Feathers

24. Back To The Beginning

Leaving the grumbling of the bingo non-winners behind them, Michael and his motley crew followed Enid up the deck and into the warm moonlit night. Enid strode ahead with an energy and grim determination that belied her age. The fact that the mere mention of the Crow had hardened her into such an apparent resolve was worrying to Michael. Why had she looked so grim-faced when they mentioned the creature? What was she about to tell them?

Having already reached rock bottom in the pits of not-understanding, the fact that Enid - this chirpy, morbid but otherwise normal-seeming old lady - seemed to be know something about a demonic half-man half-crow psychopomp from the underworld was driving him further into hitherto unknown depths of confusion.

When they exited the gangplank onto the rough wooden boardwalk of the esplanade, Enid spun around and faced their small group, silhouetted by the warm glow of a streetlamp above her.

"What do you know of the crow?" She asked, without any preamble or explanation.

She stared, unblinking, at Kobie and then Michael in turn. Her eyebrows were knit together and Michael felt like she was soaking in every minute expression that flitted across his face, searching for information.

Kobie glanced nervously at Michael. Spencer and Gretchen hung back, standing a couple of feet behind Kobie and her grandmother. Only Michael, who had met her previously, stood directly in front of her with Kobie.

"This is going to sound very strange" Kobie started, slowly.

"I can handle strange darling, tell me"

Kobie squeezed Michael's hands and talk a deep breath, and then as if she had been holding back a dam of water that was now broken into a torrent of sound, let out a stream of words, almost all at once.

"We saw something kill Dean It just appeared and we think it's a demon I think we're being chased by a demon that wants to protect me because he came to take me to the underworld when I was a baby and I nearly died but then I didn't so he was stuck here and he got attached to me and now he's killing anybody that he thinks is going to hurt me and we don't know what to do."

Michael held his breath and involuntarily tensed his stomach muscles waiting for Enid to respond.

"Jesus Christ," Enid said, and stumbled backwards, almost falling, before sitting heavily on the cobbled stone blocks that lined the quay.

"What happened with Dean, with the body? Does anybody know?" She peered up at them with a pained expression.

"We found a way to dispose of it," Spencer said, matter of factly, "a way that has so far avoided any scrutiny from the police."

"Thank god for small mercies I suppose. I'm so sorry, I knew this day would come. I should have done more to prepare you. I should have done something sooner."

Enid put her elbows on her knees and leant forward holding her head in her hands. Michael glanced back at Spencer and Gretchen who were still standing awkwardly a few feet away and gestured towards the stone bench seats.

Gretchen and Spencer sat a respectful distance from Enid on one side of the stone and Michael joined Kobie, much closer on the other.

Kobie put her arm around Enid's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Michael felt the swirling of unease in his gut. A mix of seeing a grandparent being comforted by their grandchild, like the world was briefly upside down. And also the recently developed reflex that caused him to flinch when they saw anybody touching in public, thanks to COVID. He glanced around the waterfront where small groups of people were sitting at outside tables eating and drinking and lone joggers passing by. Nobody seemed to have noticed or to care. There were some moments that gave you a hall pass from the usually concerned glances that public touching now generated, as risky as the contact may still be.