 Horror/Scary: August 17, 2022 Issue [#11512] |
This week: Lost! Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: "Not all those who wander are lost."
~JRR Tolkien |
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One of the most frightening experiences for any child is getting lost. If you ever got separated from your parents in a store or park, you know exactly how it feels. As adults, most of us still have this fear along with the even worse fear of our children being lost.
The fear of being lost probably goes back to our most primitive ancestors. Humans are social creatures that draw comfort from familiar surroundings. There was safety in numbers for our hunter gatherer ancestors. Being separated from the family or group often led to death by misadventure. A primitive human who was alone was less likely to fight off attacking predators or unfriendly neighbors. If one of them happened to stray into unfamiliar territory alone, they also might have no idea of any dangerous features that they might encounter.
Many traditional fairy tales involve characters who are lost in the woods. One of the most well known examples is the story of Hansel and Gretel who were abandoned in a dark wood where they eventually encountered a wicked witch. Many of these stories arose in areas that were covered by dense forest where wandering off the path could lead to trouble, especially if you were alone.
There are many reasons why a character in a story might be lost. If the character is a child, they may have simply wandered away from the adults that are caring for them. An adult character might take a wrong turn on an unfamiliar road or might fail to recognize familiar landmarks in the dark or during a storm. In a darker twist on these stories, a child might be kidnapped or abandoned by parents, or an adult might be deliberately given bad directions by someone who wishes them harm. A lost character might be influenced by drugs or mental illness. They might have become delirious due to extreme weather or lack of food and water.
In a horror story, you can choose to have supernatural entities intervene, either to confuse the characters so they get lost or to help them find their way home. Many traditional folk tales involve someone who wandered into the land of the fae only to be lost there for years.
Depending on the story, you can focus either on the person who is lost, those who are looking for them, or both. If the story doesn't seem to be working when focused on the lost individual, try shifting to the viewpoint of those who are searching for them. Or maybe your characters themselves are not lost, but need to locate an important item or place.
Something to try: Write a horror story that involves someone or something that is lost.
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