Some people don’t need scary movies to feel terrified — real-life experiences can be far more chilling. From unexplainable encounters to terrifying realizations, these true stories will stay with you long after you’ve read them.

One night, a woman came home and saw her roommate rush to her room, wrapped in a wet towel, ignoring her greeting. Minutes later, she heard her “returning” from outside. Her roommate turned pale when told and urged her to lock herself in the car and call 911. It turned out her roommate was schizophrenic and had dissociated, unknowingly leaving and re-entering the house, believing there was an intruder.

Another mother recalled her first night at the hospital with her newborn. A nurse offered to take the baby to the nursery so she could rest, but she refused. The next night, exhausted, she asked a different nurse to take her baby. The nurse went pale and said, “Your baby is supposed to stay with you. We don’t have a nursery.”

Other eerie moments include a child paralyzed on their bedroom floor, unable to call for help until their father found them, and a woman whose dream of three babies eerily matched her tragic pregnancy loss. These chilling tales remind us that sometimes, the scariest stories aren’t fiction — they’re the ones we live through.