Is your fear real?

A Story by Vernika

As the clock struck nine and it was time to go to bed, little Nina shivered at the thought of going to her room. Ever since mamma told her that she was big enough to have a room of her own, she had, almost every single day tried all that she could to get away from being on her own.

Every night, all her fears took shape right in front of her eyes when a monstrous shadow would start to form on the wall. And in that dreadful setting, the only one she could turn to was her faithful little Daisy bear. She would clutch Daisy into her arms as tight as she could and that would lend her drumming heart, moments of comfort. Besides, Daisy had powers. Powers to cast the beasty shadow away from sight. When Nina enveloped Daisy into her arms, the shadow would disappear and when Daisy was away from her, the shadow would get bigger. Nina believed that Daisy was her only support in the agonizing world until the day she noticed that the monstrous shadow moved along with the bear. When she lifted Daisy's hand, the shadow lifted its hand too. When Nina pushed the bear away from the bed, towards the wall the shadow got bigger and that was when everything came out clear as a crystal. The fearsome shadow was actually Daisy's. And before we fall into fits of laughter on the little girl's sheer innocence and and lack of judgement skills, there is something we need to know-we are all like her. We gullibly trust people like Daisy who pretend to protect us from all the bad going on in the world, but what they actually do is cast illusionary figures and scare us to an extent where we feel frantic before doing anything we are not familiar with.

This Daisy bear could be in anyone around you. It may exist in the jealous co-worker or the pretentious neighbourhood aunty. But the Daisy you need to be the most careful about is the one that lives within you. Just make sure that this bear doesn't succeed in stopping you from doing what you wish to do. Nina understood that her fear was merely an illusion and she discarded the Daisy bear out of her life. When are you dicarding yours?