Crowchild, Novel

Ch. 6. Friend or Foe

 I hear it get louder as I swim towards the music at blistering speeds, something was pushing me, something powerful within me, or behind me. Right now I don’t want to know what, all I could hear was the music, no voices, but clapping along with the violins, and the beat of the drums. I start to see the shore in the distance, still miles away, but nothing could stop me now, I was determined, but confused, how could I hear this music from so far, how did I even get here? In the midst of questioning I hear a voice, but its not the Demon, no, it’s, it’s the old man! He says “Son, I don’t know what you’ve got yourself into, but there’s no turning back now. Like me, you don’t know where you, or how you got here, but all you have is a direction, mine is the light, and yours is the music, sink and suffer, or keep moving on.” I took these words as they were, I didn’t question how he talked over my possessor, maybe the demon let him speak. I followed the music towards the shore of a rocky beach.

 I saw a roaring fire with the instruments being played by the dark figures silhouetted by the fires light. As I got closer I noticed some of the figures had noticed me, but continued to play, more softly now. Once I started crawling to the dry land with no perception of how long I’ve been swimming. I approached the fire, but the shadowy figures remained as I saw them before, a silhouette. I could hear the clapping from before as the sound grew louder, the music fiercely tearing through the silence of the night. I made my way to the fire and saw the musicians up close, still shadowy figures, except for the face I saw staring at me between flickers of the raging fire. I tried to pretend it wasn’t there as I walked to one of the drummers who held a large conga drum. He remained the shadow as I became eye to eye with this strange entity. It must be living, it has weight and force if it can beat a drum and make noise, but I went to grab its arm. I heard a loud shriek as my hand went straight though the creature’s wrist, I burst of white light flashes through its eyes and I see a soul rise and be struck by lightning just as Sydney before. 

The man whose face I saw jumps through the fire in direct pursuit of me. I raise my hand to block him from tackling me, and with that a large shadowy hand pushes him back into the fire where he screams. How did I? What just? I make a stride towards the fire and pull him out, sitting him on a big rock by the fire. I watch as his burnt flesh heals before my eyes, his eyes were glowing, a bright green that didn’t stop until he was back to what I could assume was normal. He wore a hood and never spoke a word, he just glared at me, “What are you?” I say, not expecting an answer, I look around again to see the shadowy musicians still playing and the drum standing alone, I turn back to him. 

He stands now, Nose to nose as he stares into my eyes, his jaw drops and looks as if it were detached, I smell death and hear thousands of lost souls, as if hell itself had opened. Blood sprays from his mouth, I watch as I crow flies from his throat, getting larger as the bird attacks and carries the dark figures as they burst into the pure souls. With its incredible agility it flies and dodges the lightning strikes before flying to the man’s shoulder. Like a hellish vortex the souls are sucked inside of him and the crow disappears. 

“So, you’re one of them” He smiles, his eyes normal now, still green, but human green. He removes his hood revealing the scared and singed bare bones of his spine. He had no neck left, how many time has he disobeyed his possessor, how many times has he needed to be saved, and what did he mean by “… one of them.”? 

He steps back in pain, killing his intimidation factor as he feels the pain of the souls he took in. He looks exhausted, how long has he been drawing me in with his music? He sits back on the rock and motions for me to have the seat in front of him. 

 “You’re supposed to be worthy of becoming Death? You haven’t even hurt me yet.” he says 

 “I, I don’t know what I’m supposed to be, I was always just destine to kill those ready to die.” I respond, 

“Oh woe is you, no one is ready to die, even if they see it coming and want it, and no one is truly ready…. What’s your name?”  He says smiling,

“I don’t think I want you to know that”

“Oh you poor soul, or do you even still have one? Making this less personal will only make it easier for me to kill you.” 

“Kill me? Why? I can’t die anyway” 

“You can with the aid of my hands, and you will, but I’m not killing you because I want to, though I can’t say I won’t have fun.” 

“I still don’t see why. Is there a reason we would need to kill each other?”

“Haha well I suppose we won’t have to kill each other just yet. So your messenger is the crow?” 

“I’m not sure what you mean, crows follow me and lift me to the air, but I just don’t know what any of this is.” 

“Well then, you must be a little new to this.” 

He opens the palm of his hand putting it out toward the forest at the edge of the beach. Soon after a Fox comes barreling out of the woods charging towards us, its eyes glowing green. The fox stopped at his hand, he pet the fox before it changed, morphing into an owl. 

“You see, my messenger, or carrier of souls is the fox, a cunning shape shifter that helps me draw power from the messengers and environments around me. That’s why the crow had flown from me…” he laughs to himself “you are more powerful than you realize, that crow of yours has amazing skill that I could only acquire from its controller, you. However, you a burdened by a controller as well, those pesky voices in your head” 

“But why must we kill each other?” 

“There can only be one death.” 

“Well… We could work together… divide and conquer, or better yet we would fight any others better as two than battling now.”

“You even think like a crow, scavenging in packs, though it’s not a bad idea.”

“yeah, plus, that way when the end comes, it would be a more even fight.”

I am taken aback by my own words, and if in the end one of us will die at the hands of the other, why should I trust him to wait for that day.