# Creep Me Out With Your Closing Line.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 14, 2005, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850 "2005-05-14T18:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/61 "2005-05-15T23:33:46Z")
> [@La Llorona](#): > > Any takers? Geez Louise, we already did that one. From Bradbury’s _Dandelion Wine_. And the “finger and thumb” line is Roald Dahl’s “Man from the South.” ---
**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/62 "2005-05-15T23:48:56Z")
> [@Ukulele Ike](#): > > Geez Louise, we already did that one. From Bradbury’s _Dandelion Wine_. Oh dear. I’m terribly sorry…I did see that, but somehow it didn’t register. The grey cells must be going kaput in my old age–which, of course, is a reason, not an excuse. Many apologies. Is it in _Dandelion Wine_, as well? As I recollect, it’s from a story called “The Whole Town’s Sleeping”… ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/63 "2005-05-16T00:51:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Isn’t that the last line to the Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith breaks his glasses? I forget the title… Yip! “Time Enough At Last,” if my memory doesn’t fail. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/64 "2005-05-16T02:14:19Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. Poe. _Fall of the House of Usher_ ? ---
**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/65 "2005-05-16T02:21:51Z")
> [@](#): > > And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. > [@picunurse](#): > > Poe. _Fall of the House of Usher_ ? I would think “The Masque of the Red Death”… ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/66 "2005-05-16T02:22:40Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Above the din of a cacophonous society, the lone voice of a beaten and dying little girl cries out to an angry God, “Where is my mother?” _Swan’s Song_ Robert McCammon (sp?)? ---
**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/67 "2005-05-16T02:26:03Z")
> [@La Llorona](#): > > Is it in _Dandelion Wine_, as well? As I recollect, it’s from a story called “The Whole Town’s Sleeping”… I’m on a roll today…sorry. Sorry. Mea maxima culpa. Here’s another to take your mind off my regrettable absentmindedness: > [@](#): > > Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/68 "2005-05-16T02:35:09Z")
> [@La Llorona](#): > > I would think “The Masque of the Red Death”… Of course! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/69 "2005-05-16T05:01:15Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > I don’t remember the story or the author, but… > > “Behind her in the darkness of the living room, someone cleared his throat…” Ray Bradbury’s “The October Game” Also by the same author is a short story called “The Scythe” which is hands-down the creepiest story I have ever read! I just remember being totally disturbed by the ending line but I can’t seem to recall what it is. Here’s my contribution. Not so much creepy, but definitely a shocker: “Peyton Fahrquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.” ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/70 "2005-05-16T05:26:36Z")
Finally one I can get! “An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge,” by Ambrose Bierce. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/71 "2005-05-16T05:33:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Within, its walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and the doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone. _The Haunting of Hill House_ Shirley Jackson "The original debt was what hurt you, he thought again; it was the interest that broke your back. The last two lines read: It’s very hungry And its VERY angry ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Jaa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@Grim\_Jaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Jaa)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/72 "2005-05-16T07:13:43Z")
“Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb!” Some of my favourites have already been taken. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/73 "2005-05-16T08:14:00Z")
**Darkhold’s** Pin quote is from a short horror story…reeeeally familiar…can’t…quite…naah. Here’s one for all you Victorian horror freaks: “‘They found’, said the Bishop of Kilmore, 'below it a rounded hollow place in the earth, wherein there were two or three bodies of these creatures that had plainly been smothered by the smoke; and, what is to me more curious, at the side of this den, against the wall, was crouching the anatomy or skeleton of a human being, with the skin dried upon the bones, having some remains of black hair, which was pronounced by those that examined it to be undoubtedly the body of a woman, and clearly dead for a period of fifty years.” They wrote long sentences in those days. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/74 "2005-05-16T09:42:16Z")
> [@Sarah Woodruff](#): > > **Darkhold’s** Pin quote is from a short horror story…reeeeally familiar…can’t…quite…naah. Pin from Blue World by Robert McCammon. The other qoute is The Charnel Prince by Greg Keyes _sigh_ I was hoping other dopers knew about this great new fantasy series. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/75 "2005-05-16T10:10:16Z")
Here’s an easy one: > [@](#): > > At the time, his shrieks were confined to the repetition of a single, mad word of all too obvious source: “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/76 "2005-05-16T10:22:50Z")
> [@Stark Raven Mad](#): > > At the time, his shrieks were confined to the repetition of a single, mad word of all too obvious source: “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!” “At the Mountains of Madness” H.P. Lovecraft. how about … “Neither do we!”. I can’t remember the author of this one so I’d be obliged if someone can provide it. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/77 "2005-05-16T10:48:07Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > _Swan’s Song_ Robert McCammon (sp?)? No, sorry. I think I misunderstood the rules of the thread. That was my own original work: _On Poor Children_. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/78 "2005-05-16T10:54:47Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > _Swan’s Song_ Robert McCammon (sp?)? No, despite being a grim book book it ends on a happier note than that. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/79 "2005-05-16T12:46:28Z")
> [@](#): > > But my favorite has always been: > > “And Babe screams at night and has grown very thin.” Theodore Sturgeon’s short story “It!” (AFAIK the first story to use the idea of a globby swamp monster coalescing around the body/bones of a human being.) By the way, the lines: “I can Still See!” Do _not_ appear in the film **X-The Man with the X-Ray Eyes** as we now have it. There are rumors that it appeared in the original print (Stephen King is one of the people who reports hearing this, in **Danse Macabre** , IIRC). See here: > **[X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057693/trivia)** > > X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963) Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more... My contribution is: “Of course I know what Love is. A Boy loves his Dog.” ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2005, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850/80 "2005-05-16T12:56:20Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > " ‘A bowl of Biskies makes a growing boy.’ > > They were the last words he ever read." It’s familiar, but… “Now Jeffty is Five”, by Harlan Ellison? Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creep-me-out-with-your-closing-line/303850.md?page=5)