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“The eagle pursued its target, waiting to strike.” The young girl paused in her writing, absently chewing on her lip. She disliked the sentence she had just crafted. Yes it made sense but it didn’t really leave a lot of room for her to work the rest of the words in. “How am I to make a short story that has these eight words?” Dawn muttered to herself, frowning and quickly deleting her previous work. This was the fourth time she had done so. Five of the eight words easily flowed. Strike, scold, low, pursue, and eagle all worked well together.

A simple task to weave them into some kind of tale between an eagle and its prey. It was the prompt words of popcorn, cheese, and purring that were throwing her off. What kind of story could have all eight words? Maybe something about a bird stealing some cheese popcorn then being chased by an eagle but that still left out ‘purring’. Why that word? Why this assignment in general?

With a frustrated growl the strawberry blonde pushed away from the small little table that was both her work desk and her kitchen table in her studio apartment. She only had a limited amount of time before she needed to head out to her self defense class and she was hoping to get at least something written out. Bupkis. Nada. Nothing. She had nothing. Creative writing had never come easy to her but it was even worse now when her grades depended on it. Why, oh why did she have to sign up for that class?

Muttering to herself, because she had to be honest even if it was only to herself, the petite woman shut down her laptop and started to gather her things. The class was a requirement for her major, or at least an English 101 class was and she signed up for it thinking it would be a good escape from some of the more major oriented classes she was taking. Something that just let her focus on more ‘fun’ things, completely forgetting at that time that she really wasn’t very good at it at all. It also didn’t help that it wasn’t just writing poems and stories but so much more. Her teacher was already giving them prompts to craft their own stuff, altering limitations and restrictions each time. The reasoning? ‘Because publishing companies will do the same.’

Dawn wasn’t interested in publishing anything! She didn’t want to be a writer! She wanted to be a social worker or at least end up working in the public sector assisting those less fortunate. What good would creative writing do in that kind of field anyway? The woman scooped up her keys after shrugging into her coat, tossed one final frown at her computer, and made her way out of her tiny apartment, securely locking it behind her. She still mulled over the problem as she went down the four flights of stairs to the ground floor, mentally muttering while waiting for the buss, and even typing out a few lines on her phone as her bus took her towards her destination.

It wasn’t until she climbered off the bus and started on her two block walk to the YMCA that she got a spark, technically the spark came from a car idling at a stoplight, its music blaring. Dawn recognized the song. It was connected to a pretty infamous rapper now but it made her think. Made her realize that she didn’t have to take the words of the assignment at face value. They didn’t have to be literal. Eagle didn’t have to be a real bird… one could just fly like one.

“Yes… yes that could work.” That's what she would do. The petite woman entered the Y, already working on implementing her new plan.

“So Dawn, what are you afraid of?”

The young strawberry blonde looked up from the sink full of dishes she was scrubbing to shoot one of the other homeless shelter’s volunteers a questioning look. “What?”

“What are you afraid of? You know like spiders or snakes or something really out there like an asteroid strike. What gives you the willies?” The young man waved his hands expressly as he leaned against one of the kitchen counters, him and the other three volunteers were all just standing around while Dawn finished up the last of the meal’s pots and pans. She liked to think that there was just not enough space over here by the sink for more then one person but even she wasn’t naive enough to fully buy that excuse. Especially since two of the three were only there because they were legally mandated or something like that, one was there for school and the final volunteer was their ‘supervisor’ or whatever their actual title was. They were there to make sure no one did anything stupid and actually put in their required hours. “Well?” The rather snarky question drew Dawn’s mind back to the question at hand.

“I don’t really know.” She absently chewed on her lip before turning her attention to a rather stubborn burned patch on a pot. “I mean,” She huffed and added even more muscle to her scouring but it wasn’t doing all that much, “I don’t really like the dark but I’m not afraid of it.” It was more or less the ‘unknown’ that was hiding in the dark. The danger that lurked in the shadows. “I don’t like fighting but that's not fear either.” With a huff of anger she plonked the pot down and turned on the tap as hot as it would go before filling the pot so it could soak once again. “What about you? What are you afraid of and why this particular topic?” That's what she was really curious about. Why were they asking?

“Cuz Halloween’s coming up. Spooky season’s upon us so why not,” He shrugged and looked over at one of the others, a girl who was just masticating some gum while filing her nails. “Since we were talking about scary movies the convo just drifted that way naturally. No real reason.” Now that was a lie but he kept his charming smile on his face even as he answered her second question, also with a lie. “As for my fear I would have to say sharks. Jaws really freaked me out when I was a kid.” Their little group, or at least him and the girl, were planning on spooking the uptight ‘Saint Dawn’ but neither of them actually cared enough to get to know the other woman so had no idea how to freak her out. Hence the conversation. “So the dark eh? That's pretty common I guess.” His mind was already spinning with all the ways they could use the dark to freak out Dawn.

“I wouldn’t really say I’m afraid of the dark per say. It's more like not knowing. Not knowing about the future or how things are going to turn out. Not knowing what's around the corner or what's going to happen. The void, you know? There is a saying that goes something like ‘if you gaze long enough into darkness, the darkness will gaze back into you’. That.” Dawn wiped her wet hands on a paper towel before fishing around in one of the cabinets, looking for two very distinct things.

“Friedrich Nietzsche,” The student looked on with a raised brow, not bothering to actually correct her. They hadn’t actually expected that quote, or even that pretty thought provoking ‘fear’. “What are you looking for anyway?”

“Some salt and aluminum foil. They can act as an abrasive and we have tons of scrap foil so rather than ruin a sponge it can be used to scrub.” Dawn explained as she came up with the two items, quickly returning to her stubborn pot.

“Oh, um, yeah I guess.” The first guy just frowned and looked on, “I guess that means if the power went out or something you wouldn’t freak then. That's cool.”

Dawn looked over at him and frowned, “Of course not, I’m not a child after all.” It didn’t take long for her trick to work a treat on the pot and even less time for her to finish cleaning it. “Will you dry this and put it away please,” Dawn practically shoved the now clean pot at the guy before tidying up the sink area. He really has no idea what really lives in the dark in this city, does he? she silently noted, eyeing the entire crowd.

None of them did. Not even the oldest of their bunch at 28.

Suddenly she felt much older than her true age of 22. So very much older.