The Thousand-Eyed Crow (#Wattys2020)

Chapter 1 (Creatures from Beyond the Veil)

It had not been difficult for Kallias to prepare their breakfast: it consisted of a flavorless gruel, fortified with all the nutrients and calories required for the human animal to subsist during the next few hours, along with a strong black coffee for that addicting caffeine kick. All that needed to be done to prepare this meal was to add water to the gruel and brew the coffee. Since fresh food was hard to come by, this instant porridge was a lifesaver.

Kallias had settled on a cushion on the floor at their small table in the living room with their breakfast, their wheelchair folded up next to them. The room was sparsely decorated, as they did not need for much. There were no windows, and that was a blessing. The sun could be so hard to block out these days.

"I think what I saw might have something to do with those dreams we've been having," Caoimhe began, grabbing a bowl of gruel and a coffee and sitting at the table next to their sibling.

Rolling their eyes, Kallias shrugged as they put a spoonful of gruel in their mouth. "I think you need a new eye."

"I'm being serious. I know you don't believe in this sort of stuff, with the whole 'religion is the opiate of the masses' thing, but there's no other explanation."

"There are plenty of rational explanations. Carbon monoxide, drugs, mental illness, a faulty prosthetic, I can go on."

Smacking themselves in the forehead, Caoimhe sighed. "Then why would we both have the exact same dream on the exact same night, and see the exact same thing, and now, why would there be paranormal manifestations showing up in our flat? It was fucking vibrating and standing over your bed, which has to mean something."

"There are so many hypotheses about twins having some sort of special connection because we shared a placenta and whatnot, but there's not much more to it than that I reckon. You're reading far too much into this as usual. It would be worth it to relax before you embarrass yourself. And maybe get some more sleep while you're at it, that's probably why you're seeing shadows and shit. Just because we have a few weird dreams doesn't mean there's some sort of conspiracy."

Twins have a special connection, my ass, Caoimhe thought, picking up their gruel and storming back to their room, but not before flipping their sibling the bird. It had not even reached 09:00 and Kallias had already done more than enough to piss them off for the rest of the day.

Kallias watched their sibling leave with little interest, focusing instead on their gruel and the holograph device implanted in their prosthetic arm. They had opened the news website and had gotten distracted by their sibling's antics, but upon reading the headline, Kallias's face fell.

"Party cracks down on resurgence of ancient spiritual practices that go against atheistic global principles," Kallias read aloud to themselves, and they glanced down the hall, brow furrowed. But the following part made their blood stop pumping, and their breath hitched in their throat. "Hundreds arrested in connection to animistic cult. Oh fuck."

For the first time, Kallias thought that maybe, this had something to do with that weird bird in their dreams, about "correcting" things, whatever that meant. Repressing things in the recesses of their minds could only do so much. Kallias scoffed at themselves for even taking this whole thing so seriously while pulling themselves into their wheelchair before pressing the button for it to unfold itself automatically. They rolled down the corridor to their shared room.

"Caoimhe. I know you're pissed at me but you have to see this," Kallias said as they turned in through the doorway, only to be greeted by the sight of their sibling drawing something on the wooden floor of their bedroom. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

Rolling over to the window hurriedly, Kallias made sure to pull the curtains over the window properly just in case anyone was lurking outside. The sun was usually too strong for people to be spending time out of doors for long, but Kallias did not want to take any chances with that. They turned to Caoimhe, who was unresponsive at their outburst. "Caoimhe?"