short stories for the soul

My first encounter with fear

backstory with this: My teacher gave us a writing assignment and had a list of prompts. One of them was My first encounter with fear. They had to be in the past tense and a personal experience (unless it was a topic like If i got 1 million dollars). As soon as I saw this prompt I had to do write it. the only reason Im posting this is I had to cut out a paragraph because it's really long. So enjoy I guess. does it matter I changed the names? because i did.

My first encounter with fear

There are two types of kids, type A and type B. Type A are the kids who fear nothing but their mother and Nonna. Type B kids would be more willing to pee in their bed than face the trip to the bathroom at night. That was a bit of an exaggeration but, as a kid, I would always weight the pros and cons of going to the bathroom at night. Whenever I'm alone I've always been on edge and overly imaginative; I had my head up in the clouds. At night, I didn't want to be imagining anything. I knew it was all in my head, but that didn't stop me from thinking about a robber or monster killing me in my sleep

Around 2010, creepypastas and copypastas started to float around the internet, as well as creepy video series and games. I wasn't a big fan of copypastas, they just made me want to block everyone who sent them. On the other hand, I enjoyed creepypastas a lot. Creepypastas are stories shared and copied throughout the internet with the purpose of scaring the reader. I didn't like reading them because a 1st grader can only comprehend so many words.

I used the alternative, creepypasta readings on Youtube. The videos were good, they set an atmosphere with music and had good pacing. I knew I was too paranoid for my own good but being self-aware is important in life. I was very aware of bedtime and how much I hated it. Monsters under the bed were my worst nightmare, they could get out and grab onto you at any time. Thankfully my parents had a motion sensor light outside of my room, it made bedtime a bit easier. My bed was on the opposite side of the room from the door with the light. I also had a large painting of Winne the pooh right next to the door on the same dark pink wall. The painting was fun to look at and if a 'monster' ever came the motion light would turn on, it had a very small range about 2m or 3m, you could activate if my door wasn't closed, which it never was.

Sometime in the fall our school, St. Eugene, had a fire safety presentation in the middle of the parking lot. It was my class, the grade 1's turn to go it was a little breezy outside. We were all standing near the back of a large van listening to the lady giving the presentation, she and her colleges were wearing beige pants with a black shirt. "Remember, before going out of your room you need to check if the fire is behind the door. Does anyone here know how to check?" None of us answered, we didn't want to seem stupid, so we didn't try. "To check if it's safe, all you have to do is put your hand on the doorknob. When it's cold it's safe to go through but if it's hot don't go through the door." She and her friends continued the presentation.

When it was over, it was recess and we went to our yard to play. I had a friend who was two grades above me, her name was Aurora. She wore glasses and had shoulder-length light brown hair; her older sister was best friends with my older brother. We hung out under the shade coming from the humongous tree in the neighbor's yard and started talking for a bit. It got onto the topic of scary stories. "Hey, you want to hear a story I heard? It's pretty scary I don't know if you'll be able to handle it." She wasn't trying to bait me; she knew I could get a little paranoid at times.

I replied "Uh yeah Aurora of course I do. Don't worry I can handle it, it's just a story." I lied; I knew well enough that I wouldn't be able to sleep. The story was based on a doll that was bought from a yard sale, the kid who received it as a gift thought it was creepy, so they put it in the basement. The doll came to life at night and slowly made its way up the stairs and killed the boy. The bell rang and we made our way into class. From then on, I slept with the door closed because I wanted to be safe, from a fire or a doll I'll let you decide.

A few weeks later, it is a school night and it was very hot outside since my room is above the garage it was like sleeping in an oven. I kept my door open so I could air out my room. I fell asleep with my Winnie the Pooh nightlight turned on along with my army of plushies to protect me. That would not stop what was going to happen next.

When I woke up it was still dark outside, but it was freezing cold. No one else was awake, it was dead silent. I also noticed my nightlight was turned off; my dad turned it off sometime during the night to save power. I only had the moon as a source of light. I got up to turn on my heater and nightlight, just as I was about to push off my thin blanket, I saw a black fog gathering around the painting. Oh, I forgot to mention, this painting was the same size as two of me standing beside each other. I was already worrying, but when I saw a claw come out that's when I really started to panic. I knew it wasn't part of my imagination because shadows aren't 3D, I don't have trees near the window that make a shadow and I've never thought of a humongous claw before. All the monsters were tiny people ready to rip me to shreds.

I could still move freely, but I didn't want to. I always had horrible nightmares, but they were never like this. In dreams, I was able to move freely and not feel any pain. Now I felt like I was suffocating, I wanted to speak, yell, do something but I didn't want to risk it. A million thoughts ran through my head, maybe I can hide under my blanket, is it going to try and eat me? I could play dead, does that really work? I could scream for mom and dad, but I don't want them to die or think I'm crazy in case I'm seeing things. These all seem silly to someone reading but to a kid, frozen in fear, everything seemed so real. Kids are used to being told it's in their imagination and it's just a phase and there was a battle going on in my brain. I was already trying to imagine where it will take me or what it looks like. It was coming out of the painting slowly. For a split second, it was lit up by the light then, it just disappeared like magic. It was gone as soon as it came. Silence filled my mind and air. At that moment, me sitting on my bed, I was so glad the motion senor light turned on.

I flopped back onto the bed, mentally exhausted with everything, I would just deal with the darkness and cold for now. The next morning, I made sure to take down the painting and made it face the wall. I didn't talk about it; I saw movies where people were called crazy for seeing something. I also didn't want to deal with the questions, I kept it to myself. I promised myself I would continue to sleep with the door opened, the motion light was my safety of course. I went downstairs for a nice serving of waffles, me and my brothers got into the car with mom for school. I asked Ck if he was awake in the early morning, he said no. I knew Cedric wasn't awake because he always turned on his light and his door was across mine if he was awake, I would have seen his light turn on at some point. Mom and Dad's room is very far from the kid's rooms. I realized something, how did the light turn on if I was on the other side of the room away from the range and no one else was awake.

That was my first encounter with fear.