Selected

The Raven

The three hooded men continued to beat up the poor defenceless woman as she cried out for help. They repeatedly kicked her in the back and stomach as she began to cry thinking that this might be the end of her life. A tear rolled down her face as one of the men stopped. His attention was drew to a raven sat on a windowsill watching them, as he looked towards it, the raven's wings spread out and it jumped off of the windowsill and soared through the air towards an ally. The hooded man watched as the other figures stopped attacking the woman. 

The man looked down the ally and saw the shadow of the bird, but what he saw next scared him for life. The ravens shadow slowly grew into a  human, the bird has changed and had become a person. The shadow turned around and began to walk out of the ally, the three men looked as they saw a teenage boy dressed fully in black emerge from the dark. The teen stood six feet away from the first man. One of the hooded men pulled out a knife and began to walk towards the boy in black, as he did the boy turned back into a raven and swooped directly towards the man as he lunged his knife forward to stab the bird. The knife caught one of the feathers of the raven but it wasn't enough to stop it, the raven went directly for the mans face and with its sharp talons it grabbed the mans eye, the bird began to fly backwards whilst still holding the eye. The man screamed in pain and tried to swat the bird away, the man hit the bird which caused it to pull the eye directly out and drop it onto the street. 

The man screamed in pain as the eye rolled away from him. The other two hooded men ran in two completely different directions without hesitation. The raven then transformed back into the teenage boy, he ran to the woman who was still lying on the floor crying in pain. The boy helped the woman up and picked her handbag up from the floor and handed it back to her before running down the street after one of the hooded men.

After running for a couple of minutes he jumped and transformed back into a raven. After flying over the city for just a couple of minutes more the boy spotted one of the men. The raven swooped down towards the hooded man and followed him. Every now and then the man would look around in panic.

The man turned around and looked at the raven, the only expression left on his face was fear, pure terror. He made a sharp turn right down a street. The street was poorly lit with street lights flickering either side of the road. In the centre of the street is a manhole. All of the lights from the houses either side of the road were turned off. The man turned around to check if the raven was still following him. Just as he did the raven changed into the teenage boy.

The man stumbled back and turned quickly around to start running, as he did a cloud of white smoke rose up out of the manhole. The cloud began to form the shape of a person and within seconds it had become a girl. The girl stood there looking at the man and then the boy. She had blond hair, which looked almost white, and wore a big black trench coat and boots. The man froze, not knowing what to do.

He quickly pulled out a gun and pointed out towards the teenage boy and yelled "don't  fucking move!". The boy looked at the teenage girl. She quickly lifted her arm, pointing her palm towards the man. A cloud of white smoke emerged from her hand and covered the mans head. He feel to the floor choking after inhaling the smoke. Then he seemed to become paralyzed. The boy looked over at the man and could see her was in excruciating pain but he couldn't say a word or scream. Tears rolled down his face and the boy could tell the man was slowly dying. The boy looked up at the girl. He was terrified by what he had just witnessed. He turned and began to run back down the street before turning back into the raven and flying away.

After flying for five minutes he landed on the roof of an old building and changed back into the teenage boy. "What was that?" He asked himself "What did that girl do to that man? How did she transform? I thought only I was able to". He walked over to the edge of the building and looked over the city, then he noticed something, a cloud was moving towards him, a small white cloud like the one the girl turned into.

The cloud formed back into the girl and stood in front of the boy. "Who are you?" She asked him "and how can you transform into a crow?"

"Its not a crow! It's a raven and I've been able to transform into it for years now! But a better question is what did you do to that man?"

"I can turn into a white cloud, except it isn't a cloud....its a gas. Its a gas form of cyanide. The poison. You see, it first chokes the victim and then it paralyses them so that they cant run away or scream....then it causes them so much pain but they can't scream out, and eventually they...they die..." Answered the girl.

"A...and what do you want with .... Me?" Said the boy hesitantly

"I want to know who you are! I'm not going to hurt you, I just thought that since we have these powers maybe we could team up and take out the evil in this city"

"I'm Luke, I only ripped that guys eye out because he was attacking that woman, and I only saw it because I was walking past on my way home and..."

"I never asked for you life story okay?! I'm Rosa, I saw that man running and the knife in his pocket so I chased him"

The two looked at each other, both feeling scared and happy that they weren't alone. Luke looked at his watch before saying "I've got to get home! What school do you go to? I'll meet you outside"

"I go to the same one as you! I've sat behind you in Biology for almost a year now. I'll see you then"

"I never noticed you, sorry. See you tomorrow then!" Said Luke before jumping off the roof and transforming. Rosa looked to see what the transformation looks like, she then turned into the cloud of cyanide and flew home.