I don’t know that it was terrifying but it sent chills up my spine and really stayed with me my whole life. It’s a short story by Ray Bradbury. There will come soft rains. A house wakes up and makes coffee and does other automated stuff, then the POV pans out and you realize the bomb has gone off. The Cold War was big in my childhood so this story was scary. Lots of his stories have stayed with me. The Pedestrian is another one.

Have you ever met a childhood hero? How’d that go?