the year was 2010 I was a freshly divorced
23 year old living in northern Louisiana on my own in a two-story apartment with
my wonderful dog had moved in just a month prior and was enjoying the peace
and quiet a fresh start after an emotionally crippling time in my life it
was a pleasant Sunday afternoon summertime in Louisiana I decided to
escape the heat by staying inside to watch a few episodes of It's Always
Sunny with my dog Kingsley in my lap the Sun was shining through my windows which
in this complex took up half the living room wall floor to near ceiling I had
blinds but I had decided to adjust them so some natural light would come in now
the neighborhood wasn't so bad but it wasn't the best you definitely didn't
leave anything outside and you always lock your house in your car I had seen
my share of shady activity so regardless of the time of day my doors and windows
were locked it had also come to my attention that my axe had done drive-bys
of my new place and not wanting to be caught off guard I was constantly
checking that I had locked everything a beat-up car pulled into the parking lot
which I could see out of my peripheral vision across from a grassy area in
front of my building I didn't recognize the driver who stepped out and I guess I
didn't think anything of it at the time until he walked in front of my window
staring directly inside my living room the bushes in front of my windows were
maybe waist-high on me I'm five four so this man was staring
right at me we were keeping eye contact no blinking and there was no mistake he
saw was inside by myself from what I saw between the blinds he was easily six
feet tall heavyset bald with dark eyebrows and a goatee he wore a short
sleeve button up shirt over a dark t-shirt and jeans I had never seen him
in our complex before Kingsley's head shot up ears perked his first standing
up on his neck he was a friendly playful dog and loved
meeting everyone but when I felt a low grumble from his stomach when he bolted
up off the couch I knew this wasn't a stranger he wanted to meet my heart
raced and I felt my palms tingle with anxiety the door was locked no way he
could get in right wrong when I heard a key in the lock
I remember feeling many things at once my heart stopped and jumped in my throat
my scalp felt like it was on fire but my hands felt cold who was this guy
why of all fucking things did he have a key to my apartment I didn't have a gun
the front door was six feet to my left the kitchen was at least 15 to my right
I didn't have time to run and grab a knife I didn't have a baseball bat and
I'd out throwing my nearby shoes would deter a home intruder of his size the
door cracked open I panicked Kingsley let out the loudest bark I had
ever heard and didn't one leap was snarling at the door his teeth bared
ready to attack for the split second the door was open
I saw the man's eyes widen then he shut the door and he knocked I shit you not
this man knocked on the door after he had already opened it with a key somehow
had Kingsley was busy letting out vicious growls not acting at all like
the giant goofball I knew him to be I jumped up after him grabbed his collar
and with the other hand grabbed the doorknob and opened it just enough for
Kingsley to poke his head out can I help you with something my voice shook
anger and fear coursed through my veins I'm here to pick up my mail I'm
expecting a package I used to live here the man said matter-of-factly as if this
was something I should have known what the fuck
you don't live here anymore I live here I don't have your mail seriously our
mailboxes were at the apartment main office I was expecting a package from
FedEx I want my package he took a half step forward seeming
impatient angry expecting somehow that I would have his mysterious mail and
invite him in no actually three days prior FedEx did come by with an envelope
but as the name on it wasn't mine I didn't accept it they came by with
something a few days ago but it wasn't mine so I made them take it back his
face went red and he clenched his fists I'm starting to panic why would you do
that that is my package and I was expecting
it he exploded waving his arms as if I was to blame
Kingsley left up nearly dragging me out of the door I yanked him back and the
man continued his rant I can't believe you would do something so fucking stupid
now I have to go track it down myself do you know what a waste of time this is
I was frantic at this point I didn't know where this dude came from why he
still had a key to this place why when he saw me in the living room with a dog
he tried to come in and why of all things was he freaking out over a stupid
envelope look man I don't have your package just call fucking FedEx and take
care of it yourself the word sounded better in my head
out loud they sounded shaky and fearful and I knew my lack of courage was a
terrible disadvantage in this situation I can't believe this shit
he was completely red flailing around in rage you got to leave I yelped trying
with all my might to keep ahold of poor Kingsley I'm going to cover cops
I finally shouted out figuring this would deter the now furious stranger in
front of my door for a split second his eyes widened and he took a step back I
will be back he gulped and turned around Kingsley let out a few growls I patted
him and shut the door locking it unlocking then locking it again
I put him on a leash grabbed my keys and hurried to the front office I told them
what had just happened I let them know the police would be notified and
demanded they changed the locks and install a chain now no way I was waiting
for that psycho to come back he never did to this day regardless of where I
live I keep my car windows and doors locked and I double check when I leave
the house and go to bed thanks asshole it's been three years and
the paranoia persists
when I was in my early teens early eighties damn that makes me feel old we
lived in the Chattanooga Tennessee area one weekend I went with my church group
to do some overnight spelunking in one of the caves in the area having gone
into more commercialized caves in the past this trip was not what I had
expected as this cave entrance was a small opening in a group of rocks on the
side of a country road no markers or signs we hiked in for a few hours
through some challenging terrain and slept overnight then back out after
breakfast for a 13 year old boy it was a great adventure
muddy tight spaces to squeeze through stalagmites cave pulls with blind fish
the works there were about a dozen of us that went I was well until we were told
to go to bed for the night all flashlights were off and it was
completely black as we were deep in the cave system sometime during the night I
woke to something pulling on the foot end of my sleeping bag dragging me deep
into the black void at first I was annoyed more than anything as I thought
someone was pranking me I was also in the Boy Scouts as well with that
rambunctious group we were always pranking each other I fumbled in my
sleeping bag trying to find my flashlight to see who was doing this
before I could find it I realized I was speeding up next thing I know I was
sliding out of control down a slick damp clay pack till I did whatever I could to
stop I was digging my fingers in but it wasn't working I eventually did stop
when the hill flattened out I finally found my flashlight and looked around
everyone was fast asleep and to any commotion I caused wasn't noticed no
perpetrators were seen but I also discovered that I was about a foot away
from a very deep chasm had I gone over the edge of the cliff they would have
never found me for the following three decades I wrote the whole thing off
here's a few possible reasons this happened most likely I picked a spot
that was not as flat as I thought I might have tossed and
turned in my sleep and that activity could have been enough to kick-start the
potentially lethal slide but the batshit-crazy theory is that years later
I started watching paranormal shows some of the shows had some sort of deep earth
creatures that want to keep us out of their domain then I had a what-if moment
could it have been them was I attacked
about a year and a half ago I had some friends come over we'd been playing
Magic the Gathering for a while and had gotten bored so I figured I'd show them
this abandoned house about a mile away we called it the spook house it wasn't
really scary in the day but this was one I am making it all the more fun I had
planned to act like a tour guide for them
maybe even try to scare them a little even though the only scary thing I could
imagine was running into a method up homeless person we eventually get to the
house after 10 or 15 minutes and I begin my tour guide routine and it's important
to note you can only get in through the back the fronts boarded up and I don't
like vandalizing things so we're walking up the driveway to the back I'm looking
at them talking about the house with my back turn to the back door when my
friend gets this horrified look on his face and in kind of a whisper yell says
dude look so obviously I looked behind me and see what looks like a person
crawling out of the house on their hands and knees I could only see the front
half of it the thing then looks at us it has huge white eyes that pretty much
matched its skin it's extremely skinny it kind of reminded me of pictures of
Holocaust survivors it had no hair that I could tell but the moment was very
brief it stopped looking at us after a few seconds then bolted into the woods
behind the house needless to say we were all pretty terrified so we booked it
back to my house we stayed up all night talking on my front porch as we were
talking we heard branches breaking out past the back yard I'm not saying it was
related just a a strange coincidence that gave us yet
another scare I had no idea what skinwalkers were back then but I did
know about the rake I've honestly never been that terrified in my life we were
probably only 15 or 20 feet from it if anyone's interested I live in southeast
Indiana and have heard similar stories from other people
so when I was in my 20s ten years ago I moved to London I moved in with two
South African girls who were very sweet and nice and who really liked smoking
weed one thing I wasn't prepared for is that UK homes are cold so most people
have a hot water bottle and a blanket when they hang out at home anyway we
lived in this old Victorian flat on the high street on the top floor four
storeys up or so we had to climb up narrow winding stairs and then had to go
through three doors to get in one with iron bars and then there was a little
space big enough for a few people to stand and two other doors we told
ourselves it was to protect the fancy stained glass door then there was a
normal wooden door I come home from my job at the pub around 3:00 p.m. not
expecting anyone to be home I go straight to my room
throw my keys on the bed and start brushing my hair getting ready for my
next job gotta pay that London rent as I was brushing my hair I could have sworn
I heard something coming from the kitchen
I stopped I said hello and when nobody answered
I kept brushing my hair I heard a noise again and stopped it sounded like
someone wearing work boots walking in the kitchen carrying a hot-water bottle
that swishing sound it makes I freaked out and in a panic think grab something
sharp I grabbed the pen next to my keys on the bed not realising until later
that I should have grabbed the keys so that I could actually get out of those
three doors I run down the hall and up the four or five steps turn into the
next hall and go into the living room which was next to the doors I shut the
first door and sat against it so nobody can come in I'm holding my pen like a
maniac I had my phone on me and for some reason I didn't think to call the cops
but called my ex the only person I knew in London I guess because he knew where
I lived and could get the cops for me in case something happened before I could
call them next I hang up and call the cops they are on the way
I can't remember if I stayed on the phone or not but what happened next was
the heavy work boots started walking up the hall with quiet steps up the stairs
like they didn't want to be heard I could still hear the swishing as whoever
it was got to the other side of the door I was properly freaking out crying and
shaking I wanted to just jump out the window
there was a butcher shop on the ground floor and they let the cops into the
stairwell so that they could come up but of course they couldn't get through the
iron one they told me that I needed to get my keys so that I can open the door
I told them no the guys in there but they said either that or they'd have to
wait to get the tools to cut through the bars
she finally talks me into opening the door I do and can immediately feel the
air go flat nobody's there and I feel like I don't know like I was in another
level or slice of reality I run and get the keys and open the door six police
officers pour into the place I help them look everywhere for an intruder under
the beds in the closets etc they confirm that nobody could have gotten through
the window or back doors they were locked there was an attic but it was
really high up and there's no way to get up there they're standing in the kitchen
with me calming me down telling me it could have been a sound for my neighbors
it couldn't have been as we never heard them at all I noticed one of them
glancing behind me nonchalantly and it was only after they left that I realized
that behind me was my flatmates pot plant they must have thought I was
stoned and hearing things I wasn't what I heard was so real and it didn't even
cross my mind that it could be a ghost it felt more like the blurring of time
and space like someone who was alive or thought they were
you
it all started when a buddy of mine that I go to college with Matt wanted to skip
a day of class and take a week day trip up to pend oreille County to get some
late fall dirt biking in before it snowed and the season was officially
over we had gotten some writing done in the area before but instead of going to
our usual romping ground we opted to shoot for a lesser known trail that a
friend had told us about so early Tuesday morning we loaded up our bikes
into the truck consider out a map of the area that showed all the logging roads
and the few official dirt bike trails there were and headed out I want to
clarify that this was not private land were very careful to only ride on public
land where we are allowed to do so traffic was really light so we arrived
at the spot we were planning on parking the truck in only one and a half hours
which meant we had plenty of daylight to go out and ride though we both have
headlights on our bikes and had agreed that a little bit of darkness wouldn't
be allowed to put a damper on the fun after we unloaded we locked up the truck
wrote down the highway on the shoulder for about half a mile then turned off
onto the logging road this awesome trail supposedly split off of it was a tennis
mile ride down this logging road to get to the trailhead and we were probably a
little over halfway there when from behind us we hear a loud ass
engine this beater of a truck flies by us damn near hitting Matt and then
disappears around the next turn and it's not like Matt and I were going slow we
aren't pro riders or anything but we're definitely not bad the last time I had
checked we were doing 37 which is pretty fast on a crappy abandoned road after
this Matt stopped and killed his engine so we could make sure I knew just how
pissed he was did you see that fucking shit dude almost killed me
we decided that while we were already stopped we would take a quick break
drink some water then get back after it and get back after it we did we found
the trailhead and we're loving it the views were nice the trail was technical
without being unfun the ground was wet but not soggy and
there were tons of additional trails that had been marked by other writers
eventually we came across two separate offshoot trails one going up the hill we
were facing and one going down to the right
they were both marked with ends at such-and-such Creek signs that had been
made from plywood and spray-paint and propped against trees after consulting
the map we concluded that they probably did one trail went over the hill and the
other more or less went down the side into a small valley and around I wanted
to go low Matt wanted to go high so he split up and decided to meet at the
creek my ride was nice for the most part though it did become very gravely in
steep at times and I reached the bottom of the little valley soon I could see an
open clearing at the end of the tunnel of trees I was in and as I rode up I
could hear what I thought to be Matt's engine but when I pulled out of the
trees and into the clearing by the creek I saw that it wasn't a dirt bike but a
gas-powered generator it was powering what looked like an old stove that sat
under the overhang of a windowless shack made out of plywood and two-by-fours
next to the makeshift house was the truck we had seen earlier
I killed my engine not wanting whoever was inside to hear me and moved in a bit
closer I didn't get too close but even from where I stood probably 50 yards or
more away I could smell something I could see that there was a big soup pot
on the stove which was boiling what I can only assume was bleach judging by
the containers that were strewn about all over the place that's when I saw a
guy come running out from behind his Shack shotgun in hand looking at the
woods near the other side of the clearing and he was screaming what the
fuck do you think you're doing at that moment I heard Matt's bike roar
to life and immediately saw him tearing out of the tree line beyond the Shack he
saw me and as he rode towards me at full tilt
I hear him screaming at the top of his lungs he has a gun get the fuck out of
here luckily my
started on the first kick and I was able to spin the bike around and tear out of
there right on Matt's tail I don't think I've ever gone so fast through trails
that steep and technical in my life but somehow we made it out without either of
us going down we got back to the truck in under an hour and immediately noticed
that ours was no longer the only one in the parking lot that goddamn piece of
junk pickup had beat us there he must have had a shortcut to the logging road
and the driver was now just staring at us hoping that he wouldn't approach us
since we were right off a decently populated Highway we quickly loaded our
stuff and left but he followed and it was more than an hour before we were
able to lose him at a stoplight the local police were called but they pretty
much told us that they wouldn't be looking into it because if they looked
into every report like ours they'd never be doing anything else
needless to say we won't be riding around there again any time soon
you
when I was around four years old I had an experience that is forever changed my
life and belief in the paranormal this is one of if not the oldest memory of my
childhood I'm nearly thirty years old at this
point anyway during this time I was being instructed by my parents to learn
to sleep alone in my bedroom previously I was allowed to sleep in their bed this
did not sit well with me as with most children
I had an irrational fear of the dark and being alone during the night but they
insisted and so I would be laid to bed fairly early by adult standards around 8
or 9 p.m. since it was still early evening for them they would go about
their business and be doing things in the living room where I could still see
lights and hear the sounds of the household this was comforting enough for
me knowing others were around and awake made me feel safe I drifted off to sleep
while the ambient noise and light was still around and that's the last thing I
remember until the encounter suddenly I was jolted from my sleep and
the house was black my room in the whole house was dead quiet to the point of
hearing that ringing noise that occurs when no other sound is being made I was
instantly on edge and afraid with heightened senses and an acute awareness
of my surroundings I'm not sure what woke me up but I was terrified my bed
faced the doorway to my room which opened up into a small hallway for a few
minutes i sat up straight in bed and looked at the doorway I was compelled to
look in that direction it's almost as if I was instinctually anticipating
something or someone to walk from the hallway into my room
lo and behold that is exactly what occurred a few moments later the first
thing to appear in tewevision was a bony deformed hand and arm and in an instant
it disappeared and the next a skeletal woman's profile with a torn dress and
disheveled hair another disappearance and it reappeared now facing me with an
outstretched hand Natha gave an empty eye sockets this
apparition was moving in what seemed like the flash of a camera the only way
I can describe it would be quickly disappearing and reappearing having
repositioned and moved like being in a strobe light another reason I liken this
to camera flashing is because of her color
it wasn't paler green like I've heard other stories describe some ghosts as no
red eyes or shadowy amorphous shape this thing this woman was clearly defined in
shape and detail but her color was like when you see a flash of light or stare
at the Sun that multicolor that shows up in the back of your eyes when he
reopened them she made it about halfway into my room before I cowered under the
covers expecting the worst but then nothing happened she had been moving
toward me and should have reached me but she never did I waited for what seemed
like forever with my eyes closed but nothing after a while I worked up
the courage to leave my covers and look at my surroundings again the ghost was
gone or at least not in my room but I didn't stick around to find out what
would happen if I stayed I bolted to my parents room and spent the rest of the
night there I told my parents the next morning and
we had the house blessed and I did not have any more experiences at least
nothing as vivid or definitive as what I saw that night but this all bugs me
because I was so young I wasn't old enough to be exposed to anything that
would put that image in my head I had not seen any scary movies or even knew
very well what a ghost was or did it was terrifying
since this experience I've believed in the paranormal I feel there are so many
things that we can't explain
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