Christine Rains is hosting "What was your childhood monster?" blogfesthttp://christinerains-writer.blogspot.com/
As a small child, I lived in a warm and cheery 2 story house built along the cuddly lines of Poe's House of Usher.
Appropriately, my cat at the time was named SPOOKY,
having wandered in Halloween night as if she owned the place.
Mother worked nights as a waitress, leaving me alone to watch horror movies late weekend nights.
My childhood monster? THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS.
Turning off the TV when the dread snow of the dead station crackled loud in the dark house, I would walk hesitantly to the foot of the stairs.
In the ominous dark at top of the stairs, I would picture whatever monster I had just seen gleefully killing victim after victim.
The thought of vampires had me going to sleep with the covers pulled up to the tip of my chin and a sock wrapped around my throat.
Any vampire trying for me would get a mouthful of smelly footwear!
But as I stood at the bottom of the stairs looking up, I envisioned a shadow-shrouded, waiting zombie, silently swaying,
bloody fingers outstretched, black-lipped mouth working wordlessly.
Like the hero I was, I would shush Spooky up the stairs before me. If the zombie got my unwitting feline friend, I would race into the bathroom and lock the door!
Spooky happily was unaware of my fiendish plot and ambled up the stairs safely night after night.
She is probably waiting for me in that Land That Knows No Shadow to pop me a good one with her paw after this post though!
So now you have an insight why voodoo and zombies play such a role in my UNDER A VOODOO MOON!
Lucky you had a sacrificial cat, just in case!
ReplyDeleteAlex:
ReplyDeleteI thought so, but Spooky would've come back as a zombie cat out of revenge! Brrrr!
You had sacrificial cat, I had younger brothers and sisters. LOL I love this story. Especially how you wrapped a sock around your neck to keep vampires from biting you.
ReplyDeleteThe sock idea is pretty smart. I was always the kid that wanted to get bit by a vampire, though! I bet Spooky knew exactly what you were up to. Cats are clever beings, and yeah, you'll likely get a swat from a paw in that Land That Knows No Shadow!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your monster with us and for helping to promote my novella. :)
Melissa:
ReplyDeleteSadly, it is all true sock, Spooky, and all! :-) I'm happy you enjoyed my recollection!
Christine:
I "liked" your book and twittered it twice, too. I hope your sales skyrocket.
Yes, I figured the sock around my throat would give me enough warning to race out of my room. I was a fast bugger in those days! Bare feet don't fail me now!!
Huh; some cats will brave anything :)
ReplyDeleteAnd you were pretty inventive with your rituals to keep the bad things away. Good story Roland.
.......dhole
Donna:
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how inventive children can get to avoid things that go bump in the night! LOL. I'm glad you found my recollection fun to read. Spooky even drifted by as a ghost cat to purr her approval! :-)
I was afraid of any dark places even without watching scary stuff on tv! Any shadow turned into a frightful monster in my mind. I wish I had thought of the sock idea I just cocooned myself in my blankets.
ReplyDeleteA cat named Spooky, cute. How ironic that he wasn't the one spooked :) When I was 7 I had a beautiful 2 ft doll that stood tall wearing a pink Victorian dress. Her eyes used to blink. I always felt her watching me everywhere I went. Then one day one of her eyes went missing & no one had touched her. It freaked me out. So I locked her in the closet. But I still felt like I was being watched so I threw her out in the garbage. End of story. I no longer felt watched:) Nice reading your stories Roland!
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of you keeping the vampires away by putting a sock around your neck - pretty clever!
ReplyDeleteGreat story Roland. Dark stairs are creepy. My daughter was convinced their was a witch living under our stairs.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for Spooky!!! Yay! Take care
ReplyDeletex
Kathy:
ReplyDeleteThe sock across my throat stayed with me all through childhood! LOL. Imagined fears are sometimes the hardest to combat, right?
Ellie:
Since she strolled in the open door on Halloween, Spooky seemed the only name we could call my tiny feline friend! Ah, but the doll's eye stayed in the house always watching you from the shadows! Brrrr!
I'm happy you liked this childhood recollection of mine. Thanks for visiting and staying to chat over my cyber-fence!
Thanks, Kyra:
I figured no self-respecting vampire would want to touch a kid's smelly sock! LOL.
Siv:
Maybe there was! You can never tell about withches ... or jack in the boxes!
Kitty:
Yes, Spooky was a champ! How is Charlie doing?
The sock around your neck had me laughing out loud, for real. That's great! What an amazing imagination. Loved this entry!
ReplyDeleteMy cat is a bigger chicken than me, and that's saying something. If we hear a sketchy noise, she is the first one to bounce. LOL
Ok the sock thing made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteTim Brannan
The Other Side
Haha--love it! I'd be pissed at the sacrificing of the cat if cats didn't have the honed-to-scintillating-edge senses they do. That Spooky wouldn't have climbed those stairs if she'd had the smallest inkling anything suspicious hung out over there, but you were probably too young to realize that :) I love the sock thing--more potent than garlic, by the looks of things! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou know, this reminds me that I used to sleep with my hair and a blanket heaped on my neck. I did it because I thought it might thwart the vampires, but I also had an incredibly sensitive neck, which probably contributed to vampire fears.
ReplyDeleteMy monster: http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/2012/08/childhood-monster-blog-fest.html