drop.avi

05

Two Dead Birds.

That's what was waiting for Luke when he went to inspect the area where he'd seen the blurry "thing" zip past Adrian's bedroom door. He knelt down to get a closer look. They were very small, definitely not full grown adults.

He knew these two. He'd been watching them only an hour ago, as they played happily in their little birdbath. He'd seen the cat too. A pang of guilt hit him. Why hadn't he shooed them off, he knew they were being stalked. Had the thought even entered his mind? No. What did that say about him as a person?

He went from the thought of them playing, not knowing their fate was right around the corner watching them, to their present state. They were a sad sight. One of them had deep punctures through it's little white chest and the other's head was almost taken off entirely, held only by a stitch of flesh, it hung awkward at it's side, looking at him upside down.

"Adrian, I think we have a problem over here." Luke didn't take his eyes off the birds.

"Shit man, can it wait? I think I'm on to something--"

"I guess, but the longer you let the blood soak in, the harder it's going to be to get the stain out."

Poof! With that, Adrian was up and examining the birds before Luke could blink. He had an enormous smile on his face as he looked over the scene. Luke felt his excitement was disgusting, a side affect of this mystery-lust he was engaged in.

"This," Adrian proclaimed triumphantly,"is an Omen!! It's a sign!!"

"Those are dead birds." Luke volleyed. "I saw them earlier and I saw the cat who most likely killed them. It must have found some way in..."

"No, this is a sign, man!!" Adrian explained, as he left the room and headed down the hallway. "This is the kind of stuff we have to keep, or at least photograph! I mean they say the video "does things" to people, what if --"

Luke didn't follow Adrian to where-ever he was wondering, he just kept looking at those birds -- not seeing some omen, just a sad couple of creatures who met an end a bit too early. Adrian's excited rambling became inaudible for a bit as he creeped into the distance.

He was still going when he returned to the sad scene carrying some towels, brushes, cleaning supplies and the like.

"--and since no one has any evidence of anyone whose ever seen drop.avi, other than the Sandusky County Broadcast which may or may not count, there's no way of knowing when the weird stuff starts to happen. Maybe you me and the video, we're already starting to align and vibrate on the same plain of existance and so..."

"DEAD BIRDS." Luke raised his voice and pointed at them. "It's not some mystical sign, it's not the Sandusky Death Tape, and there is absolutely no vibrating going on here if I have anything to do about it! It's just a couple of dead birds. They're kinda gross, maybe a little sad and I think they are starting to smell, those are the facts."

"Well whatever..." Adrian snapped some shots of them before rolling them up and setting the wad of towels under the desk. He then went to work on the few droplets of blood they'd left behind.

"Listen, man," Luke lightened. "I'm not trying to like rain on your crusade here. I'm just trying to keep it real. If we have to give this a go -- one LAST real try, we have to keep a foot in reality."

"No I get you. Speaking of." Adrian tapped his fingers on the doorway. "You haven't said much about what you saw right before the birdies dropped." He smiled. "Care to share your scientific view on that?"

"I didn't actually SEE anything. It was all peripheral and blur. But I'm sure it was just the cat."

"The cat."

"Yeah."

"So there's just a cat running wild in my house right now."

"I don't know. Maybe. That or he made his drop and left. How should I know?" Luke shrugged.

Adrian just looked at him, not blinking. There was an uncomfortable silence. The kind of silent argument that two close friends could have without saying a word.

"FINE! Damnit!" Luke kicked the carpet. "I'll go look for it, but if anything cool happens you better yell for me!"

"Don't be an ass, Dude. You know I'm allergic!"

"Yeah, allergic to work." Luke looked down the hallway. It was dark. There were only so many rooms the cat could have gone to, if it hadn't already escaped back through whatever hole it came through. Speaking of. "Did you ever figure out how it got in?"

"Oh yeah," Adrian laughed. "You, Mr. Forgetful, forgot to close the damn patio door before you came up! So really, you should be the one cleaning the blood and hunting the cat down, but I'm a kind dude, so I'm going to do this part for you."

"How gracious of you..."

Luke was about to protest. He'd never opened the door. No one had. But he caught himself and just nodded. The last thing Adrian needed was more "mysteries" in his head. Surely there was a logical answer to the whole thing, probably a loose lock or something.

"Hurry up and get that damn thing out of here, I think my eyes are already starting to get puffy! Oh and I found something interesting -- a picture of Bright Eyes I've never seen before, I'm trying to authenticate it now with some other folks on the main board. We should know something by the time you find our kitty culprit."

"Right on." Luke smiled and turned to the hall. The shadows looked even darker. Had the sun dipped behind a cloud? He shivered a bit. What was wrong with him? Was this fear he was feeling?

He shook it out of his head, he had a little trickster to find.