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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Have you ever felt evil or that something was deeply wrong?

522 replies

crochetmonkey74 · 01/08/2022 09:25

Inspired by an experience I had recently that has really rattled me. It's very outing as I've talked to everyone in my real life about it, it bothered me so much so I'll keep it brief.
I met some people I hadn't met before to buy an item from FB marketplace. Its a fairly rare item, and an expensive one so I went off to see if it was the right thing. The house was beautiful, it was a very large manor house that has been turned into huge expensive period flats,the grounds were amazing and the people were nice but a few odd things happened that were boundary testing and also some oddly timed things happened. While I was there I felt OK, it was a beautiful place, very quiet and entrancing but as I drove away I had this overwhelming sense of relief that I was leaving, and I was scanning my brain for any information I'd told them about myself in case they could find me. I am not a scared person or one prone to flights of fancy , this has never happened to me before. I had a physical reaction to the street they live on when I drove past some days later. My brain said "I'm never going up there again" and I keep having that feeling of having been in a bubble, it bursting and me being glad to be away from it. A weird story I know. Anyone had similar? I just know there was something deeply wrong there. I even asked my lovely neighbour to send a prayer up for me to protect me , and I would consider myself a non believer!

OP posts:
crochetmonkey74 · 02/08/2022 09:25

arrogantorwhat37 · 02/08/2022 07:07

What very distinct thing happened?
Dear bloody god...it's like teenagers watching a 'scary' movie

No it really wasn't, ypu weren't there and don't know me.

OP posts:
Adversity · 02/08/2022 09:18

I was walking on Cannock Chase many years ago alone.
My BF had just relocated there for a job and he was at work that day. It was a beautiful sunny day, I was walking along a quite light coloured almost sandy path with I think beech trees along the side, lighter coloured trunks anyway.

I then had the most awful feeling of evil, dread, pain and misery I have ever felt in my life. I ran back along the path and got off the chase asap and back in my car.

We had dinner that night with two new colleagues of his. I relayed how lovely the Chase was but that I had felt terrible and had to leave as had those feelings.

They told me that many young girls had been murdered and buried on Cannock Chase in the 1960’s. This was the 1990’s and I had never heard of them or ever been to the area.

TheVolturi · 02/08/2022 08:37

goldfinchonthelawn · 01/08/2022 16:53

You've just reminded me. When I was at college a man I knew and liked from a society we were both involved in, invited me to dinner. I assumed a dinner party but when I got there it was just the two of us. He started talking about how much he liked flesh and he wasn;t sure I was fleshy enough. he was doing a very academic degree but started saying he;d love to be a butcher and cut through all that flesh. He also had the most MASSIVE bottle of red wine on the table, How he thought the two of us could drink that, I don't know.

I made my excuses and said I had to get home but he followed me, It was dark and I lost my way and ended up beside a canal lock with water rushing into it. He started saying he could push me in. I talked my way around it by pretending I thought he was charming and funny and just messing around until he got bored that I showed no fear. He wanted me to be scared. It clearly turned him on. Later, a very curvy, beautiful friend of mine went to dinner with him and I asked how it had gone (didn't know she was going or I'd have warned her) and she said it was fine and quite normal.

Fuckin hell!

ChagSameachDoreen · 02/08/2022 07:25

I once went to see a venue to hold an event for the charity I volunteered for. I got a really bad feeling about the guy who owned the venue, and decided not to hire it, despite my colleague wanting to.

Found out a couple of years later that the man had a record for embezzling money from small charities he got involved with.

arrogantorwhat37 · 02/08/2022 07:07

Googlersanonymous · 01/08/2022 09:32

It's important that you follow your instincts and something very distinct happened to you at that location.

What very distinct thing happened?
Dear bloody god...it's like teenagers watching a 'scary' movie

Merryoldgoat · 02/08/2022 00:31

I thought this too.

whumpthereitis · 01/08/2022 23:31

Wonder how much is the uncanny valley effect. Psychopaths, Narcissists etc have shallow affect and don’t feel emotion in the ways ‘normal’ people do, so in order to fit in with the world around them they act out the correct emotional responses for any given situation. There always going to be a difference between something naturally developed, and something constructed, no matter how good the actor. Some people will better perceive that than others.

my birth country is one that broke apart in a war, and I have encountered people that committed hideous acts. The ones that frighten me most are not the ones that give off an aura of malice, but the ones who could without hesitation commit atrocities one day, and the next day put their weapons down and return to regular life like nothing had happened.

Titsflyingsouth · 01/08/2022 21:22

I remember staying in a holiday cottage a few years ago and finding the place so unsettling that I did everything I could to stay outside the building as much as possible. My FIL and MIL had paid for the accommodation and were staying with us, so I didn't feel it was OK to insist on coming home. But barely slept all week, despite having DH next to me. Interestingly my DS, who is normally an excellent sleeper, would not sleep there either. Woke up constantly and screamed for us. Can't describe exactly what it was, other than the place had a 'darkness' about it.

Danoo · 01/08/2022 18:06

Yupp, sounds odd and creepy. I've had these feelings too qnd it's not "imagination" as you're not sure what to imagine. Your mind doesn't know why you sense danger.

I agree with posters who say we sense more than we understand.

crochetmonkey74 · 01/08/2022 18:01

Whirlygiggles · 01/08/2022 17:57

Sounds very Rosemary's Baby!

I think I read this years ago but never watched the film!

OP posts:
PlantSpider · 01/08/2022 17:57

crochetmonkey74 · 01/08/2022 17:11

What on earth were you buying?

I mean it was an ancient antique sex chair so maybe I should have known...

(joking obviously)

Wasn’t from Royal Family staffers by any chance? 🤣🤔

Whirlygiggles · 01/08/2022 17:57

Sounds very Rosemary's Baby!

crochetmonkey74 · 01/08/2022 17:53

I really don't think it was swinging- I have experienced that sort of person before who were scoping me out- this felt much darker than that

OP posts:
FOJN · 01/08/2022 17:50

crochetmonkey74 · 01/08/2022 17:11

What on earth were you buying?

I mean it was an ancient antique sex chair so maybe I should have known...

(joking obviously)

That would be quite the drip feed 😀

Justleaveitblankthen · 01/08/2022 17:42

I would bet a gold clock they were into swinging. The sex 'mentionitis', the flirting compliments about your appearance. I'll bet there was also quite forward body language 'pointing feet', open crotch mansplaying etc, that you picked up on subconsciously..

crochetmonkey74 · 01/08/2022 17:11

What on earth were you buying?

I mean it was an ancient antique sex chair so maybe I should have known...

(joking obviously)

OP posts:
Garysparrowsthirdwife · 01/08/2022 17:00

Years ago I was heavily pregnant and had just popped to the shops
it was getting dark-as in the street lights had just come on but nowhere near pitch black
I’m walking back with my handbag in one hand and my carrier bag in the other
suddenly a bloke comes out of nowhere,with his hood up and I swear his face was just black-as in blank
i could feel the evil just radiating from him
he looked at me and I ran-I know if I had hung around,he would have done something to me

my cousin has always given me the creeps-even as a child I hated being round him
anyway about 4 months ago my son rang to tell me that not only had he been arrested but has been charged
his crime?
shagging and getting pregnant,4 14/15 year old girls-he’s known for hanging around schools,chatting up the girls and has been fired from 3 jobs for it
his laptop had a lot of children even younger being abused (I refuse to use the term ‘kiddie porn’)

a child I knew years ago-he just had a ‘vibe’
i can’t explain it-just something,which I felt dreadful feeling at the time as he was only 9 years old
i remember saying to my mate,just out of the blue-‘he’s going to kill someone one day’
came true 10 years later when he murdered his mothers new boyfriend

my old boss-he had ‘something’-i could feel it
he’s married to the nicest lady you’ll ever meet and has lovely kids
but he oozed evil-I could feel it
turns out he has a ‘thing’ for young girls-hed follow them round and act really creepily round them
it was laughed off but I’d warn them not to go too close to him
he quit before he was pushed for trying it on with young girls-he’d give them their first job if he liked what he saw and try it on with them
perfectly legal as they where all 16/17 but not moral in anyway-he’s in his late 50’s
It’s all been shushed up but it’s an open secret between us girls

my Dds dog adored everyone-apart from our old neighbour (who I thought was a nosey twat)
the dog would run if he saw him
the bloke is going to prison for dv-he’s hidden behind the ‘white,middle class,high earner father and husband’ but his wife has had enough and pressed charges

goldfinchonthelawn · 01/08/2022 16:53

potniatheron · 01/08/2022 13:52

They weren't on the table but on the walls of his living room. Vintage /antique weapons from another era and culture. I don't want to say more as they were quite niche (NOT Nazi stuff - obviously if I'd seen that I'd have been out of there like a shot!) and they kind of freaked me out, as they were clearly still usable and capable of causing serious injury. But I overrode my fear by reasoning that he was a nerdy, almost ascetic type so it was just a collecting hobby of his. I couldn't actually get up the nerve to ask him about them, though.

You've just reminded me. When I was at college a man I knew and liked from a society we were both involved in, invited me to dinner. I assumed a dinner party but when I got there it was just the two of us. He started talking about how much he liked flesh and he wasn;t sure I was fleshy enough. he was doing a very academic degree but started saying he;d love to be a butcher and cut through all that flesh. He also had the most MASSIVE bottle of red wine on the table, How he thought the two of us could drink that, I don't know.

I made my excuses and said I had to get home but he followed me, It was dark and I lost my way and ended up beside a canal lock with water rushing into it. He started saying he could push me in. I talked my way around it by pretending I thought he was charming and funny and just messing around until he got bored that I showed no fear. He wanted me to be scared. It clearly turned him on. Later, a very curvy, beautiful friend of mine went to dinner with him and I asked how it had gone (didn't know she was going or I'd have warned her) and she said it was fine and quite normal.

whenimnotwithyou · 01/08/2022 16:49

When I was about 20 I lived in an upstairs flat in a house in Brighton. Directly opposite me was another flat and a creepy bloke used to look out the window at me directly into my bedroom.

I tried to avoid looking into his flat but would see him doing press-ups sometimes, he was covered in tattoos like the guy from Cape Fear.

He absolutely creeped me out.

Turns out he was this lovely man who had been released on bail to appeal his sentence for rape and murder and was on the run in Brighton nice guy

Elspethelf · 01/08/2022 16:44

I maybe had a similar experience. I love travel and whenever I go somewhere with a lot of history I try do a walking ghost tour. I don’t at all believe in ghosts, but I love history and enjoy hearing the sordid past of a place.

I was in Port Arthur, Tasmania, which is an old penal colony. I was enjoying exploring the place during the day. Some buildings are ruins, but the ones that are not are set up how they would have been back in the day. I walked into one house and didn’t stop to look at anything, just walked straight through out the back door as quick as I could. I can’t explain the feeling I got, but I physically did not want to be in that building.

That evening I did the ghost tour. The first place we went was that house. Turns out it is one of the most haunted houses in Australia. I’m still a firm non believer, but that feeling hung around me for a while.

DaphneSprucesPippasClack · 01/08/2022 16:35

Read thinking fast thinking slow. It explains that we take in more information than you think and how that Effects our behaviour

forinborin · 01/08/2022 16:29

I cannot even say that I would have had any specific concerns to report. It is something akin to the "uncanny valley" feeling, as in, they look human, but not quite. I would not even describe it as a feeling of "evil presence", as other posters put it, just a very strong, very deep feeling of unease and an almost somatic urge to do something.

goldfinchonthelawn · 01/08/2022 16:26

crochetmonkey74 · 01/08/2022 09:53

The sudden appearance of a friend from the building who also 'wanted to meet me'
Personal compliments that could not be true (I'm a size 18/20) they were saying how slim I was
The one person told me how her and her husband had loud sex and no one minded
All these things were said in a genteel way and were sort of buried in very refined and polite setting (tea on the lawn) amongst other conversation. They had made a tea tray so I could sit while they collected the item. As we were talking, they asked me questions about how I grew up but then made leaps to personal things " was your father absent, it can be hard growing up with an absent father " (I hadn't mentioned my dad, only my mum)
It gave the sense of a cult, trying to hook you.
I know there will be posters who say they would have immediately challenged or left but these things were sort of buried in enough normality that I didn't process it straight away. I was probably there 20 mins in all

What on earth were you buying? Was it in any way relevant to bringing up comments about your looks and sex?

I don't recall having that feeling irl but there is a famous TV actor who absolutely gives me the creeps. He looks pure evil to me, like he would take pleasure in harming people and getting away with it. He's a leading man type, getting on a bit now, who I suppose some people must think good looking but he makes my flesh crawl. I'd love to know if my instinct has any basis in truth.

goldfinchonthelawn · 01/08/2022 16:20

Elphame · 01/08/2022 09:50

Yes indeed.

Many years ago I once bought an object at auction. It was lovely. I picked it up before bidding, had a good look at it etc and it was fine. I was the only bidder and got it for virtually nothing (yay!).

However the moment the gavel fell I was seized with complete revulsion. The thing was giving off such unpleasant vibes that I didn't want anything to do with it. When the time came to pay I went up to settle my bill ( I had bought several other things too) and told the auctioneer I would pay for it but please throw it away. I wasn't even going to touch it. Luckily they let me off!

I often wonder what that was all about.

That is a great story. As if the evil object was trying to will you to buy it, to find a new home, but you won the battle.

AchatAVendre · 01/08/2022 16:18

forinborin I had this feeling about a guy i went on a date with (donkeys years ago, in different country). Perfectly pleasant on the surface, just some weird mannerisms, but something was just so off. I nearly went to his place with him (I really struggled at the time with personal boundaries and saying no). He was in the papers in a few months - yes, rape and murder.

I actually google search the names of individuals I've found particularly creepy/disturbing over the years. Thats how I found that my former neighbour Robert Brown had been jailed for killing his wife.

Recently I did a google and found that 1 other man I'd had a bad feeling about had been jailed and another is going through the court process. Theres a further individual I have a real bad feeling about and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the newspapers for something really serious. But what can you do? Even in the case of another wife killer, Malcolm Webster, it emerged that over the years, a large number of people had reported their concerns about him to the police concerning acts that should have been investigated, and were ignored.

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