My heart is thrust to life once more
     I feel its every swell;
Ringing through my body,
     like an ancient church's bell.
My senses start to feel it too;
     their rhythm now so clear.
And all at once I'm met
     with such a suffocating fear.

There's no immediate danger and
     at first I'm quite perplexed.
As I open up my eyes to see
     what has my body vexed.
The light is like a thousand suns;
     pouring, overcoming.
And senses quake, alarms would make
     my limbs consider running.

It's now I understand quite why
     my brain was so concerned,
For now the information and
     the facts I need are learned.
My body bound is paralysed
     on gurney bed I lay.
But how I came to be here is
     the question of the day.

Tis' clear that day is closing
     and through single window pane,
the light continues striding and
     once more the shadows gain.
I turn my head unto the left,
     I turn it to the right,
But I can see no other life
     as day is chasing night.

I peruse the health of my restraints
     decrepit small and old.
To which my skin is pressed against;
     they feel a trifle cold.
A lock adorns each binding;
     a shackle on the free.
I search with eyes so fervent.
     I'm the Hunter of the key!

Alas no object in my sight.
     I feel my heart rate rise;
as if in this room forever more,
     my demise, is prophesied.
In desperation heavenward,
     I now avert my gaze;
to a mirror there above me
     thence my heart is set ablaze.

Around my neck hangs freedom.
     Oh how my soul now sings!
A tiny chain with tiny key
     my jubilation brings.
I toss and turn, my body wracks.
     It tumbles through the air
and lands a hair's breadth out of reach
     as if to say "I dare".

I push my body, every limb
     is stretched to limits end.
I flex and strain my arms in ways
     I thought they could not bend.
At last my fingers stroke the metal;
     touching old and cold.
And trace the letter X
     ornately carved in bow so bold.

My arms emit a joyful cheer
     the moment they are freed.
And clamour after movement
     as if bent on gluttonous greed.
Muscles ache but move they must
     as blood, their fuel, is spent.
And raise my body from its death
     to question where life went.

Unto the window now I walk;
     a hasty sloth akimbo.
As if the sight of ground below
     will break my state of limbo.
My arms now raised I almost fall
     but rest against the glass.
Praying that my nightmare,
     that this wickedness will pass.

Yet where I would expect to see
     those tiny ants all milling,
Instead the sight that greeteth me
     I classify as chilling.
The insect swarms of yesterday,
     not a hint of can be seen.
Yet from my lofty vantage point
     I spy a wealth of green.

The rich and vibrant hue
     that now adorns the sprawling city,
morphs the grumbling concrete blocks,
     to something rather pretty.
The harsh lines bearing architecture,
     structure, now bemoaning.
As lush green sea splashed down the streets
     and at the corners foaming.

My eyes do shine a little,
     and the fear for once subsides.
As in the beauty of the setting sun
     my consciousness confides.
I could tell it anything
     it's light so bathes me slowly.
Softly warms my soul and leaves
     me feeling gently lowly.

I am at the mercy
     of the future of my world.
And in ample madness makes,
     my very heart unfurl.
I lay upon the bed
     and in my need for yet more rest,
I let the winds of change take hold
     and clutch the key to breast.

A door is there unto my right,
     a window to my left.
The bed sheets hang upon the bed,
     in state of some bereft.
Next to my bed a water pitcher
     filled from base to brim;
The hue of manky green exudes from
     contents oh so grim.

It seems that sleep is calling
     and my eyes do start to close.
As many different threads of thought
     intertwine my doze.
I drift now ever slowly, slide,
     unto the land of nod.
And pray a prayer to save me,
     to my saviour, my God.

Just as the monster takes me
     and sleep devours my waking,
a sound erupts and klaxons roar
     the building too starts shaking.
My heart begins to pound once more
     just like when I had woken.
Sounds of shearing metal scream
     as things below are broken.

Bolt upright now I sit
     upon the gurney in the room.
Time to act or else
     it may become my very tomb.
I feel a surge of power hit,
     a sudden burst of speed;
adrenaline's elixir
     I consume with wanton greed.

The doorway stands a step away
     but I with paralysed heart.
This future world with oft unknowns
     continues with its art.
My head is heavy, blood so flows
     and all at once it's spinning.
I see a face, an evil face,
     through exit window grinning.

Except it isn't happy,
     that face concealing joy.
No! Greed seems more the likely
     as it searches for a toy.
Its skin departs from bone
     in ways that make me feel disgusted.
My eyes are drawn unto the knob
     that's rattling and rusted.

Its eyes are sunken in the deep
     of saggy rank complexion.
It leers and growls and snaps and yowls
     when faced in my direction.
I snap the lock, an instinct quick,
     the building trembles more.
Another big explosion blasts
     and shakes the demon's door.

Evil is distracted and
     in seeking out the noise,
ignores my very presence
     as it hunts for what destroys.
I stand and wait with patience great
     for some time quite protracted;
until the beast has gone from sight
     his company redacted.

I crack the door and peer outside
     the darkness stings my eyes.
I tune my sight; I'm wary now.
     I fear my own demise.
Shadows in the distance,
     silhouettes of figures moping.
A dozen beasts are more intent
     on ritualistic groping.

I thank the Lord the building shakes
     the noise serves as a mask.
My body slips into the hall
     as I commence my task.
With every step I peer behind
     those demons my concern.
The hallway clear in front of me
     if they should stop and turn.

My belly aches and with each step
     my hunger deftly grows.
Who knows when I last ate a meal;
     the smallest of my woes.
But strength I need to face this world
     so somehow I must eat.
I pray another prayer of hope.
     I won't admit defeat.

The darkened corridor stretches
     and the rooms along it black.
It seems my room would stand alone.
     Alas I can't go back.
The tunnel's end is lit and though
     it seems a journey's end.
The light of hope emitted serves
     to help me comprehend.

Undulating shafts now shine and
     permeate my vision.
And hope doth fades as monster shadows
     shatter my decision.
A group of ten or twenty beasts
     with rotting bodies dance;
their twisted rhythm pulsing
     as they further their advance.

The group of reprobates,
     for there is clearly no decorum,
stay huddled as they shuffle
     in their isolated forum.
Against the wall I press myself,
     my body tensed and flat,
And search with eyes alertly
     to escape their habitat.

The floor is grim and sticky
     as I slide along partition,
In search of unlocked doorway;
     circumvention of perdition.
Yet careful as I try to move:
     the dark, the noise, the fears,
my foot collides with unknown things,
     and my presence reappears.

My neck snaps left, my eyes alert.
     I look for every sign,
that the demons didn't hear me,
     of intervention that's Divine.
Alas my prayer is answered not,
     the rabble has a goal,
and fast towards me they approach,
     to rid me of my soul.

I'm still, I'm stuck. The others now
     have learned of my position,
My neurons fire randomly
     in acts of desperate fission.
Then all at once I fall,
     the wall behind me now deficient.
I can't perceive events that made,
     such circumstance prospicient.