Of the scariest stories to tell in the dark

Ask anyone who grew up in the 1980s and 90s what their favorite scary story to tell in the dark is, and most of them will have an answer. That's how powerful Alvin Schwartz's trilogy of terror tales, featuring the incredibly disturbing artwork of Stephen Gammell, truly were.

A collector of urban legends, folklore, and campfire stories, Schwartz traveled the country and dug through books of all kinds to bring his compilations together with the intent of passing them on to children who would then scare their friends with them. The first book, published in 1981, set the tone with briefly told narratives - usually just a few pages long, if that - accompanied by one of Gammell's nightmarish drawings. The next two installments came out in 1984 and 1991, adding more missives on ghosts, monsters, and worse that continue to resonate to this day.

We dug out our original copies of all three books - the ones currently in book stores have toned down artwork for today's far more delicate children - and gave them another read to properly get in the Halloween spirit. These are the 11 that spooked us the most this time around.