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Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain. I'm excited to let you all know that I got my hands on a Nintendo Switch 2 the Mario Kart World Bundle, and I'm giving it away to one of my podcast supporters on June 4. I stood in line for about seven hours to ensure that I got one. So I'm pretty excited to tell you that I actually did get one by the skin of my teeth. Honestly, only my podcast members are in this pool. It's a small group. You actually have a shot to win. In order to win, all you have to do is sign up for a $2.99 a month membership to support my podcast. Keep in mind that all of the ads will go away, you'll be able to listen completely interruption free and you will enter automatically. By doing that, the winner will be announced September 1st. Click the link in the description to join. Now get rid of all of the ads. Enjoy the podcast with absolutely no interruptions and you might just have a Nintendo Switch 2 sent to your doorstep. And with that said, I really hope you enjoy this episode. This episode is brought to you by JCPenney and if you've been to JCPenney recently, yes, JCPenney, you'll know it's becoming the way to find good clothes for prices that still make sense. They've got hidden gems for everyone and every budget with deals and rewards that actually make a dentist. If you already shop JCPenney, you feel like you know a secret, but if not, it's time to ask. Wait, am I sleeping on jcpenney? Shopjcpenney.com yes jcpenney I lived with my dad until about age 8 and this is the age I was when this event took place. Now, my dad wasn't a normal dad. His profession was on the not legal side of things, and even at a young age I was aware of this. He would constantly have people in and out of our home and constantly be making deliveries to a vast cast of characters. We moved more times than I can count and it was difficult to fit in anywhere as most people quickly became aware of my dad's job, quote unquote. I will say this, even with all the terrible life choices he made, I knew he loved me. He never hurt me, and one night my dad proved just how far he would go to provide me safety. We lived out in the middle of the woods in the country where the neighbors literally were miles apart. We had a landline phone and basic cable with a slew of movies to keep me occupied. As my dad put when he was Working. It had been a very long day, full of aggravation and frustration for my dad, and he had a horrible cough. As it grew dark, my dad went through, locked everything up and told me he was taking some cough medicine and going to sleep, reminding me not to be up all night. He disappeared into his room, excited to have the night to myself. I made some cereal, put in a movie and got comfortable on the futon in the living room. About two movies and way too many bowls of cereal later, I got up to use the bathroom, tiptoeing through our home, cautious to not wake my dad. I went back to the kitchen for something else. The only light was coming from the tv, which faced away from the kitchen, so not much help, but enough to not turn anything else on. Something caught my eye on the floor in front of the sliding glass door. I bent down, finding a piece of paper on the kitchen floor. I quickly looked up and all around the kitchen, wondering if my dad was playing a joke on me since I didn't listen and was up so late. But I was alone. The note read, I see you. I quickly checked the sliding glass door, locked the front door, locked windows, I don't know. I went to my dad's room and poked my head in the door. There he was, fast asleep, snoring like a train. I didn't dare wake him. I went back to the living room, hopped on the futon and covered up. Suddenly I heard a light tapping on the window, like if a pebble was being hit against the glass. I didn't move a muscle. The tapping grew into thunderous pounding on the sliding glass door. It was so loud I thought it would shatter. Daddy. I screamed at the top of my lungs. My dad didn't wake. I ran to his room to find him still snoring and I shook him with all my tiny might. But he barely woke enough to tell me to go to bed. I urged him to wake up. I heard something and someone was banging outside. He growled at me and slowly got up, going to the living room together. He stopped dead in his tracks and I ran my face right into his back. Being so close to him, I peeked around my dad to see several notes all around the kitchen floor. My dad looked scared, then angry. Did you make this mess? He began asking me. I assured him I did not and that someone was pounding on the glass door and quickly showed him the I see you note. He didn't believe me, thinking I just wanted attention. He told me to clean it all up and go straight to bed, reminding me again that he was not in the mood and felt miserable. He went back to bed and I stood there shaking. I started picking up the notes, not wanting to read them, but curiosity getting the best of me. Run. Hide, Die. Three more notes. I couldn't ignore this, and no matter how angry it made him, I was showing my dad. I ran to his room again, shoving the papers in his face, begging that he read them. Seeing the fear on my face, my dad sat up, flipping through the notes and said, coat and shoes, now. I didn't hesitate. I was ready in seconds, and so was my dad. He grabbed the car keys and pep talked. Our escape plan. Basically, it was run to the car, buckle up, and hold on. As he opened the door, a dark figure stood, weapon in hand, lifting it and hitting my dad square in the face, knocking him backwards. The figure grabbed me up like a cat and began walking away with me. I started kicking and screaming and trying to get out of the grip of this stranger's arms. I couldn't. The man threw me into a van and took off. I moved inside the van to the back doors, banging on the rear windows and screaming for my dad. The man yelled at me to shut up or he would knock me out, too. I didn't stop screaming. The man pulled the van over. Our home was out of sight. The man got out, walked around to the side, and slid the door open. I jumped out as soon as the door opened and ran as fast as I could. The man was faster, catching me with ease. The man grabbed me by my hair and said, don't run. Don't scream. I didn't listen. I screamed for my dad. I kicked and squirmed and gave it my best, but I was no match for the man. As he pulled me alongside the van, I saw lights coming up fast. I knew it would be my dad. I started screaming again as loud as I could, and the man threw me inside the van and shut the door. 1, 2, 3, 4. What sounded like shots so loud I couldn't help but scream. This somehow gave me the strength to go from the back of the van to the front and hop out the driver's side door. I ran out into the street towards the oncoming lights. It was my dad. He was going fast. I moved to the side of the road, and as my dad passed me, he looked over at me. It was like everything slowed down for a split second, and suddenly he slammed into the van. I ran to my dad's car, screaming for him to be okay. His face was bloody and busted up. He stumbled out of the car grabbing my shoulders, asking if the man had hurt me. I sobbed and shook my head no. My dad told me to stand behind the car and he approached the van. I could hear the man yelling curse words at my dad and saying threats of death and something about this ain't over Billy. And then silence. It seemed like forever but was mere minutes. My dad scooped me up and told me, let's get out of here, Paulie. My dad held me close and told me that he loved me. He put me in the car and got in the driver's seat. Smoke was coming from under the hood but we were able to drive away. Eventually my dad drove us away from our home, the van and the man. I didn't see the man as we drove by, just a small flicker of flames turning into a roaring blaze as we drove away from everything. I soon fell asleep, gripping my dad's finger and knowing I was as safe as could When I was 18 I worked at my college's residence building at the front desk and I think I almost got assaulted or murdered. You be the judge. During the summer the building operated as a hotel, so two and a half floors were hotel rooms and half of the third floor were student rooms. The whole building operated with a hotel swipe key system that was pretty outdated and all the doors were powered by four AA batteries. If the batteries died, there was a decently lengthy process to replace them and reprogram the door. A dark haired guy came to the front desk from inside the building while I was working an overnight shift at around 1 or 2am and said he left his keycard in his room. I made him a new one and made my first error of the night. Hotel guests could have as many room keys remade as they wanted, hypothetically. Students, however were supposed to be given a temporary key card and charged $2 to be returned when theirs is located. I gave him a new key for his room and asked if he was a student or a hotel guest and he replied student. At this point I should have checked our system to charge his account, but I was caught up doing administrative duties and forgotten. I used to trust people way too easily at this job but quickly learned not to. Later on in the night, maybe around 3 or 4am, he came to the desk again and said that he couldn't get into his room. I asked if he just forgot his key again and he said no. The door wasn't working. I asked if the light was coming on when he swiped his card and he said no so I figured the batteries were dead. I told him I would have to change, changed the batteries and went up to his room with them. He asked me for my name and I told him. He didn't tell me his. I opened the room door manually with a master key and told him I would have to prop it open while I worked on the back panel to replace the batteries. He said, no, it's okay, I'll close it, and closed and deadbolted the door. Locked. Really weird, but I tried not to think about it. I changed the batteries on plenty of other doors by this point, and some students were iffy about having their doors propped open for the room to be on display for anyone walking by. He also had a really thick accent and I thought he might be an international student since we had a lot of students from other countries where English was not their first language. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe it was also just a language barrier issue. At this point though, I really felt like something was wrong, but I tried to ignore it so I didn't freak him out. While I was trying to focus on fixing the door as quickly as possible, he kept trying to entice me to go further into the room, saying his bed was broken and that he needed me to take a look at it, that there was something underneath it that needed to be fixed, etc. He held out a little gold house key and said, I have a key, go get it and threw it under the bed. He said there was a leak under the fridge. He just kept trying to get me down on the ground, throwing random problems at me. Obviously, I told him no, I would send maintenance up in the morning to take a look at it if anything was broken. I had my back to him and he asked me if I would take off my glasses. I said no, I need them to see. His tone of voice changed and in the most steady, chilling manner he said, ella, it's okay, you can take them off. And from behind me, he reached around and tried to take off my glasses. I swatted his hand away and trying to remain composure, said, no thanks, I need to keep them on. Even though he was really creeping me out, I didn't want to get in trouble if he complained about me or risk upsetting him and having him yell at me. I got up to grab something from the door repair kit and undid the door deadbolt and opened it up in the process. He jumped toward the door to close it again and told me to keep it closed. I told him no, I had to open it to start reprogramming it from the front while I held the door open with my foot and grabbed something from the door repair kit. He started playing with the little wispy hairs at the top of my forehead and trying to touch my shoulder. I swatted him away again and asked him not to touch me and focused on getting out of there. He once again tried to get me to follow him into the bedroom, saying the bed was broken and I went as far as the door frame to see if I could spot any actual problem with his bed. This is when I realized that he had nothing in his room. No dishes in the kitchen, no shower curtain in the bathroom, no sheets on the bed. Nothing. This wasn't his room. My brain once again went back to the International Student Theory, thinking that he had just arrived today and hadn't gotten a chance to buy anything yet. But in the pit of my stomach I knew something was wrong. I fiddled around with the door for a few more seconds before announcing that it was fixed and quickly gathered the door kit and left. Before I had reached the elevator, he came back out with his shoes on to follow me. He tried to get back in to get his shoes and called out, ella, the door isn't fixed. You need to come back. I went back and opened the door manually and told him if the door was broken, I would have to send up maintenance to fix it in the morning. I knew he was going to follow me to the elevator again, so I closed the door behind me once. He went inside and ran down the stairwell as fast as I could. When I got to the front desk, I checked the computer and saw that the room he was in was supposed to be empty. It wasn't a student room or a hotel room. I locked myself in our back office and called campus security. He came back down a few minutes later and went behind the desk. I yelled at him to get on the other side and wait. Now that I knew he wasn't a resident, he tore the corner of a slip of paper I had sitting on the desk and drew a flower on it, then put it back on the top of my papers. When security arrived, he ran back up to the empty room and tried convincing them he lived there so he wouldn't have to leave. He kept showing them his key, which had decided to work on the door again. Somehow they escorted him back downstairs and came to ask me if he really did live there. Obviously he didn't. That's why I called you guys. Crying and terrified. He kept interjecting to argue that he did live there, but couldn't even recall his room number. When asked, security asked him for his student card and he couldn't produce it, so they told him he would have to leave if he couldn't prove that he lived there. While they were grabbing his information, I listened from the office and could immediately tell he was lying. The phone number he gave was just a bunch of random numbers. The name he gave was prefixed by um, as if he was trying to think of a name. When they asked him for his address, he just said across the street. One security guard asked if he lived in the apartments across the street, and he said yes, but couldn't tell them what the building number was. He said his apartment number was 1200, but I moved into that building a few months later and apartment 1200 doesn't exist. When security asked what his purpose was to be sneaking into a room, he just kept up the ums and uhs and saying he didn't know they would ask, were you trying to see a friend? Do you know anybody who lives here? Were you here to hurt somebody? And he kept fidgeting and saying, I don't know. No reason. I was just here. At one point he tried to tell them he was my friend, at which point I poked my head out of the office to say that I literally have never seen him before that night he left. We didn't call the police because he didn't actually do anything, but it was still unsettling. Later on, it dawned on me how we figured out the room was vacant. One of the housekeepers had been using it as her personal break room. A few days later, a housekeeper came to the desk and told me they found the door deadbolted open, the TV on, and a housekeeper inside watching tv. She must have forgotten to close the door when she left for the night. And when the creep let himself into the building, he found it. I never saw him again, and to this day I have no clue what he was doing there. I haven't worked there since last winter, and overnight shifts still give me the heebie jeebies. 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Apply it was mid October, gentle warm winds blowing the multicolored leaves around the desolate road. The sky had just changed from the warm orange sunset to chilly darkness. The moon brought a chill that carried a warning with it. Be alert. This wasn't a dangerous area, but it was known to be full of desperate high risk individuals, possibly to no fault of their own. And some by choice. All around low income homes, city rent assisted rentals, halfway houses for recently released jailbirds. A few two story homes, once beautiful, now defiled, being known as drug houses or full of prostitutes. So not high crime, just an area with a lot of criminals. You're probably wondering what someone would be doing in this area after sunset on a chilly October evening. I will tell you. I had a friend, we'll call her Rose, who had three children and although she worked multiple jobs and was not in the criminal crowds, it's in this area that she could provide a four bedroom home for her and her children. We had been friends for quite some time, meeting each other at a side restaurant job serving for the quick cash. Rose and I had made plans. Plans to take the kids to the movies. The kids were ages 10 to 15 years old, so it wasn't so bad going out places as they were fairly independent at this age. Movie night is tonight. I pull up across the street from her house and put the car in park, crack the window and grab my phone to alert Rose that I have arrived. I typically would go to the door and knock, but the busy road that Rose's place is on makes it difficult to hear someone knocking. So to be cautious. Or so I thought, I decided to stay in the car and call Rose. In my anticipation of our night out, I slipped and let my guard down upon putting my car in park. It automatically unlocks the car doors. Normally I am beyond on guard and have a habit of immediately hitting the lock after going into park. Tonight however, I had grabbed my phone after immediately going into park, thus foregoing my usual protective actions. As I sat there scrolling my phone waiting for Rose's first response, usually an apology for running behind, then another. I'm almost Ready Text. The sound of feet approaching snapped me out of my phone zone and I looked around at first seeing nothing but orange and brown leaves wisping by illuminated by my headlights, which I also neglected to turn off. As I clicked the main headlights off, leaving only the parking lights on, I instinctively hit the lock button at the same exact time a man in black hoodie and doll tried to open the passenger door handle. Had I been a split second slower, the door would have opened. The timing was absolutely insane. The man bent down, peering into the window while continuing to try to open the door, aggressively grabbing at the door handle as he moved to the back door, trying each handle on the passenger side again and again. All I could think to do was yell, no, no. Not here for you. Wrong car, man. The man stepped back as if to acknowledge his mistake and I put up my hand in the universal it's okay motion and his response was to walk around the back of the car and as he approached the driver's window, I rolled it up, now face to face with this mysterious man dressed in black. The darkness and his clothing hid his face, making it impossible to judge his intentions. As I stared out at this stranger, I told him, I'm waiting on friends to come out with their kids and I couldn't help him with anything. He continued looking inside the car, I assumed, not being able to see his eyes. I looked back at my phone, startled by the chime of a text alert. I heard a tink tink sound. Looking back up at the window, now staring at a weapon being gently tapped at the window, the man motioned for me to roll the window down. In this situation, we all think how heroic we would be. I froze, but had the mind to barely crack the window. The man held the weapon in my face and demanded money. He actually only said money and I looked at him and said, I don't have cash. I don't carry cash. If I did, I would give it to you. The man remained calm and steady and again said, money. You think I'm playing? I began to look around my car, telling the armed man, hold on, let me check around, reminding him again that I don't carry cash. Looking back to the man, I again said, I'm sorry, I don't have cash. The man was not giving up. All of a sudden I remembered my change wallet I kept behind the seat and told the man, hang on, I have a wallet in the back. I reached back and grabbed the wallet, praying I stuck some cash in there. Wallet in hand, I quickly unzipped the larger pocket to my relief, there was a $10 bill. I took it out, slipped it through the crack in the window with weapons still in my face, and said, this is everything I have. And the man took the $10 and began to casually walk away. He didn't run, he didn't yell. He just started walking away, calm as can be. I rolled the window up, flipped on the headlights, and put the car in reverse to back into the driveway behind me and turn out onto the road opposite of the way the man was walking. As I started backwards, the man turned around and again pointed the gun directly at me through the windshield. I paused, put my hands up to show him I was stopping. The man started walking backwards, weapon pointed at my car, until ducking behind a house and disappearing into the night. And just like that, the situation was over. I had been robbed. I sat in shock for a moment before continuing to back up, turning around and driving the opposite direction. I pulled into the next open gas station, called Rose, and told her and the kids to lock the doors and stay inside. Movie night was canceled. I ended my call with Rose, having summarized the events that unfolded directly in front of her home across the street, and reminded her to lock up and consider moving and I would help however I could. Glancing into the passenger seat, I pulled the blanket down, seeing my son still fast asleep. I was thankful that he slept through the whole situation and that he had brought his favorite blanket to nap with this night. He was only six years old and I woke him up, carried him inside the gas station and called the police. I wanted to notify the police in hopes of them catching this guy so that another person wouldn't have to be in this situation. Thinking back on the whole event, I was thankful the man didn't get too nervous as I was digging around in my car, and even more thankful his intentions were money motivated and not worse. Needless to say, I don't go to that area anymore and Rose was able to move a month later. The mysterious man was never found. There was a carnival in town that weekend, and the police thought that he may not even be from the area. Not to mention I couldn't give them much of a description. The report was filed. I tucked my son back into his seat, buckled him back up, and just in case, covered him once again for the ride home. When I was 16 years old, I decided to surprise my parents with a bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day. We have always celebrated this as a family holiday rather than a romantic one. I didn't have a car to drive to a florist. But my high school was within walking distance of a hospital boasting a gift shop that sells floral arrangements between classes during the week of Valentine's Day. I set off for the hospital by my lonesome, cutting across campus to walk through a network of side roads populated with specialty doctors offices that keep odd hours, the sort of buildings where traveling doctors mainly hold surgery consultations or perform small procedures a few times a month. The trip there passed without incident. As I was walking back through said deserted roads with a vase of flowers in tow, I noticed an UN unkempt 1990s car close behind me. While my memory of the car is hazy, I am left with the impression that there were at least two men within whose faces I could not see. Initially, I assumed that the driver was simply afraid of hitting me, the reason that they weren't passing by. So I made a point of dramatically trudging further into the grassy shoulder of the road, demonstrating to them that they could safely drive ahead. They still refused to pass me by, continuing to creep along behind at a slow pace. Beginning to suspect that the driver was more interested in me than a destination, I began to walk faster. The car confirmed my suspicions by matching my speed. Despite the impracticality of my shoes and the threat of spilling water from my base, I commenced to run as fast as I I possibly could. They hit the gas and again matched my speed. I realized at this point that the car was following me, that there was no one in sight to notice, and I needed to get away. I bolted into the first parking lot that I saw. The car turned in after me. Despite there being only two or three cars in the spacious front parking lot and there being no other sign of activity in the office, this car did not stop to park in the numerous spaces available there. The driver instead opted to pursue me into the partially under construction back portion of this lot behind the office. It passed every available parking space to corner me against a pile of debris and rubble from the construction, coming to a diagonal stop less than three feet away. Before anyone could emerge from the the vehicle, I somehow managed to scale the small prominence of the rubble against my back, vase in hand, and jumped from its peak to land painfully on the other side, which fortunately was a plot of undeveloped land within sight of my high school campus. I took a quick peek back over my shoulder to see if they were still in pursuit. But the car had sped off after I reached the top of the rubble pile and was now nowhere in sight. Sight. They had not parked in the lot at all. They had no business there. The driver was following me. I sprinted at top speed and didn't stop until I was soaked with sweat in the dead of winter and panting in the student lounge among my classmates who didn't seem to care when I told them. Possibly because our hometown is supposedly a human trafficking capital and the crime rate is outrageous. In retrospect, I should have told an adult, alerted campus security and called the non emergency line of the local police station. But I was young, foolish, insecure and afraid of getting in trouble for leaving campus when I didn't have a signed permission form permitting me to do so. I kept trying to convince myself that I had misread the situation or was overreacting. I don't know what I would have even told the police had I called them, as I was entirely ignorant on the subject of cars and couldn't have identified the make of it had I been asked and I couldn't see the faces of the occupants. I was also worried that my parents would restrict my already extremely limited freedoms if they knew that I had been in any danger. I feel horrible for having never told anyone, anyone and earnestly hope that my secrecy hasn't led to someone being hurt or killed. I believe the only missing people aside from runaway children or elderly adults with dementia in this city right now though are men. Aside from one woman a few decades ago, I am an overnight security guard for a large building parking ramp. It's generally a really quiet job with a lot of free time, but occasionally I do have to kick out homeless people. It's a horrible part of the job and I do my best to direct them to the next safest place to sleep. Most people are understanding as they unfortunately go through this a lot. If anything, they want to vent and I try to be an open ear. Our protocol is to ask them to leave, then if they don't, tell them to leave and if all else fails, we have to contact police. I have only once gotten to that last step. It's important to note my general routine at work. I sit in a shack in the parking ramp for an hour. Then I go for a walk around the building and then back to the shack. The doors are all locked, but there's an entryway with an ATM that's open 24 7. This is usually where I find people looking for a place to sleep. For more context, I am a smaller woman and unarmed. On this night there was a woman trying to sleep by the atm. I followed protocol and after the first two two warnings I had to contact police. She yelled at Me, which is out of the normal, but understandable considering her position. It must be frustrating being constantly kicked out of every semi safe space. Police arrived and because I was a little scared, I watched from inside the building to make sure they got her out. If she was yelling at me, she was full on screaming at them. This goes on for about a half an hour before she leaves the building. Unfortunately, that's all the cops are required to do, so she makes her way to the bus stop right outside. The problem with this is the bus stop is parallel with my shack. She just sits and stares at me with hatred in her eyes. This gets uncomfortable pretty quickly, so I decide to take another walk. When I'm passing the door that leads out to my my shack, I decide to take a peek out of the little door window. I don't usually do this, but I felt uneasy knowing that she was probably still in the area. And it's a good thing I did. I can just barely see it, but behind my shack I see the slightest wobble. There she was hiding right behind my shack. It's not a big thing, maybe a 10 foot cube made out of large wood windows and metal right at the entrance of the parking ramp. I have no doubt she was waiting for me. I call the police and just keep watching from the little door window while I'm waiting. She eventually lets out an angry scream, kicks the miscellaneous junk in front of the shack and storms up the stairwell in the parking ramp for an extra kick of anxiety. The floor above me had a broken door that wasn't locked locked at the time. Eventually police get there and after some harsh words they get her to leave again and this time she walks off into the night. What really scares me was what I found on my next walk. There is a mirror next to the door I was watching her from. I couldn't see it from inside, but from this side it was obvious she had broken the mirror and a large piece was was missing. Maybe I've allowed my anxiety to build this all up in my head, but from my perspective, she had taken a large sharp object, hid behind my shack and waited for me to walk up. This happened a few years ago and sometimes I still have nightmares where I didn't manage to get away. Let me start off by saying I live in a pretty big city, lots of bars and clubs and I have experience with partying and drugs. I have been in blackout drunk situations and this was not that. I no longer go out on my own. That night I decided to go out with some friends, bar hopping. I Mainly knew only one of the girls that I hung out with on the regular. The other two were more acquaintances or strangers. I was very outgoing and loved meeting people, so that was nothing new for me. We had a few drinks at a bar and continued on to the next one, having fun, great times. One of the girls I didn't know well pulled out the party stuff sometime during our second bar visit. I decided to skip it because I wasn't looking to get too messed up that night. My friend said yes and she and the third girl went to the bathroom. The second girl, let's call her Barb, kept saying that I should go with the other two. I declined and declined. She got a little aggressive and mean. After the third time, I declined. My friend came back just then and Barb acted like nothing had just happened. We had some new guys join our group to flirt. I am in a relationship, but my friend and Barb were not. By then, the second girl had left. Barb and my friend were starting to get pretty messed up. I went to use the bathroom and text my boyfriend that I was coming home soon and saw that my phone was dead. When I came back, the guys had gotten a shots. I was still pretty sober and declined the shot. Barb shoved the shot into my hand and to avoid a scene, I took it. I started to tell my friend I was heading home, but one look at her face and Barb and I saw that they were out of it. I was starting to feel pretty woozy myself, so I grabbed my things and their things and started shoving them to go. The guys that bought the shots were protesting, but I wasn't getting resistance from the girls. I hailed a cab and I remember putting the girls in the back and telling the driver that we were dropping off my friends at their house and then going to my address, then blacked out. I remember dropping off my friend, then a blackout. Then I was alone with that driver. I was in the front seat and he was holding my hand. I looked around, disoriented, took in the sight of him holding my hand while driving like my boyfriend would. I saw my wallet in the center cup holder, the meter was off and was telling me that he was taking me to a romantic place. I told him no, please take me home. My boyfriend was waiting at home. He said something along the lines of stop talking about him. I you told told you. Which to me in hindsight indicates that I had already told him many times. He said he just wanted to pretend for a little and held my hand tighter. I didn't want to trigger a violent reaction. So I left my hand there and started to reach for my wallet with my other hand. He saw, let go of my hand and took my wallet from the cup holder to his other side where I couldn't reach it. I was still woozy and blacked out again when I came to my senses. We were parked near a very known, romantic and touristy location in my city. Normally this place is packed. Not that night. It's pretty far from anything else too, and surrounded by woods. I started to cry and tell him, please take me home. I want to see my boyfriend. I won't tell anyone. Please. He looked at me and said, I will take you home if you pretend you are my girlfriend. For a little while I sat there in shock. I wished my brain wasn't rattled. I wished I had never gone out. I wished I could see my boyfriend for the thousandth time that night. I said, okay. He smiled, put my wallet back in the cup holder. I took it slowly and put it under my leg. He took my hand and looked out the front window out into the little lake that he had brought me to. He started talking and I don't remember what he was saying. I was trying not to black out again. I waited for him to look at me and asked again. Please take me home. He said if I let him give me a kiss. I said no. He looked mad for a fraction of a second and squeezed the hand that he was still holding. He leaned in fast and kissed me anyways. I kept my lips sealed tight against him, ready to bite and scratch and not go down easy. He let go of my hand and backed away. He started the car and started our way back to civilization. I was crying as silently as possible, trying not to be heard so he would forget I was there and want to touch me, hold my hand. I waited until we were near enough people that I could bolt out of the car and find another way home. I think he saw me grabbing my wallet from under my leg and knew my intention to jump out at the next red light. He snatched it again and said that he would drive me. I just nodded. But by then I didn't care about the wallet, my phone, or anything else. I didn't know what time it was by then. I do know there was almost no cars driving in my usual busy city. No buses, no people. I didn't care anymore. He stopped at a red light. I unlocked the door and yanked it open and ran. I didn't look back, but I heard a car peel out of the intersection. He was running too my phone still dead. No wallet so no money really far from my house. I was still drowsy and crying. I had no idea what time it was. I started walking home. I heard a car pull up near me and started running out of instinct. I heard a woman's voice yell out, are you okay? I stopped and swirled around and the most beautiful person I have ever seen in the world was walking towards me slowly, hands out in front of her so as to not scare me. I started crying even harder, more incoherent than I had ever been in my life. She hugged me so hard and asked for my boyfriend's number. She called him. He answered straight away. She started telling him where I was, that I was okay, that she was taking me home. I cried the whole way back trying to explain what happened but still woozy, still freaking out. It was hard. So we drove in relative silence. When we got home, my boyfriend was waiting outside losing his mind. My savior gave me her phone number to call her when I felt better and drove off. It was 5am I left the bar at 10pm that's all I can remember. A week later my wallet showed up in my mailbox. There is something that makes us feel indestructible in our younger years, teens to twenties. Anyway. That or it's just the simple thoughts of that couldn't or wouldn't happen to me type of attitude. Well, I will tell you of a time when just that type of situation created itself in my life. I was in my early 20s and started working out with my best friend, walking 12 planes plus miles each day, weight training and eating healthier. Some days our schedule would conflict and I had to go it alone so to speak, and would always walk a paved path near my home. The path was a mile wide circle similar to a track at a high school or gym and had a small lake in the middle. This particular area was most definitely not a safe area, but it being daylight and having having a gas station nearby only served to fuel my confidence and can do attitude. I headed about just before dinner, water bottle in hand and ready to tackle today's 12 miles well 12 plus the 1.5 to reach the path. Overachieving today. I laughed to myself reaching the circular path. It was nearing 6pm in the evening in summer, so not nearly close to getting dark quite yet. I walked onto the path noting my start time and starting spot. I took off. I had my phone and headphones back when all headphones plugged into your phone, started some music and prayed for a breeze. About three laps in I was alone. Some groups had come and gone, some kids on bikes cut through for a quick trip around, but pretty quiet. Rounding lap four, I looked directly across the lake and noticed a man on a bike. I only noticed him because he was wearing a long sleeved black thermal type shirt and was wearing a black skull cap. Making a mental note to stay alert but not freaking myself out, I decided to make this last trip around, my last just to be safe. After going around the fifth lane lap, the man on the bike was still staying a far distance from me, almost precisely half of the distance from where I was at any given time on the path. Realizing this, I figured he must be doing the same as anyone else that had been there, just getting some laps in or hanging out. After a few more laps I started to get an uncomfortable feeling which was prompted by the man on the bike stopping on the other side of the path and just looking in my direction. I didn't want to take a chance at offending the man by doing an obvious U turn right then and there, but I should have. As I got closer to where the man on the bike had stopped, I took my phone out and pulled up my friend's number. If nothing else, I could call her and hopefully hearing me talking with someone would be enough to deter this man from anything nefarious. I passed the man giving a nod of the head as a universal hello and the man very softly said, hey, beautiful day out here. I agreed with a quick sure is a bit hot though and kept walking. I looked down at my phone feeling silly and paranoid and decided to finish up and head out before I completely made a fool of myself. A gut feeling of fear hit me and an inaudible warning ran through my ears saying turn around. As I looked behind me trying not to be obvious. There at my literal heels was the man and his bike. I could feel the hot air being pushed off the bike tire on my legs. The man was that close to me. I jumped startled looking at the man and said oh my gosh, you scared me. While grabbing my heart. The man said, sorry, I wasn't looking, knowing this was a lie but not wanting a confrontation. I simply told him no problem and turned back around, walking a bit faster towards the exit off the path. A few other people were entering to walk around. I was just about off the pavement when the man on the bike shouted hey girl, it's your lucky day. I waved and kind of left laughed, but the way he said this ignited my flight sense and I began to jog towards the gas station on the other side of the trees next to the walking path. I grabbed a drink at the gas station, called my friend from the inside of the store and asked to be picked up. I was not about to basically give this man an invitation to my home by walking back. About 20 minutes later, having endured some questioning stares from store employees, my friend's car pulled up and I walked out slowly, making sure that the man wasn't lurking about waiting for another chance to do whatever he had a mind to do. Hopping in my friend's car, she looked at me and I told her the whole story as she drove me home. I said thanks to my friend and she unloaded a slew of be safe, watch out, stay alert, call me phrases. I nodded and raced inside, locking everything that locked the following day. I stayed in, reevaluating my workout plans and kept wondering what that man meant by what he said. It could have been an innocent statement, but I didn't get an innocent vibe whatsoever. My phone rang as I was about to climb in bed and I answered. It was my friend that had driven me home the day before, urging me to turn on the TV to a certain news channel. No thanks. I don't want a bunch of world drama in my head just before I try to sleep, I snapped. Turn it on now. My friend yelled back. I reluctantly went to my living room, grabbed the remote and turned to our local news channel. My heart fell to my stomach as I listened to the story of the grisly assault and murder of a young woman woman found dead on a walking path. The reporter went into many details I won't share here and unintentionally blocking my friend's words out, I listened to the reporter saying the police had no suspects at this time, but believed the woman had wounds and impressions of a bicycle tire on her face and neck. This happened during the summer of 2015 and I had just graduated high school and still lived in my hometown. I was out with some friends and it was getting really late, like around 1am So I decided to head home. I stopped by a drugstore close to my house that was 247 to pick up some aspirin and snacks. The one I went to was in the same parking lot as the supermarket. This is important to know. I parked my car close to the store and it was empty. There were no more than two other cars in this giant parking lot and I was nowhere near them. I head in and grab what I came to get quickly because I had this overwhelming feeling of dread the whole time. I felt like someone was watching me, but I couldn't see anyone else there besides me and the cashier. Then after I had gotten everything I intended to buy, I stalled checking out and just went aisle by aisle looking at random things because I thought whoever was out there would leave if I took too long. Really, the whole time I thought I was being paranoid because I wasn't used to going out late. I had strict parents growing up. After about 20 minutes of that, I pay and leave the store. I get to the door and literally bolt to my car, pepper spray in hand, and lock myself in. I turned my head to check the back seat and right before I could breathe a sigh of relief because no one was there, someone tapped on my window. I looked around before I left the store near the entrance and no one was around my car. So how did I not see a person there? This is where I really freaked out. I don't know if this person was Ted Bundy inspired or what, but this was odd. He was a very handsome blonde man with slightly long hair and a cast on his arm. Now my first instinct was to drive off, but he was leaning on the front hood part of my car and I didn't want to hurt him. So I rolled my window down just an inch so he could speak and maybe back up just a bit so I could drive off without hitting him. But no, he stayed glued on my car. He then asked me if I could help him with directions and look up an address for him. I said I really need to go, sir. Maybe ask in the drug store if they can help. Already went to the supermarket and they couldn't help. That place closed at 8 and there was no way this guy had just been lurking around for five hours waiting for some random girl's help. He then went on about feeling really tired and if I could just give him water or food that I had bought since he had no money. I told him okay and began to reach to the passenger side to grab the chips I got and began to roll down the window slightly. And like I expected, he moved closer to my window, but he was now off the car. So I just hit the gas. He started chasing me and. And I heard a scraping sound on the side of my car as I pulled away. I didn't drive directly home in case I was followed and drove down the highway for an hour because I was so distraught over what happened. I finally got home and the entire side of my car had been scraped from the door almost to the trunk. I am sure he used a knife or some sharp Object because it was a really rough scrape. I reported the incident, but they never found him or any similar incidents in my town. He was watching me the whole time, maybe from the windows of the store, because how else would he have known that I bought food? I also think he hid behind my car so I couldn't see him when I came out. I feel like he was trying to get me before I got in my car, but I got in too fast. Thankfully, my cat likes to go outside every day. In the morning, he follows us to the door, takes the elevator down with us, and then goes about his day outside until we bring him back home again in the evening. Now, my cat isn't the most punctual guy, so it's pretty common for him to stay much later in the neighborhood, sometimes well into the night or for several days. Or he gets bored and doesn't play for more than two hours and wants to get back inside. The problem is that we're not home, so he just has to wait. My family and I live in an apartment on the first floor, so my cat's solution is to sit under one of our balconies and meow at the top of the his lungs to get our attention. When we're home, it works perfectly fine, but when we're not, it's a lot less effective. So our solution was to gently ask our neighbors that have the keys to our apartment to bring him up so he doesn't have to wait outside all day. Those that don't have the key sometimes let him inside the building so he's not literally outside. For example, when it's raining, our apartment is a bit special because it's bigger than the others. So to get inside, there are two ways when you get into the main hall. One, take the stairs to the left and open the door that has two locks. Two, use the elevator with the special key that goes directly inside our apartment and the door only has one lock. The cat is used to the second option, and me too, because we're both lazy. But when the neighbors that don't have the key let him inside the building, he goes up the stairs and waits. Since I usually use the elevator from the parking two floors below, that means I don't see him waiting in the hall and he meows outside the door to get me to open it up for him. All around we have our habits with my parents and neighbors, and it works fairly well. Now you know how everything goes with my little guy. Anyway, here's what happened a while ago. My parents like the outdoors very Much so I'm usually left alone in the weekends. Generally it means taking care of the chores and inviting my friends over so that we can have the apartment to ourselves, which is pretty nice. This time I was alone. It was late, around 11pm and I was just chilling in the living room before hearing meowing over the sound of the tv. Tv? Someone let my cat in the building and he was waiting outside the door. I took my keys and started opening the first lock. I don't know about other pet owners, but I know my cat meows by heart. It's a kind of rising meow that's very high pitched and very cute and that also has a specific rhythm because I have been hearing it nearly every day for five years. So I stopped. Stopped. The noise isn't what it usually is. It's too deep and just off. This isn't my cat outside the door and he's the only cat around that knows that he has to wait by the door and scream to be let inside. By that point, I had stopped halfway through opening the door and waited to hear him again and noticed scratching. My cat never scratches that door. At that point I am super weirded out by the situation, but the meowing is getting super loud and I didn't want the neighbors to be woken up. So I continued with my key. But suddenly I heard another noise that freaked me out. A cough. For the record, I am not a very cautious person and in my whole 21 years of living in this apartment, I must have looked in the peephole a total of maybe five times. But a small part of my brain told me to do it that night and thankfully I did. So I let go of my keys and put my eye against the door and saw it. A man standing there. He was meowing in front of my door. To say that I was terrified is really an understatement. But my heart stopped. Stopped. I just stood there, petrified for what felt like an hour. I don't really know how long it took for me to move again, but eventually my body just took over. I guess I did what you'd expect. Ran for my phone, stood in the corner of the living room and called the police. By the time they came, there was nobody in front of the door. I can't even remember when the meowing stopped. They just took my testimony before telling me to be cautious and left. To this day, I still don't know what that meowing guy wanted. I'm not sure I want to know. I also don't know how he got inside the building since you need a key to access it and how he knew that I would open the door if he imitated my cat in front of it. At least I will be careful from now on. Oh, and my cat eventually did come back. Since then it was the year 2018. My best friend and I were getting more adventurous as our senior year continued. We would stay out late smoking and walking around various neighborhoods or High riding two young 18 year old girls. My best friend Julia is about 5 foot 5, brown hair, blue eyes. Then me being 5 foot 9, blonde hair, blue eyes. Most would think that we were absolutely stupid for doing some of the reckless things we did. Yet we did not care. We craved the adrenaline and we were both a bit disturbed due to some trauma we experienced as individuals. Fear did not exist at this time as we had been through enough scary situations to be numb to the idea of fear now. At the time it was close to the end of the school year and honestly our parents stopped paying attention to us. Most nights I was home alone and my best friend and I were left to do whatever we wanted most days and nights. That is when the idea of urban exploration became our new favorite thing to do. We explored all over our town in New Jersey and surrounding towns, although we could not find a building that was daring enough for us thrill seekers. After searching YouTube for a couple days, that is when I found it. The holy Grail of abandoned buildings. Near us, only 30 minutes from us into Pennsylvania was an old abandoned school that was home to delinquent children. After doing some personal research on the school, I came to find out that the school was closed due to a fire. Although after visiting the school a couple of times, something told me several way more sinister things happened on the grounds of the school. There were about 25 buildings, so it took more than six times searching to really get the absolute full experience this school had to offer. On campus was a security guard who drove around in a blacked out jeep. He never would leave his car. Only once did he catch us, although he just told us to leave again, never leaving his car. I still wonder if he had the same feeling about the place as we did and that he had found sanctuary never leaving his car. Since there were so many times we visited, I am only going to highlight the most terrifying moments we experienced. Of course, from least to most blood curdling. To give you the ambience of what we were facing, I will tell you this. To get into the campus you needed to cut through the trees and bushes with thorns on them. Always wear pants when exploring after you get through the brush, hopefully unscathed, you are greeted by several decaying buildings. The smell of mold and nature kind of all hit you at once. Absolutely everything there is overgrown and seriously falling apart. Graffiti is pretty much plastered everywhere. Besides the physical look, the gut wrenching feeling you get when you walk foot on this property, that alone will make you want to turn back and never set foot there again. Something about this place seems seriously is wrong and you feel as though you should not be there. Something I came to personally learn about this place is every time you come back, things seem to get more and more out of place and otherworldly. Walking into these buildings, most windows are boarded up, so you can only see using the small light on your phone. Other than that, it is pitch black. The first truly terrifying, terrifying moment I had on this campus had to be finding the blood chilling room where it looked as though it was an old dentist office or something medical. I am not sure why it was there or what they really did there, but when I walked in I got this strange feeling of death. Scattered in the pitch black room, all I could see was open syringes covering the floor, a dentist chair that had dried red substance resembling blood all over it, and everything else in the room untouched. As my best friend and I explored this small dark room, we began to hear footsteps coming from down the dark corridor. Trying to rationalize the noise, we automatically assumed it was the security guard and ran the opposite direction back out the small window we came from in the other room. Upon reaching outside, we hid behind some coverage and waited quite a bit of time. We did not hear the noise again, nor did anyone come out. The next time we came, we decided to try to find the building that contained an old game room in it. Since we explored most of the buildings, we figured out which one it most likely was. Searching the perimeter for any way and checking doors we could not find a way in. Circling back, I found an old dirty window which looked as if it opened to a dark cement basement. Being the confident kids we were, I jumped through it almost immediately. Now the first thing we saw as we walked out of the closet window was a wide open basement. With further analysis we realized just how skilled scary this basement was. The only thing down here besides it being absolutely freezing in mid May was the old worn fireplace. Written above the fireplace was something demonic or like demon worshippers had written on it. Several pentagrams were graffitied. Looking towards the middle of the floor was red paint of a pentagram very big smack dab in the Middle of the floor. Candle wax was everywhere and it was accompanied by a strange smell. With the scent of existential dread suffocating the room, we darted towards the steps at the back of the room. We did not step foot in that basement ever again. The second to last time visiting the campus, we decided to be even more ballsy and explore at night. It was roughly 12 at night, maybe slightly later. And again, it was simply just my friend Julia and I. Besides it being dark approaching the school, my blood ran cold. Everything in my body was telling me to run the other way and to not set foot back at this campus yet again. I ignored my gut instinct and we began our journey through the woods to make it into the campus. Tonight was different. I decided to actually document our journey as if we were on Ghost Hunter or some other paranormal show. The whole time I was recording, I would go back and forth from me to see what I was seeing. As me and Julia began walking through the pitch black using only her phone light. Visibility was dim. We could only see about 7ft in front of us. The rest of this campus had been like it was not even there. Just utter blackness surrounded us. I was laughing and talking to my audience on my Instagram story, boasting about the trip as if it made me the coolest person ever to risk my life just to see some buildings filled with asbestos, mold, and possibly homeless people. Just as I turned the camera to face Julia and sort of interviewed her about her current experience is when I saw what made my heart stop and my jaw drop. I froze in the position I was in, just holding the camera, pointing in Julia's direction. As Julia looked past my camera, almost questioning why I got so quiet, she saw my face. The viewers at home could only see Julia's expression. It had said more to the people at home than either of us could explain. Seeing how absolutely horrified I was and how my face had turned the lightest shade it could, she let out a scream and grabbed my arm, pulling me into a different direction. I felt as if I was no longer present and adrenaline had taken over my body. My legs were moving, yet it felt like I was not controlling them. We jumped and hid behind a tree as Julia pleaded with me to tell her what I had seen. For a couple of minutes, I just sat there, trying to process what I had just seen. I did not want to believe anything scary and paranormal could be real. It felt like a true scary movie came to life. When I regained my ability to talk again, I told her exactly what I saw. When I tell you, you Most likely will not believe me, for it is so utterly insane it's almost laughable. That image will never leave my memory, for it is burned in forever. Standing right behind Julia, just in the shot of my camera, was a black figure. With a closer look, I remember not believing what I saw and experiencing what felt like paralysis as I was stuck staring at this figure standing only three feet behind my best friend. Friend. A man on a large horse. From what I could make out, no detail to him at all. Like he had literally been a shadow. Just a blacked out figure. The worst part was his large, broad body seemed as if it had no head. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me, it absolutely was. I had heard stories of the Headless Horseman as a kid, yet I never expected to see anything like that in my waking hours of the day. After telling my best friend what I had seen, we hightailed it back to Jersey and decided to do some more research and see if anyone had any similar experiences or the same one. As we searched, I found countless stories that made my bones hurt about this place and what other urban explorers had experienced. One in particular made me literally almost faint. To be brief, this guy who had been really into exploring, found this place years back and decided, like us, he wanted to keep coming back and see everything the campus had to offer. He explained how every single time he came back, weirder and weirder things happened to him, which to my knowledge, was exactly how I felt. But what he said next made my soul sink into the floor. He explained the last time he decided to go was at night. He explained how in front of the red house, he had been chased out by a Headless horseman. My stomach sank. I went right back to the live video I had taken and watched it back. The part in which Julia looks at my horrified face. Directly in the background sat the old decaying red house, half burnt down. My jaw dropped. We did not visit this place for a couple of weeks. I would love to say I learned my lesson and this is the end of the story. I would be lying. After a couple of weeks had passed, our urge to visit the campus grew to an insane level. Almost as if something was pulling us back. Like we had strings attached to our bodies. Being the reckless kids we were, we decided 12 was not scary enough. Let's go at the Devil's Hour, 3am now, as we walk towards the woods, we need to cut through a thick fog that appears out of nowhere. If you think that was not enough to scare us away, you are right. I led the path and proceeded towards a gap in the trees. As I am about 10ft ahead of my two friends, I noticed some movement coming from the trees. We were not alone. Thinking who else might be out. At 3am, I started shifting backwards, alerting my friends as I slowly backpedaled. Just as my friends looked in my direction, a deer came running right towards us. Right before it reached me, it stopped dead in its tracks two feet away. This was like no deer I had ever seen. Again, I felt myself with short term paralysis as I felt like I was staring directly into the devil's eyes. The mist completely surrounds the deer like an animal to the point I could not even see its feet. That's when I noticed its peculiar eyes glowing a weird yellow red color. None of this seemed normal. That's when I noticed my friends booking it towards the street. Not wanting to be alone with this creature, I ran as fast as I could and eventually caught up with them. None of us wanted to admit how truly spooked we were. So we decided to try and find another entrance. Walking down the side road that followed next to the campus, we began to keep walking straight, occasionally looking for another opening. We then decided that at the end of the road, the campus had a church that sat in an open field. Thinking it was the safest way in, we kept walking down this road. At 3:30am now with absolutely no street lights, it felt like we had been walking forever and small talk was at the minimum due to all of us long, low key being scared out of our wits. That is when we heard it. We were almost to the church. It was about a quarter mile away from us. The sound of a chainsaw rang in all of our ears, sending chills down our spine. A chainsaw has a very distinct sound. Yet in order to keep them faithful to the mission, I said hey, maybe it's just a generator. Assuming they agreed with me, I proceeded walking towards the strange noise. Suddenly, the sounds of speeding footsteps broke my concentration. Only they were headed away from me rather than towards me. This is when the fear really hit me. My friends were so far away from me, panic began to set in. I was only brave if I had my friends there easing my anxiety. The second I noticed them running, my heart sunk. The chainsaw grew louder and more aggressive. I am downright sweating at this point. Finally, instinct kicks in and I bolt towards my friends, somehow catching up with them immediately. We all decided to go home since it felt like the campus was doing everything in its power to keep us out. To this day. Today I am not sure, what was lurking past those trees, but I am not willing to ever go back and find out. Just remember, if you decide to go urban exploring, never go alone and always follow your gut. For you never know what your animal instincts could be protecting you from. I have had a couple of experiences both weird and paranormal when I was around 3 to 5 years of age growing up, I was a really timid and scared child. I would never leave my mother's arms and would cry if she even went to the bathroom. Not to mention the fact that that my two older sisters would try to scare me a lot as it was their way of joking around. Anyways, before I moved to Australia, I lived in South Asia and we used to live in these flats. Apartments that were really old but pretty lively. There was a lot of young families in our flats that had children that were around me and my sister's ages. We often spent most of our time playing with them. So one day my sisters, three of our other friends and I were running up and down these flights of stairs playing tag. We all stopped on a certain floor that one of my friends used to live on. She was quite older than us too, around 13 or 14. We were all arguing about who's it and who got tagged until suddenly we get interrupted by a short old man. He had. He had a really hunched back and disgusting teeth that were rotting away. He held his arms out in front of him and it looked like he was holding ripped up pieces of paper in his hands. Can I play with you children? He asked us in a weird way like he put on a high pitched voice. My friend who lived on this floor replied uh, no. We were starting to get weirded out at this moment and I remember my heart was beating super fast. Why not let me play? You guys run and I'll catch you. He replied as if he was sulking. I. I have to ask my mom. Our oldest friend replied. Right after she said that, she whispered to all of us to run with her to her apartment. As we were running to her door, he started following us but luckily her apartment floor wasn't far away and the door was open. We all got in there and our mom asked us what was wrong. As we all looked scared. Our friend told her what happened and surprisingly her mom didn't seem worried about it or anything. However, I was really shaken up by that experience. We waited a few minutes inside her apartment until we were sure that the old man was gone. I was seriously so scared I begged our friend to carry me to our floor which was right above hers, my sisters, are five and four years older than me, so they couldn't really carry me back. Another experience I wanted to share is a paranormal one. So the layout of our apartment was a bit weird. Our bathroom, which was a really weird bathroom, had two other rooms inside it. One room for the toilet, which was just a cubicle sized room, and another room for the shower. The shower room was big and outside those rooms was our sink and the washing machine. So basically it was a toilet, shower, laundry room all in one. Anyway, one day it's just me, my mom and my two sisters in the apartment. I was playing with my sister Holly in our room and we were giving each other makeovers. As she's doing my makeup, she messes up and tells me to go wash my face so she can redo it. I go into the bathroom, only to the sink to wash my face. I already know that my other sister Heather was in the toilet doing her business and the shower room was empty. I could hear my mom in her room talking to our relatives over the phone. As I'm washing my face, I started getting this weird feeling like I was being stared at. I continued washing my face until I looked up and saw my face in the mirror to see if I got all the makeup off. It was then that I noticed through the mirror that our shower room's door was cracked open. I looked behind me and I see this tall naked woman peeking through the crack at me. I still remember her so vividly. Her brown eyes were glaring back at me. She was all wet, as if she had just taken a shower. Even though I couldn't see much through the crack of the door, I could tell she was wet and not wearing clothes. And honestly, this woman kind of resembled my mother, but at the same time, she didn't. This woman who was glaring at me through the door looked evil and she looked angry. My heart was beating fast at this point and I remember letting out a nervous laughter. I don't know why, but I was just really confused and for some reason let out a small laugh. I could hear Heather in the toilet finishing up her business. And that's just where my fight or flight senses kicked in. I ran out of that bathroom into my mom's room to tell her what happened. But she was on the phone and told me to go away. So I went to Holly and told her about what just happened. She didn't believe me and said that it could have been Heather. As she said that, Heather walked into the room and asked what we were talking about. Holly asked if she was trying to scare me and Heather replied no, I was in the toilet this whole time while sounding really annoyed at the fact that Holly accused her of trying to scare me. I told Holly how the police person I saw looked like our mom. She for some reason looked really offended about what I just said. She grabbed my arm and took me to our bathroom to show me nothing was there and she was right. When we looked in the shower room it was empty but the floor and walls were wet. I pointed that out to Holly, but she just said one of us must have taken a shower earlier, even though I think we both knew that none of us had taken one before this incident happened. Honestly, I would have just chalked it up to one of my sisters trying to scare me since they did that a lot. But the person I saw in the shower room was a woman and she was tall. Shortly after that, my dad decided we should move to Australia. After that shower lady incident, I had a few more strange experiences happen to me, but as I grew up they just stopped happening. It was April of 2019. I was with my now ex boyfriend at the time when this event occurred. His name was Richard and my name is Abigail. We were hanging out at my house. It was around 5:30pm when we began to get hungry for dinner. So Richard and I decided to ask my mother Olivia if we could go to the Chinese restaurant up the road from my house to which my mother said we could go. So Richard and I grabbed our hoodies since it was now beginning to rain and we began to walk to the restaurant. It is important at this point that I mention that when we were walking, Richard was walking on the left side of the road and I was walking on the right side of the road. I know. Not very gentlemanlike. Anyway, this minor detail will come in handy later on in the story. While walking to our destination, Richard and I talked. After about 10 minutes of walking, we reached the viaduct right by the restaurant. So we began to walk under it since we had to. After we passed it, Richard suddenly had a look of fear on his face. I looked up at him and then behind us to see this man behind us. The man appeared to be on his cell phone and he kept staring at Richard and I. I asked Richard what's wrong? To which Richard responded, something about that man seems off. I don't know exactly what it is. I shrugged it off thinking that it was just Richard being paranoid. We continued walking when the man hung up his cell phone and began to start following Richard and I. Richard kept turning around and he tapped on me. I was confused and startled at the same time and asked what's wrong? What's going on? As Richard moved away from the right side to now in front of him, he responded with don't say anything, be quiet, just stay in front of me and whatever you do, do not look back. Just keep going forward. Go. As he speed walked behind me with his right hand on my right shoulder, I responded with okay, okay and increased my walking speed and began to panic even more. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Richard look back so I decided to look back back out of curiosity. I was able to get a better view of the man who now had his hoodie up. He appeared to be about five' four, five' six, had a bull cut, square forehead, slanted dark brown eyes, had a black right eye as well, prominent nose, thin black mustache. He looked hunchback, had a mean look, had a very dirty face and was wearing a dirty blue Nike hoodie with dirty beige cargo pants and dark brown worker boots stained with mud. I instantly felt fear jolt my whole body and began to feel like I was going to have a panic attack when I saw the man reach into his right hoodie sleeve and push a large object about 4 to 6 inches up his sleeve. Richard and I both saw that it was a large kitchen knife. I turned around super fast and was shaking. At this point I grabbed my phone which was inside my hoodie and went to turn it on and it would not turn on. My phone was dead due to a battery problem I had. Richard's phone was dead as well. Richard and I wound up taking a detour to the restaurant and lost the man in the process. We went to dinner but unfortunately we were a little bit too short on money. As a result, Richard and I discussed what we were going to do and we had decided that Richard should go to my house to get some extra cash from my mom, which the waiter was okay with since he knew us both. It is important at this point to mention that my mom didn't drive at the time due to some health conditions that she was dealing with. I texted my mother to let her know what happened and she was okay with it and was going to wait for Richard while I stayed at the restaurant. About 10 minutes goes by and Richard arrives back on his bicycle. He looked afraid as he entered the restaurant so I asked him what was wrong and we went to go pay the waiter a few dollars we owed. Richard said we should stay here a few extra minutes. I was confused and responded with why. Richard responded and Said that when he was returning from my house, he hurried since he knew the man saw us heading to the restaurant. When Richard reached the viaduct, he saw the same man under the viaduct. The man was faced towards the freeway on his phone again and smoking a cigarette. Richard and the man made eye contact as Richard rode by. The man looked furious that I wasn't on the back of Richard's bike on the pegs and began cussing to himself and went back onto his cell phone. I got really freaked out and asked Richard, how are we going to get back home? Since the viaduct passage was the easiest and fastest way to my house. So we decided to take the longer way home. After we waited in the restaurant for about 10 minutes, we did not see the man again. After that incident, we reported to the police and we never heard back from them. A few girls I know in my area had similar experiences occur to them with a man who matched my exact description. This is something that happened to me five or so years ago. I was fresh out of university with my degree in international development. I wanted to help underserved communities develop meaningful projects and see more of the world. I was young, I was naive, eager to get started. I took one of the first jobs that offered me a position. It wasn't something I necessarily wanted to do, but it was adjacent to my interests and more importantly to took me to a place I had never been before. I loved everything. When I arrived, it was beautiful, sunny and green. My new co workers, all local staff, were amazing and so kind. My boss invited me to play soccer on Sundays with his family. My fellow project coordinator would go out dancing with me on the weekends. My roommate, a fellow expat working in development development as well was a fun and spunky woman I adored. I felt so blessed. Then one day it changed. I was walking downtown with a friend. There was a vegetable and fruit market that had great fresh produce directly from the farmers. Growing was about a 20 minute bus ride from my apartment. So not close, but not incredibly far either. My friend and I loaded up and began walking over to a quiet corner to call a cab to help us haul our goods back. Then I heard it. A man shouting my address. It took me a second to realize he was shouting my address. I turned around to see a man hanging out of his car slowly crawling along the road with us. My friend recognized my address too. She turned to me and asked, do you know him? I had never seen him before. He kept shouting, yeah you. You're living in the back house on the second floor, right? That made it even worse. I lived on a big suburban lot with two houses. One in the front where my landlady and her family lived, and the second in the back. The second house was split into two apartments. The bottom floor housed two students, while I lived on the second floor with my roommate. You couldn't see the second house from the road, much less the stairway that led to the second floor. My heart was pounding. I wanted to shout back at the guy, but I was scared. I was a 22 year old woman living in a foreign country and I didn't want to draw attention. I didn't know how he would react. So we walked. My friend tried to comfort me, saying that maybe he knew my landlady's family. I was probably the only redhead in the whole country. He could be a neighbor I hadn't met. The encounter didn't leave me. It stayed in my mind. A week or so passed and I stopped. Stopped glancing behind my back whenever a car came by. I started to feel secure. Then he showed up again. I was walking home from work. It was getting dark. My office was a 15 to 20 minute stroll from my apartment, perfect as a quick way to stretch my legs. I was halfway home when I felt someone watching me. Then the slow crawl of a car pulling up beside me. I knew it was him without looking. Hey, he said, leaning out of his window, one hand on the wheel. Why? You shy? I ignored him and kept walking. There was no one around. It was getting dark. Come on, he said. Let me give you a ride. I know where you live. Not reassuring. I started to feel my chest tighten. I wanted to call someone, but didn't know what he would do if I reached for my phone. I was practically jogging now, but he just sped up to match my pace. Listen. And now he was angry, his voice hard. You don't just ignore a man like that. I wondered what I would do do if he stopped the car. He looked fit, young. He could probably catch me. He could hurt me. So I did something that in retrospect seemed absolutely bizarre. I yelled at him wildly, rapidly. I did it in my first language, not what they spoke in this country. Not a language he would ever have heard, probably. I screamed curse words and threats, anything I could think of. I will never forget the confused fury on his face. But he did slow down, letting me run ahead. I could see a woman at a bus stop in the intersection ahead. If I got to her, maybe she would help. Maybe he would be scared off. By the time I got to the woman, he was gone. I kept walking Home, looking behind me with every step. I told my roommate about what had happened. She told me not to bother reporting it to the police since they were corrupt and wouldn't do anything. When I told my boss, he told me the same. He said he had a baseball bat and that he would come whenever I called. I saw the man again two weeks later. He was sitting in his car parked in front of the gates to my apartment. I had been about to take out the trash, but retreated before he could see me. I told my landlady, and when she went over to confront him, he drove off. This continued for weeks. Not every day, but once or twice a week. He was always there, waiting. I took cabs to and from work. I never traveled alone. I barely slept, waiting for him to break in and kill me. My last weekend abroad, he almost did. I went out drinking with a group of my friends, four of us in total. We were celebrating the end of my contract and I was happy to go home in a few days. I couldn't wait to see my family. I couldn't wait to put an ocean between me and the man. We had beers at a local bar, a 5 to 10 minute walk max from my apartment. When it started to get late, around 1am we tried to get a cab, but it was impossible. The roads were jammed and people were everywhere outside. Cabs couldn't even get to us. So we thought, even though others warned us not to, let's walk home. It would be faster than. Than calling a cab. We'll be fine. We're a group of four. No one will hassle us. We got halfway there when we had to cross a main road. There were no street lights, not that kind of place. The road was absolutely empty. Not a single car in sight. We crossed the road a few more minutes, but then we were backlit with the bright headlights of a car coming up. We glanced back, a cop car, two men in the front. And I knew, even though I couldn't see from the bright lights in my eyes, he was driving. He was a cop. The Jeep slowed, as I knew it would. He rolled down the window to drawl, hey, miss. Nice night, yeah. My friends immediately knew who he was. I could see how nervous they were. We were alone on a dark, empty street in the middle of the night. They were cops, so they were armed. No one would intervene. Probably too dangerous. You girls need a ride? He leered, his friend, who I could see now was grinning hugely. My last few days, I thought, and this is how it ends. We sped up our pace. I don't know what our plan was other than to get away. Then I heard one of the doors of the jeep open as the passenger jumped out. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. Although I didn't dare turn back to see. We were at the turn to my street now. Two minutes more to get to safety. The car was right behind us. Whoever had gotten out of the car was right behind us. Two of my friends were ahead now, while another clutched my hand and dragged me along. Then out of nowhere, another car appeared. They were coming from the opposite direction, illuminating us all. When they slowed to see what was going on, I have never been so so grateful. It was an older couple and they looked concerned. I think they knew something very bad was about to happen. I heard, not saw the car door swing open. I almost got hit as they sped past us in a hurry. The other car stayed watching. They offered to escort us home, driving alongside just in case. But I knew he wouldn't wouldn't come back. Not tonight. I still took a cab with my friends to their place for the night. We took my roommate with us just in case. Nothing happened after that. My last two days were uneventful, although I couldn't shake the feeling that he might show up at any given moment. Driving to the airport all packed up and ready to go home, my cousin cab got pulled over by a cop. My stomach dropped. I couldn't breathe. It wasn't him, although it could have been. It wasn't until I got on the plane, until I landed in my home country that I finally felt that terror leave me. I still get nervous when cars drive up behind me, when men roll down their windows to shout at me. It's never him, but still, you never know. I was living with my parents and sister in Brisbane, Australia at the time 2008, which means I was 19 years old. I remember my dad had just gotten Foxtel cable TV in Australia, but only the TV in the lounge room could use the cable box and I really wanted to somehow get the cable in my room without paying $99 or whatever for a new box. So dad one day went out and bought an AV transmitter receiver. It was basically a two piece bit of hardware where you would plug this tiny box into the cable TV in the lounge room and it would transmit a video signal to the receiver connected to the TV in my room. So one Saturday I decided to connect it. My younger sister, 16 at the time, was the only other person home at the time upstairs in her room. My room was downstairs I opened the box and connected it up. At first I was going back and forth trying to get the cables right, trying to get the channel right, etc. But no luck until I finally got something. I remember just sitting there and something started fuzzing in. This is where things started to feel like a horror movie. I remember thinking oh, here we go. And waiting to see the picture come in clearly. As it started fuzzing in, I remembered that this whole time the cable set top box wasn't even on. And that's why it wasn't working this whole time. But then why was I getting a signal? It seemed to all hit me at once. As I realized the box was off. The picture fuzzed in and I saw a bed. I freaked out as at first I thought it was my bed. I had recently seen so many saw too. And remembered that scene where she turns on the TV and it's a camera filming her in her apartment. That was the first thing I thought of. I sprinted upstairs to my sister, absolutely terrified. I told her to come down and take a look. She came down and we both realized it wasn't my bed. We didn't know whose bed it was or how I was getting the signal. Obviously it was the AV receiver picking up a camera signal. But we were just so confused as to who or what it was for. Eventually my parents came home and we concluded that it would have to have been a neighbor or someone living close by for us to be receiving the signal. We waited around until about 6pm and then someone came into the room. My dad recognized recognized it as one of our neighbors. We still didn't know what the camera was for, but we assumed it had something to do with fidelity. Either his wife or he had set it up to watch the other and see if they were cheating. Either this or it was to tape themselves doing stuff. We entertained the idea that he was a murderer and would film himself murdering people in his room. But just to freak each other out. We'd always make jokes about how one night we'll turn it on and it'll just be his face with clown makeup staring at the camera waving and then him walking out of the bedroom with a knife. This never happened, but what did happen was still very creepy. We connected to this signal for over a week, but after a few days the novelty kind of wore off. We felt a bit weird watching it and just resigned to the explanation that it was to catch his wife cheating. Until one day we turned it on and realized what we had discovered. Our neighbors were having a Bunch of renovations done to their house. During weekdays they would be out and there would be workers at the place pretty much all day. It had been like this for over a month. We started watching the feature feed and saw a man walk into their room. It was the plumber that had been there regularly for the renovations. We didn't think anything of it until he started opening drawers. I called out to my mom, the only person home at the time, and we started watching it. He started getting the wife's underpants and sniffing them. Doing all that really creepy stuff. At first we were like, oh my gosh, how embarrassing. He's being filmed. Will the neighbor see this? But then what happened next was truly terrifying. He slowly walked over to the camera and looked right down into the lens. We were convinced that he knew we were watching. My mom immediately called dad. I kept watching. He started fiddling with it and then put it back down. I told my mom that I don't think he knew we were watching, but he's definitely the guy that put the camera there. My dad came home and by this time the plumber had left. Much to my mom's pleading. My dad went over to the neighbors to tell them what we saw. My mom wanted to completely stay out of it and was terrified. Understandably. When we told the neighbors, they had no idea what we were talking about. They allowed my dad to go up to their room and what he found that was holding the camera was an installed device in the wall that was designed to monitor water usage, which was completely normal at the time. As Brisbane had been hit with a drought recently and there were lots of water restrictions. I think still is. The plumber had installed this into the wall, but had fitted a camera behind it in the wall to watch the bed. Immediately they called the police, who came over and conducted an investigation. For the next week or so. We didn't hear much about it. I spent most of this time just telling my friends, showing them pictures. But truthfully, my whole family was scared. Every night. It was just very creepy thinking that we could have stuff like that hidden in our house. Chances are we don't. But it was still really scary. After a couple of weeks, my mom was speaking to the wife next door and asked what happened with it. The wife said that the police found out that he would at nights come to our street and sit in his car, which had really tinted windows and watched them on his laptop. When my mom told me this, I got the biggest shivers. The reason was besides the obvious creepy guy sitting in his car watching people through A hidden camera was because on multiple nights when I had driven home late for my girlfriends or walked home drunk after a night out, I remember seeing a station wagon always about 330 meters down the street from our house. It was never there during the day, always at night. I would always walk past it and look at my reflection in the windows, assuming no one was inside. I was always so confused by whose car it was, but literally never thought it was anything. It still scares me so much that it was this creepy plumber sitting in there on a laptop watching a hidden camera stream the neighbors next to my house. I have always loved listening to spooky stories. This blood curdling experience shocked me beyond my wit's end. To preface, I am a Hindu and we hold gatherings for certain gods, with the most popular of these gatherings being the October Durga Pua. Although there are many plays and musical performances from fellow Hindus and sometimes popular Indian bands, being the pessimistic teens we were, we looked into many other avenues of fun. The gathering was held in a high school which the organizers rent annually for the weekend. It was a breezy Friday night and me and my two friends Mir and Adi had decided to venture around the school as we knew the most of it after a previous incident that happened in the band room where a group of boys from the gathering vandalized it. You would think the doors to the rest of the school would be locked, but no. We found an unlocked door door leading straight into one of those big main staircases where students coming from the lower level usually traverse to the upper and vice versa. We made our way down a hallway of lockers until we made it to the school's gymnasium entrance, adorning a banner with a picture of the mascot and one of those bogus school spirit phrases. The lights to the gymnasium, to our surprise, were still on. We were sitting there cracking jokes, drinking coke and blasting Tyler the Creator without a care for the fact that one of the police officers or custodians might hear us laughing away. About 20 minutes passed until we heard the loud creak and bang of one of those big metal doors. The creek caught us off guard immediately silencing any conversation we were having. We stared blankly at each other and turned towards the door where we had heard the sound. Thinking that we were going to be in deep crap if we didn't book it out of there, we quickly picked up our drinks and snuck out of our little lounge of solitude as stealthily as you could, considering the basketball court elicited a squeak from the friction between it and our rubber soles. What happened next turned our blood into ice water, making it a pit in our stomachs. We had been sitting situated near one of the corners instead of the middle of the court, as to have a quick escape should someone come into the gym as we were running into the locker rooms, as the exit in there would create more distance between us and what we thought to be a school police officer. We turned back to see a man dressed in all black, wearing the school's mascot's helmet, which was a knight, and holding a metal pole. I looked back to the the unnerving sight of that man muttering to my friends. What is that? Go, go, go. Both my friends looked back for a second, and I guess the adrenaline instantly kicked in as they doubled their speed. We ran through the corridors and the whole time we were able to hear the sound of a metal object, which I am guessing was the sword the man carried, scraping against the marble floors. That eerie screeching sound followed us for what felt like an eternity, until we made it outside to where the back parking lot and dumpsters were situated. We took a breather to discuss what happened. Mikhir, who was pale as a ghost, seemed to have seen the man close behind us in flashes, stating that he had these stains on him, as if he had wiped his nose on his jacket, and that his head was slightly cocked to the left. We were all gathering our thoughts when we heard a man's deep, breathy, but muffled voice from inside the school. Heathens from the religion of the east, show yourselves to me before the devil shows himself to you. Right then and there, we knew this dude was some sacrilegious nut job whose only goal was to cause us harm simply due to the fact that that our religion was different. He then said, I watched as you three little servants of Satan wandered far from the pack. Now I have you where I want you. That was enough for us to sprint out of there immediately, knowing we didn't want to bring this dude closer to the kids who were hanging out in the front, who were unbeknownst to the psycho that awaited them should they come to the back. I surmised that we hide in the woods next to the school to lose him. I had watched enough scary stories to know that sitting in a brush was probably a bad idea, but what other choice did I have? I had no idea what kind of harm he meant to do us, and I wasn't going to stick around to find out. We ducked into a set of bushes and waited for that man to come around, which he eventually did, allowing us to get get a better look at him. Ody was somehow keeping his cool, which helped us as well, making us all quiet and only able to hear the scraping of that metal on the cold grass. We could see his clothes were worn out and filthy. His hands looked rumpled and burnt with skin resembling that of a sickly man on his deathbed. His hair went halfway down his back and seemed to be slick with grass that had been left unwashed for many years. Ironically enough, he let out this devilish blood curdling gargle of a groan that made my body go numb. He slowly looked around for about five more minutes before walking off across the baseball field and into the far reaches of the forest. We ran straight back inside, all shaken from the occurrence to see that everyone had gone into the office auditorium to watch the band that was playing that night. We decided not to tell anyone, not even our friends, instead opting to discuss amongst ourselves. I have decided that the best way to share this story was with fellow being scared enthusiasts such as myself. To this day none of us know what happened to the man and there have been no further sightings to our knowledge. One night I was getting ready to leave my girlfriend's house and the most frightening thing happened to me in recent date. A little backstory is needed for context. I am 19 years old and I am unable to get a license to carry as the age is 21 in my state, which I have been wanting to lately for self defense. My girlfriend lives a little over 30 minutes away and I usually hang out with her after work. It was about 11pm When I was heading out and she had a super small driveway so I need to park my car on the opposite side of the road. Usually it's just me parked on the other side of the road, but this black SUV was parked in front of me. I didn't think much of it though and hopped inside my car. As soon as I turned the engine on, the car in front of me turned their lights on. After I pulled out and started driving, they did the same and began tailgating me. The car followed me all the way onto the highway. I tried to speed away from them but they wouldn't give up. If I switched lanes to pass someone, they switched lanes too. If I went back to the right lane, so did they. Eventually I tried slowing down to let them go by me. Instead they turned their high beams on for the rest of the highway. I was stuck with their high beams flashing in my eyes and them driving right behind me. When my exit Came to get off, they got off with me. Keep in mind, I live in a very small town. This is when I started getting very paranoid. I decided I was going to take a different route home. A long, illogical and convoluted route with many back roads and neighborhoods. I turned left off the exit and got onto the main road which took me to a set of lights. Instead of going straight like I normally do to another set of lights in the middle of town, I took a right onto a back road that leads to numerous neighborhoods, neighborhoods and ends. When you get to the secondary main road in our town, they were still right behind me. Before I reached the main road, I took a left which took me to another back road. Again, they turned with me, I took a right which took me to a neighborhood road and they followed with me. I was done using my turn signals at this point as I was sure they were following me. The end of that neighborhood leads you back to the main road that we would have been on if I had just stayed straight at the set of lights like I normally do. No doubt in my mind this person was following me with bad intentions. After taking a quick ride onto the main road, I took another right which led me down on another back road. I haven't seen a single car in the road since I got to my town and the car was not now speeding up to catch up to me. A fork in the road was coming up and I took a last minute left turn to try and lose them. They began revving their engine behind me as I remembered that the police department of my town was only a minute away. After taking a right turn at yet another fork in the road, it took me to a secondary main road in our town that I had mentioned before. With one more left turn. I was coming right up to the Point police station and I turned into it, watching as the car continued by me right to the set of traffic lights that they would have gone to if they had stayed straight after we turned off the highway. There's no other reason why they would have tailgated me with their high beams on through all those back roads just to go the same place they would have gone if they stayed on the main road. After hanging out in the police department for about 10 minutes to make sure they left, I contemplated filing a police report, but what would I say? I had no description other than a black SUV that most likely wasn't even from my town. I can only think of the worst that might have happened if I led them all the way home. I advise everyone to get some sort of self defense in their car. Especially if you drive at night like me. This all started four years ago. I was 14 at the time. I hadn't heard of any sleep paralysis before this event. I had nightmares on and off as a kid so it wasn't unusual for me to wake up from a bad dream back then. I didn't know what to do when I was scared so I would knock on the wall connected to my parents bedroom until they came in to check on me. A little background. I had just taken the top bunk off of me and my older brother's bunk bed. So my bed had a fence on the short sides. I went to bed around 1am I was mid dream when it switched script and became a nightmare I would never forget. In my dream I was walking home from school. The street out front had no traffic which seemed odd because it was the only way to get off the highway into our town. Halfway home I heard some footsteps echoing mine. It seemed like whoever was following was very close. I picked up my pace a little to try and get away from the person. Of course, my 14 year old brain took a scene out of a cheesy horror movie and I ended up tripping over my shoelaces. The footsteps began getting closer and a figure emerged. I tried to get a good look at whoever it was, but they were so conveniently standing in front of a street lamp so I couldn't see very well. At this point I had woken up. My heart was racing harder than I had ever felt. I have bradycaria, a type of arrhythmia that means my resting heart rate is slower than it should be. So it was very unusual for me to feel like my heart was beating out of my chest. My whole body felt like it had been submerged in dry concrete. The only thing I could move was my eyes. I was hearing this deep growl like breathing over my frantic, breathless self. After what felt like hours listening to someone else in my room, I heard my bed springs compress. Whatever was in there with me was getting closer. I closed my eyes hoping it would just go away. This thing was close enough. I felt its hands caress my covered legs. I could feel the heat off of its body. It moved up towards my head, avoiding my body completely. My body sunk into the bed with every move it made. I panicked. I thought maybe it's an intruder and I'm frozen in fear. Maybe they're going to kill me. My instinct of fight or flight kicked in and I opened my eyes, wanting to look my potential killer in the face. I was greeted by bright white eyes and a crooked white smile. Its body looked misshapen, almost anorexic. I became full of fear. I wanted to scream for my parents, but I couldn't muster enough strength to make a sound. It lowered itself to my face. It didn't say anything, just sat there breathing. I remember starting to cry when it scurried off my bed and straight into my closet. This thing turned around with its glowing face and black distorted body and put its clothes claw like fingers up to its mouth, shushing me. It turned and disappeared into the dark shadow my hanging clothes made. As soon as it was out of sight, I regained feeling and cried out for help. My dad came busting into my room. I explained what had happened and he told me it was just a dream. Go back to sleep. I nodded and waited for him to exit my room. I turned my light on and stayed up for the remainder of the night. I am now 18 and since this event, this thing has come back only to make my good days bad. Most of the time it just sits on my fence, staring at me with its creepy smile. I wish it would just leave me alone.