Ask Lemmy

I think I have two.

Older story first.

A man I supervised died at work. He happened to die in his office on a Friday night when he has scheduled to be off work the following week. On Wednesday the cops where he lived called me and asked me to check his office. He was supposed to meet up with his brother on Saturday, but never showed.

I went to his office and found him there, dead and very cold.

I was scheduled off on the Thursday and Friday. When I returned his office had been emptied, the walls painted, and the ceiling and flooring replaced. We finally found out what it took to get one of our offices renovated.

The spooky part is I continued to see him walking in the halls after. Clear enough that I once ran down to the end of the hall where he turned, only to discover no one there.

I don't really believe in ghosts, although I'd like to. So, my explanation is that it was just my mind fucking with me.

The new story is just a little bit spooky.

My dad's birthday is the day after mine. I'm May 4th, he's the 5th. My mom didn't have to buy him a birthday present the year I was born.

Every year I'd get a birthday card for him. Always something goofy. I love my dad, but it's a complicated relationship, and all the sappy, "you're the wind beneath my wings" cards never sat right with me. So I'd always pick a joke card.

This year the first card I picked up was a sappy card. I read it and for some reason it didn't seem wrong. I still thought that I should get a goofy card instead, but I couldn't find where I pulled the sappy one from to put it back, so I bought that one.

My wife noticed and questioned me about it, but I said it was what I wanted to give him.

We decided to go to my parents early on the 2nd to celebrate the birthdays.

It was a nice visit. My dad and I drove to a sandwich shop to pick up lunch so we had some time together in the car, and then my wife and I spent the rest of the day with them.

We also had a conversation about opening the card before his birthday. He said it wasn't his birthday, a sentiment that I would normally agree with, but I told him that we were celebrating early and he should open it, so he did.

Early the next morning, my mom called me to tell me he died. It was Sunday morning, and he had insisted on going to church. They got there, but he was having trouble walking up hill from the parking space. My mom told him to park closer, and he got nasty with her (one last opportunity to verbally abuse her), so she got out and went into church without him.

When he didn't show up, she went out to check on him and found him sitting on a short wall trying to catch his breath. She went over to make sure he wouldn't fall. He stood up and they walked into church and sat in the pew. As soon as they sat down, he leaned over on her and died.

So a bit spooky that I got him the first "I love you, dad" card in more than 30 years for the birthday he didn't make it to. Also spooky that he was so unusually insistent on getting to church that morning.

To really freak people out, I have to make sure that when I eventually die it's on May 2nd.

I had a girlfriend who tried to baby trap me. I have never felt so violated in my life. Like I had breakups and heartbreak before and stuff, but that feeling when she drunkly admitted it and questioned my manhood was like drowning, gasping for air, closest I ever felt to dying. And I've had panic attacks, almost drowned, and been hospitalized for car accidents and other accident a couple of times... all of that was far less traumatic that than moment. Like there is being upset sad, angry, and then there was this feeling? Despair I guess? I feel like a fundamentally see the world in a different way after it.

Some folks just have no respect for other people and only see them as things to be used for their own desires. Evil is very real.

Finally a question I can answer!

I was 16 and had forgotten my house keys. My parents weren't inside, my grandmother was but she couldn't hear the bell ringing at all.

Now, I had faced this issue a few times and most of the times I simply broke in through the roof, but this time, for whatever reason I didn't want to do it. Checked my phone, out of battery or some other reason I couldn't use it.

So the next best thing I came up with was ringing my neighbor and asking for his phone to call my grandma to open the door for me. He was an elderly man so I thanked him a lot for the favor.

He passed away that night, all the coincidences and my apparent free will were to give him tons of words of gratitude. I know it's not spooky, but I can't accept it as a mere luck.

Transparent eyelids. Luckily this didn't happen on the road. So one day I was laying in bed playing on the Steam Deck, waiting for that wave of tiredness to hit so I could easily fall asleep. Well, when the tiredness finally hit I was driving this truck on a long straight road in the game. My eyes slowly closed and it was as if my eyelids had become transparent. I was still seeing the road crystal clear, still going straight not even noticing that my eyes were shut. After about 15 seconds I open my eyes and the truck was flipped over in a ditch. Freaked me the hell out and showed me how devastatingly easy it is to fall asleep behind the wheel without even noticing.

When I moved out and started to live on my own in a apartment complex, I was awaken in the middle of the night by something scratching on my apartment door to the stairs. I was too scared to look up what it was and just laid in silence until it stopped. I'm not sure what it was nobody had pets or anything, I kinda regret not looking now. It did have a dreamy vibe to it though so my mind might have just played a trick on me, but maybe I felt that way cause I just woke up. Very unsettling regardless.

The people who control your life have zero interest in your wellbeing.

One time a coworker and I went into an old abandoned building. It was pretty unremarkable until near the end when we found a room full of giant glass cases and stacks of newspapers with headlines about missing people.

It pretty quickly went from "Oh interesting" to "We should probably leave" pretty quick.

I also found a 'vote for Ralph Nader' button in there which was kinda neat.

Seeing how the vast majority of the population is okay with the normalization of surveillance

I visited my brother, his wife and then infant daughter with our parents for Christmas some time in the early 2000’s. He had a small flat so it was packed.

We decided of all the Christmas things to do, we’d watch the exorcism of Emily Rose before we all turned in for bed, and because the flat was so packed I had to sleep on the sofa by myself.

No big deal I thought, until after everyone had turned into their respective rooms one of my nieces toys at the bottom of one of her toy bins started singing, completely unprompted and untouched. It finished its song then started making a child laughing noise before starting singing again.

I hid underneath the blanket and cowered praying that whatever caused it to start randomly making noise would go away. It continued on for what seemed like an age before it finally stopped. When I asked my brother and his wife if anything similar had ever happened the next day, they said any toys in the bins are always turned off before being put away so I’m assuming I either fell asleep and dreamt it or it was an extremely unfortunate coincidence, but it was the closest I’ve ever come to fearing the idea of ghosts etc.

I've told this story before.

I cannot fall asleep on my back. Or rather, I find it incredibly difficult to do so.

One night, I was dead tired and laid on my back as I normally do to get the bed warm before turning on a side to try to sleep, and I began to drift off.

It was at that point I became aware of the dark shapeless form about as tall as a person stood at the side of my bed. The room was dark. It was darker.

I made a very weird "oo-er" noise, roused myself and it melted into the regular darkness.

I didn't feel at all threatened by it, and assume it was my mind playing tricks, but it was definitely creepy and unwelcome.

Sleep paralysis after already having a very real feeling horror nightnmare. And then halucinat these chreatures to be standing at the other end of the room, looking at me. Just staring with their metalic grin.

Another time in the hospital, nobody should be in the station, but yet doors opened and i clearly heard rumbeling from the stafs kitchen. Like someone was searching threw it hecticly.

One time has at a party/event being hosted in an abandoned factory. Me and a friend just wanted to look around. We walked the the building and then we came to a machine hall. The sealing wasnt very high but from the overpas walkway there were, and i kid you not, 3 hangman knot nooses just hanging there!! We just stood there before we said "noooope!!" And walked back to the party as soon as we could.

You don't need a horror story, you're looking at one.

If you don’t already have trouble sleeping by watching the news, you’re probably some kind of psychopath.

My near death experience was pretty unsettling, took a decade further the dust to settle and kind of fundamentally changed me as a person

Almost told a cop I changed my gender marker on my ID because I took a wrong turn at bureaucratic building. Transphibic country btw