The Fourth Kind

I pressed the door closed

Wood shrieked in protest

They had come finally

To take me where, god knows

I shut my eyes against the effulgent glow

Which pierced the wood of the walls

A warning hum rumbled my chest

Shook the foundation as I screamed

This sound was so entirely consuming

I could not hear my own voice

My hubristic nature had finally caught up

Those demands I sent out

Far and wide to the stars

“Find me.

Take me.”

The minatory response came

“Soon.

Await.”

The strident howl broke me

I collapsed and the door buckled

The light was all consuming

But I simply relaxed

Sighed

And let them take me

This was good

This was right

Sandwiches Aplenty

“The fifth child to go missing

In as many weeks”

I switched off the TV

So morbid

I sat up in the lounge chair

As the door swung open

In waltzed Owen

Smug as always

Tray laden with sandwiches

Cellophane wrapped

One for everyone in the office

I appreciated it

But god was it blatant brown nosing

I took the one proffered to me

Unwrapping with care

No one knows where he got them

Which shop made them

But I have to admit

They had been particularly good

This past month…

Ghastly Demise

Give up this

Desperate struggle

Niggling little parasite

“I am man!”

You boast

And brag

But look how fragile

How little

You truly are

With but a flick

Of the wrist

I can snap a spine

Or snap my fingers

And strip a soul

Though

In truth

This is not enough

Instead

I’ll give a glimpse

A fleeting sight

Of that which assaults

The obsidian doors of night

Which will one day consume all

With this merest fragment

Your mind will flee

And what life remains then

No I have killed

Quite effectively

You little worm

Why such lengths

For but a man

Well quite simply

I prefer to kill

Creatively

The Hole

As I walk down the street, streetlight conical safety passing, I feel something shift like an earthquake, but inward.

Something appears some distance ahead.

I squint, but whatever it is only appears as a hole in my sight, black and without texture. Slowly I walk towards it. I try to come at it at an angle, to see if any variation exists.

Perfectly spherical, and as I get closer I feel the hum of silence. A quiet so perfect that the sound of your blood flow and heartbeat is deafening.

Slowly I reach out and as my fingers pass whatever barrier this sphere represents, I can feel nothing beyond where my fingertips have disappeared. I pull my hand back and find my fingers are gone. I don’t find this alarming. Of course they’re gone. I was born that way. This still does not explain the sphere.

I pick up a rock and throw it within.

I should try throwing something inside.

I pick up a rock and throw it within.

I wonder absently what happens if you put something inside.

I take some change from my pocket, hold it above the hole and drop it within. As it passes within-

I wonder with increased curiosity what it looks like inside the hole. I lean closer, eyes wide and spark of curiosity clear. Closer. Closer.

The Darkness Swells

I awaken with a start

Head thrashing back and forth

Scanning those shelves

Nothing stirs

The phantom banging

Still ringing in my ears

I gently lift the thin book

Resting on my chest

Setting it aside

I sit, forward leaning

Listening

Expectant

The silence pregnant

Then it comes again

A loud thud

Shaking my chair

Across the room

Upon a wooden table

Sits another volume

This one thick

Leather bound

And embossed

“The Darkness Swells”

The book shakes with the next bang

Almost lifting from the table

Instead

The cover falls open

A hand

Black and inky

Claws from the page

Grasping the table

It drags itself

Slow and deliberate

From the table

Falling upon the floor with yet another bang

It claws and scratches closer

Closer

My whole body trapped

Nightmare torpidity dragging me down

The hand grasps my ankle, crushing bone

I awaken with a start