The nightmare may be over...but fear has just begun!

Fear is an emotion like no other, a powerful sensation that relishes the chance  to play tricks with you, and taking every opportunity to do so. One of the more common times it does this is immediately after awakening from a particularly troubling nightmare. While you were subconsciously tossing and turning and maybe even thrashing about throughout the dream, fear was already taking hold, harnessing and collecting, making note of all your prior dormant trepidations. These may have been completely fictional, from book or film, or they may have been from truly horrifying life experiences, like when that friend jumped out at you wearing a hockey mask and waving a machete, or when you watched that plump, hairy spider scamper across the floor, only to disappear under the couch. Nonetheless, fear knows your deepest and darkest, and is constantly ready to utilize the information at a moment’s notice. Tonight it is taking the opportunity offered and waiting silently within your psyche while you traverse through the throes subconscious horror. And, it already has a plan.

Suddenly you awaken gasping for breath and with beads of sweat formed. Maybe you’ve sat up and are awaiting the chill to subside, most likely thinking the terror is over. Little do you know that it is not, and as you become increasingly aware of the enveloping darkness, a major player in the overall grand scheme, fear slides the throttle forward.

You peer into the room’s dark corner and the shadows seem to move ever so slightly. Of course, deep down, you know that those corner shadows are no different than any other night. But, tonight is different. Tonight, while the terrifying nightmare is still fresh in your mind, fear has already calculated and is emphasizing those shadows to somehow appear oddly different. Coincidently, the normal darkness seems strangely different too.

Within moments, the flood of once fading terror has abruptly turned about face and your mind fills with all sorts of ghastly ghoulies, waiting to pounce, gnaw, rip, shred and tear. You look away and close your eyes tight, hoping that the action will somehow drive it all away. But, when you look back, it hasn’t. The shadows are still there and still the same. The chess battle continues with your next move, slinking down under the blanket and pulling it up over your head. Consciously you make attempts to dispel by thinking happy thoughts and secretly praying for safety. However, fear retaliates with a check move, by misspelling the word and then beaming it vividly, like a neon light, into your mind…P R E Y I N G!



And it is now that fear has grasped fully, it begins recruiting and incorporating your ears as well, allowing the amplification of all those typical normal night noises you’ve grown accustomed to, such as the creaks of the house settling, or that alley cat meowing at the full moon. Maybe, if fear is lucky, there will be a storm raging outside, complete with howling wind, lightning flashes and tremendous booms, and it will make the job easier.

Regardless, your mind will begin to wander into dreadfulness, peering from window to corner, back and forth, from behind the blanket seam you’ve opened, automatically having thoughts of the boogeyman and asking yourself what that sound was?

Maybe there isn’t something horrible lurking. On the other hand, maybe there is and if so, contrary to what your mind tells you, simply hiding under those covers won’t save you because it already knows your there



Maybe you’d better look again…