This chapter is dedicated to Sarela Jade. (you can ready why at the end.)
The Crow and the Dove
Chapter 5:
The stillness of the damp night was shattered as a broken song echoed on the cold night air. A shadowed figure stumbled through the gate of the graveyard and languidly dodged around the graves. His song rose and fell without consistency as a periodic hiccup interrupted the song and was quickly replaced with a different verse.
As the shadow approached the church, the soft light cast from the lit lamps cascaded around the form of a man.
The man was dressed simply in pants and a shirt with a recently patched jacket. A worn, mouth-bitten hat was askew on his head and helped control his disarrayed mane of dark brown hair that swayed over his shoulders.
He stopped his song just enough to take a swig from his bottle of cheap alcohol and then belted out the words to a new song.
Oblivious to the graves around him, the man walked forward and away from the safety of the church's light. He walked further into the dark, his song disturbing a lonely crow that was perched on a gravestone. The crow squawked at him irritably and flew up to land in a nearby tree.
"Sorry birdie," the man slurred with a giggle. "Didn't mean ta inturupt yur night."
The man tipped his hat to the bird and lifted his bottle to take another drink. To his dismay, the bottle proved empty. The man shook it sadly to find the last few drops splatter against the mud.
"Now there's a sad shame," he pouted indignantly. "There goes the last of me drink."
With nothing else to do and certainly no place to go, the man plopped down on the ground and leaned up against a grave.
"'Scuse me mister Eric Draven," the man said, squinting at the name on the gravestone. "Hope ya don't mind if I rest here for a sec."
The man threw back his head and started up another song: one he had heard a long time ago when he had happened to pass a music store that sold records. The store had long ago closed down due to a fire. The records had been destroyed and the manager had to close it up. But he still managed to remember the song.
It can't rain all the time.
The sky won't fall forever.
And though the night seems long,
Your tears won't fall forever.
His song ended abruptly as the ground pulsated beneath him.
The man gave a violent start as a hand punched through the muddy earth and latched onto his ankle. The man released a cry of pure horror as the hand pulled on his ankle and the earth parted to make way for an emerging figure.
The crow cawed relentlessly, flapping its wings fervently as the shape clawed at the screaming man to pull itself out of the dirt.
The crow dropped out of the tree and flew at the man. The man had just enough time to focus on the oncoming bird before it collided with him just as the figure broke free from the grave.
The screaming stopped and quiet returned to the graveyard.
A single figure rose from the ground and looked up at the sky to relish in the sight of the moon and flickering stars: a sight he hadn't seen for six years.
_._._._._._._
I know it been a long time. Scratch that. A really long time. And I do apologize. I won't go making excuses because they don't matter anyway. I'm back now with a new chapter and that's what counts.
I want to thank you for the new attraction to the story. I honestly probably wouldn't have continued without your encouragement since I figured it was forgotten. But you've proved that it's not.
I have to give a special and exceedingly warm thank you to Sarela Jade for all your kind words and insistence. I was quite surprised to see that readers were still reading this story. You were the one to prompt me to continue. Thank you so, so much! I've never had such a faithful ready.