Banshee Barn Owl

It's a quarter to seven in the evening, and Will heads out for his daily trek home from his part-time job at the deli. The leaves crunching beneath his feet are the only reminder that he's made progress on the journey home. He is so preoccupied with other things that he barely notices the regular landmarks on the way. Rather than take the bus and have to transfer twice, in order to get home, this regular trek has proved to be Will's best bet, a straight shot, with no one to bother him. The woods are quiet, save for the chirping of some wayward crickets, complaining in the balmy evening summer heat.

Wasn't he supposed to stop for milk on the way? Oh well, too late now, guess it will have to wait until tomorrow. He figured he might as well combine two tasks into one trip by getting milk at the same time he returns some soda cans for spare change the next day. So much to worry about for a 15-year-old!

While Will treks along, accompanied by jumbled lists of nonsense, he catches wind of something strange to his right. It's a sound from kind of far off, like a shriek. Strange. Will had never crossed paths with anything more out of the ordinary than a squirrel on his regular walks home. Where could this noise be coming from?

Yes, he was in the woods, but he was not deep into the woods. He was barely ten minutes from civilization and his own neighborhood. What strangeness could lurk here? Just as Will dismissed the thought, he heard the shriek again, a little louder and shriller even.

Freaked out now, Will hastens his steps, until he finally decides to make a run for it, for the last five minutes towards home. Once home, feeling safe from the haunting noise, he dismisses it and carries on with his evening routine.

#

This day, Will doesn't really want to take the woods home, but due to some unforeseen happenings at the deli, he is forced to. Mr. Wilmer had to leave the store untended for a bit, leaving Will in charge, and Will found himself at a loss. After all, he was only 14. How should he be expected to manage a whole deli by himself? Why did Mrs. Wilmer choose today to have a fainting spell?

It is dark now. Tired, he heads home through the woods. Halfway home, he hears the strange noise, but it's louder now, almost threatening. The louder the shrilling gets, the more it sounds distinctly like a woman screeching. Will picked up his pace, but the screeching followed him. He considered running, but he was puttered out from having been left to tend the deli. Yet, the screeching woman followed him, almost confronting him, forcing a reaction.

The screeching reaches a deafening din, drowning all other animal and insect noises in the woods that night. Will's heart begins to pound in his chest. He feels cornered. How can he confront something he can't see? How does he defend himself from the banshee's cries?

Instinctively, Will drops his backpack and clutches his head with both hands. Suddenly, a night owl whooshes down on his head, as if to say, "Didn't you hear me all those times before?" Its talons grip his flesh. He can feel fresh blood.

No sooner than the night owl descended, it left. Will stayed on the ground, lost in a stupor for what seemed like an eternity. Yet, when no more cries could be heard, and the sound of lazy summer crickets returned, Will summoned the courage to grab his backpack and head home.

#

Poor Will, traumatized by the screaming banshee in the woods, kept the matter to himself for some time but took the bus home from the deli ever since that fateful night. He couldn't trust the woods not to deliver anymore nasty surprises.

Through the years, Will always tried to make sense of the night owl attack in the woods when he was just 15, but no explanation seemed to fit. First, since banshees are known to be omens of death, he doesn't remember anyone actually dying shortly before or after his personal banshee attack. Nor had any woman been known to have been murdered in those same woods. After much pondering, Will finally chocked up the whole matter to be just a random banshee attack in the woods, and he was is fateful victim.