YATAGARASU: the flawless wings

THE CULTIST

I don't normally sulk around my room all day but my mother makes it hard to leave. I get out a note book from my desk and begin to write down some notes.

I'm very fascinated with writing stories and currently I'm coming up with a new idea. Although a lot of the time I'm interrupted;
"JAMES! DID YOU LET THE BIRD BACK IN!" My mom yells from downstairs. She isn't normally fussy but ever since she lost my dad it hasn't been easy.
"NO MOM, HE'S STILL OUTSIDE" I yell back down to her. Although it's pretty weird that he's gone this late, it's almost 10:00.
"WELL GO OUT AND LOOK FOR HIM!" My mom demands from downstairs. " HE WASN'T CHEAP!" My mother spends a lot on my crow Yata, she buys him toys too which he seems to enjoy a lot. Although my mom is fussy, she still seems to care deeply about me even after the countless arguments.
"COMING MOM!" I yell back down before throwing my jacket on. I zipper up and walk down the stairs.
"Now hurry up and go get him." She demands while watching tv from the couch. I say nothing and walk out the door then locking it behind me.

"He can't be far" I say to myself, I walk down the street past the old apartment buildings. Sometimes he likes to be around that area and mess around with the residents. I look around for a bit while walking down the block. Our town is very small with only one high school, McCoy high. Currently I'm a 10th grader, our school is pretty big and it was built in the 20s, there's plenty of space in there for crazy things to go on inside. We have a pretty low grade record which means our school doesn't get a lot of funding, in other words, our school sucks.

As I'm walking to the edge of the street I notice a broken down house, it's been there for a while and they have never rebuilt the residence since the old owners passed away. As I'm looking at the house I see something by an open door way. It's Yata, my crow.
I run across the empty street onto the porch, Yata gives me a blank stare then flys off somewhere into the building.

"Hello?" No answer

"Hello!" Still nothing

"Is anyone home?" I ask one more time. But no reply, I know it's wrong but... I reluctantly step inside the house. The house is a wreck, the paint on the walls is torn and moldy.
The floors are damaged and look like they'll break. I go next to the power switch and flick it,
Nothing....
Either the power went out or the house had no electricity to begin with. I walk to the living room, it's cluttered with books and papers on the floor. Although it looks like they were recently in use, so I take a look. I pick one of the books that's stacked with the others and open it up. The book is filled with writings and symbols that I don't understand, but there are dates that are somewhat recent.

I notice behind the book case there is a light, coming from a doorway. I creep closely to the opening and peek inside. There's a stairway to the basement of the house, as I listen in carefully I can hear a rustling of paper and walking around. I slowly walk down the first step, it lets out a subtle creek. I decide not to risk anything so I take off my shoes so I don't make noise going down the steps. I encroach over the stairway railing to see an old man writing in a book. Right beside him is a crow, not mine, but a crow.

He finishes his writing, he gets up and walks into a separate room out of my sight. I wait for him to return, when I see him walk out of the room I gag with horror. In his hands he is dragging a body out of the room into the main basement.

The man chants and reaches his hand out in the air, the body on the ground starts to shake and emit a dim light.
"Become my strength" he says before the body starts to turn into a swirl of jet black feathers, they then slowly fall to the ground. The old man picks up the feathers and heads towards the steps. I get scared and run up the steps causing a loud

THUD!

"Who goes there!" I hear him Yell from the bottom of the steps. Without panic I make a dash for the door! I take a left to the living space and I look behind me to see how far he's caught up. In my stupidity I crash into the books on the floor. The man swiftly closes in on me and my backs facing the wall. I try to find an opening but there is No where left to run.

"I've got you!" Says the old man as he lifts his hand in the air.

"No one can know my secrets!" The man screams and reaches a hand out to me, it shines red just like when he turned that man into feathers. Without anything left to do I close my eyes and hope it's painless.