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Contemporary

Thanatophobia: the fear of death

โ€œI know this is going to be a weird question but whoโ€™s afraid to die,โ€ Cole said breaking the silence in the room. A series of yesโ€™s and noโ€™s filled the room.

โ€œHeaven, how are you not afraid to die,โ€ Courtney shouted once she heard her answer. Her name was Haven but they called her Heaven as a joke. Her name had been related to something good when she, herself, had not been.ย 

โ€œIโ€™m just not, I canโ€™t really explain it,โ€ Haven shouted back.

โ€œI can explain,โ€ Sybil chimed in.

โ€œSo then explain,โ€ Courtney said.

โ€œWell death is inevitable so Iโ€™m not afraid of it.โ€ That was as simple as Sybil could put it.

โ€œI donโ€™t understand, repeat that.โ€ Courtney couldnโ€™t hear her answer considering it had been loud in the room.

Frustrated Sybil restated what she had said, โ€œIโ€™m gonna die anyway so Iโ€™m not scared.โ€

Courtney had moved to Sybil by then, โ€œI donโ€™t understand how you wouldnโ€™t be scared. I guess I fear the unknown.โ€

โ€œHow can you possibly be scared of what you donโ€™t know.โ€

โ€œBecause I donโ€™t know it.โ€

โ€œBut why though?โ€

โ€œLike I said I donโ€™t know it so I fear it.โ€

โ€œWhy do you automatically fear something when you donโ€™t know it?โ€

โ€œI donโ€™t know, I just have always known everything and not knowing something scares me.โ€

โ€œI still donโ€™t get it but whatever.โ€ They both sighed and moved back to the topic of death.

โ€œArenโ€™t you scared of what happens to you after youโ€™re gone?โ€

โ€œYou can say dead, Court, and no I donโ€™t really care what happens to me.โ€

โ€œWhy donโ€™t you care?โ€

โ€œIโ€™m going to be dead, right? So I wonโ€™t even be there to experience whatever happens.โ€

โ€œWhat about your soul?โ€

โ€œWhat my soul gotta do with any of this?โ€

โ€œThat literally is what connects your mind and body.โ€

โ€œNot sure thatโ€™s how it works but okay.โ€

โ€œWhatever.โ€ Courtney playfully shoved Sybilโ€™s shoulder as if they were friends. They were friends before but they kind of fell off.

โ€œArenโ€™t you scared of where youโ€™re going when you,โ€ Courtney hesitated, โ€œdie?โ€

โ€œWho says Iโ€™m going anywhere?โ€

โ€œThe Bible.โ€

โ€œI donโ€™t believe in that stuff.โ€

โ€œHow could you not?โ€

โ€œI just donโ€™t.โ€

โ€œBut how? You arenโ€™t scared.โ€

โ€œWhat would I be scared of?โ€

โ€œDeath.โ€

โ€œThen no.โ€

โ€œSo you donโ€™t think youโ€™re going to Heaven or Hell?โ€

โ€œNope. When I die Iโ€™m just gonna be dead nothing more nothing less.โ€

โ€œThen where would your soul go?โ€

โ€œWho says I have a soul?โ€

โ€œStop. For real you donโ€™t believe that youโ€™ll go anywhere.โ€

โ€œYeah and if I do end up going anywhere it wonโ€™t bother me where I would go.โ€

โ€œHow can you just not believe in it?โ€

โ€œI just donโ€™t. Religion was never something that interested me.โ€

โ€œHow could you be an atheist?โ€

โ€œI would say Iโ€™m agnostic but like I said it doesnโ€™t bother me or scare me?โ€

โ€œWhat does agnostic mean? Also, how are you not scared?โ€

โ€œYou can look up what being agnostic means and no Iโ€™m not scared. Why are you scared?โ€

โ€œBecause I donโ€™t know where Iโ€™ll go or what would happen to me?โ€

โ€œWhat if nothing happened to you?โ€

โ€œThat would be even worseโ€

โ€œWhy?โ€

โ€œBecause thatโ€™s just more stuff I donโ€™t know which as I said before horrifies me.โ€

โ€œHorrifies is a strong word.โ€

โ€œIt describes how I feel perfectly.โ€

Courtney continued, โ€œSo you donโ€™t go to sleep every night petrified that you might not wake up?โ€

โ€œNope. Look at it this way, you are going to die eventually, it will happen so why be scared of it?โ€

โ€œBecause I donโ€™t know what will happen. Do you not understand?โ€

โ€œNo, I donโ€™t. Why not embrace the fact that you will die and live life?โ€

โ€œBecause I might die.โ€

โ€œThatโ€™s why you have to have fun living.โ€

โ€œHow do you have fun when you might die?โ€

โ€œBy having fun.โ€

โ€œNo.โ€

โ€œWhat do you wanna do right now?โ€

โ€œRide a motorcycle. I donโ€™t see how this has to do with anything?โ€

โ€œIf you wanna ride a motorcycle, ride a motorcycle because one day youโ€™ll be dead and you wonโ€™t be able to do it anymore.โ€

โ€œBut what if I die in the process?โ€

โ€œThen you die doing something you wanted to do.โ€

โ€œIโ€™m still scared.โ€

โ€œUgh, what donโ€™t you understand?โ€

โ€œI understand perfectly fine, Iโ€™m going to be dead one day and I donโ€™t know what happens after that.โ€

โ€œWhich is why you should do what you want now so you donโ€™t regret not doing it later.โ€

โ€œNo, I might die.โ€

โ€œGod, youโ€™re not getting it.โ€

โ€œI thought you didnโ€™t believe in that.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s complicated. As I was saying since you will die you should do what you want. Whatever you feel like doing, just do it before you canโ€™t.โ€

โ€œBut half the things I wanna do will result in me dying.โ€

โ€œAt least you died doing something you wanted to do.โ€

โ€œNow youโ€™re the one not getting it. I donโ€™t want to die or get hurt. I just want to live carefree.โ€

โ€œWhy canโ€™t you live carefree doing what you like?โ€

โ€œBecause I will die.โ€

โ€œYouโ€™re going to die sooner or later. Why not just do what you like?โ€

โ€œSybil, I cannot with you right now you just arenโ€™t getting it.โ€

โ€œWhat am I not getting?โ€

โ€œThat I am scared to die.โ€

โ€œBut why?โ€

โ€œI already answered this a million times. Talking to you is like talking to a wall.โ€

โ€œThat was extremely rude and Iโ€™m going to have to ask you to take it back.โ€

โ€œI am oh so very sorry Sybil it wonโ€™t happen again.โ€

โ€œI forgot how funny you were.โ€

โ€œYeah, we havenโ€™t spoken in a long time.โ€

โ€œI bet we could change that.โ€

โ€œWell. weโ€™re talking right now arenโ€™t we.โ€

โ€œI guess we are now back to dying.โ€

โ€œDo you want to live?โ€

โ€œOf course I wanna live, I just- I honestly donโ€™t know how to explain it other than the fact I might as well live my life the way I want before it's gone.โ€

Courtney sighed, โ€œYouโ€™re not gonna understand why Iโ€™m scared and Iโ€™m not gonna understand why youโ€™re not scared so let's just talk about something else.โ€

January 14, 2021 05:34

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18 comments

being agnostic basically means God may or may not be real to a person and they dont care to find out (for anyone that didnt know what it was you can look into it further but that is the basic definition) i wrote this story very quickly and im surprised that i like it so much why is the topic is death? because it is. (i have no other reasoning to why this story is about death/dying) let me know what you think and any critiques you may have๐Ÿค :)

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Elliot Thomas
22:00 Jan 14, 2021

this is me trying to convince my friends to go skydiving. you missed some punctuation, but commas don't come easy. being comprised of mostly dialogue, it was surprisingly easy to follow. good job.

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thank you :) this is me trying to convince myself to do things cus anxiety

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Elliot Thomas
00:18 Jan 15, 2021

yeah, life's a scary thing, but everyday i live a little more, is another day i can laugh in the face of my anxiety. i'm basically living out of spite at this point. ngl, though, grocery stores are still terrifying.

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I guess you're right but that will never stop me from being terrified of going to the grocery store

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Elliot Thomas
00:53 Jan 15, 2021

home delivery is my saving grace

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Frances Reine
13:20 Jan 14, 2021

I wish I could write dialogue like you. You pretty much did one of the other prompts too, haha.

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I wasn't even planning on doing that but it just kinda happened thank you :)

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Frances Reine
13:26 Jan 14, 2021

Oh, is that right? xD Sure, no problem :D

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yea i was planning on having some dialogue but not this much

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Frances Reine
13:46 Jan 14, 2021

Haha, got carried away in the right direction then.

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Keya M.
17:27 Mar 04, 2021

wow, this story is actually very powerful. it has a very approachable feel to it, but it is underlined with really important messages, that you have added beautifully. excellent job blue! ps: lower case is best

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wow this is rreally good, it's sad, but real, because no one can escape death (well technically death can but--nvm) you're also really good at writing dialogue, the story flowed very smoothly do you do all 5 prompts every week? :O ~ Amethyst

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thank you i try to do all 5 prompts every week and i usually do cus i have a lot of ideas

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wow i take a while to get ideas, and my latest story was from a idea generator XD its like my brain cant form ideas sometimes when I actually need them

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i sometimes have to use an idea generator but most of the time the prompts just generate ideas for me and i have other ideas so i try to make those fit the prompt

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