Wings Of a Raven

Part 1

Richfield Cemetery is one of the quieter places in the entire town, autumn walks are a tradition for residents, who come here more often to meet friends than to bury someone. On this day, however, no one came to take a walk, because everyone was there for the funeral of one of the most famous personalities in the town, Howard Luis Stern.

Since passing through the cemetery gate, Michael had passed what seemed to be half the town. He kept his head down under his hat so no one would recognize him, which meant he couldn't see much of their faces. The path to the tomb was not too winding, his ancestors had been among the first to settle here, and the entire graveyard was built around their family tomb, so the main path led directly to his destination.

Once he spotted the raven statue he stopped at one of the larger tombstones to wait until most of the people were gone. He leaned against the tombstone and looked around the area. There were still about twenty people standing on the hill by his family tomb comforting each other. From this distance he couldn't tell if he recognized anyone. The one person he could recognize, his grandfather's butler, Coleman, was nowhere to be seen. It seemed to him that everyone was kind of offering their condolences to the woman standing next to the priest. He squinted his eyes trying to get a better look at her, but despite the distance he was sure he had never seen her in his life. The woman turned to look in his direction, and he quickly looked away, scanning the cemetery. The autumn wind was slowly starting to get heavier and heavier, more and more leaves were starting to fall from the trees as well as floating off the gravestones.

Practically everyone had already come down from the hill, so Michael, not wanting to waste any more time, moved towards the grave. He pulled his hat closer to his face and passed everyone as far away as possible. He lifted his head only to take another look at the woman he had been studying earlier. As she came down the hill, a little girl ran up to her. They stopped for a moment waiting for someone else to come to them, a teenage girl with purple hair emerged from behind one of the tombstones and together they moved towards the exit, which in turn was towards Michael. Stern pulled his hat even lower, though it had already seemed impossible to him before. He slowed his step, tucked his hands in his pockets, and tried to walk past them as naturally as possible. As he passed them they seemed to take no notice of him, but he slowed down even more, for a moment when he was shoulder to shoulder with them he felt a strange shiver as if something had passed through him, he had experienced many strange incidents in his life, but never such a feeling. He stopped for a second, turned in their direction, they walked on without paying any attention to him. He shook himself off and moved on.

He reached the top of the hill, where only the priest and two men were left to help with the grave. He pulled off his hat, smiled as slightly as he could, and nodded greetingly at the priest, who returned the nod. The men stepped back a little further giving Michael a little more space. He looked into the depths of the tomb where a coffin of dark wood lay under a cloak of flowers. He just made sure that the men were not looking in his direction, then shifted his hat from his right hand to his left, pressed it to his chest, lifted his head up with his eyes closed, and tucked his right hand behind his back. He smiled slightly, muttered something under his breath and lowered his head. He looked at the stone tombstone:

*In memory of one of the town's most distinguished friends

H. L. Stern

Rest in Peace.*

"That last one I wouldn't write." Michael said quietly as he looked at the casket. With his right hand behind his back he drew a black rose as if out of thin air. He looked at it and dropped it into the pit. Putting on his hat, he waved towards the men smoking by the tree next to the tomb so they could bury the grave already.

As he walked away he looked around the hilltop where there were only the graves of his family members. All the graves lay evenly spaced from each other divided into two rows. In the bottom row closer to the path were the men's graves and behind them closer to the huge sculpture with the raven on top were the women's graves. Above the grandfather's grave was a headstone with the inscription

*S. S. Holmes-Stern*

His grandmother was always saying she had to keep her maiden name so she wouldn't have initials consisting of just the letter 'S'. To the left of them stretches the entire Stern family in 'Father-Son' order. To the right of his grandfather's grave where Michael's father should have been is an empty gravestone, above that was also an empty gravestone but on top of that spread a bush of red roses, the bush looked well cared for as did all the gravestones and flowers planted around the hill.

He walked down the main path, stopping for a moment to feel the calm autumn wind. From there he turned in the opposite direction from the one he had come from earlier. In the distance, he looked at the far side of the cemetery, not sure if he wanted to see anything that was currently covered by the multi-colored trees. He squinted his eyes trying to spot at least the smallest piece of sculpture, but without success. He felt as if the wind became a bit more gusty, the branches of the trees started to sway faster, he felt uncomfortable, strange. Looking around, he felt someone's gaze on him, he could not tell where they were looking from, but he was sure they were, he knew the feeling all too well. He could feel the wind picking up even more, the trees starting to shake even faster, the leaves starting to fly higher and higher in all directions. He spun around trying to spot something that wouldn't match his surroundings, but again to no effect. He felt his amulet around his neck begin to tremble slightly, and he stopped hearing anything but the wind. He caught his hat, which slowly began to slip off his head, adjusted his hair, and for a second it seemed to him that in the place he had previously been looking at while trying to make out the statue, something was standing, a man-sized thing, though he couldn't say for what reason he was sure it was rather unnatural. Before he had time to examine the thing he felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned reflexively, but as calmly as he could. He felt that the wind had stopped immediately. A priest coming down the hill caught him by the arm, probably to hold on, but also patted him comfortingly on the shoulder for his loss. They both smiled slightly at each other then the priest walked away towards the waiting men. Michael looked back once more toward the strange thing between the trees, but this time he saw nothing there. He took a deep breath, adjusted his hat, fixed his coat, and walked confidently toward the exit. Finally after twelve years he was back home, the home he had left because of his grandfather, now without him maybe he would finally be able to enjoy it here...