Answer Me This: My Urban Legends

Answer Me This. We are hoping this will help our friends get to know us a just a tad bit better.

For our Answer Me This we are discussing Urban Legends. Ash and I are fans of the scary... stories, books, movies, music. Anything scary. Not sure why we like to be scared, but we do. I am sure as many others, we both grew up with urban legends. The ones you talk about at campouts, sleepovers, parties and tons of other get togethers with friends. So what urban legends did we grow up on, which ones really scared us, which ones stuck with us into our adulthood.... well here are our answers.

Ash-

Urban legends have ALWAYS scared me. Of course I am a bit of a scaredy cat... Anyway...

I feel like urban legends are there for a reason. At least some of them. Do I think if you drink coke after eating pop rocks your stomach will explode? No. Do I think if you flash your lights at someone they could run you off the road? Yes. Do I think dolls come to life and kill people? ....Possibly. Anyway! Here are some of the ones that scared me the most when I was a kiddo. 

(I found the shortest of these legends so I could post on here, but there are many versions of all of these)

1. Killer Dolls

It was Jane’s birthday this coming Saturday so her parents brought her into town to find something that would interest her. She saw a doll in a shop that she really liked and her parents thought the doll was alright, but suggested she look for another toy because this one seemed to be broken. The doll only had 9 fingers. Jane insisted that she wanted it, so her parents bought it for her. Later that night when she went to bed, she was woken up a by a sound.

“I am Marian and I am at the bottom of the stairs”
“I am Marian and I am half way up the stairs”
“I am Marian and I am at the top of the stairs”
“I am Marian and I am outside your bedroom”
“I am Marian and I am right here!!”

The next morning her parents found her daughter in the bed mutilated, and the doll right next her. They were astounded to see that the doll now only had 8 fingers.

This was one of the first urban legends I ever heard. I was like 10 and it seriously made me scared of dolls. I hate them.

2. Humans Can Lick Too

Once there was a nice old lady who had a lovely little dog. One day, the old lady heard on the radio that a crazy murderer had escaped from jail and that everyone should lock all their doors and windows to keep herself safe. So she locked every door and window in the house except one tiny one to let some air in. She thought that a murderer would never be able to get in through that one small window.

So that night she went to bed as usual. She knew everything was OK because when she put down her hand, he dog licked it. But later in the night, she heard a drip, drip, drip. She put her hand down and the dog licked it. Figuring everything was OK, she went downstairs to check out the tap. But the tap wasn't dripping. So she went to bed again. And everything was OK.

She woke up again later in the night, though, so she thought the dripping sound must be coming from the shower. She went into the bathroom, and there was her dog, dead, hanging in the shower, dripping with blood, all its intestines hanging out.

Written on the mirror were the words: "Humans can lick, too!" And behind her in the mirror, she saw the murderer.

Yeah, I used to get comforted by my cat licking me at night. Luckily their tongues feel different, needless to say this still freaked me out.

3. Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Lights?

Two college roommates were complete opposites, one liked to study while the other liked to party. In preparation for their upcoming midterms, the studious roommate (Jane) planned a Friday night of studying while the partier (Mary) decided to go to a frat party.

The two were friends, regardless of their differences, and while Mary got ready for the party, she tried to get Jane to go. Jane insisted on studying and Mary set out for the party. Jane agreed to leave the door unlocked, so that Mary wouldn’t have to bring her keys.

While Mary was at the party, she met up with another group of friends and they convinced Mary to stay at their place for the night. Mary agreed but had to stop back at her room to get her keys. It was about 2 a.m. when Mary got back. She snuck in and grabbed her keys, leaving the lights off, not wanting to wake her roommate.

The next morning Mary walked home, intent to ask Jane for some study help. When she reached her room and opened the door she saw Jane murdered at her desk! Written on the wall in Jane’s blood was "Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the light?"

Another one I heard when I was pretty young. Still freaks me out, usually when I come into a room and it's dark I'll call out to whoever I think is in the room. Or I'll turn on the light outside the room to see better. 

4. Bloody Mary

There was once a beautiful woman by the name of Mary Worth. One day, she had a horrible accident which caused her face to look deformed. Her face was so ugly, she didn’t view her own horrible reflection for many years. Eventually, Mary couldn’t take it any more. She found a mirror and finally saw her mangled face. Mary was so horrified, she was willing to do anything to get her old reflection back. She climbed in the mirror and went in search of her old reflection. She was so eager to get regain what she had lost, that if you dare distract her from her search she will notice you. Call her name while gazing into a mirror in a dark room 3 times and she will deviate from her quest to find you. Mary will appear in your looking glass and in her wrath she will scratch your face until you look just as deformed as she does.

Everyone knows bloody Mary. It still freaks me out. I refuse to play bloody Mary. More on this in another post. 

Jenn- 

The urban legends I grew up with... well this was something that me and a couple of my best friends would talk  about every Friday night sleepover for years. So I have quite a few of them. 

1. The murder in the backseat..... you know girls stops at a gas station on way home from college. On the road she has a truck following her that keeps flashing his high beams on her. She pulls into another gas station to report the creep and the creep isn't a creep... there was an actual creep with a knife in the back seat and the truck saved her life by lighting him up with his headlights. 

My thoughts. This one still has me looking in my backseat everytime I get in my car but the reality... if some psycho in your back seat wants to stab you, the lights from the car behind not going to stop him. Obviously someone already knows his plan so I think he would just do it. I mean he is a psycho.... but that is just my two cents and it didn't keep this one from scarring me for life. 

2. Hookman... The one where some teens were making out at you know makeout point when they hear a scraping on the roof of the car.... they take off scared. They survive but when they get home there is a hook in the car. 

My thoughts... this one never really scared me much. they escaped... it just taught me to always leave when I hear scary sounds. 

3. Chain Letter- I read  a book in school with this one, but Christoper Pike...  A person would receive a chain letter and if they didn't follow the instructions and send the letters off, they would be killed. 

My thoughts: okay as a teenager this one really got me. I was afraid of everything chain letter related and feared for my life everytime I recieved something just a bit like a chain letter. Stupid I know, but it realy had me as a teen. As an adult...nah just toss those things in the trash. 

4. Cats steal your breath in your sleep.... The one where if you have a cat and you feel something heavy on your chest at night... its the cat stealing your breath while you sleep. 

My thoughts. This one only freaked me out at other people's houses. I mean I had cats my entire life and they never stole my breath... but if i had a friend that had a cat.... I couldn't sleep at their house. 

5. Car driving with no headlights on at night... The one where you see a car at night and they have their lights off.So you flash your lights at them and it's a gang initiation and so they shoot you.... 

My thoughts:Okay so this one still freaks me out, only because how do I know if it's true. I have never seen another car at night with no headlights... although I did one time pull out of a parking lot without mine. So I know it can happen. If I see a car with no headlights at night... will I flash my headlights at them... I don't know the answer to that. 

Those are the ones I remember and made the most impact on my life as a kid and as an adult. I mean I guess if I heard some today.. I might get freaked out a bit... The movie Urban Legends scared the crap out of me the first time I watched it. For the longest time I was constantly watching my back. 

What urban legends do you remember, did you grow up with, still scare you today?