Keene Brian - A Gathering of Crows

“My cell phone didn’t work either,” Marsha said.

“Does that happen often? Power outages and your cellular network going down?”

“Not that often,” Marsha replied. “I mean, our coverage isn’t the best, on account of the mountains and everything, but it’s never been like this. And I don’t just mean that the network is down. My cell phone is dead. It won’t even power up.”

“Same with everything else,” Donny added. “Flashlights—anything electronic or battery operated seems to be out. It’s like somebody set off an EMP inside Brinkley Springs. My truck was just serviced. There’s no reason it would have been fucking dead like that.”

“I saw two vehicles race by earlier,” Levi said. “A car and a truck. But otherwise, the streets have been empty of vehicular traffic.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know yet. What happened after you lost power?”

“We were… talking.” Donny glanced at Marsha as he explained. She lowered her gaze. “The dogs stopped howling and then everybody started screaming. We heard it coming from all over town. Gunshots, too. It sounded like there was a house-to-house battle going on. Then this weird guy appeared.”

Marsha shuddered, and Donny was surprised to find himself shivering, as well.

“Go on,” Levi urged softly. “Tell me about him.”

Donny did, recounting their escape in short, haltingsentences. He fought back tears as he told of the slaughter, and the fear and despair they’d both felt in running away and leaving Brandon and the neighbor behind. When he mentioned the strange abilities that the men in black had possessed, he assumed Levi would make fun of him, but the Amish man merely stroked his beard and listened intently, his expression showing no disbelief. When he was finished, Donny felt physically exhausted and emotionally drained. He noticed that Marsha was crying, and he slid his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. The memory of their kiss came to him again. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. Her hair smelled like honeysuckle shampoo just as it had when they were in high school. Something stirred inside of him.

“None of this makes any sense,” Levi muttered. Donny got the impression that the Amish man was talking to himself rather than to them. When Levi looked up again, he almost seemed surprised that they were still there. “Are you sure you’ve told me everything?”

“The kiss,” Marsha said.

For a moment, Donny thought she was talking about the kiss they’d shared in the bushes, and then he realized what she meant.

“They leaned over each person as they killed them,” Donny said. “And then they kissed them.”

“Kissed them? How do you mean? A gentle kiss on the forehead to honor their victims in some way?”

“No. This was… obscene. It’s like they were sucking the air from their lungs or something.”

Levi became alert. His eyes blazed. Donny thought at first that he’d said or done something to anger the man.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Sucking the air from their lungs… or the souls from their bodies?”

Donny shrugged. “I don’t know about that.”

“It’s okay. I do. This still doesn’t make sense, but at least now I know what they might possibly be after.”

Levi placed a hand on Donny’s shoulder, and Donny was surprised at the man’s strength. He felt it radiating through him.

“Tell me how to get there,” Levi said. “The street where you first encountered them.”

“You don’t need directions. If you want to find them, just follow the closest scream.”

Something fluttered softly in the darkness. All three glanced upward and saw a large black crow perched directly above them atop the eaves of the house. It tilted its head and croaked, almost as if mocking them.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Levi whispered. “It appears that they’ve found us instead.”

The crow cawed again. The sound echoed through the night, loud and obnoxious. Then the bird spread its massive wings and swooped toward them. Donny and Marsha stood transfixed, gaping as it approached. Levi stepped in front of them.

“Stay behind me.”

“It’s just a bird,” Donny said.

“No, it isn’t. This is something else.”

The crow landed in the yard and then seemed to blur. It grew, changing shape, transforming into a tall man. The entire process took only seconds. Behind him, Levi heard Donny and Marsha gasp. He knew how they felt. The transformation was simultaneously incredible and terrifying. He’d certainly never seen anything like it before, and he’d seen a lot in his travels. Encountering it like this left him momentarily stunned. He knew of therianthropy and zoanthropy, of course. They were two terms that described the same thing—the metamorphosis of human beings into animals, and vice versa. His library back home was full of examples, and although he had never witnessed it personally, Levi knew associates and peers who had, and he’d heard their stories. Werewolves were the most obvious example, but the phenomena extended far beyond mere lycanthropy. In many Native American, Chinese, West African, Central American and Pacific Island cultures, there were incidents of people turning into dogs, cats, bears, boars, owls, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, lions, lizards and even sharks. Some scholars believed that this was where stories of centaurs and mermaids had originally come from, as well as human-animal hybrid deities like Ra and Anubis, but Levi knew better. Indeed, most of what passed for mankind’s collective knowledge regarding religion, the paranormal and their own human history was incorrect. Man’s understanding of shape shifting was no different.

“Holy shit,” Donny said.

Marsha whimpered in agreement.

The figure took form, rising to its full height. It was a man, dressed in black, archaic clothes that made Levi’s outfit seem positively risqué. Looking at the Puritan-style hat, cloak and garments, Levi was reminded of the “Terror of Salem”—the Reverend Cotton Mather, scientist, theologian and witch hunter. The man’s face seemed hidden in perpetual shadow. Only his cruel eyes and crueler mouth were clearly visible. The sight filled Levi with dread.

So fast, Levi thought. It changed so quickly… What am I facing here? What are these things, Lord?

Whatever its identity, this was no mere shape shifter. If a human being turned into a wolf or bird or anything else and then transformed back to their human form again, they’d have an aura. All living human beings had auras. Levi had been able to see auras since birth, and his father and grandfather had taught him how to read them when he was just a child. Just like snowflakes, no two auras were alike.

Their colors varied, encompassing the entire spectrum. A trained eye could tell if a person was healthy or sick, happy or sad, just by noting the color of their aura. Different colors meant different things. Levi learned a lot about the man standing before them by reading his aura. It was black, just like the shadows concealing his face and the strange garb covering his body. Human auras were never black. That meant the man was something else.

Something inhuman.

That alone didn’t frighten Levi. He’d dealt with more than his fair share of supernatural entities over the years. Indeed, just two years before, he’d defeated Nodens, most powerful of the Thirteen, and stopped the beings’ attempt to breach the walls of this Earth and drown it in eternal darkness, snuffing out all life. Their battle had started with a confrontation much like this. Levi had encountered a seemingly human woman whose aura was black. While investigating, Levi had soon learned that the woman was nothing more than an empty shell. Her husk had been commandeered by Nodens. She was transport. Nothing more.