How To Capture The Crow

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

With one glance at such a beautiful woman he fell in love, or so it seemed. Every night she would play him a song on her violin to lull him to sleep. Months passed as Edward became her humble partner, lover, and servant. Until one day as he dug deep into the grass covered ground to plant the most beautiful white flowers he'd ever seen, he struck something hard. It crunched under the weight of his shovel and as he dug it up his delusion of a bright sunny wonderland faded away. The flowers turned into thorns, the grass to mud, and the sky into a foggy cloud. As his reality was shattered so too was the skull he picked up out of the ground.

"Edward...." The witch growled under her breath walking out of the cottage.

As he looked back at her his memory of this beautiful woman, his lover was destroyed by a wicked and frail old witch.

"Witch!" He screamed standing up and dropping the skull to the floor.

The witch had been discovered and she knew this process very well. It wasn't the first time she'd had to bury the men who discovered her secret and she vowed it wouldn't be her last. Edward frightened ran into the woods as the witch's eyes began to glow.

"YOU CANNOT LEAVE!" She screamed rumbling the ground beneath him.

The path to her cottage slams shut with vines and cypress trees, but Edward is quick on his feet and dashes through a small crack between the thorny vines, cutting his back deep with one of them as he runs. The witch lets out a horrible squeal and tries her best to stop him, but Edward escapes.

The witch knows no man will soon venture in the forest and she will be alone for all of eternity. Her dark heart grows darker as she thinks of Edward and how his love for her wasn't true until finally she plots her revenge. She walks over to the vine where a piece of Edwards's shirt ripped off and she smiles deviously as she sees a speck of blood on it. Her heart filled with rage she casts a curse so vicious it destroys Edward and everyone he loves.

"This night brings upon a curse that you will forever take

The heart that dares to love this one will burn, tear, and break

For by the sun's rise upon the next day

My tormentor Edward will be forced to pay

For every tear I cry a drop of blood

For every sob I feel a loss of love

Your ancestor's blood will take a hold

So this curse will surely last

The key is locked within a test

That only true love will pass."

The witch burns Edwards blood and lets out a vicious laugh echoing deep within the forest. Edward struggles to get home until finally after running all night he arrives at the door of his house at daybreak.

Screams of agony tear through his door as he enters. His wife lies on the floor cringing in pain and then he feels it too. His stomach feels like a thousand daggers are being shoved into it all at once. His eyes burn as hot as an ember. His children frightened run into their rooms and cling onto each other.

Soon after the transformation his wife committed suicide because she couldn't live through what the curse forced her to do each full moon. His children were cursed too and soon to follow turning into terrible monsters on their 24th birthday. The same age Edward was when he met the witch.

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"Edward is my father" Raven says regrettably

My mind tries to understand everything Raven just told me but I have burning questions in my head.

"So... How old are you?..." I ask almost afraid of the reply.

"I'm 24" She says and tilts her head to the side letting the moonlight kiss her blue eyes.

"How long have you been 24..." I say crossing my arms and feeling a bit uneasy.

Raven takes a long breath and then reaches into her pocket and lights a cigarette. Flicking an ash onto the ground and then looking at me she says.

"171 years."

My heart races and I feel a bit uneasy.

"So... what is it that you do on a full moon?"

Raven takes another long drag of her cigarette and then blows the smoke out of her lungs closing her eyes as she does.

"Emma..." She says in a raspy voice.

"No, I need to know." I say firmly.

The sky begins to thicken with dark clouds as a storm moves in. Just as the rain starts to pour down she says.

"The witch wanted to punish my dad in the worst ways possible. So we never age, but we are forever alone. Anyone we love becomes infected just like us... Each full moon we hunt... Like dark crows picking carcasses clean in the swamps. The witch wanted him to be just as dark... She wanted him to kill, and to eat from rotting flesh... so we hunt, and we kill the people who are the closest to us."

I feel a cold chill run up my spine and I look to the sky blinking as the rain drops hit my eyes. Just as the dark ominous cloud moves I see the moon. Thunder clashes in the sky and shakes me to my core.

The moon... It's almost glowing completely illuminated and completely full.