Whispers in the Night

By Eric Benner

 

Midnight wraps the land in a shadowy cloak

Fear lines the pit of my soul

Outside I can hear the howling of the wind

The flickering candle, the dancing fire

Piercing the darkness of my study, dimly lighting the gloom

Lightning flashes across the sky, rain

 

Pounding the windows like stones, rain

Soothing my head, wrapping me in its billowing cloak

I feel her presence; her green eyes flare into the gloom

The terror grips at me, like icy fingers on the fabric of my soul

My heart is thudding in my chest, blood through my veins like fire

Heavy thunder roles across the sky, the wind

 

Buffeting the building like angry demons, I feel a breath like cool wind

I jump, but she forces me down.  I feel the bite, my blood flows like rain

My body grows weak, I lie helpless, her beautiful face visible in the fire

She stands over me, and then lets the darkness envelop her like a cloak

I want to scream out, but the pain is too great…my soul

Is slipping away into the hungry night, that impenetrable gloom

 

My heart is thudding painfully, my vision struggling in the gloom

I hear her whispers in the dark, those riders of the wind

“I can show you the way,” she says, “Your body will die, but your soul

Will stay.”  “Do it.”  I say.  “Who needs the day?”  The rain

Pounds the glass, drumming a steady rhythm with my heart.  The cloak

Of night is around me, her eyes flash and burn like fire

 

In mine.  The thunder rolls, her blood surging through me like fire

The pain gnawing at me, my body twists in agony, paralyzing gloom

Wrapping up my soul.  But soon the dark is light in my eyes, the cloak

Of night no longer secludes my senses. I can nearly feel the wind

Through the windows.  Hunger grips my body with terrifying intensity.  Rain

Still pounds, looking for a way in.  My eyes are lighted green by my soul

 

“Hunger drives us like a passion,” she says, “It fuels the fire of the soul.”

“What is this?”  I ask.  “My senses are dancing…on fire.”

“It’s the passion of which I speak.  Come, into the rain.”

The streets are shrouded in darkness, weather perpetuating the gloom

A blast of night ruffles my hair as I seek that stranger in the wind

There’s a shadow on the walk, standing outside the light, cloaked

 

By the dark.  My bite brings blood into the rain, faint splatters in the gloom

I feel the passing of his soul, burning through me like wildfire

I drop the body into the wind, and the night swallows him in its powerful cloak.