The Crow

It was a balmy, autumn day. The sun shined brightly with little wispy clouds floating by. Colorful leaves played in the light breeze and danced along the ground. They crunched under the man's heavy shoes as he walked towards his parked car. He ignored their brilliant color and the beauty of the day as he hurried to his car with a brief case in one hand and his breakfast in the other. He chomped down on his bagel with cream cheese, quickening his pace as his car came in to view.

"Damn it, I'm going to be late!" The man thought angrily, mad at himself for oversleeping, for taking too long to get ready, and for his general lack of motivation getting up this morning.

He was jolted from his thoughts by a loud caw close to him. He looked up and caught the gaze of a crow. It was perched on a branch right above his car, almost like it was waiting there for him.

He usually detests animals but something drew him to this crow. Maybe it was the blue glint to it's wings, or the gleam in it's eye, but something made him like this bird.

"What do you want?" He asked jokingly to the crow, who surprised him with a caw.

"Are you hungry?" Another caw.

"Well then here" He ripped off a chunk of his bagel and threw it under the tree, "Enjoy buddy" He said before he got into his car and drove off.

He arrived fifteen minutes late to his office. While he was gathering his briefcase, he heard a familiar caw. He looked up to see the crow landing on a low hanging tree branch a few feet away from him.

"You again?" The man asked amused, thinking that he had made a friend "You want more bagel?" He asked, quickly grabbing a piece and throwing it over toward him.

The crow swooped down and caught the piece mid-air. It landed on the ground with the bagel and the man noticed that the crow was much bigger than it was before.

Huh, he thought, quickly dismissing the idea. Convincing himself that the crow just looked bigger because he was closer. He said a quick goodbye to the bird and left as the crow ate the large piece of bagel.

He put the crow out of his head while he worked his busy, yet mundane work day. Meeting, meeting, paperwork, lunch, paperwork, meeting, paperwork, filing, meeting. He sleepily stalked towards his car, rubbing his neck and stretching, thinking how nice his couch would feel right now.

CAW!

A very angry caw came from right above his head. He jumped, startled by how loud it was and looked up. The crow was on a branch right above him, and he was definitely larger than before.

"Sorry buddy, I'm all out of food right now." He said with a weak smile, getting into his car and driving off. Loud, angry caws echoed after him as he drove.

He stopped at a red light, a few moments later the crow landed on top of the traffic light. If he didn't know any better, he would think that the bird was glaring at him. A cold shiver ran down his spine. The bird started cawing as the light turned green.

"Music, I need music" He thought as he drove off. He blasted some heavy rock, the guitar and drums drowned out the cawing. He drove quickly, hoping that the bird would leave him alone.

He parked and sprinted from the car to his house. He fumbled with his keys when he heard a caw right next to him. He whipped his head toward the noise and the crow was sitting on his porch railing. It was almost eye level with him, and it was definitely glaring at him.

"I-I'm sorry, I have no food to give you. You can have some of my breakfast in the morning." He said nervously. He quickly burst through his door and locked it behind him. His heart was racing as he pressed against the cold door, what on earth was wrong with that crow?

THUD

He jumped away from the door. When he gathered his courage, he slowly opened the door, fully expecting to see the crow but all he found was a tree branch. He shut the door, shaking his head in confusion. He decided to have a beer and put it out of his head before he went to bed.

He restlessly laid in his bed that night, thinking about the angry crow. Why did it look bigger every time he saw it? Was he losing his mind? Why was it so angry? He hoped and prayed that it wouldn't be back in the morning.

"Why did I have to feed that fucking crow?" He asked out loud in anguish, feeling stupid.

The morning came far too quickly and he audibly groaned at the sound of his 8 o'clock alarm. He got up, took a shower, dressed, and stood in his kitchen thinking about what he would have for breakfast. Then it hit him. He didn't HAVE to feed the crow, he should just go to his car and go to work. He'll ignore that damn bird, no matter what.

He grabbed a yogurt out of the fridge, got his shoes and jacket, and then prepared to run to the car. He took a couple deep breathed, not sure why he was so scare. He grabbed the knob, took another deep breath and opened the door. He lunged forward, slamming the door behind him as he darted towards his car.

CAW

Ignore it

CAW

Keep running!

CAW CAW

Almost there! His car was only a few feet away now, bu the caws were getting closer too.

THUMP

"Fuck!" the man yelled out at the sudden pain in the side of his head. He kept running, grabbing the car door and diving into the car.

THUD

He looked up and saw an acorn fall from the window. Is that what hit him? Someone threw an acorn at him?!

The crow was sitting on top of the name plate of his parking spot, and to his shock and dismay, it was holding an acorn in it's beak.

"No way, no fucking way, you're crazy if you are even thinking that that bird through an acorn at you. NO!" He argued with himself as he put his stuff down to start driving.

He glanced up in the mirror and winced, he had a small cut right above his eyebrow. He cleaned it up before pulled out of his parking spot and headed to work.

THUD

An acorn bounced off of his windshield. He sped off to work, running two stop signs and one red light so he could get a spot close to the office. He parked close to the door and ran into the building.

THUD THUD

Two rocks bounced off the glass door, if he had been a second slower they would have hit him in the back of the head... This is getting out of hand.

The whole day acorns, rocks, and other little objects bounced against the windows he was in front of. When the day ended, he bolted from the office to his car, drove like a bat out of hell to his home, and then dashed from the car to his house. He slammed the door behind him and locked it.

He was breathing heavily as he slid down the door.

THUMP THUMP

"What was that?" He thought, this noise sounded way different than the rocks and acorns. He opened the crack and noticed a pair of red and blue small sneakers.

"What the fuck?" He opened the door and turned on the porch light. His eyes widened as he realized that the shoes were supposed to be blue and white. He looked closer but revolted and threw up at the sight of the small foot inside the shoe. He grabbed a paper bag out of the kitchen and returned back to the shoes. He scooped them in to the bag, taking note of the large pool of blood that was now on his porch. He quickly walked to his car and drove straight to the police station. He quickly went inside, bag in hand.

"Can I help you?" The officer at the desk asked, not even looking up from her computer

"I-I found these on my porch, I thought you guys should see it." he nervously said, placing the now soaked bag on the counter

The officer's eyes were as large as dinner plates as she called for other officers to come quickly.

"Sir you need to come with us" A detective said to him as they ushered him into an interrogation room.

He nodded and followed, thinking they were just going to get a statement from him. What was he supposed to tell them anyways? He had no idea who really put them on his porch and there was no way in hell he was going to tell them about that damn bird. They would stick him in the nut house for sure.

They started grilling him immediately. They showed him pictures of a bloody, ripped apart kids' room and told him that if he told them where the body was the judge might go easy on him.

He was very confused and tried desperately to convince them that he has no idea where the shoes came from, what boy they were talking about, and that he was innocent.

The detectives told him that they talked to his neighbors and his coworkers who all said that he had been acting very strangly the last few days. In fact, he had been acting strange ever since the boy's mom found his room ripped to shreds.

He tried again to convince them that he was innocent but what was he supposed to say? He WAS acting weird, but certainly not because he was a child killer... that damn crow... now he's in real deep shit and it's all because he fed that stupid bird.

They didn't believe any of his storied, his "alibi" or that he was innocent, so they slapped a pair of cuffs on him and charged him with the murder of that boy. They dragged to a holding cell to wait until he could go in front of a judge.

He stood in the middle of the cell in complete shock. He had tried to do a nice thing when he fed that bird, he tried to do the right thing by bringing the shoes to the police, and now look where he was.

A faint caw came from the window.

"No fucking way" He exclaimed turning toward the barred window.

The crow was sitting on the window sill, inside the cell. He took a step back and gasped, the crow was easily the size of a Great Dane with a massive square head and a nasty looking beak. It's two eyes were now four and all of them were glowing a deep red.

He couldn't believe what he saw in front of him. Suddenly he understood, this thing had to be some kind of demo-

"Feed me" the crow growled in a raspy voice

"No, no, never again, I will never feed you! Get out of here! Go away! This is all your fault!" He yelled at the bird, swinging his arms at it, trying to scare it away.

"If you want give me food," The crow said with a wicked smile forming across it's beak "I'll just take some" The crow unfurled it's giant black wings that gleamed and almost sparkled with blue.

A loud scream rang through the police station. All the officers and detectives ran towards the cell where the noise came from.

"Where did he go?" yelled the detective

"Sir, you've got to see this." an officer called from inside the cell.

The walls of the cell were covered in blood, and a large pool of blood was in the middle of the floor with a pair of black shoes sat in it.