When we are little, the thought of a monster under our bed can keep us up at night. For some people, that fear never goes away.

Personally, I find an amazing thrill in being scared or, better said, startled. Ghost stories and monsters are old folk tales that have been popularized by Hollywood. But if at the age of forty people still get frightened by such tales, is there a part of us that think these thing really DO exist?

I, for instance, can easily sit thought a ghost, monster, or witch film, but when you add children and toys to the mix, I will honestly admit that I want my mommy to watch over me while I sleep.

My brother took us to a quinceañera about three weeks ago. On the way to my boyfriend's house, they were talking about spirits, evil animals, and oddly realistic witch stories (and Egypt!). Though this was somewhat spooky, I did not feel scared at all. And on the way from David's house, my brother kept talking to me about these things, but this time it included toys.

When we were little, our grandma and cousins told us that toys would wake up in the night and dance about. And the stories that they would tell us about porcelain and smurf dolls seem so plausible that, to this day, toys featured in scary stories is just absolutely terrifying to me. Just hearing my brother talk about it was enough to ask my mom if I could leave my graduation teddy bear in her room.

And seeing children in movies is equally frightening. Though I did not find The Ring to be a scary movie (or a good one, at that!) the fact that it featured a child as the evil character was enough to make me look away at times. Of course, no matter how scary a child is in a scary movie, nothing can keep me away from playing with my little sister and my darling baby nephew.

We all have (physical, tangible) phobias. For some, it's snakes, for others it is clowns, for me it is toys that can choke you and kill you at night.

But WE are the ones who choose to let these things scare us; I believe this is so because no matter how often people tell us that ghosts don't exist, a part of your childish imaginations still believes they do.