It is the tempting blackness. It sucks everything in, devouring every last bit of hope it can reach. It clenches a gnarled hand around the heart, twisting around the lungs – a snake after it’s prey – and squeezing with its shadowed tendrils until it maims. It infiltrates every pore until it sucks the air straight out of a gasping body. It doesn’t relent until it blinds and dulls every sense to absolutely nothing, until all emotion is trapped in a black hole. There is no light, no way out of the terrorizing darkness. It pins until it has its prey exactly where it wants it.

It’s the monsters under the bed, the whispers that don’t exist, the extra shadow following behind on the sidewalk. It lives on forever; present within the mind and anchored within the brain. While it may seem to leave – waves of relief tumbling over one another in the absence of dread – it’s a brewing volcano, lying dormant until it gains power.
Children’s minds are the easiest to conquer, but Fear never backs down from a challenge.