1 THE FEAR OF FEAR ITSELF

There was this young boy about the age of 14. His name as of now is unknown. Why was it unknown? No one in the city of "Secretly Concealed" knew who this boy was or where his family was. People thought that this boy's family could have been deceased, or could this boy have killed his own family? The boy had a haunted look in his face as if he had done something malicious. Was this boy abandoned or did he abandon his own family?

His face then switched to a different expression. It now looked as if he was angry. His eyebrows gave an aggressive stare. The question still stands: Who or what was he staring at and why? It turns out he had a blade in his hand and he knew something or someone was watching him. As he looks straight, he saw a young couple staring at him in a very odd and confused manner. The couple was watching from a distance. As the boy looked at the couple, he felt fear and ran away as fast as he could.

After days of running and hiding, the boy found a school. It wasn't any ordinary school. This school would take anyone lost or anyone that seemed to be an orphan. There was a huge clock at the top of the building. It was exactly 2:00 P.M. The boy then entered. He was nervous and frightened when he entered the principal's office.

The principal asked, "What is your name young man?" The boy finally spoke and said, "I... I don't know. The only name I was given was creep. Is that my name?" The principal said, "No son, you're not a creep. Who would call you that?" The boy responded, "I... I don't remember. All I know is that my facial expression gave a haunted look. I was scared. It was very dark that night. I was all alone or at least I thought I was."

The principal said, "You were frightened and what was a boy like you doing all alone in the night?" The boy proceeded to say, "Well, I was trying to—" (Bell rings).

"Well son, don't be late. Here's your schedule and welcome to our school. Be sure to make a friend that will help guide you out of this fear of yours." "Th... the... thank you very much, sir... Uh?" "Name's Principal Will... son. Very nice to meet you."

The boy then proceeded to walk to his first class. The first subject is history. Once the boy enters through the classroom door, the teacher looks at him and asks, "Are you a new student?" "Yes, yes I am," the boy responds. The teacher continues, "Well, you can call me Mr. Lowe. Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" The boy walks slowly closer to the teacher and whispers in his ear, "I don't know my name. That's the only thing I don't remember."

The boy then backs up and looks at all the students in the class, he noticed that all the students were looking at him in various ways. A few of them gave a killer stare. The other few pointing at him, making fun of his wet teared up clothes. The rest just looked at him in a confused manner.

The teacher says to the boy, "Well, Please have a seat anywhere you feel comfortable." Once the boy sat down, he had to deal with students still staring at him. It made him uncomfortable. As he was doing his classwork, he then looked out a window next to him. On the other side, there was another classroom window. He looks thoroughly.

There was a young lady looking through her window as well. The beautiful young lady looked at the boy. She hasn't seen him before, so through the window, she waved her hand at him. In the gesture of saying "Hi." The boy in a timid way waved back.

After History was Math, after Math was English, and finally a lunch break.

The boy had not met anyone yet, so he still felt fear of everyone around him. Mostly because the students were staring at him. The boy finally found a rounded seated table with no one sitting there. He felt relieved.

He was just about to sit down when all of a sudden four big and buff looking jocks looked at the boy in a not so welcoming matter. The main leader of the jocks said, "Hey! We're going to sit there you STUPID UGLY ASS orphan. I guess your parents didn't want you, so you ended up here in this place we call HELL!!!"

The boy says quietly, "Actually during that night I remember I was trying to attack—" "Oh, so you attacked your own family. Looks like you were begging to be in this hell here," said the leader jock. The boy says, "Well actually I...." "SHUT UP!" (The left jock shouts then grabs the boy by the back collar of his shirt and throws him on the hard and cold floor).

He continues, "Get your worthless ass out of here and stop looking at me you freak." The same young lady that the boy saw earlier comes up and says, "Hey! Leave him alone. Can't you see he's scared!?" "Yeah whatever," the main jock says. The young lady asks the boy, "Are you okay?" "I... I think so," the boy said. The young lady then says, "My name is Joyce, but people call me Joy. It's nice to meet you, sir. What is your name?"

"I don't know my real name. I have forgotten ever since that dark tragic night and oh! It's really nice to meet you too uh... Joy. You're the only one that's been kind to me today."

"Hey, I'm just trying to make a new friend and don't worry. I'll come up with either a name or nickname for you afterward," said Joyce.

The boy says in a more confident and less frightened manner, "Thank you, Joyce. You make me feel more comfortable and less frightened of everything I have seen during that very intense night." "Exactly, what did you see that very specific night?" Joyce asks.

The boy said, "Well everything was all normal until I saw a shadow. Which is impossible! There was no light at all during that night, so there couldn't have been a shadow. Whatever it was, it came closer. No! I saw two shadows come close to me. It was raining showers, winds were whistling a song. I could hear the two shadows speaking to me. One of them said: 'Come with us little boy, we promise we won't kill you.' And the other said: 'Don't worry child. I'll take real good care of you. Nothing bad will happen to you as long as you listen to me.'

"WHAT IN THE HELL!?" Joyce screams causing students to stare at her. The boy says, "Shh! Please be quiet. These people said that I killed my own family that night." Joyce then quietly whispers, "Well did you?"

The boy says, "You see I remember that I was attacking the—" (Bell rings). Speakers announce Students back to your classroom. Do not be late and be sure to check out extra fun activities.

Once the boy goes to his fourth and fifth period it was finally the sixth class. The last period of the day. When he enters through the door he saw Joyce. He decided to sit next to her since she was the only person that didn't believe he was a creep or murderer.

The subject was science. It wasn't ordinary science. This science focused on human behavior and why they act in a certain manner. The students were put into groups.

Luckily the boy was partnered up with Joyce. The boy was reading the book that the teacher had given them. As he was reading, he saw a word and the definition which in a way matched the description of this boy. It also gave a definition as to why he was scared.

The word on the book was Phobophobia: it is the fear of other phobias. It is also an anxiety disorder in which the person has extreme fear which leads him/her to psychological symptoms of panic attacks. The psychological state of the mind creates an anxious response that has itself a conditioned stimulus leading to further anxiety resulting in a vicious cycle. (end of definition).

The boy then asks Joyce, "Hey, do you think this is what I have?" Joyce then says, "I don't think so. I mean, you didn't tell me the full story about your parents and well... you're not scared of me as I can see. You've also been calm this whole time. Maybe you just got traumatized that night." "Yeah I guess so," the boy said. After they both did their work, time passed and it was finally 7:00 P.M. The end of school.

Joyce and the boy walked out the hallway and out of the exit. Joyce says, "So, I guess I'll see you later." The boy then says, "Wait! I have nowhere to go." "Well, I guess we can walk to my grandmother's house. She always serves the best dessert after dinner and she'll be delighted to see you... hopefully," Joyce says giggling. "Oh! Uh... Okay. Thank you. You're so sweet, Joyce. Are you sure I can stay?" Asked the boy.

"Of course you can! My grandmother will take good care of us. Plus, tomorrow there's no school, so we can go to this favorite place of mine. There's a lake, trees for shade, and we can have a little picnic. It'll be fun, as long as you're with me of course."

"Thank you, Joyce. I appreciate it and yeah! I would love to go somewhere where I don't feel scared. I'll be comfortable around you. I'm always comfortable around you. It's kind of like I need you." Joyce said, "Awe okay then you little sweetheart, let's get going."

They proceeded to walk through a very dark street. The houses looked abandoned. A puddle shining off the moonlight and not even one street light. It was freezing that night. Joyce out of random says, "Don't worry, this is a short cut I usually take to my grandmother's house."

The boy with fear said quietly, "Are... are you sure? This place reminds me of that night. Everywhere I look, it seems so familiar to that night that I... I believe I was trying to kill-" The boy then hears footsteps. It seems as if whoever it was, it was getting closer.

The boy then looks to his left, only Joyce was next to him. She was smiling at the boy. He then looks to his right, no one was there, just buildings. He then looks straight ahead, there was only one light pole. Once he looks to his back, he whispers to himself, "There's nothing?"

As he slowly turns around to face forward, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the two shadows he saw the other night appear very close to him. They were holding Joyce hostage! One of them covered her mouth so she wouldn't scream. The other had a sharp blade close to Joyce's neck.

The boy was shaking with fear! His hands were trembling, his feet were stiff, he was breathing heavily. His face just looked at the shadows. Their eyes were intimidating when looking closely.

The one on the right said, "We told you to come with us and nothing would've happened to you. Now look, you only have one person here, that obviously you must care for so much. Well... since you don't have anyone else. And why don't you have anyone else? Because you're a disgrace to your family. They probably didn't even want you so it was either you kill them or they kill you. You killed your family, not us. You murderous BASTARD!!!"

"No... No this can't be... I... I didn't kill them... I couldn't have killed them," the boy said trembling. The shadow said, "That's exactly what a mentally insane person would say. To bad for you we're more insane! So we are going to murder this girl you are with and show her sliced off head in front of your damn face. We want to see your scared, traumatized face when we do. We want to see you cry on the floor, just like the worthless piece of crap you are. Just one slice is all it takes!" He says laughing maliciously.

Joyce then manages to get her mouth released and screams, "NOOO!!! PLEASE HELP ME!!! PLEASE!!! I DON'T WANNA DIE!!!" tears were coming out of her eyes. The shadow on the left says, "We're going to count from three to one, so either JOIN US! or this BITCH! dies while we watch you SUFFER!"

"Don't EVER call her a bitch you low life thug!" the boy says in a pissed off tone. "What you gonna do about it, little boy? You have nothing against us. We would've killed you already if it wasn't for our boss. Now, enough talk, you have three... Two... One!"

All of a sudden there was the sound of a strong blade penetrating deeply through someone's skin. The body was now on the street floor. The blood was free-flowing throughout the entire street. There wasn't any sound at all but the sound of dead silence.

Word count 2,250