Fiction Fragment Friday
This is another story about the magic user Benjamin Eversole. Well that was one of the names I’ve used for him. There were a couple others before I settled. If I’m going to keep developing the character I really should get all the details of the world written up and finalized.
This story came from a thought exercise and a conversation I had during the week. The two combined seamlessly into the story you are about to read.
Despite what many people think it is not actually the dark that they are truly afraid of. The fear comes from what the darkness represents and the emotion it elicits. Humans don’t like the unknown and darkness takes the world we know and hides it from us. Our minds create worst case scenarios about what we can’t see. For some the imagined dangers are far worse than anything the world they know could possibly present them with.
When you really think about it most fears can be distilled to a lack of control. We are so obsessed with controlling every aspect of our world that when we can’t it makes us feel helpless. Darkness, flying, heights, and even claustrophobia are all just a fear of things we can’t control in our environment. These moments of fear are when the world reminds us just how little control, we actually hold over it.
In moments of fear, I try to remind myself that it is just a lack of control that I fear. There is no point in obsessing about the things you can’t control. That mental energy is better spent on those things that you can. Of course, the human mind doesn’t really function on logic. It is a crazy jumbled mess and that is before we even factor in chemical imbalances or trauma.
Knowing all of this didn’t really help me in that moment. I was in a rickety old Ferris Wheel car rocking back and forth. When you think about it Ferris Wheels are really the center of a Venn diagram of fears. Are you afraid of heights, enclosed spaces, large spaces, exposure, being on moving objects, or vertigo? Well, all those fears intersect right smack dab in a Ferris Wheel. I don’t know how anyone could enjoy and not be triggered by one of those things.
Why was I on a Ferris Wheel if I find them terrifying you might ask. Well, it was the only way to get a good view of the entire carnival area. Something dark and hungry was hunting on the carnival grounds and I was having no luck finding it on foot. From above I could send out tendrils of power and blanket the whole area with a web of detection. Oh yeah there was a spider in the Ferris Wheel car with me so I guess we can add arachnophobia to that list. Thankfully I don’t suffer from it. I was extremely exposed with no where to go though and in my line of work that is terrifying.
I saw the shadow move behind the game booths and my detection web surged. It had a feel to it that was unmistakable. The creature hunting the grounds was a shadow lynx. A being made of living shadows and condensed fears. My anxiety suddenly made a lot more sense. They have an aura about them that draws out fears in humans. They feed on them which might not sound bad, but a person’s fear is a part of them. Eating the fear is like taking a bite out of their very soul. What makes them more dangerous is because they use your own fear against you their aura cuts right through most mental defenses.
Knowing what I was dealing with I adjusted my defenses to prevent further aura impact. Unfortunately, because it had found its way in, I couldn’t shield from the fear it had already induced in me. I was high above the carnival locked in a cage wracked with fear and had no way of directly confronting the predator. I had made a mistake and now all I could do was watch helplessly as it narrowed in on its prey. A lost child. I was supposed to be the one guarding innocent people from these supernatural beings, and I had failed. Depression, frustration, and self-loathing fought to overwhelm the fear. That was when I had a realization.
I pulled the power from my web and focused it on the shadow lynx. It couldn’t do anything to harm the creature, but that wasn’t my intent. I poured every bit of power I could generate in my diminished state. Working with magical energies requires extreme focus and debilitating emotions can destroy that focus. I was extremely weak magically in that moment, but I had enough for what I was trying to do. My power lit up the lynx magically like a spotlight. Anything with any degree of magical sensitivity couldn’t help but be drawn to the creature.
I saw them drop from the sky and swoop through the rows of food and game booths. Five airborne predators known for being territorial. Shadow Ravens closed in on the lynx circling it. They took turns diving and pecking at the creature, but the lynx would not go easily. With a lunge it plucked one of the birds from the air ripping it into threads of shadow it could absorb. The larger collection of emotions couldn’t all be digested, but Shadow Ravens do contain fear.
The fight was fairly evenly matched, and I couldn’t be sure of the winner. I did know that child was going to be the loser in the end if I couldn’t get there. The victor was going to be hurt and hungry, needing to replenish their own energies. My desperate move pointing the lynx out to the ravens had been a stalling tactic to give me more time. I had recognized the other feelings being pushed on me as an additional aura. I figured pitting the two predator types against each other would give me an opportunity to think of something else.
My gambit had an unexpected benefit. With the shadow creatures fighting their auras had shrunk. They needed all their power for the fight and that meant they couldn’t mess with my head anymore. My focus was returning and with focus came power. I reached deep within my internal reservoirs and fed courage and positive thoughts into it. For creatures of shadow the tint of emotions they were incapable of digesting could poison them.
I fed my power into the park’s lighting fixtures causing them to grow brighter. The light was imbued with my power and burned away at the shadow creatures. I felt screams of psychic pain from them as they withered under my attack. I knew the bulbs couldn’t last much longer and sure enough they started shattering. With an open path of darkness, the predators fled into the night. I slumped back into my seat in a combination of relief and exhaustion. They were still out there somewhere, but the kid was safe. That would have to be enough.