12. Underneath the Bed

(Ballad) *

Why sleeps he not, when others are at rest?

—Lord Byron,

"Lara"

1

Allison was old enough and

Brave enough to calmly hear

All the details of the rough and

Gruesome things we always fear.

Allison was just thirteen,

Yet her grandpa had no choice;

Something he had not foreseen

Forced him to scream out his voice.

So he had to talk real low,

Making Allison lean forward;

'Gainst all odds, she had to know,

So her grandpa said, straightforward,

"There's a presence lurking by

Just beyond the wall of sight;

It's enough to make you cry,

Yet you must not die of fright!

"I must tell this bedtime story

That the world can't figure out,

'Cause it'd faint to hear the gory

Details, leaving all in doubt.

"Yet the story must be told

For this curse to run its course,

For the witnesses are old

And my voice is getting hoarse.

"Listen to me well, my child;

You're the only one who can;

It's a story still defiled

By the blood lust of a man."

Chills descended on them both,

Running up and down their spines.

"Promise me your silent oath,"

Said the dying man, "for mine's

"Dwindling with each breath I take,

Thinning out each waning breath;

Silence please, for your own sake!

Do not stir until my death!"

So the girl kept silence then,

Giving silent ear to him;

So the dying man began,

Giving life to something grim,

"Long ago when I was young,

Younger than you are right now,

I involved myself among

Friends who took up each a vow,

"Such a vow as mortal lips

Dare not vow upon fair youth;

Yet loose lips can sink all ships

When they do not speak the truth.

"That is how it all began,

Ten of us in one vile pact,

Knowing nothing of the man

Binding us to his contract!

"Yet, at first, it all seemed good,

Making all our dreams come true,

Duping us to think it would

Never need our honest due.

"Then one day, I noticed that

Herman Graves had disappeared;

In his place, a baseball bat

Stained with blood had then appeared

"In his bedroom on the morning.

Both his parents screamed and screamed;

When we heard, we sank in mourning;

All was never as it seemed!

"Then police investigated,

All the evidence collected,

But their efforts were frustrated;

Evidence proved disconnected.

"Thus we spent our days in fear

Of each rumor going 'round

That subdued our former cheer,

Haunting every former playground.

"When a week elapsed in silence,

As we all had just recovered,

As we healed in slow reprievance,

Two more deaths were then discovered.

"Leone Brown and Thomas White

Were both discovered dead in bed;

All the town was up in fright,

All of us now filled with dread!

"Both were found in bloody pulps,

Bludgeoned both with baseball bats

Found beside their beds! What gulps

We swallowed down our throats,

"I can hardly tell you now;

Yet we knew as I still know

That the curse set on my brow

Must die with me when I shall go.

"So police investigated,

All the evidence collected,

But their efforts were frustrated;

Parents, cleared, were now suspected.

"Thus we spent our days in fear

Of each rumor going 'round

That destroyed our former cheer,

Haunting us on every ground.

"So another week went by

When some parents moved away;

Three of us then said, 'Goodbye'—

Moved away within a day.

"Then another week elapsed

When I heard upon the news

Three more children died—collapsed—

Died as they put on their shoes.

"Those three children that departed

Were not named within the print,

Yet we four remaining started

To suspect the subtle hint

"That the curse was near-complete;

Those three children all were doomed—

Morton Alders, John Gould, Pete

Reynolds. They now lie entombed!

"Doubtless cops investigated,

All the evidence collected,

But their efforts were frustrated;

Everyone was now suspected.

"Thus we spent our days in fear

Of each rumor going 'round,

Making this dread fact so clear—

We were next! What fears surround

"All of us remaining still,

Fearing to take to our beds?

We would be its final kill,

If we failed to keep our heads.

"So another week went by,

Staying each of us awake

In our beds as night went by,

Waiting for us each to break.

"We all had our walkie-talkies,

Talking to each other still,

Keeping us awake with stories

That we told to keep us still

"From the sleep of certain death.

Then one night, a silence crept

Through us as we held our breath,

Hoping none of us had slept.

"Then we heard a cry begin,

Then a sudden crack and crunch

Of a skull collapsing in,

Followed by the horrid munch

"Of some monster chewing flesh;

We screamed out each others' names,

While the chewing sounded fresh—

Screamed we all except for James!

"Listening for James to speak,

Silence only met our ears;

Calling now for James to speak,

Silence now confirmed our fears!

"Then another crunch and crack

Sounded through our walkie-talkies,

Followed by a swift attack

Cutting off our walkie-talkies!

"Screaming out at once, we swore

And then learned that Edward died;

I then screamed, 'Sh-shut the door!'

Shutting mine, I ran to hide

"In the closet claustrophobic,

Holding still my walkie-talkie;

Then I heard between the static

Screams in my own walkie-talkie—

"Then I listened for my friend,

Eric whom I prayed still lived—

Only silence would attend,

Leaving me so friend-deprived!

"Then a silence lingered there

Ere I took another breath,

As I waited for my share

Of a sure and sudden death.

"Footsteps sounded in the hall,

Then the jiggling of the knob!

Now expecting death to fall,

I began to moan and sob . . .

"When my parents' voices came,

Asking if I'm doing fine;

Fearing it was still the game

Of the killer's ruse malign,

"So I screamed and screamed and screamed,

And I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed,

Fearing it's a ruse, it seemed,

Fainting where I screamed and sobbed.

"Waking in the hospital,

Finding that my parents cried,

I regained myself a little;

When I found my friends all died,

"I began to cry again

For the names of my best friends

(James Linnette and Edward Fenn

And Eric Dross) who met their ends.

"So I cried and cried back then

As I still cry ever since;

So the danger that you're in

Starts and ends in this offense.

"Pray, dear child—oh, do not start;

Listen to my last instruction:

When I sleep, I shall depart,

But I'll keep you from destruction.

"Once you leave my bedroom hence,

Lock your bedroom door and shut

Yourself in your closet thence;

Wait in there no matter what!

"Wait and do not stir a breath,

Lest the monster hears you out;

Do not weep for my own death,

Till the morning clears all doubt.

"Then I shall not die in vain,

But go knowing you'll survive;

Then shall I be cleansed of pain,

When I know that you're alive.

Go now! Leave me to my doom!"

Allison ran from the room.

2

Allison had shut her door,

Locking it with bated breath,

Treading lightly on the floor,

Fearing for her grandpa's death.

On the verge of brimming tears,

All her soul within her burned;

All her pluck had changed to fears;

All her courage overturned.

Now her stomach flipped and flopped,

As her beating heart corrupts her,

When pulsation nearly stopped

At a thought that interrupts her.

Broken though she seemed to be,

She began to think about

All the strange profundity

In her grandpa's words throughout

Such a wild and bloody tale,

Ended with an anxious warning

To escape a monster's trail

By the gleam of fated morning—

Such a tale as storytellers

Never tell except in dire

Need to tell to kindred fellers,

Which impending deaths inspire.

So exhaling bated breath,

Willing all her tears away,

She observed the length and breadth

Of the bedroom where she'll stay,

Occupying her attention

On her happy memories,

Easing all the built-up tension

To a semblance of ill ease.

Many things now came to focus,

Concentrated to appear

Like a flame-lit flick'ring locus *

Shaded with the cast of fear:

Boy-band posters on the walls

Posed in faux expressive guise; **

On the dressers, girlhood dolls

Sat and looked with sightless eyes;

Childhood photos framed in steel

Now obtained uncanny aspects,

Making all her blood congeal

At the sight of such effects;

Lampshades threw soft rays of light

Only to succumb to shade,

Wherein past the edge of sight

Grew a ghostly night parade

In a shiftless silent march

For the conquest of her room;

Shade on shade, they grow and lurch

To complete her grandpa's doom!

In her heart, poor Allison

Began to cry and cry and cry;

Something in her was undone,

Yearning for her wish to die,

So she'd see her grandpa still

When he breathed his final breath,

Yet her grandpa's iron will

Reached her from the brink of death.

Now her grandpa's ghostly voice

Whispered softly in her ear,

"Dearest child, I have no choice,

For my doom lies ever near."

"Grandpa, please don't go," she said;

Then she cried and cried and cried.

"Dearest child, when I am dead,

Do not sorrow," he replied.

Then he waited for her say,

But when he heard none, he said,

"Allison, you need to stay

Here inside your room instead.

"Try to move on when I'm gone,

Even when your parents fight,

For when all is said and done,

You're the one to set things right.

"Please, I beg you not to cry,

But be strong and free and wise;

Dare to live and hope and try

To love your parents in your eyes."

Allison now wiped her face,

Wet with tears upon her cheeks,

Sniffling mucus with a trace

In her voice that chokes and breaks.

"Grandpa, why can't I go with you?"

Allison began to say.

Then her grandpa said, "I'm with you—

Always will forever stay

"Here inside your heart of hearts.

Nothing, not my nearing death,

Nor the stilling of my parts,

Nor the stoppage of my breath,

"Will part yourself away from me,

For I'll be inside your heart,

There to set your sorrows free

When I finally depart."

Tears renewed upon her face,

Tears like acid tinged with love

For her grandpa's dying grace,

Tears that she cannot remove.

Ere she spoke her turn, soft sighs

Rustled through the trees outside;

Instantly she stopped her cries,

And her eyes now opened wide.

Everything began to get

Darker than the outside night,

Heralding the subtle threat,

Dimming incandescent light.

Ceiling lights flicked on and off

Right above her trembling head;

Shadows drifted, running off

From her room towards the deathbed

Of her grandpa's dying room,

Where poor Allison can't go

To his rescue from his doom,

Thus renewing tears of woe.

So she waited for the end,

Waiting out his fated death,

Waiting as her fears portend

On the edge of bated breath,

Whisp'ring to the stagnant air

The fearful summons of a prayer.

3

While poor Allison awaited,

Shadows marched in grim parades

To those silent heartbeats fated

To expire beneath their shades;

Rows and rows of shadow people

Flitted through the darkest corners,

Preying on th' unwitting sheeple ***

Sleeping unaware of warners'

Warnings to keep vigilance

For the danger of their presence—

Preying on the insolence

Of sleepers in a dreaming trance—

Weaving bloody effigies

That would taunt them with a hex—

Leaving gruesome memories

That would haunt their intellects.

Yet the dying grandpa kept

All his fading wits about him,

Poised and ready to accept

All their tortures laid about him.

Darkness spread throughout his room,

Dimming every flick'ring lamp,

Veiling it with shades of doom,

Suspending him in cold and damp.

Silent resignation kept

Him from giving into fear,

Even as they closer crept,

Creeping slowly ever-near.

Then his breathing came in gasps,

As their fingers 'round his neck

Clamped in ever-tighter clasps,

Almost till his neck would break!

Then he struggled with the strength

Of sheer desperation fading,

Ere collapsing at full length

On the bed, his strength degrading;

Then a sinking feeling hovered,

Paralyzing first his body;

Then his breathing next was smothered

Over with the stench of bloody

Hands upon his mouth and nose,

Till his thoughts grew weak and foggy;

Then he lapsed into a doze,

Making him forever groggy;

Then in all-consuming darkness,

Cruel and clutching hands reached in,

Ripping out his soul in starkness,

Ripping till the pain within

Forced a scream of agony

From his ghostly lips of pain;

Pulls and yanks—a ripping spree—

Continued till the silver chain,

Tying body to the soul,

Glowed within the darkened room;

All this pulling took its toll

On the soul inside the tomb

That had once been living flesh,

Now a still and cold cadaver

Lying 'neath the sheets as fresh

As Death itself was ever-after.

Yank and rip and yank and rip—

Ah, the horror of it all

Makes my beating heart to skip,

And my skin to creep and crawl!

Every yank increased the pain—

Scream and scream and scream and scream!

Scream on top of scream did reign

Over this ungodly dream!

Then the silver chain stretched taught,

As their bloody hands still yank.

Something in his corpse had caught;

Something in him now went blank.

Pull and tug and pull and tug—

All the tugging in the world

Can't release the stubborn plug,

Nor drag it to the Netherworld.

Something stronger than the darkness

Held them back through all their harshness.

4

All the shadows stopped to wonder

What (in Heaven, earth or Hell)

Could restrain them from their plunder;

What exceeds their ghastly spell?

So they stood, still holding on,

Pondering about this force;

Was it God's eternal brawn?

Was it His eternal source?

So they thought, almost aloof,

Thinking over this inquiry.

Then a certain kind of proof

In two blazing eyes of glory

Thus appeared beneath the bed,

Frightening the shadows off;

Something stronger than the dead

Lingered there amid the standoff.

Then those eyes blinked out of sight,

Cutting off the only light source

In the darkness of the night;

Something capered with the force

And the power of a god;

Something stirred inside the room,

Something strong and something odd,

Something stronger than the tomb.

All the lamps flicked on and off,

Giving off a sultry glow

In the darkness; then a quaff ****

Of sultry air began to grow.

When the lamplight flickered on,

There behind the hoary bed

Stood the form of Allison!

All the craven shadows fled,

Fleeing from her spiteful glares,

While the other shadows stayed

Frozen to their spots with stares

Fixed upon her vorpal blade. *****

With her vorpal blade in hand,

Raising it above her head,

Holding doom at her command,

Holding judgment o'er the dead,

She swung down with all her might,

Blazing out the dark with light!

5

All the shadows now were gone;

Grandpa's room was filled with light,

And his curse was now undone;

Everything was now set right.

Through the window's curtained lace

Westered morning in the east,

Giving weary night the chase,

Till the waning curse had ceased.

Dawn was just about to break

Past the dark horizon hues,

Rousing sleepers to awake

With the early songbirds' coos.

Allison stood silent there

In her grandpa's deathbed room,

When she noticed with despair

Subtle traces of the doom

That had overcast the night

With the heavy breath of dread;

Now she turned to view the sight

Of her grandpa in his bed,

Still and shiftless as the dead,

Nothing heaving up the sheets

With the breathing from his head,

Nor the heaving chest with heartbeats

Pumping life throughout his body,

Nor the semblance of its trace

Anywhere that could embody

Life within his lifeless face.

Tears erupted from her eyes

At what Allison had seen;

She began to recognize

What her grandpa meant to mean

When he said these words to her:

"You're the one to set things right."

In the chaos and the blur

Of her downward swing to smite

All the shadows from the room,

She had cut the silver chain

Chaining her grandpa to his doom,

Freeing him from all his pain;

When she set her grandpa free,

Severing his dying breath,

She must face the parting fee

That she caused her grandpa's death!

So she dropped her vorpal blade,

Which now disappeared from sight,

Feeling all the guilt that weighed

On her shoulders in her plight.

So she cried and cried and cried,

Wallowing in all her sorrow,

Mourning for the one who died

By her hand upon the morrow

That he prophesied must happen.

Then her grandpa now appeared

(Fair and strong and not misshapen

By the tortures of the weird

Forces of the Shadow Realm),

Yet to wane in latter years,

Feelings 'gan to overwhelm

Allison with renewed tears.

"Dearest child," her grandpa said,

"Know that you have set me free;

Sorrow not that I am dead;

Live your life for you and me."

As her grandpa fades away

In the morning's coming glow,

She had one more thing to say:

"I promise." And she made it so.

Thus she cried with bitter tears,

Cleansing out her weary soul,

Cleansing all her ling'ring fears,

Till her soul (renewed and whole)

'Gan to look upon the sunrise,

Courage gleaming in her eyes.

FINISH