Some stories are so eerie that they linger in your mind long after you’ve heard them. Some real-life accounts below are enough to send chills down anyone’s spine. Each story captures a moment so unsettling, even the master of suspense himself would break a sweat. From unexplainable events to strange encounters, these experiences will leave you questioning reality.

Story 1
We had a mentally unhinged woman in her 60s who had a tendency to walk around the neighborhood and sit on random porches, muttering to herself. Adults kept their distance from her, and kids were told to never go near her.

She broke into my grandma’s house while I was visiting. I was only six, sleeping in the living room, when she broke through the kitchen door, walked through the kitchen into the living room, and saw me. She just stood in front of me and smiled.

My mom and grandma took her outside and waited for her relatives to pick her up.

Story 2
We had a neighbor who moved out and came back a year later for a visit. He brought with him his two kids and an Asian woman he claimed was his wife. He insisted she was the same wife he used to have and that she had just lost weight and gotten a makeover.
But we remembered his wife as a really tiny woman, about 5’1″, with wavy bobbed hair. This new one was about 5’6″ with long, straight black hair—and she looked younger too. Even when she took off her sandals, she was still about 5’6″.

While on vacation, he told a neighbor near his vacation home that his wife had died of a brain tumor. I began to wonder where his wife really was. I think he just sent her back to her home country. But it was creepy to see him trying to pass off the new woman as his wife.

Story 3
A few nights ago during my night shift at work, I was typing up an email to a customer when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I ignored it for a moment and kept working. Then it sunk in—it was a person just staring at me through the window.

As I turned my head, they slowly walked out of my view toward the parking lot. So I rushed outside to confront them, but they were gone. Not a soul in sight for miles.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched for the rest of the night.

Story 4
I was about 11, watching my little sisters and brother while my parents were out at the store. We lived in the country, but had a neighbor we shared a driveway with. The neighbor was a fisherman and had been away for work—he had been gone for months.