Shadowing Practice: 3 True Scary Snowstorm & Cabin Horror Stories Animated - Learn English Speaking with Video
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This was a few years ago.
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I was traveling, driving about 14 hours this day, to try and reach Seattle.
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I didn't pre -book any hotels, because in my experience they always have open rooms anyway,
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and sometimes it's better to get to an area you know you'll like and then find a hotel while you're there.
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So I was never too pressed on time.
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Although this day I did get several alerts about an area I was driving through, getting a pretty big snow and windstorm.
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I still decided to make the drive, but was cautious and paid attention to the weather changes.
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Around 5, everything really picked up.
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Not dangerous feeling yet, but I knew this was supposedly just the beginning.
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My car felt a little less stable, and over the course of 30 minutes, every other car on the road was gone.
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It was just me, driving alone through this very small, empty highway, straight through a massive snowstorm.
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And when the sun went down, I got worried enough that I decided to pull over and find the closest rental to hunker down at for the night.
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There really wasn't that much around, though.
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Closest towns in either direction were an hour away, and the one motel 15 minutes down the road was closed.
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The only option I saw was a cabin rental that wasn't too far, and just off the highway.
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It definitely didn't look like an established place, but if I wanted to stay somewhere, it really was my only option.
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It was advertised as being fully online, and with it being available for that same night, I decided to book it.
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I drove not too long down the road, then turned off on a short gravel driveway up to the cabin.
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The pictures of it online were only of the outside, so I knew it was small, but I really had no clue what to expect of it.
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I parked, grabbed my small bag, and ran up to the door.
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The snow hadn't piled up too much yet.
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I typed the code into one of those key lock holders, then got inside.
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The place was maybe 200 square feet total, just a single open room that didn't even have a kitchen area,
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not that I needed anything more than a bed.
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But what was strange was that the inside was dirty looking, not like it had been trashed, but like no one had used,
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rented, or even been there in months.
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A thin layer of dust covered everything, and the lighting was very poor, which definitely didn't help it look lively in any way.
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I set down my things near the bed, and just a couple minutes after getting inside, the snowstorm seemed to get twice as bad outside.
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I opened the window, and it was so bad that even with the back outdoor light on,
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I could only see white from the snow flying past the window.
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It was also pretty cold inside, and the only heater I think the cabin had was a small wood -burning stove in the corner.
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At least there was already cut up wood to use, so I got that going, then pretty much just sat on the bed and relaxed.
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I laid back and let my eyes rest.
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I must have fallen asleep for an hour or two.
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I didn't wake up suddenly, but I was aware that something had woken me up.
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Faintly, I could hear an alarm going off outside.
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It was muffled by all the wind and creaks of the cabin, but it was noticeable, and when I got up and moved closer to the front door,
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I realized it was my car alarm.
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I quickly threw on my coat and hurried outside.
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I could barely even see my car in the blizzard.
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Its headlights were blinking and the alarm was still going.
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I tried pressing the unlock button as I approached it, but it wouldn't stop the alarm.
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I assumed this had to have been caused by the heavy winds or something.
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Though when I got up to it and opened the front door, I actually noticed there was snow inside the car,
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just a little bit piled up on the front seat, like the door had been left open for a couple of minutes.
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But the door was shut when I approached it.
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I suddenly started shifting my head around.
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I couldn't see very far at all, which is why when I did see someone, it was a genuine jump scare.
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There was a man standing maybe ten feet away from me, and near where the trees from the forest started.
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I couldn't see much of anything except for his outline, though, because of the whiteout.
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I tried to yell at him, but my voice choked up in the cold, and honestly, I was terrified, so I ran back to the cabin and got in.
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Of course, I immediately looked out the windows.
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Again, almost no visibility outside, but I didn't see him following me.
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What the hell was that guy doing out here?
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I knew he had to have gotten into my car somehow and triggered the alarm, so I was really scared of what intentions he might have had.
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What if he were trying to prevent my car from running, or trap me here in the cabin during the snowstorm?
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I didn't know, but all of those possibilities really freaked me out.
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I got my phone and dialed 911.
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It rang for a couple of seconds, but the call dropped.
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The storm must have been messing with the signal that was already weak from being out in the middle of nowhere.
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I called several more times, one time even hearing an operator's voice on the other side, but it cut out again after just a second.
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I wasn't able to tell them what was going on or give them any information.
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Then, out of nowhere, my car alarm started going off again.
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i stood inside the cabin anxiously knowing there was nothing i could do
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and only able to imagine what horrible things could possibly be
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going on the alarm went off for several minutes before it cut out didn't know
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if he had turned it off somehow or if my car had just died or something
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10 more minutes went by i knew there was no way
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the guy out there was doing all of this for nothing
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so I was really hoping he was breaking into my car just to steal whatever and leave.
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But then I started to see his figure emerging from the whiteout.
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He was approaching the cabin.
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Once he got closer, I moved away from the window.
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A moment later, I heard his boots hit the porch and go right up to the door.
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He knocked steadily, like he wasn't in a rush and knew I was stuck there.
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I didn't move, didn't say anything.
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I just waited.
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The man knocked again.
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Then I heard his boots move across the porch and into the snow.
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Sounded like he was walking to the side of the cabin, toward where one of the windows was.
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I moved closer to the wall so he wouldn't be able to see me.
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His footsteps stopped near the window, and I assume he was looking in.
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While he was, I started to hear this low sound that I was pretty sure was him humming.
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He moved from the window and began circling the cabin,
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all while casually just humming through the snowstorm and walking up to each of the windows.
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A couple times he even knocked on the windows, but never did he say anything.
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It was extremely creepy.
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And then it went quiet.
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It was hard to tell if his humming faded into the distance or if he had just stopped, but all I heard now was wind.
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I anxiously waited for a while, and after about 15 minutes, an officer actually showed up to the cabin.
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I could not even begin to describe the relief I felt
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when i saw the officer i guess they had received my calls
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and didn't get responses from me
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but were able to see the location of the call
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because i'd attempted
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so many times they sent an officer to do a welfare
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check the guy outside the cabin was nowhere around though the
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only things still left were his footprints in the snow going around the cabin and then straight into the woods
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He had no car or anything, and he also didn't steal anything from the inside of my car.
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It seemed like he had done it just to set off the alarm.
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Nothing about any of it really makes any sense, and of course, I didn't stay there any longer.
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I made it safely to Seattle and haven't stayed in a small remote cabin like that ever since then.
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I was heading out to a cabin with a good friend Adam.
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His family had this place out in the mountains that they used as a vacation cabin, and usually they went there at some point during the winter,
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but for one reason or another, the rest of his family didn't want to go this year.
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Since it would be empty, Adam invited me and we thought it'd be chill to have the cabin to ourselves and just hang out.
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We drove out there together and got to the place at noon.
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I'd never been there before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.
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It was a pretty big cabin, not like one of those old tiny ones.
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This one looked newer and larger, basically a house to be honest.
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Adam had been there multiple times, but this was his first time not going with family, so working everything was kind of a nightmare to figure out.
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With a few calls to his parents, we were able to get the place functioning and everything up and running though.
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That night, we didn't do much because we retired from the six -hour drive.
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We went to bed and got up to find the cabin snowed in.
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Got about six inches of snow overnight and it was still coming down hard.
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We stayed in, enjoying the cabin and the calmness, and honestly just doing what we'd usually do at home.
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Watching TV, talking, and whatever.
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At night, we turned on the football game and started drinking a bit.
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Just a few beers.
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Nothing too crazy.
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But at some point, we both heard something outside that sounded almost exactly like a man coughing.
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We both shot our heads up and looked at the front door where we thought we'd heard the sound from.
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We were both very confused.
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Adam said there was no way someone else was out here.
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After a bit of hesitation, I got up and looked, but didn't see anything.
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The front porch was empty.
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So, ultimately, we both thought we must have heard something else, and joked that we were maybe a little more drunk than we thought,
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mistaking one of the natural sounds of the woods for being someone coughing.
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The idea that anyone could be out there where his cabin was, and coughing outside of it,
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was ridiculous to us, so we forgot about it pretty quickly.
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Once the game was over, we hung around the fireplace and just had some beers and talked.
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We stayed up pretty late.
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I don't even have any idea what time we called it.
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Adam went to one of the bedrooms and I stayed in the living room.
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There were a bunch of extra bedrooms, but I sort of just wanted to sleep on the couch next to the fireplace for that unique experience, I guess.
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And neither of us expected the heavy snow and sudden drop of temperature, and the cabin wasn't really meant to be stayed in during extreme temperatures,
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so the regular home heater could only keep the place around 60 degrees.
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The fireplace made that much more bearable.
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Anyway, I grabbed a blanket and fell asleep on the couch.
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When I woke up, Adam was whispering my name from the hallway.
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I looked over the couch, completely disoriented and confused.
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He looked the same as me.
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Was that you?
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i asked was what me he looked a little more concerned
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as i told him i'd been sleeping on the couch not
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doing anything adam told me he swore he heard a door open
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and close and he thought i'd left the cabin
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and went outside for some reason
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but clearly i hadn't he went over to the door
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and checked it
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and it was still locked up at this point i thought he was just going crazy maybe anxious from drinking too much,
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so I told him to chill and that the cabin was probably just creaking or something.
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He still looked concerned, like he really did believe what he heard, but agreed that he was probably crazy, and headed back to the bedroom.
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I laid back down and closed my eyes, though after that I almost felt fully awake.
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Still, I didn't move or open my eyes for 20 minutes.
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I kept listening to the wind outside the cabin and the sounds the cabin was making, but everything felt eerie now for some reason.
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And after those 20 minutes of not being able to clear my head or fall asleep, I opened my eyes and sat up to sort of reset,
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and I instantly felt a shock go through me.
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The front door was open.
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just slightly cracked, but it was fully closed and locked when Adam checked it.
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I literally couldn't believe it.
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I got up and walked over.
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The cold wind shooting through the door made me shiver.
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I looked out, seeing basically nothing but darkness, then closed the door.
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I was actually really nervous now and wanted to go tell Adam, but...
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What?
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I didn't.
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I stood there and looked around the cabin for a minute, thinking how this could be possible.
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Like, were we both just going crazy?
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And then I heard a thump.
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It was against the side of the cabin.
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I moved toward the sound, and it happened again, but much louder.
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Loud enough to get adam to leave his room
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and ask me what that was i shook my head
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that i didn't know and mentioned the door but the thumps kept hitting the walls of the cabin from outside
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heavy loud hits against the wood it was very strange
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and it wasn't against a window
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or the back door it was just on the wall there
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was no way in hell either of us were going outside to see what that was.
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Not in the dark and not in the winter storm going on.
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Both of us went around checking windows and listening.
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But after a few minutes, it was silent again.
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It stayed quiet for a half hour as we discussed what the hell we thought was going on.
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Still, up to this point, neither of us had actually seen a person out there, so our heads were naturally thinking to any other excuse to explain this.
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But then the thumping started again, hitting the sidewall of the cabin near one of the bedrooms.
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It moved along the wall, not just in one spot.
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This went on for hours, brief pauses for a bit, only for it to start up again.
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And through the whole night, we just didn't know what to do.
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Just before sunrise, it stopped.
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and didn't start again.
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When the sun was up and with the snowfall slowing down, we both put on our jackets and went outside with kitchen knives in hand to look around.
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All over the outer walls were huge dents, scuffs, and scratches in the wood.
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It hardly looked natural or like something someone would do, because it wasn't like they were trying to break in.
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They were just hitting the wall for some unknown reason.
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Obviously, that morning, we got the hell out of there, not getting any answers or explanation.
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And with the door being open in the middle of the night, now feeling a lot less coincidental, we felt very unsafe.
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It was a really big reality check for us, though, because of course now looking back on it we should have called the cops we were just young
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and in the moment it was so strange and confusing
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that we just didn't i don't know what was happening
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or who was out in that forest by the cabin
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but i think it was clear that they did not want us to be there
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I live 20 minutes outside of a small town in a quiet field.
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It's a small place where not much goes on.
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This was a week or two after New Year's.
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It had been snowing on and off, and this night it started snowing quite a lot.
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I was working in town until 7 .30, scheduled until 9, but left early because of how much snow and ice we were supposed to be getting.
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The roads were empty on the way out to my home, but when I pulled in, I very quickly noticed that there were some tracks in the snow.
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Tire tracks, from a car or truck having driven down my driveway and up to my house.
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This was very weird, but when I pulled up, no one was there.
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I headed inside and forgot about it, figuring someone just had the wrong address, and probably left as soon as they saw my house.
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I cooked dinner and stayed in the living room to watch TV for the rest of the night.
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I'd say just under an hour went by, when I noticed a glare coming through the blinds in the window.
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Living out in the fields, the only lights that could possibly be shining into my home had to be from someone right outside my house,
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so immediately I was a little on edge.
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I went up and looked outside, seeing a car pulled up right in my driveway.
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Its bright headlights were on, and whoever it was seemed to be parked right in the snow, not doing a quick turnaround or anything like that.
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I thought back to the tire tracks from earlier and thought this was a crazy coincidence.
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I waited there by the window for a bit, 4 or 5 minutes at least, before the car started to back up,
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did a 3 point turn and drove away toward the main road.
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by then i was very concerned because sitting out my driveway way out here was really strange
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it would be hard to accidentally drive down my driveway
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and then not immediately realize it once you saw my house
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and during a winter storm like this just made it more suspicious
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i kept the main windows open enough
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that i could see through them from the couch then went
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back to watching tv constantly looking over my shoulder at the window
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i stayed up for a couple more hours
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and didn't see anything else outside i didn't know what to think about the cars showing up at my house
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so i just didn't think too much about it
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because there really wasn't anything i could do i closed the blinds shut everything off
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and went down the hall to my bedroom.
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I stayed up on my phone for another 15 minutes, then passed out.
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When I woke up, it had to be around 2am.
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The wind was really heavy outside, shaking the whole house, but it was also eerily quiet.
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I'm usually a light sleeper, so I do often wake up a lot throughout the night, but this time felt different,
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though I wasn't immediately aware of why.
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Sounds crazy, but the atmosphere just felt off, like something had shifted and wasn't quite right.
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I couldn't pinpoint the feeling though.
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I decided to get out of bed and look out the window, to check on the storm, but also to try and figure out this feeling I was having.
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Since this was a one -story house with a side garage,
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my bedroom window was actually directly in line with the gravel driveway that led from my house to the main road.
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When I looked out, even though it was dark and snowy, and the headlights were off,
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I could still see the shape of a car parked right on the driveway.
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It had a layer of snow already piled over top of it, like it had already been out there for a while, an hour at least.
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I felt my heart start beating.
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I backed away from the window, then turned to leave the bedroom to go check that every single door and window was locked.
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But the moment I faced the bedroom door, I saw something move.
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A shadow under the door from something he'd already gotten inside.
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The thought that he had been waiting for me out in that hallway while I was sleeping for possibly hours, was genuinely disturbing.
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All I could pray for was that he didn't hear me or know that I'd woken up.
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I got my phone from the nightstand and texted 911 so I didn't have to risk talking out loud.
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I got a response right away that officers were 18 minutes out, as well as instructions to remain quiet and stay hidden.
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Every few minutes, I would see his shadow move under the door and hear quiet footsteps pacing out in the hallway.
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And, finally, after waiting the longest 18 minutes of my life, I saw police lights coming down the snowy driveway.
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Suddenly, the man's footsteps rushed toward the front of the house, but he was too late.
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The officers got him.
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Through the next few days, we found out this wasn't some random break -in.
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He had been watching me for a while, having random pictures taken of me in public and outside of my home.
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Some of me just sitting on the porch at night, like he was out in the dark field hiding in the pitch black in front of me.
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I never had any idea of it.
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And he was just some man I'd never met or seen before.
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Also, in his car they found a firearm and what I'll just call a kit.
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rope, and stuff like that.
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It's fairly obvious what he was going to do had I walked out of my room that night, and I'm very lucky things went the way they did,
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despite how awful of a situation it was.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “3 True Scary Snowstorm & Cabin Horror Stories Animated”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: cabin, window, door, outside. This video has 265 sentences and 3762 words to shadow. The speech runs for 24:41. The speaker talks at a natural 152 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| cabin noun | /ˈkæbɪn/ | A small dwelling characteristic of the frontier, especially when built from logs with simple tools and not constructed by professional builders, but by those… |
| bedroom noun | /ˈbɛdˌɹum/ | A room in a house, apartment, hotel, or other dwelling where a bed is kept for sleeping. |
| alarm noun | /əˈlɑɹm/ | A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy. |
| driveway noun | /ˈdɹaɪvˌweɪ/ | A short private road that leads to a house or garage. |
| couch noun | /ˈkaʊ̯t͡ʃ/ | An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person; a sofa. |
| porch noun | /pɔɹt͡ʃ/ | A covered entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a… |
| nowhere adverb | /ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/ | In no place. |
| asleep adjective | /əˈsliːp/ | In a state of sleep; also, broadly, resting. |
| knock verb | /nɑk/ | To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood. |
| pile noun | /paɪl/ | A mass of things heaped together; a heap. |
| cough verb | /kɔf/ | Sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound)… |
| hallway noun | /ˈhɔlˌweɪ/ | A corridor in a building that connects rooms. |
| hum verb | /ˈhʌm/ | To make a sound from the vocal cords without pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed. |
| fireplace noun | /ˈfaɪɹpleɪs/ | An open hearth for holding a fire at the base of a chimney. |
| rush verb | /ɹʌʃ/ | To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| get up verb | To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb. | |
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. | |
| cut out verb | To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something). | |
| drive down verb | To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get up to verb | To do something, especially something that is forbidden or improper. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I didn't move, didn't say anything.
- I literally couldn't believe it.
- I couldn't pinpoint the feeling though.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 66 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, wasn't, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, thump /θʌmp/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, shock /ʃɔk/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, accidentally /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/, genuinely /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.ɪn.li/
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 cabin, bedroom, alarm.
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.