6 of the Scariest TRUE Stories

Dark Files Midnight tales

Enter the dark side of reality with “6 of the Scariest TRUE Stories | American Horror Story 2025 - Dark Files: Midnight Tales.” These aren’t just ghost tales — they’re real-life horror stories that will chill you to the bone. From haunted houses to unexplained disappearances, every story in this video is inspired by true events that will leave you questioning what’s real and what’s not.  🌙 Sit back, turn off the lights, and get ready for a terrifying journey into America’s darkest nightmares.  👁️‍🗨️ Featuring:  True horror stories from across the USA  Creepy real events and paranormal encounters  Spine-chilling narration and atmosphere  Dark Files: Midnight Tales exclusive series  🔔 Subscribe for more real horror stories, urban legends, and unexplained mysteries every week.  📅 Year: 2025 📍 Genre: Horror / True Crime / Mystery  #DarkFiles #AmericanHorrorStory2025 #TrueStories #CreepyTales #MidnightTales

Transcript

00:00I was looking for a car to buy for my son for his 18th birthday.

00:15I was searching all the typical car websites, cars.com, ebay motors, they were all overpriced

00:21as expected.

00:22Craigslist was the only place to find an actual deal.

00:26About a week into my search, I found an 03 Toyota Camry.

00:30It had 67,000 miles, no accidents, no damage, and good condition for only $3,500.

00:37This seemed like a steal for such a reliable car with such low mileage.

00:41The seller lived about 10 miles from me, which was a reasonable drive when looking for a car.

00:47I gave him a call to set up a time to come check it out.

00:50The man sounded normal on the phone.

00:52He assured me there were absolutely no problems with the car.

00:55He introduced himself as Bob.

00:58I brought along $3,500 in cash, even though I planned on wiggling down the price as much

01:02as possible.

01:03I pulled up the dirt road to Bob's property about 15 minutes early.

01:08It was a tiny little house with a decent sized property, only because it was a bit far from

01:12the nearest neighbors.

01:14The garage was open, so I looked over to see if anyone was inside, but except for an unusual

01:19amount of car parts, it was empty.

01:22The car was nowhere in sight.

01:23The only car on the property was an old pickup truck.

01:26I went over to the front door to check the house numbers.

01:29It was the right address.

01:31The doorbell button was missing, so I knocked on the front door.

01:35I knocked every once in a while for exactly five minutes before deciding to give the man

01:39a call.

01:40So I dialed his number, and I heard the sound of his phone ringing from inside the house.

01:44I was extremely confused at this point.

01:48Now I knew I had the right house.

01:50I didn't understand why if he was home, why he wasn't answering.

01:54I decided I had to take a peek through one of the windows to see if anyone was inside.

01:59Peering through the glass, I couldn't really see much as it was pretty dark inside the house.

02:04I saw a very old-fashioned dining room set, but across from that, I saw somebody standing

02:10at the back door of the house, staring outside.

02:13I figured that must have been Bob, so I knocked on the window, but he didn't even move.

02:19There was no gate or anything to the backyard.

02:21It was just a wide-open yard, since this wasn't a rural area.

02:25I simply walked around the house to the backyard.

02:28I didn't understand how he couldn't hear me.

02:31When I got to the back door, I made a shocking realization.

02:34The figure standing by the door was a taxidermied human being.

02:38I ran straight back the way I came, and back to my car.

02:43I looked up one last time before driving off.

02:46The blinds to the window I had peeked into had been shut, but I could see two of the blinds

02:50creased open.

02:52Somebody was at that window, watching me.

02:55You could probably guess I had the gas pedal to the floor the whole way home.

02:59The whole situation still makes no sense.

03:02All the car parts, the fact that there was no Toyota Camry, the taxidermied human being.

03:06Given that there was no car there, leads me to believe that whoever that man was, wasn't

03:12planning on selling me anything.

03:14And that also leads me to the disturbing thought that I was very close to becoming a lifeless

03:19statue staring out that man's back door.

03:21This happened when I was really little, and often left alone with my single mom.

03:36She always came to check on me every night when she would get up to go to the bathroom.

03:40This one night in particular, I remember waking up thinking I had heard something in my closet.

03:45I looked up, and my mom was at the foot of my bed giving me a playful wave.

03:51She told me to go back to sleep.

03:54She then went into my closet and pulled the door until it was just barely open, and she

03:58just stood in there, poking her head through the crack of the barely open closet.

04:03I remember vividly seeing her eye peeking through the crack at me.

04:07I laughed like any little kid would do in that situation, and then fell asleep moments later.

04:14When I was eating cereal the next morning, I asked my mom why she was hiding in my closet

04:18last night, and she just stopped and gave me a puzzled and concerned look.

04:23She told me she hadn't been in the room all night.

04:26At first she assumed somebody had broken into the house, but she soon realized it was some

04:31kind of hallucination or dream.

04:33Since this experience, I've only had two other hallucinations, neither of them as vivid

04:39or as creepy as this one.

04:51In the year 2009, I was spending a weekend with my uncle on his ranch when my parents were renovating

04:56the new house we had just bought.

04:58It was my second night there, a Saturday, and it happened to be during one of the biggest

05:02thunderstorms of the year.

05:04I'd say there were at least three crashes of thunder and lightning per minute, and we

05:08were in the heart of the storm, because the thunder would crash not even a second after

05:11the lightning would.

05:13I always enjoyed listening to storms while laying in bed, so I stayed up a little later

05:18watching TV, just enjoying the ambiance.

05:22After the movie I was watching finally ended, I turned off the TV and tried to fall asleep.

05:26As I heard the lightning strike from outside, I could have sworn I heard some kind of metallic

05:37thud coming from outside at the same time.

05:40I didn't pay it too much mind.

05:4320 seconds later, I could have sworn I heard it again.

05:49A very distinct metallic thud coming from outside to match the timing of the lightning.

05:55I really don't mean to make this sound like a cliche horror story, but my uncle really is

06:00a kind of creepy guy, and I was never close with him, even remotely.

06:04So for that reason, I didn't feel right going to wake him up.

06:07I just tried to forget about it.

06:13Now I was getting concerned.

06:15What the hell could that be?

06:16After the third time, I finally got out of bed and walked over to the window of the guest

06:22bedroom.

06:23The water pouring down on the window made it extra hard to see what was out there in the

06:27dark fields.

06:29A flash of lightning momentarily lit up the property, but I couldn't see anything.

06:34However, once again, the sound of a metal hit accompanied it.

06:38The sound was so close now, it sounded like it was coming from the left of the window at

06:42a blind spot.

06:43I was going to do something I knew my uncle wouldn't be happy about.

06:48It would be a bit messy, but I was going to open the window and peer outside to see if I

06:52could see what the sound was.

06:55I unhooked the window lock and slid it up, and immediately the wind of the storm blew drops

06:59of rain into the room and onto me.

07:01I stuck my head out the window and looked to the left, and at that very moment, lightning

07:07lit up the property once again, and I could see a person, dressed in all black, crouched

07:11down by the outside basement door with his hand raised in the air, and before the sky

07:16went dark, I caught the briefest glimpse of what the sound was coming from.

07:19The person was bashing at the basement door lock.

07:22I pulled my head in and quietly shut the window, making sure to lock it.

07:26I was in a panic.

07:29I feared he might have seen or heard me.

07:32I ran back to bed and pretended to be asleep, facing away from the window.

07:37Lightning crashed once again, but this time, there was no metallic thud.

07:41My heart must have dropped as I realized this.

07:43I just stayed put in bed for the longest time, hoping whoever was out there would go away.

07:50After maybe three more lightning crashes without any thuds accompanying them, I thought it would

07:55be safe to go tell my uncle.

07:57I turned to face the window and screamed.

08:00There was a figure, clear as day, standing at the window, looking in at me.

08:05I screamed as loud as I could and ran straight to my uncle's room.

08:09He went outside with his hunting rifle, with nothing on but his pajamas, not even socks.

08:14He ran around the entire property yelling like a madman, but didn't find anyone.

08:20The next morning, we were able to better see the marks on the basement door lock.

08:25It was almost bashed open.

08:26Maybe three or four more good hits would have done it, according to my uncle.

08:30He was proud of me for picking up on it.

08:32Luckily, I was out of there that same day.

08:34My uncle hasn't told us of any incidents since, so I think he's been okay.

08:39Not that we talked to him much at all.

08:41I'm grateful I stayed up a little later that night watching that movie, because I may have

08:45just stopped a robbery, or possibly much worse.

08:48I don't care if anyone judges me, but I like to go to the movie theaters alone.

09:04My work schedule is all over the place.

09:06I often don't work weeknights.

09:08So, on a stormy Wednesday night, a night not many other people would be thinking to go drive

09:12to a movie theater, I did just that.

09:14I always like avoiding crowds in anything I do.

09:17That's just how I am.

09:20It was 2017.

09:21I went to see some low-key movie that probably wasn't at the top of most people's must-see

09:25movie lists.

09:27I was the only one in the theater, just like I expected.

09:30I sat myself right in the center seat of one of the higher-up rows and put my feet up on

09:34the seat in front of me.

09:36About 20 minutes into the movie, I'd say, I noticed someone a few aisles down.

09:40I didn't notice them coming in.

09:41The theater was dark because the scene in the movie at the time was in a dark room.

09:47They weren't sitting in a seat like a normal person, though.

09:50All I saw of them was the top half of their head, peering over one of the seats to be looking

09:54in a direction that definitely was not the screen.

09:57It was still too dark to be able to tell if they were looking directly at me or not, but

10:01when the scene changed to a brighter background, the whole theater got brighter.

10:06Bright enough to see they were looking basically at me.

10:08But their face was so pale and lifeless looking, and their hair messy and wiry looking, I couldn't

10:15even tell if it was a man or a woman.

10:18I'm an introvert, or just an awkward person, so I didn't really want to ask if there was

10:22something wrong.

10:23I viewed that as confrontation.

10:24The screen went darker again, and at the same time, the person lowered down behind the chair

10:30completely until I couldn't see them anymore.

10:32They were completely hidden from my view.

10:35I couldn't concentrate on the movie now, though.

10:37I was actually very uncomfortable.

10:39Actually quite terrified.

10:42I didn't get up, though.

10:43I stayed put in my seat.

10:45Many scenes in the movie passed.

10:47I almost forgot about what happened.

10:49Almost.

10:49Just when I was getting back into the movie, the person's head appeared from behind a seat

10:54again, this time much closer, only like three rows of seats away from me.

10:59I actually let out a holy shit and a loud yell because it genuinely made me jump.

11:04Now I was able to see more detail or features in their face.

11:08They actually looked lifeless.

11:11Their eyes motionless, hung open.

11:13But still, I somehow couldn't tell if they were looking directly at me or not.

11:17Now I could better see it was a man with long, unkept hair.

11:22I noped the F out of my seat and down the row to the exit.

11:25I had to pass the row in which the person was in to get to the exit door.

11:30As I passed the row, I looked down it.

11:32And while I expected to see the rest of the person's body sitting hunched behind the seats,

11:37instead what I saw was something you'd see in a nightmare.

11:39There was some guy basically laying on the floor, holding up a severed head perched on a stick.

11:44I didn't stick around to see if it was some sick joke or if the head was real or not.

11:49I ran for it through the exit door, and I ran out of the back exit of the building to the parking lot.

11:54I drove home in a panic, heart racing.

11:57That head looked so real.

12:00I got home and did some research about possible recent murders or missing people in the area.

12:05And I found something.

12:06After browsing a list of missing people in the area,

12:09I found the picture of a 17-year-old boy named Donald Watkins who had gone missing a month prior.

12:14And based on the picture I found, his face could have matched the head I saw in that theater.

12:18Of course, that could be my brain trying to connect any similarities.

12:23But the hair, the nose, the eyes.

12:25They looked like they could actually be a match.

12:28The next day, I simply made a call to the theater and told them the story

12:32and suggested they check their cameras and see if anything strange came up.

12:36I gave them my number to reach me if they needed to, but I never heard from them.

12:40I chose to not spend any more of my time on it.

12:48A long time ago, I very briefly lived with my good friend Ben on a quiet street in Northville, Michigan,

12:58perhaps notable for being close to Detroit.

13:02It wasn't the nicest house.

13:04Or block.

13:05Or area, for that matter.

13:07But the price was unbeatable for two broke young men like ourselves.

13:12Ben and I went way back to when we were like 9 years old.

13:15And at the time of this story, we worked the same job and rooming together with him seemed like a great idea.

13:22On our first day there, we quickly figured out that the creepy looking house across the street

13:27with the overgrown grass and bushes was abandoned, as were a lot of the houses around the area.

13:32In fact, something we somehow hadn't noticed before,

13:35there was even graffiti next to one of the front windows and on the fence.

13:40Our neighbors on one side seemed like creeps and we didn't even want to approach them.

13:44The neighbor on the other side was an older dude, a very interesting, hippie-ish kind of guy.

13:50His name was Marv.

13:52He had long gray hair with a matching long gray beard.

13:56He seemed friendly at first, I guess, but also very weird and hard to talk to.

14:01We spoke with him on our second day there after work.

14:05He told us the place had been abandoned for as long as he could remember.

14:08That night, with the sun almost set, while we were sitting on the front stoop smoking,

14:16I looked to the house across the street and felt a little tingle in my stomach out of shock.

14:22I stood up, threw my cigarette onto the floor and crushed it.

14:26Ben looked at me confused and I pointed to the window across the street.

14:29I was pointing at a face, which I saw, staring at me through the lone upstairs window of the house.

14:37Do you see that?

14:38There's someone at that window.

14:41Ben looked at the window immediately, but I saw the person move their head away before he could see it.

14:46It's weird.

14:49I explained to Ben that I didn't even know if it was a male or female, old or young.

14:53The glass was just too foggy.

14:56All I knew was that I saw the eyes, and they were staring at us.

15:02Ben told me I was legitimately creeping him out.

15:04He believed me.

15:06We ran over to Marv's house to tell him, but strangely, he didn't answer his door,

15:10even though we saw him watching TV in his tiny, messy living room through the window.

15:14The fact that the guy wouldn't answer creeped us out even more.

15:19Dude, what the fuck is going on with this place?

15:22Ben laughed, but the situation couldn't stay comical for long.

15:27Ben owned a katana.

15:28He brought it to mention and suggested we go across the street with it,

15:31break into the house from the backyard, and see what was going on.

15:35We were always adventurous, daring troublemakers as kids,

15:38so this was our natural response to the situation.

15:41When it got dark, we went across the street to the backyard,

15:45broke off the board holding the back door shut, and entered the house.

15:48We both had heavy-duty flashlights with us to light up basically any room we were in.

15:54The house was dusty, decrepit, but surprisingly seemed to remain untouched from the inside.

16:00No graffiti or signs of vandalism anywhere.

16:03Still, the place was disturbingly creepy,

16:05and we immediately joked that we should get the fuck out of there, but we pressed on.

16:10The first floor was pathetically small like our own.

16:13A kitchen, a tiny living room, and a dining room.

16:16There was no basement and one closet.

16:19The first floor was clear.

16:21We both agreed to check the upstairs.

16:24We tiptoed over to the stairs, and Ben, out of nowhere, screamed,

16:28is anybody up there.

16:30Dude, why the fuck would you do that?

16:32I said quietly.

16:34Then, we both froze in fear, when we heard rapid stomping suddenly appear from above us.

16:39It was someone heavy, and it sounded like they were running over to the stairway.

16:43I literally felt like my heart stopped.

16:46Ben, the one with the katana, was the first to flee, grabbing my arm and hugging me with him.

16:51We went out the way we entered, and ran back to the house,

16:54where we saw Marv just standing by his window, watching us.

16:58We didn't know what to do.

17:00He just intently stared at us as we froze to catch our breath in front of the house.

17:05We went inside, decided not to call the police, and moved out literally the next day.

17:10We explained to the landlord that the location was just too inconvenient for us,

17:15and we needed to leave ASAP.

17:17We drove away from that house, and never looked back.

17:24For my son's 12th birthday, my wife and I threw him a little party in the backyard.

17:34We invited the whole family, as we usually did for any of our kids' birthdays,

17:38and let him invite all of his friends, too.

17:40We live in rural New Jersey, so our backyard connects to forest on two sides.

17:45We also have a pretty big property, which allowed us to space out a bunch of tables on the grass

17:49with food and refreshments.

17:51The little party went into the night.

17:54Most of our guests left, but closer family and some of our friends stayed late.

17:59It was probably 8 o'clock.

18:00The mosquitoes were out in full force,

18:02so I decided to run over to the shed at the far end of the backyard by the woods

18:06to fetch the tiki torches.

18:09I grabbed like six torches and set them on the grass while I went back in to look for fuel.

18:14However, while I was in the shed, I heard steps in the woods.

18:17I stopped what I was doing to take a look out there, but honestly, it was just too dark

18:22to see out into the woods.

18:24After finding the fuel, I went back to the part of the yard everyone else was at and pitched

18:28the torches into the ground.

18:30The six torches gave off a decent amount of light while keeping us safe from the blood-sucking

18:34pests.

18:35There were about six kids left, including my son, and they all wanted to play hide-and-seek

18:41in the woods.

18:42My wife and I allowed it, just making sure to tell them to stay close to the tree line.

18:48My son and his friends went to play their little game in the woods, which left the rest of

18:51us to sit in peace for a little bit.

18:53It was a solid 15 minutes of talking with relatives and hearing the kids laughing and yelling in

18:58the near distance out in the woods.

19:01But all of a sudden, the yelling turned to screams, concerning-sounding screams from the

19:05kids.

19:06All of us looked at each other, sitting up in concern.

19:10The kids one by one came running out of the woods, yelling that there's something in there.

19:14We don't have bears or any big predatory animals around here, so that was not the first thing

19:19we assumed it to be.

19:21I told all the kids to stay near the patio area.

19:24My brother Dom and I, being the biggest men there, decided to go investigate.

19:29We took a couple flashlights, and off we went into the pitch-black woods.

19:34The only sounds we heard around us were crickets and other night bugs.

19:38So we went deeper, and that's when we started to hear something else.

19:42It sounded like an animal at first, but as we followed the sound to get closer, the sound

19:47started to become more human-like.

19:51We continued to walk, and we agreed we both had the feeling that we were being watched.

19:56Like, stalked.

19:58I put my arm out to stop Dom.

20:01Standing in the silence now, the best way I could describe the sound we were hearing was

20:06a moaning, angry kind of sound.

20:08It sounded human, but it was a bizarre sound.

20:13Then, a few cracks of the leaves on the ground ahead of us.

20:18We aimed our lights over there, and there was someone or something behind the tree.

20:23The moaning sound stopped.

20:26Dom stepped forward and called out.

20:28What happened next was textbook horror movie stuff.

20:32A scream, so loud, so blood-curdling, so inhuman, filled the air.

20:42I'm sure it could be heard for miles.

20:45Dom and I turned and booked it back to the property.

20:48We waved at everyone to go inside when we made it back.

20:52Dom got on the phone with the sheriff's department.

20:55They said it was probably a wild animal.

20:57We wanted to insist it was a human, but we honestly couldn't.

21:02We to this day don't know who or what we saw and heard in those woods.

21:06But it was definitely stalking us and the kids when they were playing hide and seek.

21:11And that scream we heard, it just didn't sound human to us.

21:15Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

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