Part I – Hollowed by the Howl (His point of view) It crept behind my bloodshot eyes, A whisper carved from crawling flies. It slithered deep behind my grin, And gnawed my innocence within. It fed on thoughts I used to keep, And poisoned every shred of sleep. My skull became its nesting bed, It laid down worms where love had bled. My teeth fell out in clumps of black, My spine began to twist and crack. My veins were vines of pulsing pitch, Each heartbeat just a dying twitch. I tried to scream, my throat was glue, My breath came cold, my skin turned blue. My nails dropped off like scabs from sin, And still it chewed its way within. I saw it in the mirror's face— A shadow wrapped in rotting grace. It smiled with lips that looked like mine, Then bit its way down through my spine. My tongue swelled up, my eyes went blind, It burrowed further in my mind. Each thought a feast, each memory raw— I begged, but it obeyed no law. And when it reached my final bone, I watched my body not my own. It wore my face, it moved my skin… I died. And something else looked in.