My Date Knew About the Squeaky Stair in a House She’d Never Seen

Dark townhouse staircase at night with a woman's silhouette sitting on the top step, dating app horror story

Everybody has a dating app horror story. A guy who brought his mom. A woman who was ten years older than her pictures. Mine is about a woman who, on our first date, already knew which way my bedroom window faced. I read a lot of new scary stories online, and I never thought I’d … Read more

Corporate Kept Calling the Gas Station at 2 A.M. to Send Me Outside

Gas station security monitor showing a man crouched by a dumpster in the dark, gas station horror stories

If you’ve ever worked the overnight at a gas station, you have gas station horror stories. Drunks, drive-offs, a guy who tried to pay with a live crawfish. Mine is about the phone calls from “corporate” that kept asking me to step outside. I’ve swapped gas station night shift stories with a lot of clerks … Read more

The Ouija Board I Bought at an Estate Sale Kept Spelling a Dead Woman’s Name

Vintage wooden talking board on a shelf with the heart-shaped planchette on a letter, scary ouija board stories

Most scary Ouija board stories start with teenagers at a sleepover asking a dead kid questions. I never asked mine anything. I never even put my fingers on it. The pointer moved by itself every night anyway, one letter at a time, and it was looking for somebody named Margaret. I collect board games, not … Read more

A Tree Stand Moved Closer to Mine Every Weekend

Empty hang-on tree stand high on a trunk in a gray November forest at dawn, scary hunting stories

Every deer camp has its scary hunting stories. Most of them are about getting lost, or a bear, or a buck that charged somebody’s uncle in 1974. Mine is about a second tree stand that showed up across the hollow from mine, facing my stand instead of the deer trail, and moving a little closer … Read more

I Sat at a Railroad Crossing for Forty-One Minutes in Kansas

Railroad crossing with lowered gates and a passing train with lit windows at night, train horror story

This train horror story took forty-one minutes. That’s how long I sat at a railroad crossing in western Kansas, in 2016, watching a freight train that should have passed in three. People around there trade very scary stories about that crossing. I never believed them until that night. I was twenty-two. I worked the closing … Read more

Every Clock in Our Town Runs Eleven Minutes Slow on Purpose

Small town courthouse clock tower at dusk showing the wrong time, creepy town story

This is a creepy town story about clocks. In Hollins Ferry, Ohio, every public clock runs eleven minutes slow. The courthouse, the church, the bank, the diner. People call it Ferry Time and laugh about it. It took me twelve years of living there to find out it isn’t a joke. I’ve lived through a … Read more

The Man From the Gas Company Asked Which Room I Slept In

Basement window latch held open with gray duct tape in a dark cellar, fake utility worker story

This fake utility worker story happened to me in January of 2020, in Lansing, Michigan. A polite man with a clipboard asked to check my gas meter, and then he asked which bedroom I slept in. It was the most frightening scary experience of my life, and it started with a knock in broad daylight. … Read more

The Whiteboard in an Empty Hospital Room Kept Writing My Name

Hospital room whiteboard with neat blue cursive in a dark empty room at night, haunted hospital stories

Every night nurse has haunted hospital stories. Call lights from empty rooms. Elevators that open on the wrong floor. Mine is about the whiteboard in Room 612, which kept writing my name on it in someone else’s handwriting. I’ve heard my share of hospital night shift horror stories in the break room. This is the … Read more

Every Time I Hung the Do Not Disturb Sign, Someone Made My Bed

Do Not Disturb sign flipped on an old hotel room door in a dim hallway, haunted hotel stories

I’d read haunted hotel stories online and rolled my eyes at every one. Cold spots, footsteps, a lady in white at the end of the hall. Then I spent five nights in Room 309 of an old railroad hotel in Montana, and every time I hung the Do Not Disturb sign, somebody turned it around … Read more