15 people share their most bone-chilling 'let's get the hell out of here' experience.

Not all horror movies are pure fiction.

This is to say, real life can be just as creepy and inexplicable as a carefully crafted movie. There are countless stories of things that go bump in the dark, creepy run-ins with strangers, and strange ghost-like 'haunting' experiences.

In a popular Ask Reddit thread, people shared their most bone-chilling experiences.

1. From elevencharles:

I’m a criminal defense investigator. I had a murder case involving two brothers. The one accused of the murders was very autistic, and his brother was a schizophrenic. The schizophrenic brother lived in a potato shack in the middle of the desert.

I needed to talk to him several times throughout the course of the investigation, and since he didn’t have a phone or electricity, I had to drive several hours out to his house and yell his name from the fence line until he came out of the shack.

This investigation lasted for several years, and over time I developed a rapport with schizophrenic brother, and I kind of got to like him.

He would talk your ear off about the aliens with golden eyes and the underground tunnels that connect all the Walmarts in the country, but he was pretty entertaining, and part of me wonders how much of it was a “show.”

Schizophrenic brother eventually gets a girlfriend; she’s a tweaker who has mistaken his schizophrenia for meth induced psychosis. I talked to her a few times in jail when she was sober, and she was surprisingly charming and insightful.

The last time I go to see schizophrenic brother, it’s a dark winter night and tweaker girlfriend is there; she’s lurking in the shadows and staring daggers at me the entire time I’m talking to him.

I cut off his conversation about the speakers in his fillings and walk back to my truck to leave. A minute later, schizophrenic brother comes running out and tells me that he wants to show me something in his shack.

He’s never invited me inside before, and I’m not thrilled by the prospect. The whole thing feels off to me, so I tell him I have to get going, and start the truck.

The look of relief on his face when I declined to go inside convinced me that tweaker girlfriend was waiting behind the door with a hammer or something.

A few months later I learned that she shot him in his sleep and stashed his body in an old refrigerator. She has since plead guilty to his murder.

2. From ThunderAndSadness:

I must've been around 10 or 12 when this happened. I was walking back home one afternoon (around 3 or 4 pm) after strolling around the neighborhood, which was usually very safe, friendly, and quiet.

I was on the opposite side of the block (the houses behind ours), which wasn't an issue because there happened to be a park that went across the whole block and connected to the other side.

You didn't have to go around the whole block, so I was only a few houses away.

I went through the park (a park I had played at my entire childhood) without paying much attention, when about halfway through, this guy who I didn't know, definitely older than me, wearing a hoodie started calling me.

'Dude, come over here one sec.' 'Um, what do you want?' 'Come here, I just wanna ask you something' 'Ok, ask me from over there.' 'No, no, come over, please.' 'No, tell me from over there.'

At that point, another dude that was sitting next to him gets upset, I hear a 'That's it' and they both stood up quickly and started making their way towards me.

I can't recall how far they chased after me, but my instincts just told me to run like hell and I did. To this day I still don't know if they were gonna mug me, if they were just taking the piss or what was happening but it definitely scared kid me.

3. From aloysiusdumonde:

In very early 2020, I was in Lumbini, Nepal. It's a small town built around this complex of ruins that was once the palatial home of Siddhartha Gautama, the Bodi tree is located there.

I was staying in a cheap hotel along a muddy road leading out of the city and was the only guest in the building. Many stray dogs roamed the streets of that quarter at night and you'd often hear them barking or getting into fights.

This one night was particularly bad, a low fog had settled on the road and the dogs were out in force, howling & barking. Out of nowhere came this bellowing roar, one so loud & sonorous, I felt it in my chest.

Then, a vacuum of complete silence, all I could think of were ways to keep whatever had made that sound outside. The next day, I heard that a tiger had wandered over from the nearby reserve along the lake and eaten a few of those stray dogs.

4. From Comprehensive_Soil_1:

Exploring a abandoned high rise, out of the blue my friend grabbed me by my collar from behind, I was about to step into a elevator shaft.

After swearing at him 'what the f*ck' he said 'look' and I saw the drop of like 20 floors to a concrete bottom with broken metal rods sticking out. We went home. He saved my life 100%

5. From sjbrazzy:

Once when I was like 8 years old I lived in a trailer park with mostly normal but occasionally sketchy folks around.

I was really bored at home and asked my parents if I could walk up the street to my friend's house (not very far maybe just out of sight of my parent's trailer).

It was like the middle of the day and we knew a lot of people on our street so my parents said yes. So here I am an 8-year-old little girl walking to my friend's house.

Just as I got out of sight I saw an adult man walking towards me straight ahead. I immediately have my alerts on cause I was alone of course and had never seen this dude before.

I keep hoping he veers off on another course away from me but he keeps coming towards me and I notice his eyes are locked on me and he's smiling. I got the creeps but I was pretty close to my friend's house now.

I looked around and realized there wasn't anyone else outside to witness anything. He finally gets close enough to say something to me and this is what made me run, he said 'hey do you think you could take your shoes off?'

'Please, I want to see your feet.' And I said 'huh? What?' And he asked me again to see my feet!!! Y'all I turned around and sprinted so fast back to my house. I was terrified.

6. From Starshapedsand:

Possibly fighting a house fire, and realizing that I had very hot feet. Through concrete-soled boots? My officer and I immediately noped the f**k out. Hot feet mean you’re standing above a fire.

As fire burns upwards, it’s weakening the floor beneath you. So we were about to plummet into a basement fire.

7. From SGTRhoads16:

My wife and I were on a search mission for some missing fern pickers. We were volunteers with the local search and rescue (SAR) team. We decided to stay in the search area that night and had built a pretty nice fire.

We were sitting there and it was about 0200, hoping this dude would wander into camp. I had heard animals around us throughout the night. No surprise, we're in the middle of the woods, I'm used to animals stalking around outside my camp.

I knew there were two animals, one one each side of us. It was at about that point when we heard a bird chirp. It came from about the place I figured one of the animals were. Then another, from the opposite side.

I immediately realized we were being watched and stalked by at least two cougars. We very quickly climbed into the back of my truck. It's got a camper shell and is outfitted for truck camping.

8. From verminiusrex:

Driving Uber one night a couple years back. I picked up four guys from a club, listening to them talk I realized that two guys (one of them ordered the ride) had met the other two at the club and were on the way to get coke from one of their cousins.

There was an odd vibe, some of the conversation didn't seem the most linear, and I was hyper-aware that these drunk dumba**es were heading with two strangers to a drug deal. And I was the one driving them.

I did not want drugs in my car, and I was very aware that we might be on the way to an ambush. If we'd been heading anywhere remote or sketchy I had to figure out how to end the ride.

The two wannabe dealers kept trying to get in touch with their cousin via cellphone, went to an apartment just off a main street, and after both had gone into the building I just said 'should we leave?' to the guys and we did.

I still don't know if it was just a ploy for a free ride, guys too drunk or dumb to pull off a basic coke deal, or something nefarious that didn't finish.

9. From GabrielXS:

Once went urbexing in a storm drain on a nice summer's day. We only intended to explore the first couple of hundred feet but kept going.

After awhile, we could hear lots of water echoing in the distance and I noticed the water level was a little higher with a bit more flow. My mate tried to convince me it was just a diverted river. I wasn't having it though and made us head back pronto.

Stupid us didn't count on a freak rainstorm and managed to get out just as it got torrential. At a few points weren't sure if we were gonna make it. Absolutely terrifying.

10. From SalemScout:

Hiking in the Rocky Mountains, on a trail I knew pretty well. I was leading a group of kids, maybe twenty or so middle school-aged children from the camp where I worked.

I turned a corner and saw a jawbone of a deer. Pretty cool, showed it to the kids. Didn't have any flesh on it, so I assumed it was pretty old. A hundred feet further down the trail I find another bone.

Femur maybe (I specialized in insect populations, not deer anatomy.) This one looked a little fresher. Another ways down, another bone. I'm getting a little nervous at this point, so I explain that we should probably turn around and head back.

My students all groan that they want to see more dead stuff, but I shepherd them down the train and back to camp. Two days later we got a call at the camp that someone had been attacked in the area by a mountain lion.

Apparently, a mountain lion had set itself up in the caves on the cliffside and it had gotten pissed when someone got too close. I'm glad we left the area, even if my students would have loved to see more dead stuff.

11. From beandip101:

Back when my son was only about a year old my husband worked second shift so I was alone every evening. We lived in townhouses at the time and had a neighbor who was a war vet, my husband was friendly with.

He was a little off in the sense there was very obvious PTSD and other traumas but all around a nice dude. Anyway, one evening this guy knocked on the door.

I opened it thinking he probably was looking for my husband and I was just gonna let him know he was working. Dude was super drunk, wouldn’t stop talking and kinda made his way into the house.

He also brought his huge a*s German Sheppard with him. I was trying to be friendly but I had the worst feeling in my stomach. I felt insanely vulnerable and like something just wasn’t right with this situation.

I kept trying to tell him in the nicest way to leave but he wouldn’t. I texted my husband “hey neighbor guys here and won’t leave, he’s trashed, I feel really uncomfortable.”

My husband texted his buddies that lived a few apartments down and they came over immediately. They got the dude out of the house and not even 20 minutes later I hear noises outside and this guy is trying to rip the license plate off my car.

My husband's friends heard it or saw it I’m not really sure but they came over and were more aggressive about him going home and leaving me alone. And he did, so I thought.

Few hours later my husband gets home and sees this guy hanging out crouched behind some cars. He goes up to him to ask him exactly what the f*ck he’s doing.

I don’t know the exact details because I stayed hiding in the house but this guy had ropes and some other weapon on him and full intentions of r*ping me that night.

It makes me sick to think that if my husband's friends wouldn’t have came over as fast as they did to help me my poor son would have watched something horrible happen to me. Or even what he would have even done to my child.

12. From shlable710:

One time I was out in Colorado with some buddies hiking near the top of a mountain. Some bad weather started to roll in but the top was only 15 mins away so I went ahead while they went back down.

As I was getting to the top I felt static in the air and the hair in my head started to stand up. I immediately started to panic cause I thought I was about to get struck by lightning so naturally, I ran down without ever getting to the top.

I’m not sure if I was gonna get struck but I sure as hell wasn’t sticking around to find out.

13. From weednreefs:

Used to work on an ambulance and the company that I worked for had more ambulances than there were firehouses/medic stations (to keep up with increasing call volumes).

We would do something called “posting”, which is where you park the ambulance somewhere within the area that you are servicing while you wait for a call. I was working the midnight to 10AM shift one night and it was really slow.

On slow nights, we would try to find the darkest areas we could find to “post” in an attempt to catch some sleep. We find a church within a neighborhood whose parking lot had virtually no light so we decide to park there.

As soon as my partner put the rig in “park” I instantly felt incredibly uncomfortable and unsafe. I didn’t want to say anything to my partner as I literally had no reason to feel the way I was but the feeling was almost overwhelming.

A few minutes go by and my partner looks at me and says “hey man I don’t feel right, something just feels off, do you want to get out of here?” I replied “yes” and we got the hell out of there.

I have never really figured out why we both had that sensation and why it came on in that church's parking lot but it sure did give me the creeps.

14. From ImNotA_IThink:

I was helping check cows on my family’s ranch. Get out there in my non-4x4 car just a little before dusk.

The cows were all kinda scattered so I decided to just walk in so I don’t stir them up too much and can get a better look (I was checking for any baby calves). So I’m well into the field. Like a solid 5 min walk from my car at least.

Looking around at all the cows, checking the ones that were looking kinda close on calving.

I see some of the cows furthest away from me kinda stir so I look and see something dark and large-cat-shaped crouched low to the ground slowly stalking some of the cows.

Now, I live in West Texas so jaguars aren’t really a thing but there had been rumors for YEARS about this jaguar that stalked up and down the creek…that went right by our ranch.

It probably was just a dark colored mountain lion, but either way it was definitely not something I wanted to mess with, in the dark, a ways from a vehicle, with no gun.

I am not ashamed to say I left the cows to defend themselves and ran as fast as I could through the field back to my car. I did check the next day and all cows were safe and accounted for.

15. From consist_:

When I was 16/17, I was texting with a friend's older brother (19/20) who was a local paramedic. He was sweet on me. Love bombing sweet. At that age, I didn’t know better and just loved the idea that an older guy was so sweet on me.

I’d only met him in person once at a ball game. One day, he randomly showed up to the little countryside cafe I worked at. He insisted I take his letterman even though it was in the heat of summer. It was weird but he was insistent so I took it.

We kept texting and things got weird and possessive. I got scared and basically ghosted him. I never told him where I lived.

But not even a few days later, I was home alone (way out in the middle of nowhere) with my younger step sister and I hear banging on the door. It was him. He was yelling for me to come out right away.

Beating the door. It was an old, run down single wide trailer so nothing was really “home invader proofed”. He started kicking the door hard. The whole trailer was shaking. Throwing stuff at the windows and screaming.

I got my moms shot gun, hid my step sister in the closet and called the police. If felt like forever. He didn’t stop until I heard tires on the gravel pull up.

A cop came inside and said he claimed I stole his letterman and class ring and was just there to get his stuff back. The ring was in the jacket pocket but I didn’t know.

I gave it to the cop and I don’t know what happened to him but needless to say there was not future contact. I still don’t know how he learned where I lived.