23 True Scary Horror Stories | The Lets Read Podcast Episode 028

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my name is Lindsay and at the time this whole debacle unfolded I was a graduate student at a prominent national university the story I'm about to relay to you happened over the course of a couple of months in 2005 and become a very transformative occurrence in my life after five plus years of sharing apartments and houses with all sorts of folk be it students who are professionals male and female I found myself with a huge apartment but no one share it with I'm not sure how this happened it seemed to have simply ended up that way I hurriedly made posts on Craigslist the local papers classified section and any other online place I could then I printed up some flyers and pinned those up everywhere be at the board at school the one at the laundromat or the community board at Barnes & Nobles I did my level best to paper the city with flyers the way I figured it I would need two more people to make the rent and live comfortably in the present apartment that left us with a room to make whatever we wanted of it library group meeting room whatever we could all agree to although my name was the one on the lease I tried to be fair with my other roommates I didn't want to come across as a tyrant to others I'd lived in situations like that in the past and it made the living conditions uncomfortable and I got out of them as fast as I could thankfully it wasn't long before I got my first call the guy callings name was Franklin or Frank for short and he had a pleasant voice and seemed truly interested in seeing the place so we agreed to meet at the complexes community room the next morning my reason for doing this was twofold to ensure my safety in case he ended up being a wacko he wouldn't know the exact apartment and would be less likely to assault me in a public place I'm pleased to say that these precautions turned out to be unnecessary at this time after completing college out west he decided to move here because of the area's large number of publishing houses taking up writing in high school his dream became to be the next F Fitzgerald he'd always loved the free bohemian lifestyle that Scott Zelda and their friends got to live after they had become published authors fortunately for him he was financially well off because of a check he receives yearly from his grandfather's estate after a few minutes of talking I felt fairly confident this guy wasn't here to victimize me the next step was to show him the place and see if he was still interested I took him on a walk through the apartment and then we sat down to discuss money my least favorite part of the whole thing when I told him what his part would be he didn't even flinch I followed up by assuring him the amount will be less once we found another roommate and he seemed to still be unconcerned he went as far as to tell me that he would happily pay the rent of two of this would make things easier for me that seemed more than a kind offer but I let him know that all the roommates would only be expected to pay their part and any extra would be absorbed by me he said that was fine with him and after going over things for another half hour he told me he was still interested than handed over his deposit and first month's rent it had all gone so smoothly I was shocked we shook hands and made plans for the day in time he could move in and that was it I could only hope the second roommate was as easy to please not everyone was independently wealthy and so easygoing of course I went through the motions of calling his references those on the other side of the phone all gave him glowing recommendations so glowing they made him sound like mr. Rogers I couldn't be more pleased they had made me even more confident in my choice when the day came he arrived at the door with only two duffel bags and a laptop I asked when he would be bringing the rest of his things but he said that was it my only thought was man he's really taking this bohemian lifestyle thing to heart since there were still no other roommates I'd told him he was free to choose any of the three remaining rooms he pondered his choice for a moment and took the one across from mine I thought nothing of this at the time it was the second biggest after all and truthfully it's the one I would have chosen most likely life with my new roommate was far easier than I'd experienced in the past each trip to the market he insisted on paying for everything despite my half-hearted attempts to refuse he wouldn't take no for an answer his reasoning was that we deserve to eat well because we both worked so hard besides since it was just the two of us it wasn't that much anyways the sentence gave me pause he made it sound like we were a couple I thought for a moment and I given him a reason to think this that I flirted or said something in passing nothing came to mind I must have just misunderstood his meaning he'd never attempted to get physical with me and surely he had to know that I was into girls I quickly put it out of my mind and went on with my day I never really understood how men thought anyways I'm at a month in we decided to have a small get to know people housewarming party for him I invited a few friends from work and people I knew from the complex it wasn't a massive undertaking only about 15 people were invited and not of that only eight showed up Frank made sure we brought plenty of alcohol and food the night turned out to be a roaring success and everyone seemed to be having a good time Frank ordained himself the official bartender and wowed me with his extensive knowledge of mixed drinks the show started to wind down about 1:00 a.m. and we spent the next hour cleaning up empties and other assorted party refuse when we were done I fired up the dishwasher and sat down on the couch to rest soon after Frank joined me on the couch I could tell he was still pretty out of it we sat and discussed how while the party had went and he mentioned how cool the people he met were I'm not sure what I was about to say but before I could Frank leaned over and kissed me on the lips since it wasn't something I expected I was understandably very shocked I wasn't really sure what I should say to him he just sat there staring at me with a crooked smile I realized this was something I would have to nip in the bud before it went any further this by drinking he likely did have some sort of feelings for me and considering we had to live together it had to be addressed right now my goal was to make it clear that I liked him as a friend but we could never have more than a friendship because I wasn't into men me turning down his advances was nothing personal it was a good guy good-looking but I just wasn't attracted to men I said I was sorry if he was embarrassed I didn't mean to hurt his feelings he said and did nothing except look down and say yeah sure after he did that he trumped off to his room like an angry little kid I was still buzzing myself a bit and very tired so I decided to call him tonight hopefully Frank would pout in his room for a while and then pass out then we'd be able to talk about the whole thing in the morning when we both had clearer heads I couldn't have been sleeping very long for some reason I woke up choking and was unable to breathe my first thought that I was choking on my vomit but I knew that was unlikely I hadn't had that much to drink once I opened my eyes I realized Frank was sitting on top of me trying to choke me because of my nightlight next to my bed I could see his face there was no expression whatsoever no anger no sadness nothing if I instinct my body began to fight to get free but regardless of my kicking and slapping he continued to choke me right as it began to lose hope I remembered a thing my father told me as a girl you go for a man's eyes like poke them out or something like that nobody's gonna be able to hold on to you he's gonna grab for his eye it's just human nature you can cut some sob Ziya with those claws yet I realize I had nothing to lose so I did it I reached for his right eye socket and jam my thumb into it it didn't take long before I felt the eyeball pop out and sure enough he grabbed for it and that was my chance he stood up next to the bed screaming with his right hand over the socket holding in his blood poured down his face I couldn't help but cough over and over but I knew the eye thing wasn't going to keep his attention forever so I grabbed my phone from my nightstand and ran into my bathroom slamming and locking the door i dialed 9-1-1 and hit enter he began beating on the door and attempting to get in almost before I could lock the knob I guess he heard me yelling at the 9-1-1 operator because the beating and screaming quickly stopped the operator kept me on with her until the cops arrived I'm glad she did because help me keep my mind off my agonizing throat the officers had me relay a description of Frank to them they had a couple of more units searching the neighborhood for him I assured them he would be hard to miss odds were against them that they'd encounter another guy with his right eye hanging out and wasn't long before I heard the call and their radios saying Frank had been found the car carrying him brought him back to the complex for me to give them a visual confirmation and of course they had the right guy Frank wouldn't look at me he was looking down still holding his hand over the dangling eyeball once I'd confirmed they took him away to the hospital and I would soon follow in the back of an ambulance fortunately they weren't able to save the eye I've done too much damage to it not only had I pulled it out my long nails had managed to slice it up he hadn't been able to do a whole lot to me my eyes look like the whites were full of blood which I guess they were in addition to the bloodshot eyes it was hard to talk for a while and my neck had hand-shaped bruises on it my voice sounded like some old woman that had smoked camel straights for a thousand years but overall I got out relatively okay physically in the long run but mentally things weren't so peachy my path down the road to peace had been a long one and I don't see things ever going back to the way they used to be when it comes to the case Frank took a plea and in all likelihood won't be out until he's 50 his lawyer shirred him he would certainly get a much harsher sentence from a jury considering his prior record and reputation and yeah about that his whole nice guy aspiring writer and loved by all things was a giant fraud back where he's from he was an equal parts feared and hated he'd been in and out of trouble with the law since he was 12 the only reason he had received such glowing references from everyone was he had threatened them and their families they had been more than happy to get him out their City and away from them basically he was the town bully the craziest thing out of this super crazy story was that he did receive yearly checks from his grandfather's estate the old man had invented paperclip sir something crazy like that the whole family was drowning in money the problem while he turned into such a psychopath he grew up thinking he owned everyone in the small town he lived in as for me it took almost being killed to realize I didn't need to live with a group of strangers to meet people I finally got rid of that big apartment and moved into a cozy one-bedroom if I felt the need to socialize my neighbours were happy to visit with me a while and talk one of my neighbours turned out to be a wonderful guy and we actually got married five years ago and are more than happy sharing a modest three-bedroom house with our son when it comes to the long-term effects of the attack my voice is a tad gruffer than it used to be in therapy is still a big part of my life however I try not to let those things get me down it could have all ended that night with Frank's hands wrapped around my throat [Music] since this is a recent story the pain stemming from it is still very strong after reading this you'll understand why being a poor person without insurance my boyfriend and I of course are unable to afford counseling and besides I doubt he would be willing to do it anyway despite the fact that is constant the sod of strength often gets in my nerves at this point I realized one of us has to be the strong one in the relationship and that is certainly not me following a discussion with my sister I decided committing this story to paper may serve as some form of therapy before I get to the heart of my story I must tell you how we got there my boyfriend Mike and I had only recently moved to Arkansas because of a transfer he'd received at work this transfer also came with a raise and promotion I came at a perfect time considering I had also just discovered I was pregnant I got a part-time job at a bookstore so we could have a little extra pocket money it also gave me an excuse to get out of the house once in a while having no friends I'd go crazy sitting at home all day while Mike was at work when it came time to quit because of the impending birth they assured me if I wanted to come back in the future there would be a job for me I thank them but I had no intention of working another job until our son started school at least maybe longer the big day came and after 10 hours of sheer exhausting pain our beautiful boy was born by the time Mike jr. and I got to go home Big Mike had to go back to work since he was a supervisor he was free to make his hours and take off for the days as long as he was no longer needed he would often come home for lunch and take an hour off to spend time with his newborn son and help me out if I needed it life in our home was darn near idealistic for your own a year that was until the company laid Mike off although he was receiving unemployment it came nowhere near to making up for what we had lost for a moment I considered returning to the bookstore but since Mike and I had always disagreed with childcare we decided against it the following weeks were a trying time until we realized a sure steady source of income was looking us right in the eye we remembered we had a guesthouse this wasn't exactly your stereotypical guest house full of lavish furnishings and the like it was actually a converted pool house / shed that the landlord's had converted for their teenage son to live in not a palace by far but nice enough for a single young person we've been using it for a storage place for old baby things and we'd find another place for that stuff if it meant we could create another source of income and that's just what we did we sat down the brainstorm what the wording of the ad would be and after three hours of back-and-forth this is what we came up with young friendly couple with newborn son looking for a single female under 30 to rent guest house $300 a month may need to babysit on occasion call with our number 7:00 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mike wasted no time in posting it it was put in the usual places like our local newspaper and Craigslist once it was up we had to do the hard part and wait fortunately for us it didn't take long the first few calls came from stupid little boys pretending to be girls I guess because they thought it was funny but the next morning was when Charlie called Charlie was a 23 year old girl from Fayetteville that worked at Golden Corral lucky for her the location she worked at was only about a 15-minute drive from our place so far so good she went on to say she had been single for almost a year and had no intention of changing that anytime soon her father was a preacher in Fayetteville and her mother had been a nurse before she passed away from breast cancer ten years ago from what I could tell on the phone she seemed to be a quiet and down-to-earth girl after speaking the mic we decided to invite her to see the place she showed up the next afternoon after her and lunch shift at work we all sat at the dining room table and discussed exactly what we expected of her and she seemed pleased with everything after we showed her around the guesthouse we left her alone for a moment to make up her mind just a minute later she returned to tellus she wanted to rent the place and we all shook hands to seal the deal in order to ensure her spots she gave us one hundred and fifty dollars for a deposit when we all found the day we were all free we set the Friday up for her to move her stuff in we took her into the nursery and introduced her to Mike jr. they took to each other right off Oh things look to be on their way up and I was able to relax a bit for the first time in quite some time Friday afternoon came and Charley arrived at 2:00 Mike and I helped her mood for a few pieces of furniture Ann's at the guesthouse when we were done by 4:00 to celebrate I cooked a big dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread we all ate well and Mike and I decided to call it an early night and turned in around 9:00 p.m. the next few weeks carried on as normal and Charlie would join us sporadically for dinner she even offered to babysit for us one evening so we could go see a movie together from all appearances she was a model renter and we all got along well about a month and a half after moving in I asked Charlie if she was free to babysit that evening so Mike and I could visit a family member that was in the hospital in Fayetteville she said she was more than happy to do it so we left that day around 5:00 p.m. when he took our time visiting our loved one and decided to stop off and get some takeout while we were at the restaurant we picked up some food for Charlie also as a way to say thanks when Mike pulled into the driveway we noticed that Charlie's Subaru was gone the struck me is strained since it was there when we left and she was supposed to be home watching Mike jr. was some bit of trepidation I entered the house and soon realized one of my darkest fears after a 30 minute frantic search we were forced to finally acknowledge the truth Charlie had kidnapped our son I must have called her phone 30 times but never got an answer Mike did most of the talking to the police every time I started to say anything I'd lose control of myself and yell please find my baby and breakdown crying he gave the authorities every bit of information we had on Charlie but unfortunately most of it was a lie it wasn't until the next morning the police discovered Charlie's real identity apparently her real name was rose and she had only been in Fayetteville for a few months she had moved there from Missouri where she was living with her boyfriend and their newborn son the whole situation gave me the chills because of its similarity to Mike's and my life sadly for her their son died soon after coming home from unknown causes but the medical examiner thought it was most likely SIDS or sudden infant death syndrome I had a brief pang of sympathy for her but my anger quickly drowned it out the police had brought in the FBI soon after they discovered the true identity of Charlie the prevailing theory was that she would either return to Missouri or head to Kansas where her mother was currently living more than likely she would head to Kansas her mother had a history of helping her daughter out of jams with the law and the feds hoped they could convince her to give Charlie up if she contacted her there had been a couple of reported sightings of her and little Mikey but they had been in two different directions a week into the search I was beginning to lose hope and as a result my grasp on my own sanity was slipping many times a day I found myself begging God to bring my baby home I had never been a very religious person but he put in circumstances like this he learned how easy it has become connected to him and how much belief has to do with comforting oneself in trying times thankfully that following week the feds called us and said that Charlie had contacted her mother and she was making her way to her Charlie told her that she had been moving very slowly staying in various places for days at a time and driving only at night when her mother asked her if Mike jr. was okay charlie assured her that he was fine and she would never harm him when the cops told us this part particularly I felt relieved a small part of me was afraid she had done something terrible to Mike jr. out of spite spite against all of us women with healthy living children in order to gain her trust Charlie's mother had told her to stay away from her house the police were watching her place instead she had rented a motel room for her on the outskirts of town and when she was able to get away she'd come see her Charlie bought the story and once she had checked into the motel the cops waited for their opportunity to strike later that night they saw their chance and took it around 11:00 p.m. she stepped away from the room to get some ice Mike jr. was alone in the room so they had no fear of harming him during the arrest when returning from the ice machine the cops approached her from all directions and arrested her with no problem the moment the FBI called us and told us their plan the local detective volunteered to drive us up to Kansas so we could be there when Mike jr. was saved we had been waiting at another motel just a few miles away waiting to get the OK to pick him up and and 11:15 that night we were finally reunited with our beautiful baby boy the paramedics were on the scene to check him for any injuries and as we'd hope he was fine I could see Charlie sitting in the back of a cop car the urge to scream at her and ask her why almost overwhelmed me but in the end I guess we already knew why once the trial finally began nearly a year later the true extent of Charlie's or Rosas whatever her you want to call her plan was brought to light she claimed that she had no intention of kidnapping anyone's child when she came to Arkansas her only desire was to start her life over and move on from her son's death but when she saw the ad the idea taking Mike jr. started to form when she saw him she fell in love and that was it of course she said she felt bad about doing it to us because we had become like her friends but her love for Mike jr. and her grief over her own loss overruled her mind despite her multiple attempts to get the jury's sympathy she was found guilty in order to ensure she would receive the harshest sentence the local da chose to let the feds try her and as a result of this she was given 20 years you better believe that Mike and I will be at every one of parole hearings to make sure she serves every day of that 20 years well that brings us back to the present I'm sorry if at the beginning of this I may have given you the impression that my child had passed that was not my intent well I recognize that losing a child permanently is a far worse thing I hope at least a few of you out there can understand the constant fear that I live with every day and if it's something you can carry with you too long you can become unhinged well I may not be the happy-go-lucky girl I once was sharing my story with all of you has lifted a small weight from my heart my greatest hope is that Mike jr. was far too young to be harmed by this painful episode and he can grow up to be a well-rounded and happy man Mike and I have done our best to carry on as before dealing with our pain and fears the only way we know how if not for the good of ourselves certainly for the good of our son [Music] in the story I'm about to tell is not as scary as it is sad but don't be fooled there were many moments during this time that I was scared out of my mind although I'm here to put some fear into readers it's also a great opportunity to educate everyone on the dangers related to a common m'lady so turn out the lights and get comfortable here comes my scary tale of the nicest the creepiest roommate I've ever had upon graduating high school my parents hit me with the ultimatum you're a man now it's time you start paying us rent or move out and get your own place heck and I wasn't about to pay my folks to live with them so the hunt for an apartment started immediately fortunately I had a job for a couple of years so I had some money saved up I think my parents thought I would choose to stay at home and they'd be able to get a piece of it but I've been looking for an excuse to get away from them and they gave it to me it wasn't long before I found a place with a friend of mine riding his couch this wasn't my long-term plan of course but it gave me a chance to get away from my parents within that month I found a guy from work who had just been forced to kick his roommate out of their place for not paying as part of the rent the students really cool and possibly the kindest guy I'd ever met but he wasn't a pushover we talked about each of our predicaments and decided I would take his former roomies place and it's where I would stay until just recently we got along great probably because we were a lot alike and it also helped we work different shifts our days off were spent on the couch playing Halo and throwing down many bottles of beer drug tests at work prevented us from enjoying things of an herbal variety but we managed to have a good time anyway nothing out of the ordinary happened for the first few months but one night I got a shock of a lifetime I'd crashed out early one night after working a 12-hour shift the third of that week I'm not sure what the time was but at some point allowed banging at my door drew me from my sleep in a slow and groggy States I rolled over to see what had caused it that's when I came I to I with my roommate I was so shocked I could have jumped on my skin after taking a second to catch my breath I yelled at him dude what but the reaction I expected never came turning on my overhead lamp I still received no feedback utterly confused I walked up to him and stared directly at his face he just looked ahead standing like a statue saying nothing this is when I realized that he must be sleepwalking although I considered waking him up I seem to have remembered that you weren't supposed to do it so I slowly turned him around and walked him back to his room when we got there I told him to go to bed and believe it or not he did very pleased with myself and still horribly tired I went back to my room and locked the door the rest of the night was happily uneventful the next time I saw him which was about two days later I timidly mentioned it to him I was unsure if he was even aware he did it and I didn't want to embarrass him to my relief he was well aware of his condition yeah man it's something I've been doing since I was a kid like most things in his life he was able to laugh it off he did however apologize for scaring me and assured me that I handled it the right way I'm more than likely wouldn't have been able to wake him up anyway in the future he would be sure to lock his bedroom door and suggest that I do the same there was no guarantee it wouldn't keep him in or out but it was worth a shot I'd had no other run-ins with my zombie roomie for another four months and when I did I handled it the same way as I had before after thinking about it for a while would seem stupid to get mad about the situation it wasn't something he could control besides there were certain protocols I could take to keep him out of my room at night and once I did I never received another nocturnal visit again sadly by the end of that year it would cease to be a worry in either of our lives on December 3rd I had only just returned from a three-day vacation a vacation my that forced me to take because I was grossly over accrued on my vacation time I didn't tell him but I was hoping to combine that time with the other three days I had coming so I could drink all the way through the holidays till January third since my plans had been ruined my mood was on the bad side I was vegging out on the couch when I got a phone call from work the moment I saw the number on my phone it put me in an even worse mood but I decided to answer it in case it was my roommate that was the one calling is your roommate there he hasn't shown up for work today unfortunately it was my boss I was quick to remind him in the kindest way possible of course that I was not his mother and I had not seen him in a few days my boss asked me to check his room and see if he was still sleeping and I did because he was my boss but he was nowhere to be seen his bed was still messed up which was strange his anal retentive nature would never let him leave the house without making it I promised my boss I'd call if I heard from him and I hung up as soon as I hung up I called my roomie but got no answer dealing the only thing I could I left a message and went on with my day there was still no return calls that evening it really was unlike him to drop off the map like this but he must have had his reasons the next morning I checked in on his room to see what time he'd finally came back but everything still looked as it had the day before it was definitely a head scratcher this type of behavior was very unlike him you never know though I'd only known him a couple of years maybe he had a dark side I'd never seen shortly before I left the apartment for work my phone rang I checked the caller ID there was a number I didn't recognize but then an idea hit me he must have lost his phone and I answered it try not to laugh at him is this Anthony Curtis the voice on the other end was not who I expected I said yes and his next question was if I was a friend of my roommate and they answered yes once again before he could ask me another question I asked Tim one who are you and what he want his answer threw me for a loop I'm sorry mr. Curtis my name is detective Jones with Littleton Police Department I'm afraid your roommate Daniel grant has been in an auto accident and I regret to inform you he passed away at the hospital in the early hours of December 3rd all I could say back to him was what Shaw cannot begin to describe what I felt that moment I guess I had gone silent because at some point I heard insane hello are you still there after I took a deep jagged breath I was finally ready to answer him yeah I'm here what happened where did this occur that was full of questions he should have been in his room at that time sleeping not in public I continued to ask the cop questions all we know at this time sir was that he was involved in a single car crash he collided with a power pole as he ran off the road his next series of questions would begin to unravel the mystery are you aware of any reason why mr. grant should have been on the road that time at night I told him that's the strange thing he should have been home sleeping he had work that afternoon he had never went out at night regardless well it was strange that he was driving only wearing his boxers that's when the whole thing clicked into place I think I understand now detective he was a sleepwalker he must have been driving and asleep our discussion continued for a few minutes longer and then I made the terrible call to his parents to notify them of the accident they drove into town from Pueblo the next day the arrangements were made to return his body to Pueblo and the date and time of the funeral was set for three days later just to show how loved he was by everyone who knew him our supervisors halted all work for that day to allow everyone to attend the funeral I'm not a fan of funerals overall but this was one I would never have dreamed of missing sending my best friend off right was the least I could do for him the complete facts of the story were soon released and it seemed to have played out just as I feared Danny had sleepwalked his way out of his locked bedroom door out to his car and down the road I had no idea sleepwalking could go this far but after a discussion with my doctor I learned how serious the condition could become despite the fact neither of us had any idea of how dangerous his sleepwalking could be I can't help but feel a small amount of guilt in relation to his death maybe if we had done some research we could have put some safeguards into place but honestly how safe would a pair of two 20 year olds really a been one of us probably would have passed out after a long night of video games and drinking and left the doors unlocked the fact is Danny's death was a freak accident plain and simple I stayed in our apartment for a couple of years more and just recently decided to let it go once my girlfriend and I found a house to rent together I guess I stayed around so long without finding another roommate because it would have made his death more real my girlfriend and I would often do the same things Danny and I did on my days off and it was almost as fun as the old days but in the end I realized as long as I stayed in that apartment I would never truly be able to accept he was gone so last month the decision was made to pass the place on to another pair of young guys from work they had been having a hard time finding a place to rent and since I've been in their position not that long ago it was the right thing to do I truly hope they have as much fun in that place as Danny and I did and at the friendship doesn't end in such a tragic way as ours my younger years I had a bit of a substance problem and most my friends did too once I'd started it wasn't long before my parents kicked me out of the house and I'm blaming them if my kids were stealing everything that wasn't nailed down to sell for dope I'd have done the same I started out on the streets but I was soon helped out by a couple of friends of mine that had a place in a trailer park Larry and Shonda had been together for at least 10 years and that whole time their relationship had been more volatile than a meth lab in the brief time I stayed with them I must have seen them beat the crap out of each other at least once a week I could never figure out if the fights were caused by the dope or if it was just the way their friendship was everyone who knew them chose not to get involved because that one time somebody did they were attacked by both of them well I'm kill each other I don't care what was the attitude of most but no one truly meant it unfortunately they almost did many times but the last fight proved to go farther than he had before much farther I'd lived on the couch for about two months when it happened we spent most of our days separate or together trying to figure out ways to hustle up some money to score I've been working odd jobs with another friend of ours for the last two weeks whether it was removing window air conditioning units from windows for old folks or painting people's mailboxes we did it when recycling days I'd still grocery cart can go around neighborhoods picking up bottles and cans to cash in for money I did all right and I only had to work for a few hours each morning to do it Shanda and Larry usually worked together as a team their hustles were usually illegal but on occasion they'd lower themselves and beg on street corners or downtown however though they usually steal things from stores and and so those same things to certain people that wanted them kind of like ordering things from a friend selling those things to you for half-price sometimes less it was definitely a prolific deal but the dangers of getting arrested were too high for me kicking is terrible any time but in jail it's the worse I'd prefer my freedom thank you all three of us had an exceptionally good day so we scored more than usual I just taken a handful of pills about an hour before and I was sprawled out across the couch and joined my hi Shonda and Larry had gone in the room at some point to do who knows what I've been nodding in and out for god knows how long when I was slapped back into reality by a blood-curdling series of screams not the usual kind like when they fought but the kind you hear in a horror movie I was so whacked out I wasn't sure what was going on all I know is I was scared out of my mind the screams lasted for a good 20 seconds before everything went quiet about a minute later Shonda and Larry's bedroom door flew open so hard the knob banged into the wall I could hear Shonda crying and mumbling to herself at the other end of the hall since I had zero idea of what had happened the only thing I could figure out to do was pretend I was asleep so that's just what I did I never got involved in the drama before and this probably wasn't the right time to start I picked up a blanket from the end of the couch pulled it over me and closed my eyes the sounds of her footsteps came echoing down the hall my only fear was that she would attack me in my sleep but I kept playing possum as she got closer finally her steps stopped and I could hear her heavy breathing behind me the wait was agonizing but I didn't move after what seemed like an eternity her steps started again and continued until I heard the front door open and closed I exhaled so loudly I was afraid for a moment that Shonda would hear me through the door and come back in but she didn't her leaving in no way relieved my fear i sat up and started thinking through what I believed it happened I had originally thought those screams were coming from Shonda but the I analyzed it in my head it may have come from Larry so with the large amount of hesitation I headed down the hall I stopped almost immediately because what appeared to be bloody footprints were laid out before me and despite the blood I knew I had to see what I had to see to see what was up continuing down the hall trying to avoid the blood I finally arrived at the open bedroom door slowly raising my eyes to I reached the bed his blood-covered body laid completely still on the bed as it got closer I realized his nude upper body was riddled with wounds try not to yell out I put my hand over my mouth to let out a muffled whine regardless of how dirty my life had been I had never seen anything close to his awful as this larry was beyond help now his eyes wide open and mouth stuck in a spasm of screams it was definitely gone I quickly turned around and walked back into the hall I wasn't sure at first what to do but I knew I couldn't let that crazy Tweaker get away with this so against my instincts I called 9-1-1 even before the five-o showed up I knew what they would do once they had ransacked the trailer to their satisfaction they finally decided to find out who had done this to Larry they wasted a large amount of time trying to pin it on me but once it became clear I hadn't any reason to do it they started looking for Shonda three hours later I knew I shouldn't say I was shocked but the cops found her relatively quickly it helps she continued to walk the streets for hours in broad daylight holding the weapon while being coated in blood but hey even a bro clock is Right twice a day she was so warped and out of it she asked for Larry for at least 6 hours after they brought her in since I didn't have anything on me except for the ones my system of course they let me go obviously I had no place to go so I made a decision I should have made years before I took a cab to my parents place at first they were far from happy to see me but once I told them I was ready to get clean and what the final straw had been we had a big hug and a cry they found a place they could omit me that evening and that's why I stayed for the next 90 days the first few weeks were terrible and I thought about quitting more than once but each time I remembered Larry's screams of agony it made my agony week in comparison when I was released three months later I was welcomed back into my family and I'm proud to say that I've been a welcome part of it ever since no I'm not going to say there weren't a couple of trip ups but once I began counselling I was finally able to deal with my guilt related to Larry's death among other things 12 years on I'm a family man and a drug counselor at a County Jail I once spent some time in and the year doesn't go by that I don't tell this story to each group I counsel when it comes to Shonda she took the plea deal offered to her and ended up with a 40-year sentence from what I understand if she keeps her nose clean and gets good time she may be out in about 25 I hope she thinks about Larry every day for those 40 years and it motivates her to stay clean I don't necessarily hold a grudge against her Larry was far from the saint and gave out as much as he got for all I know they did something to cause a woman that he was well aware of was mentally unstable to end him she never really said why she did what she did but the reason is ultimately unimportant a man died and did so in a horrifying way so keep that in mind the next time you take the hit or snort that rail not everyone around you may treasure your life as much as you do and just because you may call someone a friend they might not be there for you when you most need them [Music] I've spent a large amount of my free time lurking in the sub and have noticed how many of those here have been able to help other posters who have asked for it well it looks like my Turner's come to ask and I really hope you guys can do the same for me because I've got myself into a bad spot and don't have a clue what to do about it the final week of December a waiter at work offered me the spare bedroom in his apartment he'd initially used it for storage but since his girlfriend and moved out he saw no reason to let it set empty that night my mother and I sat down and talked about it I'd never considered moving out before my mom and I had always got along fine and I saw no reason to take on the expense besides I was a big introvert and didn't do well with others that's why I took the job as a prep cook Ament I spent the majority of my shift alone I'm not autistic or anything like that my personality most likely spawned from being an only child with few friends I guess I'd gotten used to being alone my decision was to turn down the offer until my mom suggested it may be a good way to drop myself somewhat from my shell despite my reluctance my mother's advice had always served me well so when I saw the waiter at worked the following day I accepted his offer and we shook hands to seal the deal by the end of that weekend I'd finished moving my things into my new room the waiter whose name is Devin seemed a little shocked I had moved in so quickly but I guess he thought I would wait until after the new year I saw no reason to wait since Christmas had already passed and I never celebrated the New Year's holiday he invited me to a party but like I said I never saw the point in the whole thing anyway so I turned down the offer and wished him a good evening in a safe return the next evening we had a nice dinner and took the opportunity to get to know each other better following dinner I turned in at some point in the night I was awakened by a light banging noise on the wall above my head I laid still for some time and waited for the noise to occur again but it didn't just before I could close my eyes a long ray of light stretched across my wall they looked like a flashlight at first but when I sat up in my bed and took a peek out of the blinds I saw a car with its headlights on reversing out of a parking spot directly facing my window it seemed obvious to me that this was the source of light so I laid back down and fell asleep soon after when I saw Devon at work the next day I mentioned the banging noise and passing and he said he hadn't heard it he did bring up the light however and explained that car's headlights from the road often reflected off of something in our bedroom windows and it wasn't anything to worry about it did seem strange that he brought this up considering I hadn't mentioned it to him I just nodded and went about my work but soon after I remember that devan's bedroom window faced the outer wall of another apartment block how light could enter his window from that side left me a tad perplexed but it wasn't an important thing to worry about and I soon forgot about it once my work was done I drove back to the apartment item dressed and was heading to the shower like I did every day after work and when I opened my closet I noticed a few of my shirts had fallen off their hangers and onto the floor this wasn't a big thing to concern myself with and until I saw what appeared to be a shoe print on one of the shirts like someone had knocked it off the hanger and then stepped on it the shoot was much larger than mine and besides that I didn't wear shoes in the apartment the carpets had just been steam-cleaned and I wanted to keep them clean as long as possible now I was starting to get anxious I began searching my room to see if any a more of my things looked out of place nothing else appeared to have been moved so I wrote it off as the result of an overactive mind and went about my day the event that's motivated me to write this post happened this afternoon I'd finished my prep work early and headed home when I came in the door and turned down the hall to my room Devon came out of my room although I'm not good at reading others body language it was obvious I had surprised him he asked me what I was doing home so early and I told him I didn't have much prep because the previous night had been slow he'd fumbled for his words and before he could say anything I asked him what he was doing in my room his answer was this oh I misplaced something and I was checking if maybe it was in your room maybe I asked what he had lost and after a few seconds of thought he said it was a lighter but it's not in there I guess so I'm gonna go in my room some more before I leave for work honestly confused at the whole way the situation unfolded I just said okay before I could get the whole word out Deven shot into his room and slammed the door behind him I immediately went into my room to check and see if anything was missing or moved once I'd searched everything else my dresser and even under my bed I headed for the closet since I'd replaced the shirts that had fallen off their hangers I'd know if they've been knocked off again and believe it or not one had indeed fallen onto the floor of the closet much like a head before however this time there was a white powder similar to plaster dusted on the shoulders of the few other shirts and on the closet floor this motivated me to search around the closet under the carpet the back wall but nothing caught my eye until I looked up and noticed a square frame door in the ceiling I'm still unsure what it is but I thought if I could stand on something like a footstool I may be able to open it and see what purpose it serves at the foot of my bed I had a wooden chair I uses in my desk so I grabbed it to stand on I first checked it to make sure I was sturdy enough to hold my bodyweight and it seemed to be I carried it to the closet and stood upon it as my face got within roughly 1 foot of the door my nose picked up a foul and nasty smell I had never detected before I started to push from the square board that served as a door but something in the back of my mind my instincts perhaps told me to stop so I did i sat down in the chair and tried to make sense of it all and realized I had no idea what was going on so that's why I'm here hosting the story I'm at a loss at what I should do or how I should handle the entire situation I'm very aware of how odd this all is but I honestly lack the life experience to understand and resolve this problem so I'm putting this question to you all what do I do [Music] about a week after my 21st birthday I moved into a house with my brother and his childhood friend Devin we were all old enough to drink legally so we spent the majority of our time off from school getting blasted I had always been the lover instead of the fighter when it came to my behavior when drunk and my brother was the same I know from experience that some are instead the fighter and when you run into one of them it's the best policy to attempt to de-escalate the situation before it becomes an actual fight and the following story I discovered to my own detriment but sometimes regardless of how you act toward one of them they only become even more angry and this puts you in a no-win situation Devin had known my brother since he was about five and myself since I was about three the two of us had never been closer you and friends for that matter for my part I didn't hate the guy he just gave me a bad feeling despite that we were always able to get along with each other perhaps for the sake of my brother we'd avoided getting into a fight once or twice but that was just because of kid drama crap nothing serious in any way he had always been a stocky guy naturally muscular you could say once he had his teens he shot up to around 6 feet and at that point I think he realized most people were scared of him this fact seemed to make him even more rude and pushy towards others and this attitude even extended to me everyone but my brother him being a pushy idiot was just something I had come to accept and it hadn't entered my mind since high school therefore when my older brother Sean asked me to move in with he and Devon I accepted right away Sean and I had always looked out for each other and I enjoyed hanging out with him he never got on my nerves and as far as I know I didn't get on his so this sounded like a cool living arrangement we had a giant house party the first weekend after we mom moved in and it was a blast Devon was a bit of an idiot once he got drunk they made a few demeaning jokes at my expense but most of the people present at the time kind of blew him off like I said everyone knew how he was the possibility that he was going to be a problem started to show up that night I'm not talking about the jokes towards me and those me nothing this was much worse some little preppy kid with an attitude bigger than Devon had made some remark about my brother and Devon got up in the kid's face instantly the preppy kid must have known he was in a bad spot because he made a quick back step and apologized to Sean despite that Devon continued to talk crap to the kid until he was forced to leave after watching this whole mess I mentioned my concern to Sean but Sean could only tell me to stop being such a wuss even making excuses for Devon our whole life and I should have expected this reaction but this was a different situation as far as I could tell we had to live with a guy what is normal my words were ignored happily no other problems reared their heads that night and much fun was had by all waking up on the bathroom floor is always a sign of a great party isn't it life went back to normal pretty quickly long days of classes and short weekends of drinking sometime in the middle of April Devon and I had our first incident Sean was out that night with his girlfriend so Devon and I were the only ones at home we've been playing games on our new ps3 and getting loaded when he decided to start calling me a wuss because I didn't want to take a shot of jäger with him I didn't really like the taste of that crap and it made me sick but that wasn't good enough for him he began saying the word over and over again until I got sick of hearing it and told shut up this is the worst thing you could say to him he reached over and grabbed me with his right hand and pinned me to the floor now I know I've mentioned how big Davin was but I left out the fact that he was also in the powerlifting team at school and was strong as a bull I on the other hand was a 140 pound 5 feet 10 inch stick figure as he held me there he made it clear that I'll call you wuss as long as I want you can't stop me right from that position I was in I could only agree with him ruff and a strangled voice sure Devin you're the boss he let out a self-satisfied arrogant laugh and let go of my throat once I got free I had no interest in hanging out with King idiot anymore I walked into the kitchen and grabbed my 12 pack of stones from the fridge watching the whole time and Casey decided he wanted to pound me into the carpet I took what was left of my beer and when it's my room and locked the door I could hear a mountain living room Sam come on idiot come back out here you little wussy ignoring him I put on my headphones and watched YouTube for the rest of the night Sean and I had to talk about what he had done to me the next morning actually saying Sean told me to stop being a whiny baby it would be more accurate judging from how he reacted toward me before when it came to Devon I shouldn't have been surprised but since we were brothers we were supposed to stand up for each other we always had I made the decision that I wouldn't drink alone with Devon again he surely wouldn't do that sort of crap to me in front of Sean but I was wrong the next time I had a run-in with Devon was also the last it had been several months since our last episode and I'd done my best to put it behind me but if I'm honest I was still a tad nervous when I was around him but I felt safe as long as Sean was with us like normal we had been out drinking that afternoon and had continued a party back at home if I remember right we were playing a game of drunk Scrabble and the thing that set it off was my correcting of Devon spelling he had spelled the word subtle as su TT le and I made the grand faux pas pointing it out like I said we've been drinking all day and my guard was well and truly down I don't want anyone to think that I was being and know-it-all but my intent was the follow the rules that's it but when I pointed it out Shawn emitted a short burst of laughter and this angered Evan naturally he couldn't get mad at the guy who'd laughed at him instead he sat up and reached across the table and knocked me on my backside I felt back so hard I hit my head on the floor so hard I ended up with a mild concussion when I stood up I looked over at Shawn but he acted as if though I had fallen myself instead of getting knocked over by his best friend this made me mad and I confronted him but his only words for me were it's your fault man you asked for it should have kept that crap to yourself indignant about what Shawn just said I looked across the table at Devin and he just gave me as usual smug grin this was the last straw any guy who wouldn't stand up for his brother isn't worth crap the next morning I started moving my things back into my room at my parents house of course Shawn tried to talk me out of it a few times but I had nothing left to say and he knew it this was only a temporary measure until my girl and I could get our own place we did a couple of weeks later and other than a handful of times at school I never spoke to Devin or Shawn again some of you may criticize me for cutting my brother out of my life for something such as this but think very hard isn't the job of an older brother to protect his little brother from other people especially bullies regardless of their age if you witnessed another man a much bigger man at that strike your little brother wouldn't you at least say something to that bully well folks this happened to me multiple times and my much larger brother let the bully strike me and did absolutely nothing actually you may say that he openly encouraged it so my view is that if your family aren't willing to help you and freely choose an outsider over their brother a person who they grew up with and share blood with you owe them nothing this tale I've shared with you occurred almost 12 years ago and Shawn and I still have not spoken my family my wife and three sons spent holidays with my mother the day after he does I told my mother to tell if he wants to renew our relationship all he has to do is cut that cancer Devin out of his life we could put her past where it belongs but he apparently feels his friendship with Devin is more important than knowing his nephews that's his choice and I refuse to let it hold me back this misfortune that managed to separate two brothers who once loved each other has been an important lesson to me and one I have been determined to teach my son's be it son brother a dad no one should ever choose someone who is in the wrong over their own blood the names and locations in this post will be changed in order to preserve the privacy of those involved and to avoid any further pain associated with the incident some will believe this is a cop-out but unless you were there when it happened you'll never be able to understand how something like this can destroy a person's ability to move on with their life and have a meaningful future when the time came for me to go off to college my mother insisted I live in the dorms for at least my first two years she said this was an essential part of the college experience in the friendships I made would last forever I didn't bother to remind her that none of her friends from school still contacted her it was more likely one of those greatest days of our lives sentiments that you see in movies like st. Elmo's fire after all she was about that age I attempted to get the idea across that it was not like her and didn't get along with other girls but she quickly poo-pooed the idea and accused me of being a prima donna like usual her desire to relive her sorority days through me left me with no say in my living situation and I found myself living in a musty old building with a bunch of hyperactive brain-dead girls my first day at the dorm signed that my roommate for the sake of the story I'll call her Sybil she was a quiet shy and cute little girl that said very little so thankfully she wasn't as bad as I feared I made it clear to her from the start that I was here to learn and get my degree so I start living my real life and was in no way interested in partying and chasing frat boys she simply said okay and with that simple one-word answer I knew we were going to get along just fine school was almost exactly what I expected it to be juiced up pretty boys an overly aggressive feminists complaining about everything under the Sun I did my best to block out all this chaos and focus on my studies as far as I could tell Cybil was trying to do the same she did voice her concerns the first week of classes saying they were harder than she expected but didn't say anything else about the subject again other than when I returned to our room at night to sleep I saw very little of her the first month or so the loud cheer enos of the other girls drove me to do my studies in the library a place I soon fell in love with when semester tests ended I was free to spend more time in our room and talk to Sybil about her school experience so far the girl I had met a couple of months ago was very different from the one sitting across from me been a stress of school was obviously affecting her psychologically as I talked to her she would mindlessly twirl and pull her hair out from the root every other sentence lacked any sense and as she spoke she grew more and more uneasy I mentioned my concern for her but she acted as if she didn't hear and continued her agitated rambling tomorrow everyone would be going home for the Christmas break and I convinced myself when she returned home her health would improve or at least her parents would get her the help she needed despite feeling guilty about leaving her alone I had a few things I had to get done before I flew home in the morning returning to our room an hour later I was relieved to see Sybil asleep in bed doing the best I could not to wake her I finished packing my luggage and soon turned in myself I'm not sure how long I'd been asleep when I was awakened by a banging noise across the room for me once I was able to open my eyes and comprehend what was happening I saw a dark figure on Sybil's side of the room picking up suitcases and folding clothes turning on my bedside lamp I quietly asked her what she was doing I'm packing for my trip honey go back to sleep sorry I woke you this made no sense to me we had plenty of time to get ready in the morning before we had to be out of the dorms I initially thought I had overslept or something but the time on my clock said 3:23 I am are you having a hard time sleeping or something you can do that crap in the morning once again she ignored what I said and continued to pack picking up her large suitcase she placed it on her bed and took her smaller one from the floor by her feet and stacked on top of the other and I saw this and became more confused sitting up in bed I started to ask her again what she was doing but before I said a single word she turned to face the window raised her hand and swiped in one quick smooth motion across her throat she let out a loud gurgle and dropped to the floor next to her bed it wasn't into her body hit the floor then I realized what she had done blood bubbled from her throat and mouth I couldn't do anything but scream loudly and over and over I watched as the color drained from her face her hands slowly opened and that's when I saw the small piece of razor that she had cut herself with I'm not sure when the other girls entered the room I was entranced by the lifeless look in her face but the scream of another girl in the room snapped me out of it any one of the girls living at the end of the hall ran in with a towel and pressed it to her throat but it was no use when the paramedics arrived about 10 minutes later they pronounced her dead at some point a couple of the girls in the dorm walked me out of our room and set me down on a chair in the hall the rest of the night and into the next morning I remained in a state of shock the school brought in grief counselors that morning to talk to everyone many of the girls did but I stayed in a stupor until my parents flew out to escort me home that afternoon I'm thankful to all the girls on our floor that helped me and contact my family and explained the circumstances to them and grossly misjudged many of them and for that I'll always be sorry my mother had proved correct at least in this case I was being a prima donna the afternoon before my parents and I flew home I had to speak with the detectives investigating this I did my best to describe what had happened despite how hard it was they did want me to know that I shouldn't feel responsible for it her parents had told them that Sybil had said many times and phone calls that she was home sick and was having a hard time with her studies she was from a small town in Missouri and going up to school had been a massive dose of culture shock add that to the fact that she was failing most of her classes the pressure must have all boiled over regardless of what the detectives and my parents were telling me I couldn't help but feel a large amount of complicity in her death I had spent so much time worrying about myself and ignoring the actions of other that I missed her slow descent into illness I'm not sure if she had needed someone to talk to I would have been the right person my smug attitude towards the others I shared the campus with had made me a miserable bore when the time came I chose not to attend the funeral I was sure the last person her parents would want there was the roommate that ignored their daughter's illness it had not even bothered to mention her strange behavior to anyone I made the excuse to my parents that Missouri was too far away but that was the truth of wide and go the idea of returning to that particular school was beyond possible the thought of all the accusatory looks and glares was too much to handle I decided to take some time off and deal with what had happened the next six months was spent in counseling in group and solo this helped me deal with my guilt surrounding the event and overall improved my attitude towards others three years later I'm in my final year of college at a small local university just a short drive from my parents house all this time later my mother has begun to accept it on my own person and I have come to the realization that I was far too immature to move across the country and go to a huge college filled with strangers the bad attitude I had towards others was a self-defense mechanism nezam to hide my insecurity and fear of being so far away from home and those I loved that had been the way I handled it Tim unfortunately civil dealt with hers in her own way sadly her weigh costs far more than mine I teach in a school that was built in the 1940s and the same property as the old one room schoolhouse still standing and used in a town that is now and was historically home to a Native American population the school is a typical mid-century building heavy wooden doors brass fixtures tile etc my classroom had one main door in two closets one of the closets is directly behind were the main door opens so when I open the main door the whole way it hits the clothes closet door this closet is the epicenter of the haunting and experiences we have had my first year teaching there I would hear some knocks and banging coming from the closet area but always chalked it up the hallway noises or sounds coming from the pipes in the halls again an old building there would occasionally be papers on the floor when I arrived in the morning but nothing that raised any red flags about three months into the school year one of my students in sixth grade came up to me with no background on the noises or context and said just so you know I'm sensitive to these types of things and there's a little girl ghosts near that closet have a good day super creepy I know so it made me think about it and again I just sort of let it go over the subsequent years the bangs continued a couple of times it was a knocking so distinct the students would hear it and ask if someone was at the door once I even had to open the closet to see if someone was inside of it playing a trick on us it should be noted that I used this closet for my coat and bag some school supplies in the first aid so I'm in there daily the knocking prompted a few students to get those silly phone apps that ghost track can pick up on words being said four of them stayed after school one day and used the same app at the same time to see if they gave consistent results and immediately a giant red splotch appeared on all of the apps in the location of the closet they asked some questions to no avail until they asked for a name and all of the phone showed the word Bronwen some research showed that this was a typical female name popular in the 19th century fast forward the school year after hearing the knocking and papers being strewn about pretty consistently the teacher who was across the hall from me big dude from Brooklyn in his 50s no-nonsense type of guy comes into my room one morning and says I know cigar sound insane but I was here working late last night and I heard kids laughing in the hall I came out to see who was up here when they weren't supposed to be in there was no one would I realized the laughing was coming from your room the door was opened and the lights were off and it was definitely laughter coming from your room I went in and there was no one there but the closet was opened I went back into the hall and heard whisper and start in the room I snuck over to the door heard whisper and followed by giggles and quickly went in and snapped in the lights to see if there were kids hiding in there there was no one he then said he got his things and left for the night the following week when I arrived the school in two separate days I opened the main door only to hit the closet door that was opened I attributed that to me just not closing it the whole way the night before and it just creeping more open as doors tend to do then yesterday happened two days ago I went to open the closet in' it was locked this closet has never been locked there was no way to lock the closet without a key which I have never seen no one has this key it's been lost to the ages I called the custodians in and they came in with their giant ring of a billion keys and tried every single one to no avail the door wouldn't budge they tried to pick the lock nothing they said they would try more after school but if they couldn't get to open they would either take the door down or call a locksmith to open it I put my bag and coat near my desk and went about my day yesterday I got to school and went to open the closet to see if they had gotten it open after I had left for the day and it wouldn't budge still very locked locked to the point where the knob barely even moved when you try to open it here's when my heart starts to beat faster fifth period I was teaching a class that had been there when the custodians were in the day before and it was quiet in the room literally out of nowhere with no one near the closet the door softly clicked and slowly opened about four inches my heart almost stopped the students were justifiably shaken and I have absolutely zero explanation for this nothing was moved in the closet it just simply opened on its own after being completely locked so that's where I'm at I'm planning on trying to set up the webcam on my computer at work to see if I can capture anything in the near future I don't think their malicious ghosts but let me tell you it's a bit unsettling to be in there alone in 2005 I was 16 and my brother was 14 that was a month or so into my senior year of high school having skipped the eighth grade he was a freshman who had been going through an emotional rough patch and was growing very close to his first girlfriend and her family we later learned that part of the rough patch was that he was beginning to realize he was more attracted to boys than said first girlfriend I am happy to report before we get through this story that he is now coming up on 28 married to a man he odorous and a successful EMT as troubled as he was at the time and that might have something to do with this this story does have a happy ending my brother often went to his girlfriend's house after school today her mom had picked him in an assortment of friends up and driven them out to the local mall which was in another town about half an hour away it was about 5:30 p.m. in California late August still bright outside my mom had called me ahead of time to ask what I wanted from a local chain restaurant that did takeout tend to double-check that my brother wasn't home and set the table for two about 15 minutes into dinner we heard something that sounded like someone walking on the roof we lived in a split-level home so the lower level where the dining room was was easily accessible of someone wanted the climate my mom and I stopped eating and listened then came the sounds of multiple small something's hitting the roof like hailstones the sound seemed to sweep over the whole lower level of the house in the stomping grew louder my mom threw down our fork and shouted for me to get into my room the least accessible from outside the house due to the split-level design my room sat over the garage with no ledges or anything that someone could use to climb as I ran through the living room I looked at the living room window there were rocks falling on the lawn my mom grabbed her cell phone and followed me it's my room where we shut the door and barricaded it my mom called 9-1-1 she didn't know what else to do whatever was on the roof managed to climb up onto the roof of the second storey which would have been difficult without a ladder but not necessarily impossible we could hear someone stomping around above us as my mom frantically whispered to the dispatcher down the hall something shattered we went silent as the sound of footsteps came pacing deliberately down the hall growing closer to my room I leaned on the barricade as silently as I could I was in tears now and I think my mom was trying hard not to be whatever was on the other side of the door slowly scratched it then turned around and could be heard going back down the hall there inside the house my mom told the dispatcher the dispatcher gave my mom a code word that the police would use to identify themselves so she would open the door I don't remember what it was only that the house was silent after the person on the other side of the door and walked away about 15 minutes past with us just waiting in the room and dread I suggested it was a prank when my brother and his friends my mom agreed that was the best-case scenario eventually we heard the sound on our front door being forced open and a fresh set of heavy footsteps which turned out to be the local police they came upstairs gave the code word and quickly escorted us onto our front lawn so they could check the house when we got there the lawn was full of rocks not piled not even so full that the grass was hidden but there were rocks nonetheless the lightweight gravelly kind some people use in landscaping according to the police the roof of the lower level was similarly covered when we were cleared to go back inside one of the officers called my mom up to the bathroom and I followed the bathroom window was broken from the outside but the mesh screen behind it was intact an area about the size of my fist had seemingly been punched into with the shards landing in the tub below the plumbing in that tub was damaged so we had all been using the shower in my mom's bathroom for a while and the floor of the unused tub was dusty this made it very clear that there were two bare footprints in the dust nothing could have come through that window nothing should have been able to break in from the outside even without damaging the screen we still wanted it to be a prank by my brother but that was seeming less and less likely the police called my brother's cell phone he it turned out was still at the mall our food was untouched my mom thankfully had a spare deadbolt to remount on the front door we returned to our dinner to shaken up to talk and waited for my brother to get home nothing like this ever happened again unless you count the sticky child sized handprint that showed up on my bedroom window a couple of years later my best friend now as an adult thinks it was some kind of poltergeist incident citing the fact that as I entered my own rough patch unrelated to my brothers I was run-of-the-mill depressed and anxious and aimless feeling after I had to abandon my initial college plans by being too squeamish to participate in human cadaver dissections in my first anatomy class I could tell touch activated lamps to turn off and on on my own personally I think my voice just vibrated enough but at the time this happened I was content my brother was the one going through a hard time and his was bad enough that in about nine months time he would try to end himself by jumping off the roof I wasn't home when this happened but according to my mom he had jumped from the upper level over my room she didn't know how he had gotten up there thankfully he had only succeeded in snapping his ankle which ended up requiring surgery to heal properly he spent a few months in the youth home where my mother would drive out and visit him ultimately by this time he came out a year and a half or so later he was well on his way to wellness again and has grown up to be a successful happy adult I feel like on some level my brother's turmoil had to have caused would happen that day but there are times I wonder whether or not that's just a more comforting easy explanation for something really weird and unknowable [Music] it was August 26th 2018 and I suddenly woke up with a strange feeling that something bad happened I looked down at my phone to see the time 136 a.m. once in my news app to see a shooting in Jacksonville I see it's at Jacksonville Landing which is close to her my friend had just moved I immediately call him but he doesn't answer I text him saying I saw the news about the shooting at Jacksonville Landing wanted to make sure you're okay I felt at peace afterwards and fell back asleep he calls around 10 a.m. to ask where I got my news about the shooting because he couldn't find any news online about it he had to meet up with some friends from his new IT job to watch these gamers at the landing but I was adamant that there was no gaming tournament because the shooting happened during it I freaked him out enough for him and his friends to find something else to do almost exactly 12 hours after I sent him that text at 1:30 p.m. on August 26 David Katz walked into the same gaming tournament and shot 12 people killing two before shooting himself the news articles posted looked identical to the ones I read early that morning I look back at my phone's text to find my text that I sent him at 1 a.m. missing needless to say we were both a little freaked out [Music] when I was a kid growing up in rural South Carolina I lived in a very broken home my grandfather raised me until I was old enough to start school and then I went to live with my parents and brother who was a year older my dad was a truck driver and my mom worked at the local truck stop my parents were very abusive to each other and to my brother and I my mom was extra mean towards me anyways there was this man that stayed around the house that in the past year I've learned as the entity described as the hat man the hat man would make itself seen during all hours of the day and night both in the home and around the property everyone who spent any time around the home had seen it one night when my mother and her co-worker friend got off of work they decided to grab some food and hang out at the house middle of the night mom's friends had her boyfriend tag along with them the boyfriend saw the entity in the house and it scared him so bad he ran out and refused to enter the house again at one point my parents had a preacher come pray over the property even though they weren't religious people nothing changed the strange thing is that I was never afraid of the entity I actually found comfort in knowing it was around and would get slightly excited when I would see it my home life was really bad at the time my parents beat each other routinely and when they got along they would be violent to my brother and I looking back I wonder if things being so terrible was the reason I wasn't afraid because it couldn't be much worse than my reality we continue to see the sense to you until a few things happened and they happen quickly so I'm not sure what the break was we moved into another home across town about the time we got moved in my father got a DUI resulting in him losing his truck driver's license and needing to change his life in a hurry to keep from losing everything right after he got his DUI within two weeks he and my mother went to church and thankfully changed their lives forever I never went back to that old lifestyle and that eventually became a preacher years later I never saw that entity again after the move [Music] I'm 30 years old and I work in a bakery on night shifts because it is open on weekend nights it's quite close to a big club and lots of people stop by before going home I'm a girl so my boss tries to never let me alone at night but last Friday his wife called him for an emergency and I found myself on my own around 3 a.m. it was very quiet I guess that the club was closed so very few people walked in so far and I was in the back of the shop working on a cake we would be delivering in the morning when I heard the doorbell ring I quickly went to the shop but nobody was there the door doesn't close properly if he don't push it hard and it looks slightly moved like someone just centred but even looking out through the big glass on the street nobody was in sight there's a parking lot and a bar closed at night in front of the shop but not even a car was there I started feeling a bit uneasy but I thought maybe someone was pranking me trying to scare me I went back to working on the cake and after a half an hour or so I heard the doorbell ring again this time I looked on the videos of the shops cameras and nobody was there so I run to the back door trying to reach the parking lot from the right side to see if someone was hiding there trying to prank me no one I walked the whole parking lot I looked at the bar behind the shop everywhere nothing I decided to have a smoke just to calm my nerves and I suddenly noticed the silence no dogs barking no cars passing by the street and in front of the shop no sounds at all everything was just too quiet there was a light mist in the air and it was quite dark because just one of the streets lights was working at this point I was kind of freaking out I felt like I was in a totally detached reality or a different dimension with someone watching me I'm not really sure how to explain it I forgot about the cigarettes and I went back inside I closed all the doors of the shop I didn't care what my boss would think I was too scared and tried to finish that cake nothing more happened but at 6 a.m. my boss came back and I explained to him why I kept the shop closed he told me that something similar happened to a girl that did the nightshift before I worked there and that this is the reason why she didn't work there anymore I totally understand her I always loved working at night but I felt uneasy thinking to stay alone there again last Saturday and yesterday everything was normal but I wasn't alone and I hope to never be again I'm a twenty year old girl and throughout my whole life I feel like I've always been pretty in tune with the paranormal admittedly I've become slightly obsessed not in the summoning of demons way but more out of too much research and spending my free time and all day at work listening to podcasts like this one I have many stories to tell but I figured I'd start with one that's had been weighing on me for a while I moved into a new place in December of 2017 with my roommate we'll call her Nikki when we moved in I felt the huge weight off my shoulders because for the first time ever I didn't feel any presence in my home skip forward to about nine things have been going pretty well when we find out a family friend who was 16 we'll call her Morgan didn't have a place to live so we invited her to stay with us I had known this kid for roughly 15 years and known she came from a really messed-up family she told us her dad was a Satanists and had cast a curse on her and now she was being followed by what she described as a shadow creature with my pastor the paranormal I believed her but thought nothing of it a few weeks had passed and little inconveniences had been happening such as our coffee table being moved or mail being scattered across the floor we have cats so I didn't think much of it but was pretty annoyed this kept happening and then gradually started getting weirder my our entire bottle of laundry detergent being poured out under the dining room table and the empty bottle being set in the middle of the puddle at around the same time both Morgan and Nikki started having issues with sleep paralysis Nikki used to get it all the time when she was a kid but hadn't in years the strange thing was even though they were separate experiences both girls claimed to see the same thing a child-size black figure the body was small but the head was way too big and the hands were very long but they couldn't see any other features just a black outline luckily I didn't have sleep paralysis and I never have in my life so I mistakenly thought that I was safe one night I was home alone and was in a deep depressing mood everything in the house felt so heavy so I decided to take a nap on the couch when I woke up I couldn't breathe it felt like someone was pushing on my chest so I sat up and the pressure was gone it was then that I noticed the room was dark unnaturally dark my TV was on and the hall light was on so there was no reason my little portion of the living room would be so dark I decided not to think about it and turn the tv up then started scrolling through my phone a moment later I heard heavy footsteps coming out of the kitchen directly up behind me it sounded like a full-grown man I thought someone had come into the house while it was asleep because we always left the sliding glass door in the kitchen unlocked too afraid to turn around and look I took up my phone and one of my snapchat I turned the flash and when I switched to the front-facing camera my screen went completely black and my flash wouldn't work so I drew the courage to turn around I saw nothing and instantly the room was light again I grabbed my keys and got out of there until my roommate was off of work a couple of days had passed and my roommate and I burn sage oiled all the entrances and told whatever was in the house that it was not welcome and it had to leave I thought that was the end of it we didn't have any more things move we're gonna move in with her brother and the house seem lighter except Nikki was still experiencing sleep paralysis almost every night skip forward a couple of weeks and I was lying in bed with my two cats it was about 3:00 a.m. and I heard pots and pans being moved in the kitchen my cats woke up and were growling so I grabbed my gun and checked every corner of the house Nikki was still sleeping so I went back to my room thinking could have been her cat that likes to hide in the cupboards the second I shut the door there were three loud bangs on it that made me jump so high I fell back onto my bed I yelled for the thing to go away I didn't want it there and it had to leave what felt like minutes later I opened the door and my older cat ran out and turned into the kitchen and screamed like she was hurt I looked for her for an hour and couldn't find her I went to bed crying the next morning I woke up and my cat was asleep next to me unharmed and I went to wake up my roommates and told her about the night before she explained that she had been awake when I got up and also heard three banks but was too afraid to get out of bed we old again and brought in her mother who worked at the church and she blessed the house not too long after Morgan's little brother moved in with me and we didn't have anything happen after that it makes me wonder if Morgan's dad really did curse her he used to always tell his three daughters that they were mistakes and he only intended to have his two sons that would explain why after she moved in with the older brother it didn't bother her anymore and why when the younger brother came to stay with me the problem went away all I know is that whatever it was was so negative my depression had never been worse and we were always arguing in the house I'm just glad it's over [Music] my dad runs a church camp for the mentally disabled when I was four he brought me along and I had a great time but for a different reason I loved catching and collecting all the different insects there I always released them on the last day of camp ever since then I've been going with him to help out and look for bugs in 2011 we stayed in the cabin since the year before we stayed in a tent and mosquitos almost ate us alive the cabin had a hallway with four rooms two on each side so my dad and I used the first two on the second day of camp I was alone in the cabin while my dad went off to set up stuff I decided to play with my lego Indiana Jones minifigures while I kept the insects I collected near me around ten minutes pass and I begin to hear shaking and scratching noise coming from somewhere in the cabin I chalked it up to being my bug scratching the little habitat windows have put them in but when I checked on them a little bit later they were completely silent I still heard that noise so I went to inspect the cabin while going through the hallway I checked every door when I got to the third door I found what that noise was the third doorknob was shaking by itself being around seven I immediately ran out and found a counselor nearby the counselor thinking it was an animal open the door which wasn't shaking anymore and started to try and scare it out of course there wasn't anything and before leaving he said must have been the wind years pass and McDonald's was some of the staff I told him the short version of my story and they said they've all had paranormal experiences at the camp one of them even said that one day she was alone in the manor there and heard footsteps but when she went to check and see who was there no one was to be seen [Music] I'm now nineteen but when I was younger I believe I was haunted by a little ghost girl or something because I had a few weird things happen to me it's mostly mild stuff and it's hard to really remember all the occurrences that happened since it has been ten years but the thing I do remember still creeps me out to this day and maybe someone will be able to explain it it all started when my mother and father divorced and we moved into a three-bedroom in two bath townhome in a new area but old city one night when I was trying to sleep in my bedroom I all of a sudden heard what sounded like footsteps walking above me there was no attic just the roof and it was the strangest thing I told my dad about it but he didn't care as he doesn't really listen to what I say most of the time there were multiple nights where I would hear the footsteps too but I really didn't think much of it another time I was sitting in my dad's room on his bed watching a movie during a quiet part of the film I heard what sounded like a little girl laughing in my dad's closet I remember panicking almost and thinking if I just heard it in my head or but it didn't really happened but I couldn't explain it the movie didn't have any young actresses her actors in it as the show was ironically ghost hunters and it was during the ghost hunting time I replayed the part where I heard the laugh and nothing there was no laughing young girl in the episode mind you I was the only girl living in the town home at the time maybe a couple of months later I was sitting in my dad's computer chair playing brats or something on his desktop it was something I always would do if I wasn't playing outside with the neighborhood girls I was really digging the game I was playing when I felt this cold rush of air on my neck and a loud gasping noise I freaked out and ran downstairs to my dad almost in tears my dad let this woman and her two daughters move into the townhome I moved my bed into the Masters closet while the two girls stayed in the master bedroom which used to be my dad's room I was really shy and had issues with privacy when I was 10 mostly because I grew up with my dad instead of my mother every night I stayed in that closet that creeped me out I almost felt like I was being watched and sometimes I would even jokingly talk to the ghost girl when I was trying to make myself comfortable in there and never barely worked and one of the girls even cried once when we were played in hide-and-seek in there because she thought she saw a face in the corner I never even told her about the ghost girl but I don't really believe her at the same time maybe a year passes was some minor things and my dad my brothers and I moved into the other apartment the assignments a two-bedroom in one-bath all on the second floor of the two apartment duplex since I was the only girl I got the small second bedroom that was by the living room while my dad and brothers shared the master bedroom down the hall I had these porcelain dolls from the previous home that I really loved I had them sitting on top of my TV right next to my radio I needed to sleep with music on when I was 11 as it would help me relax better and soon drift off to sleep even to this day I need to listen to something in order to sleep and that's why I listen to these podcasts but anyway every night's my routine was to turn my radio on say good night to the dolls and then shut my light off one night I turned the radio on and jumped into my bed my light switch was a pull string so I tied a long string on the end so I could turn my light off from my bed I was just about to pull the string when my radio just stops playing music the button was still pushed in meaning it was on and this was a station that never had any issues with frequencies before I looked over to the dolls next to it and awkwardly said good night to them immediately after the radio turned back on a little freaked out in paranoid I just tried to sleep cue another year of more hearing things and feeling watched we moved into another place this time it was a house two bedrooms upstairs mine and my dad's elderly friend the bathroom right next to our rooms I was getting ready for school one morning which was maybe around 5:00 I am it was my normal morning Shinde again I was just about to get dressed when out of nowhere I heard this girl's voice say hello to me in a loud and very clear tone this time I know I didn't imagine it and I ran so fast the bathroom that I just froze and sat in there for a while before the voice said do you remember feeling like I was being watched and even after I went back to my room it just constantly felt like someone was staring at me I always was so scared to be alone always feeling like someone was there and maybe I did just imagine all of these but it's just too weird not to think about sometimes nothing new has happened ever since that morning have been the casual not liking to be alone seeing some other minor shadows here and there and even having the most vivid dreams about some ghosts in my room there was a time where I had a friend sleeping over and we were taking photos before going to sleep she thought she saw a shadow leaning over the edge of my bed near our feet she didn't tell me until the next morning so I didn't really know at the moment it happened [Music] so about March of last year I had a very strange and kind of creepy encounter while I was sleeping there was a school night and I had gone to bed like the usual also I had extremely bad sleep paralysis and would often wake up the figures a lot at night to the point of having to alert my parents I went to bed that nights like usual in the middle of the night however I was awoken but it was something so different from what usually occurred the way I remember it the lights were miraculously on but that is the least worrying part I woke to what appeared to be a wounded soldier about late 20s to early 30s climb into my bed beside me now let's also put into account I was a 14 year old girl the time I wasn't thrown off or scared by the saw her I looked at him as he wheezed in pain and I calmly asked him if he needed water he didn't respond but I took that as a yes and got up I remember so vividly that's when I got out of bed I delicately closed the door so nobody would bother him I went upstairs and grabbed him a bottle of water out of the fridge and headed downstairs I got back in the room and he was gone but again I wasn't thrown off I just put the water on my nightstand climb back in the bed and went to sleep I've never seen him again but never since that day my sleep paralysis has completely stopped and I've slept soundly ever since looking back on it now it gives me chills and questions about if it was all a dream were some real angelic paranormal experience I may never know but I won't ever forget I would consider this post more substantial than my last two but let me start by saying that I've always been interested in things that can't be explained by science or logic whether it's ghosts poltergeist aliens or whatever I definitely see myself as a skeptic but still I find this subject fascinating I love watching ghost sighting videos or those top 10 scary thing compilations me and my girlfriend have been living together for almost six years in this one house although we are planning on giving our tenancy notice and next month as a couple we've experienced a lot of ups and downs while living there loss of family members my granddad being the most recent last September bouts of depression and anxiety from both of us and lethargy mainly from myself during the last three years we are usually happy bubbly people but for a long time now we both been fed up and generally a bit down in the dumps and for a long time we've been so desperate to get out of this house because it just seems to be draining us whether that's because of a sort of cabin fever being a small house or something else we don't know it's a bit of background on us and now for the parts you're here for about six months ago we were watching YouTube in bed my girlfriend falls asleep first she can literally fall asleep mid conversation which I find strange but hey I got up to use the bathroom then got into bed and fell asleep I woke up suddenly at an unknown time freezing cold with my girlfriend having claimed the covers I was facing away from her pulling the sheets back over to my side and she was pulling them back to her side at first it was like subconsciously half-asleep sort of thing but then she dragged the covers so hard that it knocked my fist into my own nose making my eyes water at the same time I heard a deep voice say get off really quickly that was not my girlfriend's voice so I immediately flipped over to see what her problem was nobody was there not even my girlfriend my heart nearly exploded in my stomach dropped I was frozen in fear for what felt like hours I knew this was real I was awake and fully aware of what was going on my girlfriend came into the room a minute or two later with a coffee and then started to do her makeup routine for work so this must have been around five to six a.m. and I just lay there and somehow managed to fall back asleep the next day I felt fine almost like it never happened but my nose was killing me so I know it did I found the contrast of feeling intense fear a few hours earlier in an extreme calm upon waking quite strange considering what had happened nothing was mentioned to my girlfriend a few strange things have happened between then and this incident but I'll just tell you this for now as it's one that I really can't shake three days ago I was sleeping and was again woken up but this time my girlfriend's face was less than an inch away from mine and she looked angry in fact she looked demented wide-eyed shaking and almost snarling it very nearly soiled myself and jumped out of my skin and shouted what are you doing she slowly moved away from me but never took her eyes off me she climbed out of the bed walked around the bed and headed out of the room all while staring at me with the most disturbing angry wide-eyed scary face just as she was leaving the room her face slowly started to pull a sickening grin as if she had accomplished what she set out to do and slam the door so hard that it shook the house I didn't dare go after her no chance I felt sick to my stomach and I've never been so scared in my life that was not my girlfriend she came back in minutes later perfectly normal and asked if I was okay I couldn't speak to her so I went downstairs and just smoked like a chimney until I could get ready for work again nothing has been mentioned to her the second event here was by far the scariest despite the first one involving invisible forces and voices it was just so disturbing her face was so contorted it didn't look like her truly it was horrible and I even feel sick writing this now for a little background the events of the story took place when I was 21 years old I'm a male and have always been somewhat awkward I was never in the popular crowd and never really found my clique in high school I've also always been pretty bad at talking to girls and or asking them out it's not that I'm really overly nervous I just never really know the right thing to say or carry on the conversation I have a twin sister who is the exact opposite she was always popular had a ton of friends and was usually in a steady relationship she was a bit of a social butterfly and we used to joke around about how different we were from one another it never really bothered me and in fact some of my fondest memories of my childhood was goofing around and poking fun at each other with my sister fast forward to when I was 21 right around Valentine's Day I'm not sure if it was the constant cold weather or the fact that my sister was hanging out with her boyfriend but I was feeling especially lonely I asked my sister if she would help me set up a dating profile on one of the thousand dating websites that are out there we went through all of the criteria and gave it a few days to see if I got any responses and received a few messages but the conversations fizzled after a few exchanges back and forth the day before Valentine's Day I received a message from a girl who was extremely attractive and who wouldn't give me the time of day in high school her name was Gwen which I very much liked because it reminded me of gwen stacy from the spider-man comics she made talking very easy which was awesome because I was never good at steering conversations she laughed at my dry sense of humor and always kept the conversation going thinking she was possibly not who she said she was her perhaps a catfish I asked her to video chat with me and she complied I was shocked when it was really her I mean I couldn't believe it we talked about a lot of things the things you ask someone when you're getting to know them and clearly interested in she eventually told me that I was one of the nicest people she had ever spoken to and that was different than the other guys she had talked to or been with in the past we eventually set up a plan for a day to end to meet in person when the day came I picked her up but not from her house she said she had to work and I could pick her up downtown I didn't think anything of it so it didn't set off any red flags we had a few drinks and then went to dinner we had plans to go to the movies after dinner but as I was paying the checks he said let's go on an adventure confuse what she meant by that I asked her to clarify she said in the bubbly voice I grew so accustomed and comfortable with let's go to blue lakes they have the trails there and the moonlight will be on the lake he'll be so romantic and way better than any movie nervous but excited I said of course but in my own mind I liked the idea of the movies because I didn't have to worry about what to say and carry on a conversation we drove the blue lakes which is the name of this beautiful park in my hometown it's not actually called blue lakes but because the lake has a deep blue color everybody in town calls it blue lakes we got there at about 10:00 p.m. and was starting to get nervous and felt like I was somehow going to mess things up I texted my sister and told her why I was and asked her to give me some kind of advice on what to do or what to say she didn't respond right away thanks sis there was a couple of cars in the parking lot which was weird for the time of night but I was trying to have fun she said oh don't be nervous about the cars it's probably just some couples still celebrating Valentine's Day she grabbed my hand and started walking toward one of the trails she could have said anything at this point and I would have went along with her she let go of my hand and walked on the trail beside the lake she said very loudly Wow look how beautiful this place is I thought it was kind of weird how loud she said it but again I didn't really care while she was staring at the water I checked my phone to see if my sister texts me back and she did it just said get out of there now thoroughly freaked out and truly not sure why I looked up from my phone at Gwen who was standing right there with a smile on her face what's wrong Andrew she said in a soft voice I tried but I couldn't answer I had a hundred things running through my head right now she said in the flirtatious voice don't you want to kiss me Andrew I finally had the courage to respond and said I need to leave Gwen laughed at me and said don't be shy Andrew we just got here I turned around and tried to walk out of the trail and there were two guys standing there I was frozen in fear not sure why they weren't moving out of the way when came up behind me and whispered in my ear Andrew we're not leaving yet my friends just got here I tried to run but two more guys ran from the other side and tackled me I'm a pretty big guy but I couldn't hold my own against four guys they held me down taking turns punching and kicking me it hurt but the adrenaline from being scared kept me from being in intense pain they tied me to a tree stole my wallet took my car keys and hit me a couple more times before leaving when took my phone and threw it in a lake within minutes of being there tied to the tree I saw flashing lights turn into the park I screamed for help and the police found me tied to the tree they helped me down and begin questioning me when my sister arrived apparently as soon as I texted her she had called the cops and rushed over herself she was at a party and a group of guys were there saying that they were going to jump some loser at Blue Lakes they had an entire plan to rob him and beat him up and leave him there my sister had exclaimed to them that they were lame and jerks and walked away not really thinking about it until a couple of hours later when I texted her not taking any chances she called the police they were able to find one of the four guys but the other three they couldn't find and they also couldn't find this Gwen all of her information online was fake so they couldn't track her my car had some minor damage and looked I've been used for drug usage I only had minor injuries including a concussion a badly scraped arm and some soreness from where I'd been kicked the thing that still haunts me and bothers me to this day is the motivation for this event was it really worth all the effort to beat a broke college kid for his wallet in his car I had maybe a couple of hundred bucks on me and I cancelled my credit card immediately it just seemed like a lot of time for a small payoff four years later I still have nightmares of that night even though the incident could have been worse I still have mental scars from getting attacked by a group of strangers I'm thankful one of them did eventually come to justice but there was a strong honor amongst these thieves because the authorities were never able to gather any further information out of him and all the other individuals had sort of disappeared into obscurity I have since found an amazing girlfriend and no longer live in my hometown hopefully since this story happened dating websites have made an effort to authenticate their users so things like this don't happen again I have never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day I have always found the holiday to be kind of a drag and a waste kind of like New Year's Eve at the time of the story I was 20 years old I worked at a small convenience store that was open 24 hours I told them that I would work the overnight shift on Valentine's Day because I didn't have any plans night started out just like any other night shifts I had worked in the past very slow and boring so I was able to get most of the work done by about midnight I usually spent the remainder of the shift just watching YouTube or Netflix at about 1:30 a.m. the bell rang alerting me that someone had entered the store he was a tall someone handsome man from what I could tell it a quick glance I shouted how are you tonight sir and he responded almost immediately Cassie is that you I pause for a moment in disbelief that he recognized me and then that's when it hit me it was a guy named Ricky that I went to high school with we were never really close but always very friendly I immediately greeted him with a hug because that's just my personality after a minute or two of catching up I finally asked what are you doing in here so late he frowned slightly and said well I just broke up with my girlfriend about a week ago and honestly I've been a bit of an insomniac lately and just wandering around I said I was sorry about the break-up and nested-if he need anything and he responded in a very genuine voice honestly it's just really great to see an old friend and if you wouldn't mind if you're not too busy I would love to just sit and talk for a while I actually thought it was kind of sweet and felt bad so I told him he could hang and we could just talk and catch up the first 10 to 15 minutes were normal even enjoyable we laughed and joked about some old high school memories after about 15 minutes he has to use the restroom and of course I let him this was when I started to think things through a little bit this random guy showed up in the middle of the night and just happened to immediately recognize me and strike up a conversation with me I was sure it was just a coincidence but it did seem a little bit weird while it was in the bathroom for a minute I decided to search him on Facebook and notice he had some mutual friends the first thing I noticed was that he had some weird photos pictures of him with knives and lots of symbology stuff that almost looked like witchcraft or something I don't know I'm not much of a horror buff but one of the pictures definitely had a pentagram in it he came out of the bathroom a few moments later and this is when things started getting really strange I threw my phone back down and greeted him as if everything were normal he said in a low almost disturbing voice I'm so happy to see you again I responded in the confused manner ah yeah it's great seeing you too he slammed both hands on the counter that I sat behind and said in an now aggressive voice you don't understand I'm so happy I found you I love you Cassie and we were meant to be together going from semi creeped out to full-on terrified I just responded nervously not knowing what else to say uh thanks Ricky but I'm seeing someone then of course was a lie but I honestly didn't know what else to do at this point he tried to grab my arm from the other side of the counter and I jumped back quickly and told him he needed to leave he took a step away from the counter and looked at me with almost lifeless eyes and a smile that left my body paralyzed he dropped his coat to the ground and took a shirt off he was covered with tattoos really creepy tattoos across his chest was the word animal and a crazy font the rest of his torso was covered with strange symbols I'm not sure actually what kind of symbols under his left PEC was my name tattooed it literally said cassy in cursive they then pulled the knife out of his pocket and pointed to the tattoo of my name while he continued his sinister smile and gaze I know it's easy to say what you would do in this situation but I was frozen I felt like headed like I was in a dream and couldn't wake up I was scared if I made a move he would lunge at me or try to grab me again he started to scream my name loudly Cassie Cassie I started to cry I couldn't even catch my breath and that's when it happened the belt from the door ran it was a big man walking into the store Ricky didn't even flinch he kept his gaze fixed on me and was slowly approaching me once the man saw what was happening and saw me cowering in fear he ran over and push Ricky down Ricky got up and ignored the man completely and still kept his crazy gaze on me I picked up my phone to call the police and that's when Ricky finally ran and tried to jump the counter and the man took him down again this time holding him down until the authorities showed up Ricky was arrested with a blank stare across his face the man who saved me just happened to be a passing truck driver wanting to grab a hot cup of coffee I feel like I owe on my life I have no idea what Ricky planned on doing but he was charged and they used video footage from the store to help with the conviction I'm so thankful for that truck driver and I will never forget that evil dead look and Ricky's eyes as he lunged for me and what was that tattoo was it really my name or for someone else named Cassie I don't work overnights anymore and I actually moved far away from this town I'm not sure if Ricki ever got help or still in jail I have no idea when or where thus obsession he developed for me began and honestly I don't care I just hope we never meet again that montañés day is a time for love and showing emotion and gratitude to that very special person in your life four years ago my girlfriend and I decided to go out for a Valentine's Day where we live it is still fairly warm in February so I decided to take my girlfriend on a picnic that we had been planning for about a week or so my girlfriend I love being outdoors and I figured after the picnic perhaps we could walk on a trailer perhaps take a quick hike about a month ago while I was hiking I found this amazing spot where I thought we could have the picnic from one of the main trails that only took about 15 minutes to walk there and it wasn't that hard of a walk either you did have to go off of one of the main trails around the semi narrow Bend and leading to a small rock formation the area overlooked our home and it was a beautiful view and enough flat land where we could sit and have a really nice picnic I set up an entire area for us chairs tables and a bunch of her favorite snack foods on the rear side of this spot was more woods and even in the daylight there were so many trees back there that it seemed dark so when Valentine's day finally came we set off for our adventure thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day it was warm with a nice breeze and not a cloud in the sky we held hands on the trail until we got to the spot where I went off the trail I told her to trust me as we went off the path she was hesitant but was down for the journey just as I expected the short trip was easy for her we reached the spot in no time and she was blown away she just stopped and stared on the horizon and AH when she saw the spread of food I had she was even more blown away today could not have gone any better and an almost a blink of an eye that changed while we were laughing and staring at the beautiful view she stopped suddenly I asked her what was wrong and she said that she had heard something in the woods I looked behind in the dark trees but saw nothing I told her she was crazy just kidding around obviously and tried to go back to flirting with her but she wasn't having it she insisted that I checked out the woods so annoyed more than anything I told her I would I got right up to where the tree line started and I peeked through some endless amounts of trees I saw nothing if I'm being honest I had a really hard time making out anything in there but I truly didn't see anything she approached after a minute or two and said in a terrified voice right there you don't see that shape it looks like a person I squinted and tried to make out the shape it just looked like a shadow to me babe I think it's just a shadow I responded in an almost condescending voice she was hysterical and asked me to please look at it so I stepped into the dark forest then to my absolute fear the dark figure moved it was very slight almost like a shoulder shrug but I saw it at this moment I felt intense anxiety and fear but I didn't want to freak out my girlfriend or even worse alert this potentially dangerous person that I knew that they were there after only a couple of steps I told my girlfriend I needed something and I turned back to where we were sitting I grabbed my girlfriend and tried to tell her not to freak out but that I did in fact see a person in the trees she was crying hysterically and I was just trying to think of the best way to get out fast I looked down over the lookout and but it was just too steep the only way was the way we came which was fine but I just didn't want this lunatic to follow us I decided to leave all the stuff behind and start walking down the rock formation she went down first as I stared into the trees and that's when I saw it clear as day the shadow figure was definitely a man and he was approaching us now he was only about 45 or 50 feet away I couldn't make out any specific details but it looked like he had a beard I finally started going down the rock formation and I told my girl to run as fast as she could we made it to the trail quickly as we stopped to catch our breath we heard the rustling of trees and the crack of sticks this man was chasing us she pulled out her phone to call the police but apparently she didn't have a signal of course we finally reached the parking lot of the park trails and there were two police cars the police were already looking for someone apparently there was a woman jogging the trails early in the morning and found a man laying off to the side of one of the trails she called the authorities right away and the man reported being mugged and robbed we told the cops everything but by the time they got into the woods they couldn't find the man from what I understand they never caught this crazy person in the woods and I'm not sure what he would have done if he actually caught up to us I still can't believe my girlfriend spotted him from so far away and I'm so thankful she did we both have a really hard time going on nature trails now and I still have yet to return to that specific park from now on we decided it was best just to stay indoors especially for Valentine's Day [Music] this is a short story that happened to me last year on Valentine's Day I recently bought a house with my soon-to-be husband it works really hard and always spoils me when he can while he was at work I decided to run down to the local store and buy some stuff to make him a romantic dinner the store is literally 100 yards away from my house at most so I quickly left around 1 p.m. and did not lock my door I live in a really safe area with hardly any crime and the police station right around the block I was going to be back in less than 10 minutes so I didn't think it was a big deal to lock my door I left and came back in just under 15 minutes I waited in line longer than I thought the rest of my afternoon was normal I prepared dinner and got the table set with candles and everything along those lines my afternoon was fairly normal and just like any other day at about 4:30 p.m. I went to the bathroom and thought I could smell a funny smell almost like Cologne my boyfriend didn't wear Cologne but I didn't think too much about it maybe it was my body wash from the shower or something along those lines a little after 7:00 my boyfriend came home from work he greeted me with Valentine's Day flowers and an amazing piece of cheesecake that I would be having for dessert I was thrilled he was also so thankful for the dinner I had prepared for him and we had a lovely evening after we ate he said he was going to go wash up and meet me on the couch for a movie and some cheesecake as he walked upstairs where our bathroom was he stopped talking mid-sentence and said in a voice that still haunts me what's that smell I came to the bottom of the stairs and asked if he smelled the Cologne - he did and immediately mouthed the words call 9-1-1 to me I went into the other room and called I tried to whisper as to the not alert the potential intruder well my boyfriend didn't tell me until later was that he saw muddy footprints on the bathroom floor and the shower curtain was open with two wet dirty footprints inside next to the bathroom is a spare room that we don't use and the door was shut and that doors never shut he grabbed the door slowly and tried to turn the handle but it was being held from the other side he kicked open the door and to the horror of both of us was a small dirty looking man he was dressed in all black with brown work boots my boyfriend who is only an average build slammed him down with ease and pushed him against the wall after only a few moments the police showed up and quickly ran upstairs luckily nobody was hurt and the intentions of this intruder were unknown I was alone all afternoon with him and he did nothing I couldn't sleep well that night I remembered that it was all my fault I always locked the door and this one time I decided not to I began to freak out that the man was in the shower right next to me when I was going to the bathroom I'm just thankful my boyfriend didn't get hurt and the police station is literally right around the block this year he took off Valentine's Day with me and we're still trying to cope with the experience the worst part is we still never got answers we don't know why this man broke in and I'm not sure we ever will [Music] so the events of this story happened to me two years ago on Valentine's Day it was the first Valentine's Day I had celebrated with my now fiancé D we decided it would be nice to go on a double date with a mutual couple we both knew the evening was nice and relaxing we went to their house for a lovely dinner and some games none of us really were the type that liked going out drinking or partying so this was an ideal night for us after a couple of hours we decided we were going to go home for the night and watch some movies in front of our electric fireplace now the couple whose house we went to didn't really live too far away but they did kind of live in the middle of nowhere we live in a decent-sized town but once you reach the outskirts of town it's a lot of corn fields farms and huge open fields so even though it was only about a 10 minute drive it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere when you leave her friend's house who travelled down a long road with no lights for about a mile or so then take a left and travel down another even longer road in the pitch black until eventually you reach the outskirts of town well about halfway down the road we saw these flashing lights shining through the seemingly endless row of trees until we finally saw it after we passed all the trees we pulled over on the side of the road and there hovering over the field it was a massive craft of some kind I'm not real good with measurements but I would say about the size of a plane but a very strange shape it was long and kind of flat with the pointed edge it was clearly hovering over the field high enough that it was well above us but not moving there was lights all over the craft and many of them were flashing in an erratic pattern my then-girlfriend and I sat in amazement and admittedly fear at this huge craft and the most peculiar thing was that it was quiet he couldn't hear any noise whatsoever coming from the craft as I took out my phone to try and record this saw the lights went off on the craft I tried to snap a picture at this point but it was just too dark and the picture just looks black the craft then started to make a very loud humming noise and even though we could barely see it it started to slowly approach the road where we were parked at this point scared and nervous we decided to drive away when we got to the end of the road we saw the lights again poking through the trees once we got home we tried calling our friends several times but they didn't answer finally about an hour later she called back and said she was sorry and didn't even hear a phone ring which we found strange because her phone was always on high we told her about the events and she seemed very skeptical she said living over there her entire life she has never seen or heard anything like that ever we talked about the event for a while and eventually said goodbye and enjoyed the rest of Valentine's Day and really had a great rest of the evening shortly after that night we found out that several people in the area had experienced seeing strange things like that apparently there is a military base nearby and some believe that they are testing some kind of new military equipment others think it's something perhaps extraterrestrial I'm not sure what I saw that evening but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt I saw something big and very close to me something that I am unable to explain has anyone ever seen this craft I speak of and just looking for answers the last two years on Valentine's Day we have gone back at the same time to see if we see anything and we've seen nothing since that night and though this was strange and terrifying it has given us a Valentine's Day tradition and an event that we will never forget [Music] the contents of the story have caused me to recently moved back with my parents who live in another state last year I was enjoying my first year of being a college grad and living in my own house well the house I rented but my still lived alone I was focused on my job and wasn't really looking for a boyfriend or anything like that every morning I go down to the park which is only about a two minute walk and I jog before getting ready for work on Valentine's Day my routine was no different as I was finishing my jog I was approached by a pretty handsome looking man he was tall looked in shape styled hair and super white teeth my creep alarm was not going off at all he said in a calming voice you're very pretty I just thought I wanted to tell you that and hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and then he just jogged off honestly it kind of made me smile because that kind of stuff doesn't usually happen to me after all that excitement I just continued on with my day like I would any other day and about 1 p.m. the secretary at my job told me I had a package I thought this was very strange considering I had never gotten packages before it was a huge beautiful bouquet of roses there was a note on the roses that said for the lovely lady I saw at the park I hope this makes you smile no it did make me smile which is stupid but I admittedly realized how weird and creepy it was that night I was cooking dinner and was going to do some work from my home computer I thought I could hear a noise outside my window but I just chalked it up to the wind or something I got up a little after 8:00 to clean some dishes and take a break from the computer I looked at my kitchen sink window and saw a car outside my house parked in the street now I had no other reason to be freaked out other than just a bad feeling there was no parking on my street after 7 p.m. and I had never seen this car before now again there could have been dozens of explanations but I just didn't feel good about the entire situation it just felt really off i sat back down at the computer trying to focus on my work but I had this sickening feeling in my stomach as I sat there in dead silence of my room is when I was sure I could hear something I had a window that's a train next to my computer where I was sitting I pulled back the curtain and exposed the man from the park trying to break into the window we locked eyes and he just stared at me like a deer in headlights he did not have that same smile as before at the park he looked mean aggressive after only a couple of seconds of eye contact which seemed like an eternity he started to bang on the window and screaming let me in I screamed and ran to the other room calling the police he must have heard me because I saw out of the kitchen window him run to the car in front of my house I couldn't make out the license all I knew is that it was a white Chevy of some kind which describes about a billion people I never forgot the look in his eyes almost immediately I moved home I never stayed in that house again that was advised to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights and then I drove home to my parents I'll never forget that almost evil look he had as we locked eyes through the window no more than inches apart they never found the man I described and many people think I made this story up but I'll never forget the horror of that Valentine's Day hey friends thanks for listening be sure to subscribe and click that notification bell to be alerted of all future narrations and sometimes you have to click it again later cuz it just goes away for some reason I don't really know why now if you got a story be sure to submit them to my sub reddits R let's read official and give and receive feedback from the community and you even hear your story feature in the next video and join my discord to interact with me and other listeners directly and if you want to support me in this channel even more grab early access to all future narrations for just $1 a month on patreon and maybe even pick up some let's read merch on Spreadshirt all links in the bio thanks so much friends and have a very happy and safe Valentine's Day

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Channel: Lets Read!

Views: 279,937

Rating: 4.660491 out of 5

Keywords: true scary stories, lets read podcast, scary true stories, true horror stories, reddit scary true stories, scary stories, horror stories, true scary stories from reddit, true horror stories from reddit, subscriber submissions, true stories, scary horror stories, stories from reddit, lets not meet, reddit, lets read, asmr reading, asmr sleep, ASMR, true creepy stories, creepy stories, subscriber submitted scary stories, true scary stories reddit lets not meet

Id: uqkOESk1mPg

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Length: 138min 32sec (8312 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2019

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