The Girl and the Crows

Every tree is a monster, every stone and stump a wolf waiting to attack. Despite his fear and the cold snow, the words from the other boys echoing inside Jack's head keep him moving further into the darkening forest. It was worse than them being mean, they were scared.

“Don't come any closer!” “Go away!” The words and cries stop as a crow breaks the silence outside Jack's head. After the crow flies away, the forest is quiet again. As quiet as death.

Death. A horrible word in Jack's opinion. A horrible, and terrifying word. Death.

Death. Pain. Suffering. Fear. These new words go through Jack's head in what seems to be an endless loop. Death. Pain. Suffering. Fear. All horrible, terrifying words, but Jack moves on until his feet can't carry him any further.

Jack stops to rest on a fallen log. He hears the crow again and something in the bushes. He quickly gets up and turns around, ready for a fight he most likely won't win. What he thought was a bear, or a wolf, or even some kind of monster, is a girl, about 11, just like him. Her straight black hair reaches down to her shoulders but seems to be longer because of her equally black hoodie and leggings. A strange outfit in the middle of winter, especially in Minnesota. Her skin is a ghostly gray in the light of the moon. The most disturbing thing Jack notices though, is the fact that the crow from earlier is resting on the top of her head, about as big as the head it rests on.

“You seem tired” she says, “and cold. Come with me. I have a fire started.”

Jack feels he has no choice and follows the girl to a small but warm campsite. And the girl tells tells him to sit by the fire. She seems distant as she puts more sticks into the small fire. Jack has the strange feeling of being watched, but why wouldn't you when surrounded by crows?

“Whats your name?” Jack asks, trying to break the silence.

The girl acts like she didn't hear.

“Do your crows watch everyone you help like this?” Jack tries again to break the silence.

“They don't watch anyone.” The girl responds plainly. “and they aren't my crows. They are their own bird.”

“Then why do I feel like we're being watched?” Jack shifts uncomfortably.

The girl looks up from the sticks, not to Jack, but into the fire.

“Take care where you wander traveler. Do not stray from your path. You know not what may be lurking in the shadows of the wood.” And as quickly as she had appeared, the girl and the camp disappear. Jack knows what he has to do.

He starts to run. Crows fly in every direction as he passes them. Hundreds of crows in the sky block out the moonlight and Jack is thrown into darkness. Still he blindly runs. Branches scrape his hands and face, he doesn't know where he is going, only that he needs to get away. The horrible, terrifying words fill his head again. Death. Pain. Suffering. Fear.

After what seems like hours of running, Jack finally stops. His head clears, and he can see again in the moonlight. Jack thinks about what the girl said. Take care where you wander traveler. He's alread failed that. Do not stray from your path. He didn't have a path in the first place. You know not what may be lurking in the shadows of the wood. Jack walks on, soon reaching a large clearing filled with strangely shaped stones.

As he walks through the field, he hears a crow and an animal-like sound unlike anything he's ever heard before. Going against his will, Jack rushes toward the sounds, pulled by some invisible force. He stops and hides behind a stone to see what is happening. He sees the girl, crows swarming around her, seeming to be protecting her. Then he sees a horse as black as the night itself, a spiraled horn on it's head, equally dark, it's terrifying yet beautiful, terrifyingly beautiful. It opens its mouth showing a row of teeth like knives, the sound comes again and it's horn glows a dark red. Then it stops. It calms, and trots away, back into the forest.

The girl looks at Jack with the same distant expression as last time.

“You may find sweet things, beautifull things, but beautifull things have sharp teeth. And they will bite. You don't know anything about the wood. You don't even know who you are.” And again, the girl dissapears. This time, the crows go with her.

Jack stands there, confused. Once his mind starts working again, he looks around. He sees a flower in a vase by one of the stones. He picks up the strangely living flower to examine it, but it withers and dies in his hand. Jack hears a voice behind him.

“I know it's dead, but could you please put that flower back?”

Jack turns around to see an older man standing behind him. The man has a strange blue glow around him.

“My name is Tom Goodheart, and that happens to be my grave”

Startled, Jack looks back at the stone and sure enough, it has Tom Goodheart engraved into it.

“your... grave? But then you're dead!”

“oh. You don't know yet.”

“don't know what?”

“I'm sorry I can't tell you. You have to find that out yourself. There's more to you than you think. I'll see you around.” And Tom fades away.

An earsplitting, animal-like scream fills the air and Jack rushes towards it. A man with a gun had shot the horned horse from before. Jack rushes to the horse and places his hand on it's heaving side. The moment he touches it, the horse stops breathing and turns cold. He sees it rise from it's body in spirit form and gallop away.

Anger fills him, and he turns toward the man. He doesn't know why he hates this man for killing the horse. Is it because of it's beauty? He hides his anger easily.

"Get out of the way boy!” the man yells coming to shove Jack out of the way but Jack steps aside before the man reaches him. The man stares at the horse and fear spreads across his face. "It shouldn't have died that quickly"

"sorry" Jack says

"Sorry?!" The man turns to Jack, confused.

"I must've killed it"

"But you only touched it!"

"Dang it. Shouldn't have said that"

"Wh- What are you?" Fear starts it's journey across his face.

There it is. The question Jack had been searching for the answer to for years. what was he? Then it comes to him. The fear, the pain. the suffering, the death. he had brought it all to his loved ones. To everyone. Not physical pain and suffering, but mental pain from taking. Taking lives. The flower. The beautiful pink rose for Tom, he had brought death to that too, and the horse. He could see the spirits. He belonged hidden in the deep and dark wood.

Jack looks at the lifeless horse, then at the man. Get out of my way boy! He can't take it. His anger, his sadness. his sadness caused by other's fear. Robes of shadow form around him. a scythe appears in his hand. Somehow, Jack isn't surprised. It all comes together like pieces of a puzzle. A puzzle that reveals who he is. No, what he is.

“the thing everyone fears.” Jack answers “I, am the grim reaper. and you, are dead."”

The man goes limp as the blade of the scythe cuts him. Not deep, just a scratch. That's all that is needed. Jack turns around to see the little girl.

“You know who you are, and can now learn about the wood.” she says, handing Jack a mask.

Jack looks at the mask, its a skeleton face, perfectly shaped for him. He puts the mask on. Death. Pain. Suffering. Fear. The once Horrible, terrifying words are now a fact of life to Jack. He has found his purpose.

So be wary of the wood traveler, you know not what lies in the shadows. You will find beautiful, dangerous things. but you might find much more. Sometimes, you only find your purpose in the shadows of the deep, dark wood.