Okay... I don't know if this will apply or not, but I'll try. Few moments of my life could compare to the intensity that I faced in my childhood/teen years.
I've faced horrors, yes that's true. My own near-drowning, when my friend Misty was shot and killed in my apartment, even when I felt a devil on my back when a friend's mother who was into witchcraft tryed to put a hex on me.
I refused it into my heart and soul, stood proudly with God and said, "Get thee hence, demon. You cannot harm me, for I am with the Lord thy God Almighty!" The feeling passed and I honestly thought nothing about it until two days later when I ran into my aforementioned friend that I played games with.
He said his Mom was feeling just awful, and that she knew that her curse had backfired.
Still, that wasn't the worst S.K. moment. He doesn't really deal in either of those situations anyway.
On this one (at that time) lonely stretch of road in the outer suburbs past a cemetary (coincidently where my baby sister is buried... hmmm), is another road that intersects it. At the top of that hill sits an old farmhouse.
Now for years, the rumors flew that that place now deserted and boarded up was used by devil worshippers. Please remember that back in the late seventies, cults were pretty prevelant in those days. And EVERYONE was looking over their shoulders. Well, my "friend" Eric dared me to go up there and look in the house.
The only transportation we had was bicycles at the time, and riding out to this area was nearly paramount to the trip the boys took in "The Body"... it would have taken us three or four hours (which seems like days) to get there. But, I wasn't about to let Eric have the last laugh, so I double-dared him to go.
"Ha!" he uttered with a nervous laugh, but he also knew he had nowhere to go now. He was booked solid, as certainly as if I had handcuffed him to go with me. Anyway, we set out, and sooner than we would have liked to admit, we found ourselves at the base of the hill that leads to HOUSE!!!!
It was still imposing, even today when you drive by it. But back then? WHOOO! Let me tell you, when you are panting out of breath and looking up at the HOUSE with it's boarded-up windows, it's overgrown lawn and vegitation, trees that haven't been cut for years, shingles falling off with the slowly blowing breeze, stereotypical shutters that creaked or had been blown off by one of Missouri's recent rainstorms, ruts in the driveway that had ceased to be a concrete one when Jesus was probably a baby, mail and old newspapers rotting in the yard... or perhaps it was the total lack of any insects sounds... or any real sounds out of nature for that matter.
However, a bet was a bet, and it was two very scared kids that found themselves standing on the edge of the driveway to the place, our bikes laying up against a nearby tree.
Looks go a long way, and I could tell that Eric was just as nervous as I was. Hell, I was practically ready to piss myself. It never did occur to me to go ahead and do just that... relieve myself BEFORE something scared the holy hell right outta me. But then, I was just dumb and young and full of... well, no need to get into that right now. So with an unspoken word, we both set foot on the property.
My heart was hammering so hard I couldn't breathe. I felt my ears constrict, and suddenly, it was like I was hearing Darth Vader's breath mask going, but it was my breathing that was doing that!
Then we were up against a door that was blocked. Walking around the house had proven fruitless: it was locked up tighter than a churchmouse's drawers. Well, Erik had been bragging to me that he was this "big" karate man now, so I told him to go ahead and kick the door in. It was daylight, and we all knew that monster's didn't come out until the night. He hesitated a minute, but sensing that I was going to needle him, he let loose a tremendous kick.
Thud. Nothing, Nadda, Zipppp, the ol' zero. So I started laughing, and I kicked the door. It resounded only a pitiful bit more. Incensed by my laughter, Erik let lose a HUGE kick, and ker-WHAM!!! Like a part out of the old Batman series, he not only showed an impressive effort, but his foot went through the damn door!
He tried to pull his leg out, and it wouldn't come out, his big tennis shoes were catching on the door. Then he got this perplexed look on his face, and suddenly let out a huge yell! It curdled my blood I tell you. I started screaming too, and yanking on his leg, knowing something AWFUL had gotten ahold of him, and wouldn't let go!
IT was there, breathing it's icy breath on his foot, IT'S dead skin grasping his leg, knowing now that dinner was suddenly here! Then the wind kicked up suddenly, and I swear I could hear the chanting voices of SOMEONE, or several SOMEONE's in the background.
Erik saw my look of DREAD and DESPARE, and started screaming again, and this time finally managed to extract his foot! His shoe had come off in the process, and he didn't care. He FLEW down to his bike, stepping on sharp objects on the way that DID lacerate his foot.
He didn't CARE!!! HE had to GET OUT OF THERE NOW!!!! I felt my bladder loosen, and I just knew that IT was going to get me next. But I couldn't move! Then, slowly, surely, I looked around. Nothing was there. Nothing behind me, just an old, sad, forgotten farmhouse!
And as I looked around, it didn't look quite so scary to me at all! I even saw a seperate cellar that was partially out of the ground. It looked kinda cool really, and I walked over to it. Peering inside I found old farm tools and other implements. I calmly walked back to the hole in the door, and peered down inside. There sat Erik's shoe. It took a couple of tries, for my arm wasn't long enough, but I managed to finally grasp it, and I recovered it for my buddy. I walked down to the bike, but Erik was nowhere to be seen.
Remembering how scared we both were I assumed he was down at the "safe" part of our journey, down at the bottom of the hill, on the adjoining street. Sure enough, I saw him there, and handed him back his shoe. He took it without comment, and I know he noticed the front of my pants too, but there was a bond suddenly between us. We had faced fear together. Faced it and lost! But it didn't freak us out totally, just for the moment.
A few weeks later, we took another trip up there. Seems our brazen act had a will of it's own, for the house had been broken in. The door was totally off the jamb, and there was paper trash littered in throughout the entire thing, whether part of it originally or not we never knew, but it was sad to see the House so treated. We each carried a bit of shame having to do with our own part in that desecration. Years later, we joke about that time. That time we faced... THE HOUSE! Best!