Fear

You don’t know fear

Until you feel your heart skip a beat

Faint perspiration trickle down your face

A pit in your stomach

And in that pit is a hungry beast

Gnawing at the bone from its last meal

Never sated, always snarling for more

You don’t know fear

Until you feel your thoughts take over

And leftover sanity dissipates into the void

Much like everything you feel

Numbness

Yet you feel

Everything you wish you didn’t

You don’t know fear

Until your throat thickens with it

Threatening to choke you

As words struggle to form

Piteous whimpers escape your lips

Your widened eyes fixed into the distance

As if the monster before you will leave if you pay it no heed

You don’t know fear

Until you drown in it

Struggling for every single breath

Until it paralyses you

Until you’re hollow

Until you’re not you anymore

Until fear is all you know.