THANATHOPIA

THE FEARS OF JAMES LEEN

@You laugh at me and what you call my ridiculous fears, but I'm not offended, as I know your incredulity is the fruit of your ignorance."
James Leen rested his elbows on the table of the bar where various men were looking at him in amusement."I'm not mad or drunk, but I'm not ashamed to recognize that cemeteries, darkness, abandoned houses and forests at night with flying bats frigthen me. If you got the patience to listen, I'll tell you a story that explains the reason for these fears."

"Let's have it then, james!" one of the listeners urged.
"yes, come on, tell us," the rest repeated in chorus.

"The first thing you have to know is that before reaching Argentina, I was a prisoner for five years, wretchedly kidnapped by my own father, the respectable John Leen, Fellow of the Royal Society for Psychic Reasearch in London. On his orders I was interned in a lunatic asylum, as he feared I would reveal what he wanted to keep hidden. And this is what I am going to tell you tonight, since I can stay silent no longer.