Page 29 of Corvus and the Broken God

I hadn’t grown up around guns, had never fired one. Everything I knew I learned from watching movies and cop shows. To my limited knowledge, these looked like shotguns. I’d already had a gun pointed at me all too recently, so I plunged back down toward the house, settling on the right corner ridgeline of the roof, eager to see what would happen next.

My gut said my Monster was away. I digested this new information, trying to make logical sense of it. Five miles or more away to the north. Too bad he wasn’t here.

Camazotz? I tried anyway.

No answer. Great. Human or crow, I wouldn’t be able to protect the house by myself.

The men approached the front door, their footsteps crunching loudly on the gravel despite their efforts to move quietly. Had Darryl met my Monster before? He must have worn a human shape because no one in their right mind would dare to sneak up on him in his real form. No human, that is, because his own kind seemed to have it out for him. And he wanted me to help him. I shook my feathered head.

When the men came close enough to the house and I could no longer see them from my perch, I listened. Why hadn’t I closed the front door? From now on, I would, but it never occurred to me to prepare for a human threat. Then again, they weren’t looking for a crow. I was relatively safe. Except for my stuff. I had identification, my wallet, and my phone stashed in my room. I didn’t want them anywhere near it. The last thing we needed was an official inquiry to be made.

The men entered the house, bringing my stint at spying to an end. I flew over the roof, finding the hole that had once led me to the left hallway. I squeezed through it and almost didn’t fit. Was I larger now for some reason? Flashlights showed the men were coming in my direction. I didn’t have much time. I flew up to the rafters and settled into the shadows to watch.

“Are you sure someone lives here?” whispered one of the officers. He sounded young.

“Yeah, I was just here today. I dropped off some groceries.”

“But why did they leave the door wide open?”

“I imagine not many people dare come here at night.” The older officer had a deep, stately voice, impressive enough to narrate a nature show or a space opera. He was not afraid of walking into the Monster’s lair.

The door to the den opened easily, and they stepped into the dark room. No fire had been lit in this room since Mindy left, but the pile of ashes waited in the grate. Their lights bounced in different directions as the men studied the room. The light from their flashlights cast their features into even darker shadows.

“I don’t like this,” said the younger man, but no one else commented.

They crossed the room to the door that led to our living quarters. I held my breath as Darryl reached for the doorknob. The handle turned, but the door wouldn’t budge. Camazotz must have locked it before leaving for the night.

“Now what do we do?” asked Darryl.

“Come back tomorrow,” said the one with the deep voice, the boss, if I had to guess. “I want to take a closer look at this place during the day. We didn’t even know it was up here.”

“Up until yesterday, the only person who lived here was a hermit. He just calls in a shipment of food every few months, pays over the phone, and I lug it up the mountain and leave it in his kitchen.”

The Boss Man marched to the door and knocked loudly. No answer, since I was a crow and Camazotz was missing. He turned back to Darryl. “How far is the kitchen from here?”

“I don’t know, maybe thirty feet?”

“If someone’s here, they should hear us.”

He banged again, louder this time. I was reasonably certain he wasn’t strong enough to kick down the door, but my feathers stood on edge. He had some nerve barging into his home like this. Finally, they gave up. Their actions made me so uneasy that I squirmed back through the ceiling and flew from tree to tree until they made their way down the driveway and a distant set of headlights made the turn onto the main road. When they disappeared from my sight and the soft peal signaled they were off the mountain, I headed back, too worn out from worry to do any more flying.

I turned human again before I fell back into bed.

Again, the peal alerting us to an intruder woke me from a deep sleep. Confused, I looked around. I was naked and in my bed. Light slanted through my windows onto the stone floor. Here I thought I had escaped civilization, and instead, it was like Grand Central Station.

I felt my Monster chuckle deep down in my belly. I couldn’t hear him with my ears, and a quick glance showed I was alone in my room. Great, he was listening to my thoughts again. Can’t a girl get any privacy? An actual knock sounded on my door, and I jumped out of bed, throwing on yesterday’s clothes in a flash. I shook off my mental fog, complete with remnants of flying in the dark of the night. It must have been a dream. Too bad, I adored being able to fly.

I cracked open the door. “Who is it now?” I asked.

He turned, heading toward the front of the house, but his reply was disconcerting. “I have no idea. I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“I had a dream that the delivery guy was here in the middle of the night with some police officers,” I said to his back.

He stopped and looked over his shoulder, neck not even tilting under the heavy weight of his horns. “A dream? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I turned into a crow.”

His eyes narrowed, and then, before my eyes, his form melted. Gone was the magnificent beast I had made a commitment to, and in his place stood a man. He was a big man, but at least two feet smaller than his original form. Instead of the usual kilt-type skirt he preferred, he wore actual modern-day clothes. Pants, a worn flannel shirt, and boots. He looked to be in his fifties, his skin worn by the sun. The lower half of his face was hidden by a thick beard. His eyes were the same though, piercing and stormy. Still my Monster, only in a different form.