A History Of Fear Novels & Stories

No organized human resistance has emerged in the post-war period. No organized human resistance. Something inside of me snapped. The chair I was sitting on jolted backwards, the legs scrapping loudly against the floor. I froze. What was that? The room was empty, quiet. Fear climbed up my throat, replacing the fury that had been brewing a moment ago. I closed the book, rising to my feet. Fear clogged my throat, but the weight of a hundred and seven years settled in my chest. Twelve had believed there was a human pack.

In my last attempt to disentangle myself from her vice hold, she called my name, effectively keeping me from trying again. Fear was a human’s natural response to danger, threat, and pain. I’ve met a handful of people who feared nothing, not even death. But they weren’t born that way. An event in their life forced them to turn off that part of their emotion. At the same time, I’ve looked into people’s eyes, terrified of what I would do to them, heard them scream, pleaded for their lives to be spared. But Benny’s fear lingered as though it had been carved on the back of her head. The question is, what triggered it to resurface? Who inflicted that fear? Why now?

DAMIEN'S POV: It had been almost two decades since I felt afraid. The emotion was unfamiliar to me; I never understood it. Maybe it's because I hardly ever felt it; I didn't know what it was or maybe I had forgotten what it felt like and how terrifying it is. But now I remember. I used to feel disgusted by those who felt fear, especially if it was for something that wouldn't kill you. But now I get it: fear doesn't always have to be associated with death.

his eyes cut to me, then slid to Zach—“you’re young. Passionate. But passion burns out. Fear lasts.” The words were a challenge, and every man at the table knew it. I leaned back in my chair, crossing one leg over the other slowly, deliberately, showing him I wasn’t rattled. “Fear makes men obey when you’re watching. But fear also makes them wait for weakness so they can strike back. Fear ruled by itself is brittle. It cracks. It shatters. My father’s empire already proved that.” A murmur passed around the table. his jaw tightened, but I didn’t let him speak again.

Zev’s POV Fear is a strange thing. It creeps in slow, like a fog at the edge of your vision. You don’t notice it at first—just a weight in your chest, something crawling behind your ribs. Then it wraps around your spine, and you can’t breathe quite right. That’s what I feel now. I’ve heard these stories my whole life. The ones they tell around firepits during long winter nights. Of cursed bloodlines and dark druids. Of the end of the world coming not from war—but from within.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022 5: 10 p.m. I’m on my counter, receiving orders again, and looking here and there, if he is here or not. I’m too afraid of him. I’m thinking about him all the time that why he is here. I can’t focus on my work and my body is still shivering. My hands are shaking while writing orders. But I have to do work. I can’t leave. I fear that if I go to home now and if he is here, he will follow me up to the home and I don’t want it to happen.

I could feel his hot breath travel down my face, sending shockwaves through my entire body. His eyes bore into me, sharp and unyielding. All of a sudden, I felt small, like a prey cornered by a predator, ready to pounce. This wasn’t how I envisioned our meeting. The warmth, the laughter, the gentle personality I had dreamt of now felt like nothing but a pup's whimsical fantasy. Lori howled in distress, her cries echoing my own fears and her anxiety merging with mine. I stood torn between the urge to lash out at him for hurting her and the paralyzing fear of his rejection.

My expression furrows and I remember I have a loose end to bind. Watching my mother die when I was eight broke something critical in me, something vital to human existence, something was brutally taken that night. They say to be truly human you need to feel fear. Fear stops us from making idiotic decisions. Fear keeps us alive. Fear keeps the world suspended in the best balance between black and white, good and evil, light and dark, yin and yang. It makes the world go round, fear. But I didn't feel fear as I embedded the Swiss knife my father gifted me on my sixth birthday into the man violating my mother's dead body.

“Every civilization eventually becomes terrified of being seen.” Because visibility meant evaluation. And evaluation meant possible extinction. The signal spread through the consciousness layers again. Not aggressively. Calmly. “Current species demonstrates unstable accelerated evolution.” Billions of human minds recoiled emotionally. The signal continued. “Historical outcome probability remains unfavorable.” The cold faction surged instantly. Fear exploding through them. “Rollback now.” “Suppress evolution.” “Hide humanity.” The network destabilized violently again. Nathan cursed softly under his breath. “They’re going to panic.”

she said. Elara was quiet for a moment. "I think you were afraid for a very long time," she said. "And I think the teaching about fear is the most useful thing you've written." She held her daughter's gaze. "It should be in the curriculum," Elara said. She thought about that. She had written it for herself—to understand her own history with the fear, to articulate what she had learned about operating through it rather than despite it. She had not thought about it as curriculum material because it was too specific to her own experience to feel universal.