Tristan Robert Lange
The Hunters
The end draws near,
On a ship of doom,
Shrouded in a plume
Of mist and fog.
A figure stands alone,
Aboard the creaking vessel;
The bystanders wrestle
With the unknown.
Police now aboard,
There\'s nothing to find
But boxes left behind
Filled up with dirt.
Terror upon the land
Aroused from the death float;
From the decayed boat
Emerges a plaguing curse.
Bodies seem to rise,
Still dead, but alive.
Since the ship arrived,
Death has dwelt here.
Demonic red orbs,
Piercing straight through
A dark and misty hue,
Find two women alone.
Preying on the one,
Slowly begins her death
Consuming her every breath,
Yet he covets the other.
The first girl now dead,
The other now victimized,
Without it being realized,
The name of the foe.
Five men, unlikely friends,
Form a coalition
And begin their mission,
To destroy the beast.
Two doctors, a Texan,
A Lord and a poor clerk,
Set forth right then to work
On a woman\'s request.
While the men pursue the hunt
The woman is the true light,
From her brilliant mind so bright
That the beast\'s trap is laid.
She hears the wild ravings
Of a poor lunatic man,
The hunters follow her plan,
And carry out their quest.
Still enigmatic, this demon,
Who\'s thus far unnamed,
A lover is chained,
To his alluring charm.
A trail leads the five
To the tomb of the friend
That they could not defend,
From those piercing orbs.
An empty sepulcher,
Her dead corpse is gone;
It comes walking along,
A specter, drooling blood.
A pact the five make,
And with wood and steel,
Her fate they now seal
Giving her rest and peace.
With sweat and blood,
Nearly lost in shame,
They discover the name
Of the murdering fiend.
He flees to a foreign land,
Crossing the ancient sea;
Yet, against every plea,
The lover must follow.
The beast is unaware,
And has taken the trap.
The lover, a psychic map,
Leads the hunters to him.
But all seems lost
As they face defeat,
And race to meet,
The sadistic seducer.
Yet onward they speed,
Toward the demon\'s home
Where nightmares roam;
Three brides await them.
The brides, tormenters,
Haunt a doctor\'s dreams,
Loosening him at the seams,
\'Til he hunts them down.
Blue rings of fire sent forth
From children of the night,
Fill the five with fright.
Are they all doomed?
The hunters still race,
With resolve renewed,
The battlements in view,
The monster is winning.
In an earth-filled box,
The dragon stirs,
As daylight blurs.
Time has run short.
Directly behind with,
Guns, blades and stakes,
As dusk now breaks,
The hunters close in.
The box explodes
As the demon breaks free,
The hunters boldly face
The horror before them.
The lover now speaks,
Leading them with her tongue,
Her dazed words are there sung,
As hypnotic poetry.
The motion is quick,
His poison blood splashed,
One Texan hunter has slashed
The parasite\'s throat.
The Texan is struck,
He falls down nearly dead
His party must now tread
On in the hunt without him.
The monster, scared,
Retreats to his home inside,
But there\'s nowhere to hide
From his hunter\'s pursuit.
The hunters search frantic—
Exhausted from the fight—
Hoping that they might
Seize him before its too late.
And there deep inside,
The Count trapped and dying,
In his coffin he\'s lying,
His fate stands above him.
The hunters\' resolve,
Drive the stake in his heart,
From this world he\'ll now part;
Yet, he shall forever haunt them.