People Who Live In Rural Areas Describe The Scariest Thing They've Ever Experienced

Living below a blanket of stars and a mile from the nearest person sounds serene. Until a ghost or a serial killer shows. Just keep that in mind.

Out Camping

"Camping as a kid behind buddies house. Heard most God awful terrifying screech. Like 2 pieces of metal being rubbed together. Hands absolutely trembled unzipping tent and we hauled butt to the house. Honestly I was still scared in there too, thought something was going to come through window and get me. Probably a cougar/mountain lion I suppose but they aren't common here at all." ~ tbr6742

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!

"8 years old, in VERY (I mean very— 45 miles away from the nearest anything on top of a mountain) rural Appalachia, I was sitting on my couch with my dad at around 9pm in winter, with freshly fallen snow, watching of all things SIGHTINGS, an old 90s show about alien counters which scared the absolute crap out of me anyway, and we heard a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on the window."

"Keep in mind it's pitch black outside, so whatever could see us but we couldn't see them. Dad told me to sit right there with the telephone beside me, and he ran outside with a mag light to go see what it was. He locked the door behind him and he had explicit instructions that if he didn't come back in 5 minutes to call the police."

"I was terrified. He went around the house and came back in, downplayed it saying it must have been an animal, but directly after all of this, he took the (long corded) phone in the other room and called his best friend to come up and investigate. He thought I was zoned out on tv, but I was listening. He said "I'm telling you, there was a knock like someone was knocking on the window to be let in, but there was NO FOOTPRINTS." It's still scary and I'm in my late 30s now." ~ INCORRIGIBLE_*UNT

Hello Caller

"I was camping alone in the middle of the plains in North Dakota. A storm blew in and I was stuck in my tent under some trees and got a super strange feeling. I had two phones on me at the time, one had internet and was for navigating and the other was just for cell reception (2013). All of a sudden, one of the phones starting ringing and I looked at the caller ID, the call was coming from my other phone which was closed and in my hand." ~ BetterCallTim

Knives Out

"15 years ago I had a seasonal job with the US Forest Service in western Colorado for the summer. I was living in an old ranger station by myself. One night I had a dream that someone was walking around the cabin while I was in bed. When I woke up that morning the front door was wide open. For the rest of the summer I slept with a large knife close by." ~ pinus_taeda

Bullets

"Semi-Rural Australia, I wouldn't say "can't explain", but I do get mighty annoyed at the amount of bullet holes I keep finding in shed iron, solar panels, p2p radio dishes and so on."

"The holes are often 'tumbled' or 'keyhole' as well, so I don't think it's dimwits shooting directly, more like shooting at a 45° angle from miles away or something. It would ruin my serenity to get beaned by a random bullet." ~ ozspook

This is why I don't camp. I have no interest in learning what that noise was. Just run, let the noise be. And shooting randomly into the woods is not the best idea.

Bucked

"My mom lives in the woods with my young nephew. Totally dark at night, tiny house. She woke up in the middle of the night to a banging on the house. Eventually she worked up the courage to look out her bedroom window. She saw a buck, banging its head against the siding. Just backing up and rearing toward the house over and over." ~ Eaj1122

Obscure Opinions People Are Fully Committing To | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

you know the sound...

"My mother lives alone pretty much in the woods. Completely dark at night, no street lights or lights from neighbors, only a small road leading up to the house. One time in the middle of the night she woke up to clear footsteps on the gravel (you know the sound), and three knocks on the front door."

"She called out hello and looked outside and nothing there, only silence. It might not be a spectacular story but I would freak out if it was me waking up to that in the middle of the night with no other people around." ~ ingfrior

All about the bass...

"Unfortunately it's hard to explain. I was hiking down a trail with my dog in remote Northern Wisconsin, when I just got a weird feeling. At the exact same time, the heckles on my dog went straight up and he began acting really anxious. About the same time, I came into a clearing in the woods, and got hit with what I can only describe as a sound wave. It was like someone was blasting a subwoofer right next to me but there was nothing around."

"The nearest road was maybe a mile away. Something told me to get the heck out of there. So I quickly turned around and hiked as quickly as possible the rest of the way back. I didn't hear that bass sound after I left the clearing, but I still felt like something was following me." ~ HammockDistrictOn5th

Into the Woods

"This isn't a super scary experience or anything, but at the time (I was like 10 or so) it was pretty unnerving. So I was staying with my grandparents who lived pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and a dude knocked on their door. He asked for directions to town, but they lived on a dead end road where the only way to get up there is to come from town so he obviously knew where it was."

"They then pointed in the direction he needed to go, and then he said thanks. But instead of getting back into his car, he just ran off into the woods as fast as he could. They called the cops but they never found him so we have no clue what happened. He left his car in their driveway and never came back for it." ~ Last-Bar-5633

Duck, duck, goose...

"In Pennsylvania, USA. Woke up at 5:30 one morning to the sounds of WWIII starting. Shotgun pellets landing on the metal roof and falling into the gutters."

"It was apparently the first day of duck season and some hicks had set up in the stream 50 yards from our cabin. We went out and gave them an earful, they told us to screw off, we called the game commission, they got cited, it wasn't a great day for anyone." ~ NerdyRedneck45

"somebody help me"

"I live alone in the woods fifteen minutes from my town. My neighbors are near but not right next door. One summer morning I woke around 4:30am to a strange 'pounding' sound. It was still kind of dusky dawn lighting and I was in a daze from just waking up. Then I started to hear a man's voice yelling "somebody help me."

"I began to look out my windows to see if I could see anyone but couldn't from upstairs. My home has no window coverings on any windows. I went downstairs and caught a glimpse of him, naked with a thin T-shirt on, running around my house trying to jiggle windows and doors. He was very erratic, kept screaming for someone to help him, and kept running from door to window all around trying to find a way in. In any normal situation, I would gladly help someone in need."

"But this situation felt too unpredictable and dangerous for me to allow this person into my home. I was able to contact my neighbors who got my msg and quickly made their way over to help me, this is faster than any police that can get here. The guy ran away straight into the trees before they arrived. He was picked up by RCMP shortly after. No idea what happened there." ~ whoiswilds

Mushrooms...

"I walked about a mile from home to go mushroom hunting in a usual area. Walked through a field of goldenrod as high as my shoulders and was about to enter the woods when I felt something strange. I felt like I needed to go or I wouldn't get out of there alive."

"I didn't hear or see anything, but I had got goosebumps and I felt anxious when everything was fine before I reached that spot. I stood there debating and decided to go hunt somewhere else. I've gone back many times and haven't experienced that again."

"I live in an area that have bears, wolves, coyotes and bobcats, I've never had any problems with them on walks or hikes in the woods, but maybe that day would've been different or maybe there was a bad person in there. I've learned to trust this feeling I get, it's saved me many times and when I ignored it I got hurt. Whatever was in there, I did the right thing in not going in." ~ Slight-Ad-1744

The Boonies...

"When I was a teenager I went to visit my Aunt and Cousins who lived in the boonies in a town name Eager, AZ (close to the border of New Mexico and half a mile away from the town where Fire In the Sky took place). I was really into Alien abductions lore, I suffered from sleep paralysis where I'd wake up but couldn't open my eyes or move my body."

"Anyway, late at night after everyone went to bed, I put on a movie.. I can't remember the name of it.. but it was like the Blair Witch version of an Alien Abduction movie. I was really into it, and totally geeked out. All the lights in the house were off, just the TV screen."

"I heard something behind me and slowly turned around in my reclining chair only to see a G**-DAMN ALIEN staring at me. I FREAKED OUT and jumped straight into the air screaming. Guys... it was a half-inflated balloon left over from my cousin's birthday party." ~ TransRational

The Ancient Lands

"I'm semi-rural - village with houses and shops, but surrounded by fields. There are loads of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, like 1000 in a 5 mile radius. Anyway, there is this one prehistoric grave which is open, the contents having been moved to the museum."

"I jumped in one time to get a photo taken and my dog, a placid old black lab suddenly started barking with full alert mode, hackles, danger, right at me, in the burial cist. Still shudder to remember the moment. Maybe it was a snake, I don't know." ~ RandomiseUsr0

"what siren?"

"My wife and I were staying at a cabin in a rural town in the mountains. Around 8pm, an air raid siren (fire maybe), rang out for quite a while. We joked that it might be a zombie apocalypse, and after a while we actually got a little nervous that we didn't know what it was for."

"So I put on my coat and pots and walked down the road to a small grocery store nearby. Went in, asked if they knew what the siren was for. They said "what siren?" And when I went back outside the siren was gone." ~ a_pope_on_a_rope

Very Odd Feeling

"I lived in Japan and went on a trip in the mountains with a friend of mine. On a night ramble with him in an unfamiliar area, we both happened upon a torii that was immediately met with an impassable rock face. This seemed strange to me as torii were symbolically passageways."

"He and I both instinctively looked up to the sky while standing before the torii and somewhere that felt close to earth a great multi-colored light appeared hovering above us, letting off light almost like a gas in the full spectrum of colors, before disappearing. He and I both felt something incredibly significant had happened, but had no idea what. Very odd feeling." ~ dayto_aus

On and on...

"I live in the country, and it is weird how BOTH my dogs will key in on something and run to a place in the yard, focused, driven, hackles up, snarling... and there is absolutely nothing there. nothing!! And they aren't looking down or digging, they look up. A few weeks later it happens again, different area of the property. On and on... been here for years now and even the new dogs do it. Something is here with us." ~ hyteck9

Howls...

"I live way way out in the country and nothing really gets to me. However, I was out walking after dark and my flashlight died. I took about five steps and heard coyotes howling right near me and it absolutely freaked me out. I mean hair standing up on neck and frozen with fear. I made it home safely, but I'll never forget that awful sound. If you've never heard coyotes howling at night, you are missing a spine tingling feeling." ~ Robby777777

Yeah see, I'm definitely content with a Walmart and Target close by.

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