5 of the Scariest True Stories From This Summer
#Horror #Story #Stories #Scary #Ghost # Haunted #Fright #Nightmare #Real #True #Paranormal
#Horror #Story #Stories #Scary #Ghost # Haunted #Fright #Nightmare #Real #True #Paranormal
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00:00This happened when I was really young. I'm talking second or third grade. It's hard for
00:19me to remember things clearly from that long ago, but this memory stands out for reasons
00:23you'll soon understand. It was a school day and it had been raining cats and dogs all day.
00:30After picking me up from school, my parents left the house for some upscale events. I can't remember
00:35if it was a fundraiser or a dinner party or something else entirely. Either way, they were
00:40supposed to come back home that night, but while they were gone, the storm picked up like crazy
00:45and it became unsafe to drive long distances. So instead of driving back home, they reluctantly
00:51decided to spend the night at one of their friend's houses who lived much closer to where the event was.
00:55I remember them calling me on the house phone and repeatedly apologizing for leaving me there
01:00by myself, even though I insisted that I wasn't even hungry and I'd be fine. My mom gave me a list of
01:06things to do before bed. Lock all the doors and windows, keep at least one house light on, make
01:11sure all the blinds were closed. Typical stuff. At the time, I didn't understand why they were making
01:17such a big deal about everything. I wasn't quite old enough to realize how important it was to not
01:23leave kids my age home alone. In fact, I was actually kind of excited to have the place to
01:27myself. It meant unlimited candy and no bedtime. I obviously didn't have a TV or any kind of screen
01:34in my room, so I stayed downstairs in the living room watching TV on the couch. I told myself I do
01:39all that stuff my mom had requested right before going to sleep, since I was planning on staying up
01:44all night anyway. But at some point later in the night, the sugar crash got to me and I accidentally
01:49fell asleep. No surprise there. I don't remember exactly what time I ended up waking up, but it was
01:55late enough for the TV to have gone into sleep mode, so 3 hours minimum. I distinctly remember
02:01being much colder when I woke up. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I mean, temperatures drop at night,
02:07but the difference was significant enough for me to instantly make the connection, even at that young
02:11age. I thought about just curling back up and going back to sleep, but then I remembered the list my
02:16mom had given me. Even at that age, I knew she'd find out if I didn't do it, and I really didn't want
02:22to get in trouble after she trusted me to stay home alone, so I forced myself off the couch and went to
02:27check the windows and doors. I went around and did everything she asked, locked the front and back
02:33doors, closed all the blinds, checked the windows, even the light. Everything was shut tight, which
02:38confused me a little because the house still felt way colder than it should have. I even put my hand against
02:44a couple of the windows to make sure they weren't cracked open or something, but they were all
02:48sealed. I figured maybe the storm knocked out the heater or something, and I didn't think much more
02:54about it. That explanation made sense to me at the time, and I was so tired that I couldn't devote more
02:59energy to thinking about the heat, so I headed upstairs to my room, ready to crawl into bed and
03:04forget about it. When I got to my room, I finally realized just how bad the storm had gotten.
03:10Our living room is tucked into the center of the house, so I hadn't really been able to appreciate
03:14the storm from down there. My childhood bedroom has a big external window though, so I could hear
03:19everything. The rain was slamming against the glass like it was trying to get in, and every minute or
03:24so there was a burst of lightning followed by a deafening clash of thunder. I wasn't scared of storms
03:30at that age, but I do remember being concerned that a tree was going to fall in the house. That's probably why
03:35I had trouble falling back asleep, even though I had been dead tired not even 20 minutes prior.
03:41As I was lying there, trying to fall asleep, I started picking up on these odd sounds.
03:46Every so often, there were these weird creaking sounds like shifting wood. Thing is, the entire
03:51floor is carpeted, so it couldn't have been coming from my room. At first, I thought it was a tree
03:57swaying in the wind, but the sound didn't quite fit. Even then, I knew the general sounds associated
04:03with thunderstorms. This definitely wasn't one of them. It started bothering me after a while.
04:10For whatever reason, it wasn't the storm keeping me up. It was that stupid sound. I couldn't take
04:17it much longer, so I sat up and looked around the room, not really sure what I was looking for.
04:22I listened, trying to drown out the sounds of the storm and focus in on the creaking.
04:27Lightning flashed, illuminating the whole room. Everything looked normal, but my eyes were drawn to
04:33the only wooden thing in the room. The closet. The room went dark again, and I sat there,
04:39perfectly still. About a minute later, lightning flashed again, and my room was once again lit up
04:44for just a split second. And in that split second, I saw something that made me choke.
04:51The closet door was slightly ajar. It had been closed before. I was 100% sure of it. Something had
04:57opened it. There was something in my room. I didn't scream. I didn't speak. I didn't even think. I just
05:04got out of bed as quietly as I could and walked out of the room. That walk from the bed to the door
05:10felt like a 500-mile, five-year journey. I immediately went downstairs and hid under the dining room table.
05:16Then, and only then, I started crying. I didn't know what else to do. There was someone in my house,
05:23in my room, and my parents were too far away to help me. I'm not sure how long I stayed under that
05:28table, but at one point, I heard footsteps walking down the stairs. I held my breath,
05:34knowing that any sound I made could have ended my life. They weren't normal footsteps. It sounded like
05:39whatever it was was jumping and pinballing down the stairs. The footsteps got closer. They were
05:45approaching the dining room table like they knew where I was hiding. I can't tell you how scared I
05:50was. I really thought I was going to die. And then, from under the table, I saw them.
05:56I couldn't see their upper body, but two bare feet walked into view. Two nasty wet and muddy legs that
06:03were tinted yellow. I couldn't tell if they were male or female legs. That's how gross and almost
06:08disfigured they looked. There were cuts all over their legs like they had rolled around in a thorn bush.
06:14They were also stumbling like they were struggling to even stand upright. And just as I thought it
06:19couldn't get any worse, they dropped something. It was a wrench. It clattered against the floor and
06:25I'm telling you, it took every fiber in my being to fight back a scream. If that person bent down to
06:31pick the wrench up, they'd definitely see me. With wide eyes, I watched as that person stood still,
06:37not picking up the wrench, but not walking away either. It felt like a standoff, where any wrong move
06:44could end my life. Eventually, they finally continued walking, and I couldn't see them anymore.
06:50I listened as the chaotic footsteps stomped and stumbled around my first floor for what felt like
06:55an eternity. And then, finally, the front door opened and shut. They were gone.
07:04I stayed hidden under that table for a long time after that. Part of it was fear, but another part of
07:10it was what I can only describe as trauma. I just remember being shaken and scared.
07:15I was at the ripe age where I understood how dangerous the situation was, but not old enough
07:20to know how to deal with it. The rest of the night was kind of a blur. I picked the wrench
07:25up off the floor, not wanting my parents to find it the next morning. After making sure the front door
07:30was locked, I slunked back upstairs, crawled into bed, and fell asleep. Everything went back to normal
07:36after that. For whatever reason, I was terrified to tell my parents. I didn't want them to find
07:42out I hadn't locked the doors and done everything they had asked me to do, so I just kept the whole
07:46thing to myself. It wasn't until several years later that I told them the story, and it actually took
07:52some convincing for them to believe me. Looking back, not telling them the moment it happened was
07:57an awful decision since there was nothing that could have been done about it so far removed from the
08:00incident. If I'm being frank, this experience traumatized me for basically the rest of my
08:05childhood. I slept with a nightlight from then on, and I developed a fear of the dark that didn't go
08:10away for a long time. I still have trouble explaining what happened that night, but I learned my lesson.
08:16Lock your doors at night.
08:18This happened over the course of three or four years when I was a kid. I can't remember exactly
08:32when I got the first one, but I started having this recurring, half-lucid nightmare maybe once
08:37every couple of months. From what I can remember, here's how it would go. I'd be lying down in bed,
08:44only the view wasn't from my first-person perspective. Instead, I'd be looking down
08:49at myself from the ceiling, like I was viewing my own bedroom through a security camera feed.
08:55The out-of-body dissociation always freaked me out. I'd try to float or swim towards my body,
09:01but I was never able to move beyond swiveling my head to look around the room. I was half-lucid,
09:07so I knew it was a dream, but that didn't make me any less scared. After calming myself down,
09:13I'd start noticing strange things about my bedroom. For one, the digital clock on my nightstand would
09:19always be counting in reverse. That was typically the first strange detail I'd notice. And once I
09:26noticed that, I'd start seeing other weird stuff. There were these drawings taped to random spots on
09:32the walls and dresser, like crayon drawings you'd expect from a kid my age, but I had no memory of ever
09:38making them. I wasn't the type of kid who ever drew much, so it wasn't like I had just forgotten about
09:43them. They always showed the same thing, a row of people holding hands, all smiling, with one
09:50smaller figure who I can only imagine was me. They were always standing in front of a house with a blue
09:56roof, but I can't remember much more about the drawings than that. The other detail about the dreams
10:01that still sticks out to me is an old toy train of mine that was always sitting in a different spot
10:06on my bedroom floor, which was significant because I had lost that particular toy years prior.
10:12Anyway, after analyzing my room for a bit, I'd get this unexplainable urge to look out my bedroom
10:18window. I'd glance over, and as if it were on cue, a man would appear just a few inches from the glass.
10:25He had short gray hair and what looked like a cut on his left temple. That's honestly all I can
10:32remember about his face. He would watch me sleep for a few seconds, then start clawing at the window
10:37like he was trying to open it from the outside. That's usually when I woke up. Sometimes I immediately
10:44ran to the window, and sometimes I was too terrified to even move. But I always ended up checking one way
10:50or another. I don't know what I thought I'd find, maybe claw marks or a smudge from where his hand
10:57had been, but there was never anything there, or anyone for that matter. After the fourth time it
11:03happened, I finally told my parents. My mom told me that recurring dreams weren't that rare, especially
11:10at my age, and my dad chimed in to remind me that they were always just one room away if I ever felt
11:15scared. I nodded and acted like that helped, but it didn't. Not really. My dad could tell I was still
11:23scared, so he took me by the hand and explored the exterior of the house with me. There was no
11:29indication that anyone had been there. No footprints, no smudges on the window, nothing. Even so,
11:36that didn't calm my nerves as much as you might think. Keep in mind, this was about one year in,
11:41so I was having this dream roughly once every three months. It wasn't happening every night,
11:47not even close, but having the exact same dream four times definitely means something,
11:52which I knew even at that age. But after that fourth dream, though, they just stopped. For a
11:59while, at least. I went nearly six months without a single episode, and at some point, I let myself
12:06believe it was over. It all just kind of faded into the background, the way childhood fears tend to
12:12when life gets more normal. But then it came back. I have no idea what triggered it, but one random
12:19night, I had the dream again. Everything was exactly the same as I remembered. The clock, the drawings,
12:26the train, everything. But there was something different about that dream that was scaring me
12:31twice as much as the earlier ones had. I couldn't figure out what it was. Everything was following
12:36the exact same chain of events. But then, as I was looking around the room, I realized what it was.
12:43My bedroom window was open. As soon as I saw that, I woke up. There was a period of maybe
12:51five minutes where I couldn't move, complete and other sleep paralysis. And it wasn't a passive sleep
12:57paralysis either. My brain was screaming at me to check the window the entire time,
13:02but I couldn't drag myself out of bed no matter how much I tried. On top of that, I felt significantly
13:07colder, as if cold air was blowing through my bedroom window, which I was convinced was wide open.
13:13Those five minutes were unlike any kind of fear I have ever experienced. All I could think about was
13:19how that man was moments away from climbing through my window, yet there was nothing I could do about it.
13:25When I finally regained control of my limbs, I forced myself over to the window, confirming that it was
13:30locked. I couldn't fall back asleep that night. I was too scared. I'm not sure how I was even able
13:36to function the following morning. Another couple of months went by, but I wasn't going to be fooled
13:42again. Every night before I went to bed, I thought long and hard about the dream and attempt to brace
13:48myself for having it again. I'm not sure if this logic tracks, but I was hoping that keeping the dream
13:53on my brain would help me not get too scared should I have it again. To my surprise, that technique
13:59actually worked. The next time I had that dream, I wasn't even half as scared. I didn't even bother
14:06checking the window after waking up. By the time I had it again, I was barely scared at all. Still,
14:13something about it lingered. Not in a scary way, but enough to make me want to bring it up to my parents
14:18again. Maybe it was the way I explained it, or maybe it was because I was slightly older.
14:24But for whatever reason, they actually paid closer attention this time. I tried to provide as much
14:30detail as possible, something I hadn't done before. As I was getting to my description of the man,
14:36my parents' demeanor shifted. Not too dramatically, but enough for me to notice. Specifically,
14:43it was right as I was telling them about the cut on his forehead. Before I could even finish,
14:48my dad cut me off and asked if I was sure about the cut. I told him I was, and he looked over at
14:54my mom like there was some unspoken detail that I wasn't aware of. I asked my parents what was going
14:59on, and they assured me that everything was fine. Not wanting to upset them, I didn't inquire further.
15:06But from that point on, I started wondering if there was more to the story.
15:10As it would turn out, a few days after that conversation, my parents sat me down and came
15:16clean. It wasn't some dramatic reveal or anything. They just said there was something they wanted to
15:22tell me. My mom did most of the talking. Apparently, when I was really little, like too young to even
15:29remember, there was a man named Brian who used to watch me sometimes. They always referred to him as
15:34Uncle Brian, but he wasn't actually family, just a close friend of my dad's from college.
15:40I guess he was around a lot when I was a baby and a toddler, especially during the times when both my
15:45parents were working full-time. But something happened. My dad didn't give details, just said
15:51that there was a falling out between them. Bad enough that they completely cut ties. He said he
15:57forbade Brian from ever coming near our family again. Specifically, from coming near me again.
16:03That was the end of it. I asked what caused the fallout, but they wouldn't tell me. They just
16:09repeated that it had nothing to do with me and that I didn't need to worry. The only other thing they
16:14told me, and this is what gave me a sick feeling, was that Brian had a noticeable scar on his forehead
16:19from a car accident he'd been in years before I was born. They didn't connect the dots out loud,
16:25but they didn't have to. I was old enough to make the connection myself. Later that night, after my
16:31mom had gone to bed, my dad lingered in the living room with me a little longer. I could tell he wanted
16:37to say more, like he hadn't been totally satisfied with how the conversation went earlier. After a few
16:42moments of silence, he told me his theory. He said he thought the dreams were my brain's way of
16:48processing something buried really deep. Some memory from when I was little, before I could even
16:54form full sentences. He mentioned how close I apparently used to be with Brian. How I'd cry when
17:00he left the house. How I always wanted him to be the one to read me to sleep. My dad said he couldn't
17:06think of any other way I'd know about the scar on Brian's forehead. I didn't know what to make of that.
17:12I had no recollection of this Brian person whatsoever. Even now, I still can't recall a single
17:18memory with him in it. I had no choice but to move on with my life though, recurring dream or not.
17:24Another handful of months passed. I'm doing my best to describe the timeline as accurately as
17:29possible, but it's hard to remember exactly how much time passed in between each dream.
17:35That said, the frequency decreased after talking to my parents. I had the dream only once or maybe
17:41twice within the next year, but things took a very dark turn sometime in year four. One night after
17:48waking up from the dream, I glanced over at my window, just out of habit, and this time,
17:53I actually saw something move. It was just a flicker, but I was 100% sure something had just moved from
18:01right outside my window. And just like that, all the fear I had spent years trying to prevent came
18:07rushing back. It was actually worse. I jumped out of bed and screamed for my parents, who took me very
18:14seriously. My dad sprinted outside in his bare feet while my mom held me tightly. Eventually, my dad came
18:21back and started whispering stuff to my mom. They told me to stay put while they called the police.
18:26I listened to them and stayed in their room, although I don't remember ever hearing any sirens
18:32or other voices besides theirs that night. My dad insisted everything was fine and that the police
18:37were going to take care of things. The next day, he confessed to me that he had seen what he thought
18:43were extremely faint footprints underneath my bedroom window. I asked him if he thought it was Brian,
18:49and he said that was impossible, since they had moved and Brian didn't know where we lived.
18:53My dad promised me that nothing bad was going to happen ever, and he would turn out to be right.
18:59I never had that dream again. My parents don't like talking about this incident,
19:04and I can see why. I'm still yet to get a straight answer out of them, but I've since stopped trying.
19:10What I can't wrap my head around is the sickening thought that every time I had that dream,
19:14there really was someone outside my window watching me. Was it really plausible that someone
19:20had been periodically stalking me for four years? It doesn't track, and I can't decide what's scarier.
19:27If it really was Brian watching me, or just some complete stranger that my brain associated with
19:32him for whatever reason. And who knows how that somehow got translated into my dreams.
19:37I've done research, and I still don't even know how that would be possible. Maybe he was making a
19:42noise or something, and my brain picked up on it. I really can't say. What I can say is that I'm 95%
19:49sure my parents never called the police that night. That's something I will likely never get an
19:53explanation for. I'll most likely never get any answers regarding this experience,
19:58since it happened so long ago. But if I do, I'll send an update.
20:10This happened a couple of years ago, right before school ended. It was the last day of 8th grade.
20:16It was exactly what you'd expect on the final day of middle school. Excitement and bittersweet
20:21goodbyes. Everyone was running around scribbling signatures and cheesy messages in each other's
20:26yearbooks. My middle school was huge, easily over a thousand students. So to keep things manageable,
20:32the teachers collected our yearbooks and passed them around to different classrooms,
20:36making sure everyone who wanted to got a chance to sign. I'm sure you could see how that could create
20:41problems. Anyone who wanted to could write whatever they wanted in anyone's yearbook.
20:47The teachers tried their best to prevent things from getting out of hand, but I knew a few kids
20:51who wrote some mean messages to people they didn't like. At the end of the day, when I got my yearbook
20:56back, I flipped through the pages eagerly, reading all the goofy notes from my friends. But as I scanned
21:02the pages, something caught my eye. There was a signature below the face of someone I had never seen
21:08before. His name was Samuel Robinson III, a name I'm going to remember for as long as I live.
21:14The message he wrote was short, simple, and honestly a bit unsettling. It read,
21:19Hags, I'll be seeing you again. I stared at the page, confused out of my mind. I'd never even spoken
21:26a single word to this Samuel kid. It wasn't like there was anything I could do about it, though.
21:31The school year was over, so I couldn't see him even if I wanted to. I just chalked it up to some weird
21:36kid being weird, or maybe an honest mistake. Either way, I stopped thinking about it.
21:42A few hours passed, and before I knew it, I was at home hosting a sleepover in my basement with my
21:47best friends Kevin, David, and Kieran. The four of us ate Doritos and played Call of Duty all night.
21:54My parents' bedroom was three floors above us, so we didn't have to worry much about keeping the noise
21:59down. We were messing around on my dad's rowing machine sometime just before 2, when we heard a
22:04sharp knock at the storm door. The sound instantly silenced us. Who the hell would knock on the storm
22:10door? It must have been someone who either didn't want to wake my parents up, or knew we were down
22:15there, or both. It didn't make sense. The person kept knocking in the same rhythmic pattern. I could
22:23tell Kieran was about to say something, and I couldn't stop him in time. In a loud and assertive voice,
22:29he asked who was there. I wanted to knock him out. He had basically broadcasted to whoever was out
22:34there that we were down there. My basement doesn't have any external windows, so it was unlikely that
22:40they had known we were down there, but now they did. After a long pause and no more knocking,
22:46a muffled voice answered back. He said, come around to the back door, in a high-pitched voice that
22:51genuinely sounded cheerful, like he was a friend of ours trying to join the sleepover. It was definitely a
22:57teenager's voice too, and it didn't sound like someone who was pretending to raise their voice
23:01either. I was pretty scared, I can't lie. My friends were seemingly unfazed though, like they thought it
23:08was somehow exciting that some random kid was outside my house. They insisted that I at least
23:13check it out, and even though I didn't want to, they pressured me into it. We crept upstairs,
23:19careful not to make too much noise. I approached the back door slowly, trying to ignore the pounding in
23:24my chest. Through the narrow glass pane beside it, I could see a shadowy figure standing under the
23:30dim light. I got a little closer, and his face came into view. My jaw nearly hit the floor when
23:36I realized who it was. It was him. It was that kid Samuel Robinson III who had signed my yearbook.
23:44My friends went to go open the door, god knows why, but I stopped them, saying I knew who it was.
23:49I explained to them what had happened, and that changed their mood a bit. Keep in mind, Sam was
23:56still standing outside while we were talking, and he could definitely see in at us. He must have
24:01noticed how freaked out I was, because he started motioning to the side of the house like he wanted
24:05me to go over to the window. You might be wondering why none of us were taking this situation more
24:09seriously. I honestly think it was because it wasn't like some older strange man was harassing us,
24:15it was a kid from our own school. Still, I wasn't opening the door for him. Instead, I went over to
24:21my kitchen window and cracked it open just a tiny bit. My friends followed me and stood a little off
24:26to the side. He walked over to the window, and I asked him what he wanted, telling him I recognized
24:32him from our yearbook. He said, oh, so you got my message, and introduced himself as Sam. Then he went
24:38on to say he always watched me from afar, and that we could have been good friends. I agreed with him
24:44just so that I wouldn't piss him off, but there was zero percent chance I would have been friends with
24:48this kid given any circumstances. I didn't want to press him right away, but I had to know,
24:54so I asked him how he knew where I lived. He didn't respond, and I didn't know what to say.
25:00Before I could de-escalate the situation, David called him a creepy stalker and told him to piss off.
25:06Sam's smile disappeared. He tilted his head like he didn't understand what David had just said.
25:12Then, just as quickly, his expression twisted into something I can only describe as hatred.
25:18He went from passive and honestly kind of friendly to aggressive and angry.
25:22He started screaming things at me. How he hated my friends and thought we should all die.
25:28How my ex hated me and random stuff he had no right knowing.
25:31He reached toward the window and tried to force it open, but I jammed it shut and locked it.
25:36He started snarling at the window and banging on it like an animal. He was two seconds away from
25:42shattering it, I'm telling you. We must have caused quite the commotion, because my parents
25:46came rushing down the stairs, demanding to know why we had woken them up. That's when Sam ran away.
25:52I told my parents what happened as quickly as I could, and my dad raced outside in his underwear.
25:58He came back a few minutes later, saying he had no idea where the kid went.
26:02I'm not sure why, but my parents didn't call the police. They just told us to go back to sleep,
26:07and they'd deal with the school the following morning, just to give the kid the benefit of the
26:11doubt. The next morning, they contacted the school. That's when we learned the disturbing truth.
26:18Sam had been expelled a few weeks before the year finished, and he shouldn't have ever been at the
26:22school in the last day. Apparently, the yearbooks were printed before his expulsion,
26:27which explained why his picture was still included. That meant he had snuck into the
26:31school somehow just to write me that message, which freaked me out beyond belief. Despite working
26:38with the school to find out more, nobody could track Sam down. It was like he and his parents
26:43didn't exist. The whole thing was a pretty big deal, but the school did what they could to keep
26:48things under wraps. To this day, I still have no idea how he knew where I lived. That's what freaks
26:54me out the most. The running theory is that he was a mentally challenged and troubled young boy who
26:59took a strange liking to me for whatever reason, and then he stalked me for who knows how long.
27:05My parents were worried for weeks. It's something we don't talk about anymore because it's just
27:10uncomfortable, but living in that same house has never felt the same ever since.
27:27This happened a decent while ago, back when I was 22.
27:30Enough years passed to the point where I feel safe talking about it. I was fresh out of college with
27:36a desirable job and minimal expenses since I was living in my childhood home with my parents.
27:41Imagine that, racking up considerable savings without having to worry about food or a place
27:46to sleep, and all the while having full access to the room I grew up in, my car, and all my hometown
27:51comforts. It's safe to say I was living in pure bliss. Believe me, I knew how lucky I was to have
27:58parents who allowed me to stay at home and rent free. I know a lot of people don't have that option,
28:03so it's something I never took for granted, but not everything was as stress-free as you might think.
28:09What I'm about to tell you happened not even one month into my time back at home.
28:13I've never been what people my age like to call a party girl. I don't drink excessive amounts of
28:18alcohol, I don't spend every ounce of my free time at clubs, and I definitely don't allow men to dictate
28:24my life in any way. That's just how I was raised. My father is the most important man in my life,
28:30and hookup culture disgusts me. Because of all that, my life is pretty routine. Wake up,
28:36satisfy my caffeine addiction, go to work, go to the gym, read a bit of my book at home,
28:41mess around on my phone, and go to sleep. Weekends are for hiking, mini road trips,
28:46board games, and whatever else I decide I want to spend my time doing. But one random weekend,
28:52my closest friend from college, Lindsey, invited me and our other two friends, Sabrina and Thea,
28:57to spend a few days at her family's beach house. I'd never been, but from the way Lindsey talked
29:02about it, the place sounded like a dream. Quiet, tucked away from the touristy chaos on its own
29:07private beach, and just a short walk from the water. To put it bluntly, Lindsey's family is loaded.
29:14I think both her parents were neurosurgeons, so I had a feeling her beach house would be insane,
29:19and I was far from disappointed. When I first laid eyes on it, I was awestruck.
29:24Look, I'm no architect, but I know a modern style house when I see one,
29:29and Lindsey's must have been ultra-modern because it looked more like a covert military
29:33safe house than a personal home. I'd love to show you guys pictures of it, believe me,
29:38I've got plenty, but out of respect for Lindsey's family, I think that would be in really poor taste,
29:43even if what I'm about to tell you didn't happen. The four of us unloaded our stuff and decided where
29:48we'd be sleeping. Lindsey obviously had enough individual bedrooms for all of us to occupy,
29:53but what would be the fun in that? Instead, the four of us stayed in the same room,
29:58one of the kids' bedrooms that had two sets of bunk beds and its own attached bathroom.
30:02We'd been staying there three nights, which, in my opinion, is the perfect amount of time
30:06to spend coupled up with anyone other than your family. I tend to be relatively irritable,
30:12so anyone who's not clean or polite tends to tick me off pretty easily. Not that any of my friends are,
30:17but you know how it is. I know I told you about my relatively boring lifestyle already,
30:22but if there was a time to drink, it was that weekend with my friends, so I definitely planned
30:27on letting loose a little more than I ordinarily would. We wanted to keep the first night pretty
30:32chill though, so we walked down to the private beach connected to the house and sat in the sand,
30:37stargazing. The four of us were drinking White Claws and listening to house music on Sabrina's speaker,
30:42when we noticed something in the distance. It was this faint, flickering light emanating from
30:48somewhere further down the shore. The four of us quieted down a bit and watched the light flicker
30:53on and off. The sight was kind of hypnotic, as eerie as it was. After a while, it became clear that the
31:00light was swinging back and forth, like a handheld flashlight someone was walking with. And soon after,
31:06we realized that's just what it was. It looked like three or four people casually walking in our
31:11direction. Not running or stumbling or moving strangely, but strolling at a leisurely pace.
31:18As they got closer, we started hearing the sound of laughter, which caused all of us to relax a bit.
31:24Considering how late it was, it was most likely just a group of teenagers or even people our age.
31:29They must have noticed us, because at some point, one of them yelled out hi in a friendly voice.
31:34It was a guy's voice, and he sounded around our age. Thea yelled back, and we made some small talk
31:40while they made their way over to us. As they approached, we could see that it was a group
31:45of three guys who looked maybe a year or two older than we were. They all had that typical beach boy
31:50look, which I could tell right away my friends were digging, especially Thea. She's a bit crazy when it
31:56comes to guys, so I can't say I was too surprised. She knows how I feel about her lifestyle, so it's not
32:02like I'm saying anything crazy. To be fair, she is drop-dead gorgeous, and I've never seen a guy
32:08not take a liking to her. The guys sat down with their beers, and the seven of us continued drinking.
32:14It was actually a really great time. The guys weren't overtly flirtatious, but they weren't boring
32:19either. Fast forward an hour and several drinks later, and they ultimately invited us back to their
32:24place. Personally, I was exhausted and was leaning towards going to sleep, but I could tell all three
32:30of my friends wanted to continue hanging out with the boys, especially Thea, of course. I decided
32:36not to spoil everyone's fun, and called it a night for myself, telling my friends to go on without me.
32:41There were only three guys after all, and I had no intention of hooking up with anyone that night.
32:46I walked back towards Lindsay's house while the six of them walked along the beach,
32:50presumably towards wherever the guys were staying. I washed up and went to bed. Sometime after 3 in the
32:56morning, I woke up to a FaceTime call from Lindsay, which was confusing since she should have either
33:01been home by then, or asleep next to one of the guys. I answered her in a groggy voice,
33:07and what she said woke me up instantly. She basically screamed into the phone that Thea and
33:12Sabrina had been kidnapped, and I needed to get her car immediately. Her words were like a bucket of
33:18ice-cold water being splashed across my face. I've never felt a more intense sense of fear and
33:23adrenaline. I didn't waste a second. My hands were literally shaking as I quickly threw on some
33:28clothes and sprinted down the stairs. I asked her why she had called me instead of the police,
33:34and she reassured me that she already had. She told me to stay on the line as she walked me through it.
33:40With her instruction, I managed to open the driveway gate, find her car keys,
33:44and speed out of there in a matter of minutes. She told me there were about 10 houses down the beach
33:49to the left, so that's where I started driving. She described the car and told me what direction
33:54it had gone in, and I slammed on the gas to try and catch up. There wasn't a single car on the road,
34:00and I was driving at an insanely unsafe speed. It was a miracle I didn't get pulled over.
34:06After a few minutes of driving, I noticed a car matching Lindsay's description driving slowly in
34:11the distance. Then I hung up the phone, called the police, and told them exactly where we were.
34:17The dispatcher told me to keep my distance so as not to alert them to the situation,
34:21so that's what I did. After what felt like forever, I spotted cop lights up ahead. The car
34:27ahead of me didn't try to evade the police. I can only imagine that they assumed it was an unrelated
34:32stop. I pulled the car over and watched everything unfold. It was pure chaos. The cops forcibly removed
34:39all three men from the SUV at gunpoint. They put them in cuffs and escorted them back to one of the
34:44cruisers. Then one of the officers walked over to the trunk of the car and pulled it open to reveal
34:49both Thea and Sabrina, bound and from the looks of it, pretty badly bruised. As horrifying as the
34:55whole experience was, it was nothing compared to the sequence of events told from their perspective.
35:01All three of them were comfortable with me writing this, by the way. We're still close in contact,
35:05so I obviously asked them. But none of them wanted to write it themselves. And for good reason. To
35:12keep things short, after I went to bed, they all continued drinking. Lindsay is the only one who
35:17remembers things clearly, since she was trying to be at least a little responsible given it was her
35:22family's house we were staying in. At some point, the guys Thea and Sabrina were with suggested they
35:28all go to bed. So the four of them split off while Lindsay told the third guy she was going home.
35:32He was really upset about that, which Lindsay initially thought was because he wanted to get
35:37with her. She told him she would have been down but had to watch her house, and he got angry.
35:42They yelled at each other for a bit, and he ended up telling Lindsay to get the hell out of his house
35:46and never come back, which she was more than happy doing. Halfway home though, she realized she had
35:52forgotten her purse, so she went back to get it. That's when she saw the guys throwing Thea and Sabrina
35:57into the back of the car before driving off. She called the police, then me, and that was that.
36:04Thea's parents are both lawyers, and they jumped through dozens of hoops to do two things.
36:08Keep the event as far away from the public sphere as possible, and make sure those guys got maximum
36:13prison sentences. They accomplished both. Turns out the house they were staying in didn't even belong
36:20to them. It was owned by some random old couple who were on vacation in a different country.
36:24That, plus the slew of other crimes they were charged with, put them away for a long time,
36:29although I still think there's no sentence long enough that can properly compensate for what they
36:33did. As much as I hate admitting it, this traumatized me for years. I couldn't do beaches,
36:39late nights, or talking to strangers, no matter how harmless they seemed, or how safe a situation felt.
36:45I became antisocial and drifted away from the girls for a little, but luckily that's since changed.
36:51I can't even begin to imagine how this incident affected Thea and Sabrina.
36:55Part of me feels like not remembering anything is a blessing in disguise.
36:59I think the craziest part about the whole thing is the fact that had I not gone home,
37:03I might not have been able to reach Lindsay's car in time. And had it not been for that,
37:08the police may have never found those guys' car.
37:20This happened just last year. My buddy Jimmy is pretty involved and well connected within the
37:26music community. By music community, I'm more specifically referring to the dance-slash-electronic
37:31music scene all along the East Coast, predominantly New Jersey and New York.
37:36It's actually pretty impressive what he and his team have been able to accomplish in just two years.
37:41The general gist is this. Their company hosts what they call events at high-profile venues,
37:47typically the most well-known club or party space in whatever city they happen to be in.
37:51Then they outsource the talent, which, mind you, is typically a very well-known and sometimes
37:57borderline famous DJ. I'm not too involved or invested in that scene, so I'm not exactly sure
38:03who they've gotten to perform, but I will tell you that there have been some huge names in the mix,
38:08but enough context. Jimmy and I go way back, I'm talking 20-plus years. I've basically known him
38:15my entire life, and he's been my best friend for damn near most of it. Because of that, he lets me,
38:21along with a bunch of our other hometown friends, come to his shows for free and hang out with the
38:25talent in the VIP section. It's actually really cool, and something I wish I expressed my gratitude
38:31for more often. Jimmy was scheduled to host a huge event the weekend of July 4th on the Jersey Shore.
38:37It was going to be their biggest one yet, and all our mutual friends were going.
38:42Jimmy invited me to come down early with him, and I obviously obliged. The two of us made the hour
38:47and a half drive with our other friend Ryan, and we found ourselves at the venue a good four hours
38:52before the doors opened. Ryan and I didn't have much to do while Jimmy and his team set up,
38:58so we decided to get a bit of a head start on the alcohol consumption. Jimmy and his team were
39:03entitled to as much free booze as they desired, compliments of the venue, and Ryan and I definitely
39:09took advantage of that. By the time the first DJ started his set, Ryan and I were more than a
39:14little buzzed, to put it mildly. It was 4th of July weekend after all, so we felt like our degenerate
39:20activities were justified. Fast forward a couple hours, and Ryan and I were completely
39:26wasted. I honestly don't remember a time since then when I was that drunk, not even close.
39:32Don't get me wrong, Ryan and I are grown men, and we can handle our alcohol. Throwing up making
39:37fools of ourselves wasn't the issue though. It was genuinely just the problem of having lower
39:42impulse control and worse decision making. But either way, we were having a great time,
39:47at least from what I can remember. The event was winding down, and it was getting to that
39:52point in the night where you either figured out how you were getting home, or who you were going
39:56home with. Or both. Jimmy had rented an Airbnb really close by and promised both Ryan and I a bed,
40:04so the first issue wasn't a concern. The second problem though, that was what was on my mind.
40:10The two of us danced over to the bar and started talking to some girls we found attractive,
40:15and before long, we had figured out who we were going to spend the rest of the night with.
40:20Neither of us are Calvin Klein models, but we're both above 6 feet tall. For whatever reason,
40:25the vast majority of guys who hang around the Jersey Shore are usually shorter than average,
40:30so being tall is an even bigger boost than it usually is. And for whatever reason, that seems
40:35to be the main attribute most girls on the Jersey Shore seek out. Not looks, not build,
40:40not intelligence, but height. Don't ask me why. The Jerseyan female mind is still something I have
40:47yet to comprehend. I'm probably botching their names, but I'm fairly sure the two girls introduced
40:53themselves as Gianna and Marcella. Us meeting them coincides with where my ability to recall
40:58events precisely becomes a bit hazy, so there may be gaps in the story from here on out. From what I can
41:04remember, it was actually Marcella who suggested we all leave together and continue to party elsewhere,
41:10which Ryan and I weren't going to argue with. Gianna handed the two of us a drink and insisted that
41:14we get on their level before heading out, even though we had both probably consumed the fluid
41:19equivalent of her body weight and alcohol already. I know that whole dynamic. Girls getting guys'
41:24drinks sounds a little unorthodox, and it is, but these girls were clearly wealthy given how they were
41:30dressed. After downing the drinks, the four of us started moving towards the venue's exit.
41:35The moment we stepped outside, Marcella suggested we go back to her place, which was pretty close by,
41:41and also right on the beach. Her saying that actually surprised me a little. I was fully
41:46anticipating going back to our Airbnb, considering the guys were usually the ones to host in situations
41:51like this. But both girls insisted that Marcella's beach house was definitely nicer than whatever
41:56inland Airbnb we found for the night. She had a point, so I didn't argue, and neither did Ryan.
42:02We walked along the beach, talking the whole time. The girls seemed really intelligent and
42:08knowledgeable based on the conversations we had, and I remember finding it so refreshing to talk
42:13about something other than nightlife and whatever other garbage I'm used to talking to girls about
42:17for once. Not just girls. Drunk people in general. At one point, I actually felt kind of embarrassed for
42:24being so drunk because I felt like I couldn't articulate myself well enough and looked like an idiot.
42:29That's when I realized I actually was feeling drunker than I had been 15 minutes earlier.
42:34But it wasn't a drunk I was used to feeling. I felt like my body was melting under my weight,
42:39as if I were going to collapse uncontrollably any second. My legs felt flimsy, almost like cardboard,
42:46if that makes any sense. Moving my limbs, mouth, and even my eyes became increasingly more difficult,
42:53and there was a moment where my extremities started feeling a little numb. But then,
42:57just as quickly as the feeling arose, it passed, back to normal drunkenness, at least for the time
43:03being. Just then, we arrived at the beach house. It was insane. I'm probably exaggerating because I
43:10was so drunk, but it looked like what I imagined a professional athlete's beach house to look like.
43:15We went inside, and after taking our shoes off, found ourselves in what I'm guessing was a living
43:20room. I say guessing because the level of opulence in there was just so foreign to anything I'm used
43:25to. It was decorative, but somehow minimalistic. Even those descriptions are opposite. There were
43:32honest-to-God sculptures on pedestals in there, but it didn't feel cluttered or overly showy,
43:37and everything on display seemed to blend right into the walls like they were just extensions of the
43:41room. I wish I had the wherewithal to take a picture, but again, my mind was elsewhere.
43:47Evidently, so was Ryan's, because not fifteen minutes after stepping foot in the house,
43:52he and Marcela had disappeared somewhere in that maze of a house, which left me alone with Gianna.
43:58She leaned in to kiss me, and that's the last thing I remember before blacking out. Not her kissing
44:04me, but leaning in to kiss me. That's where everything cuts off.
44:07I don't remember feeling woozy again or drinking more or doing anything else, but there's a huge
44:13gap in my memory that spans several hours and will not come back no matter what I try. And the thing is,
44:19I know I didn't pass out because there are texts on my phone sent from me, proving I was still
44:24conscious. There's digital proof that I was sentient, but I don't remember one bit of it. And before you
44:30say I just simply blacked out from alcohol, this was different. I rarely ever black out, but all the
44:36times I have, I can still remember bits and pieces of the night, scattered moments here and there,
44:42enough for me to string together a continuous sequence of events at the very least. Keep in
44:46mind, those were also all times where I was drunker than I was that night, so that's another reason I
44:51think a generic blackout isn't a reasonable explanation for what happened. Plus, Ryan experienced
44:57the exact same thing at essentially the exact same time, which is way too specific to be coincidental.
45:02Here's the next thing I remember, waking up with the sun directly overhead in a random set of bushes
45:08over an hour away from where the event was, something I didn't know yet because my phone
45:13wasn't in my pocket. In fact, nothing was in my pocket at all. Both my wallet and keys were gone,
45:19but it gets worse. It wasn't even my pocket to begin with. I was wearing someone else's clothes,
45:25and not Ryan's either, a complete stranger's. The only personal belonging of mine I still had
45:31in my possession was my shoes, and even those were messed up. Both shoes had the shoelaces removed
45:37and were soaking wet. My head was pounding, and everything felt disoriented, like I was waking
45:42up from anesthesia. I didn't even sit up right away, I just stared at the sky for a minute,
45:47trying to make sense of where I was. Bushes, someone else's clothes, no wallet, no phone,
45:54no keys. Based on my shoes, it was like I had been in the water recently, but I didn't smell like
45:59salt water or chlorine. The worst part about the whole thing was the blankness. I genuinely
46:05couldn't remember anything past Gianna leaving, like I already said. That's when the panic started
46:10to creep in. I wasn't just hung over, I was scared. I had no idea how I got there. What if I'd
46:17gotten into a fight or crashed a car? What if someone drugged me? I didn't have a single point
46:23of reference for the last 10 hours. I stood up and realized there wasn't a single landmark around me.
46:29It didn't look like a beach town, which also scared me. The road ahead just curved into more trees,
46:34but just across the street, maybe a few hundred feet away, was a 7-Eleven. It was genuinely the
46:40only thing in sight, so I headed straight for it. I asked the guy behind the counter if I could use his
46:45phone, telling him that mine had been stolen. He stared at me for a second, probably debating
46:51whether or not I was trying to scam him, but then he slid it across the counter. The first number that
46:56came to my mind was my sister's. It was the only number besides my mom or dad's I still memorized,
47:01and there was no way in hell I was calling my parents. My sister picked up right away,
47:06and I tried explaining things the best I could. She ended up giving me Ryan's number, which I ended up
47:12calling several times, but to no avail. That's when I started wondering if what had happened to
47:16me happened to him too. Drugged, robbed, dumped in some random bushes an hour away.
47:22I was just about to call the police, when what do you know, Ryan walks into the same 7-Eleven.
47:28We just stared at each other for a second before dabbing each other up. He then told me his version
47:33of things, and you guessed it, it was the same story, damn near exactly. That sealed it for us.
47:40We called the police, making sure to thank the 7-Eleven worker profusely.
47:44Fast forward a few minutes, and we're now recounting our story to the police outside the store.
47:49To their credit, they took everything we said seriously, at first. But the more we told them,
47:55the more their questions started turning. Were we sure we didn't just drink too much?
48:00Maybe we wandered off and passed out somewhere? They weren't accusing us outright, but it was clear
48:04they weren't entirely convinced something criminal happened. I told them it was unlikely we would
48:09have drunkenly wandered into a town an hour away by foot, and I don't think they liked that remark
48:14very much. I gave them my sister's number and asked them to call her. She was already tracking
48:19my phone through Find My iPhone. To all of our collective surprise, my phone was showing up in
48:24the middle of a parking lot a few minutes drive away. The officers agreed to drive us, and sure enough,
48:30both our phones were sitting on the pavement next to each other. While it was great to have my phone
48:35back, that only affirmed the police's theory that we had just been drunk. They started saying that
48:40we probably hadn't even been robbed, that we had lost our wallets the same way we had lost our phones.
48:46We tried convincing the police to check out the house Marcela brought us to,
48:49the one she claimed was hers, but they weren't having it. They told us we were probably just too
48:55drunk and didn't remember things correctly. One of them even said, happens more than you think.
49:01Then they gave us their cards and told us to call if we remembered anything else.
49:05It was actually shocking how reluctant they were to even connect us to other
49:08officers that would be willing to help. They told us to find a ride home since our
49:12phones were still charged, and they just left us there. After they left, I went through my
49:18phone for the first time, and things got even weirder. There were texts sent from me to a ton of
49:23people I knew, Jimmy, my parents, a few coworkers, even some girls I had been talking to.
49:29All normal sounding stuff. Stuff I might have said if I had actually had a calm, coherent night.
49:35The texts genuinely sounded like me, but from a continuity standpoint,
49:39they didn't make any sense when considered altogether.
49:43One message to Jimmy thanked him for the events and said we'd crashed at a buddy's place.
49:47One to my dad said we were safe and had found a couch to sleep on.
49:51There was another to a girl I'd been texting that just said something casual,
49:54like I was hanging out at home and thinking about her. None of those texts made any sense,
49:59and mostly contradicted each other. I realized I had a ton of missed calls and texts from Jimmy,
50:05so I called him. He sounded relieved to hear from me, saying he thought Ryan and I had died or
50:10something. He told us to stay put, he'd come pick us up. In the meantime, Ryan and I cancelled all our
50:16cards, but interestingly, none of them had been used, despite the likely fact that they had been in
50:21those girls' possession for several hours. The entire ride home, we talked nonstop about what
50:27could have happened. None of it made any sense. Yeah, we had been drugged, that much was clear,
50:33but that didn't explain things. First of all, I don't know of any kind of roofie that has those
50:38effects, like an induced blackout. Everything I've read just said those drugs make you fall asleep,
50:44but again, I was conscious, as the texts confirm. Plus, why go to such lengths just to rob two random
50:50guys, especially if you weren't going to at least even attempt to use their credit cards.
50:55Two guys who walked up to you, no less, and in such a risky place too, your own house,
51:00or was it a house they had broken into? Both were equally risky. Jimmy thought we had been targeted,
51:07but like I just said, we had been the ones to approach the girls, so we couldn't have been
51:11targeted. But all this isn't even mentioning how or why we miraculously found ourselves in a random
51:17town an hour away wearing other people's clothing. As crazy as it sounds, both Ryan and I checked
51:23ourselves for incisions, thinking maybe some of our organs had been harvested, but there was nothing.
51:28Jimmy suggested that maybe they had just given us some exotic drugs, which I guess makes sense,
51:34but someone had driven us to that town, and someone other than those girls had switched clothes with us.
51:39We never got an answer, but it's not like we just forgot about the whole thing.
51:43Ryan and I ended up driving all the way back to the shore just to go looking for that house.
51:48We tried our best to retrace our steps, knowing that if we just walked along the boardwalk we'd
51:52eventually find the house, since it was on the beach, and we actually did find it.
51:57The two of us walked up the walkway and rang the doorbell. An older man opened the door,
52:02asking us what we wanted. I did the talking. Not wanting to reveal too much or potentially incriminate
52:09myself. I simply asked him if a girl named Marcella lived here, or if he had a daughter or granddaughter
52:14around our age. He gave me a hard no, and I made up some BS story that there was a girl who lied about
52:21owning this house, which he actually found pretty funny. And that was that. I would be lying if I
52:27said I didn't walk away from that house with a sick, unsettling feeling in my stomach. I can't even
52:32describe it as fear, just a sickening discomfort, like something truly awful had happened to me and my
52:37friend that night, and I'd never get to the bottom of it. For a long time after that, I was convinced
52:43those girls had been involved in something much, much bigger that neither me nor Ryan could even
52:48conceive. That maybe they had been planning to kidnap or kill us, and decided not to go through with it at
52:54the last second for whatever reason. I know I'll never have an update, but if something else happens,
53:00I'll definitely send something.
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