Ever get scared?

[long live kong]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible! I just watched a rather gruesome episode of 'Hannibal', and was turning off the tv/lights etc before heading for bed. (It's 11:30pm here).
I go to check if the back door is locked, and to my surprise it is actually ajar. Oh well, I close and lock the back door. Then when I turn around I hear a short 'tap' from the window or garden. Maybe it was next doors cat. But the coward in me tells me not to open the back door, but to peer through the back window. I open the blind but its pitch black outside and all I can see is a reflection, so I have to press my face right up to the glass. Suddenly I feel vulnerable. I decide to pull myself together and head back to bed. But then as I walk through the living room I suddenly hear a strange rustling sound right behind me, level with my head! I spin around, the hair literally standing up on the back of my neck like in the novels, and for a horrifying second I am face to face with someone, an adult, a very tall adult. I instinctively prepare to defend myself and then I realise it is a helium filled balloon from my daughter's birthday party at the weekend! I quess you had to be there, but for a brief moment I had a taste of the fantastic.

Anyone else ever had any brushes with fear??

[charp13]

Yep! I've been there!  (not in your house, of course....but scared)  I call it "getting spooked". It seems to happen when I watch movies with serious demonic possession themes. I will not watch them any more! I watched some based- on- a- true- story demon possession movie several months ago.....alone.....at night....and I got spooked!!! I kept hearing my stupid scary sounding name being whispered.  It made me wish my name was Aunt Bea, or Wilma or something less creepy! HA! Those kind of movies mess with your head! Especially when the subject is pretty foreign to you!

[horrorhunter]

I really miss being scared by monster movies when I was a kid. I still love my monster movies (obviously), but they don't really scare me anymore...with the exception of one. The original Exorcist. And, I'm not even religious. I treat that one with respect.

[long live kong]

It's funny, I was never scared of films or books as a kid, but as I've gotten older I'm much more easily spooked. I suppose it could be down to being more aware of my mortality (I was never scared of heights as a kid, but am now!) and also being aware of the evil in the world, and hearing horrific accounts of crime in the media.

Charpie - I imagined the noise you heard like that sound fx from Friday The 13th - Cha Cha Charlotte!!

[Haunted hearse]

I once was riding in the Disneyland Haunted Mansion, nd my ride vehicle got stuck in the hallway with all the doors, just before the guy in the coffin screaming to get out.  Although I know it was all make believe, I was real glad when the ridecar got moving again.

[Flower]

I don't think that there is a single being on this planet that hasn't been spooked at one time or another .. One day my cat came racing at me from behind (he doesn't have a bell on his collar) and pushed me down .. I didn't know what was happening or why I was falling.

Also, my heart skips a beat if I slip on ice .. many a time, just as I'm drifting off to sleep, my right foot will kick out .. waking and scaring me as I feel as if I'm falling.

Basements also tend to scare me for many reasons ... but I won't go into that right now .. 

[long live kong]

The one film that did really scare me as a child was 'Pet Semetary', specifically the horrid Zelda character who pops up two or three times in the movie. Now my family were well aware of how much she scared the bejesus out of me, but it didn't stop my dear mom playing a nasty trick on me. One night as I left the bathroom, she was waiting in the semi darkness, crouched down with a baggy t-shirt stretched over her knees and head, and letting herself known with a ghastly shriek she scuttled towards me on the floor! I almost had a heart attack. She was very apologetic afterwards, when she realised the extent of my terror. Cheers mom!

[long live kong]

I get that 'jumping' in your sleep thing Flower, but I kind of like it! It's disconcerting but slightly fun!

[Haunted hearse]

I don't think that there is a single being on this planet that hasn't been spooked at one time or another .. One day my cat came racing at me from behind (he doesn't have a bell on his collar) and pushed me down .. I didn't know what was happening or why I was falling.

Also, my heart skips a beat if I slip on ice .. many a time, just as I'm drifting off to sleep, my right foot will kick out .. waking and scaring me as I feel as if I'm falling.

Basements also tend to scare me for many reasons ... but I won't go into that right now .. 

Baements can be scarry for good reason.  Lacvk of lighting, and possible residential area for black widows and poisonous snakes.  When I bought our current home, there was no way I was going into the basement, until I was armed with a flashlight.

[Flower]

Taking showers when I'm home alone is okay unless I hear a noise ...    Or if someone comes home early and I see unexpected lights on.

One day I was walking home and saw the vertical blinds move .. I didn't see any cats on the first floor but knew that the blinds had moved .. I checked the house, closets and under all the beds and was scared until I checked the entire house out.  I was being silly but was scared.

[long live kong]

I don't think I could live in a house with a basement. Too creepy. Nor do I like large houses and mansions, too many rooms. How can you be sure there isn't someone lurking, always two doors ahead of you?

[Unknown Primate]

Oh, dude!  That balloon thing sounds familiar.  A couple of weeks ago, my wife was out of town for several days, so I had the place to myself.  It's just an apartment and it's not cool & scary like the house in the country I used to live in.  Don't know if it was being by myself or what, but I began to feel slightly uneasy.  I hit the sack around 3 am.  About an hour later, I woke up, thinking I heard a noise.  So I get up to check it out.  It was dark and I didn't turn on any lights.  I was at the foot of our bed, about to open the bedroom door, when I sensed movement to my left (which creeped me out for a micro-second).  I glanced over and in the gloom, about two feet from my face, a 7 foot tall distorted alien demon from hell drifted toward me.  I would like to say I punched the bugger in the face, but a freeze (not chills - freeze!) went through my body.  It was a large mylar balloon that my wife got for her birthday back in February!  It had been slumped over in the floor for a couple of months when it suddenly decided to rise up and scare me!  Damn mylar.  For that few seconds, I thought I was in a real life horror movie.  I threatened the balloon and it hasn't bothered me since.

[Flower]

I threatened the balloon and it hasn't bothered me since.

[Zackuth]

Oh yeah!!  Cold sweat and the adrenalin high!!  I think I've posted this once before, if so sorry for the repeat, if not sit back and enjoy.

In 85 or 86 I was reading Stephen King's book It.  At 1 or 2 in the morning I finally decided to go to sleep, put the book down, turned out the light, shifted to my side and waited for sleep.  Just as I was beginning to doze I heard a noise behind me.  My bedroom at the time was a bit big, with a sliding glass door leading to the back yard.  My bedroom was paneled, and what the noise sounded like was claws bing tapped against the paneling, and high up, as if a man of normal height had put his hand against the wall and was tapping the wall.  It wasn't just once, but several times.  Now, I knew that whatever was making the noise was easily explained and normal in nature.
I knew that for about 10 seconds.  Then every monster and creature that ever walked, crawled, slithered, shambled, etc, in movies made an appearance in my mind as the cause of the noise.  It was an awesome parade. 
My dog, who slept in the bed with me, did not stir or wake up (Man's best friend--yeah right!!!  I'm about to be slashed into luncheon meat and all he wants to do is catch up on some z's.  Thanks pal!!)
I decided to turn on my light and see what was making the noise.  My lamp was a mere 12 to 14 inches (feet) away, and I really think it took me a minute to reach.  I switched on the light and turned to look.
Yes, there was something there.
Yes, the source of the noise was about 5' 5" from the floor.
Above my stereo, a mouse had crawled up the antenna wire I had taped against the wall and the noise was the wire I hitting the wall.  After a l-o-n-g exhale to release the tension, I got up and went after that friggin' thing.  I got my t-shirt and was going to grab the mouse with it and it ran down and I lost it in the room. 
I got even the next day.  About 15 minutes after I set a mouse trap I heard that revenge-satisfying SNAP!!
Yep, mess with me and you get the business!!

[charp13]

OMGosh! My husband bought me a Minnie Mouse balloon a couple years ago, and that blasted thing was behind the bedroom/monster room door for weeks. Since I never shut the door, I had forgotten it was back there, and sure enough- my husband hung a hanger on the doorknob and made the door shut- just enough- to have that dang balloon creep through the room...dragging its ribbon along the floor...AND of course I was awakened by the crackling sound! I saw it move because the ceiling fan was on and I jumped out of my skin! I don't think I made a noise, but I knocked over a lamp trying to turn it on!