Raven Maid: Out of the Darkness

by Erik Schubach

  She nodded to herself and added, “Which is good, or they would have helped the human with you when you opened your can of whoop-ass on him. It'll take me time to sift through the memories.”

  I shook my head slowly, not wanting to voice my suspicions, but it had to be said. I looked between the two and said, “I don't think they knew you were here. I'm pretty sure I know ho is working with Abigail here in Seattle.” I gave it a little more thought and added almost distractedly as a knot started constricting my guts, “Or possibly where Abigail is.”

  Self-doubt set in. Was this whole thing a setup? To see if I were a Raven, or if it skipped a generation?

  I exhaled sharply and reigned in my anger. I was so sick of people lying to me.

  Just then we pulled into the University Trailer Park and parked by my Metro. We sat in silence, all of our eyes on a couple teens who were talking outside of their trailer just two spaces down. I looked between them and Rin. I was contemplating going inside for a blanket to hide the blood, but it was all over me as well, but the kids finished and went inside.

  That was our cue, my blonde companion and I almost tumbled out of the driver's side in our frantic need to help our friend. We ran to the other side, and she shoved my reaching hands away and tried to stand and immediately started to collapse.

  I got under one arms while Shannon ran to the door and yanked it open calling in, “Desirada, Uncle Bo,” as we reached the motorhome.

  Moments later, Uncle Bo was snatching Rin from me, the old guy had always been deceptively strong for an old codger. He lifted her like she weighed nothing and we all followed them inside, MawMaw looking around outside before closing the door shut. I wrapped the wire on the bolt to give us privacy as Shannon ran around pulling all the shades down over the windows.

  They had the young girl on the table as Maw Maw stripped her leathers off and they started cleaning the wounds and moving around us for supplies like this was some sort of medical triage that they both had experience with.

  I blanched at that thought. Had they done this sort of thing for their sister and my mother? It was all apparently part of the lies I have been told my whole life.

  Bo muttered, “These are gunshot wounds.”

  He looked up at me, and I nodded and supplied, “It was one of Abigail's hit squads.”

  He started cursing in Cajun. The tips of my ears heated in embarrassment for some of the choice phrases he was slinging. Rin was grinning at him through her pain, amused that he had a grasp of profanities as keen as her own.

  Then he explained as he started reaching for my tool box, “We need ta get the bullet out, they other done gone clean through.”

  He started to pull out a pair of needle-nosed pliers when I laid a hand on his big shoulder and said, “It fell out in the car.”

  He nodded and let go of the pliers and smirked down at the brave girl on the table, “Good, cus it was gonna hurt.”

  The girl growled out, “I can take it.”

  MawMaw chuckled as she wiped the blood from Rin with a wet cloth. “Course you can, chere. Men got no idea what us girls can take.” They shared a crooked smirk. I was relieved everyone could make light of the situation. As it was, the worry for the girl I sort of saw as my kick ass little sister was eating away at my gut.

  She looked so very small and so very young and fragile just then, with no family of her own. And I could see a shadow of fear in her eyes which she tried to hide.

  They had me tell them about the encounter as they bandaged her up. Then I shooed them away from her as I got her undressed and into one of my nightshirts. I carried her to the big bed and tucked her in. She was sound asleep before I even kissed her forehead. She looked so much better without all the blood everywhere, and her wounds were already starting to stitch themselves together.

  I was so beyond relieved that she was going to be ok.

  I sat there, just staring at her. She had always known what she was since she was five. I saw how much that had shaped her, forged her into a fighting machine. Then I wondered if that was actually worse than what my family had done to me. Lied to me in hopes that I wouldn't carry on the cursed tradition of giving my life as a Raven Maid.

  That's when understanding slowly started seeping through the resentment I had been feeling toward my family since I had found out. I looked at Rin, sleeping peacefully. She was just a kid. They didn't want this to be me. They were hoping I could live a normal life, free of all this mystical and spiritual soap opera that was playing out behind the backdrop of life, with everyone blissfully unaware of it.

  They had just been protecting me.

  I got it now. I understood why they lied.

  I nodded slowly to myself and took a deep breath in resolve. Right then, there was another, an even bigger lie which I needed to expose.

  I returned to the others and helped MawMaw clean up the aftermath of our impromptu field hospital. We were all silent until we were done, then my family sat on one side of the seating area; a tight fit as Uncle Bo took up most of one side, and I slipped in beside Shannon. She laid her head cutely on my shoulder and yawned.

  I fought off an answering yawn. Not only was it well after midnight, but manifesting my Raven always left me exhausted. And the night wasn't over yet. I was going to be useless at the University in the morning.

  I looked around trepidatiously as everyone's eyes were on me, with expectant looks on their faces. I steepled my fingers in front of me and I studied them, they were so much different than those curved talons in my other form. I absently wondered where my fourth finger went when I changed. My thumbs became opposing toe claws.

  I looked up and said, “I don't think it is an accident I'm here in Seattle. I think I know who is working with Abigail, and she lured me here with the scholarship. Most likely to separate me from my support in New Orleans so they could find out if I were a Raven Maid like ma.”

  I reached up to the little shelf which had my iPad charging on it and took it down. I pulled up the website for the Risner Institute and tried to find a picture of Collette. There was only a bio page, with no photo.

  Bo was asking, “Why do ya say that, chere?” He didn't have doubt in his tone, it was more curiosity than anything.

  I shrugged and said, “From the way Goatee was talking on his earbud, they hadn't been expecting Rin. He had said they were confirming a sighting of her here. Then when he saw my Raven form, he confirmed to whoever was on the other end that I was a Raven Maid as well. He knew my name.”

  I slid the iPad onto the table as I said, “That tells me that whoever it was, wasn't sure.” I nudged my chin toward the tablet, “Collette Risner, from the Risner Institute.”

  With that, Shannon gasped and covered her mouth, her eyes were wide in surprise, fear, and hurt. I asked, “What is it, Shan?”

  She was looking frantic as she started crowding me to get out of the bench. I slid out as she shook her head, not wanting to make eye contact with me as she said, “I have to go. I just... I can't... I'm sorry.”

  What was going on? She pushed past me and started unwinding the wire in frustration, then threw open the door as I was asking, “What's going on? What is it? Speak to me, Shannon.”

  Tears were streaking down her cheeks as she shook her head. She was starting to scare me. She got into her car, and in a spray of gravel, she was gone. What had I done? My heart started to ache as I wracked my brains. I already missed her.

  MawMaw spoke from behind where I stood in the driveway, “Come in, chere. It's cold out an' people are lookin'.”

  I glanced around, she was hanging half way out the door. And some of the previously darkened trailers around us now had lights on in the windows, the teens from down the way were standing outside their trailer with their mother, looking my way.

  I gave a pathetic and embarrassed little wave at them and then retreated back inside, shutting the door behind me. I looked out the window the direction Shannon had gone. What had I done to chase her off?


  I fought off the urge to pull out my cell and call her. I needed to finish telling my family about my suspicions first. Then maybe I'd drive to Shan's to find out what was going on. I looked at the tablet when I sat back down, was it the Risner Institute? Did she know something about them?

  I finished telling them of my suspicions. I could see the hate and need for vengeance in their eyes, and I knew they wanted it as much as me. Gran and mother were their family too.

  MawMaw asked, “Why would a wealthy socialite half way across the country be workin' with Abigail?”

  That's when I shared the other part of my suspicions, “When I was at the Institute, something felt wrong. My Raven instincts weren't as strong as they are, now that I know what I am. But there was this slight odor, like decaying flesh. I originally thought that maybe a mouse died in the heating ducts.”

  Then I shook my head, trying to recall all the details of the meeting. “I don't think Collette has a choice. I think... I think she is one of Abigail's zombies. She, and two of her guards... and even her receptionist were wearing gris-gris like the Zombies tonight. I think they are all being controlled.”

  I swallowed, and a pang of empathy went out to Mrs. Risner. Because if I were right, that meant she and the others were dead. I whispered to myself, “That's why she wouldn't shake my hand. She knew that if I were a Raven Maid, I'd know. I'd see the balance of her soul and see that she was one of those abominations.”

  Bo asked, “What wuz that, sugah?”

  I shook my head. “Just wondering out loud. I think that the whole meeting with me about the scholarship was a test. They were trying to see if I was a Raven Maid. And if I had reacted to them in the least bit, I've no doubt they were instructed to kill me right there.”

  I swallowed. I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it then. That was before my training with Rin. Before I knew what I could do and what I was capable of. Even now, my abilities and fighting abilities are a pale shadow of Rin's. And she is behind the curtain in bed, recovering from what should have been mortal wounds. She had barely survived.

  I was mumbling again, “Soc Au' Lait. I'd have had no chance.”

  Inhaling I centered myself and looked over at them. “Why go through all the big production with the scholarship just to see? Why not just kill me outright and not take the chance?”

  MawMaw made a sour face and nodded slowly as she explained, “Because Abigail is all about the grand theatrics. She wants to show how clever she is and show how no Raven could take her down.”

  I nodded slowly to myself and offered, “But it's all show, she's terrified. Why else would she be running and hiding all these years?”

  Bo interjected, “It is the anatomy of a coward.”

  I exhaled forcefully then grabbed my cell and said, “I'm putting an end to this now.”

  They looked at me inquisitively. One of Uncle Bo's eyebrows was raised in question as I pulled up my contact list and dialed a number, despite the hour, she answered on the first ring in a smug and smarmy tone, “Ah, if it isn't Adelaide Oliver, I've been waiting for your call.”

  I growled out, knowing I wasn't being fair as I didn't know the type of person she had been before Abigail Truit sank her claws into her, “I know you're one of Abigail's broken toys, we need to meet.”

  Her answering amused chuckle chilled my bones, confirming all my suspicions.

  Chapter 10 – Meeting

  Both Gran and Bo tried to talk me out of it. Telling me that we needed to do this smart. But I had taken the precaution of telling Collette that we needed to meet in a public venue. She knew of a private nightclub for the rich and influential people of Seattle that would still be open.

  I felt this would be the smartest approach since Abigail wouldn't have her puppets try anything where there were witnesses. Collette may have just been a plaything to her, but a valuable plaything. She had wealth and influence. She wouldn't throw an asset like that away for just one Raven. She had already dealt with dozens of my kind without having to.

  Pulling up to a ten story tall building just off of Columbia, catty-corner from the huge Columbia Center skyscraper, I looked across to the monolith blotting out the night sky. The tallest building in Seattle at almost a thousand feet tall. It was one of the few buildings downtown which I knew about. It was half again taller than the One Shell Square building back home.

  Seattle really never slept, just like the Big Easy, it just made a transformation at night into a different city. One bent on entertainment and nightlife, which contrasted sharply with its daytime culture and business facade.

  I felt wildly out of place in the same clothes I had been hunting in earlier. Though I had rinsed off the blood from my leather jacket. There were people in suits and dresses, which had to have cost in the thousands, coming in and out of a private entrance which must have led up to the Mongoose Lounge on the upper floor.

  Collette said she'd leave my name at the door. I pulled up, and a valet gave my Metro and myself a snobbish look down his nose. Then he offered a claim ticket to me with two fingers. I took it and pushed past him, making sure to bump him solidly with my shoulder as I passed by. Eh, what could he do? Scratch my paint job? That was a funny thought.

  I stepped up to the door, and the doorman cocked a disapproving eyebrow at me. I didn't have time for all this snobbery, I hissed out, “Adelaide Oliver. Collette Risner is waiting.”

  His brows rose up to mate with his hairline, and he checked his list then opened the door. His demeanor changed to one of deference. Was Mrs. Risner that influential? I got into the elevator in the short hall beyond, there was no other place to go.

  The man in uniform inside smiled at me, not judging me like the others and he said, “Welcome to the Mongoose Lounge miss.”

  I liked his smile, and his mannerism relaxed me a bit, I hadn't realized just how tense I was. I was going to meet a dead woman after all if my suspicions were correct.

  When the elevator door opened, he tipped his cap and said as he inclined his head, “Enjoy your evening miss.”

  I inclined my head back at him as the elevator doors closed, then I turned back to look at the crowded nightclub. Hell, even the accessories which the girls on the dance floor wore, cost more than my entire wardrobe.

  This was a club exclusive to the rich and beautiful. I had a feeling that just one or the other alone wouldn't get you an invite here, as everyone I could see had model looks. But as pretty as they were to look at, I was sort of sad for them as all of it was fake. They were gorgeous because they were rich, or vice versa. I doubted I'd be able to find one person in there that was true to themselves and was a real person with a real personality.

  I almost chuckled, it was a sad irony that they were more zombies than the actual zombies I had seen that night.

  I almost jumped when a man stepped in front of me. He was a tall Hispanic man with dark, immaculately groomed short hair, with a complexion almost as dark as mine. He was in a finely pressed grey suit and had a toothy smile for me. I recoiled, knowing he was a zombie long before the slight odor of decay reached me, and before I saw his distracted eyes.

  It was that feeling of wrongness, of a sickness in the world, emanating from him that told me. My senses have certainly sharpened by order of magnitude since my first meeting with Collette. I just had a vague sense of wrongness back then that was little more than a feeling.

  He inclined his head and made an ushering motion, speaking in a Spanish accented voice, “Miss Oliver, Mrs. Risner is expecting you in the VIP lounge.” His voice was pleasant and insistent all at once. I wondered if normal people could pick up that slight scent of decay or if it was just a Raven thing.

  Zombie Suit brought me to a staircase leading to a door at a landing beside a glass elevator that only brought you from this level to the next. I asked so only he could hear as we climbed the stairs, “Does it bother you? How you are now?”

  He cocked his head at me, looking confused then said with that same dull star
e in his eyes, and a tight perturbed smile on his face, “I am what my Mistress has made me. Mrs. Risner is expecting you.” With that, he turned away as we reached the landing.

  I muttered to myself, “Yes, you've said that already.” I absently wondered just how much free will Abigail gave these reanimated minions. May Marinette preserve me, had I just thought the word 'minions'? How fucked up had my life become that that would sound normal to me?

  My other instincts were screaming at me to sink my claws into Zombie Suit and drag his soul clear of the rotting flesh hidden beneath the Voodoo glamour, and to usher him to the next world. What he was, was unnatural on so many levels, and the Raven inside me was going crazy as I held her in. I mentally told her, “Not now, with so many people around to witness it. Soon.”

  I almost chuckled, as it was my own fault, in my desire to not become worm food myself, I had insisted on meeting in a public space. I hadn't thought that it would protect Collette and Abigail's other meat puppets too.

  If my suspicions were met out, then I would do what Rin has been training me to do, and go on the hunt. But not before I got Collette to tell me where to find Abigail Truit. I was going to end the creature masquerading as a woman who had killed my ma by the end of this nightmare I was living.

  Zombie Suit passed a gold card key across the lock of the door, and we stepped through when the little light on the lock turned green.

  My breath caught the moment I stepped through the door, as the almost oppressive smell of death and decay assaulted my nose, and all of my Raven instincts were screaming that this was unnatural and needed to be taken care of. I felt black feathers starting to tickle my scalp and my eyesight sharpened. I willed it down but allowing my Raven to look through my eyes. I had to keep it together.

  Of the dozen or so pretty people in this VIP lounge, all of them radiated that sense of wrongness to me. One wall was constructed of floor to ceiling glass, and I saw another half dozen people out on a patio on the rooftop, all but two radiating that same dark sickness, and all with that vaguely unfocused look.