Scary stories, some of us hate it, some of us love them. Scary stories are a part of everyone’s life growing up. Whether reading books or wattpad stories, to watching horror movies- the horror genre is a love it or hate it scene with its audiences.

However, there’s a specific series in the horror genre that is infamous for how freaking scary it is. The “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series by Alvin Schwartz is one of the most terrifying series ever. But why? Why the hell is it so scary? Oh, I’m glad you’ve asked, handsome stranger. It’s because WE HAD TO READ THIS WHILE WE’RE CHILDREN! LIKE WHAT THE HELL….

Don’t know what I mean? Let me recall your childhood, between the grades of 2-8, in your school’s library or classroom you magically came across one of these mysterious books. And of course, you being the interested child you were, you showed your friends and told them you’re nobly brave enough to overcome how scary it seems and tried to read it on your own.

At first, you thought it was no big deal but each page had a scary f****ing photo that would trip you up and a story much scarier than that. For each story left you a bit mortified and scared at night. As you came to school lying to your friends that it wasn’t scary or no big deal but deep down inside these books scared the life and innocence out of you. No? Just me? Oh well.

But for those who have read the series, you could admit… These were ultimately terrifying! Like why would these stories be categorized as children’s books? Like Alvin Schwartz literally ruined our childhood! Have you not seen the photos that almost every story had? As a child, those pictures traumatized me, and the stories were even more traumatizing. For example:

“The Red Spot”:

"The Red Spot" was a story about a girl who from the picture looked scary as it is, had woken up to have a spider bite on her cheek. Her mother told her to not worry about it and to leave it alone. However, as the days progressed, the bite would grow and grow until one day it started to boil! And of course, as a normal child going through something like that, the girl freaked out! But the bite kept boiling and growing, till POP! A FREAKIN SWARM OF SPIDERS CAME OUT OF IT!!!

That honestly freaked me out as a kid, I had a long fear of bugs and insects after reading this for a while. I couldn’t even look at Spider-Man the same way anymore until I was 12.

“Something Was Wrong”:

Okay, this one was a bit freaky, it was like an M Night Shyamalan movie. A man named John finds himself in the middle of the street, the only problem is that he doesn’t why or how he got there. As he tried to figure out a way home, every person he tries to talk to screams at him or is terrified and runs away. At this point, John was still confused as to what was going on, until he was able to call home to reach his wife. However, to John’s surprise, no one was home… Why? Because his wife was attending his own funeral!

“The Big Toe”:

This one was always weird to me and I always questioned why this story was even an idea. The story is about a little boy who finds a severed toe in the middle of a yard. So then he takes it, and shows his parents- which leads to the craziest idea of them cooking and eating it??? Just to have some ghost look for its missing toe. This isn’t really as scary but just so weird that it stuck with me growing up.

“Sam’s New Pet”:

The story of a boy and his pet… Yeah no, this story was creepy. Not for the story but for the picture that came with it. This story follows a couple that finds this creature somewhere in Mexico and decides that it was adorable and decided to take it home for their son, Sam. Sam embraces this new pet but soon finds that it’s foaming at the mouth. Turns out it was a freaking rat with rabies… Honestly, a background check on the pet would have been a good idea first.

“Is Something Wrong”:

I don’t think you’d really need the story here. This picture just scared the crap out of me as a kid. Like seriously, it’s scary as hell. Like seriously... What the hell is this???

Personally, Alvin Schwartz scared the hell out of a lot of innocent children over the course of the past 37 years. I am still not okay with this! I am still traumatized! I demand these books be raised to a the much proper age range! Children shall not be tormented with stories as horrifying as this. I honestly want to have an apology by the public school system, but I think I’m going to just cry myself to sleep and try to forget these terrifying stories.