As I mentioned in my last week’s summary, I was hoping to watch They Live (1988) on my roommate’s Hulu. Unfortunately, that requires another subscription to something called Starz – which, as you can infer, my roommate doesn’t have. So I’m left again to rely on summaries and my memories of watching the movie 5 years ago. Trust me. I’ll find a way! I considered doing something else for this assignment, but the concept in my mind was too strong for me to ignore.

The assignment I chose was called “Facing Your Fears” and submitted by Rachel Harris. It is worth three stars. The summary is as follows: “What is your biggest fear? Is it spiders… heights… snakes… needles? Have you ever thought about what your fear might think of you?  Write a short story of a terrifying event from the perspective of your fear. You never know… they might be just as scared as you are!”

Thinking about They Live, I had trouble deciding about what was the primary fear: the fear of being controlled or the fear of losing control. Even though both imply the same concept of loss of autonomy, I believe that the former targets a purposeful removal of free will. The latter targets a more subtle attack on one’s autonomy, whether it be in illness or invisible aliens plotting to dominate the world. I felt like this fear of losing control might be more effective and scary, so I decided to write a short story from the perspective of losing control. Again with the second-person perspective!

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You linger in every human; every being that cherishes their individualism. You’ve brought about several undoings, making it only so that they can become redone if they form an alliance with your nemesis: Truth. However, you still succeed most of the time, sending people to places they can never return from. It brings you joy when you take up these jobs. After all, Fear is the family business. You are good at your job, finding the most profit from feeding on hospitals. Paraplegics. Alzheimer’s victims. They are all very delicious, most surrendering their will to you on a silver platter that looks an awful lot like a table.

As time has gone on, the numbers of those people has decreased. People are more brave and determined. It’s unfortunate, though you’re still popular for being a “dark horse” among the fears. You still manage to take annual business trips to the Worldwide Web, where you and your colleagues get a lot of work done. Your stomach rumbles just thinking about the Dependence Buffet and how many people lose themselves to the system. It’s pretty great! One of the worst times in your career was when you met the infamous Nada. A true tragedy indeed.

You were well on your way to a promotion, having been put in charge of a project called Operation They Live. Back in ‘88, things were a lot simpler. It took only a month to process the contract with the skeleton-like aliens. They infiltrated Los Angeles at the snap of your fingers, and they proceeded to re-do the billboards in a way that was unerringly straightforward. Their reward? The ability to terraform the Earth with global warming. You made sure that their messages were hidden, but that their influence was still there, slipping quietly into the minds of all who viewed them.

Some people had unveiled the true messages, but they were far too scared of you to act on it. You chased them in the night when it was too dark for them to see the truth and told them otherwise. Either that, or their cries fell onto unlistening ears: they were orchestrated by yours truly, of course. That was until Nada put the sunglasses on.

Always observant, he saw your shadow as you peered from an alley. This man didn’t see you now, but he saw your plans and he would certainly have the ability to see you soon. You clenched your teeth, turning around in cold determination. It was time to take this man down. You can’t control him, but you can put this fear into a woman named Holly Thompson that he seems to feel for. Your alien subordinates will ‘ease’ her fear of losing control by bribing her into a better position, though only you know that having power makes the fear of losing control even worse.

Things proceed against your plan, and Nada shoots Holly. Suddenly, you clench your stomach. You’ve been discovered, and it hurts. You falter, crouching in pain. You’ve always worn a suit and tie, though Nada stands tall in his plaid shirt and imposing figure. Even though he does not see you in the material world, he is somehow looking at you straight in the eye. His gun is pointed at your head. Death is only temporary for those of your occupation, but that does not keep the fear from racking your body like a fevered shudder. It rattles your spine, your eyes widening as you lose control. You tremble in vulnerability.

“F*** it.”

Those were the last words you heard as Nada pulled the trigger, shooting the transmitter you built to mask the presence of your aliens. You scream as your head explodes in pain, the bullet penetrating your incorporeal skull. He must have allied with Truth. Sparks explode everywhere, searing your skin even though you aren’t supposed to feel them. You’re going to die. You lie on the ground, fear bleeding from your body as Nada’s bullet-ridden body collapses beside you. Your final sight is of Nada giving you the middle finger.

Your talent is your undoing.

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Here is the scene I detailed. It’s spoilers for the movie, but if you don’t mind them I think it helps to view it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPpNgsJp4DA

I created this on Canva for one of my writing assignments. This is the original link to the assignment. This assignment is three stars, which I agree with the rating. I got the picture of the snake on Canva and made the lettering white so you can see it without it blending in with the background. I had fun with this assignment. As you can see, I picked a snake as my fear. I wrote this in the snakes perspective as the assignment asked for. The story tells that the snake sees my camo crocs and thinks of the forest. The snakes tail gets whacked by a human with an object that cuts the snakes tail open. The snake freaks out and runs to the nearest hole to escape the area with the humans. The snake hears the girl screaming (who is me) while he is running away. I left some details out so the reader can come up with their own imaginations and conclusions to this short story. Hope you enjoy!

I’ve decided to do the writing assignment where it makes us focus on our fears. My biggest fear in life is snakes. I can’t stand them. I can’t even watch a movie with them in it or else I will start to panic and check around to make sure they are not there. I think if a snake ever saw me they would harass me because they can sense the fear coming out of me. I once had an experience with a snake. I love to play golf and one day I was out on the golf course and hit a shot into the woods. I went into the woods to hit my ball and as I made contact a massive five foot snake slithered away from me and I bolted out of the woods in fear. Luckily that is the only time I have ever been so close to a snake but it gave me nightmares for weeks. My uncle once grew up with a pet snake and he said that he had to feed it mice. When the snake started to get big he decided to give it to the local zoo and told them about how the snake as it got bigger would wrap itself around his neck. The zookeeper said that the snake was doing that because it was trying to strangle my uncle. Long story short, I HATE snakes!

My largest fear is probably spiders. I know it’s a common fear, and I know they’re nothing to worry about, but it just surfaced recently and it’s terrible. I was on vacation in Ireland with my roommate and I was in bed and I felt what I thought was my hair moving on my arm (I have long hair). I looked over and saw what I thought was my hair so I didn’t think about it, but it kept moving. I looked again and saw a spider climbing up my arm. It was then that I realized I was afraid of spiders. I don’t think I have ever jumped up faster than I did then. After being thoroughly chastised by my roommate, who picked up the spider and put it outside, I was unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

I hate spiders.

Honestly I don’t understand what the fear of me is. A young human had ventured too high up onto a rock, and as he looked down into the valley of the mountain he was climbing he could see the distance he had come in proper prospective. The trees looked like toys, and the rocks below that he knew to be boulders, as he had just journeyed up the ravine and through the rock scramble, looked like tiny pebbles such as you would find at the bottom of an ornamental pond. The human now was experiencing me in my majesty. He realized that if a strong gust of wind were to come along he would plummet to the bottom of the ravine and splatter among the boulders below. From me, to finished. I thought it was fantastic, but from the size of his eyes I could tell he clearly didn’t. He slowly stepped back from the rock overlooking the ravine, he didn’t see the stick behind him. Back, back, back his foot went. I thought he would hit it, however he didn’t. Too bad. Maybe next time. I blew goodbye to the young human as he departed the rock face. I continued being, reveling in how far from the ground I was. Truly wonderful.

Since I was a little boy my dad has always taught me to look my fears in the eyeballs, and challenge them. Because of this I would say that I don’t have any fears or phobias but instead an assortment of things that I have a healthy respect for. Heights is chief among these things. I believe that every human naturally should have a healthy respect for heights. It is reasonable to fear the drop from hundreds of feet up, to an unforgiving surface below. The background of this story was set in my head, at Old Rag mountain in the Shenandoah Mountains. I frequented this rock scramble/climb much in my formative years, and always had to at the top face my fear of falling over the edge, as I looked down from where I had come.