10 Terrifying True Stories That Will Keep You Awake at Night

Here are 10 true stories that might keep you staring at the ceiling longer than you’d like tonight.

1. The Caller Inside the House

Back in 1979, a teenage babysitter in Michigan started getting weird calls. A man’s voice, flat and quiet, kept asking: “Have you checked the kids?” She brushed it off as some kind of prank until she finally called the police. When they traced the line, the sound was coming from upstairs. He was inside the house already. He was caught before he could act, but the thought of him standing only a floor away while she picked up the phone? That never fades.

2. The Watcher of Westfield

In 2014, a family in Westfield, New Jersey bought what was supposed to be their dream home. They never even moved in. Strange letters began showing up in their mailbox, signed by someone calling themselves “The Watcher.” The writer said they’d been watching the house for generations. They even described the family’s children in detail, as if they’d been standing in the yard staring through windows. To this day, nobody knows who was behind the letters or why.

3. The Silent Roommate

Imagine you come home, day after day, and something just feels… wrong. In 2013, a college student in North Carolina noticed food missing and lights she hadn’t turned on. One night, she heard a sound in her closet. When she opened the door, a man dressed in her clothes was crouched inside. He’d been living in her apartment for weeks, sneaking out as she left and crawling back in through the attic. If that doesn’t make you double‑check the locks tonight, nothing will.

4. Resurrection Mary

Chicago locals know the legend of the hitchhiker in white. Drivers along Archer Avenue have been seeing her since the 1930s, thumbing for rides near Resurrection Cemetery. More than once, cab drivers swore they spoke to her some even describe the sudden chill when she touched their arm. And then, just like that, gone. Worst part? Cemetery workers have found burned handprints seared into the gates, as though someone desperate tried to claw back inside.

5. The Man at the Window

One winter night in Colorado, a woman woke to a soft tapping on her bedroom glass. When she looked toward the curtains, she saw a man’s face only inches away, smiling. He ran when she screamed, but police later found footprints in the snow circling her entire house, pausing in front of every window. He hadn’t just stopped by once. He’d been watching, looping the house like a predator taking its time.

6. The Smiling Man

In 2012, a man walking alone late at night in Seattle noticed someone across the street. Tall, too thin, moving in a strange, jolting dance, like a puppet pulled the wrong way. His face carried a smile so wide, too wide, as if it wasn’t supposed to be there. Every time the man changed speed, the figure matched it until at one point the “Smiling Man” lunged, sprinting straight toward him. The writer barely escaped, but the feeling of that grin chasing him has followed readers ever since.

7. The Disappearance of Lars Mittank

This one haunts people because it’s on film. In 2014, German tourist Lars Mittank was in Bulgaria when he began calling his mother in a panic, whispering that men were after him. At the airport, security footage shows him suddenly bolt, dropping his bag and sprinting into the woods. He never came back. Some think he snapped from paranoia, others that someone really was after him. All we’re left with is that footage of his last moments running, face twisted with fear.

8. The Masked Intruder

A couple in Ohio in 2003 woke up to see a man at the foot of their bed wearing a surgical mask. Just there. Standing still. No words. The husband lunged, but the masked man ran. Police found no forced entry, and weeks later their daughter claimed she heard footsteps above her ceiling at night. Whoever it was disappeared without a trace, but the thought of someone standing so close while you slept that doesn’t leave you.

9. The Hinterkaifeck Murders

This farmhouse in Germany feels ripped out of a nightmare. In 1922, the family who lived there noticed things out of place: strange noises in the attic, footprints in the snow leading to the house but none leading out. Days later, neighbors found the family slaughtered in the barn. Investigators determined the killer had stayed in the home afterward, feeding livestock, eating food, and sleeping there among the bodies. No one was ever convicted. A hundred years later, the case is as cold and frightening as the night it happened.

10. The Boy in the Walls

In the late 1980s, a family in Massachusetts began hearing voices and noticing objects move around. At first, they thought they were losing their minds. Then one night, the husband found narrow tunnels carved into the walls. At the end of one passage was their former handyman, living inside. He’d been crawling through the walls, watching them through vents, even writing threats and symbols on the wood beams. Think about that: someone walking inches away from you, on the other side of the drywall, while you slept.

Why They Stick With Us

What makes these stories unbearable isn’t just the violence or the strange details. It’s how ordinary they begin. A phone call. A letter. Footprints under a window. These are everyday moments that twist slowly into dread. That’s why they strike so deep: it isn’t some far‑off haunted castle. It’s the babysitter’s house down the street. It’s the college apartment just like yours.
And maybe that’s why you’re staring at your door right now, wondering if the silence is really as safe as it feels.