TRISH: I’ve been a fan of scary
movies all my life. Stasher movies or horror stories based on torture and
violence aren’t my favorite; they have no residual effect on me. I can watch
one and still sleep like a baby, not a nightmare to be found. For me, the movies that have a lasting
effect, and invade my sleep are storylines that are more intellectually spooky,
or plots that mirror something that happened to me in real life.
The new movie Ouija is a
perfect example of a movie that’s likely to haunt me long after the credits
roll. Back when I was a kid I had a seriously spooky encounter with an Ouija
board. My brother had found an old Ouija board in my grandmother’s storage shed
when we were visiting over Christmas, and we (my brother and sister and I)
decided to give it a whirl. The board was missing the piece you were supposed
to rest your fingers on, so we used a crystal that my grandmother had given my
sister for Christmas. I don’t remember what questions we ask. What I do
remember, vividly, is when the crystal started moving on its own. We didn’t
even have our hands on it, and the board was flat on the table, and the crystal
just started sliding from letter to letter. It spelled out HEL—before we
freaked and fled upstairs. 
Flash forward to the movie the Mothman
Prophecies—this movie gave me chills and nightmares for days, partly because it
was based on a true story and partly because it tapped into my subconscious fear
that there are malevolent supernatural entities in this world that exist to torment
us. Again, my reaction to this movie was based on something that had happened a
year or so earlier. I used to work swing
shift at this mini-mart. We were the last stop before tourists left town to
climb the canyon to Stevens Pass. During
a shift in early December a young family came into the store—a man, a woman and
their young daughter. The woman bought a pack of cigarettes and the price came
to $6.66. Quite often when the price on their items came to $6.66 the customer
would laugh and say they didn’t want the bad luck and they’d throw something
else on the counter to bring the price up.
The woman in this case tossed
a pack of gum down. But the husband grabbed the gum and put it away, saying he
didn’t believe in such silly superstition. He paid the $6.66 and they left the
store. About an hour later a bunch of ambulances went screaming up the canyon.
In the paper the next day there was an article about the family. Apparently the
husband had lost control of their car on a patch of ice and the car spun into
the opposite lane where it was stuck by oncoming traffic. The wife and daughter
were killed instantly, but the husband escaped without a scratch. It was such
an eerie, creepy thing to happen. There he’d been an hour earlier making fun of
his wife’s superstition and then in the blink of an eye he’d lost his entire
family. It felt like the accident had been some malicious prank designed to
teach him a lesson.
Wishing you all a very
spooky and fun-filled Halloween!
DARYNDA: I kind of like all scary monsters and
all scary movies. LOL. I love zombies and vampires and werewolves and slasher
movies. Pretty much anything works for me. I really was scared of Nightmare on Elm Street. And for a
lighter flavor…loved Hocus Pocus.
Here’s a little teaser from
A
LOVELY DROP
The
female detective watched my every move with purpose. Studying. Assessing. While
Murphy watched my every move with something other than the most noble of
intentions. There was both hunger and disgust when he leaned in to me, which
did not speak well of his marriage. I wasn’t psychic or anything, just a
wicked-good observer. I had trust issues.
“Well?”
he questioned with a raised brow. “You gonna show us your dog and pony?”
“Back
off,” a male voice said from behind me.
We
all turned as the man with issues and a duster walked in followed by the older
gentleman he’d been conversing with on the lawn, the one who looked like he ate
nails for breakfast.
“We’ll
take it from here,” he said.
Murphy
shrugged, clearly not giving a fuck. “As you wish, Special Agent Strand.” He backed away and swept his arm in a
gallant gesture of surrender. Then he smirked again, waiting for the show to
begin.
Good
luck with that.
The
duster, or Special Agent Strand of
probably some obscure branch of Homeland Security nobody’d ever heard of,
ignored him and turned toward me, stepping so close I had to crane my neck to
look up at him. His sculpted mouth, the most revealing of all tells, remained
impassive, making him unreadable. He took his time absorbing my features while
his gave nothing away. After a long and quite unnerving stare-down, he began.
“September,
2010. Two murders in the girls’ dormitory at Purdue. No suspects.”
My
attention snapped into place so fast, it cracked audibly in my ears.
“August,
2011,” he continued. “Elderly man run down in Chicago with his grandson. No
suspects.”
My
gaze didn’t stray a hairsbreadth from the cerulean depths of his. The world
around us faded away.
“November,
2011. Seven-year-old girl vanishes from an elementary school in Wheaton. No suspects.”
I
didn’t blink.
“February,
2012. Woman found beaten and barely alive, dumped outside of a Des Moines
emergency room. No suspects.”
I
didn’t breathe.
“March,
2013. Teller killed in bank robbery in Grand Rapids. December, 2013. Arsonist
sets fire to half of Milwaukee. March, 2014. Con man steals the life’s savings
of every single resident at the Sunny Hills Retirement Home in Indianapolis.”
He stepped closer, staring down at me until we were practically nose-to-nose.
“Those and a dozen others. All with no suspects.”
I
stood in shock that someone had put it together so thoroughly. My mind raced
for an answer of how. What did I do wrong?
“Shall
I continue?” he asked, his voice as smooth as bourbon.
I
swallowed audibly but stood my ground.
He
offered me a quick nod of acknowledgement, as though accepting my silence as
his cue to continue. “All of those crimes had no suspects. Zero. Yet all were
solved through a series of tips from either anonymously-delivered phone calls
or letters that contained names, addresses, and even drawings of the person or
persons the informant IDed as the perps. All letters dropped at the
corresponding police stations by a woman who kept her face hidden from cameras.
Not a single clear shot of her in the bunch.”
His
face softened as his gaze slid to a lock of hair that had stubbornly refused to
stay put behind my ear. “But in one, the woman was delivering a letter during a
storm and one lock of curly red hair fell out from under her cap.”
My
lids drifted shut in disbelief. One lock of my ridiculous hair gave me away.
Then again, how much could they get off of one lock of hair? I lifted my lashes
and stood in silence, afraid to say anything that might incriminate me.
“No
comment?”
After
a long moment in which my fight or flight response warred with the logistics of
the situation—How far could I get, really?—I forced myself to calm and think
about this rationally. I didn’t do anything illegal. What could they charge me
with? Aiding and abetting an investigation?
Collaboration.
Of course. There were sicko serial killers who collaborated all the time.
Terrorists were notorious for having an entire cell of like-minded individuals.
I
lifted my chin with a new determination. “I asked for a lawyer three days ago.”
“I
asked for a pony when I was seven. Clearly, we’ve both been disappointed. What
do you need to make this work?”
~
~ ~
AVAILABLE TODAY !
*
12 SHADES OF MIDNIGHT * 12 authors *
*
12 unforgettable, never-before-released stories *
The stroke of midnight ushers in many things. From
hijinks and mischief to danger and evil, romance is the magic that binds these
paranormal novellas together. Join 12 bestselling and award winning authors as
they explore the different shades of midnight in exclusive, never-before-released
stories.
SPIRIT WOODS
When an old flame brings a stray golden
retriever into Kaylea’s clinic she’s stunned by the dog’s resemblance to Max,
her childhood companion. But when the golden recognizes her and knows all the
tricks she’d taught Max, a chilling question arises—if this dog really is the
beloved family pet she’d buried beneath Spirit Woods’ canopy seventeen years
earlier, what else might be making its way home from the grave?
A LOVELY DROP
A woman who claims she can drop back
in time to solve crimes meets a special agent who believes her. Now, the one
thing she’s been able to manipulate her whole life is the one thing she needs
more of, as she races against time with a special agent hell-bent on saving the
world.
~
~ ~
So what about the rest of you? What kind of movies scare
the bejesus out of your? Or have you ever had a creepy, real life event that’s
stuck around and haunted you?
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