I was awakened from my nightly slumber in decreasingly foggy waves as if slowly floating up from the bottom of a murky lake.I intially emerge in an inky black world which I immediately sense as my bedroom. This trivial comfort was almost instantly assailed by the terror and realization that I am completely paralyzed from head to toe with the exception of my eyes... As I lay frozen on my back, from my periphery a faint figure begins to take shape...As my eyes gradually(and regretfully) adjust to the darkness I become frighteningly aware of one inescapable fact...There is someone...some THING in the room with me...Something quite ancient and evil...And dead..At least ONCE dead and has somehow escaped death's unrelenting grip...Or perhaps some monstrous agent in league with death...Or perhaps Death itself come to visit me this night.

I am certain this ghoulish creature is dead. Indeed UNdead because the figure wears the unmistakable reek of death's rotting bouquet...An awful mixture of sickeningly sweet decay attended by both damp and dry mildew... I dare not glance in its direction. In an attempt to disguise the fact that I am now awake, I gingerly closed myeyes hoping that the unholy spectre would move on... It did not...It moved closer... I could hear the sound of its chalky bones as they lightly clanked when it approached...Closer still...Although, I could feel no additional weight on the bed nor hear the tell tale creak of springs, I could sense that it had come alarmingly close... It paused  mere inches from my cheek... Waiting... Daring me to open my eyes once more.

I was then blanketed by a cascade of goosebumps and the skin on the left side of my face began to crawl. The stench from the thing moved across my flesh like a clutch of spiders determined to enter my nostrils and lay their horrible eggs to suffocate me...The effect forced me to open my eyes, coming face to face with the malevolent creature. I was horrified at the detail by which I could see...

The face, if I may call it so, seems to have been mostly consumed, as well as the emaciated body and appears as if it has somehow managed to reanimate its withered corpse and slink away from Death's table unnoticed before the ghastly feast concluded. The slightly moist greyish skin is ragged and torn... It clings to the skull in patches accented by disgustly awful pink edges and is dotted with random spots of fuzzy mold.

The eyes... The terrible eyes are puss-filled orbs with black bubbling irises that ooze yet never drain. The area around the mouth is bare offering a permanent menacing grin. There is no sign of the sacred breath of life emanating from the unholy abomination, only a cold hateful emptiness...The depth of the evil and ugliness within the void induced a nauseating weakening sensation as if designed to draw out all goodnes and joy from its victims...

I wanted to close my eyes again, but was at once compelled by something deep within to meet the gaze of the monstrosity unflinchingly...At that precise moment I realized exactly what I was facing...It was not death, Of this I am certain beacuse death is simply the natural and inevitable conclusion to life and is not to be dreaded. It is instead fear. Fear of the unkown, Fear of love, Fear of loss, Fear of failure, fear of success...

For the very first time in my life I realized the thing that escapes most of us. The ability to subdue and control fear is within us all and the only power  that fear posses is that which we allow it. I awoke to find a beautiful morning before  me and vowed to myself to live that day and every day thereafter free of fear. Awake.