Shadowing Practice: 3 Creepy True Halloween Night Horror Stories - Learn English Speaking with Video

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this was i want to say either 2018

or 2019 i was in my last year of college

and lived in a very small house by myself

and for halloween pretty much everyone

i knew was going to this sort of festival thing on the other side of town

it had all the typical stuff like a corn maze and random party games.

I met up with two of my buddies and hung with them for most of the time.

Even knowing that a lot of people I knew were going to be there, I didn't expect it to be as packed as it was.

It was pretty fun though.

About an hour after getting there, one of my friends pointed out some guy he thought was looking at us.

We all looked, and it was hard to tell because he had a full costume with a mask on,

but it did seem like he was looking our way.

At first, one of my buddies thought he could have been an employee,

you know, like those people that go around trying to scare people as part of a gag,

but the guy was being too subtle for that to make sense.

We walked over to a different part of the park, and sure enough, a couple minutes later,

we saw him again, just standing far off and looking in our direction.

I didn't know what his deal was, but there were quite a bit of drunk people walking around,

and I thought this guy was probably a little too wasted to be wandering around a crowded festival.

I didn't know why that would make him follow and stare at us, but I don't know why drunk people do half the things they do.

For the last hour and a half we were there, that guy was definitely still following and watching us.

Every 5 -10 minutes, one of us would catch him nearby and looking our way.

He never bothered us, but it was becoming more than something just some stupid drunk guy would do.

At one point, we all went into the corn maze, just cause, and as we were laughing and walking around,

we ran into him again he was alone and

when we saw him he just sort of stood there we turned

and went the other way but it was still pretty weird he never approached us

or did anything he was just loosely following

and watching us eventually as things were dying down we called it a night

and all split ways to head home i had walked there about two miles

because I wasn't sure if I'd drink or not.

I think it was 7 .30 when I left and began walking home.

There were still a few groups of kids walking around trick -or -treating, but it had definitely died down.

The walk took around 40 minutes.

By the time I was home, I was exhausted.

I laid on the couch and turned something random on the TV.

A few trick -or -treaters came by over the next half hour

but it was quiet afterward i was

so tired i committed to just staying on the couch

and knew i wasn't going upstairs to bed

so i turned all the lights off downstairs

and laid down leaving the tv on to fall asleep too

but at about 10 o 'clock someone rang the doorbell i'm not sure

if i was fully asleep or just about to be, but the sudden ringing scared me awake.

I jumped up from the couch and walked over to the door,

not even giving myself a second to think and realize it was too late for trick -or -treaters.

I think I was still out of it from waking up so quickly.

When I opened it, I froze up for a second.

It was the guy from the Halloween festival, the one following us around.

He was still fully in his costume, which I immediately recognized.

He didn't speak, and after a second I quickly shut the door.

I stayed there, completely shocked that this guy had followed me home, and that was almost two hours ago.

Then after 20 seconds, he rang the doorbell again and then called out trick

or treat in a monotone deep voice it almost sounds silly writing it out

but it was genuinely creepy in the moment i started backing up to get my phone

the man outside then started ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door repeatedly still saying trick -or -treat,

like it would make me open the door again.

I called 911.

Just when I hung up, I heard the man walk around to the window right outside my living room.

I quickly closed the blinds.

It got quiet.

Maybe he was trying to look through the blinds, but then he tapped on the glass.

I honestly didn't know what the fk was going on, or what else to do.

I just stood there.

Then, all of a sudden, something slammed into the window and shattered it, sending glass flying across the room.

I turned and sprinted to the kitchen to grab a knife, then stood in the corner and waited, heart racing and adrenaline flooding through me.

But after that, it stayed quiet.

Police showed up to no one outside my home anymore.

But disturbingly, there was blood on the windowsill.

The guy must have slammed his shoulder into it to break it, or maybe tried to climb in and got cut.

It just made the whole thing even crazier.

I was hopeful between having his blood on the glass and the festival probably having cameras, that this guy would be found and caught pretty quickly.

However, that was not the case at all.

The DNA didn't come back with any matches.

And while the festival did have a couple of cameras, it wasn't helpful because the man was in full costume the entire time.

Me and both of my friends

that saw the guy gave the police everything we could think of to help them identify him.

But ultimately, we were left with just as many questions as we had at the start of the investigation.

There was no clear intention or reason for what he was doing, which to me makes it more disturbing.

I don't find it any more comforting, knowing it was likely just a horrible man that had some sick idea to hurt someone on Halloween night,

for no other reason than being insane and wanting to do it.

This was around 2015.

I was younger, and for Halloween, I was going trick -or -treating with three of my friends.

For the first half of the day, it was all exactly how it always went.

We went to school, got home, put our costumes on, and met up to go house to house for candy.

We were old enough to not have any of our parents walking around with us.

This was also back when Halloween and trick -or -treating was still a big thing, at least in my town,

so for the first couple of hours, there were kids walking around everywhere.

Around 6, though, the sun began going down and it started getting pretty cold.

A lot of people seemed to go home, too, because it very quickly got a lot less crowded outside.

It wasn't snowing, but the wind felt sharp and it had to be below freezing.

I wanted to tough it out, and so did one of my friends who I'll call Brian.

The other two were not having it though.

We decided to split up, with the two of them heading back home and both me and Brian continuing to walk around.

Halloween was a once a year thing,

and in my eyes there was almost nothing that could make me willingly end the night early. with it getting colder

and less people being out we decided to make the most of the next two hours

or so there were some bigger houses across town

that like every other kid always thought meant

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they would be handing out full -sized candy we didn't go there to start

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because it was kind of far a 20 minute walk without stopping now this part of town

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that had all the bigger houses was the rich side, where all the houses had nice, large, wooded properties and were all spread out.

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The streets didn't even have sidewalks.

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It was just a really well -paved road winding between all the houses, with trees covering all the area in between.

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Right when we crossed over into this neighborhood, before we even got up to the first house, we saw something weird out in the trees.

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There was a flashlight moving around way out in the forest, not really close to any of the houses.

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It was super noticeable, because between all the houses, the forest was pitch black, so the light really stood out.

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We kept walking, unsure why anyone would be out there.

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and we walked up to the first house.

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We knocked, but nobody answered.

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And when we turned to leave, we noticed the light had gotten closer,

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like closer to the edge of the woods near the street that we had been walking on.

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We left the house and started walking over to the next one,

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and I felt like we were keeping a close eye on the light behind us.

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But only 30 -ish seconds after making it to the street, the light was gone, like it had turned off.

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Then, about a minute later, as we were walking along the quiet, empty road through the trees,

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we heard footsteps hurrying up to us from inside the forest.

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Not like in a full sprint, but faster than a walk.

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It made both of us jump, and before we could react, a man came out of the trees

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he looked about as creepy as you could possibly imagine

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he was a tall skinny man in what i'd guess was his 40s

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or 50s with very thin hair he looked weirdly excited to see us he smiled

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and asked how our halloween was going as

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if he was completely oblivious to how super weird

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and creepy it was

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that he just ran out of the forest i smiled awkwardly not sure yet how to react

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but brian said we were good the man nodded and kept

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that creepy smile you guys wouldn't mind

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if i walked with you for a minute would you me

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and brian looked at each other knowing just how unsettling him asking that was.

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We didn't respond, just sort of awkwardly started to hurry away from him.

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The moment we began moving, I saw his face fall flat, but I didn't look back to see anything else until we were further away,

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and when I did, he was gone.

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With nowhere else he could have gone, he had to have run back into the trees.

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We skipped the next house just to put some distance between him.

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The more we talked about it, the more uneasy we felt.

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It was almost like he was waiting in the forest right

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at the start of the road for some random trick -or -treaters to walk past him.

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And why would he possibly want to walk with us?

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It felt even worse seeing as we were the only kids walking around.

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The whole street was empty of anyone else.

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We went to a couple more houses, but the ones that did have candy just had the regular stuff.

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Both of us were starting to get cold, and feeling on edge with the guy being out there,

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we decided it was better not to go any further and to start heading back.

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This neighborhood was basically just one long road that continued going in the opposite direction of our neighborhood,

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so the only way back was from the way we came in.

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For most of the walk out of that neighborhood, we were quiet and just kept our eyes open, making sure that man wasn't still lurking around.

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Ten minutes later, we got back to the spot where the man had come out of the forest to talk to us,

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right at the start of the wooded neighborhood.

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There was no flashlight or anything shining in the trees, and the man wasn't anywhere that we could see.

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But Brian noticed something laying on the side of the road, right where the tree line starts.

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It was a pillowcase.

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A pillowcase full of candy and stuff.

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Some had even spilled out of it and was all over the grass, like they had dropped it in a panic.

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I can't even tell you how freaked out I got when I saw that.

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Brian walked over and tried to make sense of it, but i had my eyes fixed on the darkness out in

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the forest a moment later a light suddenly turned on same one

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that we saw before

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and it was way deeper into the trees right away

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i wanted to leave having a really bad feeling about this

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but i could tell brian wanted to go out there both of us had the same idea,

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that some kid was probably just taken by that creepy guy.

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Brian wanted to run and try and help him, but I thought there was no chance we'd be able to do anything,

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and probably would just end up making things worse.

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He started walking into the forest, but after he took a few steps in, it looked like he saw something, and he stopped.

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He turned around and we both ran away from there his house was closer

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so we sprinted there and called the police

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they went out there and searched the area finding the bag of candy we saw

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but they didn't find anyone in the forest

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and what made it a lot more confusing is

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that no kids ended up missing from that night at least not

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that was made public it makes me think

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it could have been a trap to get us to walk into the forest to see

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if someone needed help but that seems like a really far -fetched plan

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and while i didn't see anything in the darkness Brian said when he stepped into the woods,

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he saw two figures near the light.

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Neither were children.

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He said they were both tall, and that they were standing there looking at us.

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Like they were waiting for us to walk deeper in.

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The creep that came up to us and was watching us definitely was up to something.

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I'm just glad Brian had a change of heart and didn't run in there because if he had,

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I probably would have felt the need to follow him and have his back.

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And I don't know what we would have found or what would have happened.

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This was over a decade ago, when I was in middle school.

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It was the first year on Halloween that I felt a bit too old to be going around trick -or -treating,

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even though most of my other friends were still going.

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Up until the day before Halloween, I thought I was just going to be staying home and hanging out alone.

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But my friend Adam said he also was not planning on trick -or -treating,

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and he said his parents were going to be gone for the night,

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going to some party, and that we could hang at his place and just watch movies or whatever.

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I figured why not, and on Halloween I brought over my stuff to sleep over.

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Adam's house was one of those that was in a wealthy part of the neighborhood.

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I thought it was a mansion, at least compared to mine and my other friends' houses.

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Regardless, it was a big place, and I always thought it was really cool hanging out there.

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The house had a finished basement with a guest suite, which is where we'd always hang out at.

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For the first couple of hours after I got there, we played video games and ate a bunch of candy.

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His parents had left a bowl out for trick -or -treaters, so we didn't need to answer the door or anything.

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By 8 o 'clock, we were still in the basement and trying to decide what horror movie we'd turn on,

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when a knock echoed through the house.

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Both of us ignored it, assuming the bowl was empty and it was just some kids hoping we'd have more inside.

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but then they knocked again.

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I looked at Adam, and he looked confused.

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It was definitely from the front door.

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Why would any kids stick around to knock again?

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Obviously, neither of us wanted to answer the door for anyone.

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However, we were curious who was out there.

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We went upstairs after a minute and didn't hear any kids laughing or talking outside the door.

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When I looked out, no one was on the porch, but there was someone farther back.

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He looked like he was walking away, maybe having just left the porch and walked down the driveway.

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The man was alone and looked like a regular person, like he could have been someone's dad looking for his kid.

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We thought nothing of it and went back downstairs we agreed on a movie

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and started it i think it was one of the scream movies

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which his parents just happened to have had already recorded usually

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when i spend the night at a buddy's place i'd want to stay up as late as possible

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but after the movie both of us were really tired maybe

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because of all the candy and junk food we tried staying up a little bit longer, playing video games again for another 30 -ish minutes.

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Before, we both agreed to just go to bed early, so we set up our sleeping stuff.

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He had a bed in that spare guest suite bedroom, right in the basement, which he offered,

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but I preferred to just use my sleeping bag and lay on the floor or the couch.

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Around 11 .30, Adam went into the room, I turned off the lights, got in my sleeping bag, and fell asleep.

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I remember being really disoriented when I woke up, because the moment my eyes opened,

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I noticed the light by the stairs was on.

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The rest of the room was still dark.

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It was just that one light.

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And when I rolled over to shield my eyes from it, I saw the door to the guest room was open.

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At first, I thought he had to have just gotten up and gone upstairs to use the bathroom,

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but I immediately remembered there was a bathroom down in the basement with us.

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Also, I thought it was pretty weird he even turned the light on, if he was just getting up to use the bathroom.

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I sat up and walked over to the guest room, where he was sleeping.

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Adam wasn't in the bed.

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Adam?

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You down here?

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I called out as I walked over to the stairs.

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The whole house was quiet, a bit creaky from the windstorm that was going on outside, but I didn't hear Adam doing anything upstairs,

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and I also didn't see any lights on up there.

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I walked up to the top of the stairs and into the hallway.

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Right away, I could see way at the other end of the house, the front door was open.

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Seeing that sent chills through me, because there really shouldn't be any reason for the door to be open.

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I thought about calling out for Adam again, but something in me told me not to.

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I walked over and looked out the door.

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It was dead quiet, and Adam wasn't outside.

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And while I was standing there, I started feeling really off.

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Like I was starting to realize this was really strange.

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Then I heard footsteps from the other side of the house.

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I turned around.

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Still, the lights were off down there.

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After a moment, I was just about to call Adam's name.

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When I suddenly saw something move in the room next to me.

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I think it was the library room or some spare family room and behind one of the large standing bookshelves,

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Adam was peering out at me.

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His eyes were wide open and he looked absolutely horrified.

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Without even having to think about it,

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I immediately knew someone had broken into the house and that's whose footsteps I'd just heard.

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I quietly ran over to Adam and whispered that we should just run away.

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It was like he was frozen though.

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He didn't want to move, just looking terrified to leave where he was hiding.

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After a bit, I realized I had to do something, that both of us just hiding in here wasn't going to help the situation.

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I heard the person slowly walking around still on the other end of the house, and so I quietly told Adam to stay where he was.

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Then I hurried out the front door.

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I didn't have a phone at the time, so I ran through the trees to a neighbor's house I could see in the distance.

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I banged on their door.

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An older man opened up and let me in.

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As we were waiting for the police to head over, I was really scared for Adam, kind of regretting leaving him alone.

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Thankfully though, when the police made it, they found him still there hiding behind the bookcase.

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However, the person that we heard inside the home was gone.

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Adam said he heard him run out a few minutes after I left.

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And as for what happened before I woke up,

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Adam had woken up in the middle of the night thinking he heard knocks at the front door again.

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He wasn't sure and didn't want to wake me for no reason.

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He went upstairs to check, and when he looked out, he saw a man completely covered in black, trying to pick the door open.

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From there, he got scared, and quickly hid just before the guy got the door unlocked.

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The man walked in, and Adam says he was just walking around slowly.

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We don't really know what he was there for.

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And, disturbingly, Adam thinks this all happened about an hour before I woke up.

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So, he was just hiding there, terrified and too scared to run away or yell for help for the entire time.

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The rest of what happened afterward was handled by Adam's family.

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Of course, with his parents getting involved and trying to figure out who the hell the man was, and why he targeted their place.

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I haven't talked to Adam in a while,

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but I'm pretty sure they never found the guy or really got any closure for the event that happened that night.

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Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “3 Creepy True Halloween Night Horror Stories”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Adam, door, walking. This video has 280 sentences and 3823 words to shadow. The speech runs for 25:17. The speaker talks at a natural 151 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
trick noun	/ˈtɹɪk/	Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
candy noun	/ˈkæn.di/	Crystallized sugar formed by boiling down sugar syrup.
knock verb	/nɑk/	To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood.
scare verb	/skɛɚ/	To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
creepy adjective	/ˈkɹipi/	Moving by creeping along.
upstairs adverb	/ˌʌpˈstɛɹz/	Up the stairs; on or to a higher floor or level.
basement noun	/ˈbeɪsmənt/	A floor of a building below ground level.
costume noun	/ˈkɑsˌt(j)um/	A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.
couch noun	/ˈkaʊ̯t͡ʃ/	An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa.
asleep adjective	/əˈsliːp/	In a state of sleep; also, broadly, resting.
hurry verb	/ˈhʌ.ɹi/	To do things quickly.
stairs noun	/ˈstɛɹz/	A contiguous set of steps connecting two floors.
freeze verb	/ˈfɹiːz/	Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
sprint noun	/spɹɪnt/	A short race at top speed.
clock noun	/klɑk/	A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
walk around verb		To walk with no planned destination; to meander.
look out verb		To be vigilant and aware often as an imperative to alert a person to danger.
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
call out verb		To specify, especially in detail.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
get up to verb		To do something, especially something that is forbidden or improper.
go around verb		To move or spread from person to person.
run away verb		To flee by running.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	would be found · were left · was probably just taken
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	man that had · friends who I · ones that did
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	was looking · was being · was definitely still following
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	started backing · started ringing · started getting

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 50 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, wasn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sharp /ʃɑɹp/, shock /ʃɔk/, intention /ɪnˈtɛnʃn̩/, shield /ˈʃild/, shine /ʃaɪn/
Long words — get the stress right: repeatedly /ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/, adrenaline /əˈdɹɛnəlɪn/, disorient /dɪsˈɔːɹi.ənt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like trick, candy, knock.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 3 Creepy True Halloween Night Horror Stories - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?