This week: A sound in the night Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
"A cold wind blows, and I follow.
No time to rest my weary bones.
I hear her voice, and my heart grows hollow.
Best not walk these woods alone.
Best keep to the roads and out of the shadows.
Best get on home.
Best to leave them ghosts alone."
~From "The Land Unknown" by Landon Blood. |
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Imagine you are lying in bed at night just about to drift off to sleep, when suddenly you hear a noise. At first, you don't think much about it, but then you hear it again. You start thinking about what it might be, and it happens again. Fully awake now, you get out of bed and turn on the light to investigate. You might find that it was nothing sinister at all, or you might find...who knows???
Sounds that seem completely ordinary during the day are often scary at night. In a nighttime setting a scratching noise might be just a tree branch touching a windowsill, or it might be a monster trying to get in to your house. When I was a kid, I stayed overnight with some friends who used and electric heater in their house at night. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I heard three eerie minor notes played on an organ. It was actually the sound the heater made as it shut off.
Most buildings are seldom completely quiet. We are just more likely to hear some sounds at night. During the day, people talking, music playing, TV, or other background noise may screen out quieter sounds. At night, when the background noise is absent, we hear little sounds that are less noticeable during the day. Older houses often have banging pipes or heating systems and creaky sounds that seem to happen for no reason.
Any sound can be frightening if you are alone at night. For example, hearing children singing "Three Blind Mice" outside during the day is not usually frightening at all. However, when a character in the novel Malevolent by Jana Deleon heard someone singing the same song inside her house at night when she was supposed to be alone, it was one of the scariest scenes I've ever read.
During the summer when we often have windows open we are more likely to hear sounds from outside, especially in rural areas. Foxes, bobcats, and loons all make sounds that would be great sound effects for a horror movie. Also, sound carries further on clear calm nights than during the day.
Sometimes, a noise heard during the night might turn out to be nothing, but it can act as a setup for a scare that happens immediately afterward. A character might get up to investigate a tapping noise which turns out to be a banging screen door that wasn't completely latched. When the character goes to close it, they are grabbed by the monster/evil character that has been in the house all along.
Something to try: Write a horror story that involves strange sounds at night.
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| | Invasion (13+)
The creatures were not interested in peace. They came to conquer and destroy.
#2330092 by 👼intuey  |
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Horror/Scary: January 29, 2025 Issue [#12956]
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