I spoke before of fear, perhaps the most regal of all emotions humans cling to, if rather reluctantly. There is perhaps no more universal, considered negative, emotion quite as unique or as powerful, especially in vexation, whether it be preventative or entrapping. You can be as angry or as happy as possible, but when faced with certain peril of which you avert, a certain stirring vortex is unleashed in your core that convulses at the thought of such experience, no matter what it may be, even a "pleasant" one like fluff, kittens, or rainbows. What makes this occur can be anyone's guess in some cases, but usually it is found to be a conditioning in which the person, when exposed to the stimulus, develops an aversion that overrides any faculty that one may use freely, until now. This is in itself rather frightening, as it simulates an ultimate fear of many, the loss of control. As it has been displayed in several movies and shows, when things break down, often times we who are normally so brazen and stern in way-making, are rendering useless in the wake of one's loss of action causing effect. Such is a feeling I get upon reading something as dreary as the Pit in the Pendulum, where Poe reiterates what its means to experience this fear, and inevitable demise looming over rather physically and with much reality, like that of the slicing pendulum of doom.
When in such situations, fear can be a cage for one's self, a barrier that traps you in its powerful trance of taunting emotion beyond all other possibilities, often without room to return sensibly. This can even render the one of experience unaware of the predicament or the emotion, as their focus can only see terror any which way, instead of some clawing mental phase or sweeping execution arm. Such occurs in the story, as the pendulum steadily becomes the bringing of utter destruction, which is in turn a way to relate the inevitable hellish pit to which the pendulum takes his very being, a place they indeed very heavily not to go despite the inevitability. What is curious is the effect the pendulum has to the victim into the pit, as while it is indeed an abyss, it frees the victim boundlessly as they observe imagined scenes of events quite in reverse, such as a French victory and the Inquisition being arrested by enemies. This is likely a result of the ultimate fear overriding one's sense, in a such a way as to be corrupt and even mirror-like. One must truly pity one who must experience the path to get there, and mourn those who enter the pit, from which no thrall of dread will return unscathed if ever at all. In this case likely not, as Death is entirely implied, but not certain, at all in fact.
Some of the more fortunate never reach this stage, they are more akin to a little scare upon the pendulum table, only to to be released with a dominate fear of the sharp and bondage. Preventative fear is quite simple in this regard, as I said prior with conditioning, as it is the person's aversion to exposure. Normally this means that one afraid of the dark would nigh never venture near anything remotely dim, for that present feeling encroaches at the mere hint of stimulation. I would suggest not trying to break the "curse" by shoving them in a room of fears, then returning later to find the howling gone and door still partially in tact, thus giving reason to open the portal. What steps out or retreats to the corner in a demonic jest is likely not the same one who entered before, thus I recommend now that you quickly remove yourself and flee at top speeds for your mistake. Perhaps next time we can gradually dim the lights over a time span and see if that works to their benefit, hopefully not raising them as hellish creature of bloody disdain and crazed fears now very real.
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