Hello Lea, You mention fog. I am into the whole abduction thing due to some pretty freaky experiences after meeting my wife. That's neither here no there. One thing that I learned is that a study found almost all mass abduction reports throughout history are accompanied by a thick, otherwise inexplicable fog, e.g. the fog is apparently used to hide an abduction force. Accounts from hundreds of years ago relate fairies and gnomes appearing out of the fog and children going missing, some returning, some not. Today it is related to aliens. There was a rash of mass sightings where I am about 3 years ago on the 4th of July (including the party I was at). On the way home a VERY unseasonable, dense fog covered everything and, having read that, it scared the hell out of me. Now I know that you said no demons, etc. and aliens could be seen as a form of that but what is creepier is the subtle abduction experience. Personally, I find it very creepy that people behave in a certain way just so they don't have to face something as bone jarring as an abduction experience. You mentioned the people acting too perfect or creepily perfect. I think that it would be very clever to sell the whole thing as overly perfect with elements of the not quite right being apparent to the protagonist hinting at some outside agency in control like aliens. You do not need to explicitly say aliens or have any UFOs land; it is probably best to allow the reader to imagine what the outside agency is. You could even work absurd things in like seeing Santa's sleigh, etc., etc. (which of course is a mask memory implanted by "The controllers" shall we say.... Incidentally, you can catch my spooky, horror shorts by web searching Kelson's Challenge or Kelson Hargis. My web site should appear. You'd have to join for the good stuff but all of it is free. Best of luck to you on the story... Kelson
The dark. Well. Well not specifically the dark, but more of the unknown. Whenever I'm caught in the dark I begin to run (unless I'm with someone) as I feel there are tendrils and claws reaching out to grab me. Ugh. By the way, I'm 19!
If I were the character in that story, the things that would most give me the creeps would be if you included subtly some descriptions of things that are just wrong enough to give an overall feeling of being off-colour. maybe things like bikes in a line all the same colour and chained together, a wall painted with something that doesn't fit, a lamp that is just a little bit too bright or too dark. And the moment when the character realises something's wrong would freak me out.
Some of these responses are reminding me of the film Coraline - creepiest film ever! As well as Roald Dahl's short story "The Landlady" [MENTION=55539]Jocunda[/MENTION] - you'll like that I think!
I read that book to my daughter when she was little, and the fact that the other mother had buttons for eyes was creepiest to her.
Oh certainly, but worse still for me was when Mother told Coraline happily, "You can stay here forever. You just have to sew buttons into your eyes." *shudders* I never read the book and don't really wanna after the film! [MENTION=53984]Garball[/MENTION] - burrowing parasites reminds me of some wasps. I don't know which type of wasps now, but there're wasps that inject their eggs inside another insect's body, and then the larvae hatch and eat the host from the inside out And then there's a fungi - I think it's a fungi - that infects insects, turning them mad. Amongst ants, the infected are immediately isolated and carried off somewhere far far away to be left alone to die - the reason being that the fungi eventually drives the infected host to climb and climb and climb as high as it can get, and there it will stop and cling and essentially die, still clinging to the highest point it's managed to climb to. Then the fungi grows into a long stalk out of its head and the spores explodes, infecting any insects that come across it. Lemme find the video - it looks like it's from a sci-fi horror! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8
Situations in which I'm required to talk creep me out. I guess it's because I don't like my voice and I'm not too comfortable around actual people.
Interesting to know I'm the only one who's had sleep paralysis, but in answer to your question, I'm afraid of heights and growing old alone.
