These are some short scary stories I found and wrote myself. It starts out slow, but picks up very quickly. Later on I will be sure to keep you up at night. (This is horror if it gets changed to short story again.)
The following is a horror story so chilling you may want to move on to a shopping story or restaurant review; those are much less disturbing. I'll give you a moment to reconsider ... still here? Well, then, let me tell you a story that was told to me by Susan Maier, director of public relations at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago. She has seen crazy stuff in her 18 years at the luxury hotel -- indeed, so crazy, she doesn't consider this story particularly frightening. You probably won't, either. But I do.
(Cue wind, crashing thunder.)
See, every year, for at least two decades, guests with children who stay at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago on the Saturday night before Easter receive a knock at their door about 5 p.m. If they choose to open the door, and many do, happily, they find themselves face to face with an enormous mutant lupus. He has extraterrestrial-like eyes -- cat's eyes. He is roughly 6 feet tall and covered head to toe to tail in white fur. He is rather fluffy, they say. Those who have seen him, and have lived to tell about it, remember that he leaves a basket full of eggs and candy and complimentary toothbrushes.
And his grin is wide.
Yeah, the Easter Bunny freaks me out. Always has. When told this story, my reaction was horror: An Easter weekend package at the Ritz-Carlton goes for around $325 a night, bunny visit included, but wouldn't it be frightening to hear that knock, answer and find yourself staring down an enormous silent rabbit?
"Well, that's why we let them know ahead of time," she said. "We give them a letter."
Oh.
Still: The Easter Bunny will be visiting brunch at the Signature Room on Michigan Avenue, leading an egg hunt in Elmhurst's Wilder Park, posing for photographs at the Orland Square Mall. He will be everywhere at once. Jack Santino, a professor of folklore at Ohio's Bowling Green State University, said the mall Easter Bunny, probably the first Easter Bunny most of us meet, is "likely a capitalist reaction to the mall Santa Claus -- 'That worked, so this should too.'
"Is that your problem?"
No, I said, and it's not religious, either -- I realize the Easter Bunny probably began as a German tradition, was brought to this country by the Pennsylvania Dutch, and shouldn't be blamed on the owners of shopping malls. My problem, I said, probably has more to do with the costume. Years ago I lived in London, and a man at my neighborhood Tube station would play the trumpet for spare change while dressed in a filthy bunny costume. It looked very disturbing and only reminded me that, when I was a child, the Easter Bunny didn't blink.
"He is awkward," Santino agreed. "No facial cues. ... That could scare kids."
Young kids, said Jackie Guthrie, parks supervisor in Homan Square, which hosts an Easter Bunny event. "They're still sorting good monsters from bad ones. It's a challenge. But I think most admire the Easter Bunny -- even when it is from a distance."
A great distance.
~~~~~ Provided by- cborrelli@tribune.com
Have a happy Easter everybody. Stay safe.
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