15. Creepy Clown Park
(Ballad) *
<hr>
Part 1
Blasted is the day,
And blasted is the night;
Even though you pray,
Who will bring the light?
1
Now Leer was walking home one night,
Conversing with his friend;
The two kept up their conversation
As they turned ''round the bend
Into a detour crossing through
A field within a park,
Which they could barely comprehend
When evening gets too dark.
And so they stood upon the entrance
Of that foreboding place,
Each wondering with masks of courage
To hide his fear-filled face.
So Ember (that is Leer''s good friend)
Observed the park and said,
"I''ve heard that there''s a creepy clown
Who buried someone''s head
"Somewhere inside this park about
A month or two ago."
So said the weirdly thoughtful Ember
Before the two would go
Along the creepy path right through
A creepy field at night—
So thought the creepy-storied Leer
Upon so dark a site.
For Leer had heard about the clown
That Ember spoke about;
So when the two moved on their steps
Along the fabled route,
Leer said, "I know. I''ve heard that, too,
But here is something more
I''ve heard that even you don''t know:
That killer clown would bore
"A hole inside that person''s skull
And scoop out all his brains,
Before proceeding to devour
The rest of his remains."
And so the curious Ember said,
"What did he use to bore
His skull? An auger? Or a file?"
Leer, walking as before,
Began to walk a little faster,
Saying, "I''m not too keen
On how he bores a skull right through,
Since I have never seen
"Directly how he''s done all that,
But only heard in rumor;
And as to why, I''ll just assume
That he''s in some bad humor."
Bad humor was the least of it,
If all of that was true,
So thought the creepy-storied Leer
In his expansive purview.
Ember had nothing left to say
Of Leer''s tremendous knowledge
Of creepy tales and creepy hearsay
That Leer would not acknowledge.
And so the two tread homeward-bound
Through creepy path and park
In silence, for the night was young,
Still westering the dark
Completely t''wards the Western edge
Of such a far-off ambit, *
Where just a half an hour since
The sun had set upon it.
Now almost all the sky was black
Towards the western edge
Of that far-off horizon where
It levels on a straightedge,
But in the darkness of the park,
Embowered by the trees,
It now took on the creepy cast
Of something on the breeze
That rustles through the dying leaves
Of autumn''s fading glory,
And so the weary Ember told
Another creepy story.
He said, "I''ve heard another clown
Has come into this place,
But this one doesn''t wear a mask
Or even have a face.
"He''s not a clown that wears the mask
Or makeup of a clown,
But hides the trace of something more
That few have ever known."
"How do you know, then?" Leer now said.
"Have you seen it yourself?"
A smile crept up on Ember''s face,
So full of his own self.
And so Leer called off Ember''s bluff,
Continuing to walk
A little faster on the path
Towards the other block—
Continuing to walk along
The creepy path at night—
Continuing to walk among
The shadows in the moonlight—
Continuing to share their tales
Of ever-gruesome horrors,
Both adding to the gruesomeness
Of their reported rumors—
Continuing to walk and walk,
Until both boys perceived
That something supernatural
Had both of them deceived.
So Ember looked looked upon his watch
And cried out, "Holy shit,
It''s almost nearing midnight now!"
He nearly had a fit.
So Leer now tried to calm his friend
And said, "Don''t think about it!
I think we''ve entered something strange;
On this, I cannot doubt it."
Leer then directed Ember''s gaze
Towards the path in front,
Their hopes now drifting far behind,
Their fears now on the forefront.
They saw the path stretch on and on
Into the gloom ahead,
As though there was no end in sight,
Filling them both with dread.
So both boys turned around and saw
That they had walked so far
Beyond the entrance of the park;
It''s such a sight bizarre;
They knew not where they are.
2
The two kept looking on in fear
As if the world had gone
So wrong or just moved out of kilter;
Something was going on.
The two looked at each other now,
Both Leer and Ember thinking
Such thoughts as only crazies thought,
Except in silent drinking
Over the cause of something felt
But never truly seen.
The two decided to retrace
The path where they had been
Walking along in foolishness,
So heedless of the dangers
As they conversed on creepypastas **
Surrounding clowns and strangers.
The topic of much stranger clowns
Now popped inside their heads,
As if the ghost of Pennywise ***
Would tear them both to shreds.
If such a monster could exist
Outside of Stephen King,
Were all these killer clowns the henchmen
Of some God-awful thing
Beyond the comprehension of
Mere rational adults,
Accessible through childhood fears
With horrible results?
If clowns were clowns and jokers jokers,
Who was this Pennywise?
Was he the Devil''s avatar,
A monster in disguise?
Such horrid thoughts preoccupied
The minds of both these boys,
For something worse than Pennywise
Treated these two like toys.
A distant chime resounded through
The distance just ahead,
And then some moments now elapsed
When something reared its head
Within the distant darkness just
Beyond the wall of sight;
A faceless head with tufts of hair
Gave both these boys a fright,
Making them jump and take steps back
And stifle back their screams.
It had to be a trick of light;
It had to be a dream.
Now both boys bolted back in terror,
Running the other way
Along the path where they had been
Talking themselves astray
Into the park when it got dark,
Whiling the minutes by—
Running their way towards the entrance,
Spending their strength thereby—
Panicking all the while they ran,
Wasting their breath away—
Running their way towards a trap
In headlong getaway—
Running until they saw and halted
Inside the gloomy park.
Something else was there ahead of them
Amidst the shadows dark.
Closer and closer did they come,
These fiends without their faces,
Until they saw their phantom shapes
Walking in shambling paces,
As if they were just strolling through
A sunny park in spring,
If only they had something else
Besides the grizzly thing
That hung about their faceless heads—
Two bloody nooses ''round
Their shriveled necks of skin and bone
That made a creaking sound
Whenever they turned ''round their heads.
Now both boys screamed in fright
And ran right off the lighted path
Into the wooded night.
And like two phantoms made of breath,
Both fiends now disappeared,
Two figments of imagination
Thought up by something weird—
Something far weirder than a clown
That kills without a knife—
Something far weirder than two fiends
That lived a faceless life—
Something both boys would have to face
Before this night is done—
Something that has the upper hand
On everyone—but one,
Whose name is Allison.
Part 2
Everyone that lives
Must someday have to die;
Fate never really gives
A damn for you or I!
1
Our Allison had dreamed a dream
About two stranded boys,
Running and screaming for their lives,
Making a lot of noise.
So when she woke, she found herself
Inside that very park,
Although she hadn''t any clue
Why everything was dark.
You see, she took some medication
To quell the horrid dreams
Of those who die of fright at night,
Dying in all their screams,
Yet when she checked her cabinet,
She found there wasn''t any;
And so she tossed and turned tonight
And heard those screams a-plenty.
She picked herself right off the ground
And thought she saw two fiends
That had no faces on their heads,
Two fiends that scared two friends
Right off into the darkened woods
That lined the darkened path;
The phantom fiends then disappeared
Before they faced her wrath.
And so she went right off the path
In search of those two boys,
Who ran into the wooded park
And made a lot of noise.
She called for them, although she did
Not know their names just yet;
She only knew that they were scared,
Which made her quite upset.
And so she stalked into the woods
To search the poor boys out;
She had to find them ere those fiends do
In this ungodly hideout.
For in her heart, a kind of thump
Resounded with a clang,
As if she stood beneath the bells
That ever coldly rang
The dreaded knell that tells the time
When someone somewhere dies;
Ah, such becomes the fugitive
When corpses shall arise
To trap the weary soul within
The confines of the park,
Wherein all screams will fade away
Unheeded in the dark.
And so she kept on looking for
Those fugitives a-missing,
When something sinister began
To rear its head a-hissing
A few feet just ahead of her,
Wrapping around a tree—
A giant centipede of such
Immense enormity
That Allison stood still in shock
To see it there at all;
It had large pinchers, legs and fangs,
All big enough to maul.
But then she saw some smaller ones,
Still bigger than her arms,
Come out from every hiding place,
Which caused her much alarm;
From trees and underneath the scrub
Came all these centipedes;
From hidden dens beneath the earth
They came in one stampede.
So in her hand appeared the blade,
The Vorpal blade of death;
She stood her guard and waited for
Th'' attack with bated breath.
She''d slice them up if they came near
Enough to threaten her
With pinching legs and venomed fangs,
Should such a charge occur!
And yet, the smaller centipedes
Kept well off from her stance,
As if the big one warned them off
With barely but a glance,
Invisible as it may seem
As Allison could see;
But then the bigger centipede
Alighted from the tree
And lowered its enormous length
On pinchers to the ground,
Remaining there in silence as
She looked it all around.
Ah, not the least deterrence made he,
But kept obeisance there;
When Allison made not a move,
His voice came through the air
And said, "Fear not this centipede
With Vorpal blade in hand,
But trust me with your golden heart
And try to understand.
"I''m only but a messenger,
A guide to all lost souls;
There are two souls lost in these woods,
Two souls who are but fools."
Now Allison had dropped her guard
And listened to this spirit,
For this one had no trace of malice
Or foul intentions in it.
She said, "Do you know where they are,
Those two lost in these woods?"
The spirit said, "Indeed, I do,
As any spirit should,
"For in these woods lurks something vile,
A murderer whose kind
I''ve never yet beheld before
Or held inside my mind.
"He masquerades in many forms
To lure his victims in,
And sometimes alters space and time,
Or uses mannequins
"To scare his victims off the path
Towards his hidden lair,
Wherein he tends to taunt his victims
In one collective nightmare.
"And should you choose to go that route,
I''ll take you there this minute,
But not inside that Borderland
Wherein he rules within it."
So said the giant centipede;
Now Allison had sense
To heed the spirit''s warning thus,
Inquiring, "How long since
"Had he resided in these woods?
A week? A month? A year?"
The centipede replied in full,
"He came within our sphere
"Two months ago when all was dark
Before the blood moon broke
Over the trees, a ghastly sight,
Amidst a spectral smoke.
"Since then, a spectral haze would cloak
These woods at certain hours
When sleepless sleepers stayed awake
In fear of dreadful powers
"That lie beyond my spectral ken,
Beyond the sight of death;
All those who stayed awake by then
Would breathe their final breath
Upon this shibboleth:
"''Blasted is the day,
And blasted is the night;
Even though I pray,
Who will bring me light?
"''Everyone that lives
Must someday have to die;
Fate never really gives
A damn for you or I!''"
2
So spoke the centipede his warning,
A-waft upon the air;
Now Allison had better gist
Of what went on o''er there
Beyond the Borderlands whereon
This monster would extinguish
The lives of all the lost and lonely,
Who die in bitter anguish.
She felt a chill run up her spine
To heed that shibboleth,
As though it threw a subtle curse
Upon her fearful breath,
For she remembered in her dreams
Those very lines that stirred
The storms within her beating heart
Of hearts, as if each word
Caressed her to complacency,
Then turned her waking dreams
Into the stuff of nightmares filled
With many silent screams.
She shook it off the best she could
And recomposed herself,
Then gathered up the shreds of courage
Now scattered on the shelf
Of hasty misinterpretation
And niggardly assessment;
She climbed up on the centipede
And sat without a comment.
And then the giant centipede
Crawled quickly through the wood
O''er fallen trees and breaking twigs,
Much quicker than it should,
Forcing poor Allison to hug
Her straddling legs around
The bony undulating segments,
Bare feet above the ground.
And when she chanced to look around,
She saw the woods a-blur;
Each overhanging branch and log
Whizzed past her in a stir
Of roller-coaster jolts and turns
That wore her body out,
And yet she clung with hands and legs,
Her hair blown all about
Through stirring streams of nighttime air;
And Allison this way
Clung on for minutes at a time
Into the the crazy fray.
She clung and clung with all her strength,
Clung tight with gripping hands,
Until the centipede slowed down;
They''ve reached the Borderland,
Where stalked that entity of death
That lures lost souls away,
Where strayed those lost and weary youngsters
From the light of night and day.
No wind caressed her supple skin,
And yet a heaviness
Of air weighed down this Borderland
With something of distress,
The stress of souls and dark emotions
A-whirling through her spirit,
As if their screams churned up a sea
That ravaged her upon it.
She raised herself and saw the staircase,
A staircase in the woods,
So harmless anywhere but here
Wherein the object stood
Without a house attached to it—
Without a bannister
To grasp when one ascends the steps—
With nothing but a door
Upon that topmost landing where
It beckons one to come
And knock upon the knocker there,
Where all our nightmares come from.
After alighting from its back,
She said, "Is this the place?"
The centipede then said, "Indeed,
The house without a trace
"Of life within its walls of darkness,
Where nothing''s as it seems;
Most humans can''t go further hence,
Except inside their dreams.
"But you are different from the rest,
For you have walked the path
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.That leads through black infinity
From fearfulness to wrath."
Yet even with such words of courage
Filtering through her ears,
She felt a chill run up her spine,
Confirming all her fears;
She said, "I''m not sure what might happen
When I go up those stairs."
The centipede replied, "Ah, courage
Comes from the stew of fears,
"For only in the blackest night
Shall courage light its flame—
For only ''midst the storm of fear
Shall strength find its true name.
"Have courage, child, as you had once
When your own grandpa died;
He''s watching over you right now—"
She turned and slowly eyed
The centipede before her there,
Then said, "Tell him I love him."
Then tears filled up her eyes, then trailed
Her cheeks in night''s fair dim,
Whereat the centipede replied,
"He knows already, child."
And so her candled flame renewed,
Her courage undefiled—
And so she ventured t''wards the stairs
And climbed up all the steps,
Watching the door grow every closer,
Approaching dream-filled depths
Where something hidden from the mind
Holds sway on weaker souls;
She reached the landing, reached the door
Wherein lurked ghosts and ghouls,
Then crept towards the door to knock,
Then turned around and saw
That centipede had disappeared;
She turned around in awe.
She raised her hand to touch the knocker,
But paused before the knock;
The night was silent, chill and dead,
As if time stopped the clock—
The calm before the shock.
Part 3
Blasted is the day,
And blasted is the night;
Even though we pray,
Who will bring the light?
1
Metallic knocks shook through the dungeon
And woke both youngsters up;
They found themselves in man-sized cages,
A-hanging from the top
Of some abysmal underground
Where prisoners are kept—
Where teenagers have screamed in vain—
Where many children wept.
Ah, in this Hidden Realm of pain
Lie tortures manifold:
The heavy chains and manacles
(Feeling so metal-cold)
Kept both their arms and legs in place
That offered no succor,
Restricting movement to their cages,
Keeping them where they were.
So Ember said, "Are we now dead?
Or are we still alive?"
So Leer replied, "We have not died,
So we might still survive."
Then Ember, struggling in his cage
A-hanging from the ceiling,
Felt every motion of each sway
That sent his senses reeling
From side to side, a pendulum
Making him want to puke,
As though the world''s gone topsy-turvy
And crazy like a kook.
So Ember said, "This motion sickness
Will be the death of me,
And more than that (and worst of all),
I really need to pee!"
"Then tinkle somewhere else," said Leer,
Averting from the view.
"For God''s sake, not in front of me!"
So Ember took the cue.
He turned around, unzipped his fly,
And tinkled down the deep
Abyss that echoed back each drop,
As though aroused from sleep,
For in those depths lurked something there
Beyond his mortal ken,
Wherein a darkness more than night
Roused every now and then.
Yet for these two, they did not know
The peril they were in,
For they were sacrificial kids
Predestined to be eaten.
When Ember zipped his open fly,
He looked towards his friend
And said, "My God, what is this place?
Who sent us to this end?"
"Beats me," said Leer, who now stood up
And looked beyond the bars
Around their cavernous abode.
"I cannot see the stars,
"So we might be inside a dungeon
Or even underground.
Do you remember anything
When we were in the playground?"
"I do not know for sure," said Ember,
Wracking his weary brain.
"Those things with nooses ''round their necks,
They''re all I ascertain.
"Can you remember anything
Beyond that wicked pair?
Can you remember what we did
Before we woke up here?"
And for a time, Leer wracked his brain
For something else he saw
Or did, but soon he shook his head.
"I can''t. It''s blah, blah, blah
"For me. I have no other clue,"
And then he banged his fist
Against the bars of his own cage,
For he was getting pissed
At something he had missed.
2
Now Allison, she thought she heard
The echo of a bang
Resounding somewhere far below,
Giving her heart a pang,
Of something she had never felt
And made her so surprised,
A sense of kindred helplessness
To courage galvanized.
The echoes ceased upon the threshold
Of half-heard silences,
And as she pushed the door aside,
She spied the differences
Between the chilly breeze outside
And the cozy warmth within,
Where someone said in stirring echoes,
"It''s cold outside; come in!"
She ventured forth and let the door
Shut out the world of night,
Thudding against the stalwart jamb;
Now every hallway light
Lit up before her, one by one,
Beckoning her to follow;
And so she followed down the hall
Towards that haunted hollow
Where countless teens and children went
Before her. Then a thread
Of something cold ran up her spine.
"What is this place?" she said.
"This is a world of my creation,"
The voice replied again,
"For I have built a home of comfort
From a world of bitter pain,
"A world more fraught with agonies
Than you can understand."
So said the voice within the halls
Inside this Borderland.
But Alice, she was full of pluck
And walked ahead in thought,
Thinking about her grandpapa
Wherein her dreams she sought
The comfort of his final words:
"I''m always with you, child,
And always will forever stay
Within you reconciled."
Upon these words she often dwelled
To keep her spirits up,
And as she walked the winding length
Of hallway, she saw a cup
Sitting upon the floor before
Her feet. She crouched to grab
The vessel off the ground, when in
Her heart she felt a stab
Of panic flooding through her body;
She screamed an oath of doom,
But when she stood, she found herself
Inside a dining room.
A row of hanging chandeliers
Lit up the gloomy ceiling,
Casting dark shades and shadows there,
Sending her gaze a-reeling,
Until her sense of balance faltered
And felled her in a swoon,
Wherein she lingered for a spell
Ere waking to the tune
Of something sounding far away
And dissipating there;
She thought she heard a rattling cage,
Then turned her thoughts elsewhere.
She found herself upon a chair,
A-sitting like a princess
Dressed in a pinafore of white
Over a sky-blue dress.
Beside her was a table full
Of victual and drink
To quench her hunger and her thirst,
But all this made her think
About the words the centipede
Imparted ere departing:
Something about the day and night
Was creeping in and starting
To knock the doors of her queer heart
With ever-lurking terror;
She raised her gaze along the table
And spied the fiend in horror!
For there beyond the candelabra
Lighting the table ''tween them,
There in the flicker of its light
Lighting the gloom around them,
There in the chair with glass in hand
Was someone sitting, raising
His glass of human blood to her,
Saying the same odd phrasing,
"''Blasted is the day,
And blasted is the night;
Even though I pray,
Who will bring me light?
"''Everyone that lives
Must someday have to die;
Fate never really gives
A damn for you or I!''"
Now Allison, she gulped her qualms
And spied her ghastly host,
Noticing through his plasmic body
The substance of a ghost.
He had a top hat on his head
And wore a suit in white,
His eyes like lamplights made of fire
Shrouded in faceless night;
He took his glass and took a sip,
Relished the ghastly taste,
Then set his glass back on the table
And looked where fear had traced
The worry lines upon her face
And said, "It''s rare to have
A visitor as young as you
To be so bold and brave,
"To venture to these hidden parts
Where not a soul before
Has dared to place a wayward foot
Beyond my entrance door.
"So I acknowledge you, fair knight!"
He raised his glass to her
Again as he had done before
And said, "Now let me enter-
Tain you with something truly grand,
A spectacle of wonder
Before your wayward-glancing eyes!"
And booming sounds of thunder
Rumbled the chamber all around them,
And lightning flashed the room,
And winds blew out the candlelights
And cast her world in gloom
Like the darkness of the tomb.
3
Now plunged into another swoon
That took her underground,
She oped her eyes into the chasm ****
Below her, where she found
The two lost boys in hanging cages,
A-hanging from long chains;
She had a God''s-eye-view of them
And saw their dead remains.
Her astral body flew towards
These two unfortunates,
There skeletons encaged in death''s
Repulsive shroud, their fates
Unknown to all but Allison,
Who saw in her mind''s eye
The way they died their starving deaths,
Which made her question: "Why?"
And so her vision in her swoon
Began to dissipate
Into the stuff of all our nightmares,
The portents of our fate;
And now she found herself back here
Inside the dining room,
Finding her host approaching her
Wherein she sat in gloom;
And so she stood up from her chair
And stood her ground in fear,
Looking upon his face in shadow
With fiery eyes that leer
Upon the form of Allison,
Making her heart to quake;
She saw a boneyard in those eyes
With but a single look,
So she repeated her one question
And said unto this ghost,
"By God, hy must you be so cruel?
What is it that you''ve lost?"
"Because," he said, "the world''s a cruel
And godless place of pain,
Wherein the only ones who rule
Are the ones that still remain
"Alive to kill before they''re killed
By stronger enemies:
This is the reason why I''m here—
To stave off my demise
"By killing teens and children here
T'' extend my very life,
Shedding the blood of those who wander
Here with this very knife!"
And suiting actions to his words,
He manifested there
Within his hand a vorpal blade
Making Allison stare
In shock upon another wielder
Of fate within his hand;
Now Allison knew why she felt
Such dread within this land,
For here within these walls of death
Resides her host in prison,
And such became her foolish quest
When corpses have arisen
To trap these weary souls within
The confines of this room,
Where teens'' and children''s screams fade out
Unheeded in this tomb!
Within her hand was manifest
The very vorpal blade
She used to free her grandpapa
From a ghastly soul-trade.
She stood her guard on tenuous feet,
Conscious of her own heart
Beating the tune of death against
Her ribs and said with a start,
"That monstrous self''s not who you are!
You''re just an innocent
Whose deeds have trapped you in this place,
But if you now repent—"
"Don''t talk to me," he said in rage,
"Of such vain falsity,
For when I peered in that abyss,
Th'' abyss peered back at me
"And found me guilty of these crimes
And took me over here;
I''ve shed more blood than you could know
And shed so many a tear
"That all of my compassion now
Lies dead within this place;
I''m dead to everyone I knew,
A fiend without a face!"
And with those words, he took his blade
And charged at Allison,
And swung his blade across her waist,
But ere the deed was done,
Our heroine had her own blade
And parried best she could,
Blocking th'' attack with all her strength
And all her boiling blood!
And yet the force of his attack
Was much too great for her,
Sending her smashing ''gainst the wall
Amidst a ghastly stir
Of nightmares echoing inside
Her head like ringing bells,
Her mind a-stir with teens and children
Filling her ears with yells,
Till everything turned black as night
Like a swoon within a swoon,
Wherein was nought but starless sky
Behind a blood-red moon;
And here she stayed in dreamless sleep
With eyes of night, whose spell
Was cast upon her like the others
From out a common well,
Wherein the dead now dwell.
Part 4
<blockquote>
He who fights with monsters might take care, lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
—Friedrich Nietzsche,
Beyond Good and Evil, Chapter IV: Maxims and Interludes, Aphorism 146
</blockquote>
1
Ember and Leer sat petrified
Within their hanging cages,
For both of them had seen a ghost girl
Visiting from past ages,
As if to frighten them in their
Distressing circumstances;
And if she came to terrify them
With unforeseen advances,
Leer thought that maybe she knew where
He and his friend are at,
But fearful Ember had misgivings
And stayed silent as a cat,
And only gazed upon this specter
Before she disappeared
From view, and only then did he
Acknowledge such a weird
And eerie visitation. After
He found his wits again,
He said, "If that was an illusion,
Then maybe we''re insane,
"And all this place around us is
Just a nightmare waiting
For both of us to wake up from
As we''re here contemplating—"
"Enough!" Leer said, a-standing in
His cage. "We have t'' accept
The fact that everything we''ve seen
Is real," and here he stepped
Towards the edge of his own cage
And looked around the cavern
(Looking below and looking up),
Then spied a glowing lantern
A-floating through the air before him,
Until it stopped just so,
And through its light there floated up
A chain from down below
That went its way towards the ceiling
Unseen above his head.
So stared and gaped the awestruck
With superstitious dread,
While Ember turned his gaze away
But looked on still, despite
The brilliance of the spectacle
A-blinding his own sight.
The lantern then transformed into
Another hanging cage,
Wherein there slept in deep repose
A girl about their age.
Then Ember said, a-pointing, "That''s
The ghost girl we just saw!"
And Leer, he looked and saw her, too,
Gazing at her in awe.
Leer said, "Do you believe me now?"
And Ember said he did,
So Leer now said, "We have to wake her
And ask her where we''re hid—"
"But do you think she knows," said Ember,
"Wherein this place we are?
And do you think she''ll still remember
Her ghostly visit here?"
"I do not know for sure," Leer said,
"Until we wake her up."
And so they called and clapped their hands and
Rattled their jailbird setup
Into a noisy buildup.
2
When Allison roused from her sleep,
She woke to such a clamor
That she at first began to scream
And then to outright stammer
Such words of gibberish that she
Can''t understand their meaning.
After a time, she rose and oped
Her eyes and rubbed them, gleaning
One glance towards the noisy source,
And found the two lost boys;
She said, "I thought you two were dead!
That bastard''s ghastly ploys
"Have cheated me enough, and now
I''m here inside this horrid place!"
She looked again towards the boys
And sighed in her disgrace.
"Do you know where we are?" Leer said,
But Allison was mute
And only shook her head and said,
"Within a single minute,
"I would have gotten both of you
Out of this place if I
Knew exactly where we are right now
And how t'' escape and fly."
But just as she had given up,
One of the boy then said,
"We saw you floating by our cages,
But I don''t think you''re dead."
Now Allison looked at that boy
Beyond her prison cell
And said, "When I had peered your
Your cages where you dwell,
"I only saw two skeletons
And though you both had died,
But that was just the bastard''s spell!
God, why should he have lied?"
"Who is this ''bastard'' that you speak of?"
Leer said; then Ember asked,
"When Leer and I were in the park,
Did he send out those masked
"A-shambling phantoms after us?
We took our wayward flight
Into the woods and got ourselves
Lost in our hast and fright."
She said, "I don''t know who he is,
But he''s much stronger than
I am and wields the blade I have
Far better than I can.
"And as for those two shambling things,
I saw them disappear
Just as you said, but I got lost
Along the way in fear . . . ."
And so she told them her adventure,
And both boys heard her out,
The listeners and storyteller
Linked in th'' exchange throughout,
But when she neared her story''s end
About her ghostly visit,
Our Allison cut off her words.
Then Ember said, "What is it?"
"We might be able to escape,"
She said after a time,
"But you two have to let me sleep
Upon it in the meantime,"
And with those words, she manifested
Her vorpal blade in hand
And swung with all her might across
The cage bars with a backhand
Swing and destroyed them right in front
Of both her watchers with
Their mouths agape in shock and awe,
Both witness to a myth
Becoming true before their eyes;
Now Allison, she laid
Herself down on her back and went
To sleep beside her blade.
Both boys then waited for a time,
Exchanging looks between them,
And saw the ghost of Allison
Rise up and reconvene them
By floating out across the span
Between her cage and theirs;
She floated to them, blade in hand,
Ignoring both their stares,
Then raised her blade across Leer''s cage
And broke the bars away,
Then did the same for Ember who
Broke down in tears the way
A babe that doesn''t see its mother
Cries out to reach her hand;
Our Allison reached out to him,
For she could understand
The plight of reaching for the grasp
Of a long-vanished parent,
And led both boys a-floating with her
Back to her cage. Apparent
Was the enchantment in their eyes
As both boys now beheld
Her spirit entering her body,
A sight unparalleled
In all their life, awake or dreaming;
And so they waited for her
To open up her eyes, awaiting
The tell-tale twinkle o''er her
Eyelids of sleep that bore her.
3
When Allison roused from her sleep
The second time, she said,
"You better not have kissed me, boys,
Or else you''ll both be dead!"
Right then the blushing Leer and Ember
Backed off away from her,
Edging themselves against the bars
When she began to stir,
So Ember said, "We never did that!
I promise on my life!"
And Leer, he added, "Please, don''t kill us,"
And looked upon her knife.
When Allison looked at those boys,
Both looking at her blade,
She said, "There is no need for killing,
So please don''t be afraid,"
And up she rose upon her feet
And bade them to get up,
For they had better things to do
Than dwell on such a holdup;
So Leer and Ember rose and stood,
And to their own surprise,
They witnessed Allison dispel
Her blade before their eyes.
"I''ve entered here within a swoon,"
She said, "so this whole space
Must be a dream for dreamers who
Wander and lose their place;
"You''ve lost yourselves amongst the dead
Who''ve wandered here and died;
You''ve let those spirits lead you on,
So let me be your guide,"
And here she reached her hands to them,
And they both took each hand;
She said, "Take courage, both of you,
For I know not where we''ll land;
"Just know that it''s a falling dream
That gets us out of here;
Like Alice down the rabbit hole,
You''ve nothing left the fear,
"Except what you in your own minds
Create for your own selves,
For you know not that you are gods
Amidst mere shades and elves;
"In both of you''s a knight at heart
That lies asleep, unseen,
But come with me, the both of you,
And you''ll see what I mean."
And so they followed her example
And walked towards the brink,
The three of them now looking down,
And ere their second blink,
They all went down the sink!
4
So down and down and down they went
In free-fall like three stones,
Falling and falling till they landed
Inside a field of bones,
Where many teens and children there
Have died within their sleep,
Dying in nightmares manifold
In death''s embracing reap.
And here they groaned on aching backs
And sides and necks and heads,
All three of them now waking up
From three revolting beds
Made from the bones of teens and children
That cut them on their landing;
Now picking themselves up, they saw
A lonely staircase standing
Forlorn above their heads like some
Sentinel of the grave,
When Allison discerned the place,
She had another brain wave
And said, "We have to keep on moving
Away from these odd parts,"
And here she led them both away
With beating heart of hearts
Beating with all the dread of death
Lurking with subtle creep,
For now''s that time of night again
When all the world''s asleep,
Except for two foul entities
A-shambling in the park,
Two fiends that Allison had glimpsed
But had Leer and Ember mark
The horrors they remembered well
When running for their lives;
But Allison, she said, "Take heart
And arm yourselves with knives!"
And here she stretched out her own hand
And formed her vorpal blade there,
So Leer and Ember followed suit
And in their fingers laid there
Not vorpal knives of steely metal
But pistols made to shoot;
She turned around and looked at them
And said, "Don''t fire en route
"Haphazardly at all the shades
Within these woody parts,
For there are things that can''t be killed
With your ballistic arts."
And so they walked on through the woods,
Two pistoleers and one
Girl with her vorpal blade aglow
Leading the way when someone
Or something up ahead of them
Caught all three by surprise:
It was the giant centipede
To Allison''s dear eyes.
She said, "Is that you, Centipede,
A-lurking over there?"
And so the centipede replied,
"There''s danger everywhere,
"Dear children! Follow all my kin
Away from these odd parts;
That godless man I told you of
Is trained in ghoulish arts,"
And with his words, a thousand smaller
Centipedes led the way,
Emerging from the grounds beneath
Their feet; so making headway,
The trio followed all these small ones
Beyond the wooded grounds
Into the open field wherein
A thousand cricket-sounds
Were chirping tunes that filled their ears,
Till all at once, they all
Fell silent on the dread approach
Of two fiends walking tall!
Before the boys ran off, she said,
"You stay yourselves and face
Your fears! We''re in this for the fight
Within this godless place!"
The boys looked back at her in horror
And saw the worry lines
Tracing themselves upon her face
At something in the confines
Behind them on the pathway there
Within the blood moon''s light.
"I''ll keep him off as long''s I can,"
She said, "but you must fight!
We all must fight tonight!"
5
Before another word was said,
The three took up their stances
And eyed their foes with desperate glares
Midst desperate circumstances.
While Allison kept watch upon
The unseen shade behind them,
Ember and Leer looked on in horror
At their two fiends assigned them,
For they had nooses ''round the necks
With lolling heads and eyes,
With gaping mouths that formed foul grins
And breathed out hideous cries;
Then those two fiends detached their heads
Off of their shoulders bare,
And ''round their necks their nooses twined
Like chains with balls that glare;
The boys'' two shambling fiends took off
And charged the trembling group,
Swinging their heads over their bodies
From nooses in a loop,
So Leer and Ember aimed and fired
Rounds at the ghastly duo,
But when they split in shambling sprints
And charged the weary trio,
The two boys cursed and turned and ran,
Both running in defeat,
While Allison, she leaped and rolled
And wheeled upon her feet
With outstretched arm and hand and blade
And clave the fiends in two
In the middle of their bodies there,
Cutting through bone and sinew,
Till both of them fell down like trees
Within this silent park,
That''s when the third fiend made his move,
Charging her in the dark,
Lunging with vorpal blade in hand
To stab her in the back;
Ere Allison had turned around
To see the sly attack,
Before the third fiend struck his blow
And murdered Allison,
Both Leer and Ember aimed their guns
And shot that shadow-spawn
In the middle of his shoulder blades,
Whereon he screamed in pain
And filed the night with horrid screeches—
Such was the bitter strain.
So Allison, she wheeled around
With blade arrayed for slaughter,
And charged him, cutting at the fiend
As if she cut through water,
But that third fiend just dissipated
And filled the night with laughter,
Then said, "Whoever fights with monsters
Becomes a monster after,
"For when you look into th'' abyss,
Th'' abyss looks into you!
And you, my dear, will turn a monster
Before your life is through!"
With all their strength to run and turn
And aim and shoot now low,
The boys now stared at her in awe;
Leer said, "We need to know—"
"What your name is," Ember continued,
"For we have never seen
Anyone move and strike like that
Outside the TV screen."
So just before the sun arose
Upon the east horizon,
She turned to both of them and said
(Before the night was done),
"My name is Allison."
<hr>
FINISH