SCAREDY CAT discussion
Short Stories; Yours and Others
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What Scares Readers?
Mod
Election years and the daily news both make my survival mode kick in! Mighty boring fodder for a story, though.It's funny you mention ghosts, because we actually have a resident ghost in our house. We call her Lucy, but I don't recall why that is. She has never bothered us at all, although the dogs seem to sense when she's around, and they don't like it much. I've only ever seen her act even a little perturbed once, and all she did then was rattle a bunch of hangers down the hall.
I've tried without success to learn who she is/was, but I do have some ideas. The man who built our house in 1931 was the local District Attorney. A few years later he was murdered, to stop the prosecution of a case he was working on. I haven't confirmed it, but I have reason to believe our ghost was his wife.
I had hoped to find out the truth of her story, so I could incorporate it into one of my stories, but I'm about ready to invent a story for her.
I hope that won't upset her!
Thanks for the input,
Grampy
Other than the multiple phobias you've touched on and the many that you haven't, the biggest fear for most people is a loss. The fear of losing a loved one (children, spouse, parents, etc), the loss of control (being put into a situation where you have no control of the outcome), the loss of security (job, house, retirement), and loss of health (cancer, paralysis, Alzheimer's, etc).
Thanks, Ken, that's a whole new level of fear I wasn't even thinking about. I'll have to give them some thought, and see if a story begins to form.Thanks for the input!
Grampy
And thanks to Chucky, too! Dolls are a lot like clowns to me. I don't like either of them. But you are right, when the dolls start looking around things can get scary real quick.Being buried alive, autopsied alive, or cremated alive, are all good and scary fears. I read a few years ago that some people are so scared of being buried alive that certain Mortuaries were offering the option of being buried with a communication device. If the corpse woke up 6 feet under, they could push a button or shout into an intercom or something, and people would be alerted to dig them back up.
These days I suppose you could just ask them to bury you with your cell phone, but I don't know if you'd get much reception under 6 feet of dirt. Hmmmm. Now, THAT gives me a story idea....
Great fears! Thanks, MJ; I have a story to write!
Grampy
One can't help but wonder how many people have been buried alive since the beginning of time. Back before medical science had all the fancy machines and tools they have now, there were many reasons why a 'body' might appear unresponsive, and therefore dead.You're right, that is very creepy. And the very worst part of all is... even if you still had some level of mental cognizance, there would be nothing you could do to let them know! Imagine being in a coffin at the front of the funeral hall, hearing everybody talk about what a great person you were, and screaming in your mind, "I'M ALIVE!!!" Then they bury you.
At least cremation would be quick. Or quicker.
You have touched on some terrific phobias. Fortunately, I'm blessed not to have any of them.What frightens me is when the ordinary becomes unexpected (like electronic devices taking on a mind of their own) or something suddenly jumps out of a drawer, or closet.
I find some music frightening.
When I was young, a mouse jumped out of a drawer & I closed the drawer very quickly trapping the danged thing. Then I felt bad but couldn't let go of the drawer. Yuccky! Goosebumps remembering it. My father finally came to my rescue with a pair of his leather gloves on & took it outside & flipped it into the field next door. We're talking seriously rural areas.
Thanks for the ideas & helping me remember a creepy incident.
You are indeed blessed to not have any of the phobias mentioned above. But I can understand why you might get upset if your blender started stalking you across the kitchen! Now, there's another idea.... or not. I'm already working on at least 5 stories. I need to focus on finishing them before I start thinking of more ways to distract myself. But thanks for your input. This is turning into quite a valuable list of fears. Thanks!
Mod
Grampy...Stalker torcher! Being stalked is scary when they they start to communicate that they are watching you and will have you eventually...And then they get you, but nobody realizes your gone!
A virtually fail-safe low-tech solution. That makes too much sense. Stalkers are a good one. Somebody is following you, but you don't know who it is or why he/she is after you. I would call that pretty scary!
Torture, on the other hand, creeps me out so bad I can't even THINK about it. I made the mistake of watching a couple of the "Saw" movies once while lying in a hospital bed. They were broadcasting several in a row, and for some reason that's the channel my room's TV was on. I had the misfortune to be awake for a couple of them. Just recalling it gives me the whole body shivers. It's not so much that it scares me, but that I can't stand to watch it happening.
Being gone, but not missed, is a whole separate category of fear. Maybe you were left behind when your mom left the grocery store, because you were looking at the candy and she forgot you were with her.
Or how about being kidnapped right when everybody thought you were leaving for a trip, so they have no reason to suspect anything.
Whatever the case, it would be pretty scary to realize or suspect that nobody was clued in to the fact that you were no longer around, or might need help.
Thanks for your input!
What, people were actually buried alive, and even burned alive back then? Oh yeah, we have that still today. They call themselves ISIS!
That is a horror story that belongs in the non-fiction section.
Stalker's...the one's who hide in the shadows never wanting to reveal themselves or be detected. They watch and feed off other people's lives and activities. Too afraid from a lack of confidence and self esteem to come out in the open, but thirst for some form of human contact.I'm not referring to real stalker's. I'm talking about literary stalker's. You know the one's who join groups and never make a comment or post! Lol
You know, I can see a 'literary stalker' figuring in a horror story. I'm not sure how, but the idea has possibilities. I'll have to think about that a while.I've done more than my share of literary stalking, now that you mention it. I've gotten onto some threads that were so fascinating I spent hours just reading them from beginning to end. I need to get a life!
You may be on to something Grampy. I see an inmate sitting in the prison library looking at Goodreads. What a facinating group he just found. Why not join up, he thinks. After all he will be getting out in a few weeks, after they accepted his lawyers appeal. So what if they couldn't find the bodies. It's not his fault the cops were incompetent He's just lonely and wants to make new friends when he gets out, even if they won't be around long! Hahaha
Mod
Tell me about it. Insanity runs in my family. Most of us get it from our kids. :D
Mod
lol
Mod
The Waitress Confessions
One day, back when I was working as a hostess at The Hot Spot, a woman strolled into the restaurant looking rather shifty. I cheerily greeted her as she came through the front door, but she continued on past the front desk with not so much as a glance in my general direction. As I hostess, I was used to being ignored by customers and I figured she was just too focused on trying to find someone she was supposed to be meeting for lunch. Discretely following her, I kept a few paces behind in case she needed my help, that is, until she finally came to a stop behind a nearby table.
“She stood there for a few moments, nervously clutching her purse and eyeing the man sitting in the booth.”
She stood there for a few moments, nervously clutching her purse and eyeing the man sitting in the booth. His back was facing her and as she ducked up and down to get a better view of the guy, I thought that maybe she was meeting him on a blind date and she was trying to size up the guy before deciding to take a seat or run out of the restaurant before he noticed. It was weird, however, that the man had only asked for a table for one when he entered the restaurant.
“May I help you?” I asked politely.
She shook her head, so I walked towards the front desk making sure to be a available if she needed a menu or not.
She finally took a deep breath and approached the table, quickly sliding into the booth to face him. No “Hello!” or “Hey! How are you?”. They started up in what seemed to be the middle of a conversation they had already been involved in. And it was quite the heated discussion, if I may say so myself. The man’s plate arrived to the table and their waiter asked the woman if she’d like anything. She shook her head and continued to stare at the man who was now picking up his fork and knife to eat.
“The man was trying to shush her, but she wouldn’t have it.”
After about 10 minutes, I could hear the woman’s voice more and more as the conversation grew more intense. The man was trying to shush her, but she wouldn’t have it. He finally had enough and asked the waiter for the bill. Their server placed it on the table and walked away to give the two of them some space. Before I knew it, the man was coming up to the front desk asking me to quickly get the waiter because he needed to leave right away. I got their waiter and the man paid, all the while as the woman stared angrily at him.
“She had that You’re Dead To Me look that Lily sometimes has on How I Met Your Mother.”
He walked out of the restaurant, saying a quick thank you, as the woman stayed behind still sitting in the booth. As I walked by, I was a little scared. She had that You’re Dead To Me look that Lily sometimes has on How I Met Your Mother. She was fuming, then suddenly she was up and running out of the restaurant. I went to the front desk to look out the window into the parking lot and saw her yelling at him as he was opening the door to his car. She continued to run towards him and then threw herself between him and the driver’s side door, slamming the door shut and preventing him from getting in.
“She tried to hold on for dear life he attempted to exit the car by the passenger side.”
The man then calmly walked around the car to the passenger side door and unlocked it and slid into the seat. The woman pulled the door open on her side and as the man climbed into the driver’s seat, she threw herself onto him, her legs dangling out of the car. He tried desperately to push her off, but she’d wedged her legs into the door of the car that there was no way he was getting her off of him. She tried to hold on for dear life he attempted to exit the car by the passenger side.
Meanwhile, people walking by were starting to watch the scene unfolding before them as the man finally freed himself from her grasp. He ran out of the car and started heading back towards the restaurant. I quickly ran to be behind the front desk so he wouldn’t notice me watching the craziness of what was happening outside. I saw the woman getting out of the car and slamming the driver’s door as the man asked me to (very politely might I add) to call him a cab. So I did.
He waited in the front lobby as the woman paced around outside waiting for him to come out. She had finally had enough of waiting and stormed into the restaurant and took a seat right next to him. I mean, she literally made sure that the whole side of her body was touching his. And then she just glared at him as he blankly stared ahead. She talked, he didn’t.
I finally saw the cab pull up to the front door so I told the man that his cab had arrived. He thanked me and got up to leave. The woman shouted at him to not go, but he wouldn’t listen. As he climbed into the cab with her yelling at him, she did the same thing as when he was trying to get into his own car. She threw herself onto him, making sure to dangle her legs out of the car so that the driver could not drive away. After 5 minutes, I could tell the cab driver was starting to get extremely angry. He yelled at them to both get out and drove away, never looking back.
“He attempted to get back into his car, but she was a complete maniac and was one step ahead of him the whole time.”
By this time, the man was finally starting to yell. I could see him yelling at her to get away from him. He attempted to get back into his car, but she was a complete maniac and was one step ahead of him the whole time. I saw him trying to push her away from the car door and then suddenly he was off running.
“He had somehow grabbed her own set of keys and was running to her car.”
He had somehow grabbed her own set of keys and was running to her car.She chased after him and caught up to him before he could figure out which key was for her car and a screaming match began. All the while he was trying to fake her out by running back to his car and quickly spinning around to run back to hers. Finally, he gave up trying and it was a wave of screaming and crying from the girl. She tried to wrestle her keys away from him, but he held on with all his might and then he did something that made me think …
“Did he really just do that?”
I even asked it out loud to the two other waiters who had joined me to watch the crazy show in the parking lot. We were shocked. The man had thrown her keys into the middle of a busy street and made a run for it as she watched where they landed. She stared with her mouth hanging open as she realized what he’d done.
“She ran right into the middle, grabbed her keys like a football player running drills, and made a mad dash for his car.”
He ran as if running for his life and you could see the split-second-decision-making the woman was doing. Keys or The Guy? Keys or The Guy? She decided to make a run for her keys as the man jumped into this car. At that moment, no cars were driving down the road so she ran right into the middle, grabbed her keys like a football player running drills, and made a mad dash for his car. She was too late as he pulled out of his parking spot and headed towards the exit. She tried to run out in front of his car, but he had already pulled ahead of her before she had a chance to pretty much throw herself onto his moving vehicle.
She bolted towards her own car, got in to the driver’s seat and drove off like the dickens, heading in the same direction he did.
The whole day, the staff talked about what must have happened. Some thought that it was his mistress and he’d just called it off and she couldn’t let it go. Some thought it was his wife of girlfriend who was checking up on him to see if he was cheating on her. Some thought it was some Psycho Stalker. Whatever it was, it was one of the weirdest moments I’ve ever witnessed at work.
The Waitress Confessions
Good old stalkers. Ya gotta love 'em.Or do you?
Aileen wrote: "insanity. that's one of the scariest things for me. If you have an insane stalker..what can you do? You can't reason with them. that's scary"Having been stalked I am fairly certain insanity is indeed part of a stalkers mind frame. Sane people don't imagine a relationship based off the other person saying "We smoke the same brand of cigarettes." Just that one time out on break.
Mod
And to think that we have no idea how many others are walking the streets this very minute thinking the exact same way - that's scary indeed!
True. We have no idea how much insanity is running around loose "out there", but I'd be willing to bet the actual number is a lot higher than we think or imagine. That IS scary indeed!
For anyone that has read Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes, that's exactly why the story worked for me. Because that's how serial killers seem to be. They always seem to appear like your everyday average Joe on the outside, but on the inside they're wanting to chop you up into little pieces. It's scary to think that you can have someone like that walking next to you and never know it.
And when the news reporters interview the neighbors after the guy is caught, they always say, "He seemed like a nice guy" or something similar. THAT'S scary.
On the subject of insanity. Two guys were driving down the road and started hearing a clunking sound coming from there rear wheel. They stopped and got out and found that four of the five lug nuts were missing. Scratching their heads and discussing what to do, they noticed they were right outside a mental hospital. A patient stood inside the fenced area and said "why don't you take one lug nut off of each of the other other wheels and added to that wheel. That will get you into town."The driver said "that's brilliant. Man what are you doing in a place like that." The patient replied, I'm in here because I'm crazy, not because I'm stupid!"
I always thought that the basic premise of "The Shining"--a recovering alcoholic goes off wagon and tries to kill his family, was much scarier than ghosts. But the moving hedges got me, too. Dolls that move.And my irrational fear (to be blamed on a snippet of a vampire film I saw when I was 5, thanks Mom and Dad) is dark windows at night. I can live on a second floor without curtains, but if I'm on a first floor, I must close them.
Have been mugged, so yes, understand that feeling of impending doom and lack of control.
Michael Myers in "Halloween"-scariest horror film killer ever. Why? Because he walked, never ran. It was as if he knew that eventually, he'd get her. No rush. I'll find you. No need to run.
Pretty observant regarding Michael Myers only walking and never running. I guess if your going to be a serial killer you have to be confident.
Believe it or not, I know a guy who - this was back in the '70s - was driving his van home from work in heavy freeway traffic. He had stopped on his way to have his tires rotated. As he starts to brake for yet another traffic slowdown, he noticed a tire mounted on a rim, rolling past his van between lanes. He started laughing because somebody had lost a tire! Then his van tipped down on the right front side. It was HIS tire that had come off! The tire shop had failed to tighten the lugs nuts on that one wheel, and they each vibrated loose and fell off. His laughing didn't last very long.Fortunately nobody was hurt.
Being stalked is definitely up there on most terrifying things ever, probably because aside from killing them there's nothing you can do about it as the laws pertaining to it are a joke.
Robert wrote: "Pretty observant regarding Michael Myers only walking and never running. I guess if your going to be a serial killer you have to be confident."Haha, or criminally insane, as one person has already pointed out! They're nothing if not confident!
I've seen it more than once and used to watch lots of "slasher" films when I was young. So I had opportunity to think about why that one got me more than others (but in general, yeah, I'm just this side of being a "mentalist"-A couple of courses in reading body language and I'm there!)
Rachel wrote: "Being stalked is definitely up there on most terrifying things ever, probably because aside from killing them there's nothing you can do about it as the laws pertaining to it are a joke."Sad state of affairs, isn't it? Same goes for someone who's trying to steal your identity. A company will alert you that someone is trying to use your soc to buy a truck or a house, say, but they won't tell you that person's name. Nope. Gotta protest the guilty.
Stealing someone's identity should be mandatory life in prison.
ooops! That was protect the guilty! Still typing with a smashed index! Thanks for overlooking that! :)
I am continually amazed at the large collections of personal data held by large corporations on apparently unprotected computer systems. My medical insurance company (Anthem) was just hacked, and they say 80 million people had ALL their personal information taken, including credit card numbers! How is that even possible in 2015?I also just read about a wealthy couple - millionaires - who filed their income tax returns, only to be told they had already filed and received their refund! Their personal ID had been hacked, and some low life slacker ripped 'em off by filing with their info. That just sucks. Kinda defeats the purpose of being rich!
I guess identity theft could be a sufficiently scary premise for a horror story.
If they do catch hacker's they do not do anything to them. Just like all criminals now days, they get a slap on the wrist if that much. We live in a lawless society and it gets worse everyday.
Oh, yes.I was fortunate in that I don´t do very much online, other than free stuff like good ol´GR! :)
I don´t do banking online, don´t pay any bills online, etc. I still have to have a fraud alert on my accounts pretty much for the rest of my life. I´ve started the investigation on this on my end, but they´ve told me that the address she gave (I finally got her name and number by getting a credit report) is almost certainly a warehouse in Chicago. But little things still keep cropping up, and I will occasionally get phone calls from bill collectors looking for her. The worst that happened, from what I can see, is that she attached her name to my cell phone account. Could have been so much worse.
So I fight all the companies who remind me every month that I should ¨save paper! Pay online!´(they´re usually hypocrites, anyway--the companies that could print your bill on one or two sheets, but do it on four so that they can include two pages of ads).
Robert wrote: "If they do catch hacker's they do not do anything to them. Just like all criminals now days, they get a slap on the wrist if that much. We live in a lawless society and it gets worse everyday."I was astounded to hear from a friend that not even that happens to people using stolen credit cards, etc. Supposedly, if you have a stolen card, they are to keep it and call police. She said, ¨I´ve heard of people filing lawsuits, so I don´t. I just hand the card back to them and say, ¨The machine is saying this card is stolen.¨ My jaw dropped! So what´s to stop these people!?
If I was making minimum wage, no matter how high they might raise it, I would hesitate to confront a felon using a stolen card. The people behind the counter aren't adequately trained to deal with that. Ironically, in spite of having a concealed weapon permit, 99% of businesses would fire me for bringing a firearm to work! In spite of the fact that I was saving THEM from being ripped off. AND in spite of the fact that I taught firearm safety for 30 years. Crazy country these days.
But I also was under the impression that most stores - at least the ones big enough to have security staff - had some way to alert security long before the criminal got concerned at how long it was taking to process the 'purchase' he/she was making. Years ago when my wife worked in retail, she had several occasions where she was able to hold onto a card until security arrived to make an arrest.
The probably don't do that anymore because of the aforementioned lawsuits.
Maybe a story about life in today's society would be a scary enough horror story!
I get the idea now, Grampy, thanks! I thought that it was kind of "wimpy" of this friend--because even though she's in her 80's, I have seen her go after someone who grabbed a 12-pack near the door and tried to run out with it: "You get back here! Put that back! And don't come back here again!" I warned her that she shouldn't do that, bc some day, someone will be tweaked, or packing. But she's been in this town for so long, she knows almost everyone since they were 12. And the last time someone robbed them, word got out through the neighbourhood. The robber met with an unfortunate "accident"....think it was his legs that were broken....
That's the kind of friends you need on your side! Pity about the poor robber... HA!
I was impressed to hear it....they're not born here in RI, and people joke about the fact that if you aren't born here on the island, they won't allow you to be buried here. But the store became an institution, a "neighbourhood" store, more than your average packy. And they look out for others in the neighbourhood, in kind.....that elderly single woman whose eccentric behavior becomes stranger, and starts coming into the store four times a day to buy bread, the older vet who has more and more trouble walking, someone who's a regular who doesn't come in at usual time, etc. While I don't like anyone to be hurt, even the robbers, I liked the community spirit shown in that story
I do everything online, pay bills etc. In the last 10 years I've had my debit card compromised twice. The first time someone used it to buy $305 dollars worth of stuff at Walgreens in Fort Lauderdale (def not me). Honestly, it was easy to take care of.. I just filed a fraud with my bank and they gave my money back. Safer than carrying cash!!! After that I took it upon myself to put a block on my bank card. If I want to spend more than $200 in a day I have to call the bank to raise my limit. It actually saved me because about 2 years later some douche tried to go to the grocery store and when their few hundred dollar purchase was denied I just laughed and laughed! Oh the shame to have that many groceries and AHAHAHA too bad too sad, the card was denied!
As far as online banking, all one needs to do is set up what's called a 2 step verification. It's where you put in your log in credentials and then a text is sent to your phone with a code to also put in before you can log on. I have this set up for my email account also. This way no one is getting into your account without your phone!
KC wrote: "I watched an interview once with a convicted serial killer. The reporter asked him why he did not use an insanity plea. Perfectly calm and straight faced when he answered the reporter: "Because I..."That's pretty f-ing terrifying!
Yes, I still miss my Midwestern peeps! So was touched that it happened here on the East Coast, where people are much slower to "let you in".
I once lived in a very small community, where I was told that I would still be considered a 'newcomer' 30 years down the line. People were nice and friendly, but you were destined to be an outsider if you didn't have family roots there.However, I also found a lot of the people to be very transparent. They say that in a small town everybody knows your business. What they DON'T tell you, is they sometimes will make up something if they DON'T know your business! Life there was interesting, to say the least. Still, I prefer it over big city life, any day of the week.
The gossip was so bad at times that I long ago decided I would someday write a book about my time there, and call it "Wagon Tongues" to reflect the agricultural nature of the area as well as the 'wagging tongues' of the many gossips. Might have to revisit that thought.
Grampy wrote: "I once lived in a very small community, where I was told that I would still be considered a 'newcomer' 30 years down the line. People were nice and friendly, but you were destined to be an outsider..."This sounds awful..
I've read negative reviews of various short horror stories, in which the reviewer didn't care for a story because 'it wasn't scary', but I've never read a single review where they explained what would have made it scary for them.
If I could get some ideas about things that cause people to feel fear, maybe I can work a real jolt into my stories. They don't have to be rational fears, either.
Now, for me, clowns are one big irrational fear I have. I blame Stephen King personally for that one! I get real hinky if there's a clown, or a picture of one, anywhere in sight. I'm working on a clown story right now.
Some to think about: Zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, Frankenstein, the daily news, bad cops, monsters under the bed or in the closet, gangs of rowdy drunks, bigots, the insane, Bigfoot, lions and tigers and bears (Oh, my!), rabid dogs, demonic apparitions, drug-ravaged abusers, old people who can barely see over the dashboard while driving 15 mph, spiders, spider eggs in your ear, earwigs, worms, slugs, politicians, bad neighborhoods, larvae of various species (I'm picturing a tomato hornworm right now), snakes, eels, scorpions, sharks, other potentially aggressive marine creatures, space aliens, illegal aliens, terrorism of any kind, the dark, wide open spaces, unemployment, taxes, etc.
Most people will NOT be afraid of most of those things. Some people will be deathly afraid of one or more of them. THOSE are the ones I need to know about, along with your own personal additions to that list.
Any thoughts any of you may have on the topic, which you are willing to share with the whole world, will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Grampy