THE CROW

LAST CALL

By Michael Wheeler

Based on "THE CROW"

Created By James O'Barr

Part One

The Poison Pill, a rough dive. Peopled by crack heads, criminals and homeless guys who buy the cheapest shit just to be able to sit for a few hours before Last Call and they have to face the cold harsh world once again. And Detroit is cold and it is harsh...

My name is Helena. I was the bartender here. I wasn't fast enough and because of the scares on my face, not attractive enough for the better bars... I put the ugly in Coyote Ugly, one bar owner said... the dick. I got my revenge on him though, I splashed his Darth Vader drink right in his face. Should have slapped him while I was at it, but I didn't feel like getting arrested that night. Besides, I had my little daughter, Stacy, to think about.

The Poison Pill was no place for anyone with any morality. I knew that going in, but I had to get a job and in this economy, you take what you get. I was subject to many bad things, open drug use, prostitutes and their Johns openly having sex in the middle of the bar. The owner told me not to say a word, we needed what money we could get. He was nice, hard, but nice...

Then one night, this guy started coming around. He always came in with a few others. They where bikers, but he was the most clean cut of the bunch and youngest as near as I can tell. As his guys would play poker or hit the pool tables, he'd come up to the bar and start hitting on me... Which actually was nice. I'd not been hit on for a long while, not since Stacy's father raped me and did... Ah, I got enough to think about, why worry about all that...

His name was Jack and I started to really like him. He wasn't perfect, by any means, but neither was I... So we started going out. He met Stacy and took to her right away. He was so sweet, kind. I always wished Stacy could have a good male influance and it turned out this guy... was not bad at all. Even if he existed in a bad world. Jake was the right guy for me and for the first time in my life, I really was happy.

One night, a wise guy type came into the bar, with a bunch of muscle. I don't really know the spacifics of what was going on, but the gang Jack belonged too must have done something wrong... wrong enough any way.

The place became a shooting gallery. I ducked down and hid behind the bar... I heard Jack screaming for me between the blasts of gunfire. I looked over and he was face down through a table and blood was pouring out... He was gurgling... The last thing he said was... Helena, I love you and it was lights out.

"Last Call sweet thing..." a huge mafiosi low life uttered as he pulled me up by my hair and flung me over the bar. "...What we going to do wit diz boz?"

The Italian swine looked around at all the fallen bikers and shot some coke up his nose. He laughed a moment and looked over at me. "Now, it's time for a party... I get first licks."

I screamed... and screamed... and they cut me... Pain, nothing but pain and all I could think was... Stacy... She's going to be all alone now... All alone... Then it all went to black...

Then I hear the crow... He caws... Flying overhead, over the garbage scow my remains are scattered upon.

{{Pull yourself together Helena... You've work to do...}} I heard it speak... I heard it command me. Oh my god... I am in peices... Oh my god... I scream as my body places itself back together. My limbs find their way home, my pecies become whole.

I stand and promptly fall over. I am naked, my skin is riddled in scars from where the peices came back together... I feel my face... Again, I scream. Because I know, my face is worse then it was before all this happened... Now I look like something monsterous. I will have my revenge and this time, it won't just be a drink to the face. I have to kill them and I have to find Stacy... I have to find my precious little girl...

"Hey you! You... You alright girl?" An older gentleman approaches... I am freakin, I don't know this guy... but he seems... kind. "Here put this on, what..." He see's my scares... my face."...What the hell happened to you girl?"

The crow caws, flying over-head, he looks up and looks back at me.

"Well... I think I know what's going on. Come in, I might have some clothes that might at least keep you warm." He smiled, he reminded me of my grandfather, back when I lived in Kentucky... He put his coat around me and asked, "You know the legend of the crow?"

I just nodded no... looking around as we walked. It was just him. I felt... safe.

"People once believed that when someone dies, you see, a crow, takes them off to the otherside, but sometimes there's something so aweful that happens, that a sadness is carried with that soul and it just can't rest. And sometimes, not very often, the crow will bring a soul back to make things right again... That's what's goin' on with you girl. You've been brought back..."

"The crow?" The bird flys into the cabin and pecks at some stale crakers laying on a table. "Then... then what am I? A... a zombie or something? How do you know so much about this?"

He warmed his pipe and a pleasent smell filled the air. Between draws he spoke. "I've seen it before. Several years ago... A boy, a girl... it was tragic. Eric, he came back same as you and he set after the punks that killed him and his pretty and innocent lady friend... He destroyed Top Dollar's stranglehold on the city as well. Then he just, disappeared. After that, things got better... Till now. The mob has moved back in and started thowing their muscle and money around... It's just as bad as it once was. Damn Wall Street and Government always screwing over us `lil people."

"Wha-What about my daughter?" I was starting to get some focus back, but no feeling... Just anger...

"Only the crow knows the whys and wheres..." He said as he handed me some work clothes and boots. "Here these should work, they where a guys who, hasn't be around for awhile. He'll never come back for his stuff at any rate."

"The Crow only likes to tell me where to go and what to do... not much for small talk..." I don't mind putting my clothes on in front of him, he's already seen all there is...

"I guess then girl, you should just accept and load up..." He gets a huge trunk out and opens it up.

I can't believe how much hardware he's got... He starts laying gun after gun on his table.

"I reckon you can have a few of these, seems like the right thing to do... You'll need them." He cocked a grin and threw me a revolver. "Don't worry about not knowing how to shoot, you'll find out you can do a lot `o things you never could before..."

He takes me to the docks, the crow flys over head and I look back.

"Go on girl... the crow can be one impatiant trickster..." He nodded, putting out his pipe and disappeared... Disappeared? A ghost! At least the guns are real enough...

I run. Suddenly I am a parkur expert. I'm floating across the roof tops like a graceful ballerina in the middle of a shit storm.

"When are you going to show me my daughter bird..." I asked, breathing heavy the foul air.

{{Follow... follow... that is all you do... set wrongs to rights}}

"I can see this is going to be an interesting association." I come to the ledge and the crow swoops down showing me where my first stop is. It came as no suprise to me... The Poison Pill. And there I see, things have changed. It's even renamed. How long have I been gone?

{{Wise guy, big guy, the one that pulled your hair and worse... He be in there, be in there...}}

"Looks like I've got time to kill..." I jump off the roof, seven stories and land feet first. "I like this..."

Alright folks, that is the end of part one of "Last Call"... Want more? Want to see what Helena does to those whom deserve an end worse then death? Allow me to give you a clue, this Crow avatar is not as nice as many who've come before... She's seen all the Saw movies, more then once... Let me know what you think thus far and if you want me to continue, thank you for your time and I hope you enjoyed reading.