2024 Story Collection

How a Bad Girl, Nerd, Goth, & Quinceañera Princess Saved The World V

Joann had tried to sleep on the drive, she really had, but found it for more reasons than just Sheryl's driving.

She found it difficult to sleep without the comfort of her crows surrounding her. The crows covering her like a blanket as she slept, but she'd gotten used to their company and felt lonely without them. It was an odd thing to get used to, but you know what to say, you can get used to anything.

She'd ran away as a child, she'd been bullied for her pale skin and dark clothes. She only wore black. She wanted to live in their world in the way she saw it.

She still thought it was better to get bullied for wearing black than for the wild color combinations she'd have made if she'd tried to pick out anything else.

She was colorblind. It was rare for woman, even rarer, being that she could only see in gray scale. Black and White.

Her nanny had said something on the phone that "her parents hadn't wanted a child with broken eyes." She'd told the person on the phone, "I can't believe they could do that to a child. 

Especially one as good as Joann," but it hadn't mattered to her. That's why she was here in the states, instead of with her parents. It was too much, so she ran.

She'd hitchhiked her way across a few states. She'd been warned of predatory men and had been careful around men, but she hadn't thought much when a woman offered her a ride to the next town over. She had trusted the lady.

After a while of driving, the lady had asked her strange questions, inappropriate questions that made Joann extremely uncomfortable, but she'd figured it was weird but okay. But when the woman put a hand on her leg, that was it. She knew she had to get out, get away, so she waited till there was a cornfield nearby and jumped out.

She'd gotten pretty beat up because the woman was going at least 65 when she'd jumped out, but she had so much adrenaline going through her veins that she couldn't feel any of it.

She'd gotten up without hesitation and ran. Because she was so small and thin, it was easy for her to weave through the stalks of corn and hide from the woman who had chased after her.

The woman had wanted to take advantage of her. It still made a disgusted chill run down her spine.

She can still her. The woman's voice calling out to her, come now doll, as she chased her, I just want to have some fun.

She'd managed to evade her and hide until the woman gave up and left, but was left alone and starving.

That was the first time she stole something. She had to steal some food from a house nearby. It wasn't much, just some bread and a small block of cheese. That was all.

She didn't know what to do, where to go, so she ate, drank water and hid as the day turned to night.

While she was eating, a crow had come up to her. She'd fed it, thinking nothing of it. Her appetite was almost nonexistent after everything and she'd choked down all she could.

More crows came, and as she fed them. Over the next few days, they got friendlier and would even let her pet them. She was grateful for the company.

Then the woman came back. Joann had awakened in the cornfield to the woman standing over her, a hammer in her hand, her face twisted into something that still haunts her nightmares.

The woman reached down to pull off her shirt, but as soon as her fingers touched Joann, they both screamed. The crows attacked the woman, allowing Joann to escape, but it didn't stop the woman.

So as the woman wrapped her arms around Joann from behind, Joann had jabbed at the woman's eyes, while yelling out for someone to help her and as if the crows could understand her, they all stared, attacking her eyes.

The woman's grip slipped as she screamed bloody murder. It was bloody. To her the blood, it just looked grey. That was one thing Joann had been grateful for in that moment, that being colorblind made it so she didn't have to know the color of blood, of her blood.

But still Joann was frozen, watching in horror and scarier, relief as the crows pecked out the woman's eyes, then soon her throat, and her organs. They ate well that day.

After far too long, she'd finally found herself running again, running away from the grotesque situation, but the crows had followed her, which had made her run even faster. Now that they'd gotten a taste of human blood, did they want her too?

That night, she'd been so worn out that she'd passed out on the ground near a stream. When she woke up the next morning, she was covered in crows. They'd kept her warm, covering her like a blanket.

She'd realized then that she didn't mind them. They'd saved her, kept her warm and kept her all-consuming loneliness at bay. So she didn't run or hide from them anymore.

Over time, she came to appreciate their company more and more.

It was strange, but so was she.

That day she'd began her trip back home. The crows had followed and for some reason, more had joined the murder.

Then there was the raven. She'd found him as a baby, he was injured from what was likely a stray cat. She'd nursed him back to health and raised him. She tried to release him a few times, but he'd always find his way back to her, so she just let him stay.

The birds, her friends, were the only thing that calmed her nightmares now. The only thing that kept that woman's face from her mind.

To be continued...

March 24, 2024