Ever been out and about, and got a feeling of pure terror? Like something awful is going to happen, but it's hard to tell why? Although these moments don't happen very often, when they do, it's important to listen. It could just save someone's life.
People on Reddit share the scariest "something's not right" moment they've had. Content has been edited for clarity.
“I Was Trembling”
“I got into a Lyft car, like I had numerous times before.
After the car started moving, I noticed the driver turned in the wrong direction, but thought he was just going to take an alternate route. Quickly I saw that this wasn’t the case, and spoke up: ‘Excuse me, but I think you’re going the wrong way.’
He replied, ‘Oh, really? Sorry, my GPS is messed up.’
He poked around at the smartphone attached to his dashboard, which I noticed was now off.
That’s when the Oh no, this is how you die feeling kicked in. I was sitting in the passenger’s seat, so I tried to act calm and discreet as I reached into my bag to make sure my phone and keys were in reach. Nonchalantly as possible, I said, ‘Oh… no problem, just make a right here, and take Main Street back towards Pleasant City.’
He argued with me briefly but then turned in the right direction. I sighed with relief. Maybe the danger was all in my head.
Then he spoke up again. ‘You seem like a decent, morally upright young woman, Sammy. Can I ask you for some advice about a problem I have?’
I stiffened in my seat, but nodded. What else was there to say?
He proceeded to tell me about a relative he was ‘worried’ about, who was involved in inappropriate adult behaviors. This ‘girl’ needed his help, and all he wanted in the world was to ‘save’ her, but she refused to tell him her address (Shocker, I know).
‘If only I knew her address, I don’t care what she says. I’d freaking go there and kidnap her for her own good!’ The driver proceeded to get more and more worked up, cursing and yelling, while exit strategies rushed through my head.
‘You know what the problem is? This girl is freaking possessed by Satan. It’s the only explanation. Not like you. You can tell from looking at a woman if they are morally upright or not.’ He looked meaningfully at me, while I shrunk inwardly, glad at least that moment that there was no sign on my head reading ‘proud lady of the night (which I am).’
Fixing his gaze directly at me while still driving, he posed a question. I felt at that moment that my response would determine his next course of action.
‘Sammy, is it so wrong for me to want to help this girl? Should I just say ‘forget it’ and let someone I love ruin her life? Or should I keep trying even though she keeps telling me to get out of her life?’ he pondered.
I wanted to tell him he was being a psycho and it was obvious why she didn’t want his ‘help.’
But instead I said something like, ‘It’s really, fantastic that you care so much about her. That’s not wrong. But you can’t help anyone who doesn’t want it. That’s not your fault.’ I don’t know if he could tell, but I was trembling.
By this point, he was very close to my home. He seemed to calm down and I had the distinct feeling that I’d narrowly avoided disaster. As he pulled up to my place, he said without a smile, ‘You’re a smart girl, Sammy. I’ll think on your advice.’
I got the heck out of that car and went inside, very relieved to be home, but also cursing myself for using my home address. For that reason, I was afraid to even to leave any kind of feedback.
I deleted Lyft, and never heard from him again.”
“My Stomach Dropped”
“I was about eight years old as I remember. Walking home from school, I took the long route which meant I was closest to main roads where I could be seen in case there was ever something shady… like someone trying to take me.
My parents taught me right. I knew all about the ‘stranger danger,’ don’t talk to strangers, don’t accept candy, never get in a car, etc.
So as I turned the corner that day down my grandparent’s street, I could already feel something wasn’t right. I could hear the sound of an engine idling, low and muffled, tires crunching gravel and twigs behind me. My stomach dropped and my instincts heightened, narrowing in on the sound of the engine, waiting for it to rev and for the car to fly past me. It didn’t.
So I picked up my pace a bit, not too fast to set this person off, but enough to test the waters. See if this car would move on or match pace with me.
The car stayed just behind me, inching along every few seconds. I checked the distance ahead to my grandparents house. I was literally two houses away, but their house was across the street. If I cut across and ran, I was afraid they would catch me before I could make it. So I started walking on lawns, moving as far away from the street as I could without setting them off to jump out and grab me.
The car sped up to pull right up beside me. All of my warning alarms were going off. It was a white sedan, and I’ll never forget his face. Caucasian male in his 30s early 40s, tan, glasses, dark hair. I glanced at him and kept walking, he pulled up beside me keeping pace. Had to be rolling by at two to five miles per hour. Until he stopped the car, engine idling.
He said, ‘Excuse me,’ and asked me if I knew how to get to (some location, I can’t remember).
I stood tall as I walked. Never slowing my pace down, I said loudly, ‘No. Sorry.’
Hoping someone would hear me. I moved farther up on the lawn and quickened my pace. He stopped the car. I started running. And he sped off.
I ran across the street to my grandparents house, at this point, shaking and crying. I told them everything that had happened. They tried to calm me down, told me it was probably just someone who was lost and not to worry. I think they thought I was just overreacting but nevertheless, that was the last time I walked home from school.
The next day, there was a story in the local paper about a girl who was missing, and a number of attempted abductions in the area. The description of the vehicle and the driver was exactly the man that I had seen. They never found the little girl. They did however catch and arrest the man.
Always trust your instincts.”
“It Was Chaotic And Scary”
“I was pregnant at 45. It was truly a miracle. It was an easy pregnancy. Even though I had gestational diabetes, I had it under control and did not have a moment of morning sickness. It was a breeze.
Then, at 37th week, on my scheduled appointment with my gynecologist, he told me I had to be induced that same day. My baby wasn’t growing as the placenta was not transporting enough nutrients to her. So, we got checked in, and started the induction process. Let me say, it wasn’t at all pleasant. However, I was very calm and not nervous. The team of nurses and doctors were very professional and explained every detail to me.
On the 7th to 8th hour into the induction process, I had dilated by 2–3 centimeters. My first contractions then started. The nurse came to check on me… and repeatedly asked me (with my big belly) to turn left, then to turn right, then left again. This was all in the midst of my contractions.
I almost screamed at her to ask ‘What for???’
Before I could do it, she spoke into the phone and said repeatedly ‘Triage in room 122, triage in room 122.’
In three seconds, the door to my room flew open. I knew at that moment, something was obviously not right. An oxygen mask was immediately strapped to my nose and mouth, a nurse was taking my blood pressure on my right hand, another was doing something to my left, and a doctor was in between my legs checking on my dilation. Another was checking the monitor. Everyone was talking at the same time. It was chaotic and scary.
A nurse kept telling me, ‘Breathe deeply, the baby needs oxygen, breathe deeply.’
Suddenly, they opened the door, and I was flying down the hallway. I could only see the bright lights on the ceiling, feel and hear the wheels of the rolling stretcher. All I could do was concentrate to breathe and breathing as deeply as I could.
I knew I needed to keep calm, but I was praying and praying desperately Please keep my baby safe. Please don’t do this to my husband. If anything happens to the baby, you’ll kill him! My husband had lost his son to a motorcycle accident nine months ago and I knew he wouldn’t be able to take another tragedy. It was the most desperate moment, my scariest moment. If I lose this baby, I’ll lose my husband to deep depression.
I cried when I saw my OB/gynecologist, he said, ‘Lynda, I need to do this emergency C section now. Your baby is in distress and her heart beat is below 50.’
I nodded yes. I looked across the room to my husband who was ashen faced, now all gowned up. My whole body was shaking and I had to hold myself and be held tight so that they could give me the necessary epidural injections.
Half an hour later, she was born. Came out screaming, four lbs 13 ounces. Tiny but healthy. A little jaundiced. My beautiful baby is now 11 years old, 5’ 2”… a joy, a sassy funny girl who’s the love of our life.”
“It Was So Unbearable”
“I was biking with my mother one day. It was a hot sunny day. When we were at the midway of our destination, I suddenly felt my hands go numb. I moved one hand after the another to get relief, but I did not get relief at all and it persisted to the point where it was just not tolerable, and I was not able to ride my bike. So, I parked my bike to a safe place and went inside a motorcycle showroom nearby to lie down to take some rest thinking that after resting a while I would get better, but I couldn’t just lie down.
I tried to sit but could not sit. I was just walking to and fro, shaking my hands as well as sweating profusely. I was just restless and was wondering what’s going on and it was not hard to imagine at the moment that something was not going on right in my body, and I was so scared! My mother got worried and realized that something was wrong, so she reserved a taxi, and we rushed to a nearby hospital.
We reached the hospital quickly and went directly to the emergency room. The doctors there immediately examined me and did an EKG after hearing my complaints, and soon found out that one of the arteries of my heart was 100% blocked, and they called it a major heart attack. They told me that I was there on time and if I have arrived there a bit later, it could have been fatal. They suggested me to go through emergency angioplasty as soon as possible because it could be fatal if I delay. We agreed to go through that noninvasive treatment, and they put a stent in my heart pretty soon. I spent three days in the Critical Care Unit and was discharged home with medications.
The most striking thing in this case was the numbness of my hands. It was so unbearable! I only had the hand numbness and chest heaviness as opposed to the common belief that people get excruciating chest pain in a case like this. The numbness and chest heaviness immediately went away after the stent placement.”
“Something Wasn’t Right”
“I was visiting home for the weekend. Upon arriving home, I was exhausted and not feeling the best. I chalked it up to lack of sleep and decided that was probably the best remedy: sleep. It was about 10 PM, so it wasn’t unusual. The next morning, my dad, my uncle (mom’s brother) and I were going out to get haircuts at this really classy, quaint haircuttery and then to get brunch at a local diner.
I woke up feeling hazy and dizzy and a little nauseous. Now, I never complain about how I feel. Heck, I’m not a morning person, so that must be why I feel so poorly. It takes about 20 minutes to get ready, and then I look for my wallet. The night before, I knew I had it, but slowly my ability to think slips away. My dad and uncle are waiting in the car for me as I stand in the kitchen, dazed, forgetting what I am even looking for.
My mom walks in and says, “Dad and Kyle are in the car.’
So I walk out and get in the back seat of Kyle’s BMW.
My dad asks, ‘You got everything?’ as we pull out of the driveway and start on our way.
Now, he is very patient with me, as it takes me nearly three minutes to formulate what I want to say.
I finally say, ‘Yes. I was just looking for my…’ I trail off, forgetting the word wallet.
Another couple minutes pass by and I finally get the word ‘money’ out. Something wasn’t right. Instead of inciting worry on my dad and uncle, I decide to figure out what is wrong with me first, or at least get an idea of what is wrong.
I am able to understand that my memory is foggy, and I am having extreme difficulty even piecing together sentences. My body feels okay, considering everything else that is going on. I start to name my siblings, ‘Mary… Bradlee…’ and that’s all I can remember.
I have six siblings, and I am forgetting four of their names. I try with all of my might to remember what their names are, but I cannot.
Is this a stroke? I wonder to myself. I don’t know the symptoms of a stroke, so it is a stab in the dark. When we get to the haircuttery, I mention to my dad that I am not feeling well. Whenever I have complained or stated something about how I was feeling, my parents tended to take me very seriously. It takes me a while to explain, as it is difficult for me to articulate what I am thinking. I explain that I am having trouble performing basic thought processes and that I can’t remember things very well. My dad calls my mom, and she recommends I get checked out by a doctor at an emergency clinic.
First, instead, we go to see a chiropractor friend of ours. She asks me a couple questions about my experience, how I am feeling, when I first started noticing that something was off. She lays me down, adjusts some things in my back, takes the little a tool and clicks it on my head in a couple different places. That was it. Now, I am done.
Apparently, there was a small bone in my skull that was slightly displaced, cutting off circulation to my brain. Our friend said it likely got displaced when I hit my head or something. The symptoms were very similar to a stroke, and she warned us to keep paying attention to any other symptoms, as if they still remained, I would need to go to the hospital immediately. Unfortunately, I do not know what the bone was that she adjusted in my head, but in just a few hours and drinking lots of water, I was feeling right as rain.”
“Why Are You Still Standing There?”
“One day, I ordered a ride-sharing car at almost 12 midnight after partying. Got a little hammered, but I still could think straight.
So, this car looked quite weird. It’s car license number was different from what’s written in the app. When it arrived, the driver offered me the front passenger seat instead of the back. I tried to open the back seat door and it was stuck. It wouldn’t open. The driver said the back door was broken. So, he insisted me to sit at the front.
So, my biggest weakness is that I trust people too quickly which makes me a bit reckless. Therefore, I innocently trusted the driver and was going to sit at the front.
However, the moment I stepped into the car. I saw a silhouette of a guy, wearing mask, on the back seat.
Right away, I sensed something is not right, and I almost pooped my pants. At that moment, I just realized that this driver was trying to rob me.
The driver, not realizing I noticed the man in the back, casually asked me, ‘Why are you still standing there? Come on in.’
I replied, ‘Who’s that in the back?’ while pulling back my leg from the car and pointing the silhouette on the back seat.
The shadow driver realized that his cover was blown. He shut the door quickly and drove away.
I’ve been living in the metropolitan city of Jakarta for almost my whole life and I’ve never been robbed ever, even from being pick-pocketed. And that was the closest moment of me from being robbed.”
“Something Told Me To Watch My Back”
“About eight or nine years ago, I received a phone call just after midnight. The call was from someone I regarded as a friend because we were from the same state at this out of state school. In the call, this friend stated that he was dropped off at a party and left there without a ride home. While explaining his situation over the phone, he mentioned his phone was going to die soon. I made it a point to get the address and stay on the phone with him as long as I could on the way over there. It ended up being in a bad area’s apartment complex. I approached the front gate but there was no one in the booth, so I decided to park my car across the parking lot and walk back across the grass and find my stranded friend in need. I made my way through this dark and poorly-lit complex to a building that was almost all the way in the back. I get to the door but I hear nothing. No signs of a party anywhere, at least in those five minutes since being off the phone.
That’s when I knew something wasn’t right.
I immediately call up one of my friends to tell him of the current situation, and to keep him on the phone while I made my way back out of this dark place. As I’m making a joke to my friend, I notice someone on the opposite sidewalk walking back in the direction I just came from. He was smoking a Black & Mild and being the only other person that I saw walking between these dark passageways, something told me to watch my back. I glimpsed over my shoulder across to the other sidewalk just in time to see the sparks from a tossed cig as he broke in my direction. I told my friend that I was running for it and about five footsteps into my flight, I heard the first of three loud bangs and I began running in a zigzag. I ended up hopping the gate and ran to my car. I promise you, I flew the whole seven minutes back to campus in so much panic that I never turned my lights back on.
I didn’t see that ‘friend’ for a week after that. Whenever my friends bumped into him, they would tell me that he seemed worried when he asked about me.
I’m just glad I made it back that night/morning.
I have since decided to stick to my circle of best friends. I can’t trust anyone.”
“My Body Felt Numb With Fear”
“My friend had been depressed for some time. But this night he seemed almost in a good mood. He lived in a state away in Las Vegas, but we had been conversing more recently. I knew he didn’t have many friends there, as he moved there to live with his parents but most of our friends were in California. We had an internet chat session, most of which I do not recall, except that we discussed some cases of reincarnation and whether we believed it to be possible. It was around 12am when we ended the chat.
I tried to finish some work in the lab where I worked as a grad student and then checked my Livejournal around 2am. It was then that I saw he had left me a thank you note on Livejournal. This note started in a most ominous way; ‘By the time you see this, it will probably be too late.’
My heart started racing and I knew then and there that he was almost certainly dead. My body felt numb with fear and I felt like I was going to black out.
But I took a deep breath and forced myself to follow procedure, even though what I really wanted to do was to turn off my brain and pretend I did not see his note. I read his very sweet but sad post which thanked me for being one of his last remaining friends who was still willing to talk to him, and about how he looked forward to meeting again in a future life.
I looked up his home phone number and called it over and over, hoping that it was not too late and that his parents would be able to save him. No response.
I looked up Las Vegas Police Department and called them. I gave them all the information I could, which was not much, but they somehow located his residence, and they said that they would dispatch some units ASAP.
An hour later, I called back to check on the situation and all I heard was, ‘I am sorry, but it was too late.’
He had finally succeeded in freeing himself of the burdens of this life. All it took was some liquid courage, a Hibachi grill in an enclosed car, and some good music to spirit him off to the next life. I wondered what his parents must be doing and thinking at that moment.
It was eerie and surreal as I left the lab at 4am. I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I laid in the car and looked at the night sky for what seemed like hours. I should have known better, but I didn’t, and there was nothing that I could do now except to sit in this purgatory of disbelief. He was gone forever.”
“I Kept Getting This Nagging Feeling”
“I was a young mother of two small girls. Our bedtime ritual was bath, then a little quiet play time, then off to bed, where I would read to the girls for a while and then tuck them in.
I had finished reading and tucked the girls in, and we all said our good nights. I plopped down on the sofa, ready to watch a little TV. While I was relaxing, I kept getting this nagging feeling I should go and check on my youngest. But I could almost see into her room from the living room, and it had only been a few minutes since I had said good night, so I just ignored it. A little time went past, and still I had the feeling I should go check. So during a commercial, I got up and walked into the girls’ bedroom. They were both still covered up, sound asleep, my beautiful babies. I leaned over the oldest and kissed the top of her head, and she didn’t move a muscle. Then I leaned over and kissed the youngest on top of her head, and she moved her head slightly. By the glow of the nightlight, I could see that something was wrapped around her neck. I looked closer and realized that it was the binding of the blanket. It must have come loose, and she pulled on it and messed with it until the thread gave out and a long section of binding was pulled loose.
I couldn’t see in the dark well enough how to get it unwrapped, so I turned on the lamp. Now I could tell it was wrapped twice around my daughter’s neck. She woke up while I was fumbling with the binding, and I was finally able to get it from around her neck. Then she started crying and saying she was sorry. My hands were shaking as I rubbed her back and consoled her and then I got a new blanket that didn’t have any binding around the edges and remade her bed with her in it. We giggled a little, while my other daughter never woke up.
I’m so glad I listened to that little nagging voice. Who knows, my daughter might have been strangled in the night by the satin binding from that blanket. Never again did my kids sleep with blankets that had binding around the edges. And I thank God for the small voice, nagging at me, on that particular night.”
“Something Was Far From Right”
“It was March 2016, and I was in Coimbatore, India.
I’d been in India for nearly a year on a church-service mission and was learning to love the place. One day, my companion, Ajay Kommalapati and I were going to visit one of our church members. We stopped by a street side shop for some snacks on the way, and were approached by the shopkeeper, who asked us some questions about our church. Another visitor to the shop overheard our conversation, and once we began to leave, started to talk to us too. He asked for a pamphlet, then mentioned that he had some friends who would want to hear about this too, sent off a few text messages, and went back to talking. Soon after, the conversation soon drifted into Tamil and I couldn’t keep track of it. It had been a long day, and I was tired, so I sat on my bike and let my eyes close for just one minute…
My head snapped up when someone bumped into me hard. A crowd had formed after I’d drifted off, but they didn’t look friendly. Now that I was paying attention, they were decidedly threatening and more were showing up every minute.
It was at this point I got the distinct feeling that we should be somewhere else — anywhere else! Something was far from right. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn’t cooperating. Several people grabbed the bikes to keep us from taking them; I ditched mine without a second thought, but was pushed back into the center. We were stuck, and the mob kept getting louder.
Soon, cameras were shoved in our faces and people started grabbing at things out of our pockets and shouting. I was lucky enough to not understand most of it, but the little that was in English was bad enough. The brunt of the abuse was directed at Ajay, but I was still questioned as to what I was doing there and how I dared talk about Christianity; India was for Hindus! More and more people showed up and those there got bolder and more threatening. I still didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I was sure that I didn’t want to stick around to find out.
Finally, the police arrived. A mob member had called them, so they could arrest us! At first, the police tried to let us go. That didn’t go down well; the shouting had started to die down but flared up with a passion. Things were clearly about to get violent. The police ended up loading us into their van and taking us down to the station, likely more than half for our own protection.
Afterwards, the Police Inspector had us cool our heels for about an hour, then dressed us down. Apparently, it was election season in Coimbatore and passing out unsolicited pamphlets of any sort was prohibited. Our explanation of how the man had asked for the pamphlet didn’t sway him much; he was clearly set on raking us over the coals. I was threatened with deportation and the revocation of my visa if I ever turned up in the police station again, and we were eventually released with orders to show up with identifying documents.”