It was almost time. The link had been shared on Twitter. The stream was ready to go, counting down until they went live. Viewers were pouring into the waiting room, the chat already on fire. Liam was monitoring it as he stood behind the tripod. The phone's camera was trained on Penelope and Henry, who were seated on the couch.
Penelope was fidgeting, picking at the skin around her nails, something she only did when she was really nervous. She didn't know why she was so strung out. They had managed to get everything set up with time to sapre, allowing her to change into something a little less... casual. It wasn't much, just a nicer rib knit sweater than her usual oversized hoodie but it helped her look—and feel—a little more like she knew what she was doing.
Henry was next to her on the couch. He seemed a lot calmer, sitting still and quiet. Up close, he really did look a lot like Liam, only his hair was a much lighter brown and streaked through with grey. His eyes were a lighter shade, too, but they had the same hard, guarded stare. He looked like he made an effort, too. Gone were his groundskeeper overalls, replaced by a fresh plaid button up and a pair of new-looking jeans. It even looked like he had trimmed his beard.
"Just a minute now," Liam announced, fidgeting in his spot behind the phone camera.
Penelope gave a nod to acknowledge him. Her skin stung as icy prickles ran over her body, her nerves coming to life. Her breath came out in a shudder and she had to focus her breathing to stop it from coming out in hysterical pants. The seconds between them going live seemed to stretch on...
"And," Liam whispered. "We're live."
In an instant, Penelope felt herself pull together. Her trembling stopped, her breath evened out. She raised her eyes to meet the camera lens. She could do this.
She was ready.
"Hello again, everyone," Penelope began, straightening up from her spot on the couch. "Thank you for joining me—us," she motioned to her guest, "for a very special live interview. This is Henry Burke."
Henry, who was sitting perfectly still beside her, only stirred at the sound of his name, like he was waking out of a daze. He quickly righted himself and looked towards the phone's camera to give a small nod.
"You may not know his name, but you know his story. If you know the Ridgestone Raven, then you know of the 1987 sighting, one of the more infamous accounts of an encounter with the creature—and we're here today with the person at the centre of that encounter. This is the man who saw the Raven for himself.
"For far too long he's been forced to keep a low profile and let others tell his story. Today, in his first ever interview, he'll tell his story for himself."
Penelope paused to let her introduction sink in.
Behind the camera, Liam nodded with approval and gave her a thumbs up. The viewers were responding well.
She couldn't stop herself from wondering if Daevon was amongst them, watching her, too. He couldn't have missed her announcement, definitely not after the traction it was getting on Twitter. Thinking of him in whatever dingy motel Xander had put him up in, with a scowl on his face as she got the interview he wanted, only made her more sure.
She turned to her guest. "So, Henry. Before we get into it, please, tell our viewers about yourself. For a bit of backstory."
"There's not much to tell, really," he said, frowning like he didn't see why it was important. "I was born and raised in Ridgestone, been here my whole life." He punctuated his sentence with a shrug. "I'm just an ordinary guy, despite what the folks say about me."
"What do they say about you, Henry?" Penelope asked. She didn't want to get into the town's attitude, but if he brought it up, she knew she couldn't just leave the topic untouched—it'd only bring more questions. Better to just get it over with.
Liam frowned at her. He already didn't like the direction.
"Well, they think I'm crazy, don't they?" Henry said, his mouth quirking up at the corners. Despite his nephew's glower, he looked more bemused. "Because I refused to take back my story about what I saw."
"Why would they want you to do that?" Penelope asked. "This town loves the Raven. Wouldn't they want you to share your story of what you saw?" Penelope already pretty much knew the answer, but she needed him to explain it to her viewers.
"Back then the Raven wasn't quite the superstar it is now," Henry said with a low laugh. He was doing great—despite his initial stand-offish demeanour, he was being quite charming. "It was considered a old folk tale the old timers used to tell little kids to keep them out of the woods. So when I said I saw it, they all laughed like I was making it up for attention and told me to knock it off."
"But you didn't," Penelope said.
"No, I didn't," Henry said, losing his smirk. "Because I know what I saw." His eyes flashed.
Penelope took a sharp breath. This was it. "What did you see that night?"
Henry shifted in his seat, looking suddenly uncomfortable. He was back to being guarded. For a moment, Penelope was scared that Henry would leap up and run out, no longer interested in doing the interview, retreating to his hermit ways.
But instead, he took a deep breath. "Sorry," he said. "For so long no one has wanted to hear my side. I've been so used to keeping it to myself, pushing it down, that this all feels very... strange to share it now."
"Take your time," Penelope said softly.
Henry nodded, squeezing his eyes shut. He took a few more breaths before his shoulders relaxed and his eyes opened again. His stare was determined.
"I had gone to a classmate's party at The Clearing that night with... with a g-girl some other people I went to school with."
"The Clearing?" Penelope echoed.
"He means the the old logging camp," Liam interjected. "Where we went for the first livestream."
Penelope glared at him. He wasn't supposed to speak. But she did remember—he had mentioned that high school kids had once went out there to drink in secret... Of course that's where he was talking about, that was the whole reason they had gone there. She hadn't realized it had a name.
Fortunately, Henry didn't seem to be thrown off by Liam's interjection. "Yeah, that's the place," he said. "The area was unfamiliar to me. I didn't go out there often. I didn't really get invited to the parties they held out there. This was my first one. And my last. I didn't get any more invites after..." His voice trailed off.
Penelope didn't push. She knew he'd continue his story, in his time.
Henry shook his head, like he was shaking off all the old painful memories. "The party that night was as big as it ever was, I think," he continued. "It was like everyone was there. Drinking, laughing. I had a drink, sure, but just the one," he added quickly, like he was getting ahead of the accusation of intoxication. "And I had to, uh, go relieve myself afterwards. I was told that everyone went into woods to do their business, so that's where I went. That's when I... I saw it."
He paused again. This time his eyes were far away, like he was reliving the moment behind his eyes.
"Things were strange almost as soon as I stepped into the woods. It was so quiet, and there was no light at all, like not even the moon could break through. I got freaked out and tried to head back but... It was like I couldn't reach the clearing, again. I could see the fire in the distance and I walked towards it, but it never got any closer. I walked and walked and walked... But it was just as far, just as out of reach. Like I had crossed over into another dimension or something."
Chills began to crawl up Penelope's spine. Though she had been there during the day, that had felt very much like what had happened to her. Like she had crossed over to somewhere completely different...
"I began to run. I ran and ran, and then I fell. And then, suddenly, it was like I wasn't alone. There was something there with me. I turned... and there it was. The Raven."
"What did it look like?" Penelope asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"Nothing like that stupid statue Gunnar has in the middle of town," Henry said, his voice sharp now. "It didn't look like a bird. Well, there was no beak, but I think there were feathers. Or at least I heard feathers or something moving as it approached me. But it didn't look like a bird—it looked like a person, like a shadow being. Tall and shapeless, darker than the darkness around me. Its eyes glinted like animals do when you catch them in headlights at night."
"And then what?" Penelope pressed.
"Nothing. I was just frozen in fear as it stared at me. It was like it was waiting for me to make the first move, but I didn't know what it wanted. It seemed like forever that I was there, sitting on the ground, staring at the monster. That's how I know I didn't just imagine it. It was right there, as close to me as you are right now."
"And then, suddenly, it was like the spell was just broken. I heard something else, some dumb kid shouting. I turned to look and I was close to the clearing again. And when I turned back, the figure was gone. I managed to get up and run out of the woods, screaming about what I had seen... But of course, no one believed me."
Penelope tried to keep her focus on what Henry was saying, but she was too disturbed by the similarities between his story and hers. She had experienced that same sort of 'break' between spaces—when Liam had found her and the squawking raven had disappeared.
Was that the Raven's doing? she wondered. Had it pulled her into some other place? Had it been that close to her?
She suddenly felt very cold.
Henry didn't seem to notice her spiralling. He continued on. "It took me a bit to realize what had happened, to really understand it. When I did, I realized that this wasn't an isolated incident."
That pulled Penelope out of her thoughts. She snapped to, looking at Henry with wide eyes. "It wasn't? You saw the Raven again?" She shot a look at Liam.
He looked just as confused about it as she did. He hadn't heard this part of the story either.
"Not quite," Henry said, looking between Penelope and Liam like he was surprised they hadn't known. "I mean, at the time I didn't think much of it. But after I saw the Raven and looking back on it all with fresh eyes, there had been strange happenings following me for weeks before."
"Strange happenings?" Penelope repeated. "Like what?"
"I'd see weird stuff when I went for hikes in the woods," Henry explained. "And the local ravens would act weird. Raven are always a bit odd, they talk and stuff, y'know, acting out bits of whatever they've heard. But this was... different. It was like they were talking to me."
"Like what? What are you saying?" Penelope said. She realized she was leaning in towards him, eager to hear more.
"They... They kept asking me to follow them," Henry said.
Hot shock travelled along Penelope's spine like lines of lit gunpowder.
That had been the exactly same thing the ravens had been saying to her. Liam had told her that it had been because Gunnar had tried to teach them to speak for the sake of tourism. But that timeline didn't match up...
But before Penelope got a chance to wonder too deeply, Henry continued his story. "At the time I thought it was just something some dumbass had taught them, y'know, for shits and giggles. But after I saw the Raven, I put it all together. It wasn't just chance that it found me in those woods.
"It had been looking for me."