A girl lay on her mattress dreaming

a dream first sweet then vicious-seeming

subconscious visions softly screaming

teeming with the ghosts of yesteryear

 

when woke she with a startled shiver

each cheek the bed of briny river gleaming

streaming with the tears of childish fears

 

Alight did she on wooden floorboards

creaking as she tiptoed forwards

sneaking past the door and onwards

down the hall in stocking feet

 

A shady figure always keeping

clear of where her eyes were peeping

went behind her in the shadows creeping

down the hall on stalking feet

 

For the window made she fumbling

stumbling as she reached out

thumbing heavy drapes

that hid the night

 

when suddenly she heard a rumbling

as if some beastly stomach grumbling

and nearly tumbling turned she

towards the creature hid from sight

 

A shudder took her

nearly shook her to collapsing

sure she was that claws would hook her

rasping fast through darkness

grasping as they preyed

 

Casting out into the masking shadows

now to be forever lasting and crashing

to the floor she threw her hands together clasping

gasping as she prayed

 

The curtains she had sought were dropped

with haste, at once forgot

yet somehow they had caught upon her wrist

and with a movement pulled into her fist

 

A twist, and through the window’s pane

the moon before its wane did cast a silvered plane

upon the floor

 

Before her shrunk the hidden horror

outside the beaming boundaries of the light

around the girl

 

but sensed she in the blackness watching

the crouching creature still there slouching

while behind her fast encroaching

‘cross the lunar face a looming cloud

 

Fast the hallowed halo now retreating

lifted she again her hands entreating

in the dark that followed

as the moon was slowly swallowed by the shroud