thick and ominous clouds reveal themselves in the distance
only to my surprise they are not at all evil
the smoky skies rest upon nearby mountainscapes
anticipatory hearts wait anxiously for their welcome

...

last night i was attacked as i slumbered. while in repose i felt a dark presence come upon me. i felt a sharp jab in my side, then another. after the third offense i awoke to find a grey being, hooded and cloaked, hunched over my body as lay there. his visage was a cold one, with sharp eyes of piercing black and a cruel grin carved deeply into his rigid jaw. the creature cocked his head to the right, then to the left and proceeded to make a slight hissing sound. it was then that i realized that he was in fact uttering words, a speech so laced with hatred that i did not promptly recognize it as spoken language. as he spoke to me, i tried to discern his communication.

then to my horror, another being--this one a much more severe color of charcoal, swept to my side in front of his predecessor. his countenance was so veiled in the darkness of his garb that i could not make out a single feature. he began to speak in that awful hiss. i knew then the creatures conversed not with me but with each other. did they know i was awake? could they see that i saw them and knew that they were there? did they know i was listening to them?

a long shifty arm of the latter presence extended toward my face. i felt the silky web of a spider brush across my profile. i dared not push it away, for fear of a more terrifying result. after an eternity of a minute or two, a great and dire fear came to rest upon my soul. like a slug exposed to the grains of excruciating salt, my innards writhed in torment. i had to act quickly, for i loathed the jurisprudence of the pair, and i dreaded the swiftness of my demise if i was caught before i could liberate myself.

with a trembling hand i hurriedly made the sign of the cross in front of the lords of doom. i made the sign yet again and again, and upon my final effort my arm, now a heavy bag of sand, fell to the bed--rendered motionless--still as a glassy sea before a storm. i had failed. my only defense was itself defeated before the battle could begin. then, as i lay helpless in my own home, i opened my eyes, previously shut by the hopelessness of my ruin. still paralyzed, i captured a foggy glimpse of the trespassers’' retreat. the ever fainting hiss moved further and further away. a cryptic hand of myst and bone reached out to snatch away my soul in a last act of vengeful desperation. and then it was quiet. i sank deeply into weariness and i drifted into the sleepy abyss.