Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
EXPLAINED: Scariest things happened stories | Vintage Vibes
Being scared can sometimes be a bit exhilarating, but it’s best experienced when at a distance. So someone asked "What's the scariest thing that ever happened to you?” and people shared their harrowing tales, from freak accidents to strange sounds at night. Be warned, some of these are downright creepy and might be unpleasant to read.
But if you decide to stick around, get as comfortable as you can as you read through, make sure your door is locked, upvote the most interesting ones and be sure to leave your own stories in the comments down below.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Having two cops knock on my door in the middle of the night to tell me my husband, the father of my then 7 year old son, had been in an accident. When I asked if he was okay their only response was "He's alive but you might want to hurry".
Then upon arrival to the hospital we got put into a private waiting room and for about five hours the only two people I saw were 1. A chaplain and 2. A nurse that described, in horrific detail, all my husband's injuries (and there was A LOT). Oh, and just sprinkled in that he may be paralyzed and/or brain dead.
So then I had to sit hours without any other answers while he had multiple life saving procedures, all while dealing with our child who was so scared. They're both okay now, but it took months in the ICU and a long couple of years to get there and we're finally on the other side.
RELATED:
#2
I remember when I was 6 I lived in a cul-de-sac, and my siblings and I used to play outside all the time (early 2000s ya know)? This guy in his 50s used to park his white Chevy Astro van in the cul-de-sac and run in our neighborhood. Even at 6, I was extremely extroverted and would talk to anyone, so I chatted with this old guy frequently. It went on for a few weeks until my neighbor (Mr. Doug, may he RIP) called my dad and told him I was talking to strangers. My dad scared the absolute stuff out of me when talking to me about how dangerous this was by grabbing me up and throwing me on the couch and telling me “this is how fast someone can get you into the back of their van.”
Fast forward 20 years, the memory came up for some reason, and my dad said “I swear to this day that was the guy who attacked that young hiker girl on Blood Mountain.” I asked if he remembered his name, and he did, so I pulled up his picture and I swear to god my blood ran cold because I would’ve recognized this guy’s face anywhere. Turns out he kidnapped, ended, and beheaded this girl in her 20s and drove around with her in the back of his van for weeks before getting caught.
#3
I was home alone and I heard something in my attic. I don’t believe in the supernatural. I convinced myself it was vermin of whatever sort. Nope, definitely bigger. WAY bigger. I started crying, DEFINITELY a human and they were in my f*****g attic.
Turns out, my landlord had someone come to inspect my roof. The d*****t didn’t let me, a stay at home mother of three, know anyone was coming. And the bigger d*****t, the roof guy, didn’t knock on my door to let me know he was going up there, even though my car was clearly parked in the driveway.
#4
In February 1996. My neighbor and I got off the school bus by our apartments. It was still snowing hard out since the early morning. We were playing on a snow hill and decided to head back after 30 minutes.
I saw this snow drift that was almost taller than me. I went to walk through it. Next thing I know, I'm sitting down a 24 foot sewer. Some punk took the sewer lid off in fall. Snow and ice was covering the sewer hole.
I broke my ankle and leg. Cracked my skull on the ladder rungs. It was crazy scary.
#5
I fell down the stairs and bit through my tongue on Halloween. My mom had to carry me through a blizzard to get me to the ER. The anesthetics they used on me caused an allergic reaction that sent me into cardiac arrest.
#6
The scariest thing would probably be when I was 11. I had a stroke and a seizure at the same time, and I was fully awake during it after I had a brain hemorrhage due to an operation to remove a tumor.
zububonsai 2 hours ago
I don't know if this pic shows a boy in the middle if an epileptic episode but I know im not comfortable watching this, this feels ... exposing? They could have used a pic of a cramped hand or something similar, couldn't they?
#7
Been swimming in the ocean my whole life. One day went snorkeling in about 10-15ft deep water, it suddenly started sloshing me around and I was struggling to stay above it. Then I started getting exhausted like I never felt before. Managed to get to a rock where I was able to stand myself up with the tip of my toes to hold my head above water, and I waited for it to calm down. It was scary and I thought I was going to drown.
#8
Fell in love with con artist. I was missing and endangered for 10 days.
Yayheterogeneity 10 minutes ago (edited)
For anyone wanting to know more: He had his well concocted stories. And I was always scared to make him mad. Because there was a threat of violence. Even though my story was only a few months long July to October. 20 years ago it still amazes me that I got out. He was a world class liar maybe a psychopath, cut me off from family and friends. Because he was so much better than them. And because I had the love goggles firmly on. I was scared of his rage. So I made decisions to make him happy. Not adding up all of the stories. I was never tied up or physically a****d... Just mental a***e. I will say this ignorance was what I believe kept me alive and many prayers. I do not have a poker face. We traveled around for months.The stories were unraveling. What finally caught him was they did a facial recognition on a picture that my Dad snapped. Ran facial recognition and found out he had warrants. So they arrested him. I came back embarrassed but alive.
#9
Back in my 20s, I was sitting in my friend’s car, going down a dark stretch of road in upstate New York. He thought it would be funny to turn the headlights out and fly down the road at 90mph.
I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and he was laughing his a*s off. He did this for a good 40 seconds, which is eternity in a situation like that. Words can’t explain how terrified I was. I literally thought I was about to die. My life didn’t flash before my eyes, but in that 40 seconds, I was thinking “this is it! This is how I die! Will it hurt? Will I go to hell?”
I still get the chills thinking about it. By far the most scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.
#10
I’ve done all sorts of extreme sports and been in crazy situations throughout my life but the scariest thing imo was a full blown anxiety attack… was at home in a safe place but couldn’t get over the helplessness, fear and confusion, was shook for weeks (was triggered by stopping valiums suddenly, I honestly don’t think anyone should be prescribed that stuff, ever).
#11
My wife was giving birth to our daughter. It was a high risk pregnancy and we had complications the whole time. Her water broke 6 weeks early and so we went to the hospital. There was a point in the delivery where my daughter’s heart rate dropped. Alarms were going off, several doctors rushed into the room and all I could do is watch. I was frozen and had this feeling of dread. I don’t know what they did, but her HR stabilized and I have a healthy beautiful little girl.
#12
I had a pulmonary embolism in 2019. I was starting to not feel good and out of breath doing anything. I went with my sister to the supermarket, went in with her, but I couldn't even make it to the front of the store, I had to sit down, gasping for air and nonstop coughing. I got brought to the hospital after that, and the ER staff so me and took me in for x-rays immediately. I waited for hours until they finally came back and said they saw something in my lungs and needed to get a doctor to come in and see the x-ray (it was past 2am at night.) I had to get transported to a different hospital, brought to the ICU and scheduled for immediate surgery. They told me I had a 50/50 shot of living because of how big the blood clots were, so they were gonna try ro break it up. I had to lay in this weird operating room with a rag over my head and tubes going into my neck for 8 hours without moving. Most scared I have ever been.
#13
I started feeling dizzy at random times, and at first I tried to ignore it, drink more water, etc. It got worse, and one day I woke up and was so dizzy that I was having trouble keeping focus. My ahole boss called me and while he was laying into me about something stupid, I felt something *shift* in my head. After the call, when I went to stand up, everything went very sideways very quickly. I couldn’t walk straight at all, even while holding onto a wall, and I was so dizzy that every time I moved my head, I vomited. My vision was basically sliding around my eyes, and I couldn’t focus or pinpoint anything at all. Called my best friend and told her that something was very wrong and I needed to go the emergency room right now. I got to chill in the waiting room for about an hour puking into a bag and holding exceptionally still. When I got back, they tested me for inner-ear vertigo, and once they realized that wasn’t it, I became very popular.
After a long litany of tests, the consensus that was delivered? I had a virus. In my f*****g brain. I had been running around with microscopic demons chomping on my brain meats. I got discharged with like 5 different medications and told to stay home until the nausea and dizziness had passed. The thing about brain viruses though is that they impact your…well, brain. Instead of doing that, I just…didn’t do that. I went to work. I ran errands. I drove a f*****g car. And then about three weeks later, I started getting better. It was like slowly surfacing from the bottom of a deep, dark well. It was like becoming sentient.
I have no memory of those three weeks. At all. My work was all done up to par, I didn’t get into any accidents that I know of, I didn’t act abnormal other than being “really forgetful” according to folks close to me. For three weeks, I got used as a meat suit by a brain virus, and I had and still have no idea what was happening.
So yeah. Brain virus. Scariest f*****g thing that’s ever happened to me, both before and after.
Yayheterogeneity 3 minutes ago
And he went and put everyone around him in danger by going on. That's the way people get k****d easily.
#14
I grew up in Belfast during to early 1970s, at the peak of the “Troubles”. Found the remains of a guy who had been caught in an explosion (basically his torso, head and one arm), was chased by 2 guys wielding hatchets, and witnessed an assassination attempt, all before I’d turned 15. The scariest thing, however, was when the Gasworks in Belfast was blown up in 1976. It ignited a huge gas tank that exploded in a blast that shook the entire city. I was outside playing with friends. We heard the initial blast when the b**b went off then turned around in time to witness the gas tank explode, throwing a huge mushroom cloud shaped fireball into the air quickly followed by the pressure wave. It scared the c**p out of all of us and sent us sprinting indoors!
#16
Was driving 120 around some backroads in the rain, hydroplaned and quite literally drifted my altima around a tight a*s turn, saved it and haven’t driven over 10 over the speed limit ever since.
#17
Slipped and fell into the pool during a swimming class when I was 4. I still remember, very clearly, being underwater and unable to breathe, thinking I was going to die. I clawed and tried to reach towards the wall but couldn't get out. One of my teachers pulled me out and I just remember crying and sitting on a bench. Developed a severe phobia of deep water since then that I have not gotten over.
Made me realize how quickly drowning accidents happen and how quiet they can be.
Yayheterogeneity 1 minute ago
Yep, same happened to me. I still remember the bubbles going upwards and me looking up and everything was so quiet. My sister pulled me up. There were no adults around.
#18
My mom and I were driving on this road with a bluff on one side and a guardrail on ours, so there was nowhere to go. Out of nowhere this semi comes into our lane and just keeps coming straight at us. He didn’t move until he was basically right in front of us, and then swerved at the last second. I genuinely felt my life flash before my eyes. I still get the heebie-jeebies every time I think about it.
#19
At 27 I had an emergency 2nd open heart surgery due to contracting endocarditis on my replacement tissue valve that almost k****d me. I found out I also had a heart attack on the operating table that left me with complete heart block.
Three years on, I'm approaching my 30th birthday in a couple months thanks to my new pacemaker that keeps my heart beating.
Live every day to the fullest, you never know what tomorrow will bring.
#20
Got into a car accident when I was 16. Due to seatbelt failure I basically broke the left half of my body and cut up my face pretty bad. Due to the seatbelt failure my torso ended up in the passengers side while my bottom half remind on the drivers side. I’ll never feeling nothing in my left foot, and then pulling my leg onto the drivers seat to see my foot hanging onto my leg by only the skin. Just about everything else in the foot/ankle was jello.
#21
Flicker vertigo, where your brain receives images at a different frequency than it's used to processing them, such as with a strobe light. It can cause your brain to briefly forget how your motor functions work. It's been over 20 years since I experienced it, but I still remember the mental image of being trapped in my own skull, screaming for help and unable to move.
#23
During the birth of my last child via csection, I began to hear them calling out for hemolytic d***s (I’m an OB nurse) and knew I was hemorrhaging before my doctor told me. Almost had to have an emergency hysterectomy because him and another doctor who was called in to assist couldn’t stop the bleeding. I needed 2 units of blood before I was put under because they had been inside me for so long I was beginning to feel them. I lost 1640ml of blood before they finally got it to stop. Not a good time, I will not be having another child.
#24
Lost my daughter on the beach. Looked down for literally a second, I looked up and she was gone. She was probably about 4. I kept thinking this is going to be the day I remember as the worst day of my life as we panic searched for her. Luckily, the life guards were alerted and she was found at the next stand. She had gotten disoriented and just started running along the shore line. I thought for sure she either drowned or was kidnapped. It was terrifying. She’s a teenager now and I still tear up thinking about how scary it was.
#25
I lost my leg to necrotizing fasciitis. I had 4 surgeries with them cutting off more and more of my leg and the final one when I had no leg left to take they told me I may want to start making arrangements. This was during COVID so I couldn't have any visitors so I couldn't hug my kids or loved ones.
I have been through some s**t in my life with a rough childhood growing up in foster care, I have been s****************d more times than I can count and nevermind the physical a***e but this BROKE me.
I still am messed up from it mentally.
#26
Bombing a steep hill on a bike and feeling the brake cable snap. That split second where you pull the lever, feel zero tension, and realize you're just picking up speed with a busy intersection at the bottom... it's a very specific kind of terror.
#27
Twice I had scary events : coming back to my folk's place from work as I was getting out of the bus at night (it's a road alongside a river, pretty dark) when I spotted a man hidden behind the bus stop cabin in the trees, got back inside and asked the driver to let me get out at the next stop. I ran for my life when I saw he was coming towards me. There had been a recent event of a woman victim of a throat slash 5 minutes away so I was sure that I was the next victim.
The other time, got off the last subway, walked home (5 min away) but midway I got spooked by a dude almost naked in the middle of the street laughing and talking to himself. I took out my keys between my fingers/knuckles just in case, continued to walk home, the guy went his way without bothering me but I had pre dialed 911 on my phone in case. Just as I got on the corner of my street, a car with 4 guys inside slowed down and they yelled at me to come and talk to them, I ran towards my building, they bolted to the red light, made a u turn and followed me. I called 911 and as I got inside the building the 4 dudes were parked in front. The police got there very fast, of course the guys were gone.
#28
When i was a teenager I worked in a grocery store . One shift i was walking to the back room to fill my produce cart when I had to pass the meat counter. There was a guy standing there, back turned. Wasn't doing anything special. But the energy coming off of this guy made me so unbelievably uncomfortable. I had to walk pass this guy to get to the back and the closer I got to this guy I felt the strongest urge to start crying. It felt like he was pure evil. Ive never felt anything like that since and I doubt he knew I was even there.
#29
Almost walking into an armed robbery at a liquor store. Bumped into the robber as he left. He put a hat over his face so we could not identify him. Clerk was face down behind the counter.
#30
Abducted by my stalker at the park. Driven to a second location, motel. R***d repeatedly and verbally a****d and isolated, robbed, and made to drink (I'm sober). Driven to several other locations and back to the motel until my money was gone and we stayed in his car. He stole my medications so I couldn't sleep and was feral with fear and trauma. Thank god he got too comfortable in public and was pulled over by the cops and arrested for something unrelated. I was speechless; they didn't know my story. They said I could go. I've been through a lot but this sticks out.
#31
Almost choked on a grape when I was five because I liked to swallow them whole. Saw my whole short life flash before my eyes and hid behind a pillow to accept my fate.
#32
I posted this in the last thread I saw about this probably 2 years ago but I still think about it weekly lol:
Hiking a trail in the UP in Michigan last October. It was only a 5 mile in/out trip. It was mine and my girlfriend’s vacation, so it was like a Tuesday afternoon, so the trail was mostly empty.
Once we got to the very end, we stopped for pictures of the area. Out of nowhere, another random guy shows up at the end of the trail with us. Never saw him behind us the whole way in. He didn’t look “off” or “creepy” by any means, but his vibe made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Idk why but my ancestral instinct was alerted by this man more than by any other person any other time in my life. He didn’t do anything wrong, didn’t say anything to me, nothing.
I just told my girlfriend that this guy seems bad to me, and it’s time for I go. I’m normally a very level-headed and social person, but this guy just made my radar go off. Couldn’t tell ya why, but it was scary as hell to me.
#33
My husband died. I was left alone to raise our three sons while dealing with grief so profound I could barely function.
I had never been more scared in my whole life.
#34
Hearing a clear 'Daddy?' from my kid's room in the middle of the night, only to remember they are staying over at their grandparents' house for the weekend.
#35
When I was 13, I decided to walk to the nearest comic book store. After a couple blocks, I walk by a house with some kids sitting on the front steps. They were around the same age as me. They were listening to music, talking loudly with each other. I walked by and noticed they started following me. They ran up to me and said something to the effect of “Why you disrespecting me?” I kinda laughed, thinking they were joking around. I didn’t do anything to “disrespect” them, just walked by.
Well laughing was not the answer they were looking for as one of the three came from behind as got me with a haymaker to the side of the head. I was stunned, never being in a fight before, especially a 3 on 1. I can’t remember if the other two started swinging as well but we were underneath a train overpass so it got a little dark. I remember running into the street, yelling for help. Cars passed by, no one stopped.
I managed to run my a*s off to the nearest gas station and call my mom on a pay phone. Luckily the kids must’ve darted once I started yelling help. I remember my aunt drove my mom and cousin to pick me up. My mom asked if I was okay and I just started bawling. My head began to hurt. Honestly probably the scariest moment of my life.
#36
My friend and I ditched school and headed to Hollywood for the day. Some guy asked if we wanted to take a personality test, so we agreed. Test was done and I was told I have a roller-coaster personality, not sure what they told my friend about her personality.
They start telling us about a book we should purchase. We said we didn't have money. These guys would not take no for an answer. They asked us repeatedly for our parents numbers so we can call them up and buy these books. They said that our parents don't love us if we don't get the books. Got to the point in which we said we would go to the ATM, they wanted to walk with us. We said the parking meter needed more money, again they wanted to walk with us.
We somehow convinced them that we could go to the ATM alone. As soon as they opened the door, we ran right out of there. We turned around and they were following us past a few stores, then they stopped.
Turns out it was a Scientology center.
#37
I had had my driver's license less than a year, I was driving on the interstate towards the coast. I didn't have a smartphone and had just moved in, no TV yet so no weather updates. The sky was clear when I started my drive, about thirty minutes into it it was getting gray, fast. The bottom dropped out, completely. Rain like I had never experienced before.
First the road disappeared, but I could still make out what was in front of me, so I committed to carrying on to the next exit.
Second, the wind started. The car was rocking, the drop top was threatening to pull up, the windshield wipers weren't able to keep up with the river coming down. The downpour became worse, the sky got darker, I couldn't see my hood anymore. I didn't know where I was, how close to anything I was. I blindly pulled over, hoping there was a shoulder.
I sat completely still the whole time, white knuckling the steering wheel, too scared to look anywhere but forward. I couldn't focus on anything but the fear that a semi was going to try to pull off and not be able to see me.
At one point I tried to turn the radio off, only to realize what I was hearing was my passenger chattering away, completely unfazed by the fact that we now couldn't see out of the car at all.
#38
One day my husband and I were at his friend's house. He told me he was going to walk to the store and be right back. I had a bad feeling but ignored it. He didnt come back for 11 days. I am disabled in a wheelchair so I couldn't get home by myself and our friends suggested I stay with them.
We called every hospital, morgue, police station in the area and nobody saw him and there were no John Does that matches his description anywhere.
I had *so many* thoughts. I thought he may have left me, he got k****d by a serial killer, pissed off the wrong person all kinds of s**t. I woke up from a dead sleep convinced I hear him yelling my name in pain.
On day 11 there was a knock on the door. He was hit by a car and he no ID on him and was in a coma for those days. He didn't have his phone so he couldn't call anyone so he left against Drs orders.
#39
Learning to scuba dive. Day 1… practice in a swimming pool… fine and a short shallow dive in the quarry.
Now day 2… same quarry… find out as I’m gripping the rope hoisting myself down… now we have mini flashlights because now it’s pitch black and I don’t know up from down and I’m trying to swim follow my instructor and the 3 others.
I’m trying not to have a panic attack… so my swimming slows and then the light in front of me go out… they are too far ahead… now I’m 40 feet down in pitch blackness and try not to freak out bc i wouldn’t be able to swim up fast enough if my tank malfunctioned…
Luckily one of the people in the group was the trainers friend who was training to be an instructor so he turned around and grabbed me and pulled me up to the group.
I never went scuba diving again.
#40
Saw a nearly 7 foot cryptid walking along the road towards me as I was driving home late one night. Pants were peed.
#41
My step mom was driving my older brother and I to school January 18, 2001 when she had what appeared like a seizure behind the wheel of our moving car. My brother, who was 11 at the time, was in the passenger seat. While I tried to wake her up, he grabbed the wheel, because it was going into a light/electrical pole. Not knowing how to drive, he pulled the car into incoming traffic, and a semi truck ran over the car, flattening it. I guess EMTs thought we were all dead except I was screaming.
#42
Was 12 or 13, friend and I in our infinite wisdom though it would be a good idea to swim across a pond. Halfway across he either got tired or a mouthful of water and panicked. Started jumping on me, pulling me under. I smacked him in the face and managed to calm him down enough to drag us both to shore. For a few seconds I thought it was going to be the end of both of us.
#43
Hydroplaned on interstate 85 where the speed limit is 70. About 39-40 degrees outside. Sprinkling rain a little. Drive over a bridge and out of nowhere me and my girlfriend are doing a 180 through 3 lanes of interstate and the car slides down this embankment and the back of the car hits something that stops is immediately. Well apparently this jeep had done the exact same thing in the same spot earlier.
Now HERE is the scary part. Right in between my suv and the jeep there is a pair of shoes as if someone has been smashed out of them and are now lodged in between two vehicles in a bloody mess. I SCRAMBLE to where the shoes are and see nothing. About to look under my car and look closer and noticed they are MY shoes that were in the back of my suv. When my vehicle came to a complete stop, the back glass smashed and some stuff came flying including the shoes.
Nothing like thinking you crushed someone to death to make you not give a f**k about a car accident. UNTIL later I got a ticket for something out of my control AND I totaled that jeep when I hit it even though it was already wrecked so my insurance had to pay! I was going under the speed limit. No alcohol. Like just got new tires. Obviously there is a problem out of my control if someone did the exact same thing 2 hours ago in the same spot.
#44
I got stuck in a king tide while fishing off a headland. My route along the rocks got cut off by huge crashing swell, it was pitch black by this time and I was only 12 years old with my friend.
Many adults die in this situation, we’re lucky we didn’t….
#46
Having a legit panic attack out of nowhere. Had no idea what it was and turned into a panic disorder always anticipating the next one happening just pouring gas on the fire. And I've definitely had what would seem to be much scarier things happen in life but that takes the cake. If you know you know.
#47
My 3 year old daughter going blue in the back seat of my car and having to stay calm enough through the panic to call 911 and pull over on the highway and do CPR. I asked the operator to count and she instead started giving me instructions for CPR so I ignored her and started counting compressions on my own. I don’t know that she would have survived if I had waited to be talked through CPR instructions, it was that urgent. I was recently CPR recertified at the time and believed I’d never need to use it, never once imagining that I’d use it on my own child.
#48
My aorta Ruptured in 2013 was given 0%
To live thru the surgery and the same for the first night I've had 3 open heart surgeries in 11.5 years.
#49
School sh**ting.
I'm a UVU student, and was at Charlie Kirk's event (with the protesters lol). I had been just like 40 feet away from him on the upper deck, but had to go get lunch before my next class. I stepped inside the food court right next to the courtyard he was in, and had just sat down to eat, when I heard a bang and saw everyone in the courtyard drop to the ground.
Next thing I know someone runs inside screaming "SH**TER! SH**TER!!!" People are screaming and crying and shouting in utter panic, some grabbing their things, some just sprinting away and leaving their backpacks behind. Multiple cops ran past me with their guns drawn.
People seem to forget that we had absolutely no f*****g clue where the sh**ter was. We all assumed they were going to rampage and keep sh**ting.
I called my husband as calmly as I could while making my way out, saying basically "Heyyy sooooo there's an active sh**ter situation. I heard the sh*t. I'm leaving the building. I love you." God, I'm choking up again just thinking about that. I never, ever again want to have to call my husband to tell him I love him because I'm afraid I'm about to die.
I still have SO much PTSD, as do many, many fellow students (I actually just made a post in r/UVU about it last night). Thousands were in lockdown in their classrooms, offices, even supply closets, not knowing where the sh**ter was or if we were all about to be sh*t next.
The horror of that day still brings me to my knees sometimes. I still haven't been able to go back to exactly where I was when it happened.
Related on Bored Panda
