Scary Things

Welcome to our group blog. Robin has picked another fascinating topic just before Halloween - What is the scariest thing that has happened to you?

Ghost stories around the campfire, the ghost in New Orleans, are possibilities. But the one that immediately came to my mind was when my husband and I were held up at gunpoint, in New Orleans.

Paul and I were taking a cruise out of New Orleans, before Katrina. We arrived a few days early to spend time exploring the city. We booked an older hotel a few blocks off Bourbon Street for three nights. The hotel was two stories with a courtyard in the middle and a locked gate into the courtyard. The office was locked at night but you could ring the bell and they’d let you in, or you were given a key so you could open the gate on your own. We chose the key to the gate. We were on the second floor and came in the gate and took the stairs up to our room. 

After checking out the Garden district, Preservation Hall and the French Quarter we finished off each day on Bourbon Street and then we’d walk back to the hotel.  We used our gate key to get in. The last night we picked up a couple of those huge cups of beer and headed back to our hotel room. Paul opened the gate and I walked through, made a u-turn to go up the stairs and started up.

I found myself facing a man in a hoodie with a gun aimed at my husband. The man was at the same level as my left hand holding the beer. I threw the beer directly in his face and screamed loudly as I raced up the stairs expecting to be shot in the leg. (I’d always wondered if I’d be able to or if I’d lose my voice. Guess what? I screamed.) The receptionist rushed out into the courtyard and several people came out of their rooms. She called the police. They were there very quickly and we gave a description of the man and the gun. They caught him shortly after. I have to admit neither Paul nor I slept much that night. We’d never been so scared. We were very glad to be leaving on the cruise the next morning.

I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s stories. You can check them out at the following sites.

Heidi M. http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Rachael Kosnski http://the-doodling-booktease.tumblr.com/
Margaret Fieland http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
Geeta Kakade http://geetakakade.blogspot.com/
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.webs.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Ginger Simpson http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/

Happy Halloween!