Summer of the Lake House

Summer of the Lake House

Chapter Five: Taken by the Bird out of Hell


“I’m here for the boy!”

We all stared at each other as the weather began slowly calming down. I was shaking uncontrollably and my body felt like it was being surrounded with static electricity. Tyler was clutching my arm so hard I couldn’t feel it anymore. I couldn’t hear a peep out of him and figured he was probably too petrified to make a sound. He was scared, I could feel it radiating from him in waves but I didn’t dare to take my gaze off of the feathered man for a second to see how he was doing.

The Raven man seemed likely to snap if I made a single move so I was treating him like a rabid dog. He glared at us accusingly.

“Where is the boy?” He asked in a deceptively calm voice, straightening up to his full height and flaring the feathers on his head into a crest. “I won’t ask again.”

I straightened up and softly asked, “What boy?”

Ravens left eye twitched. “What boy? You know what boy I’m talking about. Amenci! He’s here, I know he is. I can smell him.”

I blinked in surprise. That was it? All he wanted was the kid? I could live with that.

It’s not that I wanted to give up a helpless kid to an unstable, feathered man who could control the weather and very nearly killed me and Tyler, but I wasn’t about to fight for him. “He’s in the bedroom,” I said softly, “can you just take him and go?” I didn’t want to beg him to go but I felt pretty damn close to it. The clouds were still swirling dangerously overhead and my heart was pounding violently in my chest. I just wanted him gone.

Raven stared suspiciously at me. “I don’t trust you. How do I know you aren’t lying?” He asked accusingly.

Oh my god! He comes in, totals the house, threatens us, causes all sorts of psychological damage and suddenly WE’RE the bad guys. If I wasn’t so afraid I probably would have punched him. “We won’t go anywhere, I promise. He’s in there, I put him there myself, you can even go check.”

“No. Why don’t you go get the boy? I’ll stay here with you’re friend until you come back.”

Tyler tensed up and I turned to him, looking into his frightened glassy eyes. God, he looked bad, like a ghost or something. I didn’t want to leave him but the sooner I left the sooner we could get the hell out of there. I sighed and put my hand on his shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly. “I’ll be right back. He’s in the room; it will only take a second.” I assured him. His head shook jerkily, clutching my arm in a death grip and refusing to let go. “Let go, Ty.” I demanded, taking his hands and squeezing them until he cried out in pain and let go. Before he could grab a hold of me again I pushed him at Raven who held him back. “D-don’t hurt him.” I said softly, unsure if I was doing the right thing by leaving Tyler alone with him.

“Just get the boy.” Raven demanded stonily.

I turned away but before I could take a step I heard Tyler weeping softly and muttering, “Something bad is gonna happen, Dion, please don’t leave me. S-something bad-” He took a shuddering breath and fell silent, shaking visibly in Ravens grip.

I swallowed and turned my back on him, taking off at a jog. I didn’t want to leave Tyler alone with that thing any longer than he needed to be and I moved the fastest I could while maneuvering around the wooden stakes. My heart was beating harshly in my chest as I stepped over pieces of ruined furniture, broken glass, and twisted wood. It was hellish. I could barely recognize where I was in the house because of all the debris and the lack off walls and ceiling. I prayed Amenci hadn’t run away or been hurt in all of this, who knew what that crazy man would do if he had.

I passed into the almost totaled hallway, the walls were collapsed onto themselves and dust was everywhere. I ignored it and crawled over the fallen walls. It was a little disorienting, even though the hallway was only a single path it was hard to tell what was what when nothing looked the same.

I paused on top of a large chunk of wall and tried to find the room I had put Amenci in when I heard a faint sound coming from underneath me. My body tensed unwillingly. I held my breath and listened to the quiet, persistent sound. It sounded like whimpering.

Cautiously I slipped off of the wall and knelt down beside it. Something was hiding underneath between the fallen wall and the rubble; I could hear it moving slightly every few seconds. Taking a deep breath I looked inside the gap to see what was making the noise.

My eyes widened when I saw the familiar red hair and freckles. “Jamie!”

The small redhead jumped with a startled shriek, shrinking himself against the fallen wall like a frightened rabbit. He stared at me in raw terror for a moment, shaking uncontrollably, before recognition entered his eyes. A split second later he had me wrapped in the strangest bear hug I’d ever had. I was an understatement to say Jamie wasn’t exactly the affectionate type and I’d never known him to touch another person in any way besides punches and kicks. It was testimony to how panicked he was, and how scared I was because I actually returned the hug gratefully.

“Dion! Oh my god, I t-though you all were dead,” he gasped, letting go of me and wiping his tearstained face. He gave a pitiful sob and hugged me again, clinging to me like a child and burrowing as closely into me as he could.

I awkwardly rubbed his small, heaving back, murmuring some comforting nonsense into his ear. “Where are the others?” I asked.

He shook his head against my shoulder. “I don’t know. When the roof got r-ripped up I ran. I don’t know what happened to them, I couldn’t keep up. T-they just left me a-and then the wall fell over.” He sniffled softly, crying against my shoulder. I held him for a few more seconds, running my thumb over the bumps of his ribs.

“Jamie, you have to let me go. I have to do something real quick.”

He clung to me tighter.

“Come on Jamie, don’t do this. Let me go.”

“No,” He said stubbornly, digging his fingers painfully into my arms. “Your not leaving me, I’m coming with you.”

“Fine. Just don’t get in my way,” I said, dragging him out from under the wall and lifting him to his feet. “We have to find that Amenci kid.”

Jamie grabbed a hold of me as I began walking away and kept close, obviously afraid of being left behind again. He didn’t respond to my statement so I didn’t bother talking to him as we made our way to the room. It was slow going as Jamie kept startling over every flash of lightning and crack of thunder and his legs were so shaky he kept slipping on the dew covered floor and stubbing his toes on the fallen bits off wall. I could see why he was afraid to be alone, he was all but useless, not that I was doing much better in the dark but at least I wasn’t crying.

It was a load off when we reached the room. I let out a sigh of relief to see it was mostly intact, the door was partially caved in but the room seemed almost whole…minus the roof of course.

I couldn’t waste anymore time so I picked Jamie up and carried him over the ruined door and into the room. “Amenci,” I called over the rapidly worsening wind, thunder and rain. “Amenci, are you here?” I scanned the room but couldn’t see anything.

I put Jamie down and walked over to where the bed was. I squinted, trying to see until a flash of lighting illuminated the room and the empty bed. “FUCK!” I shouted, looking wildly around at the empty room. I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed. It was empty. The closet was empty. The hallway was empty. “Oh my god, this can’t be happening.”

I swore wildly at the empty room until Jamie came up behind me and grabbed my arm. “Dion,” he said softly, and way more pleadingly than I had ever heard him before, “let’s just go. C’mon, just forget him, forget everyone else and let’s just go.”

I glared down at him, ready to yell at him for being an asshole again when a flash of lightning lit up his frightened, tear-streaked face. He wasn’t being an ass, he was just scared and he wanted to go somewhere where there wasn’t crazy raven people ripping off the roof and walls falling all over him. I couldn’t say I blamed him and was half tempted to say okay but the image of Tyler’s face right before I left him held me back.

I wasn’t one of those people who felt I had to save the world and help everyone in need but a part of me felt entirely responsible for keeping them safe. Tyler was waiting for me to save him and Jamie was depending on me to keep him safe. I couldn’t say no. Who would I be if I left them to their own fates and ran?

“I can’t. Tyler needs me,” I murmured regretfully, “you can go yourself. I don’t think that guy knows you are here. You can get away, you know where the door is, right?”

“Am I hearing what I think I’m hearing?”

I gasped, feeling that horrible frightened tingle run through me. Jamie whimpered and fell to his knees, holding onto my leg for support. No one moved for what felt like hours.

“Were you planning to run, my little friend?”

I slowly turned and faced the man who had caused all of this. “Raven”, I whispered to myself, staring again at his strange, otherworldly appearance.

His face scrunched up into an almost adorable smile, the kind of all around smile where even you’re body is positioned in a happy way. He nodded joyfully.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I asked, getting those questions out of me that I needed to know before I did anything else. I had to know who he was and what he was doing all of this to us. It made no sense to me.

“I’m Raven, the God of this land. It’s a shame that I actually have to tell you this but as with all you humans, you’re memories are so very short.” He shook his head in disgust. “I wasn’t gone for that long, a few hundred years at most and already you people have moved on. Who is everyone worshipping these day’s?” He asked curiously.

I shook my head in confusion. My stomach was rolling sickly despite that fact that he seemed in a relatively good mood.

He furrowed his brow. “If you say Odin I’ll kill myself. You’re not worshipping Odin are you?” He demanded to know.

“N-no.”

“Oh, good. To be honest with you, we can’t stand each other. I’d hate to have to go back and face him if he was being worshipped in MY lands. That would be to embarrassing, am I right?”

I nodded, trying to keep him happy. This guy was strange. He seemed to have completely forgotten about Amenci and was now prattling on and on about NOTHING. And he seemed to think he was a god, which I wasn’t so willing to say he wasn’t after the whole ‘conjuring a storm’ thing. But even so, he struck me as a complete flake. I stared in disbelief and nodded or shook my head when appropriate as he talked.

“I mean,” Raven continued on, completely ignorant of my confusion “when I found out that Poseidon was actually a major figure here my eyes nearly fell out of my head. Sure he can control the sea, who can’t, but it’s not like he can do much else. You humans are so easily impressed, all the bastard had to do was summon a minor typhoon and suddenly everyone was bowing down to him. I felt obligated to pull some sort of prank; he was getting a little too bigheaded, y’know. I’ll admit it, stealing his trident may not have been the best route to go, but if you could have seen him for that week, he was a mess, it was hilarious. I only wish it could have gone on longer. If only that damn goody goody Wolf hadn’t ratted me out. But I knew he was enjoying it to because he knew from the start, he was just as sick of Poseidon as I was. We all were, I think.”

He went on for a few more minutes before I finally worked up the courage to stammer out, “W-where’s Tyler?”

Raven paused in mid sentence with his mouth open. “…Who?” He asked.

“Tyler, I left him with you. Where did you put him?”

“Oh, him! He’s around, don’t you worry. He’s safe and I guarantee you that he’ll stay that way just so long as I get what I want.” He smiled happily and looked around the room. “So, where is the boy?” He made a ‘hmm’ noise in the back of his throat at the empty room. “Well, I don’t see him here, which is kind of funny considering you told me he was.” He gave me a secretive look that I would have found funny under different circumstances. “Are you planning on defying me?”

“No, he was here, I swear it. He must have hidden somewhere.” I said, looking around in that useless way people do when there looking for something that they know they can’t find.

Still smiling, Raven looked me in the eye, “Really?”

“Yes, he was just here, just give me a few minutes and I’ll find him for you,” I pleaded, “I know he’s around here, he couldn’t have gone far.”

“Ah, well, that’s you’re problem, now isn’t it?” He said, still smiling peacefully. “You told me that he would be HERE.”

“But-“

He raised a finger to halt what I was about to say. “No no. I trusted you and you lied to me. I don’t deal well with liars, especially not liars who are coward enough to put their own friends in danger.”

“But I didn’t,” I cried, clenching my fists, “he was just here, I didn’t lie.”

“Well…he’s not here. And unfortunately for you and you’re little friend my patience isn’t unlimited and I’m already bored of you so I’m going to leave now.”

“What! No, what about Tyler, you have to give him back! I tried, it’s not my fault.” I screamed in frustration, feeling so helpless against this man and the power he held over us all.

“Excuses won’t save you now. You’ve condemned you’re friend to his fate, whatever happens now is out of my hands…but I’m a nice guy, I’ll give you just one chance to save him. If you can find the boy, he’ll know where to find me, bring him to me and you may get you’re friend back…if he’s still alive.”

“That’s not fair,” I screamed, feeling as if I would have attacked the man if Jamie hadn’t been holding my leg so tight, “you can’t kill Tyler; he had nothing to do with this. Please, anyone but Tyler,” I begged.

Raven smiled and shrugged innocently. “Sorry, them’s the rules. Find the boy and bring him to me as soon as you can. That’s all I can say.” He grinned and waved goodbye.

“WAIT!!!” I screamed, breaking my leg free of Jamie and running at Raven as he shot into the air in a cloud of black feathers, “COME BACK YOU BASTARD!!!! You stupid fucker get back here.” I shouted at the black bird he had become as he flew away from me. “Come back! Give me Tyler you asshole, he’s not yours!”

As the bird flew farther out of sight the clouds went with it in a long trailing ribbon of black clouds, thunder and lightning until I was raging at nothing more than a sunny blue sky. Almost every last trace of Ravens visit had disappeared with him except for the destroyed house and the remaining rain on the floor. I stared up at the spot Raven had disappeared to and gave a choked scream.

A part of me didn’t even know what had happened, it was all so sudden but I felt it like a pit in my soul. He had swooped in so suddenly and taken something from me, something more than just my friend; he had shaken my pride, my courage, my beliefs. A man with feathers for hair and claiming to be a god had popped into my life in a hellish storm, ripped apart my friend’s summer house, and kidnapped my other friend. And why? Because of him…Amenci, the first stranger that had come in and completely fucked me up. It seemed like so long ago but it was his fault all this had happened.

The sunny sky in front of me wavered as I swayed unsteadily on my feet. I was so worn out. It was all too much to fast, I couldn’t keep up. Not my mind or my body and they both decided to give up at the same time. My vision slowly tunneled in on me and I could feel myself falling.

My last thought, strangely enough, was to wonder if this was going to affect my grades at school.

A/N: I’ve reread this but I’m still not sure that it’s is as good as it could be but since I’ve been so so long in updating I’m posting it as it is. Next chapter should be up sooner and I’ll try to get the second chapter of Silent Doll up as well. Sorry for the wait but I’ve been super busy, you know how it is, life waits for no man. T_T Unfortunatly.