The Killer Within

In honor of it being Friday the 13th and in early celebration of Stephen King's 9/24 release of Doctor Sleep, I'm going to waver from the usual Poetic Friday post. I know, I know. Go wipe your tears. Take deep, calming breaths. Poetic Friday will return next week at it's regularly scheduled time.


 

Over the years, I've become a big chicken. 



No, not that kind of chicken. I'm talking about my inability to sit through a scary movie without peeing my pants. If I'm watching TV, I'll cover my eyes if a commercial preview for anything remotely scary comes on.

I don't know what happened. I used to be able to hang tough. Not once hide my face. And nightmares? Psh! Who cares?

Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers were my peeps. R.L. Stein, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King, my BFFs.

Then something happened. I have no exciting, traumatic story to tell. I got older. I got yellow. My sister is STILL trying to get me to watch Insidious. Uh, yeah right. Not going to happen.

But for some reason,  I just couldn't part with one of my BFFs. Yeah, Stephen King and I are still two peas in a very whacked out pod. What's bizarre is that he's the one who scares me the most. I'm not talking about murderous cars, or psychotic clowns, or even ax wielding fathers (although they do scare the bejeesus out of me).

 


I'm talking about the deep, dark places he takes us to. The places that has me people watching for days and wondering what the guy in the impeccable suit and tie is capable of. Human nature is a dangerous place to examine, and King knows how to weave a tale that brings out the killer within, in a scarily believable way. He makes us want to board up our windows and lock our doors...and he has us begging for more.

Take Under the Dome, for example. The actual dome was nothing, it was the things that went on inside the dome, the actions and reactions of the people who were trapped, that had me terrified and a little afraid to go to sleep at night. He does it in The Mist as well. Of course the mist is scary (the unknown always is) but the scariest thing is what isolation does to the people, bringing out their inner demons.

Monsters, ghosts, ghoulies, and whatever else you can dream up, I promise you there is nothing like the thing that could possibly live inside us all. I pray I never have to find out. And for your sake, I hope you don't either.

If you haven't read Under the Dome, you should. It's classic Stephen King at his finest.The TV show? Uh, not so much. I tried to watch but I couldn't get into it.

Anyway, reading is much better than television, but I'm sure you know that already! Happy Friday the 13th!