By Luke Moran-
Imagine being on the top of the Empire State Building. The towering figure feels like it’s going to topple over because of the wind. You can’t even see the base of the building because the vertigo will hit you too hard. The fear of heights is one of the biggest fears in the world. This fear controls many people to stay away from any tall figures.

According to a survey given 55 students at Mount Vernon High School, 31 percent of students fear heights (17 out of 55 people). The second biggest fear in the school is dying, a phobia 20 percent of us endure. Fifteen percent of us are scared of slithering snakes.

The stories you are about to read may scare you, they may even make you not want you to go to bed at night. But, you will be fascinated to the very end.

Kaitlin Zieser is a senior here who has two specific fears that are very peculiar. Her two biggest phobias are squirrels and belly buttons. Each have a very bizarre story and origin.

A Horrifying Rodent

Her fear of squirrels started when she was in fifth grade. She was at a family reunion and was playing with her cousin. While they were playing, her cousin saw a squirrel and asked her if she wanted to chase it with her. She excitedly agreed and they ran after the squirrel. They ran around for a bit until something in the squirrel snapped. The squirrel turned right around and started hissing and clicking at them. The squirrel then proceeded to run at the kids while hissing. The two kids freaked and they ran their separate ways from the squirrel. The squirrel chose to then chase Kaitlin instead of her cousin. She found herself terrified while scampering desperately from the squirrel.

When she reached the pavilion where her family was, they found her bawling as she ran behind them. But for when Kaitlin looked where the squirrel was, it was already running back.

Something that really frightened Kaitlin happened when she was a 6th grader while she was in Washington D.C. with her family. These city squirrels were very trusting and walked right up to people because they were used to being fed by them. The fact that the squirrels walked right up to people and didn’t run at the sight of a human, scared the crap out of Kaitlin. Every time the three of them walked through that park Kaitlin urged her parents to run with her because of the squirrels.

Her family decided to have a picnic in the park, and the squirrels were everywhere. Every time Kaitlin heard a small noise close to her, she’d frantically turn. Soon enough, one of those times there was a squirrel just a few feet away. She moved away from it quickly and burst into tears which scared the squirrel away.

A Dark Hole

There’s another phobia of Kaitlin’s that petrifies her to the bone. That phobia is the fear of belly buttons. Now this may sound weird to some people, but even thinking about belly buttons terrifies Kaitlin. There is no specific reason for being scared of them except, “They’re weird!” she stated “YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE THEY END! I bet if you put your finger in, then you could feel your organs!”

When Kaitlin was in eighth grade she experienced a terrible thing that involved a sleepover, friends, and of course belly buttons. Kaitlin and her friends didn’t know what to do at their sleepover. Kaitlin’s friends knew that she was terrified of belly buttons, so they came up with a game that they thought would be hilarious. All of Kaitlin’s friends decided on a game to play but it was mainly to scare the wits out of Kaitlin. It didn’t have a name, but as soon as they started playing Kaitlin was horrified. The rules of the game were that you had to keep your finger in somebody’s belly button for 20 seconds and then you would win. They started playing and Kaitlin was immediately petrified of taking her turn. She promptly raced upstairs so she didn’t have to witness the spine-chilling game.

Eyes in the Dark

Abby Gross has a phobia that many people can relate to. Her phobia is the fear of being kidnapped. Now this fear has never actually grasped her and pulled her away, but she has had vivid nightmares, is always scared of walking alone in the dark and hates going up the stairs at night. “I’m not scared of the dark, I’m scared of the things that hide in the dark,” she stated. She says that she doesn’t know exactly when she started being scared of it or how, but she said it was most likely because she watched something as a child that terrified her.

Abby has had some vivid nightmares and illusions happen to her throughout her years of being afraid of being kidnapped. There’s one nightmare of Abby’s that has stayed with her ever since she had it.

In that nightmare she was walking across the hall by her bedroom. Her bedroom is right by the stairs and if you look down there at night you will see nothing but flickering  shadows every now and then. As she walks across the hall she looks down the stairs and sees a silhouette standing at the bottom of the stairs. “Dad?” she called, frightened. The dark figure didn’t answer and instead ran up the stairs as fast as he could.

Abby freaked and instantly sprinted frantically towards her parents’ room. She didn’t see the man’s face as he ran into the dim light because she was too busy running for her own life. She got into her parents’ room and tried to close the door as quickly as she could. But it was too late, the man burst through the door as Abby was closing it. She was flung onto the ground from the impact of it. The man stood towering over Abby’s body with the lights too dark for him to see his face. She then woke abruptly because she was so horrified of the dream.

Now these stories may have scared the bejesus out of you (especially the belly button one), but be glad that you stuck it out to the end. These stories were not meant for the weak hearted. Sticking through your fear is a very hard thing to do, so keep fighting those fears and you may conquer them.