Without You - Chapter 7: Legions

Torn from my dreams

As our spirits touch

Cruel

Unfair

Dumped back into

This dirty stinking lair

Impossibly

The corpse rises

This bleak new world

Offers few surprises

He staggers

Knees wobble

Creeps along

With a hobble

Casting a long deep shadow
Over me

He paws at the cranium

On the floor

A sinuous shadow

Scatters inside

He scoops up his crown

Placing it aright

Turns to me

Blood running down his cheeks

Tears of knowledge

Now aware

How little resides

Over there

All along

Salvation but a mirage

An empty song

He ambles forward

Surely he cannot see at all

Driven by a hunger

I know

All too well

Mites scatter over

His scalded form

Needles for legs

Racing over

His mangled core

Hiding cleverly in his folds

Hellish parasites

Of the netherworld

He reaches out

Trembling fingers

Crooked jaw

His throat swells

As he opens his mouth

And one of the beasties

Slips on out

It clings fast

To his tongue

And then shoots out

As if from a gun

Hardly quick

I shift aside

Before it can prick

Or burrow inside

This fading flesh

As I rise

I feel another

Graze 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 out

From the vents above

It’s a slow retreat

An escape

That can only be described

As bittersweet

With legions gaining

My energy waning

I reach for the metal door

And slam it shut

Darkness finding me

Once more

Tortured breaths

Escape me

Where are the moon

And stars?

Indeed this portal

Did not get me far

Someone please

Awake me

As my hand stumbles

Across a switch

I flip it over

And make a wish