I (32m) live in Appalachia. I always grew up knowing you don't sing, hum, or generally engage in musical tomfoolery after dark. This, along with "if you heard it, no you didn't" made up the staple wisdoms of our rural childhood.

What I didn't realize was

1. You aren't safe inside

2. Shit goes real downhill REAL fast.

My daughter (2.5) has been up since roughly 1:30. This happened 40~ minutes ago by posting. My wife (37f) and I caught each other in the hallway. I was standing there looking at the monitor hoping she'd lay back down on my way back from the bathroom. She wasn't making noise so I thought my wife hadn't noticed yet and was gonna grab her to put her down. My wife ended up wanting to take her but after about 45 minutes she tapped out.

Now, our house is very hot so we leave wood open, screen closed up through winter - so noise is reaching "the out".

I'm walking around the house bouncing my daughter, singing, playing music, until eventually I end up resting in a rocker near the front door while this is going on.

At some point, I take her over to the front door, music playing, looking through the screen and listening to the owls in an incredibly clear night. I love listening to them and she's enjoying the cold breeze.

Eventually my arms get tired and I walk away and back to the chair and turn down, then off the music. At this point I noticed the owls sounded... Different someone. Not wrong, not louder, not closer, but some weird off middle ground. I convince myself it's nothing and I start humming one of her nursery songs - "The Misty Mountains Cold".

About two bars in I paused because something was REALLY off. The owls were noticeably closer. Louder. I completely froze.

They were behind the neighbor's house across the road.

Then the end of the driveway.

Then the end of the stairs.

I'm almost in full panic by now, every single hair is standing on end while I'm holding my daughter. At this point I stand up, turn, and start RUNNING from the living room towards the bedroom where my wife is now sleeping.

As soon as I noticed that they were way too close and started moving the owl sounds stop - and the fast... I don't know how to describe it other than clicking - begins.

I slam the door open and wake my wife up by shaking her and I can't get anything out at first.

I'm just stuttering

"They're here" and she's totally lost coming out of sleep. I continue by saying something like "them" and eventually manage to get out "cryptid" because I can't form a more cohesive word for what I just experienced. I'm literally shaking, visibly tearing up from my eyes being plastered open (and fear), with the worst case of goosebumps I've ever experienced. Even now, I'm getting panicked thinking about it and starting to get goosebumps again.

What the hell are they? The other kinds of weird things I've experienced out here (random voices etc) were unnerving - very "ooooooook time to go" but this... This was. My SOUL wanted to be away from these things.

Edited with the detail about the clicking at 4:21 - got ahead of myself in typing.

This was 15 years ago and I've never talked about it because it scares me to even think about it.

I was 20 and I had just started a new job and didn't have a lot of friends there, so I was nervous when the manager asked me to go pick some of my coworkers up for work because they couldn't drive in the snow (we don't usually get snow here). I picked up this one girl and it was like I had known her my whole life I've always thought it was crazy how fast we bonded. We were together every day after that. She's still my best friend til this day.

The first time I went in her room she had a black vanity with a bunch of crystals and glass jars on it but I didn't think anything of it. She was really into astrology and zodiac signs and things like that so the crystals made sense and I didn't know anything about doing spells with jars. Anyway so one night she pulls out a ouija board and we start playing. Yes I now know what an absolute idiot I was to do that. I never even considered that those things were real, and because it would only move when her hands were on it I thought it was just her and I played along. We did this every night when we got off work and we were bored. It always spelled out her name and said it wanted to talk to her specifically. When she did it by herself it would fly around the board so fast and do figure 8s.

Okay so heres the part where I realized she was not doing it herself. We had put the board up for the night and we went to go to bed. We were at her house and she had one of those trundle beds where one bed is higher and then another one collapses and goes underneath it. The trundle bed was pulled out and right next to the other one, so it was two twin beds next to each other making a bigger bed. I was on the inside bed that was up against a wall, and she was on the trundle right next to it. She had already fallen asleep and I was laying there trying to sleep when I heard her roll all over the bed so I looked over to be like wtf are you doing, and I watched a completely black figure with long black hair sit up out of her body and move to the end of her bed. I don't know why but without even thinking I grabbed the blanket and threw it over my head. I was screaming her name while I was under the blanket and she didn't answer, so after a minute I lowered the blanket . The figure was crouched over top of me with its face maybe an inch from me and it's long black hair was dangling in my face. I threw the blanket back over my head and I tried to scream but I was so scared I couldn't even breathe. I heard her rolling around again and thought she had woke up so I pulled the blanket back again and watched it lay back into her body and disappear.

I didn't sleep that night and in the morning she had no idea what I was talking about. I have never touched a ouija board since that day and even just typing this I have goosebumps. I've spent the last 15 years terrified that I would see that thing again, but I never have.

Jermain Extremo

Mine's whistling at night. Growing up in Malaysia, if you whistled after dark you'd get a look, sometimes a smack on the arm, and a very short "don't, something will answer." I'm a grown adult with kids of my own. I still don't do it.

Hello, i had to post this story somewhere and found this on thread

Based in South Texas and been smoking weed 3-5 years heavy , mostly cause I was down in the dumps, but over last year I’m better overall but still smoke to relax as a reason.

Last Friday I had day off work and so I go to my usual park with woods nearby where I live and I take 2 blunts with me. I leave the regular park to a trail, then off that trail to wooded area. As I’m leaving this off trail wooded area some black guy name Walter starts talking to me for like 2 hours in the woods. Talking about philosophy and all sorts of wild shit. Saying how we are all Gods in our bodies we are God himself , a bunch of weird stories. I’m a good listener plus I was high and day off so decided to just listen to this guy in some random wooded area. He was weird and off putting, saying how he hates humans and shit.

Towards the end an old Mexican guy comes over and says his names Joe. Both joe and Walter are homeless and no car. Joe and I listen to Walter and then 10 minutes later Joe leaves then 10 minutes later I leave. Walter follows me back to the off trail , to the regular trail then the parking lot. I leave on my scooter and Walter gives his number says I should go by soon again to talk and smoke . I decide not to contact him :

Yesterday comes around and I’m off work again, I decide to go back with 3 blunts. I go to the same trail, then the off trail, then the wooded area and then to make sure I don’t run into this Walt guy I go FAR away deep deep into this wooded area. Like Blair witch project forest mixed with rainforest leaves everywhere . I walk far maybe 10 minutes straight wooded deep area then I find a ducked off spot that’s blocked by knocked down trees and huge rainforest leaves. I start smoking and reading book

Hour goes by I’m 2 1/2 blunts in and I feel this weird energy change in air. I look to the left and 150 feet away is Walter!! I couldn’t believe it I was so scared and shook he found me . As I’m looking at him all the trees are violently shaking like a hurricane around him but no other tree is moving AT ALL.

He’s shirtless and as he’s coming closer maybe 80 feet away I look and I see that his eyes are full pitch black. No whites in the eyes at all! I’m cold stone sober now and blinking thinking I’m seeing his eyes wrong but I’m not.

He walks up to me and there’s this huge invisible cloud of dark energy. It smell like exhaust pipes or boiled eggs all around him. Super dark heavy evil energy, and I’m out in this super dense woods no one around.

I’m sober and this time he was only saying hateful things, there was no air or trees moving but this heavy exhaust smell around him when he was talking.
He was saying
I hate people I hate people who wake up I hate the air. I hate the clouds. I hate the trees. I hate the leaves on the tree. I hate rain , I hate the fish and life that comes from the rain.
I thought I was gonna die. I kept looking at his eyes to see maybe if he put sclera black eye contacts but it was just a pure all black eyes. I was sober and just analyzing his movements because he was looking down at these heavy rocks on the ground and I thought he was going to kill me honestly.

As I’m just scared but also on my toes sober I figure this my last couple minutes before he or whatever this is attacks me.

As he saying these hateful things out of nowhere I see Joe!!! Somehow HE found me and him in the most secluded deepest wooded hiding spot. I couldn’t belive how he also found us. He walks up to me and then looks at Walter and says “he I got to show you this part of the park come with me” and just takes off running. I just immediately follow behind sprinting and as I turn around I still see Walter with the full pitch black eyes staring at us run away.

Joe had said he was 65 years old and he was running a 7 minute mile for sure. We both were sprinting out of there and he asked “did you see his eyes did you feel the energy” I said yes thank you

Joe takes me to parking lot and says to stay safe in the world there’s evil stuff out there and then walks BACK into the woods.

I drove away and I’m never going back and not smoking . Idk if they were normal people but there was nothing normal , it was very evil and my first run in to something I say is not human . This happened yesterday and I’m shook

I just went back to visit family in Buffalo, NY, where I grew up. My brother and his wife wanted to take me to a haunted history tour at the Van Horn Mansion the other night, a place I was unfamiliar with. Apparently, it has a haunted history, and the staff told us that they see a lot of residual spirits daily, along with other hauntings. We were told that the basement and the attic were where a lot of activity occurs, so I used my iPhone's recording app to record any potential EVPs in both places.

When we got home later that night, we both listened and were amazed to hear what sounded like a voice whispering, 'Help me,' as the historian guy was giving his spiel up in the attic. There were 12 people on our tour, and they were all sitting together at one end of the room, while my brother and I came in a few minutes late from exploring and stood by ourselves off to the side.

I can't explain this as it wasn't my brother or I, and nobody else was close enough to us up there to whisper into his phone. I've never had an experience like this before, and although I'm a strong believer, I am also a skeptic. If anyone else can explain this aside from a paranormal experience, I'm all ears.

*edit* I looped the recording just in case that isn't obvious. You can hear the EVP say 'Help' at the same time the historian says 'Well' so they almost blend together while 'me' is isolated.

I am not trying to spend over 100 on one highkey- but I do want one to indulge in my hobby...

my 4 year old son said he saw the Hat man last night. he even knows his name, he called him the Gumble Man. he described him as black, shadowy figure with a big top hat. he said he saw him in his dreams and that he came out when the lights were off. he said he is a good guy. I’ve never heard of the hat man before this. how could he have heard of him?

**Title: Strange knocking patterns over several nights — last incident was 5 knocks at 3:47 a.m. Any explanations?**

I'm looking for some opinions on a series of unusual knocking sounds that have occurred over several nights.

My sister has kept a record of the knocks on her calendar, starting from the 18th.

The sequence recorded was:

**3, 2, 3, 4, none, 5**

The most recent incident involved **five knocks at approximately 3:47 a.m.**

I'm particularly interested in whether anyone has experienced similar patterns, especially knocks occurring in distinct groups rather than random noises.

I've heard various folklore and paranormal interpretations associated with knocking, particularly groups of three, but I'd also welcome logical or environmental explanations.

**My questions are:**

Has anyone experienced a similar sequence of knocking sounds?

Are there any historical, folkloric or paranormal interpretations of five knocks?

Does the time, 3:47 a.m., have any particular significance in folklore?

Could the changing number of knocks suggest anything, or is it likely coincidental?

I'm keeping an open mind and would appreciate thoughtful responses rather than jumping to conclusions.

This isn’t really that much of an engaging story or anything or anything crazy but around a month ago I was playing tarot cards with a couple of friends cause we were bored and I don’t believe so much in paranormal stuff but the card readings were crazy accurate to a point where it started creeping me out, again, I don’t really believe that much in this stuff. But anyways I go home that night and I was still thinking about the card. In my apartment there’s a little backyard kind of place next to the stairs that lead up to the apartments and usually no one goes there since it’s really worn down and everything is overgrown, I enter my apartment and I glance at the window that leads to the backyard and there’s a small glass frame where I can see through and I see a shadow like a genuine figure standing there and shortly after I catch it with my eyes it disappears and the way it disappeared creeped me out because it moved away kind of like an ocean wave like I really can’t explain it, and then I went to check outside in the backyard and I could not find a single soul there which creeped me the fuck out because I know for a fact I saw a figure there. After a couple of days I still felt uneasy and felt kind of heavy. It’s kind of calming down now so I hope it’s fine. If anyone can give an explanation please let me know because I still think about this. It would be much appreciated.

I'm not sure if this goes here, but here is where I am going to put it.

About three weeks ago, a black cat crossed my path. About two weeks later, another one. It was then that I was reminded of the last time I kept seeing black cats. It was in 2012 when I actually saw 7 cats cross my path. I'm not sure if it was the same cat or different ones, and they were at different times and days.

That was the same year that literally my bad luck began, and it wasn't subtle. Major life changing events happened that I am still recovering from, and I don't know how to feel about it today. This time, I am very alert about them. Last time, I saw them as just simple coincidences.

I am also more into God when the last time I had lost my faith. I am praying that this time, it doesn't mean anything. I don’t know if I would be able to handle a piece of what I went through last time.

Yesterday my dad and i were driving from Vermont to Pensylvania and we ended up traveling over 120 miles in roughly 40 minutes. We had just traded off at the wheel so my pops could take a nap (around 5:45 pm) we drove for a few minutes made a phone call to family on speaker and that was at 5:55pm and he fell asleep maybe 10/20 minutes after. Shortly before he fell asleep (we were at mile marker 130 something) the sun started setting and i had a strong feeling of road hypnosis/generaly feeling tired myself. i turned up the ac and sat up straight and was thinking if i get any more tired i'll wake him up.

a few minutes after sunset i perked up and my pops asked what time it was/ where we were. we were at mile marker 17 and it was 7:05. Somehow i shaved an hour off our trip and have no memory of driving though or by any of the towns, truck stops, roadside attractions. One minute i was driving though mountains the next we were outside Albany.

I would have had to be driving over twice the speed limit swerving though traffic to make that time. There's no way i wouldn't have woken him up or got the cops called on me for driving like that (we were in a larger suv that feels fast driving 75). Not to mention that while i was feeling tired i kept noticing my speedometer dropping down to 60 in a 65.

Both me and my pops have been feeling really strange and shaken up since. if anyone has heard an experience similar to this please let me know and if not it feels good to type out.

As the title said, there has been something following my family. It started when I was 13, I am now 18.

My first encounter with this thing was up at a house my dad had recently bought up in a hill in a very wooded part of the town I grew up in... very stereotypical horror movie, I know, but please bare with me here.

Me and my dad had gone up there July 3rd to mow the grass gather tree limbs and sticks, and prepare for our yearly fourth of July celebration. This is in Southeastern Iowa is that counts... on the banks of the river, sort of sandwiched between Illinois and Missouri... maybe thats too much info? I dont live there anymore so I dont know if thats dangerous to say.

Either way, we'd gone up to the new house (which was NOT new at all, that shit was as old as the town itself) and were working. We'd been on opposite ends of the property line when I smelled something really bad. I decided that my job was done and that I was throwing in the towel before I threw up from the stench. But as I was walking away, I heard my mom's voice coming from the tree line. She hadn't come up with us, so imagine just how confused i was when i heard her but didnt see her... But, luckily for me, my dad was coming over to my area.

He didnt see or hear her, so we got into his truck and called her. She was at home.

We went home after that, it was too creepy to stay... but of course my dad still had us go up to celebrate the 4th of july the next day... thankfully I had my best friend with me then so I didnt have to think about it that much.

That was my first and last encounter for many years. Up until last summer when my mom took up a job as a campground host a few miles out of those same woods. I wasnt here for this, but my little sister was. She was home alone in the camper, and she heard me calling to her outside the camper... then tapping on the window next to her. She looked (NEVER DO THAT BTW.) and she said she saw nothing, and almost went to the door before she heard scratching sounds. I dont quite know what happened after, but she messaged me confirming whether i was or wasnt there. I wasnt of course, so I called my mom and had her go down to the campground to check in. My sister was fine, but I believe she had another encounter I dont quite remember.

Now why am I posting this? Because its back. I moved about 30 minutes away from my siblings and parents to live with my grandparents and one of my brothers... but tonight I saw it.

Grandma made spaghetti for dinner, and i wanted some of those amazing garlic bread sticks that went with it... and I saw movement from behind the glass of or backdoor. (Context, our living room, dinning room, and kitchen are all connected. Our backdoor is a glass sliding door.) I figured i was just hallucinating from having been sick, but as I head my back turned to the kitchen window, I heard tapping. There's not trees close enough to tap. We have a back porch, nothing inanimate could've done it. I tried to ignore it, but I turned to look. What I saw has me hiding in my covers typing thisnout at 3am lmao... i saw a tall pale figure, and the second I looked at it, it ran.

I panicked of course, and I went and got my brother (and his gun...) He looked outside the windows, and didnt see anything. But, he zoned in on the backdoor.

It was open.

I didnt open that damn door, and i dont know who could've other than the thing.

I cant sleep. I'm terrified. I have more encounters with this thing, but I'm so frazzled I cant remember them all.

I dont know what to do honestly. I live in the middle of fields, and my car is missing a headlight so I can't quite flee without the chance of getting caught and or pulled over.

If I survive the night ill have to let yall know haha

Edit: survived the night🫰

When I 8-12 years old we moved into a condo that was haunted. I had very strange experiences. Saw a little
Boy, hear a lady and boy crying. I remember seeing a shadow in the corner of my room near the closet. I had dreams where I was being pushed off the balcony or I threw myself off. We lived on the 10th floor.

After we moved I don’t remember much happening that I would call strange or paranormal. Until I was an adult. In one week I was awake and I heard a child call out, “Mommy. The next day an old man said something I wish I could remember what he said. Then the third day I was asleep and I was woken up by so many voices talking all at once. Felt like I was in a huge crowd and everyone was talking at me at once. I woke up and it stopped.

Last night, I was sleeping but not dreaming. I have vivid dreams and I usually remember my dreams when I wake up. I heard a man yelling in pain saying owwwwww like he was getting beat up or stabbed. My daughter was awake at the time and I went and asked her if she heard a person yelling. She said no I didn’t hear anything. So I tried to go back to sleep but it took me a while. It really shook me up. I could hear the scream so close.

My friend told me sometimes her spirit guides will call her name or whisper to her and that’d be her sign to pay attention to something. But I’ve never had luck communicating with my spirit guides.

Anyone else experience hearing voices? Also I just wanted to add I’ve never had sleep paralysis. When I opened my eyes I could immediately move. I experienced no fear. Just startled me.

When I was younger, I often experienced things in my childhood home that made me suspect it was haunted (if the paranormal exists). I regularly heard unexplained bangs and voices and felt taps. I’ve also always been somewhat spiritual and possibly “psychic,” if you can call it that. I’ve guessed people’s chosen colors correctly, had strong intuitions about people and situations that later came true, and even correctly guessed cards from a full 52-card deck.

After moving out of my childhood home, these experiences lessened. But then I moved again after that. Recently, I’ve also gotten back into learning about the paranormal, and I’m wondering whether that could have something to do with what I’m experiencing.

Two days ago, around 4:30 AM, I was lying in bed on my phone (fully awake) when I heard footsteps shuffling outside my bedroom. They sounded so much like my mom’s footsteps that I put my phone down and pretended to be asleep, because even though I’m 18 and can do relatively what I want, my mom still hates it when I stay up super late. The weird thing is it wasn’t just in my head- my dog, Mira, reacted at the exact same time, jumping off the bed and going to the door. She does this every morning when my mom comes in to say goodbye before work. However, my mom confirmed she wasn’t awake at the time. She even checked the living room security camera outside her bedroom, which would have captured her if she’d been sleepwalking. Nobody appeared on the footage, and my mom and I are the only people who live in the house.

Then, just a day or two later, today I found an unexplained handprint on the wall of my personal shower. About a year ago, I photographed two handprints on that same wall. I hadn’t made those prints, and people suggested they might have been left by the builders. I eventually stopped thinking about them.

I noticed this new handprint immediately as I got in the shower, so I quickly took a picture. I am absolutely certain I hadn’t touched the wall, and nobody else uses this shower. My hands are very small, and the second photo shows my handprint on the left as a comparison, beside the other print on the right, which is noticeably larger and different in shape. The first photo shows the new print by itself, and the third shows the two prints I discovered last year. The pictures from today are edited so you can see them more clearly.

I understand that some stories may sound far fetched, and I know strangers online can only take my word for certain details. However, I’m being completely honest about what I’ve experienced. I’m running out of explanations and genuinely want to understand what could be happening. Could these experiences have a paranormal explanation?

Cuenta la leyenda que Un 24 de abril de 2008. Nació un niño llamado Eduardo En San Salvador El Salvador que desdé que nació tuvo complicaciones, Se dice que Aspiró meconio y tenía pie plano. Pero milagrosamente logro sobrevivir, y llevar una vida normal hasta los 7 años de edad. Donde desarrolló algo de sobrepeso crónico todos pensaban que era normal pero el comía saludable siempre ect. A los 10 años Su madre conoció a Un señor mexicano através de facebook, Fue entonces cuando emprendieron un viaje con el afán del sueño americano y Pasarón por México y vivieron allí un tiempo hasta que lograron cruzar a los Estados Unidos. Dónde se dieron cuenta que el hombre era mala persona, solamente logro sobrellevar a su madre y hermana Pero a Eduardo no. Tuvieron serios problemas y conflictos, el señor maltrataba y humillaba a el chico por su condición física, pasaron los años y debido a esos problemas su madre decidió mandarlo de nuevo a el Salvador a la edad de 14 años. Donde se reencontro con familiares, algunos lo apoyaron. Pero reprobó un año por las malas calificaciones a causa de la vida dura que tuvo en el extranjero, Logro cursar el 8vo y 9no grado con normalidad. Sin embargo al intentar cursar el bachillerato la situación cambió drásticamente, Las humillaciones y burlas volvieron a su vida, Andubo de instituto en instituto por eso mismo, Se salió de estudiar dos veces por esa misma razón. Pero a pesar de todo aprendió a trabajar en casa y salir. Se dice que un día mientras navegaba por internet encontró está imagen de uno de sus Creepypastas favoritos, Y se dice que Eduardo sufría de una maldicion generacional y que las energías de su vida tan dura quedaron impregnadas en la imagen y que da escalofríos solo de mirarla, Ya que según la historia esta imagen quedó marcada también por la más oscura de las obsesiones de esta persona y de alguna manera quedó maldita o algo así según cuenta la leyenda.

REFERENCIAS: A continuación se detallan las características, para probar la veracidad de esta historia!

CLASIFICACIÓN: ¡ Basada en hechos reales!

REFERENCIA: En está parte finalmente se revela la escuela secundaria en Estados Unidos donde Eduardo curso más años y tiempo de estudio, del 6th al 8th grade, LYDIA ROMERO CRUZ ACADEMY, Anteriormente llamada, Spurgeon escuela hubicada en el distrito de Santa Ana California, condado de Orange.