The Worst Fear I Ever Experienced

I have already had many paranormal experiences since I used to live in a haunted house, but nothing has ever scared me as much as this experience.

I was on a vacation with my family in the city called Umag. I always take my dog for long walks and I had found a great route there, around the city. One evening, there was a concert in the main square of the town and my mom, her friend and my sister were going to see it, so I was staying home alone, since I don't like concerts.

It was already around 8pm and the night was about to start falling when I went for another walk with my dog. After some time, we turned the corner and entered one long street that was usually one of my favourites to walk through.

It was really long and there were wheat fields on the both sides of it, except for the beginning of the street, where you could cross the road to the right and there was another street with a couple of newer buildings. Also, at the near end of the street, there were about three to four old abandoned Istrian houses, they were made out of stone and I'm sure no one has stayed in them for years.

As I turned the corner and entered the street, I saw a strange man walking in front of me. He seemed very old because he was walking in crouched position and was going very slowly. Even though it was summer and the weather was hot, he was wearing a black suit and even though his walking position was very crouched, he still seemed extremely tall. His head was completely white as all his hairs had lost colour due to his age I guess, but I remember I didn't want to see his face. I'm usually not that easy to scare, since I have already experienced all sorts of things, but the moment I saw this man my heart dropped and I was terrified.

Since he was so slow and I'm a very fast walker, I knew that I'd have to pass by him eventually, but I didn't want to get any closer. I became so paranoid that I was 100% sure he is going to kill me if I get too close to him.

So I decided to just cross the street and hide behind one of the buildings on the other side of the road until he walks away. I've probably been hiding for about a minute or two when I decided to take a look and see how far he's gone. I returned to the long street where I first saw the man. I wasn't expecting he went very far since he walks so morbidly slow, but to my surprise, he was nowhere to be seen.

It was a straight street with no turns so I had no idea where he disappeared and how, but I shrugged it off and continued with my walk.

When I was nearing the end of the street and I reached the old houses, I started to hear what sounded like really slow, sad music. It was kind of quiet but I heard it was coming from one of the houses. I thought that was pretty weird since I was sure those houses are abandoned, but didn't think much of it, until it started getting louder and louder and I began to feel creeped out.

I started thinking about all sorts of horrible things, as if I'm trying to scare myself even more. Then suddenly, the music completely stopped and I could only hear what I thought were seagulls shouting. After a few moments of listening though, I realised that it doesn't really sound much like seagulls. It's more like a person with a raspy voice is saying "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!".Kinda like they're laughing, but not really.

As I turned my head to the right side of the street, where the laughing noises are coming from, I saw him again. He was standing at the beginning of the wheat field, with his back to me and he was still making those sounds like a maniac.

I didn't want him to turn around because something was telling me that I do not want to see his face by any means.

I ran home as quickly as I can and I locked myself in. I was home alone with my dog. I sat down and tried to calm myself. I had just finished texting my friend about what had just happened, when I heard a loud crashing sound coming from my mum's room, as if something really heavy fell over.

As I already said, I'm not that easy to scare so I always go inspecting any noise I hear (I would honestly probably die first if I was in a horror movie). I went to mum's room to see what it was, but when I came in, everything was in place and I couldn't find anything that could've possibly made that noise.

But the fear came back and I felt like it was him and he followed me into my house. I no longer felt safe locked up in there so I walked out with my dog and sat there on our terrace behind the house. The night has already fallen and our garden was completely dark so I couldn't see anything in there, but I started to hear leaves crunching as if someone was walking in there very, very slowly and approaching us.

I felt like somebody was watching me and even though I usually love to be alone, I was done with it and it all scared me so bad I decided I want to go to the concert and surround myself with people.

I took my dog with me and we headed towards the main square, which was about a fifteen minutes walking distance from our house. The streets that lead there usually had at least some people passing, but this time they were empty, which didn't make me feel any less scared.

Maybe it was because the concert already stared, but I saw max. 2 people on my way there and couldn't help but to feel watched the whole time.

I kept reminding myself to just keep looking in front of me and walk as fast as I can. I was afraid to turn my head the slightest because I felt like something is still following me and whatever it was, I didn't want to see it.

The last 2-3 days I spent in that city went by slowly as the fear still didn't go away. I never stayed home alone again and I picked another walking route. I wasn't getting much sleep either, since I was often too afraid to fall asleep.

My mum and sister also later said they were feeling weird lately and we all started being so afraid to be in our apartment that we spent as much time as we can outside. We were all happy once the trip was over and we came back home.

Now, even though what happened was terrifying and I would never want to experience that kind of fear again, I still get this kind of urge to go back to that place... Just see it again and explore those abandoned houses. Possibly explore the whole history behind them and find out if anyone else experienced something similar. Maybe one day I will.