The Raven Girl

They always come at night.

I can hear the screeching and tapping at my window as I huddle under my covers, too scared to move. Night after night, they come and there is nothing I can do about it. In the morning, the only things to be found are black feathers. Raven feathers.

My mother says it's because I attract death. She says it's our family curse and that all girls in our bloodline are affected by this. Of course, it's hard to believe her when there's always a half-empty bottle in her hand.

Still, I wonder if it could be true. My mother and I have never had the best of luck in the human interaction department. First of all, we share the same black hair and unnervingly pale blue eyes--which doesn't serve to put people at ease. I'm 16 and I've never had a real friend. That may be because of the "curse" that seems to haunt us all the time.

My first experience with it was in preschool. Our class pet was a hamster named Jelly Bean. I petted him on the first day of school--just a touch--and the next morning he was found dead in his cage. It seemed like a coincidence so my mother and I dismissed it from our minds.

The second time the curse manifested itself was in third grade. The other kids in my class were now reasonable enough to get over my unsettling appearance and I started being included in their games. One day, we were playing on the swings when a girl named Mary-Beth fell off. At first, everyone expected her to get up. She hadn't fallen from very high and this type of thing happened all the time. But when she didn't move a couple of kids went to check on her. Their screams alerted the teachers and soon an ambulance was on the scene. I overheard the adults talking and caught the words "bad fall" and "broken neck". I didn't know about the curse at the time but when my mother heard about the accident she never looked at me the same way again.

But the worst experience of all was the day my dad died. I was in the eighth grade at the time. The other people my age had gone back to being scared of me and I was bullied relentlessly. There came the day when I couldn't take it anymore. I called home and my dad picked up. I asked him to come and get me since I didn't want to face the bullies on the way back from school. He said he was going to be there soon and that he loved me. He never made it.

I was standing on the corner so I saw everything. He was driving down the main road and was almost at the school when a car coming from a perpendicular street ran his red light and T-boned my dad's car. I can barely remember what happened next. The whole thing was a blur of sirens and lights. I remember being given an oxygen mask and the words "She's in shock". I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew, I was lying in my bed.

My mother was sitting on the corner of it, holding a tissue and crying. She told me that the driver of the other car was drunk and he never should have been driving. She also said that my father had been killed on impact--the paramedics couldn't have done anything for him.

Ever since that night, the ravens come. I am helpless as they beat at my window with their wings and peck at the glass with their beaks. My torment ends each morning as the sun rises and chases away the demons of the night.

My mother was never the same again. She became a ghost as she wandered the house silently, never far from a bottle of alcohol.

Until this morning, my life has been a nightmare. But something has changed that. A stranger appeared on our doorstep just as dawn was breaking. I usually value this period because it is the only time I can sleep peacefully--which is why I was incredibly annoyed when the doorbell rang. I knew my mom wouldn't open the door; she probably didn't even hear the doorbell as she was sleeping off yesterday's drinking.

Reluctantly, I got out of bed, put a sweater on over my tank top and walked over to the door. I opened it expecting to be face to face with someone advertising trips to the Bahamas or a representative of the electricity company saying that we'd forgotten to pay the bill again. To my surprise, the boy on the doorstep seemed to be barely older than me. He had long-ish blond hair, green eyes and wore regular-looking t-shirt and jeans. But what really startled me was when he smiled and said,

"Hey Brenna. I was right in coming here. I see you have the Raven's Touch."

This is only the first chapter of a possible novel I want to write. Comment if you want me to continue and add another chapter.