The Crow

The Crow

Justice of the Dead

By Athena_Silver

"There are legends that sometimes came from truth. Myths that are not myths... the Crow is one of them... a soul brought back to life to put things right, to make amends, to bring good to the world by avenging the innocent, by helping the needed, by watching in the shadows of night... The path has been taken many times in the past and it will continue to be taken in the future. I know... I have taken it myself in the past... and now I watch and guide others..."

Nicholas Raven

Katherine Taylor looked at her watch for the hundredth time, her right foot hitting on the floor, impatient yet surprisingly rhythmically. He was late. Her mother had said for her and her brother and sister to go dress themselves to dinner. They were to go celebrate the recent case her father had won. Some leader of some violent group of murderers was finally going to see the inside of a prison due to her father's doing. Of course, they were celebrating more the fact that the case had finally ended than the fact that her father had won it. Since it had all begun that her father, Jack Taylor, had been under a great deal of stress, becoming almost like a shadow in their lives. He still was there, and he still was the father, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere most of the times. Anyway, it felt good to finally rest in peace without having to wonder if he was okay. Finally, he could get some sleep, to compensate the hard days and nights he had spent working to nail the murderer.

But, as time passed by, her father appeared not to be going to arrive any time soon. The clock marked 9:43pm already and he still wasn't there. Kat's mother started to worry and so did she. What was happening? She questioned herself countless times, trying not to look frightened. The last thing she wanted was to scare her bother and sister. She looked at her mother and she saw that she was trying not to look worried yet there was of no use trying to hide it from Kat. Not from her. She had a close eye for things... details... and expressions on people's faces. Her mother couldn't keep from her the worry. Not when Kat herself felt it too.

Kat's eyes wandered around the room, aimlessly, until they focused on the twins, Jessie and Josh. She loved them. They were so innocent, so pure. They were both lovely, with their curled blond hair, which seemed to be a legacy of her mother's family, as she herself and Kat had it too. But they had Lauren's, her mother, eyes, deep light blue, while Kat had inherited the soft golden green color of her father's. Jessie had whined various times that she wanted to cut her hair just like Josh so they could look like identical twins. They were enough alike to pretend that. With her hair cut, Jessie looked like a boy and she sure acted like one. That was part of their charm, the way they acted so alike, as alike as they looked.

The doorbell took Kat from her thoughts and she sighed relieved, a relief that died the next moment. Why would her father hit the doorbell if he had the keys? She saw that her mother had thought the same as her when she saw her moving towards the door slowly, a shadow on her face. As she opened the door she was thrown aside by someone who entered roughly through it. A strange man had just entered the house, a gun on his hand, pointed at them. Behind him were other three men, all of them armed, if not with guns, with knives and metal chains. They really didn't look like they were salesmen. They invaded the house like they own it. Though she would never act like that towards her house.

One of the men grabbed Lauren and she ended up against a wall. They kept entering the house, gruesome smiles on their lips as they looked at them. The one that had entered first spoke.

"So, you are the lawyer's family? Okay, people, let's go. We have places to go, people to see. And kill..." As he said those words, Kat was grabbed by one of them and literally dragged out of the house, a hand on her mouth preventing her from screaming. She saw, from the corner of her eye, the same being done to her mother, Jessie and Josh. She tried to fight the man who grabbed her but he was strong and a lot bigger than she was. They were thrown inside of a van, dark blue and without any characteristic aspects that could pinpoint it easily. Though ruefully dragged, Kat still had the time to look at the plate of the van though she missed the two last numbers, as one of the men hide it with his body, though not knowing it. Once inside the truck, they were tied up and gagged. They went to the point of hitting her mother, kicking her until she lost consciousness. They looked at Kat, threatening with their look to grace her with the same treatment. The van started moving immediately. Kat tried to retain in her memory the curves and turns they took but, after a while, she gave up. It was a task almost impossible and useless too. Whatever this men wanted, it wasn't good. The van had no windows so they traveled in complete darkness. The only sounds Kat heard during the journey were the quiet sobs of the twins and the pain moans of her mother, when she regain her senses.

After countless minutes the van finally stopped and the back doors opened to reveal two of the men that had invaded Kat's house. They took every one of them outside. An apparently abandoned warehouse greeted Kat. The men took her there, as they did with her mother and the twins, rather roughly. They weren't the kind of people who took good manners classes. Inside, Kat found her father, tied to a chair, and very beaten up. Her mother cried with anguish, fighting to free herself from the hands of the man who was holding her. Kat knew what she wanted. To be near the man she loved. But they didn't give her any chance to do that.

A tall man, who seemed to be the leader, a man Kat had never once before laid eyes on, stepped from behind some boxes where he had been hiding, waiting for the right moment to appear. Apparently, he liked great entrances. The man was still young, around his early thirties, and he could have been a handsome man if his face was more kind. But the coldness of his hate distorted his features. Kat felt a cold shiver descending her spine. She knew what would happen to her and her family. They wouldn't leave that place alive. Strangely, she felt no fear for herself. She was only afraid for her parents and the twins. She loved them too much and she didn't want to see them dead. Most probably she wouldn't have to as she could die first.

The man kept approaching them and stopped next to her father. Slowly his hand reached for her father's head and pushed it back, by the hair. A muffled scream of pain erupted from her father's lips. A knife appeared from somewhere and the man laid it under the chin, on the throat. A small line of blood could be seen running freely on that spot. Another scream was heard from her mother. The man smiled coldly and his knife was removed from her father's throat. Kat could see the fear and pain in his golden green eyes, the shine it always had was lost and would never return.

"You have a very nice family, Jack." The man spoke for the first time, his voice as cold as the ice on the North Pole. "It's a shame you will have to see them die." Kat could hear her mother and the twins crying but her eyes strangely refused to drop one single tear and her face refused to show any signs of fear. It was like she was made of the same coldness the man was.

"It's a real shame." He continued. "But you messed around with business that weren't yours to mess with. You send my brother to jail and for that I won't forgive you. I watched every court session and I was seeing him going down every time you spoke. Now it's your time to go down. First, I thought I'd just kill you and everything would be okay. But, well, what the heck, the entire family can go also. Ready to see them die?"

"Why?" Kat asked suddenly. "Is it a way for you to show your macho man skills? Kill everybody, even innocent children? Your brother was a killer and he deserved what he got. You will get it too, eventually, you know that, don't you? My father's murder will be avenged, as well as ours, if you do kill us."

The man looked at her straight in the eyes. She never backed down. She faced the look with a strength of her own. A smile slowly appeared on his lips, a smile that she couldn't identify but that sent again shivers through her spine. She regretted ever having said a word.

"So, the spirit of this family is in the daughter." His voice was strangely... sensual? He eyed her with interest and laughed softly. His eyes were made to frighten but Kat refuse to give in to the fear.

"Well, if you want to put things that way... You'll meet your brother soon, you know? Every cop around will hunt like a dog if you go through with this. They won't rest. They like my father. And you will meet the same fate as your little fucking brother."

"Oh, really?" Kat could not only hear but also feel the scorn of the words. She looked around by the corner of her eye to see the fear and urgency on her father's eyes. His expression was telling her to stop. But she had done enough.

"Well then, I guess we have a change of plans, gentlemen." He continued. "She'll be the last. I like a woman with guts, even though they're of no use in the present situation."

What the hell? What was he thinking now? Confusion must have shown in her face because he laughed.

"Confused, ain't you? Don't worry, pet, you won't be so confuse in a while."

"Oh, that's so?" She spat.

"Yes." He nodded wordlessly to the two men holding the twins and both, in unison, broke their necks. Kat's mother cried in despair, her father screamed 'bastard' yet Kat just stared, her eyes dried of any tears, her heart cold, her soul gone... Yet, she still managed to speak, calmly.

"You will regret that. You will die. I promise you that. No matter how long it takes, no matter where you are, you will die." The voice was so different from her normal tones, the expression on her face was that of a stranger, the feelings of hate inside her soul were alien to her. But she told him. She promised him that. He would die.

"Is that so?" He mocked her words. The next one to go was her mother. The man grabbing her played with her for several moments until the knife that he had been using to cut her finally stabbed her heart.

"Three gone, two to go." Were the leader's words.

The next was her father, whose anguish could be seen, felt, even smelled. The man took the liberty of killing her father, whispering words in his ear, words she could not hear. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she couldn't tell, her father died rather quickly. He was probably dead already, his soul detached from the earthly world, a world that had become the stage of a nightmare. Then, she was alone. The last one of her family. At least she had spared her father of the sight of his whole family being killed in front of him. But what would happen to her now? The answer came quickly.

"Let me see what I do with you now? Oh, don't worry, I'll kill you eventually. But now, well... lets just say that you interest me more alive now than dead. It's been a while since I've... well... you know..." The smile was horribly distorted. "Lets have a party for two, shall we?" The next few hours were just a blur on her mind. The pain, the hate, the fear, the shame, all of it was in turmoil inside her soul. Her body ached terribly when he was done and she never felt the fatal blow hitting her. Her eyes were fixed on the strange and somewhat familiar black bird outside the window. Yes, she knew what bird it was. A crow. The pain, the sorrow, the grief, the guilt, it all flashed one last time through her body, mind and soul, and then blackness was upon her.

Sorrow. Fear. And Pain. It all returned suddenly, both mentally and physically, and it whirled inside her like a hurricane. She opened her eyes and took a long breath, which only resulted in her almost drowning, instead of breathing oxygen through her hurting lungs. She coughed, trying to expel the water inside her chest, and she tried to swim to wherever the surface laid but it was impossible. Her arms were tied, as well as her feet. She would eventually drown if she didn't do anything. She fought the ropes that enlaced her and was surprised to see how easily they came out. Without time to wonder about the mystery of the ropes, she swam, almost breathlessly, to the surface, where she breathed the more than welcomed air. She swam to the shore, which was remarkably close. As she stepped into dry ground, she rested, lying on it, trying to regain a normal breathing. She eyed her surroundings surprised to see herself next to a river. Why she was surprised she didn't know. Actually, she didn't know much about anything. Her mind was blank and an awful shadow danced inside it, avoiding any contact with her memories. She dismissed that problem for the moment. She just wanted to rest.

A sudden shadow in the night startled her and she looked up, in time to see a black bird flying to a branch of one tree. She stood there, watching the bird. It was somewhat familiar. She had seen him before, hadn't she? A crow, was its species. One of those birds that liked to steal shinning objects, wasn't that true? They were also the common birds used by witches, being their companions. Well, at least she had a memory, though it wasn't a very useful one. She kept watching the bird that looked back at her, almost as if it knew her. She shook her head but that movement only brought pain with it... and memories. All of a sudden, she was no longer on she shore of the river, but inside a warehouse, being grabbed by a man, seeing two children being killed, a woman scream and a man tied to a chair sobbing. The memory hurt, more than anything else, and as memory returned to her, the shadow blinding it fading, she remembered everything. And she remembered other thing. She remembered she should be dead. Yet, she was there, breathing, pretty much alive, apparently, although, by the way she looked, she could have spent months under water. Her clothes were shredded, covered with moss and other souvenirs from the river. What had happened? Why was she here? Where was her family? Was she dead or alive? What was happening? Questions without answer burst through her weakened mind, leaving her only with pain.

Then, as the hopelessness of not knowing what had happened was settling over her, she heard it. No, that was the wrong word. She didn't hear anything as no words were spoken, no sound heard. It was something in her mind, words in her mind, phrases with meaning although strange and mysterious, words that entered her mind and carved themselves in her brain, though without any pain.

You died. It said.

She looked around, trying to see anyone that could have been the origin of the words but there was no one to be seen. The crow cawed and she looked at it, a quizzical look on her face. Their eyes locked, golden green with the deep black of the bird. They almost seemed to have a soul behind them, and they held a knowledge that lingered the preternatural. It didn't lingered, she realized. It surpassed the barrier between reality and fiction. But it was only a bird, wasn't it?

I am your guide. The voiceless voice spoke to her gain. She was certain now it was coming from the bird. But how?

"What are you?" She asked weakly. "Where am I? What is happening?"

You have returned to put things right. You were given a second chance.

The crow flied away from the branch and land on top of a rock, his black eyes never leaving hers. The moon shined down on it, illuminating the black feathers of the crow with an ethereal light, giving him an angel like aspect. But angels didn't appear as crows...

"Why am I not dead?" She had somehow found her voice again.

You are.

"I don't feel dead. I do feel like I'm getting insane, talking to a bird."

You are not insane. You have a mission. You were given a second chance. To revenge.

"Revenge?"

Revenge to those that died with you. Justice to them. To do that, you must bring down your killers and theirs. Only then you can rest in peace.

She ignored the bird's last words. She had an idea on her mind that didn't, couldn't get out.

"You brought me back from the dead?" She asked, skeptically.

Yes.

"How?"

I do not know. Neither will you. You only have to accomplish your mission. You must follow me for us to start it.

"No! I need answers first. There's something wrong here. Why did I come back?"

Haven't you been listening? To revenge your death and that of your family. To destroy those who destroyed you.

"To kill?" The shock in her voice seemed to have some effect on the crow. Its eyes seemed worried. Was it because of her? "I cant'... I couldn't... it's not me... I'm not a killer."

The bird flew in circles around her and she could see he was indeed worried. Was the bird expecting her to agree with it and go on a killing spree to avenge her death? But how could she? She was no killer. She had never hated anyone enough to wish that someone's death.

Yes, you did. You wished for your killer's death. That was why you were brought back. Your anger towards him led you away from the Land of the Dead to avenge your murder. You hated. You promised to kill. The chance to keep that same promise has been given to you. You must give in to it.

"But it's over! Don't you see? Nothing will bring them back! None of their lives will bring them back. Ever. I just want some peace. I never asked for this. Just leave me alone." And she started to cry, rolling into a fetal position, her arms embracing her body, her chin resting on her knees. She stood there, crying, for countless minutes. She cried for her family, for their meaningless deaths. She cried all the tears she had stored and that she hadn't been able to cry that hated day inside that warehouse. She knew that day was long gone, and that time had passed though it, though, for her, it seemed that it had been only the day before that she had seen her family die. She cried until she dried all the tears. As she looked up she found the crow still there, again on the rock, the moon shining on its feathers. It looked sad, as her, but its eyes showed her something close to pity, as close as a crow could show in its look, if any other than this one could. Strangely, for her, the crow was more than a simple talking crow, if there was anything simple about that. No, inside her she knew that the bird held a human soul behind it. A sad, suffering and yet, avenged human soul. A soul seeking for blood. She looked at it.

"I need to think, you have to understand. I'm not ready to feel anything else than pain now. I don't know if I can hate so much to kill but I can't think about it now. It's too soon. Please, understand."

I do. You are not ready yet. You need time, and time is what you will get. But do not wait too long. The hand of Fate will not let you rest much time. You were brought back for a mission, and that is what you must do.

"Even if I don't want to?"

The crow didn't answer. Its silence didn't help to improve her state of mind. Nor the condition of her soul, if dead people still had one. She knew she was dead. She could feel it in every soaked bone of her body. She could feel it when she received the cold wind on her face and felt nothing but a simple caress, no coldness emanating from it. None that she could feel, at least. She sighed.

"Look, I don't want to keep calling you the Crow so you better have a name. And, as I don't want to be called the living dead corpse, I would like you to call me Kat."

The bird again ignored her words. Kat shrugged.

"Okay, you don't have a name. I'll give you one. How about... let me see... well, here's an original one. Raven!" For a moment she though she saw the crow actually smirking but it was probably only her imagination. "So, Raven it is. Well Raven, tell me something... am I to go around there looking like this?" She looked at her shredded clothes with a disgusted expression on her face. She looked up at the crow. Without a sound it opened its wings and flied away, urging her mentally to follow him. She did so, running behind the crow, through the trees and bushes, until she reached the town. Surprisingly she managed to avoid any of the people, though she suspected it was due to the crow. She ended up in front of a clothes shop. She looked quizzically to the bird.

"Are you expecting me to steal from this store?"

The crow, no... Raven, ignored her. Kat sighed heavily though she knew there was no other way. She needed to find something to wear if she wanted to mingle with the other people of the town, if she indeed did that. But, even if she didn't, she still needed to change clothes.

"How do I get in then, Raven? I never robbed a store before..."

Open the door. It was only this the damn bird had to say?

"Open the door?" She repeated mockingly. "Is it unlocked, perhaps?"

No. Open it.

Kat eyed the handle and reached with her hand to grab it. She pushed and the door ended up in her hand, ripped from its place. She nearly dropped it, as the astonishment hit her.

"What the...? I did that?"

The crow seemingly nodded its feathery head, though Kat wasn't sure if it indeed happened. She stepped into the store, after putting the door down, carefully, and she looked around for anything that might fit her. Not only fit her body but her mood also. Black. Something inside her asked for black. The color of death. She found what she wanted almost immediately. Black had never been her favorite color although people always said that blondes looked stunning in that color. She preferred light colors, like blues and yellows, with some occasional browns and greens. Now, she felt an urge to wear black. She chose a pair of black jeans plus a black V-shaped T-shirt. Somewhere she found a pair of combat boots that fitted her small feet and a long black leather coat completed her outfit. Something made her look in the small cosmetics area for a white base and a dark eye pencil. Not knowing exactly why she wanted that for, both suspecting the crow had something to do with that, she left the store.

"Now what?" She asked.

The crow flied down until it landed, surprisingly, on her right shoulder.

Now it is your time to lead.

The words! They burned inside her mind like fire. Once again she was somewhere else, in another time. It was her home. The twins were running wildly in the garden, running after her, imitating everything Kat did. They were playing a game, as they did so many times before. She stopped after a moment and turned to her brother, telling him: 'It's your time to lead.'

The pain of the memory ripped through her and she fell on her knees, the image of her brother and sister, those two innocent and beautiful children, forever burned in her eyes. Never would she forget them. She turned to the crow that had flied away from her shoulder. Raven returned soon after.

"How can the memories appear without us wanting them?"

Everything can bring them to the surface. If you smell, see, hear or touch anything that has some connection to a part of your life, an episode in it, then the memory will appear.

"It hurts."

I know.

"Do you? Do you really know, Raven? Somehow I suspect you do. There's more to you than meets the eye."

Choose where to go now.

She closed her eyes, memories flooding her mind, this time not needing anything to bring them up. They flooded naturally.

"I need a place to think. Some place where I can be alone with my thoughts, my pain..."

Follow me.

And Kat did. She followed the crow to her own home. Tears started running freely on her cheeks as her eyes rested on her house. It looked so beautiful there, the moonlight bathing it smoothly, giving it something of immaterial and heavenly. Yet, it was as real as Kat, tough that wasn't perhaps a good comparison as her existence on this world was more fantasy than reality. Yet, she knew she was real. The crow was real. All of this was real. As she entered the house that had once been hers, through a window that she broke with her elbow, she felt again the pain of memories assaulting her. Memories were the only thing that allowed her to remember the people she had once called family. Though painful, they were her only link to them. And there weren't all sad memories. There were some that made her laugh, though weakly. Those were the ones that hurt the most yet the ones that lighted her heart and soothed her troubled soul. The house itself held more memories than she could sustain. Without really noticing that she was already inside the house, she fell to the cold floor and cried once again. When her body stopped trembling and her eyes dried, she looked up to see the crow standing there, on the windowsill. Then her eyes traveled around the room, her living room, now empty of all furniture, covered with dust. Hollow. The house wasn't more than a empty place, and where once had been pictures, loved furniture inherited through the ages by her mother's family, where once the twins had played, her father read the journal, her mother read a book after a long tiring day at the hospital, where once she had lied down to watch television accompanied of her family, that place was nothing more than a memory.

"How long?" She asked the crow that watched her.

A year.

"I've been dead for a year? They have all been dead for a year? Why only now?"

That I cannot explain. It changes, the time of the return. I don not know why. I am just your watcher, a messenger if you like.

"It changes? There are others, then? That came back from the dead to avenge their deaths and those of their loved ones?"

Yes. There have been many others, and there will be more when you leave.

"Leave to where?"

To a better place where your soul can rest. The reason why you were brought back was that your soul was restless. Only when you avenge your death and that of your family, you can meet them on the other world.

"So, I have to kill so my soul can rest? I... I don't know if I'm strong enough to do it. I hated, I know I did. I still hate. I hated him when he killed my father, I hated him when he send others kill my mother and my brother... and my sister... I hated him when he raped and killed me. I still do. But can I kill out of hate? Can I? I don't know what your story is, I don't know where you came from, why this happens... but... " She paused her monologue. She was speaking more to herself than to the bird. "You or whoever runs this show his fed, in a sense of justice of their own, by the death of those who's hearts are dark and evil. This is who's doing? God's? The Devil's? I doubt the last one would like people to came back and kill the evil of this world but I always though God would be more forgiving. Though, the justice theme is a great thing, very noble." She sighed, knowing she was starting to babble. She turned to Raven again, now speaking directly to it. "All my life, though short as it is, I never wished the death of any soul, human or animal. I hardly ever killed any bug I found in my way. I was always the kind of person that lets them pass in front of me, without stepping on top of their little bodies. When... when that night came, I felt that all my life had ended in a blink of an eye. I cursed him, I wished his death and that of them all yet... I never meant to be its perpetrator. I mean... kill? I would be just like them!"

For the first time Kat actually felt some emotion from the crow, as its words hit her mind like rocks falling down a cliff.

You are not and you will never be anything like them. Their evil and you are not. You are their Angel of Retribution, if you like the term. You have the chance to rid the world of something evil and wicked, to prevent what happened to you from ever happening again.

"I know... But I still need to think. To grieve... To feel the pain and shed the tears that wouldn't come out that night. I need to feel..."

Yes, you do. I have waited a year, I can wait longer. But not too long. Fate will not let you rest forever, Katherine. There is a reason why you are here and you must not forget what it is.

"I won't." She smiled then. "Somehow I get the feeling you birds don't usually talk to those you watch the way we are talking right now."

The crow cawed and flied to her shoulder.

Not all of those we bring back have the same mental dilemmas you are having. There are not many as young as you that are brought back either. You are different and I knew it since the beginning. Since I saw you from the window the night you died.

"So, it was you! I knew I saw a crow that night."

We watch from the skies for people like you. We follow your hate. We watch you until you die, if we know you will come back. We guard you. Do not ask me how. I cannot explain. I do know that you have thought more about this gift that has been given to you than many others and, though we should, we are not impatient with you. There are moments when the truth has to be questioned and our goals revised. It is good to talk to someone. We do not have many opportunities like this.

"Hey, you can be very talkative when you want, see?" She caressed the feathers of the crow and was nicely surprised to see it didn't fly away from her. Instead it cocked its head closer to her hand. She laughed softly. Well, she had a new best friend. A mysterious flying friend but one nonetheless. Kat suspected the bird had once been like her, one that had returned from the dead to avenge his or hers death, and that had decided to guide others to do the same. She wouldn't though it to be true if she hadn't seen the vestiges of a human soul behind those small black eyes.

Kat walked through her entire house, wandering why it had been left this way, left abandoned. Though she didn't want to see anyone in her house but her and her family, she wished it wasn't so empty. It would be good to feel human warm inside that house, even if it belonged to another family. Yet, every room on the house was empty, only dust where life should exist. The crow followed her through her ramblings inside the house, until she stopped in her room. Images of happy and relaxed times flooded her mind. She remembered the countless times she and her friends had been in that room. She remembered the hard days when she needed to get school work done instead of having fun, though always finding a way of turning boring homework into a fun thing. She remembered the twins jumping on her bed, screaming with joy, as she brought them down to tickle them until they couldn't take it anymore. Memories... so many of them. She ended up leaning against one of her room's walls, her knees under her chin, her eyes focused in the shadows in front of her, and the crow over her shoulder soothing her with its presence.

The morning came slowly, as Kat had not slept through the night as normal people would. She hadn't felt any sleepiness, and she didn't felt as tired as she should be, though her arms and legs did hurt a little. A pain that seemed to fade away quickly as she got up. The crow was nowhere to be seen. She didn't really care for the moment. Strangely she felt no hunger though she should, as she hadn't ate in... what was it?... a year? Probably it was because she wasn't really alive anymore. A living dead, it was what was called to vampires and zombies and those creatures a person only encounters in the movies or books. Yet, although not being, she hoped, not of that kind, she still wasn't really alive anymore. And she had the feeling she was not completely human either. Dead people aren't suppose to be alive so it was only natural that she was different somehow. She had been different since the moment she had opened her eyes after a year under the river, as a dead corpse. One thing though, why wasn't her body deteriorated as all dead bodies should after all that time? Probably another of the mysteries she would never find out.

After a while it bored her being alone inside the house but she couldn't leave, not if there was a chance of someone she knew see her. Then, suddenly, her vision blurred, not to a memory of her own, but to something... something happening at the moment. She didn't know how she knew it but she did. She was seeing through the crow's eyes. And she was seeing her own house and a person approaching it. She knew who it was. She could never forget her best friend, not even in death. He was there, why she didn't know. Should she hide? Should she speak to him? She felt the need to talk to someone about what had happened to her. She had Raven but she needed a human being to talk to. Yet, she didn't want to scare him, or bring him more pain than the one he already had. She was dead and she would stay that way. The crow had said she had been giving a second chance, but it wasn't a chance to live.

"Shall I stay and face him? Tell him the truth? I need someone to speak to... but I'm not sure I should." Her words were mere whispers yet the crow listened to her. Maybe it could read her thoughts also, as he could transmit them to her mind.

It is your choice. I would say you should not involve a living human in your revenge but I believe you may need him to help you... Just do not say I told you that.

"Thanks, Raven. I owe you one." And she knew darn well how the crow expected her to pay this debt she had held upon herself. With the crows blessing, if it could be called that, she watched as he entered the house. She wondered how had he entered it until she remembered that his father was a lawyer also and he was her family's possessions upholder. So, it was natural he had the key to her house. But why was he there?

He entered the house, not noticing the crow behind him that allowed Kat to watch her friend, and he stayed in the entry hall for a moment until he started climbing the stairs. She had the feeling he was going to her room. She waited there for him, sitting on the windowsill, already imagining the surprise in his face. He had always been a freak for fantasy so she hoped he believed her without many questions as she intended to tell him everything. At least, what she knew from what the crow had told her.

As he walked pass the room's door, Kat saw his face paling, his jaw dropping and a strangled scream threatening to jump from his mouth. She smiles sadly.

"Hello, David. It's been a long time."

"Who... who... who the Hell are you?" He stumbled in his own words. She had never seen him so scared. No wonder, he had just seen a ghost. At least in his perspective as she was no ghost. She had flesh and blood, and although she couldn't feel the cold or the hot as she used to feel, she still felt the world around her.

"It's me, Kat." She got down of the windowsill and walked slowly to him. He didn't move a millimeter. He was glued to the floor, it seemed. Frozen in fear. Kat wondered if it had been a good idea staying there and waiting for him. Looking to his pale face, she was assaulted by doubts. Damn, she didn't want him to suffer. He had suffered enough already. He was like another son to my parents, another brother to the twins. And for me he was everything. Friend, consoler, once even boyfriend until we had discovered we weren't getting anywhere with a love relationship so we had parted ways as friends. And their friendship had grown since then, constantly. Until she had died. She missed him much, as much as she missed her family. But he was alive, they were dead and Kat... well, she was dangling on the borders of both worlds. Not belonging to neither of them for the moment. She knew what she needed to do to finally find her resting-place. Yet, what was expected from her, she couldn't comply. Not yet.

"It can't be you! You are dead. I mean... you were dead... I mean... damn!" He dropped on his knees, trembling, tears rolling down his face. She approached him slowly, her hand searching for his. He felt so warm, so alive and she... she was as cold as death itself. Throwing that thought away, she reached for his chin and lifted it up, looking into his eyes.

"I'm here, David. I died, yes. But I'm back."

"H... how? How can it be possible?" He wanted to believe, she knew that. He needed to as much as she needed him to believe her. Kat shrugged, hopelessly.

"I don't know. It happened. I was brought back with a mission but I'm not sure if I can accomplish it."

"I... I don't understand. Is it really you?" The hope in his eyes almost brought tears to her eyes, if they weren't already dried of them. She didn't know exactly what to say until the crow cawed.

Show him.

Show him? Show him what? Then, suddenly, she knew. The hand in his chin moved up to his cheek and her other hand was placed also in his face. Then, all of a sudden, memories flooded from her to him. Memories of the night she had been killed, memories of what she had witnessed, memories of rape, torture and murder, with feelings of fear, grief, pain. Memories more recent also flooded to him, from her rebirth, if it could be called that, of her conversation with the crow and what it had said to her about avenging her death and that of her family. Then, as abruptly as it had started, the memories stopped floating between their minds. He stared at her, unable to speak, to move, to act at all. She didn't say anything either, the sadness in her eyes was enough for him to understand her new found life... or death, whatever it was. His stillness didn't last much. He held her in an embrace and they stood there for some moments, in silence.

"What happened to the house?" She broke the silence.

"People say it's haunted and there hasn't been a buyer since my father put it to sell. He's thinking of buying it himself, since our home is starting to look awfully small as we grow up. Your grandparents will stay with the money of course." He paused. "I... I missed you. I missed you all. And all missed you."

"What happened to them? Did anyone found their bodies?"

"They found your mother's body, and your brother's. They dropped the search for the others when it was clear the tide had dragged them away. They were buried after an autopsy, it seems, in the Cemetery. They never found the killers but I guess you know that already."

"Yes. It's for them I'm here. It's for them I'm back from the Land of the Dead. To put things right, it says. For Justice."

"It? You mean the crow?"

"I call it Raven. And yes, it was the crow that told me about my mission. One I'm afraid I can't accomplish. And I fear the consequences of it."

"Jeez, this looks like an episode of the X-Files or the Twilight Zone. Damn, dead people stay dead. Or at least they should."

"I'll leave, David. I'll leave soon. I'm not meant to be here, to live a normal life as a normal living person. I can't feel the same way you feel, I can't breathe the same way you do, and I can't see the same way I did before. It's all so strange. Yet I know I no longer belong here. Nor I ever will. My place now is on another world."

Alone.

The crow cawed strongly and flew out of the window.

"Wait. Why alone?" David eyed her surprised but she didn't care.

I will be back for you. I need to show you something that may change your willing. Talk to your friend. He may help you too. Then I will tell you what I meant.

She stayed with him, remembering old times, childhood moments they had shared together, the beginning of their adolescence, their dates that had started very well until they had found that they were better off as friends instead of girlfriend and boyfriend, the playful moments near each other, their parties with friends, the hard and sad yet also the happy moments of their lives. Memories were so vivid now, for her. They looked like a film she was seeing, crystal clear, without shadows, without the consequences time eventually brought to the memory, nothing of it. She remembered every single word of every single moment of her life. It could be, for some, a gist but for her it was a hazard. A painful hazard.

The crow returned after a while and she knew it was waiting for her to follow. And she knew she'd never see David again. He knew it too. She placed a soft kiss in his lips as she prepared to leave but he grabbed her arm.

"Do Justice, Katherine." He said. "No matter what it takes, you must uphold Justice. I know I would."

She smiled weakly at him and tears slide down her cheek as she, for the last time, hugged her friend. Then she left the house. The crow, in front of her, guided her to her new destination.

She knew immediately where she was, where the crow had taken her. She knew it the moment her eyes fell over the sight in front of her. The warehouse where she and her family had met death. Death at the hands of a perverted and gruesome killer. First she was reluctant over entering the place but the crow insisted both in her mind and in her ears, as his caws intensified gradually until she could take no longer. She entered it and the moment she did, all the memories came once again. She relieved the night of her death. She relieved her nightmare. Every anguishing second of her last times on the living world. Every minute of her family's last moments. Everything came back to haunt her. And the rage also came, stronger than she could imagine, more intense than moral itself. She had a mission, Raven had said. She knew she had. And, the only way for her not to end up alone in the Land of the Dead was to accomplish that mission. That was what the crow meant. And now, now it was time for Justice.

Katherine Taylor looked at the mirror of her house to her white painted face. Maybe she shouldn't be called Katherine any longer. Now she was the Angel of Death, of Justice and of Revenge. Now, she was what she was meant to be since she had been brought back from the dead. Her face was now a mask of white paint with stripes of black in particular places. Around the eyes and the mouth, drawing two lines over the eyes, vertically, and, on the sides of the mouth were other dark lines, enhancing her smile to somewhat diabolic and maniacally proportions. It was called the mask of irony. The symbol of the crow. The symbol of every Justice upholder that had been brought to life by the powers above, whatever they were. With her face painted like this she looked like a maniac clown. It was exactly that that she wanted people to think. It was time. No more delaying. One last look to the mirror and she left the empty house that had once been her home. David had been long gone when she had returned and she thanked God for that. She didn't want to say good-bye again.

The crow guided through the dark and forsaken alleys of the city to her first victim. He would tell her where to find the others, the crow had said. Good. But as she ran towards one of his family's killers, a question popped her mind.

"Raven, what happens to me if you're hurt? Somehow I get the feeling we're connected. Okay, it's a bit weird but I've seen weirder things, like a talking bird, for example but..." She stopped her babbling and looked up at the crow. Although she hadn't speak loud she knew it had heard her. The crow flied down and landed on a wall in front of her.

We are linked. I am that that gives you your strength. If I die, you will be alone. I will not be here to guard you. If I am only momentarily hurt I can heal and so will you. If nothing happens to me, nothing happens to you. That is why I will stay out of sight. There have been others that do not know this and their guardians are hurt. There are also some of those we chase that know of the legend. It has been circulating through your people for ages, since the first crow ever brought a soul back from the land of the dead.

"Wait. I got lost during a part there. What strength?"

You will know. It is the same strength that allowed you to open the door of that store and it is the same strength that will heal you. Wait and see. Fear nothing as nothing can touch you.

"I still don't understand but... what the heck. Make sure you're not hurt and guard my back, will you?" She ran all the way to the man's house. His name was Gary Peters, for what the crow had said to her. She had never known their names but the crow had been successful in finding the killers' names. How, she didn't know. She didn't really care.

Gary's house was much like him. A dirty and disgusting place for a disgusting person. Inside there was food and magazines scattered all over the floor, as well as clothes and cans and whatever. It smelled like a pigpen in there but she didn't care. The smell never hit her as strong as her hate. Gary was in bed with a woman. He never noticed her entering the house. She surprised herself with her newfound agility. What surprises were left for her? Certainly surprises far more pleasant than that that she had stored for the man who had killed her mother. She knew it was him the moment she stepped into his bedroom and saw his face. It was him all right, though he hadn't noticed her entering the room. She stayed there, a large grin on her face that held an ironical joy, until the woman under Gary's body noticed her and screamed. The man rolled on the bed to face Kat. He didn't recognize her. Well, it would be extremely fun making him remember.

"Who the fuck are you? Get out of here before I break that face of yours, freak.!"

Kat didn't say a word. She just smiled that demoniacal grin of hers. Her eyes fell over the naked woman and she mouthed the words 'get out'. The woman didn't think twice. Holding her clothes in her hands, she ran out of the apartment. Kat turned her gaze to Gary.

"Sorry to disturb your fun... "She started with an expression that said exactly how sorry she was. "... but we have some unfinished business to... well... finish."

"Get out of my home, whoever you are. I'm not in the mood for fucking charades."

"Well, then, you'll just have to get in the mood. Maybe I can help." With a speed that surprised them both, yet him more than her, she grabbed him, throwing him against the wall. He hit it hard and fell on the floor, moaning. Well, it seemed she was not only fast and agile but inhumanly strong also.

"You could have told me." She whispered for the crow. Then loud to the man on the floor. "We are going to play twenty questions now, Mr. Peters. The firsts will be relatively easy but they will turn out painfully if you refuse to answer. Or if you give the wrong answer too. Life sucks, isn't that right?" The man just nodded, wordlessly. She smiled satisfied, her grin scaring him as he looked to her. "First question then. Who am I?" The man looked surprised at her and with fear in his eyes. But he spat, nonetheless.

"How the fuck should I know?"

As he said this words, his head hit the floor hard, a red line of blood sliding down his nose. Kat shook her head, as she imitated the sound of a bell, characteristic from TV contest shows. "Wrong answer, Gary boy. Now, we only have nineteen questions left. Ready to go on?"

"Please, please, stop that! I don't know who ya are? What do ya want? Fuck this!" He started to cry. She looked at him, wondering how a piece of worthless piece of junk could have helped destroy her life so quickly. Again the hate took control of her as she kicked him in the stomach. Blood poured down his mouth. She ignored his whining, his pleadings. Her mother had pleaded for him to stop hurting her when he had tortured her cutting her body with a knife. She had begged to be spared yet he had not listened to her words. The only voice he had heard was his own saying for him to cut her down like if she was nothing less than a piece of meat.

"Second question, Gary boy but this time, be careful how you answer or you'll regret it... I promise you that." She smiled sheepishly though it was a dark smile that came out of her lips. "Do you remember Jack Taylor? His family? A year ago you took them from their house to a warehouse, you destroyed their lives, you killed them not without killing their souls first and you stood there watching their end. You were a very, very naughty boy. Remember it?" The look of fear in his face told Kat he was really doing his best to remember as if his life depended on it. He wished! She looked down and saw one thing that nearly made her laugh. It seemed Mr. Peters had emptied his bladder, and not inside a bathroom. "Puff, Mr. Peters, you should have more manners."

"Please don't kill me. I'll do anything for you. I'll... Oh, please..." He restarted his crying.

"Do you remember me now? From that night? Do you know who I am, now? Look at me and answer." She demanded. He looked and his face paled even more than it already was. He remembered all right.

"You! But... it can't be. Stapados killed you! He killed you! You're dead!"

"Oh, yes, I am. And you'll be soon enough."

"Go to hell, bitch!" The man screamed, his idea of bravado perhaps. She laughed at his face.

"I believe I've been there already although I can't really recall. By the way, where are your friends these days? You know, those who helped you kill my family and me? You better be a good boy and tell mama right away. You wouldn't want to know how bad I can be when I don't have what I want."

It didn't take ten minutes for him to start talking. She listened carefully and then she smiled.

"Thank you so much. I owe you one." The hope on the man's face would be heartbreaking for anyone... but her. She let go of him and headed for the door, giving a false sense of hope and relief. She saw by the crow's eyes Gary diving on the floor to catch a gun he had hidden under the bed but it was too late for him. Again with that unnatural speed, she pulled him from the floor by his neck and she kicked him repeatedly. Then she laughed, a maniacal laugh that scared even more the man. Yet, he had somehow gotten hold of the gun and he didn't think twice about firing it when he had the chance. He did it, leaning the gun to her chest and pulling the trigger. The blast made her step back and she looked at the bullet hole.

Time heals all wounds. She received the crow's thoughts and understood them as she saw the bullet wound closing right in front of her eyes in a matter of seconds. Gary saw it too and nearly dropped his gun.

"What the hell are you?" He asked, his voice trembling. He had no time to hold the gun again in position to fire. He hardly had time to even breathe his last breath. She snapped his neck quicker than both could imagine. He dropped dead on the floor, under the cold stare of golden green eyes. The crow entered the apartment, flapping it wings high in the ceiling.

Leave the mark.

"The mark?"

The mark of the Crow. The symbol of Justice.

She understood. Looking around the apartment she found a kitchen knife that would do the job. Kat went to the lifeless body and cut deep into his chest. Blooded started falling onto the floor. She ignored it as she started to draw a crow on the wall with Gary's blood. When she was finished she left. She had bigger fish to catch. With the crow leading the way, both headed for the warehouse where her killer had decided to create his new headquarters.

It was a place painfully similar to that where she had lost her life. She let the crow fly above it, hovering around the place and looking inside it, her eyes seeing what it saw. She felt her throat tightening as she saw who was inside. All of the men she had been looking for plus some partners of evil. And he was there too. He had been her nemesis once. She would be his now. Yet, she just couldn't burst through there like that. Patience. That was what she needed. One by one they would go. And then he would go.

With the crow leading the way she found a back way entry. She easily opened the door, carefully not to rip it off of its place or it would draw too many attentions. Then she silently walked inside it, hiding in the shadows. The shadows were her friends now. She heard the sounds of men talking and yelling orders at each other's. She eyed the place around her, and with Raven's help, she was able to get a pretty good notion of what laid ahead of her. With that scary grin, she chose her first victim, one she didn't even knew but one that was between her and her targets. The world wouldn't miss a piece of junk like that. She hesitated only a moment, seeking the crow's approval. Would it matter if she killed others than her initial targets? The crow just cawed. It was saying that she had green card on that. Good, she wouldn't have to worry about killing the wrong persons. And it was too late to back up now. She had made her choice when she had visited Gary, when she had killed him. Now, there were only these that kept her away from her peace and rest. The first men never heard her and he definitely never had a chance. She would kill these rather quickly because she wanted the others she seek to last longer. It would be better if she hadn't any interference from these unknown persons, as evil as the ones she wanted. One by one they started to disappear, dead or permanently crippled. She could hear the buzz of the radio they used to speak to those more far away inside the building and she could hear the urgency of the callings, callings not answered as the ones who should reply were now unavailable. She got rid of them all until she reached the last ones. She wasn't tired at all, instead she felt refreshed every time she killed one of them. The three men that had been with Gary that night at her house and in the warehouse were now there, with two other she didn't know. They seemed troubled and more than a little aware that something was going to happen or was already happening. The leader, her killer, wasn't there. She would find him later.

Although her last victim had drove her to an upper level of the warehouse she didn't care about the height. The crow cawed at her side, telling her she could do it. Kat grabbed the gun of the man she had just killed and she jumped down, landing on the middle of the warehouse lower floor, where five surprised men greeted her. She smiled at them, seeing their expressions change from surprise, anger, to fear in seconds.

"Hello, boys! Let the party begin, will you? Don't ruin my fun and show me your best!!!!"

The blond large man that had held the twins in his hands and that had killed her brother was the first to react. He pointed his gun at her. The others did as he, and she found herself facing a tornado of bullets ripping through her body. The pain was strong but it faded shortly and, before the wide eyes of the five men, the wounds started closing. Then, faster than they ever expected, she jumped forward and attacked. The bullets kept coming but few touched, even less entered her body. She finished the two unknown men first, on with a bullet on the head and other with a piece of wood stabbed into his heart (just like if he were a vampire) after throwing him in the air. She wanted to play a little with the other three. She landed on her feet after a forward flip and stared at the three remaining men. They looked frightened. Their hands were shaking, the guns barely held onto them.

"Well, boys. The party isn't over yet. Let's see, I still have eighteen questions left. Your friend Gary failed to answer the two first. You have to restart where he left."

The blond looked at her surprised and then he paled.

"What did you do to Gary, bitch?" He barked.

"I guess I sent him in a free journey to hell. You'll be joining him soon, boys."

"Shut the fuck up, you freaking bitch. I'll be the one to send you there." Another man spoke, this time the man that had snapped her little sister's neck. But, although it was strong words, they were bellied by the fright on his face. She laughed. She laughed until she attacked. She kicked one in the groin, then, with the elbow, she broke another's nose. The blond came at last, with a knife capable of scaring most people. Yet, she wasn't most people. The knife stabbed her in the stomach but she didn't even care for the temporary pain. She used her forehead to hit his, making him step back and drive his hands to his head. The one with the broken nose came from behind but she was expecting him. She could see the entire warehouse with the crow's eyes and she could certainly see a sneaky attack. She didn't even look when she extended her leg in a kick that hit him square in the face. The one she had kicked in the groin, better call him the X guy as she didn't know his name, ran to her. Jumping in the air she kicked him with a movement that would have made Bruce Lee proud. She could see, feel and smell their fear and their confusion. A normal human being didn't move like her, didn't fight like her, didn't heal bullet wounds in a matter of seconds. No living human being, that is. She wasn't even alive.

She played with the a little more, giving them time to run away from her when they figure that she wasn't going to fall under any of their blows, under any of their futile attempts to break her. She was the predator now, they were the prey. And they knew it. She let them ran and she followed them, played with them, taunted them, until she caught the first one. She'd call him Z, as he had a scar that looked just like that letter on his face. It was the blond that had murdered her brother. She would have fun with him, yes she would. The others wouldn't go far, she had locked all doors to the exterior and, even if they did escape to the outside, she would chase them like the animals they were. Raven would tell her if any of them figured out a way to escape.

She kept hiding from Z, whispering words to the air, knowing he would hear them but wouldn't know where to look for the source. If he wanted to. Kat found the perfect object for her revenge over him. A stapler. Not one that people used at homes but one bigger and more powerful, for industries. Perfect, indeed. She left the shadows that were hiding her and faced Z. He jumped and turned around unsteadily when she spoke to him from behind his back.

"Tss, tss, don't you know it's ugly to ran like you did? Your mommy never teach you should always treat your guest with a little more manners?" She taunted him.

"Please..." He begged. "... don't kill me!"

"Why should I spare your life? You never spared my brother's. You never spared any of them."

"Who are you?"

"A year ago, Mr. 'I'm the best 'cause I can kill little innocent children'. Are you in need of memory refreshment? I could provide that for you. Free of charges, of course."

"I don't know you!"

"I'm the play toy your boss used after killing my family. You know, my father, the lawyer who busted your boss' pitiful excuse for a brother?"

"No! It can't be! We... he... you're dead!" Finally recognition flooded his eyes. Good, she would like to kill him with him knowing someone he thought dead was killing him. Would make his journey to hell so much more pleasant.

"I suppose I am. Cool, isn't it? But sorry, pal, to the place you're going there will be no coming back. Bye!" With these words she grabbed his hand and pierced it against a wall with a staple. He screamed as the blood started dripping from his hand but she ignored him. She did she same with the other hand, then the feet, then the clothes, because the staples didn't pierced the flesh of the other members. Not that she cared much. She just wanted him pierced against the wall, unable to move. Then she tied a band around his eyes. And, the next thing he felt was pain as she shot two bullets through his knees, then his arms and then through non fatal organs of his body. This one would die slowly, from pain and blood losses. And if he did survive, he would never be the same man. She gagged him so his screams couldn't be heard and she left, as if nothing had happened there. Through the crow's eyes she found her next victim.

X was hiding inside a cubicle they probably called office and he was holding a threatening machinegun. He was expecting her, though he didn't knew where to find her or where to expect her to come from. She surprised him by coming from above, instead of from the door, as he had expected. The machinegun fired and she was hit in the chest dozens of times. The impact of the bullets was able to throw her to the ground. She could feel the pain of the wounds, some closing faster than others. The crow was working over time, she thought. She closed her eyes and gave herself to the healing. The man started screaming with joy, thinking he had killed her.

"I got her! I got the bitch. Mitch, Spike, come here, I got her!" He leaned onto her to feel her pulse, to make sure she was dead. It was then that she snapped her eyes open and grinned at him. She held him from the neck and broke his arm so he had to drop the machinegun.

"Well, it seems you were wrong. I never did catch your name, though. You shouldn't kill a person without saying your name. By the way, one of those, Mitch or Spike, is already dead so don't bother to call."

"Fuck you, freak. Go to hell."

"Been there, done that. You guys have so little imagination. Why not sending me to Bora Bora or Taiwan? I've never been there before. And now, neither will you. By the way, I'm the lawyer's daughter, the one your little group killed last year. Do you know why I came back from the dead?"

"Dead people don't come back." He yelled.

"I did." And she tightened her pressure on his neck. He fought for air, fought to get free, but nothing he did was enough to even loosen the grip of her hands on his neck. He died slowly, from suffocation. He was lucky. She could have killed him in way far more painful and slow. But she didn't have the time to kid around with every one of them. She had one main target and she wanted to reach it.

She moved on to find the third man, the one that had killed her sister. He was already running to meet his friend, probably because of X's presumption that he had killed her. She didn't let him finish his race to the cubicle as she extended her hand from the shadows and stopped him. He hit his face right one her arm, breaking whatever he had left of his nose. She grabbed him by the shirt, dragging him away.

"I have one question to you. Where's your boss?"

He didn't answer and she had to be a little more persuasive.

"Where did he hide his coward ass?"

He snorted in disgust and tried to it her. She easily dodged the blow giving him one of her own.

"Well, it would have made things a lot easier to you if you had been honest with me but if you keep thing this way..."

"You the fuck are you?"

"It's getting a little boring not being recognized and having to tell every single one of you who I am. Well, dearest, you can rot in hell trying to find out who killed you. You can think about your life as a children murderer there. I'll bet it's a very nice place for reflections."

A knife she had snapped from the ground where one of them had dropped it appeared in her hands and with it she stabbed him in the place men favored more than any other part of their body. The scream he let go could have shattered the windows. She cut him until dozens of thin red lines of blood were dripping over the floor. Then, as the man stopped screaming in pain due to lack of strength she slashed his throat. With this one's death there was only one left to kill. She breathed deeply, drawing strengths, both physical and mental from the crow, who's presence soothed her. Raven flapped its wings and landed on her shoulder for some moments.

"Will you be able to heal more of my wounds? Are you tired?"

Time heals all wounds. Yours will be healed.

"There's only one left to go."

Do not fear him, Katherine. You have the power now. Do not let him get to you. Remember your family and that they are waiting for you as we speak.

"Are they seeing what I'm doing here?"

No. They know what you have to do but they do not see.

"I'm glad for that. I don't think I could go on knowing they are watching every bit of my actions. Tell me, is becoming as dark as they my passage to heaven?"

You were not, you are not and you will never be as dark as they. Remember that. Your family awaits you. Do not let them wait much longer.

She nodded. The crow rose up in the air and led her to her nemesis.

He was there and he was waiting for her. He smiled as she entered his line of vision. He was unarmed, it seemed, yet she didn't trust him, not even a bit. His smile disconcerted her. It wasn't what could be expected from a person near death. Yet, he was a master at mind games, she knew that. She remembered his mind games while he raped her, taunting her without rest, recalling her family's death every time he kissed her or caressed her with his rough hands, violently. Every single image of that night came to her mind, plus the feelings of it too. And the hate burned, powerful, inside her soul, or of what was left of it.

"I thought you'd never get here. I was starting to wonder if you'd forgot me." He spoke, his mocking words hitting her much like a punch in the face, or in the stomach.

"Could I ever forget?" She said, in the same tone as his.

"I doubt it. I left you a pretty good and delicious memory." It surprised her that he knew who she was. Maybe he had listened from whatever hideout he had been hiding her words to his men as they died. Or maybe he just remembered. He was far more clever and dangerous than the others.

"I'm here to kill you."

"Yes, I know. I've been watching your handy work to my men. You got class."

"I promised I'd kill you. I'm here to keep that promise."

"Promises can be broken. I know I've broken some during my days. Well, can't we discuss this like civilized people?" He didn't show any fear in his voice and his eyes were clouded from any emotion he could hold there. She didn't let it get to her nerves. He could think he had the power but she was the one with the power to kill him. And she would. But first, she would make him suffer first. If only she could find a way of breaking him...

"Civilized people don't kidnap others from their homes and they certainly don't kill them."

"You'd be surprised how low this world has dropped. By the way, who are you suppose to be with that painted face? Death? Come on, Katherine, you are much prettier without masks."

"I should be flattered but I'm afraid I'm not." She stated. "And, this is the mask of irony. You want to know what the irony is?"

"What is it?"

"A dead person rising from the grave to kill those who killed her. Seems like a Twilight Zone kind of thing, doesn't it? Well, it's real. Call me your Angel of Death. Better yet, call me your Nemesis."

"Dear Katherine, what are you saying there? Kill me? When we could have so much together?"

He fought with words instead of weapons. But she knew that game well. And she knew she should let him think he was winning. Then, when he least expected, she would strike her Ace. And Game Over for him.

"How does it feel to kill an entire family? To watch them die without doing nothing to stop it when a single word from you might have done it? How does it feel to be a prey now?"

"A prey? You've been watching too many National Geographic programs in your grave. By the way, how did you come out? I'm not even letting you explain. I don't care. It's really good to have you here. I missed you. Let me tell you that the time I spent with you was the best in a long, long time. I regretted having to kill you very much."

"I won't."

"Remember one thing, dear. It was your words that made it happen. If you hadn't said anything you would have died before you could have watched your family die, before you could have tasted the marvelous sensation of sex. It's your fault you died with their deaths in your memory."

She stared at him for a moment, approaching him slowly. He never backed away. She circled him, watching him as one would watch a horse... or a piece of meat. He didn't move, keeping his smile on his lips, taunting her just with his eyes.

"I spared him the pain." She whispered, loud enough for him to ear. "I took upon myself the pain of watching the family all die. I held the pain as I held the promise of revenge. Of Justice. I suffered all the way and now it's time you suffer what I suffered." Without a single warning she attacked him with enough strength to knock him out for some time, enough time for her to prepare the final stage of this play. On the cubicle where she had killed the X man, she found what she was looking for. Rope, a chair and cans of gasoline. She returned to where she had left him and dragged his body to the middle of the warehouse. She tied him to the chair, tightly. Girl Scouts had taught her many things, among them how to firm, steady knots, impossible to take off to those who didn't know how. And even those who knew couldn't do a thing about it because they were tied up...

After tying him, and with the crow's help, Kat started to draw the mark of the crow all around the warehouse with the blood of the men she had already send to hell. Then, when there were enough mysterious and bloody crows drawings to scare the most courageous of people, she grabbed the cans of gasoline and dropped them on the floor, also drawing a crow with the transparent flammable thick liquid. Then she woke him up.

"Glad to see you're awake."

He opened his eyes and stared at his surroundings. Kat noticed the wrinkle of his nose, as he smelled the gasoline. He stared at her, emotionless.

"Is this your idea of fun?" He asked her.

"No, the fun is still to came." She lighted a match she had found in one of the other men's pocket, along with some cigarettes that she left behind. She stared at the match for along moment until she dropped it into a line of gasoline. The fire appeared in seconds and it lighted the crow drawing. From above, the crow watched, and Kat could see through its eyes the marvelous sight the fire made.

"Now, we are surrounded by the fire. Fire has many meanings, you know? In the Stone Age it was the element that allowed the beginning of evolution. In biblical senses it is one of the ways to show the wrath of God, along with the flood and the insect plagues and all that... For some it is a symbol of the Devil and Hell. Burn in hell, people say." She smiled. "For some still, it means purification. Others think it is a good way to kill people. For me, it means the end and the beginning. Your end. My beginning. Don't worry, it's not my intention to burn you. It would be far too pleasant to you."

The man snorted disgustedly.

"What are you trying to do? Bore me to death?"

"Oh no, nothing like that. Nothing so... simple. You think I can't kill you, don't you? You think you're too strong for me, that you can win me with your mind games. That, if I do kill you, you still win because you leave me with my insanity, with my unbearable pain. You think you have already won. You are mistaken."

Grinning she outstretched her arms as to invite Death to come and pay them a visit and bowed. The crow flied from its hideout and landed softly on her right shoulder, under his confused and admired look. She approached him, still smiling. She caressed the crow's feathery little body. From his point of view he could only see a woman and a crow. He couldn't hear their exchange of words. Then the crow slowly flied to him, landing on top of his head.

"You are mistaken." She said and nodded. The next few seconds were filled with screams as the crow attacked his eyes, with its powerful beak. Blood poured down his eye sockets, his eyes completely destroyed in a matter of seconds. When the crow was finished it flied again to Kat's shoulder, its beak covered with blood. Kat softly cleaned it, gently. Then she turned to the man in pain. He still didn't want to allow her victory and, between the pain, he still could spat words.

"You... haven't... you won't break me... you won't... you won't win..."

"Oh, but my dearest, this isn't the end. I have more stored for you. Now, I'll let you take a journey to my nightmare." She was suddenly in front of him and she extended her hands to touch his face. All her memories, all the images of the fatidic night, flooded to his mind, the feelings of pain, fear, grief enhanced a thousand times. He screamed. He couldn't do anything else as she pushed the memories into his brain, destroying it all. The reason, the feeling... the entire mind. And with it died his soul. When it stopped, Kat looked at the form that once had been a man with power over other people. Now it wasn't anything but a bunch of bones, flesh and blood without anything left worth saving. He could no longer be called a man. She ended it by stabbing him with a knife, ending forever the activity of the body. The fire that surrounded them died slowly, without any need of water or sand to extinguish it.

"I feel tired, Raven." She whispered.

You did well, Katherine. Do not worry, you have earned the right to see your family again. Come. Come to meet them once again.

She followed the crow to the cold night outside, a coldness she could no longer feel.

Raven took her through the city streets to the Cemetery where, according to David, her mother and brother's bodies were buried. She found their graves, next to one another. Lauren Taylor, beloved wife and mother 1962-1999 and Joshua Taylor, beloved son and brother, 1992-1999. Their graves, their bodies last address. She dropped on her knees next to them and cried, cried for them, for her, for what she had done. She cried for all the people in the world, for all the damned souls, for all the innocent, for all the dead. She cried until she fell asleep, a thing she never thought she could ever do again. She was awaked by a soft murmur. A white mist surrounded her, bringing light to the dark night. The crow was there, on top of her mother's grave, looking alternately from her to a spot on the mist. Then Kat saw it. Four figures standing there, illuminated by a heavenly light that almost blinded her. It surprised her seeing her family so pure, so innocent. She had left this world with a gruesome image of them and she feared she would always remember them that way. But now they were there, as beautiful as they always were. She smiled at them, joy filling her. She locked eyes with the crow. It waved its wings.

Go. It is time for you to meet your family.

"Thank you."

No, Katherine. I am the one who should thank you.

With this words the crow suddenly transformed into a figure. A human figure of a man. He was tall, with dark hair and gentle light blue eyes. He smiled at her. She had suspected that the crow had been like her long ago and she had been correct. She smiled too.

"I enjoyed very much watching you, Katherine. You deserve everything good that can exist." He said, this time not through the mind but with words. His voice was soft and warm. "Go on, go to your family. They have waited too much."

"Again, thank you." She walked to meet her family, ready to leave the earthly world forever. She turned one last time.

"What's your name?"

He laughed.

"Nicholas Raven." He answered. Her mouth dropped open with the surprise. She had guessed his name, she had called him by his real name as though she had known it all the time. With a smile she accepted the hand her father offered to her and a bright light enveloped her as she began her journey to a better world.

The End

Author's Words: I really hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. E-mail me, please, your opinions, criticisms and whatever you want to send me. I will gladly accept them at athena_silver@yahoo.com. The Crow's idea and concept doesn't belong to me but all characters of the story do. This is my first attempt at a Crow fanfiction and I hope to write more. I have some ideas for a story with the characters of the film, a story mostly based on the series. E-mail me telling me if I should keep working on the idea or if I should give up writing right away. By the way, if you find mistakes in my writing forgive me, as my mother language is not English.