That Mockingbird Won't Sing
Prologue
After another Thursday at school, Paige Logan was nearly at her home. Usually she would have her chauffer drive her but today she wanted to take her time getting home. Greg (sometimes nicknamed Rudy) was walking her home. She kind of wished to hold the handsome boy's hand but his were busy carrying all her books. "Thanks for carrying my books Greg. It was very gentlemanly of you."
Greg grinned. "No problem Paige." 'Why don't you invest in a backpack you stupid bimbo.'
Paige smiled happily. 'Greg has really been into me lately. Of course, I knew he would once he realized what a total loser Abby was.'
They finally reached Paige's mansion. It was one of the largest residence in the city, situated a top a large hill and surrounded by tall stone walls. Paige pressed a button by the fence and after a buzz, the large gates opened up. She then turned to Greg and he handed her the books. "You wanna stay with me for a bit?" Paige asked, bopping her head towards her house. "We can stay in my room and I can make the help whip something up for us."
"Um…" Greg hesitated, like he felt he needed to go with her but didn't want to. "Nah, its fine." He finally replied.
Paige pouted disappointed. "Your lost." She lightened up a bit and said, "See you tomorrow then."
"Wait!" Greg called out.
Paige turned back to him, grinning. "Yes?"
"Well, there's something I want to ask you."
"What?" Paige was getting giddy, hopping her long standing crush would finally pop the question she'd been waiting to answer.
Greg's lower lip quivered and his fists were shacking. Then he suddenly just laughed awkwardly and rubbed his neck. "You know what, I suddenly forgot what I was gonna ask."
"Fine, whatever!" Paige snapped at him before turning on her heels and walked towards the house.
The gates closed in front of Greg and he let out a sigh.
*Greg* *Greg*
Greg tensed up at that screechy sound. Slowly, he looked up and saw a crow perched atop the white wall. His eyes widen in horror. He knew who that bird belonged to.
*Greg* *Follow* *Follow*
The bird kept croaking before flying off the wall.
Despite the fear, Greg reluctantly ran after the bird. The crow lead him thru the city. On occasion it would rest to let the teenager catch up.
Eventually, Greg reached an abandoned farm atop a muddy hill on the outskirts of town. The yard was full of various birds. A flock of turkeys scurried out of the way as the boy came sprinting. In a naked cherry tree was a young cuckoo bird sitting in a nest far too small for it. A small singing bird then flew to the cuckoo bird and stuffed a worm down its beak. Atop the roof, a buzzard glared predatorily down at the boy. Greg couldn't help but wonder how many of these birds were real and how many were robotics.
The crow flew straight into a barn and Greg followed. Even thou no lights inside the barn were turned on, the large entrances allowed the sun to illuminate most of the alley. Looking around, Greg realized this was the kind of barn the farmers would have to stockpile hay rather than keep animals.
The crow landed on a flight of wooden stairs. *Follow* *Follow*
Greg gulped but followed the bird up the stairs, the wood creaking under his feet. As he went further upstairs, he heard the faint sound of someone singing.
"Hush little baby, don't say a word.
Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird won't sing,
Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring…"
At the end of the stairs was a door with neither knob nor handle. The crow landed in front of it and started picking at it. *Follow* *Follow*
When Greg reached the door, his body stiffen with fear. 'What if he kills me? I will never see my family or my friends again. But if I don't do as he says he kills me for sure.' With those horrid thoughts in mind, Greg pushed the door open and stepped into the loft.
*Greg* *Greg*
The crow kept gawking as it flew in, as to announce the boy's arrival.
The barn's loft had a triangle shaped ceiling and at both walls were flocks of crows, ravens and magpies that perched atop horizontal roosts. In one of the corners were two ravens, fighting over a rotten rat carcass. Unlike the barn alley below, the loft was not even nearly as illuminated. The only light shining in was thru the small slip of a closed window at the other end of the room.
In front of the window sat an old man in a rocking chair. Even thou most of his body was obscured by the shadows, the man's body was short and scrawny but his large head and glossy glasses gave the impression of a menacing owl or perhaps an alien from an old horror movie.
"Have you-have you asked her out yet?" The man hissed, saliva spitting out as he enunciated the words.
"N-n-no." Greg stammered.
The old man's body was shacking with anger until he couldn't hold in his frustration any longer. "WHY NOT!"
Startled by the scream, some of the birds flew of their perches, crowing and shrieking. Greg protectively held his arms over his face. Not until all the birds settled down did he dare to speak. "These things take time." The replied meekly. "I need to charm her first before I can ask her out."
"I doubt that." The old man stated and brought forth something that looked like a book. He browsed thru it until he reached a page in the middle of it. He then threw the book onto the floor with the page open for Greg to see. "According to this old diary I stole, she's had her greedy little eyes on you for some time. You can probably ask her out at any time you want. Admit it!" Accusingly, he pointed at the boy with his long, bony finger, made even longer by his unclipped yellowish nail. "You've been stalling."
Greg staggered backwards by the accusation. "No, I promise I-
The crows and the magpies suddenly came to life in a cacophony of terrible screeching and flapping wings, silencing the scared teenager.
"Now listen carefully to me, boy." The old man raised his voice. "Tomorrow you will ask her out and after school you will take her to the park for a romantic picnic. There, I'll be ambushing her and finally teach that greedy little brat a lesson!" The old man reached into a small bag hanging off his chair and tossed out some bird seeds onto the floor. The dark birds flew down and started picking at the food. "And remember, if you don't do as I say I'll turn you and everyone you care about into bird food! Now, leave!"
His scream once again scared the birds into a frenzy as their screeching took to the air. Greg didn't say anything. He just ran out of the loft and out of the barn as fast as he could.
The scrawny old man sauntered over to pick the diary off the floor. "Paige Logan. It's been years since you broke me, since you ruined my life but I will finally have my vengeance. I can assure you, your demise will be quite… fowl." As the old man slowly thumbed the initials on the book cover he started to sinisterly chuckle to himself. His chuckle raised in in tone until it broke out into a bombastic, evil laughter. The laughter drove the crows, the ravens and the magpies into an even wilder frenzy. In their panicked furry they managed to knock open the window panel and started pouring into the sky above the farm. To the sound of the evil man's laughter, their dark wings blackened the sky.
Author's Note:
Oh no, I think I accidentally gave Greg more personality in this prologue than he ever had in the show, lol. Seriously, I am going to call him Greg from now on even thou I called him Rudy in Darkest Blight: Part 1 (will probably edit that at some point). I only called him Rudy because a few other fanfic authors as well as the Grossology Wiki called him Rudy but looking thru the show, the only time his character was ever mentioned by name was when he introduced himself as Greg to Abby & Petunia (S2E16 Squirm) so unless I've missed something his name is officially Greg. Moral of the story, never trust the Grossology Wiki!
So, we're finally at episode 5 of my Season 3 series and it's the first where Paige plays a pivotal role. For those that don't know, I absolutely HATE Paige. Definitely my least favourite character of the series (and perhaps of all time). I will stress however that I disapprove of hate-fics or bash-fics or whatever they're called where an author has clearly only writen the story to spite a character they don't like. Those kinds of fanfics never seem to have any substance to them and really only come off as really childish to me. So I promise you all, this won't be a fanfic were I constantly hate on a character I happen to dislike. It will have an actual story, it will have something to say and I hope even people that like Paige will be able to have fun reading this as well. In the author's notes I will also explain how I plan to make Paige a better character.
As always, I appreciate any feedback you guys can give me.
See you on the flipside, Grossologists!