Andrew Jacobson is one of the co-authors of the middle grade fantasy adventure series, THE FAMILIARS.
I grew up in the same house my entire life. It was a brown and white, two story colonial in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Save for the white picket fence, Norman Rockwell himself would have approved. Like any kid, I feared the basement laundry room, and the old heaters made some awful noises, but I knew those noises well. I didn't imagine monsters under my bed. I slept with the lights off.
Then one night, when I was 14, I found myself running down the upstairs hallway into my parent's bedroom, screaming bloody murder.
My older brother was a freshman in college, and had returned home for the weekend. He and I were having a late night chat in my bedroom, catching up on all things into the wee hours. As we whispered in the dark, the closet door — which I always kept securely shut — creaked open. My brother and I tip-toed out of my bed and walked over to the now ajar door. I reached out and pushed it shut again.
As we turned back for my bed, the door creaked back open. And that's when I ran screaming. The next thing I remember is my mom and dad waking in a panic, and my brother standing in the hallway behind me looking at me as if I had lost my mind.
After that, my closet door would creak open on its own periodically, and whenever it did, I felt a cold chill. What lurked among my plaid button downs and doc martens? A ghost?
I have never been able to sleep soundly in any bedroom since unless all the closet doors were closed tight.
… Now, that might be my scariest paranormal experience, but for those of you who don't believe in ghost stories, here's a different kind of scary story…
I still remember the summer afternoon in 1991, when as a grade schooler in Milwaukee, I came home to the news that a man named Jeffrey Dahmer had been arrested for the murder of 17 men. It was one of the most gruesome serial killing sprees in history, and it had all happened just a few minutes away from my sheltered little house in the suburbs.
This would have just been a footnote to my otherwise idyllic Midwestern upbringing, but for the fact that my father, an attorney, represented nearly all of the families of the victims of Dahmer. Together, they sued Dahmer and won settlements totaling tens of millions of dollars — not a penny of which Dahmer would (or could) ever pay. So my dad got creative. He decided to go after any profits that Dahmer or anyone else tried to make off the exploitation of his murders. This included comic books, movies, and even trading cards. Really sick stuff. It also included a book that Jeffrey Dahmer's father wrote about the murders, which he was going to make a healthy payday from.
That's when my dad decided to sue Dahmer's father so the money he was making would go to the victims' families. And this is when the story gets scary. I'm not talking bump in the night scary, or I think there's a ghost in the closet scary, or I heard something in the attic scary. No, this is the worst serial killer in history threatened to make my dad sorry scary.
Although Dahmer was locked up in a maximum security prison for life, it was no less unsettling when I returned home from school that fall to learn that my dad had received a letter from Jeffrey Dahmer. It was typed on a typewriter, and was actually quite polite. But there was no mistaking the subtext of his note. In essence, he was warning my dad that if he went after Dahmer's father, he would be very, very sorry.
My mind raced, as any 13 year old boy's mind would. What if Dahmer escapes from prison, or gets out one day? What if he comes after my dad or my family… or me?! This was a guy who dismembered people and cannibalized them! I was terrified.
And then, a few months later, news broke that Jeffrey Dahmer was shanked in a prison laundry room, murdered and left dead on the floor. I'm not going to lie. I was relieved.
Happy Halloween everyone!
The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson Publisher: HarperCollins (September 7th, 2010) Hardcover: 368 pages After three young wizard apprentices are kidnapped by the evil queen of a distant land, it is up to their familiars, their magical animal companions — a street smart alley cat, a precocious blue jay, and a bumbling tree frog — to save them.
Thank you so much Andrew for the story!
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