Latest / Martin Animations / 5 SLEEPOVER HORROR STORIES ANIMATED

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5 SLEEPOVER HORROR STORIES ANIMATED · Martin Animations

0:03
Speaker 1: Hi, Joel.
0:04
Speaker 2: This is my first time writing to you, and since
0:06
Speaker 2: this is a very sensitive topic in my old hometown,
0:09
Speaker 2: I'd rather remain anonymous if that's okay with you. I
0:13
Speaker 2: had a friend back in elementary school, not my closest friend,
0:15
Speaker 2: but we moved in the same circles, and at one
0:18
Speaker 2: point she invited me over to her house for a sleepover.
0:22
Speaker 2: I was only too happy to accept, it sounded fun.
0:25
Speaker 2: But little did I know it was a night that
0:27
Speaker 2: would have some seriously far-reaching implications. So this friend of mine,
0:32
Speaker 2: we'll call her Annie, lived with her mom and stepdad.
0:35
Speaker 2: They seemed like nice enough folks and their place was
0:38
Speaker 2: nice enough, but I guess a lot of us come
0:41
Speaker 2: to learn as we grow older, appearances can be deceptive.
0:45
Speaker 2: On the night of the sleepover, her mom wasn't due
0:47
Speaker 2: home until later in the evening. This meant that we
0:50
Speaker 2: were in the care of my friend's stepdad and because
0:52
Speaker 2: of our bedtime, we weren't likely to see her mom
0:55
Speaker 2: until the following morning. This was no big deal to
0:58
Speaker 2: me at all, but it was to my friend, who
1:00
Speaker 2: kept bringing it up at odd moments while we were playing.
1:04
Speaker 2: It also became increasingly obvious that she didn't really like
1:07
Speaker 2: her stepdad at all that much, which I guess is
1:10
Speaker 2: about par for the course for some children of divorce,
1:12
Speaker 2: so I didn't really read into it all that much.
1:16
Speaker 2: But then came bedtime. We got into our PJs, brushed
1:19
Speaker 2: our teeth, and went back to Annie's bedroom to climb
1:22
Speaker 2: into bed. I asked if she had a nightlight or
1:25
Speaker 2: anything and went to turn off the bedroom's main light
1:27
Speaker 2: but she stopped me, telling me that her stepdad would
1:30
Speaker 2: be up soon to check on us. Only when he
1:33
Speaker 2: made sure that we were tucked in bed would we
1:35
Speaker 2: be allowed to turn the nightlight on and talk for
1:38
Speaker 2: a while. It seemed like a weirdly strict way of
1:41
Speaker 2: doing things but I figured that I better just respect
1:44
Speaker 2: their systems so I lay down on the blow-up mattress
1:48
Speaker 2: that they'd put down for me and got tucked in.
1:51
Speaker 2: I remember talking to Annie about something. I can't remember
1:54
Speaker 2: what exactly, but the conversation took this sudden turn when,
1:57
Speaker 2: out of nowhere, she said, I'm real glad you're here tonight, Sarah.
2:01
Speaker 2: Thank you for sleeping over. I guess from how it
2:05
Speaker 2: looks on paper, that sounds like a pretty wholesome moment, right?
2:09
Speaker 2: But that just makes me wish y'all could actually hear
2:12
Speaker 2: Annie saying those words, because the way her voice sounded
2:15
Speaker 2: gave them a distinctly unsettling feel. It was almost like
2:20
Speaker 2: my presence was going to prevent something bad from happening
2:23
Speaker 2: and at the time, I figured that bad thing was
2:26
Speaker 2: just Annie being lonely on a Friday night. She also
2:30
Speaker 2: wasn't the most popular girl around and I think it
2:32
Speaker 2: played on her insecurities so it made sense that our
2:35
Speaker 2: friendship meant a lot to her. But in truth, there
2:39
Speaker 2: was a whole other reason she was glad I was there.
2:42
Speaker 2: I remember me and Annie hearing her stepdad walking up
2:45
Speaker 2: the stairs and her swiftly laying back in bed with
2:48
Speaker 2: the covers up to her chin. Now looking back on it,
2:51
Speaker 2: there was a kind of military precision to it. Annie
2:54
Speaker 2: seemed nervous, like she was focused to pass some kind
2:57
Speaker 2: of inspection, which is exactly what I assumed was going on.
3:02
Speaker 2: I figured if her stepdad was that strict, I'd better
3:04
Speaker 2: do her a solid and just act likewise, so I did.
3:08
Speaker 2: I lay back down on the blow-up mattress and pulled
3:11
Speaker 2: the covers up to my chin. Annie's stepdad then walked
3:14
Speaker 2: into the room and instead of carrying himself like some
3:17
Speaker 2: drill sergeant, He seemed perfectly warm and friendly, just like
3:21
Speaker 2: he'd been all evening. Then he walks over to Annie's
3:24
Speaker 2: bed to take a seat on the edge and leans
3:27
Speaker 2: in to give her a goodnight kiss. Only instead of
3:30
Speaker 2: a quick peck on the cheek or forehead before standing
3:33
Speaker 2: up again, he lingers a little too long after the
3:36
Speaker 2: kiss itself. It didn't strike me as being wrong or anything,
3:40
Speaker 2: just weird. Then as he started to whisper something to Annie,
3:45
Speaker 2: she said aloud, I want to talk to Sarah. I
3:49
Speaker 2: remember thinking, so talk to me, I'm right here. Like
3:53
Speaker 2: the whole situation just seemed really off to me for
3:55
Speaker 2: some reason and I couldn't figure out why. I knew
3:58
Speaker 2: different families did things differently. I guess I was just
4:02
Speaker 2: too naive to recognize something that would have seemed obvious
4:05
Speaker 2: if I'd seen it today. So as I'd said, Annie
4:09
Speaker 2: had thrown out some vague ultimatum, which signaled her stepdad
4:12
Speaker 2: to leave. He shifted a little, looked back at me
4:15
Speaker 2: for a moment with a smile, then turned back to
4:17
Speaker 2: start whispering something to Annie again. She cuts him off
4:21
Speaker 2: even more assertively that time, saying, Dad, I want to
4:25
Speaker 2: talk to Sarah, please. There was a brief pause, and
4:30
Speaker 2: then he said, Okay, sweetie. And after that, he finally
4:35
Speaker 2: left the room. Like I said, I knew that I'd
4:38
Speaker 2: just witnessed something significant, I just didn't know what. But
4:42
Speaker 2: the vibe in the room afterwards was very intense. Annie
4:45
Speaker 2: stayed quiet for a long time, Then when she finally spoke,
4:49
Speaker 2: she said that same heartwarming, turned creepy kind of thing.
4:54
Speaker 2: I'm glad you're here tonight, Sarah. Thank you for sleeping over.
4:59
Speaker 2: I didn't sleep over at Annie's house again. I think
5:02
Speaker 2: she knew that her stepdad had kind of creeped me
5:04
Speaker 2: out that night, but we stayed friends for the remainder
5:07
Speaker 2: of elementary school, and she even came over to play
5:09
Speaker 2: for a few times during the summer after graduation. Sadly,
5:13
Speaker 2: our friendship was basically doomed because we were headed for
5:16
Speaker 2: different middle schools once summer break was over. We kept
5:20
Speaker 2: in touch for a little while, but by the end
5:22
Speaker 2: of that first year, we had all but drifted apart completely.
5:26
Speaker 2: Over the next two years or so, I saw Annie
5:28
Speaker 2: around town a number of times. We were always happy
5:31
Speaker 2: to see each other, but the final few times that
5:34
Speaker 2: we bumped into one another, Annie had started to look
5:36
Speaker 2: increasingly unwell. She didn't look like she was eating or
5:40
Speaker 2: sleeping very much. but insisted that she was fine when
5:43
Speaker 2: I asked her. I just wished her all the best,
5:46
Speaker 2: then carried on shopping for track shoes with my mom.
5:50
Speaker 2: About four months go by, and I don't see or
5:53
Speaker 2: hear anything of Annie. And then, probably the most infamous
5:57
Speaker 2: crime in our town's recent history occurred. My mom broke
6:02
Speaker 2: the news to me, how a man had killed his wife,
6:04
Speaker 2: his kid, and then took his own life, before setting
6:08
Speaker 2: fire to the family homes. I grew up in a
6:11
Speaker 2: real quiet mountain town, maybe only 3,000 people altogether. The
6:15
Speaker 2: kind of place where someone running a stoplight was gossip worthy.
6:20
Speaker 2: Nothing ever happened there, so for something so awful to
6:23
Speaker 2: happen out of the blue, it rocked people to their
6:25
Speaker 2: very foundations. When mom told me I remember feeling awful
6:30
Speaker 2: for the wife and kid while wondering what the hell
6:32
Speaker 2: had gone so badly wrong in a man to make
6:35
Speaker 2: him something so unspeakable. But that wasn't the worst part.
6:40
Speaker 2: My mom knew who the family was. The kid that
6:43
Speaker 2: got killed was Annie, and her killer was her own stepfather.
6:48
Speaker 2: I was devastated, beyond devastated really, and it hit me
6:52
Speaker 2: harder because I felt like I'd known that he was bad.
6:56
Speaker 2: He acted all friendly and warm on the outside, but
6:58
Speaker 2: what I saw in Annie's room that night was a
7:00
Speaker 2: glimpse of a man he really was. Like I said,
7:04
Speaker 2: someone older might have been able to piece it together,
7:07
Speaker 2: but I just didn't have the emotional toolkit, so to speak,
7:09
Speaker 2: to do so, and in my mind, that meant Annie's death.
7:13
Speaker 2: Kind of felt partially my fault. I couldn't say that, though.
7:18
Speaker 2: I just bottled it all up, knowing that even if
7:21
Speaker 2: I had said something, nothing would have happened. It's not
7:24
Speaker 2: illegal to be a little strict or weird. That was
7:27
Speaker 2: my thinking anyway, but as I came to learn, that's
7:29
Speaker 2: not quite how the law works when it comes to kids.
7:33
Speaker 2: I should have said something. That's the moral of the story, really.
7:36
Speaker 2: And it's just as much a warning to others as
7:38
Speaker 2: it is a lesson to myself. And it's just as
7:41
Speaker 2: much a warning to others as it is a lesson
7:43
Speaker 2: to myself. If I'd have raised the alarm, even if
7:46
Speaker 2: it was voicing some minor concerns about the way Annie's
7:49
Speaker 2: stepdad acted with her at night, that would have gotten
7:52
Speaker 2: the ball rolling, meaning there was a good chance someone
7:56
Speaker 2: would have gotten around to asking him a few questions.
7:59
Speaker 2: And if that certain someone had been a three-letter agency...
8:02
Speaker 2: and they'd look through his computer, and they'd have found
8:05
Speaker 2: a Pandora's box of vile, indecent images. Annie's stepdad was
8:10
Speaker 2: abusing her. He had been for years, and he's been
8:13
Speaker 2: documenting it, too. Neighbors heard a whole bunch of shouting
8:17
Speaker 2: just before the murders, and were right about to call
8:20
Speaker 2: the sheriff when they heard the first few shots. They
8:23
Speaker 2: said it sounded vicious, the argument, I mean, and that
8:27
Speaker 2: they were pretty sure someone was smashing things in between yells.
8:31
Speaker 2: It's not 100% clear but people generally agree that the
8:34
Speaker 2: fight occurred after Annie's mom found the pictures or videos
8:37
Speaker 2: or whatever it was on her husband's computer. The way
8:41
Speaker 2: I imagine it is that all the smashing was either
8:44
Speaker 2: him smashing phones or him trying to stop Annie's mom
8:47
Speaker 2: from getting to one so she could call the cops. Then,
8:51
Speaker 2: when Annie's stepdad realized that there was nothing he could
8:54
Speaker 2: do or say to get Annie's mom to stop or
8:56
Speaker 2: calm down, he grabbed his gun and shot her, Annie,
8:59
Speaker 2: and then himself after trying to destroy the evidence. He
9:03
Speaker 2: probably would have been successful if their neighbors hadn't heard
9:06
Speaker 2: the gunshots because the cops that arrived on scene quickly
9:09
Speaker 2: summoned the fire department who put out the blaze and
9:12
Speaker 2: preserved all the digital evidence in the process. The whole
9:16
Speaker 2: thing didn't come out for months and months afterwards, which
9:19
Speaker 2: I guess was a deliberate decision to try to keep
9:21
Speaker 2: people from freaking out too hard. But all it really
9:24
Speaker 2: did was divide all the grief and outrage into two parts.
9:28
Speaker 2: Hearing that Annie was being abused reignited the whole thing
9:31
Speaker 2: and had this big black cloud hanging over the town
9:33
Speaker 2: that never really went away. Me and my own family
9:38
Speaker 2: ended up moving out of town about two years later
9:40
Speaker 2: and I did my final couple years of high school
9:43
Speaker 2: someplace else. When people figured out where I'd moved from,
9:46
Speaker 2: they kept asking if I'd known the girl who had
9:49
Speaker 2: been murdered by her stepdad. I used to lie and
9:52
Speaker 2: tell them I didn't. But every time they asked, I'd
9:55
Speaker 2: have to find an excuse to take a quiet moment
9:57
Speaker 2: in order to fight back the tears. I felt horrifically
10:01
Speaker 2: guilty for a long, long time too, and it took
10:04
Speaker 2: a therapist to get me to understand that it wasn't
10:06
Speaker 2: my fault. But even so, I know there's a small
10:10
Speaker 2: part of me that will always feel partially responsible. It's
10:14
Speaker 2: all just a the one that tells me it's all
10:18
Speaker 2: my fault, as quiet as possible.
10:31
Speaker 3: Sometimes you need a bit of fun in your life,
10:33
Speaker 3: and certain people can definitely make it brighter. I'm talking
10:37
Speaker 3: about friends. Close friends. This story's been in the back
10:42
Speaker 3: of my mind for about two years now. and it's
10:45
Speaker 3: one of the most terrifying experiences of my entire life
10:48
Speaker 3: that I really want to forget. It occasionally pops into
10:51
Speaker 3: my mind, and it still gives me the shivers to
10:54
Speaker 3: this day. It was the end of another school week,
10:57
Speaker 3: a Friday, and as a lot of us teenagers do,
11:01
Speaker 3: we decided to have a sleepover on the weekend. My
11:04
Speaker 3: friends agreed with me, and we happily walked home, talking
11:08
Speaker 3: about what we should do the next day and where
11:10
Speaker 3: we should go, and all that stuff that you'd expect
11:12
Speaker 3: to talk about. One of my other friends said that
11:15
Speaker 3: we should have a sleepover at his place. I'm not
11:18
Speaker 3: revealing their real names for privacy reasons, so for this story,
11:22
Speaker 3: I'll call them X and L. And in case you're confused,
11:26
Speaker 3: it was X that said he wanted us to sleep
11:27
Speaker 3: over at his place. I quietly walked home as I
11:31
Speaker 3: and L split up to go to our own houses
11:33
Speaker 3: to pack up our belongings for the sleepover. I grabbed
11:37
Speaker 3: out my bathroom equipment, sleeping bag, and fresh clothes, and
11:39
Speaker 3: all the other stuff you would need for a sleepover.
11:42
Speaker 3: Once I was finished packing my bag, I had called
11:45
Speaker 3: both X and L on our group chat, and told
11:47
Speaker 3: X that I had packed and I had asked my
11:49
Speaker 3: parents if I was allowed to come, and told them
11:51
Speaker 3: they said yes, and L said the same thing as me.
11:55
Speaker 3: We were all excited, and X said that he'll be
11:57
Speaker 3: waiting at the park down outside his house to meet,
12:00
Speaker 3: since the park was only two houses down from his place.
12:04
Speaker 3: I casually walked to the park, which was approximately ten
12:06
Speaker 3: minutes away. Right as we got there, I saw X
12:10
Speaker 3: and L already at the park. I gave them both
12:13
Speaker 3: a wave and we all walked to X's house. We
12:17
Speaker 3: all got inside and made ourselves comfortable with our sleeping
12:19
Speaker 3: bags in the living room, because X's room was, well,
12:23
Speaker 3: a tad bit tiny. I think that the time was
12:26
Speaker 3: somewhere around 12.30am. I remember it raining ever so slightly.
12:32
Speaker 3: We were all laughing and giggling about certain events that
12:35
Speaker 3: had happened at school that day, but I guess that
12:38
Speaker 3: isn't really relevant to the story. I told them that
12:41
Speaker 3: we should probably all go to sleep since it was
12:43
Speaker 3: extremely late and that I was really tired. Elvin replied,
12:48
Speaker 3: Alright then, I mean, I guess it is a pretty
12:50
Speaker 3: shitty night after all. We had all started laughing at
12:54
Speaker 3: that response and it eventually got to the point where
12:56
Speaker 3: we started talking less and less and then eventually falling
12:59
Speaker 3: asleep from boredom. However, I didn't really fall asleep that night.
13:05
Speaker 3: I was rolling over in my bag and just trying
13:07
Speaker 3: to get into a comfortable position to sleep in. but
13:09
Speaker 3: had no luck falling asleep. I had my eyes wide open,
13:14
Speaker 3: staring at the blank ceiling. I looked at both X
13:17
Speaker 3: and L, who were both pretty wiped out in the slumber.
13:21
Speaker 3: I got out of my sleeping bag as quietly as
13:23
Speaker 3: I possibly could, and then went into the kitchen to
13:26
Speaker 3: get a drink. But after I had my drink of water,
13:29
Speaker 3: I had heard some type of noise coming from a wall.
13:32
Speaker 3: I didn't really make it out at first, and I
13:35
Speaker 3: kinda had a difficult time trying to figure out what
13:37
Speaker 3: it was. and it was coming from the living room.
13:41
Speaker 3: I carefully went into the living room, and then tried
13:43
Speaker 3: my best not to step on Elle. I was standing
13:47
Speaker 3: in the middle of the room, trying my best to
13:49
Speaker 3: find out where the hell the sound was coming from. Okay,
13:52
Speaker 3: to give you a bit of context, if you enter
13:54
Speaker 3: the front door of the house, the living room is
13:57
Speaker 3: in the first room that you enter, and the left
13:59
Speaker 3: side of the living room where you enter is a
14:01
Speaker 3: giant window. Well, the tapping sound was coming from that window.
14:06
Speaker 3: My heart was starting to speed up now But what
14:09
Speaker 3: was the only logical option, you may ask? To look
14:12
Speaker 3: through the window. I told myself to just go up
14:15
Speaker 3: to the window and see what it was, so I
14:18
Speaker 3: proceeded to do so. I stopped. There was something else.
14:23
Speaker 3: The windows were closed by blinds. I leaned my ear
14:27
Speaker 3: closer to the window. Now along with the tapping, I
14:31
Speaker 3: could also hear breathing. I could barely just hear it
14:34
Speaker 3: over the rain. Very slow breathing. I couldn't say anything
14:40
Speaker 3: I very slowly backed away from the window. I frantically
14:44
Speaker 3: woke up both X and L in a panic. They
14:47
Speaker 3: both said to me, What?
14:50
Speaker 1: What is it?
14:51
Speaker 3: In a grainy, tired voice. I told them to shush
14:54
Speaker 3: themselves and to listen. However, the tapping and breathing soon stopped.
15:00
Speaker 3: L then said, Dude, I don't hear a thing. I
15:04
Speaker 3: told them what I heard, but they didn't believe me.
15:07
Speaker 3: I was getting mad. But then L suggested, Why don't
15:11
Speaker 3: you just go outside and check? I immediately said something
15:14
Speaker 3: along the lines of, Fine, I'll go out there. In fact,
15:19
Speaker 3: why don't you both come out with me just to
15:21
Speaker 3: be sure? I opened the door quietly and motioned my
15:24
Speaker 3: friends to come outside with me. We got to the
15:27
Speaker 3: window outside the house and nothing. There was nothing there.
15:33
Speaker 3: X said to me, I told you, I knew there
15:36
Speaker 3: wasn't going to be anything there. We both talked about
15:39
Speaker 3: it for a bit outside and X said I was crazy,
15:42
Speaker 3: but the story doesn't end there. Out of the blue,
15:47
Speaker 3: L nervously said, Wait, who's that guy over there? We
15:52
Speaker 3: all looked, and there was a dark silhouette that was
15:54
Speaker 3: just standing still a few houses down the street. He
15:58
Speaker 3: was probably about 5'5, and he was wearing a raincoat
16:01
Speaker 3: from what I remember. My friends both looked at me,
16:05
Speaker 3: knowing that I wasn't crazy. The guy was just staring
16:09
Speaker 3: at us, not moving a muscle, but he then started
16:11
Speaker 3: laughing in a sort of sinister kind of way. Within
16:15
Speaker 3: that moment, I said softly, Go for the backyard gate.
16:20
Speaker 3: Right now.
16:20
Speaker 1: Do it.
16:22
Speaker 3: The guy continued to stare at us while we both
16:24
Speaker 3: slid slowly to the gate, which was very close. Suddenly,
16:28
Speaker 3: the guy just full-on sprinted right toward us without warning.
16:32
Speaker 3: My life was in slow motion. I dashed for the gate.
16:36
Speaker 3: All of us got in, and I was actually the
16:38
Speaker 3: last one to get in, and then I locked the gate.
16:42
Speaker 3: The guy ran into the gate with such force, but
16:44
Speaker 3: the gate didn't budge. The gate and fence were really high,
16:48
Speaker 3: and he couldn't possibly get over it. He then started
16:51
Speaker 3: banging and screaming at the gate, yelling things like, Come
16:55
Speaker 3: on out here and I'll kill you, you dumb teenagers.
16:58
Speaker 3: And I'll honestly never forget that sentence. We made a
17:02
Speaker 3: run for it to the back door of the house
17:04
Speaker 3: and woke X's dad up. He bolted straight outside and
17:08
Speaker 3: said the guy made a run for it and was
17:10
Speaker 3: already halfway down the street. He chased after him, screaming
17:14
Speaker 3: for him to get back here. X's dad called the
17:16
Speaker 3: police straight away. They arrived a little while later with cops.
17:21
Speaker 3: Three searched the area, while one stopped to talk to
17:23
Speaker 3: me about it. The three cops found nothing, except for
17:27
Speaker 3: a long and sharp kitchen knife that was dropped outside
17:30
Speaker 3: the front lawn. I shuddered. One of the policemen asked
17:34
Speaker 3: me if I knew what he looked like, but I
17:36
Speaker 3: couldn't make anything out other than he was somewhere around
17:40
Speaker 3: 5'5 and wearing a raincoat. He wasn't seen again after that,
17:44
Speaker 3: and he hasn't come back. But the police that day
17:47
Speaker 3: said they found dirty boot marks right outside the front door.
17:50
Speaker 3: But the really creepy part about the boot marks outside
17:53
Speaker 3: the door is that apparently that door had a peephole,
17:56
Speaker 3: and that peephole could make you see through both ways.
17:59
Speaker 3: Plus X's house is old, and that guy was possibly
18:02
Speaker 3: spying on us through it. Moral of the story is
18:06
Speaker 3: be very careful during the night, because anything can happen
18:10
Speaker 3: if you're not careful.
18:20
Speaker 1: Sleepovers have always been those special activities with friends and
18:23
Speaker 1: exist to have the purpose of a fun time. However,
18:27
Speaker 1: based on this story, it's clear that not all sleepovers
18:31
Speaker 1: end up being fun or exciting. This happened at my
18:34
Speaker 1: best friend's house a few years ago when we were
18:37
Speaker 1: still in middle school. For privacy reasons, I'll call her Megan.
18:43
Speaker 1: Megan was around my age and attended the same classes
18:46
Speaker 1: in school as me. Ever since then, we've become great
18:50
Speaker 1: friends where we mostly hung out just about every weekend.
18:55
Speaker 1: She was one of those friends who you could always
18:57
Speaker 1: count on and was just there to brighten your day. Anyway,
19:01
Speaker 1: this happened during winter break of 2018. Megan had invited
19:06
Speaker 1: me over to her house for a sleepover. Before I
19:10
Speaker 1: said yes, I had to get permission from my parents,
19:13
Speaker 1: and with them knowing Megan and I were best friends,
19:16
Speaker 1: they thankfully agreed. That night, my mom had drove me
19:21
Speaker 1: over to her house to drop me off. Megan had
19:24
Speaker 1: come from a very wealthy family, so she lived in
19:28
Speaker 1: a really nice house. You might as well consider it
19:30
Speaker 1: as a mansion. This would make the sleepover ten times better,
19:35
Speaker 1: seeing as there would be more things to do. I
19:38
Speaker 1: got to her house with all of my clothes and
19:41
Speaker 1: utilities packed. Both Megan and her mom had greeted me
19:45
Speaker 1: and we both went up to Megan's room where we
19:48
Speaker 1: watched a few movies and played some video games. About
19:52
Speaker 1: a couple hours into the stay, her mom had told
19:55
Speaker 1: us that she had been going out to dinner with
19:57
Speaker 1: a friend and wouldn't be back until late. Megan and
20:01
Speaker 1: I were both pretty mature for our age and told
20:03
Speaker 1: her we'd be fine until she got back. Her mom
20:07
Speaker 1: had given us $ 20 to order pizza, and with that,
20:11
Speaker 1: she went on her way. Not too long after, Megan
20:15
Speaker 1: had asked if I wanted to play hide-and-seek. Now, most
20:19
Speaker 1: people think that hide-and-seek is for younger children, but it
20:23
Speaker 1: comes back when you hit middle school. I agreed to it,
20:27
Speaker 1: and we had agreed that Megan would hide and I'd
20:30
Speaker 1: be the one seeking. Seeing as this house was huge,
20:35
Speaker 1: we decided we only play on the second floor to
20:37
Speaker 1: not make the game too hard. I gave her a
20:40
Speaker 1: good minute to hide while I said the all too
20:43
Speaker 1: common phrase, ready or not, here I come. Even though
20:47
Speaker 1: I was seeking on one floor, it was still pretty
20:50
Speaker 1: big with about 10 plus rooms to search. I start
20:54
Speaker 1: with Megan's room while looking under her bed, her closet,
20:58
Speaker 1: and even behind the door. However, she wasn't there and
21:03
Speaker 1: I continue searching for her I'd say I looked through
21:07
Speaker 1: several rooms by now, and that was when I noticed
21:09
Speaker 1: that one of the closets in the hallway had been
21:12
Speaker 1: slightly opened. I completely forgot about this as it was
21:16
Speaker 1: small and was a place most people wouldn't think to look.
21:21
Speaker 1: I casually walk over to the closet, and that's when
21:24
Speaker 1: I saw the glimpse of an eye peering in staring
21:27
Speaker 1: right at me. At this point, I knew it was Megan,
21:31
Speaker 1: but I tried to make it seem like I didn't notice,
21:34
Speaker 1: as I wanted to give Megan a sort of scare
21:36
Speaker 1: when finding her. With that said, I opened the closet door,
21:41
Speaker 1: expecting to scare Megan, but instead saw this man staring
21:45
Speaker 1: back at me. His hair was a mess, and I
21:49
Speaker 1: saw craze straight through his eyes. But what really struck
21:53
Speaker 1: me the most was how he looked at me. It
21:57
Speaker 1: was almost as if he were guilty, as if he
22:00
Speaker 1: wasn't supposed to be caught. I scream at the top
22:04
Speaker 1: of my lungs as he runs past me down the
22:06
Speaker 1: stairs and out of the house. At that point, Megan
22:11
Speaker 1: had come to me and asked what was wrong, to
22:13
Speaker 1: which I told her that there was someone in the
22:15
Speaker 1: house and to call the cops. Thankfully, there was a
22:19
Speaker 1: police station down the road, so it didn't take long
22:22
Speaker 1: for an officer to arrive. After a thorough investigation, they
22:28
Speaker 1: had claimed that the man had probably found a way
22:30
Speaker 1: in due to the extreme weather. However, the man didn't
22:35
Speaker 1: get far. They had found him out in the backyard
22:38
Speaker 1: hiding behind one of the sheds. After all, it was
22:42
Speaker 1: snowing out and just needed someplace warm. Megan's parents decided
22:47
Speaker 1: to not press charges on him but wanted a restraining order. Basically,
22:53
Speaker 1: he couldn't come near the house within 500 feet. The
22:57
Speaker 1: sleepover had been called off that night as my parents
23:00
Speaker 1: no longer felt comfortable. I remember my mom giving Megan
23:04
Speaker 1: and her family a bit of criticism, telling them how
23:08
Speaker 1: her mom could be so irresponsible leaving children alone. I
23:13
Speaker 1: wasn't invited back to their house again until my parents
23:16
Speaker 1: felt comfortable. Megan and I are still friends till this day.
23:21
Speaker 1: and now work at a local supermarket. I'm still unsure
23:25
Speaker 1: as to what happened with that man, but I just
23:28
Speaker 1: hope he's getting the help he needs. This happened to
23:44
Speaker 1: a couple friends and I in our senior year of
23:46
Speaker 1: high school back in 2014. Back in high school, my
23:50
Speaker 1: friends and I were that dynamic trio you'd commonly see
23:54
Speaker 1: walking around campus that many people talk about. Anyway, this
23:59
Speaker 1: took place during the final months of high school, and
24:01
Speaker 1: because of this, we decided to do a sleepover to
24:04
Speaker 1: just relive our fun times. It was a Saturday night,
24:09
Speaker 1: and at one point during the sleepover, we had just
24:12
Speaker 1: finished a movie not knowing what else to do. Now,
24:16
Speaker 1: this was also around the time where social media had
24:19
Speaker 1: began to blow up. One of the social media apps
24:23
Speaker 1: that started gaining popularity quickly was Instagram, which eventually led
24:28
Speaker 1: to major trends. One of these trends was playing with
24:32
Speaker 1: an Ouija board in an attempt to contact spirits and
24:35
Speaker 1: other entities. There had been thousands of these videos uploaded
24:39
Speaker 1: to YouTube and Instagram about people attempting to connect with spirits.
24:44
Speaker 1: In fact, the trend got so popular that there were
24:47
Speaker 1: even tutorials on how to actually make contact. Being the
24:51
Speaker 1: naive and dumb teenagers we were, we had all looked
24:55
Speaker 1: at each other just knowing we had to do it. Thankfully,
24:59
Speaker 1: the parents of the friend hosting the sleepover just so
25:02
Speaker 1: happened to own a really old Ouija board that had
25:05
Speaker 1: been passed down from her family for years. She had
25:08
Speaker 1: claimed that it was 100% authentic and most likely worked
25:12
Speaker 1: seeing how old it was. If anything, this was a
25:16
Speaker 1: plus as it would only add to the creepiness. We
25:20
Speaker 1: did some research online and found an article that described
25:23
Speaker 1: how to correctly set up an Ouija board. This involved
25:27
Speaker 1: some candles and a dark, quiet room. Once we got
25:31
Speaker 1: the supplies, we set the board down, lit the candles,
25:35
Speaker 1: and turned off all of the lights. For the first
25:39
Speaker 1: few seconds, nothing had happened. But that was until we
25:42
Speaker 1: felt the planchette slowly move to yes. We all look
25:47
Speaker 1: at each other, trying to figure out which one of
25:50
Speaker 1: us was moving it. However, we all denied and said
25:55
Speaker 1: that it was moving by itself. For some reason, one
25:59
Speaker 1: of my friends asked if it can somehow prove that
26:01
Speaker 1: there was something with us. All of a sudden, the
26:04
Speaker 1: craziest thing happens when we hear the sound of a
26:07
Speaker 1: toy piano being played in the other room. This instantly
26:11
Speaker 1: gave us a good scare, to which I then ask
26:14
Speaker 1: it a more serious question. Doing this was probably the
26:19
Speaker 1: stupidest decision I've ever made, and I still regret it
26:23
Speaker 1: till this day. I stupidly ask the board when I
26:27
Speaker 1: would die. With my hands on the planchette, it slowly
26:31
Speaker 1: moves to the letters T-E-N-S-E-C-O-N-D-S. Ten seconds. At this point,
26:41
Speaker 1: we all start staring at each other while laughing, thinking
26:45
Speaker 1: that one of us had to have done that. However,
26:48
Speaker 1: just about 15 seconds or so later, my phone starts
26:52
Speaker 1: ringing with the label emergency call. It was from my dad.
26:58
Speaker 1: I picked it up and was met with him screaming
27:00
Speaker 1: on the other end saying she's dead. She, meaning my mom. Apparently,
27:07
Speaker 1: they were on their way home from a dinner party
27:09
Speaker 1: when the car swerved off and got shoved into a
27:12
Speaker 1: boat trailer. My mom died instantly on impact while my
27:16
Speaker 1: dad only suffered from minor bruises. This incident has left
27:21
Speaker 1: me devastated for years as I truly believe that this
27:25
Speaker 1: wasn't some coincidence.
27:38
Speaker 2: I think we're going back many, many years for this,
27:41
Speaker 2: but I grew up in Northern California in quite a
27:44
Speaker 2: poor rural area. Some of my best friends from elementary
27:48
Speaker 2: and middle school lived like 10 to 15 miles away,
27:51
Speaker 2: so on weekends, instead of just going over to visit
27:53
Speaker 2: for the day, we'd have sleepovers to save our parents
27:56
Speaker 2: driving these crazy round trips. So I had this one
28:00
Speaker 2: friend called Star, whose parents were like old school hippies.
28:04
Speaker 2: Their house always smelled of patchouli, They were vegan before
28:08
Speaker 2: vegan was even really a thing, and aside from a
28:11
Speaker 2: few unusual recreational activities, they were basically just as good
28:15
Speaker 2: as being parents as any other couple. They were sweet, loving,
28:19
Speaker 2: and attentive, and I always had a ball whenever I
28:22
Speaker 2: went to sleepovers at their place, mainly because they'd let
28:25
Speaker 2: us stay outdoors in a tent at night, which was
28:28
Speaker 2: just such a huge adventure for a little group of
28:30
Speaker 2: pre-teen tomboys. Anyways, this one night we're staying in a
28:35
Speaker 2: tent in the backyard, but It was a backyard that
28:38
Speaker 2: extended to one side of the house. Where we're camped
28:41
Speaker 2: is in the view of the TV room window, so
28:44
Speaker 2: Star's mom and dad could keep an eye on us,
28:46
Speaker 2: but it also meant we could see the driveway from
28:48
Speaker 2: the flap of our tent. It was summertime, so it
28:52
Speaker 2: was still incredibly warm at night, so we ended up
28:55
Speaker 2: leaving the tent flat unzipped to let some cool air in.
28:59
Speaker 2: It obviously wasn't open all the way because bugs, but
29:02
Speaker 2: we can still see outside the tent. Then, in the
29:06
Speaker 2: middle of the night, Star shakes me awake and whispers,
29:10
Speaker 2: There's someone in the driveway. I'm thinking it might have
29:14
Speaker 2: been her big brother, who was a few years older
29:16
Speaker 2: than us and was attending college. But when I suggested that,
29:20
Speaker 2: she said, No, it's a bunch of people, look. I
29:25
Speaker 2: start getting real anxious hearing that, so I quietly creep
29:29
Speaker 2: up to the tent flap to peek out, and that's
29:31
Speaker 2: when I saw that Star was exactly right. and the
29:36
Speaker 2: little bit of moonlight that we had, I literally lost
29:38
Speaker 2: count of the number of people I saw creeping up
29:40
Speaker 2: her driveway it was seriously one of the scariest moments
29:44
Speaker 2: of my life mainly because there was absolutely nothing to
29:47
Speaker 2: do but keep as quiet as possible we couldn't call
29:50
Speaker 2: the cops this was way before cell phones we couldn't
29:54
Speaker 2: warn star's parents without revealing our presence we were just
29:57
Speaker 2: powerless forced to watch people who obviously didn't have good
30:01
Speaker 2: intentions slowly approaching Star's house. I think in the end,
30:07
Speaker 2: Star just broke, and in a move you could either
30:09
Speaker 2: call real brave or real stupid, she just ran out
30:13
Speaker 2: of the tent shouting, get away from my house, and then, mom, dad,
30:17
Speaker 2: call the cops. As soon as she started screaming, a
30:21
Speaker 2: bunch of flashlights burst into life, obviously held by the
30:24
Speaker 2: guy sneaking up the driveway. And oh my god, There
30:29
Speaker 2: were so many of them. At first glance in the darkness,
30:33
Speaker 2: it looked no more than about five or six people.
30:36
Speaker 2: But when they all turned their flashlights on, it was
30:39
Speaker 2: clear the number was more like 15 or 20. I
30:42
Speaker 2: just hear, Sheriff's Department, show me your hands. And that
30:46
Speaker 2: was incredibly confusing because we were all about calling the
30:49
Speaker 2: cops to get help, but like, the cops were already here? Anyway,
30:55
Speaker 2: Stardust as she's told, while me and our friend start
30:58
Speaker 2: climbing out of the tent with our hands in the air.
31:01
Speaker 2: That's when the person approaching us started saying, Jesus, they're
31:05
Speaker 2: just kids, man. And with them being closer, I could
31:08
Speaker 2: see that they really were cops, with caps and badges
31:11
Speaker 2: and all patches on their arms, all that stuff. Then
31:15
Speaker 2: I hear, go, go, go, get in there. And the
31:18
Speaker 2: cops started bashing the front door to the house in
31:21
Speaker 2: while other cops fanned around the backyard and headed towards
31:24
Speaker 2: one of the barns. We were scared, obviously, but more
31:29
Speaker 2: so focused on just staying down and watching that we're
31:32
Speaker 2: not really freaking out too bad. But when the cops
31:35
Speaker 2: started dragging Star's mom and dad out of the house
31:37
Speaker 2: and arresting them, she had to be restrained by the
31:40
Speaker 2: cop that was guarding us. After that, the cops drove
31:44
Speaker 2: me and our friend back to our respective homes. Then,
31:48
Speaker 2: I don't know what they did with Star. I think
31:50
Speaker 2: they took her to her grandma's or her aunt's or whatever.
31:54
Speaker 2: Then a few days later, We find out that Star's
31:56
Speaker 2: mom and dad had been growing something they shouldn't have
32:00
Speaker 2: in one of their barns. I get that it was
32:03
Speaker 2: illegal and stuff, but the aftermath was just so sad.
32:07
Speaker 2: Star had to go live with her relatives because her
32:09
Speaker 2: parents were sent off to prison for a few years.
32:12
Speaker 2: It was messed up. And I get that the cops
32:15
Speaker 2: were just doing their job and stuff, but it was
32:17
Speaker 2: definitely one of the scariest times of my life. Seeing
32:20
Speaker 2: all those figures in black just creeping towards my friend's house.