Author: R. J. Erbacher

What is it that grips onto the edge of a shadow in the too-close distance and peers around its corner with yellow pinprick orbs and a spiky grin?

Who is the ethereal figure in the night that I scan for outside my window as the rain sheets down but who I can only see for an instant when the flashbulb sky pops with jagged white shards?

What is that ticking sound, possibly of hooked claws, that taps along the hallway outside my room and halts by the door making me question the validity of the meager metal bolt that secures me?

How is the night sky so enduring and majestic, yet the dozens of pulsing lights that maneuver easily in predetermined formations seem to be watching my every breath and are coming to steal it?

What about the bladed creature that I know is squatting in the corner of my dark room, anticipatory drool dripping onto my hardwood floor, who will only be there if I open my eyes?

When will the atrocities that gather at the outskirts of projected time, discharge into the world, predestined to eliminate the mass of humanity and leaving me alone to cower against the enormity?

What waits afore me, lingers behind me, slithers astride me, hovers above me…all cunningly concealed and just beyond my tentative touch?

Can I persevere until tomorrow?

How is it that the monsters that live inside me, gnawing at my mind and terrifying me beyond any sense of reason, still allow my hand to transcribe all my fears onto the page in bloody black ribbons?