After Dark

Shadows slumber as the sun goes down.

Darkness stalks the fading daylight,

flippantly chasing it down past the horizon.

Blackness settles in as nightmares awaken.

Sandman's dreams are dashed away

by terrors set free

to roam amid dim, dusky streets.

Innocents are unaware of being watched,

ignorant of the roulette game at play

as sinister thoughts conceive wicked deeds,

contemplation of a victim giving rise

to perverse excitement,

tremors of deviant ecstasy

bringing evil delight into glowing eyes.

Sudden footfalls,

low malevolent laughter,

a rush of air ...

then a desperate strangled scream

is the last that is heard

as another life is taken,

and another prey disappears.