1. I watched my friend get hit by a car and die

“When I was 13 I watched my friend get hit by a car and die. We were outside of a park and he was running around chasing these other kids and throwing sand at them. This is a park in an urban neighborhood so pretty much all of our houses, which were pretty much all multi family houses, are all within the vicinity of the park. This was also in the summer, the day before the 4th of July, so kids were everywhere. The two kids being chased ran into the alley between their house and their neighbors house. They stood behind their chainlink fence and teased the kid chasing them because they got away. The kid chasing them was walking backward and swearing at them. He was walking backward between the parked cars that were along the curb and moving toward the street. I was across the street and seen a car speeding down the street toward him and before I could even say anything he had been hit. He flew about 25 feet and was laying in the middle of the street squirming around. I was in shock and looked eye to eye with the passenger in the rear seat on the right side. The car was only about 10 feet away. He shouted to the driver to go and they ran my friend over. He died right there in front of all of us. It’s been almost 20 years and I still think about it.” — aRTie02150

2. I was held hostage inside of a hotel room

“My mother and I were held hostage at knife point in a very poor country in our hotel room. The only reason we were able to get away was that the men were so tweaked out we talked them down and distracted them for two hours until someone in another hotel room called the police. I was not expecting to get out of that room unhurt, but we did.” — QueenMargaery_

3. A man jumped in front of the car so I would kill him

“This morning I was driving along a motorway at 58mph in my 44ton articulated truck when a young man jumped down from a bridge in front of me in order for me to run him over and kill him. We made eye contact while he was on his way down and he looked very frightened. I somehow managed to swerve and miss him by inches. I’ll never forget his broken body and bloody face. I can’t sleep.” — kynsanthecat

4. My grandfather used a knife on me

“My story is scary, horrifying, and sadly true.

Fair Warning: this is dark and you will regret reading it most likely. In particular if you’re bothered by tales of sexual abuse.

So, when I was little my grandfather kept coming after my sister and doing ‘very bad things’ to her that I didn’t understand. I knew she didn’t like it and I had to protect her. I found a pocket knife in the garage of their house — one of those little red swiss army ones.

I pocketed it and decided I would do what’s right.

Next time he came for her, I defiantly pulled out that knife and stood between him and her saying he couldn’t do those things to her anymore. His face filled with hate and venom. He grabbed my wrist, quick as a snake, and squeezed hard until I dropped the knife from the pain.

He told me, ‘You little shit. Honor thy elders! If you ever do anything like that again, I will cut your penis off!’ He put a couple light slashes on my genitals, plus a deeper cut (Still have the scar) to prove his point. I have never been so completely frozen with fear in my entire life as I did at that point. I was completely immobilized.

He then hit me and knocked me down.

I then had to watch as he raped my sister. The look of sadness on her face is something permanently seared into my brain and something I can never forget. I have never seen a sadder expression in my life.

I feel guilty even typing this story into reddit. It’s horrible, utterly horrible and far worse then what most people have even heard of, let alone lived through.

I’ve been watching the live stream feed from Larry Nassar’s courtroom all week where his victims get to get up there and read their impact statements. I like to imagine I’m one of them, even if I’m not a girl, and that I get to read an impact statement to my grandfather (Who evaded prosecution). That desire has lead me to hear, to /r/askreddit, to post my own horrifying tale I suppose.

Also, before anyone asks, yes I’m in therapy. Working on my issues. Some weeks are better then others.” — meditativebicycling

5. A toddler was killed (on purpose) during a hit and run 

“Toddler in front of my old place was run down in a purposeful hit and run.

One half of them looked like they were sleeping. The other half was caved in.” — Logical-Lizard

6. A woman threw her baby off a bridge and into the water

“I was at a Fourth of July event many years ago and a huge crowd started forming by a bridge over a river. A woman had thrown her 14 month old kid of the bridge it the water and he died.” — Nach0Man_RandySavage

7. When we were teenagers, me and my friends were kidnapped

“My friend and I getting kidnapped as teenagers and having to escape with so many things working against our odds.

We were sleep deprived, had no shoes/socks on, my arm was fucked up and broken a few days prior so no medical attention. No phone, no money left, and no one knew where we were/or that we were even missing/in danger.” — Bustnuttington

8. An intruder opened my bedroom door in the middle of the night

“Growing up I watched a lot of scary movies so I was always paranoid that our house was haunted, every creek was some sort of paranormal being even if it was all in my head. One night when I was 15 I went out of my bedroom to go to the toilet, got back in my room, changed into pjs, turned the light off and went to bed. About ten minutes or so later, as I’m drifting off, I hear a noise. Sounds like movement in my room but I try to convince myself it’s nothing, just my mind. I carry on listening, completely terrified. Then, I head my cupboard door open. Fuck. I lay there frozen and as I hear someone walk across my room towards my bed. I am prepared to die. I’m too frightened to scream. All those horror films were right, and I am now going to die at the ripe age of 15. The intruder walks past my bed and opens my bedroom door. Out walks my mum, completely silent. So yeah that was the most terrifying moment of my life.” — spicyrice97

9. My wife almost killed her own mother

“My ex-wife and her mother got into an argument about some money thing during the New Year’s Eve party and my wife purposely pushed her down the basement stairs and seriously injured her. Almost killed her.

Her mother’s scream will never leave my memory.

I filed the very next day while she was in custody.

Ironically (and sadly) enough, there were no problems in our marriage before that incident.” — lidlord

10. I was stuck in the middle of a shootout

“Shootout. Domestic abuse. You always say how tough you are until you are receiving bullets. Each bullet is a way to die. I don’t know how I stayed so calm. I went to my mom’s house and had a good cry hugging her. Before that, I hadn’t cried for over 8 years. I may have been a tough person but it made me feel like a two year old crying on my shoulder.” — drugdealingcop

11. A man attempted to kidnap my child

“I was leaving a gas station with my daughter, only 5 years old. We were in a side area of the main parking lot, with no cameras. On the way in, I noticed some dude parked his motorcycle sideways in the lot, which was weird. Didn’t think much of it until we turned the corner to go to my car and we were the only ones there, with him coming straight toward my kid. In one hand, he had a tiny doll in his fist that he was asking my daughter to come get, and his other hand was stuck deep in his hoodie pocket.

I’m positive he had a gun or knife in that pocket and was going to threaten me by grabbing the kid. The only reason I think we escaped something horrific was because I didn’t have a purse on me (just carried in enough cash for the transaction) and because his only getaway (which would explain his weird bike placement) got backed up from a red light.” — thishappymedium

12. A boat crushed my cousin’s head against the dock

“I was watching fireworks with my family at my cousins boat house on the Connecticut river. My family was about to get on the boat, so my dad and I were putting on mosquito repellant at the beginning of the dock, while my uncle got the boat all ready.

My five year old sister walked down the dock past us, and neither of us thought anything of it since our cousin was just right there at the end of the dock, but not even 5 seconds later I hear him yelling, and see her slip in between the boat and the dock somehow. The boat ended up crushing her head against the dock, and knocking her unconscious. I don’t think I will ever forget the feeling of hopelessness, just seeing her there one second, and gone the next. She was dragged under by currents that were stronger than they had been in years, and got caught on a log/branch underwater and drowned. She was found about 6-7 days later if I remember correctly.

I’ve had many people tell me that it was my fault, or my families for not having someone next to her that whole time, but the facts that she was wearing a life vest, and we’d been there done that so many times, and that on top of the fact that my uncle was right there not even ten feet away, took any worry out of my head. I always really thought that kind of stuff only happened to other people, but that made me realize how easily accidents can happen to anyone, and I’m still constantly scared that others close to me may die in tragic accidents, in what are probably really ridiculous situations to be scared in. I’ve since been diagnosed with PTSD, and various other panic disorders, and still have night terrors nearly every night about it.” — frothyflaps 

13. A friend of ours attempted to shoot up the school

“Aftermath of a school shooting. A cop searching cars for drugs and alcohol in the school parking lot got the kid before he got in the school. It was the night of prom, and as he’s walking to the front doors (the first set he went to were locked), people start leaving. Kid opens fire, hits one kid in the leg, and then is gunned down by the police officer (after turning to and aiming at the officer).

I hear a rumor that somebody was shot. Of course, we’re in a small town and I say ‘no way’. I grab my one friend and go to look out the front door into our school lobby from the gym. See the cop car lights lighting up outside like It’s day, pull an immediate 180° and walk back in. DJ pulls us aside and says we should tell people to not leave. Shortly after doing what he asks, I call my parents and tell them what’s going on. They obviously start to panic and tell family/other parents what happened. I was the first person to call someone and say what happened. Soon, cops with rifles walk in and search for any more shooters, and start taking our names and addresses. My buddy is keeping me posted on Facebook (his dad has police radio) and tells me they have reason to believe it was a friend of ours. Really was one of the scariest and saddest days of my life.” — RusticRedwood 

14. My roommate choked me until I blacked out

“My roommate decided he was in love with me. This lead to a lot of awkward and uncomfortable things. I asked him to move out, gave him a month or something.

A few days later he downed a bottle of vodka. He attacked me. He attacked me on my bed, then decided to go brush his teeth. He caught me trying to call 911, pulled the phone out of the wall and destroyed it. (1999). I tried to escape and he choked me until I blacked out. I thought I was dying.

I still have the scar where I hit my chin on the wall. I eventually did escape and ran to a convenience store in my pajamas and called the police.

I still have flashbacks. He ended up in psych unit. My family helped me move all his stuff to his sister’s house. A few years later he died of pancreatic cancer.” — Budgiejen

15. My sister tried to murder her stalker

“My sister spotted her stalker outside my house, so my mother loaded me and my 5 siblings into the van to ‘go to the police‘. Except we didn’t go to the police, we drove around the oval behind my house looking for the guy to run him down.

I asked her to let us out of the van because this was fucking crazy and if she’s going to be murdering someone she at least shouldn’t do it with 6 of her children (5 of them minors) in the back of the car.

Her response was ‘Sometimes when you’re upset you do irrational things. I’m upset. We’re going to run him down.’

We never found him and she eventually calmed down enough that she drove home again but WTF.” — iostefini

16. We were in a fire that caused someone’s death

“My Junior year of college I moved into a house with 4 other guys, we were all on the swim team. There was a party at our house one Friday night. Myself and my girlfriend however we’re not drinking or participating in the party and we were just hanging out upstairs in my room which was in the attic.

We went to bed when things started to quiet down. Around 4:30-5 a.m somebody screaming woke me up. I was so dazed i thought it was just some drunk obnoxious people, my girlfriend starts to budge me to wake up saying she is hearing something. I look up and our alarm is blinking indicating the power went out, and we start hearing the smoke detectors going off. I walk out of my room into the second part of the attic where my roommate is already awake with a flashlight. We both go downstairs together, we walk through a walkway room and open the door to the hallway only to be hit with a huge wall of black smoke. We slam the door closed and run upstairs to grab our girlfriends to let them know there is a fire and we need to get out immediately. So we run downstairs into the walkway room and bust open the window to go out into the second floor balcony. All four of us jump down from there and we run to the side of the house.

One of our roommates is trapped at the other end of the hallway, too drunk and too out of it from all of the smoke inhalation, so we start throwing rocks at his window to try to help him break the glass. I run to the front door, open it and try to crawl under the smoke because I hear someone lying on the floor moaning. Its too dark and the smoke is way too thick to get through so I am forced to abandon my friend. I run out into the street and see the fire trucks on their way so as soon as the first fireman runs out of the truck I immediately tell him where the two people are that are still in the house and how to get to them, also that one of our friends may be sleeping in the basement (he usually does when we have parties). They drag all three of the guys remaining in the house and rush them to the hospital. One of the guys was declared dead on the scene, one of them was unconscious for a week, and the other was in the hospital for a week as well however was conscious and moving around.

They still do not know what caused the fire but my theory was my friend (the one who died) was sleeping in the basement and left the playstation 2 running which set off the electrical circuits causing a fire.” — Darallo 

17. Neighbors ended up in the hospital for chemical burns

“My entire town was engulfed in a cloud of chlorine gas. I woke up one morning to the smell of bleach, the sound of sirens and a thick “fog” outside. Probably the biggest oh shit moment in my life. The worst part was trying to decide whether to stay inside (we had an old drafty house which didn’t help) or evacuate (which required going out into the fog of toxic gas). We covered our faces and got the hell out of there. Luckily nobody was seriously injured, but a lot of people ended up in the hospital for minor burns or respiratory distress.” — a-ninnymouse

18. I fell off a cliff and waited for my death 

“I went off a cliff in an SUV. I was a passenger and the driver was my stepfather. We were up in the mountains on a dirt, washboard road and he was going too fast. I asked him to slow down and he said,

I don’t have the same problem you and your mother do with mountain roads.’ Then he turned his head to look at the mountains on the other side, and he didn’t see the next sharp curve. I hollered at him and he swung the wheel hard away from the drop-off (there was no guard). We fishtailed back and forth and finally the car came to a stop. I thought for a second we made it. But then a horrible creaking sound came from under the car. My stepdad said, ‘Aw shit, we’re gonna roll’ and we did. All of the windows and the sunroof broke and sand filled the car. My eyes and mouth were full of sand. I hung on to the roof strap and the door. I thought, ‘Well, this is it’ and waited to die. The roof of the car crumpled in over my head and I put one hand in top of my head to soften the blows. This all happened very fast, I didn’t even realize what I was doing. I think it was just instinct. The car rolled a few times down into the canyon then hit a boulder and stopped, upright. I jumped out of the car and tried to climb back up the mountain. Some people came and pulled me up. My hand was all cut up from protecting my head but otherwise I had just some neck pain. All that night I dreamed I was tumbling. I found out a week later that I had ruptured a disk in my neck and had to have immediate surgery. It took a year before I was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (because I couldn’t do my studies anymore). The whole thing was so traumatic that I had PTSD. I still talk to my stepdad but I have never let anyone drive me ever again. That was seventeen years ago.” — Thisiisi

19. I was convinced our plane was going to crash into pieces

“I was in a single engine aircraft, my husband was the pilot and we had four friends with us. We were trying to get to Uluru, but were blown off course and got lost. We flew for hours, night came and every now and then we could see small lights on the ground from isolated homes in the outback.

My husband was trying to reach Alice Springs because they had a decent sized airport but we were relying on seeing the lights from the town to know which direction to head in. But there was a huge full moon and we couldn’t see any kind of glow.

I was mentally saying goodbye to my two children, safe at home with their grandparents. The Alice Springs air controllers sent out two planes in two directions to try to find us, and by some kind of miracle one did, and began to lead us back to the airport, but we were low on fuel.

Finally the worst happened, the engine began to stutter and finally cut out. Only the moon for light. As we went down, I was wondering how painful my death was going to be. I was trying to pray but couldn’t string two words together. It was so eerie, no engine noise, only the sound of the propeller turning from the plane’s movement. But the good thing about small planes is that they can become gliders and with the bright moonlight my husband was able to see the ground quite well.

We hit the ground, lots of noise. The left wing dug into the ground, swinging us around and slowing the plane down. I realised there was a good chance we were going to survive. We came to a stop and all jumped out, all fine except for maybe a few bumps.

The other plane was circling overhead, and our radio was working, so they were able to tell us they would send another plane and drop food, water and blankets.

We spent the night on the ground, and the next morning the Northern Territory police sent a couple of officers in a four wheel drive to bring us to Alice Springs. It was like being reborn, after not just thinking, more like knowing we were all going to die and then getting a reprieve. We all felt we’d been given a second chance, and it was beautiful.” — bluelinen

20. I almost died on a roller coaster when my harness kept unlocking 

“There’s a ride at Thorpe Park (UK) called the Colossus, it’s a ten loop rollercoaster. I went around that without the harness/safety bar on my 13th birthday.

Three times we told them that the harness kept unlocking, three times they clicked it back in and said I was good to go. Then the ride started and I didn’t get a chance to get out. On the first part going up I hear click and the harness swings up.

All I had was this tiny seat belt that buckles over your crotch, I remember just saying ‘fuck’ and holding on to the metal bars on either side of me. My sister was sitting next to me and was freaking out more than I was, she had her arm across my chest whilst some random dude behind me had figure out what was going on and was holding both my arms from behind.

10 loops later, my sister is sobbing, I’m numb from fear/shock and got lead to a bench and given a bar of chocolate. My mum went ballistic at the staff but can’t remember what happened.

I’m still not sure if the best or worst part is that my brother went to the gift shop and bought me an ‘I survived the Colossus’ medal.” — Moctuzuma