Words Make Suspense/Horror

In every story, there is always some type of element. One element is the element of surprise, or even suspense. How are we able to feel the suspense that we're supposed to feel when reading a story? It's all about the diction.

Diction is extremely important, for it is the word choice when writing a piece. The things that go bump in the night may scare you in movies because you can eat it, but seeing the words may not seem as suspenseful. If certain words are used, however, the suspense may be felt. 

Words such as "crept" and "stalked" put forth an image in our minds that someone is being pursued by someone else, or maybe they just feel like they are. "He was being followed" sounds a more relative to the audience than "He was being stalked" though, so it depends on the style and the reader. The protagonist could be going down the street to learn that he was being followed. 

Said protagonist may get home to find an unnerving letter, and the face of the stalker may be the last thing he sees before he dies. The audience, if the story has the right diction, could be on board with the story and put themselves into the character's shoes. When the character is killed, the author may be able to say they scared someone. There is a reason some people don't read suspense/horror stories!