My family loved basements. Our first house they told me was haunted and a ghost lived in the basement. When I was 3 someone decided to REALLY convince me there was dead people in the basement so they put a headstone in the basement. My mother sent me down to get a jar of preserves and I came back up screaming.
In our next house (we moved when I was 5) our basement was bigger and each area had its own monsters. The old coal storage area was full of giant spiders that would eat you, the side room was full of vampires who would suck your blood, and the dark back corner had a nameless monster. No one had ever seen it because it stayed in the shadows, but if you went back there you you would never be seen again.

theresa

When I grew up, we had one of those old-fashioned furnaces in the basement of our house that really roared whenever they turned on. I used to be afraid of it. In fact, I used to think that the devil lived inside it. Whenever I just happened to be in the basement and it switched on, I ran like hell up the stairs, so to speak.

Sarah I.

I used to think that evil wolves lived in our basement at night, and also snakes. I always avoided going down there at night, and if I absolutely had to, I would dart down there, do what I needed to do, then run up the stairs because the wolves were chasing me.

Brianne

I used to believe that all our dead relatives were buried in my Grandparents basement. Thats what my Grandpa told me!! Anyway, I never went down there because I was too scared!!

Jennifer

Back when I was 4 years old my brother used to pick on me alot considering he was 13-14. We had a water pump in our unfinshed basement. He used to tell me if I went near it or in it a monster would grab me, pull me under the water and kill me. One day he decided to push me in. He locked the door. I got stuck in a pitch black basement, and stuck in a water hole. I cried my heart out. To this day I hate water pumps.

Kyle A.

a giant spider lived under the landing to the stairs leading down to my basement

charles

As a child I swore that something terribly mean and scary lurked in the basement of our home. When I had to go downstairs alone, it terrified me! But, I believed that if I was wearing my Minnie Mouse PJ's and tip-toed down saying out loud, "It's OK! It's just me, Minnie Mouse!" that I would be fine and wouldn't get hurt.

HAnn521

I used to believe a fire breathig dragon lived in our basement. The reality of it was ...when you walked down the stair case in the dark you say the flame flicker from the gas furnace

Cindy

When I was little my older sister read me this story about an old lady that lived under the third step of the basement stairway and when you walked on the third step she would grab your foot to freak you out. So for about two years I would always skip the thrid step as I went down and up the stairs.

NLF

When I was a little kid I would visit my friend Jennifer and her basement had a very crrepy crawlspace in the back of it. We both sincerely believed that there were dead bodies buried back there and never went near that part of the basement because we were scared dead pople would come drag us back there.

No Index Finger Rat

I used to believe that wolves lived in the basement, but that they only came out when the lights were off. You had to turn the basement lights out before you came up the stairs, and I used to TEAR up those things, wild with fear. I swore I could hear them nipping at my ankles (this is still sometimes true, and I'm 26 now)

Amberjane\

When my sister was little she used to believe that Babe the big blue ox lived in our basement and would eat her if she went down there. Of course that's because we told her that. *L*

Lolly

My grandpa used to tell me that there was a bobcat in their cellar. I don’t know why he said this, but I believed him and I was always scared to go down there. It wasn't until years later that I realized he was just teasing me....I think.

Silly Girl

My dad was pretty sick of the ‘why’ question by the time I was 5 or 6 so he started making things up just for a laugh. In Kindergarten or 1st grade we were discussing how a thermostat works and I corrected the teacher because she had it all wrong. My father told me that there was a little man down in the cellar in the furnace and when he got cold he turned it on and when it got warm he turned it off. The thermostat just told him we were a little cold so he could warm us up. I refused to shut up about the little man in the furnace until my teacher called home and my dad had to tell me the truth as far as I could understand it. You have to realize that my father was the smartest man I the world and he would never lie to me.

Ya…I did the same to my daughter for years :)

John Johnson

I used to run up the basement stairs as fast as I could because I thought the boogeyman was going to get me.

Marci

I used to believe that when coming up from the basement I needed to be fast because the creature that lived under the stairs would reach through and grab me. This was especially scary because each step had an opening under it.

Tammy

at a house i used to live in, there was a very strange room down in the basement. it was entirely underground, and it had no lights whatsoever in it..a friend of ours came to the house, and we were showing her the basement and is like "you have an 'ooze-goggle' room!" um, this frightened me i was only a little girl and i was terrified to go down in the basement during the night because of this damn room i was convinced it had monsters in it. when my mom would make me do laundry, of course the washer and dryer were downstairs, i was hold my breath, run, put the laundry in, making sure i didn't look at the ooze-goggle room. well, if this wasn't bad enough, at halloween my mom made a very realistic looking witch (had reflecters for eyes) out of an old upright sweeper, and after halloween, she put this witch into the ooze-goggle room. i was completely unaware of this, so one night doing laundry i got a glimps of this thing in there, and ran upstairs crying, and wouldn't go in the basement, light or dark, for a week! so, those of you with ooze goggle rooms, watch out for the witches!

HeL

when i was about 4 or 5 my older sister and my neighbor told me my basement was a crypt filled with mummies who would kill me if i woke them up. for almost 2 years after that whenever my mom told me to feed the cats (their food dishes are in the basement) i would run to my room and start crying because i was so afraid of the mummies

ellen

when i was rather small, i had a nightmare about a man that lived in my basement workshop. for years i would not go down there by myself.

lc

When I was younger, I was often afraid to turn of the lights in the cellar. Because, each time I did I would think of an old farmer by an old-fashioned house, kinda zombie-looking, sometimes with a stick in his hand. He would come out of the dark to hunt me down or something - I was never sure exactly what he would do - moaning and crying and reaching out towards me. I would always hurry up the stairs and close the door quickly, fear just a step behind. I don't know why it was a farmer, we don't even live near any farm or on a farm, and I don't have any fears for farms as my grandparents have one. The strangest thing is, though, that the old farmer is so familiar-looking, as I've seen him before...

Psycho Dreamer