That which does not kill you…
I realized that what kills people (in a metaphorical sense) is not fear, but helplessness. Why? Fear motivates you to do something to conquer or mitigate that fear. Helplessness on the other hand, is when you fear something but you can’t do anything about it. Stories often have characters wishing that something would come instead of having to wait in trepidation and fear. Notice that I mentioned fear. This fear them, is a different type of fear, because it stems from helplessness.
If something is inevitable, why wait for the result? If I know that a bullet will come and hit me, I don’t want to be waiting around helplessly doing nothing, waiting for it to hit me. Just hit me and get it over and done with. Sometimes, I think the waiting itself can be more terrifying than the result itself.
