The Night Owl

It was the beginning of summer, and the perfect night for four college friends to take some psychedelic mushrooms, roll up a few joints, and ride down the backroads with the windows downs and music as loud as their ears can handle. As Elizabeth, Kelly, Eli, and Brandon allow the drugs to take over their psyches, the music plating from the speakers begin to feel as if it’s flowing through their bloodstreams, and sight the sight of the farmland before for their eyes instantly appears vibrant field of colors dancing in their optic nerves.

BOOM

As Eli’s tries his hardest to keep his eyes on the road, he instantly snaps out of his psychedelic illusion once the group feels the huge impact of what appears to be a large deer crash into his dad’s semi-brand new 2020 F150. His head smashes against the steering wheel, Kelly’s body smashes into the back of passenger seat, while Brandon and Elizabeth are jerk back into their seats.

“What was that?” Kelly yells out as she places her hand on her head, to check and make sure she doesn’t have a knot.

“I don’t know! Are you okay, babe?” Brandon nervously says as he helps Kelly back into her seat.

“Holy fuck, my dad’s going to kill me once he finds out what happened! Fuck! This can’t be happening to me right now,” Eli cries out, as he softly slams his head against the steering wheel.

“Maybe it’s not as bad as you think bro! Before you shit your pants, let’s get out and get a damage report first. We’ll move the deer to the side of the road, and we can see if we can fix the car once we stop at a gas station.” Before responding to his friend’s suggestion, Eli closes his eyes in order to mentally prepare himself to look at the damages on the vehicle.

“Alright, let’s go check it out, Brandon. “ Eli declares as he stares at his friend in the rearview mirror, who’s already undoing his seatbelt. Eli quickly mimics his friend’s actions and takes off his seatbelt and then hesitantly opens up his door. “You ladies stay in here. It shouldn’t take us long to move this animal,” Eli says to the two women, before he gently places a kiss on Elizabeth’s cheek, and then slowly follows behind Brandon.

“Brandon is so brave! Awww, you got to love him! I can’t believe we ran into a deer! Hell, I can’t believe we’re,”

As Kelly rambles excessively about whatever comes to her mind, Elizabeth closes her eyes, and places her head gently on the window, in order to allow the sound of her friend’s voice to slowly fade away. She replaces her voice with the sweet symphony of the night time summer skies. In the distance, she can hear the uproar of a lonely coyote, who’s possibly calling out to its pack. She can also hear the croaking of a bull frog in the tall valley of grass beside her. I brief sense of stillness becomes of her as she feels the touch of the wind brush against her cheek.

HOOOOO- HOOO

“Woah!” The loud hooting of an owl closely vibrating in her ear causes Elizabeth to snap out pf her trance and jump back in her seat.

“Liz, are you okay? I’ve been calling your name! Come on, the boys want us to get out and check something out.” Neither of the girls utters one word, as they slowly exit out of the car.

“You guys won’t believe what the fuck we just hit,” Eli exclaims with a little bit of excitement in his voice as he immediately grabs Elizabeth’s hand, who then grabs Kelly’s hand, and he pulls them to the front of the vehicle. “Look at this big ass bird that ran into us!” A bit of sadness and a tad bit of guilt comes over Kelly and Elizabeth as they stare on the ground at the abnormally large, yet beautiful light grey colored owl lying on the ground trying his hardest to fight for his life.

“Poor little bird,” Kelly mumbles as she runs over and wraps her arms around her boyfriend Brandon for comfort.

“Little bird, this is the biggest fucking owl that we’ve ever seen in our lives! Poor bird and hooray to us, I’m sure this has to be a world record for the largest owl ever caught by mankind,” Eli says as he looks around at his friends who can’t help but to strangely stare back at him. “Come on you guys! Let’s toss this bad boy in the back of the truck and take pictures of it when we get home.

“But the bird is dying, baby,” Elizabeth mumbles as sadly stares over at Eli, hoping that her sad puppy dog eyes will convince him to change his mind about what he’s thinking about.

“What do you say, Brandon? Do you want to help me put this big boy in the back of the truck?

“I don’t know man. I read somewhere in a book that a dead owl can represent that something bad will happen or that death is near. It’s bad enough that we hit the animal. Don’t you think it’s kind of fucked up to exploit it, too?” Brandon inquires as he glances over at his greedy friend. “I’m out man! Let’s just move it to the side of the road and be own are way.”

“You’re right, Bro I’m tripping let’s move it to the side and continue on our way,” Brandon regretfully replies as he pushes down his urge to capture the half dead bird.

“That is the smartest thing that you said all night! Come on, Liz; let’s get back in the car.

The two girls sit in silence and they watch as the boys hurriedly place the owl on the side of the road. Once they’ve completed the task, without wasting any more time on the midnight hallway, the two young men hop back inside the vehicle. Once they enter back inside of the car, Eli carefully places his hand back on the ignition and attempts to start back up his father’s truck, so that the group of friends can continue on their way down the road. But, after numerous failed attempts to restart the car, Eli soon realize that there is something really wrong with his father’s truck.

“Well you guys it looks like the car isn’t working. But the good thing is, I think I see an old barn in the distance. If there is a barn, a farm house is probably nearby. We can lock the car up and make our way toward the house. Maybe they have a phone we can use to call AAA,”

“That sounds like a good plan to me, Brandon adds.”

Like a small infantry of men and women marching up into war, the group of friends stand tightly together briskly make their way to the farmhouse. More than a dozen of large black crows solicit around the old barn, as Elizabeth, Kelly, Eli, and Brandon slowly walk closer to the house. Excitement comes over the group once they realize that there is a small light on in the house that is just standing inches ahead of them. Slowly and consecutively behind each other with Brandon leading the way, they walk up the porch stairs of the odd, run down looking farmhouse. As soon as Brandon prepares himself to knock on the door in front of him, the door suddenly swings open and the group comes face to face with the barrow of a 12 gauge shotgun.

“What the hell are y’all doing on my porch?” A deep strong country accent causes each the group to slightly tremble, as they beg him to put his gun down. Once the man agreed to their request, the friends quickly begin to explain to the man in the blue jean overalls that they are only there in seek of some help. Without any hesitation, the man invites the group into his home.

This doesn’t seem right! As they tip toe inside of the unfamiliar house, a heavy feeling collectively comes over the group, as they all suddenly begin to get a feeling that something isn’t right. However, instead of turning around and running like that all had wanted to do, cognitive dissonance causes the quad of friends to continue to move inside of the creepy house.

As they reluctantly sneak behind the stranger into the living room, like a wave of water drowning them in the ocean, the strong stench of raw meat and raw food begins to fills their snouts. Naturally, treating their hands like scuba gear, they tightly hold their breaths and place their hands over their mouths.

“You guys, something doesn’t feel right,” Elizabeth finally whispers to her friends and moves tightly closer to Eli. When they make it to their destination, they can’t help but to be confused and horrified as roaches, maggots, and rats scatter about their feet. Like scared little children walking inside of a haunted house, they simultaneously squeal for their lives as their minds try to figure out if it’s real or if the effects of the mushrooms that they had taken moments before are starting to kick back in.

“What the heck is going on you guys?” Eli shouts out as he sternly looks over at the man in front of him, and waits for him to answer his question. Like a hungry lion about to devour his prey, the man just awkwardly smiles at the four like he’s looking at a delicious mountain of his favorite foods. Without warning, their heads being to spin uncontrollably and one by one they slowly begin to notice that their surroundings are unexplainably different. The low vibrational energy of fear sits in once they realize that they’re no longer standing in the living room of the old house, but in fact they’re really standing in the old barn that they thought they passed before they knocked on the front door of the unknown house.

“Brandon, what’s happening? Kelly cries out and looks at her friends.

Like lawn gnomes standing in the garden, the four individuals stand side by side and fearfully watch as the farmer swings around an ax inches in front of their faces. Flight or fight mechanics urges them to run, but just as if their ankles are caught in an animal trap, they’re unable to move.

“Help, Help,” They all scream from the top of their lungs, hoping that someone can hear their cries from outside the old barn.

“Ha-ha- ha, it’s no use! No one can hear you. The nearest house is miles away,” The man teases and contemplates which of the four he wants to slaughter first.

Hooo, hooo

The friends are even more in shock once they see the owl from the back of their truck swoop across their face and then make its way up into the rafters of the barn, and stares inquisitively down at the group of friends below.

“You know, the owl is a wise old creature. Observant and full of mystery; making him Mother Nature’s most intuitive of all God’s creatures. And all though most of the time his presents could represent positive change that most humans look forward to, my favorite omen of the owl is” The mysterious man pauses for a moment and stares hungrily at the friends one by one, until he finally raises his ax high in the air.

“What’s that,” They cry.

“Death!”

The next morning when the sheriff finally pulls up to the semi-brand new F150, his heart instantly breaks as he looks inside the car at Elizabeth, Kelly, Eli and Brandon, lying dead in their seat. The sight of a huge deer lying dead in front of the vehicle is a clear indication to the officer that the four young adults obviously were involved in a deadly car crash.