We tell ourselves that the chilling tales we hear online and around the campfire can't be true, because we like being able to leave the house without collapsing into a broken ball of anxiety. But it's time once again to pop that little bubble of self-deception.

Steel yourself, spookable readers, because this year's collection of true-life tales of spookiness may be our most spookifying yet!

Maybe read these with the lights on.

It's that time of year again, kids! What time is that, you ask? Why, it's pants-soilin' time!

This world is so scary that a lot of the creepy tales you told around the campfire have actually happened to real, very unfortunate people.

There's no guarantee that any of these games would have been good, but it's still intriguing as hell.

Well, it's that time of year again. Specifically, the time of year when we make you shit your pants with stories that sound like they must have been made up, but are actually terrifyingly true.

Halloween's nearly here, and that means Cracked is once again out to prove that the tales that scared you shitless as a kid could actually kill you as an adult.

Once again, it's that time of year when Cracked goes out our way to fact check the outlandish stories that allegedly happened to your friend's former roommate's cousin's girlfriend.

Everything needs to measured: Even things you don't want to touch, smell, look at, think about or even exist on the same physical plane as. Thankfully, that's where Science steps in.