Halloweekend is almost upon us and one thing is for certain: You’re not nearly scared enough. But, instead of paying $40 for a haunted house, why not get your spoops the old-fashioned way and scare the ever-loving crap out of yourself by reading creepy stuff online. We’ve compiled a list of some of the most terrifying stories, myths, and legends from the history of the internet that are practically guaranteed to keep you up at night.

Via Google

1. My Uncle Encounter John Wayne Gacy

In the late 70’s, my Uncle was studying medicine at the University of Chicago. After a morning class, he decided that he would hitchhike back home to Lincoln Park on the North side instead of pay for a taxi. A man drove up in a Plymouth Satellite and offered my Uncle a ride. The man looked normal and seemed friendly…lighthearted even, so my Uncle got in the car and they started driving towards Lake Shore Drive. However, once they got there, the man drove South on Lake Shore instead of North, towards Lincoln Park. My Uncle told the man he was going the wrong way and to turn around and head North. The man looked at my Uncle, put his hand on his knee and said, “No son, you are coming with me” and smiled darkly at him. My Uncle froze in panic, and when they hit traffic near the South Shore, he quickly unlocked the passenger door and ran away without looking back.

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A year or two later on a cold December day, my Uncle was having coffee in a cafe with my future Aunt when he caught something on the TV that made his blood run cold. He saw the man that had picked him up from school that day the year before. He had been arrested for the suspected rape and killing of over 20 young men and boys. The man on the television was John Wayne Gacy. And he had removed the door handle off the passenger side door to prevent the men he picked up from escaping.

2. The Box on The Road

My friend’s dad used to haul shopping carts from Western Washington to Eastern Washington for repair, then bring repaired ones back. He did this driving a semi with trailer.

One summer my friend rode with him and told me about what happened on a stretch of rural highway.

They’re on the road and my buddy is starting to doze off. Ahead in the middle of the road is a box. He dad says “Hey, want me to hit that box?” and he just kinda grunts and shrugs, then closes his eyes.

Via Google

A few seconds later he wakes up because the rig is screaming to a stop and his dad is yelling something while he jumps out. He (my friend) doesn’t know what the hell is going on. He gets out his side of the cab and looks back down the road where his dad is running. His dad is chasing and yelling at two little kids. The box is kicked up sideways. The kids were in the damn box. He swerved around it at the last second because he “felt weird” about the box. It was 14 years ago he told me about this. I have never driven over a bag or a box since then.

3. The Man in The Basement

My family used to rent a house in town along with my aunt and uncle when I was very young that we eventually moved out of because of very strange things that happened while we lived there, but the most memorable and final straw was the night my aunt was using the toilet and just happened to look down at this small hole in the floor that had been there since we moved in and saw a man standing in the basement looking right back up at her smiling. My aunt ran out of the bathroom and screamed for my uncle. 

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After explaining to him that there was a man in the basement my uncle went and got my Dad and they both went down the stairs (the only entrance into the basement) where they found nothing but footprints in the dirty floor where someone had been standing and moving around under the hole.

4. The Girl in The Window

My 4 year old daughter was supposedly asleep when I heard noised coming from her upstairs bedroom. I tried to listen but could not make out what was being said. I approached the room, and she stopped talking. Thinking I alarmed her I went into the room. At the time she was sharing it with her 3 year old sister. I walked in and saw the 4 year old sitting up in bed. I smiled and said is everything o.k.? She said fine, but her sister said they were keeping her up. I asked who? My 4 year old said sorry but that she was talking. When I asked her who she was talking to, my 3 year old sat up and said “the girl in the window, she said you were coming.” After I shit a brick, I asked who the girl was and they both said a girl comes and stands in front of the window at night and talks to them.

Via Google

Not knowing what to say, I said o.k. tucked them in and hung around outside their door. The next day I asked about the girl. they said she came back but was mad! I waited a few days and asked again. My 4 year old said the girl in the window was still mad. I forgot about it for about a week, when my wife said, who are the girls talking to upstairs. Freaked out I ran upstairs and both girls were sitting under the window looking up. They turned and looked at me and asked if I wanted to meet the girl. When they turned around, disappointed, they said the girl left. It has been about 5 years since and I have not heard about the girl in the window since then.

5. My Little Brother Sleepwalk

When I was growing up my little brother, who was three at the time, used to sleepwalk through our house at night. He’d walk down to the basement where I slept and crack open my door between 11pm-2am. He’d then slowly push it open and shuffle inside. When I’d ask what he was doing he’d always stare at the floor and say “Where’s mom?” I’d tell him that she was upstairs. He would repeat “Where’s mom?” Each night I would take him back upstairs and lead him back to bed where he’d fall asleep.

Via Google

One night at about 1am I awoke to hear crying at the bottom of the stairs. I walked out to investigate and he was sitting on the bottom step. I asked him what was wrong and again he said, “Where’s mom?” I told him she was upstair and we should go get her. “No,” he said staring at the floor, “there’s a bloody head following me”.

“What??” I asked. He looked up from the floor, stared me right in the eyes, opened his mouth and let out the shrillest blood curdling scream I have ever heard in my life. It scared the living shit out of me. It was so loud that the whole family got out of their beds to see what was going on. After that I’d never ask him what he was doing downstairs, I’d just take him immediately back to his room.

6. The Old Lady in The Apartment

I was super excited to get my first apartment. It was in an old antebellum house that was split into four units. Very cool place to live. However, every time I was taking a shower, I would get this overwhelmingly creepy feeling. Like somebody was watching me. Then the dreams started. I kept dreaming about this old lady in a pink nightgown. Sometimes she just looked frail and sweet, and she’d say that I should go with her. She never said where we’d go. Other times, the dreams were terrifying. Her eye sockets were empty. Her hair was greasy, stringy, and falling out. Her mouth was twisted in a tormented scream. And she’d frantically claw the air trying to grab me.

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The longer I lived there, the more menacing the dreams got. Also, the feeling of unease and the feeling of being watched in the shower increased dramatically. By the time we moved out, I couldn’t close my eyes in the shower. It sounds silly, but I had this overwhelming feeling that I was going to die or lose my soul or something if I had my eyes closed too long. After moving out, I discussed all these weird feelings with a friend of mine who had recently moved into a house across the street from the old apartment. I was trying to laugh it off. He said that another friend of his used to live in the apartment above mine several years ago. An old lady died in what used to be my apartment. Nobody else wanted to live in that unit for more than a couple of months at a time. The building recently burned down. The fire started in my old apartment. They still don’t know what started the fire. Still creeps me out.

7. My House in England

So, this is how my grandmother tells the story.

It was 1933 and she was thirteen, living in the middle of Manchester, England. One night she got out of bed to go to the bathroom, and as she wandered through past the staircase, she saw her aunty standing at the top looking out the window.

Curious she trotted upstairs and stood next to see what she was looking at, but only saw the back garden and the alleyway out the back. She turned to ask her aunty what she was looking at only to see a nebulous, faceless figure staring back down at her. The figure then reached out her hands and gripped my young grandmother’s face. The next thing my grandmother remembers is her older brother (about 27) running down the hall towards them, picking her up and carrying her into the nearest room.

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She then spent the next week in and out of consciousness, eventually recovering, but now without a sense of smell.

Her family insist it was all a hallucination caused by a severe case of influenza, which is probably true, but my grandmother said she never felt safe in that house ever again. She moved to New Zealand about 10 years later and only ever returned to England, and that house, once before she died.

8. My Family Scary Story

I’m sure I’m a little bit too late for anyone to see this, but this is my family’s scary story.

So, my grandparents lived on a farm in the middle of nebraska. They had just gotten married, moved in together, and had their first baby. The baby was only a few months old and needed to be watched, but it was early morning and the cows had to be milked. My grandfather couldn’t have done the work alone, he needed my grandmother to help. The labor was easy and only took a short while to be finished and the baby, my aunt, had been fed awhile ago and was soundly sleeping. So my grandfather and grandmother both went to the barn to milk the cows, leaving my aunt asleep.

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They finish milking the cows and my grandmother heads back to the house while my grandfather stays in the barn to do work. But when she approaches the house, my grandmother notices the door is ajar and swinging gently in the wind. She figures it is probably nothing, but is nervous just the same. She calls for my grandfather, who reluctantly comes to soothe her nerves. They enter the house together and hear the sound of the toilet flush just ending. Strange, yes, but farm houses in this area at this time had rather shotty plumbing, so while they become more nervous, they remain calm. They then pick up their paces and head towards the cradle where my aunt has begun screaming. The light, hanging down from the ceiling, is swinging violently as if it was just thrown on. My grandmother goes to pick up my aunt, noticing a black hair on her white gown. Both of my grandparents had white blonde hair and there is no one around who could own this hair. My grandmother becomes hysterical when my grandfather notices the latch to the attic is swinging, as though someone has just crawled up inside of it. He goes toward it, readying himself to open it. My grandmother lunges at him and convinces him in between her sobs to leave instantly, jump in the truck, and drive to town. Reluctantly, he agrees.

They never found out if anyone was in the house or not. However, a week later, Charlie Starkweather (not sure on the spelling) was found less than 30 miles away from their home. He was, i believe, the largest serial killer in America for a short time when these events transpired.