My Scary Halloween Story
It was a dark and stormy night.
No, really.
It was Halloween, probably 1994. It was about 1am, and I was home alone watching The Exorcist in the dark. The wind was blowing really hard, a tree in the front of the apartment building was bending over, it’s branches almost touching the ground. The clouds were blocking the moon, and the streetlight was casting weird shadows because of all the movement caused by the wind.
The movie was almost over – most of the spider walking, 360* puking, and demonic voices had already been played. Suddenly, the door buzzer went off.
It scared the hell out of me. I jumped off the couch, then ran over to the door intercom. I pressed the talk button and said “Hello?”
I waited for a response, but the crappy speaker and the noise from the wind meant that I couldn’t make out any of the words. I would have to go and see for myself.
I lived on the first floor, and was in the first apartment, so I walked out into the hallway. For some reason the lights were out; the only glow coming from the emergency lighting down the hallway. Odd. I opened the fire door to the front entrance and stepped through. That’s when I saw her.
She was short. Brunette. I would say she looked like she was about 14. Her hair was blowing all around because of the wind storm, and she was leaning in to the door with her face pressed up against the window. Yup, she looked exactly like Linda Blair in the movie I had just been watching. For a second, I froze, completely speechless and frightened.
Of course, it wasn’t Linda Blair. Nor was it any other possessed person looking for someone to kill. It was just a High School senior out looking for one of her friends. She had the right apartment number, but the wrong building.
It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.
p.s.
This IS a business blog, so here is your marketing takeaway: Context can change everything.
