Truly Chilling: These Creepy Gut Feelings Came True

It's probably best that you don't ignore your gut feelings because they exist for a reason, and that reason is to steer you out of harm's way. In some cases, nothing may come out of that nudging feeling in the pit of your stomach but every so often you'll be glad you listened. These next creepy stories are proof that you should take your body up on its triggers.

grayscale photo of white skull decors Jene Yeo

1. Mama Knows Best

When my mom was pregnant with my older sister, she and her family decided to go hiking in the mountains. On the day of the hike, she suddenly felt weird and uncomfortable, and she stayed behind while the rest of her family went for the hike. Her family got lost, and this was long before cellphones. If it wasn’t for my mom staying behind, no one would’ve noticed they were gone.

Douglas Lopez

2. Body Signals

In 2014, when that year’s X-Men movie came out, I went to go see it with my best friend. Two-thirds of the way through, I felt the most off I’ve ever felt. Sick, chills, feverish, gut drop, time-warped, the works. I peeked at my phone & had dozens of texts, missed calls, & voicemails. My dad had passed. My body somehow knew.

people sitting on chair Erik Witsoe

3. Need For Speed

When I was 18, I was on a back road with some friends. A girl I didn’t know was driving really fast. Now, I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and I have always enjoyed a calculated risk in the name of a good time, but I just had a terrible feeling this time. I told her to either slow the heck down or let me out. I literally had to start screaming at her before she listened and slowed down.

A week later, a friend told me a story that made my blood run cold. She had crashed on that same stretch of road at 90mph, ending herself and the three passengers of her car.

woman driving car Cory Bouthillette

4. A Watchful Eye

I remember driving my car to this intersection in this rural area and checking both sides because of the terrible blind spots. In the corner of my eye, my mother is sitting there and says something like, “it’s all clear my way.” I look back and she isn’t there. On top of that, my mother had already been gone for a few years at this point. This was also in the middle of the day and I’ve never had it happen since.

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5. Finding The Light

I’m a nurse, and this was my patient’s gut feeling. She said she was a bit of a psychic, and we had a bit of a laugh when she would do “readings” for the staff from time to time. I took it all as just a bit of fun—until one chilling evening that I’ll never forget. She pressed her nurse call buzzer and told us to go check on a patient in a side room. She said he was dead.

6. Mall Mayhem

I was about to head over to the mall one day for some shopping when my sister suddenly shouted “Wait up!” I waited for her to get ready but, by the time she had tied her shoes and all, it had suddenly started pouring rain outside. At that point, I just felt that the universe was telling me not to go to the mall, so I didn’t. I soon found out my gut feeling was right.

Later, when we turned on the news, we saw there had been a shooting at the very mall we’d planned on going to that day.

people walking inside building during daytime WeLoveBarcelona.de

7. Wife's Wisdom

One day, I felt a sudden pain in my lungs when I inhaled. I’ve never been stuck with a knife, so I don’t know what it’s like, but the pain should have been equal to it, if not worse. It had happened before, years ago. After some hot water in the shower, the pain was gone. My wife insisted on going to ER. I insisted on hot water. “I feel like we should go and see a doctor,” she said.

When I was examined, I was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism in both lungs. The doctor said “One or two more hours, and you would’ve been gone.” So yeah, I owe my wife one.

men's white dress shirt Road Trip with Raj

8. Who Is "They?"

I’m a medical student. Back when I was doing an internship at an obstetrics hospital, I usually ended my night shift around 2 AM. When I’d walk back to my quarter, I would occasionally see a little girl, probably 5-7 years old, running and playing in the hall. When I brought this up with one of my professors, he just told me to turn a blind eye. According to him, “they” were just playing and would do no harm if you pretend you didn’t see them.

grayscale photography of two girls closing their mouths Caroline Hernandez

9. Just In Time

My wife called me while I was at work just to say she was home from her night shift and planning to go to bed. She had worked the night shift for years and never called me just to say she was home and going to bed before. She also sounded weirdly detached on the call. I asked her if she was okay, she said yes—she just felt really sleepy.

I got a weird feeling and told her I was going to leave work and come home. She told me I didn’t need to, I said okay…and then I left work and rushed home anyway. I found a suicide note taped to the garage door. I got to her in time, rushed her to the ER, and got her the help she needed. This was about five months ago, and she is so much better now.

woman holding phone Daria Nepriakhina

10. A Cry For Help

I was driving down a very desolate road in Galveston, TX with my father one night. No lights on the road at all, pitch darkness except for our car. I keep getting a horrible sense of utter dread. Eventually, we hear someone crying out in the darkness. “Help! Help me! Please stop! Hey! Stop!” My dad went to stop the car.

I grabbed his arm and told him in a desperate voice to please keep driving. Something didn’t feel right. We were on a desolate, unpopulated road at night and there were no cars where the shouting had come from. We had reached a dead end and turned around. The next day, we see the news reports of carjackings on that very road and warning people not to stop at night if they hear someone calling for help.

gray coupe Max Langelott

11. A Familiar Face

A guy came to the door one day, looking for my mom. I was probably 13 at the time. Immediately, I had most of my body behind the door, ready to shut it. I just had this awful feeling about him. He said he hadn’t seen her in a long time, and that he was just coming from church and was in the neighborhood. Ok, so this guy is trying to communicate that he’s a good person and his weird smile just made me trust him less.

I told him my mom was napping. She wasn’t. She was at work. So, he left a note for her with his name and number on it. I took it then closed and locked the door. I looked at the note and immediately recognized the name. It was my uncle. I hadn’t seen him since I was five when he went behind bars for slaying my aunt and cousin.

person walking on pathway beside plants during daytime Frame Harirak

12. How's Your Little Boy?

My mom was a nurse and was walking through the nursing home where she worked and acting like it was a normal day. But it wasn’t. People were looking at her really weirdly. After a couple of hours, someone asked her what happened to her child. My mom was pretty confused and asked them what they were talking about. The answer nearly made her scream.

They said that everyone had been seeing a bloody boy walking beside her all day. She looked behind her, but no one was there. Then all day after that, people kept asking what happened to her child. When she got home, she looked up every incident at her nursing home and read about a case, but she can’t remember what it was anymore.

boy in gray sweater standing on green grass field during daytime Vitolda Klein

13. Black-Out

I was on vacation in Florida visiting a friend. We were walking on the beach on a perfectly sunny day when everything went black for a second. I thought it was weird but explained it away by thinking that my eyes were playing tricks on me, but then my friend spoke, and I nearly fainted. She looked at me and asked, “Did everything just go black for a second?”

man in gray crew neck shirt Luis Villasmil

14. Just To Be Safe

When I was 10, I was learning the violin from an instructor at my local music shop. I got the weirdest feeling from him even though he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. I wanted to vomit every time I looked at him, especially his hands. After four lessons I told my parents that I had a terrible feeling about him and I never wanted to go back.

Luckily, they listened and didn’t make me ever go to him again. A few years later, we learned the awful truth. I was right to be scared. He was detained for assaulting multiple students. I have no idea how I knew something was off. He never did or said anything but I just felt it.

person playing brown violin Clem Onojeghuo

15. Shaky Dog Sitters

I woke up from a deep sleep at like 2 am during a winter storm; something wasn’t right…I immediately went looking for my senior dog and couldn’t find her anywhere in the house. My roommates had a tendency to let her out for a walk and forget about her, closing the door. I ran to the front of the house and found her laying on the welcome mat, she was hardly breathing and covered in snow.

She had been outside alone for at the very least five hours. I got her inside and warmed her up. Thankfully, she was okay, but if she’d been out all night, she would have been terribly hurt if not dead. I moved out shortly after.

adult black and white Siberian husky beside short-coated brown dog Karl Anderson

16. Storm Watchers

My now-wife and I did the long-distance thing in college, and I planned on doing my normal routine to visit her, where I would leave Chicago in the morning and get to her in the early afternoon on Friday. Well, I’m closing my store on Thursday night, and get a feeling I should just leave that night. So I said alright and left right away.

A little after lunch on Friday, tornado sirens go off. I don’t think anything of it until I head back home Sunday and drive through a town about a half-hour north of her. It got lit up by the tornado. That’s when I realized the horrible truth. If I had left at my normal time, I would’ve been smack dab in the middle of the tornado.

white and black buildings under blue sky during daytime NOAA

17. Mirror Tricks

I was working on a computer, on a dresser with a mirror behind it. As I was working, I caught my reflection in my peripheral vision not doing what I was doing. The second I focused on it, it snapped back. I know how mirrors work, but I also “know” that I saw something weird. It hasn’t happened to me again since, but I’ll always remember it.

selective focus photography of man's reflection on a broken mirror Fares Hamouche

18. Deadly Tricks

After my granddad passed, the next day my whole family was hanging out in his living room with my grandma. He was known for pranks, fun tricks, and joking around. As we were sitting around, we would all feel like a tickle on our foot or on our ear or a tug on our shirt. Just a bunch of things he would do to catch you off guard.

Even though I was just a kid, I remember everyone getting creeped out because it was like he was just walking around the living room and doing it to everyone. Maybe everyone else was pretending it was happening and I just thought it was happening to me too, but it just seemed like a really weird thing to coordinate with each other.

man wearing black hat Fred Kearney

19.When You Know, You Know

A couple of months after my 10th birthday we went on a family vacation to visit my dad’s side of the family. At the time, my mom was about 6 months pregnant with my baby brother. We got to our hotel at about 2:00 pm and by 3:00 pm we decided we wanted to go to the aquarium. I got fully dressed and ready to go, and suddenly I was hit with this crippling feeling of dread.

At that age, I’d never experienced anything like it. Pure anxiety. But I knew, I just freaking knew if we waited 5 minutes, I would be fine. I tried telling my mom this and she was having none of it. I even tried to just stall her by begging. Nope. Got dragged out of the hotel and into the car. We pull out of the parking lot and get T-boned so hard we do a 180 into oncoming traffic. As soon as we all realized we were okay I was like, ah, yep, there it is. I’ve never let either of them forget it either.

black Ford car Michael Jin

20. Persistent Patients

I worked as a geriatric nurse for years, and most of our patients passed within a few years of being with us. I had a new patient move into one of the rooms in my hall that my previous patient had just passed in. My new patient kept calling at night saying that there was this woman who kept coming into her room and trying to talk to her.

At first, I just passed it off as her being in her 90s and struggling with dementia, so I assured her that I would lock her door at night to make sure no one could come in. After about a week of this continuing to happen, I sat down with her and was asking what this woman looked like thinking she may just be hallucinating. Her reply made me feel faint.

She proceeded to tell me that this woman had a pink robe on with blue fuzzy slippers and her hair up in curlers, and the women would come in sit at the foot of her bed. I almost peed myself. The patient that I had had in that room prior to my new one went to bed, EVERY NIGHT, in her pink house robe, blue slippers, and her hair in curlers. It stopped about two weeks after that.

photo-1563233269-7e86880558a7?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1000&q=80 Olga Kononenko

21. Mama Always Knows

I was maybe 12 or 13 at the time. A childhood friend of mine came to the house to ask if I could play. Mom said she had a bad feeling and told me not to go. My friend leaves the house and goes down the hill, doesn’t stop at the stop sign, and gets hit by a car. I still remember hearing the car and hearing his scream.

Thankfully, he survived and is both alive and healthy today. But if momma bear didn’t have her instinct, I’d have probably been hit or been in a bad spot.

grayscale photo of running woman Nicolas Mejia

22. Faint Footprint Sounds

My mom worked at a hospital in our town that shut down around 15 years ago. They were having a sort of farewell party with all the staff. She, my sister, and I took a walk around at the end to take a last look. We went to the 4th floor and were the only people up there, which was easy to tell since it was such a small hospital.

As we’re walking down the hallway, we heard footsteps that sounded like men’s dress shoes walking next to us, and it was louder and different than all our sneakers. When we stopped, the footsteps kept going down the hall. Once they got down the hall, the emergency light and alarm over the room started sounding. My mom went over and couldn’t turn it off because the system was disconnected/turned off.

I think she tried really hard to keep it together for us because all she said was, “Hmm that’s weird. This whole system is already off,” but I do remember us noping to the elevator right after that. When we got in the elevator, the button for the ground floor was pushed already, which is easy to explain away as some other kid pushing all the buttons, but still weird given the circumstances.

close-up photo of elevator push buttons Jason Dent

23. Working The Night Shift

I was working a night shift, and the workstation next to me was shut down, so the screen was acting a bit like a mirror. I saw somebody walk behind me and turned around to call out to my co-worker…but then I realized he wasn’t scheduled to start for another two hours and that I was supposed to be completely alone in the building.

black utility pole lights turned-on Sven Scheuermeier

24. To The Hospital, Stat!

My mom knew something was wrong with me when I was younger, but when she called the doctor and told them how she felt, they didn’t want to see me for another two weeks. My mom went into a blind rage over the phone telling them that she was taking me to get checked whether they liked it or not. We got to the GP, he puts a stethoscope on my back and smells my breath.

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25. A Final Farewell

One day when I was about 8 years old, I didn’t go to school because I was sick. My friend was supposed to bring me homework but he never came. My granddad came home from work and he told me that my friend had passed. I was devastated. That night, I had a dream. I was with my friend at a playground next to our school and we were talking, then he told me that he was safe and it didn’t hurt when that car hit him.

The next day, my mother wanted to talk to me about that situation and she asked me if I wanted to know what happened. I told her that I knew everything because my friend told me. She thought that my granddad told me but he did not. He said that he did not want to tell me without her knowing it. But it didn’t stop there.

That night, I had a dream again and I was talking to him again. We were playing and having fun and he told me that he really had to go and we wouldn’t see each other ever again. The next day was his funeral, and I really haven’t had a dream about him ever since.

four boy playing ball on green grass Robert Collins

26. Don't Trip

This happened at camp in my last year. I and a small group of girls wanted to climb to the top of this big hill that has a beautiful lookout above the trees and a clear view of the sky. It was a new moon and there was zero light pollution. We grabbed our flashlights and got on the trail. Then two girls stopped in their tracks at the same time.

One whispered to the other, “Do you feel that?” I was right behind them and heard what they said. I looked up and around. I didn’t see anything but something in the air made the hair on my neck stand on end. It was just too…quiet. I started to feel very vulnerable and scared. One of the girls in front turned and said “We need to go back. Don’t run.” One girl asked why not run and they said so you don’t trip. A valid reason, but I don’t believe it was the real reason she said it.

three children sitting on grass Charlein Gracia

27. Gone With The Wind

I was on a popular trail that goes along the river through several small towns. I was on a fairly barren part of the trail about halfway between two towns—tall grass on one side and river on the other. I see a man running solo in front of me. I am a bit faster, so in time, I pass him. I notice that he’s suddenly keeping pace with me—he’s not falling behind as fast as he should.

Instead, he’s flanking me, just diagonal to me on the riverside. I get a feeling that with one good push, he could have me in the tall grass and there are no witnesses to see what happened. I give another 10 seconds before I start panicking…yeah, this doesn’t feel right. I whip out my phone and dial 9-1-1. I don’t push send, but cup the phone in my hand with the screen facing toward him.

I otherwise kept running at the same pace, pushing myself to the next town. I notice within 30 seconds that I don’t hear him as close anymore. I give it another 30 seconds, then chance a look. He’s gone! I full-on stop to turn around. He’s gone, gone. The trail is flat and straight in both directions as far as the eye can see. Where did he go in the span of a minute?

man in yellow tank top running near shore Chander R

28. Ancient Attics

My dad was going to fix something on the ceiling of my room and had to go into the attic. He had me sit right below where he was going to work so that I could help him find the correct spot in the attic—but I had to go to the bathroom. I quickly went and when I came back, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My dad had fallen through the ceiling and was sitting in a pile of drywall and insulation in the exact spot where I had been just moments ago.

He ended up being pretty much perfectly fine besides a couple of scratches and bruises, but if I was still sitting there, I probably would have been seriously hurt if not worse, because I was only in elementary school at the time.

brown wooden ladder on brown wooden wall Dmitry Ant

29. Synchronized Dreamers

It was 1985. My ex-wife and I were sleeping. There was a small sliver of light coming in through the window from a streetlight, so the room and bed were dimly visible. Our black Pomeranian was at the end of the bed asleep. I dreamt that I woke up, reached down to pet him, and he turned into a glossy black bivalve/oyster thing, which opened up to reveal rows of gleaming glass teeth.

I woke up to my ex backpedalling up the bed over the pillows towards the wall. I asked, “What’s wrong?” She said, “What is that shiny black clam thing with the teeth at the end of the bed? Where’s the dog?” We had had the same nightmare at the same time. This still gives me a chill.

woman in white tank top lying on bed Damir Spanic

30. Sliding Side Doors

When I was about 23, I was walking down my street a little after dusk. I saw a van approaching a little ahead, but without any lights on. I didn’t think much of it, since it was still early in the evening. Then, the van slowed down and almost started creeping up on me as I approached a part of the sidewalk that was boxed in by a tall fence. That’s when I knew something was up.

For me to keep walking, I’d have to go between the wall and the van. In the little time it took me to walk a couple of steps, as the van was getting close, I noticed that the side door was slowly sliding open. The one thought in my mind was, why isn’t the light turning on inside the van? When you open the door of a vehicle, the light should come on inside it. Unless you deliberately switch that off.

So I just took off and ran to the median in between the lanes of traffic. Yes, I ran in front of the van and across the street. I’d rather be roadkill than let whoever was in the van get me. Immediately, the van took off as if someone lit it on fire. From a slow crawl to full speed. As I looked after it to check the plates. I noticed it had no plates. And still no lights. I called the authorities, of course. They sent cars out and didn’t find the van.

I never had anything like this happen again and I’m just an ordinary person, so I don’t suspect it was targeted. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

white van Derick McKinney

31. Think Fast

When I was riding motorcycles full time as a courier, I developed what I can only describe as a completely subconscious autopilot. Thank God for it too, because one day it saved my life. As I moved off from a set of traffic lights, I caught fast movement some distance away in the corner of my eye. There was no conscious decision at all.

I performed the most extreme braking maneuver I have ever attempted, the bike stood up on its front wheel, which was then smashed out from under me by the car which ran the red light at speed. I basically made a barrel roll in place and got dumped on the ground. No serious injuries, but maybe a bruise or two.

man on black cruiser motorcycle in highway

32. Car Creeps

When I was six, my dad and I parked at the library so he could return a book. He said he’d be quick so he left me in the car with the doors locked. Just as soon as he got out of view, a guy came to the window and asked me to open the door. I rolled down the window a little and he told me that the car lights were on and to let him in to show me how to turn them off.

I don’t really know why I didn’t listen to him. I told him my dad would be back soon and he’d take care of it then and he kept insisting that I let him in to turn them off, but I wasn’t having it. I don’t know why. I didn’t even realize it was a weird situation until I told my dad about it 10 minutes later when we were leaving the parking lot. His reaction was bone-chilling.

He swerved over to the side of the road and asked if I could still see the guy. I said no and we left. Then he got me ice cream because I didn’t let a weirdo into the car. At the time, it didn’t click. But now that I’m older, I’m so glad I didn’t let that guy in.

33. Pendent Problems

I worked as a medical technician at an assisted living facility. One day a resident, Margaret, suddenly passed, and her family left all her belongings in the room that night, including the pendant she had used to call the staff for help. The next night, Margaret’s neighbor called the staff because someone was talking in the room next door and keeping them awake.

We brushed the resident off, knowing that Margaret’s room was empty. About an hour later, Margaret’s pendant started going off from her empty apartment. I was the only one willing to go turn it off, so I walked into the room, and it was FREEZING COLD in the middle of summer with the air conditioning off. Suddenly, the bathroom door slammed as I was turning off the pendant light. I got out of there so fast.

34. Double, Triple-Check

One day, my baby was super sick and wheezing, so I took him to urgent care. They prescribed him steroids and a breathing treatment. It seemed pretty normal until I looked at the dosage, which seemed high. The doctor reassured me and said my son was just a big boy, so it was fine. I still felt very uncomfortable about it.

I filled the prescription and started the breathing treatment but only did a half dose for half the time. I didn’t give him any steroids. His hives from the previous antibiotics were not going away, so I took him again the next morning to his pediatrician. The pediatrician basically told me I saved my son’s life because the dosage for both medications was for a 300-pound adult, not a 30-pound baby.

So he put in a complaint about the other doctor and pharmacist—apparently, they should’ve caught it during my consult. I called in and complained as well. Apparently, almost ending a baby is pretty serious. My pediatrician said that the doctor and the lead pharmacist were promptly disciplined and fired.

In the middle of the night, for no good reason, I left my boyfriend’s house and drove home 40 minutes away. He was perplexed but I had “a feeling.” As I reached my front door I heard a low crash down the block. No one else heard it or came out. Long story short: I ended up pulling a man out of a burning car before he burned alive. I still have the scars from the burning seatbelt plastic.

Some days I think of it as a coincidence, some days I think it was some kind of intervention.

burning grey sedan near trees and signboard at night Matt Hearne

36. Father-Son Bond

I’m an ICU nurse. A patient’s son rang the hospital at 11 PM on a Saturday night saying he was sure his dad was dying. His dad had had a severe stroke and was doing okay. Recovery would be difficult, but he wasn’t expected to die and was pretty stable at the time. I was looking after him, and he was a lot of work because of the stroke.

The son really wanted to come in even though it’s way past visiting hours, but you know, I’ll bend the rules for a good cause. I figured, what the heck, it’s his Saturday night, come on in and sit with your dad. The patient passed about 2 minutes before the son walked in the door. It was like a switch was turned off.

He just passed. The last thing he said to me was, “Am I bothering anyone?” I told him of course not even though he had some very frustrating behavior because he would try to get up but couldn’t walk, so he’d fallen a lot. The son just started crying and screaming, “I knew it!” We were all a bit freaked out wondering how he knew.

man wearing green jacket sitting on stool chair

37. Seeing Stars

Once at a stop sign in a neighborhood, all of these little sparkles started swirling around in mid-air roughly three to four feet off the ground out of nowhere. They were roughly two feet wide and three or four feet tall. They lasted three to five seconds and then they were gone. No one was around and when I asked my passenger if he saw it too he breathed a sigh of relief and said yes. We spoke about it a little more but there was no reasonable explanation.

white and red fireworks display Erik Gazi

38. Two Strikes

I started having painful period-like cramps, so I made an appointment with my OB-gyn the next day. They immediately gave me an ultrasound and discovered a grapefruit-sized tumor where my ovaries should’ve been. Certain it was cancer, I was in surgery days later. Thankfully all the cancer was encapsulated in the tumor, so no chemo was necessary.

I did have to go on an estrogen patch though. A year later, I was sitting in my bathtub and reached out for a towel. Felt a weird pain in my left breast. All of a sudden, I knew. It was cancer again. I immediately pulled off the estrogen patch and then went in for a mammogram first thing the next morning. A few days later, I was having a bi-lateral mastectomy and reconstruction.

My doc wanted me to have a lumpectomy and radiation, but I insisted that I never again wanted to have to tell my daughters that I had cancer. After my surgery, my tumor was tested and it was determined to be highly recurrent and aggressive. Even though cancer had not spread into my lymph nodes, I went through 20 rounds of harsh chemo in the hopes it will never, ever come back. In April, I will celebrate being cancer-free for five years!

39. Elevator Man

I remember after saying goodbye to our friend in this old building, I and my girlfriend were walking in the corridor towards the elevators. There was a man about 10 meters ahead of us. As he got closer to the elevators, one elevator reached the floor, and its door slid open. We walked faster to catch the elevator. The man ahead of us walked into the elevator. We ran to the elevator, and both our jaws dropped. No one was there.

40. Mother Mimic

A number of years ago, when I was about 13 and my sister was 16, my family and I went camping. The campground we went to was rather large, with a lot of trails, so campers could rent golf carts to help them get around. So it was late one night, and my sister and I were driving down one of the trails alone, and we come to a fork in the path.

To the right was the obviously clear trail; to the left, it looked like a trail, but there was still quite a bit of brush. We took the left trail, drawn by a sense of adventure. After about a minute or two down the trail, we both started getting a very uneasy feeling. It was like that chilling feeling you get when something completely shocks you, but we couldn’t see anything unusual.

Then, out of nowhere in the dark trees, we both heard the unmistakable voice of our mother say, “Honey, why is your nose bleeding?” My sister whipped the cart around and we sped back to the main trail. When we got back to the trail my sister’s nose dripped 3-4 drops of blood and then stopped. We went back to our campsite, saw that our mother had not left the campsite, freaked out, and called it a night. To this day neither of us has any kind of logical explanation as to what happened.

person sitting near bonfire surrounded by trees Jonathan Forage

41. A Silent Killer

I used to sleep in a basement apartment and one winter I woke up in the middle of the night smelling something odd. I opened the windows, hoped it would dissipate, and didn’t think much of it. Come morning, I still felt really weird. Well, it turns out that snow had blocked the heater exhaust vent and carbon monoxide was feeding into the house. If I didn’t open my windows, I definitely would be done for.

42. Twisted Trouble

When I was around 8 and my brother was about 13, we were at the county fair. My parents were inside a shop while we were sitting in the outdoor food court, which kind of looks like a big airplane hangar. This sweaty guy approached us, looking to be in his mid-40s, wearing a stained tank top and sunglasses. He started talking to my brother about arm wrestling.

He eventually challenged my brother to an arm wrestle, and he agreed. The whole situation felt insanely odd, but I was only 8, so I didn’t say anything. After the arm wrestle, the guy started talking about how my brother was strong. He told him that there was an arm-wrestling competition going on in a house down the road, and he invited him there.

My brother, thinking it would be cool, decided to get up and follow him. I knew something was wrong though, even though I was so young. The place was very crowded, so I had to act fast before they disappeared. I sprinted inside the shop where my parents were and started yelling about what happened. My dad burst outside and caught the guy and he ran off, leaving my brother behind. I think I saved my brother’s life that day.

people walking on the street during night time

Not so much something very wrong here but a bunch of my friends wanted to go to this party when I was like 20. I was just sort of like “I don’t know, I really don’t want to go to this place with these people.” Turns out two of my friends got into an argument with people who lived there, got kicked out, weren’t sober, and drove home angry.

Their car flipped three or four times and wrecked about another four cars. My one friend leaves with a small concussion the other leaves with like eight broken bones and walking therapy for about two years. The best part is, the emergency responders said if anyone was in the back seat they would be dead. That’s where I would have been sitting.

44. Procrastination Is Key

I work as a front-line tech at a major telecom company. About 15 years ago we had a big ice storm overnight. A tree brought a pole down along with the main cable. Our construction team had put it back up, and I and a co-worker were re-splicing each end from our lift buckets. About an hour in, my co-worker said, “I don’t feel really safe right now for some reason.”

I had just about finished my side, so I said, “Sounds good…let’s finish it tomorrow,” and we left. The next day, I decided to go back on my own and finish up both sides. When I got there, his pole was completely gone and the cable had been ripped off the other pole again. The neighbor said another tree had come down less than 30 minutes after we left and destroyed the pole and cable. We probably both would have been goners.

green trees near brown building during daytime

45. Garden Glory

I worked in a nursing home that was nearing 70 years of operation, so that’s a lot of elderly to pass away. One ward of the home had recently become a unit specifically made for individuals with Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other mental issues. It was a creepy hall to work on, not because of the residents, but because it was locked down and dark. There was no TV and no sound except for the air-conditioning.

The ward was T-shaped, and at the top of the T, there was the dining room, the door to the rest of the building, a door to a smoker’s deck, and the nurses’ station. The long part of the T was all rooms, and at the end, there was a door that led to a special garden for the residents. The halls had cameras on them that we could see on TVs behind the nurses’ station.

One night, I was working alone and I kept hearing the back door bang open and closed. I thought it was a resident and got up to go outside to ask her if she wanted a blanket only to find the garden empty. I checked all the rooms, and all the residents were in bed. As soon as I sat back down, I heard the banging again. I looked up at the monitor and nearly had a heart attack.

I looked up at the monitor, and I could see a very tall man standing at the door looking out through the window. There were no men in the hall that could walk, so I was pretty confused as to who would be standing at the end of the hall. As slowly as I could, I rolled my chair into the hallway and looked down at the door, but there was no one standing there even though I could clearly see someone on the TV screen. I refused to work alone on that hall ever again.

woman standing next to woman riding wheelchair

46. A Trucking Trap

I was taking my mom to a follow-up appointment from back surgery the month before. The freeway was closed due to a car accident and a life flight was called to transport the people injured in the accident. The highway patrol was funnelling everyone off of the freeway to the right side exit. I had the strongest feeling we needed to move to the left farthest lane, so I did.

No more than a minute after I moved over, a garbage truck came barreling down the freeway and crashed into the car that was in front of us in the other lane. The truck was going so fast that it lifted the front end of the truck and landed on top of the car. We were in a tiny sports car that would have crumpled like a tin can under the weight of a garbage truck and definitely would’ve ended my mom and me in a second.

white and blue truck on road during nighttime Sam LaRussa

47. Roadblock Warnings

I live in rural Connecticut and my mom was driving me down a dark, twisty road to my friend’s house when we came across yellow caution tape strung across the middle of the road. Not “do not cross” tape, but just tape that said caution, blocking the whole road. It had been clearly ripped and tied back together in some places. My mom just knew something was off.

She looked at it for a minute and then gunned it in reverse and got out of there fast. That same night, some woman had gotten out to examine it and had gotten back in the car to call the authorities because she found it suspicious, but not suspicious enough to leave before calling 9-1-1. That’s the moment she was grabbed out of her car—but the people who grabbed her didn’t know that she was already on the line with 9-1-1.

The officers rolled up as the car was driving away with her in the trunk. They chased them down and she lived, but it was scary. Trust your gut with roadblocks!

yellow police tape Hiroshi Kimura

48. "Miss One, Next 15, One Coming"

I went to go catch my bus and saw it about to pull out from the stop. If I’d run, I could’ve made it. But something told me to wait for the next one, so I did, and I caught the next bus half an hour later. Now, I usually sit at the back of the bus on the driver’s side. A little way into the journey, traffic was slowing, and we got to the cause of it. A truck had crashed into the bus I had missed, right into the back on the driver’s side. Had I caught that bus, I wouldn’t be here. It still gives me chills after six years.

people sitting on bus seats Mark Ivan

49. A Need To Sail Away

When I was a kid, my mom had a mental breakdown and was in full-in psychosis. Of course, I was too young to fully understand what was happening. I just had a gut feeling something was very very wrong with her. So I took my younger sister into the bathroom with me—the only room in our home with a lock—and locked the door. We often played in the tub just by dumping towels and blankets in it (dry) and would pretend it was a boat.

So I did that but kept the door locked. My mom disappeared. Hours later my grandpa called on the phone. When no one answered, I snuck downstairs and answered it. He said he was coming to pick us up because my mom had gone for a drive. From that point on, we lived with my grandparents while my mom was on an involuntary hold at the mental hospital.

Apparently, she’d driven a few hours away and called him to tell him she’d hurt us and left us in the woods. She had hallucinated all of this but didn’t know the difference. He called the authorities and we got picked up. I didn’t find out the whole story until I was much older. I just knew deep in my stomach something wasn’t right with my mom and I had to protect my sister.

two red and one teal sailboat toys Jamie Templeton

50. A Different Dress Code

I spent a lot of time at home alone as a teenager. One evening, I was heading towards the back of the house when I started to feel really uneasy. Then I started freaking out for no real reason. There was a bathroom at the end of the hall and as I got closer to it, I noticed something odd. My reflection was completely normal, moving in the same way I was and everything. But that wasn’t the weirdest part.

My reflection was wearing a different t-shirt than I was. It was around dusk, so not late at night. The bathroom was well lit by the hallway light, and I wasn’t feeling tired or in any way unwell before I started feeling uneasy.

photo-1567431735420-969f1c9ede2a?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1000&q=80

51. Doggy Senses

This happened around 1991. It’s the middle of the night. I’m standing in my sister’s living room and it must be a full moon because even though it’s around 1 AM and the lights are off, I can see clearly. There’s a mixing bowl with popcorn kernels in the bottom on the floor in front of the TV and some rental VHS in a pile nearby.

I hear a noise and turn around to see my sister’s normally very friendly Labrador retriever looking like Cujo—fangs bared, snarling, hackles raised. Suddenly, there’s a bright flash of light and I wake up like I hit the bed from a great height. I think, “That was a weird dream.” Eventually, I fall back to sleep and in the morning I call my sister. But her story makes me even more scared.

I’m planning to tell her my story, but she preempts me by telling me about the weird thing that happened in her night. They woke up to the sound of the dog snarling at about 1 AM. Her husband thought there was a prowler in the house, got something to defend himself and went to find the dog. She was standing in the living room, snarling at the middle of the room.

He couldn’t see anyone, so he flipped on the light—no one was there. The dog instantly stopped snarling and walked to her bed as nothing had happened. He checked the property and went back to bed. We talked a bit and I found out they watched some rental movies and “Of course we had popcorn, why?” She lived about 450 miles away, by the way.

yellow labrador retriever lying on black textile

Zinah Insignia

52. Grandma's Intuition

We went camping at this one spot in the woods by a small creek every summer. One summer, my grandma gets this bad feeling and makes us pack up and we leave. A couple of days later they end up finding a dead body right near our then-campsite.

woman in white top wearing eyeglasses Repent of Your Sins & Seek Lord Jesus

53. Beware Of Evil Grins

I was walking back home from my grandmother’s house when a car pulled up beside me. As I kept walking, the car slowly followed. When I looked into the car, there was a man in his 30s or 40s who had the evilest grin on his face. His face has never left my mind. As he was slowly coming toward me, his eyes not leaving me, I screamed out HELP and ran until I saw someone who let me into their house.

The man didn’t leave until we called 9-1-1. When they came, they searched his car and found handcuffs, a blindfold, and a big container with two holes poked in the top.

person standing near LED sign Max Bender

54. Suspicious Vans

I was out walking with my son, daughter, and ex-husband. I and the ex get along well and occasionally do things as a family still. On this night there was a little festival down the street from his place. So the kids and I had driven over to his house, parked there and walked up to the festival. The walk back was dark, and my son was running ahead a lot. I didn’t think much of it.

My ex and I were chatting about things, and I noticed a van drive past us twice. I figured he was just lost as the festival blocked off a road. But then he circled back two more times. By this time, I had called both my kids back and was holding their hands. The van parked up on the corner of the street we were about to head down.

I walked with the kids and my ex approached the van. As he walked up the van sped off. It kept me up nights later thinking if the van had been around earlier when my son was running ahead. I’m not at all a fit lady. If whoever was in the van decides to jump out and grab my son, I wouldn’t have been able to get to him in time. Really freaked me out.

white van in grayscale photography MANH LAI VAN

55. Stomach Signs

My sister once called me downstairs to talk to my dad on the phone. At that time that was pretty regular, maybe once a week, and it wasn’t at all an unusual time for it or anything. But my stomach suddenly dropped, I wanted to be sick, and I really, really did not want to answer. Turns out my grandfather, who I liked very much, had passed very unexpectedly.

I still don’t understand what it was. I got nothing from the reactions of my family because he wanted to tell me first, and it started before I saw any of them. There had been no news, medical or otherwise, about my grandfather beforehand.

person holding phone Marília Castelli

56. Pressure From Peers

My husband is a state trooper and has always said the wreck that sticks with him the most was a group of four 17 to 18-year-olds in a car speeding on the freeway. One of the kids was screaming and begging the driver to let him out. The driver pulled over and let him out as he and the other two passengers made fun of him for being a “wimp.” A couple of miles later, tragedy struck.

The driver flew off an overpass, went over the guard rail, and onto the freeway below, slaying him and the other passengers instantly. My husband always remembers that kid who demanded to get out and how terrified and shaken he was when he discovered what happened. He was able to explain that he was in the car with them just minutes prior and would have been dead had he not been a “wimp.”

wrecked car on ground Jordan Bebek

57. Dragged Under

My two cousins and I, when we were pretty young, had this habit of going neck-deep or even mouth-deep into the sea. One day I felt something trying to push me further into the sea and only my toes stood in the way. I immediately told my cousins to get out and we returned to the dry sand.

white jellyfish in body of water Jeremy Bishop

58. Staring Showdown

I get really bad vibes from the car park at my work—it’s a giant, poorly lit multi-story structure and I’ve seen enough horror films to know I shouldn’t be taking it lightly. Whenever I get in, I pay attention to the floors people call the lift to so I can keep an eye on where they’re going. One time a guy got in the elevator in front of me and pressed six, while I was parked on eight.

He didn’t get out at six and was still in the lift as I got to my floor. I leave, he doesn’t…so I guess he’s remembered he’s on another floor, but just before I get to the dark area with all the cars, I turned back. This guy had waited about 30 seconds—therefore held the lift to wait—and silently followed me. I just stopped and stared him down.

He had a deer-in-the-headlights look and turned straight back to the lift. I don’t know if it saved my life or what, but I’m glad I shook him off.

photograph of person facing opposite in smoky spotlight Mads Schmidt Rasmussen

59. Live A Life Of Thirst

I think I was 10 or 11, and I was reorganizing my room, moving books and stuff around. I had been working on it all day and during the process, I moved a bookshelf on top of a dresser to give me more space and loaded it up with two encyclopedia sets and a bunch of other books. I ended up moving my bed parallel to the dresser and passed out from working on my room all day.

I woke up a little while after four AM and was contemplating getting a glass of water and moving my bed because it didn’t look safe under the bookshelf. I finally got out of my bed and walked towards the door, maybe two or three steps and that’s when it happened. The 1994 Northridge earthquake hit. The bookshelf instantly fell on my bed where I had just been laying down.

man wearing gray dress shirt reading book

60. Listen To The Voices In Your Head

After a party many years ago, I was driving home at like four in the morning with my friend passed out in the passenger seat. I was driving fast down a steep hill that’s like a half-mile long, at least. I was on autopilot, as I drive down that street every day. Suddenly, about half a block from a major intersection, which I had a green light for, I heard a voice in my head.

It said these exact words: “You may want to slow down because if you don’t, you might lose your life.” It was weird because that’s not really what my tone of voice or style of speaking is like. Anyway, I slowed down, and as I was entering the intersection, a car blew the red light at about 50-60mph, right in front of me. It was so close that I nearly threw up. I started shaking and punching my friend, yelling how I just saved our lives. He just groaned and went back to sleep. Jerk.

assaulty

person sitting in the driver seat Matthew Henry

61. Only At Night…

About 10 years ago, I had a job that started at 6 am on the weekends. I didn’t drive and would take the light rail, which was a 15-minute walk from my house. One dark morning, I saw a person up ahead of me a few blocks away. I usually see homeless people on my walk to the light rail and most are harmless just trying to collect cans for the deposit or asking for change, but this guy just felt off.

I could tell from blocks away that there was something wrong with him, so I crossed the street and grabbed my phone from my backpack. I still had to go to work and this road was the only way to the light rail. Suddenly, I hear a “bubububump!” I look over my shoulder and it was him running toward me with his trousers down. That sound was the sound of his shoes hitting the pavement as he ran toward me.

I took off running, screamed, “I’m calling 9-1-1,” and held my phone to my ear. He must have seen and taken it seriously because he ran in the opposite direction that I ran. I did call 9-1-1, but they wanted me to wait there for the cop and I was like “Heck no!” I said it was because I didn’t want to be late for work, but I was terrified of him finding me.

I will never forget the sound of his shoes hitting the pavement.

train station at night Boicu Andrei

62. Quick Thinking

I was walking out of a grocery store when I saw this kid about to cross the road. Something came over me and I yanked him back onto the sidewalk. Not even a second later a truck came flying past. He was only around seven or eight years old.

two boys walking in corridor of a building grayscale photo

63. A Predator Looking For Prey

One day in elementary school, I was walking home alone and this beat-up white pick-up truck drove by me real slowly. The driver was a middle-aged man that was kind of eyeing me. He drove a little further before turning into a driveway and turning around to drive my way again. At that point, I wasn’t convinced of anything other than that he needed to be watched.

He drove past me again and was 100% sizing me up or something, just looking at me like I was prey. I could see in his eyes that he was making decisions, and not just looking at me like a neighborhood kid. I turned my head to watch him pull into another tiny side street behind me. That’s when I knew for sure. I started running as fast as I could.

I didn’t see him again, so I think my sprinting away must have deterred him as it was still daylight in a populated neighborhood. It always stuck with me, and luckily I’ll never know if my gut actually saved me or not.

grayscale photography of boy wearing sweater

64. Shadowing The Student

I’m a nurse, and I once had a patient say, “Do you ever feel the chill whenever you’re on the computer? Don’t worry. It’s just a nurse who worked here a long, long time ago. She doesn’t understand your technology, so she’s trying to learn.” I always felt like someone was looking over my shoulder when I used the computer, so this freaked me out.

person sitting while using laptop computer and green stethoscope near

65. Spirits Lifted

While my mom was in nursing school, she worked as a home health aide. She got a pretty cushy gig working with this disabled woman named Mary. I was too young to know what was wrong with Mary, but looking back now, I would guess she was someone who was mentally five years old though she was in her 50s. Mary’s parents had provided well for her.

So, mom was one of only 4 staff to work with Mary because she did NOT like new people. She had 2-night staff and 2-day staff. She received around-the-clock care, but mom was able to bring Mary home with her, so we spent a lot of time with Mary as a family. Mary was sweet and very kind. We all loved her a lot.

One morning on a day mom was off work but had school, she got up in a rush and ran downstairs. I thought she was late for school, so I went down with her to help her get what she needed to leave. But she was on the phone dialling people who were not answering her. Mom was shaking and crying and to herself without making any real sense. I asked her what was wrong. Her response made me shake.

She told me she had woken up to Mary at her bedside patting her hand the way she did when she was very pleased with something mom did, but when she sat up in bed, Mary was gone. The phone rang, and it was the nurse at the house to let my mom know that Mary had passed the night before. She came to tell mom goodbye.

My maternal grandmother and I were always pretty sensitive to paranormal stuff, but my mother was NOT. She thought her mom was a crock, and she was sure I was making stuff up. After Mary, she still never believed in the paranormal, but she did quit nursing school and never worked in home health again. She never said, but I got the sense she couldn’t handle another Mary happening to her again. My mom was pretty stoic, but that broke her.

66. Husband Duties

My co-worker got a call last week that her sister-in-law didn’t show up for work and didn’t call or anything. She’s been working three jobs recently and was complaining she needed a good night’s sleep. A coworker said she probably slept through the alarm clock, but her husband insisted that she go home and check on her because he just knew something was wrong.

Coworker gets there and it turns out she had overdosed on something and then had a heart attack. Oxygen levels were extremely low, and paramedics said that if a coworker hadn’t gotten home when she did, SIL would have been dead within minutes. Thank God her husband had felt that something was wrong. Always go with your gut.

white and red ambulance van parked near green trees during daytime

67. An Electric Slide

When my science teacher was a teenager, she was standing near some lights at a pedestrian crossing with her and her friend. Very chill, but out of nowhere, she had this gut feeling that both of them had to move. They moved just a couple of meters away, and the next moment a car had hit another car, which then hit one of the street electricity utility poles. It fell and exploded exactly where they were standing, just a moment ago. That gut feeling of moving away saved both of their lives.

woman crossing street Octavian Rosca

68. Trailer Strangers

I was at the mall with my friends, all of us around 12 years old. It was 8 pm, and my mom was on her way to pick me up. We were all chilling together until each of our parents got here to get us. As we’re standing by a store near one of the side entrances, a man comes up to us. He’s about 30-ish, wearing huge glasses, and carrying a clipboard.

The man says, “Hey guys, do you want to watch some movie trailers and answer surveys about them? I’ll pay you each five dollars per trailer.” Naturally, my friends are all for it. The thing is, my heart dropped as soon as I heard him speak. As they’re all saying yes, the man nods and then points to the side entrance. It’s pitch black outside, and that entrance leads to the back parking lot of the mall, which is always deserted.

Then, he says: “We can do it over there.” My friends start to follow the man as he walks toward the glass doors, and I’m trailing behind them. Then, as we get close enough for me to kind of see what’s outside, I notice a van parked right outside the entrance. The headlights are on, the car is running. The back doors seem to be open.

Every part of my being screams “NO! DON’T GO!” I stop in my tracks, and loudly say, “Guys, my mom is here to pick us all up, I don’t think we have time for it.” The man freezes and keeps his eyes trained on the doors, and I can see his jaw clenching tightly. My friends look at me with confusion, and I try to give them the most terrifying expression of warning that I can.

Thankfully they get the message and say bye to the guy. The man refused to turn to look at us and simply began to walk outside of the mall. As we’re walking away, I turn and look behind me one last time. The van, and the man, were gone.

69. Just In Nick Of Time

I was at a bar in October of 2013 or 2014, if I recall. Anywho, I lived in a particularly rough neighborhood at the time, and I was enjoying a few drinks. I had this horrible feeling of uneasiness looming in the back of my mind, so I told my buddies I’m turning in for the night. They called me the following morning and informed me that the bar had gotten shot up and like three people were injured. It was about two hours after I left.

70. A Long, Long Run

I was 13. The bus would take me home from school in 15 minutes, but I liked taking the one-hour walk home. While walking on the main road, a van pulled over some 100 feet away from me. It wasn’t a family van, it was one of those utility, boxy-looking ones. The van door was open and a man was waving at me with both of his arms. I was too far away to hear what he was saying.

Usually, I love to help people, but something told me to keep walking. So I kept walking. I look back five minutes later and this guy is walking behind me. Relaxed pace. I’m not worried, but I walk a little faster. I look back maybe two or three minutes later and he’s still walking, but closer, and waving his arms again. So I start jogging a little. Now he’s jogging. Then I start running as fast as I can, not stopping to look back.

At one point, I turned onto the next street and couldn’t see him anymore. I was so cold with fear, out of breath, waiting for the intersection light to change. The light changed and I went back to walking, but I was out of breath. Five minutes later, I look back and I can’t believe my eyes. He’s still following me. So I ran the last two minutes to my building, even though I didn’t want him to see where I lived.

I ran into the building lobby, looked through the glass doors. He wasn’t there. I pushed the elevator button, and went back to the glass door and saw him on the street far away, still walking. I’ve always tried to make sense of what he was going to do. This was a busy suburban area. Was he going to just stab me and run away? What did he want with me in particular? Did he just leave his van behind to get towed? So many questions. So, so weird.

woman in black sports bra and black pants running on water during sunset

71. Wedding Dress Blues

I came home to my mom supposedly being out for a walk and my little brother seeming worried that she hadn’t come back yet. I noticed that her keys were hanging up. I just had a sinking feeling that something wasn’t right. Why not take your keys? She hadn’t gone for a walk. She had put on her wedding dress, locked herself in a back room that you can only unlock from the inside, and had taken a whole heap of pills. She survived, but it still haunts us.

orange and white plastic bottle on white textile

72. Signals From The Stomach

I got to the airport early, got something to eat at the restaurant, and boarded the plane. Everyone is on and I suddenly get a feeling of panic. Nothing else, just panic. I was used to travelling back and forth every week, so no problems flying, but in this case, I had to get off that plane. I grabbed my stuff, ran past the flight attendant and said don’t wait for me I will get another flight and sat down trying to calm down.

An announcement comes over the speaker that they are looking for me, my flight is leaving. It leaves. I watch the flight start to take off. This was in Detroit. Then it happened. The worst cramps I ever had, and I ran to the bathroom. Food poisoning from the restaurant. I would have been on a two-hour flight stinking up the plane while ejecting the contents of my stomach from both ends.

white airplane near trailers during sunset Ashim D’Silva

73. The Kindness Of Strangers

I was at a party for my boyfriend’s father but I had a headache that wasn’t going away. I had been drinking, but I was still sober. I was just feeling terrible. So I made my excuses and left to walk home alone, as I didn’t want to ruin his night with his dad. It was a ten-minute walk, if that, from the pub to our house and it wasn’t properly dark yet.

I walked down the street and passed a man sitting on a wall drinking. A minute after I passed, I heard the bottle smash and then footsteps a little while back. Nothing unusual, it was the main road and there was another pub further along but my gut was screaming that something was wrong. I hurriedly walked back to the pub and stopped outside to ask the smokers for a light and a chat as I smoked.

That’s when I saw him pass me, and then stare at me from across the street for an uncomfortable amount of time. With my heart pounding, I asked a bouncer working the doors if he could order me a taxi. A few weeks later, while in the town center, I saw a mugshot of the same dude. He was wanted for assault.

person sitting on bench in dark room Sam Moqadam

74. Inquiring Minds

After my mother went to bed each night, my dad would go out to his car beside the driveway and talk on the phone for about 15 minutes. I never heard what he had been saying or who he was talking to, but I felt that something wasn’t right. I outed him. He had been having an affair for about ten years.

man standing by the window beside bed Marcos Paulo Prado

75. All Hail The Gatekeeper

I was helping my company move equipment from our old office space to our new location. It required me to park my car in a very small alley in the downtown area of Chicago—the Loop, for those who know. The security officer told me that he would watch on the camera to see when I got there so that he could open up the big gate for the service entry.

The gate was about 30 feet wide and 20 feet tall, and it was one of those roll-up types. I parked, got out of my car, and looked up at the camera. He must’ve been watching because the gate started opening up right away. I was going to duck under it once it got to about 4 feet high but had a momentary gut feeling to not do that.

As soon as I took a step backward instead of going forward, the axle broke on one end and the entire 60 feet squared steel gate came crashing down. If I had gone under the gate, I would’ve been crushed. In my panic, I scrambled back to the alley wall opposite of the gate and missed falling down a 4-foot window well by just a couple of inches. The security guard was amazed and incredibly relieved that I was alright.

76. Off A Cliff

As I climbed out onto a cliff to get a picture of a cave in the middle of a waterfall, something felt weird. I then began sliding down the cliff. I barely caught myself on a fracture in the rock, and eventually got my feet back on solid ground. The next day, my sister had the news on and they found a body under that same cliff. He’d been missing for a few days.

three persons standing near the edge of a cliff during day

77. From An Angel Angle

I worked at a daycare. One of the mothers gave me the heebie-jeebies. She would show up randomly and be like “my baaaaaaby, I neeeed my baaaaby.” Like, moms love their kids and miss them, but her obsession with her daughter really made me feel weird. She ended up killing her daughter so that she could be an angel. It really messed me up when I found out.

woman in black sleeveless dress lying on green grass field

78. Blue Faces

My siblings and I were swimming at a neighbor’s house with their kid, while the adults were inside. Randomly, a thought came into my head of “Where’s my sister at?” She easily could’ve gone inside or had walked home across the street, but I felt like I needed to find her ASAP. I got all of us kids to search and we discovered she was at the bottom of the pool, completely blue. She made a complete recovery and is now one of the best parts of my life.

79. No Dating And Driving

I was on a date—he didn’t know where I lived or anything. I was always paranoid about that. But things had gone well, and my car was cold. So he offered for us both to sit in his while mine heated up, as he had a remote starter. I said sure. Besides, he had the cutest dog too. No one with a cute dog could be that bad, right?

Well, I sat down in his car and we close the doors. That’s when alarm bells went off in my head. The door was locked. I went to open the door because I was freaking out—it didn’t open. It also had a manual switch that could have been used, but it was broken. He told me that I would need a screwdriver to get it unlocked.

We were talking about things like religion, and when I told him I prayed, he told his dog it was a sign from God. He says they were gonna have to keep me. Then, he looks in the back seat. I look in the rearview mirror and see rope back there. He jokingly talks about kidnapping me a few times and goes to put the car into reverse.

I laugh right along with him while praying silently. Something tells me to go along with this. So I tell him he doesn’t have to kidnap me to keep me. He also continues to make jokes about tying me up and keeping me locked up in his basement. That nobody would ever know and then I would never be able to leave him.

I go on a gut instinct. I tell this guy that I know I shouldn’t be saying this, and it’s only a first date—but something just feels really right with him. He puts the car back into the park. Looks at me. “Really?” I go on this tangent about how I know it’s way too soon to know if there’s a connection and didn’t want to tell him, for the risk of freaking him out.

I told him I was really bummed I was going out of town for the weekend because that meant there would be no chance of seeing him when I got back. I keep going and say I had to be getting home, as my friend was expecting me over tonight so we could leave super early in the morning. I’m having so much fun I don’t want to leave. But I would like a real hug before I got in my car. You know the kind—one that requires standing and not being in a vehicle.

So he makes me promise that I’ll hear from him when I get back. Absolutely. He wanted a kiss if it wasn’t too soon, and me to be his girlfriend. Yep dude—whatever you want. My internal alarms are going off and I’m kind of terrified right now. The car door unlocks! We get our hug, I kiss him and try to appear pleasant. Of course, I had to tell his dog goodbye, so he rolls down the window for me to give the good boy pets.

Guess what I see. Trash bags and an axe on the floor. I get in my car, wave goodbye, and get the heck out of there.

woman in black long sleeve shirt holding black ceramic mug

80. Serious Tones

I came home from university and the next day my mother says, “let’s sit down, I have to tell you something.” For some reason, I just said “Do you have cancer?” She did.

woman using her MacBook Pro inside white room LinkedIn Sales Solutions

81. Ghostly Bites

When I was in college, I had four roommates that always went home over the weekend. I was usually alone from Thursday night to Sunday evening. One morning, I made a disturbing discovery when I woke up. There was a full set of human bite marks on my lower back. I shower before bed and moisturize, so I know it wasn’t there the night before.

I went to work and showed all my colleagues, who were equally baffled. There was no swelling and it didn’t hurt, it just looked liked someone had bitten me. By the end of the day, it suddenly disappeared. From then on, I kept hearing knocking noises on my bedroom wall and the wall in the stairway. I would hear and see footsteps on the carpet.

One weekend, my little sisters came over to stay with me, and in the middle of the night, they heard a woman screaming and something drop in the kitchen. I ran out to check on them and they were terrified. Early that same morning, my bedroom door was shaking from knocking and I thought it was my sisters, but when I got up, I saw they were still asleep. It only happened to me, and not my roommates.

Eventually, my roommate got a shaman to bless the apartment, and suddenly everything stopped.

82. Eats Extinguished

I was heading to go eat at a restaurant with my toddler, but something just told me not to eat there. I decided to go home and make a meal instead. The restaurant was on the news later because it caught on fire that night.

rectangular beige wooden tables and chair

83. Mama Knows Best, Again

When I was in fourth grade, I had a headache before school. Of course, me being a kid, I asked my mom to stay home that day. She, having a weird feeling about that day, said yes and I went back to sleep. She felt that something was off and when I came to her about staying home, she said yes, just in case she was right. It was the best decision she ever made.

That morning at school during breakfast, an older woman ran her car into the school’s wall next to the lunchroom, fatally injuring my best friend. He was eating breakfast and if I had gone to school I would have been eating with him at that table. The school was so certain that I was under the bricks and the lady’s car that they called my mom confirming my whereabouts.

My mom and I thank her gut feeling almost at least once a month for saving my life that day.

wrecked gray vehicle between concrete walls at daytime Gareth Harrison

84. Gut Calls

In 2010, when I was 20, I travelled from Texas to Toulouse with a connection in Paris. I didn’t speak a lick of French, and it was my first time travelling alone. I had a horrible time navigating baggage and customs and then finding the gate information for my connecting flight from Paris to Toulouse, so I was relieved when a young man in a uniform with credentials around his neck offered to help me find my gate.

I assumed he worked for the airport. He found my flight and told me how to get to my gate, but then he said that I would have to wait to go through security because I was so early for my flight. He asked if I had ever been to Paris before and I said no, and lamented that I had about seven hours to kill. He told me that he was about to get off work and had a second job as a limo driver, before offering to take me around Paris while I waited.

I was a little intrigued because I was single and he was French and cute and helpful…but a little voice inside told me to think. Luckily, the movie Taken had just come out and I, for the first time in my life, knew what human trafficking was. So I actually listened to the little voice in my head that told me to not be polite and declined the offer. Despite that, he still insisted on staying close by. I finally let him buy me a packet of cookies for a snack.

After chatting for a little while longer, I was beginning to feel uneasy, so I told him I needed to use the restroom. A woman followed me in and informed me that the man I had been speaking to did not work for the airport and that I needed to find a security officer right away. She and her husband had overheard parts of our conversation and knew he was up to no good.

When I came out, he was gone and the woman’s husband was talking to security. They let me go ahead to my gate and told me not to leave with anyone. I’m sure I was almost sold into slavery. Thanks for the lesson, Liam Neeson.

flat lay photography of camera, book, and bag

85. Kindness Is Key

I have a story of what happens when you don’t listen to your gut—or at least, you listen to it a bit late. That day, my gut said, “Don’t get into the car with this person you’ve just met.” I didn’t listen. He legit kidnapped me and drove me to a forest and tried to drag me out. My gut said to calm down and be nice to him. I basically talked my way out of the situation by being kind and stroking his ego.

I was able to convince him that he didn’t need to do this and that I’d be “his,” but he needed to let me go because my friend was waiting for me. She knew I was getting a ride and that if I didn’t show up soon, maybe we couldn’t “be together.” This guy was crazy but it worked and he drove me to where my friend was waiting. The entire time, I had to keep reassuring him that I wasn’t mad and that I was happy “he chose me”—gag.

Anyway, I got out safe and unharmed except for some bruises from when I first tried to fight him off. He spent a year behind bars after that and ended up going to the slammer for another charge right afterward.

man in black jacket and black pants standing beside red car during night time

86. Family Business

It was Christmas of 2002. I was home from my freshman year of college. The vibe in the house had been really strange and tense since I got back. On Christmas morning, my mom gives my dad a really heartfelt, personalized present. My dad gives my mom an expensive but generic-looking bracelet with some diamonds in it. She starts openly weeping. Something was definitely not right. He told us he was leaving the next day and moved out immediately, into the house of the coworker he had been sleeping with. It was not a good time for my family.

selective focus photography of girl an woman hugging each other in front of christmas tree

87. Man Of The Forest

I went camping with some friends—there were three of us—and we found a remote area about an hour’s walk from the hiking trail. After the first night, my two friends realized we didn’t have enough supplies, so they both decided to walk back to the car and drive to the nearest store. This would be about a three-hour journey there and back.

They insisted that I wait at the campsite alone, and I reluctantly agreed. About two hours after they left, I try to distract myself by reading my book. I am female and was 21 at the time. Dusk is approaching, and I am finding it harder and harder to see the words on the page. I start to hear footsteps in the forest, and I assume it’s my friends returning, but I’m confused as to why I can’t hear any voices.

I then hear deep, sinister laughter, and my heart drops. I tell myself that my friends are just trying to scare me, but the laughter continues and gets louder. Suddenly, I see a figure to my left, about 10 meters away, standing on the other side of a stream, staring at me. This figure is dressed head-to-toe in formal wear, including a top hat. This was in the middle of the forest in Far-North Queensland, Australia, so it is an extremely odd and terrifying sight.

He also has a strikingly disfigured face, likely from serious burn-scars, but to my 21-year-old self, he looks like a character from The Hills Have Eyes. The man laughs deeply again while staring at me, and I am frozen stiff. He asks me what I’m doing here, and I calmly reply that I’m waiting for my two male friends to return.

My only sense of safety comes from the barrier the stream is creating between this man and me. If he was to charge at me, the stream would slow him down and I would have time to run to the forest. He asks me a few more questions, and I continue to respond calmly and nonchalantly. I begin to get the feeling I am not giving him the reaction he wants.

He then says he saw another group of campers a few kilometres upstream, and that he would go visit them next. He leaves, and I’m staring blankly in disbelief. My friends return about half an hour later, and neither of them believes what I tell them had just happened. My pleas to leave and head back to town were ignored. Needless to say, I barely slept for the rest of our camping trip.

person walking on path surrounded by green leafed trees

88. A Real-Life Horror Movie

I’ve had sleep paralysis for most of my life. One night, I went out with friends and we went back to my best friend’s house afterward. I slept on the couch and woke up when the sun rose—but I was having sleep paralysis. But I somehow knew this one was different. As I lay there, unable to move but able to see my surroundings, I watched as a horror started happening.

The blanket covering me began to slowly slip off of me and onto the floor. Then, my arm began moving away from me, as I thought someone was pulling it. I could feel the top half of my body slowly sliding off the couch, and was only able to lay there in helpless terror. And then, suddenly, my best friend at the other end of the couch sat bolt-upright and yelled, “Leave her alone!”

I woke up immediately and was able to scramble away from the edge of the couch. He said he thought he was dreaming when he opened his eyes and saw a man wearing what he thought was a black hoodie pulling me off the couch. As soon as he yelled, the man disappeared.

man in black leather jacket Martin Tupy

89. Yes To Hugs

So this has always bothered me. I was 13 years old at the time and my dad was a coal miner. He worked the third shift—known as the hoot owl shift—which was midnight to noon. As such, he got home around 2 PM and slept till around 9, got up, had dinner with us and left for work. My dad was always pretty gruff and constantly yelled at us if my younger brother or I made too much noise and woke him up after getting home from somewhere, which as an adult now I completely understand.

So one day I did something to wake him up, I forget what. Anyways, he calls me back to the bedroom and I’m expecting to get a dressing down but he just looked at me and said, “It’s ok. Come over here and give me a hug”. What 13-year-old boy wants to hug their dad? I kind of squirmed a bit and he followed up with, “What if something happened to me?” and just laid there all grizzled and tired.

I didn’t hug him—I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. That night there was an accident in the mine. He saved everyone on his crew, including the one person he went back in for. He was the only one who didn’t make it, and I’m convinced he knew it was gonna happen. I’ll never forget his eyes that day. If someone asks you for a hug, give it to them. I love you, dad.

photography of excavators at mining area