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    15 True Stories Guaranteed To Give You Nightmares

    Read them at night, if you dare...

    We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community, “What's the creepiest thing that ever happened to you?” Here are the most spine-tingling responses.

    1. It's Me

    "Three or four years ago I used to be in my old school's netball team. One day, we were waiting for the teacher to come so we could start training. I was in the middle of the pitch and suddenly, the lights went out. Blindly, I tried to find my way back to the other girls, but I tripped over something cold and hard. Out of nowhere, a cold, small hand touched my bare leg, squeezing and rubbing it up and down, as if it, like me, was trying to find a guide in the dark. Out of fear I asked 'Who is it?' and a feminine, child-like voice answered 'It's me!' and giggled playfully. Shortly after, the lights came back; I was in one corner of the pitch, while the other (three) girls were huddled close together in the opposite corner, and there was no trace of whatever thing had been next to me."

    — Carme Querol Martinez

    2. The Omen

    "I work at a nursing home and one particular rainy night, I was sitting next to one of my residents that has severe dementia. Out of nowhere she starts screaming bloody murder and shaking a wrinkly, disfigured finger across room screaming, 'SHE'S DEAD SHE'S DEAD!!!' She was so out of sorts, I decided to push her around the building to try and calm her down. That's when I found out that a woman who lived on the other side of the building had just passed away not five minutes before."

    — Katie Braschler

    3. Behind the Curtains

    "It was late fall in my senior year of high school. I was driving myself to school at this point, and usually left around 7:15 a.m. to start the 20 min. drive. My parent's house is a split level, and I was putting my shoes on at the landing in between the two levels. My mother and father were already gone to work so I was home alone. I grabbed my coat and went downstairs to go out the back door. (I feel I need to mention the house is on a large lot with a lake and dense woods, adding to the spook factor. It was also still pretty dark this early in the morning).

    As I'm putting my coat on and getting ready to step out into the early morning fog, I hear heavy footsteps on the stairs, headed up to the top floor. The house has hardwood floors, so you can hear every single step and shuffle. My first thought was "Oh, my dad must have left his phone at home or something." I walk back over to the stairs and yell up some sort of smart-ass remark about him always forgetting something. I wait for an answer. I yell up again, "Dad?" I wait again, and when I'm met with silence I make a swift turn and double-time it to the back door. As I reach for the handle I pause and hear RAPID footsteps following my escape route pattern on the first floor, through the kitchen and into the dining room, stopping at the upstairs back door, RIGHT above me. Now when I say rapid, I mean crazy, crazy fast. That inhuman kind of speed that gives you chills in all the scary movies.

    I yanked open the sliding door, quickly stumbled out, and slammed the door shut behind me. I ran to my car as quickly as I could, back it up to turn around in the driveway, and face the kitchen window. I stare for just a second or two, and notice one side of the curtains pulled back just a little. I get a new wave of chills just as I see them thrown back down. Needless to say I got the hell out of there. I've never been so scared in my life. I did end up calling my dad. He went home and checked the house; nothing was amiss, no one in the house, all the doors locked and secured, so in a nut shell, totally unexplained occurrence.

    — Kelsey Benne

    4. The Foot

    "When I was about six I was in the bathroom of my grandma's house playing "Bloody Mary" with my slightly older cousins. We were sitting on the floor in a circle. The only thing behind me was a wall and when they were doing the chant, I placed my hand on the ground to use as leverage to scoot myself in the corner for protection. When I did that, I touched a bare foot that was directly behind me. It felt like it was actually coming directly out of the wall. I screamed for someone to turn on the light and when they did, there was nothing there. Everyone's shoes were on so it couldn't have been one of our feet."

    marianneg4e088f6a6

    5. The Trunk

    "My mom and I were visiting friends and family in Alabama. We were at her friend Amy's house, and they were telling me about all the dumb scary pranks they did in high school, and different urban legends from the area. Before we left for the night, Amy told us a story my mom apparently hadn't heard since she had moved away after high school. I was sitting on the trunk of the rental car as she told the story in the driveway of her house.

    The story was about a specific four-way stop where a woman had been hit and killed by an 18-wheeler. It was a hit and run. They say that the ghost of this woman jumps on the steps of 18-wheelers that pass through, checking to see if it's the driver that killed her. Needless to say, we had to go through this 4-way stop to get home.

    We got closer and closer to the stop (but couldn't really see when it was coming up on account of very little lighting on the back roads of Alabama). My mom and I were joking about how glad we were that we weren't in a big truck. Next thing I know, my mom says, "Umm... the trunk is open." I laughed and said, "Shut up! That's not funny," thinking she was trying to scare me. She pointed to the illuminated light on the dashboard alerting us that the trunk was, in fact, open. We pulled up to the four-way stop.

    "Can you hop out and close it?" she asks.

    "Hell no," I scream. "YOU can get out and close it!"

    We looked at each other for a moment and decided to wait until we came to a well-lit parking lot to go close it. I kept looking back to make sure it hadn't flown open. My mom drove through the four-way at an excruciatingly slow pace to make sure it stayed down. Then I get to thinking... "Hey mom... wasn't I sitting on the trunk before we left?"

    All of a sudden, the trunk slams shut — and I mean SLAMS, like full force, from fully open, slamming down. My mom and I had one of those comical movie moments where we turned to look at each other, turned back, and then screamed bloody murder. My mom then floored it and we raced to the nearest parking lot, frantically screaming nonsense trying to explain what could have happened. The trunk light was still off when we pulled up into the lot of a Hardee's. We both got out of the car and went around to the trunk. On the bottom of the trunk lid (where you touch to close it) were two muddy handprints."

    — Brennan Tice

    6. The Officer

    "I work in a Titanic museum filled with real artifacts. We usually hear little things but don't even think about them. One night we were following the last guest out and cleaning behind them, like normal. I happened to glance through a 'window' into the Captain's Bridge and saw an officer there against the back wall. He looked up, made eye contact with me and nodded. I instantly had chills down my spine and just ran out of there. None of the guys who dress up were working that night, and when I got downstairs I glanced at a picture of the original 1912 crew and came face to face with the officer I saw upstairs."

    stephanieb4e55227b7

    7. The Conservationist Ghost

    "My house was built in 1923, and my whole family has had eerie experiences from a ghost whom we assume is the man who built the house. He passed away from a heart attack in my bedroom, but had a good life and was known to be a nice person, so we aren't scared of his presence — just creeped out when we hear whistling in the kitchen and no one is in there, or hear someone walking downstairs when we are all in bed. Sometimes, we even hear the front door open and close, and someone come in and put their coat down, but no one is there.

    Anyway, the SCARIEST thing that happened was when I was about 15 years old and was getting ready to take a shower. The water was running but I had to pee first, and as I was sitting on the toilet I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up and the air suddenly went cold. Then a man's voice yelled in my ear, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I could feel the breath on the side of my face. I was frozen in horror and was finally able to get the guts to bolt downstairs completely naked, to the surprise of my mother who was cooking dinner. She could tell I was horrified but just gave me a blanket to wrap myself in and laughed her ass off."

    — Ursula Anne

    8. A Deal with the Devil

    "I was obsessed with digging through my mother's bookshelves when I was a child. One day while rummaging, I found a book on the occult, so I decided to take it up to my room and make a pact with the devil, you know, as 11 year-old children do. Alone in my room, I read aloud various parts of the book until I was certain I found an incantation that was sure to bind my soul to the Dark Lord. Immediately upon finishing the vow, the little overhead light in my bedroom went out. I do not mean the light bulb burnt out - it completely shattered. To this day, I'm not entirely sure if I have ownership over my immortal soul."

    — Alphonso-Sloane Owen

    9. The Handprints

    "When I was in high school (only about two or three years ago), kids would always talk about this haunted dirt road in the middle of nowhere called Old State Road.There were tons of rumors about things that would happen on this road, like a woman hanging from the bridge above it. The rumor that's [relevant] to my story was that there was a bus full of children that was hit on the train tracks. It was rumored that if you put your car in neutral on the train tracks and put baby powder on the back, the ghosts of the children would push your car off and you could see their handprints left.

    One night, I went with my best friend, and we picked up one of our good friends and her two guy friends. When we got on the road, we had one of the guys drive because we were so scared. When he got to the train tracks, he turned the car and lights off. No one got out of the car to put anything on the back. We begged him to move, but he didn't, and we sat there. Nothing happened and we didn't see that car move.

    Disappointed, my best friend and I dropped the others off at home. When we got to her house around 1:00 a.m., we decided to look at the back of the car just for fun. When we put a flashlight on it, there was a thin layer of dust, and tiny, child-like hand prints all over the back of her car, when no one had gotten out or touched it."

    — Staci Toppi

    10. The Click

    "I was getting ready for bed late one night, wearing minimal clothes because it was a hot summer night, with the windows open. I clicked off the bedside lamp and turned over to go to sleep. It was pitch black in my room, because that's the only way I can sleep. Just as I closed my eyes, I heard clear as day the shutter of a camera *click* from over my shoulder. I whirled around and fumbled for the light, but when it turned on, there was no one in sight. I shrugged it off as my imagination, and I hesitantly turned the light back off and curled up once more. Just as I completely dismissed any fears as an overreaction, I heard a low chuckle coming from over my shoulder once more. My bedroom's on the second floor."

    — Annie Marie Harincar

    11. Beware the Ouija

    "My uncle died when he was 23. It was a violent and angry death — he took his own life. I was born a year to the day he killed himself, after being 2 weeks late already. Because of that I've always felt like I have a connection with him.

    One summer when I was about 10 or 11, my cousin and I were sitting in his old bedroom talking about what we thought he was like. We decided to try and contact him with a makeshift Ouija board, but of course we both shouted at the other for moving it and it was a bit of a bust. I don't really believe in the Ouija thing anyway.

    So, we went to bed. We were woken up in the morning by our granny asking us who had broken it, that she wasn't mad, she just wanted to know who had broken it. We had no idea what she was talking about, and she led us into the front room, where a photo frame with a picture of our late uncle was on the floor with the glass smashed. The recent birthday cards for my granddad were all still propped up on the fireplace. Condolence cards for my late uncle's would-be birthday were scattered on the floor."

    — Áine Freya

    12. Nobody Else is Home

    "Back in high school, my friend claimed her house was haunted. After a night of dinner/shopping, we stopped back at her house so that she could let the dogs out. Two weird things happened: First, the three of us (myself, friend A and friend B) searched all over the living room for the dog leash, but couldn't find it. We left the room to look for it somewhere else, and when we came back, the leash was sitting on the coffee table in plain sight. There's no way ALL three of us would have missed that after searching for ten minutes. It was like somebody had put it there when we left the room.

    Second, my friend B goes to take the dogs outside and I/friend A are just hanging out in her living room waiting. All of a sudden we hear a man's deep voice call out "[friend B's name]," and so we both respond "She's in the backyard, taking the dogs out." We assumed it was her stepdad or brother who had just returned home. Friend B comes back inside and we told her that her stepdad/brother was looking for her and she told us they weren't in town that weekend. Friend B looked all over the house for a family member and nobody was home."

    erogers2687

    13. The Shower

    "In college, I worked as a supervisor at our fitness facilities. There were two gyms, about a mile apart from each other. One was newly constructed and the other was an original campus building, so it was about 90 years old.

    It was a summer semester so we were operating on a limited staff. I was charged with closing the older building up for the night, but a nasty storm was coming in (think potential for tornadoes) so I sent the other employees home early and went through the process alone. I had to walk top to bottom in the four story building to ensure all the doors and windows were locked and while I wasn't crazy about it, I also wasn't scared because the building was very familiar to me. I kept in contact with my counterpart at the other building via a radio and went about my business.

    Nothing was out of the ordinary until I made my way to the women's locker room on the first floor. I did my sweep — checking all the shower and bathroom stalls, closing lockers, etc. Something I'd done a hundred times before.

    I had just reached the exit and flipped the light off when I heard the unmistakable noise of a shower curtain being pulled back on a metal rod. I stopped. My heart started to beat faster and I knew I needed to go back and check even though I didn't want to.

    I stepped outside, gathered my nerves and went back in. I flipped on the light and made my way down the shower bay. I could see that the curtain in the final stall was pushed all the way to left. I questioned whether or not it was actually closed when I walked by the first time, and pulled it shut again. I walked back to the exit and as soon as I turned off the lights I heard it again — the sound of a shower curtain sliding on a metal rod.

    My heart was beating uncontrollably at this point and I felt my knees get weak. I stepped outside and radioed my counterpart at the other facility. Hoping he was going to say someone was playing a prank on me. Instead he told me that they were closing down because of weather and I should try to get home as quickly as possible. With that, I was convinced that no one else was in the building with me.

    Being the macho 21 year-old that I was, I decided to go back in the locker room and check the shower bay one more time. I flipped on the light, walked to the showers and saw the same curtain pushed to the left. I quickly closed it and half-jogged to the door. As soon as I turned off the light, the sound of the curtain opening met my ears. Suddenly not feeling very brave, I ran to the main entrance, set the alarm and ran from the building as quickly as possible.

    andyp12

    14. The Apparition

    "My brother often stays up really late and annoys me when I'm trying to sleep. One night I woke up and saw a dark, tall figure in my doorway so I yelled at my brother to go away. The figure stayed there, just staring at me. Eventually I got fed up yelling at my brother so I sat up, and that's when I saw the figure more clearly. Its eyes were hollowed out and it had a small head and a long white neck. I sat back in bed, terrified, and then the figure kind of turned and crumpled in on itself, like it was dissolving into particles and it made this sound like someone exhaling. I still have no idea if it was real or just a hallucination, but it was horrible to say the least."

    sallysparrow

    15. Never Go Camping

    "My boyfriend and I went camping together one weekend. This was back before digital cameras were a thing so we brought a few disposable ones. We had a good day, took a lot of pictures, etc. etc. We went to sleep that night in our sleeping bags, with the tent completely zipped up - we both swear to this. So after the trip we went and dropped our cameras off to get developed, and when we picked up the pictures, we saw there was a series of pictures taken of us from inside the tent, while we were sleeping, that we obviously didn't take ourselves. I thought right away that my boyfriend must have had a friend come and take them as a prank but I was looking at his face when he saw the pictures and his reaction - he definitely didn't know about them either. To this day we don't know who took the pictures."

    katiekate1988

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