scary stories that had me stay up all night

1

Story 1 ; sweetmercy on reddit

On the paranormal side of things, I grew up in a house that was (years after we moved in) found to have a hidden torture chamber behind a false wall in the basement. A lot of unexplained things happened during the 14 years we lived there. One that particularly stands out happened when I was in my last year of elementary school. My youngest brother left when my mom went to work and she would drop him off at pre-school. My other siblings all were in junior high or high school, and left earlier than me, as their school started an hour earlier than mine. My father left before everyone, at 5 am every morning for work. So, I was always the last one to leave on school days.

One of my brothers, who was later diagnosed as bipolar, got into drugs the year before, so my parents put a deadbolt on their room to stop him from taking money/things to sell. It was always locked when they left, and this morning was no exception. I left as usual, got about a block and a half away, and realized I'd forgotten my math book. I ran back. I'd been gone 3, maybe 4 minutes, but upon opening the door, so much had changed! My parents bedroom door was wide open, the stereo on (it hadn't been on when I left). The door beside their dresser, which led to a 2nd story porch was also open. Nobody in the room, nobody on the porch.

Worse, though, was the door to the attic being open. It was never left open. I peered through the doorway, and halfway up the stairs was our dog. She was a teacup poodle, small and very sweet...but right now she was standing, shaking on the stairs, her teeth bared, emitting a very low growl. I went up as quietly as I could, keeping my eye on the dark blob of shadows at the top of the stairs. I'd just gotten to where I could reach her, when it felt like a breeze hit me, carrying a sickly sweet but rotten smell, not unlike the bottom of a well-used garbage can. There were no open windows in the attic. I reached down to pick up the dog, and when I looked up again, the shadow blob had moved. Scared now, I snatched the dog and ran down the stairs, slamming the door shut. I ran down the other stairs to the first floor, still holding the dog, and out the door.

I never told anyone about it. When I went home that day, my parents made no mention of their door being open or the stereo on, so I'm guessing that things were set right before they got there. For the rest of that school year, I went to my friend's house every morning to walk to school with her after my siblings left.

story 2 ; HorridCrowd on reddit 

This story scares the crap out of me every time I think about it.

I was at my grandparents house one night, my grandmother then came into my room at 3:30 in the morning and told me, "Your grandfather needs your help. Get up". This sort of startled me because she has never done anything like this. I go out to where my grandfather is right outside the door that goes into the garage and he tells me that, "The garage door just went up and down 6 or 7 times we need to check it out." I obviously said alright and we went into the garage only the find the pull-string that prevents the door from opening, which can only be pulled form the inside, was pulled. He looks at me and says, "We have to go outside to fix it so no one can get in". We then head outside and when we rounded the corner to look at the garage the motion lights came on and there seemed to be scratches on the door. He and I fixed the door and went back to bed.

About two weeks after this, I was staying there again and woke up at around 2:30 in the morning to hearing stomping in the kitchen, which is very close to my room. I get up and hear the stomps come closer to my door and stop. I figured that my grandfather was adjusting the thermostat. I opened my door to see what was going on only to find that everyone in the house was asleep and all the lights were turned off. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night.