Snow Melt

Bone Chilling and Paralyzing Terror

The October 31, 2013 prompt for "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum"  is
What is the scariest/spookiest (real life) thing that has ever happened to you?

I can remember being truly terrified only twice in my life. I know why I felt bone chilly terror the first time. This incident occurred when I was in high school and living in Shawnee, Oklahoma. It was winter, probably sometime in November or December, and I was in bed snuggling under three or four layers of blankets and quilts. I think I was laying on my back when I woke up, opened my eyes, and saw a spider crawling over the edge of my covers toward my face. I screamed, threw the covers off, and was standing up on the bed when my stepfather came into the room. This was traumatic, in more ways then one, because he did not believe the spider frightened me and he just laughed at the incident.

The second incident of terror took place in Las Vegas, when Mom and I were living on Sunrise Avenue. I am still not sure why I was so terrified because there were no spiders and I was the only person in the bathroom. I was putting the tooth paste back in the medicine cabinet, it was the type with a mirror on one side, I started to close the cabinet's door and look in the mirror. Suddenly I was paralyzed with fear. I could not move a muscle for several seconds. I just knew that if I closed the cabinet door and looked into the mirror I would see some horrible monster looking back at me. After I was able to move, I closed the cabinet door, without looking into the mirror, and left the bathroom. My one regret, concerning this incident, is that I did not look in the mirror after I closed the door. I doubt that I would have seen anything, except a half-asleep woman wishing she could get another hour or so of sleep. I have not felt paralyzing fear since.