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The Terrifying Innocuous Thing

I’ve been watching Doctor Who since I was a kid. It used to scare me terribly (does anyone else remember the disembodied hand that would strangle people? Or was it just me who had to take a run at my bed in case there was a hand under it?—I was about 8 at the time).

As an adult I loved the reboot—that may also have had something to do with David Tennant. The reboot has made some innocent items scary. Is that an extra shadow in my bedroom? And don’t start me on the gas mask thing *shudder*.

Because it’s Halloween I thought I’d share my own story of the terrifying innocuous thing.

Several years ago I lived in Victoria for about six months, cold, wet and down the peninsula (which meant colder and wetter and closer to the Navy base). Lying in bed drifting off to sleep listening to the rain…

Yeerk, yeerk, yeerk

My eyes open wide. “Did you here that?”

“What?” said Hubby who obviously hadn’t heard anything because he was asleep.

“That! It sounds like someone against the glass.” Or something…

Hubby and I creep around trying to find out who is making that noise in the middle of the night. No one there. The noise continues. Unsettling, bizarre and like someone is running their fingers over wet glass.

Come daylight there was about twenty snails stuck to the bedroom window.

I hate snails.

That scene in the Brothers Grim with the glass boxes and the snails? I can hardly type it as I want to run in the other direction.

My hubby ordering snails at a restaurant…I couldn’t face it so he settled on frogs’ legs (which I couldn’t even try because I’d done too many dissection classes at Uni (College) with cane toads—long story which I’ll tell another time).

I’ve taught the kids to pluck the snails from the garden because even the idea of touching their shell freaks me out.

So know you know how lame I am, it’s time to share. Do you have a fear of something random? Do teddy bears terrify you? Do Unicorns unsettle you? Do Siamese cats make you scream?

Comments

  1. Small enclosed spaces. I took my kids to Disney World when they were little and didn't want to lose them in the tons and tons of crowds, so crawled through the tunnel maze at one of the kid's play areas along with other parents. Only I was terrified. People packed in behind me. People packed in front of me. I felt like the proverbial sardine in a can and felt a real panic attack! No air, no windows, no ESCAPE!

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  2. LOL! I think a unicorn in the flesh might startle me a bit! My unreasonable fear is of marionettes. They creep me out!

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  3. I hate bugs of any kind.. espeically black creepy crawlys.. I live in a basement apartment and sometimes I turn on a light and I will see soemthing climbing the wall. I let out "YELP" and get the vacum cleaner hose and suck it up... I had to even have to touch them.. Thanks god this does not happen often and it usually is in my bedroom for some reaseon.. eeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk

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  4. Crickets. I cannot stand them. Give me a cockroach any day over a cricket.

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  5. Eels give me the wiggins - eels, but not snakes, for some odd reason. Watching them swim with their mouths open? GAH!

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  6. I love escargot lol. Other than the usual fear of spiders or anything with more than 6 legs, I can't think of anything strange.

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  7. I'm afraid of nuns--yeah, it's a throwback to my catholic school days. When I went to the Vatican, it was the day after they'd canonized several saints and there were nuns everywhere I looked--cardinals, bishops too, but they didn't scare me. The nuns in full habits on the other hand me shaking in my shoes.

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  8. Mice...they are only slightly smaller than King Kong and roar like a lion.

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  9. Ooo snails. I remember last Halloween slugs had taken up residence in our carved pumpkins. We lit a candle in the pumpkin and the slugs slowly crawed away... out of the mouth and eyes of the pumpkin. Totally creepy!!

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  10. I really don't like spiders, especially the long legged ones. I'm not crazy about enclosed spaces either!

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  11. I’m so glad I’m not alone with unreasonable fear :)
    The pumpkin and the slug story is really shudder worthy Amanda (I would have run a mile).

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  12. If it crawls I don't want to see it! Oh, well unless it's a baby crawling. :-)
    Amelia

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