Hey, this is just quick oneshot I was inspired to do. Yesterday in English class, I read 'The Raven'. It was a really interesting piece of work, and it also inspired me to write this (I'm sure that wasn't his intention at all. Sorry Mr. Edgar Allen Poe.) Anyway, Enjoy! I don't own 'The Raven' or 'Regular Show'.
The cool autumn breeze blew the crinkled orange leaves of the park trees past the windows. The moon was full, and no sounds of nature could be heard from inside the house. It all seemed very peaceful yet eerie at the same time.
Unfortunately, all of this was barely noticed by two of the house residents.
"Man!" said Mordecai, a blue jay who was laying on his bed in his and his roommate's room, "I can't believe you broke our console!"
"I told you, it wasn't my fault!" replied Rigby, a dark brown racoon who was laying on a mini trampoline on the other side of the room.
"Dude, you tried to stick two games in the console at the same time," said Mordecai, "What did you think would happen!"
"Muscleman said it would play to games at once!" Rigby said in his defense, "So it's his fault, not mine!"
"Since when is it smart to trust Muscleman?"
Rigby opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. After thinking about it for a few moments, he finally replied with a "Stop Talking!"
Mordecai rolled his eyes. "Come on, dude, let's go find something to do. Maybe there's a late movie or something."
"Yeah, all right." Rigby jumped off the trampoline, and walked to the door on all fours with Mordecai following him. The two walked downstairs and headed towards the front door, but not before noticing the living room.
All the lights were off except for a reading lamp, and Benson and Pops were sitting on the couch reading.
"Where are you guys going?" Benson asked, looking up from his novel.
"We were just going to find something to do since Rigby broke our console," said Mordecai, ignoring the glare the racoon was giving him, "Hey Benson, what are you still doing here. I figured you would've gone home by now."
"What, I'm not allowed to stay here a couple hours?" Benson asked, clearly annoyed.
"Benson and I are just simply enjoying a few good books," answered Pops with a pleasant smile, "It's a perfect night for reading, wouldn't you think?"
"Yeah, I guess," said Mordecai and Rigby, a little unsure since neither of them was really big on reading.
"Would you care to join us?" Pops asked, "Room for two more!" Mordecai and Rigby looked at each other, and just shrugged their shoulders. They had nothing better to do. The two then sat down on the floor and looked through the stack of books Benson and Pops had picked out.
"Pops, all of these books are borrr-ing!" said Rigby, stretching out the word.
"They're all from like the sixties," said Mordecai.
"I'm afraid I haven't updated my collection in a while," appologized Pops.
"Why don't you two actually try to read something instead of just looking at the covers," said Benson.
"Uhh, nah," said Mordecai and Rigby. Benson just simply rolled his eyes, and went back to his book.
"Ooh!" said Pops, excited, "This is one of my favorites!" The two friends looked at the book Pops was holding. It was titled 'Collection of Famous Poems and Short Stories. Vol. 1."
"What is it?" Mordecai asked.
"It's called 'The Raven' by Mr. Edgar Allen Poe," said Pops, "I read it in my school days, sent quite a chill up my spine."
"How scary could a story about a raven be?" Rigby asked, "What does it peck peoples eyes out or something?"
"No," said Benson, "Didn't you read 'The Raven' in high school?"
"I dropped out, remember?" Rigby asked.
"And I was sick the day we read it," said Mordecai, "So I just got the answers from a kid in my class." Again, Benson rolled his eyes.
"Oh, you two must hear it! Would you like to hear it?" Pops asked, now excited.
"Sure, why not?" answered Mordecai, while Rigby answered with, "I guess."
"Good show!" said Pops. He then turned to Benson. "Benson, my good man, would you like to do the honors?"
"Well..." said Benson, thinking about it. His voice was a little more suited to read a gothic poem like this out loud than Pops' voice. "Okay." Pops quickly handed the gumball machine the book, and sat down on the floor, his legs crossed as if he were a child getting ready to hear a story.
Benson opened the book, and began to read. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore..."
()()()()()()()()
"That poem was lame," said Rigby, "It wasn't even that scary."
"Hm hm, agreed," said Mordecai, "We should've just gone to the movies."
"Too late now," said Rigby, as he crawled under his blanket.
"Yeah, well, goodnight Dude," said Mordecai, getting into his own bed.
"Night Dude," replied Rigby. As he slowly fell asleep (Mordecai was already fast asleep), Rigby saw a flash of something by the window, and heard the flutter of feathers. 'What was that?' he thought as he sat up. Nothing was there, and everything was quiet.
'Stop being a baby,' Rigby told himself, 'Remember 'Ello Gov'nor? It turned out to be some kid in a costume. Just go to sleep.' Even though Rigby hadn't really done a good job of convincing himself, he didn't want to hear Mordecai complaining about Rigby keeping him up. So, Rigby just closed his eyes, and after a few minutes, fell asleep.
()()()()()()()
The brown racoon began to stir, the velvet of the chair rubbing his skin underneith his fur.
Wait, there wasn't a leather chair in the house. And didn't he go to bed last night? Rigby opened up his eyes, and quickly looked at his surroundings. The walls and the curtains were a dark purple color, and everything looked so old. It looked like he was in a library or a den.
He then noticed that he was holding a book in his paws. Rigby looked at the cover. "What the H is 'Forgotten Lore'?" he asked. Putting down the book, he looked around the room some more. No one else was there.
"H-Hello?" Rigby called out, definitely freaked out.
Just then, he heard three taps, as if someone was knocking on the door on the other side of the room. Hiding behind the chair, Rigby called out "Who is it? Mordecai I swear if that's you I'm going to kill you!"
There was no reply, no laughter from his friend, no more knocks. "Mordecai?"
Slowly creeping towards the door, Rigby felt his body trembling. 'Calm down, Rigby,' he told himself, 'it's just Mordecai being a jerk.' After what seemed like forever, Rigby had finally made it to the door. He pressed his paw against the cool brass handle, pushed down the trigger, and pulled open the door.
Rigby scowled. No one was there, just the darkness of the hallway.
"Oh ha ha, very funny Mordecai," said Rigby, slamming the door. As he walked back to the chair, he heard three more taps, only these were much louder than before, making the frightened racoon jump nearly three feet in the air. He looked towards the window, where the three new taps had come from.
"Uh, hello?" Rigby called out again, "No one's home!" Rigby didn't see anyone by the window, but wasn't taking any chances. He grabbed the book off the chair, and held it in front of him to use as a shield, and walked towards the window.
Slowly, Rigby opened the window doors, and at first, nothing happened. But then, he heard the slight flutter of wings, and felt something land by him. He let out a shriek and backed up. But then, he just stopped and stared.
Standing right in front of him, was a big, black raven. It's ebony feathers shone in the light of the lamp, and it stood as still as a statue.
But Rigby didn't mind it at all, in fact, he was annoyed. "Oh, I get it, this is supposed to be like that dumb story. Ha ha, Mordecai, you can cut it out now, I'm not scared!" But Mordecai didn't walk out from behind a hiding place, nor did anyone else. It was still just Rigby and the Raven.
The raven then spread out its' wings, flew up, and perched itself on top of the main door.
"Go ahead, stay up there, I'm just gonna chill in this chair!" said Rigby, walking over to the chair. He tried to fall asleep again, but he still felt the Raven's eyes staring at him. "Okay look, I'm not scared by you, so can you please leave?"
In a smooth, strong voice, the raven replied, "Nevermore."
Rigby glared. "Why are you here? Is it because I broke our console? Okay fine, I'm sorry, now will you leave?"
Nonchalantly, the raven replied, "Nevermore."
"Um, I'm sorry I... slack off? And never clean up my side of the room, and um, oh! And I'm sorry I always cause crazy crap to happen around the park. There, is that enough of an apology? Can you fly away now, you're really starting to freak me out."
The raven replied, "Nevermore."
Rigby growled at the bird, but then an idea hit him. "Oh! I get it, that poem was written in old timey style. Okay uh... I be sorry-ith I screw-ith things up around the park. Now, will-ith you please-ith leave me alone!"
The raven replied, "Nevermore."
'Okay, that's it!' Rigby thought. He picked up the book, and brought his arm back. "I told you. Leave. Me. Alone!"
And just as Rigby was about to throw the book at the black bird, it turned it's head and looked at Rigby. It's eyes were stone cold, sending a chill down Rigby's spine. The racoon took a couple steps back, stumbling to the floor.
The air became cold, and the room around him went dark. It was like there was a rain cloud above Rigby's head. But then, as he followed the shadow across the floor, Rigby realized that it was the shadow of the Raven. He heard the final verses of the poem echo around the room.
'And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!'
()()()()()()()()()
"Gah!" Rigby sat up in his 'bed', and looked around. It was morning, and he was back in his and Mordecai's room. But he could still feel the cold shadow of the Raven.
"Rigby?"
Rigby looked over at Mordecai, who was a mess, looking like he didn't have any good dreams either. "Dude, did you have the same Raven dream I did?"
"Yeah," replied Rigby, "talk about freaky. Do you think that book like brainwashed us or something?"
Mordecai rolled his eyes. "Dude, come on, I'm sure it was just some random dream. That story just freaked us out a little more than we thought. But look, it's morning now, I'm sure we'll forget all about it. Now come on, let's go get breakfast and start on our chores before Benson starts yelling at us."
"Yeah, alright," said Rigby. The two left their room, and headed to the kitchen.
After a hot breakfast, the two went outside to start their first chore, which was raking the leaves. Easy enough.
"Okay dude," said Mordecai, "I'll get all the leaves over here, and you can get the leaves by the stream. I'll take the red rake."
"What! No way, that's the good rake! If anyone's getting the good rake it's m-..." Both friends froze in their tracks.
Perched in a high tree, beside a few remaining leaves on the branches, was a raven. It stared coldly at Mordecai and Rigby, and they stared back.
"Hey dude, I think I need to take a five minute break," said Rigby, dropping the rake, "Or ten."
"Right behind you, dude!" The two friends then ran back to the house, and once they were out of sight, the old raven began to laugh.
Pops read that poem to all his new employees around this time of year, and it was always fun to freak them out a little. Even the older employees who had heard the poem before would still remember it and get a little frightened if they saw a raven around this time of year.
Two more smaller ravens hopped out from behind the tree, and high fived the older raven. The three laughed, but stopped when they heard a sigh.
"Honestly," said another raven, "Are you ever going to stop pulling this silly prank of yours, brother? It really is getting old."
The raven smiled. "I believe you know the answer to that, my dear sister," he said, "Nevermore."
Again, please don't take this too seriously. I just wrote this for fun, but I still respect the original source material. Anyway, please review :)