20+ Creepy Stories That Will Send Shivers Down Your Spine

People often say that kids’ imaginations are hard to explain, and they are known for talking nonsense. However, there are times when they can play tricks with our minds, telling stories that can keep us awake at night. It’s challenging to determine if these creepy tales come from kids’ imaginations or involve things we can’t see.

• My son, 4 years old, once carefully drew a volcano in a notebook — a mountain with a black pencil and lava on top — in red, and red stones flying from the volcano (usually drawing is not his favorite hobby). And then he asked me to write next to the numbers that he would say: 1, 8, 1, 5. And then he ran off to play with cars. I became interested and typed on the Internet: the volcanic eruption of 1815. Hmmm... Result: “The eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815 was the largest volcanic eruption in the history of mankind,” etc. Until now, I didn’t know this myself, and the child certainly didn’t watch or read about it. Yulia Pan
• We were clearing out the attic of an old house. Found old photos. On one, my grandfather’s late sister (died at age 5 from scarlet fever, after the war). My 3-year-old daughter took the photo and actively began to prove that it was her friend. We argued with the child. But then she says: “No, this is my friend, her name is Nadya!” I felt uneasy, the girl’s name was really Nadya, and photos from the attic had not been taken for 20 years. AnnaViz
• My 2-year-old son once asked me during lunch, “Mom, will this clown eat with us too?” Me: “What clown?” My son pointed at the empty chair. That night, I went around the entire house with a burning sage thinking that I was like an exorcist. Stefanie Dürr
• When I was 6 years old, my twin brother and I went to play in our grandma’s bedroom. When we entered it we saw an old woman who was sitting in an armchair and smiling at us. We got really scared and ran to our grandmother to ask who she was. Grandma said that it was her mother and that she wouldn’t hurt us. She had died in that room about 20 years earlier. Robin Daines
• When my son was 18 months old, I asked him “Do you remember being in my tummy?” He goes “Yes”. So I said, thinking no way, “What color was it?” He replied “Red”. I was blown away cos he was born end of August and I spent most of the summer in the garden, with my tummy exposed to the sun. I asked him the same question when he was 4 and he said “No” Babs Whimsy

• When my son was 4, he used to say that he had known me before he chose me. He also said that he still remembered how to play guitar. Once he heard some old song on the radio and cried that it was the song he used to play. We googled it. The guitar player from this band had died 3 months before our son was born. Apple
• When my brother was little, his uncle was holding him in his arms once, and suddenly my brother said, “Do you remember how I was holding you when you were little?” Nika Ozz
• When my daughter was 4 she asked whether I remembered her. I said, “Of course, you are my baby girl.” But then she replied that she used to be my best friend Peggy. She began to recall how we used to have fun together and told me the names of her sisters and how she died. Peggy had died 20 years earlier when she was 16. 2 years later we went to my home town. My daughter asked me to show her her old house telling me how to get there. It was really creepy, but now I know that my friend is fine. Nancy Jarabeck
• The 3-year-old son of my friend once entered the bathroom where she was taking a shower and said, “Mom, do you remember how you pushed me from the bicycle and I hit my head really bad?” My friend began to cry. When she was a child, she accidentally pushed her brother off a bicycle. And her brother had died in a car accident 10 years before her son was born. Cristiane Cris Machado

• Alex was 3 when we were riding a bus across town. We went to a place we had never been before. We saw a cemetery fence from the window. Alex suddenly said, “I know this place! My mother is buried here!” Then he looked at me confused and added silently, “My other mother, Marina...” He had never visited a cemetery before. Anna Klimenok
• At the age of 4, my son liked to tell me how my father used to love me. My father had died long before my son was born. When I asked him how he could know that, he said, “I can remember it because he is me!” Gulya Bessonova
• Before I found out I was pregnant with my second child. My daughter came to me and put her head on my tummy and said, “There is a baby in here and it is playing with matchsticks”. I laughed and told her father. After a week I did the home pregnancy test and I was 3 weeks +. I was so shocked, telling my friends and family members how my daughter had foreseen my pregnancy. Lindiwe
• When my sister accidentally dropped our father’s box with threads and buttons, her daughter cried, “Mom, pick everything up quickly, grandpa is watching!” Our father had died a long time ago. At that time my niece was 5 years old and she scared us pretty badly. Nastya Sheremetieva

• When my brother was 3-4 years old, he used to tell stories about how he had served in the army and had been a tankman. We laughed first. “What an imagination!” we thought. But once he described how he had burnt in the tank alive. Our great-grandfather used to be a tankman in 1943. Of course, my brother never met him. My brother is 20 now, and he’s the spitting image of our great-grandfather. Ekaterina Godyna
• My niece used to have 3 imaginary friends: Larry, Mo, and Danny. Danny was my son who had died from SIDS 2 years before my niece was born. Michelle Edeburn
• My 4-year-old son didn’t want to learn how to swim. I came up to him every 2 minutes and said, “Enough sitting on the shore, go, Alex will teach you, he’s a professional swimmer.” 5 minutes later Alex began to drown with another 4-year-old boy. My son sounded the alarm, but only the boy was able to be rescued. When Alex’s mother arrived, my son assured her that he saw how Alex had come out of the water and left. When Alex’s body was found, forensics defined that he died within 5 minutes. This means that he had died before my son saw him coming out of the water on the shore. Evgenia Boldina
• When I was lulling my son to sleep, I told him that I loved him. He replied half-asleep that he loved me more, since the moment he had chosen me. Patty Negrita
• When my younger daughter died, her 7-year-old sister came up to me and said, “Mom, don’t be sad, she’ll come back to us. She won’t be the way she was but she will be back, just wait.” When I asked her how she could know that, she replied, “I just know, mom. Our grandpa will take care of her before she returns.” I still can’t forget it. It gives me hope and the strength to live. Cami Souza

• My wife overheard our three-year-old daughter talking to someone in our walk-in closet. My wife went into the closet and saw only my daughter. My wife asked her who she was talking to and she said grandma Dottie. My mother, Dottie, passed away 13 years earlier. We never mentioned my mom to her before. Sandy Senen
• I was reading a news story on the internet about 2 children who had drowned and there was also a photo of them. They were at home hugging. My 4-year-old son saw this photo and asked me, “Why is there water around them?” FYI, my son can’t read. Mariya Stanchevskaya
• My 2-year-old son saw a photo of my mother-in-law and said that he had visited her in heaven with many other children. He even listed their names. His grandmother died 3 years before he was born. Natalia Waschtschenko
• My niece gave me a paper angel a week before she found out I was pregnant. She said, “There, this is your angel now.” I asked, “Who is he?” And she replied, “Angels are the children who haven’t been born yet.” Lara Zorina

• When my son was 3 we went to the cemetery to put some flowers on my father’s grave. My husband put the flowers down, but then my son suddenly said, “My grandpa never liked these flowers.” So we went back to the flower shop and my son chose different flowers. We returned to the grave, put the flowers down, and my son said that now his grandpa was happy. Éden Hassan
• My daughter was 3 years old. At that time, I had just lost my child by miscarriage and was crying all the time. Once she came up to me and said, “Mom, if you want my brother back you need to try again. We are given 3 opportunities to come back to the same parent.” Sandra Orozco
• When my 3-year-old son drowned, my older son who was 5 came to my room where I was crying. He asked me to stop and said that Derime would come back. He also said he would come back with a friend. 18 months later I gave birth to twins. It was 2 boys. Bukky Obazenu
• My mother says that when I was 3 years old she hit me and I said, “When I was your father, I never hit you.” Eric Yamauti
• I was carrying my son from the bathroom to his bedroom. I glanced in my bedroom as I passed and thought I saw a man sitting on my bed. I assumed my eyes/the shadows were playing tricks and said nothing — then my son asked, “Who’s the old man sitting on your bed, mommy?” © DeeAisha / Twitter

Explore additional spine-tingling children’s stories with us. If you’ve got your own remarkable tales, feel free to share them in the comments!