Throughout 2016, we asked the BuzzFeed Community for their spookiest experiences. From ouija board stories to ghostly encounters, here are the ones that freaked us the hell out.
1. This literal bump in the night:
"I woke up one night having to pee, and I brought my phone to the bathroom. While walking down the hall and texting, I bumped into a girl in a white dress. I didn’t look up, said 'sorry,' and kept going. Moments later, I remembered that I was home alone and not in my bustling high school. And the next day, when my boyfriend came to pick me up for the movies, he asked why I’d been staring at him through the upstairs window, and why I’d changed out of my white dress. I don’t even own a white dress."
2. This spooky baby monitor sighting:
3. This imaginary friend incident:
"My sister described her 'imaginary' friend, saying: 'He sits on my bed and waits for his mom. He’s not allowed to go home by himself because of his arm.' I asked what happened to his arm, and she said: 'His mom ran him over when he was drawing with chalk. That’s why he’s always crying, because he doesn’t like being dead.'"
4. This ouija board occurrence:
"I played with a ouija board with my friends. Everyone except me believed in spirits, so I kept asking the board to do more physical things, like tap my shoulder. The piece never moved, but suddenly my back started to sting. There were three handprints on my back, and they were red and puffy like I’d been slapped. I refuse to touch a board again.”
5. This real-life horror movie scene:
"I was babysitting a family friend’s kid, and it was just the two of us in the home. She looked around and whispered to me: 'We’re not alone in this house.'"
6. This staticky situation:
"I was visiting my brother and his family, who lived in a very old Victorian house. I was snuggling with my niece on a futon in the playroom when suddenly, in the middle of the night, the TV turned on, full-blast, with a static screen. My 3-year-old niece jumped out of bed and ran to the TV, shutting it off. When I asked her how she knew the TV would turn on, she shrugged, saying, 'They turn it on every night at this time,' and fell right back asleep."
7. The scary snuggle:
"My boyfriend and I inexplicably awoke in a panic in the middle of the night. At that moment, the framed photo hanging on the wall crashed to the ground. I told him I’d been having a nightmare where he was being stabbed to death. He freaked out, saying he was having the exact same dream, except I was being stabbed. Suddenly, we both heard my mom yelling downstairs. She sounded scared, and kept calling my name. This was particularly scary because we lived in California, and my mom lived in England. Nobody was inside the house but us. He still won't sleep at my house."
8. This asylum apparition:
9. This rotary phone phantom:
"My friend and I played with a ouija board in one of the rooms in my house, and suddenly the rotary phone started to click, like the receiver was being tampered with. Weeks later, I was home alone watching TV downstairs when I heard the phone clicking upstairs again. We had another phone in the living room with a red light that would come on if the line was being used, and every time it clicked upstairs, the light came on beside me. Later that night as I tried to sleep, I felt hands on my shoulder start to rock me back and forth. I assumed I was dreaming…but then I heard humming. It was TERRIFYING. We've now moved out of that house, but I still have nightmares.”
—Falara Peek, Facebook
11. This fast-food fright:
"I was sleeping alone in a room I shared with my 6-year-old sister, but she wasn’t home. She had a toy McDonald’s cash register with a drive-thru radio that’d play a recording if you pressed a button. I was dozing off when I heard, 'Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order?' from inside the closet. I took it out of the toy box and turned it off before setting it on a shelf where it wouldn’t be disturbed. About 20 minutes later, I heard a voice whisper, 'I would like Chicken McNuggets, please.' You bet I bolted out of there."
12. The toilet terror:
"I used to be a camp counselor for elementary school kids. One day one of the campers asked if they could go to the bathroom, and I told her to go quickly because we needed to line up for the bus soon. She left and then came back almost immediately. I asked her why she came back right away and she said, 'I can't go, the ghost in there won't stop screaming.'"
—Claire Delahorne, Facebook
13. This bone-chilling circumstance:
“I got a ouija board after months of harmless paranormal activity in my house. When I contacted something, the planchette started doing figure eights across the board, which is a huge NO-NO — that meant something demonic was present. I didn’t touch it for months. When I tried again, I asked where the spirit was in the room. My vision went spotty, I saw a vivid image of my head jerking back, and the words, 'with you,' were whispered into my ear by something I couldn’t see. I sold the board.”
14. This mini psychic:
"My mother was babysitting my daughter while I was at a doctor’s appointment and said, 'Oh no, Grandma. Mama’s not coming any more today. She was in a bad, bad accident. She can’t come get us.' I had indeed been in an accident that almost killed me at that exact time. None of my family had yet been notified."
15. The last thing you ever want to hear:
"My son told me about a 'dead woman with blue skin, no hair, and black eyes' who supposedly lived in our old apartment. He said he watched her follow us outside and try to get in our car but there was no room so she stood outside and watched us leave while waving goodbye."
—shaunaa2
16. And this invisible intruder:
"I was home alone watching TV when I saw something moving in the master bedroom. I strained my eyes to see a man walking out of the closet to the other side of the room. He stopped, looked at me, put his finger to his lips, then turned around. There was blood on his face, and the back of his head was missing. He vanished back into the closet. We moved when we found out that the mysterious small hole in the ceiling of our bedroom is from a previous tenant who shot himself in that exact spot."
Sleep tight.
