10 Chilling Stories From People Who Regretted Approaching Abandoned Buildings

Some people simply need some excitement in their lives. To get that, they would even visit scary places, like an abandoned asylum or a family home that hadn’t had any residents for decades. We collected some of the most chilling stories that were shared on Reddit, so keep on reading if you belong to the brave ones.

• About 8 years ago, I lived in a town in the mountains that had a lot of vacant and abandoned houses. The first one I went into, honestly, scared me. The house was set back from the road and had a long driveway.
  The first weird thing was that there were appliances just lining the driveway on either side. There were no steps to get into the front door, so we went to the side. The door was already kicked in, and snow was blowing into the inside. We went up the stairs to the front door, continued up the other steps, and stopped in front of a door a little to the right of the kitchen, which was at the top of the steps.
  There was a heavy plastic acting as a door, so we couldn’t see into the room. We decided to go check it out, so we pushed the plastic aside to go in. The room’s air felt very heavy, as if whoever was there was very depressed and sad.
  I started to get anxiety bad, and the heaviness of the air was getting to me. We walked out of the room through the heavy plastic, and I stopped at the top of the steps as my ex wanted to go down the hall. He was maybe 10 steps down the hall when the plastic from the doorway flew open, and I felt this big, forceful rush of air go past me and down the steps; it almost knocked me over.
  My ex heard the plastic move and ran toward me, pretty much picked me up, and we ran down the steps and out the door back to my car. It was terrifying! That plastic could not have moved on its own! © No-History7124 / Reddit
• My ex-husband and I used to love going into old abandoned houses years ago! There was a beautiful old two-story brick home about a mile from where we lived. The grass and trees were so grown and tall that it was hard even to get to the house.
  Inside, it was like a time capsule. Very nice and expensive furniture and stuff everywhere. It was creepy how it seemed like they walked away from all of it in the 1950s or 60s.
  The kitchen was upstairs, which was odd. But we ventured up there, and there was a huge arch opening into a gentleman’s type mancave. Off to the side of the arch was a huge mirror leaning against the wall.
  Took maybe 3 steps away from the mirror to tell my ex I wanted to go. It felt like someone was standing beside me. Took the 3 steps back to the mirror and in bright pink lipstick were the words “GET OUT”!!!
  I screamed and jumped back into a kitchen table and fell. My ex comes running over, and I am so scared, I just point to the mirror, babbling like an idiot. My ex calmly got me out of there, and we never went back! © Apprehensive-Sky6467 / Reddit

• I walked into an old abandoned cabin in my neighborhood. I saw movement around me, and when I shined my flashlight on the walls, there were thousands of cockroaches and spiders. I ran out of there. © spacedoggy2008 / Reddit
• One of my favorite hobbies is photography. My friend and I decided to go look for some abandoned places to take photographs of. We found this 1950s-era abandoned insane asylum with an old window that led to what once was the kitchen.
  I got the chill down my spine as if something was there, or somebody was watching me. My friend wanted to go look around while I was taking pictures. 30 seconds later, my friend rushed into the room, looking frightened, and said, “Alright. I’ve seen enough, let’s go. Now.” He didn’t explain anything, just climbed out of the window.
  I was close to the hallway, so I leaned over and peeked down the hallway. At the end of the hallway was an empty chair. Something small was in the chair, looked like a ball or something.
  And the next thing I know, it slid off the chair and landed on the floor. I was freaked out, I ran for the window. My friend was waiting on the other side.
  We ran back to the car, got in, and sped away. I said, “Did you see that ball in the chair?” My friend looked at me with shock and said, “It wasn’t a ball, a small doll was sitting there. Then the doll went from sitting up to lying over. So I ran out of there!” © Eternal_Rest27 / Reddit

• We visited an abandoned house in the village I grew up in, in England, back when I was a teenager, maybe 15 years ago now. I was with a couple of friends but broke off by myself and ventured upstairs.
  When I turned at the top of the stairs, I saw a figure standing in the darkness, just staring at me. I bolted out of the building as quickly as I could, and my friends heard me and panicked; they weren’t far behind.
  Went back there a couple of weeks later with a bigger group to “prove my story,” and to my embarrassment, it was a tall mirror at the top of the stairs, and the figure I saw was me. Not my proudest moment. © mtblanche14 / Reddit
• I used to walk around an abandoned building near a forest, which was initially a child hospital in the 70s, a refugee housing in the 90s, and a language school for Chinese students till 2007. Since then, it’s been abandoned. The students left quite suddenly, so I found diaries, certificates, and even food.
  It was interesting since the place was not vandalized at that time. Once I was inside the building again, I realized someone else was walking upstairs. I never left this place so fast, jumped over the gate, and headed to my car.
  When I reached there, a police car stopped in front of the building, and the two officers jumped over the fence to enter the building. No idea what was there, but sometimes I wonder if I avoided more than just a report for trespassing. © Unknown author / Reddit
• I used to work for a guy renovating houses. He’d buy dumps for like 5 to 10 thousand that had been abandoned for years, we’d fix them up, and he’d rent the houses out. His daughter would go to houses to take pictures after he bought them, since he’d buy a lot of these sites unseen.
  At one house she went to take pictures at, she was creeped out by the basement and did not want to go in. She just opened the door, leaned in, reached her arm out, and took a picture. When her dad reviewed the pictures, he saw a man standing in the basement about 5 feet from the camera, staring directly into it. © xxT**d / Reddit

• There was this strip of road near the place where I lived. I was riding my bike with my headphones in and was just exploring the road because I had never gone down it before.
  There was this one bunker that had its door open, and it was covered with graffiti all over it. I stopped right across from it. Despite it being the afternoon, there was barely any sunlight going through the doorway.
  All of a sudden, I hear “go back” in a very whispery tone and, well, I ran. No, I sprinted back to my bike. I took off and lifted the kick stand while I was going and pedaled faster than ever before. © AgentBake / Reddit
• When I was in middle school, we went upstate in the summer. There was an abandoned house in the woods that we explored. The top floor was pretty pristine — the beds were made, and drawers/closets shut with stuff neatly arranged inside. There were bats.
  The lower you went, the more disordered. The basement/garage was in complete disarray. Books and random crap thrown around.
  We went to the far end of the house where the wall partially collapsed and that’s when we saw the bear. Foolishly, ran with all our might. © MrFunktasticc / Reddit
• There’s a big abandoned factory near the center of our city that teens regularly visit. My friend was telling me a story about how she and a group of friends were walking around the ground floor (almost pitch black in places) when they saw a lone chair in the middle of a big room.
  They started joking when, in the distance, they heard glass being smashed. They all took one look at each other, turned around, and got out of there. © malinamint / Reddit

These stories made us shiver, so it might be a good idea to read something less scary but still exciting, like 12 True Stories That Grow More Twisted the Closer You Look.