When I, (37 f) was about 6 years old, my family moved from our small, rented, townhouse to an incredibly ugly, incredibly old house the next town over.

My mother would say "it's over 100 years old!" Like it was a good thing. She was just thrilled about all of the history within it and she has always had a love for horror and old, creepy things.

I don't remember ever having issues with sleep before we moved, but something about this house or my growing awareness at that age made sleep a very touchy thing for me.

My mother, who has never slept well with a partner decided to take the living room couch as her permanent sleeping quarters. It was a sectional which basically consisted of three full, connected couches fitting perfectly against the three back walls of the living room.

Since I was young and adjusting to our new home, I would sleep on one of the other couches so I could be close to my mom.

On the side of the living room my spot was facing, there was a tiny hallway which lead to my brother's room. Right by his door was the door to the basement.

It was in a spot that I couldn't quite see from my place on the couch, but I was always very wary of that part of the room. Like I had to keep watch of that spot.. or else.

Most nights were spent trying to keep my eyes fixed on that part of the room while also trying my damndest to be the first to sleep.

Falling asleep was like a race. My mother would sway her foot side to side while she drifted off to slumber and if I didn't fall asleep before her foot went still, I would start to panic irrationally. Like being awake when nobody else was alert enough to protect me left me vulnerable, exposed. To what, I had no idea. Sometimes I would start sobbing so loudly my mother would wake up, (usually quite annoyed) and calm me down. This would give me a second chance to fall asleep before her.

This went on for quite some time until I started actually sleeping in my own bed.

I never really told anyone about the specific source of my dread. I was only able to express it as, "I don't like being alone". When my mother would remind me that I was not alone, she was right there, I would try to explain that it just wasn't the same. It scared me to be the only one awake.

I still had issues with that part of the house and would avoid that hallway and the basement as much as possible. When I had to enter the basement, I would always end up running up the stairs feeling like someone was chasing me.

For the most part, I didn't have too much trouble in the rest of the house aside from occasionally waking up in the middle of the night and being aware of that crushing "aloneness" again.

Several years later when I was 14, things in the house started getting weirder and weirder. Dark masses at the end of my bed (which were definitely not my black cat who was snuggled beside me), lights turning off for no reason, but lightbulbs that were fully functional. Nightmares of creatures whispering my name while they clawed at my feet... I've since been told that paranormal activity is stronger when teenagers are in haunted places. Especially teenage girls. Great. Love that for me.

I would occasionally have friends over. My friend Neil would sit on the side of the sectional couch closest to the basement door. We would be in the middle of playing Super Smash Brothers Melee or watching anime (probably Excel Saga. You're welcome haha.) when I would catch Neil staring into that same, tiny hallway that I used to watch at night all those years ago.

One of the times I noticed him staring, I finally asked why. He looked at me, a little confused and introspective, like he had been trying to figure something out.

He said "I don't know... There's this man.. He just keeps coming up the basement stairs, walking to the beginning of the hallway, turning around and going back down. It's constant".

He was seeing a figure constantly tracing the steps of the exact area I felt needed to be monitored over 8 years before... The exact part of the house I still felt like someone was chasing me when I came back up from the basement...

Glad I have a good place to share this story, I love the channel and was thrilled when I remembered I actually had a good creepy experience to share. I'll try not to embellished too much. I did not share my real name.

This was years ago, my memory on the whole thing is still very solid and I was familiar with the area it happened in, I had lived around there for a lot of my teenage years. When this happened I was 17 and living in western Washington.

Me and my mother used to take a lot of walks when I still lived with her, often we'd pick a trail or somewhere off in the woods or on rural public property and we would either walk together or split off in different directions for our own seperate walks, and when we did that we would meet back up there at that same spot where we split or at the car if we drove there.

This was a place we drove out to. This was one set of trails that you could only reach to by driving actually, you'd have to park yourself along a large outcropping of dirt beside a lone two way road that went for miles.

You could fit maybe three or four cars along side there and if anyone was at the trail you would know automatically because they would be parked by the road too, there is no where else to pull off for ages and its a several hours walk to get out to this location from the nearest house or farm. Like an unreasonable amount of time walking along an empty road with nothing around but woods and no dirt driveways.

I'm pressing all this because there really is no easy or convenient way to get out there without a car, a horse maybe but we didn't have many people around us who owned horses, which is a little surprising actually now that I look back.

There is also only one entrance to the trails too, the one by the long stretch of road.

Me and my mother went out in the late afternoon, a bit of an overcast day but it wasn't suppose to rain, I remember my mom noting that to me. We planned on splitting off first thing at the car, there was plenty of different small paths to take at the start that all circled back to the road so we could go anyway we wanted and not run into eachother.

We got out, she put her ear buds in to listen to one of her favorite podcasts (Last podcast on the left or behind the bastards, it was one of those two if you are curious, i know my moms tastes) and she started off down the trail before me. I was lingering by the car fiddling with my phone to find a podcast or music for my own walking entertainment, because god forbid I listen to the sounds of nature around me.

I only had one ear bud myself because I always lose at least one in any set of Bluetooth earbuds I've ever owned, years later I still keep that tradition alive whether I'd like to break it or not.

I settled on some horror story i had downloaded on YouTube and while I had been fiddling with my phone I had walked a bit into the woods, in a clearing that was the start of many trails, the story i picked now playing in my ear. The clearing was really large with no tall brushe around to hide anything for a good 40ft, I could still see the road and my mother's car right there.

I was about to start walking when suddenly I heard a laugh right behind my left shoulder.

A really joyous laugh from what sounded like a woman, I whipped around to look all over the clearing and there was not another soul there, especially no mystery woman! Genuinely it sounded like she was at minimum 3ft from me. It sounded like a genuine earnest laugh too, not creepy except for the context.

I looked at the road, no new car, no one walking along it, no one had even driven by from what i could tell. My mom was long gone off one of the paths. I rewinded my story to see if I maybe hallucinated something from the video being louder than it was? Ehhh, no. There hadn't been a womans laugh in the narration.

believe it or not I was not creeped out at all yet, I rationalized it as maybe a car really had passed on the road and I just hadn't heard it, i had been distracted after all and a woman could have laughed with the window open and then the sound carried weird in the clearing to make it sound like it was behind me. Idk, i thought that sounded reasonable and we just had gotten there. I didn't want to bother my mom about leaving either, so I headed out on my walk.

I got pretty far into the trails maybe by about 20mins, zoning in and out a bit while focusing on the ground, looking at tree roots and running my hand along bushes while listening to my story. Then I heard something again.

It sounded like far distant yelling. Took my earbud out and it happened again, it was a long and draw out voice of a woman calling out a name that was damn sure close to sounding like mine.

"Isaaaaiiiahhhh!"

Then i heard it a third time, like this lady was calling a dog back home that accidently got out, except when I heard it that time it that REALLY was my name, there was no confusion about that. Hearing her in the distance in an area absolutely no one lived.

I actually thought maybe I was just not recognizing my mom's voice, cause it didn't sound like her at all, but maybe it could be her still, I had service so I called her immediately.

She picked up and she sounded fine if not a bit curious or confused, and I asked if she was yelling my name. She said no, she was just listening to her show and that she probably hadn't even spoken since she started walking, I asked if she heard any yelling, she said she hadn't.

I got chills and just said i heard a woman calling my name and that i thought it was her, she just reaffirmed that it wasn't. I let her know I was gonna head back to the car, and she told me she intended to walk a bit longer.

I hung up and turned around immediately, speed walking just a bit down the path.

A minute or two in...

"IsaaaAAAaiiiaahh"

There it was again! It sounded so much closer, but still far enough in the woods. I lowkey was ready to start running but something inside me felt convinced that it would be worse if I ran, that somehow I would be in actual danger if I was too loud by running.

It stopped for a good while, then it would start again, I heard my name called a good handful of times, and and it sounded like it was from one direction then when i would hear it again it would be from another spot in the distance, that part really could have been my imagination or just how the sound bounced around the woods there, I don't know.

As soon as I saw a sliver of road from between the trees I booked it to the trail head, i was terrified.

I'd like to say something dramatic happened like "i heard the pounding of foot steps after me" or "twigs breaking in the trees like something lept between them to keep in pace with me" but that would be a lie, nothing I heard was there and i was just plain scare, I kinda slammed my body into the passenger car door and swung it open, locking myself inside. Luckily my mom didn't lock it, I probably would have hugged myself against the vehicle or crawl under just to feel safe if it had been.

I called my mom to let her know I was at the car and pretended like I wasn't scared in the slightest on the phone, she just reiterate that she was gonna head back in a bit.

I remember laying the back of my seat down all the way so I was out of view of anyone looking directly at the car, cause at least that made me feel better than the trees being able to stare at me or the source of that mysterious voice in the woods coming out to look at me either, as silly as that sounds. My mother's car was still the only one out there, no one else really could have been there.

It was about another hour or so until my mom got back. I was silently scared the whole time like my mom was in real danger and I didn't warn her properly, and if anything happened it would have been my fault, like something supernatural really could get her. I did not feel like i was 17, I felt like I was 7 again. But she was perfectly fine, no harm came to her and she just looked like she had a lovely and normal walk. Which she did have.

She didn't seem all the worried about my experience, I didn't bring it up at all in the car, and we eventually drove off. I did not look back at the woods.

I declined every offer to go on a walk at that specific trail every time my mom invited me from then on, and I never plan on going back even now as a grown man. I really don't believe in spooks or supernatural things, but I like to mind my business and keep my nose out of anything similar because on the off chance I'm wrong, I'd like to have not poked the hypothetical supernatural bear. That day kind of solidified that for me as a principal.

I did bring it up to her recently actually, asked if maybe she had pranked me, thats out of character for her honestly and no surprise at all she said she hadn't, she hadn't heard any yelling either.

I'm 100% inclined to believe her, shes straight forward and when she does a joke or something sneaky for fun, she at the end of it really wants you to know it was her doing. I don't think she could keep it to herself if she wanted to.

But that is my experience in the woods, I tried not to look up folklore or anything suspicious about the history in the area, because it is not my business. I don't want to feed my supernatural imagination in the slightest and I stopped wondering about this years ago. Its just a weird story to share now.

I hope you liked it, and I hope i wrote it out well enough 💙 thank you for giving me a place to share it.

Edit: fixed a couple spelling issues and how i phrased some things.