[TheRogue]: 50.The Crow: Blood Wings Part 1

Blood Wings: Part 1

by Marc Guerrero  


"LOOK AT ME!" The raspy voice bellowed. "I want you to see who it is that is going to kill you." The anguish forcing his words through clenched teeth, he hissed the words through his unliving mouth, hollow and haunting.

"Hey....it looks like somebody's working late tonight" Robert Bradshaw said as she moved across the unlit street, briskly walking away from the diner. "Can we walk you home?" A semi toothless grin from Robert's sidekick, Skid, was all that she needed to see to convince her they were'nt leaving.

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, you fuckin crackhead." Jacob's eyes wide with fear as he shook uncontrollably. " Man, you need to go tweak someplace else, dude..yer peakin!" Jacob knew he was a bad liar, and this obviously was known to the man who was wiping the gravel off of the ground of the railstation with Jacob's face. "Let me remind you then, Jacob the liar..." The visage of this psychopath with a clowns mask was horrifying enough in the dark much less when he smiled merrily, his ghostly eyes wide and happy, pearly white teeth gleaming in the moonlight, as if he suddenly had a change of heart and all was forgiven. Not Hardly.

"Hey Jake...you'd better come take a look at this, man.. she just kicked Skid's ass, man! Robert laughed hysterically, holding his sides as Skid lay on the ground groaning from a kick to the jewels. A crow sat perched atop a streetlight, the moon framing it in its pale light, watching silently, sadly. Jake straddled the top of a park bench as the three other men drug her kicking into the park, her muffled cries unheard by all but one who flapped angrily. Outside on the fence, the hanging sign read: HOURS 8 - 10pm.

"OW! You Fucking Bitch!" Johnny drew his hand away sharply, a trickle of blood already pouring out from her very deep bite on his knuckle. In one fluid motion, Jake jumped up and punched the girl full in the face, casually shaking his hand from the effort a moment later. "Bitch". Was all he had to say as she fell silent, her jaw broken as she spat a tooth from her now bleeding mouth.

The man with the mask simply pulled Jacob up by his shirt from the ground and punched him full in the face, the sound of shattering bone and cartilage could be heard as the punch bounced the back of his head off of the gravel with a dull "thud". The man casually shook his hand and looked down at Jake mockingly. "Bitch". Jake's mouth bled as he felt a few teeth rolling around in his shattered jaw. Jake's eyes grew wide as he looked at this strange assailant who seemed to literally come from nowhere.

The Crow shrieked in approval as realization finally struck Jacob like another fist in the face, only this time he realized excactly how far this would go. How there was no way he would live through this night. He finally was going to pay for what they did to that geek and that girl a year ago. Jacob tried to speak, but the words were unintelligable as the painted man regarded him silently, his hollow orbs staring into his soul and beyond as the crow shrieked a second time. The painted man looked up to the crow, as if he knew what that shriek meant; And Jacob felt as if he knew it too.

"Ahum schorry" Was all his broken jaw could utter as the painted man approached him slowly. "Ahum sho schorry". The tears came unhindered by now, Jacob's bodily fluids rushing out unhindered.

Michael walked up the winding paths of the park as he did for a few months now, meeting up with Brandi to walk her home from work when it was late. His parents didnt mind much, since they had been friends since the 8th grade and they understood what it meant to be someones 'hero' so to speak. Brandi's parents worked odd hours and they liked the idea that Michael was walking her home at night so it meant she would be safe, but he'd been running late tonight. As he rounded the bend just before the end of the park leading out toward the parking lot of the Happy 7, his eyes fell on Johnny walking behind a large outcropping of bushes, just beyond the chain link fence that closed off the park.

The painted man closed his eyes tight momentarily, waiting for the vision to pass as he clenched his fists in unbridled dispair at the unfolding events playing back in his mind. Jacob had lost all control of his emotion and was sobbing loudly, trying to crawl away, backpedaling across the ground. The sharp white crushed gravel bit hard into his hands as he tried desperately to get away. Jacob's mind reeled as the painted man grabbed him again, pulling him up to meet Jacob's horror stricken face as flashes of that night invaded his senses and he relived his part of Michael and Brandi's death.

"Daddy's little girl is too good to hang out with pieces of shit like us, am i right?" His hand punched her in the gut and she doubled over on the ground gasping for breath. Between realms of conciousness, her eyes fell on Michael approaching from behind and she smiled weakly. Tears ran from her eyes as she tried to call out to him but couldnt make a sound from the lack of air in her lungs. Michael had rushed into Jacob making use of his 350 lbs of mass like a freight train. Jacob flew into Skid and grunted out a curse as they fell to the ground. Michael stood ready for anything, watching the two flounder to their feet. He remained silent as they got up in hopes his large body mass would keep them at bay. They flanked him on either side as he stole a look in Brandi's direction.

"God they did a number on her." He thought to himself as the two stood just past arms length watching him. There seemed to be no need for conversation at this point. His intent was obvious.

It was then that he heard the squeak from Brandi, trying to warn him but it was too late. Johnny rushed up behind him, repeatedly stabbing him in the back with a switchblade. The knife plunged in an out rapidly as Michael grunted, falling to the ground. Slowly his life spilled onto the freshly cut grass of the park. His eyes wide and sorrowful as he stared at Brandi across from him. Tears welled up in his eyes as he saw her once angelic face, now swollen and bloody, contorted into a grimace of dispair as she watched him slip away. So much she wanted to tell him... So much she hadn't said when the time had come...now he would never know. Michael watched helplessly as they raped her repeatedly, beating her into submission. They managed to defile her in every way possible in those eternal moments before she finally gave up and submitted to her injuries and grief. Michael had been alive to see it all, everything up to her final breath in the cool night air as it escaped her lungs and shot outward like a spirit into the indigo sky. In those last moments of their life, a voice within Michael's mind hissed out to him, breaking through his ever darkening sight. "Watch them, Michael...burn their faces in your memory. Remember."

The shriek of a crow echoed through the night, the wail of dispair sending it's sorrowful message into the diamondesque sky as Michael's life ended. In the distance, the calls of other crows joined in it's cry.
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