A Circus of Fear

Panophobia

This is a story about a boy. this boy is your average ten year old. He likes game, dolls, race cars, animals, books, and toys. He loves to write, poetry especially. He dreams of becoming a famous poet. He has a loving family, two older twin brothers, his mom and dad. All of whom he loves very much. But the boy has a problem, he is afraid. He's afraid of the dark and what lurks in it. He is afraid of making friends, of being alone, of monsters, and aliens, heights, bugs, forests, flying, success, and failure. Why, he's even afraid of what the things he likes and the people he loves, no they didn't do anything to harm him or make him afraid.

Now no one knows why he is afraid, not even the boy himself. His family did everything they could think of to try and help him not be afraid. They tried talking to him and explaining why things that are not as frightening as they seem. They tried to find way to distract him from his fears, They even tried hypnosis. Eventually they ran out of ideas, and tried taking him to a doctor. In fact they took him to a lot of doctors. They were no help. One after another they all said the same thing, said he was fine and prescribed medicine, therapy, and other rather unhelpful forms of treatment. They were at a loss. One day however while talking to the boy's Grandfather, the subject had come up and he had suggested that the boy come stay with him at his login cabin in the mountains for the summer. He said what the boy needed was a change in scenery.

Now, the boy didn't really know his grandfather too well and he had only been to his cabin once. When he was just a baby, but he remembers a strange feeling from that point in his life. A feeling that everything was gonna be alright, that nothing could in his way, like he had nothing to fear. So he agreed to go. Who knows, maybe all he did need was a change in scenery.

Oh but if only they knew, what his grandfather really had planned for his treatment...

Panophobia: a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil.