Scaring Ourselves II

The second incident where I scared myself happened during my gaming days. My good buddies are mostly guys though my secrets are only confessed to my girlfriends. Being a feminist of sorts in those days (I was the only female in the group) I was determined not to be outdone by the guys. Whatever they did or played, I would not allow myself to lag behind.

One day, after much discussion among the guys on the game Half Life, I was upset that I couldn't participate in the conversation. I was as interested in online gaming as I was in football. I reasoned that at least gaming would require interaction on my part. Which made it a tad more interesting. I told myself that I would only play enough of the game to know what the guys were talking about. If I liked it, I would carry on. If not, I would have earned the right to diss the game as I had tried it and not liked it.

Well, I started installing the game after eleven in the night. To make the game more interesting for myself, I decided to switch off the lights in the room. As I progressed forward into the game, I realise it was a lot more challenging (and scary) than I had imagined. The only view you had was not from an external point. You were actually looking out through the eyes of the character itself. And you had no way of seeing any creature behind you or who were hiding from you. One would jump out at you from behind the wall, almost giving you a heart attack. Or they would attack you from behind and suddenly you find your view jerking and dizzying before you realise you're being attacked from behind, with the corresponding attack noises.

After quite a few number of shocks and close scares, I was finally finished off by an alien who came at me with a huge axe. When he gave me my first hit from behind, I was completely unprepared. Suddenly I saw that my view was reeling from walls onto the floor. I couldn't move. As I lay there watching, I saw a pair of alien feet come into view with an axe beside it. The axe was lifted again and again, and my vision jerked again and again, of someone being hacked. Finally, blood splattered all over my sight. That was when I finaly freaked out in the dark. My room was dark and I was dying in the dark.

Suffice it to say that I had difficulty going to sleep that night. That was one of the very few nights where closing my eyes was not something I looked forward to. I kept seeing myself being hacked again and again and again...