Black Shuck (just more Halloween fun)

The winds growled,
And tossed the waves in fury
The night I met Black Shuck,
Hell-hound of Norfolk.

"And a dreadful thing from the cliff did spring,
And its wild bark thrill'd around,
His eyes had the glow of the fires below,
Twas the form of the Spectre Hound."

That was what the locals said,
And I, naïve traveler,
Took it as nothing more than
Fireside mythology.

Wandering the coastal path,
Shivering, shielding myself
From the inclement weather,
I heard a fearsome howl
And the pad pad pad
Of fearsome paws.

"My mind deceives me,
?'tis only echoes in the storm.
I see nought on the cliffs."

Pad pad pad,
This time closer.

I whirled around,
And saw nothing.

Flustered now,
I ploughed along my merry way,
Quicker in my steps,
I did not wish to stay
In this frightening, intemperate place.

PAD PAD PAD
And a chilling growl.

Before me stood a hound,
Large as a calf, jet black,
With flaming eyes of red.

It did not move, nor bite,
Just pierced my living soul
With those glowing orbs,
Mirrors of the dead,
And ran into the night.

As I pen these words this Halloween,
I check the clock.
In one hour, it will be twelve months
Since I met Black Shuck.

My heart grows heavy,
I feel it.
In just one hour,
My life is forfeit.