The House of Dexim

I came walking all at once
Down a dingy public by-street
poorly lit and firmly ostracised
From the sprawling city of Raliss

The darkness spilled across the cobbles
as an upturned inkwell of the darkest
untold ambitions seething in the corners
of the defiled hearts of hopeless men

The moon sailed high and mighty
over the ghostly lights of nocturnal Raliss,
seeking the secrets of empty squares where the
filthy vendors peddle pleasing sins

And before me rose, as if from hell,
An ageing house of slimy disrepute
Marked only by a sign in sordid disrepair
as the lonely House of Dexim

There was a terror there, I told myself,
A recollection of a nightmare's whispers -
a crime kept waiting in the shallow, unmarked graves
of long since murdered men.

Once beautiful and full of light, angels stood
a silent vigil upon great cornerstones
now crumbled and decrepit, in such a sorry state
that God must weep to see them.

I toyed yet failed to summon images of family,
children playing by a homely fireplace
dreaming with a doll or toy; the spoils of some
hopeful bygone Christmas now long since passed

A gate once stood where I passed now
and I felt vulnerable for its absence
a missing guardian from the enigmatic occupants
of the dreary House of Dexim.

I gazed into those broken windows
seeking a clue, some evidence
that any soul once lived there in the darkness
but found little comfort in the shadows staring back

And to my horror, a single sight pursued me
hunted me through the empty streets of Raliss,
a single writhing serpent, twisting past the tainted sky
from where but the ashen chimney of the wretched House of Dexim

And while I retreated through the solemn streets
though I knew not where I fled
some lonely piece of me remained there
lost in the haunted halls of that miserable place

Where god may weep
while nightmares sleep
and none should enter
for none shall leave

The wicked House of Dexim