To tell this tale, for long, I have refrained,

About a scary dream that still jolts my veins,

Lucid and gore, one that’s very hard to sustain,

One that tainted my psyche like a dark stain,

Finally, I reveal the dark story of the hell train!

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An early  hour call, when unexpectedly my family visited,

I had to pick my folk from the station, they forcibly insisted,

Too late at night, yet a compulsion I  had no choice to resist,

I had to be there for them; I had to oblige and assist,

A wee-hour arrival on the train’s scheduled list!

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Though a regular task, I felt strangely odd  about this venture,

As if something was uncanny about this whole adventure,

I asked a friend to join, close to a nearby juncture,

For some company, until I wait for the train’s fixture,

On the coldest night amidst the barren metallic rail structure!

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The foggy tracks pierced amber-coloured diffused beams,

The wind wailed sounds of eerily mournful screams,

The rusty old train halted with a squeak, releasing dark steam,

A wretched ghost machine manifested from the strangest dream,

Deserted from within, as I peeked inside of its flickering gleams!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Its doors open with a creak, smog escaped as vapoured ice,

Its inside smelled foul;  not very neat or appropriately precise,

Its floor stagnated with murky water; what a disgusting surprise,

Lighted by faulty lambent lamps, managed by broken devices,

Was it real? A question for which no answer would have sufficed!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steadily I entered the dark carriage; what I  would find, I was unsure,

While my friend explored the other end, he scaredly assured,

Its interior looked like an old asylum ward; it was spooky, for sure,

A giant monitor lizard stuck on its wall grinned to bait and lure,

I had now entered a deadly trap in this predatory contour!

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As I move ahead, I found chambers with filthy curtains and dirty beds,

First, a skeletal man with a bulging belly and umbilical cords that spread,

Sprouting to all corners like spider webs, he wheezes but still appears dead,

Symbiotic cords were his life source; they hunted for a source of food instead,

As I tried to escape this live horror, the lizard followed me with face blood red!

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The second berth of a boy with no forehead and missing brain,

He was speaking to me in puzzles and ensuring he wasn’t insane,

He was testing my  wits to pass through him a quiz I had to attain,

If you lose, he can eat your brain, win he spares your life in bargain,

Though I survived the quest, my sanity got squeezed by physiological pain!

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The third row was of a lady with no ears to hear or mouth to speak,

Multiple eyes on her body, in my mind, her voice echoed and shrieked,

She tapped into vulnerable corners of my soul to make  me weak,

The only way I  got past her was to accept all truth that I could never tweak,

My mind was breaking now; I felt I was no different from those freaks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Likewise, there was a man with no figure, but he was pitch black,

A living black hole that absorbs anything that passes his mystery shack,

Then there was this guy, who was flexible to bend and turn through cracks,

His arms, sharp tentacles that could claw out the flesh from your back,

A  fang teethed, a blood-lusting toddler with a body stuffed in a sack!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cabinets were now turning dark green with slimy, evil mosses,

Their sinister whispers conjured snake-faced vines with loud snarly hisses,

They captured and spread throughout in weird patterns and inverted crosses,

I hear a dull thud; in front of me, the severed head of my friend bounces and tosses,

His face speaks through serpent branches. Can you bear my loss as time passes?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The terror of these horrific events I could no longer withstand,

I scream and cry like a lunatic, cursing the idea of this un-fated errand,

While the scarlet lizard slowly swallows my abdomen, my escape seems bland,

As I am dying, I see my family holding a baby covered in sheets of blood-stained bands,

They appear blurry as the mystery unfolds; the tainted cloth unveils the unholy grand,

The infant has my head with the torso of a reptile, a red forked tail with a body without hands!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a hot summer afternoon; I got up terrified, soaked in a cold sweat,

My eyes fearfully open, a hellish nightmare, as bizarre as it can ever get,

I could still sense the mourns, putrid odour, and grotesque visions I could never forget,

A supreme evil  ruled this dream; it defeated me, its horrors that I regret,

Startled by my parent’s call, they had planned a surprise but kept it a secret,

Holy Lord! They will visit me soon as they have booked the rail tickets!

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A Halloween special, Hell train is a horror poetry fiction I had written some time ago, but it was fun to revisit the poem for the spooky season. It’s a pretty descriptive story, so it was hard to capture the idea in a poetic format back then; even now, with a bit of re-edit re-structure with some new content changes, I can only hope it would seem enticing. If you want to venture into this adventure, I promise it’s hell of a ride!