• Raven and The Crow •

Chapter One; N

It was black. All of it was just a black void. She Ran, and ran, but never seemed to escape it. It chased after her, breathing down her neck, it's eyes searing through her skin. It's claws practically digging into her already. It was right there. It was hungry, and it wanted her. She ran, and ran into the void which seemed endless. It was like a broken record repeating the same scene over, and over again.
"Raven." It called her name. She stumbled on her feet, and turned to it. It towered over her. It's eye sockets seemingly endless, yet it still had a stare.
"Raven." It called louder. It's voice boomed in the void. She could feel the void pushing her towards it, while she struggled, and resisted.
"Raven!" She jolted up just as it had its hands..claws? Whatever it was on her. She looked around the room, and realized she was still in class. The class laughed at Raven when she sat upright after being woken up. The teacher gave Raven an angry look, "you need to pay more attention. Head up, or you're going to the office." He said in an irritated tone. Raven nodded her head, and tried her best to stay awake during class. It was a surprise she could even sleep in the class, with that annoying sound of the chalk scraping on the chalkboard. 'Kinda sounds like those popular kids when they talk.' She thought to herself and huffed in amusement. She never liked the popular kids, Nor will she ever understand that hierarchy of high school. Not long into her thought process, the bell rang, notifying the students of their dismissal. Raven slumped off, not the happiest to have to go home, but was also glad to get out of the heap of bricks and boiled hotdogs they call a school.
Raven looked over to see the beige rusty old car that belonged to her parents, and walked her way over to it. As she walked over, she could slowly start to smell the familiar stench of body odor, and cigarette smoke. She opened the creaky door, which only made the stench worse. Ravens mother, Janice, turned over to talk to Raven, the car seat creaking as she did so, "Sweetie! How was school? Did you make any friends? Maybe get some gossip on people at your school?" You could hear Janice loudly chewing on some gum, which annoyed the hell out of Raven. "...No?" Raven spoke after a long period of silence. Sometimes she felt her mother knew nothing about her. "Oh...well, don't worry, honey, I got the 411 on the gossip in town. Did you hear About Carols stunt she pulled at the bar the other day? Y'know, she always has her chest all puffed up like she's all that and a bag of chips-" She was angrily interrupted by a very plump, middle aged man with the stench of a skunk, and greasy hair, with a fedora, which just barely fit his head. "Oh, please, just drive already, woman!" He yelled, laying back in his seat, and belching loudly. Raven just sat there, looking out the car window, while her parents bickered in the background. She watched the dead trees pass her view.
  Raven was used to this cycle. Fall asleep in class, wake up, go home, and wait out the fight between her parents, if she was lucky, the fight was only an hour. The car screeched as it stopped, the emission crying due to the rust, and left over rocks stuck between the crooks of the car parts. "Ok, so, now that we're back at the crib, Carol. She is just so irritating! She's always holding her head all high, with her perm, acting like She.." Janice rambled on about the gossip she caught while Raven was at school. By now, Raven was used to drowning out the sound of her mothers ranting.
  She never understood her mothers fascination with gossip. ' You'd think that all this gossiping would get her in some kind of trouble...'  She thought to herself, placing her bag down over by the copper coat hangers.
  She looked around the house that she had grown to resent over the years. Katanas that her father owned, yet never properly learned to use, family pictures that depicted the family as perfect, unlike the reality of the dysfunctional mess it actually was. The house smelt of nail polish remover, and Doritos.
  There was crumpled Mountain Dew cans carelessly tossed on the floor. Raven sighed, and slumped off to her room, simply waiting for the next shouting match between her parents. 'Why me?...' she thought, while her posture slumped into a C. 'Why is this my life?..'