For some people, the spine-tingling thrill that horror films or unsettling literature provide is unnecessary; they’ve faced eerie experiences firsthand. While a few of these haunting recollections can be rationalized, others challenge our comprehension of reality, pushing the limits of our understanding.

Today, we prepared a selection of authentic stories that are sure to leave you feeling astonished and perplexed.

Story 1:
Years ago, my ex-boyfriend got out of bed and started his morning workout, but for once, he was doing it in the bedroom. My eyes were still closed, but I could hear his breathing getting heavy and strange.

It became so loud that it made me angry. I turned over and opened my eyes to tell him to shut up, only to find nobody in the room.
The breathing suddenly stopped, but I froze in terror when I saw he wasn’t in the room, even though it all sounded so real.

Then I stepped out to find he had been upstairs in the shower.
Story 2:
I’m home with my 2-year-old. I come out of the bathroom and walk down the hall to where he’s sitting. He looks at me and smiles, and my heart melts.
Then he looks just over my shoulder, past me, into the darkness of the hallway, and says, “Hi.” I spun around so quickly—it’s just the two of us. I had all the lights on for the rest of the night. My skin crawls as I type this.
Story 3:
Last week, my housemates went out, but I was busy and couldn’t go out with them. At about 11, I heard someone trying my locked bedroom door and assumed it was my housemate, so I shouted, “What do you want?”
The problem I didn’t know at the time was that they had all left the house at half past 10.

Someone had smashed up our back door and was checking all the rooms, presumably planning to rob us. I don’t like thinking about what could have happened to me if my door hadn’t been locked.

Story 4:

A few months after I was born, my parents bought a house. The lady who sold it was an old widow, and she sold it with all her old furniture. My parents got rid of most of this stuff.
Every night at the same hour, they could hear a rocking chair downstairs and the lid of a trash can slamming (objects they had gotten rid of). This lasted for a few weeks until my aunt came to babysit me. She was unaware of the phenomenon and freaked out.
She yelled, “You don’t live here anymore, you don’t belong in this world. Don’t come back!” After that, my parents never heard those sounds again.

Story 5:My parents were separated, and it was my dad’s turn to have me at his place. At the time, we lived in the back half of my great-uncle’s house. It was mainly one kitchen/dining/living room, with a bathroom and bedroom on one end. The living room window was up high, so you had to stand on something to see into it.
One time, I was home alone while my dad and great-uncle were at work. The TV went dark long enough for me to catch sight of a face in the living room window. I looked over my shoulder, and some creeper was staring at me. He vanished as soon as I saw him.
When my dad came back, he said there were footprints in the dirt and some firewood knocked over. © ChernSH / Reddit
Story 6:

I got a phone call from a private number. I missed the call and received a voicemail. It was my brother (who was in prison at the time and calling from the prison phone) and my mom having part of a conversation.
So I texted my mom and said I was sorry I missed the phone call but hoped she and my brother were well. She had no clue what I was talking about; she hadn’t spoken to my brother at all that day.
To this day, I have no idea why a private number called me and left an old recording of my brother and mother speaking. I get really weirded out thinking about who would have been on the other end if I had answered. I even still have the voicemail. © SkrodLaDa / Reddit

Story 7:I woke up around 3 a.m. one night to loud tapping outside my bedroom window (my bedroom was in the basement of our house). I assumed it was raccoons or something trying to get into our neighbor’s shed. After listening for a while longer, I managed to fall back asleep.
In the morning, I brought up the noise to my mom, who said she had heard a similar noise coming from that same side of the house; only she got out of bed and went to the front living room window to investigate. What she saw was a man emerge from between our house and our neighbor’s place.
He stopped in front of our home, took a long look, removed a pair of latex gloves, and then proceeded to walk down our street. I assume he was testing for weak spots or something, and luckily he didn’t manage to make it inside that night. © littlemisspringfield / Reddit

Story 8:When I was in fifth grade, I was walking to the bus just as dawn was breaking. I had to walk about half a mile down a back road with woods lining either side. About halfway down, I was surrounded by eight or nine dogs—not wolves, but different breeds of domestic dogs. They didn’t make a sound but blocked my path in a half circle.
I was terrified and ran back home, and when I looked back, they were gone. When I think back on it, I hope they were protecting me from some unknown danger down the road that morning. Who knows? © MrJigz / Reddit

Story 9: I went to a friend’s summer home in Italy and was asked to get out of his vehicle and check the mailbox before heading into the gated drive. I opened the mailbox, completely oblivious to the fact that it had a nest of bees inside.
I was immediately swarmed and stung many, many times, including inside my nose, eyelids, and even my gums and tongue. Instead of a night of delicious pasta, I got a rushed visit to the emergency room. © Unknown author / Reddit

Story 10: A few years ago, when I still lived at my parents’ house, I was woken up almost every night for about 5 or 6 months by constant, loud meowing. I’d look out the window to see two all-white cats sitting on the wall in the front yard right in front of my window, talking to each other. Once I opened the shade, they would stop and just stare at me. I found them so creepy.