A Stormy Night: Stories to Read by Candlelight

Origin

"It began with the birds, didn't it?" The doctor asked as he applied a damp rag to a little girls head while looking up at her father, who nodded,

"Yes, around...Four days ago," he said, scratching at his head, "they came in-in swarms, doctor." The doctor left the rag on the girls head and stood to walk to the nearby window and look outside. On every branch of every tree stood a stately raven, all peering in at him in his mask. He didn't feel disguised, but he was glad they couldn't see his eyes in their sockets.

"There may be nothing I can do," the doctor said as he turned back around to face the father of the girl, "whatever evil has been wrought upon this land-whatever plague..." He turned his head and glanced at a raven that had perched itself on the ledge of the window and begun looking inside, "it is beyond me." The father let out a heavy sighing sob,

"As it shall be," he said as he returned to his daughters side and grabbed her frail hand, "please, leave us be." The doctor nodded in his mask and after opening the door, descended the stairs to the apartment above the bakery and stepped into the muddy streets.

Frank watched as the doctor walked from the door to the road before he vanished into another household, to treat another patient. He rubbed at his chin nervously and went back to the bed where his dying daughter lay. He held her small fingers between his and muttered a fragmented prayer when his wife came strolling into the room, almost unheard besides her gown dragging on the dirty wood floor.

"I don't like him, Frank," she said as she stood in the window and looked out at the ravens sat on the trees and roofs of buildings, all seeming to watch the people as they ducked back into their shelters. Frank shook his head and sighed,

"Elizabeth, we've had this conversation," Frank said as he stood and grabbed his wife gently by the elbow, "he's the only doctor in town." His wife remained by the window but turned to face Frank,

"You don't find that the least bit suspicious?" She asked as she pulled away from his hand, "Four days ago these...Fiends showed up, and the next day over half of the town is sick, then he shows up."

"Dear, it's just-"

"No, it isn't!" Elizabeth hissed, being mindful not to wake their daughter, "That isn't a coincidence." She glanced back out the window at the black cloud that covered everything and said,

"And I mean to get to the bottom of it."

Near the edge of the town, before it succumbed to a thick, Hickory forest, was a large cemetery. Markers were simple wooden crosses stuck above the dead, though, some had fallen over and lay on their faces as Elizabeth followed the doctor to the depths of the graveyard. She ducked behind a large tree near the edge of the fence that ran around it, and watched as the doctor removed his mask to reveal a chiseled face beneath it. His hair was jet black, matching the mask and cloak he wore over himself, and he had a short, black beard on his chin. Elizabeth watched from behind her tree as the man knelt to the ground and placed a hand over the dry grass above a grave. From the distance she sat, she couldn't make out what he said, but she watched his lips waver back and forth as he spoke above the burial plot, and the ground became disrupted in front of him. Gasping and throwing her hands to her mouth in fear, she turned back around to face the way she came, and when she hastily glanced back, the doctor was gone. Elizabeth stood warily and walked quietly over to the grave, only to find an empty hole where a body had once been. She covered her mouth with her hands again and looked around as a sudden flock of ravens appeared and landed on the branches of the trees that ran along the back edge of the cemetery.

"You were foolish to have followed me here," the doctor said as he stepped into her line of sight, "you have seen too much." She stood frozen for a moment before she took a few steps back the way she came before she broke into a full run. When she turned her head to look back, she saw that the doctor had replaced his mask and started to pursue her through the graves.

Elizabeth ran until she was back in the heart of town, the flock of ravens and the doctor following her the entire way there. Screaming, she drew the attention of most of the town, and people poked their heads out of windows and came out of their houses to see the sight. When she ran out of breath, she rested her hands on her knees and heaved,

"I saw him! In the cemetery, digging up graves!" She shouted to the townspeople, "He's up to something!"

"Elizabeth!" Frank shouted from their house as he came to her side, "What did I tell you?"

"Relax," the doctor said from behind his mask, "she was right to be a little panicked." As he said this, he waved, and the flock of ravens drew closer to him, some of them landing onto the ground before his feet, and others resting themselves on the branches of a tree to the doctors left. The people watched as the birds seemed to follow his command,

"You see," he said as he stepped closer to Frank and Elizabeth, "your little town was...An experiment of mine." Frank stood with his wife, her arm wrapped around his shoulders as she caught her breath, and they watched as the doctor waved an arm and from the woods came a horde of corpses. Townspeople looked on in horror as the dead bodies swarmed into the streets, slumbering about limply and smelling of week old flesh.

"You lied to us," Frank said, "you told us there was nothing you could do, you told us it was the birds!"

"True as this may be," the doctor said, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to draw this little test to an end." Suddenly, there was a loud shout as someone threw an oil lantern into the moist street and it landed near the edge of the forest and caught fire to a line of shrubbery.

"There is nothing you can do!" The doctor shouted as the fire grew taller into the trees, "Your fate is sealed!" He said this as he waved his arm forward and the swarm of corpses moved onward into the town and scratched and clawed at the people, some of which were able to fight back. Lanterns tipped over, people went running through the roads, and the fire on the edge of the forest slowly moved inward and engulfed the entire town. The flock of ravens, against the command of the doctor, parted and flew into the sky to escape the fire.

"No!" He shouted as the birds migrated away, "I command you-" The doctors words were cut off short as a heavy handed fist landed on the back of his head, he lost his footing, and fell into the muddy street. He scrambled to his back to look up at a group of townspeople, lead by Frank, standing above him with weapons and a single lantern.

"Please," he pleaded, "I-" He wasn't able to finish his sentence as the lantern landed on his chest and shattered, spilling oil that quickly combusted, onto his body. He flailed around as the dead took over the crowd and then fell to the fire.

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"Here!" A voice echoed through the trees, startling a flock of large, black birds into the smoky air. A group of men and women with a single cart wandered to the edge of a charred black forest and stopped to look on at the devastation.

"What in the heavens?" A male voice said as he stepped forward and removed his hat, "What do you reckon happened here?" He looked down at a younger man who held a stick and poked around at the blackened remains of a town,

"Looks to me like a forest fire," he said, looking up at the man, "I don't think there's anyone left." He shook his head and stood, glancing over at the larger man in sadness,

"After all this time trying to find it, it's...Gone. I'm sorry sir." The man nodded firmly and said,

"Nevermind this place," he said as he turned to his people, "we will start a new town, back the way we came." He pointed south of the burned place to a large clearing in the woods where the ravens had flocked to,

"There, that is where our new town will be."

"What will you call it sir?" Someone asked as the group started walking toward their new home.

"I think I will call it..." He paused for a moment and smiled, "Raven."