October is here, bringing with it Halloween and jack-o-lanterns and ghosts and things that go bump in the night. There's no better time to build a campfire, toast some s'mores, and read creepy stories about all manner of monsters (some of which are human). To get you started, here are 11 really scary stories culled from Reddit*, which is possibly the scariest place of all.
1. Phoboss took a cemetery tour that ended up being scary for reasons not having to do with dead people.
I went on a guided cemetery tour at night. About six or seven of us were standing around a tomb listening to the story of how the inhabitant had killed himself with a gun when all of a sudden there was a big flash and the whole sky lit up green with smaller flashes. We found out later that we had witnessed a meteor breaking up. So the tour guide takes a moment, recovers from the surprise, and continues his story about how some decades after the poor chap had killed himself someone broke into his tomb and stole his skull.
We then moved on, and walked further into the cemetery when we were startled by a loud bang. We shrugged it off as a car backfiring, laughed nervously at how on edge we were and continued the tour. Shortly after we hear a couple more bangs in quick succession, and one of the tour party commented that they were pretty sure they were gunshots. There was another bang, closer. Definitely a gunshot. Then we saw a light in between some of the headstones and I kid you not, we saw the figure of a man carrying a shotgun, slowly coming from the direction of the tomb we had just been at. We froze. I looked over to the tour guide, thinking it was some prank he plays on all his customers, but he was completely white and was backing away. It was a man with a shotgun and he was walking towards us. He lifted a flashlight and pointed it directly at us. Several of us ducked behind the headstones as he yelled, "Get out of here! What the hell are you doing in this place!?" Turns out the city council pays some guy to shoot possums in the cemetery and they forgot to warn the tour company.
2. Penguinluvinman might have gotten a 911 call from a ghost.
I used to work as a 911 operator in a relatively large metro area. One night at about 3 am or so I answered a call from an elderly lady who said she didn't feel good. I tried to get more info about what was wrong, chest pain, trouble breathing, headache, is she diabetic etc. I got her address and age, she said no one else was home but the door was unlocked so they could go in. No matter what else I asked about what was wrong, all she would say is "I don't feel good, can you please send someone to help me?"
After a few min she said "I'm gonna put the phone down for a minute, I need to go to the bathroom." I tried to get her to stay on the line with me, told her she can do whatever she needs to get ready but I'd like to be able to stay in contact in case there's a problem. She said "I'm gonna put the phone down, I'll just be a minute."
A couple min passed, then the fire department called on scene so I just disconnected and didn't think much about it. Told them the patient advised front door is unlocked and she was in the bathroom. A couple more min and the one of the firefighters called over the air with a weird tone and said "Fire alarm (which is how they addressed dispatch)...uh how exactly was this called received?" I told them call was first party from the patient's home phone approx 8 min ago. He didn't respond over the air, but called the desk from his cell phone, which usually only happens when something weird is going on that they don't want broadcasted since anyone can listen to the radios.
On the phone he said "are you sure this wasn't a third party call from a family member or something?" I said "negative, caller advised 'I don't feel good' and said no one else was home, so to the best of my knowledge, the caller is the patient...have you made contact?" He said "yea, she was in the bathroom like you said, but she's been dead for about 12 hours. Cold to the touch, fully livid, full rigor, we're gonna need a deputy out here."
Afterwards we pulled the tapes of the radio and phone calls and checked the timestamps, address, phone number, and went over everything a few times to see if I missed something. I called them back in the morning after the shift to see if they had anymore info, but they were just as weirded out as we were. The phone was in the living room and the patient was in the batbroom, but the call was definitely from that phone. Still have no idea what the most likely explanation is.
TL;DR: got a 911 call from a dead woman because she didn't feel good
3. Gigglebutts found herself stalked by someone way scarier than a ghost.
In college, I went to Champaign, IL and saw Big Gigantic. Afterward, boyfriend and I stopped to get gas and I was thirsty as hell for non-venue priced beverages, so I went into the little shop while he filled up the car. It was ~1am so the shop was deserted except me and the cashier, whom I greeted casually and walked to the back giant wall of refreshments. I'm staring and pondering for a while before I realize the guy has made his way over and is staring intently from a few feet away. "Do I look like Jonathan Taylor Thomas?" He asks. "Uh...what?" I answer, not entirely sharp after a concert and wondering if I missed something. "Jonathan Taylor Thomas. A lot of people say I look like him." I should pause the story here to tell you that this 20 or 30something gentleman bore zero resemblance to the pre-teen hunk of the nineties. This guy was pale, dark hair, kind of mushy-faced with no distinctive qualities. I'd compare him to maybe a younger Lutz from 30 Rock. Anyway. I'm staring at him and getting nervous and not sure what to say. "I guess?" I stammer, hoping this will end the line of questioning. "Oh! In what way?" "What?" I grab a Sprite bc I am now getting a little freaked out and do not have the luxury of deliberating any longer. This guy has not cracked a smile and something just seems very, very off. We walk to the register and he continues. "In what ways do I look like Jonathan Taylor Thomas, specifically?" "I...uh..." He's ringing me up and I'm looking through my bag for my wallet trying to think of a competent answer. "In the nose? I guess?" He seems relieved. That's when my boyfriend appears at the glass door entrance a few feet away. He tries to open it. It's been locked. All the blood drains out of my face and I start feeling very, very sick. He seems surprised by my boyfriend's presence and looks at me, realizing whatever he had in mind for me is no longer in the cards. Without a word he unlocks the door and I gtfo. Boyfriend is confused and I sit in the car and breathe and drink my Sprite and tell him what happened and we both shiver the rest of the way home.
4. Necrorider basically lived a real life X-Filesepisode.
Where I live, there's a train that goes from my school to my home. The distance between those stations is about 15 minutes.
One day, my friend and I left school together and boarded the train. We were both getting off at the same stop. Let's just say the station at the train is Station 1 and our home is Station 5. The distance between each station is about 3 minutes. Anyway, we board at 3pm and chat. We've taken this train more than a hundred times before, meaning we know how long it takes, what our stops look like etc. Even the train announcer announces the station as well.
We constantly look outside for scenery to tell us its our stop and check out watch and stations we're at. We continue chatting, and then, as usual, we get off the train. We exit, turn right to take the escalator down and... it's not there. Confused, we give a quick look around and notice we're not at station 5, we're at station 8. No problem, we just sat past right? So we checked out watch. 3:15.
Both him and I have never been able to deduce what happened. The time needed to reach station 8 could not just take 3:15, it would at least be 3:25. The train itself is automated and so the distance and time needed never changes. We take the opposite train and discuss what just happened. We both saw that the last station the train announced was Station 4, as was the scenery we saw a million times over, passing by a school we always use as our landmark.
Up to this day I can't find a reasonable explanation of what happened. And still creeps me out to this day.
5. Icvotria's story might keep you from ever getting into bed again.
I woke up in the middle of the night last week and looked over at my boyfriend, sleeping soundly next to me. I was admiring his nice face, thinking what long, pretty eyelashes he had. I was half asleep, comfy and warm, and everything was lovely. As I became more alert, it slowly began to dawn on me that, though he does have very long, pretty eyelashes, they weren't quite that long. That's when the spider started moving across his face.
THERE WAS A FUCKING MASSIVE SPIDER ON HIS EYEBALL.
6. Dijibaby7's job as an ambulance driver was terrifying in ways he never imagined.
Was an EMT working the 4am-4pm shift. We pick up our rig and get told to post (hang out and wait for a call) in a really shitty part of town.
I parked behind this shopping center where all of the businesses had closed down due to the lack of people around that general area. It was a lot of trailer parks, really run-down apartments, and whatnot. I picked this place because the sun was going to rise in an hour or so and my partner and I both wanted to take a nap until a call came through the radio to us.
My partner has no problem sleeping while sitting straight up in the front of the ambulance. I absolutely cannot do this, so I went in the back and laid down on the bench to try and nap. The thing about our shitty old ambulance was that you couldn't open the side door from the inside. So I had to get out, go through the side door (not the very back double doors) and lay down. I left the side door a little bit cracked open for when a call came though so I could jump into the front to respond.
About 5 minutes of me laying there and my I hear my partner call me. "Hey dude. You awake?" "Yeah.. what's up?"
"That person over there has been staring at us for a while." Across the street there was a sidewalk along the side of a park. I could make out a faint shadow of a person. Knew it was someone because their cigarette butt flickered every time they took a puff. The streetlight was super dim but I could tell that they were there, just fucking staring at us. It was super weird so we watched them for a bit. After about 5 more minutes of us just watching, the person walks away. We joke about how weird people are, being up at 5am roaming around some sketchy park. I lay back down and start to doze off. I wake up to my partner saying "HOLY SHIT DUDE!" So I pop my head up into the front cabin. The person was standing like 20 feet from our ambulance, dressed in all black, staring at him. Eyes locked. I look at her face and I shit you not, she looks like the fucking girl from The Ring. She had pitch black straight hair, wearing all black, very light skinned, the street light made her look like she was white as paper.
My partner is absolutely terrified as they've entered some weird sort of staring match. I told him to hop over into the driver seat and get the fuck out of there. He says "I can't. I'm too scared to move." Shit, well I guess I have to squeeze from the back though this little ass space to get into the driver's seat.
I jump up and try to get back into the front cabin. It's a tight squeeze because I'm a bigger guy, but I make it through. She apparently takes notice of me moving and starts power walking straight to us. I've never been so fucking freaked out in my life. As she gets super close, I realize she's looking at the side door that I left a little bit cracked open! I'm thinking "Fuck I forgot to close it!"
I get a good look at her face. She's noticed that door and I know she's gonna try to get in. Maybe she's going try to kill me? I don't know but I have to get the fuck out. Her whole body is shaking as she gets closer and closer, still staring at my partner. She gets up right next to his window and just stares at us both in the eyes. I get into the front about with about 1 second to spare, start the ambulance, and peel the fuck out. We never posted there again.
7. Genegnome started therapy to help resist giving in to compulsive urges, but unfortunately the timing was not good.
I was previously diagnosed with OCD, but it's now a retracted diagnosis in that I don't experience compulsions now but still obsessions. About two years ago, it was still compulsive too, and I was going through treatment for it, trying to resist those compulsions.
My obsessions generally surrounded my family and friends dying or getting really ill, and I was constantly getting intrusive thoughts that if I didn't do a certain thing RIGHT NOW, my mum/dad/brother would die. Naturally, I would just go along along with the compulsions.
First time in the treatment program I fully manage to resist a compulsion is after several intrusive thoughts about my grandad dying. I don't do the compulsion, feel really ace, everything goes okay.
The next day, my grandad is diagnosed with colon-rectal cancer with a low survival rate.
Rationally, I know that I didn't cause that just because I didn't touch a door handle in time or whatever, but in the OCD mindset I was in then, I was convinced and it was very creepy for me.
8. StuftRug probably never peed again.
When I was 8 my parents were going through a rough patch in their marriage and my dad was briefly living in a broken down old RV parked in a friends front yard that wasn't hooked up to anything (classy right?). No electricity no water no nothing. We had to stay there overnight on the weekends we were with him and it always made me nervous. The RV couldn't even be locked. Well one night I woke up in the middle of night, pitch black with nothing but a tiny flashlight, and I had to pee worse than I have ever had to pee. I was already scared to death of the dark so I woke my dad up and pleaded to let me pee in the bathroom or maybe even the sink but he was grumpy and said no just pee outside there's nothing out there. I made my way to the door, stepped out into the grass, lowered by pajamas, and started going but as soon as I did some creepy as fuck voice said to me "hey kid come here" along with some rustling in the bushes. I bolted back inside peeing all over myself crying in fear and grabbed the door handle to hold it shut. I heard more rustling outside but then it stopped so I let go and with my little dinky flashlight went over to the window, pulled down the blinds just a bit, and shined my light right into a smiling set of teeth. I didn't see the rest of the face as I jumped back into my little bed throwing the blanket over my head and cried until the sun came up. People act like I'm being a pussy when I say I'm not too fond of the dark but I still can't handle pitch black nights.
9. Bingbong1234 story of the Whistler seems too freaky to be true, but he's got video proof.
When I was about 8 years old I was taking my dog for a walk through the neighborhood with my mom. It was maybe 11pm. We live next to a swamp/woods area on the edge of our neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan. I remember it being very silent and slightly windy. From down in the swamp we heard somebody whistling at us. It sounded sort of like a bird, but each whistle was different enough where the lack of consistency made it human-like. The whistle sounded higher, then lower. I can't really describe it. My mom had a concerned, slightly terrified look on her face and grabbed my hand and said that we should go inside quickly. I didn't understand because I was too young, but seeing my mom freak out made me freak out too. After a while, though, I kind of forgot about it.
Two years later, I was taking my dog out again, late at night. There is a large bush that could easily obscure a person behind it just next to the front door. As I was finishing the walk, the whistling noise started again, same pitches, same inconsistent, human-like tones. As soon as I heard it, a chill went down my spine as I remembered exactly the feeling of seeing my mom, terrified, looking down into the swamp at something I couldn't see (maybe she couldn't either). I ran inside as fast as possible.
Years went by and I thought about it less and less. I told only a handful of people, and eventually it slipped from my mind.
Fast forward to last summer: I'm 24, started dating my girl Sarah. We moved out to South Dakota for work. For Independence day, we decided to go to Pierre, SD and watch the fireworks along the bank of the Missouri river. There was a free camping spot behind a hospital where you could pitch your tent, hang out, and see the fireworks up the river. We were near the end of the campground and there were very few people around us. As it was getting dark, the fireworks began. They were pretty far away, so the illumination they brought was very little. Thus, we had to sit right at the edge of the river to be able to see them. A huge thunderhead was moving in and a storm was imminent, so the air seemed electric and the wind was picking up. The atmosphere was eerie to say the least.
The police boats herded all the other boats off of the river and had left our area to do that elsewhere. Most of the other campers walked up the river to have a better view of the fireworks, but Sarah and I stayed back and were drinking PBR tallboys and kicking it. Suddenly, we heard the sound of a paddle methodically dipping into the water. We saw a figure steering a canoe about 20m off shore. Sarah decided to go get more beers from the car, leaving me alone to stare at this mystery person. And then, of course, they whistled at me. My entire body was frozen and covered in goosebumps. It was the exact same whistler from my childhood, more than a decade earlier. I looked at the figure, but it was much too dark to discern who it could be. They were wearing a hat. When they were perpendicular to the shore from me, they stopped paddling, turned the canoe to face directly at me, and whistled right at me. I was so frightened I stood up and shouted at them "who are you?!?" They didn't say anything, just whistled a couple more times, turned the canoe 180 degrees, and paddled out of sight.
I'm a videographer, so I already had my camera by my side and was taking video of the fireworks. As the canoe was almost out of sight, I grabbed my camera and got a shot of them whistling as they went away. When Sarah came back from getting beers, she was very confused as to why I was so freaked out. When I explained, she was freaked out a bit too. I was convinced we would both be murdered that night. How did this whistling person follow me, after 14 years, all the way to South Dakota? Was it a coincidence? Why was it the same whistling noise?! Who was that person and where did they go?!?! So many questions still unanswered. To this day I'm more afraid of being outside in the dark where I might hear that whistling again.
I'm open to any explanations.
Here is the link
When I was still getting shots of the fireworks I heard the whistling starting. I was too afraid at that moment to point the camera directly at the canoe, so I just turned my microphone towards it and kept a low-key shot facing down river towards the fireworks. If you wear headphones you can hear it better. It's the two note whistle, high then low. You can hear me ask my gf "Are you whistling? Is that you?" She said no but I wasn't sure so I told her "Stop it!" because I was getting scared.
The last shot I boosted the brightness as much as I could and still make out the person in the canoe. It looks like they're wearing a red sweater or something.
10. Bingbong1234's not even the only one who's heard this mysterious Whistler. Check out happy_go_lucky11's tale.
Growing up my mom my was a bartender, she was a single parent, so I took care of my little brother most nights. One night while I was making dinner I kept hearing a strange whistling sound, but I didn't think much of it because it was storming pretty hard outside. But the whistling continued and it started to sound more like a melody than whistling from a storm. I started to get a little freaked out and asking my little brother if he was hearing it too; he wasn't. Eventually the whistling stops, but it's still storming pretty badly. Fast forward to the end of the night when I'm going to bed. I'm climbing up the ladder of my bunk bed and my tv shuts off. I think maybe the power went out, but the hallway light is still on. I try to turn it back on and nothing happens, so I reach around my tv stand and realize that it's been unplugged. At the same time I hear the whistling, only this time its not in the distance, it sounded like someone was whistling directly into my ear. I could almost feel their breath, it sent chills down my spine; it still sends chills down my spine. At that moment I took off running out of our house screaming! We lived in an apartment with 3 other units, so I woke the neighbors above us. They were younger couple with two kids and offered to come check out our house. I could tell at the time the guy thought I was just a stupid kid hearing things, but was trying to make me feel better. My brother and I waited outside of our apartment while he went inside to check it out for us. After a few minutes he came back and he seemed a little agitated and asked if you're playing a prank on him. This really scared me and I told him we weren't playing a prank on him. He could probably see we were telling the truth by our faces, because I could see the fear roll over his face. He said he looked everywhere and did not find anyone, but was convinced someone was in our home. They invited us to stay in their apartment until my mom was home from work, because they didn't feel comfortable with us staying alone. I never heard the whistling again, but so many other strange things happened to my brother and me in that apartment. I'm convinced it was haunted. I'm not sure if the story will be scary to any of you, but that was the most terrified I've ever been in my life.
Edit: A lot of you have linked 'The Whistler' video - very creepy! After listening to it I really feel like that's what I heard, but not sure if I'm just attributing that to what I heard. Either way it was very close to what I was hearing and gave me chills!
BONUS: Uh-oh, guys—the Whistler's real. At least according to Gaashura and Wikipedia.
In my country (Venezuela) there is a legend about a guy called "El Silbon" (The whistler). A sort of damned soul that warns people of their coming death.
https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Silbón
I'm not making this shit up, I'll try to translate parts from the article for you to see if they fit what you experienced:
The legend is that of a young man who killed his father as a revenge because he had killed his wife and called hed a "whore". After this event, his grandfather had him tied to a pole in the middle of a field and whipped him, had his wounds cleaned with "aguardiente"(drinking alcohol) and released him with two rabid and hungry dogs but before release he cursed him to carry his father's bones for the rest of eternity.
He has a particular whistling similar to Music Notes CDEFGAB in that order, going up to F and then going low to B. It's said thay when the whistling is heatd closely there is no danger, because he is really far, but when the whistling sounds far he is really close.It's also said that the whistling announces the death of those who hear it. He can be anywhere at any tine. It seems that the only thing that can save the person that hears it from afar is the bark of a dog, because he is afraid of it, also of chili peppers and whips.The soul takes revenge on womanizing men.
Many inhabitants of Los Llanos speak of seeing him, particularly during summer, season in which the venezuelan savannah sears under the strenght of drought and El Silbon sits in the stumps of trees and gathers dust with his hands. But he is primarily encountered in times of humidity and rain, when the spectre roams hungry for death and avid to punish the drunk, the whoremongers and from time to time an innocent victim. It's said that he sucks on the navel of drunk men when he finds them alone to drink the alcohol that they drank and he rips appart the whoremongers, he takes off the bones and puts them inside the bag in which he carries his dad's remains.
Some versions say that he looks like a long giant, six meters tall who walks from treetop to treetop, while he emits his terrifying whistling and rattles inside the dusty old bag, the pale bones of his misfortuned father, or as some claim, his multiple victims. Other versions state that he presents as the shade of a tall and slender man with a hat, specially to drunk people.
It is said that, El Silbon, may appear near a house on some nights, leaving the bag on the floor and counting the bones one by one. If one or more people hear him, nothing will happen, but if no one hears, by dawn a family member will die in his sleep.
In the Colombian eastern Llanos, where he is called "El Silbador", they believe it's the wandering soul of a party loving womanizer who died in solitude, and people claim that he seeks the company of someone who dares ride horseback late at night. But this kind version is an exception because, also in Colombia, some others say he chases pregnant women, that his whislting penetrates the ear, chills, and that, if someone hears a high pitch tone it omens the death of a woman, while a low pitch tone omens the death of a man. In any case, that woman or man is generally someone known by the one that heard the whistling.
Edit: Finished translating. This gave me chills dude, I'm not one to believe folklore, but your story is way too similar to just ignore it, mainly because you have no way at all to know about this particular legend.
EDIT 2: I just saw the video, and as my countrymen would say: EL COÑO DE SU MADRE! That's the creepiest shit I've ever seen, and I can't believe OP delivered proof.
*Some stories were edited slightly for length.
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