The eNotes Blog Erudite Frights for All Hallows Night Ten Spine-Tingling Lines fromLiterature

Erudite Frights for All Hallows Night Ten Spine-Tingling Lines fromLiterature Here at , we would NEVER let Halloween pass without a few good scares from the masters of horror!   Lets all take a break from the tedious terror of government shutdowns and 404 Errors of the new healthcare law and enjoy some scares that are a lot more fun. 1.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"The shortest horror story:   Ã‚  The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.† ―  Frederic Brown 2.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"At bottom, you see, we are not Homo sapiens as all. Our core is madness. The prime directive is murder. What Darwin was too polite to say, my friends, is that we came to rule the earth not because we were the smartest, or even the meanest, but because we have always been the craziest, most murderous motherfuckers in the jungle. And that is what the Pulse exposed five days ago.†   Ã‚  from Cell  by Stephen King   3.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"A lover finds his mistress asleep on a mossy bank; he wishes to catch a glimpse of her fair face without waking her. He steals softly over the grass, careful to make no sound; he pauses fancying she has stirred: he withdraws: not for worlds would he be seen. All is still: he again advances: he bends above her; a light veil rests on her features: he lifts it, bends lower; now his eyes anticipate the vision of beauty warm, and blooming, and lovely, in rest. How hurried was their first glance! But how they fix! How he starts! How he suddenly and vehemently clasps in both arms the form he dared not, a moment since, touch with his finger! How he calls aloud a name, and drops his burden, and gazes on it wildly! He thus grasps and cries, and gazes, because he no longer fears to waken by any sound he can utter by any movement he can make. He thought his love slept sweetly: he finds she is stone dead.      Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 4.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Hello Clarice†Ã‚  The Silence of the Lambs  by Thomas Harris 5.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"We ask only to be reassured About the noises in the cellar And the window that should not have been open† ―  The Family Reunion  by  T.S. Eliot 6.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. Im not gonna hurt ya. Im just going to bash your brains in.†      The Shining  by Stephen King   7.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded –with what caution –with what foresight –with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it –oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly –very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old mans sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! –would a madman have been so wise as this? And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously à ¢â‚¬â€œoh, so cautiously –cautiously (for the hinges creaked) –I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights –every night just at midnight –but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.†      from  The Tell-Tale Heart  by Edgar Allan Poe   8.   Of course, the script cant be a simple one; its not supposed to kill a man straight off, but only after an interval of, on an average, twelve hours; the turning point is reckoned to come at the sixth hour.      from In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka 9. â€Å"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.†   Ã‚  from The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 10.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Garrett, said Stendahl, do you know why Ive done this to you? Because you burned Mr. Poes books without really reading them. You took other peoples advice that they needed burning. Otherwise youd have realized what I was going to do to you when we came down here a moment ago. Ignorance is fatal, Mr. Garrett.†    from  The Martian Chronicles  by Ray Bradbury