When I wake every morning
I find discernable marks left on my tender flesh
I raise my fingers up to them
And discover they resemble nails
Like those on a beast from the depths of a damned inferno

I always dread closing my pale eyelids
For fear of something that I cannot control
The beast slips easily into my dreams
As if it had always been there

I can feel the dripping incisors across my hands
Its eyes are not red, but perhaps slightly a lighter shade of blue
It cannot draw forth words to scream in my ear
The silence grows with my escalating panic
I no longer feel my remorse, but an increasing desperation to survive

The creature's laugh sounds hysterical
High pitched and mocking like a coyote's deep throat cry
When I turn my head to find its cryptic location
My neck is strangled by ten violent claws

I begin to wonder why I am haunted
No answer seems to be the best
Cannot I get any valuable sleep?
But it seems the light chases away my monster
And I am left alone

I start to think about it
With all the nightmares that I wake from
To find purple bruises and irritated scratches
And think that there is only one person who can create them

The mirror sees the damage of my nightmares
And I see that same shade of blue in my eyes
And I raise my hands again
To see ten violent claws
And laugh a hysterical cackle

My soul is haunting me
For what underground sin I committed that night
I find that I look the same in the mirror
As the beast in my dreams

I grip at my slender neck
Where the claws would have been
And turn out the lights to invite aggressive darkness
I live out my nightmare in my consciousness
And grip my throat even tighter