Once Upon A Time

As the father tucked the little boy into bed and stood to leave, the little boy asked his father to tell him his favorite bedtime story.
He smiled to himself, and willingly agreed, for he loved his son and would do anything for him.
'Once upon a time, there was a young boy just like yourself...'

The little boy cowered under his sheets night after night. Fear seeping from every wall surrounding him. Sorrow seeping into the child's pores and making him see his inevitable doom.
Creatures of all details and descriptions moved unseen in the darkness inches beyond the boys eyes. Fear and terror held hands around the boys hearts.

The young boy pulls his covers up to his nose and the father smiles then grabs his knee reassuringly.
'It's just a story son,' He comforts him, then continues. 'Then the door opened, and safe light flooded his room'

His father stood there, bathed in light. His mere presence was enough to scare the monsters to their original world.
'Still awake son?'
The child nods feebly.
he shakes his head sadly 'They aren't real my child. You give them the power to scare you. Don't give them the power.'
'Couldn't you just give me the power to scare them?'
It was many a days later the father found he could do just that. or along similar lines.
One night, the father stayed with the boy until dawn, teaching him how to scare the monsters, for if he scared just one. Fear of the child would take root in the creatures and he would gain power of them given by them.

At this the boy started to smile, remembering where the story would lead.
The father smiled back 'Eventually it came to a time that the monsters dreaded night and the child instead of the natural way'

The fear of the child was so intense in the world of the monsters, that the child became more than a child. He became so powerful the monsters slowed coming to this world, even to other houses, for fear the child would find them.
Eventually the monsters ceased coming to this world in total.
And the child was content.

'Thank you dad' The boy smiles sleepily.
'I love you son' The father replies as he kisses his sons forhead.
'Love you too dad' He replies as he turns over in bed and falls softly asleep, ignorant of the real monster.
The father walks down the hallway to his own room and as he prepares for bed, he finishes the story to himself 'But the child's contentedness was short lived.'

In the months the fear of the child grew in the monsters, a craving for the power they gave him grew in him. Time flew differently in their world, for each year that passed there, only a minute passed here. Ina short amount of time on our world, the creatures had forgotten the myth of The Fear, as the child had come to be called.
When they stopped believing, they stopped fearing, when they stopped fearing, they stopped giving him power.
So the child, hungry and starved of power, went wandering.
In his first night of wandering, the craving intensified and his heart nearly gave out. But as fate would have it, the child stumbled upon a house, using his power he gained entry and scaled the stairs to a young girls room.
The door opened with a creak, and the young girl saw nothing but a bone thin, black eyed Fear.
The door closed softly, and by The Fears powers the girl's anguished screams didn't pass the walls.
Once again, children had reason to fear. But they did not fear the monsters or creatures from other worlds.
This time they feared one born of their own. One who was, just like them, afraid of the dark and born of the light.
But this was no longer the same child. No longer the same human.
This was The Fear.

And the father sadly remembered why he never taught his son in the other room, what he had taught his first son.
The power of Fear.