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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what's the scariest/creepiest thing you've read?

109 replies

ChickenTikkaTellMeWhatsWrong · 01/03/2020 23:27

I love anything to do with creepiness and I know there have been a few threads about the creepiest things that have happened, but I want to know what are the creepiest, scariest thing you've read.

I always remember when I was in year 6 I read a book called 'In a dark dark room' and there was one story about a girl with a green ribbon around her neck and she meets someone called Alfred. They get married and she never takes the ribbon off her neck and never tells Alfred why, until they're both old and she tells Alfred to untie the ribbon and her head fell off.
That story used to freak me out, but I constantly read it whenever I could and I always think of about it and still remember how I felt when I first read it.

I was also reading short scary stories not so long ago and this one freaked me out...

“I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me, “Daddy, check for monsters under my bed.” I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me quivering and whispering, “Daddy, there’s somebody on my bed.””

Anyone else?.....

OP posts:
Aussiegirl123456 · 02/03/2020 09:56

OMG typos galore in previous post - breast feeding newborn and trying to type one handed!

Ifonly86 · 02/03/2020 10:22

The UVB76 radio station
Mandela effect conspiracy theories
Dyatlov incident

ActualHornist · 02/03/2020 10:26

@Dita73 I’m normally the same - people are scary but fictitious events aren’t. I was discussing this with my mum recently actually. It’s like when you’re home alone and catch a glimpse of yourself in a darkened mirror - freaks you out even though you know it’s you! Grin

mrsBtheparker · 02/03/2020 11:24

I recall being scared stiff as a child by Jane Eyre on TV, the part where she's locked in the Red Room, I think it was red. It was years before I could ever watch it, well into adulhood.

Bibidy · 02/03/2020 12:01

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski

Bibidy · 02/03/2020 12:05

Cold Hand in Mine, Robert Aickman - another good collection of creepy short stories.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/357727.Cold_Hand_in_Mine

MadisonAvenue · 02/03/2020 12:08

Bezalelle I was going to say that I can’t think of anything fictional that I’ve read that’s scared me but the Savernake Forest anecdote (which may be fiction, who knows) posted on here scared the hell out of me.

CatChant · 02/03/2020 12:11

The Face by EF Benson
The Tower by Marghanita Laski

Definitely not bedtime reading...

HulksPurplePanties · 02/03/2020 12:11

What's the Savernake Forest anecdote? Links please!

honeyytoast · 02/03/2020 12:14

Borrasca, on r/nosleep. I usually don’t have the patience for series but it was gripping.

glitterstarsshower · 02/03/2020 12:18

www.creepypasta.com/candle-cove/ love this creepy short one on creepy pasta- quick read but very amusing!

I tend to find ‘true life’ mysteries more unsettling and spooky though- missing people and strange unsolved mysteries with bizarre clues.

MonsteraDeliciosa · 02/03/2020 12:31

I wish I could be creeped out. I have never seen a film or read a book that remotely bothered me like that. The only thing I ever used to get freaked out by was watching bloody Crimewatch! If someone has any suggestions of something that would really scare the crap out of me I’d love to know

Alas, me too. I love being scared, but am never scared by anything. I’ve read stacks of horror, MR James, HP Lovecraft, The Yellow Wallpaper etc. I found Turn of the Screw boring.

MonsteraDeliciosa · 02/03/2020 12:36

The Wikipedia entry for Philip Davies MP

@HopeClearwater golly, just read it. It is indeed terrifying that such people exist and, indeed, have some power in this country.

CaptainButtock · 02/03/2020 12:38

@MeepyMupp Shock

The feckin staircases!!! That is the weirdest thing I have ever read Shock

slipperyeel · 02/03/2020 12:43

@glitterstarsshower I was going to say candle cove too

TattiePants · 02/03/2020 13:14

@HulksPurplePanties this is the Savernake Forest one:

"Found it. Warning: it's very long (sorry) and very freaky, and if anyone can come up with a rational explanation I'd be extremely grateful because I'm generally a pretty rational non-woo where's-the-evidence person, but I've never been able to explain this and it still makes my heart beat faster and the hair stand up on my arms when I think about it, years later.

I was pet sitting for my friend several years ago. She had moved into a sort of small holding right on the edge of a village in the SW, with a huge garden that backed onto trees. At the time she had a right menagerie - chickens, ducks, a couple of Shetlands, cats and four black retrievers, three fully grown and one a half grown puppy. Originally DH had been going to come with me as a little holiday but the dates she ended up having to go away for work clashed with a couple of his medical appointments so he stayed at home with our dog and I went to petsit alone.

It was about halfway through my stay, a couple of nights to go. Late evening, already dark when I heard a massive commotion from the chicken shed, banging and thumping. I assumed a fox or something had got in so went out to check. As I was halfway across the garden the noise stopped instantly as if it had been shut off; by the time I got to the shed all was calm and the chickens were all settled, mostly asleep. No sign of any intruder or disturbance at all, nothing to explain the noise or any indication that the chickens had made a noise. Bit freaky but I didn't (and still don't) know much about The Way of Chicken so I locked up again and left them to it.

As I went back in the house a small black shape ran past me out of the back door and I realised the puppy must have got out. It streaked across the garden and off towards the woods. Cue much cursing, then calling her name in vain. More cursing when she didn't come back. I grabbed a torch and put one of the other dogs on the lead, partly for protection, partly because I thought the pup was more likely to come back if I had one of her canine companions with me and partly because I didn't fancy my chances of finding my way back to the house on my own even though there were a couple of vague paths that I'd followed when walking the dogs throughout the week.

Off we trudged into the wood along one of these paths, me calling pup's name at intervals and trying not to imagine murderers and rapists behind every tree trunk. We got to a point where it felt like the trees were starting to thin out and I remember thinking that I didn't remember a clearing on this path and we must have gone wrong somewhere when the dog with me slowed right down and started to resist going forward. I tried to jolly her along - while my stomach suddenly dropped like a stone - and she started growling, a really low serious rumbling growl. By this time I was practically shitting myself. I tried shining the torch ahead but the beam just sort of bounced back off the darkness if that makes sense? I got the sense of something - or somethings - moving but just sinuous deeper black shapes against the blackness and always on the periphery of vision. (The hairs on my arms are standing up again just remembering how completely and utterly terrified I was. I have honestly never known a feeling like it.)

At this point the dog sank right down, still growling, hackles up and refused to budge. I muttered something like "Jesus, you have got to be kidding me" and this ugly gurgling inhuman sort of voice hissed, right up close as if someone was right next to me "don't say that name". At the same time there was a horrible snickering sort of laugh. I cant express how utterly petrified I was. I can't remember having any coherent thoughts apart from the word "evil". That's the only clear thing I can remember. Me and the dog were frozen to the spot with pure fear. Then a different voice, really commanding, said "GO. BACK." That sounded more in my head but echoey, where the others had sounded out in the air IYSWIM?

Wherever it came from it did the trick. Me & the dog turned and belted back through the woods. She basically towed me, I just clung onto her lead stumbling to keep up and sobbing with fear. I lost the torch somewhere on that wild run but there was no way I was stopping to find it. How I didn't run blindly into a tree I'll never know, she guided me I guess. I can remember thinking desperately that I mustn't let go of her lead or "they" would get me.

When we got back to the garden she suddenly stopped - I did fall over her this time, onto my hands and knees - turned around and started snarling, proper teeth bared, rabid-looking snarls, back at the trees and the darkness. I thought I heard the snickering again but the blood was pounding in my ears so hard I can't be sure. I scrambled up and ran to the back door and she followed me but backing and snarling all the way as if holding something at bay. Oh, and the chicken shed was banging and thumping again. I got the back door open, me and her belted in, I slammed home every bolt behind us. The other dogs left behind were staring at the door and growling too with their hackles up and when I saw all three of them, puppy included, acting like that I started to cry properly because I honestly thought I was trapped in some horror film nightmare and was going to die. I don't know - I still don't know - what the black shape was that ran past me out of the house and triggered all of this because the puppy was right there in the kitchen.

Anyway I made sure every door and window was locked and bolted, I turned on every light in the house, I wandered round mumbling all sorts of weird half-religious half-spiritual shit to ward off evil spirits. Gradually the dogs settled down and stopped growling, and eventually stopped glancing at the door. Funnily enough I didn't sleep for one second that night and I rang my DH and begged him to come over the last couple of days. I know I didn't dream it because I was covered in scratches from running through the woods and had grazed hands from where I fell over the dog in the garden.

Nothing like that has happened before or since and I hope it never, ever does. It was the single most horrible, terrifying experience of my entire life."

bobstersmum · 02/03/2020 16:28

I have googled and the staircases thing is obviously made up? Or there would be media coverage of them?

mothertruck3r · 02/03/2020 16:44

This creepy story about an undiscovered cafe. Don't read if you get claustrophobic easily!

www.angelfire.com/trek/caver/page1.html

BarbedBloom · 02/03/2020 16:46

MR James and HP Lovecraft. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. The Left/Right Game and Penpal from Reddit were pretty creepy too.

HulksPurplePanties · 02/03/2020 16:47

bobstersmom creepypastas are all made up, but written from a first person perspective. They are brilliant. I doubt they are all amateur writers either. The original Reddit thread is pretty famous.

Mordred · 02/03/2020 16:48

@ActualHornist "I think that one is James Herbert - I remember his rat books. Very unsuitable for 13 year old me!"

I read those when I was about the same age! Horrible!

Ikeasucks · 02/03/2020 16:50

Eat, Pray Love just nudges Rats off the podium

OhCaptain · 02/03/2020 16:50

creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/The_Smiling_Man

This was the one that creeped me out.

BarbedBloom · 02/03/2020 16:52

Oh, Borrasca is being made into a film now. She worked on House on Haunted Hill for netflix too. Also agree with Goatman. Though of another, Algernon Blackwood The Willows.

She loses her sanity at end of Yellow Wallpaper.

Ikeasucks · 02/03/2020 16:52

Was 11 tho when i read Rats - might not be as creepy now

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