The Flock

Plink

Plunk

Tick

Tock

Plink

Tick

Creak

Scream...

I’m staring into the dark. My heart climbing its way up my throat.

Thump...Thump

It pounds with so much force I fear it will fully erupt from my throat. I blink several times to adjust to the darkness. My eyes fighting to see anything in the almost pitch black room. My skin is sticky not with sweat but from moisture. The air is so full of moisture every breath is like a gulp of warm water.

I’m alone, that much is clear.

Except...

From the ceiling above me something breaks free and floats onto my face.

I can’t quite make it out except that it’s midnight black and twirling lazily.

Fear claws its way from the depths of my mind, ripping through my being.

I scamper backwards away from the falling object.

It hits the ground soundlessly and I move to get closer but the thing melts. A small dark puddle forms. Something in my mind goads me to get closer.

The something forms into a soft voice.

...get closer...closer...

My mouth falls open as I’m consumed by the desire to fall into the puddle. For it to embrace me, to hold me, to take me away.

C L O S E R

I shift closer. The puddles pitch black surface reflecting the pitch black room. As the lakes reflect the night sky except the only stars in this sky are my own eyes. Shining pinpricks of light as a I loom over the precipice.

But, I can’t do it. The fear ebbs back into my body as water crawls up my hand. I get to my feet as the puddle sinks into the floor and rational thought begins to return.

My eyes have now fully adjusted to the darkness. I can make out a set of double doors across the room. My feet move sluggishly across the floor. Shuffling slightly as the floor transitions to a plush carpet set out before the doors.

A tingling sets off in my toes and lower back.

There is no carpet. I lower my eyes to the floor. A sea of black feathers spreads out before me. My throat constricts as the feathers begin to melt into the floor. Seemingly fading out of existence.

f u r t h e r

The doors opens soundlessly.

One long shadow shifting in my periphery.

A loud scraping behind me sends a shiver across my shoulders.

I turn slowly. My breath is loud in my ears.

scritch scritch shiiiiiink

Nothing.

The emptiness of the room is all that surrounds me. The windows outlined in a faint gray light.

I take one breath.

Not.

Two breaths.

Light.

Three breaths.

My vision blurs as it sets in. Not light but...liquid.

It drips down the wall in four large rectangles.

I can take it no longer. I turn on my heels and run out of the room.

Feet pounding on the tiled floors.

One.

Two.

Breath.

Blink.

Around me the darkness fades to a gray light, fades to dusk, fades to day.

Feet pounding on tiles, no, hardwood.

Still running. Faster, further.

c l o s e r

The walls are dark paneled wood. Huge portraits loom above me.

All blank. Empty canvases staring at me.

stop

I skid to a stop. My dress shoes clicking on the wood.

I wasn’t wearing dress shoes. I look down at my clothes. Tailored dress clothes. Collar buttoned up the neck. A stiff blue dinner jacket that stands out against my ocher skin.

How did I end up wearing these? My mind asks itself.

Was I always wearing this?

come now

My head shoots up. That voice was almost...real.

The canvases still surrounded me. Except something about the color has changed, It’s become uneven.

Feathery

I’m drawn closer. The faint voice, mine or someone else’s I can’t decide, pulling at me. Dragging me forward.

My rational brain is screaming at me to stop but I can’t.

I’m face to face with the canvas now. It’s gilded frame twinkling in my periphery vision.

It’s not canvas at all. It’s feathers. White feathers. Stuck to the canvas in disorderly rows and columns. Ruffled like a wind has just blown through.

Drip

A drop of something inky falls past my face. It lands in the middle of the canvas. The darkness swirls out from the droplet. Coating one feather as dark as the night sky. I’m mesmerized by the feather. The darkness seems...unstable. Swirling reaching out for the other feathers.

The surface of the canvas rustles. The feathers moving slightly. Almost as if something pushed up at it from the other side.

A cold hand wraps around my throat. A hand as cold as ice and as dark as coal. The feathers of the hand tickle my neck as my air is cut off.

no no no

I fall to the ground as the hand releases me as suddenly as it erupted from the portrait.

I gasp for breath on the ground, my mind still not connected with the situation.

I have to get out of this, this place.

I get to my feet and look around. All the canvases are full. The black liquid dripping off the frame. Pooling into thick viscous puddles on the floor.

I back up down the hall quickly. I turn and begin to run as the liquid begins to pour out of the frames,

Drip

Drip

Drip

Faster and faster I run. A door looms in front of me and I crash through it.

I’m in a huge room. A floor to ceiling window occupies the farthest wall. Overlooking a forest. The sun is low in the western sky. Purple light shades the room causing the dark wood walls to morph into abysses.

Empty except for

Welcome

A thing stands in the corner.It’s back facing me. It’s wearing a high collared dress that flows out behind it. Something about their head gives me pause before I speak. The shape doesn’t seem quite...right.

It turns and I scream.

Her head is that of a crow. Long beak and beady eyes. Watching me. Looking into me.

The scream tears out of my throat as if it is a physical force. My throat feels raw, is raw. I turn away from it as horror pumps through my veins.

A cold hand wraps around my throat.

A cold hand covered in oily black feathers.

Their beak clacks open and shut in my face as they speaks

“You can’t leave me”

I struggle against it’s grip, her talons digging deeper into my neck. I feel spots of blood form on my neck. Feel them as they dribble down my neck. I try to force words out but it pulls the question from my mind and answers it.

“You can’t leave because you are mine.”

I blink once and it’s is gone.

I blink again and the room has shifted.

I am surrounded by glass.

Fractured honey colored light dapples the floor in front of me. I rub my neck slowly unsure if what just happened was real. I turn my head slowly, taking in the room.

Crystalline glass stretches from the floor to the ceiling, scattering the beams of light across the floor. The walls are made entirely of the strange glass.

Shifting slowly in place I spot a flutter of movement in the far corner, a corner where the light doesn’t seem to penetrate. An icy cold feeling drips down my spine as I fight the urge to shudder.

Don’t

“Don’t” it repeats again.

This time the now familiar icy cold voice is no longer ephemeral, but corporeal. It emanates from the dark corner. Before I can stop myself my feet are automatically moving towards that voice.

I stop short at the edge of the shadows. I hear a rustling noise and feel something shifting in front of me. The shadows within the inky darkness seem to shift and coalesce until they come out into the light.

My throat runs dry as fear pumps into my blood.

It’s a boy. They seem to be around my age but other than that he seems no longer human.

From the neck down he is covered in jet black feathers that shimmer like oil. His nose had elongated as to be a beak, but is still covered in all his skin. And his eyes are a pure obsidian black.

“They wanted me to fly,to fly, to fly,” they rasp out their beak nose opening and shutting.

I cannot move as I watch him shuffle closer.

“I couldn’t fly, I couldn’t but they made me,” he starts to laugh. An ugly grating sound like nails down a chalkboard.“Now they’re here for,”

He continues his demented laugh and disappears into the shadow. An ugly squawk echoing out of him as I watch a midnight black raven fly out and into the glass wall. Crick

Tap

Crack

Something is behind me.

I can feel the itch of its gaze on my back.I turn slowly, knowing who will be there.

The thing

It’s body swathed in black and her face an oversized crows.

Without a second thought I turn to run but she’s there waiting.

My fear bubbles out into anger.

“What do you want from me,” I scream at it.

It cocks its avian head to the side, searching my face.

“You need to fly,” is all it clacks out.

It takes one more step towards me and I scramble back.

Another step.

“You will learn.”

It leaps at me and I jump back, a primal scream tearing its way out of my throat.

It claws at me, its beak tearing into my shoulders as I tear at its feathers.

Without warning it scoops me up and crushes the air out of me. I struggle violently, but it’s no use. It marches towards the window, slowly but surely.

We get close enough so that I can see myself reflected back.

And then it tosses me through.

The glass cuts at me almost as if it’s trying to catch me as I fall down.

The wind blasts around me as I see the ground get closer and closer. I accidentally flip onto my back and can see the trees surrounding the building are filled to the last branch with...

Crows.

Darkness.

Mine

My eyes open and I don’t remember why I was so scared. I’m with my family. I look around at all the familiar bodies lining the trees. I know these creatures. I am one of them now. I am no longer afraid, no longer confused.

I can finally fly.