Queen of Corvids

Short Story - Suspense/Thriller

Photo by Dr. Yogesh Namdev on Unsplash

January had come in with a frigid vengeance. The temperature plunged well below freezing overnight, giving the small community of Eaglewood absolutely no chance of snow. Magpie Lane was completely bare. No snow, no leaves on the trees, no sun at this hour… nothing.

The only sign of life was one small girl, Emma, standing under a flickering streetlamp waiting for the school bus.

She wore a black knitted beanie with a skull stitched on the center, a bright pink puffy jacket, a black pleated skirt, bright pink stockings, and an old, worn Hello Kitty backpack strapped tightly. She rhythmically lifted two fingers to her mouth, using her freezing breath to make it look like she was smoking as she stared stoically at the reddening horizon. Her mind wandered to Eli but knew better than to linger too long.

Emma was in sixth grade. The grown ups loved to tell her all about what was to come. Her body was about to change. Usually spoken in little more than a whisper, a threat. Something the boys got to celebrate— Congratulations, you have balls now! You’re a man!

But not her. For her it sounded like an ill omen—There will be blood! Beware! Puberty hung over her head like a guillotine. And it’s all anyone wanted to talk about.

The three B’s: Boys, Boobs, and Blood.

Emma took another long drag of her pretend cigarette. She tried to imagine herself as a femme fatale from one of those old movies that her dad loved so much. Something exotic, maybe Russian. Someone aloof, attractive, but most of all: dangerous.

CAWW!

The sound brought Emma back to reality and she looked down to see a large black crow looking up at her expectantly with dark, crooked eyes. She dropped the invisible remains of her fake cigarette and smooshed it with her toes before turning to the bird.

“Well, good day to you, Trader Joe,” Emma said with a small, playful curtsy. “Have you come to check my wares today? I have a few things I think you might like.”

Emma dug into her pockets before she bent down to the bird’s level and produced a handful of goods. She had coins, bits of colorful string, and a polished brass button. The crow hopped forward and inspected the offered treasures, tilting his head further to the right to better see them. With her other hand, Emma slowly reached out to pet the bird gently on the top of his head. The wild creature let her finger caress him for a few moments before stretching forward and taking the button in his beak.

Two more black birds fluttered down next to Trader Joe and looked at the goods Emma offered.

“Well, if it isn’t Emperor Fluffy-butt himself! And Miss Penelope, you are looking mighty fine this morning.” Emma gave each bird a gentle pat on the head as they picked at the items on her palm. The Emperor grabbed a brightly colored string, while Miss Penelope took a coin. But then, out of nowhere, the three birds tensed as if danger was coming and flew away without so much as a goodbye. They congregated safely on a barren tree across the street, veiled in shadows cast by the streetlamp. She was so focused on her feathered friends that she hadn’t paid any attention to the sound of the car slowly moving down the street.

“You shouldn’t touch those. Birds carry diseases, you know!”

The new voice surprised Emma, who jumped in surprise. The birds let out an indignant Caww! from the safety of their branches. Emma straightened up stiffly, as if caught red-handed in the cookie jar. She looked up and saw a young man staring at her with a plastic smile from the driver’s seat of a beat-up Thunderbird. Travis was his name, though she knew him by reputation only.

“Yeah, well, so do people,” Emma replied as she stared with unsure eyes at the newcomer. There was a pregnant silence as she watched him, waiting for him to make his move, or show his cards, or some other game-related metaphor. Travis looked her over, making Emma uncomfortable in a way that she was still too young to put into words.

“Um...yeah. So, anyway. It’s cold out.” Travis waited for some form of acknowledgment from Emma that never came. “Like, twenty degrees below freezing.”

Emma needed more of her imaginary nicotine if she was going to survive this conversation. So she reached into her pocket, gently pulled out an invisible stick, and lit it with an invisible lighter with her other hand up to shield the flame from the wind. She took a long drag as she waited for Travis to get to the point.

“Uh, so I figured you might want a ride. To school,” he said.

Emma released her breath in a cloud of mist that disappeared slowly above her head.

“No, thank you. I don’t take rides from strangers.”

“I guess you don’t know me, do you,” he said with an awkward laugh. “I’m Travis. I’m friends with your brother.”

“I know. You’re a senior, he was a freshman.” Was, past tense. Now he’s not anything.

“Yeah, exactly.” Travis perked up, excited. “See, so we’re not strangers. You can come with me. Get out of this cold.”

Emma took another drag from her cigarette. “Have you seen him?”

“What?”

“My brother, Eli. When was the last time you saw him?”

“Oh, uh…. before the winter break, I think? We weren’t that close. Why?” Travis shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he tried his best to look confused.

“He disappeared. The day before Christmas Eve.” Emma watched as Travis squirmed in his seat for a moment, his mouth opening occasionally, but words wouldn’t come out. Meanwhile, more of the black birds congregated around Emperor Fluffy-butt with a soft fluttering sound.

“Um...I’m sorry to hear that. Anyway, I really like your hat. It’s cute. But I don’t think it’s warm enough for this weather. You should come here and I’ll warm you up.” There was an extended silence and Emma’s skin crawled. “W-with my car, I mean. C’mon, why not?”

Emma just stared at him blankly, trying to understand why he was so insistent.

“You know, you’d be a lot prettier if you smiled more. Come here and let me give you a ride. If you gave me the chance I bet I could make you smile. Or laugh.” He gave a little chuckle as if he was trying to show her how.

She said, “You were the last one seen with him. The two of you were walking into the woods.” Her words were punctuated with the sound of more wings descending onto the tree behind the T-Bird.

Travis stopped laughing as the color drained from his face.

“What? Who saw us?” He failed to make the question sound unimportant. Accusatory cries came from the growing group of birds in the tree behind him.

“The Devil told me,”

For a moment, Travis looked at Emma like she was the Reaper, herself. The birds behind him began to cry out in condemnation and Travis turned around in fear, noticing them for the first time.

“Ha, I get it,” he said. “You’re just messing with me. That’s cute. Here, climb in and I’ll let it slide.”

“So you don’t deny it.” Emma brought her hand up for another drag. It shook as she lifted it, but not from the cold.

“No. I mean, yes! I do deny it. You know, pretty little girls like yourself shouldn’t go around making up stories like that. The police didn’t even question me about Eli, you shouldn’t either. You could ruin someone’s reputation. Do you want a ride, or not?” His cheeks found their color again, now flushed with anger under burning eyes. Emma met his gaze with a rivaled intensity.

“Look, I don’t know what Eli said about me, but I’m not a bad guy,” Travis said with a deep sigh. His plastic smile wavered. “He’s a cool guy and I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Just got a little turned around in the woods. He’ll pop up and you’ll all laugh about it next year. So, who told you that silly little rumor?”

Emma knew better. There hadn’t been any laughter in her house since Christmas. Only tears. The crows knew better, too. They called out profanities in their own tongue from their perch. More had flocked into the barren tree. Now it appeared like it was in full bloom with dark flowers from top to bottom.

“You might not know anything, but I do,” she said. “I know all about how you led Eli on. How much you loved his attention. How he followed you around like a lost puppy, how he–”

Emma choked the words back down. She refused to tell this slimeball that her brother loved him. He didn’t deserve the love then, and he doesn’t deserve to know about it now.

The crows in the tree cried out, louder and louder, drowning out Travis’ protests and lies. Emma just continued to puff on her imaginary cigarette, her body finally going numb.

“Fine.” Travis’ words finally broke through the noise. “You wanna know the truth? The truth is that your brother was a faggot and you’re a liar. Now get in the fucking car or I’ll drag you in myself!”

Emma froze, fear keeping her in place. But before Travis could make good on his threat, something hit his passenger side window, hard.

“What the hell? Who’s out there!” he shouted as another loud thump shook the glass.

He turned to Emma and said, “We’ll talk later,” before peeling off.

Emma slowly brought two fingers up to dry, cracked, blue-tinged lips without a hint of emotion in them and took one last, long drag. As she exhaled her smoke, Emperor Fluffy-butt came down to check on her with Miss Penelope and another crow, this one scarred and missing large patches of feathers around its head, giving an eerie resemblance to a skull.

“You were right, El Diablo,” Emma said. “It was him.” The crows looked back at her, unblinking. Expectant.

Emma took another drag, watching the mist dissipate in front of the tree that now looked as if it was covered completely in large black leaves.

“Emperor Fluffy-butt, I need something from your people. I want that man dead.” She pointed with an unwavering finger to where the taillights had just turned the corner off of Magpie Drive.

The Emperor let out a single war-cry before flying off in pursuit. Suddenly, the whole murder lifted in unison from the tree and descended on the unsuspecting T-Bird.

The bus turned the corner on the other end of the lane as the birds disappeared over the horizon.

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