"Olivia," said a stern, commanding voice. "Do you care to explain what happened this afternoon?"
The little mouseling sunk down in her chair, but her principal's disapproving eyes followed her. She looked up at her father, who was still awaiting her side of the story. "I bit Emmy," she mumbled.
Hiram raised his eyebrows curiously, "Emmy? But I thought she was your friend!"
"She is! She really is! I didn't mean to bite her, I just couldn't see it was her. Honest."
Principal Andrews looked bewildered, "Couldn't see? What couldn't you see?" But even Olivia couldn't quite explain what she meant to say.
It had happened during recess, as she and her classmates were engaged in a game of Blind Man's Bluff. Olivia had been tagged and, in accordance with the rules, blindfolded. Only nobody had a real blindfold to tie around the Blind Man's eyes, so a small burlap bag had to suffice. It was placed loosely over the head, but the fabric scratched against her face and all of a sudden she felt a twinge of terror rush through her.
"I couldn't see... through the sack." It wasn't entirely what she'd intended to convey, but she knew that any other explanation would only confuse the grown-ups more.
A good friend of hers, Emily Bernstorf, had noticed Olivia's irregular breathing and rushed over to remove the sack from her head, but Olivia couldn't tell who was there and the only image in her head was Professor Ratigan, so she felt the impulse to react as though it had really been him.
Once her vision was no longer obstructed, she began to steady her breathing, but nearly all of her peers had their gaze fixated on her and Emmy. Only then did the reality of the present sink back into her mind. She began to apologize, but the girls were quickly approached by their teacher, who demanded that Olivia answer for her actions.
"I- I thought she would hurt me," was all she could muster at the time.
She was quiet on the way home, even as Hiram bombarded her with questions as to what could possibly have possessed her to behave in such a manner.
"You're a young lady, and you had ought to act like one!"
"I'm sorry, Daddy." She kept her eyes locked on the pavement below.
Hiram's expression softened. "Well it's in the past. There's no changing it, now is there? I'm sure Emmy knows you didn't mean it."
Olivia still reprimanded herself as she tried to sleep that night. Her fear had been in control, and she still didn't know how she could stop it if something like this were to happen again. Now she was afraid that her classmates wouldn't like her, and that her friends would still be upset with her.
But mostly she was disappointed in herself for being so deathly afraid of something that no longer existed - afraid of nothing.