The Crows Know the Dead Remember

fictionspawn Aak,

The Crows Know the Dead Remember

Part 1: The Final Word

Days had gone by since the well was poisoned. Arthur had waited in silence. Waited and waited.

He couldn’t sleep at night.

He could see the crows gather over the little village. A sign. He needed to know. Needed to see it with his own eyes. He went at night not to be detected.

There was no one there.

He went into Johnson’s house. Hello? He said, carefully. No answer. He went into the living room. No one. Neither in the kitchen.

He found them in the bedroom. The whole family, dead in each other’s arms. Their eyes were picked out. The stench unbearable.

He ran out, breathing heavily. He puked.

Something moved between the houses. A shadow. He needed to get out of there. He was not welcome before, and now it would be suspicious having him sneaking around. He started walking fast towards the road.

He looked over his shoulder. Something moved again. Someone had survived.

There was someone waiting up the road.

Arthur stopped. He wanted to run, but it would give him away.

Behind him he heard a sound. He turned around.

A little girl was standing there. He knew who she was. Little Jessica, Masterson’s daughter.

Hello, little one, Arthur said with shaking voice.

She stared at him. Took a staggering step forward. He took a step back. He bumped into something. George, the butcher.

Mr Johnson came out of his house. Mr Johnson with his eyes picked out. Others came from all sides. Arthur tried to run. George grabbed him.

Crows flew from the rooftops. The dead had claimed their revenge.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151003-animals-science-crows-birds-culture-brains/

https://www.thestranger.com/features/feature/2015/09/09/22814640/we-see-death-when-we-see-crows

Published by fictionspawn Aak

Norwegian trilingual writer and illustrator. Contact information in my Gallery.

34 Comments

  1. Nicely done! And the crows are perfect…that’s exactly what they would do. And they are smart birds!!! POE loved to use them, as does Stephen King…as symbols of death…

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  8. My dad had a pet crow once (found as a chick, it moved on when it was grown up) and since then he always gets annoyed whenever crows are used in association with death/doom/graveyards etc. Don’t let that stop you though.

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    1. Thank you. It was the bedroom, but the bathroom would be an interesting image indeed 🙂 The crows came into the story working on the illustration, in the draft they weren’t planned for. Happy you liked it!

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      1. Oops! Your sentence was in bold too. 😳 I think I put them in the bathroom because they were poisoned. Well, you made the right choice putting them in the bedroom. And confronting the killer with a child…nice.

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  12. Hey! great stuff. I like any flash fiction with crows in. They are such devastatingly beautiful birds. I’m trying flash fiction written as poetry. I’m going to follow your blog. I want to see how your work develops and thanks for visiting mine

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    1. Thanks a lot! Crows are interesting birds indeed. Flash fiction and poetry are closely related, and a good mix. I’m trying to get into your blog, but I get a message it’s no longer available. Did you take it down?

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    1. Thanks! Yes, of course 🙂 I didn’t think too much about writing this one, though. I had on other hand some scenes from the Playstation game Resident Evil in mind every once in a while.

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