Crows

Chapter One: Enter the Owl Kashshaptu

Part Two:

The Old Cabin

Henry closed the car door and was immediately soaked with buckets of rain. He wanted to look up in the trees at the owls but found it impossible without the headlights on. The wet leaves were nearly knee-high as he continued toward the cabin door. Now that he was at the door, he could see a faint glow coming through the cracks of the boards. This was a terrible cabin. How has it lasted this long? he wondered. He knocked three times. A couple seconds of silence passed for eternity. Then a voice cracked over the thunder…

“Come in, Henry.”

He slowly opened the door, and, despite all the macabre things decorated about the walls, or the smell of eggs and sweat coming from what appeared to be her cauldron, the first thing he really saw across the room was her face, and his first thought was…

Secrets, her face is full of secrets.

Her face was covered in wrinkles and greasy black hair. She had black markings from her eyes down her cheeks and an upside down triangle on her forehead. The wrinkles on her face were stuck in a forever grimace.

“So, take a seat, Henry.”

He had that word jump into his head—Witch.

He heard—“Kashshaptu…”

“What?” asked Henry.

“Take a seat, What do you want?”

Henry sat in a little wooden chair at the table in front of the cloaked Witch.

“Are you the Owl?”

“Ahhh,” said the witch, “I am called that by locals… For obvious reasons.” She cracked a smile that looked as though she was being tortured, and gestured with her hand at the rafters of her cabin. Henry saw at least a dozen owls, but the eerie part was how they were all looking him in the eye.

“I was told you could help me... help me find my son.” Henry felt how small his voice was out in these woods in a booming storm. She closed one eye and stared him down.

“Maybe I can, it all depends, Henry, it all depends. Can you afford to pay?”

Of course I will, every penny. “I don’t have much, but I’ll pay you all I have.”

She smiled her tortured smile again, “That will do, that will do.” She took out an old basket and took out of it two objects wrapped in cloth, then laid them on the table and started to unwrap them. Henry started to ask, but he already understood this game had different rules. There was more he didn’t understand than he what does. She pulled out two skinned rodents of some sort and tossed them into her cauldron, causing the smallest splash and resulting in a smell of disgusting salty fog.

“Now, let me find my tools,” she creaked. “There, my Ouija board. You know most people have seen the Ouija board, but most of those are just toys. The secret to a good Ouija board is to make it out of loved ones. Mine’s so old… only all the bones have saved it from time.”

Henry watched her put the board on the table and could see it had been put together by hundreds of little bones. He didn’t want to think about where all those little bones came from, and he didn’t have to, She volunteered the information.

“This is Grimwood’s contribution to me, you see. Whenever one of those little girls from town finds herself accidentally with child, they come to me you see… and I, oblige… An eye for an eye you might say! HeeHeeHeeeHeeHee!!!” she cackled. Just like all the witches you ever heard about. Now Henry found himself questioning if that flesh cooking was actually rodents. Put it aside, he thought, just get this over with. Daniel. He is the reason I am here.

“Now, Henry, about that payment… I will need blood.”

“What?! Okay, I guess so.” Henry held out his hand. She took out the only thing Henry had seen in this cabin that didn’t look dirty. It was a long, curved, silver knife. Her cold fingers wrapped around Henry’s wrist.

“After you bleed on the board's eye, your fate is sealed.”

Henry nods. She sliced into his palm like butter and the blood abundantly flowed.

“Now, Henry, put your hand on his bible and beg for a favor. Pledge your life into his grace. Offer unto him your pitiful soul.”

Henry slammed his hand on the board and cried, “Yes! Please bring him back, I’ll do anything, I’ll give you anything, yes, take my soul, I don’t want it without Daniel here, I don’t want it, take my soul, take my soul…”

The storm had quieted down to a mellow calm. BLAM!!! The sound of a gunshot from outside.

“HeeHeeHeeHee,” the witch cackled.

“Daddy?” Henry turned to see Daniel crying. “Daddy?” Henry stepped toward Daniel, his son, and hugged him. He breathed him in. It really was him. Thank you. Thank you.

“HeeHeeHeeHee,” the Owl cackled while rocking in her chair, watching Henry burning himself to death hugging her burning cauldron in ecstasy.

“HeeHeeHeeHee.”

She thinks, I’ll drag the suicide in after supper.