Raven Maid: Out of the Darkness

by Erik Schubach

  Two knives shot out from her taloned hands almost faster than I could follow. Mr. Chocolate dodged one but the other sank deep into the arm holding his weapon, and the gun tumbled to the rooftop. Her head snapped to me, cocked at a decidedly avian angle and she blurted, “Get Shannon out of here! I've got these fuckin' asswipes.” Her head snapped over at another sharp angle as she looked past the zombies to their puppet master, “Abigail is mine!” It looked like there was literally fire in her eyes as the lights of the city around us seemed to shimmer in them.

  This knocked me out of my shock, and I kicked Mr. Chocolate as hard as I could manage in the jaw as he knelt to retrieve his pistol with his good arm. He went down like a ton of muscular bricks, and I felt the satisfying snapping of his jaw.

  I spun toward the group. Abigail had regained her wits about her, and she hissed out, “Kill them, kill them, kill them!” Sounding like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.

  The group rushed us, and the little ninja-assassin Raven Maid dove right back at them, diving and twisting in the air, her talons sinking deep into the first two zombies, and I could see her forcibly rip their souls from them. Her face contorted with pain and horror for a moment before she got her game face back on.

  She wiggled her eyebrow feathers at me and said, “Be right back.” She and the two struggling souls she held in her talons just winked out of existence. Before the throng of zombies could reach me, and before the two rotted and desiccated corpses could finish crumbling to the ground, she was back. She delivered a roundhouse kick to another, sending it stumbling back into the masses.

  Again that emotional torment flashed across her face upon contact. What was that?

  I didn't have time to contemplate as a Hispanic woman in a blue sequined party dress dove on me. I caught her arms in the air, keeping her well-manicured fingernails away, which she was trying to scratch my eyes out with.

  A moment later I was biting my tongue in my beak hard as I felt the balance of the woman's soul. I lived her life, her joy her love her sorrow... her death, her enslavement. She was there, inside, watching from the inside as her corpse did as Abigail told her. This woman, though she had been made into an abomination, was not evil.

  Sure, she had cheated on her taxes, a lot, and hadn't quite followed all the rules to attain her wealth, but at the core, she had been a good woman. I understood the pain and fear on Rin's face now when she touched these poor people buried in the unnatural creatures.

  This was my first physical contact with a zombie, and now I know why Rin had left the human to me last time, she was protecting me from this.

  This was more painful and frightening to me than when I had tasted the soul of the arsonist. Because it felt as if this woman's terror of having her will stripped completely from her, and doing what she was told without being able to resist, was worse than any hell I could imagine.

  This woman, Audrey, was completely broken. She was to the point where she didn't care anymore since she was just along for the ride. What was left of her psyche wasn't enough to call human anymore.

  I saw in our shared memory that Abigail took delight in torturing them all, the gris-gris around each of their necks was the vessel that she bound their souls into. Telling them all that all they needed to gain their free will back was to remove the pouch. But without her permission, they couldn't. So their salvation was always right there within reach, but they could never touch it.

  I hissed and tore the woman from her corpse, and I was relieved to see a room at the end of a short gilded corridor, and a joyous light warming us from there. I was so relieved that I, we, I mean Audrey would find peace after the living hell she had suffered the past year of her afterlife.

  I didn't have time for niceties, I just yanked at her spirit hard, sending her tumbling down the corridor, just to be engulfed my the warm light of serenity. And I was back in the battle. I was free of my prison, and my eyes snapped to Abigail's as I reminded myself that no, it hadn't happened to me though it felt like it.

  My look must have scared the long-dead woman because her eyes darted around and then affixed to the door the to lounge. She was going to run. I prepared to block her, and she saw my intent as I pushed away a man, Greg, who needed desperately to go to eternal damnation.

  His soul was dark as they came. He had even killed a man and got away with it. He had volunteered for this. Well, she used sex to make him volunteer for this. He had a bit more free will than the rest, and he relished being immortal. But I didn't have time for him. I wasn't going to let Abigail escape.

  Rin had her hands full taking on four zombies at a time. I felt inadequate with that knowledge. Abigail spun back and pushed Shannon hard as she was shaking the effects of the drug off. I screamed, “Shannon!” As I kicked a woman and then leapt off her back into the air, sending myself vaulting overt the outstretched hands of the reanimated people below me.

  Ingrid was the woman's name, and she was a housewife with three children. This was the first person that Abigail had killed in Seattle. She had used her to hide from whoever or whatever she was running from. The children had just been abandoned, and Abigail had taken some sort of perverse pleasure over that. Ingrid hadn't even fought after Abigail made her leave them, her heart was already too broken to ever mend after that.

  I shook my head to clear it as I glided over the others, who likely had similar stories and fates, and over the edge of the building. I pulled my arms in and dove down at the falling Shannon. Her eyes were wide in fear as she flailed through the air. But then she looked oddly calm in the short fall as I almost slammed into her. Was she smiling?

  On pure instinct I grasped her with my foot talons, realizing they were huge now, and I spread my wings wide. They must have spanned fifteen feet! I was a creature of the night, flying through the darkness with my charge.

  I was more Raven than human just then, a creature of pure instinct. Inside I was grinning fiercely, my hybrid form had overtaken me and I was a bird of prey, I'm sure I'd be barely recognizable as human. My beak stretched out before me in my vision, it looked wicked and dangerous, built to strip flesh from bone.

  Shannon screamed as my talons sank deeper into the flesh of her shoulders as my wings strained to stop us from becoming part of the street below. I let out an inhuman screech as I flapped down hard, slowing us enough to get some forward momentum. I heard her foot hit the hood of the car that was slamming on its brakes and honking its horn as we swooped past at street level.

  I got us a bit of altitude with a second sweep of my massive wings, and I heard my voice, sounding like a parody of itself saying, “Hang on Shanny!” just as we slammed into the awning of the building across the street. The awning crumpled on impact, bleeding off most of our momentum. Then I pulled my legs up and wrapped my wings, with their huge glistening black feathers, around her as we fell to the ground.

  I winced at the impact the quickly let go of the blonde to look her over. She was bleeding from her shoulders from multiple puncture wounds from my talons, but it wasn't an overt amount of blood, I hadn't hit anything vital.

  I asked, “Are you ok?”

  She had a weird little smile on her face as she nodded almost shyly. Then she reached up and buried her hand in the feathers of my cheek and said, “My God, Adelaide... you're beautiful.” Then she blushed and pulled her hand back and said, “Sorry, whatever Mrs. Risner hit me with up there has me a little loopy.”

  I felt my face heat up and was glad that nobody could have seen since my avian face was covered in feathers now. I stood up and hesitated, the building in front of us was all mirrored glass, and I saw a humanoid bird woman standing there with a long and dangerous looking hooked beak.

  The creature was all sleek and feminine lines, covered in a cloak of black feathers. I spread my wings... arms. I whispered, “Soc Au' Lait,” as I looked from wingtip to wingtip. That was me?

  Shannon snapped me out of my shock by saying, “Yes yes, sack of milk, woman. Those sirens are getting cl
oser, we need to get you out of here.” She struggled to her feet, her hands pressed to her shoulders.

  I nodded absently, taking an awkward step with my clawed feet. I cocked my head at her. She was... she was concerned about me? Had she told the truth that she told Abigail no after she met me? She grabbed one of my wingtips and started pulling me toward an alley as people started gathering across the street pulling out their cellphones to take pictures or to call 911.

  I looked up toward the roof of the building across the street, hearing the sounds of fighting. Rin was still going to town up there with them.

  I nodded and started to move, then hesitated when I saw Abigail being rushed out of the building by her two man mountains and a few other meat sacks. Every instinct in me was pure Raven Maid, I could even see the wrongness about them, as well as feel it now. It was Shannon's voice that cut through the urge to hunt them down in the street then and there. My Raven knew that Shannon was ours, and we should listen as she said, “Not here Adelaide. The police are coming, and all of these people saw you.”

  I nodded, realizing I felt more beast than human, and I let her drag me away.

  Chapter 11 – Regrouping

  As we made our way through the city streets to a nearby parking lot, me becoming more human with each step, I kept glancing over at Shannon.

  She stopped us at her car and asked in consternation, “What? I know I betrayed you...”

  I grinned and blushed, turning away since it would be apparent on my cheeks now that the feathers had receded. “I'm still mad at you... but I think my Raven has a crush on you.” Marinette preserve me, I had admitted it. This was going to push her away.

  She grinned cutely and said, “She's not too bad herself.” Again I huffed, not knowing if she actually intended to flirt or not.

  My mind was racing, trying to reconcile my conflicted emotions about the woman. She had been helping the woman who killed my mother... my gran. But she hadn't known that. Could I really blame her for that? I hadn't hesitated even an instant to dive over the edge of the roof to save her.

  Had that been the plan? To get her closer to me, to have me save her like that? No, there was no way they'd have known Rin would have been there. I had to push any lingering suspicion aside because if I hadn't acted, Shannon would have died and no amount of money is worth that. I just hated that there was that tiny doubt in my head to begin with, it is hard to forget even an unintentional betrayal.

  Shut up Adelaide, it's Shannon. I gave her a bashful smile and slipped into her car. She didn't look over as she slid in and started the car as she said, “No bird shit on my seats please.”

  I just stared at her, blinking, with my mouth agape, remembering exactly why I found her so irresistible. I muttered, “Just feel lucky I don't molt all over the place and drive, smartass.”

  She looked so very relieved that I was bantering with her and then we pulled out onto the street as a couple cop cars with their lights on, and sirens blaring, went screaming past with an ambulance and fire truck.

  I looked back. Worried about Rin. My instincts were to go back to help, she couldn't possibly take on all those zombies. And Abigail had already escaped.

  My blonde obsession brushed her honey locks out of her face and looked at me, “The shrimp can take care of herself. While you were fixated on Mrs. Risn... umm, on Truit running like a rat, I saw a shadow streak off the roof to the building across the street. It had to be her.”

  I exhaled slowly at that, realizing just how much relief flowed through me at that. Rin was part of my life now, and she was, even with her foul mouth, important to me. Hell, she had just come to my rescue, again, even though she was injured.

  Then Shan said, “She's a lot more durable than she looks.”

  True fact.

  I nodded absently and turned on her radio and started scanning for a news station. We both paled as we heard a report of corpses on the street in front of the Columbia Center, and eight more being reported in the Mongoose Lounge.

  Reports were confusing but judging by the decomposition of the bodies. An anonymous source was saying the authorities were surmising it was some sort of sick prank by medical students. But they were holding off on that theory until the bodies could be identified.

  There were reports of a person in a bird costume assaulting the patrons at the lounge. People were posting videos and photos of the masked assailant online.

  I cursed and pulled out my cell, absently wondering just where my clothes and cell went when I Ravened out.

  Shannon gave me a sympathetic look as I muttered, “Marinette preserve us.” There were multiple grainy pictures of me in my Raven Maid form on the street next to a woman with honey blonde hair. None of the photos or the one grainy video were clear enough to identify Shannon. I sighed in relief. If it had been daytime, I knew those videos would be crisp and sharp in HD.

  I enlarged the best picture of me and studied the inhuman outline. My clawed wings looked ominous spread out as I was looking at my own reflection in the window. I grinned a little as I realized that... well, I looked badass.

  I looked up at my companion, her attention split between the road and me. I shrugged and blushed as I explained, “Just looking at pictures of my Raven.”

  She squinted and her brow furrowed as we pulled into the trailer park. “You keep talking about you and your Raven are separate people.”

  I nodded as we parked. “Don't go all Sigmund Freud on me. I know it is me. But remember, I've only known about that part of myself for a few weeks. I sort of feel like I have to get to know myself again. It would be like if you woke up and realized that you had a prehensile tail that you've never noticed before.”

  We stepped out, and she cocked an eyebrow at me and grinned as she teased, “Prehensile tail? Is there something you want to tell me? Fetishes maybe?”

  I tried not to smile at her smartassery as I muttered, “Shut up.”

  Before we could reach the Winnebago, we heard the throaty growl of a familiar motorcycle, relief rushed through me as Rin pulled into the trailer park, a cocky look on her face when she saw us. She parked the bike, pulled off her helmet, and dismounted.

  She certainly didn't look like she had been shot twice a few hours earlier. Our Raven Maid healing rate was phenomenal, though I did note she still favored one side as she walked up toward us. I couldn't help it, I was so relieved she was ok, I grabbed her into a tight hug before she could say something vulgar.

  I let her go, and she was blushing profusely. I shrugged and offered, “Just glad you're ok.”

  Then Shannon was hugging her too as she said like a proper damsel in distress, “My hero.”

  She released the beaming young woman as I whined, “Hey, I jumped off a rooftop for you.”

  She shot me a toothy grin then pointed out matter of factly, “Rin jumped off a skyscraper for us.”

  That reminded me. I looked at the leather-clad girl and asked, “What happened up there on the Columbia? We saw gunfire.”

  She shrugged. “I needed a good vantage point to cover you and see what was going on there at the club, they don't let minors in. Especially ones not on the list. I figured that bigass building would give the best view. Unfortunately, a couple of Abigail's snipers had the same idea.”

  I swallowed, she had snipers up there? I suddenly felt sick. If the walking corpse hadn't wanted to play with me, she could have had me killed at any moment before Rin showed up.

  At that realization, I fluttered my eyelashes, playing the adoring damsel and echoing Shannon, “My hero.”

  Rin was grinning ear to ear, blushing in embarrassment, and she snarked out as she walked past to get into the motorhome, “You wish, Curls, I'm too much fuckin' woman for you.”

  Shannon burst into a bout of giggles, and to my shame, I joined in as we stepped inside. The humor keeping our minds off the violence of the night and the fact that Abigail had escaped.

  Uncle Bo and MawMaw almost leapt to their feet when we came in. Gr
an grabbed Rin's shoulders and started hauling her back tot he bed. “What were ya thinkin' child? We were worried sick!”

  Bo was asking, his face hopeful, “Did ya get the information?”

  I was nodding as I glanced at Shan and pointed at the seats. She rolled her eyes, “Pushy.” Then she slid in, and I sat next to her, all too aware of how close we were. Close enough I caught her scent and felt her heat next to my leg. All the while silently cursing myself for being so attracted to my best friend, a straight girl.

  Gran rejoined us, calling back a warning, “And don' ya get up again, chere. Or I swear I will rain down a world of hurt upon ya.”

  I had to grin at the meek, “Yes, ma'am,” that she got in return. I didn't think it was possible to tame a wild animal.

  Once MawMaw sat and clasped my hands across the table, I exhaled and looked at a point just above their heads and just came out and said it, “Collette Risner is Abigail Truit.” The seconds of silence stretched on as they digested what I had just said.

  My gran whispered under her breath with a sick look on her face, “La vache.”

  Bo nodded his agreement and asked, “You sure?”

  I nodded as I looked at them then at my hands, thinking it odd to have fingers instead of talons while at the same time not. “This whole thing was a production to get me here so she could determine if I were a Raven Maid or not. She wasn't sure.”

  Then to my friend's shame, I added, “She had hired Shannon to befriend me and tell Risner... Truit, if I acted strangely or if anything odd happened around me.”

  They cocked their eyebrows in unison as Shan looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but there, under their gaze. She shrugged and started rubbing her hands like they were dirty. “I didn't know... I refused her money anyway.”

  I gave her mercy, going on to retell the events of the evening and how Abigail had gotten away. I showed the news reports and the posts online showing my raven form. Then added, “I think we got out clean, except any security footage they may have of me at the club, and the fact that my car is parked somewhere around there by the valet.”