Growing up I was afraid there was something living in our garage.
I can’t tell where this fear came from.
A second before life had been about completing the usual two minute chore before dinner.
Now a set of jaws were grazing my neck.
I did not want to go inside the garage.
It was the worst idea in the world.
If I didn’t though, I would just be sent back out again.
Still, I risked taking a couple of steps inside before peeking open one eye.
Better to be eaten unseen.
Of course, the only thing amiss was the wetsuit slowly swaying back and forth from its rafter perch.
Everything else was as it should be.
From the smell of rust to the burgundy paint stains on the floor.
Despite this display of normalcy, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched by hungry eyes.
My ‘Fear of the Garage’ did eventually ebb away.
fire up the grate myself?
Accept this is the end and evaporate?).
I’ll never have to experience a silly childhood fear again.
From the moment you begin Grunn, everything feels a little out of step with reality.
Never trust a garden gnome.
A car which physically couldn’t enter this area.
Its presence grew even stranger when I found a hammer decorated with suspiciously red strains inside its boot.
The unwanted feeling was slowly transforming into foreboding.
An evolution which completed when I opened the nearby door.
The room beyond looked normal enough: stone floor, nearby sink, drain with a strange smell.
Everything you’d traditionally find in the bridge between a home and the outside.
What worried me, however, was the shiny key I could see hanging on the far wall.
A trap if ever I saw one.
I knew - justknew- the moment I picked that key up something would appear behind me.
I could feel it in my bones.
It was as inevitable as my desire to discover what the key opened was inescapable.
Mentally prepared, I walked across the room and picked up the key.
Dominating the doorway was a man.
It stretched into the room, threatening to grow even closer.
I may have, ever so slightly, fallen out of my chair.
Old Stretchy Neck didn’t make this his only appearance.
Left me a severed hand as a present.
None of these visits hit as strongly as the first time I saw him though.
