Spooky Story Time

From creepy dolls to haunted houses, this extra spooky compilation brings you some of our best horror stories about kids and children. The Music Box (00:00) The Things Tommy Sees (08:20) A Miniature Haunting (14:48) St. Ainsley's (23:44) The China Dolls (34:11) Black-Eyed Children (42:31) Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people think getting locked in a mall overnight would be inconvenient, maybe even funny. But when the lights die section by section, the escalators fall silent, and the mannequins start to move, the empty mall becomes something else entirely. Some places don't close... they just wait. If you love liminal‑space horror, uncanny retail settings, or stories where the familiar becomes deeply, disturbingly wrong, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the first night of winter in Oakhaven, you’re supposed to bolt the door, draw the blinds, and ignore every sound that comes from outside. It’s an old superstition - a warning about the Guest of the Cold, a presence said to descend from the mountains when the first frost hits. Eli never believed any of it… until last November, when the temperature dropped twenty degrees in three hours and something began knocking on his door. What began as a harmless local legend quickly turned into a suffocating encounter with something ancient - something that knew his name - and Eli realized the rule wasn’t about locks at all. It was about attention. Acknowledgment. Fear. If you love folklore‑driven horror, winter hauntings, or scary stories where the cold itself feels alive, press play. Some guests don’t need an invitation. They only need you to listen. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I joined a simple heritage walk to learn more about my neighborhood. Then the street shifted beneath my feet, the air changed, and I found myself walking through Brixton as it was in the 1950s... with someone limping steadily behind me. One moment I was photographing a mural, and the next, the world around me had slipped decades backward. The gastropubs were gone. The streetlights were dim and yellow. The smell of coal smoke and fried fish hung in the air. And a tall man in a trilby hat began following me. When I came back, a rusted Windrush badge clutched in my hand that hadn’t been there before. If you’re drawn to time‑slip hauntings, cultural echoes, or stories where history refuses to stay quiet, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I used to think the Black‑Eyed Children were just an old internet myth, until two kids knocked on my basement door at 2:14 AM and asked to be invited inside. This is the one encounter I still can’t explain. I was twenty‑four, living in a basement suite with a ground‑level window and a bad habit of working until dawn. The knock wasn’t normal, and when I looked through the peephole, two kids stood shoulder‑to‑shoulder, asking to come in and use my phone. Their voices were monotone, too calm, and too adult. And when one leaned toward the peephole, I saw their eyes... Some knocks aren’t meant to be answered. If you’re drawn to modern folklore, uncanny encounters, or stories where the old rules of invitation still apply, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My grandmother always said the Winter Gardens weren’t haunted - they were remembered. And the day she told me about the waltz she danced with someone who wasn’t there, I stopped believing ghosts were meant to be frightening. This story has shaped the way I understand the unseen. My Grandma Rose was elegant, dramatic, and full of stories, but none stayed with me like the one about the abandoned Victorian Winter Gardens she and her friend Agnes snuck in as teenagers, expecting dust and silence. This isn’t a tale of terror, but a reminder that some memories refuse to fade, and some hearts never stop waltzing. If you’re drawn to gentle hauntings, bittersweet echoes of the past, or stories where love lingers long after the dancers are gone, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I used to think I was just anxious, until the shelving unit collapsed. Since then, I’ve been remembering things that haven’t happened yet. I’m telling this because tonight feels different. For six months I’ve been living with these “glitches” - memories of futures that haven’t arrived, flashes of grief for strangers I’ve never met, the bone‑deep certainty of disasters that sometimes happen and sometimes don’t. My wife thinks I’m spiralling. The doctor thinks I’m delusional. But the copper smell is back, the power is out across the block, and the air feels heavy, like the world is holding its breath. If the world is unchanged by morning, then I’m just another man who lost himself in the dark. But if it isn’t… you’ll understand why I had to tell this. If you’re drawn to apocalyptic dread, psychic‑glitch horror, or stories where the future presses in from the edges of the present, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was on my usual Tuesday commute when a woman slipped through the closing tube doors—wearing my coat, my ring, my face. She didn’t look surprised to see me. She looked expectant. I’m telling this because what happened on the Northern Line that morning has been bleeding into my life ever since. She sat directly opposite me, mirroring every detail of my appearance down to the childhood scar on my nose and the frayed cuff I’d been meaning to fix. I ran at Bank, convinced it was a hallucination brought on by exhaustion. But over the next four months, people kept insisting they’d seen me in places I’d never been - on buses, in cafés, settling my bills, picking up my dry cleaning, even waving at my sister from a window I wasn’t near. I’m still listening for the hiss of tube doors outside my flat, wondering when she’ll decide it’s time to step out of the periphery again. If you’re drawn to uncanny doubles, identity horror, or stories where someone else begins to live your life better than you do, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I woke up from what was supposed to be routine gallbladder surgery and saw a tall figure sitting in the visitor’s chair; too still, too silent, and too close to the ceiling. When it touched my wrist, everything went black. I’m telling this because twelve years later, I still don’t understand what happened in that recovery room. The lights were dim, the monitor was silent, and a man-shaped shadow in a charcoal suit sat watching me. When he stood, he didn’t make a sound. When he pressed his long, grey hand to my wrist, I felt a static charge that went straight through my bones. If you’re drawn to medical horror, post‑op nightmares, or stories where something uses a moment of vulnerability to make a permanent change, press play. I don’t think I was haunted. I think I was altered. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I stepped into an old mall elevator for a quick ride to the third floor. Five minutes later, the lights died, the emergency phone crackled to life, and a voice started reciting my secrets back to me. I’m telling this because I still don’t understand how it knew so much. One moment I was exhausted, leaning against the wall, waiting for the doors to open. The next, the elevator shuddered, the lights flickered out, and the emergency ballast bathed everything in a sickly red glow. If you like claustrophobic horror, uncanny encounters, or stories where something uses your own past against you, press play. I take the stairs now. Always. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was fifteen when something in the attic above my bed started dragging itself toward me every night, and by the time I found the carvings in the beams, it already knew my name. I’m telling this because this is the one story from my childhood I still can’t shake. My parents bought a tall, narrow Victorian, all charm and “original features,” but my attic bedroom felt wrong from the first night. The sound that started in the far corner wasn’t an animal, but every time I mentioned it, my parents dismissed it as nightmares or hormones. But the sound wasn’t a dream. It paused when I pounded on the ceiling. It waited for my heartbeat to settle before moving again... If you like slow‑burn hauntings, childhood terrors, and stories where the house itself feels hungry, press play. I still don’t sleep in rooms with crawlspaces. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I signed up for a paid sleep study because I was exhausted and broke. By the seventh night, the researchers weren’t asking if I saw the man in the corner... they were asking what he was doing. I’m telling you this because I need people to understand what the Miller‑Vaine Institute was really studying. I thought I was just being monitored while I slept. Instead, every morning the lead researcher asked me about a figure I’d never seen, until the night the corner of the room began to deepen, stretch, and reach toward my bed. When they showed me footage of myself reaching out to something invisible, whispering like I was praying, I ran. I didn’t even stop to put on my shoes. I’m still filling every corner of my house with lamps and bookshelves, because once you see him, he doesn’t stay in the corner anymore. If you’re drawn to psychological horror, sleep‑study nightmares, or stories where something in the dark becomes real the moment you acknowledge it, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was driving home on a foggy Sunday night when a formation of orange‑red lights began pacing my car along the A303. Silent, precise, and moving in ways nothing man‑made should. I still don’t know what I saw. One moment it was just drizzle, darkness, and a sleepy podcast. The next, five or six glowing orbs were hovering above the tree line, drifting, then darting across each other with impossible speed. No sound, no aircraft shape, no logic. Just pure, unblinking light moving like it was alive. I’m not saying it was extraterrestrial, but I know it wasn’t normal. If you’re drawn to eerie road encounters, UFO‑style sightings, or stories where the night sky suddenly feels too close, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. A special thanks to PastMaster for being the podcast you can hear - do listen and follow their show, it's really great. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I thought I knew every inch of Black Peak, until a lantern‑bright glow appeared in the fog and began moving toward me, like it had been waiting. This is the one hike I can’t explain away. I’d spent years on those mountains, confident, experienced, unshakeable. But the day the fog rolled in, I saw a warm, amber light drifting through the trees, too steady to be a reflection, and too old‑fashioned to be a headlamp. I followed it at first, thinking it was another hiker. Then it stopped responding to my calls. Then it circled me. Silently. Perfectly. Like it wasn’t being carried at all. This is the closest I’ve ever come to believing the mountains hold something older than us. If you love eerie wilderness encounters, ghost‑light legends, or stories where nature feels alive and watching, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I thought sleep deprivation was making me see things... until my baby started smiling at something pacing in the nursery, and toys began coming back with fingerprints too big to be his. This is the story I’ve never said out loud. It started with a shadow on the baby monitor. I tried to explain it away - bad lighting, exhaustion, anything rational - but then Leo began giggling at things I couldn’t see, and offering his toys to someone who wasn’t there. Someone he calls The Tall Man. This is a quiet, unsettling account of early motherhood, sleep deprivation, and the creeping dread of something unseen taking an interest in your child. If you’re drawn to domestic hauntings, eerie nursery stories, or the uncanny presence of imaginary friends who feel a little too real, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I heard someone sobbing in the stall next to mine in the campus bathroom. When security opened the door, the stall was empty. Locked, silent, and impossible. I still feel the cold tile under my slippers and the echo of that hysterical wail. It was finals week, the library a fluorescent tomb, and the crying started soft and private before escalating into a raw, terrified sound that made my skin crawl. But there was nothing - no backpack, no jacket, no sign anyone had been inside. The memory has followed me ever since: the sudden, aggressive absence where a person had just been, and the way the room went from frantic noise to impossible quiet in a heartbeat. I’m still not sure what I heard - an actual person, a sound carried through pipes, or something else. If you’re drawn to campus hauntings, press play and listen close. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I got into a ride‑share after my car broke down and the driver called me by my full name - my private middle name - and then told me he’d been waiting for this ride. I ran. I’m still running. I’m telling this because it happened to me and because I need other women to hear what can happen when a stranger knows more than they should. One ordinary Tuesday night my car died on the M2. A black Audi arrived, the driver said my name like he owned it, and then he started reciting details about my life that no app should know. When I tried to get out, the door was locked. I escaped by throwing myself from the car and running across gravel. The police found the car abandoned; the driver vanished. This episode is a tight, urgent account of that ride: the small, chilling moments that made my skin crawl, the instant I realized this wasn’t a routine pickup, and the raw panic of getting out alive. If you listen to safety stories, true‑crime warnings, or tense personal horror, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A stranger at a crowded bar raised a crystal flute and toasted me with three words... “to your last New Year,” then vanished. That toast has been the drumbeat of my life for a year. I’m telling this quietly because I don’t want to invite more attention, only to share what it’s like to live under a sentence. One midnight, a man in an impossibly sharp suit appeared beside my booth, offered a single, chilling toast, and left behind a heavy crystal flute. Since then I’ve quit drinking, lost my job, and turned every day into a ritual to avoid whatever he meant. I’ve had tests, scoured forums, and catalogued every near‑miss as if it were a clue. The calendar has become a cliff. This episode is an account of paranoia and prophecy: the night itself, the months that followed, and the small, obsessive measures I’ve taken to survive. If you’re drawn to tense, psychological horror - prophecies, ominous strangers, and the slow erosion of normal life - press play and listen close. I’m counting down the days, and I need you to hear this. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I came home one evening to find my keys on the kitchen counter and my slippers arranged like a message. By the time I hid a camera, the footage showed someone who looked exactly like me, living my life, smoothing my comforter, and leaving a strand of dark hair on my shoes. I’m terrified, and I need you to hear this. For six months my apartment has been subtly rearranged. Small, intimate intrusions at first. A strand of hair that wasn’t mine. A hidden nanny cam that captured a version of me walking in and acting like she belongs. I’m not sure whether I’m being gaslit, stalked, or haunted, but I’m done staying silent. This is a story about identity, invasion, and the uncanny terror of being replaced in your own life. If you like tense, intimate horror that blends psychological dread with uncanny phenomena, doppelgängers, domestic hauntings, and the slow erosion of safety, press play. Not for kids - listener discretion advised. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Windward is a coastal village where the sea keeps a terrible bargain. A single, monstrous bell toll at 3 a.m. names the next soul to be claimed by an ancient covenant, and this time, I became the unwilling successor to the Salted Hand. What begins as local folklore unfolds into a visceral, maritime horror: a belfry stained with brine, a dragging sound from the dark, and a cold, salt‑scented mark on the narrator’s hand that marks the passing of a burden no one can refuse. Listeners who enjoy coastal folklore, ritualistic hauntings, and stories where place itself demands sacrifice will find this episode haunting and unforgettable. Press play to feel the bell’s resonance and follow a tale about covenants, the weight of inherited duty, and the way the sea keeps its promises. ------------ Beth's Spooky Story Time is your new favourite horror podcast, best enjoyed alone with headphones. All stories are suggested or submitted by listeners. Have you had a spooky experience? Email your story to bethsspookystorytime@gmail.com now. For ad-free content, Spooky Chat Time, and extra perks, support us on Patreon: patreon.com/bethsspookystorytime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices