12 Eerie Stories That Get More Disturbing the More You Think / Bright Side

Sometimes, a story sticks with you long after you’ve read it, not because it’s scary at first glance, but because its hidden darkness creeps up on you the more you think about it. Today, we bring you 12 true stories that unravel in your mind, growing more disturbing with every passing thought. These tales may start off subtly unsettling, but as their layers unfold, you’ll find yourself questioning what lies beneath the surface.

• I was alone in a taxi at 1 a.m., and the driver kept looking at me through his mirror. At some point, he smiled and said, “If you’re uncomfortable, miss, you can order another ride. I don’t mind.” I ignored him and stayed silent.
  But then I froze when I suddenly remembered why he looked so familiar. This guy was a convicted robber—I had seen his face all over the news. I remembered he was wanted for robbing several banks. I really panicked inside but tried not to show him any fear.
  As the ride continued, another memory surfaced, and my blood ran cold. The man on the news hadn’t been arrested because he was found dead. But here he was, driving the car. It had to be him—I was sure of it. My hands trembled as I tried to make sense of what was happening.
  He then suddenly stopped the car and started staring at me. I thought this was my end, but then I realized I had arrived at my destination. I quickly gave him my money and left.
  The first thing I did was search his name online. It was him—there was no mistake. He even had the same tattoos. But the news reports were clear: he’d died a year ago. Even now, I shiver every time I think about that night.

• A few years ago, I was on my way to catch the bus to get to school. I saw one of my neighbors (a really grumpy old guy) as he walked right past me. He had this big smile on his face, which never happens. I looked back at him, and he was already about 30 feet away. It seemed weird, but I didn’t think too much about it.
  Later that day, I got home and was talking to my mom about how our days went. I mentioned the small “interaction” I had with our neighbor, only for her to tell me that he had passed away the previous night. The chills down my spine have never been stronger. © Glittering_Project_4 / Reddit

• When I was nineteen, I was walking home from the library, and a cop pulled up to the curb, asking to see my ID. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I showed it to him.
  After a moment of verifying that I was who my ID claimed I was, he apologized and handed me a printout of a missing teen, a couple of years younger than me. She could have been my identical twin. I told him I didn’t blame him for thinking I was her.
  I don’t remember her name—I was too shaken up by the picture. But I still wonder what she’s doing and if she’s okay. It was nearly twenty years ago. © lydsbane / Reddit

• In the very early ’90s, I was backpacking through Egypt and spent a good deal of time in Dahab by the sea. Accommodation was very sparse—a double bed in a 10 ft x 12 ft room. One time, I woke up in the middle of the night to see a guy dressed in a white uniform, complete with medals, standing at the end of my bed. I yelled, “No, go away!” at him, and he disappeared. © Captain65k / Reddit

• When my mom was a kid (late ’60s), she would always wake up at 3:39 a.m. This went on for months. One night, she woke up to what she described as a figure at her bed—slender and silver, almost metallic. Frozen in fear, she yelped, and the figure popped up and dashed out of the room.
  The next thing she heard was the sound of a mirror breaking in the hallway near the stairs, which woke up her parents and brother. They came out to find broken glass all over the floor and asked what happened. My mom described what she had seen, and everyone sat in silence after hearing her story.
  They didn’t have a mirror in the hallway. © nidenikolev / Reddit

• Sophomore year of college. I was walking home from class when I got a call from my roommate saying, “Open the door” (referring to my bedroom). I told him I wasn’t there, and he instantly started freaking out because he could hear someone dribbling my basketball in the room.
  When I got home, his face was pale. We opened the door, and I noticed some of my clothes had been moved, along with the basketball. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I was on a family road trip with my mom, dad, and a friend of mine. We were talking about where we originally came from, and I asked my dad if he had any family left in Czech (where his father had escaped from). He said not that he knows of.
  I kid you not, literally 10 minutes later, his sister (my aunt) called him and told him he has a brother that my grandfather left in Czech—and they had just received a letter from him that very day.
  Weirdest thing to ever happen to us. © mikebpechousek / Reddit

• I had a dream one night that I was given this baby to hold. She was beautiful but looked like my sister. When I woke up, I cried uncontrollably about this baby and couldn’t calm down for nearly two hours.
  Fast-forward six months, and I had a few more of these dreams—mostly the same—but now I knew her name: Maria. I told my parents about these dreams lightheartedly, but their faces just shut down.
  A few hours later, they told me that before I was born, they had a stillborn baby and had named her Maria. They asked me what the baby in my dreams looked like, and they kept crying. I never had the dream again. © ells1996 / Reddit

• I live on the top two floors of an apartment building with two private patios. I woke up around 3 a.m. one night to my dog barking in my face—something she basically never does. She led me to the upper patio, so I assumed she needed to go outside and let her out. Instead, she closely inspected the patio before rushing back inside and to the stairs, where she barked at me to follow.
  I realized she thought we had an intruder, so I grabbed my bat before heading downstairs. My dog investigated all of the downstairs before freezing and growling at the glass door to the lower patio. I looked out and could make out the silhouette of a man standing still on my patio. I walked over to the light switch and turned on the patio lights.
  By the time I looked back, the patio was empty. It’s basically impossible for someone to get to that balcony without going through my apartment. I have no idea what I saw, but it must have been something—because my dog saw it too. © dring157 / Reddit

• I was hanging out at a friend’s house in their basement with my friend, his girlfriend, and mine. We were all playing an RPG. It was the middle of the day.
  We heard the door open upstairs, footsteps on the floor, the cellar door open, and my friend’s dad call downstairs, “Pete, you home?” My friend answered affirmatively, and then we heard, “Come upstairs a minute, I need your help.”
  We all headed upstairs. There was no one there. No car in the driveway, no one in the house at all but the four of us. All four of us heard the same thing.
  My friend’s dad found the story funny but unbelievable when he eventually came home later that day. © Galaxy_Ranger_Bob / Reddit

• I was in my 20s, and my then-boyfriend and I were at his parents’ house—just the two of us and the family dog. He was opening mail in the dining room, and I was rinsing a glass in the kitchen, within sight of him about 15 feet away.
  We were talking, and suddenly there were LOUD footsteps overhead. STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP! He froze, and I looked at him like shocked. But the look on his face wasn’t confusion or panic—oh no. It was, “Oh, now I have to tell her the house is haunted.”
  So then he let me in on the family secret. Some entity (it had a strong masculine energy to me) ’lived’ in their attic. BF’s mom had tried nailing the crawl space door shut, placing typewriters in front of it, etc. It always got reopened.
  And the dog would refuse to go upstairs unless carried directly into one of the bedrooms. © Camille_Toh / Reddit

• When I was a kid, we moved into a new house. All the bedrooms were upstairs. My sister and I were home with our mom—Dad was at work. All three of us were at the bottom of the stairs talking about something when a DVD that was in my room (up the stairs and around the corner) literally flew down the stairs.
  It didn’t roll down the steps or slide down; it FLEW through the air right past us. Then, 10 minutes later, my mom made my sister and me bring our laundry up to our rooms. I was terrified. © bordermelancollie09 / Reddit

A single act of kindness has the power to brighten someone’s day and even rekindle their faith in humanity. In this article, we share 12 heartwarming stories that show how kindness can truly make a world of difference.