Scariest moment of my life happened while my friend and I were camping in eastern Canada as teenagers. We decided to sleep in this abandoned camper we found deep in a large forest that was near our town. It had been there so long that small trees had grown around it. We'd stumbled across it when we were exploring a few months back and thought it would be cool (and brave) to sleep there for a night. So one weekend we did it.
We arrived after dark because we had gotten lost trying to find the camper. We had a really low power flashlight, so it made it even more difficult. Once we finally found it we opened the rusty door and stepped in. The sounds inside the camper were shrill and echoey. There were typical camper things strewn about; cups, empty cans, swollen pulp fiction novels.
Already tired, we holed up in one end of the camper where the bed area had originally been before the cushions had rotted away to almost nothing. A long hallway stretched the length of the camper so we could basically see from end to end.
It was a miserable night. There were several rats living in there. I saw them staring at us from a chewed out part of the ceiling. When the wind blew outside the camper would shriek and groan. We even thought we heard a bear outside too, walking around. Still, we feigned bravery and acted like we were having a good time. But we were on edge.
At some point I woke up from an uncomfortable sleep. I sat up to adjust myself when I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye. At the other end of the camper, there was a small window, and as I looked at it I saw a man's silhouette. He was clearly staring straight at me from outside.
At first I thought maybe it was a weird shape of a tree or something. But when I moved a bit to get a better look the person clearly reacted and then froze. My heart was pumping and I woke up my friend immediately, saying "someone is here" over and over and over in a whisper, not taking my eyes off his profile. He woke up immediately and I nodded towards the window.
He saw him too. We whispered frantically about who it could be and why was he staring at us. And for the next 10 minutes, no joke, we stared him down. The longer we stared at him the more frightened we got. Occasionally he would move, but always keeping his eyes locked on us. Eventually I shouted at him, "Hey!" No reaction.
My friend was braver than me and decided to shine the flashlight at him. As soon as he did we realized our horrible mistake. It wasn't a window at all on the other side of the camper. It was a mirror. We had been staring down ourselves from the very start. Completely idiotic. Still, it was the most fearful, relieving and funny moment of my life that I'll never forget it.
Closest to paranormal I've ever been.
