It was a dark and cold night. Actually, wait, no. It was a pretty normal day. My family and I went about our business like it was any other day. Little did we know that this particular day would change my life. I would learn that I truly am and forever will be…a scaredy-cat.

I was 15 years old and hated anything remotely scary. I never watched a full horror movie; I’ve only ever watched short clips from the long list of horror movies. I knew if I watched any of those movies I would have nightmares for life. I was scared of being alone in my house and taking out the trash at night because I thought zombies were going to get me. It was definitely a tough life of living in fear. Honestly, I probably would have been scared of my own shadow.

On this life-changing day, my dad put on a movie. It was a normal routine for us to watch movies all day, so it was nothing out of the ordinary. As the opening credits played, I saw the scariest thing I've ever seen, the title screen, which read “Nightmare on Elm Street.” I freaked out and told my dad I wasn’t going to watch the movie. He laughed at me and told me that it is an old movie so the effects aren’t even that scary. I sat back down and began to watch. I shouldn’t have listened to him.

After the first couple of deaths, I was horrified. I wanted to cry. I knew that I was going to have nightmares for months to come. The one part that truly got me terrified was when Freddy Kruger, the burned man with knives for hands, reached through the walls and entered through the girl’s dream. If Kruger could do that to her, he can definitely kill me through my dreams.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to cry and think about how scared I was going to be for the rest of my life. So I decided to step away and take a shower. Bad idea. That is literally the first rule of horror movies. Don’t take a shower when you think or have a feeling of someone being in your house.

As the water ran down my face and mixed with the tears that formed from fear, I started to hear light scratching on the bathroom door. I peaked out and didn’t see anyone there. I thought to myself how crazy and paranoid I was being and continued on normally.

A couple minutes later, I started hearing the noises again. I peeked out again and saw nothing. I froze in fear. What was going on?

I got out the shower and wrapped myself in a towel and then it began. The scratches were louder and there was pounding on the door. The light started to flicker and the noises were loud. I screamed and didn’t know what to do. I froze and closed my eyes. Then everything stopped.

I stepped out the bathroom and ran to the living room to see my family sitting down on the couch. I frighteningly asked them if it was them who was scratching the door. They all looked at me in confusion. I started to yell asking if they were the ones trying to scare me. My dad laughed and said I was crazy.

We finished the movie and this incident almost ended my life. I still don’t know what happened. Was it my dad? Was it actually Freddy Kruger? I really don’t want to know or find out.