The Good And The Terrifying
Life can be magical at times. With so many great memories of the times we’ve shared with our friends and family, we often don’t want to let go.
But there are some memories that stick with us forever, and they’re not always good ones.
These Redditors shared some of the most terrifying things they’ve ever experienced that left a lasting impact on their lives.
There’s Someone Outside
My room faced the street, and I had the window open because it was super hot out that night. At around 2 am, I was lying in bed when I briefly heard what sounded like loud breathing coming from outside.
Then, out of nowhere, my dog threw herself against the window, barking and growling like crazy. I grabbed the bat I kept under my bed, woke up my dad, and we checked outside.
What we found was disturbing—there was a set of shoe prints in the dirt in front of my window. We just went back inside and locked everything. I haven’t unlocked that window since.
If that story gave you the chills, you might want to have a look at what our next Redditor experienced.
Reddit/BeanieBack
No Idea
I was walking to class when I got hit by a car. I’m not sure what happened in the moments leading up to it, but when I woke up in the middle of the road, I was shocked.
I was cradling my head and was completely covered in blood. I distinctly remember lifting my head, looking at my blood-soaked arm, and thinking, ‘I’ll deal with that later.”
I put my arm back under my head and went back to sleep. Looking back, that might not have been the best decision. But luckily, it turned out okay.
That must’ve been terrifying. But we bet the fear our next Redditor felt after their encounter with a suspicious car was even worse.
Reddit/QQuixotic_
Suspicious Car
It was dark outside, and I was biking home from a friend’s house. I passed by a guy sitting in his car, doing nothing.
A couple of seconds later, as I turned into my street, I felt that something was off. Then I looked in my rearview mirror and saw that same car come around the corner behind me with screeching tires.
I managed to get onto our driveway before anything happened, and the guy honked as he drove past me. I never saw him or that car again. To this day, I’m convinced he was trying to run me over.
That was pretty creepy. But it’s nothing compared to what our next Redditor saw poking through the doggy door at his dad’s house.
Reddit/lolsokje
The Creature
When I was young, I used to stay at my dad’s house one weekend every month. One night, I was trying to sleep in his living room in front of his big-screen TV. I was always terrified of the dark and preferred the light on.
But my dad wouldn’t let me sleep with the light on in the living room. So I was in the dark room, watching TV with his Jack Russell curled up next to me. He had a doggy door, about 15 feet away, in the dining room that led outside.
It was one of the magnetized ones that would click whenever it was opened and closed. I would hear it click and think nothing of it because he went in and out all the time.
However, I heard it click when I was petting him. At that moment, I got chills up my spine. After a few minutes, I finally worked up the courage to turn and look at the doggy door. And saw that there was a tiny gremlin head poking through it.
If that wasn’t a heart-stopping encounter, we don’t know what it is. What our next Redditor experienced was next level.
Reddit/Zizzac08
Seconds From Disaster
When I was about eight years old, my family and I lived on the third floor of an apartment building.
I was walking out to the balcony just behind my dad. I had one foot out of the sliding glass door, and before I could put my second foot down, the scariest thing happened—the balcony collapsed with my dad on it.
There was broken wood everywhere, and I thought he was gone. Luckily, he lived, but his legs got messed up. It was the closest I had ever come to meeting my doom.
We’re pretty sure that’s something our Redditor will never forget. And the same can be said for our next Redditor.
Reddit/I_board_snow
A Lucky Break
I had a grenade come flying through the passenger side window of my Humvee. You’d think that’d be frightening enough, but the most terrifying thing about the situation was actually the aftermath of that grenade.
It changed my life forever. I lost a hand, broke both legs, and was missing part of my foot. However, I didn’t lose consciousness.
After seeing my hand missing and my feet and legs mangled, I definitely struggled to stay “with it.” I remember how I had a dreamy, peaceful feeling, and that’s what scared me the most.
That’s an unforgettable experience right there. Our next Redditor’s story is enough to strike fear into even the toughest of delivery drivers.
Reddit/Permalink
Wrong Address
I was delivering pizza in a small town, and some kids thought that it would be funny to give a false address.
We do security callbacks to try and prevent prank calls, but there was nothing in their behavior that suggested that it was anything other than some teenagers ordering pizza.
I knocked on the door to the farmhouse, and when it opened, I froze in fear. I was promptly greeted by the business end of a revolver.
They screamed at me to get off their property, or they’d blast me. I thought that I was actually going to meet my end while delivering a pizza.
We can only imagine how scared this Redditor must’ve been. But they weren’t the only ones that had an incident with a weapon. We’re sure our next Redditor will never forget what they saw.
Reddit/LadySmuag
Taking Out The Trash
When I was 17, I lived at my mom’s house in a middle-class neighborhood, so, for the most part, it wasn’t necessarily a bad area.
One night, as the sun went down, I was taking out the garbage. I walked the first garbage bin out when I noticed two men arguing across the street. It was nothing unusual, so I walked back and got the second bin.
When I turned around, one of the men made a shocking move—he lifted a piece and shot the other in the head point-blank.
The man with the blaster stared directly at me, then turned and fled. I was surprisingly calm about it until I was on the phone with the authorities. Then I suddenly started freaking out and panicking. I don’t think they ever caught the guy.
That was definitely an unforgettable experience. But our next Redditor had it so much worse. We’re sure his heart stopped once or twice during this encounter.
Reddit/jack-shut
Completely Unexpected
My friend and I were drinking, and we both got a little drunk. While he was in the bathroom taking a leak, I heard a deadening thud that stunned me.
Turns out, he collapsed from an aneurysm. His wife ran to my house to get help. I found him with his pants down on the bathroom floor, and I screamed at her that she needed to call for help immediately.
I dragged him out of the bathroom, shoved some ice down his pants, and I began CPR. First responders came soon after.
But he wouldn’t wake up. Luckily, he still had a pulse. I was hopeful. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any brain activity while I was giving him CPR. His wife kept him on life support and prayed, but they finally took him off.
What a terrible experience that must’ve been. What our next Redditor saw was just as shocking, if not more.
Reddit/thoreauly77
A Tragic Accident
A few years ago, I was driving at about 8 or 9 pm when all of a sudden, traffic was at a complete stop.
I thought to myself that it was odd for that time of night, but it turned out there was a bad motorcycle accident.
I saw the decapitated head of a man in the middle of the road. His eyes were facing the car to the left of me, and the lady in that car was freaking out!
The woman’s body was split into two by the guardrail. After that, I never wanted to get on a motorcycle—ever.
If there’s a good enough reason not to get on a bike, that would definitely be it. Our next Redditor also experienced something tragic while on the road.
Reddit/ntr123
Slippery Roads
I was driving on a slick road, and my car hydroplaned. The sight in front of me was horrifying. I saw that I was headed straight toward a huge tow truck-type vehicle.
I have no idea how I wasn’t destroyed. It was like time stopped while I slid, and my car just ever-so-softly skidded perfectly backward into a ditch.
The tow truck ended up in the ditch as well, about five hundred yards down.
Can you imagine what it must be like to experience that? It would definitely give us the chills. So we can completely understand why our next Redditor was so terrified by what they saw.
Reddit/bethroebodeen
Movie Night
I went to see a movie at the mall with my two teenage sons. We arrived separately and parked our cars in different sections of the lot.
When the movie was done, I was leaving the mall and driving up a ramp. In my periphery, I saw a sight that made my stomach drop—my son’s car had its front end smashed in, and there was smoke coming from it. I quickly made a U-turn.
As I drove towards them, I could see my older son, who was driving, standing outside of the passenger door with my younger son, who was 14 at the time.
Luckily, the passenger airbag had deployed, so my younger boy had only a nasty scrape on his face. Thankfully, they were both okay. I hope I never feel fear like that again, ever.
Phew, that was close. Luckily, the airbags stopped them from being seriously injured, which is exactly what would’ve happened to our next Redditor if it weren’t for their dog.
Reddit/Sevenitta
Bear-ly Made It
When I was about eight years old, I was taking my dog for a walk with my dad. We had just started to head back to the house. And about halfway there, we came across a terrifying sight that made us stop in our tracks—a bear appeared in the middle of the street.
The bear was on its hind legs, standing about 12 feet tall. And it looked very angry. Upon noticing the cub on the side of the road, my dad immediately put me behind his back.
He knew this bear wasn’t messing around if it believed its cub was in danger. The next thing I knew, my dog charged at the bear at full speed and tackled it down the hill off the side of the road.
My dad and I both thought that that was the end of our dog until, about a minute later, we saw her strolling up the hill without a scratch. She wrestled the bear all the way down the hill and won, most likely saving our lives.
Paws up to this pup. If only our next Redditor had such a heroic pet to help them through their absolutely terrifying encounter with the supernatural.
Reddit/OrganizedChaos16
Out Of This World
When I was 15, my two little sisters and I stayed over at a relative’s house. They took the guest bed, and I made a pallet on the floor.
Our aunt reminded us several times to keep the bathroom light on before going to bed, but I didn’t listen.
I got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, turned the light off, and got back in bed. As soon as I lay down, I realized that I had turned the light off and tried to get up to turn it back on—but I couldn’t.
I could sense a dark presence hovering over me. It felt as if someone was pushing on my chest, holding me down. I tried to scream but felt something over my mouth and couldn’t get anything out.
I struggled like this for what seemed like hours. Eventually, morning came, and the feeling went away. I have never been so afraid in my life.
We’re certain that this experience stayed with them for a very long time. And they probably won’t be switching that light off again. What our next Redditor saw wasn’t as creepy, but it sure was terrifying.
Reddit/shauna_winkle
A Red Light
I was about ten years old at the time. I was being driven to the doctor’s office for a check-up when we stopped at a light.
There was a guy crossing the street to my left who looked down the road and started running across the crosswalk.
The next few seconds sent a chill down my spine—a car drove through the light and slammed into him. He was launched straight into the air and landed on the ground with a loud thud.
When I looked at him, he wasn’t moving. He was just lying on the road. Luckily, we were just down the road from a hospital, and there was an office right across the street.
The woman who hit him was in absolute hysterics. What stuck with me the most was the sound of the car hitting the guy and the “Oomph!” he made upon impact.
As terrifying as that might’ve been, our next Redditor had a story that was so creepy it sent a chill down our spines.
Reddit/Bobby_Fingers
Strange Woman
Once, I found a young woman who was high, rummaging through tools in my dad’s garage. The face she gave me when she realized a larger male had confronted her in a confined space was one of pure terror.
She looked like she was ready to claw my eyes out. When she turned to run out of the garage, my dad, who was an officer, caught her by the arm and held her down until the authorities arrived.
Watching her fight, beg, and plead that we wouldn’t harm or kidnap her was pretty heartbreaking. She struggled so fiercely that we decided we should handcuff her to keep her from hurting herself or us.
In her mind, we were her worst nightmare. We found out the disturbing truth later—she was on the run and being chased by law enforcement after she had committed a heinous crime.
That was pretty hectic but not as gut-wrenching as the incident our next Redditor was involved in.
Reddit/Biggs62
The Routine
When I was around 15, I lived with my dad, who was a Vietnam veteran. We lived on a pretty busy street where car crashes were fairly common. When you heard a screech or crunch, you would get the cordless phone and some towels, walk outside to make sure everyone was okay, and call for help.
One day, we heard a screech, then a thud, not a crunch. We looked outside, and there was a woman on the road about 20 feet from the crosswalk. That was bad enough, but at the other end of the crosswalk was an even worse sight—a tipped-over baby carriage with an infant on the pavement.
My dad and I went through the routine. I grabbed the phone and the towels, and we ran outside. The infant was crying. I never felt so relieved to hear a baby cry.
The woman was alive but beaten up pretty badly. Then, her boyfriend showed up, and his demeanor was gut-wrenching. He was a fully tattooed gang member, crying like a baby, shoving people aside to get to his girlfriend.
Wow, that must’ve left a big impression on this Redditor. What the next Redditor saw was enough to make anyone feel sick.
Reddit/CalvinDehaze
One Pig, Two Pig…
I saw a trailer load of pigs traveling down a road when the tailgate opened. Cue total disaster.
Those poor piggies just started tumbling out the back of this trailer, breaking their legs, and skidding along the road.
They didn’t scream. The silence made it all that much more disturbing. They just sat there, legs splayed, road rash oozing blood, and they just sat like they were in shock.
We can only imagine how heartbreaking that must’ve been. And something similar could be said about the next story. This poor Redditor’s sister must’ve been scarred for life.
Reddit/sirnoodleloaf
Devastating Sight
When I was young, I lived in Ohio. Some of the hills in the area were ridiculously steep, and the buildings were tall to accommodate this.
There was a man on a ladder who had to have been up about four stories when he fell off. But that’s not the worst part—there was a flash from when he hit a wire.
The ladder shot out and landed on the street. I wasn’t sure whether the fall got him or if being electrocuted did.
I was only ten years old, so I didn’t really understand what I had just seen, but my sister, who was driving, was crying her eyes out.
Her response was completely understandable. Our next Redditor didn’t even know how severe the situation was until it was too late.
Reddit/smurfee123
It Should’ve Been Fine
My friends and I used to play by this creek. My cousins’ house backed up to woods, and the creek was about a mile deep behind their home. We played there pretty much every day during the summer.
One day, we were swinging, and one of our buddies slipped, which wasn’t uncommon. You would usually just fall into the creek, get wet, go home, and change. This time was different.
Our friend fell backward and ended up hitting his head perfectly on these large rocks that were by the edge of the creek. The impact was bad, and he was bleeding profusely. My brother jumped in to make sure he didn’t drown.
I ran back to my aunt’s house with one of my cousins and a friend. My brother, another cousin, and another friend stayed behind. We got help, but it was too late by that point.
I could hear his parents’ screams from my aunt’s backyard when they got there. It was awful. It has made me realize that life is short and accidents can happen anywhere. The whole experience changed me as a person.
Seeing something like that can be terrifying at any age, as our next Redditor explains.
Reddit/Permalink
Working Overtime
When I was 18, I worked at a gas station. One night, at the end of my shift, my replacement didn’t show up. I called my sister to see if she would hang out with me until I could get a hold of someone.
At about 4 am, an ambulance slowed down right in front of the station. As it came to a stop at the light, the back doors opened up, and a guy jumped out. One of the paramedics hopped out of the back and chased after him.
The guy ran right up to the station, looking terrified. He turned to the left to run again, and we were immediately taken aback by what we saw—his head was missing a big chunk in the back, and he was covered in blood.
The medic continued to pursue him through the parking lot next door. We called for help and explained the situation. Dispatch responded, “Yeah, right.” About twenty minutes later, the authorities arrived to take our statement.
It’s tragic to see things like that in life. But what our next Redditor saw would haunt them to the end of days.
Reddit/AbigailHardscrabble
Holiday-Saster
One year, during the holidays, I was skiing down a hill when I saw a ghastly tragedy occur—a five-year-old girl fell about 30 feet from the chairlift. I was about 15 feet away from where she landed.
She was face down on her stomach. I called the ski patrol immediately. They probably came in about five minutes, but it felt like an eternity. I had no medical training other than very basic “Do not move the injured person.”
Since her face was directly in the snow, I took my jacket off, and I held her neck and head still. I had a nearby person slide my jacket under her face. I tried to distract her by asking her what she got from Santa, and I sang her favorite Christmas song.
I kept holding her neck still until the ski patrol took over and sent her in the ambulance. Later, I found out that although she had some bad bruising, she walked out of the ER that day.
That was one lucky girl. Children are fragile, as our next Redditor remembered after they did the unthinkable.
Reddit/msuupnorth
Not So Fun
I once tossed my little brother into the pool, and I instantly winced with regret and fear—his head came within an inch of the concrete edge. I knew as soon as he left my grip that I had put too much force into it.
Time seemed to slow down as he drifted through the air. With the angle he was falling, the speed he was thrown, and the height he reached the peak of his trajectory, I knew that if his head hit the edge, brain damage would be the best-case scenario.
Luckily, that didn’t happen. After that, I had to sit down and take a breath.
That was a close call that could’ve ended in tragedy. Our next Redditor experienced something similar, but the results weren’t the same.
Reddit/gellinmagellin
Supermarket Surprise
When I was about four or five years old, I was at the grocery store with my mother. Everything was fine until, all of a sudden, it wasn’t.
She passed out and hit her head on the tile floor. There was an instant pancake-sized puddle of blood around her head.
She was in a coma for a couple of weeks, but she recovered. She was only left with minor short-term memory loss issues.
A sight like that would be devastating for a young child. But there are some things that will always haunt you, as our next Redditor found out.
Reddit/Lindsey_Marie
Birthday To Remember
I had just turned 22 and was living in Austin at the time. My friends and I decided to go out to the lake for my birthday weekend.
When the weekend came around, we were having a good time. One of the girls had a little too much to drink and realized she had lost her phone.
She started freaking out, saying that we had to take her back to the bar where we had lunch earlier, or she was gonna jump off the boat. We told her not to worry about it.
She wasn’t listening and tried to jump off the boat. We were able to restrain her and thought we were in the clear. But then, five minutes later, her behavior escalated, and it was too late—she just jumped off the front of the boat and took one of the guys on the boat with her.
My best friend and I knew it was going to be bad—then we saw the water change color. We both sobered up fast.
And all that trouble over a phone her friends were happy to replace. Luckily, our next Redditor managed to escape unharmed when they came face to face with a moose.
Reddit/TheJustinExperiment
Close Encounter
I was going for a run through some rural roads around my house. I turned a corner and immediately ran into a moose with her calf behind her.
Moose are extremely large and not scared of humans. They will stomp you to oblivion just because they feel like it, let alone when they are actually protecting their young.
In this case, I was less than 10 feet away from it. In the end, I got extremely lucky. It just stood its ground and glared at me, never breaking eye contact.
So, I was able to back away slowly, cut my run short, and go home. If I had taken one step closer, there was a very real chance it could have attacked, and I probably wouldn’t be here today.
That is definitely a creature you don’t want to mess around with. But what would you do if you came face to face with a wolf? Our next Redditor has the answer.
Reddit/-GregTheGreat-
Dumb Decisions
When I was 16, I took a small 14-foot boat out fishing before dark and lost track of time. A huge storm kicked up that brought on four-foot-tall waves and hail.
It threw the boat into some rocks and dumped me into a shallow cove on a relatively large peninsula connected by wilderness to the mainland. It was dark, and I had no way of contacting anyone.
I knew I needed to act quickly if I wanted to survive, so I flipped the boat, made a shelter, and hunkered down for the night. I woke up sometime during the night to a chilling sound—howling…loud howling.
I turned my flashlight on and scanned the treeline. I spotted a wolf snarling at me about 20 feet away. I scrambled under the boat and spent the night, using my fishing pole to dissuade him from digging under the side. I’ve never experienced anything as terrifying as a wolf trying to get me.
Wow, what an amazing survival story. Our next Redditor has a tale of a Christmas miracle that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
Reddit/NuthingInCummun
Tis’ The Season
It was Christmas Day, and we had pulled up beside an Army Captain who was covered in blood. He was shaking and asking if we would help him because everyone in his Humvee was gone except for him.
When he told us what had happened, we turned white. They were working with the Iraqi Army and hit an IED while doing a movement.
We explained to him that we specifically came out there to help him, and he just wouldn’t stop thanking us. It was obvious he was in complete and utter shock. He was the only survivor in that truck.
Sometimes miracles do happen. Our next Redditor’s story is a tragic one that stunned us to the core.
Reddit/PickleInDaBatt
Premature Birth
The most terrifying thing I experienced was my wife giving birth to our daughter when she was only 19 weeks pregnant. Technically, it was a miscarriage.
My wife’s cervix wasn’t strong enough, and the baby breached. She went through all the stages of labor for about seven hours after that.
My daughter was born weighing only 12 ounces. I held her, counted her toes and fingers, and saw her heart beating in her chest.
It was a glorious moment. But the worst wasn’t over… I then saw her heart stop. It was the worst day of my life.
Reddit/i_hatethesnow
In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
