When you were a child, what did you think lived under your bed/in your closet/was coming to "get you" at night?

When I was 4 my dad once got me to believe that if you ate an egg before going to sleep then the egg would hatch in your tummy and whatever monster was hatched from the egg would rip/eat its way out of you. I had just eaten an egg and it was about an hour before bedtime. Sigh… I was a gullible brat.

@King_Pariah lol, that is mean!!

Shadows that would absorb and melt my skin if any part was over the edge.

But I was far more afraid of nuclear missiles.

I used to be the monster that slept under my bed. Until I was about four I slept under my bed, first time I did it my parents couldn’t find me for several hours, until I woke up and crawled out from under the bed.

I didn’t hear them searching for me.

The puppets from Puppet Master.

I had bears. They also hung out in the closet.

I didn’t believe anything lived under my bed or in my closet. However I do remember a nightmare from the age of about 4, in which I was being chased by a giant chicken.

I was afraid of pipes. Any kind of pipes. Water pipes, wood stove pipes, exhaust pipes, even those white flimsy drying machine things that aren’t actually pipes, but look like pipes. At night, I thought that pipes in the walls and ceilings were plotting against me. I imagined pipes talking about me, mocking me and tormenting me.
I sure remember the pipe fear and a few things I imagined, but a lot of it is vague. My dad said it went on for a bit of a while, and that I’d scream in the middle of the night about pipes wanting to get me. I remember some of it.
We had a wood stove with a huge pipe that ran from it to the ceiling, and then all along the hallway ceiling. Apparently, it caught on fire, but I don’t remember this. But I remember shying against the wall whenever I was in the hallway, looking up at the pipe in fear, haha. There was a big black spot on it, and it freaked me out. I’m guessing that was the origin of the fear, and it haunted my nights forever. The fear came in the day too though, as I mentioned. I never wanted to go in the laundry section because the big white drying machine hose flailing around scared the hell out of me.

I also thought a mummified werewolf or some shit lived in my toy box and I kept staring at it at night, having the shadows play tricks on my eyes. Didn’t really scare me though, although I still wasn’t brave enough to wander outta bed and close the lid, which always seemed to be open.

I was hilariously inconsistent in my rationality. My first bed (age 2–5ish) had rolling drawers underneath that I kept toys and books in. I remember saying to my mom that I was so glad those drawers were down there because it meant I didn’t have to worry about monsters under the bed. I don’t know why I was able to be rational about the fact that there was no space for monsters under the bed, but didn’t manage to be rational about the fact that monsters don’t exist.

My next bed was a loft bed and there was lots of space under there for all kinds of monsters. I don’t think I ever really believed it was true, but my imagination would go wild and I pretended that every time I climbed into bed, monsters would start rising up from under my bed towards me until I touched my pillow. Touching my pillow had the magic power to freeze them in their tracks. So I would climb into bed and immediately leap onto my pillow so I could freeze them before they made it up to me.

I’m still sort of in the habit of touching my pillow ASAP when I get in bed.

They lived in my closet and just outside the window. Don’t ask me who they were. I don’t know.

I didn’t think there was living something under my bed, I knew there was living something.
My mother made me sandwiches to take to school I was a young rebbel then, but I didn’t ate them half of the time.
Because I was ashamed that I hadn’t eaten them I ‘hid them under my bed.
It doesn’t need much imagination to think what kind of ‘life’ developed after a few weeks under there.
I think we call that fungi?

Something! That’s what was scary about it. I didn’t know what it was.

Boogie man who looked a lot like the grim reaper. It probably didn’t help that my bothers and I would play a guillotine game in the hallway.

A serial killer. I was realistic, and I also read too many serial killer biographies. They’ve always fascinated me, which I think is pretty normal but still makes me feel creepy. I always checked behind my shower curtain. Now, what the hell was my plan when a guy was standing there with a knife, I never did figure out. After I thought about that, I stopped checking. hah!

@deni shit, I’m still afraid of that.

I thought it was some kind of dark, shadowy, uber creepy monster that lived under there. After dark I would jump from my doorway to my bed so that he couldn’t grab me if I got to close to the edge with my feet still on the floor. I had to arrange my bed just so, with my stuffed animals surrounding me on both sides, because they would protect me while I was sleeping. Any monster would have to get through them to get to me, and my brave animals wouldn’t let that happen. And I could never dangle my feet over the edge of the bed. I still have issues with my feet being out from underneath the covers…lol.

As a side note, there was also a shadowy, demonic shark or octopus that lived in the depths of the deep end of our pool. I wouldn’t swim alone and I wouldn’t swim after dark, even with the pool light on.

I was afraid a giant hand would reach out and grab my ankle.

@WillWorkForChocolate yeah, I shared a bed with my sister for a long time, and we made pillow/stuffed animal walls, too. Protection, you know.

@WillWorkForChocolate I read “uber” as “rubbery” and was like….huh…wonder why you thought the monster would be rubbery? hahahah!

My teacher.

The local priest.

@ragingloli Dude, you should totally read this short horror story called Father Bob and Bobby lol.

The very worst of what my imagination would shape for me, and what ever form I would give the darkness… I knew it was I who conjured in the dark, pretend but frightening monsters of my own terrifying creation. Nothing real, but always things with sharp teeth and dangerous limbs.

The few times the forms took a more traditional bent, I covered my neck with blankets or else my whole head, in fear of vampires or worse.

I was also always afraid to cross the hall to get to my parents room (this is when I was younger, up until age 6 maybe) because I was positive someone was standing outside the door to my room with a gun, ready to shoot me. WHAT, DENI?

I was never worried anything would come get me, but I would worry about my house being destroyed in the night. I can’t remember why, I just always worried I’d wake up and everything would be fucking gone for no reason whatsoever, whether it be by fire, or crash or implosion etc…

I didn’t necessarily worry about anything under the bed, I just “knew” they were there and kept my hands and feet well away from the edge. As long as they weren’t near the edge, I was safe. They could stay there for all I cared, I just wasn’t feeding them my tootsies.

I still don’t feel comfortable with my hand or foot over the edge of the bed even though I know nothing’s there—deep-set programming I guess!

Why is it so common for kids to worry about something/someone grabbing their feet in bed?

I thought it was the boogie man under my bed. Except I just thought he wanted to come steal my boogers. So I saved him the trouble, and threw them under the bed for him. Ew.

Oh jesus, I was afraid of my own shadow as a kid. I was terrified of my toys, dolls in particular, coming to life more than anything. I was an exceptionally scared child. Thank god those days are over

This is going to sound crazy but, when I was very little I had a fear of giant mutant lobster’s coming out of my closest to pinch me to death! And then when I was around eleven, I had a fear that if I neglected my teddy bear, he would come to life with a knife and kill me. I had strange fears. Lol.

A werewolf. Seriously scary. He would creep over towards the banister of my loft bed. At one point, I built an alarm system, consisting of a long string, a ball at the end, and little pots and pans from my playkitchen. I figured a wolf would have to play with the ball and I would wake up hearing the clattering of the pots against my bed.

@WillWorkForChocolate -I was always sure that there was an opening for a shark tank where the dark blue tiles in swimming pools are, and that one day, they would come streaming out ;(

There was a spaceman with a space disease that lived under my bed for years. Also earlier, a snake too but they never cohabited. I had to leap off and on the bed from a great distance to stop them grabbing my ankle. The snake could follow me to the top of the stairs but the spaceman strangely stayed under the bed.

The duvet protected me.

I still don’t like getting out of bed and a little bit of me still thinks about the spaceman when I’m standing by the bed.

After watching Pocahantas, I was terrified that there were red indians living in the attic, in my bedroom. I used to make a dash for the bed and hide under the blanket.

@beccagolling LOL, I thought the same thing about my stuffed animals after I accidentally saw this episode of the Twilight Zone or something like that, where the kid’s toys really did come to life and torment him. I think I was about 9 or 10 when I saw it, and I stopped using my animals for nightly protection afterward, hahaha.

A ghost, I grew up in a very old log cabin house 250 yeas old it was built over an old Indian grave yard . And in my youth I experience a lot of paranormal activity so I went to bed scared nearly every night.