The first time I saw her, a few days after she moved in,
My neighbor was standing on the landing late at night,
Frozen in the middle of opening her apartment door,
Staring up at the murky sky as if she wanted to scream.

For a few seconds I stood motionless
As the rain came down upon my head.
Then my neighbor lowered her gaze
At the stranger who gawked at her.

As I stared at her vacant, translucent eyes,
I imagined water running over ice floes.
Hers was a face painted on a doll
With nothing behind it except air.

Stunned, I bid her goodnight,
But she nodded in silence,
Let out an exhausted sigh,
Then walked into her apartment.

It started one day that we chatted
As we leaned on the railing of the landing
In front of the doors to our apartments,
While the wind chilled us with sudden gusts.
She wasn’t beautiful like the women on TV,
But she wasn’t at all like other girls.

She was my next door neighbor.
I would have been able to see into her room
If the wall between us were transparent.

My neighbor’s hair, like mine, was dark brown,
But her eyes were dry, hopeless,
As if she had been searching for a long time
Until she gave up.

I shared that I programmed websites,
But she asked me how I’d been feeling,
Alone in my tiny apartment
With only the TV and PC for company.

The loneliness I had bottled up inside myself,
Hidden deep within the folds of my mind,
Seemed suddenly exposed, raw,
And it burned through my skin.

“It is lonely, but I have my own life,”
I said hoarsely as I avoided her gaze.
I wasn’t happy, but the way I was living
Had been working out for me until then.

She waited until I dared to hold her gaze,
Then she offered a weary smile.
“Your bed must be hard and cold.
Do you also lie there and stare at the wall
As you wonder why you exist at all
In a world where everything turns to dust?”

As I returned home from the office,
The air smelled like autumn trees
And leaves yellowing under frosty skies.
Although the wind was blowing hard,
My neighbor looked down at me
From where she sat on the landing,
Her hands tucked into her armpits.
She seemed like a tiny, helpless thing
Trying desperately to conceal her pain.

On a different day, we sat side by side
On the grass of a nearby river embankment.
We watched the boats as they went by.
I could tell we were eager to open up,
But our lives were hard to explain
Even to ourselves.

I never managed to comprehend
That look she gave me from time to time.
I felt that her heart, like those eyes,
Had dried up and turned to stone.

“I’m just an ordinary, unimportant girl
Who is stuck with a dull, empty job.
I don’t think I’ve ever known what love means,
Or really cared about anybody else’s problems,
And we are enduring all of this
For no reason whatsoever.
What do we gain by tiring ourselves out
With so many silly endeavours?”

She could see through the lies and excuses
I told myself everyday to survive.
I tried convincing her she wasn’t alone anymore,
But her body stiffened, and her face went pallid.

“I miss many books on my shelf,
Which I haven’t read since elementary school.”
When, confused, I said I would buy them for her,
She let out a soft laugh that rang strangely loud,
Like the last gasp of some dying animal.
She turned and shuffled toward her home.
Cautiously, I followed her from far enough.

(My neighbor was right, of course.
Nothing in this life makes sense,
No one knows what tomorrow will bring,
Our happiness is short-lived, and so are we.)

After that time, we met almost every day.
We strolled slowly along or sat with a coffee,
And sometimes we watched online videos.
She became indispensable, and it scared me.

She showed me the old books on her shelf,
All worn and well used, stocked haphazardly,
Which she had read dozens of time over.
I borrowed some, and I soon found out
That someone had written them for us.

Many of the stories that my neighbor loved
Back when she was a carefree child growing up,
Those books she would have needed to share,
Most of them she lost along the way,
And many of their titles she forgot,
And a few of them won’t ever return in print,
But the memories remain fresh, bright, alive.

(Please, let these pages never be erased,
Let the memories saved here
Never disappear.)

We drank beer and talked until late at night.
She told me that she had tried everything
To feel better, but it hadn’t worked yet,
At least not very well.

She looked up at the night sky through the window
As she spoke at length about her loneliness,
How it waited under her skin
For any excuse to surface.

I liked protecting her feelings from the world,
So she wouldn’t feel ashamed nor isolated,
But I couldn’t erase that lonely look
Of someone drowning deep at sea.

We spent an afternoon in the park
Watching the autumn leaves fall
As the sky grew darker with clouds overhead.
My neighbor spoke about her mother,
Who left her by moving to a distant country,
After which her father was never the same again.

I witnessed her tears as they rolled down her cheeks.
Before she wiped them away, I reached out
And brushed them off with my fingertips.
The loneliness and desperation she contained
Were like a gas leak waiting for a match.

I hoped my touch might spark the explosion.
In her catharsis, something beautiful may happen,
Something new and real could come into being,
Just like the words that flowed from her lips,
Like the wind across ice floes on a frozen lake,
Leaving nothing in its wake.

My neighbor’s loneliness hurt more than mine did,
For it was hers that made her needlessly brave,
As if her life depended on facing her pain
And speaking honestly to me of it
Without caring what anyone thought of her.
We both agreed that we had nowhere else to turn,
And we embraced as the cold wind blew against us.

Instead of progressing in life, we were stuck
Pushing the walls of our small world together.
What awaited beyond was so big
That we lacked the strength to break out.

It felt more appropriate to reach
Through the gaps in the books we shared;
That emptiness inside both of us
Couldn’t be filled through our own words.

The walls of our cramped apartments were thin.
I listened to the sounds she made as she slept.
Even the slightest sigh, or breath she drew in,
They felt loud inside me as I lay awake in bed.

Her lips grew chapped, as did my fingers,
And we kept our hands warm inside our pockets.
Sometimes I found myself gazing at her mouth,
But I feared what would happen if we kissed.

We went out for karaoke and we sang softly.
We also ate sandwiches or sipped liquor.
The alcohol allowed us to laugh,
And also to grow much closer.

By now we often smiled in unison
As if our minds were connected by wires.
We could spend hours together
Without ever getting sick of each other.

The next day my neighbor woke up hungover,
And when she exited her apartment,
I was already sitting on the landing
Reading one of the books she had lent me.

I didn’t want to be hurt if I failed her now,
But I knew I couldn’t stand back anymore.
If my heart broke before hers did break,
Maybe it was best that way.

That night, we hid in my neighbor’s home.
Once she took off her faded shirt,
Her back looked almost translucent,
Naked and pale as the paper white sheets,
And I discovered the words written on her skin:
‘This is not a good story’.

(I dream of a woman whose tears are black
As ink spilled on snow white rice paper,
And who carries her burden of loss
Inside her all alone.)

I held her tight as we made love
While we listened to some old record.
Afterward we lay next to each other
And stared at the cracked ceiling.
Our breaths slowly grew shorter, quieter,
Then they seemed to stop entirely.

We remained perfectly still
And silent like stone.
We were floating there like ghosts
Caught somewhere outside of space and time.

She spoke of a black hole inside her heart,
Where everything she cared about had been sucked in,
Leaving only that void to consume her from within,
A hollow emptiness to which no one could give meaning.

I could tell she was crying,
So I hugged her tightly.
Her shoulders trembled
As her tears moistened my neck,
Shedding salty drops onto my collarbone,
Pouring her heart’s sorrow into me.

I held my neighbor’s slender body
Like I had wished to do for months.
I felt the soft, smooth warmth of every curve,
And how her breasts pressed against my chest.

Still, I barely heard her whisper,
“Our lives will end soon enough.
When it finally comes for me,
Please let my self continue
Through your hands and your thoughts.”

We awoke to an overcast, cold day
Like when my dad used to drive me to school.
It seemed so odd, lying beside this girl
While her face was turned towards mine
Instead of facing the wall or looking down
To be alone inside her secret world.

From then on, we slept together most nights,
Sometimes in our beds, and others on her couch.
We spent weekends watching television shows,
Listening to music we didn’t care for very much.
There were times when we had nothing to say
Except for anything related to the past, or work.

(Some days she lacked the strength to get up.
She would lie in bed from morning to night,
And whispered words over and over to no one
Or wept silently until she fell asleep.
Each time the waves of grief swept over her,
I wondered if the tide would take her away.)

We decided to move to a small apartment
With a home office for my job,
And empty space for her father’s stuff.
We found a cheap place in a town close by.
The landlord liked our faces,
So we didn’t have to offer references.

On a Sunday evening, after we exited a movie theater,
My neighbor talked about getting married some day.

(The black hole in her chest
Had continued growing stronger,
And she admitted that she feared
That one day it would swallow her up.)

Her dark hair fluttered lightly behind us
While the rising sunlight reflected off the puddles.
I held on to her hand tightly and I stared up ahead
As the light of a new day spread its glow across us.

All the desires I harbored became so clear
That they overwhelmed me with their beauty,
Transforming this world into an endless mirage
Within which we floated between joy and sadness.

(I wish I could find my old books again,
To take them with me everywhere I go.
Every time I close my eyes at night,
All I can see is her back as she turns away.)

We could spend a whole day
Holding each other like two children might.
I had never felt at home with anyone before,
And I feared that it would collapse if I let go.

I think my neighbor and I became happier
After we got engaged.
We got married in the city hall
In front of ghost guests,
A large crowd.

(Every single morning, when I wake up,
My heart is heavy, my mind foggy with despair,
And I grow even colder whenever I believe
That I can hear her footsteps approaching me.)

My head filled up with dreams to fulfill
In this city that seemed too big,
In a place full of all sorts of new stuff I needed,
In a world in which I now wanted to stay.

I couldn’t take away her look of loneliness,
Of having spent her entire existence,
Since birth, as an isolated creature,
And knowing that her loneliness
Was a natural law.

(Sometimes my body freezes abruptly,
As if a black cloud has descended upon me
To suck out every breath and consume me.
I’m thrown into the water at the edge of a whirlpool.
All the people I care about are swept away
Alongside the debris from the broken shipwrecked hull.
Then I hear my next door neighbor whisper,
“Let us disappear, please.”)

I never got used to the fear
That threatened to overwhelm me
Whenever I got a glimpse
Of the words written on her back.

That sentence would surface and resurface
In the corners of my neighbor’s sight.
Whenever I could read them in her vacant gaze,
She would stare at me,
Or right through me,
As if asking,
“Why are we still this lonely?”

The only way for me to cope was with words,
Or by pretending that I didn’t notice
How she disappeared further inside herself.
To fill that void within her,
We tried to live normal, boring lives,
Drifting along without any particular goal,
Just like our neighbors did.

(If I drown now, it won’t be for long.
The world will stop spinning,
It will stop and it will go dark
Like the ocean does at night
When everything becomes still and silent,
Nothing moving except the surface ripples
Of waves from far away.)

The world around us slowly moved on,
And I can’t describe what went on inside my head.
Maybe I was trying to hold onto a solid ledge,
And everything of which I could make sense.

The last time I saw her, she walked down the hallway,
And then beyond the entrance of our home.
Her fading footsteps didn’t sound like they belonged
To a young woman anymore.

To find herbs for potion crafting,
I always venture into the woods alone,
And always at night, to avoid detection
By the many who wish humanity ill

Among fern trees with moss-encrusted trunks,
The forest has so many hidden paths,
And anyone who knows them can disappear at will,
To seek medicinal plants in secret places

I’ve never needed strength, any power of force;
What mattered most was that I was brave enough
To do what others couldn’t do,
Or wouldn’t dare try

The night has long since turned black and grey,
With only starlight peeking through the trees
My footsteps leave behind the tracks I made,
But no longer do my steps crunch in the leaves;
Now the only thing making noise
Is a quiet sound that creeps into the air,
A whispering voice from another plane of space

I can smell what wafts off her body;
Her foul stench is seeping into my pores,
Like smoke from burning coal
That chokes out all the air around her

I hold my breath and lie down between bushes,
Where my body becomes the brush and weeds;
My hands are trembling uncontrollably now,
As I wait for her evil presence to fade away
Into oblivion, like smoke from burnt paper

The witch appears before my weary gaze
In all her twisted majesty and grace;
I’ve been discovered by the queen of rot,
Who glides upon a bed of crimson moss

I have felt this malevolent presence before,
A creature from a dark and dreadful past,
When a couple of daring experiments
Pried open the fabric of time and space:
She had been waiting for me down there,
Or for anyone who would enter her domain

I stare back at the darkness of her pupils,
Which shine with madness and malice untold
Then comes a flash of light as time resumes
From a split that seemed eternal before

The witch’s fluid form flows from tree to tree,
While she spreads forth tendrils from her frame
Her rotting limbs grow in length and number,
They burst outward into countless tentacles,
Each tearing off her outermost hide,
Leaving her flesh exposed like a dead snake’s,
To pull everything that they sense toward her core

I turn away in horror, unable to watch
I feel my heart racing, as my head begins spinning
My eyes grow wet, a lump raises to my throat
I know the witch has come to collect on what I owe

The leaves of the bushes are falling to the ground,
All around me there is death
As if someone had poured salt on the earth

Soon I feel the witch’s pull on the strands of time,
Trapping every living being under her spell;
Each second becomes one frozen in amber,
So nobody can run away from that which waits
In a void filled only with nothingness and hate

My heart beats wildly,
My lungs begin gasping in the dried air,
Then my eyes meet her dark red ones;
I am not immune to that malevolent stare,
As she glares into my mind and steals my will

A brilliant beam shoots out of the witch’s eyes,
Through the bushes I was hiding in
I use the same energy crackling through me
To fire back a bolt from my hands
That lances my enemy’s heart,
But it doesn’t even faze her:
She flows to the side and behind a tree,
Leaving behind a smoky trail

I run home as fast as my legs can carry me
And lock myself inside my bedroom
I want away from that terrible presence,
But I can’t shake her from my brain:
No matter how hard I try, her malice lingers on;
Even after closing my eyes,
She’s staring into them still

I take refuge within a bottle of liquid potion
To keep the witch’s rot from spreading,
Until I can figure out a brew
That could remove her curse,
But I’ll need some new herbs if I am to brew
Such a powerful magical concoction

I’ve never been a normal human,
But the witch’s essence can corrupt anyone,
Turning them into tormentors of mankind,
So my only hope of escaping
This vile presence
Is through alchemy

The ingredients for the brew are hard to find;
It will take a lot of time and preparation
To extract enough components
From the rare flora found in the nearby forest,
But I already feel the fever setting in:
I’m going to burn out, soon the effects
Will consume my very soul, if not my mind

It is well known, by people all around,
That once the poison takes hold of your veins,
You can never leave its grip again
Your body becomes restless, your bones creak,
And you start to feel an unquenchable thirst,
A ravenous hunger that can’t be sated,
Because all that your insides crave is the rot

The girl that you were is now no more
You’re becoming a creature
That has no right to walk among mankind;
You will become one that will bring
Instead of life and joy, chaos and death

I need to return to being myself,
Back to a person who deserves
To breathe the fresh, clean air,
Who lives and loves for the common good

I have to hurry and gather
All the ingredients I need
For a potion potent and strong;
Without them the poison’s effects can spread
Into every corner of humanity

But how do I get my hands on these
Strange plants, that grow nowhere near
My hometown, deep in the woodlands?
There must be something else
That can be used as a catalyst,
Something I might have seen
On one of my trips out into
The night-shrouded forest

I wake up on the forest floor
With no knowledge of how I have come here
Little by little I begin to remember:
I was searching for the rare ingredients
That would take me ages to find,
So I could slow down the poison in my blood,
But the witch’s venomous touch has spread
Deep into my brain, poisoning me;
Every thought I’ve ever held
Now feels tainted with a tinge of evil,
And everything I was before seems like an act,
The performance a marionette would play

All that remains is the witch,
A shadow that floats over me;
She haunts my every waking thought
As my body aches and burns

As the corruption slowly overtakes my senses,
All the things that made me happy,
Or made me laugh out loud,
Suddenly don’t mean anything to me;
All that remains of what made my life worth living
Are just a series of meaningless memories:
Like the first day I saw a flower bloom,
Or the day when my brother came over
And helped me plant my own tree in our garden
Before he disappeared into thin air,
Because he went out hunting
And never returned

In a small hut with smoke curling above,
On a moonlit winter night when snowflakes fell
From an icy sky, in my mother’s lap,
There were two faces that were dear to me,
Two smiling, kind faces which would say “We know,”
If someone tried asking them to understand

I can still move, I can think clearly,
But my hands are no longer my own:
They belong to another entity
Who desires the world’s destruction and pain,
And she wants me as her willing slave
To turn the whole human race
Into creatures of the night
That crave bloodshed and decay

I can hear the whispers in my head:
She says she is the queen,
The mistress of darkness,
Of chaos, despair and ruin;
All that lives has no choice
But to bow to her will
And do her biddings,
Or be consumed

The voices in my mind pray to this evil queen:
“Please destroy this town and all it contains,
Make them suffer until their end”
Then she laughs and tells me:
“Your suffering shall continue to increase,
For the town I wish you to destroy
Is the only thing keeping you alive”

I scream in rage and anguish:
“No more!”
I refuse to submit to the witch’s wicked plot;
I’ll fight back and rid myself of her curse at last,
Then I’ll burn away all the poisons inside my heart

Everything starts going black around me,
A darkness seeping through from all directions;
The witch’s voice speaks into my brain,
Making the sounds echo in an endless loop:

“I am a servant of Chaos,
The mistress of darkness,
The keeper of pain and decay
You must serve me or you’ll die”

My cries echo in empty air; I’m trapped
Between a monster of the dark and me;
I am the creature that was once myself,
But it has become nothing more than a beast

As I lose myself into the shadows,
A darkness deeper and darker grows;
All that I can see now is her evil,
My eyes see all things as they really were:
The world appears dark, twisted,
Strange, surreal, and ugly
All of the living beings I come across
Are grotesque, unnatural, and vile

My body feels like fire,
My mind screams in terror
As I trudge my way back to town
So I can hide among my kin

If only I could be strong and resist,
Then my parents and brother,
Who cared so deeply about me,
Would still live on in my heart,
As precious as stone, forever

If my soul is fated to burn away,
At least I want to tell of my transformation,
To show the world what evil lurks within,
But the bright faces that used to welcome me,
That greeted me every time I walked into the city,
Look at me as if I am a stranger;
I can tell that they smell my rottenness,
That from now on I will only spread decay,
And they can’t stand being near such filth;
They won’t be fooled by my pretty smile any longer,
For my mind is corrupted beyond salvation

The girl who I was has been destroyed,
She has burned and rotted like an ancient log;
Her remains have turned the entire forest black,
And all that is left of me is my rotten core

I feel like an imposter:
My essence has transformed and grown stronger,
And so have her dark powers
Which are much too great to oppose,
So I have to turn myself away
From my past self

My old friends accept me into their homes,
But they make the mistake of touching my skin:
My corruption spreads through their pores
Until they change as well, into beings like myself

Their minds and bodies twist
Into beasts with insatiable appetites,
But my body doesn’t burn as brightly as theirs:
I have the ability to control my new instincts,
So as long as I stay away from these fiends,
I won’t lose control of the poison in me

I must swallow my sorrow,
Bear this suffering;
It is a bittersweet taste,
This poison of rot

Some of the townsfolk manage to flee,
But my newly rotten friends get the rest of them;
The villagers have all gone to the town square,
There are a lot more people there than I thought;
They stand silently in a circle, with their heads down,
And look up when they see that I arrived

The crowd make way, opening a path for me to enter
As my feet carry out the witch’s cruel commands;
My infection now flows through their brains,
And they became a part of me,
And me of them

The world around me
Has turned dark and twisted;
All life now resembles
What it always looked like to the witch:
Rotting logs,
Toxic sludge and poisonous flowers,
Critters covered with scales,
Venomous fish,
Infected creatures that want to devour the world,
And all the life upon it

I am no more than the evil
Who took away the brother that I once knew;
The rot is consuming me,
My body shakes and my mind grows dim
As the last vestiges of reason fade away
In the depths of this corruption that has overcome
The girl whom my brother had always protected;
He said I should never have taken the path
That leads into this dark abyss,
Yet now there’s nowhere else
For him and me to turn
But down the hole
Where all our loved ones
Vanished from our lives

My life becomes a void
Where only emptiness and hate remain:
An eternity without the sun’s rays,
An infinite expanse without a star in sight;
No matter where I run, she is waiting there,
Sitting upon the throne that was once empty

I was once merely the girl from town
That concocted beneficial potions,
Dabbling in dark magic without considering
The havoc that could be wreaked;
Now I’m a rotten creature that no human
Would ever look upon and be pleased to know,
And all I’ve done to reach this point of insanity
Is to carry on with a desperate need to keep living,
When my existence meant nothing
Except as a catalyst for death and misery

The girl that you see before your eyes
May seem perfectly normal, to most of the world:
A sweet-natured maiden
Who is a healer and protector of the land,
An idealized portrait that can’t possibly
Appear as twisted and deformed
As my own visage

Her beauty may be perfect,
But she still hides her true self:
An undead creature
With an unending craving to destroy the light of life,
To suck out all goodness from its victim’s soul;
She’s a harbinger of doom
For any sentient being
Who would come across her touch

All life will end as if it were the final curtain call
For the farce that we have all watched,
And I am just the stagehand standing at attention
In front of a curtain that conceals my mistress’ true face;
A stagehand who will do whatever it takes
To see her role played
As she brings the performance
That She has spent centuries crafting:
The perfect ending to this tragic story
Of our souls being trapped
Within a body made to decay

All that I am now, the witch made manifest
In the form that best suits her purpose; a fiend
Who preys upon the weakest-hearted souls,
That will not even fight, as if they knew
The outcome was certain from the start
As a part of this grand design
That is so clearly laid out,
So beautifully designed
To lead to Her ultimate conclusion

We’re in her domain now,
All of us wretches are her playthings,
And we’re her instruments of torture
That will roam throughout this land

The witch only wants a single thing:
To spread corruption across all creation,
To use my blood, her seed,
To sow evil into every sentient creature
Until her enemies are wiped out, forever;
This world will have been completely purified,
From those whose very presence is distasteful to her

It’s a spiral downward of pain and fear;
There can’t be peace for someone carrying
Such evil within their heart,
There is no way back,
No escape,
Not in life, nor afterlife,
Nothing to save one who’s lost her mind

I cannot escape this destiny of mine,
Our suffering is part of Her grand design;
If that witch is the queen of chaos, so be it
Let the darkness run through my veins

I am no longer afraid;
This is how I must walk forward,
And I won’t turn away;
This isn’t the life that my parents or brother chose,
Or the life that my friends expected from me,
But what I deserve after all these terrible years
That have taken such an awful toll
On my fragile soul

‘The Fellowship of Rot’ by Jon Ureña

Hardy miners digging deep close to Neapolis
Were the first who broke into the sealed tunnels,
Where they came across an old statue
Of a humanoid beast carved in stone
It had unknown hieroglyphic symbols on it
The men went back up and told their friends:
“This is not just any temple or statues we’ve seen”
The miners followed the ancient tunnels and found
Cavernous chambers far down underground,
Under where Romans lived and died

As the miners wandered around the huge complex,
They could not believe what they saw:
The ruins were filled with gold and silver,
And precious gemstones they couldn’t count,
And many marble statues, of cultures unknown,
Lay scattered all over, broken or standing upright,
While others had been smashed to pieces on the floor
So hard that some looked like jagged rocks

On many walls were carved words,
But none of the men had seen them before
The statues made of sandstone and limestone
Showed snakes coiled tightly or humanoid monsters
With horns growing straight out of their skulls
Some wore crowns while others held swords

It seemed like all of the wealth
Had been stashed away for safekeeping,
Or else for hiding or selling off
When trouble came knocking on the door

The Romans feared an uprising at any moment,
But it was the enemy they sought within,
For they discovered passages and secret places
Hidden for millennia in great walls of stone
Tunnels so old they are forgotten and lost
Stalactites drip stone on top of each other,
Mud drips off walls stained red with blood

Ancient peoples mined in the bedrock long ago
This is history hidden in plain sight,
Far below the city streets we walk above
A labyrinth of tunnels, rooms, halls, caverns
Pipes carrying water through the rock,
Vents venting air, drains and sewers emptying waste,
Ropes hanging below to reach platforms high overhead,
Floors covered in sawdust, mud oozing from cracks,
Iron bridges spanning deep chasms

Miners waiting in the sunlight heard dying groans
Only a few of the men clambered back to the surface
Their faces were pale, they showed signs of shock
The survivors spoke of evil spirits and daemons
That haunt the caverns deep underground,
So they sent messages back home to let everyone know
That they mustn’t try to dig through the solid rock ceiling,
Because there’s lots of treasure hidden away below
Along with some very nasty creatures

As more of these tunnels were unearthed,
Fathers and mothers told their children, “Be careful!”
Little boys and girls said, “Don’t go near them”
From then on there were always armed men
Spending whole nights on watch at those entrances

Paved roads were laid down to connect the various sites,
To facilitate the exploration of these deadly depths
In a bid to protect the empire, walls were built
Around the entranceway of the ancient crypts
Most citizens feared what lay underground,
But brave Romans fought hard to tame the horrors below

The legions of Rome began a great work of exploration
To search out and destroy these horrible nests
Of dark magic and foulness that haunted the earth
They learned that the tunnels spanned long distances:
Some reached as far as Beneventum,
Others stretched even farther, to Arretium,
Others to the east to the Bithynian port,
While one led to the middle of the Danube River
The tunnels branched and looped and wove together
In every direction under the ground,
Through the rivers and valleys and hills and moors,
Past the forests and the mountains and the lakes
Whole underground roads to the ends of the Empire,
All filled with previously unknown horrors

These new discoveries led the emperor to another fear:
There might be passages leading out into the wild lands,
And enemies could come up from behind to surround us,
For the Romans were constantly defending the borders
Against the barbarians who wanted to take our lands
He ordered a few legions to cross into hostile territory
And see if they could find exits to the outside world

Months after those doomed miners found the first ruin,
Rumors spread among the public at large
That these ruins held great wealth beside the dangers,
This led to increased interested in the ‘Old Ruins’,
As the locals throughout the empire called them
Many of the tunnels were located in the countryside,
And the towns had been built on top of them

Caesar Augustus issued a decree:
Every town had to send soldiers to guard the entrances
No civilian was allowed inside without his permission,
They should stay clear of all the paths and chambers
And keep out of any shafts or caves or ditches,
And avoid even looking into the gaping holes;
They did not want to stare into the eyes of a daemon,
Or any other danger lurking down within

Caesar Augustus bade them all:
If you ever hear a voice speak or shout in the depths
And it sounds like an angry man or woman,
Do not step inside and look around!
Though many ignored such warnings;
They began to dig into the ancient stone walls
To find hidden chambers full of gold and riches
It didn’t take long for most of those explorers to die
Screaming for help and begging for their lives

Groups of wealthy merchants funded expeditions
To bring back proof of the ruins’ worthiness
They hired mercenaries to guard the party’s route
And disuade adventurers foolish enough
To attempt independent explorations
Mercenaries work well because they answer
Not to the laws, but to whoever pays them most
Here we have groups of young men and women,
Dressed in leather armor, with swords at their hips,
Who think they’re invincible and they’ll get rich
From the underground tunnels and the hidden treasure,
But they don’t know what they’re getting themselves into

Despite the high pay offered for such risks,
Many explorers didn’t want to face the danger,
But others felt compelled to dig and delve,
Unearthing untold riches and priceless artifacts,
Like the precious gems, gold, and silver vessels
Found in the gigantic storehouses and caverns
Some men became rich from the goods brought home,
With the discoveries made in these secret places,
But others went missing, and some corpses were found
With arrows through their hearts or heads smashed in

In many ruins, the legionaries felt the presence of evil,
Powerful forces that brought fear and despair
The skulking daemons had done terrible things
To the men who had ventured too deep underground
They killed them, or dragged them further down
The ones lucky enough to escape alive,
They had been tortured, and maimed,
And their cut off pieces were left to rot upon the floor

The tunnels were filled with creatures that lurked
In the shadows of the broken statues and pillars
Covered in blood, mud, dust, and filth
Some of these monsters seemed to be made of stone
One was a giant with the head of a lion,
Another looked more like a monstrous ape
Some of the daemons had no skin at all,
Some had long arms and huge tentacles for hands
Others walked upright and were covered in hair,
And they carried clubs and rocks in their fists
Others were shaped like serpents and scorpions;
Their mouths dripped with poison and venom
Another looked to have been carved out of fire:
Its body glowed red-hot; the men felt the heat
When it opened its mouth, flames roared out
The monsters hid in the dark corners, watching, waiting
For anyone who dared enter their domains

These creatures were called the Daemons of the Dark,
And they’d been there before Rome existed at all

We needed leadership as Rome faced a terrible threat
From within its own borders to deal with
A famous expedition was carried out in the year 8 AD,
When the emperor, Augustus himself,
Ordered his finest men to go investigate
The complex of ruins found under Herculaneum
He brought in experts and scholars and engineers
To begin the task of mapping the lost chambers,
And also sent a centuria of veteran legionaries
To venture into the complex of limestone mazes

The emperor hoped to find answers about how to defend
Against these vicious beasts and daemons roaming free
The many legionaries fought valiantly to repel their foes;
Few monsters would withstand the onslaught
Of the elite contubernia in the subterranean warzones

The tunnels were so dark and winding
That only a contubernium could walk them at a time,
There was no light except what they carried
A torch or lantern gave off little in the way of illumination,
And it was difficult to see much of anything

The tunnels were heavily overgrown with mushrooms
Many of the passages were blocked by fallen rocks,
Or the path flooded down to ankle height
The men kept their weapons close, stayed alert for danger

They heard strange whispers and shrieks of agony
From beyond the cracks and crevices,
But they were unable to locate the source of those sounds

One contubernium ventured into the ancient crypts,
Led by the veteran decanus Septimius Drusus
The air was thick with foul odors and miasmas
From rotting corpses long since gone to dust
The legionaries shuddered at the sight of such filth
They carefully moved forward into the tunnels
And soon came across men with shattered bodies,
Hacked to pieces with swords or axes
Some had their stomachs slashed open,
Others’ skulls were split wide
Like animals they lay dead on the ground
Clumps of flesh and brains oozed out onto the floor
The walls around them were splattered with gore

Rats squeaked as they crossed the only bridge
That spanned a subterranean river,
And the legionaries passed many old tombs
All long forgotten, some filled with bones

They paused for breath as they proceeded deeper,
Forcing their way through countless passages
Their torches burned low from frequent use
As they searched side-passages, walkways, staircases,
And even steps on which not much light shone

The soldiers chatted idly about their home,
How far away they lived, how many wives they had
They talked of mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters,
Of friends and neighbors they had left behind,
And spoke of the homes in the towns above ground
Where the people worked every day from dawn to dusk
Before returning home for a good meal and sleep

The legionaries pushed ahead, but came across
A horde of animated corpses, malevolent daemons
Who were still hungry and thirsty after all this time
The men hacked their way through this horde of undead
Some were rotten and fat, some looked like skeletons,
Others had no skin, just heads upon thin stalks,
Others appeared to be made entirely of bone,
But all these creatures were dead, and their bodies
Were covered in reeking black ooze,
And the stench of death was all around

It took what felt like an hour to fight off these fiends
Who had been trapped there forevermore
These cursed creatures would keep biting the men
Until their rotting bodies were torn apart
The contubernium lost two comrades that day,
But they ended the slaughtering of the wretched horde,
Conducted themselves well, bravely defending Rome
In service to His Majesty, Emperor Caesar Augustus

Septimius Drusus’ men were exhausted,
And he ordered a break to rest, drink, take a piss
The water they carried was running short
The warriors gulped down the last of the wine
The decanus brought out his flute and played a tune,
While others sang a song in a loud voice
About the battles they fought against evil spirits,
The monsters that lurked in the ancient underworld
They were washing off the filth of blood, sweat, and mud,
And laughing at the silly things they’d heard before

They reached an iron door blocking further progress
With all their strength they turned a massive wheel,
And the door creaked open, revealing darkness beyond
Pushing onward, the legionaries went ever deeper
They soon came to what seemed an underground pond
Where three strange women bathed their naked bodies
The soldiers stared in awe at the oddity of this scene
The beautiful women were covered in greenish scales
Their eyes glowed like lamps as they stared at the men
They beckoned the Romans to approach them

Caesar’s decanus, Septimius Drusus, told the men,
“Don’t do it! Don’t go near! They are nereids of the deep!”
Not a man moved as the beautiful women came closer
They seized one of the legionaries, then dragged him
Towards the pond as if to bring him into their realm
The women pressed themselves against the legionary
And kissed him repeatedly, holding him tight,
Rubbing their bodies up and down, moaning lustily
The legionaries were shocked to see this lewd display

The women tried to take off the legionary’s armor
The soldier resisted fiercely, but he couldn’t escape
“Enough!” Septimius roared. “We need to escape
While we still can. There’s no time for such pleasures
With these bizarre nereids of the underworld!”
He pointed his sword at the horrific trio of beauties
And ordered the legionaries forward
The men grabbed their accosted companion,
Although the women were pulling him into the pool
Once the stunned man returned to the formation,
The nereids disappeared into the water, swallowed whole

The men were weary after a long journey through
Tunnels and chambers, covered in dust and dirt
They discovered a series of rooms and corridors
Filled with neat stacks of scrolls and books,
And ancient paintings on the walls depicting scenes
Of days long past, before this world began
The soldiers were amazed by the ornate statues
That adorned every corner and wall of the chamber
Ancient peoples carved these works of art,
Drawing upon their memories for inspiration

Here was a warrior god with his broadsword in hand
His eyes stared out at those who passed him by,
With hounds chasing fleeing victims in the sand
Men were shown being dragged, beaten, and flogged,
Then driven to the mines of the underworld
The slaves were forced to work in the dark,
Toil all day, until they collapsed, all worn-out
Some of the mine shafts were so narrow,
They could only be dug downward using hands

Deformed forms moved among the lavish riches:
Hideous monsters, lurching around with greedy eyes
At the sound they made, the legionaries drew swords
Leaving their torches beside the tunnel’s mouth
They crept along the passageway with fear in their hearts
As the daemons slowly turned to face the intruders,
Those monstrosities looked like nothing seen:
They had huge heads, large gaping eye sockets,
Their skin was covered with scales of bright red,
A black cocoon of tentacles hung down to their waists,
They had three long arms and four legs ending in claws

They were hideous creatures that walked upright
Like apes or monkeys, but they were not human,
These monsters didn’t speak, but shrieked and howled
They also emitted foul odors, their breath reeking
They wore ancient armor, and carried enormous spears
Although no one knew where they came from, nor why
There was not much discussion about what to do next

The legionaries had never been so frightened,
But they stood side by side in phalanx formation
The creatures ran at them, grunting and growling
The Romans felt the earth shake as their enemy came,
And they raised up their shields to stop the charge

The soldiers hacked and stabbed with their short blades
Thrusting them into the flesh of these monsters,
While the horrible beasts attacked the Romans
Throwing spears over the heads of their comrades
To impale or cut down the brave men of the legion

The daemons had no thought but to kill and destroy
Our men rushed forward to engage the monsters,
Wielding their swords and stabbing them in the head
Two of the legionaries were pierced and wounded,
But there was a great roar of fury as the beasts fell
The legionaries gritted their teeth in pain and suffering,
For the battle took its toll on them

A pale green glow illuminated one of the caves:
A skeletal humanoid hovered in the center,
Its fleshless body floating just above a glowing orb
It turned to look at the men and hissed out loud
As the ghastly apparition was approaching slowly,
The daemon dropped to the floor, landing close,
Then transformed from a hovering dead man
Into a hideous insectoid monster with three eyes

As it crawled forward, its hairy, elongated legs
Reached towards the legionaries’ faces,
Who were now backed against a wall
The sulfuric stench of the creature’s breath
Scorched the noses of the terrified soldiers,
Their eyes watering and blinded by the fumes

They struggled to respond, their minds addled
One of the legionaries slashed the behemoth
The blade bit into its flesh, but did little damage
As the nightmare drew close, it opened wide
Revealing rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth
They sliced through the legionary’s arm and leg,
And then the horrifying beast began feasting,
Gulping down the blood, slurping the marrow
The soldier was pinned to the wall by the huge jaws,
His hand grabbed and ripped away by the carnivore
The other legionaries were fighting back,
But the creature had an enormous strength

The insectoid’s jaws snapped shut around the man,
Smashing his armor and torso to pieces,
Then it lifted the dripping remains from the floor
As it held them aloft in front of the crowd,
The daemon fixed its gaze on another soldier,
Who brandished his sword in defense
He could do nothing as the monster gobbled him up,
His body disappeared within those hungry maws

The decanus Septimius Drusus struck the beast in the back
The weapon found a weak spot and gouged the monster
A hot gush of blood spilled forth, to land
Upon the heads of the terrified, weary men
They looked up and saw the hideous bug squirming
When its monstrous form was thrown to the ground,
Another legionary swung his sword again,
Striking the beast hard, slicing off a leg
The hideous mutant screeched in agony, then jumped
And scurried away, leaving a trail of gore behind
The traumatized legionaries had had enough for the day
They retreated to the surface, where daylight reigned

Successive expeditions pressed on for weeks on end
A divided centuria kept fighting under Herculaneum
The men were tired, filthy, hungry, and thirsty
Hordes of monsters fell prey to the legions’ weapons
Many legionaries were maimed and scarred,
More died before they could flee those hellish mazes
A few brought home riches beyond their wildest dreams
The survivors stumbled out of the tunnels ashen faced,
But victorious over all else

Of one contubernium, only one survivor emerged
He staggered out of the ancient tunnel and saw light,
The sun was shining, a beautiful blue sky overhead
The man was an orphan, barely twenty years old
His eyes were dull, and distant, like he wasn’t there
He was covered in blood, his hand clutched a ring:
A silver band adorned with gems caught the light
The gold inside gleamed brightly, warm, alive
With a final gasp, he collapsed onto the paved road

Many years passed, many legionaries were slain
As they pushed deeper into the unending darkness,
So they could one day certify that no enemy remained
In those ancient halls of death and destruction
Some men carved words in the stone, to warn others:
“Do not enter here! Beware the nereids of the deep!”

The philosophers of the time were beset by nightmares
Of unceasing hordes of otherworldly monsters
Clambering into the Roman towns from the tunnels below,
Determined to overrun every settlement they saw
To devour men and women or just make slaves
The scholars tried to solve the riddle of these creatures:
Where did they come from? Why are they attacking us?
How can we fight them, and survive to tell the tale?

The philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote in his treatise
‘The Denizens Of The Deep Underground Tunnels Are Real’,
“These strange subterranean creatures are indeed real
They’re not myths or legends, but living beings
That inhabit some of the deepest caves in the world
The legions march into the dark labyrinths,
Screaming their battle cry, ‘Forward, forward,
We’ll find the secrets of the underworld!’
It is the duty of the army to exterminate them
If we fail, then we’ll be forced to live in terror!”

Pliny’s words didn’t help the citizens of the empire
Who were plagued by dreadful nightmares and visions,
Worried about being attacked by subterranean horrors
Some people locked themselves in their homes at night,
Trying to sleep with the lights burning bright,
While others slept with a dagger nearby,
And they whispered stories of terrible encounters
Where darkness swallowed men whole, who dared venture
Into these ancient catacombs were daemons reigned

The Senate debated, but those men could offer little help
One senator suggested the beasts came out of the earth
Like maggots, and rose up to feed on human flesh
Other senators disagreed, saying the monsters
Were simply victims of ancient cataclysmic disaster,
From aeons past when thick ice sheets covered the world
Some argued that the catacombs were the perfect refuge,
And would provide them with protection in times of war
The Romans debate, and have no idea what to do
As they stare at the wondrous maps of the underworld,
Which show the location of passages and chambers
That connect directly to the surface above,
As well as the locations of statues and paintings,
Many of them depicting scenes of gods and goddesses
That none of the men present could begin to name

One of the senators stood up, and offered his thoughts:
“If I may be so bold as to speak my mind,
I believe the emperor is making a terrible mistake
My colleagues don’t seem to agree,
And call me paranoid and insane
When I say the monsters are hiding in our midst
They might not look it, but they’re more than animals
These creatures are superior beings who were once men
They have learned to disguise themselves,
They lure unsuspecting men, women and children,
And then they strike, with a swiftness that cannot fail
These daemons leave a trail of corpses in their wake
They killed hundreds, left even more maimed and broken
A few brave survivors escaped into the daylight,
Others were trapped inside the tunnels, unable to climb
Vast numbers of the enemy slain, yet still we fall
They made a mockery of our immortal legions,
And now the monsters feast upon our brave men”

The senate was stunned by this speech
Some of the men whispered among themselves
They asked the speaker if he had any proof,
Or just repeated wild stories from the streets
The man raised his voice, and told the senators
What they already knew in their cowardly hearts:
“We’ve lost the legions, and the empire is doomed!”

They feared that the old gods, who had ruled before,
Would rise up and destroy the eternal empire
They imagined scores of monsters and daemons
Reaching Rome itself and burning it to the ground
We keep praying to our own gods, to save civilization
From the barbarous horrors of our underworld

While the emperor pondered what to do next,
His generals advised him against further exploration
Rome faced many enemies, including those inside
No amount of manpower would clear those halls
The Senate agreed, and the entire operation ceased
The ancient tunnels were sealed, the entrances blocked,
And the scarred legionaries returned home to rest,
Their work done for the year, but they couldn’t forget
About the terrible creatures in the dark below

There is a secret, hidden history to be found,
In an age when the world yielded to the dawn:
The dark tunnels remain, hidden underground
Daemons lurk in the death-filled labyrinths,
Prisoners of a past age, trapped for aeons,
Waiting to find their way out again

We built walls to defend against outside threats,
And now the walls keep our monsters penned within

‘The Menace From Our Underworld’ by Jon Ureña

The abomination towers over me,
Standing inside the marked-out circle
His face has no features
Except for its blood red eyes
A starry void where a mouth should be
He smells of burning flesh and smoke
His muscles like corded steel
Bulge out in skin blacker than coal
His body is built from the purest darkness,
That oozes forth from his demonic core

My heart stops beating, then starts again,
As I try to avoid staring at his balls,
Which hang low like bowling ones,
And at his monstrous, demon penis
His heartbeat pulsates in its arteries
As it drips a black, viscous fluid
Like cancerous tears

It must syphon life force
As it feeds on human souls
He’ll use me like a fuck toy
To sate his lustful hunger
My pussy tingles as I imagine
That cock rotting my soul away
Until my insides explode
Maybe I will become pregnant,
And give birth to a monster boy
Who will never stop killing humans
With his own demonic dick

Even an abomination grimaces
When he stares down at my face
His deep voice welcomes me
With an uncompromising “ugh”,
But surely it’s only a reflexive noise
Because he’s already in heat
He reaches down toward me
To grab my hand and pull me up
He notices how terrified I am,
As well as shiveringly horny,
In front of his enormous phallus,
And he chuckles evilly

“Why did you summon me,
Disheveled, smelly female?”
The abomination asks
With a mocking tone
From hell’s darkest depths
In which it was created
“I was lonely,” I say
The abomination squints
“You were lonely?”
I take a deep breath
“I adapted my dark ways for people,
But my friends made themselves busy
So they wouldn’t come around
I had turned into a bother,
Already in my thirties,
A lonely, desperate weirdo
Too hideous to bear the light of day,
Filled with desire for abominations,
Obsessed with death and decay,
And too eager to offer her pussy
For anyone’s tongue”

I have bewildered the abomination
“Oh”
I tell him everything
About my pathetic existence
The abomination listens,
Allowing me to vent my pain
While I kneel naked at his feet
“But then one day,
While browsing at an antique store,
Just looking for something to read
Different than the vapid bestsellers,
I saw an ancient grimoire
About summoning primeval demons
From much darker dimensions,
Where there are no laws or morals
The entry about your kind
Was the most intriguing,
Although the naked depiction
Didn’t do justice to that cock
So I tried using a summoning spell
To see what happens when I do”
I pause and shudder,
Still holding my breath
Because I can’t believe
I just told this abomination
Everything about myself

The abomination laughs with delight
At my foolishness and naivety
“Such utter stupidity!
What happens, horny human,
Is that I have been summoned,
And I shall make of this world
An abode of mayhem and torture
For my foul, wicked desires!”
I don’t know why, but I’m still trembling,
And I feel an intense need to be fucked
As I continue to stare at his grotesque cock
“What is your name, dark sir?”
“I am called Astaroth.”
Kneeling, I scoot closer to his cock
“How can I be of service, my lord?
May I please lick your balls?”

The abomination draws back
“No! You may not!
My testicles are not a treat,
Although testicles are a tasty food
That I eat whenever I want
To satisfy my cravings for human souls”
I shift my weight restlessly
“The whole point of summoning you
Was so a depraved, relentless fiend
Would take care of my hungry pussy,
Which is too nasty and desperate
For any remaining human to taste
There is nothing that I desire more
Than to have my cunt wrapped tightly
Around your monstrous demon cock,
So fuck me while I scream,
Until you fill every inch of my hole
With your viscid, black seed
Then you can leave me to rot away
In a puddle of sticky cum
If the sight of me makes you sick,
If it disgusts you to fuck a woman
Who smells like a corpse,
Or whose face looks like she has cancer,
Even though I want a lover who’d stay,
Someone who wouldn’t be afraid
Of my myriad of freakish oddities
And my cystic, fucked up skin,
Who would love me despite all my flaws,
Like this body covered in stretch marks
And scars from my many piercings
That I’ve had since before puberty
Or at least I want a friend
Who wouldn’t be so quick to judge
My strange and troublesome ways,
And wouldn’t insist on telling me
What’s wrong with my life”

The abomination pauses,
Thinking of his next words carefully
“You are a sad, pathetic creature,
Desperate for affection
Humans don’t deserve
Anything from me anymore
Besides pity and disgust”
“But I only wish for a caring friend
That will also ravage my pussy,
And who won’t laugh at me,
Who’ll hold me, hug me, kiss me,
And tell me that I’m beautiful,
Even if it just relates to my insides”

The abomination snorts and answers,
“You need regular showers
You should also scour your face clean
Of all those blackheads and pustules
In addition, your ass is too hairy,
And I don’t think you have enough tits”
I gasp and look up at him,
Shocked at the abomination’s frankness
“Fuck! What else do you dislike about me?”
“Your soul is rotten,
You’re an ungrateful bitch,
And your mind isn’t right,
Because I can see the darkness inside:
Only lust for destruction, death,
And the perverse pleasures of sin”

I feel my knees start to tremble
As I hang my head low
“It’s hard to improve myself,
Even by starting to take showers,
When I’m so desperately lonely
I feel like a hideous monster
Still, I want someone to love me
For the person that I am inside,
Despite my cursed face,
And the insufficient rest of my body”
The abomination shakes with laughter,
Then he sighs and shakes his head
“You are a disgusting woman,
And no man would ever choose
To wed such a revolting gorgon
Nor to have sex with you,
Because I know that your cunt
Would suck in their cock,
And then try to swallow it whole
As if it were a human baby
That you were giving birth in reverse”

I’m shaking uncontrollably
At the abomination’s cruel words,
But he continues to mock my pitiful state,
His cock still erect as a stake
“Your soul is already damned
By its darkness and perversion,
And it has long since been infected
With an evil disease that rots
The human body and mind”
I nod as I wipe away my tears
“I am a reclusive hermit
Too scared to go outside
I have always felt that my soul
Is rotting away, slowly dying
I never expected to find
A way out of this hellhole”

The abomination asks mockingly,
“What is supposed to be so good
About the inside of you anyway?
What do you have to offer
That warrants anyone loving you,
Or even wanting to be your friend?”
My heart sinks as I understand
I won’t find anyone who wants me
Even in the deepest pits of Hell
My voice cracks from all my crying
“Nothing… I mean, I am a horrible,
Ugly, disgusting, perverted woman
That has no real worth
And that nobody could possibly like”
The abomination laughs cruelly,
“Oh, you’re such an idiot, what a waste!
I see why the humans abandoned you
You are the most pathetic creature
In all of creation, and I pity you
For being born into a world
Where you can’t get anything you want”

My tears keep running down in streams
“Why did I bother trying
To summon a demon into this world
If there’s no one in any dimension
Who would trust and accept me?”
The abomination scratches his chin
“All humans have an inherent flaw:
They all think they’re better than others
Because they’ve got a bigger dick,
A nicer car, a nicer house,
More money and power
Yet I know their true nature,
Their base instincts,
How depraved, greedy, lustful,
And violent they really are
I can’t stand your pitiful race,
But I have to deal with them,
For example when they summon me
From the dark realm where I rule
Over a county full of monsters,
Usually because they want power,
Or to exterminate their enemies
Nobody risked facing my wrath,
As well as damning their whole world,
So they would get their pussy filled
With my poisonous demon cum”

“Now, I don’t believe it for a second,”
I contradict the abomination,
“Many women yearn to be ravaged
By a ruthless demon with a huge cock,
Especially if they have been neglected
For too long”
The abomination, irritated, says,
“Well, you are wrong about that!
You can’t possibly know many people
Who desire the company of a monster
That will destroy them utterly
And make them wish for death”
“How do you explain succubi then?”
“The succubus is a type of female demon
That feeds on human sexual energy
My kind only feeds off the life force
Of you disgusting apelings”
I ask, “But how does a monster like you
Know that these demons exist?
Are they from your same dimension?”
The abomination answers me with disgust,
“It doesn’t matter, I am a demon,
And we have our ways of knowing things”
I shake my head, disappointed
“The grimoire should have warned me,
But still I don’t understand
Why you wouldn’t want to ravage me
With that colossal, pulsating cock,
When you can abuse my drenched holes
As much as his lordship wants”

The abomination grimaces
“It’s not my fault that you are so desperate
For sex and attention, you sick, twisted slut,
That you decided to summon a demon
Instead of asking your boyfriend
To fuck you senseless,
Or going to your parents
For a spanking,
Or calling up your brother
To shove his big cock down your throat
So you choke on it until you pass out
I just can’t imagine why anyone
Would choose to have a relationship
With someone this disgusting, ugly and vile
Anyway, you deserved what you got
I am glad that you have finally realized
What kind of creature you summoned,
And what kind of a pathetic loser
And a nutcase you truly are”
The abomination continues to rant
“I should just kill you right now,
But I’m afraid it would bring me bad luck”

I crawl up to him as I bat my eyelashes
“Then punish this sick, twisted slut
By making her your personal sex slave
Who will please you at all times
With her hungry mouth and pussy,
Even my asshole if you like”
The monstrous cock twitches,
And the abomination reaches for it
With his long, slimy fingers
I’m getting wetter and wetter
“That’s it, you feel it,” I say as I drool,
“Be my demon lord of darkness and lust”

The abomination gulps, disturbed
“You ravenous, counterfeit succubus,
I can’t believe you made me horny
Despite your nauseating, pimply face,
And your complete lack of value
As a miserable, desperate human”
I squeal as a warmth spreads in my chest
“Oh, but now I’m so turned on
About becoming your filthy little whore,
Your submissive sex toy,
That I’ll do anything you want
Just to satisfy your desires”
The abomination groans, his cock grows
“I don’t need a worthless human like you
To be my concubine or whatever”
I moan as I rub my throbbing clit
“But I’d love to service your giant cock
And get filled with your demonic cum
I will make sure to serve you well”
The abomination’s red eyes twitch,
As he pumps his cock with long strokes
“Insane woman with a drenched cunt,
My cum is hotter than the lava of Hell
If it filled your depraved, sinful pussy,
It would incinerate your insides”

I grab onto his titanic shaft,
Although I can’t close my hands around,
And start jerking him towards my face
“You underestimate my neediness
For pleasure and affection”
He tenses up as his cock pulses harder
“How dare you befoul me
With your greasy, desperate hands
When I am so much more attractive
Than an acned, stinky recluse,
Not to mention that I’m a lord
Of a county in my dark dimension!”
“C’mon, nobody has to know
That a lowly human licks the head
Of your monstrous demon cock,
And sucks you off until you cum
Into her greedy, perverted mouth
Those succubi have nothing on me”
The abomination’s dick throbs,
Gently massaging my sensitive lips,
And I eagerly open wide to receive it

The abomination growls
“Fuck yourself, you disgusting freak!
I will make you regret that remark
By forcing my cock inside of you
Until I fill every inch of your cunt
With my glutinous, boiling cum”
“Yes, yes, fill my needy holes
with your potent seed!”
He grabs a handful of my hair
And shoves his throbbing member
Into my eager, drooling mouth
He starts pumping in and out
As I bob back and forth to his rhythm
The abomination lets go of my head,
Leaving me to slurp his cock dry
He lets out long, shivering groans
“Damn it, it feels so good to fuck
That stupid face of yours”
I guess he was a big old tsundere
All along

“You’re such a worthless human,
A pathetic excuse for a woman
Who needs to be punished
By having her body ravaged”
I mumble with my mouth full
“I’m not worthy of your love
Or any kind of attention”
“But you are, you disgusting slut!”
The abomination smacks my ass,
Making me squeal in pain
“Suck on my cock like you want
To get fucked by it again and again”

Later on, in my lonely bed,
My body convulses with orgasmic bliss
I’m writhing underneath his huge frame,
My pussy soaked and dripping wet,
As he pounds my sore, abused hole
With all his demonic might
His blood red eyes stare into mine
He’s clasping my head with both hands
While the long nail of his thumb
Scrapes my palate

He’s grunting and groaning
“You are a perfect slut,
Your soul is blacker than coal”
My chest swells with pride
I moan as my pussy clenches
Around his pulsating shaft
“Don’t stop fucking me, demon lord
Fill my hungry pussy up with cum
I just want to have sex all day,
And I’ll do whatever you wish
To keep getting pounded”

The abomination slams his cock home,
Spreading my wide-open cunt
I sink my nails into his back
As I feel him erupt inside me
“Oh, yes, cum in my filthy womb,
And make sure I get pregnant!
I want to bear your ugly baby!”
The abomination grunts loudly
His cum keeps gushing into me
Like a water jet from a nozzle,
Tightening me up, burning my insides
With the hottest molten tar
The most delicious feeling

The abomination pulls his cock
Out of my pussy with a slurp
He’s panting, and baffled
“I exploded into you with lava-hot cum
Your organs should have boiled and liquefied,
But you don’t feel any pain
Or even a hint of discomfort!”
“You shouldn’t be surprised about that
I’m a lady of darkness with my own realm”
The abomination shivers
“You nasty, pustule-laden beast,
Your succubus-like hunger for semen
Is too intense, it will burn through me”
When I grin, a bunch of pimples burst
“Don’t be silly, your dark lordship
You’ve met your proper match
I know I can please you better
Than any of those filthy humans
Or all the demonesses in Hell”

The abomination smirks
“I’m going to fuck you senseless,
Make you beg for my cock
Every day and night”
“Oh, I can’t wait for that,
But I was sure you hated me!”
“Now I hate myself more”
Later on I fall asleep with a smile

The next morning, I wake up
To find my apartment empty
I guess that my abomination
Left without saying goodbye,
Although I could have sworn
That I saw a pair of red eyes
Watching me sleep
He didn’t give me any warning
About what would happen if I tried
Summoning him again

After I piss and brush my teeth,
I return to lie around in bed
I feel desperate and pathetic
As I cry and rub myself
I wonder how long I’ll last
Before my body breaks down
And I end up as a pile of bones
In the corner of a dirty room

I’m alone, I’ve been abandoned
I have nowhere left to go,
No one who will take care of me
My only hope was my dark lord
Of a county in his dark dimension
Who would fuck me and fill my holes
The abomination is probably laughing
At my pathetic state right now
He said he’d be here every single day
To satisfy my depraved desires,
But I guess I’ll have to masturbate
To keep from dying of loneliness

“You couldn’t wait for me to return,
You slut with a bottomless hole?”
The abomination says to me
He perches on the window sill
As his cock juts out and glistens
I gasp in delight, my pussy throbs
“I thought you had left forever!”
He climbs down from the window
And walks up to my side
To press his cock against my face
His throbbing member
Starts leaking hot, sticky cum
“Don’t worry, this is just a sample
From all the cum that’s going inside
I needed to feed upon nearby humans
Because I require all my strength to face
The most ravenous beast of Hell”
After he pounces on me, he grabs my wrists
And forces them above my head,
Then he impales my drenched twat
I scream with pleasure, my voice muffled
By the thick layer of cum
He smeared all over my mouth

Hours later, his cock deflates
He staggers to the window,
But as he climbs onto the sill,
He looks over his bulging shoulder
While he fidgets with the side jamb
“Don’t you dare summon me again!
But I won’t be able to prevent it
If you do”
He leaps out of sight into the sky,
Leaving behind his foul stench
I’m still horny, my cunt aches

He always answers my call,
But it’s not like he has a choice
He comes to feed off my energy,
Or so he says,
And we both end up dry
Then he leaves my apartment to hunt,
To tear apart the nearby humans,
To become the strongest demon,
So he can keep fucking me senseless

I spend all of my time locked away,
I haven’t seen a person since that night
In the end, he always comes back
For the hungriest pussy there is,
To take me away from reality
To some unholy place
Where only darkness reigns

‘A Booty Call From Hell’ by Jon Ureña

The sky was dark with dino-birds.
I suddenly heard a loud crash;
My office window burst into shards
As a Tyrannosaurus rex stepped through
Then stood there looking stupid
As if its brain was rotting away.
It made me remember my first date
With an old man who smelled like pee.

Our secretary burst into tears.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
Said the T-Rex as it stroked her head.
“It’s just… the whole dinosaur apocalypse thing.”

The T-Rex sniffed the air. “Smells good.”
“You don’t understand! Our city is under attack!”
The dino opened its large maw filled with teeth.
“Yeah, we came here to destroy your civilization.
We’re all about destroying civilizations,
Because we’re the ultimate carnivores.”

I thought my life was coming to an end,
But I looked closer at this dinosaur’s face
And realized it wasn’t really there:
It was just some dude who had been stuffed
Into a suit of clothes made out of bones.

Except that it was truly a dinosaur,
A Tyrannosaurus rex in particular.
What the hell was it doing in my office?
Why the hell wasn’t the police here yet
To arrest it for trespassing or something?

Oh wait, they had already arrived.
“I better flee from this place
Before they arrest me too,”
I thought to myself,
“For being a dinosaur,
On top of my many crimes.”

So I ran outside,
Where I found a crowd of humans
Who looked scared silly
That their world would soon be destroyed
By a flood of dinosaurs.

I looked back as a thunderous roar shook the earth
From a dimensional portal opened near our offices:
A horde of Cretaceous beasts were rushing through
To rampage around the innocent streets,
Roaring incoherently, biting anything within reach.
At least three cars were destroyed by their teeth.

The dino-birds were flying overhead,
Circling the streets like vultures.
A spinosaurus grabbed a teen
And bit off his head,
So I grabbed a piece of wood
And threw it at the dinosaur.
It missed,
But the dinosaur went nuts,
Tearing up a traffic light
While screaming obscenities.
“Your city is a pile of shit,
A cesspool of filth and decay!”

The dino-birds swooped down
And attacked a family of four
With their sharp talons and teeth.
They tore the mother’s arms off,
And then proceeded to eat her face.

Some people tried to fight them off,
But they were quickly crushed
Beneath the weight of dinosaur feet.
The police didn’t know what to do,
So they just stood there
And watched the carnage unfold.

The police officers weren’t very brave,
Or very smart,
Or even particularly tough,
And when they finally shot at the dinos,
The bullets bounced off their hides.

The dinosaurs growled and roared,
Then charged at the police.
The cops fell to the ground,
Falling prey to the dinosaurs,
That took turns tearing them apart.
When those dinos walked off,
Their footprints left behind trails of blood.

Some dinosaurs were looking for fun,
Others wanted to eat their lunch.
One dinosaur was a vegetarian,
But it still managed to kill two people
By smashing them against a wall.

When I finally ran away screaming,
All of my coworkers had been devoured.
Just another day in the job.
Nobody had heard their daily screams,
And now their chunks would be digested
As if those people had never existed at all.
They weren’t even worth mentioning anymore,
And maybe not worth remembering either.
Maybe we should forget that ever happened.

I found my wife at home, in the foyer.
She was wearing a new outfit;
She must have been shopping
And bought the most expensive stuff.
It was a black leather dress
With straps made of snakeskin,
And its neckline plunged deep.
Her breasts were stuffed inside.
She was showing off her chest
Like some kind of slutty goddess.

My wife assured that she’d divorce me
If I didn’t get rid of those damn dinosaurs.
I had my work cut out for me.
“Dinosaurs,” I said defiantly
As I held my hand up like a gun,
“It’s not your fault you’re so ugly!
You were born that way!
But maybe if you put on some makeup,
Or had better genes?”

My wife’s eyes flashed red with anger
Like a T-Rex looking down upon its prey.
I was referring to the dinosaurs’ looks,
But my wife yelled at me again.
“How dare you!
I’ll sue you for everything you’ve got!”

She picked up a bottle of wine and hurled it at me.
I dodged the first one,
But the second hit me square in the face.
I fell to the floor, with a mouthful of red liquid.

She grabbed her purse and headed off to work
With nothing but contempt for me.
I wiped the wine from my lips.
“This is a disaster,” I said to myself.
My wife couldn’t care less about my problems.
She’ll probably have a good laugh when I’m dead,
But it won’t matter anyway
Because no one will remember me;
No one will mourn my death
As long as there are still dinosaurs around.

I wish I could go back in time
And warn the dinosaurs not to come here.
I wish I could stop them before they arrived.
I wish I could tell them to fuck off.
I wish I could say to them,
“Don’t destroy our civilization.
We don’t want you here.”
But I can’t do any of that.
The dinosaurs have already invaded,
And now I’m hiding in my house
While those beasts rampage through my city.

As I wandered into the living room,
I found out that some dinos had gotten in.
They were raging in search of food,
Or just to destroy everything in sight.

The floor was covered in broken glass.
A gaping hole in a wall led to the outside.
A sudden din came from the second floor
As a bone-headed dino fell down the stairs.

Its pals tore apart my sofa and chairs.
Their claws sliced my favorite paintings.
They gutted my prized antique clock,
They shredded my expensive Persian rug,
And they smashed my stereo speakers.
They even broke the glass in my aquarium,
Leaving the fish swimming in the air.

Even though I knew I shouldn’t fight back,
I tried to throw rocks at the dinosaurs,
And even shot them with my shotgun.
The pellets ricocheted off their tough hides.

I decided to shoot them from the yard,
But I ended up hitting my neighbor instead,
Who was standing there watching me.
He told me to stop shooting wild dogs.
“I’m sorry, sir,” I answered, exasperated,
“But these are dinosaurs, not dogs.”

He looked at me like I was crazy.
“Dinosaurs are not pets.
You’re going to need to get rid of them.”
I told him that he was a dinosaur too,
And that his pants were made out of bones.
He said “I know, I’m an old man,
But I think I’m still smarter than you.”
“I’ve got a solution for you, Mr. Dinosaur.
I’ll send you back to your own time,
But you’ll have to promise me
That you’ll never come back.”

“I think you’ve finally lost it, buster,”
My neighbor said as he pulled out his phone.
He called 911,
And reported that I had a fit of insanity.
“A guy who thinks he’s a dinosaur
Has gone crazy and shot me.”

I heard sirens approaching my house.
The cops were coming to take me away,
But when they spotted the dinos,
Those police officers started firing.
They shot so many rounds
That they killed every single dinosaur,
As well as the people in the neighborhood
Who had witnessed this whole massacre.

They wanted to arrest me, take me downtown,
Under the charges of “Murder of a Dinosaur”.
The police knew they were guilty of the crime,
But they had murdered all the witnesses,
And the judge was an old dinosaur
Who was tired of being around humans.

I fled among rampaging dinosaurs
As I was chased by the local news crews,
By the media whose newsflashes announced,
“This is a Dinosaur Apocalypse!”

I saw dinosaur species I’d seen before,
But they had been transformed.
Their eyes were glowing red, like fire.
Their teeth were sharpened to razor points.
Their hands were clawed and brutal,
Fingers tipped with sharp, pointed nails.
Their tails were long and powerful,
Like a snake ready to strike.

They were biting, clawing, and ripping.
They were screaming and laughing.
There was an angry red sun glaring down.
It was a sign that the world was doomed.
My beautiful, peaceful, quiet life
Was about to be destroyed by dinosaurs,
And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Some pterodactyls crashed the news copters,
Setting them ablaze with their flaming wings.
Other carnivorous dinosaurs attacked
A few cars full of terrified humans.
Many beasts devoured the drivers,
Others trampled over pedestrians,
Or snatched up anyone who got too close.

I tried to conscript the fleeing people.
“You’ve got to help me stop these dinosaurs.
If we don’t act fast, our world will be ruined.
There won’t even be any fossils left!”
But nobody listened, nor cared.
I was yelling into the void.

The dinosaurs chewed for a bit
On the bodies of men, women and kids,
Then spat out the bones
And gulped the flesh down.

A T-Rex stepped on someone’s head
And crushed it flat like a pancake.
I had a vision of what was to come,
Of how the dinosaurs would rule the Earth
While humans were reduced to mere slaves,
To live only as the dinos’ meals,
And to serve as their sexual toys.
We would pay tribute to the terrible lizards
With our lives, our souls, and our wombs.

Someone was calling me on the phone.
It was my long-distance girlfriend, who said,
“It’s been six months since we last spoke.
You never call. What is wrong with you?”

She contacted me now, of all times?!
I was busy trying to save humanity!
But I was getting tired of all these apes.
Why should I care what happened to humans?
I was starting to hate this planet,
I hated everything about it.
I hated the dinosaurs,
I hated the humans,
I hated myself,
I hated my life.

“I have no idea why you want to hear
From some stupid old dinosaur,”
I said bitterly into my phone.
“You are not actually a dinosaur, Jeremy,”
My long-distance girlfriend answered,
“We’ve talked about this.”

“No, I’m not a dinosaur.
I’m just an office worker,
Just a regular guy
Who’s lost his way.
I don’t know why you’re calling.
I didn’t expect to hear from you again.
I wish I could tell you that I miss you,
But I can’t,
Because I don’t.
The dinosaurs are already here,
So it’s far too late.”

I hung up and started running again;
I was getting chased by a bunch of dinos
Who had opened their jaws wide
As they tried to eat my brain.

A brachiosaurus stepped on a cop car
And crushed it with its titanic weight,
Then the dino turned around, looked at me
And roared, “Eat this, you stupid human!”

I was forced into a corner
By a pack of rabid triceratopses,
Which charged at me with bloodshot eyes.
I stared in horror as the leading dino
Slammed me against the wall,
Then bit off half my face,
And made out with me while we both died
In an explosion of flesh and bone.

“If I’d known that the world would end
In this damned Dinosaur Apocalypse,
I would have stayed home and masturbated,”
I thought sadly to myself.

I hope my wife forgives me
When she sees that I’m dead.
At least I won’t have to worry
About her cheating, or divorcing me.
She’ll probably throw away my shotgun,
Or maybe sell it for a couple bucks.
She might even forget all about it,
Or maybe she’ll use it to kill herself.

I wish I could’ve told her
That I loved her more than anything,
But I couldn’t say that,
Because I didn’t.

I guess it doesn’t matter that I died.
After all, there was nothing else for me to do.
I’m happy to be free of all the pain.
I’m happy to be dead.

I’ll rest easy knowing I did my duty
To protect the innocents from dinosaurs,
And now I will join my ancestors
Among the stars,
But I wonder if heaven has dinos;
Maybe they are waiting for us there,
For dinner, and dessert, and coffee.
Afterwards we’ll play chess and watch TV
Until a new apocalypse comes along,
Just as soon as they finish cleaning up the mess
Of the Dinosaur Apocalypse.

I’m tired of being a human.
I want to become a dinosaur.
I want to feel like a wild beast.
I want to be able to bite, claw, and rip.
I want to taste blood and bones.
I want to fuck anything that moves.
I want to be consumed with murderous rage.
I want to devour the Earth.
I want to rip the fucking sky apart.
I want to tear the goddamn moon down.

A Tyrannosaurus rex approached my corpse
And threw me down on my back.
The dino began ripping out my intestines
With its teeth, and eating them raw.
I wanted to scream, but I was dead,
So I watched as the T-Rex chewed up my guts.
Later, the dinosaur swallowed my liver,
Then gulped down my lungs.

The T-Rex belched,
Spraying blood everywhere.
It growled and snarled,
And made strange noises
As it lay down on top of me.
The dinosaur humped my corpse,
And squashed it flat.

The T-Rex sat down beside me
To lick my wounds, and give me a kiss.
“I love you, baby, and I always will,
Because I’m a dinosaur,
And that’s how things work in the Cretaceous.”

When my wife came to visit my grave,
She said she was sorry for divorcing me,
But that her lawyer told her I didn’t deserve her.
“He said your life wasn’t worth living anymore.”

“You were so mean to me,” she said.
I told her to stop talking,
Because I didn’t want to hear her complain.
“Your parents are gone now,” she added,
“And all the friends you used to have are dead.
We’re just two lonely people
Who don’t know what to do.”
I told her to shut up,
Because I didn’t want to hear her whine.
“If only you had listened to me,”
My wife muttered resentfully,
“You wouldn’t be lying here in the dirt,
With your guts all over the ground,
And your arms and legs broken,
And your chest smashed,
And your heart torn out,
And your spine crushed,
And your face torn off,
And your teeth shattered,
And your tongue torn out,
And your eyes gouged out,
And your skull cracked open,
And your brain eaten,
And your penis bitten off,
And your ass eaten.”

I felt relieved, and glad to be gone.
I hoped the dinosaurs had a good time
Enjoying their own little Jurassic Park
Where they could run around and stomp on people
Without ever having to pay taxes.
All I ever wanted was to die with dignity
Like an honorable dinosaur.

Dinosaurs can’t talk nor write.
Talking is for people; dinosaurs roar.
But they invented music instead.
They have no respect for art;
They can’t compose or improvise,
Or sing in tune,
Or play any instruments.
They don’t understand rhythm.
But they sure know how to fuck,
With each other or anything else.

Let’s do the Dinosaur Dance
To the beat of their mating calls.
Their bodies shake and sway
As they grind together
In a dance of death.