7.

“It was the third night of our honeymoon in Mo’orea. We were in an oceanfront bungalow at a beautiful resort and had spent the previous two nights falling asleep with every window and door in the bungalow open so we could experience the ocean breeze and amazing smells from the island. In the middle of our third night, we were awoken by awful, blood-curdling screams off in the distance. My husband and I were frozen in that moment, but we could tell the other was also awake. The screams got louder and louder as they were making their way to us. We laid there frozen in fear since all of our windows and doors were open. The closer it got, we were able to hear the words ‘stop’ and ‘please don’t hurt me,’ accompanied by constant screams. At this point, you could hear footsteps moving along the walkway outside the bedroom window.”

“The only phone in the bungalow was out in the living room, so my husband dropped to the floor and crawled to the living room where he called the front desk to tell them something was going on. They assured him they would immediately look into it and to remain in our bungalow. He quickly closed each of the windows, locked the doors, and crawled back in bed with me, where we laid in silence and waited to hear if the resort was investigating. We laid there awake in silence until the sun came up. The next morning, we saw our neighbors on their patio and asked them if they had heard anything. There was great fear on their faces, as they also heard the commotion. The four of us went to the hotel front desk to ask them what had happened, and the front desk acted as though they had no idea what we were talking about. Needless to say, our neighbors packed their bags and left the island two days early while my husband and I remained at the resort for our final night before moving on to our next island. To this day, 20 years later, this has been the scariest moment in all of our travels.”

—Anonymous