as fast as I humanly could. I swear that I could have set a new speed record with how quickly I ran from that spot to my front door, and when I finally got to the porch, I stopped for a second to take a breath.

When I did, I looked around to see if this thing was following me, but it wasn't. I ran in and locked the door as quickly as I could, and then stared out the window to see if I could see this thing outside, but again I couldn't. I had no idea where this thing had gone, but I was at least glad to see that it hadn't followed me home. I have no earthly idea what that thing was, but...

I can tell you with certainty that it was not something that normally occurred in the woods of Vermont. It was not an injured bear based on those hands and how it held itself. And it wasn't some kind of wolf or dog or anything like that, based solely on how large it was. Even now, I have no explanation for what I encountered that evening. Was this some kind of cryptid or something like a dogman, possibly? I don't know, but it scared the absolute hell out of me.

I never ventured out that far into the woods after that day, and I no longer live in Vermont, so I have no idea if that thing is still out there. I'm glad that I was able to get away from it unscathed, but I can only imagine what would have happened if that thing had been more interested in me than the hole that it was digging. I've been sitting on this story that I had actually forgotten about until my cousin reminded me of what happened.

He and I were chatting. We were at my aunt's house for my grandmother's 94th birthday, and he asked me, "'Yo, Nate, you remember that time we found a cabin in the woods?' And it all came flooding back to me in an instant. This was back when we were in our early 20s, which was in the early 2000s, and we used to go places and do some urban exploration, which is just a fancy way of saying breaking and entering."

It was a day in the late spring, and we had decided to spend our Saturday going to an area that had an abandoned school near a really small town that barely even has a Dollar General store. We knew that this school was there because a friend of my cousin's likes to scout out these kind of areas too, and he told my cousin about it. We started out on our hike. The weather was warm, but it was definitely overcast.

looking like a storm was going to hit in a few hours. But we didn't plan to be out all day. We found the school, did our expedition, and I may write a story about how creepy that was, but it was actually what we found after that this story is about. We followed a path off the back end of the school, and we walked it for a solid half hour, until we wound up finding what was pretty clearly an old abandoned cabin.

This cabin was decrepit, and nestled between a group of trees that had taken the area back over. The structure was pretty rough, though the windows were all still mostly intact. We approached slowly, just in case there was someone that was still living there. Stranger things have happened, but as we approached, we noticed that the door was slightly open, and that the cabin was definitely vacant.

We pushed the door open, and it immediately stirred up a layer of dust that caused me to pull my shirt over my nose. The inside was as run down as the outside suggested. It was musty, damp, it smelled like mold, but there was still furniture that was set up in the living room, albeit grey from the dirt that had settled. We began looking around, the floorboards all creaking under our weight,

I was honestly thinking that the whole thing might collapse, and that we were going to end up trapped in the rubble. My cousin, on the other hand, was way more interested in touring this place, and didn't even acknowledge my concerns. We looked over the furniture in the living room, and came to a conclusion that the couch was definitely hand-carved, with the cushions that were hand-sewn and put together.

We got to the bookshelf, and it was filled with moldy books. Most of them just old literature, but I noticed that there were a few books that were based around, well, Satanism. I don't mean just books about the devil. I mean that there were a handful of books that were written to explain the significance of rituals, how to properly sacrifice animals. I mentioned this to my cousin, and he thought it was really interesting.

We kind of glanced over the books, but he ended up putting them back on the shelf. I mentioned that we could take one of them for the hell of it, but my cousin said that doing so would just be inviting evil spirits into our lives. I didn't question him on that. We noticed that there were a set of stairs that went up to a loft, and another set that went down into what we assumed was a cellar or a basement, but we decided to check out this floor first.

We moved on to the kitchen, and that's when the really weird stuff happened. In the sink, there were what looked like bones. Small, fragmented, broken, and worst of all, wet. They weren't covered in blood or anything, but they were wet like they'd been recently washed. We opted to just leave them as they were and move on. On the counter was a pile of old newspapers from the nearby town,

and even a larger town that was a few miles away. These newspapers were a solid decade old, but what was really weird is that most of them were just the front page in the obituaries, with people and names circled. My obvious first thought was that maybe this was some kind of serial killer circling the obituaries for his victims, but as I looked at them, these people were all born the same year.

and it was a long time ago, which made me think that this was someone tracking a group of people they knew and circling them as they passed. We pressed on further, deciding to check out the back half of the cabin, but there really wasn't much to it. There was what looked like a bedroom that was mostly empty, and the bathroom was pretty dirty and messed up.

After this, my cousin asked if I wanted to go check out the loft, and then the basement. I agreed. We went back to the living room, and I stepped up the ladder and described what was up there. It was basically just a bed, and a small end table, and a really small CRT TV. I looked around, trying to see if there was anything worth really looking at, when I decided to open up the end table.

Now, I don't want to describe what I saw. I will just say that the drawer was filled with very graphic, very disturbing, and very illegal photographs. Among those were other photographs, voyeuristic pictures, of people that clearly didn't know they were being photographed. I told my cousin about what was in the drawer, and I could hear his disgust.

He told me to come on back down and that we should just go check out the basement really quick. I didn't like that he was suggesting that we keep looking. We walked down the stairs toward the basement, which had a door at the bottom. My cousin slowly opened the door, and the second that it opened, the stench of decay flew out into the stairwell. I nearly threw up, and my cousin pulled the door shut and said, "'Nope.'

We both ran up the stairs and out of the cabin. We stood outside and tried to figure out what we should do. Should we call the cops? The pictures? The smell of death? It made me think that there may have been something really messed up in there that we didn't see. My cousin was saying that he just wanted to move on. After talking it through for a few moments, we ended up deciding that we would just go ahead and forget that this place ever existed.

Whatever happened in that place probably happened a long time ago, and there was nothing there that would help them find anything now. We never went back to that cabin. We never went back to that school, either. We both just kind of accepted that something terrible had happened in that little cabin in the woods, and there was likely someone or something dead in the basement, but we didn't want to know what."

I feel like we probably should have told the police, but I don't really regret it. I have no idea if anyone else has ever found that cabin, though I'm sure somebody has by now. The experience was really not what was expected, but it was definitely creepy. I've always been an outdoorsy person. The wide open sky, the rustling of leaves in the winds, the chirping of crickets...

All of it makes me feel alive and free. My friends share the same sentiment, and thus our group excursions to remote areas for camping and bonfire parties were quite frequent. We would typically set a date in the early autumn for the first one, and get together to spend the entire weekend just living life. But there was one trip that was unlike the others, and it was not for good reasons.

It was that time of year when the leaves started to turn golden, right as the weather starts to shift slightly in the direction of winter. We decided to venture out into the forests of Northern Maine, where our friend's family owned a small cabin. The cabin was... rustic and cozy. And we all called it Harmony Hollow, a cheesy name that our DM had made up for a town in our D&D campaign.

The cabin had a good amount of land attached to it, and it was definitely our go-to for autumn parties. We arrived at the cabin late in the afternoon, just as the sun was starting to set. The air was crisp and cool. The leaves were blowing around in the wind. We could hear the sound of a nearby stream and the smell of wood smoke filled the air. The first night was pretty normal.

We'd set up a pit for the fire, but had decided against actually having one, mostly because by the time we were all comfortable in the cabin, it was already pretty late. Plus, it just wasn't quite there temperature-wise to sit around a fire. However, on the second night of our stay there at Harmony Hollow, we decided that it was cool enough to have that bonfire.

The chill was just starting to settle in, and there's something that's incredibly appealing about just sitting around a contained fire throughout the night. We got all the firewood and branches that we could, and we set up a decent sized bonfire. Nothing too crazy, but large enough that it would burn for probably a couple of hours, at least until we all hit a wall and wanted to go to bed. We sat around the fire, roasting marshmallows and telling stories.

We talked about how things were going for us, how things had been since last year when we met up like this. It must have been around midnight when our laughter and merriment was cut short by a really harsh and cold wind sweeping across our little setup. I started to shiver despite the fact that I was wearing a jacket and sitting by the fire. Brian made a comment that it was really quiet out that night, other than us, and we all kind of paused to listen.

He was right. It was nearly silent out in the woods. There weren't any real crickets chirping, no owls hooting. It had gotten to the point where it was completely silent out. I started to say that it was getting late and that we should probably get to bed when Jen made a comment. Something like, wait, who's that? The entire group quickly looked over to the woods in the direction that she was staring, and we all saw what she saw.

There was a dimly lit silhouette of a man just slowly taking steps out of the tree line in our direction. We all froze as we watched this guy walk our way, each step crunching leaves under his feet in an almost unnaturally loud way. He paused somewhere around 15 feet from us and just stared at us, the fire barely illuminating his face.

He was, to say it politely, rather grizzled looking. His hair was unkempt, and he had a beard that was very overgrown. His clothes looked dirty and torn, and his eyes were sunken sockets that were barely visible in the light of the flames. He didn't say anything at first, just standing there staring at us and the fire.

There was a very uncomfortable pause before Brian stood up and asked if this guy was okay. The man didn't respond. He just continued to stare. His unsettling presence and the unnerving silence of the forest made this whole scene feel more isolating than ever. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the man pointed toward our fire and uttered one word. He literally just said, "...danger."

in a raspy and deep tone, and then turned and started walking back into the forest. We all just sat there and watched as this guy disappeared back into the woods. Now, I'm pretty sure that I've seen every horror movie that's been made in the last decade, and I know for a fact that when a creepy homeless looking guy comes out of the woods and tells you something is a danger, you listen.

I immediately stood up and started putting out the fire, much to the disappointment of my friends. Jen asked why I was putting it out, and I said, because he said that it was dangerous. Besides, we should all go to bed anyways. After some annoyance and grumbling, they all agreed that we should probably call it. That next morning, we woke up to the sound of sirens and went outside to see what was going on.

When we got outside, we saw fire trucks and forestry service racing down the road. Come to find out, a small wildfire had broken out in the early hours of the morning, a little further north from our cabin. It had spread into the deep underbrush, but they were able to quickly get it under control, and thankfully not much damage was done.

We were all safe. Our cabin was untouched, but I couldn't help but think that if we had left our fire burning, would we have started a fire like that? Was he somehow warning us? Did he set the fire, and he was telling us to put ours out so that we didn't look guilty? Or was this more likely just some weird and chilling coincidence? We never saw that man again.

and all of our questions remained unanswered. We still go up to the cabin to have our parties, but we've set a hard rule since that night to have the fire out by midnight, just in case. We've decided that we don't want to see that man, whoever he was, ever again. In the mid-90s, my brother, Jake, and I found ourselves in charge of a long-distance move.

Jake had secured a job in Colorado, a far cry from our quiet town in the Northeast. There was a lot of logistics that came with the move. He had to move everything he owned, which, while it wasn't much, was enough to fill a small box truck. There was no way that he could mail it all, and his girlfriend was already at their new place with his car, so...

It came down to him and I driving to his new place in the U-Haul, and then they would drive me to the airport so that I could fly back home. Jake and I were super close, so I had no problem taking a few days to road trip halfway across the country to get my little bro settled into his future. We packed up the truck and hit the road with excitement and a bit of trepidation.

After a couple of days of smooth sailing, we found ourselves on a rather barren stretch of highway, miles from the nearest city. I think we were in southern Nebraska, or part of north-central Kansas, just driving down the highways that were completely empty, even in the middle of the day. It was here that I looked in the side-view mirror, and saw what looked like a rusted pickup truck trailing us.

Initially, they were pretty far back, but after driving for a while, it really did feel like they were following us. And I was a bit uneasy about it for some reason. To lighten the mood, I turned to Jake and made a dumb joke. I commented, "'Wouldn't it be insane if these were some Deliverance-style psychos trying to kill us?'

We both laughed, appreciating the absurdity and the scary thoughts of that impossible scenario. He followed it up with the classic banjo tune, you know the one, strumming the air and we both chuckled and moved on, focusing on the drive. Our laughter was short-lived, as I noted that this truck was actually pulling up on us at a faster rate. It got to the point that I couldn't really see it in the side-view mirror anymore.

and when I turned to mention this, we were both nudged forward by the bump of this truck hitting the back of our U-Haul. I shouted, "'What the F?' and hit the hazard lights, expecting them to pull over so that we could look at the damage. Instead of pulling up behind us, or ahead of us, they stopped right next to us, blocking one of the lanes of the road. I glanced over out at the truck."

and before I could even string together a thought, a gunshot rang out and the windshield shattered. I covered my face and cowered over, my brother did the same, and we both just sat there for a moment before we realized that the truck was starting to roll away from us. I opened my eyes and looked at the truck drive off, only to see a literal child, no older than ten years old, hanging out the window and holding the gun.

This kid was waving the gun at us, almost to say, Hey, I shot you. Me, a ten-year-old. Have a great life. We just watched as the truck drove off, the visual playing until they were a solid mile down the road. Thankfully, neither of us were hit, but the windshield and the passenger side window were clearly hit by the round. Being the nineties, we didn't have a cell phone on us.

So, we drove to the next exit and down to the nearest gas station. We were miles away, and it was an agonizing drive. Jake tried to say that we should just pull up to someone's house and ask for help, but I mentioned that the welcome wagon to town just shot at us. So, I didn't think talking to anyone living here was a very good idea. The whole drive to the station, we were thinking that they were going to come back and do it again or something.

Thankfully, we got there without issue. It was a fun time trying to explain to the attendant that we were shot at and needed the police. They came, examined the truck, and said that it was probably nothing personal, and that they would try to find out who did it. They asked about the truck and we described it, but the officer kind of chewed on his pen and shook his head like, "'Nope, don't know who that is.'"

Surprise, surprise, we never heard anything more about the case. We got the truck to his new place, and we had to give the company the information on what happened, including the police report. Nothing makes you sound crazier than telling a U-Haul attendant, in a decently sized city, that you were shot at by a child in the middle of northern Kansas. The scariest thing about this whole event, other than the ten-year-old handling a gun like that,

is that the whole thing was unprovoked. They followed us for a solid 45 minutes on the road, so this was most likely planned while they were driving behind us, and hitting us was pretty clearly to get us to pull over. This was by far the scariest thing to ever happen to me, and to this day, whenever I plan any trips anywhere...

I make it a point to completely avoid the central US at all costs. At the time, I was moving out of my ex-boyfriend's house. It didn't end badly or anything. We're just different people who wanted different things in life. That being said, feelings were still sore and I planned to move out while he was at work.

I told him this, and I told him which pieces of furniture I was taking. He bought the dryer that I bought for the place from me. Since I wouldn't be able to handle everything on my own, I booked a moving company who had a truck and two movers to lift the heavier items. Everything I had was either in boxes or wrapped, ready to go. The two men knocked. I opened the door and said hello.

We began to put things in the delivery truck. I locked up and gave the address to the new place. I followed behind the truck in my car, and I swear, every song that I heard on the radio was reminding me of my ex. They pulled up in front of the house. I parked in the driveway. I asked if they wanted me to move my car so that it would be easier, and they said that they were fine.

I began moving things inside. Boxes were everywhere, and they were helping me with the heavier furniture. Soon, we were done. I tipped them and gave them drinks to say thank you, and they gave me the receipt and paperwork. I closed the door and started working on getting things prepared around the house. I got my bed set up so that I'd have somewhere to crash. The kitchen was priority for me.

I was taking the plates out of boxes when I looked over and saw that the delivery truck was still sitting there. I thought it was a bit strange. Surely they had other deliveries they needed to tend to. It was now the late afternoon, and they were still sitting there. I was tempted to text the company and see what it was about, but I really didn't want any potential confrontations. I've never really been good with them.

I kept working on getting things done, had some food delivered, and ate it on my bed while watching some Netflix on my laptop. I went to take my leftovers into the kitchen when I noticed that not only was the truck still there, but this time, it was blocking my driveway. I instantly knew that I wasn't going to be able to get into my car and just drive away. They had blocked me in.

I actually saw them peeking through the windows and heard them talking. I ran to the bathroom, locked the door, and called the police. I stayed on the phone with them until I heard the police show up. I was terrified, but thankful that I had locked all the windows and doors before settling down. So, as it turns out, it was actually part of a scam. They would deliver items, scope the place out, and then come back to rob the place later.

since they got to see what items you had that were the most valuable while they were delivering. These two weren't very intelligent, though. It's been years, so I can't remember how long they'd been doing it, but the company was shut down. And, naturally, I felt like an idiot. I was so grateful that nothing had happened to me and that I was safe, while some of their other victims, they'd actually gotten violent with them.

and even put someone in the hospital. So yeah, I guess make sure you check the reviews for any moving companies you work with, and always remember to lock your doors. I got into online dating due to being introverted. I don't like going out to bars or other highly social places, and prefer spending time with a few people only.

I made a profile, uploaded some pictures, left some information about myself, and started chatting with people. I wouldn't say that I found anyone I clicked with. Some of them were okay. There were obvious scammer accounts where they would have models as their profile pictures. When Henry, not his real name, contacted me, his pictures were of a handsome man. But they weren't too handsome.

They were still realistic and not too polished, so I didn't think that they were fakes. We started chatting and had a lot of similar interests. In fact, I've never met anyone as into the things that I'm into. I didn't realize at the time that he was just mimicking me and wasn't actually interested in what I was talking about. The conversation got flirty and I admit that I indulged in it.

I started talking to him every day, it was part of my routine, and I really enjoyed it. We talked on the phone, and he sounded exactly like what I imagined him to. We would talk for hours, and after another week, we decided to meet. He said that he hoped that I would like him in the flesh, and I laughed, telling him how silly he was being and not to worry.

I got to the restaurant first and sat down at the table. He texted me to warn me that there was traffic and that he would be a little late. I didn't mind. I sat and people watched when an old man approached the table. He stood with his arms wide for a hug and I awkwardly said, ''Hello?'' He said, ''Aren't you happy to see me?'' I stared up at him in confusion when I realized what had happened.

He catfished me. I sat there with my eyes open, like a fish, trying desperately to come up with something to say, and I couldn't hide the look on my face. I don't know why, but I stood up, awkwardly hugged him, and he pulled me into a tight hug. At this point, I kind of felt bad for him and thought that he must have been a lonely old man who just wanted some company. He didn't let go until I gently pushed him away.

"I… um… hmm… you don't quite look like your pictures," I said after blubbering for a bit. "Oh, those are my grandson's pictures. He is good looking, isn't he?" He didn't seem fazed by this and sat back down. I looked around and wanted someone to help me. Henry started talking about how happy he was that we got to meet, and it was oddly wholesome at first.

until he said how excited he was to be taking me back to his place to have sex with me. While he was looking over the menu, he started talking about all the things that he wanted to do to me, and that he was excited to now have a mistress. So, that was also how I found out that he was married as well. I didn't care about letting him down gently, and clearly he wasn't just an innocent, lonely old man.

I stood up, told him that I wasn't interested in someone like him, and to not contact me again. I picked up my bag and started walking away. He reached over and grabbed my arm really hard. It actually hurt, and I had dark bruises on my arm afterwards. He told me that he'd come all this way to see me, and called me quite a few horrible names.

He was telling me that I was such a tease and that I had let him on. I pushed him away again and screamed for him to leave me alone. A waiter approached and asked what the problem was. I told him, and fortunately it gave me enough time to get away and get to my car. I drove off as fast as I could within the speed limit. I got home and saw that he had sent me so many messages.

Some were him begging me to come back, others were calling me a variety of slurs, others saying how horrible I was. I blocked him. After that, I would get messages from other accounts, and the writing would be similar. One managed to slip through, and I recognized him. I yelled at him to leave me alone and reported the account.

After all this, I've now learned to video chat with every perspective date before I go to see them. All of this is to avoid any other issues. So far, it's gone pretty good. I have found someone, and things are going well, so I didn't need the apps anymore. So, I deleted them. The Creepy Old Guy is a story that does get quite a few giggles when I tell it, but...

It was quite exhausting at the time. About a decade ago, my friend and I decided to take a break from the hustle and bustle of city life and spend a weekend in the woods. We'd been planning this trip for months and were eager to leave our worries behind, relax, and enjoy some quality time with each other.

What we didn't expect was that our peaceful retreat would turn into a terrifying encounter that none of us would be able to forget. There were three of us total: myself, Cory, and Ash. The three of us had been friends since early high school and always enjoyed spending time together. Of course, life had made it complicated to get together, thus the camping trip was planned.

When the Friday finally came, we packed up our camping gear and set off early in the morning, excited for our weekend adventure. Our destination was a secluded spot deep in the forest, far away from civilization. It took us about an hour to hike there, but the breathtaking scenery and crisp, fresh air made it all worthwhile. When we finally arrived, we quickly set up camp and started gathering firewood for the night.

As it started to get dark, the three of us gathered around our little campfire, started roasting some marshmallows, and Ash decided that she wanted to flex her storytelling muscles by starting in on some ghost stories. As the fire started to die, and the three of us started yawning a bit more, I made a comment about how it was probably time to turn in, and Corey agreed.

Ash said that she wanted to spend a bit more time out in the cozy atmosphere, taking in the stars. Corey and I both gave her a look like, are you sure you want to be out here all alone? But she waved us off and said that she wasn't going to leave the campsite. Corey and I both went to our tents, and I dozed off pretty fast. After a little while, I woke up to hearing Ash yelling for both of us. She sounded pretty scared of something that was out there.

I opened my door flap and I asked her what was going on. Cory followed right behind me. Ash was standing on the edge of our little campground and staring off into the woods. It took a bit, but after the three of us stood there silently staring off into the treeline, we started seeing… something. The only way that I can describe these things is to say that they were strange dark figures lurking at the edge of the treeline.

At first, we couldn't make out their shapes, but as our eyes adjusted to the darkness, it became apparent that these were no ordinary forest animals. They were large, and almost shapeless, with an unsettling and unnatural presence. Corey tried to say that we should just ignore them, that they were probably nothing, or that maybe it was just a group of people hiking in the woods.

I would have agreed, but it was the middle of the night. Why would people be out here hiking like that? Corey decided to go back to his tent, and I sat out with Ash just watching these things, trying to figure out what they were. They were mostly motionless, but every now and then it would seem like they would kind of sway. Honestly, I was feeling really uneasy, like these things were watching us intently, maliciously.

After just sitting there for a while, trying to decide if we should investigate or just go to bed and hope for the best, I started hitting a hard wall. Like, I was going to pass out one way or another. I told Ash that we needed to try to just live and let live, and that whatever these things were, they would likely move on. She reluctantly agreed, saying that I should go back to sleep and that she would be doing the same here soon.

I told her goodnight, and I hopped in my tent, thinking that would be the end of it. It was then that things went from a bit creepy to downright terrifying. Ash let out a yelp-like scream and damn near jumped through the door of my tent. I jumped up as she dove in and shut the door. Her eyes were welling up with tears, and she was very clearly freaking out. I tried to ask what happened, but she said that she just wanted to go to sleep, and asked if she could sleep in the tent with me.

I told her that that was fine. She said thanks and literally curled up in a fetal position facing away from me. Thankfully, the morning came without much in ways of anything eventful. When I woke up, Ash was asleep, and I stepped out into the morning air and greeted Corey. He asked about her and I told him that she was freaked out and how she had jumped into my tent after screaming.

We talked a bit about what we saw and he admitted that he was pretty freaked out, but he didn't really know what to do with the idea of there being those weird things watching us. I agreed. I said that it was creepy and we started on breakfast. When Ash finally woke up and came out, I said good morning and she immediately started asking about the night before. She asked if we had any idea what those things were. We both shook our heads.

I decided to ask her what happened to lead to her jumping into my tent, and I could see the color drain from her face. She said that she was sitting on the log by the fire as it died down, and she was starting to doze off a bit. She said that one moment she had her eyes closed for only a second, and as soon as she opened them, one of those things was much, much closer.

She motioned to a spot by a tree that was just outside of our circle, like within ten feet of her tent. She said that she could see this thing, but she couldn't tell what she was looking at, like it was some kind of living shadow. She said that while she was staring at this thing, she couldn't feel anything but pure dread and malice. And that's when she screamed and jumped into my tent, because she wasn't about to get closer to this thing to get into her tent."

After discussing it a bit more, we all agreed to cut the trip short, which, while disappointing, I don't think any of us wanted to stick around in those woods. It was a mutual decision. We would cut it short and plan another trip another time. In the years since that night, I've actually tried to figure out what exactly those things were, but I've yet to come up with anything. Part of me wants to say that it was just a trick of the light or something, that they weren't real, but...

Without Ash said one got closer, I don't think that's it. I don't think we're ever going to know the truth as to what they were, but I think they may have been some kind of supernatural entity that resided in the woods. That's just my uneducated opinion. The three of us are all still close friends, obviously, but we've all opted to not really speak about that night.

We decided it's best to put the experience behind us, but it's definitely difficult to forget what we experienced. And, of course, the lingering questions about the whole situation. Still, on some nights when I'm home alone, I'll look out my window and almost half expect one of those things to be standing there watching me. Thankfully, it hasn't happened yet. And I may sound paranoid, but there's always that chance that one day...

I'll look outside my bedroom window and it'll just be there watching me. Last year, my husband and I moved into a new home. We were renting a house prior but we had some life changes that made us upsize. I was now working from home permanently and I found out that I was pregnant.

The house we were living in was a cute little two bedroom, but it wasn't going to be big enough for a nursery and an office. So we decided it was time to move. The house we found was nearly perfect for us. It was a rent to own, and the landlord was an older lady who seemed very kind. The rent was reasonable, and the neighbors all seemed friendly or kept to themselves, which was nice.

My husband has a very demanding job. He's also one of the top techs there, and the only one that knows how to work on a specific machine, so he doesn't get a lot of time off. Needless to say, I was pretty happy when he was able to take a week off to help with the moving. We got everything packed up prior, and with me being limited on what I could do, we had to get a lot of help.

My dad, brother, and sister-in-law came over, and they helped some during the weekend. We were able to get a good chunk of our stuff moved. One of the days that my family wasn't available, my husband, not wanting to break his back alone, hired a moving company to help. He found a company that didn't charge an insane amount, and they were bright and early to help. There were three guys, and they helped a lot.

They were all very considerate of our belongings. They asked where everything went before moving it or setting it down, and they even moved some of our bigger things like the washer and dryer, which was nice. When they followed us to our new place, they had me direct them where everything would go. One of the guys noticed that I was pregnant and started asking me about the baby.

and even brought up how he remembered when his wife was expecting too, and some of the things that she went through. This was our first child, so it was interesting to hear about some of it. The good and the bad. And getting to tease my husband about what he would go through too was all fun. Then, at the end of the job, that same mover asked us if we needed anything else done before they left.

such as moving anything to the garage to make it easier on us, or anything like that. It was past their time that they were supposed to be there, and I really appreciated him going the extra mile to help us. So, after they left, we were emailed a survey about our experience and how they handled themselves and our stuff, and I gave them a great review. They'd really made the whole moving out so much easier for us.

I even specifically called out the one mover by name, Alec, and mentioned how much I appreciated him. My husband and I began moving the smaller stuff, like boxes and bags, in between working until the following weekend. We had things planned out so that we would have the whole month to move our stuff and not worry about having to rush it. However, the landlord at our old place sold the house faster than anyone expected, and

and now we had to rush around to finish. It was bad timing for us, because my husband was back at work, unable to really take more time off. I wasn't much help, so my husband said that we should just get the moving company again since they did so well the first time, and I didn't hesitate to call them.

We didn't have much left in ways of larger things to grab, but we did still have a lot of boxes and most of the basement to move, so the movers were just going to make a quick job out of it. When they showed up, it was two guys instead of three, and Alec was there again. I greeted them like normal and explained what we were needing done.

As they started clearing out our old place, I locked the doors and turned around to see Alex standing there, and it startled me, as I thought he had gotten in the truck. He said that they received notice of surveys, and when there was one specifically calling him out, he knew that it had to be me. He thanked me for being so kind as it would help him move up, and then mentioned how kind I was.

It was a bit awkward for me, not knowing how to respond, but I was polite and said that it wasn't a big deal, and that I like to share when I have a good experience, unlike how some people just share the bad. He smiled and agreed, and then we both got into our vehicles. We then met back at our new home, and I directed them on where to put all the boxes, just like last time.

The second mover was finishing up, putting away their dolly and straps, and Alec was in my living room, making sure everything was in its place again, and asking if there was anything else I needed. I told him everything was fine, and that I again appreciated their help, especially on such short notice. He was standing by the door, and I was basically walking him out, when he turned around and asked me about getting dinner sometime.

I didn't really know how to respond to this, so I just kind of chuckled and said, "Um, you know that I'm married, so..." And of all the responses he could have said, I did not expect him to laugh and say, "Yeah, so am I." It was really alarming to me that my comments didn't dissuade him, especially with him admitting that he was married too. Then I realized how vulnerable I was at that point.

I was alone with him in my home, six months pregnant. His partner was outside and who knows if he would be able to hear us if he tried something. I tried to stay calm, not allowing my fear and discomfort to show, and just said no thank you, as I again motioned him to the door to leave. He walked right up to me, with his chest nearly touching mine, and looked down at me. He was a huge man.

My husband was tall, and I know that I'm also short at barely five feet, but he nearly towered over me. I just looked down at the floor and mustered out, "'Um, can you please leave now?' Smiling, he told me that if I ever changed my mind to just call him, and he handed me a piece of paper with a phone number written on it and then walked out."

I swear I was holding my breath until I saw him get in that truck and they drove off. I immediately locked the door and closed the garage. Now paranoid that he might try something and come back, I called my husband and told him what happened, and he was furious. He told his boss that he had an emergency and left, even though I told him that he didn't have to, but really I was kind of glad he did. I didn't want to be alone.

When he got home, he told me that he went up to the moving company and complained about what happened. He specifically pointed out Alec, who was there at the time, and yelled out for him to stay away from us. He said that Alec just had a smirk on his face the entire time and walked out of view. The owner then took down his information, saying that they would take appropriate action, and apologized.

We wouldn't need any help moving anything else, as everything was moved now. We just had to do some small cleaning at the old place again, so hopefully we would just never see Alec or anyone there again. At least, that's what I was hoping would happen. It was probably a few days after that event happened. We were in our new place, exhausted from unpacking and putting together a crib, and we went to bed pretty late.

I woke up in the middle of the night as I often did, but I was feeling incredibly thirsty, so I walked downstairs to get some water. As I pulled out the pitcher, I got this very uneasy feeling, almost like a sense of dread that just engulfed me. I immediately looked around the kitchen and didn't see anything that stood out to me. I also only had the light on over the stove, so while there was some light, it wasn't very well lit.

I started walking towards the wall with the light switch, when something seemed to catch my eye. I thought I saw something move in the window. The window looked out into the side of the yard, but there was a wrap-around porch so you could reach it, and look into the kitchen from the outside. I was pretty well freaked out at this point, but I tried to keep calm and tell myself that it was just the shadows playing tricks on my eyes.

So I continued walking towards the light switch, without taking my eyes off the window, and right as I flipped it, I saw someone run by the window, which caused the motion-censored porch light to kick on. I screamed and ran towards the front room, in the direction that the guy ran, to see if I could at least get a look at the guy. As I was looking out the window, my husband ran downstairs and asked what happened.

I barely got- I saw someone out before my husband ran out the door. I grabbed my phone to call the cops and was trying to get my husband back inside, worried what this guy could possibly do or have on him. Once he was finally back in, we waited for them to show up, and they patrolled the area. They came back, sadly informing us they never found anyone, but that they would keep looking.

They also told us to call immediately if this person ever came back. We were both fully awake at this point, and I was terrified. We had just moved in, and we were already having someone looming around our backyard. I was worried if it was someone trying to case the place since we were new, but then another thought crossed my mind. I worried if it could have been Alec. With the way he acted towards me and the fact that my husband had reported him,

He could have easily been trying to get revenge. Unfortunately, we never really had a conclusion about the person at our place because it never happened again. But I'm also thankful and relieved for that. We put up cameras all over our yard and driveway, but the most we saw were a few people walking by, and there was one person who stopped and just stared at our place, but that was it.

It was a rough few weeks there in the beginning, as I was constantly worried about it happening again. My husband put his number on the paperwork for the movers, and he did start receiving some prank calls, so we're pretty sure it's related. In the meantime, we've moved on, but I just get a shiver any time I see one of their moving trucks to this day. I guess from here on, I'll just rely on friends and family...

if we have to move again. I have a strange story to share that has bothered me for quite a while, but I really don't think I'll ever get any answers for it. I've been a police officer for around 12 years now, and I've seen some pretty strange things, but this one incident has always stuck with me. It still haunts my mind when I'm out on the night shifts and just driving through the silent streets.

It was a call that seemed pretty routine, but quickly turned into an eerie enigma that's left me with more questions than answers. I was working the afternoon shift one summer, back when I had just started on the force. It was a fairly slow day. I don't live in a part of the country where big events happen frequently. It's normally pretty relaxed here.

I remember that the air was really heavy and languid that day. The weather was hot and humid, and there weren't any clouds, which really dulled down the whole routine. Nobody wants to do anything, much less commit crimes, on days where you can barely breathe, which is something I actually appreciate. I don't want to run and chase people, they don't want to do anything bad,

It's like a mutual agreement that those days are not for us. Anyways, I was cruising along and I got a call from dispatch saying that they needed me to go to one of the rental cabins on the outskirts of town. These cabins were owned by a real estate company, and they basically rented them out for a few weeks to a few months at a time, and we never got calls to go out there. So this was even more shocking to me.

The call explained that there was a man that was claiming someone had broken into his cabin. He reported that he was on a day trip, and when he got back, he found a fire in the bonfire pit burning in his front yard of the cabin. The cabin that he had left secured and vacant the entire day. They mentioned that he hadn't gone into the cabin since returning, so somebody could still be inside the cabin, and he needed someone there to clear the scene.

It was a peculiar call, but it definitely warranted our attention. When my partner and I arrived, we found the man standing outside behind a minivan in the driveway. He looked nervous. Frantic. His eyes were kind of darting around and he was pacing behind the car, visibly agitated. When we stepped out, I could see the bonfire still burning, though it was mostly just embers at this point.

There was this acrid smell of burning materials hanging in the air. What materials, I have no idea, but it wasn't pleasant. That much I remember. We approached the man cautiously, and he explained everything to us a second time, but then mentioned that he thought someone was still in the cabin because the door was open. We approached cautiously, hands over our holsters,

and every step I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. We entered slowly, cleared room by room, but there was no one inside, though it had absolutely been ransacked. Furniture was overturned, drawers were opened, and items were randomly scattered all over the place. We came back outside and told them that it was clear, but that it was a mess.

We asked him if he had left it like that, which may sound like a dumb question, but you'd be surprised. He told us that he hadn't, that he'd kept it clean in good order so that he could get his deposit back. After a bit of investigating, we determined that there was definitely remnants of things from the cabin in the fire. Photos, clothing, documents, all charred beyond recognition. It was really bizarre.

As if someone was destroying personal belongings, but why? We tried to piece together some of the puzzle, asking the man if he had any enemies, or if he'd been in any disputes. He said no. We asked him if he'd been involved in any illegal activity, mentioning that his honesty was important for his own protection at this point, and he was adamant that he hadn't done anything.

He mentioned that he'd literally only been there for three days at this point, and that his clothing was still in his bag because he hadn't been there long enough to even really unpack most of his stuff. The incident was… perplexing, to say the least. Looking at the possibilities, none of them really fit. If the man had started the fire to destroy something himself, why would he call us?

Fires were not restricted at that point in time, so we wouldn't have had to cover for it or anything. I supposed that he could have been trying to do some sort of obscure insurance fraud claim, and he needed the police report, but there was nothing in the fire that we saw that was worth anything. Just clothing and paper. But then, if it wasn't him, who was it? What was the purpose of burning things from the cabin?"

We did our investigation on the cabin, fingerprinting, interviewing some of the residents of the next door cabins, and did everything that we could to get more information. But there was nothing. It was as if the fire starter had vanished without a trace, and no one knew why it had happened. In the end, we had to just let it go, and to let it go cold.

The mystery of who broke into the cabin and started the fire remained unsolved. There was no evidence that this guy had done anything to deserve it. He hadn't made anyone mad. He hadn't even been in the cabin more than a few days. As mentioned, it's still one of those things that pops up in my mind now and again, because it just made no sense, and there were no answers. Odds are, we're never going to have an answer for it.

Because it was such a small, isolated, and weird incident that happened in a very cut off part of the town. Once upon a time, in the digital world, I met a girl online. We'll call her Bella. Bella was a breath of the freshest air that I have ever inhaled.

Before meeting Bella, I was depressed as I had just come out of the worst relationship I had ever had or known. I was ready to move forward though, and I thought that I would give online dating a bit of a try. Something I now know was a terrible idea. Bella, though, seemed like she was going to be my turning point. Her profile picture was absolutely gorgeous.

She had these adorable bright blue eyes, this really curly red hair, and this smile that just screamed absolute sweetheart. I swiped right, wanting to see what happened, but honestly I thought that she would take one look at me and think, "No thanks." To my surprise, we matched. Even more to my surprise, we hit it off instantly. We talked about everything and every conversation was crazy comfortable.

Like, we had known each other for a long time. I would start messaging and she would be able to relate to everything I said. I told her my favorite books. She would talk about her favorite parts of those exact books. We talked about movies, and we had identical taste. I remember one of the first nights, we actually stayed up until 3am, talking about our love for older rock bands.

She started talking about Pink Floyd, and the two of us got into an incredibly pretentious conversation about the musical genius of The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon. These conversations honestly had me feel like the two of us were naturally in sync, like we had found each other through some act of fate, and our future was calling.

"'I know, crazy thoughts to have about someone that you met only a week prior, but, you know, something something, soulmates. "'When I suggested that we meet in person, Bella was incredibly hesitant. "'She said that she wasn't comfortable with meeting so soon, and that she was nervous that I may not like her if I met her in person. "'I didn't want to push it, but also, what? She was amazing.'

We vibed together like crazy. Her pictures were gorgeous, and everything about her was absolute perfection. Almost... too perfect. This is when the idea of "Am I being catfished?" came to mind. I did a bit of fishing myself, asking if there was a reason that she didn't want to meet. I didn't want to be pushy, but I also wanted to know if this was a waste of time.

I thought that maybe it was just worth asking, "Is there a reason you don't want to meet with me?" She got a bit defensive, but then asked if she could call me. I immediately agreed, and when she called, I could tell that she had been crying. I immediately felt horrible about trying to push her, and I immediately apologized to her saying that I shouldn't have been so aggressive about it.

She then told me that the reason she was so nervous about meeting was that she was scared of how perfect things were going, and she said she didn't want to move too fast. She followed that up by explaining to me how she had just come out of a really bad relationship where the other person was emotionally abusive, and she didn't want to end up in that same cycle."

We talked a bit about relationships, and I told her about my ex and how she was, and it felt like we connected even more. I then told her that I really liked her, and that I would be more than happy to just keep this over the phone and in text for as long as she needed, and whenever she was ready, we could get together and get coffee."

Much to my surprise, the next morning, I got a text from Bella saying, You've convinced me. Let's meet up at 10 at... and then mentioned a local coffee shop that I was definitely familiar with. It was a quaint little place that was a favorite hangout spot for my friends and I, so it was perfect. Feeling a mix of nervous excitement and anticipation, I arrived at the coffee shop.

and I thought that this was going to be the start of something amazing. I sat at my favorite table for a few minutes, and then about half an hour, then an hour. I was actually quite upset thinking that she had ghosted me, until I heard a voice call my name. I turned around to greet Bella, but was immediately struck with a gut-wrenching feeling. Standing there was my ex, Christy.

The only thing different was that she dyed her hair and was wearing blue contacts. I kind of said, "Oh, hi, Kristy." Not really certain if what was happening was happening. And she chuckled, saying, "Kristy? No, my name is Bella, silly." This sent chills down my spine. Now, you could ask how I didn't recognize my ex in the pictures on the dating app,

but I will also say that the woman in those pictures was not Christie, they were someone else altogether. You could ask how I didn't recognize her voice, but I'll say that Christie had a very generic mid-twenties midwestern girl voice, so it didn't even cross my mind. I felt a wave of anger, betrayal, and disappointment hit me, but I won't say that I was surprised.

Manipulation was Christy's specialty, and she had certainly manipulated me. I asked her what she was doing there, and she kept trying to pretend that she was Bella, and not Christy. It was honestly sickening the way she kept saying, my name is Bella, not Christy, as if I was going to fall for it.

As if I would just say, "Oh, you're right, and you're totally not my abusive B-word of an ex that made me feel like garbage. How could I ever be so silly?" I pulled up Bella's account and one of her pictures, and I kind of pointed it at her, like, "That's not you, Christy." She then mentioned that it was just an older photo.

No matter what I said, she would come back with something to try and convince me that she was this other person. I stood up and said that I was done with that, that she was a psycho, and that I wanted nothing to do with her. I asked her how she could do something so damn deceitful like this. How could she do this and think that it was okay, that I would just be okay with it?

She then started off by trying to justify her actions, saying that she did it because she still loved me, and that now she knew I was into redheads, as if that was the reason that we broke up, because I like redheads. As I kept laughing and shaking my head at her statement, her demeanor shifted. She moved from explaining herself to screaming at me about how I belonged to her and no one else.

The entire coffee shop went silent. The manager walked over to our table, trying to calm her down, but she was beyond reasoning. She lashed out, attacked him, jumping on him and hitting him repeatedly. Some of the other baristas jumped in to grab her and pulled her off the manager and restrained her until the cops arrived. They took her, took statements, asked me some questions about her, and...

After all was said and done, I was just left there shaken and shocked. I went home, deleted my profile on the dating app, and decided that I was just going to take a break from dating altogether. I've decided that while online dating may be simple and efficient, it's not worth the risk of potentially getting catfished by Christy again.

Something happened to me a few years back that still gives me some chills to this day, but I've never really shared it with anyone. No real reason. I just don't like to think about it. And typing this out requires me to do so. If some of this sounds disjointed, I do apologize. I'm not a very good writer, but I'll try to give this as much detail as possible. Anyways, here goes.

I was working a consulting gig in Texas back during the pandemic. It was remote, but I knew that at some point, I was going to have to drive to the main site to give the presentation that I found during my consultation. I've done this before with other clients, but this was my first on-site during the years of COVID, so I was a bit iffy on this whole trip anyways.

but what happened really cemented that I should have just demanded a remote presentation. The night this happened, I was most of the way to my hotel, and I really didn't want to stop, as it was only about an hour or so to get there, but I was also feeling nervous as the roads that I was driving were incredibly empty and remote.

I was driving, feeling like I was going to hit a wall soon, and I noticed that Google Maps showed an alternate route to the hotel from where I was. That was even more rural, but was about 10 minutes quicker. I quickly hit the button and made the next turn to take that route instead. The roads were incredibly empty and dark, pretty much just a random strip of asphalt that cut through the Texan wilderness.

A couple of minutes down this road, I spotted what looked like a figure on the side of the road. I slowed down a bit and noticed that it was a woman, frantically waving her arms in the glow of my headlights. I could feel my heart rate increasing as I stopped to see if she was okay. I really didn't want to, but I couldn't have lived with myself if something happened, and I could have helped her.

She was middle-aged, her hair was a wild mess and her eyes were wide with panic. She immediately started babbling a mile a minute, frantically screaming about anything and everything, until she finally stopped, took a deep breath, and said that she had just been in a car crash. She followed that up with sobs, saying that she had driven off the road.

that she'd somehow flipped her car and that her husband was still trapped inside, and she needed my help. The story was believable, but something about it still seemed off. She had some bruises on her face, but other than that, she just looked pretty well untouched. She didn't have any cuts, her clothes weren't torn or dirty, and she didn't look too injured, though I will say that adrenaline can do some wild things.

I also didn't see a car behind her, but if she had driven off the road and flipped it, it could have been deeper into the woods. I started asking her some questions to gather more information, trying to piece together the situation. She was cagey with details, first saying that she had fallen asleep and veered off the road. I mentioned that I could call 911 for her and wait until they showed up, but she cut me off.

However, this is where she slipped up, saying, "'Please, hurry! My son really needs help! He's still trapped down there!' I froze. She'd said her husband was trapped, not her son. Sensing that something was off, I made a split-second decision. I looked at my phone and said, "'I don't have a good enough signal to call 911 right here. Let me drive a bit further down the road to make the call.'

She became frantic when I said this, urging me to come with her, getting to the point that her sobbing became an angry screaming at me to get out of the car. I shifted back in to drive and started down the road, hitting the gas pedal as quickly as I could. I could hear her continuing her screams as I watched her waving her arms at me in the rear view. About 20 feet down the road, a man then jumped out of the treeline.

I watched him jump out and hurl something at my car, which was followed by a sickening thud and a shattering sound. A brick, what I'm assuming is what he threw, had smashed into my windshield, sticking into the glass but not breaking through it. I slammed on the gas, freaking out and realizing this whole thing was a massive setup that I almost fell for.

I looked back again and saw the two people in the middle of the road arguing with each other and making very aggressive motions towards each other and the direction that I was going. The rest of that drive was an honest blur. I was in shock, shaking and sweating, the brick just sitting there in my windshield, blocking the right half of my vision. I got to the hotel, which was about 30 minutes away from where I was, and I asked the front desk to call the authorities.

I just sat in the lobby chair, breathing heavily and thinking about what happened. They took my statement and promised to check it out, but as far as I know, they never found anything. They did call me in the morning and told me that they found a spot on the road that I'd mentioned where there was a lot of broken glass, but there was nobody anywhere nearby. Obviously, that trip was a bit stressful.

as I was three states away from home in my personal car with a now shattered windshield, and I still had to give my presentation. I did give the presentation, and I actually mentioned what happened, and thankfully the client was willing to give me a little bit of wiggle room, considering my stress levels.

I had the windshield replaced in Texas. Thankfully, my insurance was willing to cover it since they had a police report number, and the report did explain things pretty well. I've since pushed all my clients to do remote presentations, and thankfully they've mostly been okay with it, including the extra work that I've done for that same client down in Texas. Regardless, I will never drive through those empty parts of Texas at night, ever again.

Again. Hey Raven, it's Ollie from some of your other stories. It was 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. Me and my friends were going cycling to a neighboring town. However, we switched plans and decided to go on an aimless cycle. We cycled along the highway and then some streets and then a road.

We were miles from home. Having the chili peppers playing in your ears as you cycle aimlessly is honestly pretty great. Eventually the town that we were in started to get less and less urban, until we were just cycling along a farm road with no buildings to be seen for miles. At some point we saw a town come into view. We could see the entire town from where we were, so we knew it was small.

And it definitely was. There were no cars driving about, despite the countless cars parked outside houses. We got into the town and realized that every single shop was closed. There were quite a few, for how small the town was. In their defense, it was a Sunday. The center of town was nothing more than a small monument for someone that I'd never heard of, nor can remember.

It was already turning evening, and with it being January, it was already getting dark. I needed to eat something quick. My friends and I looked all over, trying to find a place to eat. It might have just been paranoia, but honestly it felt like the few people that we did see around town were staring at us. They might have just been surprised to see new people in this crack shack of a town. Eventually, we found a single open takeout.

It was small and locally owned. Some of my friends decided that they would rather wait until they went home to eat than to eat here. Me and my friend, who I'll simply call Charlie, stayed. The pizza that I ordered came quick. I guess it was probably just frozen. It was alright, nothing special. On the other hand, Charlie's Kebab took at least 45 minutes.

The girl at the counter only looked a couple of years older than us, but acted as if we were aliens or something. I kept glimpsing at her staring at me and then turning away quickly. By the time that we left the takeout, it was already dark. We were hungry, so we began eating right away. It was then that Charlie started complaining about the food. I've never been a huge fan of kebabs, but I still like them in some way. I asked to try it, and he let me.

At first it was fine. Then suddenly a horrible taste washed over my mouth. It was overly salty and yet sickly sweet. Was it the sauce? No, it had texture. I told Charlie that it was definitely just one ingredient that was ruining it. He agreed and started poking about the kebab. We both noticed what we knew was the strange ingredient at the same time. The meat? It was grey. And that's the best thing about it.

It was thinly sliced into squares. It almost looked like beef jerky, only it hadn't been dried. We thought that there were green spots on it, but that could have just been the other ingredients on it. I decided to taste the meat on its own. Sure enough, it was what we had tasted. I spat it out, but there was no way of telling what meat that it was.

Was it chicken crushed into a chicken foam? Beef? Pork? Who knows? All we know is that it tasted awful. The consistency was even worse. It was like spam morphing into clay. Charlie threw it in the bin, and I shared my pizza with him. On the way back, we meet our friends, and I again noticed that everyone was staring at Charlie and I. We both wanted to leave.

We got back with our friends and they told us the same thing. The people had been giving them strange looks all day. We took our bikes from the rack that we had put them in and we left. As we were leaving, the number of abandoned buildings began to dawn on me. I hadn't noticed that they were abandoned on the way into the town, but now I did. The streets were laid out strangely, with several uncomfortable turns and such.

The roads were desolate, riddled with potholes. I was lucky that I had Google, otherwise I'd be completely lost. As I checked Google Maps, I realized how out of the way this town was. You could see on the map that there were several towns all connected by roads, but the town we were in was only connected by one single road leading to it, and nothing else.

If you've ever seen the map of a town, you'll understand that this isn't normal by any means. We left the town and cycled down the road that we came. We slowly began making our way home, one by one leaving the group to cycle to our houses respectively. And that's about it. This event probably isn't as unsettling as the other ones I've submitted here, but it has confused me since. If I were to use one word to describe the town...

It would be fake. Everything felt as if it was hiding something, even though it likely wasn't. So, quiet town on the country road, I don't think I'll be seeing you again any time soon. I'm not typically one to share personal stories online, but I have a bit of a bizarre and frankly terrifying event that I experienced during a move several years ago.

It genuinely freaked me out, because it could have gone much, much worse, and I think that I got really lucky with how it all actually played out in the end. So, several years ago, my boyfriend and I were preparing to move into a new place.

He ended up having to work through most of the days that we were planning on moving, so most of the packing, boxing, and actual moving of things from one place to another fell solely on my shoulders. He recommended that we just hire someone, or ask my brother for help, but as stubborn as I am, I absolutely refused to let anyone touch my stuff. I assured him that I could handle it, and that I would get it done while he was at work.

One of the days, in the midst of our move, I had packed up most of the rooms into boxes, and most of them had large stacks of all our things in said boxes, sitting in the middle of the room. I was working on the bedroom at this point. It was the last room that we needed to get packed, since it was the main room we were still using. I was standing there, emptying the dresser, when I thought that I'd started hearing talking...

Initially, I shrugged it off as possibly coming from outside, thinking that I may have just left the upstairs window open. The more I listened, though, it became rather clear that the voices were coming from upstairs, inside the house. A chill ran down my spine when I was hit with that sudden realization that I was not alone inside my house. Part of me wanted to shout out, ask who it was,

But then it kind of clicked that these two people had broken into this house. In the middle of the day. They probably weren't there for conversation. I quickly jumped into the closet, having to squeeze through the stack of boxes that I'd placed in front of it, and shut the door. Just standing there with my heart beating hard. I could hear the intruders walking through the house, stepping through the kitchen, and then I heard them walk down the steps and into the bedroom.

As they walked into the room, one of them, his voice scratchy and gruff, asked, ''Are you sure this is where he said they lived? These people look like they're moving. I don't think they were going anywhere.'' The second voice responded with a, ''Yeah, I'm pretty sure.'' They went quiet as if they were waiting for something, and after a few moments I heard one of them rummaging through one of the boxes outside the closet.''

He started making joking comments about my clothes and items, which really made it that much worse. Not only was I scared out of my mind, this guy was violating my privacy and handling my underwear. This whole thing felt surreal. Like, was this really happening? Was this some kind of messed up joke or something? After a few minutes of him commenting on my stuff, and the second guy huffing impatiently,

The second voice said, "You know what? Let me go call him and make sure. Something seems off about this." The silence after that was deafening, punctuated only by the remaining intruder's casual rifling through my boxes. I could barely even breathe, fearing that if I did, I would give myself away. When the other guy came back, his voice sounded way more urgent than before.

"Hey, dude, come on, we got the wrong house. I wrote the address down wrong." The other man chuckled and said something like, "Damn, man, that could have been bad. Imagine if they were home and we got the wrong person." Then, their voices trailed off as they walked upstairs and out of the house. I stayed huddled in that closet for a while longer, too terrified to move.

When I finally got my nerves up to step out, the house was completely silent. I quickly checked the hallway and bolted into the garage to grab my cell phone from the van and called 911. The police arrived, they took my information, and they checked the whole house for me. They asked if I had seen the two guys, and I told them that I hadn't because I had hidden in the closet. I told them what the guys had said, and obviously they were concerned.

They told me they would do what they could to find them, but with how little I could give them, I doubt they ever did. Nothing was stolen, nothing was disturbed outside of the items in the box the guy was going through, and nothing happened during the rest of that week. I couldn't have been more thankful to have been moving out of that place. The memory of this still unsettles me, and it absolutely taught me a very valuable lesson. Lock the door.

Always make sure it's locked if you're not near it. There was no forced entry, so they walked right into the house with literally no issues. I have no idea what they were planning on doing, but based on the conversation, I could be pretty certain that their intentions were not good. I feel bad for whoever it was they were looking for,

but I'm glad that I never had to see them again. Growing up, there was always something special about summers at my grandparents' house in rural Pennsylvania. They had an old farmhouse, one that was tall and proud in the rolling green fields with the backdrop of a fairly dense forest. It was a place where my little brother, Josh, and I would spend way too many hours adventuring out and playing dumb games.

When we got out of school for the summer, our parents would drop us off and we would spend the couple of months out there, helping our grandparents out where they needed us. They owned a pretty decent sized property. They had the fields and the animals, and the backwoods behind the property had a charming little creek that ran through a lower section of the land. It kind of snaked its way through the back corner of the property.

and we spent a lot of the hotter days in that creek. It wasn't too deep, and it didn't have too much of a current, so we would wade into it and splash around. Sometimes we would find tadpoles or neat rocks that we would collect and keep. Sorry for the tangent, but honestly, the innocence of those days are something that I've missed as I've gotten older. There was one day one summer that I remember being blisteringly hot,

I was about 12 at the time, which would have made Josh around 8. The afternoon sun had turned the day into an absolute oven, and that creek was calling us. Once we finished helping our grandmother clean up the home, we asked if we could go out and swim in the creek, and she told us to go and have a good time. We jumped into our swimming trunks and ran down to the creek as quickly as we could.

We'd been splashing around for a while, just having a great time with each other and enjoying the cool waters. Around then is when I thought I had seen something a bit down the way, in the stream. There was something that was there, but I couldn't really tell what it was. We typically only ever swam around in this spot in the creek, mostly because we didn't want to leave the property, but I was a little curious and intrigued on what was out there.

So, as little boys do, I took the initiative to investigate what this thing was in the creek with us. Josh, of course, followed closely behind me. The closer that we got, the more it dawned on me that I really didn't know what the hell this thing was. This thing was decently sized. At first, I thought that it could have been some kind of giant rat, or maybe some kind of a beaver.

I don't even know if beavers live in Pennsylvania, but I just remember thinking that beavers were large and weird looking like this thing. We kind of pushed over to the side of the creek as we got a bit closer, just watching this thing doing whatever it was doing in the water. The closer we got, the more I noticed that this thing wasn't really rat-like. It looked more like a really hunched over person. You know how Gollum would crouch down in Lord of the Rings?

It kind of looked like that, but it was covered in coarse fur like a rat. It did have some parts that weren't covered in fur, like the hands and the face, and I could see that it had this weird, grey-green, leathery skin. Its arms looked like they were too long for its body. Its fingers ended in these hooked-like claws that were short but still looked deadly.

We just stood there watching this thing as it seemed to forage through the pebbles in the creek bed, picking one up every once in a while and then tossing it back down. Then it looked over in our direction. This thing had a face that honestly haunts me. It was dominated by these large bulbous eyes that were pitch black, and it had a small mouth filled with teeth and it was moving it non-stop, like it was speaking but it wasn't making any noise.

Seeing it look at us, my initial curiosity and fascination were immediately replaced by fear. I could see that Josh was just as scared as I was. As we stared at it and it stared at us, it dropped what it had in its hand, and it seemed to shift its attention our way. As soon as it started coming towards us, I stood up and started to step backwards, which I think may have scared it.

Like, it was initially curious about us, but when we were no longer hunched over, it started to see us as a threat. It stopped approaching us and turned away, and we watched as this thing scurried out of the creek, and then darted into the dense underbrush that lines the stream. We stood there in what I can only call shocked silence, neither of us really even breathing as we just stared at where it had run off to.

After a couple of seconds, we both agreed that we needed to get out of there and get home. We ran back to the farmhouse and we tried to explain what we had seen to my grandmother, but she just laughed and told us that it was probably just a squirrel or something. Well, I can tell you right now that this thing was not a squirrel. This thing was some sort of creature that, to this day, I still cannot identify. The rest of that summer was different.

The creek had lost its appeal. It was no longer a place that we wanted to spend time. Every time we would talk about it, we both would be filled with those same thoughts like, "What if that thing came back?" We never did see this thing again, and we never figured out what it was. I've tried to see if it matched any description of any animal that exists, but the only thing that looks remotely close are sloths. And this thing was not a sloth.

It had similar coarse fur and kind of similar claws, but the face was all wrong, and it moved way too quickly. Even today, when Josh and I talk about our childhood, that thing is always brought up in conversation. We can both describe this thing with perfect detail, and we both have that same visual burned into our memories. Okay, so...

This is the story of the weirdest, most surreal event of my life. It happened during a camping trip that my girlfriend at the time, now wife, went on while we were still a pretty fresh couple. I think at the time we had only been together for about a year. That summer, my girlfriend and I decided to go out into the woods and just have a lovely little camping trip.

We found our perfect spot, an open section of the woods with a huge open section of sky, and we set up our tents. As the sun started to set, we lit a cozy campfire and we were sitting there just enjoying the gorgeous night, cuddling up, sitting on our plush blanket and loving this romantic evening. Out of seemingly nowhere, a man wearing a ski mask and holding a gun stepped into the light of our campfire. He approached slowly.

and I think that we both didn't realize that he was there at first, but when we noticed him, we both jumped up and entered into a state of panic. We both froze in fear, me saying, Whoa, please, we don't have anything, thinking that this guy was just here to rob us. The man quickly tried to diffuse the situation, saying, Hey, hey, settle down.

"I'm not going to hurt either one of you if you just do what I ask, okay?" Ethan motioned for us to sit back down, and we both kind of looked at each other like, "Do we do what he wants?" He actually answered that question for us, saying, "Look, just sit down, relax, let's just enjoy the night, and everything will be okay. I just need you to sit down and relax."

I looked over and nodded at my girlfriend, and we went to sit back down on the blanket, and I pulled her down with me. He nodded, and then took a seat in one of our cloth lawn chairs, sitting across from us by the fire. After a few seconds, he motioned towards the cooler by me and asked if we had any beer. I said that we did, and he asked for one. I cautiously handed him one, and the three of us just kind of sat there in this really...

awkward silence. He broke the silence after a bit, asking me my name. I told him that my name was Todd, which it is, and he responded with, "'It's very nice to meet you, Todd,' and he then asked me what I did for a living. I mentioned that I was a desktop support guy for a company. He asked what that meant, and I explained that I was basically the guy that set up all the computers for the company's employees."

He nodded and smiled, saying that it sounded kind of boring. I actually chuckled at this and said, Yeah, it kind of is, but hey, it pays our rent. He nodded again and then said, Here's to that, and then took a drink. Then he looked at my girlfriend and asked her the same question. She told him her name and mentioned that she was going to school to be a nurse. He almost looked excited to hear this and then said,

"My mom was a nurse. It's stressful, but she loved it. You'll do great." We sat there for about half an hour just engaging in this bizarre small talk, with this masked stranger holding a gun in his right hand and a half empty beer in his left. After talking a bit more about what we did for work, our hobbies and all that, he starts to laugh and then shares a story about his brother.

He tells us that this one time his brother was trying to light a bonfire, like ours, and he ended up setting himself on fire. He said that he ran around screaming like an idiot, and that he had to dump a cooler that they had full of chunks of ice and beer cans on him to put out the fire. It was… surreal. This guy was sitting there, laughing, sharing this story as if we were best friends at a little reunion.

acting as if he wasn't masked and basically holding us hostage. After about an hour had passed, he ended up standing up and thanking us for the beer. We were both stunned at how, I guess friendly is the right word, how friendly he was to us. He mentioned that it was getting late and that we should probably get to sleep, and then casually started just strolling away.

Before he left the campsite, he stopped and turned back toward us, waving his gun in our direction and said, Oh, and I don't know if it's obvious, but I was never here, right? We nodded, too shocked to really say anything, and he just said, Good. Have a good night, guys. Just like that, he was gone, leaving us in the glow of our little fire, shaking and thinking-

What the hell was that? I still have no idea what actually happened that night. Was he on the run? Had he just committed a crime and was just hiding out for a while? Was this just some kind of messed up prank, possibly? We can really only speculate, but what I did know is that this experience is certainly one for the books. It's a story that she and I share with new friends, mostly because of how absurd it is.

and how much it sounds like a small scene from some kind of horror movie. I will say that he was a very nice guy, minus the obvious, and that I'm more than grateful that he kept his word. He could have shot us. He could have attacked us. He could have done so many things, but he seemed like he just needed a spot to stop for a while, and if he was going to be there...

He figured he may as well have a drink and make some small talk. Now, despite how polite he may have been, I really hope that we never meet again. For as long as I can remember, my grandparents' cabin has been a real haven for the family. I spent a number of summers up there. We had small parties and get-togethers there, and it was one of my favorite places all throughout my childhood.

It was nestled in the woods, and was pretty much perfect for a group of kids looking for some innocent fun. Well, and some not so innocent fun as we got a bit older. It was one of those rare weekends where my brother and I decided that we were going to stay up at my grandparents' cabin. I was 19, and still at home. Ben was 17, and while we were both pretty much adults, we still had to have permission to stay.

just in case. Thankfully everyone was okay with it, and we were told that we just needed to not get too rowdy or destroy anything. We agreed, and then immediately invited a few friends over that had access to alcohol. We figured as long as we just stayed at and in the cabin, everything would be fine, and we weren't likely to cause too much damage to anything.

Of course, as the night grew on, some of the guys got a bit stupid, and after a while an idea hit Ben, which is never a good thing. Not for Ben. He stood up and loudly proclaimed, "Let's have a bonfire!" I could tell by the fact that he slurred the first half of this sentence into one word that it was going to be a terrible idea. Ben always was a lightweight.

and at seventeen he was already loopy after two beers he looked at me with that mischievous little twinkle in his eye and then pointed at me saying you go get some firewood to which i responded ben that is a terrible idea

He frowned and asked why, and I motioned to the fact that we were sitting outside on dead grass and logs, and basically said that the woods around us were just a potential tinderbox. Ben scoffed and waved me off, trying to tell me that I was being a wimp, but I put my foot down on this one. I was okay with stupidity, but I wasn't okay with him burning the cabin down. I told him no fires, and that if he started one...

I would kick his ass. He grumbled, but eventually agreed and sat back down. We had a bit more back and forth before it started to get too late for me, and I decided to call it a night. I told the guys that I was headed in, and pointed to Ben, saying, "'Don't do it.' He laughed and said that he wouldn't, and I thought that was that. I went in, threw myself on the couch, and passed out pretty hard."

After a little while, I started hearing someone screaming, but half drunk, I thought that I was just having a dream, until I heard someone scream my name and the sound of distant sirens wailing through the woods. Panic surged through me as I jumped off the couch and ran outside. My heart skipped as my worst fears were confirmed, and I took in the chaos in front of me. There, a few feet from our gathering spot,

A bonfire was raging out of control. The fire had danced its way from the small pit where it had started and was spreading rapidly into the dense woods. The wind, just as I had feared, was carrying the small embers away, and it had pretty clearly spread this bonfire into what could become a catastrophic forest fire. And amidst the chaos in front of me was Ben.

his face pale, and his eyes wide with terror. Thankfully, the local fire department was there quickly, and they worked like crazy to control the blaze as it grew. It took them a couple of hours to completely douse the fire, preventing a disaster that could have easily consumed the cabin and destroyed a lot of the land. Even after all was said and done, the only thing that you could smell was that stench of burnt wood.

Ben later told me that he'd waited all of 30 minutes before he started the fire, thinking that he could control it. He honestly could not have been more wrong. We surveyed the area to see how much damage it had done, and to see where the fire had spread, and it hit Ben pretty quickly that, had the fire gone on for literally a couple more minutes, the cabin would have been completely consumed.

There was a section that was actually charred, that I would say was less than five feet from the rear wall. It would have caught, and it would have gone up like nothing. This place wasn't built like a house. It was just a small wooden cabin. There was nothing to stop it from burning like a pile of cheap wood, because that's what it was. After that day, we weren't allowed back at the cabin, like, at all.

My grandparents still hold this against us, and rightfully so, and we haven't been back up there since. Unless our mom or dad are with us, or they are there. Nothing like being in your late 20s and having to be escorted by your parents, because they can't trust you to be on their property alone. So, the lesson from this incident? Well, first off, my dear brother learned that he should listen to me when I tell him that his ideas are stupid.

and dry summers are bad when it comes to fires. And for anyone out there that thinks that things like this can't happen to them, I have a short but effective word of warning for you. Disaster doesn't knock before it kicks in your door. Don't be like Ben. Take your surroundings into consideration, and don't think that you can control things like fire. Nature does not like pain controlled. I guess some people have to learn the hard way like my brother did.

Even today, whenever I smell wood burning, I think of that scene with Ben standing in the woods staring at me like I messed up while the fire just rages behind him. It's a stark reminder for me how a moment's stupidity can lead to a potential disaster. My name is Brooke, and I live in Ireland. As a kid, I would visit my uncle on his farm down in Cork.

During the story, I was about 7. My uncle was 46, my aunt was 45, and their kids were 30, 28, 25, 23, 16, and 8. Note that even though I call them aunt, uncle, and cousins, they're not really part of the family. They're those type of family friends who bluff the line between familial and just platonic. I was outside with my two youngest cousins as we played football.

As we played, I kicked the ball into a well that was on the farm, and when it hit that well, my cousin went pale. The well was boarded up and the wood was rotten and breaking apart to begin with, and the ball hitting it was the straw on the camel's back. My cousin ushered the two of us inside as he told my uncle and aunt what happened. That night, I was sent to sleep with my 30-year-old cousin because he was the safest to be with.

I found this confusing as usually I slept on the couch. That night, my uncle put salt around the house, the furniture and each and every single door, and as the sun started to set we were all late into bed, which was weird as it was only 7:30 PM. He instructed us that we were not to come out of our room unless he told us to, and then we all locked our doors and went to bed. Everyone except me and my cousin. He didn't lock his door.

because he was too focused on making sure that I was okay. That night, I will never forget. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of chewing, and I saw a figure in the corner of the room. It was hunched down and nearly unseeable in the darkness. As my eyes adjusted, I could see it better. Lanky-limbed and pale with backbones looking ready to rip out of its skin,

Its body was mostly frail, but its biceps and upper back was beefy as hell. It had disheveled, messy, greasy black hair as it ate... something. As I slept, I prayed that I was just having sleep paralysis, but as I moved my foot, I knew that wasn't the case. I tried silently waking up my cousin, but as he was a heavy sleeper, I couldn't. I just watched for what felt like hours before I saw this thing look at me.

It looked so human, but like a pale corpse that was left in the sun for too long, and those eyes were sunken and white with red dots for pupils, like in photographs. I ended up passing out from fear and, in the morning, saw something awful. A dead chicken was on the floor, half-eaten, next to the ball that had been lost down the well.

Needless to say, I never wanted to return to the farm, especially since the farm closed a few weeks after because cattle, chickens, and sheep were going missing. My uncle and his family moved to Kilkenny, where they all lived happily to this day. But me? I never stopped seeing that thing. I can't even look outside my house anymore at night. It's always there. It traveled nearly two days' walk just to hunt me.

But this thing's tenacity isn't what scares me the most. It looked human, but it certainly wasn't. So, logically, it must be some sort of monster. And a monster is just an animal that we don't understand. And if it's an animal, that means it has a species. And if it has a species, that must mean that there's more of them somewhere. This experience is one that I've kept to myself forever.

for a very long time. And I've always wanted to put it out there, but I've always had this concern of people telling me that I was lying or was just making it up. I will say that I am not making this up at all. It may sound like a crazy story, but it is something that happened to myself and my cousin when we were much younger.

I'm not much of an author, so if the story feels a bit stiff, I do apologize. I'll try my best to make this detailed and written well enough. But this is the story of the night that my cousin and I believe we ran into the Jersey Devil out in the Pine Barrens. As I've said, I was spending my time with my cousin back when I was about 20-30.

While I was there, we had made plans to go on this camping trip as a way to wrap up our summer. As is only natural when you're in that part of New Jersey. I had told him that I wanted to spend a few nights in the Pine Barrens, an area notorious for those urban legends about how creepy the woods can be. We were fully aware of all the stories about the Jersey Devil, but being that age, and with him having lived there,

We all thought that it was just a joke, or a story to tell the kids to keep them out of the woods. We got to our destination, a spot that was a bit secluded, far away from other places, and we settled in for the night. The first day was great. We did some hiking, cooked up our food over a small fire, and we turned in pretty early. The second day we spent a lot of time out enjoying the weather, and we had broken out our case of beer, so that we could party a bit over the campfire.

That was honestly the overall plan of the trip. I was 20, my cousin was 22, so we planned on going out into the woods to get drunk and have a good time. That night, we started drinking and sitting around the fire, and my cousin started telling me about his plans for college, how he had actually gotten a scholarship for whatever sport it was that he played, and in the middle of this sentence, we both paused and looked into the trees.

The silence of the forest was broken by a weird sound, a high-pitched scream mixed in with a low growling sound. When we both heard it, I mentioned that it was probably just a wounded fox, that they make some really creepy noises, and it was most likely just that. My cousin laughed and said that it was creepy as hell, and then we heard it again.

Except this time, the higher pitched tone was less prominent and the growling was way louder. I then said that we should probably just go ahead and get to sleep. Part of me wanted to just ignore the sound and not think about it. My cousin agreed and we got into the tents and went to sleep. After a bit, I did doze off but I was woken up by that same sound again, probably around an hour or so later.

I heard it and my eyes shot open, like an instinctual reaction to the sound, like my body was telling me "hey, you need to wake up and be scared." I just stayed there on the sleeping bag for a few seconds, staring up at the ceiling of the tent, thinking about whether or not this thing was actually a threat, when I started hearing footsteps near the tents.

I glanced over to where I thought they were coming from, and sure enough, there was something there. The steps were a bit heavy as this thing approached. I started to get hit with this heavy fear when I saw a hand-like appendage pressing against the fabric of the tent, almost like it was rubbing it, trying to figure out what it was.

The thick fabric crinkled and folded slightly as this thing started pushing against the walls, and then the top. I just sat there thinking, "It'll lose interest, right? It'll walk away." Thankfully, it did lose interest after a while, and it did start walking away. At that point, though, I had to know what the hell that was, and when I was satisfied that it was a good distance away, I unzipped my tent to see if I could find this creature.

To my surprise, my cousin was already standing outside of his tent, pale as a ghost under the moonlight. It was at that point that I realized that this thing wasn't just a normal creature, nor was it something I was imagining. He had seen it very clearly. I saw this thing too, but he saw it in much better detail. What I saw was a very tall beast-like thing covered in matted fur,

and I swear that this thing had wings that were tucked in. My cousin added two details to this that makes me think this thing was the Jersey Devil. He said that it had glowing eyes that he saw as it walked away, and he claimed that it had legs with knees that shifted backwards, like a goat. I can't make that claim as I didn't see its eyes, nor could I really see its legs in detail, but this thing was not a normal animal. That much I am certain of.

Unfortunately, it was the middle of the night, and we were both a bit tipsy, so driving away wasn't really a good idea. We both made a conscious decision to start our fire back up and just wait the night out, and then drive away when we were sobered up in the morning. When the sun came up, we got our stuff together and got the hell out of Dodge. To this day, I'm convinced that what we encountered that night was the infamous Jersey Devil.

I can't explain what it was or why it chose to check out our little camp like it had, but I'm grateful that it didn't go any further, or decide that it wanted us, and not just to check our tents out. I know that nothing really happened to us, thankfully, but it was still a scary moment. That was the only time we ever camped out in the Pine Barrens, and I will never forget that thing.

Whether it was the Jersey Devil or not. Hello. I'm not sure how else to start this other than getting right into the details. I want to include all of the important information, so I apologize if this is a bit longer. I feel like this is an important story to share in order to hopefully help others avoid being in a similar situation.

or even help someone catch the signs early on before too much damage is done. To start, I'm a male in my late 30s. I've dated off and on for quite some time, but never really anything serious. And I mean like, dating for a few months at the most.

I was beginning to think that I just wasn't cut out for relationships, and was pretty much ready to live with the reality that I probably wouldn't find someone for me. My dating was all through the normal channels. They were a friend of a friend, blind dates, dating profiles and apps. I was willing to try whatever. I never really had much luck on the sites, but I still kept my profile updated in hopes that I could be proven wrong.

That's where the story starts. I was going through potential matches, clicking a simple yes, no, maybe, and after going through a few pages, I turned off my laptop and headed for bed. The next morning, I got a match notification and a message from a girl named Yvonne. I remembered choosing yes to her. I remembered her unique name and her long dark hair in her photos.

It's always exciting when they actually match back, so it was a good start to my day. We conversed briefly about each other, how we ended up on the site, simple things like that. Later that evening, because I had told her I was off to work, she messaged me again asking how work was. This was the first time that I'd had someone ask me about work.

I thought that it was really sweet of her and the fact that she initiated the conversation twice now was giving me a good feeling about her. We started talking frequently, and she seemed very interested in me. She asked a lot of questions like she truly cared. She was more than willing to share about her life, too. She actually told me that she had moved to the US with her parents when she was very young, and now she helps to take care of them.

It wasn't long after that that she was willing to meet up and go on an actual date, too. It was actually a few days in when she asked about an actual date. We set one up at a nearby restaurant, and it went incredibly well. She was the same person from the photos, and her personality even fit with the conversation we'd been having, too. She was very bubbly, social...

and she even seemed very interested in me when I was talking, which I was not used to. We said our goodbyes after dinner, and shortly after leaving, she texted me saying that she was excited about the next date, and to make this official. I was honestly in shock. I had no idea what I had done to win a girl like Yvonne, and why she seemed so interested in me and so quickly.

But I guess I may have also been clouded by the ideas of just not being alone, not being a third wheel, and to have actually found a real chance at love. We officially started dating the next time that we met up. We went for dinner and a movie, and she actually came back to my place that night. Things were going pretty well for about a month. I had even told a few friends and my older sister about her.

My sister wanted to meet her, but Yvonne said that she didn't know if she was ready to meet family yet, and I understood. We hadn't been dating that long, so I definitely was not going to push it. Around our second month in, I had a business trip that I was going to be taking, and I told her all about it, telling her that we wouldn't be able to see each other for about a week, but she insisted that she go with me, that way we could spend more time together.

At the time, I thought it was a great idea. She could see a new state, and I would have someone waiting for me back in the hotel. We got the flight all set up to match with my own, and I offered to pay for the flight because her card had been declined. She said that she would pay me back though, and that was that. On the trip, she said that she was going to explore the area while I was out, and that she would be back by the time I returned.

When I did return, she seemed a bit upset saying that she was still having troubles with her card, and when she called her bank, they said it was on hold and wouldn't be fixed for a few days, conveniently when we returned from the trip. I felt bad, and I didn't want her to be cooped up in the room the whole time, so I gave her my debit card and said she could use it to buy herself food, do a little shopping if she wanted, and just be able to have a good time.

She thanked me, and said that she would transfer money to me when her accounts were back open. The trip was fine from there. She spent a little more than I would have expected, around $300 or so, but she also bought stuff for both of us, which I thought was kind of her to consider. Then, when we went back home, more issues started popping up. She ended up asking for financial help for a lot of things.

She asked for help on her car that needed repairs. Then she would come back with something she bought, and when I asked about the car, she said she was able to get it fixed cheaper and had money to spare. If you haven't figured it out yet, I was pretty infatuated with Yvonne. So all I thought was, geez, she's smart with money too. She was able to pay less, giving her some extra money to spend. Heh.

I also helped her with paying some bills and even helped her parents who were in a financial bind as well. Unfortunately, other people were seeing the red flags way before I did. This was about six months into our dating. She briefly met my sister when she came over to my apartment, but my sister was not keen on her. My sister and I were really close, so she was not afraid to tell me how she felt.

She told me how she didn't like how much money I was giving her, and that I needed to set boundaries. I basically told her that she was crazy, and that I had everything under control. This caused some strain between my sister and I. But at the time, I was clouded by what I thought was love. The money thing continued more, to the point that I was now using the funds that I had put in savings.

I was having to make sure that I got all my bills and expenses paid first, so I knew how much extra money I had. I knew I was giving her a lot of money, but it just seemed like I was losing a lot more and a lot faster. So, I told Yvonne that I had to cut back a bit because of things coming up and she understood. In fact, she started apologizing and crying, saying that she felt bad and blamed herself.

I calmed her down, and I told her that I had been willingly giving her the money, so it was my fault for not monitoring it, and she started perking back up. Around this time, she told me that she had to make an emergency trip back to her home country due to a family issue, so I gave her some cash as padding and wished her well, expecting to see her about two weeks later.

She still texted me daily through an app, but she said she couldn't call because of signal issues. This is where it finally started clearing up for me. The first thing was when I got a low balance alert from my bank. I was confused because I had just gotten paid the day before. There was no way that I was low. Yet, when I checked my account, I was actually negative.

I started checking all the transactions, and it was all for things that I had never heard of. There were charges for high-end clothing stores, online makeup stores, cash app transfers to a name that I didn't even recognize. I reported it all to my bank, hoping to recoup some of it. I was now a bit stressed because I didn't have any money in my account. I was about to ask my sister to borrow some money for the week, at least until I got some of the money back.

♪♪

However, that one had transfers to an external account, and to my regular account that I wasn't aware of. This caused me to go back to my account and start digging deeper. This had been going on for a while. The transfers started a few weeks after my business trip. Money was being spent, and then money was being transferred from that savings to make it look like the balance never changed. So I called my bank back to add them to the list,

and they brought up that a lot of the charges I was talking about were also used with my card. I didn't even know how that was possible, because I had my card on me, and I know I didn't go to the places that they were mentioning. Then, they explained that someone had called in and asked to have a duplicate card sent. None of this was making any sense.

Now my account was being closed due to a huge risk, and my money was going to be held up even longer. So now I had to call my sister and tell her what happened. When I explained this to her, she immediately asked where Yvonne was. I told her that she had to leave the country for a while, and she just laid it out on me. I know that those of you reading, or hearing this, probably have figured it out by now, but...

I really thought I had found someone, and I did not want to believe this. So, my sister came over, and together, I was able to start making sense of everything. We did a public records check, and there was no one matching a Yvonne with her description. We went to check her dating profile, and found her on other sites, but with varying last names.

Then, we were able to find an Instagram with the same pictures, and I was devastated. She had pictures on there with another guy that she was calling her husband. Even worse, there was a picture posted just two days prior of her and him in what looked like a theater. A theater that was very clearly in the US. I was at a loss for words.

She was somewhere else with her so-called husband, enjoying herself on my dime. I was catfished, scammed, swindled, whatever you want to call it, and I felt like such an idiot, but you don't have to tell me that. She hid it incredibly well. She was around often, other than when we both worked, but I guess that she was just using my money, so she was probably with him.

We were even intimate, which I guess added to me actually believing that she cared and loved me. Through my embarrassment, my sister helped me with filing a police report. Thankfully, while I did let her use my card at times, she did not have permission to copy the information and use it as she had pleased. She was also not on my grandfather's account, so I was able to report all of those.

I was still out a lot of money. Because of the card present charges, it really made it hard to prove what I did or didn't do, and what I had allowed her to use. I was also paying for her phone bill because she got a new phone while we were together, one of her many expenses that I thought that she had, so I quickly turned that off.

I guess that she noticed that one because I started getting calls from an unknown number, and it was Yvonne, asking what was wrong with her phone. I confronted her about everything. She first started denying it all, said that I was crazy and that it wasn't her. She even said that she would marry me to prove it. Then she turned to making fun of me, calling me a fool and so on.

I obviously pressed charges and that was the first time that I heard her real name. Sometimes I still get random calls, texts, emails, and Facebook messages from different accounts trying to harass me, and I know that it's just her or her husband. So I block them and move on. So there it is. While it may not have been scary to some, I lost a lot of money.

putting me in a bad situation which was pretty scary to me and who knows how far she would have taken it if i hadn't caught on or yet my sister i'm very thankful that even though i didn't believe her she stuck by my side to help me out as mentioned i wanted to share this as a warning to others no matter who you are do not get tangled up in something like this

Learn the warning signs early on, and know that you are worth the time it takes.