#TellMeAStory {Fear}
Potterhead0619 has initiated a challenge. Write a short story, about one main emotion, basically. So that is what I will do... and I challenge you to do the same.
Here we goooooo....
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Fear can be you worst enemy, only if you don't look at it wrong a different angle first...
Kahlia was afraid of many things. Spiders, sharks, snakes, peanut butter being stuck to the roof of her mouth (Arachibutyrophobia), lint balls on her school jumper, the big boys in Year 6... the usual. Being seven and a half years old, it was complementary to be scared of at least something. But for Kahlia it was more than being just afraid... she feared.
It all started when she went on a class excursion to see a play. She said that if she could change one decision she made, it would be to refuse going to that play... because it interruptered 365 nights of sleep. It got to the point where she had to move her bed away from the door, have it slammed shut and snuggle under her duvet on twenty six degree nights.
Her fear controlled her, from her scalp all the way down to her longest toenail (which her mother said needed to be clipped off with her pair of purple nail clippers, but Kahlia was afraid of sharp things too). It penetrated her, boiled her blood... consumed her.
To be honest, Kahlia had been excited to see the play. It had a good message: have the right attitude at Christmas and enjoy being around your family and friends while you can. Not to mention the fact that she loved Charles Dickens. But it was the spirits... the ghosts... the uncertainty that terrified her.
A Christmas Carol, a play based of a book... the mere representation of someone's imagination freaked her out to her wit's end. Especially the faceless, dark, black, tall and looming Spirit of the Future. Especially him.
"But what made that spirit so scary?", many people asked her in her adulthood when Kahlia recalled her childhood fears.
"He had no face," she would tell them as calmly as she could, shivers running through her body, "I couldn't see his expressions, what he was thinking through his features.... whether he was really a kind-hearted spirit with a lesson to teach or a ruthless spirit who would soon come and pick on everything I did wrong."
"But he wasn't even real," they retaliated.
"He was in the play... he targeted a real man with real issues and shoved the worse case scenario in his face expecting him to change from... fear of the future."
Nobody said anything else after that. They just remained silent, contemplating.... peacefully....
Seven and a half year old Kahlia couldn't ever be awake at three o'clock in the morning. Or midnight, or one or two o'clock. She had to be asleep otherwise the spirits would come for her and make her regret her very way of living.
Every night, she was horrified.
On Christmas Eve, she was terrfied that the spirits might visit her and gobble her up... or maybe shove the worst case scenario in her own face. Luckily for her... she slept like a tree trunk through the night.
She sacrificed her health to cater for this fear. She slept underneath her duvet on a hot Summer's night and refused to have the door open, even if spirits could walk through doors. Sharing a room with her younger sister caused many arguements with her mother.
"For the AC to work, you have to have the door open, Kahlia!" her mother scolded.
"No!" Kahlia yelled, crying, "he'll come and get me!"
"Who? Who Kahlia, are you so afraid of?"
"HIM!"
"WHO IS HIM? THERE ARE A GAZILLION HIMS ON THIS EARTH AND I CANNOT GUESS WHICH ONE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!"
"You'll think I'm stupid," she sobbed.
"Tell me, Kahlia, I need to know."
"ThespiritofthefurturefromthatplayIsawtwoweeksagomumseeyouthinkI'mstupidandIam!" she blurted.
Her mother paused to translate what her daughter just said.
"You are afraid of a supernatural being that isn't real... I knew that play was innapropriate and I am going to sue the school for making you watch that silly play... here, have what you want and all will be swell," said no mum ever.
Her mother simply told her that such a being wasn't real and that she shouldn't worry about such things. She swapped Kahlia's bed with her sister's, away from the door and Kahlia was left to fend for herself, to conquer the fear independently.
She had written the fear on a piece of paper, scribbled over it, rubbed it out, ripped the paper into bits, cut those bits up into tiny pieces, and what not. She would read comforting quotes, cry her heart out, spend midnights and corresponding hours by her parents door and sob. She even read the book by Charles Dickens... well attempted to.
It was in her sister's room and she was bloody scared of it. She avoided her sister's room at all costs. She didn't like going in there, because the bright red book would bounce out to her. She wa afraid the characters would seep put of the pages and haunt her.
Kahlia learnt that time does not heal anything... it just taught her how to deal with her fear. She realised that her fear wasn't the spirit, but rather the fact that she couldn't read the man's face, interpret his inner feelings her own way. She also feared that she couldn't control her future, or what would happen to her, and is she didn't learn from her mistakes, be a better person, live a better life, be nicer, be an angel... her future would be crap, she'd just die.
So when you fear something... break it down... what about it do you actually fear? What actually makes your skin crawl? Because maybe it will put things into perspective and help you conquer what you are afraid of... just like it helped Kahlia.
FEAR CAN SHOOT YOU WITH A GUN IF YOU DON'T GRAB THE GUN OFF OF IT AND REMOVE THE BULLET, DISSEMBLING THE GUN SO IT CAN NEVER PUT IT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN TO HURT YOU.
- The free bird, 2017 (aka ME!)
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WILL YOU ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE?!
#TellMeAStory
I'm gonna tag some people, and you may choose whether you accept this short story challenge!
Please go and read Potterhead0619 's chapter first here: https://www.wattpad.com/416994093-just-some-randomness-happy (in Just Some Randomness... chapter titled 'Happy' for those who cannot access the link).
kmbell92 (I wonder if she will actually do it!??)
That's 11 people! ( I would tag you Lollypop671 but I know you won't do it so....)
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