What’s worse than living in a house with a leaky roof and annoying neighbours? That’s right, living in a place that’s haunted. Imagine, waking up suddenly at 3 AM, and hearing some activity in the kitchen. Probably a cat. Or maybe a spirit. Terrifying either way.

So, to make your 3 AM encounters even more scary, here are a few stories that people posted on the subreddit, Ask Reddit, who claimed to have had paranormal encounters at their home.

My son, about 4 years old at the time, would jabber away in his room by himself. One day, my wife asked him who he was talking to. He said he was talking with Alice and that she used to feed the men who lived here. He went on to say that she died because she couldn’t breathe. Our house used to be a boarding house before World War II.

PuntamPete

I watched one of our cats being pulled backwards about 5 feet by her tail. She was walking through the dining area and suddenly was sliding backwards, as if someone was pulling her by her tail. Only there wasn’t. She freaked out and tried to run, but couldn’t immediately, as something held on for a brief second before letter her go. I tend to think that was the handiwork of a 4 or 5-year-old girl ghost who hangs out and she just wanted to play with the kitty.

MTSwagger

I’ve heard a lot of things – screams in the basement, a child and older man laughing when I’m in the shower, furniture being dragged around on my porch, music playing randomly with glasses clinking, and groups of people chatting.

DefinitelyAverage

When I was around 9 or 10 years old, I remember waking up to see a large shadow that stood at the foot of my bed.

Denholme2

I lived in a big 1840s colonial house with three of my friends for a while. It was set back in 80+ acres of state wildlife property and it was a gorgeous house.

X-ko

From ages 5-17, I lived in a house with ‘activity’. It was all pretty basic run of the mill stuff: footsteps, voices, lights turning on and off, doors opening and shutting, batteries draining, etc. If we started renovating, which we almost always were, they’d get more active and start throwing stuff. I got used to it. They didn’t hurt us, so we just let it go. Even my father started believing after a while.

Typewrytten

I lived in an older home for about 5 years or so. My stepdad, who knew the man who had lived there before us, told me that he had hung himself in the attic. I honestly didn’t think much of it, that is until I heard the footsteps.

IamHeretoSayThis

I went on my merry way to school one day. My mom was home alone cleaning up after breakfast not too soon after I left. So she is doing her thing when she begins to hear music upstairs. She thought to herself that I had left the radio on. She was pissed because we are poor and we try to save every penny we can on our electric bill. She got to the top of the stairs which has an open railing. She looked to the right, and there she saw a pair of legs standing there tapping feet to the music. She didn’t even stay to look up for a body. She noped the fuck out as the music stopped and the legs began to turn to her.

Clowning101

My ex-wife was staying at her grandparents’ house which used to be a church. All the cousins have stories from this place, but my wife was an odd one. They are all listening to the radio one night when the window drapes start moving a lot and nothing but static started coming from the radio. The girls freaked out and started screaming. As soon as they started screaming it stopped and a voice came out of the radio saying, “Sorry to have bothered you, I’ll leave you alone now.” Drapes went back in place, music comes back on.

Great1675

Used to have regular repeating nightmares where you know someone’s in the house, you walk down the hall, find your family murdered in the kitchen (the old kitchen, before remodelling), and run for the door with only a faint chance of escape before getting caught. Years after we moved out, I learned that my brother had been having the same exact nightmare. Neither of us had ever talked about it before.

Quillemote

My mom worked 3-11 and usually got groceries and what not on a Friday or Saturday night when she knew I’d be home to help bring them in. I was playing video games and she called the house phone to let me know she was almost there.

EdforceONE

As a kid, I would make stupid videos with my friends, and sometimes I rewatch them and cringe at our shenanigans.

Neqi999

When I was a kid, about 8 or 9 years old, I had a TV stand in front of my window. The lights from the street always were on, so, in the dark I could easily make out the outline of where my TV was. I started seeing a shadow figure of a girl standing right next to my TV. I could make out her figure very clearly, hair and everything. I spent nights just looking at her. I couldn’t even sleep. One night I got sick of it and threw a pillow at her. As soon as I did I put my head under the other pillow. I have it a couple of minutes and looked up and she was right next to me at the edge of my bed. I screamed so loud and my parents came in and turned on the lights. A few days later my little sister told me that she has been seeing a little girl in her room. I never told my little sister about my experience prior to that.

Cloud1017

Moved from the US to the UK and our parents bought an old beat up house. It still had lead pipes for the water. Nightmare all on its own. Anyway, work proceeded on the house whilst we lived there. We started seeing bright lights in the corners of the rooms at night. Footsteps on floorboards, the house had carpet. I was about 6 at the time and started getting woken up in the night by a little girl, who would dance on my chest of drawers for me. I was freaking terrified. My mum just fobbed it off as me dreaming. Workmen complained of strange things happening like tools being moved an odd feeling like being watched. After about a year of this, my eldest sisters friend stayed overnight. She woke the whole house up screaming, saying a little girl had been in her room. She had apparently pulled her from the bed. The friend left the house and refused to ever come back. Mum decided she might need to do something about it and got some advice. He suggested my mum and the whole family should treat the presences as part of the family. So when we got home we shout, “Hi we’re home. Did you have a good day?” Over time the house settled and we didn’t get any more trouble. We also found out a little girl did die in the house of asthma.

Nai75

I used to be a server for an old church/school that was definitely haunted. I’d be there early to get ready, no one else around, and I’d hear a scream sometimes. Most of the time, the metronome on the piano would turn on by itself.

Realahcrew

One day I was underneath my truck, which was supported by only a jack. I was in the middle of working on it, with no good reason to get out at that moment. Suddenly, the overwhelming urge to get out from underneath overwhelmed me. No sooner than I got out, the truck fell to the ground, the jack had slipped. It freaked dad out. He thought I was under it. When mom got home, we mentioned it, and she started crying pretty hard. It turns out the previous owner died in the driveway, under a vehicle, in that same spot.

TheToenailCollector

My father-in-law died before my son was born, so he never got to meet him. When we moved into our new home, my son would often be laughing in the middle of the night by himself. No biggie, kids will play with anything. One day, we were finally putting pictures up in the house and after I put up the picture of my father in law, he said, “Oh mommy, why do you have a picture of the man that comes and play with me at night?” He had never ever seen a picture of my father in law before.

Ragxdoll

One recurring incident involved hearing the voices of my family members who weren’t home. Sometimes, I would wake up to hear my parents fighting, or my brother and one of my parents, but would find myself home alone when I went to check. It would usually occur on the opposite floor as I was– upstairs if I was downstairs and downstairs if I was upstairs, and would stop right when I got onto the same floor. One time was different though. I was brushing my teeth with the bathroom door shut when I heard one knock and my dad saying my name in a strange and teasing voice. When I opened the door he wasn’t there, and when I asked my mom where he was, she said he’d went out to work hours ago (he was a lineman with crazy work hours). I went back to the bathroom and almost right after I shut the door again I heard more knocking. Didn’t open the door at that time.

Weathercrow

One of my exes lived in a haunted condo, but the ghost was pretty cool. He would just open doors and cabinets at night. Of course, she had failed to mention this to me when I started staying over so the first time it happened I thought someone had broken in. When I woke her up to tell her and to listen she said, “Oh, that’s probably just the ghost. Hey, Norman? Could you please stop for tonight? I haven’t told him about you yet.” There was one more sound of a door closing and that was it. “You should be fine now. He went back in the closet.” Then she went back to sleep. I couldn’t sleep after that so I went downstairs to check the locks and windows. Everything was secure, but most of the cabinet doors in the kitchen were open.

FromMyFingers

My uncle’s house which is on a very eastern part of NY was said to be haunted. The family that used to own it decided not to give it to the stableman and sold it instead. The maid and he were said to have been haunting the place.

Twigsnapper

A strange Star of David pattern used to show up on shiny surfaces in my room. I’m not Jewish and neither is my family. It showed up on a belt buckle of mine and then appeared on my mirror soon after. It stopped showing up and a few months later my sisters were taking down posters in their room (the room was downstairs on the opposite side of the house) and the pattern was on the back of the poster by their bedroom door. The poster had been up for over a year and had never been moved.

BUTTERSANDWlCH

No, sleeping with the lights on won’t help.