The Owl With One Claw

DAY 2

So far, this is my second day in this enormous cabin in Bushkill, Pennsylvania. I am fortunate that the owner, Mr. Owens who is a retired detective, is letting me rent out a room here even though my credit is horrible. My bedroom is very spacious. The environment is great. The serenity is what I need when I write my stories. Hopefully, people will know the name David Mills. I am 24. Maybe I will be a best-selling author before I turn 30.

It is 7 p.m. I normally do not go to bed this early, but I am sleepy. Last night, I had a strange dream about a young woman running in the woods. She was scared and crying. She was probably about 20 or maybe 21. She had long blond hair. Her eyes were dark brown. She was wearing a long, blue nightgown. Also, she was barefooted. Why I dreamt of this beautiful woman running in the woods is beyond me. It felt so real. I woke up at 3 a.m., and there was this light brown barn owl staring at me through my bedroom window. It was standing on the closest tree branch. The creepy thing about this owl was it was missing its left claw. I am not sure if it was injured before or if it was born that way. There were no curtains to block the eerie sighting. I could not go back to sleep last night so I left my bedroom and watched a few movies in the living room. That was what I had to go through last night. So, I am ready to go to bed now. Hopefully, I can get plenty of sleep tonight. It is a good thing I just ate.

DAY 5

Something is wrong. I have been having nightmares about the same woman ever since I moved here. I do not know why. The same thing kept happening all over again. I do not even know this woman. When I woke up at 3 a.m., that same owl stared at me. Why? I moved out of the city so I can work on my stories and be a successful author. Maybe these repetitive dreams and the creepy owl are giving me story ideas. Or maybe I am just going crazy.

DAY 8

I am starting to think that I am going crazy. Last night, Mr. Owens and I were sitting by the bonfire in the backyard. We had a few beers, and we were sharing personal stories. This happened shortly after 8 p.m. I think. Even though I did not get much sleep last night because the same crap kept happening, I did not mind staying up a little longer to socialize with Mr. Owens. If I am living here, it is best to get to know him. Anyway, we had a few laughs. Then, I noticed something flew above us. It was that same barn owl. Like every two or three minutes, the owl would fly above us. I told Mr. Owens to check out the owl that kept flying above us. He said something that made me speechless. “What owl?” I could not believe that he did not see this owl. I mean the owl was flying above us even while he looked up. Mrs. Owens arrived with more beer. The owl was still flying above us. I asked Mrs. Owens about the owl. She did not see it either. When she offered me more beer, I refused. I went straight to bed because I felt sick to my stomach that I was the only one who saw this owl. Now, The Owens might think I am crazy. Hopefully, they will not evict me over this. Hopefully, they thought I had too much to drink.

As for my recent nightmare, same scenario but this was slightly different. The woman spoke. She screamed, “Help me! Someone, please help me!” - with a British accent. Why did I have a bad dream about a woman in England? So bizarre. I woke up, and there was the owl again. What does it want? Why am I the only person seeing itl? Is it a ghost owl or something? Are the dreams and this owl linked? It is bad enough that I told The Owens about the owl. They probably think that I am on drugs. But I refuse to tell them about these dreams.

DAY 13

No matter what I do during the day, I cannot stop thinking about her. I was helping Mr. Owens chop wood. I got so emotional because I could hear the woman crying and screaming in my head. Mr. Owens asked me what was wrong. I lied to him and said that I had a death in the family. When I was working on a story, it took me two hours to finish one paragraph. She was constantly on my mind.

Something else happened to this woman in my dream last night. What happened to her was awful. Again, she was running in her nightgown, crying, and screaming for help. Suddenly, her left foot got caught in a bear trap. The poor girl did not even see this bear trap because it was covered in leaves. Her left foot got stuck and she was bleeding profusely. She tried so hard to free herself. She struggled and struggled but she could not escape.

DAY 15

I cannot believe what happened today. Mrs. Owens and I were talking about antique clocks. When I was a little boy, my grandfather would fix antique clocks, and he would teach me how to. Mrs. Owens had a few broken clocks in the attic, and she asked if I could repair them for her. As I was repairing these clocks in the attic, I noticed an old newspaper from 2001. This newspaper had a familiar face on the cover. It was the same woman in my nightmares. I WAS SHOCKED. Her name was Olivia Foster. According to the article, she has been missing since the summer of 2001. She came from Cambridge, England and decided to study abroad here in the United States. She was a student at University of Pennsylvania for two years. Friends from the school said that she went to northern Pennsylvania for a short vacation and never returned. The article never mentioned the specific location. I am guessing her friends did not know where she went. I wonder why this is the only newspaper The Owens have in the attic. It could be that they are saving it because of a different article in this newspaper. However, it is very, very strange that I am having nightmares about this same woman in this newspaper. It does not seem like a coincidence. Something is not right about this.

About my dream last night, the situation got worse. Olivia, now that I know her name, was doing everything that she could to free herself from the bear trap. Then, this unknown male figure with a hooded coat, appeared. He was wearing all back. I could not see his face at all. He had an axe, and what he did made me cringe. He chopped Olivia near her left ankle to free her from the bear trap. Olivia’s scream woke me up at exactly 3 a.m., and of course, there was the owl. Is this what actually happened to Olivia Foster? I am sure this happened in Pennsylvania, not in England. But why am I seeing this owl every time I wake up?

DAY 16

Okay, this is getting freaky. I did some research on Olivia Foster on my laptop. Here is what I found out. Olivia’s grandfather worked at a barn owl sanctuary in Gloucester, England. During the summer, Olivia would stay with her grandfather, and she helped out at the sanctuary. She did that before moving to Pennsylvania. Online, there were images of Olivia with barn owls at this sanctuary, and she looked incredibly happy. Maybe barn owls are her favorite animals. Maybe she had a bond with the ones at the sanctuary. Could that be the reason why I kept seeing the same owl outside my window? Is this owl trying to tell me something?

Last night in my dream, I saw exactly what happened to Olivia. This unknown man who freed Olivia from the bear trap was carrying her across the threshold deeper into the dark woods. Poor Olivia was crying so hard. She lost so much blood now that her left foot was chopped off. The man stopped and dropped Olivia onto the ground. He pulled out a gun and shot Olivia in the heart. Sadly, Olivia did not survive. I noticed there was a red shack about a yard away from where Olivia was killed. This shack was severely damaged like it was halfway burnt down. When I woke up, I calmly approached the window to get a closer look at the owl. I was no longer afraid of it. I knew right away that it wanted to tell me something about Olivia’s murder. Then, it hit me. The missing left claw. Olivia had her left foot chopped off. What if the owl is a reincarnation of Olivia Foster?

DAY 31

The night after I dreamt of Olivia’s murder, I actually did NOT dream of her at all. My dream was a complete blank. I only dreamt of darkness. However, when I woke up, I did see the same barn owl. When I approached the window, it flew off the same branch and closer to me like it wanted to tell me something. It slowly flew backwards while staring at me. I had a feeling it wanted me to follow it. So, I did. I followed it deeper and deeper into the dark woods behind the cabin. I was getting so tired. The owl finally stopped. The area seemed familiar. I looked around and noticed a damaged red shack. It was the same shack in my dream. My heart dropped. I was actually in the same spot where Olivia Foster was murdered. However, I did not see Olivia at all. I did not know her current location. Suddenly, the owl landed on the ground and stood still while staring at me. It stood there like it was a statue. Then, it hit me. I had a gut feeling that Olivia was buried where the owl stood. I used my hands to remove the dirt. I was finally able to find the remains of Olivia Foster underneath, and she was wearing the same blue nightgown. I had a hunch that maybe Mr. Owens had something to do with her death. I secretly contacted the authorities, and they did a thorough investigation. A few days later, The Owens have been arrested for Olivia’s murder. The bullet that they found with Olivia’s remains matches his gun. They found the bear trap in the basement with a spot of Olivia’s dried blood. I also found out the reason why she was murdered. Apparently, Mr. Owens was having an affair with Olivia. When the couple found out that she was pregnant with his child, Mrs. Owens ordered him to kill her.

I relocated to a different cabin. This time it is in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania. The cabin is not as nice as the first one, but it will do for about a year or two. I just hope that the owners are not murderers like The Owens. I am glad that I was able to help solve Olivia’s murder, giving her family closure. Towards the end, I knew the barn owl was Olivia. I just did not understand why The Owens did not see the owl that night. Maybe they were not meant to because of what they did to her. Everything made sense. My nightmares are over, and I have not seen the owl since. Olivia can now rest in peace.