Seven For A Secret - Part 1

I find inspiration in the strangest things xD

Seven For A Secret - Part 1

A soft breeze ruffled the grass as a crow landed on a wooden beam. It alerted twelve-year-old Sammy Conners to the black bird watching her from its perch on the old timber fence. She stared at it for a long moment, tilting her head to one side in avid curiousity. The bird mimicked the action.

."One for sorrow," she said, giving the crow a small smile. The bird was still for a long minute, and then it blinked. Once. As if in agreement to her assessment. "Only one?"

The bird cawed at her and fluffed its wings up before hopping off the fence and gliding gently to the grass halfway between Sammy and the fence. There was a rustle of wings and when she looked up, a second crow sat on the fence.

"Two for joy," she sing-songed and the second crow squawked at her, seeming to laugh. Sammy grinned at the crows and turned back to playing with her doll. "Is that it? Am I meant to be happy today?"

The crow on the fence cawed at her and shook itself. Then it seemed to give the first crow a look that Sammy couldn't understand. She frowned at them, abandoning her doll to the small patch of dirt in front of her. The first gave a laugh-like squawk and flapped its wings. The second merely looked at it. There was the rustle of wings again and Sammy looked up just in time to see a third crow settled on a branch high up in the tree on the other side of the old timber fence. She stared at it as it looked from the first crow to the second and back. As she watched, a fourth joined it on the tree branch.

"Three for a girl," she said, no longer amused. Then she frowned. "Four for a boy." All four crows turned their beady gazes on her. Sammy swallowed, suddenly scared. She didn't like the way they were looking at her, like she was the lamb and they were the wolves. "I don't like this game anymore."

A fifth crow landed near the second crow on the fence while she sat there, doll forgotten on the ground near her knees. Something compelled her to continue the ryhme, and no matter how hard she fought not to say the words, it came out anyway.

"Five for silver."

The next one, the sixth, landed on a branch beside crows three and four. Sammy clamped her mouth shut and glared at the crows. She was not going to say it, was not, no matter how tempted she was to say it--or how compelling it might be. She wasn't going to finish the rhyme!

But it came out anyway, just like the last line; "Six for gold."

Sammy started sobbing, begging them not to say the last line. She really didn't want to finish the ryhme. The crows were starting to really frighten her. Terrify, even. She sobbed when she heard another crow land, wings rustling loudly in her ears. It cawed loudly and Sammy looked up with a gasp. This crow was bigger than the others, and it looked hungry.

"I really don't like this game anymore," she said, pouting at the seven crows staring at her. "Seven for a secret.....never to be told."

The seventh crow cawed softly and hopped off the fence, gliding towards her. As she watched it glide, its feather fell off and faded away into nothing, and by the time it reach the ground in front of her, it was no longer a crow. It was a boy. He was older than her with fine, sharp features, dark hair and entrancing grey-green eyes, much like a crow's. Sammy stared, eyes wide.

"It wasn't a game," he said and held out his hand to her, palm up. Sammy, in the face of the boy's unnatural beauty, forgot her fear. She looked at the pale, pale hand then back up at his face. The boy smiled at her. "Won't you can away to the Fair Lands with me?" Then he gestured behind to the other crows, and Sammy looked. Six more boys stood there, all as equally beautiful as the boy before her, with the same dark hair and eerie eyes. "With us?"

Sammy looked at him, and then at the other six boys. She nodded. "Okay," she said and took the seventh boy's hand. He grinned at her and helped her to her feet. Then he led her over to the fence, the other six boys moving to make way for them. "What are the Fair Lands like?"

The seventh boy merely smiled and said, "They're beautiful, Sammy. You'll love it there." And he reached out to press his free palm to the fence. The seven crow boys and little Sammy disappeared in a flash of bright light. When the light faded, there were seven black feathers sitting on the ground beside the fence--the only evidence of what had happened and no more than that.