The Next to Die

As I was sitting in my room,
I saw a shadow lying there.
On the wall it lay in shadow,
Sleeping in a shadowed hollow.

I said to the Shadow,
"Why are you here?"
The Shadow turned to me and said,
"Why am I here? You know
I'm here because of you."

"What did I do?"
I asked the Shadow.
He said, "You did nothing,
Little Demon."

"Nothing can stop me from entering
this shadowed hollow.
You see this hollow is not real?
I'm here by your will."

"I wish you gone!" I said to him.
He laughed and said
"Wishing, Little Fish, will do nothing to harry me!"
He laughed, then, and his laughter echoed in my walls,
And slithered like oil over my skin.

He grabbed me by the hand, then,
And led me toward the door.
The yawning opening shimmered black
In the shadowed dark of my door.

We flew over hill and dale,
Speeding by mountains and valleys,
We stopped by a lake of icy water,
Gleaming black in the dusty moonlight.

He drew me down,
Into the black water.
The water clutched my skin,
Freezing my body.

I floated down,
And let out my air, joining the
Bloated corpses on the floor of the lake.
The shadow laughed and held me down.

And now I float in my lake,
Condemned never to leave,
I wait for my Shadow's next victim.
I wait, here in my icy prison,
For the next to die.