September 13th, 2019
As a child, ever since I could remember, the thought of being alone in the dark made me shiver, tingle and kinda wanna pee. When I was in the dark, I saw the hands of evil spreading out, reaching for me, but never touching me. Even though it visually made no difference, closing my eyes was the best thing I could do. This gave me the comfort that even if there were creatures lurking in the dark, I wouldn’t need to witness their awful, hideous, barbaric forms. Maybe it was the concept that adults used to entertain me when I was a kid: peekaboo. If you don’t see me, I don’t see you.
I often made the selfish request for my mother to lay in bed with me until I fell asleep. Other nights, I enjoyed the warmth of the living room lights peering through the gap of my door. The electricity bill definitely suffered. If sleeping was a subject in school, I would’ve definitely failed all my sleeping subjects in elementary school. If I shut my eyes for awhile, I could feel the muscles on my forehead tense up. Whenever I let myself rest on the bed, I would see an explosion of colors, think about all the things I would never say or relive a moment that brought me anxiety. It would take quite a while for my software to cool down.
On a certain night, I enjoyed the comfort of my mom, laying beside me. Eventually she had to sleep as well, so she repeated the same routine of leaving the door slightly open, turning on the living room lights and going back to bed. Sadly, I did not have the luxury of falling asleep as soon my head touched the pillow. I tossed and turned like an omelet in a frying pan, eyes still set on the gap that was a barrier between the darkness and I.
The tranquility broke when a hand reached out and pressed the button that would disconnect the my electrical circuit of hope. My eyes, once gazing at the mellow light was then gaping at the darkness of doom. I instinctively sealed my eyes shut, but shortly, the muscles above my eyebrows started to tingle. Backed into a corner, I relaxed my rigid forehead muscles and opened my eyes. It was then, I saw a dark, sly and deformed shadow hanging from the ceiling. On all fours, it observed me. It didn’t have eyes, but I knew it was staring into my soul.
I bravely glanced back at it, but to my horror, it started to move from one end of the ceiling to the other. I pulled the blanket from my body onto my head, creating a protective barrier between the beast and myself. Suddenly, a heavy feeling pushed on me and there was weight sitting on my torso. I tried shifting my body, disabled. I tried lifting my arm, paralyzed. I tried wiggling my toe, denied. My pounding heart sunk into my chest as my mind drowned in panic. There was only one thing left to do, only one thing I could do.
I firmly chanted in my head, “Away Satan, away Satan,” over and over again in my head. As my thoughts focused on the words, “away Satan,” my thoughts drifted to another realm. The weight on my chest lifted and I slowly lost consciousness. The monster vanished. The room vanished. My thoughts vanished. I finally slept.
Process: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1swnY56M-QAKaDnyHHU1paU1rzTe0H1LawqnGfNFBnGg/edit
Brainstorm: I have always had an issue with sleeping and so this paper wasn’t very hard to start writing. During the process, I struggled again with composing my thoughts. But this time, I think I did a pretty good job including all the right details without making it too much or too little. Overall, this piece is writing is one I am most proud of.
Hi Tianne, I loved this piece of writing! Your voice and personality was able to shine through this piece. Although…
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Hi Tianne, I really loved how you were able to personify your fear of the dark. I can sympathize with you because I also once had a fear of the dark. I loved your use of magic threes and other descriptive writing techniques. I thought that sometimes they were a bit too concentrated, but I don’t think that is downright negative but instead an artistic choice.
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