The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
― H.P. Lovecraft
Be honest. Whether you’ll admit it or not, you’re afraid of something. This is nothing to be ashamed of as nobody’s fearless, and things that cause fear come in more varieties than dinner options at an all-you-can-eat buffet. This metaphor is all the more fitting when you realize there’s never a shortage of fear. In fact, if you ask ten people what they’re afraid of, you’ll likely get ten different answers, ranging from such mundane things as public speaking and defaulting on a mortgage, to that mean dog living under the car on blocks, or even the bogeyman.
Regardless of our personal terrors, there are two fears most people can never shake and can only learn to manage: they are shadows and teeth.
Call it survival instinct. Human beings are hardwired to be afraid of shadows and teeth because our survival depends on recognizing the harm that can flow from them. A glint of ivory fang can mean death in a snap of the wolf’s jaws or the flash of the cobra’s venomous sting. And whoever said, “What I can’t see won’t hurt me,” might have learned too late what dangers come in the form of nighttime predators.
The stories in this book delve into the shadowy places at the fringes of our everyday lives—places we glance into only from the corners of our eyes, out of fear that we may see something that will stamp itself indelibly into our fragile, timid minds. In these pages you’ll encounter ghastly bacchanals and the perils of being persnickety; a wish-granting fridge that destroys the lives of two college roommates and a world where one’s personality can kill as surely as a bullet to the skull; and more.
Oh yes, much more.
A final word of caution before you venture further: what scares us most about the shadows is the inability to know what lurks within. Sometimes, the only thing worse than not knowing is knowing. Take care as you reach into these dark places, for the things here bite, and you may withdraw a hand short of a few fingers.