The Owl at Beauregard Manor

“Arabella, don’t be frightened.” The unfamiliar voice spoke over the phone. “Look out your window.”

I did as I was instructed. The small hairs on my neck and arms were raised. Shivers went down my spine, and not just from the cold. It was the coldest day of the year thus far, at 16 degrees Fahrenheit. There was a blue haze over that snowy landscape. Other than the snow that started to fall, I couldn’t see much of anything outside. The fire crackled in the fireplace across the room. I stood there clinging to the telephone that sat on my father’s desk. I never answer my father’s phone, but it was also unlike my father to be out so late. The phone had begun to ring as I was starting the fire for when he got home. The old-fashioned rotary phone’s ring startled me. Something about the snow added an extra layer of quiet over the manor.

“I’ve been watching you.” The voice said eerily. The other line was quite staticky, it was hard to make out their words.

“Who are you?” I finally was able to stutter. My throat was now dry, it was as if my body had stopped functioning altogether in utter shock. I squinted in an attempt to see through the flurries.

But I saw nothing beyond the normal landscape of my family’s property. The lake behind the manor sat frozen, and the woods stretched for miles.

Off in the distance I thought I saw a light flash, but it was difficult to make out. The sun had already mostly set, leaving only the light of the moon behind the clouds to light up our front yard.

“I wish I could say. However, I’m afraid you wouldn’t understand.” The voice told me.

Every fiber of my being was telling me to hang up the phone, but something else-much larger- was stopping me. It was like the feeling of sleep paralysis. Your brain moving as fast as lightning, and your body unable to move, no matter how much you want it to.

“I- I don’t understand.” I told the person on the phone. “How do you know my name?”

“That doesn’t matter now, Arabella. Just know we’ve been watching you, and everything is going to be alright. That’s- that’s all I can really say now. Just know – You’ll be alright.”

“We? Who is ‘We’?” I implored. I started to tear up now. This voice felt so oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“What’s going to happen?” I asked the voice after there was a moment of silence on the phone.

“Look again.” Just then a shadow cast over the low-lit room. And there it was. An Owl landed on the windowsill, its body facing the front door of the manor, head swiveled with its left eye fixated on me.

“The…owl?” At this point I was beyond freaked out. The line was pure static now. Whoever that was, was gone. My paralysis now lifted, I hit the switch over and over, hoping that that would somehow bring them back.

But they were gone.

I slammed the handset down, causing the phone to ding and echo over the large room. I turned to face the owl once more just as it took flight.

“Wait!” I shouted as I ran towards the window. I watched as the bird flew away towards the woods to the left on my family’s property. I still didn’t quite understand what was happening, but something within me told me to trust whatever this voice was saying. “This is absurd!” I thought aloud. “I’m about to chase down an owl.”

My mind was all over the place, as I ran towards the foyer where I slid on my coat, gloves and boots as fast as I could. I was wearing a sweatshirt and pajama pants, but I had no time to change.

My heart now racing, I ran outside into the snow. Flurries were still falling, pillowing on the ground around me. My boots plummeted two feet down to the cold icy ground below the snow, attempting to run towards the last place I saw the owl fly off to.

“Come back!” Shouting seemed futile against the wind and snow, not to mention I was yelling at an owl.

“Perhaps I’m having a psychotic break.” Not that I was prone to those, I’m actually a very sane person. Too sane, some might even say. I don’t believe in this sort of thing. Whatever this sort of thing even is. Walking deeper into the woods, my eyes starting to adjust now, I was able to make out the silhouette of an owl.

“Hey!” I shouted at the owl. Normally I would feel like a complete fool for something like this, but something deep within my inner being knew this meant something.

There were footprints in the snow in front of me.

They were not mine.

The footprints led right up to the tree where the owl sat perched.

“Who are you?” I started to get that eerie feeling once more as I spoke, a sixth sense telling me something was up by raising all of the hairs on my neck and arms. Somehow, I still knew that everything was okay.

The owl flew away once more.

Collapsing to my knees and into the snow, I felt defeated. There was this hole in my chest that was aching that I had just now realized had been there since I answered the phone in my father’s office. Tears were streaming down my face, I’m not sure how long that had been happening either.

“Arabella…” A woman’s voice called to me. I lifted my head up, the snowy woods now blurry from my tears. Wiping frantically at my face with the sleeve from my shirt, I was able to make out a figure off in the distance.

“H-hello?” I sniffled, focusing in on the woman. She was a good fifty feet away from me now, facing towards me.

“You’re not the owl, are you?” The words sounded ridiculous as they came out of my mouth.

The woman stood still. Bracing myself in the snow with one hand, I attempted to stand up. I was shaking now. Shaking from this eerie feeling and shivering from the cold. Once more, that feeling of paralysis had taken me over, I was unable to move my feet. I stood there planted in the snow.

“Go home now, Arabella.” The woman told me, still unmoving.

“What is going on?” Exasperated now, I yelled at her. Even at this distance I could hear the woman let out a sigh.

“You are so stubborn.” She almost laughed. “All you need to know is that I am here. I am always watching you, and everything will be okay.”

What did she mean, ‘stubborn’. Am I just supposed to obey every creature that comes up to my windowsill and calls me on the phone, just because they know my name?

“You already said all of that.” I said, tears still streaming down my face. What was this emotion that had overcome me?

“Just know difficult times are ahead, but I will be back to help you. You may not recognize me though, just please Arabella, trust me.”

“Why should I trust you?” I shouted angrily, but the woman was gone. My words echoed in the woods.

I looked at the hazy white, black and blue landscape around me, realizing just how far I had gone into the woods now. Father would be home any minute now, he’d be worried if I wasn’t there when he got home.

“Ari?” A man’s voice shouted, echoing down from the manor.

“I’m here!” I wondered how I would explain myself to my father, or if I should say anything at all. I saw the light from his flashlight, and I headed towards it.

“Ari, what on earth are you doing?” There was an element of worry to his words, however he was attempting to come off as cross.

“I’m sorry, father, I just got so warm after starting the fire in your office, I needed to come outside and cool off.” I said as I approached him. Luckily it was so dark at this point he couldn’t see my teary eyes.

“Who were you talking to?” He said with a look of disbelief. He aimed his flashlight off towards where I had just come from. “Is someone out there?”

“What? No, don’t be silly.” I responded, perhaps too quickly. “I just saw an owl, and I got carried away following it.”

My body was still shaking from this entire encounter. My mind, still racing trying to balance logic with what had actually just taken place. Was there a place for logic in this story?

“An owl?” My father froze in his tracks. I turned to face him.

“Yes. An owl.” I responded.

“Was it a Barn Owl?” He implored. Although it was dark, I could make out that he had a very intense look on his face.

“I-I suppose it was?” I responded. “Although, I’m not quite sure what a Barn Owl looks like?”

My father was now looking down towards the ground, taking slow, sure steps back up towards the manor now.

“Of course you do.” He said, still watching his steps carefully, as he seemed to be doing with his words as well. “You’ve seen the painting in my office. That’s a Barn Owl.”

I can’t believe I hadn’t realized that until now, but then again, this evening has been quite disorienting.

“Yes, of course.” I started. “That’s exactly the owl.”

“Hauntingly dark eyes, pale feathers. It was your mothers’ favorite bird.” His voice cracked on that last sentence but maintained his composure.

I stopped in my tracks. I never knew my mother. She died when I was only a couple months old, and my father hardly ever spoke of her. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to, or didn’t want me to know her, it was just too difficult for him to talk about her.

“I saw a Barn Owl today as well.” My father stated. Okay, now that eerie feeling was back. We were almost back up to the manor now. The light from the foyer gleaming over the snow-covered front yard. I couldn’t feel my toes any longer in my boots at this point.

We reached the stairs to the manor and made our way inside. It was so warm. I kicked off my boots at the front door, and instantly felt the stinging sensation of blood flooding back into my extremities. I quickly made my way into his office and sat next to the fire to warm myself. My father followed behind me. I noticed the painting of the owl behind the desk where I had just been talking to the strange person on the phone.

“You said you saw an owl today as well?” I asked, blowing hot air into my hands and rubbing them together. “What happened?”

“It was the strangest thing.” My father started, tapping his knuckles on his desk. He looked up towards the painting of the owl and stared like he was looking at a ghost. “The owl flew in front of the car on the way home, Lynch almost ran us off the road.” Lynch was my father’s driver.

“I was so angry at first, and then I saw it. Perched on the stop sign right off Beauregard Way.” His voice broke again as he spoke these words. I avoided making eye contact with him, in fear that I would begin to cry again. I could hear the sadness in his voice, this was clearly bringing up memories of my mother.

“What do you think it means?” I asked him, still staring intently into the fire.

“I know what it means, darling. And it isn’t good.”

I looked at him, my chin quivering.

“Father, I didn’t just see an owl.” He looked right at me, but it was like he was seeing through me.

“I know.” He said simply. A single tear left his eye; however, his face remained the same.

“You saw a woman.”