Are You Afraid of The Dark?

It was going to be one of those nights, just like every other night. It had always been the same during all my life. I was in my room ready to sleep, but there were the shadows revolving around, forming terrifying patterns and silhouettes in the walls and suddenly turning into horrible creatures. For a moment I felt that I was five again and the thought of it frightened me. While I was in the dark, I could feel my heart beating as the intensity of my fear grew bigger and bigger. I tried in vain to conciliate sleep and to have some rest. I tried to ignore the outragious sounds coming from behind my door, getting always closer, but it was impossible.
The fights and usual screams came to me gradually. They reminded me how I used to attribute those horrible noises to the monsters that I believed inhabited my house. I could almost feel their breath in my neck as if they were real again. The cold sweat was going down my spine numbing me. I remembered how I use to try to turn around to see the creatures even though I was frozen with horror. I remebered how much I shivered incapable of any form of control while I was trying to find the courage to look around. I had the feeling that everything would have vanished as soon as I had done that. The shadows, the monsters, the silhouettes, the sounds. But, instead I barely managed to take cover under the blankets and cry for my mom. I always succeeded in falling asleep – gradually - after a couple of hours when I was tired enough, still hearing those voices which at some point in the night started to seem less monstrous and more and more familiar. I had never been quite sure if it was just a dream but sometimes I could almost recognize my dad.
Things weren’t different that night either. After a while, I finally fell asleep just like every other night. When I woke up at morning I could still feel my five years old trembling inside of me. I was expecting my mother to come inside the room anytime and pick me up. This time I knew it. It was never a dream and for a brief moment -no longer than ten seconds- I still loved my father.