Life is a field, a large green field with a white wooden picket fence around it.

In the middle of this field was a tiger-stripped cat. This cat would sit in the middle of the field and never move, because the cat knew there was something behind him. He never looked around and checked, but he knew it was there. He felt its presence. So the cat sat there, in the middle of the field, and just stared forward.

From time to time, various people would pass the fence, who he really didn't care about. He sat fixed knowing that the thing behind him would get upset if he moved. Sometimes some of the people would come right up to the fence and put their hand out to the cat. The cat was always confused about this.

“Why would they put their hands out when they can see the thing behind me? Are they insane?” the cat thought. He always thought of going, but he never did.

Eventually the people would give up and continue on their way, but some people didn’t like this and would throw small boxes at the cat. The cat would look down at the boxes and stare, for the boxes had small letters on them. The cat leant down and looked closer at the letters. There was four letters, but they meant a lot to him.

“FEAR”

The cat then picked up the box and threw it over his shoulder. He then realized the presence behind him got bigger, as if it was angered by what he did. The cat hunched down in submission and tried to pretend that he wasn’t there. The presence wouldn’t back down and soon he got used to its new size and sat up again.

Well years went by and more and more boxes where thrown at the cat. and the presence still got bigger.

But one day, a small girl walked up to the fence and looked inside at the cat, and like all the rest of the people she put her hand in. The cat sat there and tried to pretend he didn’t notice her. This girl was different though, and soon the girl had tried to start climbing the fence.

“What is she doing?!” the cat thought, “If she comes in this monster behind me will get her”

The little girl finally managed to get over the fence, and ran up to the cat and kneeled in front of it. She then put out her hand again

The cat didn’t know what to do, he had to do something, he felt the thing behind him get bigger and bigger. He had to do something. “Stay away!” the cat yelled, and he reached out with a paw and swiped the girl across the hand. The girl was startled, but put her hand out again. The cat swiped again, and again, but every time the girl put her hand out again.

The cat didn’t know what to do, this had never happened before. He knew he had to help this girl, so he took one final swipe, but this time at her face. The girl fell back after the final attack from the cat, and stood up. The cat looked at her and saw she was crying, and then she too dropped a box. He sat and watched as she ran to the fence, and off on her way like the rest of the people.

The cat didn’t mind though. He knew he did the right thing. The cat put his paw down to pick up the box, but the box the girl dropped was different. It was bigger than any box dropped before, it was big and white with letters that looked like they where written in blood.

“HOPE” was all it said.

The cat then realized what he did. He just passed up the only hope he had of being free of the monster behind him. The cat picked up the box and stood up, he couldn’t take it any more after all this time of hiding he would finally face this thing behind him, if not for himself then for the girl. He turned around to meet the monster face to face, but when he turned around he was surprised at what was there. What he was hiding from this whole time was…

Nothing.

All that was behind him was just the same field that was in front of him. All the boxes he threw behind him had been turned into a small pile of pitch black ash. He dropped the HOPE box and sat down. He didn’t understand, what was he hiding from? What was there the whole time? His head was so full of questions that he didn’t notice the girl had come back. She picked him up in her arms and cradled him gently like a baby.

The girl leant down and whispered into his ear, “When you think of it, fear is only what you make it, if you turn around and face it, there really isn’t anything there”

The cat turned around to face the girl, a single tear came from his blue eyes and fell down to the ground, a beautiful flower sprouted from where the tear landed. He then laid his head down on her shoulder, he had finally found someone who he cared about, and he wanted to be with her forever.

Then he started thinking, “what if she leaves me on my own again? What if she goes out one day and never comes back?”

And slowly but surely, the monster behind him, started to grow once again...