I love that the “little boy ghost” was actually helping you to “fly” instead of trying to entice you to badly hurt yourself. Or—and this just occurred to me—maybe he was malicious, and it was a different set of hands around your ribcage keeping you safe.

Want to second this. You must have felt trapped in a nightmare already, with those deeply toxic parents, and then this happened. Im so sorry this happened and so proud of you for having the bravery to look that monster in the eyes and say “I see you. I know exactly what you are.” I’m sure there are other victims…

The scariest monsters are absolutely human beings. 

Living in the perpetual drought of California, I’m going to have to acknowledge that demon dog-rat had a valid point and was using its dark, guttural voice for the greater good. . .

I might have to give up my doctorate because I couldn’t tell what was going on with the photo or how it related to where he was sleeping in the house.  I’m relieved I’m not the only one confused.

Sigh. Always a crusty “but but science!” in the mix. Do you inform children waiting in line for Santa that there’s so such thing? Do you hand out toothbrushes to trick-or-treaters? It’s Halloween. Let us amuse/scare ourselves. You don’t know about the unknown any more than anyone else. And for the record, I believe…

Yikes. This Wikipedia link reads like a next season synopsis of American Horror Story. . . so earnest, so cheery, and utterly sinister.

I have to admit, I want so badly to believe but I wrestled with that exact image for a full minute before moving on to the comments. At night , through a window from outside, a quick glance? It’s a weird detail to just invent and add on randomly, though (“hey, I’ll say he drooled excessively, but only after I’d…

The horrifically leisurely pace of the police response is baffling. Anyone could have opened their front door to this person at any time in all the confusion, or disoriented from being woken up from a deep sleep, or evem just the automatic impulse to someone crying “help me”. Not to mention that the person was…

This is beautifully told, chilling and heartbreaking. . . even before the tragic ending, my heart ached for little smoochiebear and how girls are still routinely expected to sacrifice their own childhoods to raise little brothers and and to diminish their own light. . .

Gah! That’s terrifying. Especially poor Dorian, what sober thirteen/fourteen year old just drowns in a tub. . . just like his infant brother?!

Mmm hmm.  They seriously buried the lede.

Utterly chilling, but told so well. So many layers to this kind of terror (and trauma)…

This was so good.  Spooky, and you write wonderfully. 

Please submit this next year!  It gave me the serious heebie jeebies :0

I’m so sorry for your own loss. This has been a crazy October and I’m just now indulging in my Fall ritual of these spooky stories, and I found your earlier comment about how you and your husband made a pact: that you hope he comes for you when it’s your time to cross over. Something about your tone just brought…

Manson’s publicists can (and will) spin this to further victimize and gaslight Wood (and others). But healthy men don’t fantasize about hurting and killing women. They don’t even “joke” about it.

Just seconding Marylander531 in recommending “The Gift of Fear”. Your unconscious was picking up on so many alarm bells— I’m so glad you ultimately decided to listen. As a fellow clinician I get the stress of second guessing our uneasy feelings about certain clients and chalking them up to countertransference. . . but…

Trump has normalized people embracing their nastier self. These past four/five years have been a slide into a Lord of the Flies mentality that can feel overwhelmingly bleak to those who have held on to their decency. There are plenty of people in this world who only act decently because they worry someone is watching…

I’m not sure that the author (and maybe she can comment) is saying she had a sixth sense about him. Her discomfort seems to have stemmed from wanting to be a “good” compliant student and not be assigned detention. If anything, the fact that Francois was seen as one of the “friendlier” teachers and that her biggest…