Scenario: I began subletting a rental house cabin for a couple months in 2023 when my dad and I were bucking heads and I needed to move out. The actual renter of the apartment was having his own personal issues causing him to leave the apartment, and I'll just refer to him as my landlord to make it easier. The cabin was an entire unit rental, and it was paid month to month, which was ideal for my temporarily shitty situation. It was 2 floors technically, a small kitchen, decent sized living space, and 1 bedroom that you had to climb a little flight of stairs to get to, and there was a quirky hatch type door that you'd have to open to get to the upstairs bedroom. I had already been there for a month. I paid for the 2nd month's rent already by this point, so I was fully situated there. The cabin sat at the end of a dirt road with a few other similarly sized cabin type houses. One was vacant as far as I knew, because I never saw cars parked out front One was vacant as far as I knew because I never saw cars parked out front or lights on. The other houses, well, I never met the neighbors, but I knew people lived in them. I work 12 hour shifts sometimes, and when I get home, I'm completely exhausted and will just go straight to bed and watch TV until I fall asleep. This was one of those nights. I got home, made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a protein shake as my late night dinner, then went to bed. I always shut the door on the floor every night. I find myself to be uncomfortable at night having the entrance to your bedroom opens. Something about it makes me feel exposed or vulnerable, though this door in the floor didn't have a lock. This cabin was made for 1 person or a couple. I was watching TV in bed when I heard it, a voice from down below saying, who's up there? I instantly felt my heart stop for a second as I shot up to an upright position. It sounded like it came from inside the house, but it also could have maybe come from outside. I I grabbed the TV remote to turn off the TV. I crawled over to look at the circular window above the bed. I didn't see anyone out there, but it was also very dark. I said, who's there? And the deafening silence that followed afterwards led me to getting off the bed and putting my hand on the handle to the door. I lifted the door and looked down the staircase. I actually said my dad's name, thinking maybe he came over. There was no response. I walked downstairs. I was extremely scared. I flicked on the first light switch I passed. The living room lit up. As I expected in the back of my head, there wasn't anyone down there. I was still chalking this up to someone from outside. I turned on the front outside light and looked out the windows, and there wasn't anyone in front. By this point, I was really confused. I turned off the living room light and climbed the stairs back to my bedroom, shutting the door and the floor. I was pretty awake now, so I turned the TV back on. And not even 5 minutes later, I heard Pounds on the bedroom door from below. They sounded angry or like they were supposed to scare me. If there was any doubt before, this confirmed it. Someone was in the house. I left the TV on this time and just stayed completely motionless because I was genuinely too scared to move an inch. The scariest part was whoever was down there could easily open the door as there was no lock. I laid silent for about 20 minutes and once I felt comfortable to move, I looked for my phone and of course, of all times, it wasn't on my nightstand. I couldn't find it. I may have left it downstairs. So I opened the door of my bedroom and looked down the stairs. With the constantly changing light from the TV screen, I could see just a little bit down the stairs to the living room. So I went down the stairs quietly and went at the bottom. Instead of turning on any lights, I ran out the back door barefoot and ran to the nearest neighbor's house where I knew people lived, and I saw their lights were on. I knocked on the door a bunch of times, and then I noticed someone at the window next to the door looking at me. I didn't know how long they had been watching me. I yelled through the glass explaining what happened, that I'm his neighbor, and that I need a phone to call the police. He definitely heard me, but he just stared at me. It was unsettling, and I started to back away from the door as I realized he wasn t even responding to me, just creepily watching me. I looked around the road and saw no other houses in the distance with their lights on. Momentarily, I had a thought, what if that guy had something to do with it? I went back to my rental through the back door, which was closed just like I left it. I went inside and locked it and turned on every light in the tiny house. I looked not only for an intruder, but my phone downstairs. And I finally found my phone in my car when I thought to look there. I was so tired earlier that I left it in the center console. I went back inside. The TV was still on up in the bedroom. I climbed the stairs and when I got to the top, I saw someone sitting on my bed, staring at the TV. It was a man. I screamed and he turned his head slowly to look at me. And before I could see anything else, I ran back down the stairs and outside and now with my phone called 911. I sat in my locked car watching the house on the line with 911 and I saw someone walking past the backyard of the house, disappearing into the woods. I told the operator this. When a police car arrived, the one officer checked the house and upstairs room after I told him that I saw someone, most likely the intruder, walk away into the woods. He asked if I had any other places to stay that night and so I swallowed my pride and went back to my dad's house for the night after packing some of my important stuff. I returned to the house the the next day and stayed another night, then collected the rest of my stuff. Luckily, the landlord agreed to giving me some of my money back. He asked me what the man looked like and after that, he didn't ask any more questions, which to me is pretty sus. Something was unusual in that situation, from that creepy neighbor ignoring me to the landlord's random urgent need to move out to someone full on breaking into the house. Maybe it's all connected, or maybe I'm overthinking it. It was a Tuesday night around 11 PM in 2013, and I was walking down a dimly lit street at night on my way home from work. My car had been in the shop, so I'd been forced to walk 3 miles home every day. The walk was barely an hour, so I was home before midnight. I live in a small town in southern Indiana, so after 10 there's rarely any cars on the road. The only vehicles you ever see are truckers heading to Indianapolis. I was about a mile into the walk when I turned on a dirt road. My house was off the beaten path, so I had to take all these dirt roads surrounded by forest to get there. As I was turning, I heard the sound of a motor in the distance, and it was getting closer very slowly. I saw about a quarter mile down the stretch of road I just turned off of a van moving very slowly without its lights. At first, this didn't strike me as out of place due to the fact that the town I live in there is a pretty cheap car dealership that sells used cars and vans with broken parts, like broken headlights. So I just assumed this guy was one of their clients. I kept walking down the side road with the van still going slowly down the main road. About 5 seconds later, I jumped when I heard the sound of the van roar, and it sped up really fast, except now it had its lights on. I was startled, but not worried. This was until the van got closer to the turn for the side road. About 500 feet away from the turn, the van turned off its lights again and slowed down. Now I was officially creeped out. I didn't wanna seem startled, so I just walked faster down the road. I kept turning back constantly to see if I was being followed. Then my suspicions became reality as I saw the van turn onto the dirt road. I was only about 500 feet from the van, so I started to walk a lot faster. I didn't wanna look back, but I did just to be safe. And what I saw frightened every bone in my body. I saw the van there stopped with both the passenger and driver's doors open. At this point, I ran for my life down the dirt road. I heard what I'm positive was a gunshot not far away, and I really thought this was how I was going to die. I made a quick turn into one of the surrounding forest and hid behind a big rock. I heard what sounded like a middle aged man not far away say, I think she went into the woods. And then to my horror, what sounded like 3 young girls with one of them responding, okay, sir, I'll see if we can find her. Now I wasn't fearing for my life. I was worrying I was going to be forced into whatever sick group this was. I was covering my mouth, trying not to make any sound when I heard the man say, whoever finds her doesn't have to drink the blood tonight. A million thoughts ran through my head. Is this some sort of satanic cult? Are these girls kidnapped? Will I become one of them? I spent what felt like an eternity sitting behind a rock, being scared of any sound that I could hear. Then to my relief, I heard cop sirens nearby. I stayed there just to be safe. When I felt the courage to look from behind the rock, I saw red and blue lights right outside the forest. I ran out screaming for help, and the cops came to me and said, ma'am, do you know about this body? I was confused and said, what body? Then I saw in front of the cop car the most gruesome thing I will ever see. It was what looked like a naked young woman, gutted, blood everywhere. There was no van in sight. I then explained everything to the cops, the car, the man, the girls who had to drink the blood. The cops said they'd look into it and were nice enough to drive me home. That night, when I couldn't sleep, I looked out my window to see the van, the same one from before, driving slowly without its lights on down my street. This time I was smart and wrote down the license plate. I called the cops immediately and told them what I saw and gave the license plate number. As expected, when the cops came, the van was long gone, but what they told me is what will horrify me to this day. The cops said we checked the license plate number. It's a plate registered in South Dakota. But the thing is, we checked with other precincts around the country, and they've gotten reports tonight that there was also a suspicious van with that license plate, 1 in Vermont, 1 in Nevada, 1 in Alaska, and 1 in Texas. They said, we'll call you if we get any more information. The cops left and I never got a call. I don't really believe in the paranormal, so my best guess is that it was some sort of cult that used fake license plates to do their sick things all across the country. But I guess I'll never know. I moved out of Indiana, and now I make sure when I see something suspicious, I bolt. My wife and I live in a normal suburb. We have normal jobs, normal lives, next to normal neighbors. We live the, I guess you'd say, standard American lifestyle that long was the long was the last paper I wrote in college. But something happened not that long ago that no one can explain, and it still scares us to this day. My wife, Gianna, and I had a normal day. And after work, we decided to go out to eat for a change, and we got back around 9. We don't stay up very late on work nights, so by 9:30, we were brushing our teeth getting ready for bed. By 10 o'clock, we were in bed, and we usually shut the lights off at 11. We either read our books or watch our show. Tonight, we were watching our show. Then the phone rang. Gianna told me not to answer it. Anyone calling at this hour can't be good news. I agreed with her, but for that reason, I said I should pick it up in case it's an emergency. So I reached over for the phone next to the bed to pick it up, but it stopped ringing before I could actually lift the receiver. That old landline was trash. The second the call stopped, the caller ID would disappear and there wasn't a way to check the call history. Oh, well. Wrong number. But a few minutes later, the phone rang again, so I grabbed the phone and looked at the screen. It said unknown number. Gianna and I both thought that was unusual, especially past 10 o'clock. I feel that there's a generally accepted cutoff time for phone calls, and that's after 9 PM. I didn't pick up the phone, but right after it stopped ringing, the phone rang again. Suddenly, it felt like it was an emergency, like God forbid something happened to a relative, so I picked up in a hurry. On the other end, it was the voice of my neighbor, Al. He asked me if I knew that man standing out in front of my house. I said, what are you talking about? He told me to go outside and hung up. I found it insanely bizarre the way he'd just hang up abruptly like that. Gianna's face when I told her what Al just said was a look of fear. She said don't go out there. I said I'm just gonna look out the window. I went downstairs and moved the curtain a bit to look out to the front lawn. There was definitely no one standing outside. I opened the front door and then the storm door and stepped out to the front stoop. I looked around and looked into the bushes right in front of the house. Nobody. So I got a little annoyed at the idea that Al would prank call us this late on a work night. It also just felt a little out of character for him to do that. I went back to bed and told Gianna that no one was out there and Al was probably messing with us. She was just as confused by that as I was. It just felt bizarre. She told me to call him, and so I did. But it rang and went straight to voicemail. So I left a voicemail saying, hey Al, what was that call about? Give me a callback. Then the phone rang. It said unknown caller again. I picked up and it was Al again, saying before I could even say anything, Go outside. There's someone standing outside your house. He said it in a calm, slow voice. Then he hung up. I got up and said out loud, alright, what the hell is going on? I told Gianna to wait here. I went downstairs and back to the window. I looked through the curtain and this time I saw someone standing right at the end of our walkway where it met the sidewalk. He had a hood over his head, effectively covering his face to just blackness. I was honestly shaken. I opened my door and said outside, can I help you? The man just stood in place. I threatened him with calling the police. Then the house phone rang again. I closed the front door and went to the kitchen phone and this time noticed the caller ID showed my neighbor Al's number. I picked up and Al said in a much more normal voice, hey, I just got your voicemail. What was that about? I didn't call you. I was so confused. I swore to him he just called me twice, telling me about a man outside my house. He sounded even more confused than me. Then moments later, he said he doesn't see anyone outside my house. I went back out to look out the window, and that man who was standing outside my house was gone. I demanded Al tell me right now if this was a joke. And if I found out it wasn't, he wouldn't tell me, we'd have a problem. Al claimed he was telling the truth, and he's not some immature prankster kind of guy. He's a very low key, respectful person. I had to put him on speaker so Gianna could vouch for me that I wasn't going crazy and that we did in fact get 2 calls from someone who sounded just like him. He did the same and put his wife on the phone as well to vouch for him. In the end, what could he really say though except for it sounds like someone was pranking us? Eventually, we got off the phone, but I was no less horrified than I was before. I had to go back downstairs one more time to hang up the downstairs phone, and so I looked outside one more time The man was still no longer there None of us could ever figure out this unexplainable situation