What's your downright scariest real life story? (r/AskReddit)

What's your downright scariest real life story?

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[santiagodelrio]

I would have taken the lost library book fee and avoided that situation all together.

[sbingham]

Moral of the story: ALWAYS listen to your gut feeling and if you have a bad feeling

[d.s.parentsr]

That last one was terrifying. To quote Daniel Chirot's book titled 'Why Not Kill Them All, ' "given the right circumstances, normal human beings are all too ready to kill by category."

[tracemcsorley]

That last story was intense and engaging

[RealityEscapeeItIsMe]

Someone I know was in Belfast in the late 80's. They were just walking around and got chatting to some guys. They parted company and went into a newsagent to get cigarettes and heard an unmerciful bang. The guys they spoke to had just been murdered in their car by a bomb. He saw this and saw people running away 😳

[rowangibney]

This is a story that happened to my dad.
So my dad was in the military and at one point he was stationed on one of the Hawaiian islands. There was a HUGE stray cat population there (keep this in mind). All the soldiers really liked this one bar, but people kept on breaking in and stealing all the alcohol. So everyone decided to take turns every night keeping watch in the bar to catch the guys stealing the stuff. This bar also had rumors of ghosts in the back rooms and pantries. One evening my dads roommate who was a K-9 unit guy searched the bar with his highly trained German Shepard. The dog has dug up BOMBS before, but once it reached the pantry it refused to go in, whimpering and tugging away from its leash to get away. So anyways my dad was stationed in a hallway DIRECTLY facing this pantry. He was kinda creeped out but was trying to cool his nerves. All of a sudden, a door starts banging, like back and forth just slamming against the wall. My dad stands up shaking, loads his gun, and creeps towards the sound, scared out of his fucking mind. He approached the door (it’s a screened door) and… it’s a kitten. A kitten (one of many on this island) had gotten its claw stuck in the door and was trying to pull its paw away from the door. My 6’5, armed, and menacing dad was scared of a kitten. He freed the kitten and they never did catch the man stealing the drinks.

[martinoberman]

The last story was about the Shankhill Butchers a group of serial killers only targeting Catholics scary shit.

[hughmungus]

I am a young man, 22, and barely out of college, it always baffles me when I hear stories of violence against women, like why would you do that, what would push you to hurt someone who at one point you loved, and I live in a part of Europe where violence against women, although definitely is not the norm, happens somewhat regularly, I am always horrified to hear gruesome stories of women being beaten on a regular basis by their "husbands", i don't have a vast experience with relationships, but whenever i would be in conflict so often with my partners that I couldn't stand it I would just end that relationship and go our separate ways, idk, that seems like the civilized way to do it.

[ainikyu]

One of the scariest stories I know happened to me a while ago, where ironically, I decided ghosts aren’t real..I walk out of my room a little more confident and less paranoid as I have anxiety.. Then immediately came across one of my cats, who was slowly approaching ans backing away from a empty room..
He doesn’t get scared easily at all, but he looks terrified and confused..So I walk in assuming it’s just a large bug that he wasn’t prepared for..
There was nothing but an old armchair we got recently..I tried to convince him it was okay, then..the doorknob on the door behind me started to move..I don’t mean rattling or jiggling, I mean full on being turned rapidly..I screamed and ran faster than I thought I could, (terrified my cat in the process) also I was home alone besides my mom half across the house at the time..
And after I of course got the room blessed was the only time my cat would go in, but to be honest the part that still freaks me out the most.. Is when he came in he was still seemed on edge, he was moving slow and seemed alert and immediately looked all around, including behind the door..

Also this is a cat who once greeted and rubbed on a 6’6 man he’s never met, he’s loving, moody and curious, but that was the only time I’ve actually seen him genuinely afraid..

[drakhan]

My dad was stationed in Ireland in 1992-93. He had to check for car bombs constantly and was terrified of anyone finding out he was Catholic. December 10th my parents were doing last minute Christmas shopping at the Wood Green shopping centre, when they got back home mum turned on the TV, and the news showed that only about 30 minutes ago 2 bombs had gone off. Mum tired joking that dad should have paid by cheque, but dad told me all he could think about was that is 2 year old and full term wife could have died. He left the army the following April when I was 3 mouths old. He hasn't told me a lot of what happened when he was out there, just how he was always scared for us.

[FranSoldierofcetus]

14:19 I got a friend in Belfast and i showed him the story and he was like "Damn- yeah.. thats like a normal day for us.."

[crxnchi-]

Bro said she was mutilated in a trunk then said he would’ve tried to save her. She was dead before the trunk

[tiegancarey]

Didn't think it was scary at the time but looking back now it could have gone horribly wrong.. My sister had a crazy boyfriend who wouldn't take the hint. One time he snapped and chased her into the bedroom and put his hands round her neck. She shouted "call the police he's choking me" and i ran for the phone and dialed.. Everything always sorted quickly but what if it hadn't.

[chibu]

300 lbs and he landed on his neck? It really is a miracle he survived.

[punksoab]

My scariest story was when i was recovering from leukemia. I was on my third round of in-patient chemo and was a short while away from getting a bone marrow transplant. During the chemo, my heart started to give up. I could feel it giving up. My chest started feeling heavy, my head was spinning and I suddenly felt a sense of impending doom. I told my mom to call the nurse and before my mom left the room the world went black. I woke up about two hours later with no less than fifteen people in my room. Apparently, my heart gave out and the only way to restart it and keep it pumping was with steroids. First words I heard when i came back were "If i find out that any of you dropped the ball on this kid, you will be on unemployment by the end of the day."

Idk what scared me more; having my heart go out or the doctor's threat to his staff cause even i started fearing for my job... and i didn't even work during my treatment.

[echobase]

JFC that last story had its hooks in me like crazy. That shit is scary

[thecanadianpainter]

Once I was in the mall with three of my friends, and we were getting food. I went to get a drink with one of them, her name is Olivia, and the two others stayed behind to save our seats in this like sitting area. And we were just chilling in line, waiting, while this old man, he looked homeless and high as hell, or boosted with some sort of drug, came up to us and started talking about his life story, about being a bus driver and stuff. We found it pretty weird but like we weren’t really creeped out, he seemed pretty chill, but then my drink was ready so I grabbed it and he was still talking to us and we wanted to leave at this point cause he was getting like a bit aggressive, not physical or anything just with his words. So we started walking off, and the guy started to say “Hey, where are you going? I’m not done yet!” And “come back!”. We immediately started to speed walk, then running when he started yelling for us, not sure if he was walking to catch up to us or not. My two other friends didn’t really care about our encounter but me and Olivia were pretty spooked by this.
Later, when we finished, we started to walk around the mall again and me and Olivia stayed close while keeping an eye out. Not sure how but two of them (i don’t remember which two friends tho) went into Sephora, and I don’t like makeup so I went with my other friend to a different store. But once I was done in that store they were still in Sephora so I went to go inside to meet with them and that homeless man was passed out in front of the store, surrounded by security. We ended up telling the security about our encounter with him just so they had a reason to kick him out or something so he wouldn’t harass and scare other kids lol, but yeah that’s the scariest encounter I could think of on the top of my head.

[helenarichard]

The first story. Considering the man had tortured the girl first, she was probably "lucky" to not have been found in time... Some things are too gruesome to survive. You would have heard her scream anyway if she was still alive.

[enderpearls]

i have one similar to the first story! this was a few months after i started my new job. I had been parking behind the building i work in, as it was closest to the employee entrance and i have mobility issues. well every day on my way into work, when i walked past the small woods area next to the parking lot, i felt anxious and uneasy. i brushed it off for about a month. one day i took my lunch break and went out to my car, and as i walked to the parking lot there were 5 police cars and a few forensic vans with detectives standing around. i immediately rushed to my car and a detective stopped me to ask if the car was mine. i said yes and he looked relieved and told me they had found a dead body in the woods by the parking lot, not even 20 feet from my car (i could see the crime scene taped off), and they thought the car was the deceased person's. they told me i could leave so obviously i rushed out of there.

i found out later that the person they found had been missing for almost a month, and had died of an overdose in those woods. it makes me shiver to think about it now, because for that whole month i had that gut feeling. that person was there the entire time and nobody knew. i haven't had that gut feeling since they found the person.

its insane to me how the human brain is wired to sense danger subconsciously

[dripalien]

3:40
I'm pretty sure the man was just scared by you... Like just seeing a random person stand infront a wide open window just staring at nothing. Like a ghost