Consume Me by Kailin Gow

everything all right here?” the flight attendant asked as he passed through the aisle reassuring passengers.
    “Yes,” Errol said.  “We’re fine, but could you bring her a ginger ale and an aspirin.  I have a feeling she’s going to have a nasty headache when she wakes up.”
    The flight attendant rummaged through his cart and gave Errol a can of soda and a little plastic bag with two aspirins.
    Tar stirred as Errol thanked the young man.
    “The lights are back on,” she grumbled, squinting in the harsh light.
    “Yeah.  How are you feeling?”
    She sat up and patted her cheek, opening and closing her mouth wide. “It feels like someone punched me in the jaw.”
    “It wasn’t me,” Errol said with a chuckle.  “I think you may have grinded your teeth a little too much.”
    “I guess.”
    “I got you a soda and a few aspirins.”
    “You’d think I had a hangover.”
    “At least with a hangover, you have the consolation of having a good time the night before. I don’t think you really had a good time when the lights went out.”
    She reached for the soda and aspirins.  “You have a point.”
    “I’ve never seen you so scared.”
    “Have you forgotten that time at your place?”  She popped the aspirins into her mouth and cracked open the can of pop for a few sips.
    “No, but I have to say this time was even worse.  I didn’t think I’d ever succeed in calming you down.”
    She looked into his eyes.  “But you did.  I don’t know how, but you did.”
    “Good thing considering the lights were out for almost an hour.”
    “I’m sorry I freaked out like that.”
    He was silent a long moment as he contemplated his next question.  “Are you really that afraid of the dark?”
    Tar shrugged and looked out the window.  “It’s nothing that out of the ordinary.  A lot of people don’t like the dark.”
    “I agree, but few people become hysterical in the dark.”
    She turned to glare at him.  “All right, so I’m nyctophobic.”
    “That’s nothing to be ashamed of, Tar.  We all have our fears.”
    “I’m not ashamed, it’s just not a topic I enjoy discussing.”
    “Maybe talking about it a bit can help.”
    “I don’t really know what I can tell you.  I’ve always been afraid of the dark.  I mean darkened streets at night or a dark room won’t really scare me, but total darkness, pitch black…  I don’t know why, but it makes me feel trapped, like the walls are closing in on me.  For a long time when I was a little girl I’d have this recurring nightmare.  I was always being chased by I don’t know what.  I’d run behind bushes when I was outside, but sometimes I was chased inside and I’d hide in the closet or in an armoire.  But that armoire would always turn into a prison, trapping me inside and keeping me in total darkness, and I can’t get out.”
    Errol took a hold of her hand and held it tight, trying his best to transmit his understanding.
    “The nightmares were so real, it was incredible.  The first few times I’d had them, I’d wake up to a dark room; a dark house.  It was as if the nightmare continued on even while I was awake.  I didn’t really want to tell my mother.  I mean, at nine years old I was supposed to be a big girl and the idea of asking for a nightlight was so embarrassing.”
    “So what d’you do?”
    She smiled for the first time since waking.  “I got a small allowance for helping out around the house.  I saved it up and finally bought a nightlight.  I was in such a rush to buy it that I couldn’t wait until I’d raised enough money to buy it in a retail store.  I found one in a thrift shop for a buck and a half.  I was thrilled.”
    “Did you ever tell your mother?”
    Chuckling, she pried his fingers off her hand and toyed with them.  “No, but I think she knew.  I mean, she’d get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or something, so surely she saw the light coming from my room, but she never