The Silent Lechuza and me

The silent Lechuza and me

By Faith Stuard

Silence is what I heard when a large barn owl swooped down just inches from my face. It is what I had been waiting for all night, the chance to see this beautiful creature again with all her gorgeous colors from shaded browns on her wings to white feathers adorning her face and body, her body was made for a silent flight, I called her Lechuza which means barn owl in Spanish. I lay quietly, I was hidden in a large pile of wildly thrown hay over the dirt floor of the barn. I used it to wait patiently for hours on this honey- like night sweet but sticky, evident by my clothes clinging to the layer of sweat that was dripping down my body. Some people say that I am too old to still play out in the barn whispering to the animals, but I don’t feel that way I’m only 16 years old. I have a lot of time to be grown up when that time comes , but for now my only responsibilities were to care for the animals on my families farm that we came to live in during the summers the rest of the year we lived in a big fancy house full of all the electronics a kid or teenager could want but I never liked it there , I never felt at home there , I felt like that here with all of my animals around me , my name is Katherina , I’m 16 years old , I’m was raised but a family of vampires from the age of 2 , and to answer your question I am not a vampire well not yet anyways , I plan on being turned when I turn 21 and go through the ceremony that will allow me to become a vampire, in my vampy family there’s Tessa my mom , Robert my dad and little Joey and Johanna my younger siblings, they were born as vampires , they were the real deal they drink blood , have super strength and can charm anyone who’s mental guard isn’t up , I was taught form a very young age how to keep my guard up and keep my mind protected . My dad likes to test me at random times throughout the day to make sure I am getting comfortable and letting my guard down, the feel of someone trying to get into your mind is like nothing I have every experience, it starts like a hand caressing your mind to draw you in, get you comfortable then take over your thoughts thus making you a slave to their will until you die or the let you go. My family was nice and all, but I never felt like one of them I felt like a kid in front of the candy store with no money in their pockets watching all the other kids eating sugary goodness, I want to be changed into a vampire now, but my parent keeps telling me that it is too soon, I don’t really understand why, whether I am 16 or 21 does it really matter? It is a question that I ask myself on a daily sometimes hourly basis, there are many things I do not know but what I do know is that I want to live forever with my family as a vampire.

Katherina! Where are you? it’s time for supper!, my mother called me from the house about 200 feet from where I was laying, I didn’t want to go back in to there I loved the outdoors where I could be alone and free, But If I didn’t get my butt in gear my mother would have a fit and chew me out , and there is nothing like an angry vampire, yeah completely scary , her fangs elongate , her olive toned skin becomes pale, her nails elongate into claws made of ripping flesh from bone , her eyes turn emerald green lastly her voice becomes deeper full of power and some masculinity that is commanding. That is when you will do whatever it takes to make her happy again. Making my way from the barn to the main house a fleeting thought entered my mind, I wondered what I would be like to a quiet and free as that barn owl, quietly swooping down without anyone telling me where to fly. I trudged up the back steps that lead up to the back porch toward the door, I opened the screen door and then pulled open the storm door, as it was all black as entered the house. I went to flip the switch , when I did there was an outcry of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY RINA!!!” looking around the room at my loving family I had totally forgotten that it was my birthday today but my family had been thinking of me. I was so interested in seeing that silent barn owl, I had forgotten that I don’t need to be free, I need my family there was plenty of time to grow up and be changed, to be like the beautifully magnificent barn owl flying silent and free.