Return of The Barn Owl

As children, our mom would sit us down for story time. Me and my brother would be running around and once she would shout the words "Story Time!" we would stop dead in our tracks.

Then we would gather our things, blankets and snacks and return to our bedtime story meeting area at our fire place. Father worked night shifts, so these long hours were the calm before myself and my brother would wrestle our dad when he would entered our house early in the morning.

"Start the drum rooooooooooollllllllllllll!" Our mom yelled out with a warm smile on her face.

Larry and I drummed away with our palms ricocheting off of our shaggy brown carpet. For tonight's bedtime story, we requested a scary story.

Our mom asked us if we were old enough to hear a scary story. We used to have nightmares and be afraid of the dark, but we are ten - year - old now. I think we can take on a little scary.

"Ted and Larry you win this time. Just don't come running into your dad's and my room early in the morning." My mom joked. My brother and I laughed along with her.

Tightly holding onto my pillow, I was ready for the bedtime story of a life time. Eager to have my heart jump up and down, the adrenaline rush is something I once only dreamt of.

As the anticipation grew, silence fell. No longer did I hear the rapid crunching of popcorn between my brother and I. We took slow bites and our eyes stayed glued on mom and our ears perched up, preparing to open our ear gates to the words to be said.

The fire crackling in the background of our scene, our mom begun...

Years ago in a town called Yorkshire, lived a peculiar family. They moved to this town, originally being from Alaska.

Each of them were weird in their own way. Big noses, large eyes, funny looking, and just wacky in every way.

Many did not interact with this family. Every morning they sat at the breakfast table, not eating food, but staring. After that, they would go to the store and come back home. The only one working was the father. As the family prepared to eat, he would go to the basement with a bundle of food as if he was feeding something.

What was he feeding it and what was the thing down there? Only the family knew the answer to that question.

Days went by, and it seemed as if the family were robots. Doing the same daily routines, not changing up anything.

Until one day. They decided it was time for their children to go to school.

The oldest girl was chosen. Bright, beautiful, and just as wacky as the rest.

She was slightly shy despite her tall frame. Children being children, they at times see others who appear different then them as joke central punching bags. Thus, many jokes were thrown, but they only know what they constantly hear and see.

The first day seemed so long and she grew home sick. Days went by of going to school, coming home, eating, sleeping, and repeating the same daily and nighttime activities. The family asked one word questions, and each of them were invested on the level of a robot.

Then the day came, when the daughter made a friend.

Asia was her name. She was popular, cute, and friendly to everyone in the school.

As the girl sat by herself, Asia came over to her desk.

"Hey my name Asia. I know how hard it is being to the new kid in school. I been there before. Want to be my friend?" Asia spoke.

She held her hand out, smiling ear to ear, holding the breathe of childhood innocence.

The girl raised her shy head and locked eyes with Asia. She attempted to smile too but it looked more like an evil grin. Asia chuckled slightly and the girl tighten her hoodie and attempted to walk away.

Distraught, Asia caught up with her.

"I did not mean to offend you. I like your smile and your hoodie is the coolest. It's time for recess let's go play!" She told the girl. Excitement flowing through her tiny petite frame.

The girl displayed her evil grin again and agreed to go play with Asia on the playground blacktop.

The girls would hang out every day. Soon their popularity garnered bigger crowds of onlookers wanting to be part of the group.

Days, months, birthdays, holidays, went by and as the seasons change so was did friendship.

Now entering high school, the girl started to dress like the girls in the rest of the world and her family did not like that.

One evening Asia dropped her friend off at home. With them were Cindy, Brent, and Coby. Just high school students going to the mall for the weekend.

As they looked toward the door as their friend walked the long walk to her doorstep, they were met by familiar faces. Never truly interacting with the girl's family, they still knew their faces. They seen the same features on their friend's face. They wore the same evil grin.

As Asia was about to see if they could visit, a loud sound erupted.

"Get in the house!" the father yelled. It sounded like a different language, one of anger and power.

The friends jumped in their seats but not the girl. She was used to this. Her once joyous head, hung back down.

In the house she looked back at the car and noticed her friends were arguing. She was sure Asia was standing her ground and telling the others that their was nothing to worry about. After all Asia was the girl's one true friend, the others just wanted to be around Asia.

The girl was led to the basement. Down to the...barn owl.

Her grin slightly came back but her mother chastised her.

"Daughter, family and I let you play human girl for far too long. Now daughter carry out mission for family. Barn owl won't stay waiting much longer." Mother spoke to her sternly but the daughter felt love in it at the same time.

The daughter had sad eyes and whispered something to the family. They agreed and so did the Owl.

The girl joyfully ran back upstairs to the car. She told them that they could hang out with her in her house. For some reason she had a different radiance about her and she pleaded and begged them.

Cindy, Brent, and Coby were somewhat against hanging out with the girl. Yet Asia had an influence about her. Soon they agreed to hang out.

As they walked to the ominous house sharing jokes and talking about their goofy scary thoughts of the girl and her family; Asia and the girl walked a little bit behind them.

Inside the door locked.

Looking around it appeared to be normal but was it?

The Father, mother, younger brother, and younger sister came out of nowhere and ambushed them.

The screams gave them no justice as the house was soundproof.

Cindy noticed that Asia was freely walking and she was scared and curious.

"A-sia w - hat is this?" she managed to mutter out through broken tears.

Asia met them with an evil like grin.

"Every day since middle school, you and the rest of the school have big on the top. Bullying and name calling. Acting as if nothing could go wrong. Tried to shun me out when I stood my ground and reached out to the lowly of our classmates. Then I met Jucinda. A peculiar girl but nonetheless a bright and beautiful one. I saw something different about her. A way we could get back at the bullies and make sure it never happens again. So, we made a pact." Asia spoke in an eerie tone.

Larry and I sat their frozen, our butts particularly glued to the carpet afraid to get up and run. Then I had a question.

"M- om so - so w-hat happened?" I asked. I had to ask, needed to prepare myself. However, our mom being an English professor, she did not want to give us any spoilers.

The way her eyes looked at us was downright scary. She was enjoying the fact of toying with our fear. Yap, she is not going to tell us anything.

Our mom told us to hold tight and that we are about to find out what was happening.

The other children yelled out louder with snot and tears connecting on the bottom of their chins. Deeper down the stairs they went to the basement.

Soon they saw the answer to their fears.

The Barn Owl, the one they fed for all these years returned to fulfill it's mission.

Jucinda's family had a curse on them. Once upon a time they terrorized their communities and neighbors. They picked a battle with the wrong one on a particular day. This witch who who came to live next door.

Still doing silly pranks on the neighbors they accidentally did something extremely heinous.

Throwing small firecrackers at this old ladies' house, they accidentally started a fire. Soon, they noticed how their antics went to far. The house was engulfed in flames and the lady died or so they thought.

The family was trying to be on their best behavior, attempting to learn from their mistakes. Weeks after the old lady died she made a guest appearance on the family's front living room couch.

As they ate dinner the lights flickered on and off. The father went to fix it and when he did they jumped out their skin. Looking at them with stone cold eyes, the old lady, a witch in disguised was sitting on their couch.

She told them of the curse. How since they terrorized others, that their perfect rich family will be cursed. They were going to be wacky, tacky, downright ugly and weird.

The only way to reverse the curse and return to normalcy was to continue to feed the Barn Owl. Then one day they were supposed to reunite with the old lady's granddaughter and fulfill the curse. However all of it had to be fulfilled in a timely order or they will be eaten by the owl.

The oldest daughter was to go to a school and befriend the granddaughter. She would know who she was when she sees the most popular girl in school. This was not a regular student, it was a student that was nice to everyone.

The mission started with the two children. Befriending others who they felt were the worse to the community, their entire family as well.

So, Jucinda befriended Asia. The three Coby, Brent, and Cindy and the rest of their pompous families. They were feed them to the Barn Owl, screams heard yet not. Met by the eerie smiles or Jucinda's family and the granddaughter of a witch.

Next came the rest of the family who would investigate. Later Jucinda's family and Asia faked as if they were showing empathy but they were plotting all along. Having family dinner one night in the house, they decided to have it in the well polished beautiful basement.

Looking brand new and not like a dungeon, the families did not think anything of it. Then as they were eating, Jucinda's family and Asia retreated upstairs and told them to stay and that they had a surprise.

As they locked the doors, the mood of the basement shifted and they knew something was off. Coby's dad was the first to run up the stairs and noticed the door was locked. Frantically banging on the door and screaming, but he was just wasting his energy.

The rich families screamed and screamed, but on the outside Jucinda's family and Asia peacefully ate their food. Not hearing a sound from the outside of the door.

Downstairs the Barn Owl emerged, the lights flickered and...

"The Witch ate them all!" Our mom screamed out and jumped toward us.

Larry and I flew back in fear. Trying to catch our breath as our mom laughed at us.

Tears slowly coming down our faces as we threw the pillows at her.

"See I told you all, you were not ready for a scary story." Our mom joked.

She gets on my nerve at times. Yet, Larry and I were still curious.

"So mom, what happened to the family and Asia?" Larry asked our mom.

Right after he asked, the door bell rang and the lights flickered. We looked at our mom with fear in our eyes. She returned our stare with her own eerie grin. I was lost and confused.

The three of us rushed upstairs and saw our dad come through the door. About to play fight, we noticed a figure coming up behind him in the distance.

"So you told them huh?" I heard our dad utter to our mom, shaking his head in disbelief. Our mom playfully giggled and Larry and I were left attempting to put the pieces together of this impossible puzzle.

The figure got to the front step and bent down and greeted my brother and I.

She had gray stormy hair and a cute and gentle face.

"You two look so handsome. The photos did not do any justice." She told us.

Who is she I thought?

Just then a Barn Owl landed perfectly on her right shoulder.

Shaking and frozen already we awaited what she was going to say next.

Our fears became reality when she said....

"My name is Asia Cobalt. I've known your mom for years."

Larry and I screamed and tried to run to our rooms. Our mom grabbed us and hugged us tightly. She attempted to apologize over and over again.

"Jucinda, your husband and I told you the story was too much for them. Welp now Auntie Asia is here to stay. Trust me Ted and Larry, the mission was fulfilled and you have nothing to worry about. The owl, my grandma won't harm you, it's only hear to protect us if danger comes our way."

Still frighten, we came slowly came over to Asia. Hearing her talk to us and take time to meet us, allowed us to calm down our nerves.

"I told you ten year - olds that you were not ready for a scary story." Our mom chimed in. We laughed at her joke.

She's right, I was not ready. I was not ready to know that my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and my mom had to team up with a witch's granddaughter and fed the worse of the worse rich families to a blood thirsty barn owl.

But Hey.

What family isn't wacky, tacky, and downright blood thirsty?

The End

(La Fin)