Ever get scared?

[long live kong]

Listen to us monster lovers, who surround ourselves with all things spooky, terrorised by a bunch of balloons!!

Zackuth - your tale reminded me of something my eldest sister told me, about watching Salems Lot in the early hours, then being woken by the window cleaner scratching at her window!

I may have also posted some of this before, but here goes...

The town I grew up in, and my father before me, was at one time a leading sea port in Europe and was heavily bombed during WW2. In the fifties, my dad played in the ruined streets known locally as 'Bombies', (even during my childhood there were still two 'bombies' remaining).
  In one such street there was a house that was still barely standing, with only half a roof, and most of the windows smashed. Apparently an elderly lady still lived there, having refused to leave, who in her old age and after living through the trauma of being bombed was now quite mad. No one ever saw her and the poor woman had become something of a local legend amongst the local youngsters. One day my father was given a dare to enter the house, to catch a glimpse of the mad woman. He obliged, and crept through a back window. When he reached the front of the dilapidated house he peeked into the living room, and there she was, sat in a rocking chair asleep. According to him, he suddenly felt guilty and was just about to sneak out, but she suddenly awoke, saw my dad and leapt from her seat and chased him through the house screaming, her face livid and her hair tangled and white. He dived through a window and severely gashed his ankle, leaving a scar which he has to this day. I suspect my dad made up the story, but I would make him repeat it to me over and over when I was a kid.

When my mother was a little girl, she collected 'golliwog' dolls, which to anyone unfamiliar, were a type of rag doll depicting a black character from a children's book. They are somewhat controversial, and are considered by some to be racist, but in any case my mom had them as a child.
My mom's younger brother was spookef by these dolls, (I can see his point, they are quite creepy), and developed a genuine terror for the pile of dolls stacked in the corner of the room he shared with my mother and two other siblings. One night, my uncle became hysterical and my grandfather, a hard Scotsman who at the time was working nights, took the pile of dolls, bagged them up and threw them over a bridge into the dock on his way to work. My uncle was no longer afraid, but my mother told me she then started having nightmares herself. She kept imagining the dolls crawling out of the water at night, and creeping back to the house to settle at the end of her bed, dripping in sea water!

[Zackuth]

Zackuth - your tale reminded me of something my eldest sister told me, about watching Salems Lot in the early hours, then being woken by the window cleaner scratching at her window!

I first read Salem's Lot when I was stationed in San Diego.  I read into I the early morning, turning out the light at 2 or 3.  I believe it was in Novermber, but the night was foggy and there was a street lamp close by that shined into the window.  So I had illuminated fog outside my window, just after reading Salem's Lot.  The tv movie kept leaping into my mind.

[scott_of_smeg]

My mind goes into self preservation mode when I am truly scared ****less.

We used to hang out in a graveyard at night as kids. We would drink a couple 22's, smoke a couple cigarettes and try to impress our girlfriends with feats of bravery. The worst thing that a teenage boy could do in front of his girlfriend was chicken out on a dare.

One night I was dared to go back into the old, abandoned trees of the graveyard without a flashlight. I put on my best brave act and started off away from my friends, into the trees. I thought I was smarter than my friends and being that it was a full moon, I could see perfectly well without a flashlight.

Until I got into the trees.

I kept walking, noticing how old some of the grave markers were and suddenly I heard a loud crack. I stopped dead in my tracks. I looked around a bit and then I heard another RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I quickly turned my head and saw something dart into the trees. At this point, like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon, both of my contacts popped out of my eyes.

There I was, alone in a dense wooded and abandoned graveyard, without a flashlight and now blind as a bat. All this after seeing what I thought was the scariest ghost imaginable that was coming to rip my throat out. I screamed. Not like a manly scream, or even a womanly scream for that matter. No, I screamed one of those in audible screams that no one would ever be able to hear. It kid of sounded like a groan of sorts. I must have ran into 3 trees and tripped over countless gravestones as I bolted back towards the voices of my friends.

I never lived that night down.

My contacts have popped out of my eyes on two other occasions:1) seeing my brand new Mercury Cougar totaled on the side of the street after an apparent drunk driver ran into it while parked and 2) walking to a beach campfire I saw what I thought were a pack of coyotes running towards me in the night. Turned out to be our friends dogs

=)

[long live kong]

There's a wood right near where I live, ałways full of weirdos at night. It takes a surprising amount of courage to walk through it alone when it's pitch black, but I'm usually ok once I meet up with my nocturnal woodland friends.

[Haunted hearse]

So how many of us have done the scarring?  A friend showed me how to get into the cemetary at night.  As we walked, he started to talk about zombie movies.  Very carefully, without bending, or any other indication, I was able to quickly grab the back of his legs.  I think discussions of horror films are always better when you can make them an interactive experience.

[Unknown Primate]

Guilty as charged.  Done my fair share of scaring.  Sudden shock scares and long elaborate ones.  Luckily, no one killed me.  I was notorious for always setting up my cousin (R.I.P. Rocker).  Even up until his passing in 2006, he claimed I scarred him for life.  Almost backfired on me once, though - if it had, I'd been eatin' splinters from a baseball bat!  I had it planned out perfectly - except I left the baseball bat upstairs - and he grabbed it!

A famous shock scare (from the Stamper Family Archives) targeted my Mom & two older Sisters.  I was 18 at the time and had seen THE EXORCIST twice, and yes, it disturbed me and still does.  Despite the hype, the trio didn't know a lot about the film.  Mom wasn't yet 50 and my sisters were 22 & 27.  They went to a midnight show and around 2:30 am, I was ready for them.  Our garage was at the back end of our house and we had a creepy, dark backyard.  For some reason, my sisters were staying the night or something.  I watched out the front door until they pulled up.  I knew it would take them about one minute to go down the drive-way, park in the garage and walk out of the garage.  I slipped out the back door, scooted around the corner through our yard and waited patiently by our creepy fence.  The car doors shut and they all three came walking out at same time.  I sprung up and in my best guttural demon voice, hissed "I'M THE DEVIL!".  Screams, shakes and one of the three peeing her pants!  Won't say which one, though . 

Fortunately, I had a history of doing creepy things so Mom didn't send me to a shrink or anything.

[Zackuth]

Yeah, me too!!  I used to hide by the enterance of our hallway and scare my brother when he'd come out of the bathroom.  I was surprised one night when I scared him and it was my mom's scream that I heard (oops).

[horrorhunter]

At my Grandmother's house once I hid and threw a wet washrag in my cousin's face when she came through a dimly lit doorway. She jumped so high, and screamed so loud, it scared the **** outta me and I ran like a little girl. My Granny laughed for an hour.

[long live kong]

My older brother's friend stayed over for the night at ours when I was probably about 8 or 9. We shared a room and my little corner was a shrine to monsters and such. (I also had an incredibly cool 6ft poster of Boris Karloff's monster, the money shot of him standing in the doorway, wish I had it now!).
Now, Nick, my brothers friend is a good three years older than me and like most 12 year olds he thought he was a little tough guy. Well, I spent the whole night telling him how the house was haunted, how a previous occupant had been found hanging in this very room. I turned out the lights and told him to stare into my face, to concentrate and behold as my face merged into the twisted countenance of the tortured soul who took his own life at this very spot! (Well, words to that effect haha!). I knew that if you stare long enough at something in the darkness, and particularly with tired eyes, you start to see all sorts of things. It had the desired effect. The poor kid became hysterical. He left at 5 am and had to knock his mum out of bed. He still mentions it to this day and says I gave him nightmares for weeks!

[CreepysFan]

  Lol.  Mark, I pull stunts like that on Karen a lot.  Even borrowed a rubber snake once because of her snake phobia.  Tempted all the time to pull stuff on her 83 yr. old mother, but don't want to be responcible for any funerals.