u/ludoludoludo

Hey there,

I recently posted a story here about a horrifying night while home alone, and it got me thinking about another horrible memory from my childhood that I thought I would share as well. This story really creeped me out, and I feel like I must have coped with it by trying to suppress the memory.

Anyway, here goes nothing. Just to let you know, it is a long read.

This happened a while ago, in my childhood, as previously stated. It was around 1999 or 2000, which would have put me at about 10 or 11 years old. I cannot remember exactly.

Back then, my family and I would often go camping in the summer or fall as a tradition to try and reconnect with each other while soaking up the nature around us. Since this was 1999/2000, video games and the internet were not as popular yet. I was already more of an adventurous, outdoor type of kid, and I always appreciated a little journey into the woods to explore deeper. Plus, it was always a great opportunity to share moments with my father, my mother, and my sister.

We would often stay at the same campsite every year. We really liked it because it was not too far from home, had well-maintained spots, and featured a pretty big public area with a pool, a park, water fountains for the kids, and general activities to spend time doing during the day.

That year, the summer was absolutely beautiful with unbelievable weather, so the camping season ended up being much busier than usual. Sadly, we were told this campsite was at complete capacity, and no spots were available for the weekend we had planned to go.

We were all packed up and dead set on camping, which left my younger sister and me seemingly upset about the cancellation. So, my father decided to look for another spot as fast as possible to ensure we would still have great memories of the trip.

Without being too precise, we were located in Canada, very close to the U.S. border. The region was extremely vast with pretty dense forest all over. My father figured he would easily find something else. If no other official campsite was an option, we would simply explore the woods until we found a secluded spot that looked comfortable enough to pitch a tent and grill some marshmallows over a fire.

It surprisingly took a very long time to find a good spot that seemed like actual wilderness—meaning not land from a private property—and the general terrain was pretty rough, too rough to set up tents. My father had recently purchased a new truck that allowed him to easily maneuver through these deep wood trails, but this meant we ended up deep in the woods. In his opinion, it was the perfect occasion to try camping in an actual wild setting, but I remember my mother starting to get uneasy being so far into unknown woods. Being very far from the main roads at this point, she started to press my dad to settle on the next acceptable spot.

No more than 10 to 15 minutes later, we stumbled upon a weirdly clean clearing that almost seemed out of place because the spot was so perfect. The sun was hitting it in a scenic way, as if we had just found a small piece of paradise. My sister and I jumped out of the car giggling and immediately started to run around while my father and mother unpacked the car and set us up for the next few days.

My sister and I quickly ended up a bit further down the woods, but we remained aware of how far we were from the campsite. Also, it was still broad daylight, so nothing felt risky. We started to play a sneaky game of hide-and-seek in a patch of woods we had never visited before. It was thrilling, and it also had me scanning the area much faster than I usually would. All of a sudden, while looking through the dense trees for hints of my sister, I spotted what looked like a person far away, slowly walking behind a big tree. They weren't necessarily hiding, just casually walking behind a tree and not reappearing. It felt really weird to see someone that deep in the woods, but the thing that really caught my eye was this person's appearance. It seemed to be a woman, but pretty small and frail, wearing what looked like a sleeveless dress made of either really cheap or rough fabric. Also, from the fraction of a second that I caught a glimpse, she seemed to have a shaved head. I don't know why, but this detail really stuck with me.

I was obviously creeped out and quickly thought I should get my sister, who was still hiding, and head back to the campsite. I used a different path to cut more directly toward the campsite, calling out for her. Maybe 5 minutes later, when I was about 500 meters away from our tents, I found what looked like an ancient well. It was made entirely of stone, sticking out from the ground by about four feet. I got closer to take a peek inside and found that it was closed off with what looked like a manhole cover with a crudely shaped handle welded on top of it, with a big rusted chain looping through to secure the cover in place. It looked really out of place, as it was the only man made structure you could see for miles upon miles at this point, and stuck out like a sore thumb in these dense woods. Really weirded out, I called out my sister's name even louder. I heard my mother yelling that my sister was already back at camp and told me to come back immediately.

My sister was visibly upset, her eyes red from what I assumed was a recent crying session. This was confirmed when my mother started to ask me what had happened and why I would scare my sister like that. I was really confused, tried to explain myself, and even tried to tell her that I was a little scared because "I think I saw a weird woman with her head shaved wearing dirty rags." This got my sister even more worked up instantly. My mom, at this point, simply scolded me for making up stories and teasing my sister with big brother shenanigans. I tried to plead my case, but quickly just shrugged the whole thing off, convincing myself I had imagined things and that my sister was just spooked by something mundane.

The day went on normally. We had a lot of fun after my sister calmed down and forgot about it all. Being 1999/2000, there were no phones in sight—just us together enjoying ourselves and taking in the great outdoor air. After we cooked dinner, we made a pretty big fire and eventually went to bed.

We had two tents set up, both big enough for two people. It was me and my mom in one tent, and my father and sister in the other. Everyone was pretty tired from the unexpectedly long journey to get there, so we all fell asleep pretty fast.

I suddenly woke up in what looked like the middle of the night. It was pitch black, with only a very faint moonlight shining through an unexplainably open tent flap. Still dazed, I just looked at it, puzzled, and felt my mother's arm propped on me, slowly shifting toward my shoulder and gently grabbing it. I was still very groggy and confused waking up in an unfamiliar place, trying to get my bearings and not even knowing if I was still dreaming or not. My mother slowly started to sit up and, without a word, guided me toward the tent flap that was already half unzipped. I also sat up and followed her, maybe out of reflex from being so sleepy, not questioning my mother. I saw her silhouette very slowly crawling out of the tent right in front of me, and I then opened the flap completely to get out easier, quickly pulling the zipper.

And then, from the back of the tent, I heard my mother groggily call out, "ludoludoludo, what are you doing? Everything alright?"

I completely froze, paralyzed with fear and confusion. I just sat there, completely still, looking in her direction with shallow breath. Kind of worried, she pulled up her flashlight and clicked it open in my general direction. The light beam on my face snapped me out of my stillness, and I started to look around in panic, trying to figure out what had just happened, having trouble putting together a string of words that made sense. When she shone the flashlight inside the tent, I noticed that it was super messy, with dirt and leaves surrounding me.

My mother reached out to me and tried to calm me down. I just blurted out that she had been right there on my left side trying to guide me outside, and that I had seen her exiting the tent. The commotion woke my father and sister up, and they came over to see what was going on. Because I was visibly upset and freaking out, my sister welled up again since she was still on edge from the day before. It made for a hectic night out in the woods; we refused to go back to sleep, and we were generally too frightened to enjoy ourselves anymore.

After a quick breakfast and failed attempts to calm us down, we packed up the next morning and made our way back to the main road.

As mentioned in the beginning, I sort of automatically suppressed that memory pretty fast. I convinced myself that I had still been dreaming and woke up without knowing it—maybe sleepwalking barefoot around the tent and making a mess coming back in, even though I have never sleepwalked. But I still don't know for sure what happened that night out in the forest, during our yearly family camping tradition.

Hey there,

I recently posted a story here about a horrifying night while home alone, and it got me thinking about another horrible memory from my childhood that I thought I would share as well. This story really creeped me out, and I feel like I must have coped with it by trying to suppress the memory.

Anyway, here goes nothing. Just to let you know, it is a long read.

This happened a while ago, in my childhood, as previously stated. It was around 1999 or 2000, which would have put me at about 10 or 11 years old. I cannot remember exactly.

Back then, my family and I would often go camping in the summer or fall as a tradition to try and reconnect with each other while soaking up the nature around us. Since this was 1999/2000, video games and the internet were not as popular yet. I was already more of an adventurous, outdoor type of kid, and I always appreciated a little journey into the woods to explore deeper. Plus, it was always a great opportunity to share moments with my father, my mother, and my sister.

We would often stay at the same campsite every year. We really liked it because it was not too far from home, had well-maintained spots, and featured a pretty big public area with a pool, a park, water fountains for the kids, and general activities to spend time doing during the day.

That year, the summer was absolutely beautiful with unbelievable weather, so the camping season ended up being much busier than usual. Sadly, we were told this campsite was at complete capacity, and no spots were available for the weekend we had planned to go.

We were all packed up and dead set on camping, which left my younger sister and me seemingly upset about the cancellation. So, my father decided to look for another spot as fast as possible to ensure we would still have great memories of the trip.

Without being too precise, we were located in Canada, very close to the U.S. border. The region was extremely vast with pretty dense forest all over. My father figured he would easily find something else. If no other official campsite was an option, we would simply explore the woods until we found a secluded spot that looked comfortable enough to pitch a tent and grill some marshmallows over a fire.

It surprisingly took a very long time to find a good spot that seemed like actual wilderness—meaning not land from a private property—and the general terrain was pretty rough, too rough to set up tents. My father had recently purchased a new truck that allowed him to easily maneuver through these deep wood trails, but this meant we ended up deep in the woods. In his opinion, it was the perfect occasion to try camping in an actual wild setting, but I remember my mother starting to get uneasy being so far into unknown woods. Being very far from the main roads at this point, she started to press my dad to settle on the next acceptable spot.

No more than 10 to 15 minutes later, we stumbled upon a weirdly clean clearing that almost seemed out of place because the spot was so perfect. The sun was hitting it in a scenic way, as if we had just found a small piece of paradise. My sister and I jumped out of the car giggling and immediately started to run around while my father and mother unpacked the car and set us up for the next few days.

My sister and I quickly ended up a bit further down the woods, but we remained aware of how far we were from the campsite. Also, it was still broad daylight, so nothing felt risky. We started to play a sneaky game of hide-and-seek in a patch of woods we had never visited before. It was thrilling, and it also had me scanning the area much faster than I usually would. All of a sudden, while looking through the dense trees for hints of my sister, I spotted what looked like a person far away, slowly walking behind a big tree. They weren't necessarily hiding, just casually walking behind a tree and not reappearing. It felt really weird to see someone that deep in the woods, but the thing that really caught my eye was this person's appearance. It seemed to be a woman, but pretty small and frail, wearing what looked like a sleeveless dress made of either really cheap or rough fabric. Also, from the fraction of a second that I caught a glimpse, she seemed to have a shaved head. I don't know why, but this detail really stuck with me.

I was obviously creeped out and quickly thought I should get my sister, who was still hiding, and head back to the campsite. I used a different path to cut more directly toward the campsite, calling out for her. Maybe 5 minutes later, when I was about 500 meters away from our tents, I found what looked like an ancient well. It was made entirely of stone, sticking out from the ground by about four feet. I got closer to take a peek inside and found that it was closed off with what looked like a manhole cover with a crudely shaped handle welded on top of it, with a big rusted chain looping through to secure the cover in place. It looked really out of place, as it was the only man made structure you could see for miles upon miles at this point, and stuck out like a sore thumb in these dense woods. Really weirded out, I called out my sister's name even louder. I heard my mother yelling that my sister was already back at camp and told me to come back immediately.

My sister was visibly upset, her eyes red from what I assumed was a recent crying session. This was confirmed when my mother started to ask me what had happened and why I would scare my sister like that. I was really confused, tried to explain myself, and even tried to tell her that I was a little scared because "I think I saw a weird woman with her head shaved wearing dirty rags." This got my sister even more worked up instantly. My mom, at this point, simply scolded me for making up stories and teasing my sister with big brother shenanigans. I tried to plead my case, but quickly just shrugged the whole thing off, convincing myself I had imagined things and that my sister was just spooked by something mundane.

The day went on normally. We had a lot of fun after my sister calmed down and forgot about it all. Being 1999/2000, there were no phones in sight—just us together enjoying ourselves and taking in the great outdoor air. After we cooked dinner, we made a pretty big fire and eventually went to bed.

We had two tents set up, both big enough for two people. It was me and my mom in one tent, and my father and sister in the other. Everyone was pretty tired from the unexpectedly long journey to get there, so we all fell asleep pretty fast.

I suddenly woke up in what looked like the middle of the night. It was pitch black, with only a very faint moonlight shining through an unexplainably open tent flap. Still dazed, I just looked at it, puzzled, and felt my mother's arm propped on me, slowly shifting toward my shoulder and gently grabbing it. I was still very groggy and confused waking up in an unfamiliar place, trying to get my bearings and not even knowing if I was still dreaming or not. My mother slowly started to sit up and, without a word, guided me toward the tent flap that was already half unzipped. I also sat up and followed her, maybe out of reflex from being so sleepy, not questioning my mother. I saw her silhouette very slowly crawling out of the tent right in front of me, and I then opened the flap completely to get out easier, quickly pulling the zipper.

And then, from the back of the tent, I heard my mother groggily call out, "ludoludoludo, what are you doing? Everything alright?"

I completely froze, paralyzed with fear and confusion. I just sat there, completely still, looking in her direction with shallow breath. Kind of worried, she pulled up her flashlight and clicked it open in my general direction. The light beam on my face snapped me out of my stillness, and I started to look around in panic, trying to figure out what had just happened, having trouble putting together a string of words that made sense. When she shone the flashlight inside the tent, I noticed that it was super messy, with dirt and leaves surrounding me.

My mother reached out to me and tried to calm me down. I just blurted out that she had been right there on my left side trying to guide me outside, and that I had seen her exiting the tent. The commotion woke my father and sister up, and they came over to see what was going on. Because I was visibly upset and freaking out, my sister welled up again since she was still on edge from the day before. It made for a hectic night out in the woods; we refused to go back to sleep, and we were generally too frightened to enjoy ourselves anymore.

After a quick breakfast and failed attempts to calm us down, we packed up the next morning and made our way back to the main road.

As mentioned in the beginning, I sort of automatically suppressed that memory pretty fast. I convinced myself that I had still been dreaming and woke up without knowing it—maybe sleepwalking barefoot around the tent and making a mess coming back in, even though I have never sleepwalked. But I still don't know for sure what happened that night out in the forest, during our yearly family camping tradition.

This happened to me 18 years ago, approximately, and obvisouly swear it's true. That being said, I am sure there is an explanation out there, but I have yet to fully confirm what it is, and still have a much creepier and scared impression of this event than anything else to this day.

To preface and give some slight context, I was living alone at the time at my dad's house, which he basically never came to for weeks at the time since he was living at his girlfriends place back then. He would quickly swing by maybe once a month to get his mail, but otherwise, I had the whole place for myself.

As a 16 year old back then, it was really great to have a whole house to myself, but also creepy at times, since the house itself had a really weird vibe to it. Although that might just have been me imagining things at night time, some weird occurrences happened in this place during the period I lived there alone, and even when the house was full with the rest of the family. Feeling watched, hearing unexplainable noises, misplaced objects. Just random things that eventually added up. But these are stories for another time.

So back then, I sadly lost a great friend to a car accident. He was one of my best buddies, and just started to reconnect after he changed schools and we haven't seen each other for a few years. He was an absolute blast to hang out with, and would come over to my place almost daily during this period.

The accident happened so unexpectedly, as most accident I guess, but it was one of my first confrontation with the death of someone close whose not an elderly family member. He was also 18 at the time just like me and our friend circle, so it was hard to deal with in general.

Few weeks later, I started to have extremely vivid dreams, not necessarily scary ones, but pretty weird and upsetting. The dreams would often have me struggling with I don't know what, being extremely cautious, in different sections of the house, and I could never get out. They were increasingly becoming more intense, and somewhat repetitive. These dreams would always stand out to me as they felt much more real, in a setting that was too familiar.

Now to get back to my late friend, as I mentioned, before his passing, we would see each other almost daily. So much so that he would pretty much just come and go as he pleased, and wouldn't even knock when swinging by, especially since I lived there alone basically at this stage.

So it wouldn't be weird or unexpected to randomly hear the door swing open with him hollering at me that he ''was home'' as he would jokingly yell from time to time.

That being said, one night, I started to have the same kind of dream I've had for a few weeks at this point, where I'd have some sort of POV of me slowly walking through the house, in a basically pitch black setting, but still able to maneuver my way through different rooms, seemingly looking or waiting for something to happen. At least, that's about how it ''felt''. And at some point in the dream, while I was at the very end of the basement in my room where my bed was, I heard the front door of the house slam open extremely loud, like unbearingly so, and it woke me up in absolute terror.

I had never woken up from a dream or nightmare like that, always thought it was more of a movie cliche than real life. But here I was, basically waking up exactly where I was in the dream at this point, heart pumping so loud I could hear it.

The noise was so loud, and the dream so realistic that I was not even sure if I dreamt the door opening part or not. It was 3;16 am. I got out of bed and slowly walked back upstairs to confirm the door was well closed and locked, which I would always make sure of before going to bed alone in the house.

On the last step up looking right, even in the dark, I could spot the golden door handle and locket in the closed/locked position, everything was seemingly fine, besides the eerie atmosphere. Still felt unbelievably queasy and upset about the dream for some reason, and decided to flick open the main lights of the living room which was the room you would get into from the entrance, and then I saw it ;

There were dozens and dozens of footsteps marks on the ground, going in circles and just all around the place on this level of the house. They were the kind of footsteps you'd leave in the winter after walking in snow and calcium, messy ones, all dried up, and just generally going in chaotic directions all over. They were in the living room kitchen, both bedrooms of the upstairs area and the bathroom. Some of the tracks would go straight into walls, going in circles, etc.

It was completely surreal, I stood there frozen in shock trying to register what I was looking at and feeling like something happened that I simply completely lost my memory of. My brain felt like I must have made this mess myself without knowing, although I knew deep down it wasn't the case. Nothing else in the house seemed to have moved, everything was in order besides the hundreds of footsteps staining the floor. I kept retracing their paths from the rooms all the way to the front door, and for some reason was thinking about my friend who was the only one opening this door randomly in the last few weeks besides me. I had never felt this kind of stuff before nor after, but it was like I could feel his presence somehow but not in a good way ? It's really hard to explain, and I was also trying to ignore this feeling as much as possible, trying to remain level headed and not giving into the weird creepy vibe.

I slowly cleared each room one after one out of fear someone was actually inside somewhere. Obviously found no one, and after 15-20 minutes of searching and recouping, I started to clean up the floors and tried to get rid of the footsteps as fast as I could. Before doing so however, I compared the shoe prints with my shoes and the shoes that were by the entrance, thinking at first that I either was sleepwalking, or .... just walked all over the house for some reason without remembering. The shoe prints were extremely weirdly shaped, as in they basically didn't keep the same sizes, and we're not clear enough to identify any kind of sole pattern either. I only had one pair, and they were all clean and dry at this point. Even checked outside by the front door only to see the same fresh snow blanket that fell that evening, and was left undisturbed when I went to bed. I also never sleep walked in my life, although I guess there could be a first time for everything. But the atmosphere felt oddly charged and out of place. It was the first time I could actually feel that kind of energy. The air was heavy, and I felt it more than ever before.

I have never believed in the paranormal in its whole, and personally think there are explanation for everything, even this story. But for the first time in my life, I was left with no clear explanation, and a heavy creepy feeling about it all. A feeling I simply could not shake no matter what.

The dreams quickly stopped after this, returning to normal or just none of them. The place still felt really weird, for some reasons.

As an interesting side note, I eventually got a place of my own in college, and my father sold the house few years after this happened, never fully returning there and moving in completely with his then girlfriend.

When helping him moving out and slowly going through the house, I decided to share what happened that night. I went about it in the most pragmatic way I could, knowing how serious and no bullshit my father was, and especially how much he tought these type of stories were complete bullshit.

And I was shocked to see him looking at me with complete stupor while describing the event, not really commenting, and remaining stern and focused. Without speaking too much, he basically told me this place was ''not good'', and that he himself, for the first time of his life, felt so uncomfortable in there he tried to visit as less as possible, one of the reason he was mainly staying elsewhere. It is the only time and last time I have seen my father kind of expressing fear about something like that.

So there it is, sorry for the long write up, tried to described things as well as possible to put you in my shoes.

EDIT ; Fixed typos.