The Varlock

A dark poem by Nicola Milan

What is a Varlock?

A Varlock is a sinister, lizard-like creature that feeds on human brain fluid at night. Roughly 6cm long from nose to tail, black in colour with red eyes, it lives in dark corners of cupboards or undisturbed places around the house. 

Noctural, the Varlock creeps out at night and uses it acute sense of smell to choose it’s victim. Studies are still being conducted on this elusive creature but so far it has been found that it prefers adult males who lead a more sedentary lifestyle. It is thought that these humans create a particular smell that attracts that Varlock over other humans.

Due to it’s small size and elusive, Noctural nature, very few sightings have been documented; all from would-be victims who were particularly light sleepers and were fortunate enough to have woken up at night, disturbed by the tickling of the Varlock’s thin proboscis. 

Similar to that of a mosquito, the Varlock uses this elongated spike to enter the ear canal of it’s victim and suck the fluid from the brain’s lymphatic system. The human brain’s lymphatic system is primarily responsible for helping the brain ‘clean’ itself during sleep. Without this fluid, subjects slowly go mad. 

Currently, the Varlock has been sighted only within the Northern Hemisphere with the last sighting of the Varlock in Vietnam in 1998.

The Varlock (A Poem)

Out it creeps from your cupboard at night
bulging eyes blink through the dim moonlight
lifts to the air a sharpened nose
catches your scent, then off it goes.
Scuttling swiftly across the floor,
with bony limbs and a leathery tail
it slips silently under your bedroom door.

Soundly you sleep, unaware
of the uninvited guest perching there
above where you dream
don’t look up or you’ll scream…
as it lowers down an elongated spike
that slips in your ear and begins to drain
fluid that resides inside your brain.

Three months now, the doctors have called
baffled and unable to help as you fall
slowly into a maddened state.
What a sad end caused by your unwanted friend
who’s moved onto another
before it can be discovered.

And so the medical professionals call
it a viral plague that spread to all…
While somewhere in a cupboard still
lies the Varlock.
Very fat, very content and sleeping
before it’s next kill.

Nicola Milan