The Hunters

The end draws near,
On a ship of doom,
With a shrouded 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,
Strikes a city's throat;
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, all friends,
Form a coalition
And begin their mission,
To destroy the beast.

From the wild ravings
Of a lunatic man,
The hunters devise a plan,
And begin 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 spectre, dripping 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
And 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 beast breaks free,
The hunters now see
The path they've chosen.

The lover now speaks,
In a foreign tongue,
Her words are 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,
Exhausted from the fight,
Hoping that they might
Catch 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 now parts;
Yet, he shall forever haunt them.