What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Afraid of the Dark

The Lesson We Must Learn

"So, Sarah, Chelsey, are you ready to play?" he asks. "P-play?" I ask in a confused voice. "Yea, play , it's a game called What Are You Afraid Of," he replies with extreme contentedness in his voice. "I-I d-don't r-really want to p-play," Chelsey says shaking violently while keeping her face turned toward me, I was trying to keep my eyes off him too, the last time I saw the mask it showed something terrible, I don't want to go through that again. For some reason his voice turned from normal to harsh, "Look at me! Look at my mask, Sarah!" This is why you don't say your name in front of people you don't know, they use it against you. He kicked me in the ribs and I fell over in pain, gasping for air.He yelled for me to look at him, and I forced myself to look at his face where the mask had a image of a boy with cuts all over his face. I felt sick, I recognized that boy, he was a friend from school. "What do you see?" the man asked me while I stared in horror at his face. When I didn't answer he came closer and yelled even louder slapping my face with every word he spoke, "WHAT." WHACK! "DO." WHACK! "YOU." WHACK! "SEE?!" WHACK! I sobbed and choked out the words, "A-a b-boy f-from s-school, with c-cuts all o-over h-his face," my face stung from where he slapped me with his gloved hand, and my ribs burned after the hard kick he gave me. "Oh, Sarah, please tell me you're ok, I can't see that much what's going on, I only heard him slap you and saw his shadow hurt you," Chelsey looked toward where I was laying on the ground and begged me to tell her if I was ok. "F-fine," I stammered. "Chelsey, Chelsey, Chelsey, what am I going to do with you, my normal treatment won't work if you can't see very well," he scolded wagging his finger at her. Stunned from what had happened to me she replied " I-I don't know..." "Well, little girl we'll have to find a way to make this work, it wouldn't be fair to just treat Sarah, now would it?" He taunted Chelsey, slowly advancing toward her. She blurted out "No, it wouldn't, I have special glasses on the desk that let me see," "NO! Chelsey why'd you tell him that!" I yell at her. "I had to, I can't let you suffer alone!" She declares looking at me with a sad smile. "You are such a good friend, but you shouldn't have told him that," I say gently. "Stop that! I can't stand how weak you two are!" the man growls at us. A jolt of courage wells up in me, and I jump up and kick him, right where the sun doesn't shine...hard. He doubles over and falls to his knees, "RUN!" I yell grabbing Chelsey's hand and pulling her out of the room, I bolt down the steps and turn the lock. Too, late, the man has recovered and trumped down the stairs, I frantically turn the knob and throw the door open. I run out with Chelsey in tow, but he grabs me by my hair and yanks me back, making me hit the wall and collapse. He grabs Chelsey and throws her against the wall too, she crumples to the ground and he roughly shoves her glasses on her face. She gasps and covers her mouth, she saw his mask. I don't know what she saw but she starts shaking even more violently then before. "You- shouldn't have done that!" He yells at us, grabbing us both by our arms he pulls us up the stairs and into another room in the hallway. "Sit!" he yells and walks out slamming the door behind him, we hear a scraping noise and know he's blocking the door.