What's the most frightening or scariest thing that has happened to you or somone you know?

Unexpected animal encounters scare me, you never know how they are going to react. Got chased by a couple of dogs once when I was a kid and thought I was going to be eaten for sure.

I think I was 7, my cousins and I were playing around on some school property and sliding down these super smooth hand rails, and we did this quite a bit. I was bumped by someone running up the stairs and instead of sliding down the handrail, got pushed over. This was an old-style building with something like 15-20 steps per flight, so I dropped straight down. The stairs were made of concrete. So I was this little kid tumbling down a whole flight, thinking in my head that I was going to die. When I saw the rapidly approaching next flight of steps, I don't really know what happened, but I managed to turn in a way to start rolling away from the impact instead of just hitting it straight on. I rolled down the next flight of steps before stopping. My cousins thought I was done for, but no major injuries, just some bruises and scrapes that we had to explain to the adults. I never slid down any stair rails after that.

My uncle works as a forester in an area full of peat swamps; therefore 17 years ago before certain law changes his main job during summers was fighting forest fires. And, well, he had a tree fall on him. He was literally scalped and got a heavy head trauma, had a pneumothorax, his leg and hip were fractured, but worst of all, a lot of fat got into his blood. Basically, for a few days it was unclear whether he would make it or not. Not only he made it, he returned to his job several months later (while limping a bit and not as handsome as before, sure).

I somehow managed to pass my university entry exams while he was at it. When other kids were working their asses off preparing to exams, I made numerous 150 km train trips to see him once he was out of intensive care. I've had my fair share of deaths since then, but in terms of scare this episode was probably the most intense.

If we're just talking about near-death experiences, then I personally was in a relatively high-speed car accident with minor injuries - the other offending party was not so lucky. I wouldn't say it was frightening or scary because it happened too quickly, BAM, and then was in a slight daze or shock until the ambulance drove us to the hospital.

I might be the first person to bring it up and I hate to push it into those waters, but political, or cultural, killings that may be covered up do still happen today even in 2020, the person - relative - I knew about died over two decades ago but it's the fear that people in group mentality do terrible things that still holds true.

I forgot this one. Happened to my RL friend one day. Now I know that this sounds like an urban legend or a made up story, but I can tell you that this actually happened as there were witnesses.

We used to work at an art supply store on the highway. I was off that day ad it was storming like a mother. I heard that, as he was pulling out of the parking lot onto the highway, his car got struck by lightning. The only thing that saved him were the laws of dynamics. He was moving and the rubber tires made it sure he was grounded.

I'd say that he was fine but he was always weird so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

As I was driving home from work, I saw a police car and another vehicle pulled over across the road from my building. Thinking nothing of it, I made the turn into my driveway and parked. Then, just as I got out of my car, I heard gunfire. CLOSE. I ran for the back door and hid on the floor of my apartment for a good ten minutes listening to the gunshots and then the sirens, hoping all the time that my window wasn't about to be shot out by a stray bullet.

It was hours after that before I could go to sleep, and over a week before I didn't tense up driving past that spot. I couldn't get over how close I was. If I had taken a few seconds more before making that turn, I would have been right there when the shooting started. Honestly it still freaks me out.

One thing did come to mind that left me sleepless

I was living in dorms some 6 or 7 years ago. With 3 friends from the same city. Dorms where quit crazy and people drank and fought at times. We had one huge mental dude living there. He could sweet-talk out of conflicts so he never was penalised for shit he did and no one had courage to tell on him.
It was middle of the night, our door was locked. One of our roommates went to toilet (took key with him and locked after himself as everyone had a key). It turned out this huge fucktard was drunk as fuck with some of his friends (who where to my surprise even stupider then him). This guy took my roommate by his neck and lifted to wall and said to let him into his room.
So he gets into our room, comes in and starts shouting and swearing. Pulled off my covers and starts threatening him saying some shit about me and that he will hit me. One of his bootlickers jumps on my roommate and pins him to ground and acts as if he will hit him

In their mind they probably thought thats one hell of a prank or joke. The huge guy gets up, sits on table and starts playing with knifes and talking shit.

Eventually they went away. But at that moment I wanted to stab him in the neck with the knife he was fondling..
Btw we where 16-17 years old back then. And they where nearing 20 at that point. (and once I heard from the huge guy that he started playing rugby just to break someones bones - someone like that belongs in a mental institution)

After I graduated and went on to study in Uni I was living alone in different dorms. One night at around 4 in the morning someone starts kicking at my door. Some 5 or 6 times he went running into my doors with full force and jumping and kicking at them. That was someone huge as well. Another sleepless night. In the morning I checked the doors and the frame around it had started to wobble and wall covering was falling off..

And this happened in the fucking dorms not in some kind of downtown where there is high crime rate. In god dman dorms that have keycard doors and security at doors.

About a week ago, there was a missile attack on my work place. it started after midnight and lasted around an hour. I've never been so scared as an adult.

Feeling like you're going to drown is probably mine.
In Australia we have a lot of beaches, and I would say I'm a very confident swimmer.
I remember in my late teens swimming with friends in surf that was several metres tall on a deserted beach...in rainy/windy weather. (We were all pretty confident swimmers...haha)
Didn't manage to dive under a wave in time and got pulled under awkwardly, hit my head and tumbled for a minute or so underwater.
It was pretty scary until I managed to grab the sand and was able to let the next wave pass before coming up. Due to the rip I'd managed to move like 50 metres down from where we went in.

If you're in Australia, swim between the flags. Hahaha

I was once traveling in a long distance double-decker bus and I was sitting right at the front so I had a very good view of the road, then some idiot tried to pass us without paying attention at the heavy traffic and almost crashes into a motorcycle going in the opposite direction. So the car went outside the road, turned at least 60º, crossed the road at high speed barelly missing us and the other vehicules on the road, and ended up spinning in circles in the other side. I wasn't wearing my seatbelt (I know, I'm an idiot) so I'd have probably ended up being shoot through the front window and dying if the car had hitted us.
It lasted just a couple of seconds probably, but from my point of view it felt like seeing in slow motion how a multiple car crash happens from within the crash.

I was four or five maybe, and my dad and I were just walking along in our village. We always stopped by a cow barn and I walked over some wooden planks covering a cesspit (like, they were on the same level as the ground, it was basically just a maybe 50cmx50cm hole on the property, only covered by some rotting planks), then those planks just gave in and then there I was, dangling in that hole because I luckily had my arms out on either side. My dad immediately ran over to help me back out but hadn't I kept my arms out, there probably wouldn't have been any way to get me out of there in time. And that's the village life for ya. Fun times.
I think that may have been the scariest thing. Or the scariest I can remember right now, anyway.

Take your pick:

1) In Northern Ireland, having guns pointed at my head by the Royal Ulster Constabulary
2) In San Sebastian accidentally walking into a full-blown ETA riot
3) being in the no-man's land between Israel and Jordan without a passport.
4) snowboarding, and getting lost in the back country
5) not just falling through the ice, but skidding under it, while ice skating on a lake
6) getting buried in an avalanche
7) being temporarily blind for 2 days
8) having a knife held to my throat by a junkie
9) when I lived in the top floor of a townhouse converted into apartments, and some rivals came to kill the heroin dealer living one floor below me

Two more:
Diving in french Polynesia, and see sharks above me
Falling off a raft in a river in Australia, and realizing there were crocodiles

surprisingly, for most of these I wasn't scared at the time, but looking back....

i had to go back to work on tuesday.

Well, a few times on my job I had to be in places, in which any sane person would rather not be. Evidently, the scariest moment in my life should have been, when I thought, that I was going to be killed in a cold blood, simply executed without any sentence or warning.

A few guys were escorting me in a very suspicious way, and then we arrived in the middle of a narrow train bridge, just when a train was coming out. We have all stopped, and I was just thinking: "Well, that's it. When they go for it, let's just pull one of them with me, so from his mangled uniform it would be known, who has done this."

The train had finally passed us (it had like 15-20 cars and was not going too fast), and nobody had moved an inch. And then I was faced with three shaking 19 y.o. kids, asking: "What did you want to do, what did you want to do...", so I told them the truth.

The funny thing is, that it was not scary then, and it's not scary today, when I think about it. It was just not a place to be scarred. If I was scared, the thing could likely end up in a very different way. I remember it, like I would remember the most crucial and brilliant move in the most important chess match in my life. Though at times I wonder, where does the fear go, if the is no time to live through it?

Btw, it all ended with those guys saying: "WTF did we get ourselves in? Just go away, go away, and if anyone asks, we will all say, that you have just run out on us into the dark..." As it turned out, they were not, who I was thinking they were. They had been forcibly pulled into the whole thing just a few days earlier, and that's why from the very start they were so uneasy escorting me.

So, I think, that the scariest are not those moments, for which we are somewhat prepared, and which give us the chance to do something. If we don't panic, we have no time to be scared then. The scariest are the things, in which we can do nothing to influence, what happens... and the dreams about things, that may happen.

For me those scariest moments, that I can remember, are a few dreams at different times, about possible tragic consequences, of the decisions, that shortly had to be made by me anyway. With those I was really waking up shaken up and all wet with sweat. Most fortunately for me, and all those involved, those possible consequences have never materialized. I have been lucky.

I'm gonna go with having a heart attack on this one.
Haven't gone through that myself. Do know several people that did, and who were not prepared or wanting to look death that closely in the face.

As a child, I almost drowned. But my father managed to notice this and saved me.
I don't remember that well, but I was probably very scared.
P. S: At different times, I also broke bones on my arms and legs, but it wasn’t very scary.

Scariest thing that happened to me was either being in a car accident, or having a loved one admit that they contemplated suicide after a fight we had.

When my dad died suddenly when I was 19. And then seeing his body at the funeral. Ugh.

I don't know but sleep paralysis is freaky as hell. It's only ever happened to me once or twice in my life but waking up and not being able to move for a brief period of time is very frightening and unsettling.

Jumping off a wharf and coming face to face with a shark, it was dead and tied to the wharf but I didn't realise it till i was half way one of the supports.
or
Walking home from work over a canal bridge and bumped into a guy with a big sword, that was sprinting past me, we both said sorry at the same time and he kept running, i walked briskly the other way

Diving a wreck and my partner left me alone coming back in 10 foot waves, then having the owner of the boat drunk and driving back (in 10 foot waves) like a madman and blowing his engines 2 miles out and having to get hauled back by a rescue boat (cost the owner $1,000 a mile and having to replace both engines. When asked if I wanted to go on another dive, told him not unless he was sober. He never asked me again. Phew! That was one of my big adventures!

Car accidents tend to be a theme in my family. I was in my first major one a couple of months ago (friend was driving and overcorrected into an interection), and once my sister was in a rollover crash with her dad

I went on a field trip where you basically did rope climbing 50 feet above ground. Lost my fear of heights and vertigo after that.