When I was little I used to believe that there was an invisible monster under my bed. Since I was afraid it would eat me, I had to feed it socks, but ONLY left ones. For a a year or two I was stuck with one of each sock...

Laurel

When i was little my dad told me goblins lived in our house, i thought they had a control centre behind the couch so that they could see all round the house and when i went upstairs they would be playing with myn things and the control centre would warn them tht i was coming, one day me and my friend got wise and getting some toy guns we stormed the couch thinking we had got rid of the control centre we went upstairs in the dark checking every room and cupboard tht was scary to us and we thought we were really brave

Ryan

when i was young, my mother and my much older sisters would tell me that if i played with my shadow against the wall, that while i was sleeping at night, the shadow would come alive and wreak havoc in the house. for many years, i was scared to even look at my shadow. many of the young children in my family believed this.

boo radley

I used to think there was a monster that lived at the end of the hall during the night and was mortified to go anywhere near the hallway. I later found out that the noises I was hearing that caused me to believe that, was my dad snoring.

Amanda

I put a poster of a tiger on my front door so the monsters would get scared then run away from my room when i was little.

Spencer Solda

I used to believe pencil shavings were the key to bringing clay creatures to life. My best friend and I made a point to volunteer for the positions in school which emptied the pencil shavings from the sharpener, then secretly stash them away and bring them home to animate a small clay monster we hid in the basement.

It never worked out as we planned.

Anon

When I was a considerably younger I would see the giant oil drills on road trips. When I inquired to what they were my father informed me that they were giant Grasshoppers that ate cars.

I am 19 now and I still cant look at an oil drill without feeling afraid. Thanks Dad.

Megan

When I was 6 my friends saw the movie IT, and told me IT lived under my bed. About a week later I woke up in the middle of the night and my foot was bleeding where something had bitten it. I was convinced IT really did live under my bed and leaped from a few feet away to get into bed for years after.(Turns out my new kitten bit my foot because I was moving it in my sleep)

Kaitlin

I used to think that there was a giant green monster who spied on me every night through my bedroom window. He was about 50ft tall but since he only did it at night nobody knew about him but me. I thought that he was sent to eat me but never could bring himself to do it because he was so nice. Eventually he stopped coming to my window to eat me but just to learn more about me. I never looked out the window to see him though because he could have a change of heart.

Josh

when i was about 8 my then friend told me a story about the toilet monster and how if you flushed the toilet he would come and kill you and hide you under the floorboards.my mum was so angry because i didnt flush the toilet for about 6 weeks or so..still abit weary about it now even though i'm 18 (i do flush the toilet i just run away straight after)

urban gorrila

When I was 4 or 5 I believed a big growling monster lived in my parents bedroom. Later on I found out that my Dad just always had explosive gas.

Jebulon

When I was five, my dad tried to convince me that not only did the boogie man live in the air vents in our ceiling, but that he had two servants named Frita [a Hispanic woman with a fruit bowl on her head, similar to the Chiquita banana woman] and Mr. Peebles [a very nondescript man wearing a trench coat and a bowler hat]. Frita, I guess, was sort of the boogie man's mistress and they both worked for him.

Aimee

I lived in Ireland when I was young and my older cousins used to visit from England. One of them told me that the lion statues on the gates to Buckingham Palace came to life during a full moon and ran around England eating people. Imagine my reaction when a few months later my Mum told me we were moving to England - I was so scared and begged her not to send me to my death!

Clare

When I got scared at night as a little kid I would pull the sheet over my head to hide from whatever it was that was frightening me. But one night it was so hot I consciously decided that to have protection from evil creatures I only needed to cover 10% of my body. I so completely convinced myself of this that to this day when I read a scary book or see a scary movie I cover myself up to the shins and have full peace of mind.

Derek

When I was a kid, if I was being mischevious or bad in some way, my mom would (rather theatrically) pick up the phone and pretend to call "The Woman". Now, "The Woman" was a bogeyman figure who worked for child services. By all accounts, she had curly teeth, greasy hair, and if called upon would take you away to live with her in a grotty house with itchy blankets and nothing to eat but moldy bread. I used to believe she was real. I remember being so traumatised i'd have nightmares about her, standing 100 feet tall somewhere in the distance, tearing roofs from houses searching for me. Frankly, I think its a wonder I'm not petrified of all women these days...

Cosmopanda

I used to beleive that a "cathedral" was a type of monster.

My mother would sometimes sing me a lullaby called "Green Cathedral" . . . I would lay awake for hours, afraid, because of it.

Anon

i used to believe escalators would eat me.

Anon

i thougt that mongols were green monsters that suck your eyes out.

danai

I used to believe that my Dad's snoring was a tiger in my parent's room. I was too afraid to get up and walk down the hall because I knew it would get me. I had some tough nights sitting on the edge of the bed having to pee but too afraid to go to the bathroom.

Joyce

my dad had a darkroom in the house in which we used to live, and i wasn't allowed inside. i convinced myself that was because dracula lived there - must've been the red light that leaked out when the door was ajar.

allison