After Dark: Scary Faces and Scary Stories

[00:00:00] Hi there, and welcome back to Out There: A Cryptid Podcast. Today, I have more allegedly true horror stories from people just like you. So get cozy, grab a blanket, and maybe a warm drink. Now, let's dive in.

[00:00:14] Our first story is from Reddit user blonde underscore marine 98.

[00:01:03] I'm almost eight months pregnant with my second baby, and some strange things have been happening. For the past two nights, I've woken up after seeing the most horrific things happening to my first born child. When I woke up the second time this morning, the room was still dark, but there was this large black mass near the ceiling close to me, and it had a buzz to it.

[00:01:28] Like energy was floating from me into it, and it was the scariest thing. It wasn't paralysis, because I could still move, and was trying to wake my husband up. On top of this, for the past week, I'll hear people I know screaming at me when I'm on the verge of waking up, and then the next day, I'll have a message from them.

[00:01:52] When I was pregnant with my first, I was in bed, and I could hear someone walk into the house, go up the stairs, go down the hall, and walk straight into my room. And then, they stopped dead center at the foot of my bed. My husband shot up out of bed and started screaming. He said he basically saw this whole thing happen, and saw them stop at the foot of the bed.

[00:02:17] I called the priest in town when this one happened, but they never followed through with coming over. Is this just pregnancy hormones? Or is this actually supernatural? Our next story is from reddit user fit__echo__8183. I was in my old church in Connecticut, changing some light fixtures in an upstairs hallway.

[00:02:47] The boy scout troop who uses the place at night had reported footsteps before, but I always thought nothing of it. I had a 6 foot ladder out with the new fixture and paint step, and two 3 inch screws on the top step. As I reached to take the bowl off the top fixture, I felt a poke in my chest, then heard, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

[00:03:09] I looked down, and one screw was on the top step, and the other was now rolling around in the new fixture below. I did not shake the ladder. I told it to scram. I was busy. I've had encounters before, but never here. I changed the fixture without further issue. After that, I moved to the next room, kept the lights off so I could change some fluorescent tubes.

[00:03:36] While in the first fixture, the light adjacent flashed on and off about 3 or 4 times. I did two more fixtures, and each time a nearby fixture would flash. I finally said, knock it off, and got out of there. A friend with abilities came through a few months later, and made the comment, there is an angry man up here who doesn't want anyone in his space.

[00:04:04] Apparently, he tried to scare me off. Our next story is from Reddit user, O-Bingus-I. Some context for this post. My childhood home is haunted, and various events have been witnessed by myself, my husband, my sister, and others over the years. A few months ago, my husband saw an unsettling entity lurking in the living room.

[00:04:33] He could only clearly make out its disturbing smile, and it appeared to be lying in wait for us in the darkness. It had a very dark energy about it. A few days ago, I saw something that I believe is the same entity in the same area of the living room, early in the morning, and could only clearly make out its face peering at me. This is my drawing of the being.

[00:04:59] The family dogs have been increasingly unsettled at night, starting right before my sighting. They watch something we can't see move around the living room. Dining room. Hallway. And they whine. We have three dogs in total, but two of them are siblings and stick together like glue. The smarter the two will stand over and guard her brother during these times, clearly feeling that something threatening is nearby.

[00:05:25] At this current time, we think this entity's main goal is to mess with us and just cause distress. It creates a very heavy energy wherever it goes. It has been caught on multiple EVPs my husband has recorded, stating its intent to be chasing us. Our next story is from Reddit user virtualprofessor3683.

[00:05:51] I grew up in a neighborhood that was built on old farmland where a child supposedly died years before the houses were built. I always felt uncomfortable in my room as a kid and hated sleeping there. One night, when I was around 9 or 10, I woke up while sleeping on my parents' floor and saw what looked like a little girl laying behind my mom, almost spooning her.

[00:06:18] I was holding a doll and staring straight at me. I screamed and woke my mom up. And when she turned around, no one was there. I never saw anything like that again. For years, I assumed maybe it was just my imagination. What I can't explain are the things that happened after that.

[00:06:41] As I got older, objects around me would disappear for months and then reappear perfectly placed in my room. Electronics would turn on by themselves. It was always small things and no one else in my family experienced it, so they didn't believe me. Recently though, other people have started noticing things too.

[00:07:05] About 6 months ago, I went home and the bathroom connected to my room was locked, even though no one had been in there. I unlocked it, walked away for a minute, came back and it was locked again. A couple months later, my boyfriend and I tried to leave through the garage and the door handle wouldn't open at all. We both tried for several minutes. Then suddenly, it opened like nothing was wrong.

[00:07:33] The same thing happened again, but with my dad. My mom has also been sending me videos of lights flickering around the house. Then tonight, something happened that really freaked her out. She got into her car and when she buckled her seatbelt, she said it felt like someone behind her grabbed it and pulled. She turned around and no one was there. For years, I thought this was just coincidence around me.

[00:08:02] But now, multiple people are experiencing things. Has anyone had activity seem to follow a person instead of just staying in one location? And can these things escalate over time? Our next story is from reddit user adorable underscore dot seven four six two.

[00:08:27] Last night while half asleep, I heard something loud and clear run across my room. I immediately fully woke up to check if it was one of my children. After noting that they were all still peacefully asleep, I searched each room. I then turned on my kitchen light to peer into the back room of my house. I then saw a large, shadowy silhouette standing there in the back room of my house.

[00:08:55] In disbelief, I stood there. Did a double take and then saw no one. I stood there shaking. I've noted whatever I saw was standing in the same spot of what looked like some sort of shrine. Or maybe just really dark decor. I've always said my apartment is cursed. Maybe even haunted. No obvious paranormal signs other than my oven preheating itself.

[00:09:23] Just very frequent issues such as strange smells and mold issues. Yes, I'm trying to move. Can anyone help explain what I encountered last night? Our next story is from reddit user birdie and me. I had my first unexplained encounters between 1993 and 2004. I lived in a Victorian house about 100 years old.

[00:09:53] Was woken up one night by a tapping sound. Saw the apparition of a man in 18th century clothing sweeping the floor with a broom. The broom was banging the wall as he swept. Also came downstairs to find two knives out of the cutlery drawer crossed on the worktop in the kitchen. No mobile phones in those days. Moved to a 200 year old cottage and lived there between 2004 and 2024.

[00:10:23] Lots of unexplained activity. Light bulbs in the lounge blew about every six months. Had the wiring and fittings checked and all was sound. After six years this activity suddenly stopped and I never had issues with the lights again. Had fly screens on the windows with pull cords. The cord in the bedroom used to swing wildly and just stop. No breeze coming through the double glazed window. Also in the bedroom I heard a very loud outward breath.

[00:10:53] That scared me. Came downstairs one morning to find my shopping list, which is usually pinned to the fridge with a magnet. Was on the kitchen counter right side up with the magnet sitting on top of it. Impossible to do if it had slipped off the fridge. Was woken at 2am by a big crash. A large picture which had hung on my wall for 20 years. Had somehow come off the wall and was laying face up on the floor.

[00:11:23] The glass had been smashed. I moved then. Now living in a much newer 1970s house with no history of anyone dying in it. Thought all the ghostly activity would stop. But last month I stood in the lounge and the TV turned on by itself. Ten minutes later I walked into the bedroom and the TV in there turned on by itself. Last week I was having a bath.

[00:11:53] Have some weighing scales underneath the wall hung sink. You turn them on by standing on them. They turned themselves on while I was lying in the bath. No weight could be on them. Cause they were under the sink. Impossible to capture footage of TVs and scales turned on by themselves. Or breaths out of the blue. Or cords swinging because by the time I got my phone out. And video turned on. The activity always stopped. In any event you are so startled.

[00:12:24] Taking video or pictures doesn't even enter your mind. At least it doesn't with me. I thought I had unusual activity in my previous houses because they were old and had lots of residual energy. But my current more modern house has only had two owners. The previous owner is now living in my old house as we had swapped houses. Please, no sarcastic, pointless, or childish remarks.

[00:12:50] I just wanted to share as I'm starting to think the activity is personal to me. I'm an actual empath. I have what's called in research mirror pain synthesis. And physically feel other people's physical pain. And also the trait of high sensitivity. Wondering if my expanded empathy and sensitivity to energy is related to any of the activity.

[00:13:18] Our next story is from reddit user Subject9373. I'm living in a semi-detached house where the Islamic nice lady who used to live in the house next door died because of a car accident 10 years ago. She was pretty close to my mom and was very kind to our family. There has been no incident that happened within the empty house next to mine until now.

[00:13:45] Because on the first floor of that house has been operating as a small factory with 2-3 female workers about 5 days a week. They're all foreign and don't have any access to the second floor. But lately, the sister of the previous owner who was living far away had someone fixed the house from termites and a lot of old furniture got removed. And some parts of the ceiling were left exposed.

[00:14:12] Since then, in this past two weeks, my family has started to hear some noise of objects moving on the wooden floor of the second floor inside the empty house. Then last Wednesday around 7pm, everyone in my family heard a loud bang at the wall between the old house and ours. My mom immediately contacted the empty house's caretaker who lives nearby to come in and check inside the house.

[00:14:42] But they found nothing except some part of a gelose window was left open, so they closed it. After that day, my family just decided to let the incident go. Because we only heard some weird noise for about 3 times and got someone to go inside to check for us and put our mind at ease. But last night, it's certain that there's something going on in that house. It's 10pm. I was browsing Reddit in my room.

[00:15:12] And suddenly, there's a noise of an object moving again behind the wall. And maybe some sound of a drawer being searched. There's no sound of footsteps at all. We can usually hear footsteps if someone's walking around on the second floor. And I'm living in a big city where there's security cameras on every inch of the streets and houses. Those sounds won't show up during the day, and it's the fourth time in the past two weeks already.

[00:15:42] This next story comes from phantomsandmonsters.com, and it's a transcript of an account recorded by Lon Strickler in 1983. When I was 15, in 1973, we lived on an 80-acre farm in the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas. Back then, it was considered rural, though in truth, we were only about 15 to 20 minutes from town.

[00:16:11] We raised poultry from a local company and had a long chicken house. Near the end of it, beside the driveway, stood a yard light pole with metal pegs on it so you could climb up and change the bulb when it burned out. One evening, around 7 o'clock, I went outside to feed our Alaskan Husky. Usually, he would be waiting at the back door. But that night, he was nowhere to be seen. Then I heard him whining.

[00:16:37] I followed the sound around the side of the house toward a tool shed and root cellar. I found him hiding underneath the building where he had dug out a spot for himself, and no matter how much I called, he would not come out. That was when I caught a strong skunk-like smell. I figured that must be what sent him under the shed. I stood up, then suddenly felt the unmistakable sense that I was being watched. I turned in a circle, looking for whatever was out there.

[00:17:04] When I turned towards the chicken house, I saw it. Standing right under the yard light was a tall creature, covered in long, reddish hair. Its face looked human to me, but it was framed by a long beard and long hair. I could see it clearly. There was no mistaking what I was looking at. My mother later measured the pull by the pegs visible that night, and based on that, we figured that the creature stood about eight feet tall.

[00:17:34] I froze. It was staring directly at me, and I was staring back. I glanced towards the back door, trying to judge how far I was from the house, then looked back at the creature. In the hand nearest the poultry house, I was holding a dead chicken. The next day, we found that the screen on the poultry house had been pulled back. For several seconds, which felt much longer, we stood there facing one another.

[00:18:02] Then it turned and calmly walked about ten feet towards the gate that enclosed our field. At fifteen, I was about four foot eleven, and I knew the top of that gate came up to my eye level. The creature simply stepped over it. Once it crossed into the field, it took a few steps, then turned and looked back at me. After that, it moved off with a kind of walk and lope into the darkness until I could no longer see it.

[00:18:32] That backward glance is what finally broke me. I screamed bloody murder. My mother came rushing outside with her shotgun. A few weeks earlier, we had seen a panther near our pond, so she had been keeping the gun by the back door. After a few moments of me jabbering in shock, I finally managed to tell her what I had seen. That was when she told me she had something scratching at a screen the night before.

[00:18:59] I was relieved that she believed me, but after that, I refused to feed the dog or go outside after dark. Later, we learned that a neighbor whose property backed up to ours had also seen the same creature. As an adult, I still think about that night and what I felt. There was shock, yes, and confusion too. But oddly enough, I didn't feel fear at first.

[00:19:27] Not until it turned and looked back at me. Until then, I never sensed danger. I did not see menace in its eyes, which looked dark into me. What I saw felt too human, too aware, too intelligent for me to dismiss it as some animal I already knew. I have never forgotten a single detail. I do not believe these beings are just monkeys or gorillas.

[00:19:56] This one looked too human and too aware. And like other wild creatures, I think when their territory is disturbed, they sometimes make their presence known to warn people away. In my opinion, those who stumble upon them by accident may have a better chance of seeing one than those who go actively looking. Our next story is from reddit user hot underscore blonde underscore Lily.

[00:20:25] When I was a nursing student, I lived in accommodations specifically for nursing and midwifery students. The building was actually on the hospital grounds, not far from the morgue. From the moment I moved in, the place just had a really strange vibe. At first, I told myself it was just because it was the first time I'd moved away from home. But over time, things started happening that I still can't really explain. Pretty quickly, I started having really intense nightmares.

[00:20:54] And this constant feeling like I was being watched whenever I was in my room. Small weird things would happen all the time. I'd put something down on my bed, leave the room, and when I came back, it would be somewhere else. And I was certain I hadn't moved it. I also kept having this strange sense that something bad was about to happen. One time, I had that feeling really strongly, and then a door suddenly slammed and caught my fingers. Things like that started happening more and more.

[00:21:24] At one point, I had a pet hamster that I'd rescued from another student who wasn't looking after her properly. The hamster was a bit erratic and would run up against the sides of the tank a lot. One night, I woke up and heard her growling in my room. It was coming from the hamster's cage. I know that sounds ridiculous because hamsters don't growl. So, I assumed it must have been some weird noise it was making. But it honestly sounded like an actual growl.

[00:21:53] Other times, I'd be home alone and hear someone clattering around in the kitchen as if someone was cooking or moving dishes. When I went to check, no one was there. The strangest thing that happened involved the oven. If I put food in the oven, sometimes the temperature would suddenly turn up to full blast, and I knew I hadn't touched it.

[00:22:17] At one point, I mentioned it to two girls I lived with, who I didn't really get along with, but they told me they'd been having the same problem and assumed I was the one doing it. But this had happened when they were out and I was home alone. So, it wasn't them. The nightmares just kept getting worse. Whenever I went home for holidays and they came back to the flat, the minute I walked through the door, I'd get this horrible feeling of anxiety like something wasn't right.

[00:22:46] During a placement in ICU, I mentioned some of this to my mentor. She was a middle-aged nurse who'd seemed very normal and not the type to make up weird stories. When I told her where I lived, she immediately knew the building. She said she had actually lived there herself years before when staff were allowed to stay there. She told me she once put in a complaint because she kept hearing someone running around the flat above her late at night. When she reported it, the office told her that nobody lived in that flat.

[00:23:17] Another time, she had a friend visiting. They were standing in the kitchen and they both saw a woman dressed in white out of the corner of their eye. When they turned to look properly, she was gone. She said it looked like a woman wearing something like a white nightgown. The scariest experience I had not long before I moved out. I was trying to sleep and eventually drifted off. I suddenly had this dream where an old woman in a hospital gown was standing over me.

[00:23:47] She looked almost demonic and was laughing in a really horrible way. In the dream, she said she was going to take something from me. I woke up immediately after that and I couldn't move. I had full sleep paralysis and that same feeling of dread like something was still there. After that, I slept with the light on every single night. I was supposed to leave the accommodation earlier, but I had failed one unit and had to stay an extra few months.

[00:24:16] The whole time I was there, I had this horrible feeling that I'd never leave. Like something in that place didn't want me to go. I would often talk about it with other students who confirmed they also felt a negative energy there. Our final story is from Reddit user EntertainmentLow7036. This is all a true story. And out of my entire life of experiencing the paranormal, this story takes the cake.

[00:24:46] Also, this is a little part 2 from a post I made at the time this was actively happening about 4 years ago. A little background, because it's pretty necessary for my story. This sounds corny, but I've always had a weird sense when it comes to the paranormal. Not like I can talk to ghosts or summon demons, but I do get this super weird feeling in my gut when something like this happens. Also, my mom is a skeptic and has never fully believed in ghosts.

[00:25:16] Anyway, mid-2022. Me, my mom, my aunt, and my cousin planned a trip down to Florida for about 5 days. We got a pretty small Airbnb for us to stay in, and we were pretty excited for Disney World. The house was like this. Walk in, and straight ahead of you is a kitchen. To your right is a small dining room and a small hallway to the bathroom. My room and my mom's room.

[00:25:43] To the left was the living room and my cousin's and aunt's room. My cousin and aunt had a volleyball tournament to go to on the 4th day, so they wouldn't be in the Airbnb for the 5th day. The first day, nothing crazy happened. No odd feelings. Nothing. It was on the second day that the first odd occurrence happened. At about 11pm, I thought I was the last one in the house awake as everyone else was tired from the long day we had.

[00:26:11] Just as I was getting to sleep, I started to hear someone pressing the buttons of the microwave. I figured my cousin was warming up her leftovers from dinner, so I shook it off. However, the microwave wasn't turning on. Only the buttons were being pressed. I thought I was just imagining things and went to bed. The morning of the 3rd day came, and as we were driving to one of the Disney parks, I asked who was screwing with the microwave the night before.

[00:26:42] Turns out, nobody was out of their rooms the entire night. However, my cousin heard the same thing and was annoyed as the constant beeping woke her up. We pointed out the creepiness, and just went on with our day. So after the day was over, we got home, it got late, and once again I was the last one awake. By about 10pm, I started to hear a faint knocking on the wall behind my bed.

[00:27:11] I figured it was neighbors, so I ended up not thinking much of it. That was until I turned the light off to go to sleep. As I was laying there, I saw a white orb come out slowly floating from the corner of the doorway and make its way to the middle of the room, just to dart back to where it came from. I nearly peed my pants and decided it was sleep with the lights on time.

[00:27:37] After I turned the lights on, the knocking started back up, but this time it was clearly coming from the wall connected to the bathroom, which debunked my neighbor theory. The knocking continued from the wall behind me and the bathroom wall. I was also hearing the microwave buttons being pressed again. Once I started to slightly calm down, I was finally able to go to bed. It was about 2am at this point. The next day was the 4th day of our trip.

[00:28:06] I decided to tell everyone what happened and what I saw, but was brushed off by everyone including my mom. So I decided to just stay quiet about it for the rest of the day. By the time night came around, my cousin and aunt had left the Airbnb, and my mom started to believe me. As it was getting later in the night, probably around 8pm, I heard the faint sound of knocking coming from my bed, and I decided to go sit on my mom's room with her.

[00:28:34] But the knocking continued from the bathroom, loud enough for me and my mom to both hear. Eventually, the knocking seemed to be coming from every room in the house, yet very faintly. And may I add, I was getting the worst gut feeling I've ever experienced. This really started to spook me and my mom. The breaking point was when a bottle that was in the then-vacant room was thrown loud enough for me and my mom to hear it across the house, roughly 30 feet away.

[00:29:05] By this point, the knocking was coming from every room in the house at the same time very loudly. It felt like something out of an Exorcist movie. So we decided to pack up and get a hotel for the night. As I was bringing my duffel bag out into the living room, there was a very loud, obvious footsteps stomping behind me. It sounded like someone was walking right on my heels.

[00:29:29] However, the trippiest part about this whole experience was when I picked up my duffel bag and exclaimed, Okay, we're leaving. Dead silence. The knocking stopped. The horrible feeling of dread went away. And we left and got that hotel. Well, the sun's coming up.

[00:29:56] I hope you've enjoyed these allegedly true horror stories. And if there's anything you should take away from this episode, it's that you may never truly be alone. Visit our website outtherecryptids.com for links to our Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Discord, and more.

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