A Crow's End

I woke up and looked out the window over my home village of Fayrock. The early morning fog rose eerily over the cobbled streets and the decaying thatched houses – my home. It is times like these I realize how poor I am. Then I see her. Acantha. Like a refreshing break from the misery of this town. It's as if a ray of sunshine follows her around. She waves at me from the street below.

'Crow!' she smiled mischievously up at me, 'I was just heading to the abandoned Castle Irondell wanna come?'

'Yes!' I replied, 'coming, give me a minute.'

As I race around trying to get ready as quick as possible I have a bad foreboding about going. The feeling only grows as I start walking with Acantha along the overgrown road that hasn't been used except by us in years. We go to the castle at least once a week to escape the depressing feeling of the town, but as I looked at the castle I should know well, I got a different vibe about it; today it almost looked more depressing and eerie than town.

I look over to Acantha to see if she's feeling the same thing, but she looked anything but worried. After an hour of walking we entered the forest of Irondell castle. We could hear the crickets chirp like usual, but this time it was like they were daring us to go to the castle. The forest got darker as we approached the moat of the castle. We glided across the murky still water of the moat on our makeshift ferry we had made a while ago.

Normally we would go to the dining hall and look at all the tapestries, but Acantha suggested that we look into the dungeons. I reluctantly followed her down the damp spiraling stairwell into the dark. Once down there we saw a soft purple glow on the other side of the dungeon.

I had trouble breathing but for some unknown reason I felt drawn to the soft glow and it was irresistible. As we drew nearer it was obvious that the light was coming from a door that was slightly ajar. A crypt perhaps? My legs felt like they were filling up with lead but I couldn't stop, instead I walked towards it as if in a trance.

Acantha got there first and opened the door wider; she let out a scream, and then fell silent. She turned to look at me with wide eyes, silent tears started to run down her face.

'It's... it's...'she whispered,' Crow help me.'

Her face suddenly went blank and her eyes rolled back into her head.

'Acantha?' I squeaked, terrified.

The beam that followed her about was replaced by a shadow that seemed to eat up the dim light of the candle I was holding. She grabbed the knife that she always carries in a belt by her waist and slowly pulled it out.

'Acantha? What are you doing?' my voice shook with fear.

She took the knife and slowly dragged it down her arm, thick blood trailing after the knife. I stood paralysed by fear and unable to do anything but watch. Then suddenly Acantha moved the knife to her throat and slashed it spraying blood all over me. I turned and ran, too gripped by fear to do anything else. I jumped into the moat and swam through it not bothering about the raft. After what seemed to be an age I dragged myself onto the bank on the other side and scrambled up and kept running. The sound of my heart beating blocked out everything else.

It's almost as if I can feel something chasing me. Is it her? She asked me to save her. I'm a coward. I watched her die and I didn't do anything about it. The same thoughts kept racing through my head. My body felt numb.

I was running through the scrub when my foot caught a root and I fell over and descended into darkness. I must have hit my head on a rock. When I came to, it was pitch black and I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I stand up and I stumble through the dark, then I finally see the lights of the town of Fayrock shining feebly ahead. I stumbled through my front door. I feel safe finally.

I wash the sticky blood and mud off my face and I look up at the mirror, the single candle throwing long shadows over my face. And then I notice her reflection in the mirror behind me. The candle goes out and I hear five words whispered in complete agony.

'Why didn't you save me?'