Urban Legends have a way of snaking through stories of almost every kid's childhood at some point in time. These legends range from being absolutely horrifying to downright fascinating as they go from stories of grim loss to just sad tales of disaster. As we all prepare for Halloween, keep these 10 urban legends in mind before pulling out that Ouija board.

1. "Bloody Mary"

There are multiple stories surrounding the origin of "Bloody Mary," but the most common ones state that Mary Worth was either a witch, executed for her crimes, or that young Mary was in a horrible accident that destroyed her face and caused her death. Either way, the ritual of chanting her name in a mirror is practiced most commonly by young teenagers looking to scare their friends. It is said that if you turn off all the lights, look into a mirror--or in some legends, any reflective surface--and chant her name three times, she will appear and most commonly, is known to scratch your eyes out. There are plenty of variations among the legend that says "Bloody Mary" will appear and reveal the future to you. Most versions, however, end up with the death of the person who chants her name.

2. "The Vanishing Hitchhiker"

The legend of the "vanishing hitchhiker" is most often told about a motorcyclist who finds a beautiful woman in need of a ride on a long, deserted stretch of road. He offers her the ride but by the time he reaches her house, she has vanished off the back of the motorcycle. When the man goes to the front door to ask about the women, he learns that she had been killed in a car accident many years ago on the road. The variations to this tale include all vehicles picking up all sorts of hitchhikers who always end up vanishing from the backseat, sometimes leaving a trinket or message behind encouraging the driver to seek them out. The driver usually ends up discovering that they picked up the hitchhiker on the anniversary of their death.

3. "Killer in the Backseat"

Have you ever been driving alone at night when suddenly another car appears and after a while, it seems to be following you? The "Killer in the Backseat" is a story most commonly told as a young woman driving home alone after a party. As she is driving along, another car is catching up to her. The car's signal flashes and he goes to pass but pulls the car back quickly and starts flashing his lights at her. On and on, down the road they go--the stranger still following too closely and flashing his lights. As she pulls into her driveway, her plan is to run into her house and call 911 when the stranger in the other car yells at her to do exactly that. She discovers after the police arrive that the stranger was trying to warn her about the man with the butcher knife in her backseat that was going to kill her.

4. "Babysitter and the Man Upstairs"

This urban legend may remind you of a multitude of horror movies that I can only suspect have been made because of this legend. The "Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" is a story of a young female babysitter who keeps receiving calls from a strange man that asks her question after question, each one becoming more personal. After minutes of being on the phone with him, he finally asks, "Have you checked on the children?" The babysitter calls the police and after the call is traced, she learns that the man calling has been inside the house the entire time. When the police arrive they find the children slaughtered. Some versions of the story end up with the killer being caught, just standing in the children's room, other versions end up with the babysitter also being murdered. However, each version of the legend makes it a bit harder to want to babysit.

5. "Humans Can Lick Too"

This legend is one that I accidentally stumbled upon on Pinterest one day and is one legend I find terrifying compared to others. It tells the story of a young girl, lying in bed one night. Her parents are away but with her is a dog to keep her company. She is suddenly awoken by a dripping sound coming from the bathroom. She gets up to shut the faucet off and gets back into bed, draping her arm over the side as her dog licks her fingers. After waiting several moments, she notices the dripping sound continues and gets up again. Being fed up with the noise, she decides to turn on the lights and finds her dead dog hanging from the ceiling, blood dripping onto the floor. Next to the dog, there is a note that reads, "humans can lick too." As with all urban legends, there are multiple variations regarding how many times the girl gets up to check the faucet, and where the dog is found.

6. "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn On The Lights?"

For college kids, beware. One night a college girl decides to go to a party. Her roommate, not quite the party-type, stays behind. After a long night, the girl comes back to her dorm to find the lights turned off and decided not the wake her roommate. She changes in the dark and goes to bed, falling asleep quickly. The next morning she wakes up, rolls over, and finds her roommate dead. Looking to the wall behind her she finds a message written on the wall in blood saying, " aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" This legend has always been frightening to me because of the message. This being written on the wall means that after the girl fell asleep, the killer was still in her room.

7. "The Hook"

This urban legend, in particular, seems to have an enormous number of variations and will basically change every time you hear it. The Hook is the story of a couple, driving along a deserted road at night. The boy pulls the car off the road and into the woods--we can all suspect why. The girl turns the radio on to hear that a convicted killer with a hook for a hand has escaped from a nearby mental facility. The girls beg the boy to leave but he hears something in the woods and goes outside to investigate. After minutes of not seeing her boyfriend, the girl goes outside and starts shouting his name. She doesn't see or hear anything and turns back to get into the car. As she faces the car, she sees her boyfriend hanging from the tree overhead by a hook. The different versions of this story include the couple living and when they get home, they find the hook hanging from the car door handle. There is also a version where the girl is also killed. No matter what way to slice it, moral of the story is, don't investigate noises.

8. "The Clown Statue"

Another urban legend involving babysitters -- this story is about a young girl babysitting for a family at night. She was told she could sit in the living room and watch TV, but she feels uneasy because of a clown statue staring at her from the corner of the room. She calls the parents to ask them if it was okay for her to throw a blanket over it while she was there but the father immediately tells her to grab their son, get out of the house, and call 911. As she inquires why the father refuses to answer until she and the child are safe and police are there. As she waits across the street at the neighbor's house, she calls the father back and asks. The father tells her that they didn't own any clown statue. Apparently, their son had been complaining about a clown watching him as he slept but the parents had passed it off as a simple nightmare. The police discovered that the clown had been living undetected in the house for some time. However, he was not expecting a babysitter to show up and didn't have time to escape, so he froze in the corner.

9. "Dead Body Under the Mattress"

From the many sources I've scoured regarding this urban legend, it actually has some truth to it. "Dead Body Under the Mattress" is a story of a couple vacationing in a hotel. They enter their room and after only a couple minutes, the awful stench coming from the bed is too much to handle. The police find the there was a rotting corpse stashed under the mattress. The true stories of dead bodies being recovered from motel rooms include them being found under the floorboards, inside the mattress, and sometimes even stuffed into the wall. The worst part of the truth to this is that sometimes people have slept an entire night on top of a corpse before reporting the smell.

10. "The Hanging Tree"

In Brazoria, Texas, two slaves were hanged from an old tree and are said to still be haunting the area to this day. The legend says that if you drive a car under the tree, it will stall every time. There is also a story about a woman who had walked under the tree but heard something behind her as she walked away. When she turned back she saw a young boy standing and staring at her. She turned away and continued walking but couldn't help turning back again. When she saw the boy this time he was a teenager. She became frightened and started to walk faster. As she turned around again there was a man following her and she began to run. She reached a house and burst through the door to escape from the man but as she turned for the last time he was gone. It is said that if you walk under the tree you will see him too. It is unknown why the figure seems to age.