Barn Owl Story

It was the dead of night, snow was billowing in the wind, and Jeremy had just slid and crashed off the road. He felt dizzy from the crash, but he composed himself as fast as he could. He scrambled out of the front seat and around to the trunk of his car and opened it up. Inside was a body- still, lifeless, and completely covered in black plastic and tape. Jeremy looked around frantically, making sure no one was around. Then Jeremy picked up the body and flung it over his shoulders. He had to get away.

Jeremy trudged through the deep snow and blizzarding winds as fast as he could. Between the darkness and the snow, he could barely see more than a few meters ahead of him. Then faintly in the distance, Jeremy heard what sounded like sirens. Was that the police? Did they find his crashed car? Would they send a team looking for him? Adrenaline rushed through Jeremy as he moved as quickly as he could with the weight of the body on his shoulders. Maybe he could get far enough away for the blizzard to cover his tracks. Maybe he could still get away.

Jeremy wasn’t sure how much time had passed, he was still going through a rush of emotions and could barely think. The sirens sounded like they were getting louder, he could start to hear some chattering too. “Not like this, not like this!” He thought to himself. Jeremy pushed his body as hard as he could to get away. Then out of nowhere, he felt faint. The cold and exhaustion had finally gotten to him, and his body failed. Jeremy collapsed face-first in the snow. It was painfully cold, but he just couldn’t move. Jeremy began to lose consciousness as the sirens and voices began to close in on him. By the time he passed out, he could swear they were right over him.

Then Jeremy woke up. The blizzard was still going, but all the sirens and voices were gone. It was just him and the body in the storm. Jeremy looked up. In the distance, could barely see the shadow of what looked like a barn. He could hide himself and the body in there until the storm blew over. Jeremy struggled to get up, he felt close to freezing. It took all his remaining strength to drag himself and the body to barn. Jeremy was able to bring them inside and close the door behind them with no problem. They were both safely inside and away from the storm. Jeremy turned around, and the first thing we saw was two giant yellow eyes staring at him. He jumped and nearly had a heart attack, then realized the eyes were those of a little barn owl. The owl seemed to be the only other living thing there besides them. The owl didn’t move or fly away, it just remained there, staring at Jeremy.

Jeremy tried to find a place he could sleep, but everywhere he moved, the owl’s eyes followed him. They made him unsettled, he just couldn’t sleep with those big yellow eyes staring at him, judging him, like they knew what he’d done. He tried chasing the owl away a few times, but it always flew away, then went right back to staring at Jeremy.

He couldn’t tell how long he’d been in that barn. The blizzard never stopped, and it was always dark outside. Was he in that barn for days? Weeks? The whole time, Jeremy couldn’t sleep with those eyes staring at him. “He knows, that damn owl know what I did.” Jeremy kept telling himself. One day, he couldn’t take it anymore. Jeremy didn’t care if he froze to death, he ran out into the blizzard, leaving the body there. He just needed to do whatever it took to get away from that owl’s eyes. Jeremy got only a few steps out when he saw the shadowy figures of police offices approaching him. He heard their sirens in the distance, and he could hear one of them say, “There he is!” Jeremy lifted his hands up into the air. He knew he was going to be caught.