Black Raven | Wattys 2018

Chapter Four

We don't always know the whole story about someone's life; some have really deep ones that have scarred their lives forever. My life was definitely scarred.
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"Kyle!!! What are you doing?!!"-I screamed at my 7-year-old foster, sibling. "You cannot put everything you find in the microwave. You will make it explode." The little brat just laughed deviously and ran off; his tiny afro moved funnily in the air as he ran away. He put Nick's phone inside the microwave and started heating it. He loved watching things explode.

"Is that my phone?"-Nick asked.

"Yes, it is. Kyle had it inside the microwave. We need to do something; we cannot let him keep doing this."-I said and handed the phone back to Nick.

"One of these days he will burn the house down."

"Don't even mention it."-I replied with a worried face.

"Are we going to talk about what happened to you? Or are you just gonna keep avoiding the subject?"-Nick started again with the questions.

"Fine."-I simply answered.

That night, I told Nick everything that had happened with Ryan. I told him about drinking and smoking, about the fry, falling asleep, Ryan forcing himself on me, the black ravens, and ending unconscious without knowing what had happened after it. At first, he was furious with me and with Ryan, ranting a whole lot of nonsense about killing him. I got him to calm down and told him that I didn't want him to do anything rash. I didn't want to talk any more about the subject; I just wanted to forget that the whole night had ever happened. "Okay. I won't do anything, but if he dares to come near you again, you'll tell me; and I swear he will never see daylight again." Nick hugged me and kissed me on the forehead. I guess, after our parents died, he felt responsible for me; like he had to look out after me more than he ever had.

That same night, just before going to sleep, I looked out the window. The sky was really dark and starless. The only thing visible was the moon; it was a full moon and its light was really bright. Outside I could hear the wind howling, and the branches moved in synchrony with it. Our house was isolated from the other ones; the nearest house was like a mile away, so we were only surrounded by trees. For a while, I just stared at the moon and started remembering my parents and how happy we were before their accident. (We stayed with Corrinne, mom's friend, while our parents went to a dinner to celebrate their anniversary. After dinner, they were coming to get us, but they never made it. My dad, who was driving, lost control of the car, ran a red light, and hit a truck. The car shattered completely; there was nothing to be salvaged. When we got to the hospital, the doctor told us our parents were dead. Apparently, my dad died before crashing. He had a giant, cerebral aneurysm, which, by the way, he didn't know, and it ruptured. That caused him to die instantly and led to the car crash where my mom got completely crushed inside the car and died in the hospital because all her organs were damaged and shut down. After the accident, we stayed with Corrinne for a while, until Social Services came and took us away.) After I finished going down memory lane, I closed the window and as I was about to close the curtains I saw someone looking up at my window. It was so dark that I could only see the silhouette of the person. I tried to adjust my eyesight to see if I could make up who was it, but I failed. Seconds after, a black raven appeared at my window and started cawing. I jumped back and almost tripped. The cawing stopped, and I couldn't see the bird anymore, so I came closer to the window again and looked out. There was nothing outside, besides the trees with their branches swaying and the moon and its now dim light. The silhouette and the bird were gone. I was a little freaked out; a lot of weird things were happening to me. I closed the curtains, turned off the lamp on my bedside table, lay on the bed, and put the sheets over my head. I was still a little shaky, so it took me a while to fall asleep.