History NothingIsScarier / Literature

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'', what did [[EnfantTerrible young Tom Riddle]] do to his peers in the cave that traumatised them so badly?

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': When Daenerys visits the [[MindScrew House of the Undying]], she is told to take the first door on the right in each room to navigate the house. At some point she comes across a long corridor with only doors to the left. Then the lights begin to go out and she hears ''something'' approach... [[spoiler:At which point she figures out that the last door to the left is the first door to the right, escaping whatever that was.]]

** Another truly tense chapter is in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' where after enjoying the Quidditch World Cup and going to bed, Harry and co are awakened by Mr Weasely and told to flee into the forest. The trio only glimpse what's make out what's causing the fear i.e a group of Death Eaters dangling {{Muggles}} in the air and blowing up tents, but the really creepy part comes while hiding in the forest Harry (whose missing his wand and feeling vulnerable) "senses" someone standing a few yards away from them in the darkness- then that someone utters a spell that causes a giant green skull with a snake in its mouth to appear in the sky.

* ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' was built on this. The house and the Minotaur are terrifying because you can't possibly know when they'll strike. Tom nearly goes insane from this, which gets all better when he smokes a few joints. But the same sensation [[spoiler:drives Halloway to suicide]] and traumatizes ''everyone'' who was in the [[color:blue:house]], including Karen who never actually ''went'' into the mysterious parts of the [[color:blue:house]] and Johnny, who didn't even know whether it ''existed''.
** It could be said they go to an even greater extreme on this, really. The climax of the book, where the [[color:blue:house]] makes its most "aggressive" attempt on its inhabitants, isn't the end. Unlike the standard horror movie, where the family stands outside the smoldering ruins of the haunted [[color:blue:house]], minus one or two members, and the hero grimly says "It's over" (until the sequel), the family flees to another state and the [[color:blue:house]] remains where it is. The story continues, and one of the characters returns simply because he can't stop picking at it in his mind. Even after that return, the book goes on in Truant's narrative, then terminates...several times. When it finally ends, the reader is left unsure of where they are and if the story is truly over, or even if it ended and the narrative kept going on. It's a truly labyrinthine and truly disconcerting effect.

** The first half ''Literature/TheLangoliers'' invokes this a few times and manages to be more unsettling than the titular flying meatballs with teeth. The crux of the story is about 10 passengers waking up in an empty airplane (mid-flight) where the pilots, the cabin crew and everyone else besides themselves ''are gone''. The crew are even afraid to land because they are utterly terrified of what could or couldn't be under the clouds and their imagination is making it worse. When they land in the airport it's completely deserted and literally feels dead and "[[TrappedInThePast left behind]]", worse still the [[PsychicChildren psychic kid]] among them Dinah [[SuperHearing hears]] and "senses" that ''something'' is coming in the distance making a crunching noise, and if that weren't enough one of passengers Craig is clearly mentally unstable so the crew is also AloneWithThePsycho.

** From the same book, the Chapter 17 “Bathilda’s secret” is all over this trope. Harry and Hermione have just visited the former’s parents grave in Godric’s Hollow in a tender moment, as they leave the graveyard Hermione says she saw something move in the bushes Harry looks around and can see nothing telling her it’s probably just a ghost (in this universe [[FriendlyGhost ghosts aren’t particularly frightening]]) but sees an eddy of dislodged snow and gets unnerved knowing ghosts can’t move snow. They leave the graveyard under the Invisibility Cloak and soon encounter Bathilda Bagshot who can somehow sense them under cloak, Harry trusts her despite being somewhat unsettled by her bad smell, creepy staring eyes and fact she doesn’t talk only beckons. It only gets creepier when they follow Bathilda into her derelict house and Harry agrees to go upstairs with her while Hermione has stay downstairs, at one point Harry when goes into a dark room and lights his wand he starts because Bathilda in those few seconds of darkness moves closer to him and ''he did not hear her movement''. [[spoiler: It’s then revealed Voldemort’s snake Nagini was inside Bathilda‘s corpse controlling her, which while very disturbing isn’t nearly as scary as everything leading up to that point]].

** From the same book, the Chapter 17 “Bathilda’s secret” is all over this trope. Harry and Hermione have just visited the former’s parents grave in Godric’s Hollow in a tender moment, as they leave the graveyard Hermione says she saw something move in the bushes Harry looks around and can see nothing telling her it’s probably just a ghost (in this universe [[FriendlyGhost ghosts aren’t particularly frightening]]) but sees eddy of dislodged snow and gets unnerved knowing ghosts can’t move snow. They leave the graveyard under the Invisibility Cloak and soon encounter Bathilda Bagshot who can somehow sense them under cloak, Harry trusts her despite being somewhat unsettled by her bad smell, creepy staring eyes and fact she doesn’t talk only beckons. It only gets creepier when they follow Bathilda into her derelict house and Harry agrees to go upstairs with her while Hermione has stay downstairs, at one point Harry when goes into a dark room and lights his wand he starts because Bathilda in those few seconds of darkness moves closer to him and ''he did not hear her movement''. [[spoiler: It’s then revealed Voldemort’s snake Nagini was inside Bathilda‘s corpse controlling her, which while very disturbing isn’t nearly as scary as everything leading up to that point]].

** Similarly in Shelob's lair we don't even see the GiantSpider fully until later, it's mostly Frodo and Sam walking around the horrifying dark tunnels using the [[LightIsGood Phial of Galadriel]] and cutting through the black webbing. What description we get off the eldrich spider are the points of light that are Shelob eyes and the malice and hunger she radiates.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', this is a huge part of what makes [[BigBad Sauron]] such a legendary and terrifying villain. Throughout the entire three-book epic, he ''never'' appears in person, except as a glowing disembodied eye atop his tower in Mordor, if you count that. Except for the story of his creation of the Rings of Power, we never learn a single thing about his history, his motivations, his interactions with the world, or even what he looks like now except that he is impossibly old, impossibly powerful, and ''[[ParanoiaFuel always]]'' [[ParanoiaFuel watching]]. It goes a long way towards establishing him as a (seemingly) invincible force of pure evil on a scale far above even the world of elves, one that cannot be bargained with, reasoned with, or even properly understood, only surrendered to, and the atmosphere of sheer existential dread he conjures up in the characters - if not the readers - doesn't pass until the very end.

* In the ''Literature/ImperialRadch'' series, Ghaon's solar system is surrounded by an invisible, undetectable, inexplicable phenomenon called the Crawl. All the characters or readers know is that any ship that tries to bypass it with Gate travel, open communications within it, or stray from ''very'' secret safe paths through will be destroyed -- or left floating, dead and derelict, with no signs of distress.

** A famous theory is that [[spoiler:it's a woman knocking]].

** The first half ''Literature/TheLangoliers'' is built on this and manages to be more unsettling than the titular flying meatballs with teeth. The crux of the story is about 10 passengers waking up in an empty airplane (mid-flight) where the pilots, the cabin crew and everyone else besides themselves are gone and they land in a airport which is completely deserted and literally feels dead and dull. Worse still the [[PsychicChildren psychic kid]] among them Dinah [[SuperHearing hears]] and "senses" that ''something'' is coming in the distance, and if that weren't enough one of passengers Craig is clearly mentally unstable so the crew is AloneWithThePsycho as well.
*** Hell even when the Langoliers show up in all their [[{{Narm}} silliness]] what's more disturbing is that wherever they go they [[ClockRoaches eat away the Earth itself]] leaving utter blackness. When the crew do escape they barely keep the sanity staring at [[PowerOfTheVoid the pitch black nothing]] that is all that is left of the ground below and which they are risk of falling into when they run out of fuel.

** The first half of ''The Langoliers'' from ''Literature/FourPastMidnight'' is built on this and manages to be more unsettling than the titular flying meatballs with teeth. The crux of the story is about 10 passengers waking up in an empty airplane (mid-flight) where the pilots, the cabin crew and everyone else besides themselves are gone and they land in a airport which is completely deserted and literally feels dead and dull. Worse still the [[PsychicChildren psychic kid]] among them Dinah [[SuperHearing hears]] and "senses" that ''something'' is coming in the distance, and if that weren't enough one of passengers Craig is clearly mentally unstable so the crew is AloneWithThePsycho as well.
*** Hell even when the Langoliers show up in all their [[{{Narm}} silliness]] what's more disturbing is that wherever they go they [[ClockRoaches eat away the Earth itself]] leaving utter blackness. When the crew do escape they barely keep the sanity staring at [[PowerOfTheVoid the pitch black nothing]] that is all that is left of the ground below and which they are risk of falling into when they run out of fuel.

** {{Lampshaded}}, of course, in ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'' when Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg agree that nothing they find under a certain trap door could be worse than what they can imagine.

** In ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', a witch visits her most terrible punishment on a man who broke into in her cottage. Nothing. [[ParanoiaGambit After a couple of weeks of waiting for her to do something in retaliation, the man has a nervous breakdown and runs away]]. In that same book, the people of Lancre are [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight used to strange and portentous things happening]], but one night the events ''stop'' happening, and people start to get worried.

* The short story "Peekaboo" by Bill Pronzini embodies this trope. The only character in the story is a career criminal pretending to be a reclusive writer hiding out in a rented house a good distance away from the closest town. One night he ''thinks'' he hears an intruder in the house and decides to investigate while armed. While he's searching his suddenly creepy hideout, he can't help but reminisce on the games of Peekaboo he used to play when he was a kid, as well as the old rumors of occult worship and paranormal activities surrounding the house. He's a nervous wreck by the end of the story, and when he finally reaches the basement after finding nothing in the rest of the house he giggles in relief. There's nothing there after all, it's just him, all alone, hiding under the stairs. [[spoiler:Peekaboo]]

** Harry sitting alone in Little Whinging during ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' getting increasingly more unsettled and then he sees what looks like a big black dog in an alley, however the Night Bus arrives to relieve the tension. We learn later that it's just his Godfather Sirus Black keeping eye on him but that doesn't make it any less tense, the movie makes it even more unsettling.

** Harry sitting alone in Little Whinging during ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' getting increasing more unsettled and then he sees what looks like a big black dog in an alley, however the Night Bus arrives to relieve the tension. We learn later that it's just his Godfather Sirus Black keeping eye on him but that doesn't make it any less tense, the movie makes it even more unsettling.

* The journey through Moria and the buildup to the Balrog in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' employs a lot of this, the Fellowship is just walking in the dark for hours and Frodo hears something moving behind them which only stops when they stop (which turns out to be Gollum). Pippin foolishly drops a stone into a well that causes an echo which turns into the faint sounds of hammering far off, Gandalf fears that they disturbed something the real horror comes when they read Balin's dying ApocalypticLog which speaks of "drums in the deep", and the Fellowship actually hear drumming and attacked by Orcs. It only gets worse after the Orcs are beaten and Gandalf feels "something" behind the barred door which even the Orcs are afraid of and when he attempts to shut the door with magic he's nearly overcome, at this point Gandalf just tells the Fellowship to RunOrDie as their weapons are no more use against this threat.

* Made mundane in ''Literature/ThePearl'', where the "Pearl of the World" found by the pearl-diver Kino eventually attracts the attention of two hired "trackers"; they are never identified as or associated with anyone.

** In ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', a group of invisible people force Lucy to go into the house of a powerful and terrifying magician, to find his book of spells and use it to make the people visible again. Lucy finds the book and completes her task safely, but the walk through the house to find the thing is ''terrifying'', especially since ''the magician himself is invisible'' and can walk soundlessly. There's also the part where she finds the book, which is set on a podium in the middle of the room. To read it, Lucy has to stand with her back to the doorway. She feels incredibly vulnerable because of this, and wishes very much that there was a door to close. [[spoiler:After she casts the spell, she learns that the magician is good. The walk out of the house is far less scary.]]

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', when in Moria, the Company comes across a fork in the road, with one of three passageways all leading in the same direction they could choose from. The passage on the left led downwards while the passage on the right leads upward and the passage in the middle stays level, but is narrower than the other two. Gandalf does not recognize the fork at all, having had travelled only in the opposite direction through Moria before. They retire to the nearby guardroom to rest as Gandalf contemplated the path to take. Finally, he says, "I do not like the feel of the middle way; and I do not like the smell of the left-hand way: there is foul air down there, or I am no guide." Gandalf goes with the right passageway that leads upwards. One figures the left passageway probably was home to Orcs or something because of the odor, but what awaited errant travellers in that middle passageway that caused Gandalf to have such an intuition, such consternation? It's even worse in the movie adaptation of ''The Fellowship of the Ring:'' When the drums start beating, there's a cut to the three paths...''and torchlight appears in the middle.''