Nothing to Fear

The world was dark, but my world was darker. It was an odd thought for a girl of age nine, but it infested my mind with a different kind of plague. I use the word ‘plague’ because that’s the only way to really describe it. I saw the world as a warm-up before entering my own nightmares. These were awful continuous nightmares that were too real to tell them from reality. I dreaded them so much that I’d beg my father to let me stay up with him so I wouldn’t be alone once I fell asleep and maybe then the nightmares would go away. In the end it was pointless because no matter what I did, no matter how hard I’d pull my hair or scratch my face to stay awake, I’d be swallowed by a new menacing reality.