At the time of this story, I was just about to turn 15 in a couple of days. It was July 6th, and the summer had been so warm that most creatures in the area slept during the day until sunset, or sunrise.
During this summer, I had once read a story about ravens and crows. A story that depicted them as messenger birds, the kinds that warn of ill times to come. When I asked my mom about it, she agreed with the legend, saying she wouldn’t doubt it. I think she told me about it a few times in the past. Apparently Native peoples often looked to ravens for omens of misfortune. The ravens of course, could always tell that some event was going to have a harsh effect on the person they are warning.
I was intrigued, I thought that these birds were misunderstood because of such abilities to predict the events. As most things make ravens and crows seem creepy or unsettling. But I also didn’t think that it would exactly apply to real life…
Until, of course, they had something they needed to warn ME about.
Early one evening, when the sun was just beginning to climb down from the highest point in the sky, I had the urge to go outside. I had been looking out my backdoor when this urge hit, so I quickly unlocked and pushed the sliding glass door open, looking toward the sky. Stepping out, I closed the door in one swift movement, accidental pushing to hard. I cringed a little when it slammed but continued on. At first, I settled with walking to the edge of the deck (which is around 5 or 6 feet off the ground) and staring out over my yard. I live in a duplex, with neighbors on every side of my small square of land. It’s pretty though, with lots of thick maple and oak trees to provide shade in the hot summer we were experiencing.
Sighing, I turned and headed down the stairs into the yard; walking across the gravel path there onto gnarled roots, I following the winding veins into the much softer and warm grass. I moved to the very center of the yard, inspecting it closely before sitting down. I had dogs so this was a normal routine before sitting outside. I hadn’t been out there long when my neighbors dogs, who had been staring at me from the fence at the back of my yard, suddenly got up and ran to their house, diving underneath the short deck they had. I thought this was strange, as the dogs usually paced the fence line and barked at me whenever I was in my yard…
I then looked upward when I thought I heard loud cawing in the distance. It’s not unusual for crows to fly around occasionally. And at first it was just one… but then there was another, and a few more… many more birds, all joining together in frantic and obsessively loud screeching. It was so loud I couldn’t even hear my own foot steps when I got up and quickly walked back to my duplex, practically running up the few stairs. Thirty to Forty Ravens, with the addition of a few crows, landed in the trees in my yard, and ONLY the trees in my yard. Four or five landed in the trees just above me, flapping their wings and looking pointedly at me. One of them, an exesively large raven, stared down at me with shining dark eyes that glinted with an emphasis I didn’t understand. It flapped it’s wings once and opened it’s beak to caw, all while pulling leaves and twigs off the tree with its grey foot and dropping them so they’d land on, or near me.
Shaken by the strange and bold behavior obviously directed toward me, I broke eye contact with the bird and hastily got inside, locking the door behind me. Clutching the handle for a second, I started laughing. Not hysterically, but more with disbelief and amusement. The crows got louder, clustering together and moving to get closer to my back door. They began staring in through the windows and the door, silently until seeing my face.
My mom, never one to miss something unusual, looked up from reading when she heard all the crows in the instant the door was open. She studied me for a second then asked if I was okay. I looked at her and nodded. “Yeah, I think so… but I wouldn’t go outside for a while…” I spoke calmly, smiling a little as things that were usually startling or unusual were fun to me. She asked me why, and I told her just that the ravens were flocking. She understood of course. I went to my room then, going and opening the blinds to my window (which faced a large red maple outside). I needed to make sure that these birds were real… at first, the tree was empty, but that didn’t last long as the birds could see me in the window. I closed my blinds as two of them landed in the branch just on the other side of the glass; they made sounds like cawing mixed with the croaking of a toad, shaking the branch so the leaves would smack the glass. One of them threw a pebble, making me jump.
I knew ravens are supposedly smart, but never to this extent.
I tried my hardest to ignore them for the rest of the day, putting headphones in and listening to music. I kept my blinds shut, and the majority of them were gone by the next hour.
I thought it was over and done with. They had spooked me enough.
But the next morning, I heard the croaking caws outside my window again; one of them cawing especially loud, resulting in startling me awake from a nightmare. My blinds had been pulled up halfway, and the birds where trying to see in. I sat up pulled the string to release the blinds, wondering when the birds would go away for good.
Apparently, those two where the only ones left. They flew away within a few minutes, leaving me to my unease.
This isn’t where this ends though, not quite.
The day before my birthday, I had a friend over. We were sitting in my room, having a good old time, when my sister came running up to my door, holding a hand to her mouth and looking uncomfortable. She told me someone was at the door to see me. Concerned and still shaken from the birds, I cautiously got up and exited my room, telling my friend I’d be right back. I went down our entryways steps to the platform with the front door and looked out, my hear racing. A man was there, leaning on the railing and talking to another, younger man. The older one saw me and smiled, saying hi. Acting on impulse and being my usual bull-headed, face your fears head-on kind of person, I opened my screen door and stepped outside, clenching my jaw. I accidentally almost closed my front door, but kept it open just a crack. My mom and my sister were inside, and could see out through the living room windows. I glared at the man, asking him what he wanted. He had dark hair and icy blue eyes, his teeth yellowed and crooked though he had obviously had some work done on them to try and fix it. The younger man was paler than the first, his red hair shaved army-style and his eyes showing he wasn’t a very dominant role. I swallowed nervously.
Let’s just say the reason I was so confident in coming outside, is because I actually kind of know these men. They were considered family, once. But now, the only thing they represented to me was loneliness, and pain, and terror. My hands were shaking, so I crossed my arms to hide it. My legs were getting weak, so I leaned on the railing. My heart thundered in my chest and rang in my ears but I pretended it wasn’t there.
I remember being uncomfortable, and terrified, and feeling trapped. I remembered being told to shut up when I was hurt, I remember never feeling, never crying, never having any friends, never going to school, being told to be obediant. I remember that it might have looked normal to anyone passing by, but I knew the truth. This man was disgusting and he ruined part of my life.
He tried starting off with small talk, and for a while, I played along because i was stuck. A body memory of not being abke tk defy him. I remember answering questions in a neutral way, as I knew he wanted information. I remember getting my nerve up telling him that he should have never come back, that he should never step foot at my house again. I remember holding up my walls until I got inside, where I slammed the door in his face, ran up stairs, and broke down. I cried, and screamed, and shook so hard I almost couldn’t stand up…
And I remember the Ravens.
