Mind over Matter

The shadows slumber as the sun goes down. They then wake, caressed by the darkness that is the night, the night that is now upon us.

I jumped in fright as the hollow sound echoed around the flimsy walls of the empty room. It was a mindless thing to do, jump. For the thing that haunted me was encased in its intangibility, and certainly could not be escaped by my painfully desperate attempt to ‘jump’, of all things, away from it. Despite the seconds of false, and entirely psychological, reassurance that it had provided me with, that perhaps the ever growing force of shadows would not be able to reach me if my feet were off the floor… Jumping was a mindless thing to do.

The sound rattled through the room once more. I gripped the window sill behind me as my bones turned to fluid and my thoughts turned to mush.

There was nothing else here,

…Yet the shadows refused to correspond with reason as they continued in their ever reaching stealth.

There was nothing to be afraid of.

It’s all in your head! It’s all in your head! The fleeting voice of confidence in my head chanted.

The non-existent creatures of chaos continued to refuse to be bound by the laws of what is possible.

Just calm down, there is nothing here. There is nothing here.

The room remained as it always had: The four flimsy wooden walls, the ever creaking floor… it remained empty.

There is nothing here, my mind managed to confirm.

There is nothing to fear.

There is nowhere to run.

There is nowhere to hide.

“There are things in this very room that will always haunt your nightmares…”

My concept of reality faded. Resistance was pointless.

Fear always wins… It always has…

…Yet fear made us stronger.

Perhaps there was nothing creeping here in the dark.

Perhaps there was no true reason to fear.

Perhaps my flailing grasp at courage had helped,

I would not be afraid.

I clenched my fist and took a step forward into the harmless, empty, room.

The four flimsy wooden walls stood strong, the ever creaking floor was stable… it remained empty of danger.

The sound once again rattled itself around the room, coaxing out the shadows, and all that I had feared.

I jumped back against the wall.

“Nothing is ever that simple” I muttered to myself as I watch the ever proceeding wall of shadows advance, and wished for a dawn that would never come.