Follow The Raven
Me, Counting Days? Nah...
It's been twenty-seven days since my birthday, and nothing has happened yet. I'm starting to relax again, but in the back of my mind there's this idea that some random raven will crash into me (usually stabbing out my eye by accident) and it all just happens. I mean, come on! I've been counting days...even though I'm secretly in denial that I have been reduced to this, so shhh! Yeah, I'm turning a little paranoid. A little probably being an understatement.
"Girl, get those books up on that shelf, we don't have all day, customers could come in at any time!" Mrs. Ungermeyer scolded me, starting to hit me with her cane. At first look, Mrs. Ungermeyer is a sweet little old lady that bakes pies and knits. At second look, she's not. She's incredibly mean, walks with a cane just so she can hit people with it, and enjoys watching professional wrestling on TV.
"Yes, Mrs. Ungermeyer," I sighed, grabbing the books of newly arrived books and stepping out of the cane zone.
"Don't talk to me in that tone, little missy. Everyone in this town owes me respect, especially you, considering your bad reputation around here. You should be happy I allow you to work for me," she rambled, continuing on into the next room. You know that saying, respect your elders? Yeah, Mrs. Ungermeyer is older than the elders. She's pushing 89, she's the oldest living resident of Sherwood (the second oldest at least a decade younger) and she's the most opinionated, kick-your-ass person. She's a widow, with no children (at least none that she speaks of, so they probably left), and when he was alive, her husband and her ran the 'Ungermeyer Bookstore' together. Now she's all alone, and at 89, you better be sure that she lost some height, about two feet apparently. The reason why I have this job? Because a) she can't reach the top shelves anymore, ladder and all and b) no one else wanted it. When she goes off about 'customers coming in at any minute,' she's in denial, I mean half my class is going to graduate roughly illiterate; no one reads in Sherwood. I wonder if they know what a book is...
Work is...actually I wouldn't really call it work. I'm at the bookshop from 3 to 9 everyday other than Wednesday and Sunday. Mrs. Ungermeyer is usually up in her apartment either sleeping orwatching yelling at the TV. So I usually have the store all to myself. She occasionally makes me rearrange the shelves, and do the dusting, and answer the phone (which was actually disconnected six years ago, but no matter how many times you try tell her she still doesn't believe you), other than that, I just pick a book and sit there and read, for six hours.
---
Nothing. Still nothing. The kids were incredibly tense about this whole thing too, this idea that something was going to happen, but naturally we're not told when, how, or by who. We're just left with a warning and overactive imaginations to come with every possible and impossible scenario. I don't really know who's more unnerved about this whole thing, the kids or me. If this does actually happen (remember, I'm still skeptical about this whole idea), since no date was specified, there's a good chance that I'm going to be completely unprepared, not ready for it at all.
*CRASH*
Yeah, that would be as unprepared as it gets.
I jumped up in bed at the sound of my window smashing. The kids, who probably haven't slept since my birthday, immediately stood up around the cause of the crash. A solid black Raven, looking very unhappy about running into a window. Well sorry, I wasn't aware that I had to keep my window open. Gosh.
"Lara! It's the raven!" Tim said, starting to through my blankets off to get me out of bed.
"Get up, get up! You have to go!" Georgina said, joining him seeing that I wasn't getting up. I could feel the tension, I could feel that this was actually happening. And yet, I couldn't get myself to realize it, until the blasted bird jumped onto my head and started pecking my ear. I knew it...
"Alright, I'm up, what do I do?" I asked, jumping away from the bird.
"Put some clothes on," Carly said, grabbing the bag and tossing some clothes around. I was only wearing my dark blue pajamas with little clouds on the pants and a tank top. The other four joined her in the clothes tossing activity, until we heard a crash and a growl downstairs. Yeah, I would say this is real.
"Would that be danger knocking at my door?" I asked, looking at the Raven, who had perched itself on my desk chair. It cawed...should I take that as a yes? When something crashed downstairs, I didn't really need anything else. I threw on some socks and some tennis shoes and just shoved the clothes into the bag.
"Are you guys coming?" I asked, clearing the broken window and looking down to see if there were any threats on the ground.
"We cannot come with you, we will hold them back and give you a chance," Maximilien said, speaking in a way that was far older than his permanent age.
"Why can't you come with me?" I asked, stopping in my tracks.
"We cannot go where you are going," Rose said. I pushed it no further, the situations were far too complicated and rushed to stop for even a moment.
"You guys are my only friends, my best friends. I want to thank you for being my friend for all these years, and I hope that we see each other again," I said, making eye contact with each. They smiled at me, some of them starting to cry. This was going to happen at one point, our separation. We knew that we couldn't stay together forever; I'm still alive and circumstances would probably have torn us apart, as it does now. I was going to cry, but the Raven landed on my shoulder making me snap back to the task at hand: somehow getting from my third floor window to the ground without dieing, losing something, or breaking something.
"We'll always remember you Lara," Carly said, as everyone nodded. I thanked them again, and went out the window, the bird still on my shoulder. I could hear the ruffling inside the house and looked around the roof. We have a tree in the backyard, so is today the day I learn how to climb a tree in order to save my life? I guess so.
By some absolute miracle, I managed to crash onto a large enough branch (without stabbing myself with some twig) and clumsily slid down the tree, the Raven hopping down branch by branch. Thanks bird, you could have helped me or something. How you could have a bird possibly help you down a tree is completely unknown to me, but I'm being rushed okay!
"Eek!" I squeaked, as a giant, vicious, mean-looking rabid dog, wolf thing jumped and barely missed me. Out of natural instincts, I started running as fast as I could, the Raven flying a bit ahead of me, leading me somewhere. Once on the street, I learned that the vicious canine thing had friends, and that I was apparently tonight's dinner.
"Not my day, not my day, not my day!" I screamed, dodging another dog thing and picking up my pace. This was a serious challenge. Not only are vicious beasts trying to kill me, I have a Raven flying ahead and leading me through the forest, its nighttime, I basically have no idea what's going on, I'm still in my pajamas...
I kept on running, not even getting tired. My life's in danger here, I can't get tired, I'm too young to be eaten! I had no idea where this Raven was taking me, but we were getting deeper and deeper into the forest until I saw an opening in the trees. The opening being the old town cemetery. Well, that's convenient. If I do happen to do die, you won't have to take me that far, I'll already be at the cemetery. Thanks bird, for taking me to a place of death. I could see some people spread around the cemetery, dead of course, just choosing to stay around. I have no idea what I'm doing in a cemetery. Wait, how many of these dog creatures are there?
I dodged three more of those things, and noticed just how many were surrounding me now. I continued following the raven, until it perched itself at the altar of an open tomb, similar to Edgar Allan Poe's Raven perched on the bust of Palas Athena. You expect me to go into that?!?! The stupid bird cawed at me, practically saying "you can either go into the tomb or get eaten by those things." I don't really call those options, do you?
"Girl, get those books up on that shelf, we don't have all day, customers could come in at any time!" Mrs. Ungermeyer scolded me, starting to hit me with her cane. At first look, Mrs. Ungermeyer is a sweet little old lady that bakes pies and knits. At second look, she's not. She's incredibly mean, walks with a cane just so she can hit people with it, and enjoys watching professional wrestling on TV.
"Yes, Mrs. Ungermeyer," I sighed, grabbing the books of newly arrived books and stepping out of the cane zone.
"Don't talk to me in that tone, little missy. Everyone in this town owes me respect, especially you, considering your bad reputation around here. You should be happy I allow you to work for me," she rambled, continuing on into the next room. You know that saying, respect your elders? Yeah, Mrs. Ungermeyer is older than the elders. She's pushing 89, she's the oldest living resident of Sherwood (the second oldest at least a decade younger) and she's the most opinionated, kick-your-ass person. She's a widow, with no children (at least none that she speaks of, so they probably left), and when he was alive, her husband and her ran the 'Ungermeyer Bookstore' together. Now she's all alone, and at 89, you better be sure that she lost some height, about two feet apparently. The reason why I have this job? Because a) she can't reach the top shelves anymore, ladder and all and b) no one else wanted it. When she goes off about 'customers coming in at any minute,' she's in denial, I mean half my class is going to graduate roughly illiterate; no one reads in Sherwood. I wonder if they know what a book is...
Work is...actually I wouldn't really call it work. I'm at the bookshop from 3 to 9 everyday other than Wednesday and Sunday. Mrs. Ungermeyer is usually up in her apartment either sleeping orwatching yelling at the TV. So I usually have the store all to myself. She occasionally makes me rearrange the shelves, and do the dusting, and answer the phone (which was actually disconnected six years ago, but no matter how many times you try tell her she still doesn't believe you), other than that, I just pick a book and sit there and read, for six hours.
---
Nothing. Still nothing. The kids were incredibly tense about this whole thing too, this idea that something was going to happen, but naturally we're not told when, how, or by who. We're just left with a warning and overactive imaginations to come with every possible and impossible scenario. I don't really know who's more unnerved about this whole thing, the kids or me. If this does actually happen (remember, I'm still skeptical about this whole idea), since no date was specified, there's a good chance that I'm going to be completely unprepared, not ready for it at all.
*CRASH*
Yeah, that would be as unprepared as it gets.
I jumped up in bed at the sound of my window smashing. The kids, who probably haven't slept since my birthday, immediately stood up around the cause of the crash. A solid black Raven, looking very unhappy about running into a window. Well sorry, I wasn't aware that I had to keep my window open. Gosh.
"Lara! It's the raven!" Tim said, starting to through my blankets off to get me out of bed.
"Get up, get up! You have to go!" Georgina said, joining him seeing that I wasn't getting up. I could feel the tension, I could feel that this was actually happening. And yet, I couldn't get myself to realize it, until the blasted bird jumped onto my head and started pecking my ear. I knew it...
"Alright, I'm up, what do I do?" I asked, jumping away from the bird.
"Put some clothes on," Carly said, grabbing the bag and tossing some clothes around. I was only wearing my dark blue pajamas with little clouds on the pants and a tank top. The other four joined her in the clothes tossing activity, until we heard a crash and a growl downstairs. Yeah, I would say this is real.
"Would that be danger knocking at my door?" I asked, looking at the Raven, who had perched itself on my desk chair. It cawed...should I take that as a yes? When something crashed downstairs, I didn't really need anything else. I threw on some socks and some tennis shoes and just shoved the clothes into the bag.
"Are you guys coming?" I asked, clearing the broken window and looking down to see if there were any threats on the ground.
"We cannot come with you, we will hold them back and give you a chance," Maximilien said, speaking in a way that was far older than his permanent age.
"Why can't you come with me?" I asked, stopping in my tracks.
"We cannot go where you are going," Rose said. I pushed it no further, the situations were far too complicated and rushed to stop for even a moment.
"You guys are my only friends, my best friends. I want to thank you for being my friend for all these years, and I hope that we see each other again," I said, making eye contact with each. They smiled at me, some of them starting to cry. This was going to happen at one point, our separation. We knew that we couldn't stay together forever; I'm still alive and circumstances would probably have torn us apart, as it does now. I was going to cry, but the Raven landed on my shoulder making me snap back to the task at hand: somehow getting from my third floor window to the ground without dieing, losing something, or breaking something.
"We'll always remember you Lara," Carly said, as everyone nodded. I thanked them again, and went out the window, the bird still on my shoulder. I could hear the ruffling inside the house and looked around the roof. We have a tree in the backyard, so is today the day I learn how to climb a tree in order to save my life? I guess so.
By some absolute miracle, I managed to crash onto a large enough branch (without stabbing myself with some twig) and clumsily slid down the tree, the Raven hopping down branch by branch. Thanks bird, you could have helped me or something. How you could have a bird possibly help you down a tree is completely unknown to me, but I'm being rushed okay!
"Eek!" I squeaked, as a giant, vicious, mean-looking rabid dog, wolf thing jumped and barely missed me. Out of natural instincts, I started running as fast as I could, the Raven flying a bit ahead of me, leading me somewhere. Once on the street, I learned that the vicious canine thing had friends, and that I was apparently tonight's dinner.
"Not my day, not my day, not my day!" I screamed, dodging another dog thing and picking up my pace. This was a serious challenge. Not only are vicious beasts trying to kill me, I have a Raven flying ahead and leading me through the forest, its nighttime, I basically have no idea what's going on, I'm still in my pajamas...
I kept on running, not even getting tired. My life's in danger here, I can't get tired, I'm too young to be eaten! I had no idea where this Raven was taking me, but we were getting deeper and deeper into the forest until I saw an opening in the trees. The opening being the old town cemetery. Well, that's convenient. If I do happen to do die, you won't have to take me that far, I'll already be at the cemetery. Thanks bird, for taking me to a place of death. I could see some people spread around the cemetery, dead of course, just choosing to stay around. I have no idea what I'm doing in a cemetery. Wait, how many of these dog creatures are there?
I dodged three more of those things, and noticed just how many were surrounding me now. I continued following the raven, until it perched itself at the altar of an open tomb, similar to Edgar Allan Poe's Raven perched on the bust of Palas Athena. You expect me to go into that?!?! The stupid bird cawed at me, practically saying "you can either go into the tomb or get eaten by those things." I don't really call those options, do you?