Hello, my lovely chums. It is I, Metro, and I'm writing a story.

While I've not ironed out all the plot points yet, the gist of the thing is that it takes place in a psychiatric ward (present day, if you're wondering). The newest arrival is a young woman who appears to be showing signs of paranoid schizophrenia. As the story continues, however, it becomes clear that she's actually not insane at all- or at least, not in the manner she seems to have convinced herself she is.

Something very, very bad has taken up residence in her body. It's using it as a conduit to reach into this world. As a result, the people around her have a distressing tendency to glow slowly and unpleasantly mad. Or die. Or both (during a therapy session, one of her doctors casually inserts a pair of ballpoint pens into his eyes, and that's all I'm going to say about that). She, however, has convinced herself that the strange occurrences that happen in her vicinity are nothing more than hallucinations, as a coping mechanism.

Basically, I want to put this character through the wringer, because I'm a horrible person who tortures her fiction-puppets to show them how much she cares. To do that, I need some ideas.
I know what I find unsettling (spiders, needles, loss of control). What I'd like to know is what you find unsettling- and why. Is it physical, or more abstract?

More importantly, am I the only one who saw that portrait move?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis.

My fears are all abstract and wouldn't fit well in a novella such as yours as they deal with philosophical threats as opposed to any that would have immediate physical results.

Creepy story, BTW.

Snakes. The way the look and the way they move creeps me out to no end. I can't even look at a picture of one without pulling my legs up and shuddering, and the only bad dreams that can wake up me are the ones with snakes in them.

Some of the most horrifying ones were where I was eating popcorn on the couch, then looked over at the bowl and it was filled with hundreds of tiny little snakes all escaping. Hit the eject button on the dream for that one. Woke right the hell up.

Then one where some crazy snake-lover person was being mean, and held the snake by the head while brushing it's tail up on my neck. Eulgh. :yucky:

Lovely chums? Alrighty.

Crowds is my fear. In a room or area with more than 7 people, I start to panic.

I worry because I don't trust people well, so im afraid someone out there is dangerous, or sick, or block my exit in an emergency

You don't want to hold my ball python, then? ;3;




Why, yes indeed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumming.

Drooling in my sleep.

Being in dark, deep, water, Alone.

What exactly are you implying?

I find crowds or any place where there is a large concetration of people to be fearful, well, I hate it. It's suffocating, raises the stress, induce paranoia and it's very aggrevating.

Being in a very tight place such as a tunnel in a cave where you have to wiggle through on your stomach. I've never been in such a place but I dreamt of being in one and the thought of it scares me
Also, we had a telephone of which the ringing tone unsettled me; it was one I used to have in my first flatshare in my bedroom and a couple of times it rang in the middle of the night, no one on the other end when I picked up, scaring the heck out of me. Since then the ringing of it triggered that unsettling memory

...Nuffin'. >.>

Seriously though, exactly what it says on the tin. I have a pet ball python.

Ew. Better than a tarantula.

Freddy Krueger.

Being watched. I have a recurring nightmare where I go about my daily business and everywhere I go there is a man watching me. His face is disturbing because there's something uncanny valley about it. Eyes and mouth might be slightly too wide or something. The key is that the man never approaches me (or moves at all), or says anything, he's just there, watching.

I have a fear of being active, because action causes reaction and I have no control over the reaction. :bonk:

Any form of helplessness towards the protection of my son, scares the [censored] outta me.

What also unsettles me somewhat is that I may not be alive, and this might not be real. <--- I've decided to ignore this angst in myself, so as to still be capable of basic daily functioning.(*)








(*)that said, my reality is becoming increasingly weird..

As a matter of fact, being falsely admitted into an insane asylum. Mostly as a result of watching the movie From Hell, in which a perfectly sane woman is lobotomized after being kidnapped and admitted to a 19th century asylum. Another example would be Dr. Crane's experiments on his subjects at Arkham Asylum in the Batman universe. Just kind of creepy to think about.

Don't know if it'd work for what you're doing though. Being admitted to the loony bin with a coincidental fear of psychiatric hospitals seems a little silly, but I'm not a writer!

Oh, and another thing. I'm afraid of wills. Like, the kind someone leaves when they die. They just seem so... Final

That happened to me once. It was scary because I didn't know what it was, I didn't know why I couldn't move at all, no matter how hard I tried. If I knew it existed it wouldn't have been so scary.

Maybe it doesn't exist and you never really woke up.

Man, I'm probably one of the easier-scared people in the world as a whole, because I tend to be jumpy. I'm not like twitchy IRL but I think a lot of the times I convince myself I'm going to be scared, and make it ten times worse. So.... I don't really know, perhaps the unknown?

Or better yet, what you can't know. Eldritch horrors are, well, horrifying.

Here, let me make it easier.

• Things that pose a threat that you don't know about
  
• Things that pose a threat that are incomprehensible
  
• self-inflicted injury on the serious level (I HATE YOU DEAD SPACE 2 ;~;)
  
• hopelessness (even if unknown to oneself)

The usual bunch I guess? Well, I do have acrophobia. I can fly in a plane but if I'm near a ledge I'm clinging to the ground for my dear life.

Roaches. And I've no idea why. I think my mom being scared of them while I was at a younger age cause me to be scared of them. Particularly the flying ones.

Flying insect! And crawling insects if they move too fast. I need to be able to keep an eye on them, as long as I can do that, I don't freak out. As soon as I lose sight of them, it's run or die. While screaming.

Very, very tight spaces that you'd have to crawl through. Not a fan.