Christmas Gothic

A man in beard and corpulent belly calls for all to sit upon his lap. Tell him your desires. If he deems ye worthy, great fortune… if not…

All over town lights flash and strobe to unheard music. Signs instructing us to listen to the airwaves. We do not. Those few who do drive slow and listless as mindless drones.

Our living rooms are dominated by pine adorned in garish color and light, garland dragging carpet. Somewhere, someone is singing its praises in a language you do not know.

Relatives from all over come to your door. Who are these people? Have you ever met them before? They devour your hard won meals with fervent greed.

Carols at the doors. We dare not open. They call for wassail. Banging and wailing as lost souls. We pretend not to be at home.

It is late. The children sleep. Within their house something creeps. A man in cheap red suit and cotton beard places surprises for those little ones to find. He is prepared if one should awaken. He crunches cookies with a snifter of scotch.

Presents beneath the tree. Children stare on in shock. Who delivered them? When? While they all slept, ignorant and secure.

Parents stare on in dull silence, eyeing children tearing at wrapping like wolves upon a deer. Eyes are sunken and dark. They sip brown brew and silently thank they made it through another year.

XIII

On the horizon you spot it

A gathering darkness

Like so many swarming buzzing corpse flies

The sun died behind it

Yet the sky before you

Still seems a simple sunset

But there

Bulging

Is that blackness

That badness

Quickly growing

Ravenously consuming

Your nails claw at your cheeks

Ragged strips of flesh fall away

A scream

Ragged

Tears from your throat

Your mind fumbles for reason

Some order

Some cause for all of this

But finds none

The walls scream too

And as the world dies

You glimpse behind the encroaching gloom

Something bright

And new

Halloween

Two hands clasp limply around midnight

Twelve long forlorn cries

Somewhere above

In his study

A man screams

Welcoming Halloween

Another stands alone in his bathroom

Hands bloody and horribly raw

Beneath in the sink sit numerous teeth

This is terrible and yet

He sees something far more horrid

He screams “IT HURTS”

Clutching his curtain

A different man stares sidelong

Out at the horrible thing

Standing in his lawn

Airraid siren blaring

It has begun

In another home some miles away

The floor creaks

Yet no one is home

And deep below someone screams

Fingers enmeshed around their chest

Probing their throat curiously

A woman stands in a crowd

Surrounded by strangers

Clutching her face

Eyes wild with terror

And screams in protest

“THE EYES! YOU SEE THEM! I SEE! I SEE YOU!”

It is still early and a young child is awake

Staring at the vent in his room

Listening for the telltale scrabbling

Of those that make them hollow

The vent shakes

He closes his eyes and begins to cry

The Jester calls his rebellious crowd

Prepared and ready to raise a ruckus

Their new beginning

Blade in hand

And smile wide

He turns to the lightened sky

Deep beneath

Somewhere secret

A bed breathes

And the man breathes too

A few behind a oneway mirror

Scribble a note or two

A businessman lies awake

In his hospital bed

Tears streaming down face

As he remembers

Everytime he has died

On that fateful street

On the outskirts

A woman tills her garden

As sun greets so lovingly

She brushes brow

Bent low and smiling

At all the faces she sees below

Only ten miles from here

In a sanctuary for those mentally disturbed

A man, his face bandaged tight

Screams muffled anger

At passing nurses

“I. WEAR. NO. MASK.”

Back in the suburbs a boy left a box

Yet as the door closed

A hand crept out

Black and crooked

Grasped the edge

And pulled as the box collapsed within

A vessel long from now

And far away

Turns slowly in void

Directionless

Distress transmitted

Awaiting rescue

Back below in a cabin alone

A man screams at the walls

Fists full of dirt

And beating his flesh

He cries simply

“THE EARTH IS DEAD!”

Two dance in the depths

Below crashing waves

The woman couldn’t be happier

The man’s face aghast

And twisted in terror

Is all the joy she ever wanted

Yet another time

Another place

Something walks in the dark

Listening waiting

And all too hungry

It hears a soft creak

Awake and yet not

A man eyes antiques

Something within

Is evil and cruel

Waiting to jump out

In surprise

Something similar haunts fever dreams

A man has unfortunately found out

He paws at his face

Disbelieving and afraid

His reflection laughs

In mocking pantomime

His

Heart

Not

Home

In a land that is strange

A stranger is screaming

Holding tight upon the ropes

Try as he might

He cannot stop

The rise of those terrible gods

Rusted wire sits coated in blood

The body wasting away

Now it is cut

And taken away

And in the distance

We hear pigs squealing

A woman had extracted

Some weeks before

Something small and awful

Flour dusting doorway

She awakens each morning

To find yet more tracks

This monster sits

Smiling gladly

At the feast laid out before him

Mask porcine and old

He cries for yet more

And here comes the next bit

Mere doors down from the man with no mask

Another cries in anguish

His body is dead

He’s trapped within

And all the doctors

Call madness

As chaos consumes

And the tempest draws nearer

A man welcomes it in

He’s drawn all the signs

and he opens their door

And embraces the slithering thing

Trapped in memory

A fortress of his own

This man weeps for love

She is long gone

And yet he chooses

To live it again and again

One more ritual as the night draws to a close

The corpse is already hung

A man fed Lies Slowly Dies

He screams at the sight

Of that horrible face

And the Lord of Flies calls for his heart

As I type and click away

I spy something amidst the trees

It moves

And sways

As all the others

Yet a swear I spy a face

Lastly the man

Who fed Him all his loved ones

Giggles away with his pigs

He’s not sure just what he’s done

But he’s sure he’s had fun

And he can’t wait for next year

The King’s Maze

Miles of stonework sprawled before him

The King’s Maze was king Azmodius’ masterpiece

Though for those few who found its center

They found the king had something to hide

Something so terrible it had to be contained within this structure

Our hero rested his hand on the arch of the entrance

A chill ran up his spine at the cool touch

Something in its simple stonework

Whispered terror into his soul

With a step he crossed the threshold

Left hand trailing along the wall

He would find what hid within

And expose Azmodius for the devil that he was

Our hero felt the air cool, breath fogging

The world twisted rolling onto its side

He lost all sense of up or down

And soon fell upon his knees

As he raised his head

Something had changed

The stone was different, alternating

Path inlaid with dull metal

He stood unsteadily and placed his right hand upon the wall

Slowly he began to walk again

Footsteps echoed in a rapid cascade beyond and behind him

Louder until they seemed not to be his

Something followed far behind him

Thunderous hooves stampeding

He cried in horror as he turned about

Arms raised across his face

The cry thundered in crashing resonance

But soon all fell silent

He lowered his arms

And found it changed again

The stones stacked in intricate swirls

The path, metal and wood shaped intricacies

All of which depicted a phantasmagoria

A crown enwrapped in hands and swirling smoke

People clutching faces, screams issued from twisted shock

He trembled as he wrapped his arms around himself

Seeking warmth of some kind

The air was so cold here

He walked awhile more, the cold slicing through him

Soon his eyes grew heavy as an unknown warmth encircled him

Collapsing against the wall

He lay for but a moment before his eyes flew open

Again it had changed

The stone a fantastical design inset with gems of all colors

Upon the floor the design had changed once more

The crown now was grasped by twirling tentacles of purple and black

Eldritch things tearing off the flesh of their own faces

But he was finally warm

So warm

Somewhere far ahead something began to beat

A thumping low and ponderous

He did not hesitate

This was what he had sought

He was sure of it

As he turned a corner something occurred to him

He had not turned a single corner before this

Only ever curving walls obliterating at the horizon

This thought was swept away as the center came into view

Red light flooded his senses

Cinnamon and blood

The sound shaking his bones

The sight of all that was hidden

The flesh

The words

The steel

Left him tasting something acrid

And fearful

There was no escaping

He knew this

The truth here would die with him

And that death would come swiftly

On wings of silk and skin

The thumping beating its sky-long span

The claws descended

What is Worse

What’s worse?

To know

That someone was living in the walls

Or find

That someone is dying in your halls

To feel

Your skin crawling like a beast

Or see

Your flesh, alive and hungry for the feast

I feel so overwhelmed

Distracted

By all this hell I’ve created

But I can’t help but feel happy

No longer slow and sappy

What’s worse

To find

The bitter taste of copper in your mouth

Or See

Her blood is splattered all around

To hear

Your loved ones crying for your help

Or watch

Your legs walk away all by themselves

I feel such satisfaction

By all of my abstractions

Horror is made reality

These terrors in their nascency

Fate

The universe churns

Chaos incarnate

Swirling shift-thickening cosmos

Yet here two souls

Two lone broken things

Are pushed together

Found amongst the billions of others

And they dance

Their essence swirling in time

In sync strangely

They scarcely believe it

How could it be?

Yet

Again and again

The universe tells them

“This must be.”

And so they dance

Onward

Together