Children have incredibly vivid imaginations. If they are playing as a princess, super hero or wicked witch, they can put on an Oscar-worthy performance without even five minutes of rehearsal. If they are tasked with coming up with a fantasy creature in art class or an incredible invention in science class, within 15 minutes they will have created something so spectacular that a team of adults could spend months working on something only half as impressive. The amazing minds of kids are usually fascinating and intriguing, but sometimes, they can be a bit frightening as well.

In honor of spooky season, we’ve gathered some of the creepiest stories Reddit users have heard children share about their “imaginary friends” down below, and we’ll warn you, these tales might make you want to sleep with one eye open. From vivid descriptions of people in their bedrooms at night to friends who commit violent acts, some of these Imaginary characters sound a bit more like ghosts and demons than friends.

Keep reading to also find an interview we were lucky enough to receive from child therapist Katie Lear, LCMHC, RPT, RDT, on the topic of imaginary friends. Be sure to upvote the stories that make you reconsider your plans to have kids, and feel free to tell any terrifying tales you’ve heard children share in the comments below. Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda article featuring creepy things kids have said, we recommend reading this article next. (And you might want to turn all of the lights on!)   

More info: Reddit

#1

My son stopped talking to his imaginary friend for months after my nephew, who was 15, took his own life. My son, who was not quite 5, was the apple of his eye. My nephew treated my son like a little brother, and since his mom watched my son while I worked, they spent tons of time together.

I had simply told my son his cousin was sick from sadness and he’d died. I would remind him every time before we went to their house so he wouldn’t pester my sister about where he was. One day he said “Mom, you keep saying he’s not here anymore, but he IS. He sits on my bed before I go to sleep and talks to me.” He would NOT be dissuaded. This went on for months. He knew things we did not speak about around him that happened. My nephew’s grandpa on his dad’s side passed a few months later. That’s when my son told me his cousin told him he wouldn’t be able to visit anymore. He was going on a train with his grandpa, and they couldn’t come back again. Last thing he told him was to never play with guns, they weren’t safe. My nephew took his life with a handgun. Wigged me the hell out.

Image credits: songbird563

To gain some insight on imaginary friends and how common it is for children to have them, we reached out to child therapist Katie Lear, LCMHC, RPT, RDT. Katie told Bored Panda that it is actually more common for kids to have imaginary friends than to not have them. "Research suggests that 65% of children will have an invisible playmate at some point during their childhood. It's totally normal."

"In fact, parents can rest easy knowing that having an imaginary friend is correlated with high social intelligence and creativity later in life," Katie noted. "It's a form of play, and in nearly every case a sign of healthy development. It seems that children who spend more time playing alone may rely more on their inner life for entertainment. We see only children and firstborns creating invisible friends more often than other kids, which seems to support this theory."

#2

So maybe not scary but definitely weird.

When I was little I claimed to have an imaginary friend, who had light brown hair and wore a night gown, and she had stars for eyes.

Well, my niece was living at my old childhood home and she told me that she has a friend who misses me and she asked why I went away. When I asked who, she described my old imaginary friend. It was super spooky.

Edit: I have been informed that this is scary, my apologies.

Image credits: StarDustAndLus

#3

Most of my extended family live around the same area so we have lot’s of gatherings.
For the backstory, one of my uncles (lets call him Steve) lost a childhood friend when he was ~7.
Steve and his friend (let’s call him Jack) were having a play-date one after noon and got a bit dirty in some mud. So Steve’s mother gave Jack a pair of Steve’s shoes to borrow. When Jack’s father came to pick him up after the play date they forgot to put back on Jack’s shoes and Jack accidentally got into the car with the borrowed shoes still on. Tragically the father and Jack got into a terrible car crash on the way home which killed 7-year old Jack. The family had him buried in the shoes he had borrowed from Steve. (i’m not sure why)

Fast forward 30 years to a family gathering in 2010.
My 6 year old cousin Sara is playing alone with toys in a quieter room of the house. My Uncle Steve comes up to her and asks her what she is playing. Sara responds saying that she is playing with a friend. Holding back a smile, Steve asks who her imaginary friend is. Sara continues to play while saying that she is playing with his friend Jack, and that “he is sorry he forgot to give your shoes back”.
My Uncle’s jaw nearly dropped. He had not talked about Jack in years, let alone tell that story to a 6 year old.

No one had brought up Jack that day nor at any family gathering recently. Every time i remember this incident i get chills.

Image credits: paxlaina

When it comes to what these imaginary friends are usually like, Katie says they can be pretty much anything. "Child or adult, human or animal... There's a ton of variety," she says. "In general, imaginary friends seem to range from friendly to mildly mischievous. I think it's much less common for children to create scary or violent imaginary friends like we're hearing about in this Reddit thread."

"It might sound alarming, but I don't think having a creepy imaginary buddy is immediately cause for concern," Katie says. "If this were my child or a child on my caseload, I'd be curious about whether having a 'naughty' imaginary friend was giving the child an opportunity to explore feelings and behaviors that aren't socially acceptable. For example, it's not okay for me to hit people, but maybe I can let that impulse out if my imaginary friend does it."

#4

So this is actually my story of when I was a kid. I had an imaginary friend named Derek who was a carbon copy of me. We were completely identical. I played with Derek for years, longer than what normal kids do. But he would always look at my mom and older sister with a sense of sadness. Eventually he went away. 23 years later im digging through my moms safe to grab some paperwork she's kept for me and I see a stillborn death certificate for a boy named Derek who shared my birthday. It was only then I found out I was actually a twin and my twin, Derek, died during birth. Creepy right?

Image credits: uwu_SenpaiSatan

#5

Not an imaginary friend but hopefully creepy enough to count.

My daughter is 2 and since she could talk she has always chatted happily to herself in her crib as she drifts off. It’s super cute. Usually just things like:
“go see nana? Go see papa?”
“Hello Aunnie. Hello Tim” (her aunt and uncle)
My wife and I loved to listen in on the baby monitor and talk about how cute she was. Then one night she said:
“Satan!”
In that tone that only little girls have that is so sweet it chills the blood when they say something like this.
It evolved over a week into like “it’s satan!”
Or “satan and the son!”
OR my personal favorite: “good night everyone. Ah satan!”

My wife eventually cracked the case. Our daughter loves this book called “Good Night Everyone” she’s also really into the planets. The last line of the book is unsurprising: “good night everyone.” On the following page are drawings of the planets. We’d go through them from the edges of the solar system to the sun. She’d always happily call out “Saturn” as I suspect it’s rings made it easy for her to spot.

#TLDR 2 year old was quoting the last line of a book and excitedly naming Saturn and the Sun. Not communing with the Lord of Hell

We also asked Katie if children usually understand that their imaginary friends are make believe. "Young children are still learning to differentiate reality and fantasy. The blurred lines between 'real' and 'pretend' are part of the magic of early childhood," Katie explained. "By the time they start Kindergarten, most kids should be able to tell what's real and what isn't. They may have an emotional investment in their imaginary friend, but they know their friend is make believe."

Katie also added that the way we respond to our children can affect their behavior. "I'd be really curious about the response the child is getting to these creepy stories," she said. "Are they getting a big reaction from you? Any behavior that gets a lot of attention from parents is likely to be repeated, so parents may unintentionally encourage more of this creepy behavior if the stories freak them out."

#6

A kid said he didnt want to go to church because "my invisible friend says he cant follow me in there"

Image credits: Rook_45

#7

My son, then about two or three, used to tell us about his imaginary friend Johnny, who wore all green, including a green hat. One time, we were driving by the cemetery and my son pointed out the window and exclaimed, “that’s where Johnny lives”. He was very little and didn’t know what a cemetery was, so we explained to him that no one lives there, it’s a place for people who died.
That’s when he told us that “Johnny was a soldier who died in a place called Nam. “

Image credits: LibriBot

And although imaginary friends are usually nothing to worry about, Katie said there are rare times where parents should step in. "Sometimes kids attempt to blame their own naughty behavior on an imaginary friend, which isn't something parents need to go along with," she noted. "While imaginary friends are usually helpful for developing social skills, a child who is deeply invested in their friend to the detriment of their real-life friendships may need help connecting with peers. Rarely, an imaginary friend might be a child's attempt to cope with trauma or stress. If your child's imaginary friend encourages them to behave badly in real life or says upsetting things to them, you need to intervene. It never hurts to run these concerns by a children's therapist or pediatrician, especially if you're noticing other symptoms like anxiety, behavior problems, or difficulties sleeping or eating."

If you'd like to gain more wisdom from Katie, you can find her website right here. She also shared with Bored Panda that she's working on a new venture as well called Young Dragonslayers, an online company that helps kids practice social-emotional skills through online gaming, that can be found right here.

#8

Purple mommy. When my son was first learning to talk, he would tell us about something called "purple mommy". It could be an imaginary friend, but these details are a little bit creepy.
Here's a few of the purple mommy details . Purple mommy is all purple with long hair and bright all white eyes(at the time he mixed up purple with black, so he could have meant she was all black) . Purple mommy picks him up at night, and turns off the lights. We would often find my son out of his crib in the morning, which would mean him crawling over the railing and to the ground, at a time when he was barely walking. Definitely found the lights in his room off a few times too, even though hes terrified if the dark. . Purple mommy needs a bandage because she has blood everywhere.

.Purple mommy has no smile, meaning a mouth

. Purple mommy can take her head off. . Purple mommy really doesn't like daddy.

He told us all of this stuff for maybe a year or a little more. If we ever asked where she was, hed always point to the same spot. A corner of the room behind his open closet door. He would also wake up crying almost every night during this time. Once, during a really rough night, my wife went to ask him whats wrong, and his answer was "purple mommy wont let me sleep."

Image credits: professor_dog

#9

My youngest sister(4 at the time) had an imaginary friend named Paris Jaris. My dad had built her a small playhouse in our backyard where my mom could see and hear her while she was in the kitchen. My sister would have tea parties and such with her imaginary friend. One day mom heard her say “don’t worry, as long as I’m alive they won’t hurt you”. She paused and said “well if you do that then I can’t help you, it’s not nice to kill people”. When my mom asked her what that was about my sister said “sometimes I have to tell Paris to be a nice person or he can’t visit anymore”. We moved not to long afterwards and she didn’t get a new playhouse.

Image credits: Biggusparrot

We hope these stories aren't scaring you out of having children of your own some day, if you planned on becoming a parent. Keep upvoting the responses that would freak you out if your own kids said them, and feel free to share any creepy imaginary friend stories you've heard children tell in the comments. Kids are incredible and so smart, but sometimes, as many horror movies have taught us, they can be a bit frightening... Enjoy the rest of this spooky list, and then if you're looking to read even more frightening things children have shared, we recommend checking out this Bored Panda article next!

#10

My oldest when she was 4. She had an imaginary friend named Jack who lived under our back porch. And he liked to shove sticks down people's throats. I discouraged playtime with Jack.

Image credits: RyeDoll13

#11

Was taking my 3 year old niece for ice cream one evening. I strapped her into her car seat in the backseat. As I started driving, my niece asks if Jacob (imaginary friend) could get an ice cream, too? I jokingly said, “Jacob can get his own ice cream.” I laughed, and said, “Just kidding - we’ll get Jacob an ice cream.”
She didn’t respond so I looked in the rear view mirror. I couldn’t see very much because it was dark. What I could see was my niece’s face. She looked angry and I was about to reassure her that I was kidding but I realized she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at something near my ear, towards the back of my head.
Then she says, “I said NO, Jacob. Be nice. NO. She didn’t mean it.”

Image credits: lilpigperez

#12

My son had this imaginary friend - Ganga. She lived in the nearby pond, had duck feet, hair all over her face, ate through a slit in her neck and we were expecting her any minute for dinner.


He was totally chill with this horrific monster idea, yet he had recuring nightmares about a puppy comming into his room. Kids are wierd.

Image credits: Why_So_Slow

#13

I don't know if this would be considered a "Imaginary friend", but this happened around I was 4/5/6 (dont exactly remember)

It was a couple months after my grandfather died because of lung cancer(he used to smoke), and we were living at my grandmothers at the time. One day I was on the couch and my grandmother was talking about her wedding with my Grandfather, I ended up saying "I was at your wedding..." They explain to me I wasn't and my grandmother asked me questions about it and I answered every one correct about the marriage.

I think this was a week before or after, but on that day I was talking to my self(I usually talk a lot to myself and I still do.), and my mom walked in and asked who I was talking to. My mother told me I responded with "Im talking to Pap-pap"

A couple months past after these events, and they start re-asking me and told me if I remember talking to my Grandfather, I forgot everything...

When I was 8, I remember getting ready to school and my grandma was still asleep. This is forever in my mind, I see a white-figure the same shape he is and I saw him walk into the bathroom.

That was the last time I saw or talked to him.

Image credits: RaZzB3RrY_

#14

My eldest told me that his imaginary friend misses me and wishes he could have been with me longer than a month.

I lost his big sister to SIDS a month after she was born the year before I had him.

Image credits: anon

#15

When my daughter was a toddler she randomly started talking about a man named Don. She always described him the same way and didn’t seem scared at all, despite bringing him up every day. She didn’t go to daycare and we didn’t know anyone named Don. Then one day she got completely freaked out, wouldn’t walk around the house alone in case she ran into Don, wouldn’t sleep in her own room, and would talk about how she hated him because he said “mean words” to her all the time. About a year into “mean Don” we bought a new house. Once we moved she never spoke of him again.

Image credits: sciencenerd86

#16

My sister and I had the same exact imaginary friend when she was 6 and I was 5. Her name was Narni. It would freak our older brother and parents out that we both would talk to her and knew exactly where she would be. They would wonder how we both would interact with her at the same time and that our descriptions of her matched. We would even talk about how she would get angry or jealous. Our parents thought for sure that it was the spirit of a child that had passed

Image credits: anon

#17

I've mentioned this before, but my sister Ashley used to get visited at night by a dead girl with long dark hair and spider hands (yes, this pre-dated The Ring, yes, I'm old AF). She moved out the second she turned 18, never looked back.

20-odd years later, our half-brother Trevor moved into her old room. It wasn't long after Trev started sleeping on the sofa, or with the lights on, and told us about his new "friend" that he didn't like. She was a dead girl who had long dark hair, an old nightgown, and spider hands.

Needless to say, none of us offered to trade rooms with him.

Image credits: NotAnotherWhatever

#18

My cousin was a few years younger than me and he had an imaginary friend called 'Mooky'.

Mooky wasn't human, but some kind of alien/monster thing.

Used to freak me out when I'd hear a noise behind me at my grandparents house and my cousin would calmly say "It's only Mooky, he just wants to see you."

Image credits: Gemski13

#19

When my son was about 3 years old, we were living with my mom in an older apartment. I had always gotten a weird vibe from it — the atmosphere felt heavy and a little oppressive, but I assumed it was just because of the age. However, my son started waking up in the middle of the night and would talk to his 'friend,' who he described as the ‘Hat Man.’ He would always wake up and tell Hat Man that he didn’t want to go play with him because he was supposed to be asleep, and that he’d see him tomorrow. This was always followed by him waking me up and asking for a glass of water. I knew it wasn’t just an imaginary friend when, one night, I heard him talking, and when he said he’d see him tomorrow, the door to his room closed on its own. This stopped completely once we moved out.

Image credits: anon

#20

My youngest niece had an imaginary friend and when my sister told me about it she said "ask her what she looks like"

"Ok, what's she look like?"

"Broken pieces."

"...Oh.. why's she broken sweety?"

"She fell from our tree"

Nope. Sorry sis you're on your own.

Image credits: DarthSangheili

#21

Not an Imaginary Friend per se, but my niece as a toddler made a pretty convincing case that she was reincarnated. From the time she could lisp her first words, she carried on about someone called "Tertha" or "Trutha" or something odd like that. Sometimes she called herself "Tertha" and a fair number of her dolls had those or similar names.

By the time she was 2 or three, she talked non-stop about "Her other Mommy" and "Her sister" and how she (Tertha) and her "Other Mommy and sister were in a car accident and then were in the hospital and her other Mommy died". I mean, she wouldn't quit about it.

My sister neither discouraged her from telling the stories nor encouraged her. She would always finish up with the punchline "Then after my other Mommy died, then I was in your stomach!" Imagine a little child, big eyes looking up at you, rattling on about this.

She pretty much stopped by the time she was 6, and by 8 didn't remember this at all. We figured she had forgotten her reincarnation.

Image credits: Travelgrrl

#22

When I was six I had a friend who was a little younger than me and her imaginary friend was not a very nice person. She used to tell me how her imaginary friend, "Mr. G" made her "hurt between her legs" and how he "tasted funny and made funny noises". She was absolutely terrified of him. She told me Mr. G was very, very tall, with no hair, and very mean eyes. After a few sleepovers my mom wouldn't let me have sleepovers at her house anymore and then she and her mom moved away. Her father didn't go with them. He was a very tall man with no hair and mean eyes.

#23

When I was little it was pretty firmly established that I had an imaginary friend named "Other"

Other had the same name as me so I just called him Other.

I would tell my mom that Other was being mean to me and wants to steal dads bike.

I remember I told my father that Other was very mad at him for hurting me (He was an abusive piece of work) and he literally threw me across the room.

I asked my mom about it as an adult and she told me my father had a brother that I was named after and wasn't told about because shortly before I was born he died in a motorcycle accident

Image credits: doesitfeelbad

#24

Ha, I haven't thought of this in a while, but when my son was younger (6ish) he had an imaginary friend named Boney Akiki. Boney Akiki was a skeleton man. Honestly my son only ever had the nicest things to say about Boney Akiki, so he wasn't very scary, even for a skeleton man.

#25

My little sister had an imaginary friend called "Rhymey Guy" from when she was 2 to about 5 years old. He was half hamster, half man, six inches tall, and always spoke in rhymes. Once, she randomly began freaking out in the middle of a meal, and when we asked why, she said that rhymey guy had jumped into her mouth and she had swallowed him. About an hour later, she started complaining that she hurt because "rhymey guy was eating her insides." She said her stomach and chest hurt for the next week or so, and she would tell us that she was "trying to poop him out, but he kept crawling back in." It was totally creepy, and after that incident, she told us that rhymey guy wasn't her friend anymore, and that she was scared to go to sleep because he might crawl back inside her. My mom had to "take him out of the room" every night to get her to go the sleep. When she was five and a half, or so, she told us that rhymey guy left to find "another girl to climb inside of." The mind of a child is truly wonderful.

#26

My cousin had an imaginary friend who she said used to live in the fireplace and “was red and patchy” - as if she was burnt. Apparently she was a little girl who wore funny clothes that “looked like olden day clothes”. Still spooks me out!

Image credits: babizzo

#27

My son had an imaginary friend that was an angel. I’d always heard that angels would convince kids to go with them so I was not comfortable at all when he would tell me about this angel. Come to find out, a child had apparently drowned in the tiny pond in the far corner of the yard. So maybe the dead child’s angel was looking for a playmate? Yeah, I had that pond filled in with dirt, real quick.

#28

CONTEXT: My bedroom was in the attic

When my brother was 4 he told me about the man who lived in the attic. Apparently he would hear someone walking around in the attic when I wasn't in there. He said he'd seen someone's head poking out of the hatch watching him at night, and that he was sorry he'd been too scared to do anything about the man in my bedroom.

I no longer live with them. I was talking to the same brother (now aged 10) about him taking the bigger attic bedroom now it's empty. My youngest brother (5) immediately answered, "but where will the man live?"

Image credits: mother_of_squid

#29

A baby cousin and her family moved into a new apartment in the Middle East. Baby cousin would go out to the balcony and play with someone, according to her mom. Talk, run around, laugh, etc. Mom asked who she’s talking to, and she said it was her new friend. Mom got concerned and told her to stop playing there. Later, the dad started feeling like a child would come sit on his lap when he sat on the couch. Felt the weight/warmth of a child but there was nothing there. IIRC they would hear kids’ voices and stuff would disappear and all, too. They moved shortly after.

Image credits: erikagirardi

#30

One night, I was reading a story to our 3-year-old, and he started laughing. He was looking over my shoulder, so I asked him what he was laughing at, and he answered, 'The little girl by the door is being silly!' I looked back, terrified of what I might see, and as I did, he stated, 'Oh! She ran away!' Needless to say, I called my husband at work and told him I would not be sleeping a minute that night!