People Describe Creepy Things That Happened While Alone in the House

"I was home alone and heard the doorbell ring. I opened up to see this man there holding a large square bag. He starts talking about how he's an artist and is opening up a gallery soon, so he wanted to sell a couple paintings for a lower price to drum up interest or whatever. I'm Canadian and über polite, so I just nodded and let him open the bag and start showing me the paintings. 

They were nice - couple landscapes, couple portraits... and then the nudes started.

This went past nude art. First one was painted and was okay, then the second one seemed more photorealistic and depicted a very messed up orgy. Then it went through beastiality and gore and just got really intense and awful.

The man just stood there flipping through the canvases and grinning at me. At one point, he made a small step towards me, and I just blurted out I didn't have enough money to pay for anything and slammed the door. 

"I got up around 2 am - I don't really remember the exact time, but it was past midnight.

I saw a figure in the hallway, like a silhouette. I couldn't see the face, but I could swear it was looking at me.

I went back to my room, took a breather, went out again, and it was still there. I closed my eyes and shook my head, looked back - it was gone.

I went to the washroom because I felt like I was going to piss myself, and when I got out to go back to my room, the figure was in front of my room, looking at me.

I closed my eyes and reopened them - it was gone.

"When I was a teenager, I lived in my father's basement. He would frequently go on business trips, and I would be alone in the house for up to a week at a time.

One evening in spring, I was up alone watching TV at around 2 am when I heard through the open windows what sounded like two distinct sets of footsteps outside, walking from the front yard, around the side, and into the backyard, where they stopped. It was then that I realized that since all my lights were on, I couldn't look outside, but from outside you could see me.

I immediately panicked, shutting off my TV and lights, so now I was alone in my basement, with no lights on, with what I thought were two prowlers sitting on my back deck.

I don't know how long I was frozen in the darkness, but after I didn't hear any more sounds for a while, I quietly crept upstairs to try to get a better look into my backyard.

Thankfully, all the lights upstairs were already off. Unfortunately, with the way the bushes and patio umbrella were set up, there were large blind spots where it sounded like those footsteps stopped.

I considered calling 911, but then when my father would inevitably find out, I knew I'd be forced to stay with my aunt when he went out of state, so I stared at that deck waiting to see movement for at least 10 minutes before I began convincing myself that my mind was playing tricks on me.

I decided to go investigate outside. I grabbed the closest thing to a weapon I could - an old shepherd's axe - went out my front door, and crept around the side of my house, crouching behind a bush.

I finally mustered the courage to swing the axe into the bush and shout out, "Hey!" Nothing would happen, right? No one would be there, and I'd have a good laugh, albeit an embarrassed one, when I realized I was just being paranoid.

Instead, I immediately heard the sound of deck chairs scraping on wood, and two sets of human footsteps running off into the opposite direction.

My heart stopped. I felt like I blacked out for a second from the adrenaline rush. I ran back around the side of my house in the direction I came! What was I to do?? There was no time to think!

I made it to my front door, swung it open, rushed inside, slammed it shut, and stood there in the darkness, practically hyperventilating! I stared out into the street, waiting to see someone leaving the property, but no one did. It was then that I realized that now, I wasn't safe inside my house like I thought I would be. I was trapped.

I ran out the front door into the middle of the street where I could scream if I saw someone. Surely by now I should have called the cops, but I wasn't thinking clearly anymore, if I ever was.

Now I was facing my house, but I still didn't see anyone, so I glanced to the left down the street. Nothing. Then I looked right.

Two male figures were walking away from me, a block and a half down the street. Just as soon as I noticed them, they turned left at the T junction onto the main road and disappeared out of sight.

For some reason, I ran after them, and when I turned that corner, no one was there. There should have been nowhere to go, and they would have only made it about a half-block if they were just walking. They must have had a car waiting there.

"When I was about 10 years old, I was at home when my mum went to the shops. I had been in the sitting room watching television before deciding I wanted a drink and headed to the kitchen.

From the door of the kitchen, I saw the tall, thin outline of a man outside of my back door and could see the doorknob turn. He put his hand through the cat flap but was unable to reach the door. He went after a few minutes, so I removed the key from the back door and put it on the kitchen table.

"One day while doing my laundry, one of the lights blew out in my basement. My basement is set up so that the laundry room is split from the other side of the basement with a wall and a door. In order to get upstairs, you have to exit the laundry room and go through the other part of the basement. 

Since there was only light on one side, it was pretty f*cking dark. I finished the laundry I had to do while dreading the walk through the dark basement.

I exited the laundry room and got halfway through the basement when I heard a loud cackle. Imagine a sound people make when they imitate a witch. Take that and imagine that the witch had been smoking for 50 years, making her voice deeper and hoarser.

That is what I heard, clear as day, right behind me.

I did not look or hesitate; I bolted for the stairs. I waited until my father got home and then changed the bulb.

"My mom has mine and my siblings' framed senior pictures on a shelf. As the middle child, mine was staggered behind the other two.

My family left on a trip, but I had to stay back and work. A few hours after they left, there was a smashing sound.