How To Capture The Crow

Chapter One

How to Capture the Crow

Chapter One

They say to see just how bright the light is you have to live in the darkness for a while.

It's raining outside and the streets are slick with black water rushing down any crack and crevasse it can find. It's as if the rain can wash away the past, each paper, each penny, every tiny imperfection. The cold humid air leaves a fog on the inside of the diner's window near my lips. I can't help but to stare out into the empty city streets wondering if there is someone out there feeling the same way I do, alone and forgotten.

"Excuse me." I hear the waitress say impatiently

"Ye... Yeah" I say clearing my throat quickly.

"You need to order something if you're going to sit here for much longer. I need this table for other customers."

I take a look around the empty diner and see only an elderly couple drinking coffee and eating pancakes in the corner. My eyes make their way back to the waitress who sports a look of annoyance.

"It's okay, um... I'll leave" I say quietly picking up my purse and sliding off the cozy leather booth. I slip the worn out fabric strap from my purse across my body. It sets perfectly on my hip.

As I walk out onto the sidewalk my long dark brown hair becomes instantly damp. It's pouring outside and the streets are quickly becoming flooded with gushing swarms of water. I drag my old tennis shoes through the cold water and over to the stop light. The streets are empty, but the sign insists that I wait to cross, flashing a big red hand at me. Finally the sign signals that I can go and I quickly walk across the street. As I get to the other side I jump a bit as I notice a girl leaning on the brick building in front of me. She's tall and slender with defined muscles and short choppy, black hair. Her eyes are a piercing light blue like that of a rare wild cat.

"Hello." I say as she takes a puff of her cigarette and blows it into the air.

The smoke drifts out of her lips and into the air being punctured by bolts of rain and swayed by gentle winds.

"Hey" She says in a raspy voice flicking her cigarette into the steady stream in the road.

I watch as it sizzles out instantly making a faint hiss then I look up and see her walking away. I stare at her for a second then I quickly follow.

"I'm actually a little lost" I say hoping she will stop. "I just moved here from Florida... I mean I use to live here, but I was younger... Um, If you could just tell me how to get Highland Drive..."

The girl quickly crosses the barren street, but I stop at the corner of the sidewalk looking at the flashing red hand telling me not to cross.

"I just need directions..." I say quietly.

I glance both ways trying to see past the crowded sky full of rain and mist then I look back at the red hand still urging me not to cross. Nothing looks like it is coming so I quickly run across the street. The water is slick with oil and mud and my old tennis shoes fail to grip the ground halfway through the street and I fall twisting my ankle. I cry out in pain then I quickly try to pull myself away but my shoe is stuck on something deep in the black dirty waters. I reach my hands into the water and I try to untangle the mess of twigs and mud that surround my foot.

Just as I get the majority of my foot uncovered I hear the roar of a loud engine. I can barely see bright lights of a semi through the rain but its close. I freeze glaring at the front of the large metal grill feet away from me. I gasp as I get thrown onto my back. I'm pushed on the ground so tightly that I get every ounce of air squished out of my lungs. I hold my breath as my whole head is engulfed by water. I can feel the ground shaking around me, the water splashing over my face. I struggle to get back up with no success until finally I'm pulled up and I open my mouth gasping for air.

The girl I had been following reaches into the water and unties my shoe pulling my foot out of it. She then carries me across the street slowly. I shake and hold onto her in shock until she sets me down on the sidewalk. I cough up water and struggle to catch my breath.

"I'm... s... sorry" I say shivering from the freezing cold water I had just been bathed in.

"Highland Drive is ten miles away" She says crouching next to me. "Do you have a car?"

"N...No" I stutter looking up at her confused and blinking as the raindrops hit my eye lashes.

She picks me up again and I hold onto her as she carries me away. I almost convince myself to get her to put me down until I feel my ankle throb in pain. I'm freezing anyway, and I crave the warmth of her skin. I close my eyes until I finally hear the rain muffled then the slam of a metal door.

I open my eyes as she sets me onto an old plaid couch that is ripped on the corners. The room is dimly lit with a few flickering candles in the window seal at the end of the room.

"Where am I?" I say quietly.

The walls are white and ripped revealing the stone structure beneath them. The floor is almost industrial with the bare boards showing underneath the dark rustic red floor rugs. The bed is a bundled mess of pillows and large covers.

She puts her fingertips under my shirt and begins to pull it off slowly.

"Stop!" I scream terrified and snapping out of my dreamlike state as I shake from the freezing cold.

She stops then stares at me.

"Calm down" She says sternly. Her deep voice almost sounding like a growl.

I become quiet and allow her to pull my shirt off. Her eyes are kind, but my past has given me scars inside. Trust and vulnerability are words to me, seldom experienced as feelings.

"Please, just don't hurt me" I say as she takes my pants off carefully around my wounded ankle. They stick to my legs like glue and reveal splotches of dead leaves and dirt in their absence.

My body is exhausted and too cold to fight back anyway. She walks away leaving me in my underwear and bra, I shake from the cold air.

She makes her way over to the corner of the room and starts digging through stacks of wooden drawers, as she comes back she slides a long sleeve shirt over my body and throws a large blanket over me.

I snuggle up to the blanket tightly and press its fabric on my ice-like cheeks.

"Thank you..." I mutter from beneath the thick warm blanket.

She walks over to the window staring out at the dark stormy sky.

"You can stay here until the storm dies down." She says pulling a half smoked cigarette off of the window seal and lighting it.

I slowly lay down on the couch keeping my eyes open for a bit and watching her.

She lifts her wet black shirt over her body exposing her bare chest. I swallow hard and try to take my eyes off of her, but her tattooed skin dares me to look at it. Her ribs glisten from the moisture still on her body. She takes a puff of her cigarette sliding her shirt onto the ground and glances over at me. I quickly look away and I hear her blow the candles out. My eyes slowly open and notice how dark it's become. I curl up with the soft blanket in my hands and I close my eyes. I try to resist the urge to sleep, but soon my body wins and I drift off.