[True Story] And darn scary

[jmucchiello]

Anyway, keys in car: I actually use that as an interview question. "How many times have you locked your keys in your car?" I'm sure it seems like an odd question. It's not like I am grading them on the answer. I want to hear how they react to adversity and frustration. And how they accomodate a bad situation and avoid it in the future. The answers end up being interesting.

What do you do when someone says they haven't locked their keys in the car? I'm quite sure I haven't done it (Or it had so little impact that I've forgotten doing it.) I do remember that the only time I've come close to doing it, the window was wide open.

 

[trancejeremy]

I used to carry a spare key in my wallet.

Then I got a car which I always left unocked, because a) it was too old to steal (most cars are stolen for parts) b) the back windows were almost irreplaceable, so I didn't want anyone breaking it to steal my radio (as it would be cheaper to replace the radio than the window).

While I actually believe in ghosts, I'm guessing it was actually a helpful faerie. Generally speaking, ghosts can't move objects. (Poltergeists can, but they aren't really ghosts)

 

[Malakye]

I wouldn't be scared. Heck, I wish I had a ghost that followed me around, opening locked car doors and such. The only problem I see is if you managed to make it mad by doing something it hates, like throwing away leftovers or watching bad sitcoms. So I advise you to invest in some Tupperware and avoid watching reruns of Full House

Of course, those are good rules to live by for anybody.

 

[ForceUser]

Caution - movie spoilers

Spooky.

Not a ghost story, but I scared the sh*t out of myself the other night. About two months ago I saw a horror flick called The Ring. This movie is easily the most eerie and frightening film I've seen since The Exorcist. I mean, it really unnerved me, and I had trouble sleeping for about two weeks after watching it (and I don't consider myself easily frightened - startled yes, truly frightened, no).

So a couple weekends ago I'd done a half-assed job of cleaning my bedroom, meaning I'd cleaned the half I usually inhabit. Unusually, I vacuumed for once. When I was done I left the vacuum cleaner - one of those jobs that stand upright on their own - next to my bed. Recently, because I'm a lazy slob, I've been hanging clothes over it when I take them off to go to bed.

The other night I sleepily took off my white t-shirt and draped it over the vacuum. Then I took off my dark shorts and draped those over the t-shirt. I climbed into bed, turned off the lights, and began to drift off to sleep. A little while later, as is often the case, my cat pushed my door open and entered my bedroom. I heard the door open and rolled over to look, and in my half-awake state I saw the vacuum with the clothes draped over it and freaked out - I screamed and flinched away from it. You see, in the dark, the vacuum stood about as tall as the evil little girl in The Ring, it was draped in white like her (t-shirt), and had long dark hair like her (shorts). I mean I freaked right the hell out, startled into momentary, abject terror before I remembered it was a vacuum. It was as though she was standing right next to my bed.

The moral of this story is don't watch The Ring if you have a vivid imagination and no tolerance for fright.

 

[Creamsteak]

Aren't you worried at all about the fickle locking mechanism of your car? If you just bumped it, and it unlocked, that can't be good.

 

[DMauricio]

I had a car that had the same problem... though I was the only one who seemed to have been able to unlock the doors by bumping them

D.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Back when I was in college, there was an athletic shoe company that made high-top sneakers with a little zippered and velcro pouch on the side. They even called them Kangaroos or something like that. Anyway, I always kept a spare key to my car and two quarters, in case I needed to make an emergency telephone call from a pay phone.

I wish that company was still in business -- I'd buy another pair of those shoes. The pouches were very handy.

Someone told their "Ring" story, I guess I'll tell mine:

After to going to see "The Ring" with my wife, we went home and she went to bed. I decided to stay up and watch some TV. At one point I went to the bathroom. She heard me, and decided to play a trick on me. She turned the TV to a channel that just received static, then turned the sound down. When I came back into the room, the TV screen was all white static -- just like in the movie, when the video finished playing. I must have jumped a foot into the air! Good thing I had just gone to the bathroom, or I might have had an accident.

 

[Nareau]

Spooky.
Not a ghost story, but I scared the sh*t out of myself the other night. About two months ago I saw a horror flick called The Ring.

I did the something similar during highschool. I was hiking in Nepal during my senior year, and (as part of my english class) reading Frankenstein. Between the snow-capped mountains and rustic living, I was really getting into the book (parts of it take place in the Arctic). I had just finished reading a particularly scary chapter when I returned to the cabin (don't ask) where we were spending the night. I opened the door, only to be met by the hulking figure of an 8' tall man looming over me! For reasons I can't fathom, my dad had hung up a t-shirt to dry right in front of the door, just above eye-level.

Anyways, I have to say that believing in ghosts, fae, and other "supernatural" things is a lot more interesting (to me) than not. Don't get me wrong...I wouldn't lock my keys in my car and *expect* a helpful spirit to be there for me. But I think Balgus' story is more interesting (and probably more valuable to him) if it does include something out of the ordinary.

Spider

 

[LcKedovan]

Well, I'll share a story from my past regarding a similar event... well... sort of.

When I was in college one evening some years ago my parents had gone away for the weekend, and my brother had gone out for a drinking session with some friends of his. We had two pets, the family Dog and my cat. The Dog was away with my parents. That evening my girlfriend came over for a romantic interlude in my room. I had candles set up and incence etc. So, queue forward a bit in time and the two of us are in the shower. I have just gotten out of the shower and started to towel off when I hear a loud knock (2 or three raps) half way up on the bathroom door. (My girlfriend also heard it) So I shout out "Just a second" expecting it is my brother, back early from his session. I open the door, and nothing but the dark hallway stares back at me. I start shouting for my brother, to no answer. I call for the cat (Bogart, his brother was Humphrey) a few times, thinking it might have been the cat (not halfway up the door, but you never know). I hear the cat come running to his name from all the way downstairs where he had been sleeping.

Now I start to get a little spooked, and my GF is also a bit spooked. I still think it is just my brother playing a trick so I go out into the hall, shouting "If you jump out and try to scare me, I am going to beat the hell out of you" (of course I used stronger words etc.). So shouting for my brother I slowly move up the hall towards the bedrooms where he would be hiding if he was trying to scare me. The moment I reach my doorway there is a flash of light in my room at the corner of my eye. As I turn, I realize the monitor on my computer desk has at that moment burst into flames (a candle was too close to it). I run in and somehow manage to blow out the burning side of the computer just using my breath. It wasn't until after calming down and realizing everything was ok did I stop to think about the fact that if the knock on the door had not come, I probably would have burned down the house, or at least had a blaze beyond my control.

There were a few other times when we felt something else around, dropping temperature and odd shadows outside, but nothing quite like that again.

As a note, the monitor still worked despite the gaping hole in it's side. I kept it as a poignant reminder of why not to leave candles unattended.

-W.