A Walk In A Parking Garage

Goodbye

This question pulled him out of his awkward state immediately. His brow raised in disbelief at the question. Wasn't it obvious? He was the master of fear! The lord of fear! Fear was his to control. The only thing he could control. He couldn't even control himself sometimes, it made him enraged when he became too afraid or shy to do something so he forced himself to act the only way he could. Hell even he knew he was a douche sometimes but it didn't matter. It got things done.

He looked at her in the eyes. Her look she gave him was genuine. She honestly wanted to know why he did what he did. He didn't feel that she would say anything too horrible if he tried to get her to understand. So he talked. He told her about what it was like when he was nearly half her age and from then on. Fear had been his only friend. He had learned everything about it and how to control it along with the chemicals involved. He saw its beauty and power and relished the idea of being able to control it. He loved finally having control over his own world and no one being able to take him down again. He tried as delicately and passionately as possible to explain how it felt to know the feeling of watching someone else's nightmares came to life. How fascinating it was to know why someone was afraid, what they were afraid of and seeing them be afraid. The way their hair stood on end and chills came to their skin. The entire time he spoke he stared off into space imagining and remembering all the times he had made someone afraid. The thrill of seeing his work bare fruit! He described in detail how his formulas and compounds worked. It wasn't until he started to finish that he realized they were both leaning forward in fascination.

He coughed to clear his throat and break the strange state they were both in. She blinked and pulled back realizing what she doing. She laughed quietly and sighed looking away for a moment to collect herself. The men watched again eyebrows raised and one repressed the need to make a snide comment.

"Yeah. I can relate."

He gave her a puzzled look. No one else seemed to know what it was like.

"Sort of. I mean, I was never heavily bullied like you were. But I get the fear thing."

He sighed and fell back against the barrier. Of course she didn't funny understand. He hadn't expected her to. But at least she wasn't saying things like, 'that's horrible! How could you do that?!"

She went on to explain how much she had always loved scary stories and scaring people. Never their deepest darkest fears but just seeing them scream made her laugh to no end and bring her joy. He nodded, he knew what she meant. That was exactly what he was like when he first started using fear. It was nice to talk about this without being called crazy or having the person screaming their lungs out. But he was still curious. What WAS she afraid of?

She seemed to have read his mind and stared off out at the view with a sad look on her face.

"You want to know my worst fear?"

The cold breeze went through the lot as the cold night air went by. The men who had been talking amongst each other slowly went quiet and looked at her. She had a small smile on her face as she started to open her mouth to talk.

"Losing my family. My friends. The ones I love."

Crane said nothing as he listened in fascination.

"I can handle pain, I mean why be constantly afraid of death and dying and being in pain? If I do that I'll never live will I? When I was little I used to be afraid of the dark. But now I realize I shouldn't be, I actually kind of welcome it now. The only thing I can think of being scared of is spiders. Spiders and being alone."

The men thought it over and looked away. Crane seemed to be in deep thought.

She put her head in her arms and bunched up her knees to her chest. She was quiet for a few moments and she seemed to be debating whether to continue. Her face slowly darkened as painful thoughts came up in her mind. After several moments she spoke not looking at anyone.