Yes, here I go again.
My question today is:
When you were growing up, were there any scary elements in your bedroom that you remember to this day?
I have two - one silly and normal and the other, not.
The first is the nightmare of getting bitten at night.
It started after my room was getting done over once I became a "tween". My Dad let the rolled rug drop and it busted a hole in the wall.
Instead of patching it up, they put panelling over it.
Always had a cold spot there, but no ghosts.
What triggered the nightmares were sounds. I'd hear mice/squirrels/chipmunks (never knew which) scritching and scratching in the walls. Scurrying to and fro as though searching.
I swear they'd always find , The Spot.
The weakness.
My worst fears were that they'd gnaw through and attack me.
I would lay there, listening, following their direction with my ears. Feeling the sweat pore off of me as I hid under the covers.
*ahem*
I was very imaginative back then.
Prior to that, my nightmares were in a more otherworldly venue.
When we moved into the old farm house, I finally had my own room.
It was on the outskirts of the city so we had woods in the back.
That first night, I woke up and walked over to my window. It was high up in the wall, so I had to step onto a chair so I could see out.
There, before me, was a parade of circus animals, all bright, cheery, exotic and beautiful.
The problem was, they were leaving.
I had the distinct impression that happiness was leaving my new home.
A physical sensation pressed upon me that hope and easy times were abandoning me.
Very creepy.
Obviously, being a 5 year old, it was a dream. A realistic dream in the mind of a child.
However, that was the start.
Remember, it was an old farm house. Over one hundred years old. An old house can be drafty, settled at odd angles and prone to providing plenty of ammo for an imaginative and fearful child.
This is the second: The haunting
I had my own closet with a thick, heavy door painted white.
It moved.
Back and forth. Just a inch in, just an inch out.
Silently, smoothly , it moved.
I never imagined monsters in the closet like most kids you read about. No.
The door was the monster.
It moved.
I would stare at it, willing it to stop. Or start. Depending on what frame of mind I was in.
Will I be brave tonight?
Or terrified.
It didn't do it all the time mind you, but I could never figure out a pattern.
After all these years, I doubt I could have.
Did it really move?
Did I really see it?
I believe so.
When my parents had done over the room for me, they replaced the door with one of the new, lightweight hollow doors that are popular now.
Since then, and I will tell you - I stared for hours, for days - the new door never moved.
Not a millimeter.
So, was the door haunted? Your guess is as good as mine.
I still remember that my bedroom was not the haven most girls rooms are said to be.
How was yours?
16 comments:
When I was 7 my parents and I moved into our first house, (apartments until then) the first night there I oke in the middle of the night to get some water from the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen and just happened to look up at the window above the sink before I went fully into the room. (kicchen was 2 stories up, house built on a hill) ANyway, I thought I saw an evil clown face staring at me with red eyes. I screamed bloody murder!!! Woke my parents up and I was freaked out for weeks,I wouldn't go into the kitchen alone. We moved almost 3 years later and I was sooooo glad to leave!
My room was fine. My brothers room was haunted (now my study) which is what really fascinated me about catching that ghost orb in that picture the other day.
Happy Anniversary Michele!
The "spot". When I was a child in almost every house I ever lived in (and we moved plenty) I used to find and fixate on some pattern that creeped me out. So, if I had to wake up in the wee hours and use the restroom there would be a evil clown face staring at me from the floor, or a screaming woman in the wood pattern in the wood panel, or sparkling eyes in the ceiling spackle (which really did have glitter).
But the scariest of all was... I was always really creeped out at the top of the stairs at my grandparents old house. Being from a native Alaskan family my grandmother used to have a traditional mask hanging. I always would think it was staring at me. Oh my goodness I hated to even go upstairs or by the stairs in their house without her when I was a child. Crazy thing is, when I was older my mother told me that is where she saw a spirit once... same exact spot.
LOL @ giant fly, Wendy hahahaha!
I'm the same as you. Must have been because we shared a room but I hate what I call 'creepy curtains' when they aren't shut properly I imagine someone is looking in.
Remember those bloody curtains at nans? Flowers like cauliflower heads - and they always turned into people's faces!
HAHA!
Umm, sorry about the silly rant there with my sis.
I prefer not to think back to childhood too much. A place I don't like revisiting, so apart from what I said above, that's about all I'd like to remember, sharing a room with my sis and feeling safe with her.
:o)
That's quite interesting,Brandy.
Truly, what you saw is a common nightmare for kids. Clown faces with glowing eyes. They've even made horror movies using that. So yeah, that had to have been really freaky! The only consolation is that you have many people in this country who shared in those childhood fears - probably more than we can imagine. You are so fortunate that you only had to deal with it for 3 years. I wasn't so lucky. *grin*
Hey, Eve , that's cool. How did it manifest to your brothers?
Do you feel like you aren't alone when you are writing? Perhaps it leaves you alone because you are a writer and it reads what you create and is intrigued? Maybe it'll develop into the Ghost and Mrs. Muir? That was SUCH a romantic movie. *sigh*
OH! Thanks for the anniversary wishes Eve. :-)
That is so cool, Annalee! Seriously. It sounds as though you could make out specific shapes from natural phenomenon. Like a Rhorschack (sp) test. I do that too - in towels on the floor, wallpapers, shadows .... it's quite a talent actually. Makes you think that if you could translate what you see to your hands,you'd be an excellent painter or sculptor.
As far as the mask - whoa! That is creepy, especially in light of what your mom said. Of course, that also makes an awesome and intriguing future story....I can see you writing until you are 80, Annalee. You have so much creative wealth within you.
Thanks for sharing. :-)
WendyT! Hi! and Welcome!
LOL! I agree with M.E., your description of your sleep mask is a hoot. However, I agree. Light doesn't belong on a sleeper's face. I suppose the mask was an ideal fix, but I wasn't so lucky to have access to one. That's why I have the habit of burrowing into pillows. I am no longer satisfied with one pillow like most people. I have to have one to sleep on and another to cover my face to keep out the light. I guess the difference is that I didn't start out with fear, but with irritation.
How dare light interrupt a great dream!
But yeah, like I said to Annalee, shadows on the ceiling and walls can develop sinister visages - claws, fangs - you name it.
*shudder*
Hey there M.E.!
I don't mind that you and your sister visit - more the merrier!
Flowers like Cauliflowers? That doesn't sound appealing at all.
I take it that you guys were on the first floor? That's one of the reasons we always stay on the second floor. The only way a face could peak in, is if it were supernatural and could "float"
Actually, thinking back on my childhood has provided fodder for my blog. Until I started this , I never realized how creepy some of the things that I experienced really were. Now, I think it's cool.
Back then - I lost sleep.
It sounds like we all have.
I'm actually amazed that all of us have had similar fears. True, they showed themselves in different forms, but we all had that larger than life scare.
This is so COOL!
I mean, we no longer are actually frighten by these things,
Are we?
:-)
When I was very young we lived in a small frame house that creaked and popped and talked to us everytime the wind blew. The noises frightened me. Then, if mom left my closet door open, the moonlight would cast the contents into a deep shadow and what reflections there were would make it look as if the contents on the shelves were living things.
Moving. Creaking. Moaning. Watching me. Were they going to steal me? Eat me? I didn't know. I was so frightened that even on a hot night I would tuck myself completely under the covers and try to trick them into thinking that I really wasn't there.
Gangadhar! Before I forget - new icon is cute!
As for your story. Oh wow, up until your "friend" ID'd himself - that was very intense. To be home alone ... I can only imagine the thoughts going through your mind - a robber, a spooky ghost or a stalker. *shudder*
So glad it had a happy ending!
Of course with a friend like that ... sounds like he kept you on your toes. So, what does he do now? People who have fun with pranks that scare people, seem like the perfect people to make scary fun houses for amusement parks or work in the film industry making spooky monsters for horror movies....
I'd remember a fright like that for years, too!
So glad you shared with us, Gangadhar! Thanks.
EEK, Betty! Anything with sound effects makes things worse. I think when more of your senses are involved, the experience is much more potent.
Glad to see I'm not the only one where the closet door plays a role. Did you ever get brave enough to jump up and slam the door shut?
I think I threw a pillow at mine once. Anything to stop being afraid so I could sleep.
Now, being older, I wished I had a lamp by my bed. Being able to stealthily reach out and snap on a light would have made a world of difference. As it was, the switch was on the wall, four feet away. For a little tyke, that was a mile.
Thanks for visiting and sharing Betty!
I hated a pair of clown paintings in my room but I HAD to keep them because my aunt made them. They weren't scary.
Just ugly. I hated clowns.
We moved when I was between second and third grade. For the longest time I had nightmares about getting lost on the way home from school.
Have a great holiday weekend!
I can so relate to this, and from a number of angles--through the movies (your door thing of course made me think of Monsters Inc.), vicariously through my kids, and from my own experiences.
When I was a kid in the Philippines, where my parents were missionaries, I heard a rumor that vampires were lose in the city. Many terrified nights followed--until my mother eased my fears somewhat by showing me the source of the rumors: a piece in the Manila paper about two women in jail who had exceptionally large eyeteeth.
We always think childhood is so wonderful, and yet the terrors of those years are so much worse than the fears we experience in adulthood.
Thanks for a great, thought-provoking post, Michele!
Hey JuneBee! Thanks for visiting my blog!
Wow, another clown focus. Thats amazing. As far as dreams of getting lost on the way to school, heck, I've been out of school for 20 years and I STILL have nightmares of missing class, not studying for tests or walking down hallways that never end or for me, a bus that never dropped me off at home. I hear you...very unnerving dreams.
Thanks, Eve.! I did! Now I have to get my pictures developed because my digital is broken. The sights were AWESOME!!!!
Hello There Judson. I was "thought-provoking" ?
Now that's a compliment I'm tickled to hear. Thanks!
I'd forgotten Monsters, Inc. That was a cute show. I'm lucky (I think) that I wasn't so concerned with what was In the closet but the door itself. Perhaps I was influenced by the talking door from Alice in Wonderland?
Astounding story you shared, Judson. You don't hear stories about people with natually elongated canines these days. And if you did, it wouldn't cause a sensation or nightmares. More likely, the Enquirer and the sensational tabloids would be hounding them for interviews, the TV's trash shows would make them celebreties and the darker side of the Goth movement would idolize them. Far cry from how it was when you were a kid.
Now I have to ask, would this be considered an improvement?
Hmmmm....
I wouldn't mind still writing at 80... thanks. :)
I didn't like putting my feed on the floor near my bed because I was sure that something was gonna grab me.
Hi! Just want to say what a nice site. Bye, see you soon.
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