Without You - Chapter 7: Legions

September 21 at 12:00 AM

Photo courtesy of DepositPhotos.com

Torn from my dreams
As our spirits touch
Cruel
Unfair
Dumped back inside
This dirty stinking lair

Impossibly he rises
This bleak world
Full of surprises
The corpse staggers
Knees wobble
Creeps along
With a hobble
Casting a dark shadow
Over me

He paws at the cranium
On the floor
Sinuous shadows
Scurry deep inside
He scoops up his fetid crown
Places it aright
Then turns to me and frowns

Blood trickles
Down his cheeks
Tears of wisdom
Now fully aware
Of how little
Resides over there

Salvation
All along
Was nothing more
Than an empty song

He ambles along
Surely
He cannot see at all
Driven by a hunger
I know all too well

Mites scatter
Over his wounded form
Needles for legs
Racing up his mangled core
Cleverly
They hide in his folds
Hellish parasites
Of the netherworld

He reaches out
Trembling fingers
And a crooked jaw

His throat swells
He opens his mouth
And one of the beasties
Slips on out

It holds fast
To his tongue
And then shoots out
Like a gun
Hardly quick
I shift aside
Before it can prick
Or burrow inside

As I rise
Another
Grazes my side
I peel it off
Bite off its head
The blood is toxic
Good thing I’m dead

I limp away
They fall in droves
Pouring down
From the vents above
It’s a slow retreat
An act
That can only be described
As bittersweet

Legions gaining
My energy waning
I reach for the metal door
And slam it shut
Darkness
Consuming me
Once more

Tortured breaths escape me
Where’s the moon?
The stars?
The gateway?
Indeed this portal
Did not get me far
Someone
Please
Awake me

My hand stumbles
Across a switch
I flip it over
And make a wish