Terrified of going to bed

by Becca
(Australia)

Im a 17 year old girl from Australia and grew up in a relatively normal family. I wasnt allowed to watch horror as a child but one day when I was about seven I watched a children’s programme that did silly "Spooky" stories, like where aliens came from and stuff like that.

This programme usually made me laugh but one story scared me so much that I didnt realise until years later that it had caused me to develop a phobia.

The story was about a murderer who was called the Hook, and one day he was escaping prison and hid under a girls bed, pretending to be her dog by licking her hand.

By coincidence, shortly after a read a book with an almost identical story that was a true story and after that there were various increasingly scary and horrific versions of it until eventually I became terrified of going to bed because I thought that someone was going to hide under my bed and kill me.

I used to go around my tiny room and search to see if there was anyone there, but even after the lights were out and I was tucked in bed, I still lay paralysed with fear that somehow, my house would be broken into and that the person would hide under my bed and kill me.

For years I didnt know what to do, until about two years ago I began role-playing with a friend.

I realised that the situation was all in my head and gradually was able to mentally come to terms with my own wild imagination.

Its been a while since I feared that threatening presence under my bed, and thankfully I am finally able to go to bed without having to check my room or lay in fear!