15 Shockingly True Stories That Feel Totally Made Up

Sometimes, we come across inexplicable things. Mysteries that remain with us, living in our minds, rent-free. The true events in this collection prove that life can be more gripping, mysterious, and downright bizarre than anything a screenwriter could dream up. These real-life stories remind us that the unexpected is always around the corner, and that’s what makes the real world so thrilling.

• I was living in Boston. I woke up at 3 am or so by my cat jumped up on my bed and curled in between my calf muscles, and I went to sleep. My cat would do this every night since I was 5 years old. That was his spot. It was something I was very familiar with. The thing is, my cat was living with my parents on the West Coast. So I couldn’t understand what I just felt. But I knew it was my cat. I just figured I was dreaming.
  Got a call from my parents the following morning that my cat died around midnight the previous night. 3 hours behind since I was on the East Coast. Guess that was my cat traveling to Boston to come see me one last time.
  Edit: After so many replies, I’ve got to say this. Really, I wasn’t dreaming. I remember it quite well. I said maybe I was dreaming because I am doubtful of myself. But thinking back, I was wide awake and realized my experience. Despite being a fun believer in ghosts, I haven’t had any other experiences other than this. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I went hiking late at night with my buddy when something big and bright flew right over us above the tree line. It was so bright we couldn’t even look at it, and whatever it was, it didn’t make a sound. Actually, it was probably the quietest moment of my life.
  I remember saying, “What is that?” but no sound came out of my mouth. It only lasted a few seconds, and then it was over. © s9nister / Reddit

• Ten years ago, I met a young homeless guy who acted like he knew me. When I said I had no idea who he was, he said, “Isn’t your name Eamon, and you work in radio broadcasting?” I got freaked out. He was right, and I had always secretly dreamt of working in radio. I asked, “Who are you?”
  He smirked and said it wasn’t important and to ignore him, as sometimes he gets confused between the present and the future. Then he just left.
  I never saw him again. It threw me off completely. I abandoned the idea of going into radio almost out of fear. © beardmonger / Reddit

• To this day, there was a kid in my class that no one else remembers. I distinctly remember playing with this kid in kindergarten, and we were pretty much inseparable. About a month after Christmas break, he disappeared. No one remembered him. Not the teachers or the others in my class. No one. I even asked the school counselor if he was okay, and she humored me by going through records to see if he’d transferred. She couldn’t find a thing. I think about it at least once a month. © CrippledUnironically / Reddit
  

• My boyfriend can cure my hiccups every time without fail by touching my chest, and they’re gone instantly. If he’s not around, I can’t stop them. The only time in our two years together that it didn’t work was when he was really mad at me for something. I seriously can’t explain it. © Echojhawke / Reddit

• I fell asleep on the couch and got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Once I got there, I realized I didn’t have to go. I headed towards the bedroom but decided to turn around and go back downstairs to the couch. When I got there I saw my body still asleep curled up on the sofa. I don’t remember what happened after, and I know it had to have just been a dream. But, it still freaks me out to this day to think about it. © dipdipbeantot / Reddit

• I had a recurring nightmare of a pitch-black parasite sucking the life it of me. Sometimes it waited for me in dark corners to go to bed. My cats always slept on my bed during that time. For me, it was a very stressful time, a got an itch at the place of my chest where I dreamed the parasite was sucking my life out of me. I got sick and felt a pea-sized lump. I went to my doctor, and they ordered a biopsy of that lump.
  As it turned out, I had male breast cancer at the age of 28. After I got well, the dream never came back, and my cats slept in their places again, and not on my bed. The dream was creepy enough, but what made it bearable for me was my cats protecting me. © Mechanic84 / Reddit

• One night, we were all staying in a friend’s lake cabin. There were about 7 or 8 of us, and we were settling down to bed after a night of partying. Suddenly, all the light bulbs started to shatter or spark out, one after another. We all decided to leave immediately—it was really creepy. © hairofbrown / Reddit

• My college girlfriend and I were sleeping when my bedroom door was smashed off its hinges. I looked around, but no one was there. Even if it was just the house shifting, it scared us half to death. © TeleGuy2002 / Reddit

• I woke up in the bath at a very specific time, like 5.45. Twice. Ten years in between. The water was getting cold, and I was naked. No memory of getting there, some fragments of, like seeing my own hand turning on the tap. No drugs or alcohol, or even medication, were involved.
  The worst thing was the fear. When I woke up, I felt an inexplicable, almost primordial, dread. Lasted for hours, and I was shaking, couldn’t function. Still freaks me out thinking about it. Might have been three times, I can’t remember properly, I still get the shakes from the memory. © ownracoon / Reddit

• From 1991 to about 1994, I could be in some random part of town or even another city completely, and I could point out a streetlight and say, “That one is going to go out,” and sure enough, it would go out. It happened 100% of the time—whenever I said a light would go out, it did. © Expensive_Rhubarb_87 / Reddit

• In 6th or 7th grade, we were outside for recess playing football when a gigantic bird—at least 8 feet long with a neck as long as my leg—came swooping down and flew within about 2 feet of a kid’s head. It just swooped down, did a flyover, and then swooped back up without even flapping its giant wings. The entire playground went silent, and we never figured out what kind of bird it was. © Unknown author / Reddit

• One night, there was crazy knocking at the front door. An old lady stood there in a panic, talking about an accident further up the road. We called the cops. They arrived within 5 minutes and went with her. After some time, more cops came, asking about our call, claiming they saw no accident at the spot. They asked about the woman, and when we told them that other cops had come and taken her away, they told us no other team had been sent.
  They almost didn’t believe us, but for the CCTV camera in our neighbor’s home, which had captured the woman standing at our door but conked off right before the first set of policemen had arrived. We still talk about that incident.

• I was in college at the time, in my shared room at my fraternity house. I was sitting on the couch watching TV when the other couch moved 3 feet to the right, stopped, and then moved 3 feet back to almost the exact same spot. © chrisschuyler / Reddit

• I had an imaginary friend when I was a kid. His name was Theo. I only “saw” him till I turned 8 or 9. He told me to never tell my parents about him, but years later, I revealed this secret friendship to my mother. She was okay at first, but when I told her his name, she paled.
  Apparently, Theo was my twin brother, who was stillborn, but my parents had never told me about him. Sadly, I never saw him again.

If you’re still craving more jaw-dropping weirdness, here are 20 similar stories about people who saw something they can never forget.