oh lord there were a million and one things that creeped me out; to this day, i am ashamed to say that a considerable amount still plague my irrational self.

one incident that i find incredibly silly now: there was a couch in the living room i used to claim as my own, and one day i was lying there reading the three billy goats gruff. it was a picture book and the drawings were very realistic. the troll was depicted as a nasty looking creature and i was quite terrified even after i came to last page and the biggest billy goat had triumphed over the troll. i didn't dare get off that couch because i totally believed said troll was going to ambush me from below (he lived under a bridge in the book). it was evening and no one else was at home, so i lay motionless in the dark for a good many hours till my parents came back.

moral of the story: your child's imagination doesn't need any more feeding.