Whether it was a story, movie, game, episode of a show or whatever...
What piece of fiction has scared you more than any other?
I'm not asking what you think is objectively the scariest...different things scare different people, and things like atmosphere and mindset can make a big difference in how you react to something. What hit YOU the hardest?
For me, it was a certain short horror manga...
The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito
Now, I've been a horror fan since I could read. I've built up a lot of immunity to horror over the years, to the point where I have trouble finding things that are suitably scary when I'm in the mood for it.
But with this, I guess everything just aligned in such a way that when I opened to the second-last page...
It ruined me. I ended up just staring at it and feeling my stomach sink and my head go fuzzy...When I finished it I immediately went somewhere on campus with a lot of random people to try to dispel the feeling, but everything still felt numb and unreal. I didn't sleep that night, or the next night. It was touch-and-go for the next few days, where I mostly caught up on sleep during the daytime. Even after that, it was literally
weeks before even accidentally thinking about it would be enough to cost me most of the night's sleep. It was absolutely ridiculous.
I know for a fact it would (probably) never hit anyone else the same way it hit me. As a horror fan, I respect it immensely for getting that reaction out of me, but it's not something I'd like to repeat ever in my life.
Second place for me would go to an X-files episode. I think the actual story was pretty goofy, but it took place in a cosmetic surgery hospital and involved (hypnotised?) doctors killing their patients during surgery. One poured a corrosive substance on the patient's face, and another used a surgical laser to burn a tiny, neat hole
all the way through their head.For some reason that one got a strong reaction out of me too.