I volunteered at the Rio Olympics, and kind of organized a meet-up of the other volunteers at Rio’s botanical garden. One of the women who came was in a FB Messenger group that had become close while trying to figure out if there was any pattern to the job assignments, but it was our first time meeting in person.

Same thing happens to me all the time. I call him a ninja and threaten to make him wear a bell.

I’ve loved horror movies forever, but the one that truly frightened me was A Nightmare on Elm Street. I watched it on cable way back in the day, didn’t sleep for 2 straight weeks, and could never watch it again.

By a scarecrow. That I made myself. Like, five times a day. I really didn’t anticipate how scary a man-shaped form lurking in my yard would be.  

Back in college there was a cinema across the street from campus (though we had to cross a 4 lane highway, a grassy median, then another 4 lanes of highway to get there). I still vividly remember walking out of the Silence of the Lambs movie and feeling so creeped out I doubted I’d feel totally safe ever again.

Sat down with a cup of tea last night and heard a child singing creepily in the kitchen. I live alone...no kids. Gripped by fear, my stomach fell as I slowly approached the kitchen. My formerly frozen-screened laptop unfroze and a goddamn Netflix “preview” started playing a Halloween movie. I hate to say it, but that…

Once I was at home alone and walked briskly down our upstairs hallway to my bedroom - and as I passed the darkened bathroom, I was sure I saw a shadowy figure standing there. By the time I processed this, I had taken the extra two steps into my room. I shut the door behind me - quietly and pseudo-calmly, so as not to…

Yeah.  Its bad.  Really bad.  

NOOOOOOOO

My husband is always inadvertently terrifying me by walking in the room. For some reason I don’t pick him up in my side vision sometimes, and I’m deaf as a post so I’ll turn around and what I thought was empty space is HUSBAND! I shriek and jump every single damn time.

Okay, you know those florescent overhead lights, like they have in open offices? You know how they often have plastic light-diffuser panels installed in front of them?

After doing my morning routine (brush teeth, deodorant, SPF moisturizer, etc) glancing in the mirror as I walk away to go get dressed and see my mother.  

An ex attempted to surprise me with shower sex. He thought I was giving him signals I was anxiously awaiting this encounter. Alas, that was not the case when he busted in and I was wearing a shower cap and shaving my legs. I screamed bloody murder (we were staying in a hotel so I'm sure the other guests were thrilled)…

My sister (maysherestinpeace) took after our great-grandmother. She was brown eyed, petite, short, and had a hell of a temper.

When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, a friend from another school invited me to his school’s haunted house. I was pretty jazzed about it, but I was a pretty timid kid and could get scared pretty easily. Also, I had a heart condition that was triggered by jolts of adrenaline, such as might happen when suddenly scared. So...…

This isn’t mine but my friend told me she screamed at one of the scenes in Austin Powers where, like, Dr. Evil unexpectedly turns his head towards the screen or something

This is a dumb way I scared myself and others. When I was about 15, my sister and I went through a haunted house attraction. It was really dark in there though, and we couldn’t see where we were going, so my sister is holding onto the back of my shirt or jacket, or whatever I was wearing, and I was feeling my way…

Minneapolis in the early 90s. I had an old Volvo that would occasionally lose all power and just die. The culprit was some little white plastic box full of electrical wires that would loosen when jostled too much by a bumpy road. I would regularly have to get out of the car, open the hood, jostle the white box full of…

I had a life-size cardboard cutout of Gollum (né Sméagol) from FYE and, as it wasn’t convenient to have such a thing, I would store it places like the back of my closet or behind my door, forget about it, and then scream when I glimpsed it unexpectedly.

Every time I leave the house I scare myself not being able to remember if I turned the stove off.  Even on days I didn’t turn the stove on before I left.