12 True Stories That Grow More Twisted the Closer You Look

Sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction. In this collection, we’ve gathered true stories that will send shivers down your spine. At first glance, they might seem like ordinary tales, but the deeper you dive, the more twisted and unsettling they become. From chilling coincidences to unexplained events, these stories will leave you questioning what’s real—and what lies just beneath the surface.

• I was abroad on a work trip. On the 3rd day, I got a text from my wife asking me to return now because our son had an accident. When I arrived, my wife said, “I didn’t send you a text!” I showed her my phone. Her color shifted. She said, “I didn’t text you! I decided our son is fine.”
  But the text was there, sent from her number. She turned to me, her voice trembling. “I didn’t send that. I was planning to surprise you on your trip because I found out I was pregnant the day you left. But then I changed my mind—I started feeling nauseous.”
  A wave of joy washed over me at the thought of becoming a dad again, but it was quickly replaced by an unsettling feeling. Neither of us could explain the message. Then we both turned pale. There was another text that said: “Be careful. Your boy isn’t well.”
  We tried to figure out who could have sent the texts, but eventually gave up, assuming my phone had been hacked. Those were the only two strange messages we ever received, and we decided to move on.
  Months later, my wife had a sudden miscarriage... The baby we lost was a boy. It’s been ten years, and I still get chills whenever I think about it.

• My friends and I used to hang out at this coffee shop almost every single night for years. There were six of us. One summer, this guy “Isaac” started showing up every night. He was around our age and was from out of state, staying with his grandparents for the summer.
  He became part of our group, playing board games with us and talking until like 2 a.m. He would walk to the coffee shop, and I’d give him a ride back to his grandparents’ house at the end of the night. At the end of the summer, he went back home, and we never heard from him again (this was pre-social media).
  Maybe about five years later, after our group had mostly grown apart, and we were reuniting while everyone was in town for a holiday, we were sitting at our coffee shop, reminiscing. I brought up Isaac (“I wonder what happened to him”), and nobody knew who I was talking about. I even have a photo of him, which I eventually found and emailed to everyone, but nobody recognized him. It’s now been over a decade, and still, nobody remembers Isaac but me. © PortiaGreenbottle / Reddit

• I told work I had to go out of town for a week for a family member’s (my grandmother’s cousin in Texas) funeral. Completely fictitious. In reality, I just wanted time off to hang out at the luxury home my friend was house-sitting—hot tub, full bar, etc.
  The day my “vacation” started, I got a call that my grandmother’s cousin had passed away, and my family was going out of town for the funeral and expected me to go with them. © magikjaz / Reddit

• After I totaled my car, a man with burn scars all over his face and hands came to my window. He asked if I was okay and then came and sat in the passenger seat. He said, “I need you to know that everything happens for a reason.” I said, “I know.”
  The next thing I know, I’m talking to the other driver and the police, and the guy is just gone. No one else saw him. © cloud9atlass / Reddit

• When I worked in hospice, I took care of a sweet man who saw his wife before he died. She had been dead for five years. He was wheelchair-bound, but on the night he died, he was up and walking. He kept insisting his wife was coming to get him.
  When the nurse and I got him settled into his room for the umpteenth time, he looked at the empty doorway and said, “Oh, girls, she’s here.” Then he went unresponsive and died about an hour later. © salty-MA-student / Reddit

• I was at work several years ago, and a coworker (S) had a massive seizure. (He later told us he had never had one before.) Everyone started freaking out, and a man came over and gently held S down because he was in danger of slamming into a desk. When the seizure passed, the man stood up and said, “The ambulance should be here soon, so my work is done,” and left.
  The weird thing? Nobody had any idea who that guy was. We were all so concerned about S that we didn’t really register that the guy was a stranger until S was taken to the hospital. We were in a building that required a key card to enter, and it was closed to the general public. There were only 12 of us in that office, and he wasn’t one of us.
  So who was he? © BarracudaImpossible4 / Reddit

• My mom was looking at an old photo album and talking about a party she organized for her coworkers more than 25 years ago. She said it was nice of me to have helped her there, setting up the tables, etc.
  I have zero recollection of that party—nothing—so I thought she was joking. Then she showed me the pictures, and I’m there! It’s not like I was a kid; I was maybe 19 or 20.
  I wonder what else my brain erased. © sonia72quebec / Reddit

• I snuck downstairs in 7th grade because I couldn’t sleep. I stood in the kitchen for about 10 minutes watching my dad watch Star Trek. When it went to commercial, I went to go back upstairs, and I noticed the garage light was on. I went out and saw my dad sorting recycling. When I went back in, no one was there, and the TV was off.
  I’m 32 now, and I still think about it. © LooseLeaf24 / Reddit

• I had a few weeks of pregnancy symptoms. I’d been pregnant before, and it was exactly the same. So I took some tests and did them daily until eventually, I got weird faint lines. One night, I had to stay awake next to my open window all night with a headache and nausea. I knew at this point I was certainly pregnant, and I was about to get a positive test soon.
  So I tried that morning, and it came up very faint. I asked my twin if she was unwell lately or anything, and she was like, “Yeah, I was up feeling ill all last night. Why?” I said, “Well, I’ve been feeling sick a lot lately.” She said, “Me too,” and sent me a pregnancy scan, telling me it’s early, so not to tell anyone.
  I had my period a couple of days after. © throawaybanana12 / Reddit

• I was at a gas station and had just finished buying something inside. I came out, and a burly man wearing a T-shirt with some sort of meat business logo on it came up to me, asking if I was interested in purchasing bulk frozen meats. I was absolutely broke except for about $500 available on my credit card. I didn’t want to buy anything, but my mouth blurted out “yes” as if my life depended on it.
  A few minutes later, I went home with a month’s worth of vacuum-sealed fish and chicken. I don’t know what said “yes,” but it wasn’t me. © NeuralBreakDancing/ Reddit

• I have this ring that my mom gave to me. It used to be my late grandmother’s. It was too big for me to wear on my finger, so I put it on a chain and wore it like a necklace.
  I remember being in class and playing with it while doing my schoolwork, and it was still around my neck the whole time. At the end of the day, when school let out and everyone was heading home, I realized I didn’t have it around my neck anymore. I panicked, ran back to class, and tried retracing my steps but never found it. I was really upset that I had lost this ring.
  When I got home and entered my bedroom, I saw the ring and chain placed neatly on the center of my pillow. It looked as if someone had placed it there. © jaythenerdgirl / Reddit

• My dad used to have a girlfriend that I really hated. She was like 20 years younger than him and pretty much a gold-digger. I was studying abroad and about to come back to my country, so I texted my cousin asking if she could come with me to a witch to do some spells against her as soon as I arrived.
  I took my flight home, and the passenger next to me started chatting. Her story about her father was the same as mine, with the same details. The weirdest thing is that she told me, out of nowhere and staring straight into my eyes, to stay away from witchcraft.
  She had no way to know... and what are the odds that a stranger would bring up witchcraft while you’re on the other side of the planet, 11,000 kilometers away from home? © purple_glitter_heart / Reddit

Sometimes, the workplace isn’t just about deadlines and meetings—it can be the setting for truly unexpected and jaw-dropping moments. In this article, we explore unbelievable but true stories from the world of work, where the ordinary takes a sharp turn into the extraordinary.