Raven Maid: Out of the Darkness

by Erik Schubach

  She moved beside me and lowered her voice. “Concentrate on the threads that are the strongest, that feel urgent to you. You'll feel some of the weaker ones fade as if the threads were cut, those were the other shepherds of the various cultures ushering another spirit to the beyond.”

  I tried to... listen... to the urgency, and I felt some of the other threads fall away like a broken spider web drifting in the wind. I wondered how many other sentinels were out there in the city, doing what we were at that very moment. Then I swallowed when I realized that all the threads I was feeling were all people who had died of unnatural causes.

  The others had passed peacefully or not so peacefully to their eternal rest. But what I was feeling... so many conflicted spirits, hopelessly lost... and this was just Seattle. How many were out there wandering the world in that limbo between worlds?

  I hesitated a moment. Unnatural deaths? Then why had I seen the revenant of the motorcycle rider that day at the coffeehouse. How had his death been unnatural?

  I shook the thought away. I'd have to ask about that later. Instead, I did what she said and sifted through what I was feeling and blanched and opened my eyes. She was staring at me expectantly. I said carefully, “There is one very close, but there's something else, darkness, a sickness in the city that seems to be slowly casting a shadow over it. It didn't feel... right.”

  She nodded. “I felt it too. I've felt it before a few times. Usually, when one of Abigail's assassin squads of abominations showed up in the city I was in, to attempt to take me out. They bring a corruption that perverts death into something unnatural that brings discord and chaos to the area.”

  She scanned the horizon from the fire escape on the building we were perched on for a good vantage point, a light rain started to fall, chilling the air. And she said in an ominous tone, “That means they're here, somewhere. We aren't the only ones on the hunt. They somehow know I'm here in Seattle.”

  She changed the topic and said, “Just keep a fix on the nearby wandering soul. You can actually call them to you when you get stronger. If I'm around at that time, I can show you how, but for now, let's go shepherd a soul.”

  Then she simply leapt off the fire escape, six stories up. I swallowed hard and looked down to see her spread her pseudo-wings and glide gracefully down to the ground to land lightly in a running landing. Then she stopped to turn to look up at me.

  I called down, “Showoff!”

  She ignored me and just started walking toward the strongest pull. She does that on purpose, showing me that I should be able to call my Raven forth with but a thought like she can, but I couldn't. It only came in times of stress, to defend me, or when a lost spirit was nearby, and the need to do something dragged my Raven to the forefront.

  I growled like a petulant child as I stomped down the fire escape. She paused to let me catch up. Hey! The little rat was grinning. I just marched past her, muttering, “I hate you so much right now.” She chuckled and followed me as I let instinct guide me. Those instincts seemed to be better at all this Raven Maid supernatural shit than me.

  To tell the truth, I had actually started to look forward to this. The woman on the Aurora bridge the other night, Iris, and the man, Kyle, watching his family from the street, from our first couple hunts gave me the opportunity to bask in the overwhelming joy radiating from their reward at the end of the paths I walked them along.

  Iris' was like Max's, a warm all consuming light that promised utter peace and happiness. Kyle's was different, it ended on a plateau overlooking an ocean of trees. It was an idyllic setting, showcasing the majesty of nature, but it had that same warmth and overwhelming joy.

  Rin explained that the final destination meets the expectations of the person, of their soul and spirituality.

  I asked, “They don't ascribe to Vodoun beliefs, so why are we the ones to guide them? Raven Maids aren't part of their ideology, and the child I helped, Max, he wasn't old enough to have formed his own beliefs yet.”

  She had just shrugged at that and said, “All of us sentinels of the spirit are here for everyone, true, we are more drawn to those who ascribe to our beliefs, as other sentinels are more drawn to the dead of theirs, but it isn't for us to question it. We are here for them, and in some cases, we are here to make sure they get what they deserve and stop them from hurting others in their same predicament.”

  I smirked and asked, “Your mom tell you that?” It was pretty heavy stuff for a teen.

  She had just flipped me off and countered with a well thought out and articulated, “Fuck you, gator bait.”

  The only drawback to being these people's guides was feeling the balance of their immortal soul, experiencing their lives in full. A piece of each of them would be part of me forever. It was worth standing in the serenity of the peace that they would be experiencing forever, if just for a moment.

  So that was why I was a little excited about the next hunt as we stepped out of the alley and started jogging in the direction of the tug. I grinned at the Miata parked at the curb, Shannon was sound asleep at the wheel, her head was tilted back across the seat, her mouth open with a little drool escaping down her cheek.

  She was a little beyond adorable like that.

  Man, she was going to be upset we went on without her, but I didn't have the heart to wake her. She needed sleep as much as me. She was in her second year at the University, and each year puts exponentially more pressure on you from what she says.

  She liked to come with us when I trained or hunted. To lend moral support. I wasn't going to argue, she was already one of the best friends I have ever had. And hey, it doesn't hurt having a hot BFF, now does it? So what if I was attracted to her?

  MawMaw and Uncle Bo were planning on leaving Monday morning. They had been staying with me, in my cramped Winnebago. I gave them the main bed, and I used the platform bed the table and benches turned into.

  They had been teaching me all the oral lore of the Raven Maids and about the Voodoo belief system more in depth than I had ever experienced in my years at Desirada's. Including all of the mystical aspects of it that MawMaw had withheld from me until she knew if I were a Maid or not.

  I was going to miss them. Now that I knew I wasn't losing my mind, I was going to miss home even more. Though I had only taken it to run as far away as I could, I didn't want Mrs. Risner to be disappointed in me if I looked for a different med school scholarship for a school closer to home. It was time for me to grow up and not look a gift horse in the mouth.

  But I was a little relieved that I felt I could visit home whenever I wanted without feeling that shadow over me now.

  I glanced over at the foul mouthed girl who I was sort of seeing as a little sister now. Well, a ninja assassin type of little sister, and I believed we were all getting through that impenetrable shell of anger she wore like armor. She's been staying with us, sleeping in the reclined passenger seat of the motorhome.

  She never asked me or anything, she just started sleeping there the first night she arrived, making my crowded home on wheels, just that much more crowded. And oddly, I didn't mind one bit.

  More than once I wondered how she survived on her own, especially if she were driving her old Indian motorcycle around the country in search of Abigail.

  What did she do for food, gas, or lodging without any apparent job?

  She never spoke of it, and I never asked, because no matter how acidic her front was, I actually liked the little twit, a lot, and I think she is a lot more fragile than she would let us believe. There would always be a place for her in my home whether she asked or not.

  Though she did fly through my meager supply of foodstuffs like they were going out of style. MawMaw informed me that it was a common malady all teens were afflicted with. She said it with an eyebrow cocked accusingly my way. I had muttered in defense, “Hey, I resemble that remark.”

  We finally reached a man wandering along the perimeter of a burned out apartment complex which was being bulldozed, the signs st
ating that some new condos were 'coming soon.' I realized how eager I was when I knew on an instinctual level that he was a ghost. I had to calm myself when it struck me I was acting like a junky needing a fix. That was sobering.

  I was getting good at determining the living from the dead. I pushed away the need and reminded myself that I was there for the man, not me.

  With the sound of feathers slicing through the air, Rin was gone. I glanced around, then up to see her perched on top of a streetlight to observe me. Her avian eyes blinking down at me, glowing gold in the glow of the city around us. She was a dark outline in that glow, like her black feathers were absorbing all the light around her, leaving an obsidian void with golden eyes in the world.

  I looked down at my hands, the familiar talons were there. I wondered how none of the people I helped had ever been afraid of me. Then I realized that they had already gone through the worst thing imaginable, their own deaths, and they found themselves lost in a world they couldn't interact with. I guess even a hybrid bird girl would be a relief to talk to if they could interact with me in thier living nightmare. Or is it dying nightmare?

  The rain beaded up and rolled off my feathers, though the downy feathers underneath were getting damp. If it weren't for the wet bird smell coming off of me, I didn't mind the rain in this form, and it pushed the chill away as my blood ran hot.

  The man looked to be middle aged, his dark hair streaked with silver. He was on the thin side, just north of gangly, dressed in a dark grey sweatshirt, jeans, and black sneakers. There wasn't anything particularly memorable about the man, fairly average in just about every way, and if it weren't for the fact that he was dead, I wouldn't have given him a second glance, and I felt like a heel for that realization.

  I called out to the man as I approached, “Sir? Hello, I'm Adelaide, and I can help you.”

  His eyes snapped from the burned out husk of the building, and I saw the pain in them as he looked at me in shock. Had this been his home in life?

  He stuttered as he said in a shocked voice, “You... you can see me?”

  I nodded and smiled at him as he looked between the remains of the building and me. He had so much hope in his eyes and then he took the hand I was offering him. It was only a moment of contact, but then I was moving back, tripping and scrambling along the ground, trying to distance myself from him.

  I lived his life, tasted the balance of his soul, and it was a dark, seething cesspool. He loved creating chaos, hurting others through his actions. His name was Harold Barnibus, he was an arsonist who worshiped the fire he set free to consume everything that his victims owned. If someone got hurt because of the fire, so much the better.

  That is why he favored targeting apartment complexes. He could ruin more lives at one time that way. This building hadn't been his first, though it had been his last when he got trapped in the basement in the storage room where he had started the blaze, when the door jammed.

  It was the first time he ever feared the fire he used to make such beauty. And it was an excruciating death, his lungs feeling like they were on fire as his skin burned. He had died in pain and terror... good. I saw the other fires he set, including the one which took Max's life.

  Harold started to run from me. He had seen the pathway that started to open before us before I released him. It radiated unimaginable pain and suffering, the heat was unbearable. The fates that be had weighed his soul and judged him. I watched him run and snarled in determination. I would be the one to bring him to where he belonged, for everything he did, for everything he had been planning, for the pain he caused me to suffer through that would now always be a part of me. For... Max.

  I leapt up and gave chase. I could see a shadow on the ground; Rin was following from above. This man, this spirit, thought he could escape his fate. I closed on him, shaking off the shuddering disgust I was feeling for what I had witnessed, and for the fact that they were my memories now as sure as if I had lived them. With my Raven to the forefront, I was so much faster and stronger than I have ever been.

  I dove at the man, slamming a talon through the small of his back. He screamed in agony, and he tried to pull away as we tumbled to the ground as he kept repeating, “No, no, no.” His spirit form stretched trying to get out of my grasp, but I had him in a solid grip. My talons seemed to keep him corporeal as that path of raging heat and agony unfolded in front of us.

  I growled in appreciation at the flickering orangish light at the end of the unkempt path, blackened with soot, through the burned out forest that was now around us. I sneered. Fitting that his hell was the same fire which he had worshiped when he was alive.

  He was flailing along as I dragged him toward that endless torture. He grabbed at tree, its long dead branches just snapped in his grasp. He clawed at the ground and begged and pleaded with me. He tried attacking me, his blows hurt but I tightened my talon and shook him, causing him to curl up and scream in pain.

  I reached the end, the heat was unbearable, and I had to look away from the flames that seemed to be reaching greedily toward us, as if it were alive and gleeful it would have a black soul to torment for all of eternity. I looked down at the spirit who was blubbering and crying like a baby now as he just let me drag him limply along. He was still whispering, “No, no, no.”

  I heaved, and my Raven muscles flexed and sent him tumbling into the hell of his own creation. As soon as I released him, I was back on the Seattle streets, a tear rolling down my cheek as I whispered, “For Max.”

  Then I collapsed into sobs, right there on the sidewalk. I was barely aware of Rin landing almost silently beside me. I was whispering to her as she hugged and rocked me, “Never again... never...”

  She had shushed me and said with the pain of a kindred spirit in her low raspy voice. “Yes, you will. Because you know that guiding just one good soul to the afterlife of joy is worth suffering all the evils.”

  I wasn't of my right mind for a while as I sobbed, trying to push away the caustic memories that were now a part of me. Locking them away so I'd never have to think about them again. Looking back, I sort of remember the small young woman carrying me all the way back to the car and Shan driving us home.

  And Rin was right. There I was the next night, hunting for lost souls with her, training to become a better Raven Maid. The need to help those who deserved better than to be stuck between worlds was a driving force. How could I deny the deserving their personal heaven? I'd just have to suck it up and weather the storm of any black souls I took into myself.

  I wonder about the balance of my own soul, because even though I didn't share with the others, I took great delight in dragging that piece of garbage, Harold, to his eternal damnation.

  That scared me possibly more than experiencing his darkness, knowing that I had my own. Would I go to a Hell I'm not sure I believed in because of that? Could the good I did in my life balance that? Then what? Not sure of my own beliefs, would my Heaven be nothingness? A limbo that may as well be Hell?

  It wasn't healthy dwelling on philosophical questions like that. They could only lead me down the rabbit hole again. Besides, Max was too young to have formed his own ideologies, and I had felt the warmth and joy in his final destination.

  So concentrate on that Addy, strive to do more good, then any of your own darkness would be outweighed by it.

  Shannon drove a few blocks south of Woodland Park Zoo, close to where we could feel the shadow of sickness that was slowly creeping through the city. She was full of mirth and sarcasm that I think was covering her worry as she parked the car. “Try not to break her this time Rin? She's just secondhand and doesn't come with a warranty.”

  I grinned at her incredulously, which just got me a crinkled nose from her. I could see the concern in her eyes that she was trying to hide with her flippancy. I placed a hand on hers on the steering wheel and said, “I'll be fine.”

  Rin muttered, “Oh my fucking god, just get a room already.” Then she opened the door and almost fell out of th
e cramped space that was made to seat two like my car. Then she added, “We really need to a different Scooby-mobile, if you two are going to keep spraying pheromones all around in that cramped space when we hunt, or I'm going to start taking my bike.”

  I wanted to protest, to assure her we were just friends, but that would just inflame things for the little twit. I liked that she always let Shan drive us all around, it was sort of sweet, even though she constantly threatened to ride her bike. I settled for, “Shan is so straight, you can use her as a ruler.”

  I glanced at her, prompting her for support as I slid out. She gave me an odd smile and just asked, “Oh? Is that a fact?” She reached across the passenger seat and closed the door, a mischievous smile on her lips as she turned purposefully to a book she needed to review before her class started rotations at the local hospitals next week.

  I turned and growled at the leather clad trouble maker, “Damn it Rin, you're just giving her ammunition to tease me.”

  She started jogging, and I followed. She was so frustratingly silent. Ten minutes later we turned at the top of a rise, we could see Lake Union a quarter mile away to the South between buildings. I tried to orient myself as I was still learning the city. Just a little to the east I saw Gas Works Park, right by the Risner Institute. Ah ok, I knew where I was now, so the big bridge to the west of us was Aurora.

  That's when Rin slammed into me, knocking me to the ground as I heard what sounded like the “pftt” of a silenced gunshot, just like on TV. The metal streetlamp pole sparked where we had been standing.

  Soc Au' Lait! Was someone shooting at us?

  Chapter 8 – Zombies

  Three men stepped out of a dark sedan thirty yards down the street, they were dressed in dark business suits, and they had weapons drawn as they started charging us in formation with military precision like they did this sort of thing frequently.

  My heart was beating a million miles per second, but Rin was already rolling on her feet almost the moment we hit the ground, and she a was throwing a knife which she pulled from god knows where. It struck the lead man in is throat and he barely even flinched as it buried itself to the hilt.