There's an eternally-burning pit in the middle of Turkmenistan. And a church near Prague that's made out of human bones. But you don't always have to go to distant places to see what nightmares look like. Sometimes you can find that sort of stuff lurking in the mundane.
Like when you pull over at a random rest stop on your trip to the coast and immediately feel in your gut that you shouldn't be there.
A discussion on Reddit has people describing a town, village, truck stop, diner, and other similar places that just didn't feel right when they were there, places where everything and everyone seemed off, and if Hollywood isn't taking notes, they're missing out on quite a few horror movie ideas.
#1
This is my girlfriends story but is kinda up the alley of what you are asking for.
My partner went to Florida with her family when she was younger and they were driving around trying to find some food until they found a Chinese restaurant and they went in and had some food.
There were no other customers, lots of staff, everyone seemed very tense but the food was great.
They left and had a lovely rest of their day.
During breakfast the next morning they turned on their tele and the news showed the place they had eaten and they were like ‘wow look we went there’. Then the story started and it turns out no more than 10 minutes after they left there was a massive shoot up and they all killed one another.
Turns out that the ignorant british tourists just sat in-between some kind of asian turf war.
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280points
However, we wanted to find out if we can look at these places from a different perspective, so we contacted urban photographer Roman Robroek.
"I'm attracted to abandoned buildings and areas because they offer a glimpse into a world that otherwise stays hidden," Robroek told Bored Panda. "Some of the most amazing architecture, art, style, and furniture have been left behind in buildings that have been long forgotten. Visiting them, and taking photos of them, is a way to make sure that they won’t be erased from history. The more modern architecture that you see in new buildings rising nowadays does not interest me much. They're missing soul."
However, when it comes to abandoned buildings, whether they're Art Deco or Gothic, Robroek finds a lot of soul. "It's simply amazing to sit down on a dusty floor in an old and abandoned living room, seeing cobwebs everywhere, smelling old stuff (you know that smell from your grandparents' house), hidden details everywhere, and ooze in the history.
#2
Husband, sister, sister's husband and I were driving from WA to MT to go hunting. I am mixed race and my sister is white. Both of our husbands are white and neither of them are from the PNW, so they are ignorant of the history of the Idaho panhandle.
Sister and I both had a travel plan that involved not stopping in the panhandle. My husband, who was driving, decided he really needed to stretch his legs and we might as well get gas before it gets dark, so he pulls into a gas station in the Idaho panhandle. Sister and I both tell him this is a terrible idea and we are not comfortable. Husband and sister's husband (from CA and NY, so no appreciation of the ID situation) both tell us we're being silly.
Husband and sister's husband both go inside to use the bathroom and buy energy drinks or whatever. Sister gets out and pumps gas so we can get out of there quicker. I stay in the back seat out of sight and seriously debate whether it's worth it to try to dig under the stuff in the back to get to my shotgun.
Truck of locals pulls up. Confederate flag stickers. Couple of good ol' boys get out. They ask my sister if she's all right. Ask her if she's alone. Ask her why she's pumping gas if she has a husband. She's as charming and disarming to them as possible. One of them has an "88" tattoo on his neck. Sister wants to get back in the car, but doesn't want to open the car door in case they see me. I am hunkered down in my seat with a hat pulled low on my face, hoping they don't see me.
Husbands come out of the gas station at a quick clip. My husband is a giant ex-military dude with a beard and a bunch of tats (mostly of food because he is a chef but they're intimidating at first glance) and he has his angry face on. Sister sees them and throws a, "Hi guys! Ready to go?" Husband hands her the keys and gets in the back so he is in between the 88 dudes and me. Sister is now driving. We gtfo.
It is now dark enough to require headlights. Truck headlights come up behind us. Another truck pulls out of a driveway ahead of us. The trucks set our pace and won't let us pass. We have to drive in between them for several miles on an otherwise-deserted two-lane road with ditches on either side. I know what they are doing. They are making it clear that they are running us out of their territory. We are lucky that they didn't decide to run us off the road.
Husband tells me that inside the gas station, there were Confederate flags and Aryan flags all over the place and you could buy Nazi paraphernalia. I am not surprised. When husband went to pay for energy drinks, the cashier caught a glimpse of the lock screen of his phone -- on which he keeps a pic of our kid -- and asked him who the "c**n baby" on his phone was. That is probably why we got run out of town.
The Idaho panhandle, for anyone who doesn't know, is a stronghold of white supremacy. The headquarters of the Aryan Nation were there until the SLPC sued them into bankruptcy in the 2000's. There are a lot of white supremacists who still live there and are very mad about it. The Aryan Nation is deeply misogynistic and looks down on women who travel without male chaperones, which is probably why my sister was being interrogated about pumping gas. "88" is Aryan shorthand for "Heil Hitler".
Tldr: White people! When your non-white friends ask you not to stop for gas, *listen to them*.
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263points
#3
Gary Indiana. I got off the highway to get gas.
Driving through the city was like a post apocalyptic movie complete with burned out cars, crazy guy in underwear walking down the middle of the street with a baseball bat and all the windows were broken or boarded up.
I stopped at a gas station and then guy came out and said ‘Get back on the highway son. It’s not safe here.’ I had enough gas tp get to a safer rest stop to refuel.
This was around 1994-95.
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177points
But every now and then, Robroek also runs into scary stuff. "What creeps me out on such trips the most is when I can enter a building, I'm walking around in it trying to be very quiet, taking my shots, and all of a sudden, I hear a window or a door smashing."
The photographer said these unexpected sounds immediately make him think that someone is inside the building with him. "Can you imagine walking down a dark hallway in the cellar of an abandoned hospital and hearing a door smashing? That'll creep you out."
"Next to that, on occasions, I’ve run into people without a home that have been looking for a place to sleep. Once, I stepped into a bedroom of a very decaying and old house and saw a body lying under the bedsheets. Luckily, I could see movement from breathing but at first, I got really scared that I’d found a dead body," Robroek said.
#4
My girlfriend and I went to an AirBnB in a town called Tiger, Georgia to see a bunch of her old college friends. There was one other couple who got there about the same time we did. By day the cabin looks pleasant enough- 3 stories of rustic comfort with a hot tub overlooking the forest and sunrise. We didn't get there by day. We got there as the sun was sinking low. Rooms seemed to shrink and tighten. The stairwells were only as wide as a single body. And at the bottom of the basement stairs, a rug hid a padlocked trapdoor. It felt like the start of a horror movie.
We're trying to ignore the weird vibes and decide to go to dinner. We spent nearly an hour driving around searching for a place to eat. Steakhouses closed by 7pm, an Italian joint which was now someone's house. A Mexican eatery now abandoned and overgrown with vines... Finally we find something. It's suitably called "The Last Dive Bar On Earth", and it's sitting on the edge of a retention pond. The parking lot is full of pick up trucks all festooned with old political bumper stickers from the late 90s and early 2000s. We head in. It's like we've entered another decade. But the beer is good, they have pizza, and the prices aren't bad. We eat in a hurry and get out of there.
As we get back to the cabin, the other couples are there and talking about how they had such a nice time in town. It was only by daylight at the end of the weekend that as we descended the mountain we found a ton of local shops and restaurants *that I swear to f*****g god were not there the first night*.
On the first night, the electrical outlets in the house fried my phone, leaving me with no way to contact the outside world.
The weekend ended up being nice, but the entire time we all felt like we had fallen through a crack into some*when* else.
164points
#5
I was on a roadtrip to go to Tallahassee with two of my cousins and my mom.
Like halfway between A and B, the driver he has to go pee, so we decided to stop in the next no name rest stop settlement.
As soon as we drove in, I immediately felt something was wrong. The cars that were driving were all banged up and looked like they came straight from the 70s, confederate flags in a couple of places, ran down shanty looking houses, lots of Confederate flags, the American flags that were around were pretty banged up and/or torn, the people stared at us as we drove passed by, and everyone just looked "dead" inside. Honestly, if someone told me that there was a Klan rally right up the street, I would 100% believe them. That's the kind of vibe I got from this place.
As soon as we drove in, I immediately felt something was wrong. The cars that were driving were all banged up and looked like they came straight from the 70s, confederate flags in a couple of places, ran down shanty looking houses, lots of Confederate flags, the American flags that were around were pretty banged up and/or torn, the people stared at us as we drove passed by, and everyone just looked "dead" inside. Honestly, if someone told me that there was a Klan rally right up the street, I would 100% believe them. That's the kind of vibe I got from this place.
So my cousin pulls into this decent looking rest stop/gas station and jogs into the bathroom. While my mom and my other cousin were knocked out, I decide to go in the stop with the intentions of going in, getting a snack, and getting out.
As soon as I walk in, it feels like time stopped and everyone (that I can see) is staring at me. It felt like something out of a horror movie ngl. Luckily for me, there were a pile of apples near the door, so I move my way there, and then I noticed the few people around me stopped dead in their tracks just to look at me. For example, their like hands were still on the items, and this man even stop reading his little cereal box to stare at me. Since I'm black, this place wasn't sitting well with me at *all*.
I put back the apple I was holding and I casually walked out (no need to cause a scene or anything) without getting anything. F**k. That. Place.
When my cousin came back, we booked it tf out of there.
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164points
However, there are things you can do to prevent freaking out in these types of situations. "First of all, I rarely visit these types of buildings alone," Robroek said. "I always travel with a friend. That helps a lot, and it’s much safer."
"Next to that, in all honesty, when I feel unsafe or not at ease, I simply leave. I’ve been to buildings that made me feel uncomfortable when I was walking around in them, and after a couple of minutes, I just left."
The urban photographer firmly believes in following your instinct. "Mostly, I just go with my gut. Other than that, when I, for example, hear a door smashing, I try to assess the situation. For instance, maybe it's just windy outside. Just rationalizing the situation in an attempt to not drift away into my own thoughts that are spooking me out."
#6
There was one time I stopped in a gas station in Appalachia, it was like 11pm on a Friday. So this truck pulled in and the woman ran inside to pick up some stuff. The dude hope out and puts the tailgate down and starts playing the harmonica. Out come like 5 cats who all dance around him like he was a pied piper or something. After a couple of minutes the woman came back and he told the cats to get back in the bed of the truck and then they drove off.
157points
#7
Yep, stopped in a no name town in Texas for gas. Bunch of guys wearing nothing but denim hanging out in front of the gas station. Denim, cow boy hats, cow boy boots. It wasn't just a lot of people, EVERYONE was wearing that. Their drawls were so thick I could barely understand what they were saying to one another, a lot of hooting and hollering.
About 50 yards away, there was a guy sitting under a tree. He was wearing a black and white striped jump suit...and was chained to the tree by a shackle on his leg. Didn't see any law enforcement around, maybe they dropped him off? A girl with huge tits, one and a half arms, and an eye-patch complimented my car and smiled at me when I was pumping gas. I saw a cow trotting down the side of the road, no one seemed to be chasing it. The fact it was twilight seemed to make everything surreal.
I unassed myself from that place as quickly as I could.
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139points
#8
I used to live in Southern Africa and we did charity work in a lot of very remote, rural areas, and when I say remote, I mean several hours rough driving on roads that can barely be called roads. Many times we would come across settlements that were not on any map, just a collection of cinderblock and mud houses sometimes well off the road. Usually these were what we called "working villages" as in there is some worksite, maybe a small brickwork, or farm, or something like that nearby (though when I say "near" the workers could be walking an hour or so to where they need to be.) When we would stumble upon places like this, we would stop, find coordinates and landmarks, make some records and pass it along back to our office.
One day, we are working in the area near the borders of South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, and we see some smoke well off the road. Thinking it may be a village, we decide to go off road to take a look. It was fairly well hidden, behind a small hill, and from the road you would have never known it was there if it were not for the column of smoke on the horizon. We get to it, and sure enough it looks like one of these unmarked working villages, maybe 10 or so huts, but something seemed very off. It took a second and we realized that there was no one around, and yet it seemed as if whoever lived there was there only moments before. We head to where the smoke came from, and it was a large bonfire, when we looked closer, we noticed bones in it, goat and cattle bones. Other than the sound of the fire, there was not a peep from anything else. Once I stepped out of our truck to get a closer look, I had this overwhelming sense that I was being watched from afar, and that I was not welcomed here. The other guys in the truck said they felt the same, and that we needed to go. So we did.
A couple of weeks later when we were driving back, curiosity got the better of me and I decided I wanted to check the site again. This time however, the village was stripped bare. Anything that could be taken was gone. All that was left was the shells of the huts and a black patch of ash where the fire was. There was one thing that was still there though, the sense of being watched. We didn't stay any longer and never went back.
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105points
According to a recent nationally representative American poll, around 52 percent are feeling on edge every day. Younger folks were the most likely to be concerned about their safety on a daily basis, with 75 percent of those aged 25-34 agreeing with this statement, compared to just 50 percent of those aged 45-54.
Places like dark streets and sidewalks trigger their anxiety the most, followed by neighborhoods people aren't too familiar with. Next in line were parking garages and riding alone in a rideshare or taxi. (Interestingly, rideshare services are completely avoided by 39 percent of respondents because they don't feel safe during them. The number even jumps to 50 percent for those aged 25-34.)
#9
I was traveling through Arkansas with my friend in the army. He was a big ol black dude and I was a medium height white dude. Everyone in McDonalds literally stopped and just stared at us until we ordered food and left. It was super weird and we made sure to bypass the place on the way back to post.
99points
#10
I had the reverse sort of experience at my local supermarket. I live in Australia and we have right hand drive cars. I'm just finishing my shop when a huge American looking SUV pulls awkwardly into the carpark and it's clearly left hand drive and maybe 10 years old. I like cars so I'm curious about it, and that's when I notice it's got US plates on it.
Now these aren't some novelty/limited edition Aussie plates that look American, these seem to be genuine US plates. They had a state on them, can't remember which one but it was like Michigan or something. Obviously American. Middle aged woman gets out, looking like it's a normal day at the shops.
So far the story is a bit weird, but nothing too unusual. But as I take my trolley back to the trolley bay she's there and having obvious problems working out how to unlock one. You have to put a coin in them, and she's clearly having troubles so I ask if I can help. She's trying to put what I later find out is a quarter in the trolley, saying she's never seen this sort of thing before. I show her the dollar coin I've just gotten back from my trolley (it's gold coloured) and she genuinely is weirded out by the colour and is incredulous when I tell her it's a dollar. I feel like I'm an alien showing her a new type of cat or something.
I put my dollar in the trolley lock and open it for her because she's clearly lost and I wanted to be helpful. She then sort of gets into a "oh I know this interaction" and says let me give you some money and opens her purse. It's all American notes, trust me there's no good old Aussie plastic multicoured monopoly money in this thing. I sort of blurt out "do you not have Australian money yet?" thinking that's gonna slow you down in the Aldi there love. Her reply "No, why would I?" and she gives me the quarter she was trying to put in the trolley. I tell her it's not necessary but she thanks me in her wonderful American accent and wanders off into the shop.
It was hilarious and weird, if you'd shown me a portal from my shops to Michigan that she'd blundered through it would have made complete sense. I got the impression she had almost no idea she was in another country. She was acting like I was the weird one, but she also spoke perfectly and was really nice so it's not like she was in any obvious mental health episode. The fact I have the quarter is the only reason I don't think I've hallucinated the whole thing after eating a dodgy pizza.
Friends think her husband had gotten a job in Australia and just got the car and everything etc shipped, and maybe she's never been overseas before? It was super weird and I love that woman so much I wish I could find her again to see what she's doing now.
I've also been into a country town where literally everyone we saw for the half hour we were there looked like they were from the same family, and everyone stared at us like they knew we were from out of town. But that has a very logical but no less creepy explanation ;)
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96points
#11
I have two stories like this. The first one was an absolutely creepy experience, and the second one was weird but I didn’t feel threatened.
1st story: A friend and I were driving in a thunderstorm of epic proportions. We couldn’t see the road ahead of us so we pulled over to a diner in a tiny town, and decided we’d wait inside for the storm to pass and order some food. From the outside it looked really lively, people were talking, laughing and eating. As soon as we walked through the door the whole place went silent and every. single. person stopped what they were doing and just stared at us. Dozens of eyeballs fixated on us. We ordered our food and ate it, and left as soon as the weather had cleared up a bit. We were there for maybe an hour, and it stayed completely silent the entire time, and customers kept looking our way (not discretely).
2nd story: Another time I was on a road trip, it was the middle of the night and we were getting tired so we decided to stop in the next town. There had been no sign of civilisation for miles and we finally came across a small town with a B&B. The woman running the place was odd but very kind. The house felt different somehow but so did the whole town. It kind of felt like I had entered a different dimension, if that makes any sense. Anyway, I go to bed and the next morning I wake up and decide to walk around the town a bit before we hit the road. Again, the whole place felt like a different world, like it was not part of the earth we normally know. The people living there were tending to their gardens, walking their dogs, etc. And it felt like slow mo. There were 2 shops in town, and no other businesses. By going into the shops and looking around, and taking with one of the shop owners, I found out the whole town was a pagan town where every single citizen worshiped a goddess of fertility (as in human fertility, but also fertility of their crops). The stores were packed with items that can be used for rituals, and other various items like statuettes representing the goddess. They seemed to be hardcore worshipers. Their town wasn’t on the map and I never found it again. It was a really surreal experience.
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94points
The survey also asked respondents about the things they'll have on themselves for safety and peace of mind. The most popular ones were pepper spray (40 percent) and utilizing a personal safety app on their phone (40 percent). A third of respondents also shared they have an alert button or device as well as a self-defense keychain.
The top safety measure Americans take when they meet someone new is linking up in a public place (58 percent), followed by sharing their location with someone (43 percent). Actually, the average respondent shares their location when meeting someone new three times a month.
So maybe the next time you're traveling to a place you are not familiar with, you can try these measures to protect yourself.
#12
When I was 16 I got on a train and travelled across a few provinces for work (summer employment). This being Canada, the train ride took almost 3 days.
Sometimes, they would stop the train at a larger town and allow the passengers time to get off and stretch their legs or get a breath of fresh air. I was sleeping during this one stop, and I woke to find a sleepy little town that looked A LOT like Auschwitz...
I’ve seen a lot of photos of Auschwitz in history books and on TV but I’ve also been there in person, so to look out the window of this comfy passenger train and see what LOOKED like a carbon copy of the place, complete with barbed wire (shorter, probably for the animals) and a metal entry gate with words over it, was a little creepy.
I debated just staying on the train, but some ppl were getting back on the train with ICE CREAM and saying they got it from a little parlour in town. I also overheard some other people joking about the town looking like a concentration camp so I started to feel a little less crazy. It wasn’t just me. I checked the time on my phone and after making sure the train wouldn’t leave without me, I disembarked to get me some ice cream.
Now, I know some of the smaller/isolated towns in Canada can have some pretty traditional views and ways of life but I really wasn’t expecting to feel so out of place in my modern clothing. It was pretty clear which people were locals because they were wearing a much older style of European clothing (??? Idk how else to describe it). Most of the kids looked like little dolls straight out of horror films and they didn’t look unhappy they just looked bored out of their minds. It added to the creepiness of this whole situation, and at this point I just wanted to get my ice cream and board the train.
I wanted to hurry so I asked some locals where the ice cream shop was. This older man looked confused and said “we don’t have an ice cream shop anymore”. I told him I had just seen some other train passengers with ice cream, and that they said they’d gotten it in town. I asked him if there was anywhere that sold ice cream and he mumbled something about “there used to be an ice cream place two streets over”.
I thanked him and walked the two streets down. I assumed he was just really old and perhaps had trouble remembering things. As I rounded the corner however, I was standing in front of an ABANDONED ice cream parlour. A little sign in the shape of an ice cream cone that said “crème glacé” was hanging in front of the building, and while the windows weren’t boarded up you could see that no one had been in there for awhile, probably years. I stepped onto the porch and cupped my hands on the windows to look inside and yep, no ice cream equipment either. No freezers, no lights, just some diner-style ice cream paraphernalia and seating.
At this point I was super confused. Maybe the old guy was wrong and this was the OLD ice cream place but there was a new one in town he didn’t know about. Maybe it was closer to the train platform. I had ventured pretty deep into town so I checked my phone to make sure I wasn’t running late and it showed a time that was EARLIER than when I had first checked it on the train...
I noped the f**k outta there at that point, feeling like I was in an episode of the f*****g twilight zone. I REALLY needed to see the train, see a person I had been traveling with, Hell I just needed to see a modern-dressed person to prove I wasn’t “stuck in time” or some s**t.
Sure enough the train was still at the platform, the people I’d been traveling with were still on or around the train, and we weren’t dressed like we lived in old-Europe. I quickly concluded that we were standing on (or very close to) a timezone border and that’s why my phone had jumped to an earlier hour.
After realizing there was no crazy time-jumping s**t going on, I relaxed. I knew there had to be a logical explanation but in the moment it was just a lot for my 16 year old self travelling alone to deal with. It freaked me out. I still couldn’t figure out where these ppl had gotten the ice cream tho, and when I asked them, they all gave the exact same directions the old man gave me!
I was pretty frustrated so I kept asking, until one girl said she had TAKEN PHOTOS of the place! I was like “yes please show them to me!” because I was still hoping to get myself some ice cream and I figured if I knew what the place looked like I could find it easily.
She then showed me some photos of the “quaint little ice cream parlour” that she took for her instagram. It looked EXACTLY like the run down ice cream shop that I had found, right down to the little porch, overhang, windows, and signage, but this photo showed a colourful and bustling business on a summer day, not an empty street with faded signs. All the surrounding scenery was exactly the same, the dining chairs in the window were the same. The next photo was a selfie of her, with her ice cream, in front of the sign that said “crème glacé”.
To this day, I still don’t have a logical explanation for that one. Maybe they moved the parlour to a better spot, but then why leave the old one empty with all the signs? Maybe they moved it closer to the train platform, but then why did everyone else give me the same directions to the abandoned place I’d just been? Why was everything in the photo the same as what I’d seen, just less derelict? There’s no way that all those ppl got ice cream from a f*****g ghost parlour, and I wanted SO BADLY to run back into town to solve this mystery but the train was blowing its whistle and I wasn’t about to risk being left in this creepy Auschwitz lookalike just to get some ice cream, so I boarded the train and I’ve never stopped thinking about it.
My biggest regret is not taking photos. I had my iPhone with me, and a few simple photos might have been enough to see any glaring differences. If nothing else, having both sets of photos could have made for a really cool “apocalypse themed” side-by-side comparaison...
I guess I’ll never know, but it’s a good story to tell around the campfire.
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94points
#13
My friends had a story about visiting Dublin and wandering out of the touristy area looking for a drink. They walked into a little pub, but when they tried to order a round, they noticed the bartender was acting nervous. They looked across the room to see four of the meanest, toughest Irishmen they'd ever seen giving them the evil eye. After the bartender served them, he quietly suggested they leave once their drinks were finished, and as they sat and chatted, a couple of the men passed back and forth across their booth like sharks. When they left, they learned from a local that they had just wandered into a very serious IRA pub.
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94points
#14
Not a roadtrip but my family usually spends time in the one of the forest towns in northern California. It's been a family tradition for over fifty years at this point, usually it'd been lovely up there. The feeling of nature being all around, actually sleeping in an old-time cabin, being on country roads and seeing more of the actual night sky are all marvelous experiences that I'll always cherish. I used to think the same about the people up there. They seemed nice and down to Earth.
Then one year we came up with some new members of the family, my step-mom and step-brother. Both have dark skin. You can already see where this is going. We walked into a restaurant one day. It was filled but when we walked in it was dead quiet. No one said a word to us but plenty were looking our way. This lasted for about ten to fifteen minutes and then we just left. I'll always love the scenery of that area but the people there can go f**k themselves.
89points
#15
I was on a road trip on the south island of New Zealand and one night at around 9pm decided to stop in a small town to get some rest. Already while driving into the town I noticed that there were Christmas decorations everywhere, like decorated trees and plastic santa’s, reindeer etc. Excessive amounts of decorations on the streets and in every window. This wouldn’t have been too weird if it hadn’t been in the middle of August. But I thought the town was just really dedicated to a specific aesthetic or whatever.
I got to the motel and checked in and the old lady at the front desk was short and rude with me which I thought was weird bc I had experienced people in NZ as really nice and quite chatty (compared to where I come from lol). She also wouldn’t give me the wifi password even though they advertised free wifi. She quite literally told me to p**s off and let her get back to her newspaper.
After that I went out and the whole time I was there I never saw any people on the street. I went to a diner near the motel (both also stuffed with Christmas decorations) and had the same experience with the waitress while ordering. She told me they are out of almost everything and the only I was able to get was a cheese sandwich. There were other people in the restaurant who were all eating what I suppose were meals from the menu. They didn’t have to order a plain cheese sandwich. While waiting for my food I noticed that no one in the whole diner was talking even though there were families and other groups of people. Even the kids ate in silence. Or not really silence, as there was Christmas music blaring.
After I was done eating I just paid and left. I was also the only one leaving. No one in that diner, the whole time I was there, got up to leave or go to the bathroom or do anything really. They all just sat there. When I left I felt like they were all starting holes in my back. The whole time I was in that town I got a feeling that everyone wanted me to leave and like they were somehow angry with me.
This was 4 years ago and tbh I don’t remember anything after leaving the diner. I don’t remember going back to the motel or going to sleep and just barely remember being on the road early the next morning. I told some of my NZ friends this story, bc I thought it was some kind of weird theme town, but none of them ever heard of it and I can’t for the life of me remember the name of that town or how I found it.
80points
#16
Wife and I were driving up the blue mountains (big mountain range in Australia) to visit friends who were staying in a holiday place up there. It's crazy foggy in the late afternoon/early evening, so we can't see much as we're going up. But it's pretty much a straight run up so we take it slow and pull over sometimes when the fog gets too thick to give it a minute to lighten a bit. Super creepy but nothing weird, that's just how it is.
We stayed the night at friends and drove back down the next afternoon - lovely and sunny. We drove through a cute little town that hugged the sides of the main road, so you could drive straight through it without turning or hitting any major intersections. My wife said "oh are we going home a different way". No, no we were not.
There was basically an entire small town we'd driven through the night before right near the house and we never saw a single indication of it. We hadn't seen any lights/street lights, other cars, "Welcome to Spookyville, popn 1" signs, anything. We had pulled over to check the map (pre-smartphones) to make sure we hadn't missed the turn off and we would have been practically in the middle of the town. It's amazing how something so big can disappear in the fog so easily. Early evening and not one house light? Mole people I reckon.
I know there's a logical explanation but it's 20 years later and I still think "nah not going back up there"
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76points
#17
It was a little past midnight, and I offered to drive a friend who was visiting with me to her parents house where she was staying. They live in a smaller town outside of mine about a half hour drive away. I had been there enough times that I didn't need any type of directions, just a reminder of where to turn off into her neighborhood because it was hard to tell with it being dark outside.
Now allow me to clear up a little information. I was not under the influence of anything: alcohol, drugs, nothing. I wasn't even that tired. Her neighborhood was just off of a long road in the woods that came straight off a major highway, so it wasn't in the boonies or anything, but out of the city. To get out of the city I live in to where she lives, you pass under a newly constructed tollroad that is a loop around the city. It's large and can't be missed. You have to either go under it or over it to get back into the city, and it has those huge highway lights all around it, so it wouldn't be easy to pass without noticing.
So anyways, I've dropped her off and head back the way I came. It's only a couple turns from the long road I mentioned before, so I go back without even thinking about it. I've driven this way several times. I head back on the long road a little ways and I'm suddenly at a stop sign. Except the long road doesn't have stop signs if you're traveling on it. And at the stop sign I'm facing a boulevard with cookie-cutter, middle class homes I had never seen before. There are lots of homes like that in the area, but these had an eeriness to them. They were not lit by any kind of street lights or anything, but were perfectly visible in the night. And they all seemed empty. There might have been cars in driveways, but not a single light was on in the two rows of dozens of houses. It was as if all the life that may have lived in this neighborhood had vanished.
Obviously I did not go down this boulevard. I got a little teary eyed from the sheer feeling this place gave me. I turned to my left. Somehow I made it to a neighborhood that I did recognize. I could also see the lights from a highway nearby, so I headed towards them. Eventually I made it onto the same highway that I took from town, but something strange occurred to me. I never passed over the tollroad. The series of neighborhoods in that area typically had bridges over the tollroad that connected the residential area and kept the sounds of vehicles down and away from the quiet homes, but I never passed over it. The entire drive home felt off. Until I got to a certain part of the city, each sign looked a little different. I only saw another car on the road when I did get further into the city.
To this day I've yet to see the boulevard at the stop sign. I don't know how I got there, but I don't ever want to be there alone again.
76points
#18
My boyfriend and I had a stay in Melbourne for a few nights. First Airbnb was practically a small hotel room so, all good. The second on the other hand... It was advertised as "Flexible check-in " but the owner wouldn't stop pestering us for a time we were going to be there. We told them 8pm and they still kept asking before saying they had to go out and 'Frank' would let us in.
We had no mention of this guy before then but fine, whatever. We ended up missing a few small shows we were eager to go to so we'd get there earlier and despite being promised off the street parking we could only park on the street. It sucked but no big deal. We'd had a long day and were pretty tired.
Then we get to the house. Frank is this tall, thin, muscley older guy, really intense and absolutely no chill. Bulging eyes kind of intense. We were both really uncomfortable from the start but my bf makes small talk, jokes about Sydney vs Melbourne. This guy doesn't like it. To the point where he stopped walking, swung around and got in my bfs face. Bf de-esculated the situation real quick and we got to our room and immediately locked the door.
We both got some bad vibes off the place and the guy but we couldn't work out why. We thought we were just tired but kept debating the pros and cons of staying, and the room wasn't helping! It was freshly painted and the fumes were so strong I was getting a migraine, there was a door to the backyard that was blocked off with a dresser, so much dust under the bed it was ridiculous.
And then we noticed two things.
One was the wooden plank holding up the curtains. It was big, thick, heavy looking thing - and it was holding onto the wall by a nail on each side. Half of it had already leant right off the wall, leaving a huge gap. This was right above the head of the bed. That was it for my bf, he wanted out.
This second point was my big thing. The door to the rest of the house had a lock but there was also a gap between it and the floor.
I'm not talking a small space for air. I'm not talking fit a finger underneath. I'm talking big enough for tall, muscley, big guy Frank to fit his entire arm under.
I'm not talking a small space for air. I'm not talking fit a finger underneath. I'm talking big enough for tall, muscley, big guy Frank to fit his entire arm under.
We grabbed our things and snuck out. Went to the nearest grocery store for supplies, shopped around for a place to stay, let the Airbnb know we l left, and ended up driving through the night back to NSW and slept in the car for a few hours.
Nothing exciting happened but we just really didn't feel safe there. My bf hikes a lot overseas, stays in random and/or desolated places. He's not put off easily. We were both pretty glad for a solid reason to leave.
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73points
#19
During a road trip with a friend, we decided to follow this road to a compound that had a gate, cameras and a sign that said unauthorized personnel will be shot on site. We turn around as fast as we could and drove and a few miles down the road there was a trunk stop and a Mexican restaurant. We were shaken by the sign and we're hungry so we go to the restaurant. I'm not kidding when I say it was silent and everyone looked at us as we walked through the door. What made it weirder is literally no one had food.
Anyways the food wasn't bad but we are quickly and got the heck out of their as soon as possible.
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66points
#20
I was driving between Midland and Alma Michigan late one night, and this area has some of the darkest, loneliest country roads I've ever driven on. There are also a bunch of windmills in this area and at the top of every windmill was a blinking red light so that planes could see them, but the lights blinked in sync, so it would be dark, and then all of a sudden, the red lights of the seemingly 100s of windmills would all blink on. Absolutely creepy.
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63points