Her fate was far worse than death
Fused to that ancient tree
An inseparable mass of delicate skin
And fragile bones

Like a macabre piece of art
Was she displayed in those dark woods
Her exposed ribcage showing
A bright red heart

Eternally pumping blood
Into a pool beneath the tree
Her skin pale white
And a sly smile on her face

Her deep green eyes
Enjoying every moment of her torture

The fiend stood before the threshold,
with a wicked gait.

High above the rooftops, with darkness
flowing from his cloak of nightmares.

The claymore cementing his sinister
disposition, neck crooked high.

Rage, his helm, that devilish crown,
slithering all the lies into me.

This throne, my flesh, he claimed again,
the marionette of his madness.

I walk heavy, with the burden of his pain,
swiftly he barrels through the jungle.

Through all the winding and weaving,
destruction has found its home within.

The King, his slave and the broken,
words are whats left to save us.

But he too, has stolen such things away,
for what am I without them.

The world has become strange
A figment of unknown imagination
Spirits wander the earth in droves
As if the gates of heaven itself were shut

Time and memory bleed and run
Consciousness flows uncontrollably
The fabric of creation has come undone
And with it so too have our minds

Releasing things far stranger than death
And infinitely more terrifying
The long dark has come
The world we knew swept away

Into the cold embrace
Of a sterile night

There is a dark place you will go,
a place where we've all been
at one time
or another.
A place where clichés come true,
where nightmares turn to reality,
a place where your worst fears,
your deepest insecurities,
will tower above you.
It is a place you will visit
when you have been drained
emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally,
but must keep moving forward.
A place that does not discriminate
for anyone,
a place that is the great equalizer.
You will not be able to breathe.
Your lungs will be filled with soot,
your eyes will be branded in fire,
your mind will be captive,
you will want to quit.
You may even want to die.

But this place holds a secret.

You will fall to your knees
on tough soil and gravel,
blind,
and you will cry, you will scream.
The air will be as fire,
and your skin will be as ice.
But you will dig.

You will blindly ****** your fingers into the cold Earth,
you will search for a way out,
you will rip and bleed and tear,
and you will convince yourself
it is futile.
But you will not stop.

You will keep fighting.

This place holds a secret.
This place holds an opportunity -
an opportunity for growth.

And, yes, you will grow.

I traveled a time
Beyond the heavens
Past the stars
And their constellations

I crossed leagues of darkness
Unfathomably deep
Great oceans of stillness
Undisturbed since creation

For eons I traveled
Until I came to a wall
Signaling the very edge
Of all known existence

Having come so far
I was not eager to return
So I considered the thought
That all walls have doors

And that what lies beyond
Those fabled gates of night
Will be far greater
Than anything I could have imagined

So I keep falling
Into the similar patterns
Leading myself to sombre nights
I follow those mirages
On the highway to hell
Where all but love
Is catered

I am just weaving myself
Every paradigm of your being
Into sand castles of fantasy
Losing count of
Right from wrong
And reality from make-believe.

Labyrinths and crypts of cold stone
Ever shifting and strange
Led me to that forgotten chapel

I stepped inside its narthex
Distant and remote
A place only dreams might reach

It was always night there
In the sanctums of that place
Every trespass palpable

Yet the darkness was not consuming
It seemed stagnant and moribund
Weaving vainly around the pillars and pews

Stripped of the fear that darkness brings
It lulled about aimlessly
Trapped within those rotless walls

Waiting for the return of the light