The Descent Trilogy

Descent pt 1
Ghosts

These small town streets haven’t seen a car for hours.
Standing on my steps I soak up the summer night.
One part solitude, one part night air, inhale—
that’s the only remedy for the haunting effect
of these nightmares.
The light of the full moon
gives the town a dreamlike feel.
I stop for a moment to take it in.
Damn the moon!
It’s beams highlighting the house, her old house.
I try to keep going, but it
extends its tentacles of memories
and holds me fast.
Every moment,
every smile,
every good time I ever gave a damn about
all unleashed at once.
In a violent surge forward I break free.
Just to prove that the house has no real power
I take one last glance back.
Voices echo from every direction.
Somehow the house seems like the only place
to escape them.
That’s insane!
She’s long gone.
I can’t go back.
My feet betray my mind.
***
I awaken,
surrounded by white walls.
Somehow I know I’ve been here for a while
A shattered mirror of memories,
and I’m left with only fragments.
The doctor’s back is turned.
The door is open.
I bolt.

Descent pt 2
Hope

The door slams shut.
I WANT OUT!
The doctor’s whisper, muffled into an incoherent word salad.
“He…care…not…him…own.”
I try to piece it together, but with these drugs
it’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together
in the dark.
I force myself somewhere else—
a park, in the late spring,
with children laughing and playing,
birds chirping, and the warm sun.
It all invokes peaceful bliss.
Yes this is perfect.
No wait,
what’s this?
A lone tree
scarring the spring landscape.
Twisted and hopeless with
a single leaf
clinging tenaciously to its branch.
Even a whisper will break it away.
NO!
A gust of wind assaults the tree.
The leaf, with no will left to hold on,
is torn free.
Through muffled whispers
it drifts away.
The door slams shut.

Descent pt 3
Sleepless

A flash of white.
Shaken and breathless
I gasp for air.
That horrible scream is
the only thing that pierces the fog that’s settled on my brain.
My sightless eyes frantically search
for the source of that familiar, terrified cry.
Blurry eyes finally focus.
Where am I?
The shock of this unfamiliar environment
sends adrenaline rushing, kicking my heart into a frenzy.
So many thoughts are racing through my mind.
I must find the Rosetta Stone of this experience.
I have to find a way out.
A comforting touch calms my heart.
I turn to look into her one open eye.
“Go back to sleep,” she mumbles.
My scrambled brain pulls itself together.
There was no scream.
I have been in my room the whole time.
It was just another nightmare.
I get up and head for the door.