Lurking

[EDIT]: resubmitted for the MAMA Scared Stiff Contest.

When I was a little girl, I was very afraid of the dark. There was no specific monster or shape that haunted my mind--just the daunting, untangible darkness which I feared. Whenever I realized that I was in complete darkness, I would scrambled into my bed, a couch, or something against which I could put my back and snuggle into, because I always thought that if I kept my back against something solid, that frightful darkness could not get me from behind my back. (Apparently I was not afraid of facing it directly...)
Now that I'm older, I no longer afraid of darkness. Or maybe not as afraid. Because that nagging fear is always there--the tensing of muscles at the thought of the blackness that I could not comprehend. But what has changed is that I know putting my back against the comfort of my bed will not protect me. Those demons of the darkness are perfectly capable of piercing through something as fragile as my mattress. And then, there will be no safe place for me to hide...