Nyctophobia: A phobia characterized by a severe fear of the dark. It is triggered by the brain's disfigured perception of what would, or could, happen when in a dark environment.
For many years, when he was small, Percy was deathly afraid of the dark. Percy insisted that he saw things in the dark. Terrible things. Things with claws and fangs, scales and horns. Things not meant for children to see.
The psychologist, 'recommended' by the school, insisted that the child's imagination was too vivid for his thought processes to handle at the age that he was, and firmly believed he would grow out of it.
Sally, Percy's mother, knew differently. She knew that it was not 'just the tree branch outside' or 'just the flagpole in the wind'. She knew how much closer they were able to get to her son each day she kept him wih her, but she could not just leave her son at that camp. He would never have a childhood there. They played with celestial bronze, not paper.
And then Sally Jackson met Gabe Ugliano and she nearly passed out from the stench.
