Feel The Fear

• Amelia Pederson, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

I fall, my head landing with sickening crack. I slip into unconsciousness. My eyes open an inch, I only see darkness. I blink, once, twice but nothing appears. When I finally wake nobody is there but a voice whispers “You are alone, your life is an illusion…” It is my worst fear, that everything is make-believe. I struggle to absorb the words, until eventually they sink in. “No! No, no, no.” I sob. I faint due to lack of blood.

Eyes opening, wanting to scream, I take a strangled breath.The voice whispers words I can’t make out. Everything I knew was a fantasy, a figurement of my imagination. My parents, a mirage. My best friend, an illusion. Mist shrouds my view and if I don’t counter it I know it’ll make me hallucinate. My memory foggy, amnesia.

A murmur slithers into my ear, telling me that all is lost. No. I believe in my old life and I will get back. Fighting against the spiteful thoughts is like pushing through a brick wall, almost impossible to break. They stream into my mind making my body writhe in pain. I extinguish the thoughts and the sounds become distorted, dying away slowly. A image of the world I once knew begins to strengthen.

Unexpectedly I double over in anguish, my face a picture of agony. The impression of my life disappears, a mirage again, the voices mutter. They have been let in by an unknown force. This time they are more persuasive and I find their voices sweet and melodic. I believe them. They hush, singing a honeyed lullaby. I fade away into the misty landscape and I hear what it really sounds like, rough and demonic.

Snapping out of my trance, I startle the voices. My body solidifies and I run. Running, running, running, I get nowhere. One voice murmurs “You can’t run from yourself.” It finally dawns on me, I let them in, I let them take control. They are all my fears.

Now that I have accepted them, they don’t bother me (most of the time). Let in your nightmares, anxiety and stress. Share them, accept them. Feel them and you will control them.

Feel the fear.