The Curse Of Hypnos

I have travelled to strange lands,
Met strange people and heard even stranger tales,
Of Headless Horseman and Vampires,
Of howling Lycans and unearthly Knights and Squires,
Never did a tale enchant me more,
Of the ancient ruins and mysteries that it had for me in store,
When I was young and full of life,
In search of adventure,
I travelled far and wide,
One such adventure that I recollect,
I met a mad man who claimed he had seen,
Old Gods meet in the darkest nights, Somewhere near the ancient city's ruins,
People laughed at his rambles,
They said his words don't mean a thing, it's just a babble,
A voice whispered inside my head,
This is the adventure, you need to go,
Before long you grow old and die,
I turned to ask the mad man, if he could he lead me there,
To my surprise he disappered and I couldn't find him anywhere,
I asked each mortal soul I could find,
The whereabouts of the ruins and mad man,
No one knew anything for sure,
But said beyond the jungles of south,
There was a fabled city of the past,
Nobody ever returned who went in there,
Continue your mad quest if you dare,
I travelled day and night,
How many? I can't recollect,
It was a full moon night,
When the ruins caught my sight,
An ancient city of graves, it looked like,
Ruins of temples and broken figures of unknown Gods,
Scattered here and there,
My Lord! What cursed place is this?
To come here, no sane mortal soul would dare,
I strolled amongst the ruins under moonlit sky,
Suddenly a small statue upon a pedestal caught my eye,
I went around to look what it was,
The statue was small and had a sinister visage,
Looked like crouching demon or some gargoyle's image,
Suddenly some unknown force gripped me from inside,
The eyes of the statue glowed as if someone was looking from the otherside,
I don't know what happened after that,
I woke and found myself on a ragged bed,
Tattered clothes and my face covered with beard,
I saw the old mad man beside my bed,
Bearing a sly smile on his face, I asked him what that cursed place was,
He let out a sinister laugh,
With a wink, he began to recite,
Some sinister verse of old lost tongue,
Maybe Sumerian, Babylonian or some incantation of the cursed Necronomicon?
He turned towards me, with a grin on his face,
Said, "Son be ready to embrace",
"What I tell you is beyond mortal dreams"
"The place I led you to was an ancient city of old Gods"
"Destroyed by humans in the name of the new Lord"
"The city was sacked and idols destroyed"
"But one statue remained to haunt us"
"The God of dreams and nightmares" "A curse he lays upon anyone who stares"
"He haunts that person all through his life"
"If he cannot pass on the curse"
"All these years I carried this curse"
"Seemed it would end only after my demise"
"But you set me free that very night"
"When you stared at him and lay upon him your sight"
"Now I am free like I was before"
"This curse from hence you will bore"
With loud laughs he bade me farewell,
For next 30 years, I couldn't sleep well,
Each night was full of macabre, terror and insanity,
Each day I felt, I was losing my sanity,
Everyday I sit outside the city wall,
Waiting for some unwary traveller to comeby,
Lure him with the tales of the dark city's lore,
Show him the road to walk upon,
The road at the end of which the cursed city lies,
Wherein the cursed statue lie,
In it's glowing eyes he would stare,
That day I swear, I would rejoice at his loss,
When I finally pass on the curse of Hypnos.