You are away from home for the evening. It has been stormy, but nothing serious. When you return home about 11pm, you discover your porch light is not on. Had you left it on? Had you not?

You open the door and reach for the light switch, but flicking it doesn't seem to do any good. You search through a drawer and find a flashlight, but the batteries are dead and all of the spares are in the basement.

You have to go into the basement to retrieve the batteries. Maybe you have a match or a lighter. Now, the question: How does it make you feel to climb down into a hole in the ground (the basement)in the dark. Would you do it or would you wait upstairs (again in the dark) for the power to come back on? Or, would you quietly lock the house back up, get in your car and drive to the neighbors?

My mother was a real estate agent for several years. She always took me with her when she went to view homes and sometimes when she went to show them or have an open house. So I have been in lots of vacants. Normally there was no problem, I was really curious about different houses and exploring them so I was always happy to tag-a-long. There have been a few however which for some reason have creeped me, even on sunny warm days. There is no way I would go into one of those homes at night.
I can only explain it as an intense feeling of unease.
One I remember was a lovely, bright, ranch-style home in the country. But the whole time I was in it, I was afraid to open closed doors or be alone in a room. I kept on feeling like if I opened the closets, I would see something unpleasant. My mother felt the same way. She never showed the home to any clients after our first visit, and dropped the listing.
Another one was recent. The home is really plush, big piece of property and very elegant. It is in the same neighborhood where I grew up. It went on the market about a month ago and I was interested in it, since it has such beautiful property. I had my mother call the agent and we went to see it.
All I can say, is when I entered the front door, I felt so overwhelmingly sad that I wanted to leave right then. We didn't though because we were being polite to the agent showing us the home. The back bedroom was the worst, the carpet had been removed and the bed was mattress-less and propped against the wall. A large desk had been moved into the middle of the room to hide the stained floor. I’ve watched enough CSI to suspect they were blood stains. We left the house and I really didn’t think much more of it, except it was creepy, and to wonder briefly what had happened. My Dad cracked the case. He asked the neighborhood know-it-all, his barber, about it and he said that the man who lived there had committed suicide, and had been found a week later. I don’t know if it is true, but the circumstances fit. No way I would buy that house, not even at half price.

Okay, did it. There's a minor leak or something somewhere that needs to be fixed right away. So sure, I'd go to the basement, no problem. That's the answer unless I'm living somewhere that has a basement full of dangerous things that could kill me if I went down there in the dark, though in that case I wouldn't be keeping batteries down there (and even then, it's still usually the answer--I have okay night senses).

As I mentioned before, I also have some pretty good abilities against "creepy" things. If I were in a house that gave off serious vibes, I would just put up some extra shielding and carry on. Now, if in the process of doing that, I discovered that it really wouldn't be a good idea to go down in the basement or whatever, I wouldn't (at least, I like to think that I've learned a thing or two in that regard). But normally that's more likely to be the case in a situation where "creepyness" isn't involved.

This was a result of two things. First: a horror movie I saw (at far too young an age to understand it, I admit) where a monster lurked in a basement and well, you know.

Second: We lived in an old creepy house; the stairs that led into the basement were exceptionally steep (they'd never meet today's building codes for the acceptable grade of risers). My older brother had fallen down those stairs so often and hurt himself badly one time, that you couldn't get me to go down those steps unless you carried me, kicking and screaming. Our beat up washer and dryer set was located in the basement. When I reached 10, I'd often be asked to do laundry or to retrieve the laundry and bring it up. I did it, reluctantly, and always raced through the task. One time, I accidentally used bleach instead of liquid detergent because I was not paying attention and was more worried about whatever lurked in the dark shadows within the fitfully lit basement.

That said, as an adult, I'm no longer terrified of basements... at all. Lights on or off doesn't matter. The only thing that would concern me would be smacking my head or toe into something unseen. Personal injury gives me the greatest pause for consideration, so I'd probably scramble around for a lighter, match, the light from my palm pilot, whatever, before going down.

I once used to stay at a fiancee's parent's house overnight, sleeping on the couch in the living room. For some reason I would routinely wake up terrified of something that I was sure was within the same room, and that was aware of me.

I have never in my life feared the dark, except in that house, in that particular room. I have no real explanation for it, and the only thing that I can say that was unique to that room was that it contained a large number of indian artifacts that had been collected over the years by the older brother (now an archeologist).

So, the question arises. Under what circumstances would you be afraid to enter the basement of your house, (or another's house). This is assuming that you do NOT know that there is a monster in the basement.

Sounds to be wary of:

Someone screaming over the noise of a chainsaw would give me pause.

Any voice I didn't recognize and didn't expect. Hmm... thiking about it: maybe just a male voice. So, if the killer is female, I'm done for. Oh, and if someone says "Get out!" in a deep booming voice. I'm out. No worries. Who am I to argue with that?

The sound of a large, wild animal rustling around... perhaps growling.

The distinct drone of wasps or bees.

Any kind of indeterminate crunching or chewing sound.

Any Michael Jackson song.

***

Visual / physical cues:

Drops or puddles of blood.

Something sticky along the stairwell walls.

A severed head at the bottom or top of the stairs.... if they didn't keep their head, what would make me think I'm going to keep mine? Not much.

A funny odor -- not unlike the smell of something that has died -- or the lingering smell of gunpowder / chainsaw fuel mixture.

For myself, if I have reason to believe that the basement will be flooded with sewage, cockroaches, maggots, diseased rodents (healthy rodents are not a problem) or anything like that, I will be very hesitant to enter even though I know that these things will not do me much harm if I'm reasonably careful. But I would still enter if it seemed really necessary, rather than asking someone else to do it.

Even if I knew there was a monster down there capable of really hurting/killing me, I would enter if the circumstances dictated it. I would, of course, at least try to let someone else know where I was going and why, that's basic doctrine.

quote:

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I think that a lot of HSO's examples fall under "something that makes it absolutely clear that there is a monster in the basement".

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Exactly my point. Aside from biohazardous sewage or a plague of disease-ridden rodents, it would take something quite substantial to keep me from entering a basement, so long as I went in with good common sense for self-protection and preservation, wary of the unknown elements and enviroment I'm about to deal with.

However, in the case of truly knowing a monster or something is down there that will / could hurt me, then I opt for nature's greatest survival tactic: There is safety in numbers. Chances are, if I can convince other hapless people to come down with me, then my chances at survival nearly double with each person that comes with me. Get a large enough group and I'm fairly assured of making it out alive... if... my number isn't up that day... but the odds are substantially in my favor rather than going it alone.

If someone else had expressed extreme anxiety about something in the basement, and now all of a sudden I have to go down there...I'd be apprehensive. Especially if it isn't my basement or one I'm familliar with.

About the closest experience I can think of, was something that happened a few years ago on a visit to Vancouver.

I was with a friend and her sister and her sister's friend. We were staying at a hotel downtown. The sister and her friend had left something in the car and had to go down to get it. A short while later they came back upstairs in a frenzy. They were convinced there was a dead body wrapped in black garbage bags lying next to a car in the parkade.

My friend and I went to look and while we were skeptical, the other girls were so on edge that it transfer to us a bit. When we got to the "body", our apprehension grew. In a dark corner, deep in the parkade, was a large bundle of something wrapped in garbage bags. Although the reasonable side of my brain said it wasn't a dead person, it sort of looked like it could be a body. My friend joined her sister in freaking out a bit and the task fell to me to look and see what was actually there.

The other girls stood at least a dozen feet away as I inched closer, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart (a much harder task than I'd anticipated). My mind kept racing through "It's probably just..." scenarios, none of which sounded plausible when faced with that human-shaped mass.

Finally I pulled back the edge of the plastic and revealed -- a bag full of toiletries and some clothes; probably a homeless guy's stash.

If my house was the only one without power, or if it was away from all others so that I couldn't easily tell, and I was silly enough to keep batteries down there then yes, I'd go get them but I'd scared as heck. I'm terrified of the dark - doesn't matter why it's dark.

I would not necessary assume there was a threat to me simply because the power was out but I would still be afraid simply because it was dark. If going into the basement was the only way to get light then I'd do it.

BUT if something scared me and the dogs seemed ok then I'd book it out of there. If the dogs were being hurt then nothing could keep me out of there.