The Face of Fear

(Story Written by PsychoStar1993 on deviantart.com)

The load buzzing of an alarm clock startled a teenaged boy awake. He jumped out of his bed and fell face first onto the cool wooden floor. A soft groan left his lips, not one of pain, in fact he barely felt the impact of his face on the hard surface. Quickly getting to his feet he slammed his hand down on the button of his alarm clock, once that was done he sat down on his bed. He didn't know why he bothered setting up his clock every day, it wasn't like he would be going anywhere. Though he guessed it was better to wake up at this time and say a goodbye to his parents before they headed off to work. Now that he thought of it he need to get changed, so he did just that. Taking off the pants from yesterday he almost tripped as he put on a clean pair. Once he was done he hurried down the hallway, past the doors that lead to a bathroom, a closet, the basement, and the stairway that lead to his parent's room. He went through the living room and the small hallway that lead to the kitchen. When he got there he saw that one of his parents were sitting at the table. His Father had a cup of coffee sitting in front of him and a slice of toast in his hand. His Mother was leaning on the counter with a glass of orange juice in one hand well the other was resting on the edge.

“Good morning Zachary.” The teen's Father grinned as he saw his son walk through the doorway.

“Hey Mom, hey Dad.” Zachary smiled as he made his way to the fridge to get himself something to eat.

He swung open the door and looked inside for a good minute, blue eyes looking over everything inside the large box of well kept food. He soon reached a hand inside and pulled out an apple, not really what he had been looking for but it was better then nothing. Zachary soon closed the door and joined his father at the table. He toke a large bite out of the large red fruit in a loud crunch, a little of the apple's juice dripping down from his chin.

"Well I should be heading out." Zachary's mother soon informed as she placed her dirty cup in the sink.

Zachary look at her with big sad blue eyes, a look that went by ignored by his Mother as she walked though the hallway and out the front door. Zachary heard a soft grumble leave his Father's lips, but the teen didn't blame his Mother and just assumed that since her back was turned that she didn't notice the look he gave her.

"I should be going to. I've got a long day of work a head of me." Zachary's Father spoke as he to got up and placed his dirty cup in the sink. He soon looked over to his son and smiled. "I hope your classes go well today." He added before he turned around and followed his mother out the door.

Now left alone Zachary finished up his breakfast and throw the apple core away. Afterwards he washed up the two dirty cups and the dishes from last night's supper, once that was done he put them away. There wasn't a lot for him to do well he waited for his teacher to arrive, seeing as he was always on top of his chores, that left him with not a whole lot to do then take on other chores that his parents haven't given him. One of which was cleaning the bathroom. Zachary knew he didn't need to do it, he just did because he had nothing else to do. His father did get him a computer one day, but Zachary barely even touched it. Not saying that he didn't play a few games on it from time to time, it's just he liked to see his parents happy and he found that if he did his chores then they would be happy.

Grabbing a broom Zachary started to sweep through the main floor. Going through the kitchen, hallways, and living room. Once the floors were clean did he take a break and sit down in the living room. His mind was racing with so many thoughts, all of those thoughts were about what today's classes where going to be like. Zachary smiled as he thought about his teacher, Abby. She was a very kind person, though there were the times when she could have a short temper, not that Zachary minded. He still got along with her and that was all that mattered, but there was something about her that stuck out to the teen and for the life of him he couldn't figure out what it was. Could it have been her dark brown hair? Her bright hazel eyes? The fact that she was one of the few people he was in contact with almost on a daily basis? Zachary didn't know and it was those sort of thoughts that drove him mad. He didn't understand why he liked being around Abby so much and that was something he wanted to know. A groan left his lips as Zachary ran his fingers though his short platinum blonde hair, soon laying back onto the coach he was sitting on. He looked up at the ceiling with narrowed eyes, he could spend all day wondering why and it would get him nowhere. So instead he started to think of something else, like how he had started to become home schooled. It all started when he was five years old, the right age to start going to school. It was that bad when he first started school but once he turned six and was on his second year was when it started to get worst.

Knock! Knock! For the second time that day Zachary was startled to the point of tripping as he got up. This time he didn't face plant into the floor as he managed to catch himself. Standing up straight Zachary hurried to the front door, he knew fully well who was there and when he opened the door and was face to face with the dark brown haired, hazel eyed female he smiled. "Good morning." Abby beamed as she smiled back at her student.

Zachary stepped to the side so she could make her way in and once she was he followed her to the living room. Zachary taking a seat back on the coach well Abby toke a seat in the chair in front of him. It didn't take long for Abby to take out a binder full of class work that the teenage boy would have to work on.

The classes went by fast, like they always did. Something Zachary didn't care all that much for since he liked spending time with his teacher. She had started the classes with English, then followed it up with Science and Math and the teen had done a fair job with his class work. Even if he ended up staring off into space every once in a wile. All to soon classes were done and Abby was getting ready to leave.

"What do you have planned for today?" Zachary asked as he leaned forward a little, resting his elbows on his knees.

"I've got to babysit a friend's kid, then I'm going home and watching movies." Abby answered as she finished looking though all the work they had gone through today. Zachary nodded as he watched her get up, he would of frowned but he knew she had other things to do so he held it back ad just smiled. Then when she turned around to leave did he give a small wave as she walked down the hallway and out the front door. Once again Zachary was alone, his parents wouldn't be back for at least an hour which meant that the teen would have to look out for himself. Frowning the blue eyed male got to his feet and made his way to his room. Walking past all the different paths that would lead him to different parts of the house, and once he was inside his room did he make his way to his desk and open up his computer. Zachary didn't have any other chores to do today so he figured that he would just sit back and watch a movie. The question was, what movie would he watch? He thought about that for a minute or two and looked up a list of underrated films. Looking through the list he saw a movie that looked like it could be a good one. Then he went to find a site he could watch it online for free.

An hour had gone by and the movie was still going, though Zachary was sure that it was getting close to it's end. His parents still weren't home yet and the teen was starting to worry. What if- SLAM! This time Zachary didn't jump, but he was still startled by the loud sound. He stopped the movie and hurried to the living room to see who had come home first. It didn't take him long and he soon saw that his Mother was home. Smiling he slowly made his way over to her.

"How was work?" The blonde haired boy asked as he followed his mother into the kitchen. "Same thing different day." His mother spoke as she started to pull a few things out of the cupboards, mostly likely things that would be used in tonight's supper. Zachary give a small hum as he sat down at the table and rested his head on his hands. He watched his Mother move around the room like an dancer on a stage. Moving effortlessly around the table and the chairs, and to and from the stove, cupboards, and the fridge. It looked like she knew what she was making, but Zachary knew that she was just going with the flow, or that was what she should would say. Zachary watched for a few seconds more before he got up from his seat and left the room, supper wouldn't be ready for a wile and as much as he liked watching his Mother work, he knew that she needed her space. So the blonde haired male went back to his room and back to watching his movie. By the time his Father had come home Zachary had gotten to his third movie and supper was almost done.

That night no one ate supper in the kitchen, but that was the same for every night. Everything pointed towards tonight being a quite night, something Zachary always looked forward to. But then just like every night before he could hear his Father start to raise his voice. "You know fully well why he can't go to public school!" His Father's voice roared causing Zachary to bring his hands up to his head to try and block out the sound.

"He needs to be around other teenagers!" Came his mother shouting reply, though not as load as it should of been thanks to Zachary's hands.

The shouting just got loader and loader, only pushing their son into a deeper state of depression. He needed to get out of there, he couldn't just listen to his Mother and Father yelling, he could stand the images playing in his mind of his Father hurting his Mother. So he did the first thing to come to mind and climbed out his bedroom window. It was that bad since a his room window wasn't that fair from the ground, though he would have to use one of the crates to get back inside. Still it was better outside where he could barely hear his parents fighting. Zachary felt himself calm down, but soon his anxiety came back. This time in the form of if he's parents would notice he snuck out of the house. Part of him told him that they wouldn't of noticed because of their loud argument well the other part told him that it didn't matter and that it was better for him to be always from their fighting. Instead of dwelling on it, he took his first step out into the yard and ignored the voices whispering in his ears. He walked to the end of the yard, were a tall fence sat blocking his view of the other side. "Let's go exploring." One of the voices whispered in his ear, causing Zachary to turn his head to see if he could find anyone one there. When he did he saw the thick shadow like thing with the shape of a human body. It had bright white eyes that seemed to be staring right at him and it almost looked as though it were smiling.

"What's out there?" Zachary soon asked as he tilted his head to the side. "Something that can cause that feeling you love so much." The shadowy being whispered. This had caused him to make up his mind and open up the gate and walk into the small path that lead to a wooded area. He kept walking till he came across a twisted looking tree. The branches were twisted in strange angles and had no leaves attached to them. In fact the tree looked like it was dead. But there sitting in front of the odd looking tree was a pocket knife, and Zachary knew just what the Shadowy figure wanted him to do. Picking it up Zachary twirled it around in his hand for a bit, eyes locked on the silver blade. After a few seconds he look back up at the strange looking tree, only to find that some of it's branches had moved. Maybe they were like that already and Zachary wasn't paying attention. That might be it. With a soft sigh he turned around and headed back to his home, but he had this feeling. A feeling like he was being watched. The blonde would look behind him every once and awhile, but he didn't see anything but a strange leafless tree.

The bright light of his room hurt Zachary's eyes and it took him awile till his eyes grew used to the light. The teenager didn't waste much time as he grabbed a near by crate and placed it under his room window. Pulling himself up he crawled back inside and almost hit his head as he fell towards the ground. Zachary froze as he listened for a bit. That was when he noticed that everything had gone quiet, this caused the blue eyed male's heart to race. He lay on the floor frozen stiff, scared that his movements might make some short of sound. "Zachary!? Is everything alright in there!?" Came the worried yell of his Father, it sounded like it was on the main floor.

"Yeah! I'm fine, just rolled out of bed!" Zachary lied as he stood up and closed his room window. His father didn't reply and Zachary took that as a good sign. He didn't realized his grip on the knife had tightened till he had relaxed and the muscles in his hand loosened. Taking a deep breath Zachary turned his attention to the plug outlet just behind his door. Taking his time he walked over to it and sat in front of the outlet, he unplugged the wire to his laptop a placed the plug on his desk that sat not to fair away. He readied himself for that wonderful felling that he loved so much. Once that was done he took the knife and poked the tip of the blade into the outlet. But something was odd, he couldn't feel the electric shock going though his body. He tired pushing the knife in further, as far as the blade could go and still he felt nothing. He pulled the knife out and looked at his hands, they had started to bleed. Small cuts had formed from the current of electricity, he also felt something sliding down from his eye. Getting up he open the door to his room with his non-injured hand and walked to the bathroom. Once inside he locked the door and flicked on the light. Looking into the mirror he saw that a small trail of blood was sliding down from his eyes. Zachary stared at it for a short while, then he turned on the tap and placed his hand under the cool water. It didn't sting like he had hoped, but the blonde teenager remember what the doctor had said. The nerves in his arms were gone and he would never feel anything in his arms ever again, but now it seemed to also applied to the rest of his body as well. Zachary pushed that thought out of his head and looked down at his hand. He pulled it out of the water and saw that it had stopped bleeding. After turning off the water he looked through the medicine cabinet and pulled out the first aid kit. He took out the bandages and wrapped them around his hand, when he was done that he wiped the blood away from his eyes. Turning around he unlocked the door and opened it up, only to come face to face with his Mother. She stood there startled for a few seconds, that was before she noticed his bandaged up hand. A flash of worry went through her blue eyes, part of him grew angry at this. She didn't need to worry about him, he was fine.

The two stared into the other's eyes, blue eyes locked on blue eyes. Neither one dared to move for the longest time. That was till Zachary spoke; "I should get to bed."

His Mother stepped to the side allowing him to walk past. He figured that she was to shocked to really do anything else, so he took advantage of that. Though his Mother seemed to snap out of the by the time he standing in front of his room door.

"What were you doing?" His Mother asked as she turned her around to look at her son. "Nothing you need to worry about." Zachary spoke with an almost annoyed tone before he stepped into his room and closed the door. 'There is nothing wrong with me, I'm fine.' or at least that is what the teenage boy thought.

With a grumble he plugged his laptop back in and turned off the light to his room. When he had done that he got the feeling of being watched again. He ignored it and climbed into his bed, pulling his blankets over him and resting his head on his pillows. Soon he had fallen asleep with the everlasting feeling of being watched.

Days started to do by and Zachary found that his parent's fights had started to grow a lot worse. His Father would hit his Mother a lot more often, this caused their son to grow more angry and upset. He also sneak out late at night a lot more often as well, it was no longer about getting away from his parent's fights but it was because he wanted to. Abby seem liked she was able to tell something was going on and when she tired to talk to his Father about it he had fired her. This caused Zachary to grow angry towards his Father since he wouldn't be able to his Abby ever again. He had once planned on breaking the mask his father had given him, but something told him not to. So he left it on his wall. Then one day came were Zachary left the house during the day when his parents were at work. He had found a fairly heighted cliff when he had snuck out one night. Now he stood at the edge looking down at the bottom. He stared down for a few seconds before he took a step forward. He fell like a sack of potatoes and slammed down onto the rocks. The cliff wasn't high enough to cause a whole lot of damage, but he had slit open the back of his head. He still didn't feel the pain, yet he had trouble keeping his eyes open. Everything had started to blur and there was a ringing in his ears. He didn't noticed the male running up to him, his eyes were looking somewhere else. He blacked out and he opened his eyes again he saw he was in a hospital room. Everything was still blurry, but things did start to clear up the more he looked around. He saw his Mother and Father standing to the sides of his bed, his Father had a look of shock on his face and his Mother looked worried.

"Thank goodness your awake!" His mother spoke, a think layer of worry in her voice. Zachary looked at her for a few seconds, he didn't speak. He didn't have anything to say. "Why did you do it!?" Zachary's Mother started to tear up, this caused him to go stiff. "You could of killed yourself!" His Mother added, at this point tears had started to slid down her checks.

Zachary stared at her for a few seconds as he said "I don't know." This was a lie, he knew why he had done it. It was because of that voice, a voice that spoke to him from within his mind. It told him he would be able to feel that lovely feeling of pain if he jumped from that cliff. It had lied to him, he didn't feel a thing.

At this point Zachary's Mother had her head in her hands as she cried, his Father walked around the bed and stood next to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. She looked at his and soon wrapped her arms around him and started to cry into his chest. Zachary's father didn't do anything to stop it, it just gently patted her back as she let out her emotions. At the end of the day Zachary's Father had convinced the doctors that his soon had been playing by the cliff side and had fallen by accident. That was how their son was able to go back home. Once there Zachary had locked himself inside his room. He stayed there for a few days, only coming out to use the restroom and get something to eat. He had also started to wear the mask his Father had given him, almost never taking it off. Thanks to the hinged jaw of the mask he could wear it while he was eating and sleeping, since the mouth of the mask opened with his own. He also no longer responded to his Parents when they called his name, no longer seeing his name as Zachary. He would even get angry and verbally lash out at his parents. His Father was stubbornly sticking to the thought that his Son was fine, well his Mother kept trying to convince him that their son has changed.

"Zachary?" His Mother's worried voice caught his attention away from the tall figure standing outside his room's window.

Zachary shot a icy glare at his mother and gritted his teeth from under his mask. "My name isn't Zachary!" He snapped, a deep burning anger in his blue eyes.

Shocked and unsure what to say his Mother took a step back, her eyes wide. She soon turned around and hurried away. Zachary could hear her foot steps slowly fade away as she walked though the house. Then it was silent, but that silence didn't last for long.

"Something is wrong with him! We need to start taking him back to the doctor!" He hear his Mother's voice as she snapped at his Father.

"And I've told you, There's nothing wrong with my son!" His Father Snapped back.

Zachary listened as the fight went on and on. His anger only growing more and more, his hands I tight fists. He toke a step towards the wall of him room and started to pound his fist onto the wall. "Stop fighting! Stop fighting! STOP FIGHTING!" He screamed, this caused the fight between his Mother and Father to stop. Everything had gone silent apart from Zachary slamming his fist onto the wall of his room, the wall started to give in from the force of his hits. This went on till his Father walked into the room and pulled him away from the wall, Zachary tried to get out of his grasp. He kicked, he swung his hands at him, and he tried to bite. In a bolt of annoyance his Father give his son a firm slap across the face. It didn't hurt Zachary, but it had startled him. He looked at his Father with wide eyes, no longer sure what to do. His mask had slid off his face a little and was showing a little bit of his face. At this point his Father realized what he had done and his dark brown eyes grow wide in shock. "Zachary.... I- I didn't mean to hit you." His Father's voice was a little shock and his eyes were as big as dinner plates.

"My name isn't Zachary...." He managed to speak, he then lifted his hand and fixed his mask. Pushing it back into place. "My name is Fear." He soon added and glared at his Father. Letting go of him Zachary's Father stepped back and just stared at his son with wide eyes. He soon shook his head and left the room, the same look of shock still on his face. Days went by, and soon months, then a year. Zachary was now nineteen years old and hadn't been doing any better. His had started to become angry most of the time and would snap at his parents a lot more, even when they did nothing to provoke him. He also see the same tall faceless man every now and then and he would often hear the same voice in his head. It would tell him that his parent's were going to leave him and that he should do something to make them stay. But he had no idea how to active such a goal. He was scared of being abandoned, yet his actions spoke other wise. They said leave me alone, stay away from me. I know you'll leave me anyway. His Mother and Father grew uneasy with this new behaviour, his Mother more worried about her son then she was worried for herself. His Father starting to wonder if he was wrong and that there could be something off about his son.

It was then a on a cool autumn November day. Zachary was out in the wooded area behind the fence of his home, he was sitting in front of the strange tree. Watching it's branches change position right in front of his eyes. He stayed silent as he listened to the voices whisper, he would look around every once and a while. That was only to either see Mr. Faceless or one of the shadowy beings. The Shadows were whispering to him, though they seemed to have the same voice. So Zachary just figured that it was the tall man making him see those things and was projecting his voice through them. He whispered temping things into Zachary's ears, telling him that his parents don't love him and that the first chance they get they will leave him. He believed this and wondered once again how he could get them to stay, that was when the tall man appeared in front of him. Long black twisting tentacles and a commanding voice spoke to him in his head.

"Do it!" The voice ordered.

Zachary stood there frozen for a short time, his mind over running with many thoughts. Fear and uncertainty went through him mind, it made him stay where he was. Unable to move even a little bit. But soon the tall being was gone, in a flash almost like Zachary had blinked his eye and the tall man was gone. Now he was able to move, so Zachary did just that. He got to his feet and turned towards home, he then ran as fast as he could back to his home. Little did he knew that something else in him had changed.

When midnight rolled in there was a thick fog surrounding Zachary's home. It gave off an eerie feeling that would of sent shivers down most people's spines. But Zachary didn't feel any fear, in fact he felt more at home in the dark fogginess of tonight then he did on a clear night. He sat in his room staring out the window, his mask till on his face. He was silent as he listened to his parents fighting, it was about his strange behaviour. How he not only acted differently then he used to, but now became distant. This no longer bothered Zachary, he could care less about what his Mother and Father were fighting about, as long as they didn't try and leave him then he was fine. That was when he heard his Mother say "I'm tired of this.... I'm going to my Mother's!" Getting to his feet Zachary walk out of his room and into the kitchen were his parents were fighting. He shot a glare at his mother and spoke in a cold voice; "You not going anywhere."

"I'm not going to be gone forever. I'm just going for the night." Zachary's Mother promised, her eyes wide with shock at what her son had said.

Zachary just glared at his mother, not saying anything. She was going to leave and never come back, he just knew it. So he turned around and pulled out an almost clear wire from behind the fridge and looked at his mother for a few seconds. He slowly walked towards his Mother, the wire wrapped around his hands like a piece of rope. His Mother went stiff as she looked at him with wide eyes, both her and his Father frozen in shock. Soon Zachary had the wire wrapped around his Mother's throat in a tight way, cutting off the flow of air to her lungs. It was then that his Father was able to snap out of his shock and run towards his son. He managed to knock Zachary back, making him let go of the wire. Zachary turned a cold glare at his Father but turned and ran before the older male could try and thing else. Zachary's Father followed him outside into the back yard were Zachary had picked up an axe. He shot another glare at his Father before he toke a swing at him. The axe hit his Father along the chest, causing him to stumble backwards. Shock and pain in his dark brown eyes, that was when it clicked for him. "I'll make you feel that wonderful feeling. I'll make you feel pain!" He swung his axe, his mind blurry from the pleasure of making someone feel that delightful feeling. His Father's screams only making his blows harder, but all to soon the screaming had stopped and his Father lay in a pool of his own blood. A wave of disappointment went through Zachary, but then he remember his Mother. She had only had a small feel of pain, she must be jealous of how much his Father had felt. He took a step forward about to walk into the house and let his Mother feel the same thing his Father had when he heard a voice. "Stop... there's another way to make your Mother feel that beautiful feeling." Turning his head Zachary saw the tall being pointing to a gas jug. The tall man didn't need to say any more, Zachary knew just what he wanted him to do. So he picked up the jug and started to pour the smelly liquid along the back step, he then looked back to were the jug had been sitting after he poured all of the gas out on the house. That was when he saw the lighter, picking it up he threw it at the house. It hit the gas and burst into bright flames and within minutes the whole house was engulfed in flames. Zachary could hear his Mother's screams of pain and fear as she tired to get out of the house, and Zachary would have stayed there longer if it wasn't for the sound of sirens. He knew he had to get away, so turning around he ran towards the fence gate and ran into the woods. Following the sound of the voice that he would always hear.