Internet-savvy horror fans know how terrifying content on Reddit can be if you know how to find it. This social media platform contains seemingly endless amounts of information, and that includes tons of real-life ghost stories. Its specific topic-based subreddits allow horror-lovers to freefall through niche threads dedicated to scary, paranormal, or unexplained stories. You can find reality, fiction, and everything in between. We threw ourselves down numerous spooky rabbit holes to bring you a glimpse of some of the scariest true ghost stories on Reddit.
This made me stop working the night shift.
User u/Badmamajama080818 posted about their time working night shifts in a long-term care home on the subreddit r/Ghoststories. One night a resident’s bell rang at 2:59 am. When the user entered the room, the patient asked that they remove the dark figure without a face that was hiding in her bathroom. Shaken, they assured the resident they had done so and returned to their desk.
Ten minutes later, another resident’s bell rang on the opposite end of the floor. Upon entering, this patient said, “there’s a creepy man in my room with no face; you need to get him out.” Once again returning to their desk terrified, the care specialist asked that a nurse stay with them for the rest of their shift.
Our bizarre experiences with the forest behind our house eventually forced us to move out.
User u/Whispified posted this creepy firsthand account on the subreddit r/Paranormal in October of 2021. At the age of eight, their family moved to a house bordered by a forest. Their dogs were immediately terrified of the forest and would bark while they stared at particular areas. At night, they would hear sounds like people walking around in the forest behind their house and sometimes they even saw shadowy figures.
Then, they began to hear knocking on their back door and windows. As things escalated, voices began to come from the woods that seemed to impersonate other family members. This prompted them to build a fence in their backyard and install security cameras. Though the knocking and tapping continued, a culprit was never caught on camera. Someone walked in the back door on the final day they stayed in the house. They left after seeing the security camera footage that showed the back door open on its own.
Little “Kids” running around in the ICU when death comes…
Reddit user u/DoctorYared posted an intriguing insight into end-of-life experiences in hospitals on the subreddit r/Paranormal in February 2022. This doctor described a particular phenomenon that occurs toward the end of many patients’ lives, when they see small children running around their bed and outside their door. The doctor explains that this is more common in an ICU, but that “the pattern is very recognizable and the experience is very similar across all cultural backgrounds and ages.”
Experienced doctors and nurses are used to reports like these from their patients and learn to expect their passing when they hear this. The post concluded by stating: “So if you are doing rounds in the ICU late at night and hear some snickering or tiny feet running in the hallways, prepare because the call of ‘code green or code red’ is about to sound off in the PA system.” Even creepier are the scores of comments from healthcare workers beneath the post that confirmed their similar experiences with this phenomenon.
Strange woman on the phone
A user on r/Paranormal posted this hair-raising story about something she experienced in 2013 when she worked as an insurance claims inspector. She typically called her clients about 30 minutes before showing up for a site inspection. One day, she called a client’s home phone to let them know that she was on her way and a very old-sounding woman answered the phone with what sounded like a poor, static-filled connection: “Hello? Can you hear me? Hello?”
After she was disconnected, she called back. There was no answer. She then tried the cell phone number on file and a young woman answered, saying she was out but would return within 30 minutes. When she arrived, the insurance inspector rang the doorbell, thinking that whoever initially answered the home phone would answer the door. However, no one did.
A few moments later, the young woman who answered the cell phone arrived. Apologetic, the inspector explained that she might have woken up the younger woman’s mother. The woman looked confused and scared and explained that there wasn’t an older woman living in the house.
After going inside, they checked the caller ID and discovered that when the inspector called, someone had answered the first call. The young woman become pale and terrified as she explained that she had recently moved into this home and had been telling her husband that she thought their house was haunted by an old woman.
Haunting Furby
This chilling story was posted on r/ParanormalEncounters by u/ChoclatedCutey in July of 2021. This user owned the original Furby when they were younger and ten years later, they found it in their father’s attic. At this point, it was “…pretty worn down. The plastic rubber on the nose was gone and it[s] fur was pretty matted.” They put it down and continued looking for what they originally needed in the attic.
As they walked away, the Furby started to make odd, distorted sounds. The voice was “sketchy and unsettling but [they] didn’t think much of it. The toy was 10 years old and it had been moved and bumped around a lot.” After it continued to make sounds, they walked over to it and discovered that there weren’t any batteries. In fact, they realized it hadn’t had batteries for seven or eight years, which sent them running out of the attic, never to return.
An Experience I Have a Hard Time Processing
User u/BananaBreadMan00 shared this interesting family ghost story from 10 years ago on the r/Ghoststories subreddit in June of 2022. At the time, he was 12 years old and jumping on a trampoline in his backyard. He could see his upstairs bedroom window and a woman in a white dress waving at him from his adjoining bathroom window. Thinking it was his mom, he went inside and discovered that his mom wasn’t home.
When she returned home later from running errands, he described seeing the woman in white in his bathroom. Because he was growing up in the same house as his mother, she admitted that she had also seen that woman twice when she was younger, as had his grandmother. He goes on to say “…it still kinda bothers me because I now sleep in the room with that bathroom. I can see that same window from where I’m sitting right now.”
The Crib Shadow
User u/Excellent-Reach6641 posted this real-life nightmare fuel on the r/Ghoststories subreddit in July of 2022. While babysitting his niece, he drifted off while studying and watching her from the baby camera monitor. He was awakened by the sound of whispering coming from the baby monitor and immediately noticed the video on the monitor showed a dark figure in a corner of his niece’s room near her crib. As he wrote, “I have never felt more terrified in my entire life.” He ran into his niece’s room and didn’t see the shadow figure, but grabbed her and ran back into the living room.
When his brother returned, he asked that he not to tell his wife and confirmed that he had also seen the same shadow figure and heard the whispers near the crib. They continued to live in that house for another four years, despite the fact that the little girl frequently talked about her “special friend.”
Do you like reading scary stories on Reddit? What are some of your favorite subreddits? Would you upvote or downvote our choices? Tag us on social media @spirithalloween to let us know. You can also read some awesome stories about Spirit employees’ encounters with real ghosts.
