Some tales are so unsettling that they stay with you long after you’ve heard them. The real-life accounts shared below are sure to send shivers down anyone’s spine. Each narrative captures a moment so disturbing that even the greatest suspense writer would feel uneasy. From inexplicable occurrences to bizarre encounters, these experiences will leave you questioning what is real.
Story 1
In our neighborhood, there was a woman in her 60s who seemed mentally unstable. She often wandered around, sitting on random porches and mumbling to herself. Adults kept their distance, and children were warned to stay away from her.
One day, while I was visiting my grandma, she broke into the house. I was just six years old, sleeping in the living room, when she forced her way through the kitchen door, walked into the living room, and spotted me. She simply stood there smiling at me.
My mom and grandma took her outside and waited for her family to come and collect her.
Story 2
We had a neighbor who moved away but returned a year later for a visit, bringing his two children and an Asian woman he claimed was his wife. He insisted she was the same woman he had been married to before, just slimmer and with a new look.
However, we remembered his wife as a petite woman, around 5’1″, with wavy bobbed hair. This new woman was about 5’6″ with long, straight black hair and appeared younger. Even without her sandals, she still stood at 5’6″.
While on vacation, he told a neighbor that his wife had died from a brain tumor. I began to question where his real wife was. I suspected he had sent her back to her home country. It was unsettling to see him trying to pass off this new woman as his spouse.
Story 3
A few nights ago, while working my night shift, I was typing an email to a customer when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I initially ignored it and continued working, but then it hit me—there was a person staring at me through the window.
As I turned to look, they slowly walked out of my line of sight toward the parking lot. I rushed outside to confront them, but they had vanished. There was not a single person around for miles.
The feeling of being watched lingered with me for the rest of the night.
Story 4
When I was about 11, I was watching my younger siblings while our parents were out shopping. We lived in a rural area but shared a driveway with a neighbor who was a fisherman and had been away for months.
Our bedroom was on the second floor. I happened to glance out the window and saw a man dressed as a clown on our neighbor’s patio—tight black clothing, a grotesque clown face, and bright red hair.
Thinking I was dreaming, I called my sister over to look. She saw him too. He slowly turned his head and looked directly at us, then gave a creepy, slow smile, waved, and beckoned us.
We ran and hid under the bed until our parents returned.
Story 5
This incident occurred last year, as of yesterday. I was living with my sister, who went on vacation for a week, leaving me alone in the house. As I was getting ready for bed, I turned off all the lights. While lying in bed, I heard what sounded like a guitar being played, so I went downstairs to investigate.
I found my guitar on the floor, picked it up, and placed it back on its stand. As I was heading back to bed, I heard the guitar being played again. I went downstairs once more to find it lying on the ground again.
What made this eerie was that it was the 11th anniversary of my dad’s passing—he loved playing the acoustic guitar as much as I do. I couldn’t sleep at all. We also didn’t have any pets, so I had no idea how the guitar ended up on the floor twice. The stand wasn’t the issue either.
Story 6
I work late at night in an old hospital and noticed the elevator doors open behind me. Then I heard the sound of hard-soled shoes approaching. When I turned around, there was no one there.
A linen cart was positioned across the hallway, so I thought someone might be hiding behind it. I crouched down to look underneath, only to see two shiny, old-fashioned, pointy nurse’s shoes facing me.
I cautiously moved around the cart to confront whoever was trying to scare me, but there was no one there. When I looked down, the shoes had vanished.
Story 7
My husband of 12 years kissed me goodbye and left for a work trip. Three days went by without any word from him, and I was a wreck.
On the fourth day, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find a man who looked exactly like my husband—same haircut, same muscular build, same clean-cut suit. He introduced himself as the chief of the division my husband worked for in the Intelligence Agency.
He then said, “Your husband is fine. But it’s time you know that he is not who you think he is. He has been living under a false identity for years as part of a mission, and now he must leave the country.”
I nearly fainted—it felt like a nightmare. The man continued, explaining that I would never see my husband again and that everything I knew about him was a lie. For my own safety, I was instructed not to ask questions. Before leaving, he placed an envelope with $10,000 on the table, saying it would help me adjust to life without him.
My entire world shattered. I could barely get out of bed for weeks. Gradually, things began to make sense—his frequent travels, his secrecy about his job (which he had claimed was in banking), and most importantly, his refusal to have children despite my years of pleading. My whole life had been built on a deception.
However, my story has a happy ending. I was able to move on, and years later, I found love again. The man I trusted became the father of my two children.
Story 8
One night during middle school, I woke up with a strange feeling that something or someone was in the house and approaching my room. Terrified, I closed my eyes to pretend to be asleep.
I could faintly hear something enter my room, and it felt like someone was standing over me, checking to see if I was asleep. I lay there with my eyes shut until the sensation passed, and I eventually fell back asleep.
In the morning, I discovered that our house had been robbed.