The Crow: Darkest Night
People used to believe, that when someone died, a crow carried their soul to the land of the dead. Sometimes, a terrible sadness is carried with them, and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back... to put the wrong things right.
**********
It was just another day at school. Dull as hell, and not likely to get any more exciting anytime soon. Same boring classes, same teachers with the monotone voices, same retarded grade nine students. I'd already fallen asleep in class twice, and lunch hadn't even gone by yet. Yeah, every day was a party here at Orchard Park.
"Adam," my history teacher said, "is your presentation ready?" God, this guy could give Ben Stein lessons on how to speak in monotone.
"Yes, sir," I said. I knew I would get a lousy mark, and just for the simple reason that I tried to be entertaining. Not only was the man boring, but he had no sense of humour, either. Reluctantly, I got up and did my presentation. I got the cheap laugh that I was looking for, and the look on my teacher's face told me that I also got the mark that I expected. What a dickhead.
Almost immediately after I sat down, the bell that signified the end of the period rang. I grabbed my books, and ran for the door like a bat out of hell. I felt incredibly good to get out of that stuffy room. History teachers can be such a pain in the ass.
After wolfing down my lunch, I went to my next class, which was music. Me and a group of my friends were working on a song we were going to preform for our rapidly approaching spring concert. The song we were preforming was I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, by Aerosmith. I was doing the lead vocals, and I'd managed to convince a bunch of my closest friends to play the background music. Mike, my best friend since kindergarten, was on bass, his girlfriend, Carrie, was on keyboards, and my buddy that I met in ninth grade, Lance, was playing drums. To round us all out, my girlfriend, Claire, was playing lead guitar. "All right," I said as I walked into the room, "time to get our asses in gear, people."
"Aww, man, do we have to play this song again?" Lance whined from behind his drum set.
"Yes," Mike said, "we do. We have to get it perfect for the concert."
"Fine," Lance said. "But if my arms fall off, It'll be on your heads."
"Oh, for the love of God," Carrie said, "would you save the bitching for after the concert?"
"Children," I said, "let's calm down and get some work done." It was then that I realized that Claire was missing. "Hey," I said, "have any of you seen Claire?"
"She said that she had to go to her locker for something," Carrie said. "She told us to tell you to go get her if she wasn't back by the time you got here."
"Fine," I said, "I'll go and get her. But you'd better be practising while I'm gone." As I left, I heard them snickering behind my back. What the hell was going on here?
********
I found my way to Claire's locker, and saw her standing right in front of it. Claire. I called her my dark angel, since she dressed like a goth. She was, as was her usual, dressed in a pitch-black dress, with dark make-up on her face, her long black hair hanging down her back unbound. I'd never minded the way she had dressed. I had been one of the few people willing to get to know her, and when I did, she turned out to be the one person that truly understood me. We'd been in love ever since.
She happened to see me coming, and a huge I-know-something-that-you-don't-know smile spread across her face. "All right," I said, "what are you up to?"
"What, me, up to something?" she said, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "Whatever would make you think I was up to something?" She flicked her long dark hair the way she did when she was trying to keep something from me.
"I know you too well," I said.
"Hah, hah, very funny," she said. "Anyways, I had the rest of the guys send you down here so that I could give you something."
"Oh, goody!" I said in my best little kid voice. "What is it? A fire engine?"
"Smartass," she said. She then turned towards her open locker and began rummaging through all of the stuff that she kept in there. When she found what she wanted, she pulled it out of her locker and hid it behind her back. "Now close your eyes and hold out your hands," she said. "And no peeking!"
Deciding to play along, I did as I was told. She put something in my hands, but I couldn't tell what it was. "What is it?" I asked.
"Why don't you open your eyes and find out?" she said.
I opened my eyes and saw it was a ring box. Curiosity got the better of me, and I opened the box. Inside was a small silver ring with what looked like vines decorating its surface. All I could say was, "Wow."
"Read the inscription," she said excitedly.
I took the ring out and read the inscription out loud. "Love you forever," it said. I was almost struck speechless. "I love it."
"Happy anniversary, lover-boy," Claire said. Crap. I'd nearly forgotten that today was our anniversary. We'd been dating for five years, ever since we started high school. "I've loved you since the day we met," she said, "and I'll never stop loving you."
"I feel the same way," I said. "I couldn't stop loving you even if I tried." We hugged each other, and kissed for what felt like only a few seconds, but probably actually was about five or six minutes.
"I hope that I'll be getting more of that later on," Claire said.
"Oh, you will," I said. "I've got a big surprise for you after school lets out for the day."
"Oh boy!" she said. "I can't wait!"
"Neither can I," I said. "Now, we'd better get back up to the music room fast, so we can get some practice time in before the end of the period."
"Yeah," Claire said, "let's go."
As we were heading back to the music room, I heard a voice that sent chills down my spine. "Well, well, if it isn't the two lovebirds," the voice said. "What a fucking stroke of luck."
I turned around and saw the only person in the entire world that I can honestly say that I hate. Warren Micheals, my numero uno enemy in the school, had decided to pick this moment to try and make my life a living hell. "Fuck off, Warren," I said. "I don't want any trouble."
"Well, now. The peckerhead and his freak girlfriend don't want any trouble," Warren said. "Isn't that too fucking bad?"
"Warren," Claire said, "please, just leave us alone."
"What if I don't wanna?" the stupid hick said. "What if I wanna beat the shit out of your boyfriend there?"
"Hold on, now, Warren," I said, "I said that I didn't want any trouble. Can't we just move along and save this for some other time?"
"Fuck some other time," Warren sneered. "I want a piece of your ass right now!" And that's when the fun began.
Warren came flying at me at full speed. I barely had time to push Claire out of the way before he hit me. It felt like I had just been hit by a Mack Truck. He got up and proceeded to kick me in the stomach. I tried my best to block his shots, but most of them were getting through. I suddenly felt a sharp, burning pain in my chest. He must have broken one of my ribs. Just as I think I was about to black out, someone yelled something.
"Get the hell off of him right NOW!!!" the voice yelled. Warren jumped off of me like he had seen a ghost, but, considering what he had just attempted, what he did see was probably much worse than a ghost. It was my english teacher, Mr. Nash.
"Mr. Nash!" Warren said. "I, I just, I mean..."
"Shut the hell up," Mr. Nash said. "Get to the office right now." Warren walked towards the office, eyes drilling a hole in the floor in front of him. After Warren had gone around the corner, Mr. Nash turned his attention towards me. "Are you all right?" he asked.
Trying to keep my sense of humour, I said, "Well, my nose is bleeding, I'm bruised all over, and I think at least one of my ribs are busted. Other than that, I feel like crap."
"You'd better get to the school nurse," Mr. Nash said. "I'll tell your teachers what happened."
"Thanks," I said. After Mr. Nash walked off, I tried to get up, and promptly fell back down on my ass. "Maybe I should just stay here for awhile," I said to Claire.
Claire sat down beside me, and put her arm around me. "Are you sure you're all right?" she said. "You look like crap."
"I'll be fine," I said. "Just help me get to the nurses' office." I slowly got up, being careful about my possibly broken ribs, and Claire helped support me as we walked towards the nurses' office.
********
Claire was sitting beside me on the cot in the nurses office, making sure that I wouldn't pass out or anything. We didn't say much. Just kind of sat there and enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to go to class. "So," Claire piped up, "you said you had a surprise for me. Care to let me in on the secret?"
I decided that it wouldn't be any easier to say it later than it would be to say what I wanted to say now, so I summoned up all of my courage, and started my speech. "Claire," I said, "I love you with all my heart. No force on the face of the Earth could stop me from loving you." My palms started to sweat, and I had to swallow almost half a dozen times before I went on. "Now, I know that we're kind of young, and that this may be kind of unexpected, but..." I reached into the pocket of my sweater and pulled out a small ring box that looked a lot like the one Claire had given to me earlier. "Claire, will you marry me?"
Claire opened the box, and looked at the diamond engagement ring that was inside. Her eyes went wide and her jaw nearly dropped to the ground. "I... I don't know what to say..." she said.
"That's all right," I said. "I understand. I mean, we're only 18, we're just finishing high school, it's too early for us to get married..."
Claire cut me off before I could go any further with that thought. "No, that's not it," she said. "I meant that I was just so surprised." She then looked me in the eye, and fixed me with the most serious look I had ever seen on anyone's face before in my life. "Yes, I will marry you."
Now it was my turn to be speechless. "Wow," I said. I just sat there, feeling like.... well, I don't know what to call the feeling that I was feeling at that point. It just felt weird. All I could manage to say was, "I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything," she said. She held me, and kissed me long and hard. It was then I realized that I didn't care about anything else in the world, except to make Claire happy. I forgot about my broken ribs, the various cuts and bruises that I had, everything. I was lost in her kiss.
"I love you, Adam," Claire said to me.
"I love you, my dark angel," I said back.
Nothing could possibly ruin this feeling.
**********
I was told that my teachers had been informed of the reason for my absence, and that I could go home early if I wanted. The school nurse had checked out my ribs, and it turned out that they weren't broken, but they had been bruised. He bandaged me up and let me go. The teachers had also told Claire that she was excused from class for the rest of the day, so she decided to accompany me home. We went to our lockers, got all our stuff together, and left.
"So, what are we going to do now?" Claire asked.
"Hmmm," I said. "We should probably think up a story to tell to our parents about what happened."
"Good idea," Claire said. "Are we going to tell them that we're engaged?"
I thought it over before answering. "Probably not," I said. "Knowing our parents, they'll just say that we're too young, we don't know what we're getting into, yada yada yada."
"Good point," she said.
Just as she finished her sentence, we arrived at my house. I looked in the driveway only to see that the car was gone. "That's odd," I said, "someone's usually home by now." I went up to try the door and see if it was unlocked, but it wasn't. I fished my key out of my pocket, unlocked the door, and me and Claire walked in. "Hello," I yelled, "anybody home?" No answer.
"Looks like we're here all alone," Claire said.
"Yup," I said. "Looks like we are."
A mischievous grin crept across Claire's face. "Why don't we take advantage of the situation, then?" she said.
"Claire," I said, "are you thinking what I think you are?"
"Maybe," she said. "Let's go upstairs to your room and see if you're right."
She grabbed my by the hand and dragged me up the stairs to my room. It looked like Claire was going to prove me wrong about that kiss being the one truly perfect moment of my life.
**********
Claire and I were lying in my bed in a state of complete euphoria. We had just made love for the first time ever. Neither of us could believe that what we had just done had really happened. I was the first of us to actually say something. "Pinch me," I said, "I must be dreaming."
Claire gave me a playful pinch. "Still feel like you're dreaming?" she said.
"No," I said. I held Claire a little closer and kissed her on the forehead. "No, I don't."
Claire snuggled up to me and put her head on my chest. "What do we do now?" she asked.
"Nothing," I said. "Let's just stay here for awhile." All of the sudden, there was a noise downstairs. Someone had come home. "Or we could get dressed and claim that we were studying for a test before my parents catch us here."
"Sounds good to me," she said. We both swung out of my bed and were started to get dressed. We had barely gotten dressed when the door to my room burst open. When Claire and I saw who it was, we automatically knew that we were in deep trouble.
Warren had found his way to my house. It may not have been so bad if he had come alone, but cowards like him always travel in packs.
After Warren came in, his posse followed. First was Jake. About the same size as Warren, and really quiet. Next came Larry. Almost the complete opposite of Jake. Really hyper, never seemed to shut up unless Warren smacked him upside the head. After Larry came in, Paul followed. Even more quiet than Jake was. I had never heard him speak a single word in the entire time I had known him. To round them all out was Warren's girlfriend, Michelle. Rumour had it that Warren had gotten his first date with her at gunpoint.
Warren was the first of them to say anything. "You got me expelled, you cocksucker," he said to me.
"You were the one dumb enough to attack me in the middle of the school where a teacher was sure to find us," I responded. "You got yourself expelled, jerkoff."
Larry saw Claire sitting on the bed beside me, and started running off at the mouth. "Had yourself a quick fuck, huh?" he said. "How was she, huh, huh? Did you make a lot of noise?"
Warren smacked Larry upside the head to shut him up. He held out his hand, and Paul handed him a gun. Claire started to shake as she hid behind me. She felt as scared as I was. "Now, then," Warren began, "which of these two freaks should I kill first?"
"Leave Claire alone," I said without hesitating. "Just let her go."
"Thanks for making the decision for me," Warren said. He raised the gun, and pointed it at my chest. Just before he fired, Claire jumped in front of me and took the bullet.
"NO!!!" I yelled. Claire fell to the ground, blood pouring out of the wound in her chest. I couldn't believe it. My dark angel had been shot.
"Adam..." she said, her voice growing softer. "I was trying to help..." her eyes closed, her breath stopped. She was silent.
I gently cradled Claire's head in my arms, tears streaming down my face. The anger inside me was reaching levels that I had never even come close to feeling before. "You bastards," I said quietly. My vision was starting to go red. "You killed my dark angel," I said. "I swear, whatever it takes, I'll kill you all. You are going to die the most horrible deaths that the human mind can possibly dream of."
Michelle actually seemed scared by this. Warren, of course, wasn't scared in the least. "Oh, shut the fuck up," he said, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit me directly in the chest. The pain was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Blood started coming out of me, mingling with Claire's in the rug of my bedroom. Warren and his friends stood over me and Claire, watching me die. Before my vision went completely black, I looked towards the window of my room, and saw a big black crow perched there. It cawed once, and then flew away.
Then, darkness.
**********
Darkness.
I couldn't see anything, even though my eyes were wide open. I reached towards where the sky should be, and feel some sort of padding. I push harder, and my hands stop after less than an inch. A coffin. I'm in a coffin! I started to panic. I clawed at the padding above me. It comes away in shreds. I start to pound at the lid of the coffin, and it eventually gives way. Dirt falls in the coffin. I dig my way through the dirt, and manage to make it out of the grave. I climb out, taking in a large breath of fresh air. I was laying on the ground, tired from the effort of digging my way out of the grave. "Why had someone buried me?" I said out loud. "I'm not dead. I'm not dead!"
Yes you are, a voice from out of nowhere said.
I sat bolt upright, looking all over for the source of the voice. "Who's out there?" I said. "Who said that?"
In the tree to your left, the voice said. I looked to my left, and in the tree was perched a big black crow.
"Great," I said. "A crow is talking to me. I must be going insane."
I assure you, you are quite sane, the crow said. You are also, however, quite dead.
"If I'm dead," I said to the crow, "how come I'm here talking to you?"
Look at the headstone of the grave beside yours, the crow said to me. I crawled over to the next grave, and looked at the inscription. It said:
Claire Parker
1980-1999
Beloved Daughter
As the reality of the situation sank in, tears began to well up in my eyes. All of the sudden, there was a
flash
Me and Claire, making love for the first time. Warren and his cronies. The gunshots. The pain. The crow on my windowsill.
I propell myself away from the grave like I've seen a ghost. "What the hell was that?" I ask.
A memory, the crow said to me. You may be experienceing a lot more just like that one, so you'd better get used to it.
"What do I do now?" I asked the crow. "Why did I come back?"
To put the wrong things right, the crow said. To have your revenge on those who took the lives of you and Claire.
"Yes," I said. "You're right." I got to my feet, and the crow perched itself on my shoulder. "Let's head for my house first," I said. "I need a change of clothes."
Me and the crow walked out of the graveyard, and began to walk to my house. As we walked, all I could think of was what I was going to do to Warren and his cohorts.
It wasn't going to be pleasant.
********
It took almost half an hour, but the crow and I eventually arrived at my house. It looked exactly the same as the last time I had been there, the day that Warren and his friends had murdered me and Claire. Deciding to risk wether or not my parents were home, I decided to try walking in through the front door. When I tried to open it, I found that it was unlocked. I walked in, and the crow flew from my shoulder to a bookshelf in the family room. "Mom, Dad," I called out, "is anyone home?" No answer. I went into the living room, and immediately saw a tape outline of two bodies on the floor. What the hell had happened here?
Why don't you touch them and find out? the crow said to me. I knelt down between the two outlines, and reached out with my hands to touch each of them. Almost instantly, I had another
flash
Warren, back at my house a few days after he killed me and Claire. My parents are sitting on the couch watching a movie. He makes them kneel on the floor, and shoots them both in the chest. He laughs over their dead bodies.
I pull my hands away from the outlines like I've touched a boiling hot tea kettle. I back into a corner, and hug my knees to my chest. First, Warren killed me and Claire, and then he came back to kill my parents. "Why?" I said. "Why did he have to kill my parents?"
He was probably afraid of them finding out that he was the one that had killed you and Claire, the crow said. They hadn't given up on finding out who killed you two, and may have been getting close to the truth of what happened. But then Warren came along....
I was getting angrier by the second. First, Warren had killed Claire and me, then he killed my parents. "It's time for Warren and his crew to die," I said. I got up from where I had been sitting, and went downstairs to the basement, the crow following me down. I rummaged through a laundry basket, and found a pair of my black denim jeans. I went through it a little more, and found a long sleeved black shirt of mine that I used to wear with my wrestling shirts all the time. I went back upstairs, and found the pair of black boots that I wore all the time before I died. I went upstairs to my old room, and started to get changed. I put on all the clothes I had gathered, then went into the washroom. I went into the medicine cabinet, and found the old facepaint that I had used so many times for my Halloween costume. I spread the white face paint all over my face, and then reached in the cabinet again to get the black lipstick applicator I had also used. I painted my lips dead black, with two lines extending from the corners of my mouth. I painted a little bit of the skin around my eyes black, with two lines extending above and below each eye. I stepped back to survey my handiwork. "How do I look?" I asked the crow.
Like a mime from Hell, the crow said. It suits you.
"Glad you like it," I said.
So, the crow said, where are we going to go first?
"To visit my friends," I said. "I have to make sure that Warren didn't try anything with them. After that, those sons of bitches are going to pay dearly for what they did to me and my dark angel."
**********
I decided to go to Mike's house first. Mike. My best friend since kindergarten. If anyone would be willing to believe what had happened to me, it would be him. It took me and the crow about twenty minutes to get to Mike's house from mine. When we got there, I saw that Lance's car was sitting in the driveway. What was Lance doing here? I decided that the front door wouldn't be a good idea, so I went around to the back of the house. I looked in through the window in the back, and saw Mike, Carrie, and Lance all sitting together. I couldn't tell what they were saying, though. Never was much of a lip reader. I decided to try getting in through the side window. I went back around to the side of the house, and found that, luckily, the window there had been left unlocked. I quietly slid it open, and snuck in. The crow flew in, so I put a finger to my lips to tell it to keep quiet. I hid near the doorway that led to the living room, and tried to listen in on their conversation.
"It doesn't feel like it's been one year already," I heard Carrie say.
"I know," Lance said. "It only seems like yesterday that we were practising for the spring concert."
"Yeah," Mike said. "If I try hard enough, I can almost hear him telling us to get off of our asses and start practising."
"I miss him," Carrie said.
"You know," Lance said, "I heard that he had proposed to Claire the day he was killed."
"Oh, my God!" Carrie said. "That makes it even worse!"
I decided that I had heard enough. Time to let them know that I was around. "You're right," I said as I stepped out of the shadows, "it did make it worse."
They all jumped when they heard my voice. They looked in the direction that it had come from, and saw me standing there, with my painted face and the crow now perched on my shoulder. "Who the hell are you?" Mike demanded.
"You don't recognize me, Mike?" I said. "We've known each other since kindergarten. I'm hurt."
Carrie got up from her seat and walked towards me. Mike tried to stop her, but she shook him off and kept walking towards me. She stood right in front of me, and carefully studied my face, trying to determine who I was under all the makeup. I saw a glint of recognition cross her face. Her eyes began to widen, and then she just grabbed me and hugged me. "It's you!" she said through her sobbing. "I can't belive that it's really you!!"
Mike and Lance then got up from their seats, and came over to where me and Carrie were standing. They took a closer look, and then finally realized who I was. They joined in, and we all stood there for what felt like forever. "We thought you died," Mike said. "We were at yours and Claire's funeral. We saw them bury you!"
When we finally seperated from each other, I decided that I'd better tell them the whole truth. "I did die," I said. "Warren and his friends murdered me and Claire the day that I proposed to her."
"But if you died," Lance said, "how come you're here now?"
I decided that the only way to make them beleive that I had died was to show them exactly what happened. "Hold each other's hands," I said to them. The three of them clasped their hands together, and I touched Mike's head with my left hand, and Lance's head with my right. I automatically had another flash, like the ones I had been experiencing since I had come back. My three friends saw what had happened to me and Claire that day one year ago. When I pulled my hands away from them, Mike and Lance had a shocked look on their faces, and Carrie was on the verge of tears. "You did die," Mike said.
"Yes," I said, "I did."
"Why did you come back, then?" Carrie asked.
"Revenge," I said. "To make Warren and his crew pay for what they did to me and Claire."
"How did you come back?" Lance asked.
The crow flew over from where he had been sitting and perched himself on my shoulder. "This is how," I said. They all got a puzzled look on their faces. "I'm sorry, but I don't have time to explain it all in detail," I said. "I have to do what I came back to do." They all looked disappointed, but they seemed to understand.
Before I could leave, Carrie grabbed me by the arm, gave me another hug, and said, "Make those little fucks suffer."
"You can damn well count on that happening," I said. I turned and walked away from my friends, the crow perched on my shoulder.
When we got out of the house, the crow said to me, Who's going to be the first victim?
"Larry," I said. "He'll be the first of them to move into a body bag."
**********
Five minutes after leaving my friends, I got to Larry's house. I peeked in the large window that looked into his living room, and saw him sitting on the couch, watching a porno movie. I tapped on the glass lightly. He turns his head, sees nothing, and goes back to watching the movie. I tap on the window again, a little louder this time. This time, curiosity gets the better of him, and he gets up from the couch to check out what's making the noise. When he's about two feet from the window, I pick up a large rock that's sitting on the ground, and heave it through the window as hard as I can. Larry jumps back from the window, swearing at the top of his lungs. The crow flies in ahead of me, and I hear Larry say, "What the fuck is that thing?"
I jump through the space where the window used to be. "He's a friend of mine, Larry," I said. "Why don't you say hello to each other?"
Larry squints when he looks at me. I can tell by the smell of him that he's been drinking. "What fuckin' hole did you crawl out of, freak-boy?" he said.
"There's that word again," I said. "I'm going to have to prolong your death just for that."
Larry starts to look scared now. "Who the fuck are you?" he says, stuttering a little as he nervously looks around for some way to escape.
"You don't remember me?" I said to him. "Maybe you remember the day you killed me and Claire one year ago, you pathetic sack of shit."
Larry takes a closer look at my face, and I see that he finally recognizes me. "What the fuck... we killed you! We watched you die! You and that freak girlfriend of yours!"
"You just added a little more pain to your death with that sentence, Larry," I said. I walk over to him, and pick him up by his shirt. "Time for the fun to start," I say, as I throw him across the room into a wall. The drywall cracks, and Larry's body makes a dull thud as he hits the ground. I walk over to where he is, and pick him up again. I smash the back of his head into the wall, leaving an indentation. I pick him up by the shirt again before he hits the ground, and say, "Any last words, you pathetic sack of shit?"
"D-d-d-don't k-kill me," he says. I look down and realize that he's wet his pants.
"I can see that I've scared the living hell out of you," I said to Larry. "I guess the nice thing to do would be to let you live." Larry starts to get a relieved look on his face. "But, you know what? I don't feel like being nice tonight." His eyes bug out of his head as I grab his head with both hands and twist, snapping his neck. He's dead before he hits the ground.
Good job, the crow says as he flies down from the shelf he had perched himself on while I did my dirty work.
"I'm glad you approve," I said.
What are you going to do now? the crow said.
"Time to track down Jake," I said. "He'll be the next to pay."
**********
It didn't take long to find Jake's house. Larry had an adress book that had the adresses of all his pals. Thank God for small favours. I arrived at Jake's house, and snuck around to the back. I looked in the back window, and saw Jake in the living room, watching some movie and drinking a beer. I figured that he wouldn't scare as easily as Larry did, so I decided to use the cell phone that I'd taken from Larry. I dialed the number, and waited for Jake to pick up the phone. Three rings later, I heard a voice on the other side of the line. "Who is it?" Jake said lazily.
"A ghost from your past, come back to haunt you," I said.
"What kind of sick joke is this?" Jake said.
"No joke, Jake my boy," I said. "You're going to die tonight."
"Warren, if this is you, this is one sick fucking joke," Jake said, starting to sound nervous.
I decided to make my move. I took a few steps back from the window, got a running start, and crashed through it. Jake jumped like he'd seen a ghost. Which, in a way, he had. "Warren isn't here to save your ass tonight, Jake," I said.
Jake nearly pissed himself when he saw my face. The phone call had done its job. "Who the fuck are you?" he said.
"You don't recognize me?" I said. "Think back. Think back to a year ago. You, Warren, and all your friends killed me and Claire because Warren got expelled. Any of that ring a bell?"
Jake looked a little closer at me, finally realizing who I was. "How!?" he said. "How can it possibly be you?"
"A little bird helped me," I said. In less than a second, I ran across the room to where Jake was standing, and had him by the throat. "Your time is up, Jake," I said. "Any last words?"
"Please, d-d-d-don't kill me," Jake said.
"Too late to beg for mercy," I said. "You signed your death warrant a year ago when you helped kill me and Claire." I dragged him over to where a large standing lamp was in the living room, and broke it in half at the middle. I picked Jake up over my head, and said to him, "Brace yourself. This is going to sting a little." With that, I brought him down on top of what was left of the lamp, impaling him. He gasped for a few seconds, then he was silent.
The crow flew down from where he was hiding and said, Quite inventive of you. I don't think I've ever seen anyone impaled on a lamp before.
"Thank you," I said. I took one last look at him, then started towards the front door.
So, who's going to be next? the crow asked.
"I think we'll pay a visit to Paul next," I said to the crow. "He can be the next calling card."
**********
It took a while, but I made my way to Paul's house from Jake's. He wasn't home when I got there, so I decided to let myself in and wait for him. I punched a hole in the glass, unlocked the door, and went in. I went to the fridge, grabbed a bottle of Molson Canadian, and sat down on the couch to wait for Paul to show up.
Half a beer later, I heard a car pulling into the driveway. Footsteps coming towards the door. Someone swore under their breath as they realized that the window had been broken. Paul came in the house, his back to me. I heard him say, "Goddamn kids. Ram a rock up their fucking asses."
"Oh, now, isn't that a little extreme?" I said. Paul dropped the bag he had been carrying and whipped around to see who had said that. He took one look at me, and drew a gun from the waistband of his pants.
"I don't know who you are, freak, but you'd better get the hell out of my house NOW." he said. He shakily pointed the gun at me.
"You look a little scared, Paul," I said, mock gentleness in my voice. "Like you've seen a ghost."
"Fuck you, freak," he said, and pulled the trigger. I took the bullet directly to the chest, and took a few steps back from the force of the bullet hitting me. What happened next was unbeliveable. Both Paul and I stood and watched in amazement as the bullet hole closed within seconds of the wound being inflicted. I tried to keep my face expressionless. I didn't want Paul to know that I didn't know I could do that.
"You almost made me spill my beer, you little fuck," I said, sounding annoyed. I take a swig from the bottle, then hurl it at Paul. It hits him directly in the forehead, and he goes back a few steps. While he's still stunned, I run up to him and grab him by the throat. I pick him up about half a foot off the ground by his throat, and say, "How does it feel?"
"H-h-how does what feel?" Paul says nervously.
"How does it feel knowing that you're about to die?" I said. Paul looks like he's thinking about begging for mercy, but knows that it will do him no good. I drag him out into the kitchen, and find the biggest, sharpest knife that I can see. I hold it less than an inch from his face, and say, "You stood over me and Claire as we died. You watched the blood leak out from our bodies. It's time for me to see what that was like." I spin him around so that his back is to me, and hold him close to me by the throat with my forearm. "See you in hell," I said, as I plunged the knife into his chest. I let go of him, and let him fall to the ground. The blood is pouring out of him. Must have gotten his heart. He stares at the kinfe sticking out of his chest, a look of disbelief etched on his face. He then collapses to the ground, and eventually is still.
Three down, the crow says. Who's going to be the next to meet his maker?
"I think I'll pay a visit to Michelle next," I say. "If she was scared the night I was killed, she'll be petrified when I show up tonight."
**********
After I got out of Paul's house, I hotwired his car and drove to Michelle's house. I remember she had been totally silent throughout the entire time that it had taken Warren and his now deceased friends to kill me and Claire. She had seemed scared out of her mind when I had said that I would come back to kill them all. She actually seemed to take my threat seriously. I intended to make all her nightmares come true.
I pulled into the driveway of her house, and walked up to the front door. I wasn't in the mood for a theatrical entrance this time. I tried the door, and found that it was unlocked. I walked in, and Michelle must have heard me, because I heard her say, "Mom, Dad, is that you?"
"Mommy and Daddy can't help you now, Michelle," I said. She came around the corner to see who had wandered into her house, and when she saw my face, like the mime from Hell, the crow perched on my shoulder, she tried to scream, but no sound would come out. It was like she was too scared to scream.
"Oh... my... God..." she managed to get out as I walked towards her. The crow took off from my shoulder, and flew back outside to perch itself in a tree. As I got closer to her, I could see the fear inside her growing.
"You've been a bad girl, Michelle," I said. "You helped murder me and Claire. I've come to punish you."
Claire dropped to her knees, clutching my coat with her hands. "Please don't hurt me!" she begged. "I swear, I didn't know that they were going to kill you and Claire! I swear it!"
"Don't give me that bullshit," I said.
"I swear it's true!" she said through the sobbing. "Claire and I were friends. She was always nice to me. I asked her not to tell anyone that we were friends for fear that it might get back to Warren! Please, you have to belive me!"
I still didn't belive her, but decided to try and read her mind, the same way I had shown my memories to my friends earlier. I grabbed her by the head, and braced for the shock that usually accompanied a flash. Then I saw the whole truth. Claire and Michelle talking on the phone. Hanging out at the mall. Studying for tests at school. I let go of Michelle's head, knowing that I could not kill her. She didn't deserve to die. "Why?" I said after I had recovered from the flash. "Why didn't you do anything to stop them?"
"I... I was scared," she said. "The rumours about Warren getting his first date with me at gunpoint were true. He'd always been abusive. I was so scared of him that I couldn't do anything." She began to sob again.
I walked over to where she was, and knelt down beside her, hugging her. "Don't worry," I said to her. "I'm sorry I scared you so bad."
"It's all right," she said. "But, I'm more scared about what Warren will say when he finds out you were here. His friends are bound to tell him."
"His friends are'nt going to be telling anyone anything," I said. "They're all dead."
"You... you killed them?" she said nervously.
"It's what I came back to do," I told her. "I was brought back to set the wrong things right." She started to get a scared look on her face again. "Don't worry," I said. "I'm not going to kill you. You couldn't have done anything to prevent what happened." Instantly, she seemed completley relieved.
I rose from the floor, and turned, getting ready to leave, when Michelle said, "Please, don't go. You can sleep on the couch if you want."
I was feeling a little wasted. I decided to take Michelle up on her offer. "All right," I said, "I'll stay."
Michelle ran upstairs and grabbed a few blankets for me to use. I fell asleep almost the second my head hit the cushions. It was the first time I had slept since I had come back. I hoped that I would sleep well.
**********
[I woke up in my room at my house. How did I get here? The last thing that I remember was going to Michelle's house, and her letting me stay there for the night. I fell asleep on her couch, and then I woke up here. What the hell was going on?
["Adam," I heard a voice say. I turned around, and there she was. Claire was standing there, looking just as beautiful as I remember her. Dressed all in black, same dark makeup, same unbound jet-black hair. "Adam, I missed you."
[I ran to her and picked her up off of the ground, holding her close, not wanting to let go. "I missed you too, my dark angel," I said, trying to hold back the tears.
["You're almost finished, Adam," Claire said. "You've almost finished what you were sent back to do. When you've finished it, we can be together again."
["It hurts," I said. "It hurts me to be away from you."
["I know," she said, holding me even tighter. "It hurts me too. But soon we can be toghether forever."
[Claire let go of me, and began to dissapear. "Wait!" I yelled. "What do I have to do?"
["Set the wrong things right," Claire said to me. "Set the wrong things right...."]
**********
I woke up immediately, realizing that I had been dreaming. I was breathing heavily, swat was puring off of me. The crow sat on the coffee table in front of the couch I was on. What did you dream of? the crow asked me.
"Claire," I said. "She told me I was almost done with what I had come back to do."
She is right, the crow told me. Once you finish off Warren, you can be with Claire forever.
"I have to finish it soon," I said to the crow. "I can't stand being away from her any longer."
Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I looked in the direction of the stairs, and saw Michelle coming down from her room. "You were making a lot of noise," Michelle said. "Did you have a dream?"
"Yes," I said. "Claire told me that I was almost done with what I had come back to do."
Michelle sat down on the couch beside me, and put her hand on my shoulder. "I hope that you're both happy together," she said.
We both jumped as we heard a noise at the door. Someone was unlocking it. Michelle held out her hand to tell me to stay on the couch, and she went to see who was coming in. "Michelle," I heard a voice say, "what are you doing up at this hour?"
"Nothing, Mom." So, it was her parents. I sighed in releif. "Mom, Dad," she continued, "there's someone here you should meet."
"Who is it?" her father asked. Michelle motioned for me to come and meet her parents. I got up off the couch, and stepped out of the shadows. "This is Adam," she said.
Her parents seemed to try and be processing a piece of information that couldn't quite get through. "Adam?" her mother said. "The same Adam that was seeing Claire?"
"Yes," I said. "That's me."
"But you're susposed to be dead," her father said. "They found you in your room with Claire, dead from a gunshot wound."
"I know," I said. "This is going to be hard to explain..."
"Mom, Dad," Michelle started, "Warren and his group murdered Claire and Adam one year ago."
"If that's true," her father said, "then how can he be standing here now?"
"I was brought back," I said. "To put the wrong things right. To make sure that Warren and his friends could never do the same thing that they did to me to anyone else."
"That's impossible," Michelle's mother said. "People don't come back from the dead."
I didn't know of any other way to show them that I was who I was, or to show them what had happened that day one year ago, so I did the only thing that I could think of doing. I slowly walked towards them, and reached out to their heads with each of my hands, and braced myself for the shock that always accompanied a flash.
They relived all the events of that day one year ago. They saw in seconds what had felt like an eternity. When I had finished, I let go of their heads, and they both staggered back a few feet from me. "You really did die," Michelle's father said.
"Yes," I said.
"Why did it take so long?" Michelle's mother asked.
"I don't know," I said. "All I know is that I was brought back to make those bastards pay for what they did to me and Claire." Michelle's parents seemed to accept this for the time being, but had a look on their faces that suggested that they wanted to ask more. Before they could say anything, though, I held up my hand to stop them. "I'm sorry," I said. "I know there's more that you want to know, but I have to leave. I have to take care of Warren before he goes into hiding, or calls the police, or something." As I finished my sentence, the crow flew from where it had been sitting to land on my shoulder. "I have to leave now," I said.
"Will we see you again?" Michelle asked.
"I'm not sure," I said. "Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know what will happen after I kill Warren."
Michelle and her parents moved aside to let me out the door. "I'll miss you, Adam," Michelle said.
"I'll miss you too," I said. "But just remember that love always finds a way. That love is stronger than death." Michelle hugged me, and when she let go of me, I ran out of the door, the crow flying in front of me. I could only think of Warren as I ran down the streets. Wherever I found him, he was going to die a horrible death.
And I was going to enjoy every single second of it.
**********
The crow lead me through the dark streets of the small city that I had lived in for what seemed like an eternity before he finally stopped in front of an old, run-down house. I looked at it, then at the crow sitting in a nearby tree, and said, "He's hiding in here?"
No, the crow said, but there are weapons here that he has been hiding since he killed your parents. After he murdered them, he became very paranoid, so he began to prepare for the worst.
"He could have been a Boy Scout," I said as I walked in the house. I immediately noticed that no one had been in here for quite a while, due to a large buildup of dust everywhere I looked. I walked down the hall to a nearby closet. When I stood in front of it, I felt something pulling me, as if there was something in there that I was meant to find. I opened the door, and saw several rifles, handguns, and bows with arrows filling the closet. The pulling sensation was getting stronger as I knelt down to search among the handguns. I felt the pull get even stronger as I passed my hand over one particular gun. I picked it up, and almost immediately was hit by a
flash
Warren, barging into my room with the gun in his hand. He finds me and Claire in bed together. He shoots Claire, then me. He enjoys it beyond words.
I almost throw the gun away in disgust at the enjoyment that I knew Warren felt at killing me and Claire. "You brought me here to find this gun, didn't you?" I said to the crow.
Yes, the crow said to me. Fitting, isn't it? That you should end your murderers life with same weapon that he ended yours with?
"Yeah," I said. "You're right." I looked at the gun for a minute before slipping it into the pocket of my coat. The crow again perched itself on my shoulder as I walked out of the house. I looked at the crow, and it immediately took off, leading me down the streets to wherever Warren was hiding. He was going to pay for murdering me and my dark angel. He was going to pay dearly.
**********
After about twenty minutes of running, the crow perched in a tree in front of one of the many large houses on Lake Avenue. I walked up to the door, and tried to look inside the window. It was dark inside, but I could hear someone running back and forth in there. So, the little sack of shit was expecting me. I took a few steps back from the door, and kicked it right in the middle. It came off it's hinges like it wasn't even bolted down. I walked inside, and in my best impression of Ricky Ricardo, said, "Luucyyy! You got some 'splanin to do!"
"I killed you!" I heard Warren yell from somwhere in the house. "I watched you and that freak girlfriend of yours bleed to death!"
"I know, shitbag," I said to him. "I was there, remember?"
Warren picked that moment to come out of hiding. I'd say that he looked like death warmed over, but that would make me look bad. His hair was a mess, he hadn't shaved for what looked like months, and had huge bags under his eyes. He was holding a shotgun in his hands, and when he saw me, he pointed it directly at my chest. "You may have gotten the others, but I'm damn sure gonna make sure you stay dead this time, freak!" he said. He fired a shot with the shotgun, and the blast hit me directly in the chest. I stood there and enjoyed the nearly comical expression on his face as he watched the wound close almost in seconds.
"You know," I said, "it kind of itches when that happens now. Unfortunately, when it happens to you, you'll be suffering from a slight case of death."
"H-h-how..." I could hear him say. I suddenly smelled something particularly gross in the air, and realized that Warren had just wet himself.
"You can't hurt me anymore, Warren," I said. "I've come back to make you pay for what you did to me and Claire that night." I pulled the gun out of my coat pocket, and held it up for Warren to see. "You remember this gun, Warren?" I said. "It's the same one that you used to kill me and Claire that night. Now, it's going to be used to end your miserable life."
Warren dropped the gun as he finally realized that there was no possible way out of this. "This has to be a dream," I hear him whisper.
"I can assure you," I said, "this is no fucking dream. You took away the one thing I loved more than anything." I walked closer to Warren, and when I was finally standing in front of him, I said, "I'd like to share something with you." My hand shot out and grabbed his head, and I prepared for the flash.
Warren felt all the pain, all the anguish, all the suffering he had caused me in an instant. When I let go of him, he was babbling like a madman. He looked at me, and said "P-p-p-please... don't kill me."
I just smiled, and said, "You're beyond pleading for your life now, Warren." I lifted the gun and pointed it straight at his head. "When you get to hell," I said, "say hello to your friends for me." I pulled the trigger, and Warren's head snapped back with the impact of the bullet. He fell to the ground, dead before he even touched it. The blood from the wound splattered at odd angles, forming into an odd shape.
It was a crow.
**********
I went back to the cemetery where I had begun this long journey, growing more and more tired with each passing minute. I sat down in front of Claire's headstone, so tired that I was no longer able to stand. "What's it like?" I asked the crow. "What's it going to be like when I die again?"
I can't say for sure, the crow said. Some people walk off into a light. Others just fade away. It's always different for different people.
"Thanks," I said to the crow. "Thank you for being my guide." No problem, the crow said. It cawed once, and then flew off into the distance.
I lay there on Claire's grave, waiting for something to happen. After a few minutes, I nearly fell asleep when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up, and Claire was standing there, looking just as beautiful as I remember her. She was dressed in a beautiful black dress, her pitch-black hair unbound as always, and she was wearing her usual dark makeup. "I missed you, my dark angel," I said to her.
"I missed you too, Adam," she said to me. She leaned towards my face and kissed me so passionately that I thought I'd die again right there.
"What happens now?" I asked.
"We stay together forever," Claire said. "We have all eternity to be in love with each other."
Claire helped me get up from where I was on her grave. She started leading me to a brilliant white light. As we walked into it, I said, "I love you, Claire."
"I love you too, Adam," she said. Then we walked into the light together.
**********
EPILOGUE
Me, Mike, Carrie, and Lance got to the cemetery just as Adam walked into some sort of light with Claire. I hadn't realized how much I would miss my friend Claire until that moment. "Hey, Michelle," Carrie said, "are you going to be okay?"
"Yes," I said, lying through my teeth. I was going to miss both of them so much. Claire had been the only person who was willing to be my friend after I started seeing Warren. "I'll miss them, though."
"We all will," Lance said. "But at least we have each other to hang onto." Lance put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a good squeeze.
Out of nowhere, a crow flew down from the sky and looked at all of us. It cawed once, dropped something on the ground at my feet, and flew off. I leaned over to pick it up, and saw that it was a diamond engagement ring. "Where did that bird get this?" I wondered out loud.
Mike and Carrie came closer to me and Lance, and looked at the ring. "Oh my God," Carrie said, "that's the engagement ring that Adam gave to Claire!"
"Maybe they wanted you to have it," Mike said.
I was struck speechless. Claire had given me her engagement ring. I just couldn't belive it. I slipped it onto the ring finger of my right hand. It fit perfectly. "I can't belive it," I whispered.
"Let's all go home and have a beer," Mike said. "Adam would have wanted to be toasted with a bottle of Molson Canadian."
As we all left the graveyard together to toast our departed friends, I remembered one of the last things that Adam had said to me before he had gone to take care of Warren. That love always finds a way. That love is stronger than death.
Rest in peace, my friends.
THE END
I always like to hear back from people that have read my stories, so if you liked this one, email me at mcmacladdie@yahoo.com. Thanks for reading!!