A murder of crows

Recently, I was scouring through the depths of my documents folder on my laptop and found ‘A Murder of Crows’, a short horror story I wrote when I was 17 or 18! Enjoy.

A Murder of Crows

By Gary Lonesborough

The headlights of passing cars were the only things keeping David awake. He was exhausted from his business trip to Sydney and just wanted to get home. He played some music to alert his brain it still had a job to do, turning his radio on full volume. He looked ahead on the dusky, endless road. Not long now, just a few more kilometres to go, he thought.

“There will be a hot chocolate waiting for us when we get home,” he whispered to his brain, urging it to keep him awake. We are on a straight, he thought, no traffic for miles. No headlights visible in the distance. I can rest my eyes, just for a second.

David slowed the car down to eighty kilometres an hour and took comfort in his blinks as they got heavier and heavier. The radio was unsettling so he reached for the knob and turned the volume down. He wanted to pull the car over to the side of the road and sleep but the thought of a hot chocolate waiting for him on his kitchen bench begging to be drunk was too much of an offer to refuse. If he rested, it would be cold by the time he got home.

Again, David looked ahead of the dark road to see no headlights making their way for him. Just for a few seconds, he thought as he closed his eyes. David found driving with his eyes closed quite soothing. The feeling of the motion was to die for.

Suddenly, two loud horns sounded. David opened his eyes and saw that he was in the other lane heading straight at a truck flashing its lights and sounding its horn desperately. Quickly and lively, he grabbed the steering wheel and firmly pulled it to the left, veering off the road and into some bushes. The car came to a halt and turned itself off. David heard a bang and smoke began to ascend from the bonnet. David rested his head on the steering wheel but he was no longer tired. He frantically tried to turn the car on as it stayed buried in the bushes. The turning of the key in the ignition was to no avail. David sighed and pulled his mobile phone from his pocket. No service.

He decided to take a chance hitchhiking, still thinking of the hot chocolate that was promised for him upon his arrival home. He grabbed his suitcase and pried the door open, pushing it against the force of the bushes his car was planted in. His suit was tight around his body as he climbed out of the car and made his way to the road. Utter cold, it would be dark soon. David walked back to the car and reached into the back seat, pulling his coat out and slipping it on. He then walked to the boot and unlocked it, retrieving a flashlight. He loaded it with batteries and made his way along the road. There was a mountain in the vast distance. The town was just on the other side.

The cold was creeping up David’s legs and he shivered. There were no cars coming at all. There was no sound of any heroic engines coming to get him, there was silence. The sun was just moving its last ray down over the horizon. David saw a light across the paddock beside the road. There was a house with its lights all on, structured on the other side of the long corn field in front of David’s face. David couldn’t see any roads leading up to the house from where he was standing, so he decided to trek through the corn fields a distance and make it to the house and ask for help. He climbed in between the gap in the barbed wire fence and slowly made his way through the field, the fallen corn and crops crackling beneath his feet. The corn crops were taller than he was and he wasn’t even sure that he was walking in the right direction.

He continued walking through the corn until he came to a clearing. Raised above his head and mounted on a pole was a scarecrow. It wore a flannelette shirt and blue busted jeans. Its face was made up of barbed wire for the mouth and two black buttons for the eyes, and its body was made of straw.

David could see the smoke from the chimney floating into the sky ahead of him. He continued walking through the corn, pushing the tall standings aside. A dog barked in the nearing distance. It sounded vicious. David readied his suitcase to fight it off in case of an attack. He was nearly knocked into the corn when a crow landed on his shoulder. “What the heck!” David whispered to himself, balancing himself on his feet. The crow stood still, perched on its new home. It was black and had a sharp beak. “Shoo!” David shouted, trying to gesture for it to leave, but it stayed put. He continued walking through the corn and made it through to the other side. The house was close in front of him but the barking dog was nowhere to be seen. He looked around and so did the crow. The crow squawked loudly, nearly causing David to jump out of his skin. He whacked it away and if flew off into the corn field. He heard the dog bark again, this time sounding as if it was right behind him. He turned around quickly with his briefcase firmly covering his body like a shield. There was no dog in sight.

A loud sound came from the corn fields. Screeching, squawking. Suddenly, a murder of crows ascended from the corn fields, their numbers in the hundreds. They flew menacingly toward David’s location. He turned and ran to the house, banging on the windows and walls. He ran to the front door and banged his hardest, watching the crows narrowing in. The door flew open and David ran inside, the door slamming shut behind him. David had his eyes shut tightly. He was no longer tired, he was alert and his heart was beating like a dragonfly’s wings would.

He opened his eyes and looked to see who let him inside the house. There was no one standing in front of him. He was alone. He looked around the room. The fireplace was burning with blocks of wood inside it. The lights were dimly lit. David stood up slowly and quietly and moved to the fireplace to warm his hands. He heard a girl silently crying from inside a room with a closed and locked door. Slowly, David got to his feet, leaving his suitcase on the ground. He walked cautiously to the door, looking around to see if the person that let him inside had returned. He slowly guided his hand to the lock and turned the key that was planted inside it. He turned it and removed the lock then turned the doorknob. He pushed the door open and saw a short girl sitting in the corner. She was sobbing, cowered in her tattered white dress.

“Are you alright?” David asked, the girl stopping her noise and looking up at him. “What’s going on here?”

The girl sniffled. “He won’t let me go. He saw me on the road now he won’t let me go. He sent the crows for me. He waits and watches you. When you come here, you see him; he makes sure he gets really close. If you are the right kind, he sends his crows to take you.”

David was baffled as to what was going on. He rubbed his eyes, not knowing what to think about his situation. “Who? What’s going on here?”

“He’s behind you!” the girl shouted. David turned quickly and saw standing before his eyes the scarecrow from the paddock. It stood tall and threatening, its black button eyes staring violently into David’s. The girl screamed as the scarecrow latched its hand on to David’s throat. He pushed it off and shut the door, leaning his body up against it as the scarecrow tried to get in.

“Climb out the window!” David shouted, pointing at the glass window on the wall.

“You don’t know why you’re here, do you?”

“Out the window, now!” The woman sighed and slid the window open and climbed out. David quickly ran from the door and dove out the window, whacking his knee on the window frame. He landed on the ground and clutched to his knee. The girl helped him up and he limped with her towards the corn field. David looked back at the window to see the scarecrow staring at them.

The girl led the way though the corn field. David tried to move as quickly as he could. They moved through the corn, pushing away the crops in their path. David could hear the squawking of the crows and looked up to see an army flying overhead. “We need to get to my car!” David shouted.

“He’s coming!” sang the girl, looking back and picking up her speed, almost hopping now. David could hear the crops behind him being bashed away. He tried to run, but his knee was too sore. The squawking and screeching grew violently louder as the crows seemed to become angrier. David pushed himself to move quicker as the girl began to run too far ahead and out of his seeing distance.

After a few seconds, he reached the barbed wire fence, throwing himself through the gaps. He rolled onto the ground and clutched his knee again. He rolled back and forth and forced himself to sit up. The scarecrow stood at the fence staring, as if it could not breach the borders of the farm. David looked around for the girl but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked towards where his car was planted in the bushes and saw a truck was stopped beside it with its hazard lights flashing through the growing darkness.

David stood up, keeping an eye on the staring scarecrow. It backed into the cornfields and disappeared. David turned away and moved with haste towards his car. He could hear the crows screeching and bickering with one another in the distance. He grew closer to his car and moved to the driver’s seat of the truck to see if anyone was there. The lights flashed but there was no one flashing them. The silence was eerie as David turned to the front of the truck. There was debris all over the road leading to his car. He walked along the trail of broken glass and shattered parts to his car. Resting limp on the steering wheel against a smashed bonnet was David. His face was cold and still and pale, wearing a jagged line of red from the hairline to the chin.

David shook his head in disbelief. He backed away from the car and watched his body as it remained still and silent. The screeching of the crows grew louder and louder. David looked up the road into the blackness. He dropped to his knees and wept as a murder of crows descended upon him.

The End.