Alpha Ares

CHAPTER 19

The daylight was dwindling to a barely noticeable lightening of gloom. Dusk was coming sooner than expected and it was time to pull all the curtains close and turn the lights on.

One after the other I checked to make sure that all the windows were closed while getting a view of the trees forming a crazy outline at the quickly approaching silver sky.

I moved towards the living room repeating the same process, I made sure to leave the front door unlocked for when he would return. Checking the last windows in the living room, I proceed to shut the glass doors to the deck.

I took one last look at the now darkening forest through the transparent doors and turned away. Evening was slipping away sooner than expected and the last of the sun's rays was pampered behind hazy gray clouds.

Thump!

I jumped a little, slightly surprised at the sudden noise. I froze for a moment, trying to listen hard if it was just my ears making up sounds of their own. And I was starting to believe it until I heard something fluttering softly from the deck area.

I was starting to get worried because the fluttering seemed to be getting louder the longer I stood there.

Skeptically, I began to make my way to the area where the noise was coming from and as I was rounding a corner my muscles stiffened at the sight of red-paint like spots that had splattered on the door.

Was that...blood?

I drew closer to the glass doors, inspecting the stain that looked as if someone stayed from a distance and sprayed red paint at the upper section of the door. I completely forgot about the sound but that was until, the sound returned and a slight movement from the ground caught my eyes.

I crouched down, and stared at the dead creature sympathetically, laying lifeless on the other side of the deck.

It was a dead crow.

I went to slide the door open to take get rid of it when without warning something else missile into the door and bounced off, dropping smack on the floor beside the dead bird.

I stared in utter disbelief when upon closer look I realized it was another crow, and the two of them seemed to have had the same fate. I was dumbstruck for a moment, if that wasn't creepy I don't want to know what is.

Now I'll have to get rid of two dead birds body.

I went to the kitchen to get get some gloves and a bottle of bleach but again as I was rounding the corner, I stopped midway and stood watching in absolute terror as both birds were on their feet and looking at me through the translucent with dead scarecrow eyes.

The bottle of bleach dropped from my hands and then they flew off in the direction of the forest. I bolted to the door and watched as they both flew in sync then perched on the shoulder of someone.

Wait! Shoulder of someone?

The person stood among two large trees in the darkened forest and if I wasn't looking closely, I would have thought the person was a small tree.

A chill froze me to my spot, at the sense of familiarity. Those ragged clothes, her ghastly figure, how could I forget a person like that. How could I forget the witch?

Our eyes connected and I felt a solid shiver run down my spine. I was beginning to feel a sense of paranoia and an oddly primitive warning sounded in the back of my mind when I saw a sickly smile making its way on her lips.

She turned and headed to the forest, I watched as she took two steps then stopped and looked at me over her shoulders. She wanted me to follow her.