11 Disturbing True Stories With Creepy Twists

Some of the scariest stories don’t happen in haunted houses or horror films — they happen in real life, in quiet neighborhoods, ordinary homes, and even around seemingly innocent kids. These 11 true tales prove that reality can be far creepier than anything Hollywood can dream up.

• About 30 years ago, it was January, freezing cold—like below −4°F (-20°C). I was working the night shift at this little convenience store. It was dead quiet, no customers at all, so I decided to take a nap on my makeshift bed behind the counter. I had it set up on top of two big electric heaters, covered with cardboard and blankets to stay warm.
  Around 3 a.m., two older ladies walk up to the window and buy a carton of juice. I was low-key annoyed they woke me, but then they tell me, “Hey, it smells like smoke.” I didn’t smell anything, but I figured I’d straighten up my bed a bit. The second I lifted the blankets, the cardboard and blankets just caught on fire. I ended up spending the next while putting out the fire with the store security. Never thought a nap could turn into a full-on emergency! Olga Osipova / Facebook

• My mom disappeared on a trail near town. We used to hike it almost every Sunday as a family. It was about two miles, ending at a pond where locals liked to fish.
  That day, my dad was sick, so it was just me and her. We laughed and walked until I had to pee. She told me to go ahead, and stayed behind, maybe twenty feet away. Nothing seemed unusual, except for the sound of a branch snapping, which I brushed off as nothing.
  I finished, turned around to call her, and she was gone. I waited half an hour, thinking maybe she’d stepped off the trail too. Then I ran to the pond. Then I sprinted back to the parking lot, and the car was still there. Locked. She had vanished into thin air. Nobody could find her, her case faded into silence.
  Recently, I woke up in my college dorm. When I checked my mailbox around noon, there was a white envelope with handwriting on it and no sender. “Happy birthday, carrot. I’m still waiting for you at the same place. Come here tomorrow at dawn, and look for my blue coat. Signed, Mom.” Reading those words sent chills all over my body.
  Since my mom vanished eight years earlier, my family had gotten dozens of fake letters and false leads. But that word, carrot, told me this one was different. It was our inside joke. She started calling me that after I once scarfed down a whole plate of carrots just so she’d let me go play at the arcade. Nobody else could have known. © Accomplished_Low7889 / Reddit

• A long time ago (in the mid-90s), I was a Countryside Ranger on the West Coast, and one day, I was carrying out a phase one habitat survey when I came across a camp set up in remote, unmanaged woods. Tent, stove, kettle, sleeping bag in tent, some cooking equipment, rucksack, and a pair of walking boots at the tent entrance with a sock in each boot.
  The problem was it had been there for years. The tent was ripped and weathered, pots full of pine needles, and moss has covered most of the equipment. The rucksack and a couple of items of clothing in it and, strangely, a flute. Nothing in the rucksack and nothing to ID anyone.
  We carried out a search of the area with police, dogs, locals, and mountain rescue. Weeks later, not a thing, nothing, absolutely no trace of anything or anyone. Will never know what happened to that person who felt compelled to leave their camp and leave their flute behind. © Reservoir_Dogz / Reddit

• Back in my senior year of high school, there was a guy who often came into the store where I worked. He was probably in his mid-20s, and over time, we became friendly, talking a lot about movies and video games. One weekend, he asked if I wanted to hang out. I got a weird gut feeling and told him no, using the excuse that I was grounded for bad grades.
  A few days later, I saw a news story about a house fire on a nearby street. Three kids had been rescued unharmed by a man who rushed inside. To my shock, it was the same guy who had asked me to hang out. Turns out, since I’d said no, he took a babysitting job that night, and ended up saving three children’s lives. © Alina S.

• So it was around May-June 2019. My father was out of station for some business-related work. So only me, my mother and my little sister (6y/o) were home. It was around evening when I was with my mom in the kitchen, chit-chatting with her while she was making food.
  Let me give you a view of our kitchen. It was something like this, with the kitchen on the left side and the bathroom on the other. So if you stand in the kitchen, you can see if anyone goes to the washroom. My mother was facing towards the wall, and I was standing leaning to the kitchen stand, but I was looking towards my mom.
  Now my little sister came running and went to the washroom and slammed the door. But we ignored it, thinking she was in a hurry. Now 25 min later, when she still didn’t come out, I said to my mom, “What is taking her so long? Why is she not coming?” My mother asked me to go have a look.
  I checked the washroom, but to my surprise, there was no one! Even lights were off. I told my mom, and she said that it can’t be possible, go ask your sister. When I went to her room, she was fast asleep. I was shocked and scared, obviously. I told my mom, and she was also scared, like, who was that???
  When my sister woke up, we asked her if she came to use the bathroom. She said, “Why would I use the common bathroom if I have my own bathroom in my room?” This was a very scary incident for my mom and me. © Saanvi / Quora

• I was babysitting for a sweet couple, Norma and Ethan, whom I’d met on Facebook. While tucking in their 5-year-old daughter, Emma, she suddenly whispered, “Norma isn’t my real mom. My real mom is in the closet.”
  Horrified, I opened the closet and found it filled with portraits of a young woman who looked strikingly like Emma. When Norma and Ethan returned, I told them what had happened. Norma just shrugged. “Emma has a wild imagination,” she said.
  But when I opened the closet to show her, the portraits had vanished. No one had gone near it all day. To this day, I can’t decide if it was a cruel joke or a disturbing family secret accidentally revealed by a 5-year-old. © Anna H.

• After college, I lived in a second-floor apartment. One night, I woke up trying to open my car door. In my sleep, I left my apartment, navigated the stairs, and found my car.
  Thankfully, I forgot to grab my keys. It freaks me out 20+ years later. © the_owl_syndicate / Reddit

• One night, around 3 am, I was dead asleep with my ex-boyfriend next to me. All of a sudden, I hear someone IN my house asking if anyone was home. I woke up my ex and told him to go see what the hell was going on. He was a total chicken and made me go.
  I get out of bed, can’t find my glasses, but the guy is still shouting. I come out of my bedroom in my pajamas and see there is a big bald dude in what looks to be a police uniform standing in my entryway.
  I’m squinting, trying to get a good look at him, and he looks at me and says, “I just wanted to tell you that your door was left unlocked, and you should lock it.” I mumble something to the effect of, “Uh, thanks?” and he leaves my apartment.
  I’m still as blind as a bat, but I see that he walks away instead of getting into a car. (No policeman would be policing the woodsy area I live in on foot.)
  The next day, I called the local police station and asked if any officers had reported this incident, and they said they would check with the on-duty officers and get back to me. They called me the next day and said no one had done this.
  I still get freaked out when I think about this happening, and I wish I knew what that guy was up to. © quirkytiff / Reddit

• About thirty years ago, my younger brother, Dominick, passed away after a motorcycle accident when he was 34 years old. Our family was devastated, especially my mother. As is always the case, you push through the wake and the funeral.
  About two weeks after his passing, a few days before Mother’s Day, my mother and I were crying together, and she said, “Jenny, I miss his voice so much. Do you remember last year on Mother’s Day, when he sent me that beautiful cassette tape of that country star singing about his mother?” We cried a little more, and then I told her I would see her on Sunday, which was Mother’s Day.
  The next day, I was doing laundry in the basement of my home and noticed one of the storage room doors opened. I walked over and looked in and realized that Dominick had stored a lot of his personal items there. Instantly, I felt this surge of energy or force that told me to take everything out of the storage room. I was moving boxes and boxes of his things out into the center of the basement.
  I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I felt there was something I was supposed to find. Finally, I saw a box sitting in the corner which said “recorded tapes from therapy”. I pulled out the box — walked directly upstairs, called my mother, and told her to come over right away.
  I ran and got a cassette player and opened the box. I realized I had probably fifty tapes with his voice on them from his sessions with his therapist. My son, who was special (Down Syndrome) picked up one of the tapes in the box and handed it to me. It was dated May of the year before.
  My mom walked in, and I started to cry, and I said to her, “Mom, I think we can hear Dominick’s voice again.” We turned on the tape, and we heard Dominick talking about how he had sent his mother this cassette tape for Mother’s Day, and he started singing the words to the song right then and there on the tape.
  We all stood there silently sobbing and realized that this amazing and kind soul — my brother — had managed to wish his mother a Happy Mother’s Day even though he had passed. © Jenny March / Quora

• When I was about 8 or 9, my family took me to one of those makeshift “beach parks” in South Georgia. It was really just a huge man-made pond: the owner had dumped in sand, planted a few palm trees, set up grills, and added a rickety waterslide.
  We always parked across from this tiny sand island about thirty yards out. I wasn’t a strong swimmer, but I could bounce off the bottom and make my way there.
  One day, on my way out, my foot landed on something strange. I swear I felt a nose against my toes, and strands of fine hair drifting through the water. Terrified, I scrambled back and refused to swim again that day.
  I didn’t think much of it at the time. Years later, though, I saw a news story: divers had pulled a rare collectible doll out of that very lake. It ended up selling for a fortune at auction. © Rob Z.

• Back in high school, my friend and I used to skip class from time to time. One of our favorite spots was this old, overgrown cemetery—tons of beautiful sculpted tombstones, some dating back to the 1700s. There were houses on the grounds, kids playing along the paths, old ladies with goats, even moms pushing strollers sometimes.
  One late autumn day, it was pouring rain, and the paths were empty. As we turned a corner, we saw an old woman. She looked right at us and gave a warm smile. We smiled back and ran ahead... but a few steps later, we glanced back and took off like our lives depended on it, heels practically sparking on the wet stone.
  Here’s the thing: the woman was wearing a light summer dress and a white headscarf... and she was completely dry. The rain was coming down in sheets, we were soaked to the bone, and yet she wasn’t even a little wet. To this day, we remember it perfectly. Every detail matches up, and we still can’t explain it. © lutaosk / Pikabu

Here, you can read even more spine-ting.ling stories that will give you goosebumps.