1954 Halloween Story

the little red-faced kid was about 5, when his evil stepsister invited him into her room in THAT house, and then, further in, onto her bed!

the light in the room was dim.

and CC began spinning her tale, about how the floor of the room, 16 inches(!) away was crawling and seething and writhing with poisonous red centipedes, and deadly black widow spiders, and..and hissing green snakes, coiling and uncoiling themselves just below the boy's face, and he began to think he could see their forked tongues sliding maliciously in and out of their mouths, and god knows what other kinds of horrible horrible serpents and insects and creatures he had NO IDEA existed were down there!

then, in a soothing voice, CC said, "you are perfectly safe up here above them.  why don't you lean out a little further so you can see them better?"

and the little red-faced kid trusted her, so he leaned out as far as he could, and that is precisely when CC pushed him off the bed.

and in a way, he has been falling ever since.  he must be, because he never landed, right?