The Worst Monsters Come Out At Daytime

A short essay on what we fear in the darkness and why we cannot trust the safety of light.

Why do humans fear the darkness? Why are we so quick to flee towards the light? What is it about the cold of night that instills fear in the lion's share of us, why is the stereotypical day of days that blissful summer's afternoon?

What is it about the shadows that gives us the chills, makes our hearts quicken, and smashes the dam to our adrenaline? Something...something.... Why do we fear the darkness?

Why do we fear?

Distilled into its most basic substance, most human fear arises out of an unconscious desire for self-preservation. We fear that which is threatening, which could potentially harm us, could even kill us.

We fear that which is unknown because there is no way to gauge it, to determine if it is friend or foe. Evolution and instinct taking the short and immediate solution to bear have deemed that it is better to be paranoid rather than curious in such cases.

So we fear....danger. A simple enough concept. So what is it that is so dangerous about the darkness? What about it scares us so? What puts even our champions and heroes on edge?

Again...it's self-survival. We can't fight what we can't see. We can't properly escape what we cannot find. We cannot save ourselves if we don't know what we're rescuing ourselves from. The darkness hides; it conceals. Within its opaque grasp can be anything, from gnats to demons. Our remaining senses heighten all in a desperate attempt for our body to pick up on the world around us.

We are at our most vulnerable. We are unaware, crucially blind. Weakened and susceptible...and the longest lessons of history have ingrained in us that those who remain so are the first to die.

It's that potential. Even if no fiend or villain actually lies in wait behind the shadows it is simply enough that they could be. Maybe they're not there right now, but they can be on their way. Positioning themselves, preparing an ambush....and we would never know.

The urge to be aware of our surroundings is so demanding that our minds are compelled to draw a picture of what could be out there based on whatever scattered information it can gather. The human imagination, used to piece together and weave abstract bits of data into comprehensible form will take any slight noise, any hint of an odor, and whatever odd tremor in the air and madly paint whatever the worst thing that could be out there. We drive ourselves mad with visions of demons that likely do not exist. We sow our own torment. But why?

It's a fail-safe....assume the worst, and you'll be prepared for the least. But still. Our imagination, running wild in order to ready our defenses, tensing the muscles so we can react instantly, it fills that unknown void beyond us with the most terrible things. What was supposed to be an unconscious defense mechanism becomes our own worst enemy, and the hair-trigger of our reflexes quickly spirals down into chaotic and sloppy frenzy. Our nerves, so coiled in anticipation fire preemptively in all the wrong places.

The feeling of fear becomes that which we fear the most. All because we cannot stand not knowing, not being aware of what's around us. The threat is too high; a panicked thumb on the nuclear launch button pressed so tight that the slightest pop will twitch it just enough forward.

This is why we run towards the light. Why even at death our self-styled cusp of heaven is a bright star at the end of the darkness. Why we celebrate the Sun's return and quietly mourn its descent. Why we party and be merry during the rites of Spring and close our shutters during the so-labeled "harsh" winter times.

In the light, we can see everything. It's hard for our enemies to catch us unawares. It's hard not to notice things coming our way. In the light, everything is revealed.

Our imaginations no longer have any voids to fill, no terrible monsters of either real, potential, or imagined existence lie in wait. We are safe......

But I contend it is within the light that our most horrific of entities exist. For in the darkness, just as they can hide, so can you. Yes, in the darkness we are caught unawares, but there is always that margin of doubt, that same uncertainty that says while a monster could be out there, it could also not.

In the light, where everything is exposed, there is no doubt. When a fiend appears, it will not go away. It's existence cannot be denied, cannot be avoided. In the light, we are fully illuminated and laid bare before the the eyes, both ours and our predator's.

Worse yet, even the light in the darkness that we assume too quickly to be sanctuary can too easily be something far more malicious. A glowing lure, or simply the radiance of a passing leviathan who by fate just happens to be nearby.

Alone in the darkness, and something trim with light suddenly shines forth, approaching you, but clearly not with rescue in its intent. It's glowing claws are the only sights to see in this dark maw, the only point that you keep coming back too. The eyes of a monster with you focused directly in its gaze.

What's worse than the dark closet in the bedroom at midnight? What's worse than peering into the shadowed and mysterious mists behind the door? There is nothing worse than to lie in bed, staring at that infernal door long after the clock has struck midnight, only to behold light suddenly flicker on from under the crack down by the floor.

We call the monsters in the darkness, both with-out and within, the demons. They torment us from the shadows and dwell inside them. They claw at our insides from within our imaginations, possessing our psyche and taking hold of our hearts. Demons in the darkness.

But the monsters of light, who shine in its full and burning brilliance, who while cannot be cold are but most certainly stark and all-consuming, those monsters are more terrible for when present they cannot be denied. They are great and powerful, without need to conceal themselves for their might is all that is needed to make other beings cower. Terrible behemoths, giants, and leviathans, no more trustworthy than demons.

I call them angels. And they are no friend to man.

Author's Note

Note: I do not use the terms "demons" and "angels" as they are commonly denotated and popularly accepted, but in terms of monstrous and terrible (in the same breath that dinosaurs stand for "terrible lizards") entities existing in opposing ends of the visible spectrum, within their own domains.

I usually proofread my works, however as always I'm sure there are typos and syntax errors. I appreciate any and all notices of that, and will work to correct those. If I haven't do know that I did acknowledge your notice and try implementing it, but found that it detracted from the effect I wanted and so omitted it.