Read Amid the Recesses: A Short Story Collection of Fear for Free Online

out.”
    Mark’s comment caused Doctor Olsen to
look toward the light switch near the door. It seemed farther away
than before.
    Mark continued. “I looked
over at the bald guy in the elevator and he was surrounded by four
kids. They were watching me and pointing at him. There was blood on
his hands.” Mark curled his fingers into his palms and lowered his
hands to his side. “The kids’ lips were blue. Their skin was pale.
They looked dead. They pointed at him. He did something, I knew
it.” Mark returned to his seat. After he sat, he leaned
forward.
    Doctor Olsen noticed Mark’s
unease. “You saw children? Their pointing—you felt it meant that
the man in the elevator was guilty of something?”
    “ He
killed them. What else could it have meant? I bet he knew that I
knew, too. Sick son of a bitch knew that I knew. That’s why he
looked at me that way.” Mark said. He scooted to the end of the
chair.
    Doctor Olsen’s eyes
narrowed. “What did you do then, Mark?”
    “ It came over me. Instinct,
doctor. I hit him. Over and over again, in the dark. I felt my fist
smashing into his head. I felt his head giving away under my fists.
It just made me want to hit harder, doctor. When I looked up, the
children were gone. They’re never there for more than a second.
They need to be gone before adaptation, right?” Mark asked, as if
the doctor would know.
    Doctor Olsen shook his
head. “These things you see, they disappear shortly after you
initially see them? You think that’s why other people can’t see the
things you see?”
    “ Something like
that.”
    “ Are they always people,
Mark? The things that you see?”
    “ Not always. There have
been things that are difficult to describe, doctor.”
    “ Such as?” The doctor
asked.
    “ Just things.” Mark said.
He wiped his sweating hands on his pant legs.
    Doctor Olsen relaxed into
his chair and wrote on his notepad. “When the elevator was finally
opened, Mark, that man was badly injured. He had to be rushed to
the hospital.”
    “ I know. If they saw what I
saw, doctor, they would have done the same thing. I don’t expect
anyone to understand, but that man did something. I know it. You
don’t have to believe me. No one does.” Mark’s voice
weakened.
    “ What else do you see,
Mark? You said this sort of thing has been happening since
childhood. Would you try to explain?”
    Mark hesitated. “I think
the things people are afraid of, doctor, the silly things—“ Mark
looked up and stared at Olsen. “I think people have a reason to be
afraid.”
    Doctor Olsen cocked his
head to the side. “Afraid of what, Mark?”
    “ I remember kids telling me
that I should jump into bed, because the things under the bed would
get me if I didn’t. Things in the dark.”
    “ Achluophobia is actually
very common. Fear of the dark.” The doctor said and leaned his
cheek on a balled fist.
    “ Are people afraid of the
dark or what’s in it? Like, are people afraid of heights or are
they afraid of falling? People should be afraid of what’s in the
dark, doctor.” Mark’s voice trembled barely above a
whisper.
    “ What’s in the dark that we
should be afraid of, Mark?”
    “ When I was a kid, I was
hiding under the bed. I was going to try and scare my mom, you
know. I planned it all out. She would come in, make my bed like she
always did and I’d scare her a good one. Just for fun. Well, she
came in, looked around and thought I wasn’t in the room. She shut
the light off and closed the door. When the lights when out—“ Mark
paused.
    “ What happened?” Doctor
Olsen asked.
    Mark gestured to his side.
“Right there next to me was the thing that grabs your ankles if you
don’t jump into bed. It had long, sharp fingers like knives. They
curled and twisted. Its mouth opened so wide that it could have
swallowed me whole. It didn’t make any sound. Its black skin
bubbled like tar. I remember its breath smelling like a dead cat.”
Mark’s eyes became