[ WP ] you have the ability to see everyone 's physical manifestations of their greatest fear . You can interact with them but no one notices , you 've befriended yours . While at the bar and the man sitting across from you buys your next round . When he comes over , you notice that he has no fear `` shadow '' ...

When I was younger, I was sent to three different asylums, I mean, psychiatric hospitals. Honestly, it's the same thing, just one is supposed to be nicer. Why did I go? Thanks for getting me back on topic. I see things. Not like, monsters, well some of them are, but I learned that these are people's biggest fears. I once met a man named George. He was scared of cockroaches. So, naturally, I saw a cockroach crawl around his shoulder. When I told him, he flipped his shit, and it would've been funny, but he was my doctor and he thought I was being a twerp. 
 
 Anyways, I finally pretended that those things did n't exist, shadows I call them, and I was released back into the world. Oh, mine is a clown. He always looks really scary but he's kind of sweet. He was the only one I talked to in those kind hours of doing nothing in the hospitals. We became friends, as close to friends you can become with your worst fear. 
 
 I'm twenty-three now. I used to use my sight to get into the pants of women, whether I met them at bars or clubs. I would strike up a conversation by saying something like, `` If I can guess your biggest fear, let me buy you a drink.'' I was never wrong, obviously. It was fun, but then I met Rachel. She was so kind. I decided that I did n't really want to fuck her. Well, I did, but I liked her too. 
 
 We dated for almost a year when she broke it off with me. I never learned why. So I had just moved out, I was living with my buddy Sean and he suggested going out for a drink. Seeing no better option, I went. My plan was to get hammered, but Sean told me I was n't allowed to get so drunk I could n't walk home. He left around 9:30, said he had work in the morning. I stayed and promised I would be able to walk home, he only lived two blocks away. 
 
 I sat at the bar. It was kinda like the one from `` Cheers,'' it was in the middle of the room and you could see the person across from you. I ordered a beer from the bartender and I watched her, well, I watched her fear. It was a man with a knife, surrounded by darkness. She was scared of her walk to her car after she closed. She was afraid of being mugged. Which was understandable, in a city the size of the one I lived in, there was bound to be muggers, even in the nicer part where the bar was. 
 
 The man with the knife was trying to talk to her, words that I heard but did n't really care enough to remember. The man was just droning on and on and on. I stopped set my gaze across from me and saw a man. He held an empty glass in his hand. He might have motioned to the bartender but she was busy with my side of the bar. He walked around the bar and plopped himself into the stool next to me. 
 
 I opened my mouth to say something but changed my mind at the last second, only letting out a long sigh. I glanced at the man, trying not to stare at him. He looked to be I'm his mid thirties, he was brunette and sported a thick beard. And his shadow... there was n't one there. A man with no shadow. I motioned for the bartender. `` I want a drink for my friend here, whatever he wants.'' I patted him on the back. 
 
 He looked at me, like I had grabbed his ass or something. `` Well?'' The bartender asked. 
 
 He swallowed, `` Um, jack and coke.'' The bartender sauntered off to make the drink. 
 
 `` Thanks.'' He said quickly to me. `` I did n't have enough money for another one.'' 
 
 `` Oh no,'' I slurred, `` you're paying.'' 
 
 The man's eyes went wide. `` But I do n't have any money!'' 
 
 I laughed. `` No no. Not money, I just want someone to talk to.'' 
 
 `` Oh.'' The man said, relieved. `` What do you want to talk about?'' 
 
 `` First, I want to know your name.'' 
 
 `` My name is Jeff.'' He quickly thanked the bartender when she handed him his drink. 
 
 `` I'm Josh.'' We shook hands. 
 
 `` Well, what brings you to a place like this?'' I asked downing some more beer. 
 
 Jeff looked down at his arm. `` I'm here to forget about life for a while.'' 
 
 `` Me too.'' I laughed. I quickly explained my story about Rachel. 
 
 `` Oh,'' he said. 
 
 ``'Oh' just oh?'' I asked. 
 
 `` It's just that, I wish my last relationship ended more like that than it did.'' He murmured. 
 
 `` Welp, it sucked.'' 
 
 `` I'm sure it did.'' He rubbed his right arm. 
 
 `` So, I must ask, what's your biggest fear?'' I was n't very good at being subtle. 
 
 Jeff laughed. It was n't a real laugh, it was sad. He thought for a minute, `` Nothing.'' 
 
 `` That's impossible. Everyone is afraid of something.'' 
 
 Jeff looked at me, `` Josh, I'm not afraid of anything because I woke up to my worst nightmare, my greatest fear.'' He jerked back his sleeve to reveal a hospital wristband. `` I just woke up, I was in a coma for three months, three months!'' His voice was low but it was full of anger. `` They told me I was just in time. Do you know what I did, first thing after I woke up?'' 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 `` I pulled the plug on my girlfriend. We were attacked in our home. Our children, a boy and a girl, were killed. He put me in a coma and put her...'' his voice broke... `` he put her into a brain dead state. I pulled the fucking plug!'' He started to cry. 
 
 It took him a few minutes but he composed himself. `` So, no, I'm not afraid of anything. What I'm worried about is that there us nothing after life, that they just... they're nowhere. Nothing.'' 
 
 I left soon after that. He did n't talk to me so I paid the bill and left. I'm never doing that again.
