Fear is...

The cross hairs of a sniper scope focusing in on bright, unaware eyes. A too loved face, in too clear focus, on a grainy screen that never gives anything but bad news.

Fear is...

A voice so hated that it makes you feel ill. A man chuckling at the thought of his daughter's brains splattering over the ground and walls, even as he gives the order that could be her death.

Fear is...

Knowing. Knowing he'll do it. The knowledge that you'll watch it and never be able to forget it again, added to the list of sins you've let happen and can't ever talk about. The thought that she'll die and you could have stopped it.

Fear is...

Closing your eyes and picturing it. Knowing what it looks like to see a man die from a sniper. To feel brain and blood splatter over your face as you scream his name even as you know he won't hear you. Holding the body of someone you care for and feeling them get cold, freezing over something in you.

Fear is...

A cold chill that settles over you as you realise that this could be it. The realisation that there is true evil in men still, when a man would murder his own daughter to get his way, to get what he wants. Acknowledging that the thing that matters most will be gone if you don't comply.

Fear is...

Realising what you can really do, all over again. Standing up and making the conscious decision to commit the ultimate act of betrayal. Admitting that you are too weak to stand against something this big, too weak to not give in. What makes you do things that you never imagined you were capable of, because the alternative is too terrible to bear the thought of.

Fear is...

The thought of life without her.

Love is fear.