In the spirit of Halloween, we asked for our readers to answer the question, “What is the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?”

We received a number of responses, and we selected the 10 best, with the authors winning a pair of tickets to The Dark Zone haunted house in Brandon.

So here they are, and they range from scary to bizarre to funny to just downright unsettling.

Ryne Bouffanie of Lakeland Estates had a brush with the unexplained, but it’s not like he wasn’t asking for it hanging around a cemetery after dark.

“In 1983 I spent the night in an abandoned cemetery on a dare,” he wrote. “At 3 a.m., I began to hear what I believed to be the sound of a headstone moving. I also heard a moan coming from that same area. After quickly checking the area with a flashlight and not seeing anything, I hastily left without looking back. I was truly scared, and to this day I refuse to go to cemeteries.”

In the realm of creepy cemeteries, the one at Rocky Springs off the Natchez Trace is certainly a contender for scariest. Connye Green of south Jackson can attest:

“When I was a younger girl and in high school, several students, along with some teachers and parents, took a trip one night to Rocky Springs … (which) is reportedly haunted,” she wrote. “We had a bonfire, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and when we got through we visited a small cemetery there. The teacher told us the story of how people died years ago as a result of yellow fever … As he was telling the story, we saw a light swaying in the distance that looked like a lantern. But because it was fall with dead leaves on the ground, in the still of the night in the middle of nowhere, we still heard no footsteps, just the swinging lantern light. We all ran to our cars and left the adults to put the fire out.”

Anyone’s who has even been to a deer camp in Mississippi can attest to how spooky it can get in the middle of the night, far removed from civilization. But Torey McKenzie of Greenfield swears he’s been to one that’s genuinely haunted:

“ My wife and I went with a friend to his deer camp in Carthage which he said was known to be haunted,” he said. “My wife and I did not beleive in ghosts so we were not worried about his nonsense. Then at about 2 or 3 a.m., I saw a figure standing over my wife and looking at her that then walked through the wall. I was so afraid I almost wet myself. I woke her up and that’s when the ghost got mad and started banging on the gut bucket outside. I woke up my friend and he said, ‘I told you so.’ We then looked out the blinds with guns in hand—thinking he had put someone up to this—but as soon as we opened the blinds the gut bucket raised and fell to the ground with no one holding it."

For our last brush with the unexplained, Nathan McCracken of Ridgeland had a brush with an ephemeral stalker—“This is not a joke and the only time in my life I feel like there was no human explanation for what occurred,” he asserts.

“I was about 15. Me and my mom were on the way home when we seemed to be being followed. The follower stopped in a circle in clear view of us in our driveway. We were scared to go in so she called my stepdad to come search the house. He found nothing. I was scared so I did not want to sleep in the back of the house by myself, so I was going to throw some covers on the living room floor and sleep there. The covers were in the closet in the back of the house. I opened the closet door and grabbed three covers and two pillows and shut the door. As I turned I heard the doorknob begin to shake. I turned to look at it was turning back and forth very fast, like someone was trying to get out. I dropped everything and ran to the living room where my mom was. I never went back to that closet again, even after it was searched by both my parents.”

While things that go bump in the night, fear of the unknown and things that have no explanation are always scary, sometimes a good old fashioned prank is enough to send the heart racing, as our following winners can attest.

Just ask Tanisha Young of Byram:

“When I was 12 years old, the owner of a convenience store always decorated his house for Halloween in our neighborhood,” she says. “I had always been scared to go but on this particular year I told my parents I was ready to trick-or-treat at his house. As we approached his driveway, it was already spooky. As I knocked on the door, I heard a creak at the door. My parents stayed in the car as me and my little brother were standing there knocking. The door opened and there stood an old lady whose face looked horrible, and at that moment all the lights went out becoming darker than I have ever seen before and a man came running from behind the house screaming. We ran back to the car and my parents had locked the door and would not let us in. They were overcome with laughter. The man pulled the mask off and showed us he was the store owner and the lady was his wife. It’s 15 years later and I still have never stopped by their house again.”

Or Johnnie Latasha Kersh of Willowood:

“One night at about 2:30 a.m. I went to go use the bathroom,” she wrote. “It was dark in my new house, and … as I was leaving the bathroom and entered the hallway, walking past an empty bedroom, I felt hands grab my legs. I was hollering and screaming and running in circles. It was my husband getting me back for something. He had gotten up when I went to the bathroom and decided he would scare the bajeezus out of me, and he sure did. Now I turn on all lights when I go to the bathroom.”

Or you could ask Michelle Gunn of Crossgates:

“When I was a teenager, a group of guys pulled a very scary prank on some friends and I,” she said.  “We grew up in Vicksburg.  One night, while hanging out, a guy comes up to us and tells us it is a special night. He said that a man who lost him arm in the Civil War would walk across a bridge in the Military Park on that night, the same night it happened many years ago. Well, we all fell for it.  We went out to the bridge, parked on the main road and waited with flashlights while another guy friend was in the car.  All of a sudden the guy comes walking across the bridge and has a hook for a hand. When us girls saw this we freaked out and were trying to get in the car but the doors were locked. We finally got in the car and when we were turning around (had to back up where the bridge ended) the hooked man jumped on the hood of the car and had a mask on.  All of us girls were crying by that point. We were all extremely scared but were even more mad when we found out it was a hoax!”

Somebody got Jessica Smith of Byram pretty good as well:

“Late one night I woke up to someone lightly pushing me to wake up,” she wrote. “Once I awoke and rolled over, instead of finding my boyfriend I found a demon-like creature laying beside me— it was my boyfriend’s idea of a good laugh at my expense. I was so scared I actually began to fight the ‘demon’ and  ran to exit my home. My boyfriend had to run after me but forgot to remove the mask! So here I am running around and around trying to get free, but it was him all along. He finally removed the mask and tried to calm me down. I did not go back to sleep after that ordeal. It was the worst experience ever.”

Sometimes the scariest things in life aren’t pranks or the unexplained, sometimes cold, hard reality can be the most frightening, as Virginia Cowart of Madison declares:

“I was at home alone and taking a late night bath,” she wrote. “I heard a sound at the bathroom window that was out of the ordinary. I was so scared I could barely move. I tiptoed to the phone and called 911. When the officer came to the door he told me that he saw two men run away as he pulled up.”

And our final winner, Tina Swilley of Pearl, proves that flattery can get you everywhere. In her entry she cleary and very concisely wrote: “At the Dark Zone!”

Well congratulations, Tina and all the others. We hope your next visit to the Dark Zone replaces all your stories and the most scared you’ve ever been in your life.