Scared
[Brought to you by the weekly SS blog challenge.]

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The challenge:

With Halloween upon us, tell us about a time in your life when you were scared. Shaking, screeching, frozen, trembling, crying, sick-to-your-stomach, whatever scared. Maybe you were a child, maybe you were an adult, maybe it was a nightmare, maybe it was a job interview. Whatever. You've been scared before. Tell us!

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I've been scared a lot in my life. I'm actually a bit of a fraidy cat. Most people don't know that. I (think?) I hide it pretty well. When one has a family, one knows fear. Fear when the baby's fever goes up and won't come down. Fear when your husband is very late coming home and you haven't heard from him. Fear when your parents start getting older. Fear abounds when one cares about other people.

But apparently I'm a sucker for punishment. I actually seek it out. I watch scary movies. And they scare the pee out of me. I'm not one of those that watches them then forgets them. Oh, no. They stay with me. I'll find myself thinking about them in the days following. I'll find myself jumping at little things and imagining whatever evil creature was featured in the latest one lurking around corners, waiting for me. In a way, it's kind of stupid to do this to oneself. But harmless fear is great fun. You get the adrenaline rush of skydiving without the risk. The most scared I've been at a movie in recent years was probably watching The Blair Witch Project. At the drive-in. All by myself.

Sucker.