We all love them. We've all been there with these moments that make your heart race and your palms sweat. I've got my fair share as well, I could go on all day believe me! But I'll only give 3 to keep this from turning into an enormous post.
1) For some reason I've always been sickly, it could be because I was born prematurely and have a weak immune system. As a kid I was sick with a fever so my Mum was taking my temperature with a thermometer. Little did we know that it was cracked at the end. I felt a gritty kind of feeling between my teeth, then a bitter liquid in my mouth. My Mum was shouting at me to spit, (please, no jokes people) but it was too late and I had swallowed mercury. We got into the car and went to hospital, I remember spitting like crazy in the back seat. But I had no idea how severe it was until I got to the hospital and I was told that I could die. I remember being hysterical and crying a lot. As a kid you feel invincible, so being told I could be dead that night was absolutely terrifying. Anyway, we were told that I really had swallowed a tiny, tiny amount, not enough to be fatal, but I still remember waking up the next day thinking omg.. I'm actually alive. Since then I've never used a glass thermometer.
2) Well all you guys by now probably know I'm a big explorer, always visiting these weird abandoned places. Well in 2005 I visited Cane Hill Mental Asylum, which is down South (a few miles out of where I was staying at my relatives house). I visited with my friends Laurence, Chris, Dan and Will. Now, this place is notorious throughout England for being one of the most insane explores (no pun intended) and is extremely frightening, mainly due to its horrible history and sheer size. And it certainly did live up to its reputation. After we got by the endless amounts of fences and barbed wire, we got inside the building through the back. We spent a good 30 minutes inside before things really heated up. In pitch black and only with eerie soft light coming through holes in the roof, exploring the almost endless corridors, we peered through the small holes in doors, looking into empty decaying cells and even having the chance to enter some of them. The next moment, all of my friends scream. Now, this place is huge, the ceiling is about 50-60 feet high, so their yelling echoed through the building and I could hear them all running and getting further away. Before long I was on my own and shouting at them in a combination of fear and anger. I remember shaking my head and sighing, doing anything to take the attention off how frightened I really was. Then it hit me, I stood still and it was utter silence. The place is so huge, its hard to imagine, but I could hear loud echoeing clatters and bangs, random crumbling and crackling sounds, and what I believed to be at the time, footsteps and whipsers, etc. I remember pacing frantically down the corridors and going down many sets of stairs desperately trying to get out, ending up in random rooms, one particular that stands out in my mind was carpeted, with a peach, dirty carpet, a bed in the centre of the room, a grandfather clock that wasn't working, and scattered paperwork and broken mugs on the floor. The amount of times I swore I heard whispers, movement and seen shadows and things out of the corner of my eye (very likely down to my imagination) would be enough to make almost anybody break down into tears. I remember being quite close. When I finally got out I almost killed my friends, but they told me they had all seen a person stood in the waiting lobby at the reception, peering through the glass. Do I believe them? No, it was very likely to have been a cruel prank that went wrond!
3) My third and final story happened as a kid back around 2001-2002 and again involved an explore. Exploring the local air raid shelter, me and my friend Martin were going through the dark, water filled underground chamber when I shine my torch and see a figure heading RIGHT towards us, wading through the water, about 25 feet away. It wouldn't be so scary if the person was not wearing a white hooded jacket, with the hood pulled up over their face. We both looked at each other (me and Martin) in shock, then screamed and ran out without the torch! Needless to say it was actually 3 years before I ever went back! We never found out who the person was, not sticking around to find out, but we presume it was one of Lymms finest village Chavs who'd been out on a night on the piss... hehe.
