Things that Go Bump in the Night
I have a best friend. One of those utterly amazing people who come into our lives. She is my female soul mate--and no I'm not a lesbian. (Not, in the immortal words of Seinfeld, that there's anything wrong with that.) She is absolutely one of the most wonderful things about my existence . . . But I gotta tell you, she is NOT someone for me to go to scary movies with. I am sure she feels the same.
You see, when we go to scary flicks, I pull on her shirt, hide behind the sleeve of her sweater (and yes, I have RUINED one of her sweaters this way). I have squeezed her hand until the circulation stopped. And SHE NEVER FLINCHES. All I can say is What the F***?!?! Nothing. No reaction. Like ice water in her veins.
She is either a female serial killer . . . or . . . she doesn't scare easy. I don't THINK she's the former. As her best friend, I think I'd spot hints.
ME? I am the easiest scare there is. I am the one who sleeps with the dog if the Significant Other is gone (not that S.O. would be any use whatsoever; he has size but no fearlessness . . . and he sleeps the sleep of the dead meaning a nuclear explosion could land on his head and he'd snore through it). I am scared of, in no particular order:
Snakes (yes, we have a python, but I don't like her)
Rats (oh man, do I not like them)
Cockroaches, including Palmetto bugs and anything that RESEMBLES a roach
Serial killers (of which, perhaps, Jude, who drops by here, and my best friend MAY be)
The dark (I sleep with a nightlight)
Clowns (a perculiar fear of them--serial killers may lurk behind that red nose)
Elevators
Serial killers in elevators
Rats (I know I said them before but I really am afraid of them)
Things hiding under the bed--like serial killers
Satan
Oddly enough, I am not afraid of spiders--which IS the lone fear of my cold-blooded but wonderful and amazing best friend. And vampires and monsters don't scare me. I guess because I don't think they're real.
Which just goes to show you. Those things that go bump in the night are different for everyone. I cannot watch THE EXORCIST without freaking out. The movie SEVEN was the sweater-ruining one.
And in writing, I would guess a serial killer who hides in elevators with his pet rats while worshipping the devil would be the scariest thing I could write about.
And . . . TRACE OF DOUBT, which had a serial killer in it . . . I got mail from readers who said they had to sleep with their lights on after reading it. A HUGE compliment. Because if you're going to write scary . . . that's a sure sign you succeeded. So how about you?
What scares you?
posted by Erica Orloff at 5:53 AM
48 Comments:
What scares me? Mirrors, sunlight, crucifixes...
You know, the usual. See, I'm not a serial killer at all. Just your average bloodsucking ghoul. Why do you think I work nights, with access to lots of veins? :)
Seriously, the scariest movie I ever saw was The Exorcist. I saw it on the big screen when I was in high school, the second time it was released in theaters. It totally freaked me. I was afraid to go to sleep for weeks. I haven't watched it since, refuse to, even though the special effects probably look lame by today's standards. I just don't ever want to be that frightened again. I won't even read the book.
That said, I'm probably going to buy Tess Gerritsen's new release The Mephisto Club later today. I've heard it's really scary, deals with demons and all that. It couldn't be as scary as The Exorcist though, right? I'll let you know.
By the way, Erica, did you ever read the book Willard? It creeped me out, and I'm not even all that scared of rats (they make good eatin' if you cook 'em right).
You're scared of clowns too? *shivers* I hate them. They scare the hell out of me.
I used to be afraid of an empty house, fire, and water, but I've made peace with those things. But clowns? Nu-uh. No way.
Jude:
OMG, The Exorcist is the scariest movie ever. For me, it was the shock--the utter shock--of seeing the Church defamed. My grandparents were Catholic, and I had gone to Catholic church with them, and while I am no longer Catholic, the idea that the devil would go defame the church--defile its staues--the crucifix scene. It was all so creepy. And worse--THAT VOICE!
I saw it on the big screen in college and sat on my boyfriend's LAP the entire time.
E
Heather:
There are many clown haters. :-)
I don't mind lady clowns who do face painting and stuff, but the silent big tall male clowns. be afraid, be very afraid.
E
Spiders: ick
Rats: bigger ick
Snakes: big huge pee-pee shivers ick
But I can deal with all of them. The only thing that really scares me, enough to keep me pacing at night is human predators. The beast that would snatch a child in a park. The monster who would beat senior citizens for a fifty year old wedding band and some heart medication. Rapists who insist woman 'want it" Armed men who gun down strangers in a college (just this week in Montreal. AGAIN) Serial killers.
They are what really scare me and make me believe the devil is right here among us.
Oh, I'm not big on heights or enclosed spaces either, but I'm okay with clowns. Although they do freak my son out.
Hi Lainey:
I have a scene in BLOOD SON, just as I did in TWICE BITTEN, where someone questions the paranormal. In both cases, my "suspend your disbelief" speech goes something like, "What's harder to believe? Vampires? Or human beings that have become so soulless that they can snatch and torture a child, then go to work the next day?" What's worse? A monster? Or Hitler and WORSE the complicit standing by of countless as it occurred . . . and even more the ordinary citizens who bought into it? The world went mad. So I'm with you there. My kids laugh . . . I cannot even litter. Not one speck. If I drop a tiny piece of lint or paper, I will bend down and pick it up--even if I have the baby in my hands and arms full of packages, all the while muttering about karma. Being good to the earth. So it's like that reality is so far from me. It's not even comprehensible.
E
Oh, I'm right there with you on serial killers. Can't watch TV or movies about them, because that CAN REALLY HAPPEN, as opposed to vampires, which CANNOT HAPPEN. :-)
Glad to know I'm not the only one who needs a night light!
And my most horrifying thing? Maggots. Just one single maggot is all it takes (and one is usually more gruesome that many). I can't even read about them. I just get all crawly and even have to check to be sure they're not on me.
M
The scariest movie I ever saw was "It's Alive". For months, I couldn't shake the feeling that "It" was sneaking up behind me.
Heights and enclosed spaces are unsettling, but behavior and harm that I can't 'logic-out', now that scares me. (For example, the behavior of stalkers, vindictiveness for meaness sake, etc.)
What really scares me, and I guess it goes back to the stalker aspect, is when someone claims to love you and sets out to destroy you, in the name of love.
Yep, that really scares me.
Definitely clowns, and people in animal costumes. In fact, any kind of costume where people have their face cover is pretty creepy.
Bees. Wasps and other stinging, flying things terrify me. And I have a ridiculous fear of scorpions. (I live in upstate NY. Very far away from Scorpion City, USA.) And...thunderstorms. Seriously. I jump out of my skin with every boom. It's worse when there's lightning, because then I know what's coming in five seconds, four, three, two, one...
Boom. ((shudder))
By the way, I just saw this on Publisher's Marketplace:
Erica Orloff's MAFIA CHIC, featuring the only granddaughter of seventeen grandsons of the last of the old-time mobsters, who must balance her mobbed-up loved ones with romance and her own restaurant, optioned for television to Warner Bros. and Class IV Productions...
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Michele:
Creepy-crawlies definitely make my skin crawl, too. I will just freak over maggot/roach scenes. ICK!
E
kathy:
Yes, things that you can't logic out definitely are scarier to me than monster-type things. Obsessive love. Or something like Sleeping with the Enemy--I thought it was a crappy movie, but you could really imagine, on some level, a woman on the run like that.
E
kathrynoh:
Hadn't thought of that--YES! Masks. Like that Scream series--it's freaky when faces are covered--and that, I think, is many reasons but especially because we rely on the eyes and face for understanding of someone. We "read" so much in body language and expression (cold eyes or warm?) and it's freaky to have to deal with something when that is missing.
E
Hi Jackie:
Well . . . guess I can announce it on my blog tomorrow. :-) THANKS! Very exciting.
Flying things don't bother me quite so much. I think I grasp the "I am bigger than they are"--but somehow that does NOT apply to rats and roaches. And maggots (thanks, Michele, like I needed to think of them too! LOL!).
I wonder if some of these things are almost in-bred in us through time--it is sensible, for instance, to fear snakes as some are poisonous. Or are they related to a scary experience. Or are they related to a book or film scaring the crap out of us.
E
I refuse to watch any horror movies. I haven't seen the exocist since I was 18 and omg.........
I used to be scared of most animals - but hypnotherapy sort of cured me of that. Well, I don't go up and pat horses but I won't run away either. And I will open the window and flick the bees or wasps outside.
Serial killers scare me... things that might happen to my kids scare me...... I'm a born worrier when it comes to them (my daughter says I'm over protective... she's probably right!!!)
There's an old saying that I abide by religiously: Face your fear, and it will disappear.
You see, I am afraid of beer.
As I age, 50+, I've noticed that heights tend to bother me. Not up on a ladder height, but up on a hill or looking over the edge of a high building. Never had this before. Watching a movie with a scene looking down can bother me. Perhaps as we get older we're just not as steady as we used to be. Your thoughts?
Jude:
I have that fear on hot days, too.
E
Sara:
I was raised by a major worrier (Dad) who has this to say about driving, for instance, "How is Granddaughter doing at driving?" "Good, Dad." "Great. Have you rehearsed with her what to do if she's at a light and someone comes and hits her window with a sledgehammer and smashes it?" [I kid you not--and I live in a rather rural area.] OK, so imagine this growing up. There is ALWAYS someone, you know, running around with a sledgehammer.
E
Steve:
I think our fears change at different points in our life. As a child, I was afraid of the dark--still have that one--and things under the bed. Well, still have that one, too. But then I was TERRIFIED of spider and after I got divorced and there was a spider--a jumping spider that I was convinced was stalking me throughout my house--and I killed it myself (now, as a Buddhist, I'd stick him outside)--I was not afraid of spiders anymore--but then new things replaced it. Tight spaces, crowds. I don't think age-height has any specific correlation. I simply think we're always evolving and those fears evolve, too.
E
Cockroaches.
Nuclear war.
Clowns.
Think that's it for me. I have a friend who is utterly, completely, pant-wettingly terrified of zombies and refuses to even talk about them, which is a shame because they're one of my favourite topics of conversation.
And Erica - I have one of those female soul mates too. Couldn't manage without her :)
Wonderful juxtaposition there, Naomi--Cockroaches...nuclear war...clowns. Putting nuclear war in the middle implies that these fears have equal weight. And, our fears DO carry equal weight in our minds, don't they? What might seem trivial to one person is a major source of stress to another.
I find it a bit fascinating that nobody has mentioned the big D as a source of fear. In the work I do (I'm an RN), I'm constantly reminded that there are worse things.
The killer clown types like Stephen King's IT. All the friendly ones like Ronald McDonald will most likely get backhanded.
Any bugs that encroach on my territory. Sometimes I'll take a step back with my eyes bulging out of my head, then remind myself, "That motherf***** doesn't pay rent! Get the hell out of my house!" Then I go after them. Sometimes the furniture gets flipped over, so needless to say, I've invested in stuff that's too heavy to lift. :)
Ghosts. I won't sleep with the light on, but I'll have a baseball bat somewhere nearby. One these days when I get up enough nerve, I'll write a ghost story. Maybe.
-M
I'm afraid of only one thing:
Death.
I didn't use to be, but I've had to stamp out my inner daredevil nature. I fear death now only because I don't want anyone else raising my kids.
Karm
Naomi:
I am close to two people with the zombie fear--and it's astounding because they otherwise strike me as not very fearful. 28 Days Later (the movie)--totally freaked them out.
E
Jude:
Great point about Naomi's list--like that Seinfeld routine that people are more afraid of speaking in public than death--so we'd rather be IN the coffin than delivering the eulogy.
E
Marcia:
Thanks for sharing. But let me get this straight. Do you think a baseball bat would be an effective weapon against a ghost. ;-)
E
P.S. Loved your bug story!
karm:
When I was very close to death, I didn't fear it but regarded it as a relief from the pain I was in. But then when I was removed from the pain--i.e., made small strides--then I began to fear it again. Some days, I am fairly calm about it. Others not so much. I also fear it for the same reason--my kids. I want to make sure they grow up with me and I can nurture them to the point of independence. We're very close . . . I can't imagine, you know?
E
I think I'm odd. I can't articulate any particular fears. I HAVE them, of course, but they're all momentary.
I make it a practice NOT to allow myself to consider fears that are not active. It's probably ridiculous, but I have this theory that dwelling on a fear can cause it to happen. It's where "I knew it!" comes from.
As for the common ones mentioned...I love spiders (though I don't want them crawling on me) and snakes (and used to have them crawling on me all the time when I was a naturalist) and heights. I believe serial killers exist in FAR, FAR fewer numbers than we portray in our books. :) And clowns, for some reason, only creep me out if they're meant to (like in Poltergeist).
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
I'm completely terrified of flying.
The Blair Witch movie freaked me out for months... and if I think about it again it will probably do the same thing, again.
I'm afraid for my two small girls and my wife all the time. That fear is there in the background 24/7/365, and I just can't shake it. I have come to accept that a) I have that fear, b) that I am doing all that I can reasonably do to prevent bad things from happening to them, and c) there is a point at which this becomes debilitating and I have to remain firmly on this side of that line.
On the other side of things, I love heights, cliffs, speed, bugs, snakes, wild animals, not-so-wild animals and the list goes on.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I'm also afraid of success. I can't count the number of times that I have sabotaged myself to avoid it. This is a recent realization for me and I see it as a real threat. Failure is easy - do it once and it is over. Success is harder - you have to keep doing it.
There, that's my list. Now I'm off to worry about my girls again :)
Jude - nuclear war is one of those fears that occasionally wakes me up in the middle of the night, sweating and panicking and paranoid. But it seems so distant and remote compared to the thrill of fear/surprise you get when you find a bug in your bed or see a clown strolling down the street in the middle of town, I somehow can't rank it as more scary than either of those things.
The human mind is an odd device.
Here's what's really scary, Naomi: The clowns will be the ones to start a nuclear war, and the bugs will be the ones to survive it. :)
Ewoh: I wasn't afraid of flying until I worked on airplanes, learned what fragile machines they really are and how many (potentially treacherous) hands are involved in getting one in the air. I wasn't afraid of doctors until I worked with them, learned what an inexact science medicine is and how many knuckleheads go into it.
Sometimes our fears aren't all that irrational.
Thanks Jude!
Now just try and get me on a plane ever again. Guess I can cancel plans for going to the backspace conference next year.
I can't even think about the whole Dr. angle yet :(
You want to talk about duffers in the field you're working in... I'm in computers. Boy the stories I can tell about both sides: professionals and customers.
Natalie:
Actually, I read a really good novel by Derek Van Armen called Just Killing Time--and the stats out of the FBI are there are far MORE serial killers operating at any one time than anyone even imagines--but only when they "break through" media wise do we become aware of it--the FBI and so on are VERY aware, though.
If you are a while, middle class American, in a family of four, chances are 1 in 10 that you or one of your family members has met and interacted with a serial killer statistically. Not that you were targeted or anything, but that you went to the grocery store or went somewhere and had an interaction. But the Violent Crime porfiling division kind of hides that fact because it would feak people out too much.
Ewoh:
Wow . . . what you shared about your wife and girls--very powerful and probably true for a lot of us.
As for the success thing . . . I know it's super common.
E
naomi:
I don't mean to laugh at your fears at all--but that is such a humorous way to elucidate why the three of them are in no particular order. :-)
E
jude:
Great . . . now I REALLY don't want to fly. Thank you. :-)
E
Okay...... so I haven't actually done the sledgehammer thing, lol, but I can understand where he's coming from, and I do insist daughter locks the car when she's in it!!!!!!
You guys...
Flying is still the safest way to travel (that's what THEY want you to think, anyway). :)
Statistically flying may be safer... but you can survive many car crashes. The average plane crash from 30k feet is a bit tougher to walk away from.
I'm a lot better these days about flying than I used to be... until Jude's post of course.
I no longer need my vallium presription to get on a plane. Fortunately I don't have to travel for my current job either. It was tough when I did travel for business all the time... nothing like facing your greatest fears on a frequent basis to build character.
ewoh:
My best friend, whom this post was initially about, can vouch for how utterly NUTS I am with fear over flying. It is terrifying to me, a combination of not being in control, a flying tin can, and claustrophobia.
E
I thought there was going to be a new announcement on your blog today...
Thanks very much, Erica. NOT! LOL I could have lived my whole life without being debunked so thoroughly. *sigh*
Well, I'll just go back to my fallback...it's not something I can do anything about, so there's no sense being afraid of it.
(Just to clarify: I differentiate between precaution and fear. My second grader likes to walk home from the bus stop alone. I watch for the bus to go by, then watch her walk up. If I get caught she yells at me. But I'm aware of the risks and do what I can to foster her independence and confidence without increasing those risks. I hope.)
I love flying, too. I love takeoffs and landings and have to hide my idiot grin in case I'm near someone who's scared. I understand and respect that fear, because it's logical. So maybe I'm just crazy? :)
It's okay, Erica - EVERYONE laughs at my fears and how I prioritise them ;)
It's okay, Erica - EVERYONE laughs at my fears and how I prioritise them ;)
Natalie:
Sorry! But if I have to suffer through the knowledge you do too!
LOL!
E
Here's another statistic the FBI doesn't want you to know:
If you are a white, middle-class American, in a family of four, chances are 1 in 10 that you or one of your family members will become...
You guessed it. An Elvis impersonator.
It's a fear we all have to live with daily.
Also, a baseball bat IS an effective weapon against ghosts. I saw it on Scooby-Doo one time.
Post a Comment
<< Home