Caw!

IT ALWAYS STARTED WITH A CROW. I’d hear their caw caw and my attention would be turned towards wherever they were perched. Sometimes they were bold enough to land right on my shoulder. <Cursed birds!>

There was one perched in a dead tree over my left shoulder. …And then there were two. Crows never gathered alone. At least, not around me. It was always full murders. I chuckle to myself, <Pun intended.>

With a curse like this, you needed to steal all the laughs you could get. I tipped off my hat towards the cursed birds. They cawed at me in mockery. They never took me seriously. No one ever took me seriously in a top hat. I don’t know why I loved wearing them. I guess some stupid part of me felt like perhaps I was the reincarnation of Edgar Allen Poe. He had the sight too, of course.

I walked towards the crosswalk. It was a slow day. Not many cars. It was bright, save for the murder of crows gathering in the tree behind me. They blotted out some of the sun with their black feathers. Caw! Caw! They screamed. I went to step off the curbside and caught the flash. A black, almost transparent figure was laying on the ground. A ball of some sort was rolling away from the rest of the body. It looked like a beheaded ghost, but more like a shadow.

I pulled my step back onto the sidewalk as I heard the screeching of tires rounding the corner! The whoosh of the car as it sped through the red light nearly blew my hat off my head. Once the car passed, that had meant to be my demise, I stepped onto the crosswalk and continued with my day. The murder of crows dissipated. Another death had been avoided.

This was not the first glimpse of doom that I’d caught today — and it wouldn’t be the last.

The coffee shop was busy when I turned the corner. People were lined up outside. I grumbled, not wanting to wait in line — but it was my mother’s need to have caffeine pumping through her veins. At least she was calling it an addiction now. It’d only taken me my entire life to get her to admit it.

Caw!

I saw all the shadow-bodies laying on the ground outside of the cafe! Myself included. I paused, trying to put together what my cursed vision was trying to show me. It never gave me the details of how the death was going to happen, just a glimpse of shadows. They were all mangled and — crushed!

I ran towards the crowd, “Get back! Everyone move out of the way!” I was just in time as brick siding to the building came crashing down around the entrance of the building. Pieces the size of cars lay around us like we were in the middle of a boulder field.

“Oh my gosh!” A woman gasped.

“How did you know?”

“You saved us!”

A worker, looked to be a manager, came pushing out of the cafe, surprise contorted his face, “Is everyone okay!?”

I kept walking. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t want to have to explain how I knew what was going to happen. I wasn’t a prophet or a freak. …Well — maybe a freak. I snickered. Anyway, I didn’t like when people looked at me like that. That half-look of amazement and fear. There was always fear. Like I was a witch caught in the middle of the Witch Trials. The look the doctor gave me when he explained to us why my mother was losing her hair. I was unfazed. I had not seen a shadow figure of my mother.

I heard the sirens as the authorities were making their way to the cafe. I still had a lack of coffee — so I ducked into a corner store. So important were corner stores. They carried an assortment of things you needed when you were coming from one place on your way to another. I called them: “The places between.” <Mother would have to settle for this,> I thought as I watched the styrofoam cup fill with the dark brown liquid. I always liked the smell of coffee, but never liked the taste. Mother liked it enough for both of us.

I had a skip in my step as I walked towards the white building. I never called it for what it was — and I hated being there. So many shadow people. I took the elevator up. She was in room 217. It was rare for me to get this far without my cursed sight showing me something. I smiled. Today was a good day.

Too good…

Caw!

A chill ran up my spine. I felt the hairs on my arms grow stiff. This couldn’t be true! How did a damned crow get inside the hospital? I took up a brisk walk towards my Mother’s room. The fear in my gut was so thick I thought I was going to be sick! I knew! It couldn’t be! There was a commotion as I drew closer to 217. I dropped the coffee! “No.” I said out loud. I hadn’t even realized I’d said it.

There was a crow fluttering in the hallway, wrestling with a nurse. And another! “No!” I said louder. Nurses and other hospital folk were getting in my way. Another crow. Caw! Caw! They were pecking at the windows. I had seen so much death. I had prevented so much death! And the thing that scared me the most…!

I caught a glimpse in the room. Her shadow figure was slowly dissipating like black dust. I was fighting against a nurse now. “No!” I cried. “Mom! No!” The most horrifying thing in my life. She lay there so peacefully, bald. She’d been looking so frail lately, but I had known. There was no shadow! The cursed sight lied. The birds lied! “Fuck you!” I cried, I screamed. It was my own version of a caw at the black wretched birds trying to break through the windows.

I crumbled to the floor and began trembling. The murder of crows flew off just as quickly as they had appeared. I was stuck in a Hitchcock horror — and I was both the cause and the effect. The reason and the solution.

I had saved nearly twenty people this morning — but I couldn’t save the one that meant the most. “Are you okay? It’s going to be okay.” The nurse said. I wasn’t sure how he was processing everything that had just happened. He saw death just as much as I did, but the crows had to be new for him.

“I’m fine. I just — need to use the restroom.”

The nurse pointed, “It’s right there. I’ll be here when you get out.”

“Thanks,” he helped me to my feet. There was a cart full of various tools on my way. I snuck a thermometer. It was the first thing I saw that would help. I closed the restroom door behind me.

It was an oddly wide space for a bathroom, I guess for the wheelchairs. There was a mirror that I stood before. I didn’t need to use the restroom. I held the thermometer agains the mirror and lined up my first eye. I dug deep, mustering all the courage and rage I had built up. All I had to think about was the caw caw of the crows. I slammed my face forward. <Cursed sight,> I thought.