When were you last really scared?We'd been watching the Shining. We were staying in an old church building. In hindsight, taking the shortcut home after midnight, in the mist, through the old graveyard was a bad idea.
I'm not sure what started it, but suddenly all the hairs on my neck had gone up and I was crapping myself. It was almost as bad as when, after a few cups of coffee too many and buzzing on caffeine, I got freaked out by my own reflection in the toilets.
When were you last really scared?
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chthonic, Thu 22 Feb 2007, 15:43)
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Mile End!Actually, it was pretty much a year ago. I'd just started a new job, and was coming home from work. I got as far as Mile End when the urge to wee overcame me - I had to get off of the train and find a convenient bar/wall/lamppost/anything to relieve myself in.
In my hurry to find somewhere to urinate, I went to cross the road (at a pedestrian crossing, I hasten to add). In case you don't know Mile End, there's a three lane bit of road there. On this night, two of the lanes were stopped - and without looking I thought "Oh, it's safe to walk then..."
And did.
The next thing I remember is the screech of tyres, and the honking of a horn; and me looking up just in time to see the car that was about to hit me. Somehow, I managed to turn my body and get my hand on the bonnet, before the front left wing knocked my legs from underneath me. I felt every part of my back bruise as I hit the bonnet, and rolled up towards the windscreen. After what felt like a century, gravity and the cars forward motion took hold, and I was thrown from the bonnet on to the tarmac. The second my shoulder impacted, time went to normal speed again.
I had fallen in to the lane of oncoming traffic. Which, ironically, had been stopped by the cars which were waiting at the crossing for no reason.
Looking at the car - a headlight was smashed, the wing mirror was hanging off, and there was a not inconsiderable dent in the bonnet. And me? I had got up and walked away from a car hitting me at 25mph without so much as a broken bone. A few scratches, and what turned in to one hell of a bruise, but nothing else. When the ambulance crew turned up, they were surprised to find the 'victim' walking around laughing (though that was most likely the shock...)
That was the most terrifying experience of my life. And now? Now I will not cross the road unless the green man comes up.
Oh, you want something funny? The car was a FUCKING VAUXHALL TIGRA.
(EDIT: No, I didn't piss myself, either. Somehow, mt body figured that pain was more important than weeing...)
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Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Thu 22 Feb 2007, 17:00,
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