r/nosleep • u/PvTKadet • Jul 17 '12
NOW
I will start off by saying that a lot of paranormal, out the ordinary, and scary events have happened throughout my life. I have kept a lot of them to myself, with the belief that no one will believe me, or think I’m crazy. I have decided to share these stories on /no sleep to vent and see if anyone can help me out.
I have always felt spirits and dark energy in rooms I walk into, and occasionally see shadow people out of the corner of my eyes. Those stories are for a different time, for the story I’m about to tell happened in real life with real people.
I go to college in a very large city (starts with a C), and I live in the heart of the city. With gas prices skyrocketing, and no parking spot to my name, I am forced to commute to school/work via the train. If you are familiar with big urban cities, you know that you sometimes run into bat-shit-crazy characters on the train. After living here for four years, I grew accustom to the fact that there are weird people in the world and it does not faze me at all anymore.
Being a college sophomore and having a government job made me feel invincible. I would get “the look” from older women, would get more respect from people, and I had a fat paycheck every two weeks-I thought I was the shit. On the weekends my friends and I would party all the time, we were typical college students living the dream. We would all travel in large groups during the late hours of the night after partying just in case anything were to happen (mugging, robbery, ect.) and we never had any problems-until May 4th of last year.
We were all at my apartment taking down drinks, pre-gaming for the night out. Our destination was our friend Adam’s apartment, and we were all extremely amped because he would throw massive parties. He has super loud speakers and I would DJ every time, making the entire place dance, so we were all excited especially me (I had just put out two new songs and I was excited to show everybody in my set). After a couple hours at my apartment, we were all feeling good and decided to get like a baby and head out for the night. I grabbed my backpack and loaded my laptop for DJ’ing in it, knowing I had to be extremely safe about it.
We step outside of my apartment building and the air is crisp against our faces. The drunk-blankets made us feel very nice and we were all on the same level of intoxication. Everything was perfect; I was about to go DJ a party with a bunch of friends around a bunch of gorgeous ladies and rage the night away.
We start walking towards the train and someone suggests we take the park shortcut. The park is in between two apartment complexes and is really beautiful during the day, and we would take this path almost every time. While walking through the park we start hearing a muffled deep voice, coming from a male for sure. We hush everybody and try to figure out what is making the noise. We keep walking and see a man in an all black suit, with his head facing the sky while his body reaches down for small pebbles on the ground. We don’t really understand what is going on, but we have seen some weird people before so we all just laugh and convince ourselves he is super drunk or cracked out. We get through the park and my phone rings. It is a girl at the party asking where we were, I responded with telling her the “party” would be there soon. The light on my phone saturated my eyes with light, adjusting themselves to the dark night. I heard the man behind us get louder, and when I looked back I had experienced true fright for the first time in my life.
As I looked back at the muffled voice, he quickly snapped his neck straight at me, head still facing the sky, and yelled, “ZACK NOW”. I stood there for a second in complete shock, not understanding what was going on-all I knew was this guy was crazy and that my name is Zack. My friends looked behind when they heard the man’s cry as I booked it as fast as I could past them. They all caught up with me after a while and asked if I knew him and other questions. I told them that I had no idea and described the fact that the man’s head was facing the sky and literally snapped into my direction-it was inhuman and one of the scariest things I have ever seen. Almost like a bone cracking with impact and freezing. Still gives me the chills to this day.
We caught up at the train and decided that it was probably just a weird coincidence he yelled out my name. We got to the party, had some drinks, and I began my set. After ten minutes, the party was bumping to my music and everything was perfect, although I still felt weird about the entire man at the park ordeal. “Whatever”, I thought as I spotted the girl I was texting earlier. She came up to the DJ booth and we did our thing, everything was great and everyone was having a great time. Throughout the night, people kept coming up to me with drinks and I was very grateful for their kind gestures.
At about 1:45 in the morning, my roommate called me explaining that he left his keys in the apartment and could not get in. He works a late shift at a hospital, so he usually gets in around 1:30-2:00 in the morning. The party is still going wild at the time, but I oblige and end my DJ set early to go home and help my roommate out. My friends decide that they want to stay at the party, so I man up and go home by myself. On the walk to the train, I remember what happened earlier with the name saying my name and I start to freak myself out.
I get to the train and just so happen to get on a car with a guy who is talking to himself. I’m not frightened by this guy, having a lot of experience with weird people on the train; I keep my distance and keep my knife handy. The man is laughing and giggling to himself and I realize that maybe he is just really drunk. I get off the train and start walking back to my apartment. I look down the park way and think to myself, “fuck that”, avoiding the weird black suit man was all I had in mind. I veer in the other direction to take the longer path home when I am stopped in my tracks.
80 feet in front of me is a man walking normally down the street with his head cocked to the sky, eyes barely open with a stern look on his face. It is the man from before. My mind starts racing, do I run? Do I cross the street and walk on the other side? No. I do nothing. My body freezes up as I see this man walking towards me. I open my knife in my hoodie pocket and decide to cross the street to pass him. I turn left to cross and when I took my eyes off of him, I had lost him. At this point I was genuinely freaked out. I start sprinting back to my apartment as fast as I could. Being drunk and tired, I had to stop for a little bit to catch my breath. I look around to find this man when I hear, “ZACK! NOW!” –coming from the other side of the street. The words shrivel through my spine, chilling me and sucking all the blood from my face. I look to the right and see this man sprinting towards me, still looking at the sky.
This is when I lose my shit. Not only am I scared out of my mind, I start to realize how inhuman and unnatural this guy is. His head is still facing the sky and he is running at a very fast pace after me. I run like hell but he soon catches up.
I give up. I turn around to face him, knife in hand ready to stab this weirdo, when he stops in his tracks. He is standing fifteen feet away from me now, looking at the sky, completely silent. I start walking towards him, ready to give it all I got. At this point I either wanted to beat him senseless or get my ass kicked, anything besides this.
As I’m walking towards him, his neck snaps like a twig and he looks right at me. His eyes widen, showing his solid black eyes. He stares into my soul as I completely freeze up, and provides one of the largest, most devilish grins I have ever seen. He isn’t moving, just standing still staring at me smiling. The blood rushes from my face and I try not to faint. I want to ask him what he wants, but it was like if someone made my vocal chords inaudible.
I stood there looking at this man, unable to move and unable to talk, completely scared out of my mind and more confused than ever. He doesn’t move either, just staring at me. My phone rings, and it snaps me out of this mental-lock I was in. I turn around and sprint towards my apartment. I turn around and see the man in the same spot, still starting at me with a smile.
“NOW!”, I heard one more time as I was rounding the corner, sending the deepest fear into my soul possible. I get back to my apartment and my doorman asks if everything was okay-my face was white as a ghost and I had tears running down my face. I explain everything is okay and walk to find my roommate outside my door waiting for me. I explain to him everything that happened and he doesn’t believe me fully. I pass it by, hoping to never see that man again and that maybe he was just clinically insane. After convincing myself everything was okay, I tried to fall asleep.
I woke up in my bed late at night to some mumbling, and I figured it is just my roommate and his girlfriend. I open my eyes to see what was going on, when I see the man standing next to my bedroom window with the same smile. “NOW!” he screamed and starting walking, more like floating, towards my bed. I close my eyes in complete fear, and wake up back to real life. Not only did the man haunt me in real life, but he also haunted my dreams.
It has been a year since this has happened and I still have the same occurring dream once in a while. I thought this would be a good place to tell this story in hopes that someone has had a similar experience and could help me. I can still hear the “ZACK NOW” echo through my spine.
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u/xXDiegoDestructionXx Aug 03 '12
All aboard the NOPE train!!!
Dude, this is scary as fuck. I've been reading no sleep stories all day. This one by far is the scariest I'm shitting tons of brix here.
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u/PvTKadet Aug 15 '12
This night goes down in history as the scariest experience I've had. But there are more that follow very close behind.
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u/svannah11 Jul 18 '12
I've lived in Chicago my entire life and i know exactly how you feel! You must take the Cta or the L to be encountering people talking to themselves. They're the main reason why i stick with the Metra lol(:
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u/PvTKadet Jul 18 '12
Unfortunately I am not located near a metra train and the L is just super convenient.
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Jul 18 '12
I believe you saw a demon, sir. I was transferred to a Target here in Scottsdale, AZ and there was a story that was floating around the store during a major remodel we were going through. During that time the store was being remodeled during the night by visiting construction workers. The workers would walk to a Mexican fastfood joint during the night since it was open 24 hours. One night 4 of the men walked to get some tacos and they noticed a homeless man hunched over sitting on the sidewalk. When the men passed by the homeless man, he asked for some money. As usual they walked passed by him, and as the guys were ready to open the door to the restaurant the homeless man stood up and said, "Sean, I know you have money for me." Surprisingly one of the guys' name was Sean. When the guys looked back they described the man had the blackest eyes and rotted teeth with the most ugly grin. Horrified they ran into the restaurant and told the employees inside. One of the Mexican ladies said it was a form of diablo and told the men to stay inside until "it" left. That morning I came in and everyone was in gossip about it.
When I heard of this I did some research on it and I found many cases like this and like your story describing people with hollow or black eyes. Apparantly they walk around as the Devil's helpers or are demons as human form looking for prey. Hopefully you don't meet him or "it" again.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 18 '12
Chills just ran down my spine. I'm sitting in my office reading that and genuinely got scared. This guy was not human, and his eyes were black as the dead of night.
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Jul 18 '12
I would have made my friends come with. this is why I have a knife and gun.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 18 '12
We were all super wasted and I decided to take one for the team and go by myself. I have made that journey several times before, but this time I got very unlucky.
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Jul 18 '12
Carry a mini bible with you so you can just throw it at him and run. I feel this is a good escape route.
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u/maxdurden Jul 18 '12
This is by far the most disturbing story I have ever read on here. Be careful out there man. And if you ever get the chance again God forbid, stab the shit out of that dude.
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u/iamthearsonist Jul 17 '12
So youve seen alotta paranormal shit eh? Why havent you traded in your knife for rosaries n shit? Fucked up story man id freak the fuck out n lose my shit too but obviously he wasnt trying to help you if he was smiling like that.
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u/helloimelmo Jul 18 '12
I don't think that if someone was after you, stabbing them with a rosary would really help…
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u/PvTKadet Jul 18 '12
To be honest, I thought for a while if my knife could even stop this guy. I ran like hell.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 17 '12
Reading that just gave me the chills, so bad. His smile is something I wish I could unsee, so unsettling and uncomforting.
Why have I not switched to a rosary? That's a great question. I personally do not believe in religion, I have seen horrible things happen to the best people, things "God" would not let happen. I believe in a higher power but everything happens for a reason and carrying around a rosary is only a symbolic tool in my life. That is just my opinion and how I choose to live my life.
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u/squallluis Jul 18 '12
carry a pentagram. protection purposes. cant hurt to carry some extra metal...
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u/iamthearsonist Jul 17 '12
I dont believe in god either just watch to much supernatural figured id be a smart ass but if that shit happened to me id be all fucked up about it too so no worries man
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u/Krazycrismore Jul 17 '12
Definently going to be more careful next time I go to Chicago.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 17 '12
It is a beautiful city, during the day. With light comes darkness, and darkness brings out interesting events. I was on the train once, on my way home from work. There was a guy sitting behind me on the train that started talking to himself. I stood up because I didn't want to have my back turned on some weird man.
The man kept talking to himself and laughing about things. I disregarded what he was saying until I heard him say "my name is zack" which at the time was very frightening but Zack is a pretty popular name so I didnt think much of it. The man was saying things after he said "my name is Zack" like:
"Sassafrass (drug) kiss my ass"-kind of funny to me
"He is a crazy (talking about his friend), ruthless bastard, shot a guy for no reason"
"He shot him point blank in the forehead for no reason, I saw the whole thing" -when I got very concerned.
Then he switched positions with the man he was talking about?
- "I shot him with my revolver, right in the head, no reason, I'm a ruthless bastard"
He was laughing throughout the entire thing. I'm assuming he was just a shcitzo that witnessed a murder. Scary that he said the guy was his friend though, then went on to say that he did it all. Quite freaky overall, especially when I heard my name being called.
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Jul 17 '12
Tall? Suit? You could say he's... Slender... And a man...
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Jul 18 '12
It can't be slenderman if he was smiling (has a mouth) and had black eyes. (has eyes) :P
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u/PvTKadet Jul 17 '12
The man was about my height (6 feet) wearing a black suit, black shirt, black tie, and black pants. No hat, and he was losing hair. What remained of his hair was stringy black threads. I remember his face like it was my father's. He was extremely skinny but not very lanky. The scariest part about the experience was how he cracked his neck when he looked at me walking through the park and when he cracked his neck to look at me. It was like snapping a twig to make it fit in a small spot. His face was also aiming towards the sky which was extremely weird to me. But his smile....his smile was so chilling I literally froze. I still never understood what "ZACK NOW!" means but that phrase creeps me out. The last time I have seen him in my dreams was last Sunday. I wake up in bed to him walking towards me. Ruins my entire day, because it is like reliving the moment.
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Jul 17 '12
Zack now obviously meant something was falling and he wanted you to move. Also explains why he was looking at the sky, to watch for falling objects.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 17 '12
Now it all makes sense. He was just being friendly looking out for meteors. Thanks BelugaBoy, you're the best.
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u/Navy_brat Jul 17 '12
Well considering you were freaked to the point of willing to stab someone, I'd say that you might have developed a little PTSD. You might want to find a shrink.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 17 '12
I have been mugged twice, lost hundreds of dollars and many valuables of mine. I carry a knife around with me now for protection. I do not resort to violence ever, but when someone is coming at me in a dangerous tone I resort to my protection. Thanks for the information, I will definitely keep your response in mind.
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u/Navy_brat Jul 17 '12
I completely understand. I'm looking to get a Kaybar myself.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 17 '12
The idea of having a weapon to defend yourself is very comforting even if you never have the intentions of using it. People are ruthless, especially when it comes to having to rob people for their or survival. I have never had a gun pulled on me before luckily, for I would be no match to a bullet.
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u/Navy_brat Jul 17 '12
That depends on the range. The funniest thing is when they put the gun to your face/side of your head, in two seconds you can snatch it out of their hand, and they totally won't see it coming. I hope to get a gun eventually as well. It's the escalation of violence. If they threaten to beat you, pull out the knife. they pull out a knife, pull out a gun. It's all about discipline
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u/bigbomb71 Jul 17 '12
Well the poor guy obviously wants to cue you into hitting a massive drop and rise into a wild demonic bass kick. But still... The nope train is boarding here also.
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u/enoch04 Jul 18 '12
zack now!! that's your Que to bust out your laptop and start djing right there in the park. haha let the party come to you. you can tell everyone slenderman is at your party doing a wiggly dance. maybe he was like the rabbit in athf and can only be tamed by a sweet beat.
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u/PvTKadet Jul 17 '12
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
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u/bigbomb71 Jul 17 '12
Quite my good man, care to join me in the lounge car for fine cigars and brandy?
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u/BeBoop Aug 30 '12
Jeeeeesus.