C.
The letter by itself doesn't seem all that imposing. It doesn't scream danger, or threaten to jump off the page or from the mouth of babes to attack you off-guard.
But like most things, the letters that follow strengthen it.
Add a vowel and a consonant, and you make a thought an ability. No longer do you think you will make it up Mount Everest. Instead, you can and you will stand at the top of that damned mountain and scream to the heavens that you have achieved the un-achievable. You now have the power, and it is described using three letters; two consonants and a vowel.
See, on our own, we don't always have the power to do all that we want to. But together, we can.
In the same way that two letters following C makes us feel invincible, a collection of other letters will also bring our world to an end.
The letters A, C, E, N, and R said aloud in order doesn't bring fear to our hearts. Instead, a feeling of confusion may wash over you. The first thing you may realize is that those letters have been said in alphabetical order. Or maybe you realized that they could be an anagram for racen (if there is such a word).
What if the letters C, A, N, E, and R were said?
Would your mind automatically jump to a conclusion of another made up word, such as caner? Or would you think of a word so life-threatening, so taboo, that an extra C suddenly appeared between the N and E?
CANCER.
Just like the Spanish Influenza that occurred some eighty years ago, cancer has become our generations biggest killer. It isn't something we can hide from under our duvets, which always seems to make the bumps in the night disappear. It is invisible to the naked eye, hiding beneath our skin almost unable to recognize, yet statistics show one in three people will develop cancer in their lifetime.
Nature has a way of giving life; such a rare and beautiful thing that should be cherished, but it also has a way of taking it away. Some may call it karma, others a natural process of balancing the world's population. Others still may believe it is a higher power ridding the world of evil and making us suffer for the sins of our fellow man.
Either way, there will always be disease ready and waiting to affect us. Cancer is slowly but surely being cured, and research is being funded by many great people hoping to rid this horrid disease once and for all.
But once cancer is cured, what is next?
My name is Bella Swan, age twenty-three. Today, August 24th 2015, half a month before I turn twenty-four, I found out I have cancer.