"What is your greatest fear, Reynie Muldoon?"
A pretty simple question, really. A simple question with what should be a simple answer. Spiders, bees, bears, the dark. Simple, right?
Wrong.
What is Reynie Muldoon's greatest fear?
Not suprisingly, he lied about spiders. A little more surprisingly, it isn't Mr. Curtain he's scared of, either. Its not the Institute, the Whisperer, the Executives, Jackson, Jillson, or even being brainswept.
In fact, to be honest, he sort of wants to be brainswept.
Reynie Muldoon's biggest fear is his memories. Specifically from the orphanage. He remembers vividly the horror he and other children endured at the hands of the matrons and Head of Discipline, Mr. Thomas.
The matrons were three women who ruthlessly dominated the living quarters. They often punished the orphans and though it was not physical, like those of Mr. Thomas, they made life quite a hardship. The punishment for not satisfactorily making one's bed was to sleep on the cold floors in the hallways. If someone tracked in mud, they had to lay on the floor during periods of heavy traffic. Some of the orphans felt compassion and pity and did their best To avoid the unfortunate ones on the floor. Others took pleasure in walking straight over their backs. In the end, the halls were simply too narrow for the conjestion of children and those on the floor were trampled.
The matrons had the power to send the children down to Mr. Thomases office. They would take a permanent black marker and write the crime and suggested punishment on the childs face. Thus the child would have to have to have his crime and sentance on his face for the remainder to the day, tear tracks from the punishment smearing the ink.
However, all of the children would infinitly prefer sleeping in the drafty hall than a trip down to Mr. Thomases office. He usually asked no questions. If you entered his office, you were there to be punished and punished you would be.
He would violently shove the child over a box in thecorner of the room and lift the dreaded leather strap from its hook. nearly every day, screams came from the office, often overpowered by Mr. Thomases roar "Do you want another one? Some more? This isn't even hurting you!"
This is Reynie's biggest fear. Its the memory of one visit to the office when he was only five. He was standing face to the wall, his pants bunched around his ankles, sobbing his eyes out. His skin was on fire, from the back of his knees to his shoulder blades. He had been laying on the floor for tracking in mud when a matron tripped over him. She was furious and wrote SEVERE on his forehead. Mr. Thomas loomed over him like a great vulture. "Get the hell over that box or you're getting extra!"
"Okay." Sniffled Reynie "Okay."
He crouched over the box and braced himself for another volley of strikes. However, they didn't come. He looked up tentatively and Mr. Thomas snapped "Keep your eyes on the dot!" There was a red dot painted on the floor for the offenders to look at during their punishment. Reynie focused on the dot, bracing himself again when something strange happened.
Mr. Thomas put his hand on Reynie's bare bottom. Reynie gasped. At first, the hand stung because of how ripped up his skin was from the strap. The it felt good because it was cold and his skin was burning. Then it felt horrible. He couldn't explain it but it felt wrong. Mr. Thomas started rubbing his had back and forth and then between his legs. Mr. Thomas picked up Reynie and layed him on a small mattress behind his desk. Then he stood up and locked the door. He came back and began rubbing Reynie's whole body.
Reynie then got very scared and squirmed around, trying desperately to escape. "Help!" He cried. Then Mr. Thomas got very angry and hit Rynie across the face with the strap. He felt his eye begin to swell up. Mr. Thomas went back to rubbing his body then unzipped his pants. He entered little five-year-old Reynie's body and when he did, a bright white light consumed his vision and he passed out.
He woke up in the evening to a matron mopping off his back and bottom with a bloodstained sponge.
"Ya passed out from loosin' too much blood, didn't ya. Guess you can't take no pain, can't ya." she wringed the sponge into a bucket of very red water. "Ay, here's the Head of Discipline to see how yer doin'."
Reynie rolled over in terror and saw Mr. Thomas striding towards him. He bent over and whispered in his ear "Breathe a word to anyone and I will kill you."
So, what is Reynies biggest fear?
The fear of life itself.