First story contest

[Silverthorn]

(This story is set in the past; some when around 1800 in a small town, so no computers, mafia, and whatever)

The story (Click to View)

There he laid; his eyes still widened from the shock he has experienced just two minutes ago. The moon was showing every single feature of his face. Ray felt relieved. This man that terrorized him wasn’t anymore. There was just his body, silent, yet still warm from the ultimate fight that he lost. On a tree, right in front of the window, sat a raven observing the entire scene.

It was his look that Ray could not accept: the crooked mouth, the long nose, the deep crinkles. But most of all, his bright blue eyes, seemingly looking through everybody, were the thing Ray was not able to stand. Three weeks before, Ray conceived the perfect crime. At midnight, he’ll enter that man’s house and strangle him in his sleep. Everything was completely planned.

Even in death these eyes had something threatening that Ray made cringing. “That plan has to be executed quickly”, Ray whispered to himself. He pulled out a piece of cloth that he brought from home and blindfolded the corpse. This way, the evil eyes didn’t bother him anymore. Afterwards, he grabbed the dead man and carried him down into the basement. There, on the left side, between a couple crates filled with fish, was a big hole in the wall.

Ray has been here a few times already, he knew exactly what to do. In order to commit the perfect crime, he had closely gathered every little bit of information. He visited that man’s house the last seven days, always at midnight. Each time he noticed the raven sitting on that branch in front of that old man’s window.

Carefully, Ray manoeuvred the man’s body into the hole in the wall. Ray was so occupied; he didn’t even notice the mouse quickly escaping out of the hole. But that was not necessary; there was no one close by that could have disturbed him. Finally, he had the man the way he wanted him to be: standing in an upright position, facing the inside of the wall. “Now your eyes will never scare me again”, Ray said while pulling off the cloth. He looked around, just to ensure that everything was going like he planned. The entire wall was covered by wooden planks. Ray had pulled off the planks to uncover the hole earlier ago. With greatest affection to details, he put every plank back to its original place.

“The wall looks like it has never been touched. The fish will outdo the corpse’s smell. Now, back into the sleeping room, to finish the last parts.”

Back upstairs, Ray quickly continued his master plan. He made the old man’s bed like there has never been any incident and cleaned up the trails of fighting. He looked out of the window -- directly into the raven’s eyes. Was it just a hallucination? The raven seemed having piercing blue eyes that closely watched him. Ray couldn’t move anymore; he just felt the same threat again that he eliminated a few hours ago. A ticking sound appeared in his mind, slowly becoming louder. Ray felt deeply in himself that something was wrong. The ticking became louder and louder. It was taking up all of Ray’s consciousness. While Ray was shivering all over his body, the raven still watched him, cold and silently. The ticking swelled, still, and became deafening. “This is the end”, Ray thought to himself. Then he collapsed.

The next morning, a dead body laid on the floor, right next to the made bed. The man seemed to be gone through hell; he was all contorted, with a mix of desperation and shock on his face. The raven was gone and never seen again.