Scary Stories to Tell in the Hurricane

Okay, so now it’s been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, but Florence is still ravaging the Carolinas.

Soooooo what better time to revisit one of my old favorites, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark?

I mean, I’ve got the “dark and stormy night” angle down pat, courtesy of Florence.

Let’s see, how about…The Babysitter?

Nah, not scary enough because we don’t really use rotary phones anymore. Plus, I live on a ground-floor apartment, so the whole psycho-calling-from-upstairs thing isn’t as unsettling.

Besides, I have my 12-gauge 😉

How about…oh I know!

The Wendigo!

A hunter and his guide head into the Canadian wilderness for a hunting trip.

Nothing exciting, until the third night, when the wind starts blowing…

A windstorm carries the guide off into the darkness, all the while screaming of his “fiery feet…burning feet…!”

As with pretty much every story in this book, it’s the illustration that’s most compelling:

A set of footprints in the snow, leading into a foggy, uncertain landscape? *switches on the nightlight*

You wouldn’t catch me dead out in that desolate wilderness, with OR without a 12-gauge.

The Wendigo was always one of my favorite stories to read either while camping…or during stormy weather.

Years later, I did a little research about Wendigos, and it turns out there are two different kinds:

1. A storm that comes with the wind, dragging you along so fast that your feet burn away, carries you into the sky, then drops you.

2. A man-eating spirit.

Neither one sounds like something I’d want to run into anywhere.

But it’s just made-up…right?

Well there goes sleeping tonight 😳