Ravenwings (Imaged + Completed) [1st in Trilogy]

Part III: Chapter 51

The bang! that sounded the death of the disgraced hunter echoed through the clearing and dissipated into the trees and far mountains. Woodman's eyes glazed over as he went from a sentient thing to organic waste. He would soon be as cold as the ground he was bleeding out onto.

Raven stared down into the dead eyes of his motionless lifelong nemesis.

"Raven?" I broke him from his trance. 

As he turned and locked eyes with me, he heaved a sigh of relief and dove to me despite wincing in pain, wrapping me in a tight, thankful hug.

"It's over," he whispered.

Blood from the bullet wound in his chest left a giant stain on my flannel, but it didn't stop me from holding him. "You need help. Come on, we have to get out of here before they try something... I'm so sick of this place..."

He nodded. Shielding me from the men who stood and watched, unwilling to let me go, he looked over his shoulder and threatened, "If I ever see any of you again, I will kill you; no hesitation, no time for last words...but if any of you ever lay a hand on Melody again, your death won't be a quick one. This is your first and final warning."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Ben assured him.

Percy shook his head furiously. "Yeah, I like living, so don't worry about me."

"I'll let Craig know," Dave said simply, crossing his arms and pursing his lips as he glared.

Earnest approached us, shuffling his feet, and at first Raven curled his wings around me defensively, but I leaned away.

"I'd like to...apologize on Hunter's behalf, and my own," Earnest said in his quiet voice. "He and his father..." he cleared his throat. "I shouldn't have helped Hunter do what he did to you, Raven, and Melody for that matter, and I know that makes me no better than him." 

"Yeah, no sh*t, except you're even worse," Raven snarled. "Because you were the one who still had morals, and you knew better, but you swallowed it down and sat back and watched. You knew you should stop him, and you could have stopped him, and you f*cking chose not to. It was your job to step in and take action, because there's no f*cking way that monster would or could ever stop even if he ever tried. Don't even act like you're f*cking sorry. It's too late for that. I did your job for you. You could live out the rest of your life doing the most charitable work there is and still never even come close to making up for what you've done. I hope you die and rot the same way Woodman is."

Earnest looked to the ground, Raven's words hitting a tender mark. "You're right," he just said quietly. "You're right. And...no apology I got for ya is anything but worthless... Just know I'm sorry, Raven, and I'm sorry, Melody...and this'll haunt me for the rest of my life."

"Good," Raven hissed. "It should."

"He distracted them from torturing me," I whispered to Raven, feeling at least a twinge of gratitude towards Earnest. "He got them–"

"So?" Raven interrupted me. "He doesn't deserve to be thanked for finally, one time standing up and doing what he knew he was supposed to be doing all along; for acting like half of a human being just to help himself sleep better at night. You don't owe him anything. He's just as worthless as every other sicko here, and just because he feels bad about it doesn't mean he's entitled to any less blame. Let's go."

Earnest made an awkward exit, then followed the other men into the cabin as they sat down for a drink before they packed their stuff to leave, as if their friend hadn't just died right in front of them; they just left him out there on the lawn. They don't seem to care...Raven was right, it is pitiful.

Just as I was about to ask which direction home was, Raven suddenly shielded me again as one of the black mouth curs headed our way. Shredder; I recognized him, one of the dogs who'd ambushed Raven and I all that time ago.

I put the dog whistle to my mouth, but Shredder's approach wasn't aggressive...

Then, the bird-dog delicately sniffed Woodman's body over...whimpering. I'd never seen Shredder so docile; he genuinely seemed to understand that his human was dead, and whined by his side; the only mourner of the man's memorial. 

Raven scoffed. "Go on, eat him."

Shredder licked gently at the blood on Woodman's face, but didn't eat him; he just curled up next to him and rested his head on the body's chest, giving high-pitched whimpers. A few other black mouth curs joined him, sniffing at the body, one or two even chewing at appendages, but Shredder growled and shooed them all off. 

I turned back to the situation at hand. "So...can you walk all the way back? Will you be alright?" I asked, worrying over the still-bleeding bullet hole.

"I can fly," he said, stretching out his wings. The black mouth curs were starting to eye him and his feathers hungrily, so he scooped me up into his arms with a wince, and bobbing with every wing flap we ascended up into the sky, away from that awful place.

Watching the cabin shrink away behind us in the distance eased the heaviness in my heart. That was where those sadistic kidnappers resided. Where Raven had been tortured for eight years. Where I had been held hostage for a week. Where Raven destroyed and killed a man. 

"You okay?" Raven asked, panting a little from effort. "What happened in there?"

I sighed. "I just wish I could forget it."

Raven matched my sigh. "Yeah...me too."

It felt surreal, looking down at everything so small below us... As the cabin shrank, it fell into perspective, and it felt nice to finally feel like that place was nothing but a tiny lot; a speck in the distance behind me, rather than a giant overarching shadow over what light my life had left.

Distanced from the pain, I could finally begin to heal, knowing the mental scars that had been made would revisit and shape me for the rest of my days.