Needles

I struggle up

Roots hold me down

Screaming raving flailing

I am swarmed

Buzzing multitude descend

A hundred daggers perforate me

Injecting god knows what

My blood is fire

I smolder

Already spent

A priest reads my final rights

But they sound all wrong

“Psychosis unlike any I’ve seen”

What devil now intrudes?

What lies will it spin

I know who I am

Where I am

Always I am

I am undying

Chittering corpse

Look how pallid

How putrid I grow

The fire warms me now

Coddles me

Lulling me

I allow it

Glasses adjusted

“You have quite the delusion

Don’t you?”

I grin

Gums black

Teeth blacker

“Even eating coal

Anything to appear less alive”

He scribbles something

“Fascinating”

But I feel the fire slipping already

I descend back to the earth

I am cradled

I am still

I still watch

The light from my open grave

Eyeing that false priest

No possibility

His lies can reach me

I am nothing more

Than a rotting corpse

Consume

So hungry

Ravenous

Constant

Insatiable

Gods save me

It’s never enough

Daily I take

My pound of flesh

Pounds

And pounds

Piles

Heaping tables full

Nubile

Decrepit

All are welcome

At my table

All shall be served

With a side salad

And rosemary for garnish

Oh just thinking of

Imagining the feasts

I salivate

Mouth hung agape

And dripping

I tear into the flank

Of some young thing

The red stains all

But most of all

My soul

What need have I of that

I know where I am headed

When I shuffle of

This sack of flesh

And I will continue

Burning all the while

I will consume

And consume

Cut

Breath held

I held still

Stillness consumed

consuming fear

Fear sharp

Sharpened wires entangled

a tangle crossing room

Room glimmered

Glimmering as they hung

Hung as gossamer web

Webbing of some unseen spider

Spider was his name

Naming it made all the worse

Worst of all my heavy eyes

Eyes lolling to and fro

Forgetting my fear

Falling back

I scream

As the web ensares

Enmeshing with flesh

I bleed quickly

But not quick enough

Root

My little garden

So perfect

Placed exactly

Quite precisely

Measured spacing

Exact depth too

Even the watering

And lighting of course

See how they sprout

Flourish anew

From the old

And decaying

Glorious blooms

Crimson and violet

It seems right

That this should come

From a night

Crimson and violent

Yes as I ease the rows

And till the ground

Eyes vacant and grey

Stare up from the loam

Not as Expected

Palos would burn my soul for this

No redemption here

I had finally gone too far

I eased the blade

Under larynx

The boy shuddered

Coughed

And fell still

All about me

My fellow soldiers did the same

To the elderly

The women

All these innocents

Blood shed

To draw and end

To any possibility

Of retaliation

The encampment had fallen

Faster than I expected

Faster I think

Than any of us expected

So few men

So few fighters

And now

Lambs to the slaughter

This

This didn’t feel right

Something was wrong

Then the shots rang out

The wind ripped

Tearing us apart

I felt stinging buzzing bees slash and tear

A soft gasp

Was all I managed

The men

Had hidden

In the tree line

Aimed down upon us

Waited until we were fully preoccupied

Busy slaughtering their loved ones

Then opened fire

I tasted copper

These last few thoughts pass through me

I should have told

I should have objected

I should have…

If you enjoyed today’s poem make SURE you go check out Amberley’s After the End poem for today also! It’s right here! The rest of the poems for this collection are in our After the End categories and the tag AftertheEnd!

Haunted

My last patient of the day

Her eyes were pocketed and harrowed

Thumbs fiddling nervously

“Is there something specific

You want to discuss, Priscilla?”

I asked

Penciling in my observations

She nodded slowly

“Yes Dr. Jacobs…

I haven’t been sleeping well

I haven’t closed my eyes

In so long

Because when I do…

It…

It…”

She began to cry

Great heaving sobs

The whites of her eyes

A pinkish hue from strain

I let her have a moment

Waiting

“Two days ago

It started

I was having coffee

I closed my eyes for a moment

Just a blink really

And then crouched

Slavering and bestial

It sat on my table all fangs

And claw

And piercing predatory gaze

I ran

But it did not give chase

I eyed it from behind a corner

As I blinked

It was halfway across the room

Eyes locked on mine

I fled to the bathroom

Locking the door behind me

I shut my eyes

And heard it pacing

Claws scraping the wood flooring

Breath heavy

Excited

Then it hit the door

I heard splintering

Eyes flying open

It stopped

The door was split in the middle

Wood poking out at odd angles…”

She took a deep slow breath

Trying to steady herself

“I managed to get past it

Holding my eyes open the whole time

And left my apartment

I slept in a hotel that evening

But in the middle of the night

The window of the room I was in

Shattered inward with explosive force

I saw it as I sat up

Frozen in air

Claws extended

In mid-pounce

Saliva fell in long ropes from its fangs

It-

It’s been chasing me ever since

I can’t

I can’t sleep

I can’t run

It always finds me…”

She shut her eyes and weeped

Palms pressed to her eyes

I heard a bang from the reception

Valerie screamed

Then the door shattered into hundreds of pieces

Nothing stood there

Priscilla screamed

Suddenly lifted from her chair

Eyes still shut

“Kill me damn you!

Do it!

Fuck you!”

Claw marks appeared over her clothes

Long streaks that quickly bloomed crimson

Her screams became strangled

As punctures pierced her throat

Her body shuddered as the flesh was ripped

Tossed to the side

And soon her body fell limp

Collapsing to the floor

Then silence

A complete

And perfect

Silence

Fingers

Nothing announced the start

I was simply sitting at my desk

Reading quietly

Then all at once

And uniformly

Without a sound

Fingers slid from my walls

Seeming to phase through

Drywall and paint

I fell back from my chair

Staring

Whale eyes

As they passed the first joint

Then the second

Nearing the third

Then past

No hands

Just more joints

Longer

And longer

Until they began to writhe and curl in strange directions

Bending one way

Then with a sickening snap

The joint would reverse direction

Bending the other way

These things reached and probed

Looking for me

Feeling over desk

And floor

My overturned chair

The whole room was filled with a gut-wrenching cacophony

Snaps and crunches

As the probing fingers bent at odd angles

I felt one touch my shoulder

I screamed

They fell silent

And totally still

Then withdrew

And just as I thanked my lucky stars

They reached from the floor

Entrapping me

And dragged me

Screaming

Beneath the wooden beams

Creeptober continues, and I feel the need to apologize. Is this all a bit much? Hm… well nothing to do but soldier on. Eyes forward. Don’t look back. Never look back. They wait for you to look. Never look.

Communion

I arranged it perfectly

My magnum opus

His blood found the cracks

Slipping between the tiles

A bloody tessellation

Then I sat

And played the harp

His final serenade

A lilting dirge

The notes rebounding

Refracting

Multiplying

Fractal melody

The room shimmered

In a strange light

The corners folded

Perpendicular warped

To parallel

There then I communed

With the infinite

Transcending

The First Push

The crosses lined the mountain ridge

Men nailed in place

With thick wooden stakes

Hands bloodied messes

Ankles near torn in half

Their screams rained down on those below

If one fell silent

One of the Kilkenny’s would come

Pike in hand

And stab the man

So he would once more take up the cry

Their prisoners of war

Were these men

And cruel was this torture

But as I hid in the trees just below

I still felt guilty

For what was about to come

The swift death

The unrelenting efficiency

And the total destruction of their lives

Elder Amelia counseled

No mercy to those who profane

No second chances for those demons

I readied my bow

Michael had done a good job

The arrows were perfect

I drew back

Breath withdrawn

I aligned my aim

Released the breath

And let loose the missile

A gentle whistle

The man dropped

I placed a crooked finger

Between my lips

Letting forth a more piercing whistle

This was the signal

All along the ridge the underbrush moved

Palos watched over our advance

Kilkenny after Kilkenny fell to our blade and bow

He was proud

The ridge was ours almost immediately

Without a cry from their men

We slit the throats of our own

Hung from those beams

To cease their cries

To ease their pain

To warn the enemy

Death was come

The Night

When I met her

I knew everything had changed

I was alone

Nursing a shot

The bartender close

Hands shaking

As he poured another

The door was open

I don’t remember it opening

But the night poured in

Cold and windy

Dark and stormy

Framed by streetlight

She wore a dress

Black as sin

Lips layered charcoal

Eyes smokey but sharp

“I’ve come to collect

A few of my things.”

Her voice was low

Sultry

Enticing

I swiveled around

Teeth flashing wolf bright

“A drink or two?”

She smiled back

Oh that smile

A dangerous thing…

“No just a few folks

Who are going my way.”

She clicked her tongue

But seemed to consider

“Maybe just one…”

I looked to the bartender

Whose eyes were wide

And staring at me

“Well? Pour her a drink!”

He stumbled away and left

Through a back door

“Rude…”

I grabbed a glass

Poured one out for her

And she sat down

With some gravitas

I held up my shot

And she, hers

“Sláinte!”

I tipped back

“Sláinte agad-sa…”

Her cool response

Her shot was empty

“So what brings you here?”

I bubbled cheerily

“Like I said

To pick up a few friends

Who are going my way.

I mean in the end

You’re all going my way…”

I paused in pouring

I looked back at the crimson

Splashed over the booths

The tangled limbs

The faces of horror

And gripped the pistol

Which sat before me

“And me?”

She laughed

A laugh like broken glass

A rock through an old house

“Soon

But not yet…”

She drifted from me

All grace

And power

Gently she caressed their faces

Lifting away

Something thin

And whispy

To each one she did this

And I waited

“Well do enjoy your whiskey

And have one for me

Before you call it an evening.”

With that

She left back through the door

Closed already

And the heat suffocating

That was when I met her

Call her what you want

Death

Hades

Valkyrie

I simply call her

The Night