Sometimes, reality is just as bizarre as any story. The short tales you’re about to read begin with everyday moments — a noise behind the wall, a strange coincidence, a glitch that doesn’t add up. But as they unfold, something feels wrong. None of these stories are fabricated or impossible; they’re all based on events that could actually happen. And with every page, they grow more unsettling.
Story1
I live with my mother. One night, I couldn’t fall asleep. Around 2 a.m., I heard footsteps coming from my mother’s room, then the fridge door opening, followed by the sound of something sizzling in a frying pan. I didn’t think much of it and eventually drifted off.
In the morning, I woke up to my mother coming home from her night shift. She immediately scolded me for leaving a dirty frying pan on the stove — only she hadn’t been home all night.
Story2
I saw someone at the train station who looked exactly like me — clothes, hair, even shoes. We made eye contact, and he gave a small smile. I told my roommate later. He reminded me we’d donated a bunch of my old clothes to a shelter two weeks earlier. Probably just someone wearing my old stuff.
Story3
At 2 a.m., I jolted awake to 16 missed calls from my daughter and a chilling text that read, “Mom, help me!” She lives alone and is eight months pregnant. My heart dropped. I jumped in the car and raced to her apartment.
When she opened the door, she looked confused. “Mom? I was asleep. I didn’t call you.” Still shaken, I pulled out my phone to show her — and that’s when we both froze. Along with the missed calls, there was a message that read: “My baby’s fever isn’t coming down. What should I do?” It was followed by a photo of a crying baby.
I checked the number. It wasn’t hers. I didn’t recognize it at all. I called the number back. A young woman answered, her voice shaking with panic. Through tears, she explained that she was a new mom trying to reach her own mother. Her baby had suddenly become very ill in the middle of the night, and in her distress, she had dialed the wrong number — mine.
Somehow, her desperate message landed on my phone. I stayed on the line with her, talked her through a few things she could try, and reassured her while she waited for the doctor. Eventually, she started to calm down.
The entire experience felt unreal — like the universe had crossed some wires on purpose. With my own daughter just weeks away from giving birth, it hit especially close to home.
I never heard from that woman again, but I think about her often. I truly hope she and her baby are safe and well.
Story4
I was adopted from South America to the US when I was a toddler and have no memory of my birth parents. I had an older friend/mentor I met in college, whom I knew as Mike.
When I learned that my birth mother had passed away, I received a few of her belongings, including pictures. Who was in these pictures? Mike. He was my birth father. © aaareed / Reddit
Story5
There was a girl who was head over heels for me, but I didn’t want anything to do with her. After school, I didn’t think about her, but one year, when I went back home for the summer, I found out she had moved to my family’s building, to the apartment across from ours (my building has two apartments per floor).
I had never told her where I lived before this. I decided to be cordial and talk to her family and all, welcome the neighbors and whatnot, and I found out from her mom that the girl had suggested they move there.
Now, I can’t tell either way if it was deliberate or pure chance, but let’s just say we live in a big city, and the odds of that being a coincidence were low. © Kenhamef / Reddit