Bookworm

Bookworm- Prologue

my first work here on wattpad, expect more chapters soon! this is just an intro, kind of a teaser about the story to come. enjoy! :)

Hit me up on Twitter, @thisisjadedale :)

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I didn't care what anybody else said, I still hated the dark.

To be afraid of it was ok when you were little.  

Think back to when you were young, think about bed time.

You'd lie in bed, your parents having just tucked you in, and you'd be nearly asleep. Warm, snug, secure in your bed, you'd begin to drift off into the warm embrace of slumber.

And then you'd hear something.

Something simple, a floorboard squeak perhaps, but instantly you'd be wide awake. Every cell in your body would tingle and you'd feel the adrenaline begin to flow. Every sense was on red alert, needlessly. It was just a floorboard. But you were a child. You didn't think like that- your imagination ran into overdrive. Your bedroom was no longer the safe, cosy, impenetrable fortress you believed it was. And it was dark. So dark. The blackness was crushing, because your parents insisted you were finally old enough to go without a nightlight. Your bedroom door would be open, just a sliver but somehow, it'd begin to open more. Fear engulfed you then, making it hard to draw air into your lungs.

Too terrified to get out of your bed, lest the monsters you know exist would grab your ankles the moment you stepped off, you'd hunch into a ball in the centre of the bed, wary not to put any body part too close to the edge- you refused to be an easy target. Vulnerable and frightened, you watched the door for evil forces until tiredness washed over you and you fell asleep.

Yet, would this have been so scary during the day time?

Of course, in hindsight, you know it wasn't a monster- it was purely the squeaky floorboard in your hall. And it's easy to look back and laugh at the idiocy of childhood. But honestly, no matter how old we get, the moment the Earth rotates away from the sun and night time descends upon us once more, things are just scarier.

The walk home from a friend's house, that you've done so many times before becomes a race to get back to safety. With only the infrequent pools of light from streetlamps to guide you, every bush is home to murderers and thieves, every shortcut and alleyway you normally wouldn't hesitate to take is a trap, and every step is hurried, in order to shorten the journey through the dark- through the unknown.

Because it isn't the dark that scares you.

What you're afraid of isn't what you can see- it's what you can't see that's terrifying.

Yet when we reach a certain age, suddenly to be scared of the dark isn't ok anymore. It's irrational, we should know better- what could possibly be lurking in the shadows? You're old enough to realise monsters aren't real.... blah blah blah.

So many reasons, but what if i told you they were all wrong?

That it isn't crazy to be scared of the dark- actually it's the most sensible thing in the world.

That monsters are real, regardless of what your parents tell you.