Sometimes,
The monsters under our bed
Live inside our head

Sometimes,
Ghosts and ghouls cannot be seen
Because they chose not to see the living

That is the horror of life

Pigment caked under my nails.
Tasting the metallic remnants of a lost childhood.
The reality is hidden in visions and supposed dreams.
Fed to me, was the comforting hugs of mother and soothing lies.
Grew up in the age of paid horror.

A new appendage is cheaper than keeping the original.
Marked by the price of my body.
Each fall, subtracting, each workout, adding.
Beauty is a curse nowadays.
Each beautiful child is raised and sold for millions.
Each ugly child prays to be one of the lucky to receive the new parts.

Greedy families hope for attractive offspring,
to disassemble for a new future.
A pair of brilliant green eyes can change your luck.
Having blue eyes guarantees you to be blind.
Leaving you with shades to cover the hollow left behind.

Adults will tell you sports lead to a promising future.
But they don’t tell you that it’ll lead you to losing your body.
Self-harm is a death sentence. A cut drops your value.
It forces you into the career of taking.       Taking the beauty from the beautiful.
Cutting a limb or two won’t hurt them. Taking an eye is just life.
Tell yourself they should know better. They should’ve expected it.
Expect the unexpected when you are beautiful. Expect a life of pain.
Expect misery and lose those emotions when you are ugly. You won’t need that conscience.

Forget about the forgotten already. Use that arm to grab a new leg.
Use your head to get a better one.
Use your emptiness to end others. They won’t need that life.
And don’t forget, to use your misery.
The more miserable you are, the better off the world is when you end it.

have you seen the dark of night?
the shadows that lurk closer?
the eyes that follow your every move?
the cold dread in the air?

have you seen the flower bloom?
it withers until it is black as black.
it releases the spirit.
it haunts you forever and ever.

have you seen the glowing eyes?
they are in the dark.
they are in the shadows.
they are everywhere you look.
they make you afraid.

have you seen the shadow woman?
i lost her.

So it was just the three of us; Rider, Bailey, and me
We borrowed my great uncle’s car
Promised to bring it back by uncle’s work the next morning
We weren’t planning on going too far
Just east to the outskirts of the city by the train tracks
Just shy of the fields and the woods
Before we went out, we got fast food and beer
Planning to stay out as long as we could

On the other side of the tracks
Was an orchard ⁠— neat rows of trees
And in them a deafening sound
Like out of your more horrible dreams
As the rows went in deeper
The deeper the darkness seemed
Rider swore that it was coyotes
But coyotes’ howls sound like screams

The sun was just starting to go down in the west
And the howls started to fade
So we turned up the radio and cracked open our beers
To laugh our worries away
The sun bid all of us her final goodbyes
And disappeared behind the earth
We opened up the car doors and stretched our legs
Outside in the evening’s birth

On the other side of the tracks
Was an orchard ⁠— neat rows of trees
And in them a deafening sound
Like out of your more horrible dreams
As the rows went in deeper
The deeper the darkness seemed
Rider swore that it was coyotes
But coyotes’ howls sound like screams

Bailey and I were standing around by the tracks
When Rider turned on the car’s lights at our backs
And out in the trees on all fours like dogs
These humanoid creatures rolled and crawled
Pale and grey, with leathery skin
Naked and sickly and disgustingly thin
We screamed and tripped on the rails and fell
As we ran for the car like a bat out of hell
We could see the creatures coming up on us fast
So Rider slammed his foot on the gas

On the other side of the tracks
Was an orchard ⁠— neat rows of trees
And in them a deafening sound
Like out of your more horrible dreams
As the rows went in deeper
The deeper the darkness seemed
I’m not lying to you, I swear it
Those weren’t coyotes’ screams
There are beasts out in the orchard
If you go where I’ve been