Short Stories

Five: Crow

(A/N: THERE ARE CURSE WORDS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)

The crow sitting on the metal light pole cawed and flew off, the sound of beating wings fading in the distance. I cursed at the crow for dumping his business all over my t-shirt and attempted to throw thin air at the retreating bird. I sighed in annoyance and jumped off the top of the tube slide. As the sun finally retreated behind the horizon, ending the sunset I was staring at, I clicked my helmet on and climbed onto my bike and rode off to head home. As the sound of whirring from my bike filled my ears, I thought of how I would explain the stain on my shirt to my parents. I swerved around the tight corner and almost hit a shiny, black car that most definitely wasn't there before. I looked back at the car and shook my head.

It's too dark. It's not some dark voodoo magic. Yep, I silently convinced myself in my brain. A cold breeze suddenly brushed past me, and I shivered.

I should be home soon. I thought to myself as I turned another corner. I widened my eyes in shock and swerved and skidded to a stop and fell off my bike and rolled/skidded on the hard, cold pavement of the road as I saw a black car appear right in front of me.

"Fuck." I groaned. I shakily stood up onto my feet and felt around for any broken bones. Luckily, I felt none with that crash I had. I did find some some bleeding scratches on me though. I spotted my bike next to the car that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the god damn road.

Hold up. That's the car from earlier. What the actual fuck? I quickly grabbed my bike and rode off as quickly as I could home. Thankfully no more magic cars appeared in front of me. My mom of course scolded me for the stain, but I got off easy since they knew I couldn't control the bird. I headed off to the shower. After my bedtime ritual, I fell onto the bed and pulled the blankets up onto me. I turned off the light and as I fell asleep, I could hear the sound of a crow cawing.

Beep! Beep! Bee-

The next week was pretty normal, but when the scratches I had received from the bike crash had finally finished healing, there were now feathers in the place of the skin. This also happened during school.

"Um. Mr. Lamb? May I go to the nurse?"

"What for?" I nervously laughed. "There are some feathers where my skin is supposed to be." The class giggled at my answer, and the teacher looked at me disappointedly.

"No really! It's true!" I pulled up the sleeve of my shirt and revealed a large patch of black feathers that had appeared from a nasty scratch I had gotten from the fall. The teacher walked over to me and pulled at the feathers. They all came out but left my arm bleeding.

"Ow!" The teacher stared at his hand holding the feathers then looked back at my bleeding arm. His eyes widening.

"Go to the nurse. No pass needed." I jumped up from my seat and ran to the nurse's office. I bust into the office out of breath. The nurse looked at me startled.

"What do you need?" I simply showed them my feathered arm.

Time Skip

I hissed in pain as the scientist drew blood from my arm. It's been five years since I was taken from my home on that fateful school day. My parents fought for me, but they were battling a losing war. I screamed and yelled out every curse word at the guards as they forcefully took me away from my parents and locked me in their SUV. Since then, I've learned to be respectful. Sometimes I even get to see my family. Actually life at the lab wasn't that bad. All they did was draw some of my blood every two weeks and put us through some physical tests, but they never actually tortured us. There were also other people that were also having tests run on them that were supposed to help humanity. There were werewolves, vampires, shapeshifters, even some people like me! Except they had different animal traits woven into them. All my hair had turned to black feathers, and my eyes had turned black. Just like a crow's. My feet had also turned into talons. One of my best friends here was (F/N (Friend's name)). They had lion inside of them. S/he had a lion's tail growing out of her tailbone and her/him eyes were large and golden. S/he also had claws and could now only eat meat.

"You can head off to the cafeteria now." The scientist smiled at me. I smiled back and swung my legs off the chair and stood onto my taloned feet. I walked into the canteen and immediately spotted my little group of friends. I headed over there and sat next them. They then continued their conversation, now including me.

Becoming a Crow hybrid was one of the best things that happened to me