It's night time, around 10 o'clock in the evening. It's a typical night in late spring-time, the turning leaves rustle in their trees as a breeze blows through them, the lights in the houses are starting to turn off, everything is normal. Except for one house. The monster roams the streets looking for the perfect house. It finally settles on the house of a small family with a young child. It slithers through the shadows, creeping up to the front door. It tries to enter the house but is repelled by a religious symbol on the door, 'Of course the perfect target has one on the door... Too many superstitious humans these days..' It climbs up the walls of the house slipping in through the open window, thankful that it is still warm enough to have windows open. 'Just have to get inside and this won't be a problem...' it hisses in delight as it sees the child sleeping, clicking its claws happy that it can get straight to work.

You're dreaming when about being on a roller coaster with your parents when you suddenly shiver out of nowhere. In the dream you board the roller coaster and strap yourself into the ride. You are in the cart alone when the ride starts. You barely have enough time to register that your parents aren't on the ride with you when the coaster starts with a jolt, forcing you to face ahead at the twisting, turning, loop-the-looping track. The ride goes without incident until the big drop...

CLATTA-CLATTACK-CLATTA-CLATTACK.. Goes the coaster as it arduously climbs the steep rise in the track, The thing grins maliciously as it watches its influence begin, the cart begins to shake and wobble on the thin, high track.

You feel the cart begin to quiver and quake. A shock of fear jolts through you. The cart pauses at the arch and you feel your heartbeat laboriously as you sit in apprehension of what is to come next.

Creeak.. Squeal.. Silence. The cart comes to a halt at the top, Before gravity takes over and the cart plummets down the track, rocking back and forth, while going on several twists and turns. With every revolution on the track, the cart leans farther and farther off the track, before suddenly while on a high summit... It falls.

The shadowy figure watches with pride in its work as its victim snaps awake. It can sense the heavy breathing, the racing heartbeat, and sighs, absorbing the fear radiating from the small child like heat emits from a bonfire. It's expression changes from one of content to one of annoyance. The child gets up and runs to their parents room, and the shadow feels the fear that was once flowing, stop suddenly as the parents comfort their offspring.

The Thing sits in the corner of the room sulking and staring at the child as they start to fall asleep. The child soon succumbs to peaceful sleep once again until morning.

The thing watches as the child gets ready for school, not appearing to be affected in any way by the previous night's events. 'That is to be expected... Must try harder tonight... ' The thing says chiding itself 'It's never that easy..' The next night, The Shadow, whom the child had named Pete after spotting it in the shadow of their door, sifted through the memories of the vents that had taken place that day. It was as if a movie was being played in the Monster's eyes from the point of view of the child. It saw a brief summarization of the school day. First the walk to school nothing useful there. The classes, nothing there either. And finally the walk home.

"Ah.. something.. Useable..." the shadowy figure wavered in delight as it experienced the memory. A dog, chasing the child, the animal a medium sized black lab, not much bigger than the child themselve. The Thing stepped into the child's dream. They were dreaming about a circus. The Shadowy Apparition hid in the fringes of the crowd, changing small aspects of the dream, making the whole experience much, much more menacing. Just a few added shadows, changed events....

You sit in your seat joyfully watching the show. They call for a volunteer and you raise your hand enthusiastically. You are selected and walk down to where the performance is taking place. You are instructed to make a large, wolfish looking dog, sitting in a cage, switch places with your own. The illusion is successful and you are inside the cage. The cage is a flimsy aluminium one. The dog suddenly goes rabid and begins lashing out at you. It tears through the cage like wet paper and snaps it's gleaming white teeth at you. Quickly, you scramble to your feet, running as fast as you can, try to get away from the dog. You desperately look at your surroundings hoping for some shelter, but to no avail. The crowd stares at you lifelessly, making no attempt to help you. In a panic you streak out the exit with the hound directly on your heels, barking and snarling fiercely. You tear down the street, invisible to the oblivious bystanders. The menacing animal shows no signs of giving up. You, however, are loosing stamina. Fast. Your chest feels like a lead block, your breaths are staggered and ragged, your pumping arms feel like dead weight, and your legs feel like sacks of flour are strapped to them. Your vision is going blurry at the edges. You turn a corner into an alley and you collapse in a heap at the end, hoping you lost the wild creature. It turns, and slowly stalks towards you. It is now within arm's reach, you can feel its hot, putrid breath on your face. In a last ditch effort to save your own life, you lift up a copper pipe to your side and attempt to smack the beast. It grabs the metal rod and flings it away as easily as a child throwing a ragdoll. It gives you an eerie human-like grin, and sinks its teeth into your throat.

You snap awake screaming, clutching your hands to your throat. You pull them away expecting to see a bloody mess, but they come away clean. 'It was only a dream... None of it's real..' Your parents, deep in sleep didn't hear your scream. You sit upright in your bed trying to calm down. Taking deep breaths you glance around the room looking for something to comfort you. Everything that you once found solace in, now appears frightening. Your stuffed animals seem threatening, the usually calm noises outside ominous, and the shadows flicker, casting terrifying shapes across the room. Sweat drips down your neck causing you to shiver in the chilly night. None of these things give you any cause to sleep tonight.

The Monster snakes around the room, taking in extra wisps of fear and discomfort like a supernatural vacuum cleaner, until it knows it has enough strength to manifest once again in its strongest form. That of Fear itself.

You've been on edge a lot recently. Everyone has started to notice your change in demeanor. You've stopped participating in class, you don't play with the other kids. No one else knows why this is happening, but you do. You've been having weird daydreams whenever you close your eyes. In them you're walking down an alleyway. It dark, and cold, and silent. You see weird shapes in the shadows. Trashcans form strange silhouettes on the walls. You try to convince yourself it's only a dream, just like the others, but for some reason you can't shake the fact that it seems more substantial than the others. Everything feels more tangible, more . . . real. At this point you realized you aren't just afraid everything that has happened in your dreams. You're afraid of Fear. You don't feel like you can trust your own head, because that's where dreams come from right? You're anxious all the time. Afraid that your fears are going to come true. Afraid that Something is going to happen. Something is going to go wrong.

The first day of the next week, instead of sitting idly by in the child's room, The Thing follows them out on their walk to school. It slinks through the shadows trying to figure out how to best use all of the young human's energy. It comes up with a plan.. First it changes form, creating the illusion of another child. The Thing runs out of the alley in the form of the other child, and causes the facsimile of a human to flail its arms and cry pathetically. When the child asks what is wrong the Thing responds with the illusion pointing down the dark alley, and saying merely 'I-I-In T-Th-There..' before causing it's false form to run away. Once far enough away, the Thing's mirage sloughs away, melting into flickers of shadow only leaving behind the original creature. It then quickly goes back to the alley where it left the child, it's teeth glinting as it smiles, slowly watching the plan fall into place.  

You take one step, into the alley way. You shudder with cold, and a spike of trepidation courses through your veins. It takes all of your energy and mental stamina to just put one foot in front of the other. As you go farther into the alley, it gets colder, and darker, and quieter. Time seems to inch by as you look around, eyes wide like a deer in headlights. You hear a skittering noise and look around startled. Then there's a huge CRASH as a trash can falls over, and you nearly have a heart-attack. Your pulse is racing, your breaths are ragged, and your palms are sweating. You haven't felt this much fear in a long time. You step tentatively around the trash can and creep farther down the seemingly endless path. The walls feel like they're closing in, the darkness chokes out any decent source of light, leaving only a grim, dim, twilight, even though it is supposedly 8 in the morning. 'It's all in my head.. It's all in my head... there's nothing to be afraid of..' You think to yourself, trying to overcome the crushing, crippling fright. You have an overwhelming feeling of deja vu, causing you to look around. Glancing behind you, a flitting thought of something following you flashes through your mind. You turn around, backing up slowly. You pick up a corroded metal pipe. 'Just like in the dream..' a small voice nags in the back of your mind. You hold it up, hoping to defend against whatever may or may not be there. Your back hits the end of the alley. The freezing cold clay numbs your back, and digs into the cloth of your shirt.

The Thing now has enough power to take on a solid tangible form. It's figure hardens, and becomes more solid, forming into a hulking, black beast, with long gray claws, needle like teeth, and phosphorus, cat-like eyes. Shadows trail off it like fog off a bay, spilling at it's feet forming a misty black carpet around its feet. It slowly begins to approach the child. 'This is it..' The black incarnation of Fear thinks giddily. It lifts one foot up, and lets it fall on the concrete with a dull, echoing thump. The monster's footfalls shake the pebbles and cans in the alley, causing a slight clattering noise to go along with each drop of the foot. It slowly approaches the child.

You shake and quiver as you hear the monster slowly approaching. You see its glowing yellow eyes in the darkness of the alley. It's all you can do to stay upright and not curl into a fetal position and cry. The Dark Thing comes closer.

And closer.

And closer.

And closer, until it is standing over you, Black shadows surround the two of you, drifting up your legs, chilling you to the bone, filling your head with all of the malice, anticipation, and amusement It is feeling. Your heart is beating faster than you ever thought possible, your knees are weak, your head is swimming, and stars dance in your eyes. Just being in the presence of this being is causing you to shut down.

The Thing grabs you in it's powerful hands, squeezing everything it can from your small form. You look up at the Monster, staring directly into its eyes. In them you see nothing but hatred, loathing, and feelings of sadism. In yours it sees fear, and at the very end, a small glint of resignation and bravery, before they glass over and the light leaves them forever.

Hissing, it drops the child's lifeless form on the ground of the alley, willing itself to become insubstantial again. "Another gone. Time to move on . . . again . . . must move on . . ." it whispers. The monster climbs up the wall, looking over the town, scanning, searching for another victim, just as it has been doing for hundreds of thousands, of millions of years, knowing it will never be done, knowing it can never disappear. 

Because Fear, never dies.