“I felt like I was being watched the whole time.”

Hi, I’m Crystal, a Senior Editor based in Los Angeles and creator of BuzzFeed’s “That Got Dark” newsletter.

Note: Some of these stories contain mentions of racism and sexual assault. Also, apologies if your hometown is on this list...but everyone's experience is personal, and, who knows, maybe you agree with what these people experienced?

"The interior looked like it was under construction, there were tarps covering things and it did not look like a 'cafe.' It was this one empty tarp-covered room and they just had bread for sale, which the people I was with fucking bought, and I was so freaked out and thought they were going to get poisoned. Only one guy was working there and he was creepy as hell and kept telling us to go to the Yellow Deli in Plymouth and tried to give us pamphlets with more information. Not the most horrifying thing ever but I was very unsettled and just wanted to leave the whole time after that."

"As the woman started yelling, 'You didn’t fill up!,' l noticed a paper saying, 'Where are you from?' I dropped a twenty to cover my gas and my son opened the door, saying, 'Come on mom we gotta go.' We drove off only to be stopped by the train again. Just as it cleared the road I saw the woman with other devil's reject types running after the car. Luckily, we got out of there so I can warn you all!"

"Almost immediately, every car was swarmed by these enormous winged insects. None of us Southern kids had ever seen anything like it. Then the streets got reallllyyy quiet. All the locals were gone. I came to find out that there was an abandoned old-school movie theater nearby. In our paranoid state, we became convinced there was something sinister at play and that the theater was full of bodies. I've been to 39 states in the US and no town has freaked me out as much as Vermilion did. I’m sure Vermillion is a nice place, but you couldn’t pay me to go back."

"We stopped at a department store and saw guns for sale, lots and lots of guns, serious weaponry, and as we were leaving, we stopped at a train crossing where the train seemed never-ending. After watching this unending train for a while I started timing it and it took over two minutes for the train to finally get to the end. The train made us feel utterly trapped in this weird unsettling town. The road out was completely blocked and a pickup behind us added to the feeling. We actually got giddy when we got out of there. It took us a while to figure out, but we eventually realized that the town was 100% white, which added to the unsettling feeling. We didn’t see one person of color, which added to the weird vibes and made the whole experience feel like we would end up in a true crime documentary if we hung around. I don’t come from a massively diverse country and I’m white myself so to feel that creeped out by seeing only white faces surrounded by guns and confederate flags definitely gave me a new appreciation of how other ethnicities must feel when they’re outrageously outnumbered in a hostile environment. Creepy Corinth!"

"The town was very cute and quaint, it looked like it was frozen in time besides a brand new McDonald’s and grocery store. We decided to go to the grocery store to grab supplies and as we walked through we noticed how neat and tidy everything was. I stopped at the deli and noticed how difficult it seemed to get help from the staff. Even though it wasn’t that busy, a younger female employee ended up helping me out. I picked up all of my items and started to make my way to the front of the store. 

As I got towards the front two older white ladies stood directly in front of me, blocking my way around so I politely said, 'Excuse me…” the women seemed not to hear me, and they were older, so I repeated a little louder this time, 'Excuse me ladies…' again to be met by radio silence. 

That’s when it dawned on my friends and me: these people were pretending we weren’t there, and they were ignoring me. We hurried our way to the front where the same girl who helped me at the deli was there to check us out. We bailed on that town so fast! 

The music festival ended up being equally weird; it was hella cult-like and it seemed like everyone was on bad drugs. That night, we all slept in my car with no A/C in the sweltering summer heat just to avoid the weirdos. We got the heck out of dodge as soon as the sun came up."

Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.