My life's greatest scares

Watched War of the Worlds last night and spent half of it hiding behind my fingers. Surprisingly scary. So I was thinking back to the times I was really scared in a variety of ways. Here is my list, in no particular order of scariness:

1) I was about 11 years old and on holiday with parents and siblings in the Canary Islands. When walking across a tidal pool to get from one beach to another, we had to keep climbing up the rocks to avoid the waves that came in. As I saw a really big wave, I called "Wave!" and everyone moved up to higher ground. Except me. I stood there like a lemon watching the wave come in. So it hits me full in the face, knocking my legs out from underneath me and dragging me down the rocks. I tore every nail off my hands trying to grab hold of something, anything. Unfortunately, I saw the drop off coming up and it was a good 20 feet onto the sharp rocks below. That's when I saw my 7 year old brother running towards me, screaming my name. He grabbed my hand and held on so I wouldn't fall. Very Hollywood. Extremely scary.

2) 16 years old. 1st boyfriend. 1st time. Condom broke. 1st panic attack. 1st morning after pill. 1st vow never to do that again.

3) Watching Fraggle Rock. So many creepy moments. Like the one where Red gets a mark on her hand that she tries to hide. Or the one where Wembley finds this horrible cave. Or the one where the Minstrel moves really fast. Horrible. Stuff of nightmares.

4) Critters 2. I think I was 11 at the time. 'Nuff said.

5) I had a terrible nightmare about a solar flare that created an electromagnetic pulse, knocking out everything electronic. We went back 100 years in one minute. Things blew up, fell down, massive apocalyptic destruction. I didn't know if my family in England was dead or alive, because there were no phones, no planes, no satellites. A year later, I managed to get enough money together to buy some black market air time on one of the only existing satellites to try and see if at least my Mum's home was still standing and give me some clue as to her whereabouts, but the link never went through and they stole my money. Years later, the rebuild begins. I manage to get on a plane and go to my old village. What was once my house is now broken into three buildings to house as many people as possible. I had no idea where my Mum and family was, or even if they survived. Frightening stuff.

6) Back in the Canary Islands, same vacation. Got caught by a rogue wave while trying to swim in to shore. Got tumbled around and around in the surf and didn't know which way was up for air. Ended up with my head half-buried in the sand of the beach and managed to stand up and catch a breath. Closest I've come to drowning, and not fun.

7) Evil Dead, 8 years old, made to watch it by my step-sister. Scariest. Movie. Ever. I didn't know it was meant to be funny, or spoofy. Ugh, when the tree tries to rape the girl...to me it was just sheer horror.

8) Being caught in my illicit relationship with ex-one by ex-two. Until that point I thought that heart-in-throat was an exaggeration.

9) When I walked into my room in a shared apartment, I didn't think anything of it. Was about to sit down at my desk when my boyfriend at the time jumped out at me from underneath a table. I was so scared, my legs went out from under me and I actually fell down. Jerk.

10) Spiders. Anytime. Anywhere.

11) Drop-Zone at Canada's Wonderland, where they lift you 15 floors and drop you. I was so terrified I think I was crying by the time I got to the bottom. However, I was also going "wa-hoo!" so it was more a physical fright than an actual scare. My knees were knocking together for hours afterwards.

12) My Mum tried to get into my bedroom when I was in there with 1st boyfriend. We were obviously making out and he had his shirt off. Although I had a safeguard (a piece of furniture blocking the door) she managed to push past it and caught us. I was truly scared for what she would say...and boy, did she ever let me have it!

13) My friends and I made a ouija board when I was 10 and it told us a ton of scary things. I still don't know what to make of it, but we were so scared we burnt the board and buried it and the coin we used outside of the property.

Appropiately, I shall end there!