”I was sweating something fierce, although I was cold. I could feel my palms getting clammy and the perspiration running down my back. I get like that when I’m real scared.”
This is how Ponyboy, the lead character in S E Hinton’s classic coming-of-age novel, The Outsiders, describes how he felt during an extremely frightening moment. Can you write about a frightening moment?
It can be
something you once experienced. Or it can be something someone you know
experienced.
Describe
what happened and how it felt. See if you can include the five senses (sight,
sound, smell, touch and taste) to give the reader a complete picture of the
experience.
Write in the Comments section.
Alfred Kedhammar 9c
ReplyDeleteOne of the scariest moments I've ever experienced in my life occoured when I was a bit younger than I am now. Maybe 13-14 years old. It's about me and my dad experiencing a robbery. We live near a bakery (well, more like a factory where they produce sweets called kokoballs) and were going to get a box for my sister, who were going to give them to the students in her class. As we stopped outside, we noticed that the door was closed even though it said it was open on a sign beside it. Inside, we heard a periodic, clanking sound. We tried knocking on the door and window but no-one opened. After a few minutes, the owner of the place arrived in his van. He had no idea why the door was closed and locked and started yelling through the windows. I was rather bored at the moment but when the door opened and two guys came out, one with a knife and one with a gun and I was suddenly very aware of the situation. It's very hard for me to remeber anything after the moment the door opened. My brain simply shut down all unnecessary functions and I remember I could only think of the knife in the man's hand and that I was hardly aware of anything else. I hadn't even known the other guy had had a gun until it was over. Anyways, they had just came out and my dad immediately stepped infront of me to shield me. The robbers started yelling at us to get inside so they could get away but the owner of the bakery stood straight-backed and yelled right back at them that he wouldn't do as they said and that he would follow them in his van if they ran away. I was terrified and when they pointed both knife and gun towards him I was worried I would witness a murder right there on the spot. However, they pushed him out of the way and ran into the forest close to the bakery, one of the robbers yelled to the other to shot the owner when he ran after them but he didn't and then after they disappeared into the forest he turned back to see to the personel in the bakery. They were crying a lot for being held there when the robbers were cracking the safe (that was the clanking sound) and I felt my own bones turn to jelly. The owner of the bakery got in his van and drove after them down the forest path while my dad where calling the police. I picked up my mobile and called my mom but when she answered I couldn't make a sound so my dad took the phone and explained what had happened. The police came and interviewed us and I felt useless because I couldn't remember a single thing,l. I had only stared at the knife the entire time. Unfortunately the robbers weren't found. They had ony gotten about 4000 crowns from the entire break-in so they were probably quite disappointed. I haven't been having any nightmares or other mental problems about the event, but I don't walk by the bakery on the way home anymore.
Wow! I can't imagine how scared you must have felt.. You said that you didn't have any nightmares or other mental problems. Do you have any idea why? I know I would have had a lot of bad dreams and scary thoughts about it ..
DeleteWow - that is quite the terrifying experience!
ReplyDeleteKristen
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ReplyDeleteOne of the few really scary things I've experienced in my life happened a couple of years ago when me and my family went on a trip to Madeira a week in the autumn to celebrate my mothers 50th birthday. We did ofcourse go by plane, something that I've never thought of as unpleasant or scary but in the landing this time i was really afraid. The reason for that was the unusually short runway. Since it was an island and the airport was built by the sea part of the runway was build over water with nothing else underneath but air and som pillars. So when the plan took the final turn in the air and I caught a glimpse of the runway I got the first sense of uneasiness, and when the plane finally hit the ground and in high speed rushed towards the edge and open sea I got really scared. I had never had that feeling before and I hope I'll never get it again becaus it was a "Oh shit I'm gonna die" kind of feeling. But alongside the fear was the knowledge that I had nothing to worry about. Hundreds, maye thousands of planes had done that landing before so why would ours go amiss? And sure enough the plane slowed down in time and took the very last turn towards the airport. Only then were I able to relax and clearly I weren't the only one who thought the landing unpleasant. Because all of the other passengers gave the pilot thunderous applause and it was with a strong sense of relief I joined in with the others.
ReplyDeleteThis is my text, forgot to ad name.
DeleteTo be honest with you I haven't got many horrible moments or when I get really afraid but it is one thing I remember better than any other moments.
ReplyDeleteIt was an evening in early summer when I was in the age of 10. I was out with my friends and rode with our bicycles. It was a warm evening and we all cycled in shorts and t-shirts. We went to the school yard where we met another friend who had a new bike. We all stood on a sort of platform and it was ramp down to the ground. My friend wanted to test the bike so he jumped on it and started to ride down the ramp. The problem was the metall staircase above the ramp, my friend didn't manage to brake and his forehead went right into the edge of the stair. He went of the bike and I didn't recognize him, he was entirely hysterical and he screamed "I'm going to die! I'm going to die!" At first I didn't understand why he needed to be so dramatic. I thought the helmet had took the damage against the stair but when I saw the blood running down his face I understood the helmet hadn't help him at all. I stood ossified and just watched at my friend's face covered with blood. I felt the nausea come crawling. I couldn't stand the blood-soaked face, I just couldn't. Luckily I had some friends who called his Dad and they went to the hospital. It was nothing serious. A few stitches and the gash was fixed.
I remember a horrible moment when i was younger, 10 i think...
ReplyDeleteMe and my family had decided to eat lunch a adjacent seaside resturant. when we arrived with the boat and moored to the bridge i could feel both the ocean breeze and the sunshine warming my skin. we continued down the long bridge, in to the resturant and ordered something to eat, i ordred pancakes ^^. when we all finished i said that i would go to the bathroom and meet them up at the boat. when i entered the bathroom the stench penetrated my nose with the awful smell of rotten eggs mixed with urine. when i exited the bathroom i could see the clouds slowly covering the sun until it was gone. when i started going to the location of the boat i could see it drift away, it was then i started to run and scream: WAIT FOR ME!!, but the boat continued. i continued screaming but no one on the boat heard me. when i saw the bot exit the shipyard and throttle up and disappear behind the small mountains i sat down on the cold concrete bride, cried and thought that my family left without me. 30 minutes later a person came up to me and said that my father was on the phone. i talked to him and we decided that i would wait here until he came back.
I've had so many firghtening moments in my life that I honestly forgot most of them, but I still remember one quite clearly.
ReplyDeleteI was about 13 back then and I was on a birthday party at "grona lund", an amusement park. The whole day had been really fun and all but then one of the other children suggested for us to go on "the giant drop"(fritt fall in swedish). At first I hesitated and said I'd skip this one because truth be told, I'm scared to death of heights, it makes me feel nauseous to be so high above the ground with an open view and nothing to hold on to. But somehow they managed to persuade me into riding it with words like" it's a once in a life time thing" and "you'll regret it later".
As I was standing in the long line waiting for our turn I kept praying and chanting to myself that it'll be ok, I mean so many other people are riding it and nothing happened to them, right?. When it finally (unfortunately) was time for us to go on the ride I had mustered up enough courage and was actually quite excited, but then luck didn't seem to be on my side as it seemed that we were short on people, the ride had four seats and we were only three. So they had no other choice but to let someone that was alone in the line to ride with us. I was fine with that until he decided to sit next to me, sepereating me from the other to and leaving me all alone at the edge of the seats. I didn't think much of it, but I guess I was a little dissapointed. Then the ride started moving. It was now that I started panicking, I felt the speed of my heart rate increase for every meter we left behind. I remember that I started to tremble as I looked down on the people that with time got smaller and smaller, my head was spinning and that nauseous feeling made its appearnace as I felt my stomach churn. I swallowed repeatedly and tried to convince myself that there was nothing to afraid of, but the panic didn't subside and only grew instead. What if it gets stuck up there? what if we never make it down? what these belts arent strong enough to hold us back? those were the thoughts running through my head at the speed of lightening. All I wanted right then was for someone to hold my hand, share my fear and maybe console me but unfortunately I was stuck seated beside a stranger(who was quite old too) and I didn't even dare to look at him.
To my relief, the fall down wasn't as bad as I had expected and I ended up being proud of myself for going through with it( though I was a little shaken up afterwards). I can honestly say it was an experience I'd rather not have memories of but it's still something I'm glad I did, altough I'm pretty sure I'm never doing it again.
Alexander Nesi
ReplyDeleteUsually on winter holidays me and my family like to go a ski resort in Branäs or Sälen. We did not do that this this year because my mother and my stepfather are on their honeymoon in South Africa. So I haven't really done anything particularly interesting during my vacation. I've been studying a little bit for an upcoming test and I saw a movie.
When I'm not doing any school work I enjoy either playing video games with my friends or going out with my friends to maybe watch a movie at the cinema or something of the sort. I and two of my friends went to see "Django Unchained". I had been waiting to see this movie for an eternity and I was stoked to finally watch it. Naturally I had very high expectations for this movie since I had been awaiting it for such a long time. The first two hours were spectacular and my already high hopes for the ending skyrocketed as the movie went on. But then I actually saw the ending and my dream for the perfect movie was crushed. It felt like the ending was a thrown together school project finished 20 minutes before the presentation. Basically, it made absolutely no sense and it ended with a cliché action scene where the main character magically dodges 100 bullets, kills everyone and casually walks away from a large explosion. Contradicting the rest of the movie which was very smart and realistically put together. So you can understand that I was a bit bummed on the way home because of a movie such great potential, that was just ruined in 15 minutes.
So overall I did enjoy my holiday even though it didn’t end up as good as I thought it would’ve.
I don’t have any fears for the usual dangerous stuff like tall heights, deep water, getting mugged or something of the sort. This is because I have never found myself in any of these situations where my life has been in peril; therefore I cannot imagine what it would be like. My greatest fear is to be ordinary. I am afraid of ending up as nothing more than mediocre, having lived a life so insignificant that no one can remember who you were and what you have done. That’s why you should never aim low in life, because you will always hit your target if you don’t overachieve. I feel that I need to do something extraordinary with my life, something that will positively impact people. Otherwise I’ll just be another pawn.
ReplyDeleteAlex Nesi
It was a couple of weeks ago, I was home alone. It was dark and quiet, just like it usually is in my neighbourhood. I can´t remember why, but something made me stressed and upset. I have suffered from breathing problems for two years now and suddenly I couldn’t breath properly. The feeling is difficult to describe, because at that moment you don´t really think anymore. But I could feel my heart pounding hard and my lungs hurt. My palms went sweaty and my mouth went dry. I searched the house for a plastic bag that I could breath in and tried to calm myself down. I started to cough and felt dizzy. The room started to spin and the fear of passing out made me panic. In the middle of all this drama, the telephone rang. I looked for the phone on shaky legs and answered. It was one of my best friends and I told her fast that I couldn´t breath. She has been with me before in this situation. In just two minutes she was here and comforted me and calmed me down. My breathing went back to normal after a while and the coughing eventually stopped. The company of a friend makes fears and scary moments easier to handle and I´m glad I have her.
ReplyDeleteIt was a cloudy day. I remember sitting in my bedroom, looking out the window and just feeling depressed. So in a desperate attempt to make myself feel better, I decided to go for a walk. I figured that I could walk for a while, and then stop by at Josefin's apartment to see if she was home and if she wanted to hang out.
ReplyDeleteBetween our two places, there's this long road. I was walking on it, when suddenly I felt that uncomfortable feeling. You know that feeling when someone is watching you. I kept going, a bit faster on that long road, when a guy (or more like a man, he was about 40 years old) came up next to me. He had a big smile on his face, and started to talk to me in English. He asked me about my name, age and where I went to school. It was something about that smile on his face that made me really uncomfortable. Or maybe it was the fact that he was a total stranger who asked me all these personal questions. However, I didn't tell him anything, other than a bunch of lies. He kept smiling and asked me where I lived and to where I was heading. I told him another lie and said that I had to leave. I turned left, away from him and into Josefin's yard. I started to walk faster and faster towards her stairwell and apartment, but I couldn't get rid of the feeling that someone still was following me. So I turned my head, looked back and saw the man. He had the big smile on his face, looked straight into my eyes, waved slowly and started to walk faster towards me. I got chills all over my body and horrible pictures and toughts flashed through my mind. What if he caught up with me again? I got that awful trying-to-run-but-your-shoes-are-glued-to-the-floor-feeling, you know the one that you only have in nightmares. I tried to call Josefin's cellphone probably about thirty times, but she wouldn't pick up. So I almost ran into her stairwell, climbed the stairs as fast as I could and knocked on the door. But no one answered it. I knocked again, harder this time, but still no answer. I looked out the stairwell's window and there, right outside, stood the man and waited.
I've never felt as panicked and scared as I felt when I realized that I was trapped between the man and the closed door. My heart was beating like crazy, the vibrations went through my entire body. My skin was ice-cold, but my inside was boiling. For ten minutes, I just sat there on the floor of the stairwell imagining different scenarios, each one scarier than the other, before I dared to look out the window again. I watched the man walk away from the yard. When he was gone, I ran all the way home as fast as I could and told my parents all about it.
I still don't know if the man really was a bad guy. Maybe I made everything bigger than it was in my head? No matter what, it was without a doubt one of the scariest moments in my entire life.