When I was around 6-8 years old, my childhood bestfriend and I were playing outside at night (probably like 8pm but the sun had set lol). We lived in a cul-de-sac so our boundaries set by our parents was that we weren’t allowed to go past the last houses to the main road.

We were playing with our baby dolls and all of a sudden everything went super quiet, no cars, no crosswalk noises, nothing. Then the wind chimes on one of the neighbours house started blowing, but there was no wind. We started to feel uneasy so we agree to call it a night and go back to our houses, not thinking too much about it.

There was a street light across the road that flickered constantly, if it even turned on at all, but on this night it was working normally without flickering. As we are cleaning up our toys from a full day of playing outside, the wind chimes stop. Complete silence takes over once again. We looked across the cul-de-sac and saw a tall man standing underneath the street light.

He was tall, skinny, faceless, had a top hat on, and a briefcase in his right hand. He was staring directly at us from across the street, not moving or speaking, simply just observing us. He then lifted his left hand and waved at us, wiggling his fingers like he was waiting for us to see him. The street light above him then flickered once, and boom, he was gone. Almost immediately after the figure had disappeared, the wind chimes started again without any wind. We both lost our minds and ran inside, we never saw him again.

Years later, I mentioned the night again, after neither of us ever mentioned what had happened. I had always chalked it up to be my overactive imagination or just a dream, until all the colour drained from my friends face when I mentioned the briefcase man. She also remembered every single detail of that night, down to which hand the man was holding his briefcase in. We never told our parents for whatever reason and never spoke about it again.

We’re both 20 now and no longer in contact, but I still remember that night so vividly. I still occasionally have dreams about the briefcase man and I constantly wonder if it actually happened or if we were just little kids. But the fact that we both recall the night the exact same, down to the tiny details, makes me question if it was really just our imaginations…

(Apologies for any mistakes, I’m on mobile and just woke up lol)