Chapters of the Necronomicon - Chapter VIII: The Descent of the Blade

When terror takes form, mercy is measured in inches.
“The Descent of the Blade” carves another page of The Necronomicon, where time and torment entwine beneath the slow arc of death. A symphonic gothic descent into Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum - where every heartbeat is a countdown, and every shadow whispers the price of survival.

Written by: Serena E. Morgan
Adapted from: The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe

Lyrics:

I was sick
sick unto death with that long agony
The blackness of night - the fear of the abyss,
Bound in silence, in shadow,
No light, no form, only dread.
Darkness eternal
Agony!

A surcingle - a razor, pendulous, glittering,
Downward - slowly, steadily, insatiably.
It sweeps so closely over me as to fan me with its acrid breath
Each swing, each stroke,
The edge of time descending
Downward Downward!

Down - still unceasingly - still inevitably down!
The blade hisses through air,
My flesh, my fear, my prayer
A countdown to despair.
No escape!

Swarming shadows, a legion of vermin,
They pressed - they swarmed - they writhed upon me!
Black hunger gnaws my bonds,
A living tide unchains me.
Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw!

With more than human resolution I lay still
The rats consume, the pendulum swings aside,
And I am free - for a breath - for a heartbeat,
The horror only beginning.
The horror!

The fiery walls rushed back! - Outwards!
Then inwards, the burning breath enclosing,
Narrowing, suffocating,
The pit yawns at my feet
I shrank back - but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward
The abyss!

The heat, the press, the abyss!
There was a discordant hum of human voices!
Trumpets - victory - the Inquisition falls,
My torment ended,
The pendulum stilled,
The walls receded,
Salvation in ruin.
Fallen! Fallen! The Inquisition is fallen!
Fallen! Fallen!

The agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and final scream
Then silence!
Silence silence...