Ghost Stories

Is your heart beating faster?
Through the veil
I feel the thudding of your pulse
I can hear your throbbing tremors
I can smell your fear
I watch you shut your eyes
Will you wake up from this terror?
I know you ache to run and hide
Where will you go?
What scares you most?
What makes your body clammy, frigid?
What makes the hair on your neck rise
Like canine hackles?
What makes your breath catch?
I hear your gasps bottled in your lungs
Screaming for release
Is it the tongues of sinners spinning fables of the very depths of hell and sin
Is it the memory of childhood demons
From your terrors of the night?
Is it the feeling of dread?
The sense of crushing, burning fate you know you'll never live to speak?
Is it the monsters all around you with the flame-scorched eyes and clutching grasps?
Is it in yourself?
The voice that speaks the cruel truth in fear
The all-knowing deity that sows doubt and uncertainty and the ugly, biting reality blows?
I see you pause
I hear your thoughts racing
What is your greatest fear?
I know the fibers of your soul
I watch your every movement
I smell your hesitation
What will it be?
The heads or tails, the paper or rock
Your deeds laid bare or tucked away
In the end, was it worth it all?
I know your regret.
I feel your crushing guilt and grating woes
Do you remember all the ghosts?
Your endless ring of strikes and fouls
What is the worst?
You could have fought and tried and lived
I saved your doings for your eyes
I feel your pulsing, beating fear
I know you recall anticipating this
Sift through your thoughts for the answer
You had a dream
You conquered me
Stabbed an arrow through my tongue
Your anguish marks your guilt
I repulse you
Bloody glory
You missed your chance
I heard your thoughts
But in the end
Redemption
Only costs you your soul