Scared to Death
A young boy was locked in a closet. The lights were off and he couldn't see a thing. He was crying.
When the boy was only four his older brother played a nasty prank on him. He crawled under the bed and screamed. His brother told lies of a monster living under the bed. The boy started using a night light and had to sleep with the door completely open. The light annoyed him while he slept, and often times woke him up, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make if it would keep the monster away. Only... it didn't.
What the boy was never told was that his brother has brain damage. So when he kept making up newer and newer versions of the monster story, the boy believed him. The monster started tiny and aggressive, but due to an active imagination it grew large, evil, and murderous. The boys fear grew more and more with each generation of monster. He started having nightmares and was comforted by the brother in middle of the night to go back to sleep. One day the boys brother got up early for school and went into his closet to pick out an outfit. The brother had a seizure and his brain died. He lay in the closet brain dead. When the boy woke up to find his big brother dead on the ground he shrieked in terror. The boy believed the monster had moved to the closet and attacked his dear brother. The boy slammed the door and ran to his parents. The family was a complete wreck. The boy was hysteric because he thought a monster was coming after him, and the parents because of their sons death.
That's when the night terrors began. Loud, shrieking every night came from the young boy. He was traumatized. He refused to enter the closet, he always slept with every light in his room on, and he never touched a single thing on his brothers bed. Fore he thought it was cursed. The parents thought the boy was just upset over the loss of his brother, but they were wrong. The young child was on the verge of insanity.
One night the boy woke screaming of the monster and was woken by his parents. He bawled into their arms of the monster that was after him and how they needed to move homes to a new state, and began crazy talk, like changing their names. The father asked,"Have you seen this monster?"
"no" the boy replied
"then how are you so sure its there?"
"cause it killed Ben. it started under the bed but Ben made it so angry that it moved to the closet n' killed em'.. its after me now."
The father said no comforting words as he held his son. He realized he needed to be taught a lesson. So the father picked his son up and carried him. He set the boy down with a pillow and a blanket on the closet floor, and immediately shut the door and locked it. The boy was now screaming at the top of his lungs, he was so loud, he could have looked death right in the eye. Half an hour of agony screaming ended and resulted in a low sob. He was waiting for an attack. An hour passed with nothing. Not a single noise or movement. He fell asleep there with red, throbbing eyes and a pounding heart.
The boy was most surprised when he woke up.
Okay, that was an interesting story. I somewhat agree but I also somewhat disagree. Fear is what you make it be, but some things you just can't help being afraid of. The things I thing people can control are like fear of clowns, spiders, or something else like that. However, I don't think someone can control the fear of losing a friend or a loved one, or even the fear of not accomplishing your goals. Those kind of fears are always there, they can be hidden but not eliminated.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with that point of view from which fear is not the thing we allow to control us, because sometimes it just controls us without our permission (figuratively).
Deleteyea i totaly agree it is all in our heads, but sometimes we go threw tramatic experiances that cause us fear and once you have been through those types of situations its hard to get rid of the fear that they have caused you
DeleteI agree with this completely, fear is what you make it. You aren't afraid of the dark, you're afraid of what might lurk in it. You aren't afraid of heights, you're afraid of falling. And really, are you afraid of falling? Or are you scared of what happens when you hit the ground? Kevin said that you can't control the fear of losing a loved one, but I don't really agree. Just like before, you aren't scared of losing a loved one, you're just scared of being alone. Alone to fend for yourself in a world so big that it makes your head spin. Even though people worry about constantly, no one is ever TRULY by themselves. We like to make up 'monsters' that aren't really there, like in the story. We fear the dark, though there’s nothing there. We fear hieghts, though we don’t jump. We fear losing loved ones, though we aren’t alone. All our fears steam from something, you just have to find out what.
ReplyDeleteI could see what you mean by we're not scared of losing loved ones, but of just being alone. However, I think those go hand in hand. I think it is more we are scared to see what life is like without them.
DeleteThat's exactly it, though, you aren't truly afraid of losing them. You make up this horrible idea that the world will stop spinning and you won't be able to move on. But in the end, we all move on. We deal with it. The fear and comes and goes, fast or slow depending on how big of an issue you've built it up in your mind to be.
DeleteThis isn't my type of story that I would normally read. I didn't feel a connection because i didn't think it flowed. Otherwise I really liked the message. It was a interesting read, maybe if you were a tab bit more discriptive about the characters i would of been more into it. Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteI liked this story. I thought that we could connect with it. I also really liked the end of the story it was really good.
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic to bring up. I feel as though this topic came from a Halloween documentary or something similar to it. When I think of fear, I, myself, think of scenarios from the Twilight Zone and how they are similar to the nightmares of a young child or my constant and aggressive fear of insect, or more specifically spiders. So yes, sometimes fear is what you allow it to be, but sometimes I would have to disagree.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of the twilight's or watched the movie, so could you explain that?
DeleteFear is something that I believe everyone has and that it can be overcome but it will always remain somewhere deep down inside of you. once you do over come it, it will just mend into you and it will become part of who you are. It was a good read I did like and I agree with everyone else!:)
ReplyDeleteThey say we fear the unknown, or that we fear what we do not understand, and I believe that on certain levels, this is true. On more extreme levels, such as a phobia, I believe that a person is unable to control that terror. This fear is no longer "the creeps," it is a true dread. But that is just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I wouldn't say I'm scared of the unknown or what I don't know. But I'm scared of losing myself, becoming part of the unknown, or not being who I am.
DeleteHow would you know if you lost yourself? Becoming part of the unknown. How would you know if you passed up that sign that says "Nowhere, Population: You?"
DeleteBy losing yourself I mean, becoming a person your not.
DeleteWhen i wrote this i was thinking more along the lines of "dont let fear control your life." Like how the boy slept with the lights on, even though he didnt like it, because he was scared. For example, if your afraid of spiders, you can go kill a bunch of spiders to help that fear, but it will only help if you try yourself to conquer it. you're the only one who can make you stop being afraid. like you allow your self to be scared by not doing anything about it. Thats more where i was trying to get at.
ReplyDeleteThat was an ingenious way to portray fear. Most people would have chosen something our age or mystical with magic.Or death of a close person. I'm guessing the boy and brother are of younger ages than us? Fear did seem to be much more... "it" when we were younger...er. I still can't sleep with my closet open or my door. Not that I'm scared... pfft. I'm macho!
DeleteEver thought of putting that in Kaleidoscope?
DeleteI understood what you were trying to do. You can control your fears as you mature. But as a young boy like in your story- he wouldn't know any better.
DeleteI agree that we shouldnt let fear control our lives & i love that title too ? When i read this it took some thinking to know exactly how to respond creatively , but allowing fear to control, not you, but your mind. There really is no "you". Everything is in our head . So how do you control something that controls you ?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think fear is something you can control. Yes, you can over come fears like heights and such, but a lot of people live in fear and panic even though they don't want to. Fear of being a failure, disappointment, not being good enough, those are all fears everyone has had at some point and some people can't control them. Interesting topic and I loved the story! It was really good and so creative!!!:)
ReplyDeleteI didn't exactly like this post. And no, this isn't my type of story either. those eerie ones, where there's death and such creep me out. Even King Kong gives me the willies. But, the story went like this: Scared to Death, brother terrifies boy, brother dies of brain complications, boy sleeps in closet, and awakes, surprised. I hope you don't mind my saying this, but the story was a bit weak. There wasn't enough background for me to feel about the brother and the boy. maybe you meant it to stay short.... And the vocabulary was a bit overused or used in places where there was no need for it. it drew me away from what the story really had to offer. I'm not saying "Becoming the next Dickens" because the goal in writing shouldn't be to measure up to your favorite author. oh God, no, because you'll never make it, belittling yourself the whole while. it's just, I couldn't connect with the story.
ReplyDeleteI somewhat agree with the post. Fear is a natual human emotion. We fear for our lives, as a long time ago when humans were first starting out, there was so much danger. We only precieve something as, for lack of a better word, scary because we feel as though it threatens our lives. The boy's fear wasn't irrational, as not only is he young, but he saw it as the monster killed his brother. The fear wasn't entirely in his head because he, as a human, was natuarally afraid for his life. Yes, the monster in his head wasn't real, but the fear he felt from it was.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was story was pretty good. I liked the meaning behind it. Fear is something everyone experiences, and" fear is sometimes a product of our imagination" (got that from a movie) We sometimes fear things that do not exist or may not ever exist.
ReplyDeleteHmm... I sorta enjoyed this story. It's almost like what is called a "creepypasta" online and did catch my interest. I was even listening to eerie music while reading it! While I enjoyed it, I have a few criticisms, mostly derived from the brother's role in this story. For one, it's stated he has brain damage. But that's the thing; what kind of brain dysfunction or disorder does he have? It almost seems like it's a blatant case of schizophrenia, with the monsters getting stronger and much bigger as time goes on, but then he randomly has a seizure and dies midway? It seems incoherent, and unless seizures are a symptom of schizophrenia that I've never heard about, it just doesn't make logical sense. But I'll give you that this story does prove that fear is a powerful force. For me, I personally feel there's a subset of fears that can be controlled, but others we can't and are those that make us human, such as stage fright.
ReplyDeleteFear is 100% what you make it to be. It can control your life or you can take control yourself. Sometimes it may be hard to take that first step into controlling your fear, but with the help of others it can be minimized. With as many problems as this world has, it's not surprising to say that all the creations of names of certain fears seem to be just a crutch to some. By using it as a crutch they are pretty much letting the fear get the best of them. I have to admit that fear has taken over my life at certain points, but in the end my family has helped me minimize that fear.
ReplyDeleteI think fear can be overcome, if you truly try to overcome it. Some fears cannot be overcome though. This story had a good meaning, but i don't think it flowed effectivly, information was scattered.
ReplyDeleteWith fear, it most certainly is what make it. How you let it influence you. My dad could care less about spiders. He has no fear of little arachnids, unlike me. I blew that fear up to size. A thing that did scare my dad was when my sister and I stayed out riding bikes too long. Came home and it was pitch black. I was about 8 and she 11. My dad told me he cried but I can't exactly remember. What terrifies me is something happening to my family. That fear is blown up much larger than some stupid spider.
ReplyDeleteI'm warming up to this thread so much more. Depending on what angle you look through glass, it'll sparkle and create color patterns, or, you'll see yourself, confused as to why the illusion won't work for you. I've totally got sparkles now!
I really enjoyed the story, but as some constructive criticism, try to play with sentence variety.(: anyways fear is so universal, for some people with serious phobias it can be life controlling. I feel that those people cope with their fears other than overcome them.
ReplyDeleteI really liked it, and I think the point you made at the end, that you can overcome fear, was an ending we weren't expecting, but it was good
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree, fear is what you allow it to be. I love your story because it really makes your statement true. The ending of the story was great because really left up the readers imagination, which, depending on the person could lead to fear. The boy is either let out of the closet, woke up to nothing, or sees the monster. I love the uncertainty of it because fear is what you allow it to be.
ReplyDeleteFear is only what you allow it to be but sometimes you do not have control, or you feel as though there is nothing you can do. Humans fear the aspects of life they cannot control: the unknown, the peculiar, the dark, etc. It is amazing how innocent objects, songs, and places can take on completely new meanings once certain circumstances have happened to change your perspective of them. Horror movies play on these. It's like the Shakespeare quote about the rose: an object is still the same, just your association with it changes. (ok maybe not the exact same, but you sort of understand where I was going with that). But this whole post makes me admire the human mind and it's power. And it reminds me of my one of my favorite songs by a band called 21 Pilots, the line in the song is, "Sometimes to stay alive, you've got to kill your mind".
ReplyDeleteI don't know if what the dad did was right or wrong. Yes, it got rid of the boy's fear and made him realize that nothing was there, but I can't even imagine being forced to face my fear like that. If i was locked in a room with spiders, I'd be freaking out just like him. I think i'd rather stay afraid than be forced into facing my fear.
ReplyDeleteFear is certainly what you make it out to be. If your imagination gets the better of you then it will play awful tricks on you. People fear what they don't know until they are shown that the fear they have is all in their mind. fear is what you make it out to be.
ReplyDeleteI understand that you have to eventually face your fears but it takes time to do all of that. You can't really just jump to facing your fears or else you be even more traumatized. I suppose it all really depends on what your fear is. I feel as if what the dad did was kinda wrong because the boy thought the monster killed his brother; the father just locking him in there, in the boy's mind what his dad did represents that the dad wants the boy to be killed too.
ReplyDeleteI Really Did Enjoy This Story! I Think It Would Have Been Interesting For Us To Continue It.
ReplyDelete