Scary stories that make our heart race can be exciting and entertaining, but what if the scary story was a reality? There's a bump in the night that either makes you jump up, ready to fight, or freeze out of fear that it will come for you.
Some of these stories seem paranormal, some of them are real encounters with creepy people. Reddit shared some of their scariest stories that made our hearts race just reading them.
Redditor Cartisayslatt777 wanted to know:
"What's the strangest/scariest thing you've seen in the middle of the night?"
If you're ready for a spooky story or two, make sure your doors are locked before proceeding.
Didn't even flinch.
" Woke one night when I was about 5 years old. Was gazing around the room for a bit. I looked at the window and there, staring wide eyed at me was a man. Hands pressed against the window just staring with his head cocked to the side. Didn't even flinch when I noticed him. I hid under the covers, then peeked out to see if he moved. He was still there. I decided to just stay under the covers. I don't know why I didn't scream."
"I'm telling you man. Trespassers and home intruders are the scariest things. Never mind the paranormal this is real as day and still horrifying."
- rw032697
"For me the thing that makes them stand out is that they have a complete disregard for their own safety. Like they're on unfamiliar ground and they don't care. That's what I think makes them even more dangerous."
- artem_m
Through the skylight.
"Something similar happened to my stepdad. He and his brother shared a room growing up that had a skylight in it, and one night he ran to his dad's room several times to tell him a man was up there looking in their room. After the third time being woken up, his dad goes to look, and sure enough a grown man laying on his stomach watching two small boys sleeping."
"F*cking people not believing their kids. The child says something is happening check to see what's what."
Nature is scary.
"Didn't see it but heard it, for years after midnight I would always hear children playing in the distance. Couldn't ever see them but I could hear them. A couple years back was walking my dog on a late night stroll and I heard it closer than I ever have before. Like right next to me. Looked around and there was about 3 coyote about 100 ft away from. Apparently they sound like small children."
- kermeeed
"A bears nose pressed against my tent."
"I politely asked him to go away, and he did."
"I slept the rest of the night in my car."
- tapecave
"'Please go away.'"
"'Understandable, have a nice day.'"
Peeping through the blinds.
"I live in a ground-level studio. My bed is near the window. I reached to turn off the bedside lamp and saw someone in a white hoodie through the gap in the blinds. I went, 'What the hell,' and moved closer to get a better look and hopefully scare the creeper off. The person in the hoodie aggressively moved closer and put his face directly into the blind gap. I jumped back and he ran away. Installed a security camera the next day."
This story took a turn.
"I had a similar story to yours, same environment (ground floor of quadplex) and only saw the shadows of a man, but my story went much further than him running away."
"I was a college student at the time and was on a late-night phone call with my long-distance girlfriend (now wife), so she can recall most of that night too. We were talking while in bed at around 2AM when I saw the shadow of a man attempt to peep in and enter my front door, denied via lock and bolt, so he started walking around the side and back towards my bedroom. I didn't have lights on, so he didn't know I could see him. Nervous and curious, I snaked my way out of bed to find out more."
"Here's where the messed up stuff happens. I had previously worked out an understanding with the other ground floor tenant, who was once SpecOps. We worked out a deal where if one needs the other, regardless of time, to do a specific knock on the divider wall. He had PTSD and therefore didn't sleep much, poor guy."
"So anyways, I knock on the divider wall, he meets me at the front door with only his hands. I inform him of the man around back and he goes and confronts the guy. The man starts trying to argue back, sees the tattoos of my neighbor, and decides he better 'drunkingly' walk away to his car down the side of the road. So here my neighbor and I are talking about what happened, how screwed up it was.....when the guy circles back around the block. Not once, not twice but three times. The neighbor tells me to go bunker down inside with the blinds closed and to call the police and give them the license plate that he memorized as the man re-lapped."
"I call the police and give them the story and plate info, soon followed by "sir, please stay on the line and do not disconnect this call. We will be right there" from the dispatcher. The surrounding neighborhood was soon lit up in red, white and blue for the next 5 blocks all around. Cop cars everywhere. A few police officers came and talked to the neighbor and I about what was going on. The man they were after was wanted in several states on several warrants and was expected to be armed....oh yeah, and most likely A HITMAN......WHOEY-SAY-WHAT?!?!?!"
"The police said to remain on the lookout and to pat myself on the back for locking my door...yay, I feel like a big boy now. I was a larger size muscular man at the time (emphasize time), but what better way to put another perspective of size into a man than finding out he was a hitman and your strength would have been worthless. I attempted to follow up with the police a while later to see if they ever found the guy, lo and behold they really couldn't say. I take it as the guy was still roaming around and got away."
"I still have flashbacks of this night that haunt me. I lock every door at night, installed a surveillance system (not that it would protect me so to say) and plan on a security system soon down the road. My cocky youth understanding of security and control was quickly matured into understanding that I am not invincible and even the strongest men can feel powerless in a situation like this. Had that door been unlocked, who knows what would have happened...."
People Share The Scariest Thing They've Ever Experienced While Home Alone | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Was it a dream?
"Saw a guy... with a shotgun... in my house."
"My brother and I were sleeping in the TV lounge. Woke up and saw a guy with shotgun near the front door. Thought it was a dream. But, just in case I woke my bro up and asked him who is that."
"The guy heard us and ran out."
"We were 7 and 8 years old at the time."
Something only you can hear.
"My parents were driving us home through a suburban area of Buffalo NY in the early 1980s. It was late spring I think. The windows of the car were open a little. I heard a woman scream 'help me!!!!!' No one in my family heard it. It happened again. I started crying but no one else heard it. Still haunts me 40 years later."
"This same thing happened to me but not super late at night in PA outside of Philly. Windows rolled down and I heard a woman screaming to the point of it almost being a gurgle, then the screaming abruptly stopped as we drove past a big empty field adjacent to Peter Wentz Farmstead. I freaked the F*CK OUT and made my parents stop to listen. Nothing happened once they were stopped. I still wonder if I heard someone being abducted or murdered."
"This was 2001 so I wasn't some little kid with an active imagination. I was 15 at the time."
And this one's just for laughs.
"F*cking laundry on a chair can be terrifying."
"That's why I always f*ck laundry on a table instead."
- ntwiles
Okay, take a deep breath. You made it to the end.
These stories are definitely scary. Though there's no way for us to know if they're true, they make our minds wander to some pretty dark places regardless.
By the way... what's that behind you?
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