Photo 894836 © Ian Maclellan | Dreamstime.com
As a kid I was pretty jumpy.
Okay that’s an understatement. I was so easily spooked that it was kind of ridiculous. Pair that with two older brothers that really enjoyed seeing me scream at the top of my lungs and it makes for a constant bubbling cauldron of fear that explodes at the drop of a hat.
I remember as a kid being terrified of the dark. Because of that, our basement in the house I grew up in on Foley Drive was the worst. As a kid I would imagine all kinds of evils waiting for me in the basement. Monsters? They definitely lived in the basement. Vampires? Oh for sure. As I got older and was exposed to a few scary movies, Freddy Kruger moved into the basement. So did Sam Neil’s creepy dead wife with no eyes from the movie “Event Horizon”.
I was always sure that at some point I would look over my shoulder and one or all of them would be there. It was a dreaded moment when the last drop of apple juice was poured from the carton and mom would say “Nic, run downstairs and bring up a new apple juice.”
At that moment my heart rate would jump by to about 100 beats/second. I would tell myself, “it’s not real” all the way down the stairs, I would move through the basement to the shelf where the extra apple juice was as if everything was normal. I would pick up that box of Sunrype and turn to head back up stairs…. and that’s when the panic would take over.
The second the basement was behind me there was no telling what horror was reaching out to snatch me and drag me to hell. Cue the fast feet. I could peel up those stairs in the blink of an eye. It didn’t matter though, because that split second was enough time for my mind to tell me that my feet were about to break through each step and my feet would get caught in something that resembled a giant wad of toasted marshmallow.
It was funny how that top step was salvation every time. It’s like I would cross this magical barrier and I was safe.
What was the scariest part of your childhood home? Leave me a comment on our FB page!
-Nic
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