Castle Of Tears

Far up in the mountains high
Its silhouette against the sky
There stands a castle dark and tall
Surrounded by a rocky wall

And there inside that castle deep
Are secrets that the locals keep
For somewhere in the walls within
Is something that should not have been

It prowls the catacombs by night
And fills the villagers with fright
An abomination so they say
That should not see the light of day

The legends say that long ago
The castle grounds were all aglow
When a baron and his lovely bride
First built it on the mountainside

The parties and the gala balls
Abounded in the castle walls
One day amidst all of the mirth
The news was heard there’d be a birth

The baron soon would have a son
To inherit all that he’d begun
The castle soon was filled with joy
At the prospects of a baby boy

His lady labored hard and long
But something then went very wrong
And what came in the world that day
Was not human the people say

The baron closed the castle door
The balls and parties were no more
And no one really knows the fate
Of the thing beyond the castle gate

As years went by the baron aged
Within his castle locked and caged
Until at last he finally died
But people would not go inside

Until the bravest of them all
Dared enter in the castle hall
Inside they searched for many days
Within the castles tunnel maze

The horror that they found inside
Was something that they could not hide
Rotted corpses were strewn around
Removed from chambers underground

As they searched about so slowly
They felta presence quite unholy
It watched them from the shadows deep
As all about them it would creep

Those hearty souls then quickly fled
That castle place of rotted dead
In fires of hell though they may burn
They vowed they never would return

Over the years the stories flew
And the thing within the castle grew
Shunning the light and eyes of men
Safe in the castle deep within

At night it left the castle doors
And wandered out onto the moors
With darkness as its only friend
Where people it would not offend

One day a village maiden fair
Traveled up the mountain there
To forage in the nearby woods
For herbs and seeds and other goods

She lingered in the woods too long
The cold north winds were blowing strong
And as the sun began to fade
She followed down the path she’d made

But in the dark she lost her way
And off the path she went astray
She tripped over a rocky ledge
And fell off of the mountains edge

Her fate it seemed was very bleak
As she clung onto a rocky peak
What happened next folks aren’t quite sure
But something strong took hold of her

And plucked her from the rocky ledge
To place her gently on the edge
Her ankle though received a sprain
She couldn’t walk without great pain

The thing that saved her from her plight
Lifted her and held her tight
It carried her with awkward stride
Down the treacherous mountainside

It took the scared and injured lass
And placed her by the village pass
A worried crowd of village men
Were sure she’d not be seen again

Then seeing it with her in arm
They knew that it had done her harm
Before the girl could stay their hands
The crowd chased it off of their lands

With shouts and yells of “Evil brute”
The village men all gave pursuit
With rocks and stones thrown at its head
Back up the mount the creature fled

Bloody and hurt it reached the path
To escape the village people’s wrath
It fled into its castle keep
Down to the tunnels dark and deep

The men did not dare follow it
Down there into the darkened pit
The crowd decided to adjourn
And went back home ne’er to return

When the girl relayed the real events
They said her story made no sense
But villagers cannot explain
Why every day in sun or rain

The maiden kneels before the gate
At evening when it’s getting late
A silent kiss she softly blows
And places there a single rose

And down within the catacombs
Where people say a creature roams
In the darkness still and deep
You can hear a young man weep