Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share Their Scariest Experiences From Childhood

Make us preferred on Google

Children have memories––and they're very long. That's why child development professionals stress the importance of communicating with children should they experience a traumatic event. Listening and encouraging them to share their feelings (even if you can't answer all their questions right away) is essential.

Kids are not immune from scary experiences. Such is the world we live in. People shared their stories after Redditor Rockyroadman21 asked the online community,

"What's a scary story from your childhood?"

"He saw me..."

"My mother took me to visit her friend when I was 8 years old. This friend lived alone in an old house. I was exploring the house and went up the stairs where all the bedrooms were. As I got to the top of the stairs I looked to the far end of the hall and saw an old man standing there."

"He saw me but he was looking through me (difficult to describe). I knew instantly that something wasn't right because the lower half of his body was not really defined. I raced down the stairs to tell my mother and the friend told her that yes, this is the ghost of the house and he is harmless."

"I have never forgotten the creepy feeling that I had."

otoph

Very creepy! Sounds like you haven't seen him since.

"I woke up..."

"I woke up and saw a shadow man run then jump at me while I was in bed. I was so struck with fear I was unable to move but he disappeared right before he landed. The memory was so terrifying I still remember it nearly 30 years later."

BW_Bird

Shadows? Nooope.

I've had a few of those dreams myself and still remember them.

"I have always insisted..."

"I have always insisted that the house I lived in until I was 8 is creepy. It was only a year or two ago that my family casually mentioned that it was built where a Victorian maternity ward used to be. So, it's mildly possible that ghost babies haunted me."

NiamhHA

Thankfully, I think most people would say this is out of the realm of possibility.

"One night I woke up..."

"One night I woke up to yelling and crashing and walked into the living room to see my dad fistfighting a complete stranger. He beat the absolute sh*t out of him and threw him down the stairs into our unfinished basement and locked the door since that was the only way in or out of there and called the police."

"Guy thought nobody was home and decided to try to burglarize the place and walked around the corner and bumped right into my dad in the dark who was half asleep on his way to the bathroom."

Victor117

Terrifying. You're very lucky your dad was awake!

"It took me years..."

"When I was around 9 years old, I was on vacation with my mom. The hotel gave our room key, in the middle of the night, to some random man claiming it was his room. Luckily the chain was drawn, but the man was very drunk and stood there yelling into the room."

"It took me years before I would stay in a hotel again."

ChocoboToes

This is incredibly irresponsible on the part of the hotel. Thankful it wasn't much worse. Hopefully you pursued legal action of some kind?

"I was around 12..."

"I was around 12, Wellington in NZ where I grew up is very hilly, so you'd often get streets built in valleys etc, our house's back yard was at the foot of a steep bank that was about one story or so high, with more houses up there."

"One day I saw a dead bird in our back yard, I walked over and saw that someone had carefully and methodically pushed maybe 100 nails all the way into the thing in a tightly packed pin cushion grid square arrangement. I vividly remember how little space there was between them and how the flesh in there was like pâté."

"I was super freaked out and I looked up, because where else could it have come from, and there at the top of the cliff, backlit by the overcast sky and in silhouette was a little kid standing silently staring down at me."

"Absolute creepiest thing I ever saw."

thewhitedog

This sounds like a brilliant horror movie opener. Disturbing!

"Me being completely naive..."

"When I was about 10 and my brother was 13, we were walking home around dusk and a white panel van pulled up and a man said our mom had sent him to give us a ride home."

"Me being completely naive and innocent stared getting in and my brother right behind me at the last second was suspicious and told me to run with him so we bolted."

"Years later I’ve never forgotten that and the older I get, the more it freaks me out but mostly I get mad that we didn’t get a license plate and call the cops because who knows what else that guy did later."

kdubstep

Hindsight is 20/20 when you're an adult. Don't be too hard on yourself.

"When I lived in Romania..."

"When I lived in Romania I fell off of a porcelain sink and landed in some of the shards in multiple areas (knee mostly). At the romanian hospital, there was a young girl my age that drank bleach or some kind of corrosive acid or something and the sight of her skin and how she looked at the chin was down in her chest was horrific."

iamegucha

The effects of corrosive acid on the body are NO JOKE.

And please... do not Google search any of it.

"Next day..."

"Driving to a campground with my uncle and my Dad. We saw a trailer with a tire off and a bunch of transmission fluid all over the dirty pavement. I was so impressed my uncle (a mechanic) could identify transmission fluid that quickly driving by."

"Next day we read in the local paper the guy was smashed under the truck. What my uncle said was transmission fluid ended up being blood. Turns out he was trying to protect me and they thought it was blood the whole time."

"Still remember what that looked like."

jgorbeytattoos

Quick thinking from your uncle, I see!

"I'm glad we are where we are..."

"Me, my mum and siblings stayed awake for several nights because my dad threatened to kill us whilst we slept. That was the worst time of my life. I'm glad we are where we are and away from him."

thematrixs

So sorry about this horrible experience. Thankfully you're free of him!

Everyone around you has a story. Trust: Someone sitting next to you on public transit has a scary story from their childhood that altered them significantly.

Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

The Traitors: New Blood star Jay Vinnedge (left) and his wife, Danielle Vinnedge (right).
NBC; @daniellevinnedge/TikTok

'The Traitors' Star's Wife Sets The Record Straight After Fans Are Shocked That He Isn't Gay

Alan Cumming can throw 22 strangers into a Scottish castle, secretly recruit murderers, and arrive at breakfast dressed like a fabulously wealthy woman with several suspiciously deceased husbands. Yet somehow, contestant Jay Vinnedge having a wife became the season’s most unexpected plot twist.

Cue the bagpipes, we have a suspect to interrogate.

Keep ReadingShow less
Todd Rundgren; Taylor Swift
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images; Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

'70s Rock Star Sparks Heated Debate After Claiming That Taylor Swift Has 'Ruined Music'

Taylor Swift's new extended album The Life of a Showgirl: Encore has been even more poorly received than the original version last year, and you can count Todd Rundgren among those who aren't impressed.

Who the heck is that? The 78-year-old rocker had a slew of hits in the 1970s, including "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw The Light," and also produced some of the most important rock albums of the era.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Penny Lee during MS NOW interview
MS NOW

MAGA Voter Sounds Off About Her Regret Over Voting For Trump In Blistering Viral Interview: 'I'm Pissed'

Penny Lee, a Florida woman who voted for President Donald Trump, admitted to a reporter with MS NOW that she regrets voting for him and says that the Trump administration has run the country "into the ground."

Lee spoke to the press at a gas station in the town of Clewiston and her remarks highlight the stress many Americans are living with as a nationwide affordability crisis continues unabated.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ken Paxton; Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images

Ken Paxton Privately Admits GOP Candidates' Numbers 'Dropped' Due To Trump's Midterm Convention In Leaked Audio

Texas attorney general and U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton privately admitted in a newly-leaked audio clip that "everybody's numbers dropped" after the Republican midterm convention where President Donald Trump appeared last month.

Trump spoke for nearly two hours that night, with his address airing live on Fox News as well as the Nielsen-rated cable networks Newsmax and NewsNation. Trump promised a "Trump dividend" of $5000 to every adult if Republicans win both chambers of Congress, asked his supporters to do him “the biggest favor” and “pretend” they are voting for him in November.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jack Smith; Eric Schmitt
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Video Proves Jack Smith Was At Iowa Hawkeyes Game And Not In Atlanta After MAGA Senator's Epic 'Gotcha' Blunder

Former special counsel Jack Smith was indeed, as he told Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt during a contentious hearing, at an Iowa Hawkeyes game in 2024, per video proof making the rounds following Schmitt's viral blunder.

On Tuesday, Schmitt accused Smith of perjury after repeatedly questioning him about whether he had attended an NBA game in Atlanta on February 3, 2024. The Atlanta Hawks hosted the Golden State Warriors that evening.

Keep ReadingShow less