I never watched horror movies as a kid or even read scary stories.  The only “horror” movie I remember watching was Phantom of the Opera.  I slept with my hand on the side of my neck after it.  Besides that most of my childhood centered around kids movies and nature documentaries and so I never had one set monster I feared.  That is until I left my window open.

My family goes camping a lot and for long periods of time.  One summer we went out for a week and a half to upstate New York and enjoyed being out in the woods of Robert Treman State Park.  When we got back it turned out that I left my window open like the little air head I was.  Everything seemed fine nothing was stolen or moved.  However under closer examination of the window the screen was raised which was weird because at the age I couldn’t lift them by myself.  Then with a sick feeling in my stomach I realized that there were ten holes the size of fingertips poked through the screen.  It was horrifying and needless to say I slept on the floor of my parents room that night.

I have never been afraid of monsters and have seen them as whimsical in a way.  However I believe that human beings definitely have the ability to act in monstrous ways.  Since that day I have been more afraid of burglars and murders than the boogey man and werewolves.  Personally I think that there are terrifying people who fit the description we had for monsters on the board.  What is more terrifying than the monster that looks like you?  One that doesn’t have the warning signs of big teeth and horns but instead a clean cut and a toothy smile.  So I don’t have a monster from my childhood that talked me from a silver screen.  Instead its the monsters of men that scares me the most.

Also being an avid fan of Law and Order doesn’t help this at all.

Below is a link to a writing prompt on reddit about a monster.  Its pretty interesting.

[WP] A monster is experiencing agonizing pain, and is convinced that killing you is the only way to relieve it. Write from the monster's perspective.
byu/Red_lotus_ inWritingPrompts