Riding the gentle currents of the soft nighttime breezes, Usikujumba surveyed the darkened land below him. Casting forth his astral tendrils, he surveyed the minds of the sleeping inhabitants. All their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, lay revealed to him. This interested Usikujumba not in the least. He bypassed them to concentrate on one area, and one area only: fear. For it was on fear that Usikujumba, Lord of the Night, fed. His probing revealed the usual: fear of failure … fear of unpopularity … fear of being kidnapped while wearing pants (hmm, may have to come back to that one) … fear of isolation. Then his tendrils picked up a veritable reservoir of fear. He floated down for a closer look. In an ordinary-looking house in an ordinary-looking neighborhood in an ordinary-looking town, a young, blonde-haired girl slept fitfully. He probed further; yes, she was the source. This girl, it seemed, was literally afraid of her own shadow. Usikujumba prepared to feast. He started with the classics – something at the window, something under the bed, something in the closet – and was rewarded each time with a delicious frisson of fear from the girl. Then he moved on to a scenario that generally produced blind panic in the toughest adversary: surrounded by darkness, with something – the victim couldn’t be certain of what, but something – getting closer, and closer, and closer – Suddenly, Usikujumba found his meal interrupted by a surge of resolve. He tested the resistance; it centered around an acquaintance of the girl’s, a person named Toby. Although she remained very frightened, thoughts of Toby comforted her. Toby would know what to do, Toby would find a way out. The girl found an anchor in Toby that reduced her fear from outright blind panic to a more manageable level. This was too meager an offering to fulfill Usikujumba’s dark hunger. His appetite momentarily curbed but by no means satiated, he probed for more information. A visit to Toby, he reflected, was next on the night’s agenda. Using clues from the blonde girl’s mind, Usikujumba found Toby just a few seconds’ flight away. Toby proved to be another young girl, about the same age as the first, with short dark hair. A pair of glasses rested on her nightstand, next to a well-thumbed Nancy Drew novel. He scanned the bookshelves; more Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Sherlock Holmes ... interesting. As with the first girl, he began with the tried-and-true methods. Toby proved more curious than frightened. What was scratching at her window? What was under her bed? What was in her closet? And, more important, why? Momentarily frustrated, Usikujumba tried another tact. He planted the image of the girl being carried off by some nightmarish creature. Again, he was disappointed. After an initial burst of fear, Toby’s reaction was, “Not again!” After that, her mind divided between wondering what the creature had in store for her and plotting her escape. She seemed to take for granted that she would, inevitably, escape. No matter what situation Usikujumba threw at Toby, he ran up against her resilience. The background fear she felt wasn’t enough for him; he wanted outright panic. But Toby always figured that she’d be okay as long as she could – as long as she could – Wait – there was the smallest hint, the faintest glimmer, of something undermining the strength Toby’d been relying on. Usikujumba decided to try a more concrete test. He materialized an enormous hand and placed it gently, oh so very gently, over her nose and mouth. Moving gingerly, so as not to wake the girl, Usikujumba gradually increased pressure until he completely blocked her airway. Toby stirred uncomfortably in her sleep, seeking precious oxygen. Cracks developed in the dam of her self-confidence, and the panic came pouring through. Usikujumba fed greedily on Toby’s terror, keeping her breathless to the point of passing out before releasing his grip. She started settling down almost immediately. But the Lord of the Night had no intention of letting her off so easy. She’d made him work harder than he should have; now he intended to return the favor. He planted in her mind the image of a giant snake, that had her wrapped up in its coils, pinning her arms to her sides, and was constricting tighter, and tighter, and tighter. In her weakened state, Toby readily accepted the situation, and her brain refused to allow her body to breath. Usikujumba rode the resulting wave of fear and discomfort until the girl was again on the point of unconsciousness before relenting. She lay still, gasping for breath until her lungs refilled, then sank once again into a peaceful sleep. He again was surprised by her rapid recovery; she seemed much more resilient than the average human her age. Perhaps there was something he could do about that. Now that he’d found the girl’s weak spot, Usikujumba decided to stay around for a while. He could make life interesting for young Miss Toby – and vice versa! And, should Toby not deliver the delicious panicky thoughts he craved, there was always her little blonde friend to fall back on ... ________________________ Usikujumba, Lord of the Night