.
I was on holiday a few days ago - I say holiday, I was in Milton Keynes for two days. Anyway, I was asleep, fairly late, when I could have sworn I heard breathing in my room.

I thought this was just me being sillyy so I woke up. Then tried to sleep again. Then, more breathing - by this time I thought there was a murdering rapist in my room (it made sense at the time)

Then, the first of two scary things happened! My phone light pinged on by itself! Gosh. It illuminated the room, to show.. not a rapist, but my mum, who ran out of my room in a scared and rather naked fashion! argg.

(It turned out she'd just gone into the wrong room, but it didn't stop me having nightmares that my family hated me and she was going to smother me with a pillow).
(ZAMIVEL!, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 23:33, Reply)

First post? Awh Shucks....
About 6 months ago, some mates and I thought it would be funny to see what an overdose of caffeine would do to us.

We headed down to the nearest Tesco, and bought an 11p 2litre bottle of lemonade to store everything in.

We ended up buying something like (sorry, my memory is fuzzy on this, i can't remember much)

Bottles of Tesco Kick (own brand energy drink)
Red Bull
something called Red Devil
Powerade
Somone suggested Lucozade....I forget the rest.

Later, back at home, we emptied the lemonade down the sink, and proceeded to fill our bottle. Our resulting conconction was a dark green drink, that even the stupidest member of our group wouldnt drink.... so who do you think drunk it? Yup...me.

Now, drinking 2 litres of anything in one go is difficult, but drinking over 4000% of your reccomended daily amount of caffeine is lethal....

Now, i can't remember much between drinking it and waking up the next morning, but I remeber we went down the park and I refused to enter due to the fact that a great big hole had opened up in the floor. I was absolutley terrified, and of course, hallucenating.

(first post here about caffeine overdose too...bar the post at the top)
(DanS like you've never DanSed before!, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 23:20, Reply)

Clockwork Orange
Not the film but the shitty underground system in Glasgow where I reside.

For some reason, often when I'm standing on the tiny platform and I hear the rushing sound of the wind coming down the tunnel as the train arrives, I get this really strong and irrational fear that I might just jump off the platform and get crushed to death.

Partly I'm scared of the pain this would cause me, partly I'm scared of the fact that I would think about doing this dreadful act at all and partly I'm scared of the fact that hundreds of glaswegains would be slightly inconvenienced by my death and would therefore hate me in my passing.
(BIV was recently envatted., Sat 24 Feb 2007, 20:23, Reply)

Boom Boom Ted
When I was a little kid, I had a teddy bear called Boom Boom Ted. He was called this because he had something in his chest which made a heart beat sound when pressure was applied. I assume that this was supposed to comforting, but as a four or five year old, nightmares with unrelenting heartbeats running through them were quite awful.

After one particularly horrific nightmare (in which I was a soldier and going to war in the back of an army truck, which crashed and began rolling over and over and over...) I decided that enough was enough, and decided to do something about it. My mother was rather upset to see me tearing my "favourite" (and most expensive) teddy bear to pieces.

Apologies for the lack of relevance to the question but I'm sure I mentioned being scared somewhere, so it will have to do.
(Don Diasco, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 19:37, Reply)

Panphobia
I'm always scared! I'm scared of everything, i'm never not scared! You make think it funny, but every letter I just typed took a mountain of courage to do.

I believe they call it panphobia, although in primary school I believed it to be called pantophobia - naturally the humiliation took weeks to get over...

My mother tells me the scratching coming from the corner of my room is rats, but I know it's something else, something WORSE!!
( St. Defenestration The REAL one, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 19:36, Reply)

I'm scared of being posessed by Charlie Brooker
7.30: The Cum-Soaked Secret of Roan Inish.

The charming story of a young girl who is sent
to live with her grandparents near the island
of Roan Inish, where the Selkies are rumored
to reside, is subjected to a brutally frank
pornographic remake.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 18:52, Reply)

I got scared
that apeloverage had died. No posts for two whole minutes!



Oh not scared! Excited! I always mix those up!
(Medibot, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 18:47, Reply)

My grandfather believed in acheiving fear gradually, through Parliament.

In fact he was one of the founders of the Phobian Society.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 18:42, Reply)

I'm scared of Hungarian stew

I find it ghoul-ash.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 18:38, Reply)

Stairs
i really don't know why but before i go to bed and after i've turned out all of the lights as i start to go up the stairs i feel as though somebody is in the house (when i was young i thought there were them wind up teeth chasing me) and i have to leg it up the stairs and lock myself into my room.

That really freaks me out.
(LiL_Arsewipe licked your face on, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 18:34, Reply)

slippy ice.
The back exit from my office goes via a sloped roadway that turns a corner down to a main road. This being Norway it can get very slippy.

One evening I was on my way out of there and started to slide on the ice. I was completely out of control and was obviously just going to keep sliding until I got to the bottom of the slope.

Unfortunately, at that moment a big lorry sped into the driveway, equally out of control. For a few seconds my life flashed before me as I slowly slid toward its rapidly approaching radiator. Fortunately, it drove past me and missed my by inches.
(woodchopper likes chopping wood, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 18:30, Reply)

Midgets/Dwarves/Little People
My best mate's girlfriend is petrified by midgets/dwarves/little people (I dont know which title they prefer).

She freaks out whenever she sees one on tv. When we asked her what was the worst film she'd ever seen, she replied with "Willow. Eugh".

We went to see Jackass 2 at the cinema when it came out. Every time Wee Man came on screen she cringed and turned away. Then there was a scene where Wee Man ran off-screen, only to return a few seconds later, being chased by about 50 Indian midgets/etc/etc. The look on her face was priceless!
(Kezmo, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 17:26, Reply)

It was the hour just before dawn
And a grey light pervaded the room. No colours, just tones. And then I noticed something wasn't right. I began to get a feeling that something that the word malevolent doesn't even cover was there in the room with me, and it was coming towards me. Then, to make matters worse, I was paralysed. Struck dumn. Couldn't move a muscle. All I was aware of was the fact that this extremely wizened pair of hands with really bad nails was coming towards me. Whatever it was, it wanted me. And as I result I was shit scared. I couldn't do a thing, not even scream for help. And I was forced to lay there, as this pair of hands connected to whatever evil in the corner of the room was coming towards me. And then, it was as though a bright light shone into the room. Brighter than the first rays of a sunrise, in fact. All of a sudden, whatever it was that was after me was gone, and I could move. I was left shivering for a very very long time out of sheer fear. I later found out it's something called a sleep paralysis. Not a very pleasant experience by means.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Sat 24 Feb 2007, 16:55, Reply)

small people
On no less than two occasions in the past couple months, I've been freaked out by eerily small yet perfectly formed people, whom upon closer inspection are actually just children.
(schnuff, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 16:53, Reply)

Last Sunday (18th Feb)
I heard shouting and a car screeching to a halt, it was just before midnight and I was just dropping off to sleep. I had my mum & dad and my sister & her bloke staying and I could hear someone shouting my dads name, so I put my glasses on and went to the other side of the house to kneb out of the window. I could see a man lying in the gutter, another bloke walking towards him still shouting my dads name and another bloke trying to pull the guy on the ground to his feet. My first thought was that someone has tried to knick the bricks from outside my house (getting a new driveway done) my dad and gone running after them and he'd had a heart attack in the street...I was bloody terrified so I ran downstairs to find my family sitting in the living room completely oblivious with my dad perfectly fine. Turns out it was a couple of blokes who'd ran a guy over and were actively trying to kill him because they thought was a kiddy fiddler which was frightening to see anyway but I felt a bit better that my dad wasn't dying in the gutter
( Roxy_Hart is so so old, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 16:24, Reply)

Army Boot Camp
During army boot camp in Singapore, we were sent offshore to an island off the coast of the mainland for 4 months to train.

The island, called Pulau Tekong is supposed to be extremely haunted and is a local legend for hauntings of all sorts.

My bed in the 13 men bunk was right next to the window, so the tropical jungle was directly to my left. Needless to say, i always slept facing away from the window.

One particular night, i was tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep when i heard this blood curdling cough. It was coming from the left side of me. The cough seemed to go on and on forever, worsening until it became a really sore hoarse roar like sound. You cannot even start to imagine the fear that shot through me. Going into a fetal position under the thin blanket, i stayed under it for the whole night, sweating and praying.

There were other happenings during those 4 months. Dog tag clinking sounds with no wind, screams at night, sighting of female figures etc. But nothing could beat that first experience.
(deven_shire, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 16:13, Reply)

Last weekend
I got the night train from where I was living in Switzerland, down to Florence and from there to Siena, where I'm living now. I got the train from Lausanne with all my stuff on it and didn't think anything of it having seats and not beds. Put my iPod in, daydreamed and stared out of the window.

About two hours later I heard a woman coming down the train saying "This train terminates here, wake up!" to anyone who's still on it. I woke up sharpish and said something like "Whaaaaat? I'm meant to be getting to Florence!" "OK, well, get off the train and I'll come and find you in a moment."

The next ten minutes were the longest and scariest of my life. I was in some random place in Switzerland with no idea where I was (somewhere called Brig), and no idea of what language they spoke there or where I was meant to be or where my train was or anything.

Finally after trying to get an idea in French, German and Italian I gave up and spoke English to find out we were waiting for some carriages but I seriously thought I was stranded in Switzerland with nowhere to go and a million bags.
( Maladicta, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 15:26, Reply)

Last year
my brother was on study leave, and kept on going out on his bike. I sat in the back room, reading about The Evil Dead films. I'd just watched the first one that day, and so was understandably jumpy.
Then, there comes a slam from behind me. I twist around in my seat, lightning-quick like, and see my brother with a vacant look on his face, slamming his hand against the patio door.
He'd come round the back to drop his bike off. Dickhead.
Mind you though, did help in some ways. Next time I had a bash I CLOSED those curtains.
(CatfaceJones, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 15:06, Reply)

i was just reading all these qotw answers
on the wii over wifi sat in the lounge, when i heard a sort of squeaking come from the window, and looked over to see my mum's lilly on the windowsill fall out of its pot! scared the shit out of me!
(biggiantmat, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 15:04, Reply)

2 stories.....
1) I do believe in ghosts, I always have..... well my campus is known to be haunted (for the believers) because too much weird stuff has happened to a lot of us over time.....

Background story- The mansion on the grounds is not the original structure..... It was build after the American Civil War after the original structure burnt down during the war. The cellar is original though and was used as a morgue during the Battle of Franklin and there were SO many casualties, that the grounds were used to place the bodies as well. The school was started in the 1960s and the campus is made up of the post Civil War mansion, the library which was built around 1878 I believe, and 3 other smaller modern day buildings. Well one day I was in the studio by myself working on a drawing I had to finish and suddenly, I SWEAR I felt someone behind and they put their hand on the shoulder and kinda dugged their thumb in... like they were comforting or rubbing.... I turned around and no one was there.... I about pissed myself but felt really peaceful at the same time... I don't know... I do know that I hurried my ass up on the drawing and the bottom left hand corner of it is not totally finished because of that..... That was the first ghost experienced I've ever had... I've had 2 more since then and now it doesn't faze me. I know this may sound odd, but if anything, there's a protective feel about the campus

2) There have been a few break-ins where I live in some of the surrounding apartments. I was in the shower and heard something outside my bathroom door and thought someone was in my apartment..... scared to death and turns out it was my noisy, IRRITATINGLY noisy neighbors above me.
(Sebowe Aphex says I have a killer pout, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 14:25, Reply)

Funeral Directors
A few years back, when I was an idiot, my friend was at my house making prank calls. They weren't very good, but we found them entertaining enough. A typical one would go "Hi, is Frank there?" "No, no-one of that name here" "OK, sorry. *stifled giggles*".

Then it was my turn. I had never prank called anyone before, so I decided to really go for it. I flicked open a random page in the Yellow Pages and it was the Funeral Directors in the town just down the road. I dailed the number and hadn't thought through at all what I was going to say.

"Yeah, hello, is this the funeral directors? I'm about to jump off the top of the block of flats (about 10 stories high) and I was just wondering if I could arrange my funeral"

After a second I realised what I had said. The funeral director tried to talk me out of jumping and said he would get the police to rescue me. I panicked and slammed the phone down. A friend in the aforementioned town said that he had heard a lot of police cars around that time.

I didn't know about 141 at that time and so spent the next few days just waiting for the police to come round and arrest me for wasting police time. I don't think I've ever felt as sick in my life.

Five years later though and I haven't heard anything, so I presume I got away with it.
(Cuthbert Annihilator, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 14:19, Reply)

I just typed a really long entry, but got disconnected.
Now it's disappeared. Like a GHOST!!
(__, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 12:03, Reply)

I was scared last night, the train I was driving crashed and sent half the train de-railing down an embankment!
Luckily I was OK though, so that's alright.
(David Fishwick Minibus Sales - notmad.co.uk, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 11:28, Reply)

Glow worms
Anyone remember glow worms? I was scared to hell of them as a kid subhangi.vox.com/library/post/qotd-toy-story.html
We had a few in our house and I used to dream that they turned evil and was ontop of the wardrobe staring at me.

I was also scared of automatic flushing urinals in the boys toilets at school! Id run out when i thought they were gonna flush them selves.
(Miggyman, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 10:45, Reply)

Professor's message of doom
['pologies for length]

I am a faculty member at a university that shall remain nameless. Last week, I received a bulk e-mail from a staff member bleating about a recent mention of the fine old institution on a major news web site - a big deal for this small and friendly learning emporium.

The only problem was that the 'press cutting' was exactly that. The stupid fucking n00b had printed the article from the site, scanned it (2 pages) and ineptly attached 5 rather giant poor quality images to the e-mail. I prefer to send a link to the original page myself.

So frustrated by this - due to it not being the first time such nonsense has occurred - I decided to fire off a quick frustrate-o-gram to a close colleague.

The exact text is unimportant but I'd made very personal attacks and disparaging references to how stupid people were at being unable to use e-mail properly. Needless to say it was liberally sprinkled with words you wouldn't use in front of your mum.

Forgive me for going on a bit, but we're coming up to the bit where I got really scared.

I pressed the send button. After a very short pause, the "Oh fuck, what have I done." thought hit me like a pimp would hit a cheating whore.

Why? Because instead of pressing 'forward' to send the message to my mate, I pressed 'reply'. No problem you may think, any sensibly configured e-mail system wouldn't allow this message to get past my front door.

However, our broken technical infrastructure allows such e-mails to be distributed to world+dog by simply stroking a mouse's back.

In an ironic and cruel twist of fate, it looked like everyone would be soon enjoying my forthright views on abuse of e-mail. I saw law suits, ritual sackings, public humiliation and more.

I knew this was going to happen because a few weeks before, our nice little academic community had the good fortune to be amused by an un-amused posh mum from Switzerland. Everyone on the university's distribution list was filled with joy when they read her eloquently constructed e-mail asking to be "removed from this fucking mailing list".

As it turned out, the admin elves had fixed the gaping loophole and my venom didn't get distributed to the list. It just went to the Dean for his approval before transmission to the world. Lovely!


Actually, I wasn't scared at all. I couldn't give a fuck.
(D0g3yte, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 10:40, Reply)

Casuals!
Was walking back to the train station after my teams - Greenock Morton - defeat to Motherwell in the Scottish cup.

Walking along the road with the guys I came up with and a bunch of guys I know who are basically casuals. Little did they fail to tell us law-abiding, football colour wearing fans was they had planned a fight with Motherwell casuals. Unknown to them the Motherwell casuals had gathered some older ones aswell to join in.

We're all walking past this high flat and about 30 of them come running round the corner. Our big brave casuals shite it and run claiming there are too many of them.

We start running then I remember I have a dodgy knee and can't run and don't want to be tripped from behind causing me more knee problems so I turn round and face it head on.

It was like Football factory meets a battle scene in Lord of the Rings. The casuals just ran straight through us, just hitting as they went. Luckily for us a police van was driving past at the very moment so the casuals didn't get much done.

I got hit round the ear, but nothing serious. I'm just thankful the guy didn't have a blade or anything.

I havn't been as scared as I was that day in a long time.

Legnth? Disappeared when they started running at us!
(puggs, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 10:31, Reply)

Apeloverage has a girlfriend?
Now that IS scary.

Ps. If you think Apeloverage has a penchant for dirty man sex click "I like this" and let's out him in the newsletter
(Mong The Merciless Older not wiser, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 10:27, Reply)

Not last, but first.
When I was about five or six I was off school with an inevitably made up illness. I was in my living room watching Dumbo with my duvet over me.

In my infinite wisdom I decide to go in between my duvet and its cover and then couldn't find my way out. I panicked and thought I was going to die.

Unfortunately this coincided with the part of Dumbo where he gets drunk (which is more like a freaky acid trip). Fortunately my brave father was on hand to hear my screams and help me.

I still can't watch that bit of Dumbo without feeling worried for my safety.

First post, be gentle...
(Slotbun Happiness is a Jaffa Cake In Each Cheek, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 10:26, Reply)

The world's a dangerous place
Being driven down the loooong road between Donetsk and Melitopol in the Ukraine. Windscreen and two side windows disappear in a cloud of glass and the driver speeds up!
Only crapped myself when we traced the bullet paths and one had gone past my neck and into the C pillar.
Great lunch in the factory I was visiting though.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 8:56, Reply)

I was scared of various things as a child
and one of them was being killed by people that hide under beds.
I used to watch television in my parents room in the evening because they refused to watch The Simpsons on the one in the lounge.
One day I was watching and minding my own business when the bed began shaking violently.
When it stopped I sat perfectly still and was totally silent for about four minutes before running to tell someone. Mother refused to accept it and said I must have shaken the bed myself. I couldn't sleep for days afterwards for fear that the killer in mum and dad's bedroom had slit their throats and was about to cut me into tiny pieces.
About a week later I learned the reason for the shaking was because of an earth tremor that had taken place, thus proving me right to some extent.
( Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Sat 24 Feb 2007, 8:36, Reply)