this is a compilation of some of the creepiestclassic true scary stories found on the internet i've only ever read one of these stories onmy channel about a year ago, but like i said, they are all classics soif you've heard any of them, i will be leaving timestamps for each story in the descriptionand pinned comment just incase you want to skip past any.
watch black snake moan for free, now that that's out of the way, i hope youenjoy the video and let's begin i have always had an inate fear of the night. not so much the dark, but the night itself. as a child my imagination was overcome withstories of creatures that come alive at night
and the safety offered by a house and light. i never had anything to base this fear onuntil a night when i decided to go with a buddy of mine to a baseball game and got stuckat a light at 2 a.m. after dropping him off at home. of course that night the game went into extrainnings and so i didn't get a chance to drop my friend off back home until well after 1a.m. everything was fine on the way home untili hit a light right before the street that led to my house. it was a "t" junction and i was turning left.
the light is one of those that you think isbroken until it finally turns green right when you finally decide to just run it. of course i pulled up right as the light turnedred. i would have just run the light, seeing asno one was there and it was closing in on 2 a.m. on a school night, but earlier thatweek i had heard the phrase "character is what you do when no one is looking" and forwhatever reason, that was the night i decided to prove to myself that i was a man of character,big mistake. i pulled to a stop at the light feeling goodabout myself, bordering on self-righteous, when i happened to look out my window to myleft and noticed a lady sitting all alone
on a bus bench. we made brief eye contact and i quickly lookedaway. it was too late. i could see movement out of my peripheralvision and knew she was coming my way. i looked out the window and noticed she wascarrying a bag. i quickly checked that my doors were lockedand all my windows were up. i then moved my right foot above the acceleratorjust in case and braced myself for what was to come. i was hoping it would be just an awkward exchangeand was praying for a quick light change before
she reached me, so i could just get out ofthere, i knew there was a slim chance of that. she walked right up to my window, put downher bag and began to tap on my window. i nervously looked up at her and she motionedfor me to put my window down. i had automatic windows so i just imaginedpushing too hard on the window button and that thing just coming all the way down, soi took a deep breath and lightly flicked it with my finger. the window moved microscopically down, butshe did not seem to notice or care. she then leaned in and began to talk. she said, "my boyfriend beat me up, i havea friend who lives down the street, can you
give me a ride?" i should stop and give a brief physical descriptionof the bag lady. she was small and skinny and of indeterminateage. she was either in her mid twenties and hadlived a hard 20+ years on the street, or she was a 60-something year old who had liveda moderately hard life on the street. all that to say, just by looking at her, therewas no way to verify her story. she looked beat up by life, not just by aboyfriend. but there was something about her delivery,it was robotic and seemed practiced and like she was disconnected from the moment, thatmade my skin crawl, and after a brief (about
a second) debate on whether i should do it,i told her that i had to get home and could not give her a ride. after my first refusal she leaned in closerand said the same thing again, "my boyfriend beat me up, i have a friend who lives downthe street, can you give me a ride?" this time i felt more confident when i declinedto give her a ride and told her i had a curfew and had to get home. she leaned in a third time and began her statementagain, "my boyfriend beat me..." at this point, the light changed. i slowly lifted my foot off the brake andstarted slowly rolling forward and began muttering
an apology. she didn't move. she just looked at the light then looked downat me, leaned in closer and said five words that have haunted me ever since, "you madethe right decision". then she picked up her bag and walked backtowards the bench. i peeled out of the intersection and criedand screamed all the way home. i have no idea what she planned to do, orif there were people waiting to jump in my car from the bushes had i moved to let herin, but that encounter has haunted me ever since and has confirmed in my mind, that nothinggood happens after dark.
during my early twenties, i worked as a meterreader in iowa city, iowa. a meter reader is the person who records howmuch electricity, gas, or water you've used each month. if your meters are on the inside and you wantan accurate bill, a meter reader must enter your home whether you're there to let themin or not. (edit: just to clarify, we only entered homesif consent was given when the customer first signed up for service. customers also provided us with keys, if necessary.) entering a home when the owner isn't presentis something that i never got used to.
no matter how loudly i knocked, i never shookthe uneasy feeling that i wasn't welcome. the inside of a home is the ultimate privatespace. a home's exterior is just the image of ourselvesthat we project to the rest of the world. but the further you venture inside, the closeryou come to truly seeing what kind of person lives there. and if you want the raw, unfiltered truth...headfor the basement. i hate basements. i've seen walls that looked like giant, static-filledtv screens, until i realized it was roaches scurrying across a white background.
cobwebs so thick and dusty that it lookedlike the cotton candy machine exploded at the spider county fair. i've seen rats, snakes, feces, weapons, neglectedchildren, abused pets, homeless squatters, massive hoards, bizarre sexual items, a makeshiftmeth lab, and even a coffin. there are rational explanations for all ofthese things (well...maybe not the coffin), but there was one basement where what i foundwas beyond the grasp of logic, and that's what made it so terrifying. it was an old apartment house. from the outside, it looked like every otherhouse on the block.
i entered the back door and found myself atthe top of a staircase. i ran my hand along the wall until it grazeda light-switch. i flipped the switch, but no lights turnedon. i wasn't carrying a flashlight. a typical route involved 5 or 6 hours of walking,so i carried as little as possible. oftentimes i used the light from my handheld'sscreen, but it only illuminated whatever was about a foot in front of it. so armed with the world's worst lantern, imade my way down into the darkness. once at the bottom, i blindly shuffled acrossthe room, one baby-step at a time.
with arms outstretched and head down, i eventuallyreached the far side of the basement. i shined the dim light from my handheld alongthe wall, and discovered two doors. each door led into it's own small room. i chose the door on the right, and found themeters in the far corner. as i entered the reads, i began hearing noisescoming from the other room. something was moving, and there was whimperingthat grew louder the longer i listened. i eventually realized it was a dog. it sounded weak and distressed. i tried to open the door, but it was locked.
at this point, the dog was scratching theother side of the door. i felt helpless. i reported it when i got back to the office,but i couldn't shake the thought of that dog. it stuck with me over the next month, untilit was time to return. so there i was, one month later, back withinthat basement. at least this time i knew where the meterswere located. i shuffled back to the little room on theright, while keeping my ears open for any sounds coming from the other room. this time i heard nothing.
i read the meters and started making my wayback, but i couldn't shake the memory of that dog. was it still trapped inside that room? my curiosity got the best of me. i stood outside the door for a few moments,listening. still nothing. that's when i made a huge mistake. i tried to open the door. i had no more than jiggled the doorknob wheni first heard it...
screams. blood-curdling screams, unlike anything i'dever heard. sounds that i didn't think a human was capableof producing. short, piercing, high-pitched shrieks followedabruptly by a low, drawn-out, guttural moan that ultimately morphed into something thati can only describe as crying, but much louder. it was all over the place, like some sortof psychotic, freeform jazz. i stumbled backwards, nearly losing my balance. i shouted something like, "hello? who's in there?"
there was no response, just screams. "are you ok? do you need help?" still no response, just screams. there was no doubt that i yelled loud enoughfor him to hear me. he didn't want my help. he wanted me gone. i fumbled my way through the darkened room,toward the exit. when i reached the top of the stairs, i juststood there, listening.
i was trying to wrap my mind around what iwas hearing. i waited for the screaming to stop, but itnever did. when i finally left, it was still as loudand demented as when it began. i felt relieved, but that quickly vanishedwhen i realized i had to do it all over again next month. i reported what i'd heard, but nothing cameof it. as my return drew nearer, a sense of dreadgrew inside of me. what kind of lunatic sits alone in total darknessand silence? my mind created endless explanations for whatkind of hell laid beyond that door.
by the time i returned, i'd built him up inmy mind so much that anyone other than the devil himself would have been a letdown. but there was no sign of him the next month,or even the next several months. i'd nearly given up on solving the mystery,when a stroke of luck pulled me back in. one night, i went to a concert with my friendlara. after the show, i gave her a ride home. she'd moved somewhat recently, so she hadto give me directions. i didn't pay much attention to where she wasleading me, until she pointed to a house a ways up the street.
i couldn't believe it. she had moved into the house with the mysteriousroom in the basement. "this sounds weird, but have you noticed anythingodd about the basement at this...", i began to ask. but before i could finish my sentence, sheblurted out, "a crazy guy lives down there!" finally, i had confirmation. she went on to tell me that even though herapartment was in the attic, she often heard him yelling late at night. but that wasn't all, she had actually methim.
one day, while walking to her car, she sawhim standing in the lawn. he stood perfectly still, with no expressionon his face. he was directly in her path, so she cautiouslymade her way around him. she noticed he was staring at her, so sheoffered a friendly, "hi." as she passed. he had no reaction, except for one unsettlingexception. he stuck out his tongue, then quickly suckedit back into his mouth and resumed acting like a statue. thoroughly creeped out, she got in her carand drove away. two or three months later, i finally met himmyself.
i entered the back door, like i had so manymonths before. this time something was different. there was a light on in the basement. i peered down the staircase. at the bottom, a ragged-looking dog was staringback at me. it was the same dog i'd heard during my firstvisit. then i noticed something else. behind the dog, i could see a pair of barefeet. the ceiling blocked my view of the rest ofwhoever was standing there, but it didn't
matter. i knew it was him. i should have left right then, but i didn't. i know this probably doesn't make sense, butat this point my desire to finally get some answers outweighed my fear. i shakily called out, "meter reader!", andstarted to make my descent. as i made my way down, more of him was revealed. he looked to be middle-aged. his head was shaved, and his eyes were wild.
he was wearing pants, but no shirt. what i remember most was how lean and sinewyhis body looked. it had the look of a body that was never atrest. i explained who i was and what i was doingthere. to my surprise, not only did he talk to me,but he actually sounded somewhat normal. the volume and pitch of his voice was odd,but he said the same sorts of things that people typically said to meter readers. i even started to doubt whether or not hewas the same man i'd heard screaming, but his behavior slowly removed all doubt.
as i read the meters, he rapidly paced backand forth. he was constantly wringing his hands together,and spastically cocking his head from side to side. the longer he talked, the more agitated hebecame. he began grimacing, and little verbal ticsstarted popping up in his speech. every so often, he'd blurt out a loud "aww!"in the middle of a sentence. he was trying to suppress these sounds, buthe was losing the battle. i started to make my way to the exit. he followed.
his verbal outbursts grew louder and morefrequent. i was petrified. when i reached the stairs, i drew our conversationto an end and said goodbye. as i turned to head up the staircase, he couldno longer hold it in. the very same unforgettable screams that i'dheard coming from the locked room. i ran up the stairs as fast as my legs wouldcarry me, flung the door open, and rushed back into the daylight. a month or two later, i had a couple friends(including lara) over to my place. i was excited to tell her about my encounter.
but as i was relaying what happened, i couldtell that something else was on her mind. when i finished telling my story, she toldme about something she'd seen a couple weeks earlier. one day, she noticed lights flashing outsideher window. she looked outside just in time to see policeofficers placing the man from the basement in the backseat of a squad car. she later found out from another tenant thathe had attacked someone with a knife. that was the last we ever saw of him. i don't know what became of the man in thebasement.
i like to think that he got the help he needed,but maybe that's just because i'd rather not think about the alternative. this is something that happened to me abouttwo years ago, but thinking about it still gives me chills... i used to live in a small town in rural missouriwith my mother and step father. our house was a few miles outside of townand along an old state highway. we were pretty isolated out there, other thanthe occasional passing car or farm equipment. one day i came home from a morning shift atwork. i was pretty tired, so i immediately camein the front door and sprawled out on the
couch. my mother and step father were preparing togo into town to visit a family friend, so i just started a movie and quickly driftedoff to sleep. i remember waking up to the sound of my parentsleaving. after that, i slept rather soundly. i must have been asleep for a couple of hoursbefore i was woken up to the sound of the front door opening and closing. i laid silently, hoping to fall back asleep. i assumed it was just my parents returningfrom their visit.
after a moment of silence, i heard an unfamiliarvoice say, "where is everybody?". my eyes shot open and i looked up to see aman standing over me. i had never seen this man before. he was tall and muscular. he was wearing a white t-shirt with cut offsleeves. he was also covered head to toe in blood. i jumped to my feet instantly. i had never been so scared in my life. trying to rationalize, i asked, "are you lookingfor my parents?".
he stared at me for a moment and asked whoi was. i replied by asking "who are you, and whatthe fuck are you doing in my house?". he stared at me blankly. i thought i was going to be murdered. he kept talking incoherently and asking whereeveryone was. at this point, i had no idea who he was referring to. after about five minutes of nearly cripplingfear, i realized that the blood that was all over his clothes and face was his own. i glanced out the living room window towardthe highway.
and then i started to understand. in the drainage ditch in front of my housewas a red pickup truck. i told the man to come with me and we wentoutside. soon after we got near the truck another vehiclepulled up. apparently the man had been drunk drivingand had driven his truck into the ditch. he was drunk and had a concussion from thewreck. he was so messed up that he had thought otherpeople were in the truck with him before the wreck when in fact, he had been alone. he had stumbled into the nearest house lookingfor help.
the driver that had just pulled up, drovethe man to the hospital and as far as i know he was okay. though i understand the situation now, i willnever forget this. it was fucking terrifying. a week or so before my 10th birthday, i walkedto the corner store with a $5 bill and picked up a jar of ragu for my mom. on my way home, a man i'd never seen beforefell in step with me and began talking. "hi!" he said, cheerfully. "my name is dr. ramsey.
i'm a pediatrician. do you know what a pediatrician is?" i walked along silently, not replying andfervently hoping he would take that as a sign he should leave me alone. subtleties were not his strong suit, though,because he kept right on chattering. "are your parents looking for a pediatricianfor you? of course, you're almost a big girl now, you'llbe needing another kind of doctor soon, won't you? that's okay though.
they can still bring you to me until then. what's your name? you have beautiful hair. i was just on my way to get some suckers forthe candy jar in my office. do you like suckers?" thankfully, we were nearing my house, so iran forward, up the back steps and into through the kitchen door. i didn't know it then, but that was the beginningof a very long, very scary ordeal. it didn't take long after that for "dr. ramsey"to begin showing up.
at first, it seemed benign enough...at leastto a kid. he would drive by nearly every day, smilingand waving. i told my mom, who said maybe it was on hisway home from work. but then, the phone calls began. my dad called me into the living room, andsat me down. he asked about the day dr. ramsey followedme home, and if i talked to him. he said i wasn't in trouble, but that i neededto tell him the truth. i told him know, and he asked if i was sure...couldi be forgetting something? i told him know again, and he frowned, thenasked "then how does he know your name?"
i didn't know. it turns out, that was not all he knew. he knew my sister's name as well. pretty soon, neither my sister or i were allowedto answer the phone. he called several times a day; at first, neitherof us knew what he was saying. then, one night, one of my brothers told usthat he was telling my parents that he was going to hurt me (and later, my sister). things got complicated after that. my dad had called the police, but as thiswas before there were any stalking laws, there
was not a lot they could do. they told my parents to call back if he "triedanything". my dad then called a friend of his from backin the day, who happened to be a cop. for the next month, my dad's friend escortedme to and from school. suddenly, life as i knew it came screechingto a halt. i couldn't walk to school alone, i couldn'tplay outside, i couldn't walk to superamerica (sort of like a 7-11 for those who don't know). when access to me was completely denied, thingsescalated. it was around this time he began threateningmy sister as well.
then one afternoon my sister, two of my brothers,my mom and i were in the kitchen. one of my brothers saw a glimpse of someonein the garage; they'd seen him too. dr. ramsey came bolting out of the garage,my brothers chasing after him. they ran all the way to cherokee park, wherehe lost them in the trees. my parents called the police again, but nothingcame of it. the only information they had was a descriptionand a name that was almost certainly fake. a couple weeks later, we woke to find ourdog hanging from the side porch. she was a gorgeous saddle-back german shepherd,born the same day i was. we were all devastated.
the cops said there was no evidence it washim, and ruled it accidental, but none of us believed that. his phone calls became more informative inthe meantime. he would talk about who was home, and whowasn't. if my brother would say my dad was home, hewould tell him who was really in the house. he also would talk about the house itself...aboutthe window in the kitchen he could easily open with a knife from the outside even whenit was locked, and about the french doors that connected the living room to the sideporch and how the lock could be finagled from the outside if you jiggled it just right.
that night, my dad put in some carpenter nailsat the bottom of the french doors until he could get a new lock ordered. my parents had to go to a company event formy dad's work. my older brothers were at saints west rollerskating rink. my sister was on the phone with her best friend. my little brother was on the floor asleep. i was watching devo on the midnight specialwith wolfman jack. it was late. suddenly, the top of the french doors swunginward, and in the few miliseconds before
the nails in the bottom caused them to snapback, i could see his silhouette. my sister whipped the phone at the television,and we ran up the stairs. about halfway up, we realized our little brotherwas still asleep on the living room floor. as quietly as we could, we slipped back downthe stairs to get him. we all went into our bedroom and didn't turnon the light; this way we could see outside. we watched out the window for a while, andwhen we didn't find him, we crept down the hall to our brothers' room to look. we looked down and could see someone standingat the backdoor. he knocked, loudly.
"what do you want?" my sister asked out the window. he stepped back and said "is this the mercyresidence? i have a pizza for delivery. can you come to the door?" she scoffed at him, declaring she was notstupid, she could see he didn't have a pizza, and she was calling the cops. he left. a short while later, my brothers returnedhome.
we told them what happened and they walkedaround the yard, watching for him. they came back in, and things settled down. by now we'd pretty much given up calling thecops because it never helped, so we just went back in, each of us (except my youngest brother,still asleep) carrying a knife from the kitchen "just in case". eventually, one of my brothers went into thekitchen to get a bowl of cereal as a snack. you know that sensation you get when you canjust feel someone watching you? yeah, he had that in spades. he kept looking around the kitchen, throughthe doorway into the dining room, at the windows.
he didn't see anything, but he could stillfeel eyes on him, so he went closer to the door to try to see better. the kitchen lights were reflecting on thewindows of the door (it had 3 rows of 3 windows), so he still couldn't see. he stepped closer, then closer again, untilhe was right up to the door, then cupped his hands on either side of his head so he couldsee. there on the other side of the window panewas dr. ramsey, smiling back at him. he turned to yell for my older brothers, andwhen he looked back again, he was gone. they went out again to look for him, but didn'tsee him.
the next night we were at the table playingcrazy 8's, and my brother was restless. my sister asked him what's wrong, and he saidhe always felt like any minute now there would be a 'boom boom boom!' on a door or window. almost immediately after he finished his sentence,"boom boom boom!" on the window right behind him. in the chaos, the two eldest ran out, buthe was already gone. a couple of weeks later, i was at school andwe were outside on the playground during recess. i was swinging upside down when i saw thatnow-familiar blue ford galaxy cruising by, moving slowly.
there he was, smiling and waving. he called my name, and i ran to the teacherand told her. the school had been told all about him, andshe took me inside right away and called my mom. that same day my mom had gotten a call fromthe school office asking her to verify that my dad was picking me up, as he'd called tosay he was on his way. he wasn't. not long after that, i woke up one night,thirsty. i went down to the kitchen for a drink andthere, sitting alone in the dark, was my dad.
on the table, a gun. he was tired of the the police waiting untildr. ramsey "tried something", he was tired of his children being terrorized, he was tiredof being afraid every time he left for work that something would happen to us while hewas gone. i sat with him for a time, watching, beforehe sent me back to bed. these events, and many more, took place overa period of around 18 months. then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. he had vanished from our lives; the phonecalls, the drive-by with the creepy waves, everything.
for a long time, during and after the dr.ramsey days, i would have a recurring nightmare in which i would wake up to find him standingover me as i slept. it took a long time before i felt like a kidagain. i found out years later that when he was calling,dr. ramsey would tell my parents that he was going to rape and kill me, and later my sister...andthat there was nothing they could do about it. i don't know what happened to him when hedisappeared. i don't know if he was in a car wreck, lockedin prison, in a coma...but sometimes i wonder if the wait ended for my dad when he was sittingin the darkened kitchen one night.
i don't know, and i'm not sure i want to. update: i am working on bringing this storyto a book format, a memoir of sorts. i am doing it partly because writing aboutit has proven to be cathartic for me, and partly because i want to help others see thatthis is survivable. i have started a gofundme for it because inorder to write it completely, i need to be able to house my daughter and i while i'min progress, and also because i'd like to be able to get my hands on the most information/recordspossible so that it is as full and accurate a book as it can be. i spent time over the winter in minnesota,'interviewing' family so i could fill in the
gaps of my own memory...i even (finally) askedmy dad if he knew what happened to dr. ramsey in the end. about a year ago in my final semester in collegei worked at a department store in the mall. i didn't have a car yet so i asked for dayshifts because it was a 2 hour bus ride back home. so basically if i had a closing shift, i'dget done at 11 but not get home until 1 am. but sometimes i'd be given closing shiftsmuch to my annoyance since i had a 6 45 am class & my mothers worry because who wantstheir kid on public transport that late? (sometimes she could come & get me but it'dbe too much of a hassle to get my younger
sisters out that late & such so i never askedher) my managers being the jerks that they weregave me a week of closing shifts, knowing my situation. i was pissed but whatever. one night i had just finished my shift, goton the bus (i sat in the back)& was minding my business when my ipod died. i was annoyed but i just kept my earbuds in& occupied myself by playing a crossword on my phone. about 2 seats behind me i hear these guysspeaking spanish.
now, my stepmother is puertorican so whilei uunderstand a fair bit of spanish, i don't speak it. so i hear them talking but i don't pay attentionbecause it's rude to eavesdrop & all until they say "that black girl up there" then myears perk up. i keep my earbuds in so that they think ican't hear them & i continue listening. what they're saying is horrific. to paraphrase, they knew my stop (second tolast one before the bus gets back to the terminal & while my stop is at the front of my neighborhood,it's got no street lights & at this time of night, empty.)
& to put it simply were planning on "snatchingthat piece of ass up" i was about 20 mins away from home so i knewi had to act quickly. since i knew they could see me (they were2 seats behind me but like across if that makes sense) i pretended to play on my phone,oblivious while i was actually texting my "mom, can you please meet me at the bus stop"5 minutes go by, no answer. we're getting closer to my stop so i decideto call her cell. no answer. i call the house phone & she finally answers. its about 1230 am so she was asleep.
i try to talk as cheerily & calmy as i can. this was our convo. "hey mom, did you get my text?" "uh no...what's up?" "oh i sent you a picture of these jeans i'mgonna order online when i get home. i really need your opinion so i really needyou to look since the sale ends at 1 am." she gets the hint that i need her to lookat her cell so i say goodbye & hope for the best. we get to my stop & i see my mom's car.
i snatch my shit up & hightail it off thebus. don't even look behind me to see if they'refollowing me. i jump in the car & tell my mom to just go. i look in the rear view & i see the guys staringat the car. the next morning i called my job & told themi quit. no more public transport for me. thanks to my stepmom for teaching me spanish. thanks to mom for getting the hint. i hope i never see those weird spanish speakingguys again..
a few years back my girlfriend and i, havinghiked several other parts of the appalachian trail, decided we wanted to give the southernportion of virginia's trail a shot. it is about 166 miles long and runs throughgeorge washington and jefferson national forests from roanoke county to pearisburg in gilescounty. this is definetly one of the more remote andless traveled parts of the trail. which is exactly what we were looking for. we gathered our gear and made our way to thestart of the virginia creeper trail to begin our journey. we had planned our journey to end at damascusand figured that by the time we got there
we would be more than ready to get home toour own beds. it was early october and the changing of theleaves and colors were amazing. the air was crisp and cool. perfect hiking weather with beautiful scenery. the majority of the trip was pretty uneventful. just your typical hike. but, our last couple of nights is where thingsgot weird.. on this portion of the trail, you are supposedto camp on the trail or a designated shelter. we didn't really want to run into other peopleand didn't want anyone coming up on us in
the middle of the night. we decided to ignore those suggestions andfind our own little spot off the trail. a little searching around and we found a spota little ways off the trail in the middle of a small clearing. it was perfect. we set up camp, cooked some food, talked fora while then snuggled up and went to sleep for the night. somewhere around 2 am i was awoke by my girlfriendshaking me awake telling me "get your gun! someone is outside walking around our tent!".
she informed me that she woke up to what soundedlike someone right outside the tent running a knife or something along the side whilecircling us. when hiking i carry a 1911 and a judge withme. you never know exactly who or what you mightrun into when on such a long hike in a remote location. i got the judge out of my pack and then wesat silently listening for any sounds. a few minutes of nothing but the breeze blowingthrough the trees and then i heard it.. snap crunch snap....someone...or somethingwalking in the woods behind our tent. i got the flashlight and silently made myway out of the tent.
our fire had went out so it was nearly pitchblack. illuminated by only the dim glow of the octobermoon. i told my girlfriend to stay put while i checkedit out. i didn't flick the flashlight on right awayso as to not give away that i was out of the tent and have it become a shining beacon ofmy location. instead, i waited to hear more noises. after a few minutes snap crunch crack...itsounded like it was bipedal based on the way the steps were paced. i turned on the flash light and flooded thearea with light.
i thought i saw someone move behind a tree. i yelled out and told them to go away andthat i was armed. i kept the light on the area with my gun drawnand slowly approached towards the area where i thought i saw the figure. then, from my right i hear what sounds likesomeone running away through the woods. i spin and face my light that way, and thenfrom the original spot hear who or whatever was there take off into the woods. there's no way i am giving chase, so i returnto the campsite. i tell my girlfriend about what happened andi end up sitting guard outside the tent, in
the darkness until daybreak. in the morning, i looked around a bit forsigns of who or whatever it was and i discovered a bootprint in some soft moist dirt not farfrom our tent. it wasn't mine and it wasn't my girls. this freaked me out as it confirmed that someone,perhaps more than one, was skulking around our tent in the dark. i kept it to myself because i didn't wantto freak my girl out anymore than she already was. at this point we were pretty deep in and stillhad 2 days left.
that day we walked a little faster than normaland covered as much ground as possible. when it came time to setup camp, i found aspot near a cliff where we could place the tent in a small overhang and prevent anyonefrom coming up behind us. the whole day up to this point i had a feelingwe were being followed. i had no confirmation of this as i hadn'tseen or heard anyone else, but it was just a gut feeling. we set up camp and made some food, then retreatedto the tent. i gave my girl the 1911 and i kept the judgeright next to me and i assured her that if i slept at all...it would be with one eyeopen.
after a while, she drifted off to sleep andi stayed awake listening to the sounds of the woods at night. i was awake for a few hours, just waitingto see if anything was going to happen. at some point i guess my exhaustion caughtup with me and i drifted off. i awoke sometime later to what sounded likesomeone going through our stuff outside the tent. i grabbed my gun and woke my girlfriend shushingher to be quite. from the faint glow of the fire i could seesomeones silhouette against the tent. there was really someone out there.
i yelled out to them something along the linesof "we are armed, get the fuck out of here!" they dropped what they were doing and bolted. i came out of the tent, gun drawn and readyto shoot someone. our stuff was strewn all about. they had rummaged through quite a bit of ourstuff. i walked to the edge of the woods in the directionwhoever was out there had fled. there was a creek nearby and i walked to theedge, where there was a small trail running along side it. down the creek i could see a light, it lookedlike a lantern the way it flickered.
then i saw 3 more emerge from the other sideof the woods. i told my girlfriend to start packing up whatevershe could and that we were leaving, now. we packed up everything of value. left the tent and a few other items and headedback onto the trail, in the middle of the night. i kept hearing people talking off in the woodsand hearing branches snap for quite some ways. i kept looking behind us every few secondsto make sure nobody was coming up on us. it was completely nerve wracking. if something happened, we were still a longways from anywhere and quite literally on
our own, since we hadn't seen another hikerthe entire time we had been out there. i really felt we were in serious danger. we had been walking for quite some time wheni heard something in the woods behind us. as we rounded a corner i turned around andsaw someone step out onto the trail and just stand there watching us. it was just as the sun was coming up and barelyany light, i couldn't make out any features..just the silhouette. i stopped and looked at them for a sec andasked them who they were and what they wanted, they just stood there silently, watching usand then turned and walked back into the woods.
we picked up the pace and kept going, lookingback every so often. we didn't see them again. but my gut told me they were still there forquite a ways. we eventually reached the end of the trailand got to where we had parked my girlfriends car, extremely exhausted. we made it out of the virginia woods withoutbecoming a meal for a clan of cannibalistic inbred hillbillies, which is what i picturedhappening in my head the whole time. i have no idea who they were, or what theywanted. maybe it was someone just messing with us?
maybe it really was a clan of deformed hillbillieswho were hunting us. i will never know, because i will not be returningto find out. around two years ago, i finally moved intoa brand new house in a brand new building estate in australia. i was one of the first to have a finishedbuild in the area and was elated to finally gain independence. the first few weeks went by as normal andduring that time, i'd often take walks alone with the dog in the afternoons and roam thesurrounding estate area. all the roads around us had been partiallycompleted and all the other properties were
marked out, but no other houses were builtexcluding one that was directly opposite mine. the house looked finished, but there was nodriveway laid yet and from what i could gather, noone lived there. to the left of my house roughly a few hundredmeters away was a field with a huge hill in i later found out that the whole area wascouncil property, not only was noone allowed to build up there but the whole hill was basicallya no go zone. for whatever reason, the council just didn'twant people on it so the whole area was surrounded by a huge chain link fence. the only other noticeable feature in the areawas a small abandoned farm house with a shed
a few kilometres down the road. i knew nothing about it and often went walkingthere with the dog as it gave me something mild to explore amongst the vast nothingnessi was living around. the entire place was dilapidated and completelyinhabitable, but it was still interesting none the less. about a month or two after moving in, i awokeone morning to the sound of a violin. it sounded extremely distant and quite haunting,i actually enjoyed it and assumed that the neighbours opposite me has finally moved in. excited that i finally had some people totalk to, i peeked out the curtain and saw
the house opposite mine was still as vacantas it ever was. i got dressed but by the time i managed tolook outside, the violin has stopped. this happened roughly every second day forthe next week, the violin would wake me up and then just disappear after about 45 seconds. i'd ignored it to the point where my curiositysimply got the better of me and the next morning when i heard the violin playing again i immediatelyjumped out of bed, threw on my dressing gown and shot out the front door. i scoured the early morning surrounding andthere, up on the hill, was a figure playing a violin.
it was barely light, but the person lookedvery tall from the distance i was at and as they were playing, was doing what could onlybe described as a waltz-type walk, spinning slowly around in a circle as they played. i took my eyes off the person and walked overto pick up the morning paper and in the 10 seconds that took me, i heard the violin stop. when i looked up, i noticed the figure wasno longer playing or dancing, but was now standing still and most likely looking inmy direction. it was so dark i couldn't make out and moreand we both just stood there for half a minute not moving before the creeps got the betterof me and i went back inside.
after that morning, things started happening. on my walks i began to notice footprints onthe surrounding properties that weren't made by me and that i'd never seen before, whichi just assumed were from people walking up from the other housing areas down the road. i never awoke to the violin, but i swore icould hear someone walking on the street next to my bedroom window in the early mornings,however i never saw anything. other really general things as well, likerandom tools such as spades and rakes laying around the area which i guessed were leftthere by construction crews, none of which i ever saw.
i'd started getting calls at work that wouldimmediately hang up on me and i also stopped walking up to the abandon farm house, as theexperience with the violin player had me a little shaken. one night as i was heading to bed, i turnedoff the television in the living room and again, could hear the faint sound of a violinplaying, however it sounded more muffled and rehearsed. i froze and a cold chill flowed through meinstantaneously. considering that it was about midnight andnot the usual time i'd hear it playing, i went to the front window and peeked out tosee that there was a light in the house opposite
mine. it was clearly a candle as i could see thedim light flicker in the empty window and the music sounded like it was coming froman old record player, but in the ten minutes i watched, i never saw any movement insidethe house. i moved away from the window sufficientlyfreaked out and after another five minutes, i heard the music abruptly stop. i peeked out again to notice the light wasnow out. i never saw anyone. i began to become unsettled in the house andwould often invite friends over to hang out
until late, but of course nothing would everhappen when someone else was with me. i never bothered to tell any of my friendsas without evidence, i figured they'd just give me shit about it and i'd just becomemore agitated. but nothing compared to what happened next. in my living area, the desk sits right nextto a small window which looks out to the fence surrounding my property. the steel fence is literally an arms lengthfrom the house and about six feet tall so i always figured that, unlike most of theother windows, i'd never need to cover this one with a sheet or blanket because noonecould ever see in.
i usually had headphones on when i playedand i always had the lights off, for no other reason than i preferred to play games in thedark. one night when i was gaming, i got up andwalked into the dark kitchen and got a beer out of the fridge. it was dead silent excluding the faint soundcoming out of my headphones. as i closed the fridge and turned around toface the desk, i saw directly out the window two very, very faint lights. i didn't even catch on and immediately startedwalking back to the desk fixated on the small glowing balls and it wasn't until i had mynose almost pressed against the glass that
i realised the two lights weren't lights atall. they were eyes. a set of eyes, sitting just above the fenceline staring wide open at me. they didn't blink. they didn't move. my entire body locked up, all i could do wassimply stare back as my brain was still comprehending that there was an actual person looking atme in the scariest way i could possibly ever imagine. i don't know what happened, either my headkicked into gear or my muscles loosened but
my body automatically collapsed and i fellto the floor, scurrying to hide against the wall away from the window. i could hear my heart beating through thecarpet like a drum as i tried to lay as flat as possible and as my mind was still processingthe sheer severity of the situation, a violin started playing. that fucking violin and the haunting tuneit always emitted started up, except this time it was directly outside my window andmuch louder than i'd ever heard it before. the lights were still off and i wanted toget up to turn off the pc screen so i couldn't be seen, but my whole body just wasn't readyto cooperate.
not only was the sound of the instrument extraordinarilyloud, but it sounded like it was been played with frustration, notes been missed frequentlyand the strings screeching. the pace of it was getting faster and fasterand by this time, my dog jeb out in the backyard had picked up on the situation and registeringan unfamiliar sound, gave one solitary, deep bark. the violin instantly stopped and the housewas finally dead silent excluding my headphones which i could hear quietly working away. i was still frozen to the carpet and it wasn'tuntil jeb gave a second menacing bark that i heard the figure outside the window startto walk away in the direction of my yard.
once that first footstep hit the ground, iinstantly thought of the welfare of my best mate and finally, my head connected with myextremities and my entire body kicked into overdrive. i left from the ground and slid across thelaminated floor to the backdoor where jeb was standing, staring into the backyard. i ducked to keep low and quietly unlockedand slid open the door. usually doing so would notify jeb that hewas allowed inside but when the door opened up, he didn't move an inch and was completelyfixated on the pitch black backyard. everything told me not to go outside but therewas no chance i was letting anything happen
to my dog and i moved out onto the alfresco,moved behind jeb, put my hand under his collar and attempted to back him toward the house. jeb is a pure labrador and weighs like a sackof sand so when he doesn't want to move, it takes a sheer force to pull him in the directionyou want him to go and right now, jeb wasn't going anywhere. i yanked at his scruff and as i did, he emitteda bark like i'd never heard before, a deep, bellowing "fuck you right off" sound thatelevated my nerves to an all time high. we both just stood there, waiting for someform of reply and i couldn't remember how long we both just froze there, but eventuallyi heard footsteps from around the side of
the house begin to walk away. but not a simple walk, almost like whoeverwas doing it was slowly dancing in a circle, the footsteps keeping to a beat as they driftedaway from the house into the distance. once i couldn't hear anything, jeb lickedhis lips, gave me a look and wandered back inside. i followed, locked the door behind me andspent the night reverting to my child-like self; hiding under my bed covers with my dog. i didn't sleep a wink. that was the last time i ever saw or heardthe violin player.
the following morning when the sun finallycame up, i called into work sick and called the police. they scoured the lot next to mine and foundfootprints in the dirt, however there were so many there that it was impossible to tellwho's were who's. the only description i could give to the officerwas his height, he would have had to be over 6ft to stare over that fence at me but theyexplained that he could have been standing on something, or on his toes. they also told me that they've never receiveda report of anyone playing a violin in the area or anyone been in the fenced off hilleither.
i essentially looked like an insane person,but the officers were very nice about the whole thing and offered to patrol the areafor the next few nights which helped put my mind at ease. nothing else has happened since then. over the next year or two, people finallystarted moving in and i tell them all the story about the figure i saw, some of whichstill use to keep their children in line which i found funny. one guy nicknamed the council lot 'violinhill' and the name has stuck around our street since then.
i even spent a period of time scoring thedepths of the internet for that violin tune i kept hearing, but could never find it. there were a few classical pieces that seemedreminiscent, but i've since thought that whatever tune was played must have been self composed,which creeps me out even more. i'm still in the house, i still tell peoplethe story and i haven't changed my routine one bit which has really helped me to blockout the fear of the experience. i game with the blinds closed now. i began babysitting at 13 to earn extra moneyto spend on horribly embarrassing things like fall out boy cds.
i would almost always work for my dad's clients(lawyer) and get referred by word of mouth. i was babysitting for this one family whohad a little girl, 9, and a little boy, 7. the parents seemed okay, if a tad crotchety,giving me a full schedule to follow and "jokingly" threatening to beat any boy who might mysteriouslyshow up after they left. it felt cruel for them to accuse me of evenknowing a boy given i basically looked like an overgrown baby with frizzy hair at thatage. almost immediately after the parents leave,the little girl sings in a creepy high-pitched voice, "we're all al-o-o-o-one now!" righty-o.
cue the shining soundtrack. "i know!" the little boy chimed in, "let'splay rape!" looking back now, i know the kid probablyjust heard the term on tv, knew the word was shocking, and said it just for a reaction. i totally bought into it at the time, sputteringwide-eyed and changing the subject quickly. these kids were hell for the next hour. i wouldn't let them watch south park on thetv because their parents did not seem like the type to allow their precious 7 and 9 yearold to watch a show like that. as soon as i said no, the little girl saidcasually, "oh, that's fine, we'll just go
play playstation in the family room. feel free to watch it out here." lolnope, i knew exactly where that was headed. i said they could watch any other tv showin the living room while i made them dinner. the parents had left instructions to makethem sandwiches. i could handle that. before i had even got out the bread, i heara massive crash. it seems like the little girl has broken aglass. tutting and pissed, but ultimately with noway to punish her, i cleaned it up while these
two incredibly weird kids watched with wideeyes. dumping the broken glass in the trash, i wentback to making the sandwiches. i'm a vegetarian, so while the kids had chicken,i'd made a simple salad one for myself. just as i was finishing, the little boy screamedout in what (even from my hyper-vigilant state as an accountable teenage babysitter) soundedlike a pantomime of pain. nonetheless, i ran over to the couch in theliving room to check on him. "my ankle!" he howled, dramatically floppingback into the couch. while i tried to figure out how he had "hurt"his ankle, the little girl slipped out of the room.
peripherally, i was aware of this, but didn'treally pay it any mind, focused on this little boy pretending to be in pain. he kept saying "i went to stand but it hurttoo much, i don't know," over and over until his eyes suddenly flicked to just behind me,where i could see the little girl standing with a perturbing smile on her face. he was miraculously healed. yeah. praise the lord. at this point, i was just thinking these kidswere really weird, craved attention a little
too much and probably needed more parentalinvolvement. whatever, i was 13, and that $60 was onlyfour hours away. i set out the sandwiches for the two to eatat the dining table, went to get us soda, and returned. after pouring soda for the both of them, irealized they hadn't even taken a bite of their sandwiches yet. i asked them what they were waiting for. they smiled, "for you to take a bite of yours." i am so glad i had a gut feeling to open thetop part of bread of my sandwich.
because when i did, i saw glass. broken glass. broken glass that i'd put in the trash. i stared in horror at the two little kidsstaring at me with menacing twin grins. i lost it, shouting, "are you serious?! at the very least, you could've really injuredmy mouth! what's wrong with you two?!" instead of crying, or apologizing, or pretendingto be ashamed or confused, these two little fuckers began laughing.
not like kids. it was too low, it wasn't that silly, freelaugh kids laugh. it was low, and threatening. i'll never forget that noise. my immediate reaction was "these kids aretoo young to be laughing like that." i called my older sister (17) at the time,cried about what had happened, and she came and took over for me. we left the house with chills after the parentsarrived. i never babysat for those two again.
what i can't get past is the level of premeditationthat went into sprinkling that broken glass in my sandwich, and the totally remorselessway they responded to my getting upset. they were unlike any two kids i've ever metbefore. about five years ago i lived downtown in amajor city in the us. i've always been a night person, so i wouldoften find myself bored after my roommate, who was decidedly not a night person, wentto sleep. to pass the time, i used to go for long walksand spend the time thinking. i spent four years like that, walking aloneat night, and never once had a reason to feel afraid.
i always used to joke with my roommate thateven the drug dealers in the city were polite. but all of that changed in just a few minutesof one evening. it was a wednesday, somewhere between oneand two in the morning, and i was walking near a police patrolled park quite a waysfrom my apartment. it was a quiet night, even for a week night,with very little traffic and almost no one on foot. the park, as it was most nights, was completelyempty. i turned down a short side street in orderto loop back to my apartment when i first noticed him.
at the far end of the street, on my side,was the silhouette of a man, dancing. it was a strange dance, similar to a waltz,but he finished each "box" with an odd forward stride. i guess you could say he was dance-walking,headed straight for me. deciding he was probably drunk, i steppedas close as i could to the road to give him the majority of the sidewalk to pass me by. the closer he got, the more i realized howgracefully he was moving. he was very tall and lanky, and wearing anold suit. he danced closer still, until i could makeout his face.
his eyes were open wide and wild, head tiltedback slightly, looking off at the sky. his mouth was formed in a painfully wide cartoonof a smile. between the eyes and the smile, i decidedto cross the street before he danced any closer. i took my eyes off of him to cross the emptystreet. as i reached the other side, i glanced back...and then stopped dead in my tracks. he had stopped dancing and was standing withone foot in the street, perfectly parallel to me. he was facing me but still looking skyward. smile still wide on his lips.
i was completely and utterly unnerved by this. i started walking again, but kept my eyeson the man. he didn't move. once i had put about half a block betweenus, i turned away from him for a moment to watch the sidewalk in front of me. the street and sidewalk ahead of me were completelyempty. still unnerved, i looked back to where hehad been standing to find him gone. for the briefest of moments i felt relieved,until i noticed him. he had crossed the street, and was now slightlycrouched down.
i couldn't tell for sure due to the distanceand the shadows, but i was certain he was facing me. i had looked away from him for no more than10 seconds, so it was clear that he had moved fast. i was so shocked that i stood there for sometime, staring at him. and then he started moving toward me again. he took giant, exaggerated tip toed steps,as if he were a cartoon character sneaking up on someone. except he was moving very, very quickly.
i'd like to say at this point i ran away orpulled out my pepper spray or my cellphone or anything at all, but i didn't. i just stood there, completely frozen as thesmiling man crept toward me. and then he stopped again, about a car lengthaway from me. still smiling his smile, still looking tothe sky. when i finally found my voice, i blurted outthe first thing that came to mind. what i meant to ask was, "what the fuck doyou want?!" in an angry, commanding tone. what came out was a whimper, "what the fuu…?" regardless of whether or not humans can smellfear, they can certainly hear it.
i heard it in my own voice, and that onlymade me more afraid. but he didn't react to it at all. he just stood there, smiling. and then, after what felt like forever, heturned around, very slowly, and started dance-walking away. just like that. not wanting to turn my back to him again,i just watched him go, until he was far enough away to almost be out of sight. and then i realized something.
he wasn't moving away anymore, nor was hedancing. i watched in horror as the distant shape ofhim grew larger and larger. he was coming back my way. and this time he was running. i ran too. i ran until i was off of the side road andback onto a better lit road with sparse traffic. looking behind me then, he was nowhere tobe found. the rest of the way home, i kept glancingover my shoulder, always expecting to see his stupid smile, but he was never there.
i lived in that city for six months afterthat night, and i never went out for another walk.
there was something about his face that alwayshaunted me. he didn't look drunk, he didn't look high. he looked completely and utterly insane. and that's a very, very scary thing to see.
