# The Grin in the Window Author: charles_they Tags: Canine, Horror, Period, Poem, Poetry, Speculative, Supernatural, narrative A short horror narrative on things that lurk in dark places with grins that are too bright. ### The Grin in the Window While writing late into the night, beside a fickle candle's light, In hopes of holding fast my fractured mind— My tortured eyes caught foul a sight, a fearsome, freakish, fatal fright, A grinning ghoul with muzzle most maligned— A simple pane of glass it lay behind. Its wicked grin gave me a start, I rose—and fell, struck faint of heart,  I scrambled swiftly from the watching wight— Its flashing fangs did dread impart, yet then from view it did depart, A being born from only sin and spite— A Cheshire grin it wore as it took flight. My mantle bore my saving grace, a rifle framed beside his face, With pallid paws I knocked aside our start— My harrowed heart did throb and race, and aiming for the glass I braced, Awaiting then the ghoul along to dart— A corpse returned by means of blackest arts. So standing, shouldered, tension taut, my canine nose in search of rot, My senses seeking but the slightest trace— I felt the fade of every thought, that night and all the Hell we wrought, Attempting to forget his last embrace— A clatter came upstairs—a fallen vase. I started slowly up the stair, below my breath a paltry prayer, My finger on the trigger growing fraught— And freshly fetid was the air, it brought to mind his earthly lair, A shallow grave untended in its lot— A cracking followed swift my first gunshot. It hid inside the looking glass, its smile was cruel and crude and crass, Its gleaming grin was more than I could bare— I shot again into its mass, until the fiend within did pass, A rifle's roar a deafening fanfare— Alive again, I came back to my chair. Source: https://sofurry.com/s/rn97K70e Part of the series Poetry Postings Previous: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1177036-spinning-straw.md Next: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1180703-bottle-bottle.md