Black Feathers

By: Mari Mitchell
September 9, 2008

The gift was very small but it still made a loud thud as it hit the floor. It fell from its forgotten place, as if unseen hands had pushed it from the shelf of the closet. The tag read, "To Ellery," and nothing more. It was bound by a kind of dark leather twine. Ellery picked up the curious object, and shook it attempting to decipher the secrets that lay within. A hollow echo came from the inside like paper wings beating.

On the davenport, the cord was severed; the contents spilled out: moments of the past captured and transfixed onto paper, preserved by chemicals and light becoming photographs. Strangers smiled from within snapshots. Christmases past lurked, mingling with Thanksgiving feasts of old. One picture stood out from the collage of what had gone before; A snapshot of an unknown house.

The mysterious house was two stories tall, and appeared to be crumbling away from age and neglect. Shingles and paint stripped away a fragment at a time. Stark trees, bare of life, surrounded it. The only thing that didn't seem to be a part of death was the smattering of ravens.

Ellery turned the photo over to see if anyone had bothered to write on the back. There, written in a graceful hand were the words, “Ravens House 1972." He knew all too well that was the year his father had vanished, like smoke from a fire. Even after you couldn’t see the smoke you could still smell it. Smoke has a way of tainting everything it touches. No matter where he went, all around him was the smoke of his father. The fire of his father’s disappearance had scorched his life, and consumed his mother's life. It took her years to turn to ash while he still quietly remained embers. After her husband's disappearance she walked around with scars that could only be seen on the inside.

A picture of his father Phillip was on top of the pile that still lay on the davenport. The photo had been hidden underneath the one of the house. His father's crooked grin, and dark eyes intense and haunting looked out from the photograph. Ellery wondered how much it might have helped his mother if he hadn't looked so much like him.

Ellery was sure of one thing: he was fated to try and solve the mystery of his life; from the Hardy Boys he read as a boy to his namesake Ellery Queen, what choice did he have? At least they hadn’t named him Sherlock or Poirot like they had the dogs.

He placed the portrait of the house on the mantle of the fireplace. His father’s picture was its neighbor.

Ellery booted up his faithful Mac. He ran an Internet search to see what he could come up with on Ravens House. In all of Googledom there were 913 possibilities. He stopped to read about ravens. The web-page said ravens were classified as sentient, often gather and protect treasures and that ravens lived in the same places for decades in family units.

Ellery thought, 'What do ravens treasure? Coffee? No ravens don't drink coffee. At least you never see them ordering some from Starbucks. I need coffee. After all, when looking for things, coffee always helps things along.'

Among webpage’s of flag football, pro wrestlers and some TV show of which he had never heard, Ellery fell asleep. Strolling in his dreams, a stout stonewall bordered death lying in wait under tombstones.He thought for sure it was close to winter and wished that he’d not only thought to wear a jacket but his shoes as well. Past the inky trees the house from the picture waited. Ravens ambled about the desolate grounds, and sat on the roof. With atramentous eyes that seemed to hold no soul they watched as he approached.

It was then that he noticed her. Frail, almost as if she were made of glass, she stood under the eve of the veranda. Black tears ran down her alabaster cheeks contrasting sharply with her cerulean eyes and her cerise lips.

“Ellery!” The stranger called.

She rushed out to meet him as the ravens ascended. With their talons and beaks they pulled her ebony hair; fragments of her dress were stripped away. Her once perfect alabaster skin became blotted with blood. Screams echoed all around as the cries of the ravens became deafening. Ellery sprang into action, not knowing exactly what he was going to do. He moved as only one can in a dream; painfully slow at first, as if running through water, then all at once arriving. He reached through a sea of ebony feathers and took the glass girl in his arms. The two made their way to the house as kamikaze ravens hit one after the other. Once they were on the veranda, the ravens dissipated, leaving them alone.

Ellery opened the door and pulled them into the inner sanctum of the house. Carefully, he placed her on the davenport, now covered in photographs and black feathers. Tenderly, he wiped the blood from her face.

“Thank you Ellery. I’ve been waiting for you,” she said in a weak whisper.

“You're welcome, whoever you are.”

“Lemuria,” and nothing more.

As she spoke her name, the dream ended. It clung to him like thick mud making him feel heavy and cold. He took a long hot shower hoping to warm his bones and wash away the remnants of the strange and bewitching nightmare.

Ellery then sat in his living room sipping his third cup of coffee. A feeling of longing, of dissatisfaction gnawed at him. It was as if he somehow wasn't whole inside; there were large pieces of him missing. His incompleteness was why he had never really felt able to connect with the people around him. He wanted to, but that piece of him must have been lost under the davenport years ago.

As he was about to take another crack at searching for Ravens House the pizza arrived.

“Hello that will be nineteen fifty for the thin crust meat trio … please.”

“Sure. Let me get my wallet.”

“Do you mind if I step in for a moment? That wind is a bitch out there.”

“Nope. I shouldn’t be more than a minute.”

Ellery disappeared into the hall somewhere, leaving the pizza man to look over the room. On the mantel, the photo of Ravens House still lay. Just as Ellery came back into the room, he picked it up to look at the photograph closer.

“Okay here we go.” Ellery couldn’t help but be a little annoyed at the delivery guy touching his things. He thought to himself,‘There goes his tip’, as he retrieved the picture from the delivery guy. He noted again to himself. ‘Find a new pizza joint.'

“Pretty lady,“ the pizza guy noted.

Ellery gave him a twenty and waited impatiently for him to leave.

With a smirk the delivery guy said, “Thanks for the tip.”

Ellery locked the door and sat down. It was only then he looked at the picture. She stood in the threshold of Ravens House. Lemuria’s dress was tattered and black tears stained her sallow face. He thought for a moment that the pizza jerk must have switched photos. The scenario seemed far-fetched but how could he have missed her?

Ellery had scanned in most of the pictures and burned them onto a disc. A quick check to see if she was there all along and he could quiet the voice that was screaming in his head. He clicked on the thumbnail of the house. No one. Ellery looked at the photograph that lay beside his Mac. There she was just as big as the moon.

“Just because you can't explain how or why something's happening doesn’t mean there’s not an explanation.“

Rationally he knew things like this didn't happen but he couldn't deny the change either. Ellery hesitated to touch the photograph. With the tips of his fingers he shoved the picture in the desk drawer and locked it.

“I need to get out of here.“

Ellery headed for the nearest bar. It wasn’t something he did often but once in awhile a fellow needed a drink, and unlike Sam Spade, he didn’t have a bottle tucked away. In a bar it was easy to find meaningless conversation or silence at the bottom of a glass of beer.

A few hours and a taxi ride later, Ellery managed to find his way home. He hesitated to leave the safety of the cab. On the roof sat not one but three black-as-coal ravens. Finally the keyhole stopped evading his efforts to unlock.

Ellery quickly made his way past the desk and to the safety of his bed. All he needed was sleep. Through beer-induced dreams he once again visited Ravens House. Lemuria had changed her black dress to one of an azure. She wore her hair in a neat Betty Page so black, that a tinge of blue shone. Her lip’s were a matching, glossy bee sting. Despite his desire to not be there, he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was. He made his way as quickly as he could to the door.

“The ravens won’t let you go.”

As Ellery opened the door he saw it. At first it appeared to be a dense shadow. Then some of the shadow broke away and he could see that it was the ravens swarming. Their eyes were no longer atramentous but burned red with the fire of an unknown hell. All of them watched him.

“What kind of strange dream is this?” Ellery slammed the door shut and backed away from it. “Why am I here?”

Instead of answering, Lemuria disappeared into a hallway. By the time he reached the corridor she was gone and there was only a series of doors. Some of the doors were locked but the third opened.

The room was a massive library. To his left was a fireplace that looked straight out of Citizen Kane, two wingback chairs flanked its sides. On the mantel were two photographs: one of him and one of his house.

“What the hell?”

From one of the chairs came, “Well, you’re close. Although it’s not like any hell I've heard of.”

Ellery recognized the voice. He turned to meet it. There his father sat, smoking a cigarette. He thought, 'Why not? That makes as much sense as anything else.'

“Well son, aren’t you going to say hi?” Phillip asked.

“What are you doing here?”

“The same thing you are. I just am; one moment I was driving home and the next I was here.”

“No. Not like me. You’re dead and I’m dreaming. There’s a big difference.”

“If you say so son.”

“What is this place?”

"When you find him, you can ask.” Phillip indicated to the fireplace. Above the two small pictures was a much larger one of the man Ellery knew to be his grandfather.

Lemuria began to scream. Ellery left the room, trying to find her. In a green and wooden room she was being held down on a bed. On top of her lay a raven large as any man. No clothing concealed her naked form as the colossal raven had his way with her.

Ellery searched the room for something to stop the abomination. He picked up a wooden chair and, with all of his might, broke it on the birds black back. With sensational speed the leviathan bird turned towards Ellery.

The gargantuan bird tried to pierce Ellery, stabbing with a beak sharp as Azathoth's tooth. The bird's second blow hit the side of Ellery's head, throwing him back through the blackness of the dream to the light of consciousness. Before his eyes opened, he saw Lemuria reaching for him as she spoke desperate words,

“I need you…”

And then nothing more.

Weakened and awake, Ellery made his way into the kitchen longing for comfort of warm black coffee. He passed the mantel. Now two pictures lay where only one should be. The smaller one that once held the image of his father stood empty. But even more disturbing was the one next to it. The photograph of Ravens House had returned and had again changed: Lemuria was nowhere in sight but from one of the windows in the dark stood a man he knew was his father. At that moment he became aware of the warm stinging of his cranium. His refection in the mirror showed that he had withstood an injury. His knees gave way as he made his way to the davenport.

Lemuria's words reverberated in his heart, "I need you."

The connection he felt to her was undeniable. It pulled on him like gravity.

Ellery spoke as he surveyed the severity of his wound, "As Sherlock Holmes said, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' "

Inside Ellery knew what he had to do. There wasn't any point in trying to avoid sleep. It would come sooner or later. Who knew what tortures she was enduring as he sat there safe in his home? It was not in Ellery's character to put off unpleasant things. In his lexicon putting off always equaled bad. A couple of sleeping pills and a plan would go a long way toward freeing them both from their undeserved fate.

Still as death, the house of ravens welcomed him. He wandered through the labyrinth of rooms until he found her, waiting in an inner chamber filled with unfathomable darkness and ravens. Two goliath ravens stood beside Lemuria as she extended her delicate hand of alabaster glass.

"Come," and nothing more.

"Whatever it takes Lemuria, we're getting out of here."

Lemuria laughed. Her cerise lips formed a cruel smile. Her once bright azure eyes turned to rubies. Black feathers rustled as the rookery of ravens cawed and clicked echoing their queen's laugher. Ellery studied her more carefully. Now he saw her hair had feathers among its waves of ebony.

"I think not. You'll be taking your place among my conclave." She rose in all her full dark loveliness. With one hand she stroked a leviathan raven. "Don't you agree, Phillip?"

The goliath black bird ruffled its feathers nodded its massive head.

"I don't believe you've met your grandfather." The second giant raven cocked its head.

Ellery, lost in madness, staggered back.

Her attention was still with Grandfather Bird, "He's such a naughty old bird, stealing my treasure."

"But I did nothing."

"Nothing! You carry his tainted blood. You came willingly, fulfilling your fate."

"Why didn't you say something to me Dad?"

Father bird ruffed his obsidian feathers and squawked, "Do no good."

A thousand ravens rose, all at once descending upon him, tearing flesh from bone; each black bird swallowing chunks of Ellery, taking him in, flesh and soul, becoming.

#


On the mantel of Ellery's fireplace sits a photograph of a house. Ravens fly and wait. From one of its windows he watches the world pass as black tears fall from his dark and haunting eyes. No more a man of flesh, but one of chemicals on paper, black feathers...

And nothing more.