Haunted Whispers

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Book excerpt

Fear Itself

“I really appreciate you helping me out with my thesis.”

Jeremy said nothing. He just stared at Mike, eyes moving side to side, following him as he paced back and forth

“All those other people who tried to help were useless,” Mike continued. “All I wanted to do was an in depth study of fear. Find out what really scares people. I wanted to get right down to the root of the problem. Learn what triggered their fear and how it developed over the years. My goal was to figure out what it feels like to be exposed to something that truly terrifies you.”

Mike stopped pacing for a brief moment. Just long enough to glance over at Jeremy to make sure he was still paying attention. “You know what those other people gave me? Squat. I asked them what scares them and they gave answers like harm coming to loved ones, poverty, sickness, and death. Not a single one of them had an original answer. Well there was that one guy who had jangelaphobia. Know what that is? It’s a fear of gelatinous substances… like Jell-O

He chuckled at the memory. “I know,” he continued. “It’s not nice to laugh at other people’s phobias. Especially for someone who’s studying to become a psychiatrist, like myself. But come on. Fear of Jell-O? I thought the guy was joking at first, so I asked him to come back the next day. I brought a bowl of Jell-O with me to see what would happen.” Mike started laughing even harder now. “He wouldn’t come out from under the table until I took it out of the room. Man, that guy was in need of serious help. Seriously, how can I use this guy as a case study for a thesis? Who’d believe me? My professor would think I made the whole thing up.”

Mike paused for a moment.

“Would you stop looking at me like that? Yes, I am aware of how unprofessional it is for me to laugh at this guy, but I can’t help it. Besides, this whole psychiatry thing wasn’t even my idea. It was my mother’s. She thought I’d be good at it because apparently I’m sensitive and understanding of others. Go figure. Have I got her fooled or what?”

Another laugh.

“But seriously, I’m only doing this because she had such high hopes for me and I don’t want to let her down like my brother. He went downhill and got into drugs, the whole bit. We lost contact with him over a year ago and we don’t even know if he’s dead or in jail. Once he started heading down the wrong path, I decided that I would have to be the one to step up and make Mom proud. That’s why I was so disappointed with those other people I interviewed. I knew I could never write a good thesis using those idiots as case studies.

For a while there, I really thought I let Mom down.”

He stopped short and turned to face Jeremy. “And then, out of nowhere, it hit me. The solution to my problem. What I needed to do was to track a fear right from the moment of its conception and study it as it continues to grow into a full-blown phobia. Sounds hard, doesn’t it? I mean, I’d have to be there at the exact moment that someone becomes afraid of something. What are the odds of that? The only way I could be sure it happened was to trigger the fear myself.”

Mike walked around Jeremy and placed a hand on his shoulder. “And that’s where you come in, my friend.” He noticed that Jeremy was shaking, and was pleased by that fact. “Had I asked you yesterday when we first met what you were afraid of, what would you have said?” He waited a moment, as if expecting the other man to answer then continued. “Would you have given me one of those stock answers like all the others? Probably not. You’re young, in good shape. You still think you’re invincible. You probably would have told me you weren’t afraid of anything.”

Mike walked over to the table a few feet away and began to examine the instruments. He would save the good ones for later. The knife would suffice for their first session. Then he walked back over to Jeremy. Once the young man saw the knife in Mike’s hand, he began to whimper, and tears started down his cheeks.

“See how perfect this is? You weren’t afraid of me yesterday. But I’m sure you are now. And as the weeks go by, I’ll get to watch that fear become more intense. This is going to be a great thesis.” He began to cut into Jeremy’s arm. He could see his captive’s eyes grow even wider as he struggled to free himself from his bonds. At the same time, he was yelling something, but Mike wasn’t able to distinguish what that something might be through the gag.

“Oh yes, this is going to be fun,” Mike said, ignoring Jeremy’s screams. “Mom is going to be so proud.”