Till this day I tell the tale,
The story of the end,
Or is it really the beginning?
That is not for me to tell
It was a dark night,
So dark the stars were my only beacon of light,
They danced so elegantly,
Like a ballet, or even a jig
It should have made me smile,
Yet the moment I remember most boldly from that night,
Was the striking tear that streamed down my sunken cheek
I was alone,
So alone,
I felt as if I had nothing left,
In a way it was true,
All I had was myself
As I stumbled through the trees,
So tall they seemed to go on forever,
My mind pondered on the question,
How did I end up here?
Deep inside I knew,
Though my mind used all of its efforts to ignore
As I sauntered through the strangling branches,
Every breath a struggle,
My body throbbed in agony,
Screaming as I moved along,
I was pretty sure I no longer appeared human,
After all, it had been thirteen days
The forest called to me,
Shouting my name,
I heard the owls hooting,
Calling to their friends
The bats cocked their heads at me as I passed by,
The raccoon’s eyes gleamed brightly,
All of them belonging to the night,
Subjects of the moon,
The true queen of the night
I remember all of these details,
So solidly from that night,
Yet none of that was as horrifying,
As what came after that.
Then comes the true ending,
Something surely terrible enough,
To poison one’s day
My feet were a hoard of scrapes,
As they remained bare,
My stomach was hollow,
Grumbling and growling with every move I made
I stumbled and fell with nearly every step,
For I was basically a small sack of flesh,
And a pack full creaking bones,
Nearly rotted out
My hair hung in clumps, nearly to my waist,
It used to be rather fair,
But now it was a blackened, dying river,
Yearning for escape
Had it not been for these gruesome facts,
Things may have ended differently,
Though I guess I’ll never know,
For it had already happened
I wandered,
In search for a cure to my hunger,
When quite suddenly,I heard a sound,
The sound of my fate
I tried to run,
But it was no good,
As no one can escape their fate
The sound grew closer,
Even as I attempted to run
But now I could feel it, smell it,
Even taste it in the air.
My senses alerted me of the beast,
I had no time to even cry
The second before it happened,
I thought, did I really deserve this?
The answer I knew, I know, was yes
It pains me to tell the story,
Though it happened so long ago,
But I know I must tell it,
Regardless of the pain
What happened next was this,
The beast hurdled on me,
Claws tearing through my back,
So easily, I was surprised
I cried out in the sudden pain,
Falling to my knees,
I tried to fight, it deeming absolutely useless,
For there was no escape from death
The beast tore me to bits,
Me no longer feeling the pain,
As the world was now numbed,
My mind a swirl of daze
What I saw in my last moments,
Was enough to frighten any decent person,
The beast turned, and I stared deep into its golden eyes,
Its mirage of long, stormy fur brushing against me
As it took its last bite of its meal,
I saw not the penetrating golden eyes,
Not even the gory crimson-stained fangs
No,
What I saw was a mischievous, smiling face,
The face as cruel as a cutting knife, poised for the kill,
Eyes dark,
Ignorant of what she was truly doing.
This is the face I saw,
The face that death showed me before he took me
The face was mine
I screamed one last time, the warning of my departure,
And that was truly,
The
End.