[ WP ] In the dead of night a young girl meets an intimidating man with severe scarring . After the confrontation the man is the one who is afraid .

`` I'm not afraid of the dark.'' She says quietly and my head snaps round. 
 
 
 `` What did you say?'' I ask carefully. 
 
 
 `` I'm not afraid of the dark.'' She repeats. 
 
 
 
 We're under a deserted railway bridge on the bad side of the bad side of town. She was walking from one side, nightie, slippers, teddy bear and an open dressing gown with the cord trailing in the mud amongst the cobblestones. I was walking from the other, torn up windbreaker, hole-ly sneakers and a watch that had stopped at 3:11 two days ago. 
 
 
 `` What's wrong with your face?'' She'd asked in the direct way that only eight year old white kids do. 
 
 
 
 `` What's wrong with your face?'' I'd snarled back. That had seemed to stump her for a bit. I'd been in a car fire when I was a kid. It was me, Skeezy Joe, Bad Mac and Whorey Kate and we'd nicked an Audi off a guy with too much money and ( by the sound of the engine ) too little dick. Skeezy Joe lit up in the back, Bad Mac ripped some wires out and we were over in the Estate in no time. I do n't remember the crash, but I remember the fire and being trapped upside down and watching Kate die slowly in the back seat. They say never speak ill of the dead, but Whorey Kate ai n't a nickname, it's a fact. 
 
 
 
 `` Let's sit down.'' She'd suggested, so we'd put a couple of cardboard boxes together and strangely enough we'd got chatting. That's when she came out with it. 
 
 
 `` I'm not afraid of the dark.'' She'd said 
 
 
 `` Why not?'' I asked. `` Lots of bad things happen in the dark.'' 
 
 
 Her eyes glinted at me under the street lights. She nudged me. `` No they do n't silly. Bad things happen in the light too.'' 
 
 
 `` Not as much as in the dark.'' I was arguing with an eight year old *Christ. * 
 
 
 `` Bad things only happen in the dark if I want them to.'' 
 
 
 `` What?'' 
 
 
 She grinned at me and cracked her neck. It went three times, like a gunshot. I staggered to my feet. She cracked it the other way and dropped her teddy on the floor. It splashed into a muddy puddle and she ignored it. This was not a normal girl. She raised a hand towards me and I flinched. 
 
 
 `` Bad things only happen in the dark if I want them too.'' She repeated and the voice sent a chill down into my fucking soul. Some kind of animal fear took hold of me. I was stepping backwards, away from her when I tripped. My ankle crunched and I was down on my arse in a wet, muddy puddle. 
 
 
 `` Are you afraid of the dark?'' She asked, advancing on me. Her eyes were black pits in her face, mouth stretched red and wide. She squeezed her fist and the street lights went out. 
 
 
 I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the pain in my ankle. I had to get out. *Fuck* I could not see a thing. Then I heard her voice. 
 
 
 `` Are you afraid of the dark Tony?'' She sounded like she was singing. Where was she? I gripped the wall and felt along it, dragging my ankle. 
 
 
 `` I know where you are Tony. You ca n't escape.'' All I could hear were my own panting breaths. The night was pitch black. 
 
 
 `` I know you fear the dark, Tony. Bad things happen in the dark when I want them too. Kate died in the dark, did n't she?'' Small footsteps were scurrying next to me. *Oh fuck. * 
 
 
 `` It's your fault, Tony. And that's why you're afraid of the dark.'' She was getting closer, I knew it. My ankle lurched beneath me and I fell on my hands and knees. I looked up, panting. There. There. A white face, two inches from mine. Grin red and wide, eyes black as sin. 
 
 
 `` I'm not afraid of the dark.''
