this was about 10 months ago now I was spending a few days with my best friend from college in his hometown I'll call him Chris for privacy it was a really small town from what I was used to but Chris was showing me around and we went to the bars and just hung out and had a good time on my last night there he mentioned a place Place he'd been wanting to explore for a while but hadn't had anyone to go with it was some abandoned house or town he knew of a few miles out
in the woods we used to go exploring and backpacking all the time in college so it sounded like a pretty cool idea only 30 minutes after hearing about it we were already trekking through a path in the woods we still had some sunlight left but we brought headlamp just in case about 20 minutes of walking the trail ended and we had to follow a very faint foot path through the trees it went on for another hour before we made it we could see a house out in the distance and as we got closer we could
see several more behind it it wasn't what either of us expected though the houses didn't really look looked that old they looked weathered and heavily damaged but had modern sighting and stuff like that that made them look kind of like any other house there was even a tiny Gravel Road leading from each of the homes it looked like maybe they were trying to build a community and something went wrong causing them to abandon it other people had been there before us though evident by the graffiti on the sides of the houses Chris and I went
up to the first house looking through the open doorway there were weeds growing through the floorboards but it was otherwise empty before we stepped in though a loud slamming sound echoed through the woods both of us jumped and stared down the gravel road that we thought it came from after that sound though it was quiet we had no idea what it was but after seeing nothing we went inside the house there wasn't too much to look at but what made it so interesting was trying to figure out why anyone would abandon it the house looks
like it would have been nice before it was left behind after walking around the first floor we went upstairs to the second oddly it got way darker upstairs like no windows were letting in any light the hallway was short with only two doors and what looked like an attic in the ceiling we went up to the first door and opened it seeing Another Empty room but we were quickly interrupted by hearing something downstairs there were shuffling footsteps coming through the grass and up to the house we were in we stayed quiet but we were sure
that whoever they were had probably seen us outside but why would they try to approach us they walked up to the front doorway then stopped just before they entered hello we didn't respond I just want to talk no harm at all he sounded older and almost like like he was missing teeth or something stumbling a bit over his words after that though there was a whole minute of Silence he didn't say anything else but we didn't hear him leave either we waited another few minutes still not hearing anything before Chris quietly went down the staircase
and looked over at the front door he turned and looked back at me with a pale face face there's nobody there I quickly went to see for myself but he wasn't lying he was nowhere in the doorway we carefully made our way down and over to the doorway looking out there was one line of footprints in the grass coming from where the other houses were but no Footprints leaving both of us figured it out at the same time and bolted for the tree knowing the guy must have been hiding inside the house somehow we got
out of the woods as fast as we could and went back to his place who that guy was and why he wanted to talk to us we don't know I'm sure if he'd found us though we probably wouldn't be here I was driving across the country for a kind of hectic trip I had to get some things done for work at an office way up in Maine and decided that while I was there already on the road trip that I'd visit some of my friends and family on the East Coast during my fourth day of
driving I was spending most of that day going through Pennsylvania there were a lot lot of cool towns but most of the drive was through nothing and to get where I was going it was taking me on a lot of side routes which were these long and empty one lane highways as it was getting late rain started coming down and my fuel was running low I hadn't passed any gas stations in a while so I figured there had to be one soon but again this road wasn't really going through any towns I continued through the
rain for another 30 minutes and barely through the fog I saw a sign for a gas station and a couple moments later it showed up ahead of me it was off the side of the road nestled in the trees and was really small it only had two pumps and a tiny concession building behind it having no other choice I pulled in and parked getting out and opening up my gas tank when I pulled the pump off and tried to insert my card though it didn't work I wiped the dusty screen and tried to see what
it was saying but it didn't say anything it wasn't even on I then went over to the only other pump and it was also off frustrated I looked around with it raining and being well past Sunset it was really hard to make anything out sure the place looked old and outdated but so did a lot of other gas stations after a closer look though I noticed a small light inside the concession building hoping it was a worker that could help me I stepped out from under the overhang covering the pumps and ran up to the
door moisture was covering the entire glass door so I couldn't see inside all I could see was the light reflecting through the glass I grabbed the handle and it screeched open when I stepped inside I immediately knew something was wrong the store shelves were empty and some even knocked over and the place just looked like it was destroyed the light was coming from somewhere in the back though and was now clearly some sort of lamp or something definitely not a regular store light I was only in there for a few seconds and after seeing all
of that I quickly stepped back outside I didn't know what was going on in there but I knew it couldn't be anything good and definitely not helpful for my situation as I backed out of the store and into the rain I turned around toward my car but a person was standing next to to it they were completely drenched in water and were just looking around my car and into the windows hey what are you doing I yelled as I quickly made my way up to them they shot a look at me then moved their eyes
behind me I turned back to look at the building the front door was opened and a man came out into the rain he had long black hair and a sickly look he spent no time assessing the situation and instantly started running at me the other person by my car just backed away as I got inside but the man running didn't slow down he came right up to my door and tried opening it and as I pulled away a loud metallic scrape vibrated through the car I sped out of there and back onto the road making
it another half hour before my car ran out of gas luckily I had cell service in the area and was able to get help while I waited though I looked at the outside of my car and saw a huge line going across the door it looked like the man had run a knife along it when I drove away police informed me later that night that the gas station I was at was not in service for at least a decade other than that though nothing else came of it and what would have happened if I didn't
get out in time is left to nothing but theories I live in the Midwest and there happens to be a lot of abandoned places near me I was in my last year of high school at the time and my friends and I would often go to these creepy places for fun it was a pretty normal thing that kids around here did this was on Memorial Day weekend which meant we had 3 days off of school and with the year coming to a close we decided to go explore a place that we'd been wanting to go
to for a while it was a ghost town called Cairo which isn't technically a full ghost town because a small portion is still lived in from what I know it was built up in the late 1800s and due to flooding and racial conflicts it slowly lost its population for almost 50 years most of the town has been completely empty and untouched left to just Decay hearing about this and hear hearing stories from other people who had been there we were all really invested in seeing it for ourselves on Sunday around 6 my friend Tristan picked
me and Ryan up then we drove 2 hours south to Cairo most of the drive was through huge farmlands in fields with not many towns or cities nearby when we got onto the road going through Cairo it was probably the most Eerie feeling I'd ever gotten there were faint lights far down the road coming from what looked like a few residents houses but everything between that was Pitch Black and completely abandoned we parked on the side next to some old brick building that said Liquor on it then got out of the car we all stood
there for a minute not really saying anything and just listening ing the wind was blowing around making the meal and Wood Creek all throughout the buildings but other than that it was absolutely silent Ryan led the way walking down the road as we looked around on the left side of the road were small wooden homes swallowed by Vines and bushes and on the right side was a line of old shops as we got toward the middle one of them stood out to us there was a sign sticking out from the brick that said gem it
looked like it was an old theater even having a ticket booth next to the entrance we all agreed to check it out so we pulled out our flashlights and entered through one of the windows it was obviously really dark inside and our flashlights were pretty terrible to be honest lighting up only a couple feet in the direction we pointed them in the main room was really dusty and had an awful odor to it like rotting wood or mold the floor was covered in debris as well but as we looked around Ryan suddenly told us to
stop Tristan and I immediately stopped moving and talking and just stared at Ryan he looked like he had heard something so we all stood in silence in listened for any noises after a minute Ryan broke the silence and said he swore he heard something above us he said it was like a single footstep but Tristan and I didn't hear it and thought it was probably just the building creaking we looked around some more before going through the only other doorway which led up some stairs to a second floor this floor was actually where all the
SE seats were at there were about 50 chairs leading up to a balcony where the stage was on the floor below we started walking in going down the row of steps through the chairs when a small Creek from behind us made us all turn around in the corner a man was standing between the wall and one of the chairs he looked completely disheveled and homeless and he was staring staring right at us while holding up one of his arms in his hand was a small revolver and he was pointing it directly at me it was
still silent in the building to the point where I could literally hear my heart beating through my body before Tristan ran back down the stairs leaving just me and Ryan we tried to stay calm and told him we were just going to leave but the man didn't speak or move so we carefully started walking back to the stairs and as soon as we were out of sight we booked it out of the theater and back to the car we drove away and spent the better part of an hour driving in silence as we all soaked
in what happened my guess is that the man we saw used to live in the community but as it fell apart he probably got caught up in the mess and was forced to hide and live in one of the abandoned buildings there were a lot of ways that situation could have ended and all of us getting out unharmed was unlikely and we haven't tested our luck at any other places since then
