Merchant of Death

Based on a scary experience I had with a friend. Obviously changed and exaggerated in some places.

            “Come on, it’s not like this summer is gonna last forever.  School starts in like two weeks, let loose and have some fun before we have to go back to studying late at night instead of watching movies,” Sami crossed her arms, staring across the room at her best friend, Emily.  Sure, Emily was a few years younger than Sami, but that didn’t change the fact that Sami viewed her as her best friend.  As a matter of fact, Sami admired Emily.  She was tall and had long straight brunette hair.  Sami on the other hand was just below average height with wavy blonde hair that was impossible to do anything with.

            “I know, I know,” Emily bit her lower lip, staring at her computer screen.  Ever since she had gotten her schedule for her sophomore year of high school, she had been reading everything she could about chemistry.  She had let her mom pressure her into taking Chemistry Honors and now that the year was about to begin, she felt overwhelmed.  Sami on the other hand was starting her first year at college, for a degree in art.  No honors chemistry there, and Sami made no bones about rubbing it in.  And the fact that she had no class on Friday.

            “It’s an awesome movie,” Sami pleaded.  Emily continued to stare reluctantly at her computer screen, “I won’t even charge you gas money this time.”

            Emily frowned, trying to decide which was more important: chemistry or movie night with her best friend.  She stood, clicking off her computer.  Sami had decided to stick around at community college for at least another year or two and Emily supposed she owed her for that.  She pressed her glasses up on her nose.

            “Nerd,” Sami shoved her playfully, pulling her car keys out of her pocket.

            “Shut up!” Emily shoved her back, giggling, “Which movie is it again?”

            “‘One Night In Venice,’ remember, that new romantic comedy?”  The two girls climbed into Sami’s small black hatchback.

            “Oh… yeah,” Emily sighed; all Sami had wanted to watch recently were romantic comedies.  She guessed it was because of her break up with Larson, even if she did say she was fine.  ‘I want to be free to be me, that is why I decided I couldn’t see Larson anymore.’  As confidently as she had said it, Emily had noticed the look in her eyes.  She still missed Larson.  And Sami’s way of dealing with anything was humor.  So if she could watch a romantic comedy and laugh at love, maybe that look would go away.

            “We need some tunes in here,” as Sami reached for the radio dial, her cellphone rang.  Her hand changed course and she picked it up, “Hey,” she listened for a moment and then her smile shrank, “I’m sorry, you have the wrong number.  But if you did have the right number, I’d tell you I have better things to be doing with better people.”  She hung up and tossed the phone down.

            “Who was it?” Emily asked.

            “Just some guy…” she could feel Emily staring at her suspiciously, “Okay, fine, it was Larson.  What do you wanna listen to?”  She turned on the radio and flipped around until she found something that sounded like clubbing music, “Rock out?”

            “Ah yeah!” Emily rolled down her window and the two began dancing.  The music was so loud that they didn’t hear the thunder in the distance.  Suddenly, rain began pouring down on them, “S**t!”  Sami laughed, rolling up the windows as quickly as possible.

            When they arrived at the theatre, Sami pulled into a parking spot and shifted the car into park.  They sat a moment in a silence, then Emily turned to her, “Make a run for it?”

            Sami’s lips curved into a smile, “Last one there buys the popcorn,” she threw her door open and bolted for the doors.

            “Hey!  No fair!” Emily charged after her.

 

            “Talk about an awesome movie!” Sami walked out onto the now dark parking lot.

            “Yeah… the best part was the free popcorn.”

            “I let you win.”

            “Uh-huh, sure,” Emily nodded sarcastically.  She breathed in the cool night air, “You were right.”

            “Hm?”

            “I needed to get out of the house and have some fun… it’s been kinda lonely cooped up reading up on Stoichiometry.”

            “Told ya,” Sami unlocked the car, “The rain really cooled everything off… and now my windows are fogged up.”  She started the car and cranked up the defroster.

            As they neared Emily’s neighborhood, she sighed, “I really don’t wanna go home yet.”

            “Yeah, I know what you mean… but it’s super late, like nothing is open.”

            “I know but- hey, you missed the turn.”

            “D****t!  I never take you home in the dark…”

            “Just turn here.  But there’s gotta be something we could do.”

            “I don’t know, what do you wanna do, I have no idea-”

            A white flash swooped in front of the car.  Both girls screamed and Sami slammed the breaks to avoid colliding with it.  The car halted to a stop, barely avoiding to white flash.  The headlights shined down the wet empty road.  The engine purred.  All was still.

            “What the hell was that… I thought we were gonna die.”  Emily was breathing hard, her hand over her chest, “Geez, my heart is beating outta my chest.”

            “It was a bird… an owl.  Yeah, an owl!”

            “How the hell do you know it was an owl?”

            Sami began idling down the street, “I saw the feathers on its belly… it was hawk sized, but wasn’t shaped right… musta been an owl.”

            “All I saw was my life flash before my eyes,” Emily continued to hold her chest.

            “Just an owl,” Sami didn’t want to admit her heart was also beating at an unusually fast rate and despite the cool night, she was sweating profusely, “Still wanna do something… I think the diner is still open.”

            “Yeah… I’ll call to check with my mom.”

            “I need to check with my parents too… where is somewhere I can pull over to text them?”

            “There’s a church parking lot right there,” Emily pointed ahead of them.  Sami sped up to a steady crawl and as she turned into the parking lot, her headlights reflected off a pair of eyes.  They both screamed again, “I knew it wasn’t an owl, it’s a dark merchant of death!”

            Sami’s scream turned into a laugh, “It’s just a kitten, Emily.  A murderous kitten,” she threw her head back, howling with laughter.

            “Oh, you screamed too,” Emily put her phone to her ear, “Hi mom… do you mind if I go to the diner with Sami for a while… okay, thanks, bye,” she hung up, “I’m good.”

            “Me too,” Sami finished responding to a text message.  They sat a moment, looking into the still night, “Okay… confession time.  I am still freaked out.”  Sami gripped the wheel nervously.

            “Me too… let’s get going, I could use a shake.”

            “Yeah,” Sami took forever to drive the short distance from Emily’s house to the diner, watching the road carefully.

            There weren’t very many other customers, which wasn’t surprising considering it was already after ten-thirty.  After seating themselves in a far booth, they both ordered shakes.  An old country song played in the background.

            “Whoo… that was the scariest thing that has happened to me in…. awhile.”

            “In a while?” Emily chuckled, stirring her shake, “I have never had anything that scary happen to me.”

            “It was just an owl.”  Sami slurped shake through her straw.

            “Just an owl my a*s, you were freaking out.  You never drive that slow.”

            “Ha-ha, I do occasionally go the speed limit.  Great, it’s started raining again.”

            The only other customers paid their bill and left.  The music switched to a seventies pop song.

            “I think I’m gonna use the restroom,” Sami stood.  There was a flash of lightning and the lights went out.  Sami froze, not wanting to trip on anything.

            “Sami,” Emily’s voice was a choked whisper.  Sami looked to see her pointing at the window.  She squinted out the window, but couldn’t see anything.  More lightning flashed and Sami fell back into the booth.  A white face lie inches from the glass, its beak hooked downward, appearing flat.  But its eyes… its eyes were black.  Its eyes were black and

            But it was gone, the lights flickering back to life.  Their waitress emerged from the back room, “Just a faulty breaker, easy fix,” she smiled, “Sorry for any inconvenience.”

            “It’s fine,” Sami cleared her throat, standing and heading for the restroom.

            When she returned, Emily was staring blankly into her melted shake, “You saw it… its eyes…”

            “It was a trick of the light.”

            “There was a murderous owl outside the window!”

            “Owls aren’t murderous.”

            “What about mice?”

            “That’s different,” Sami rolled her eyes and checked her watch, “Damn, already after midnight.”

            “What?  No, you’re lying,” Emily pulled out her phone and stared at the clock a moment.

            “We should probably get going.”

            “Yeah…” Emily looked doubtfully out the window.

            “No owl is gonna swoop down and get you,” Sami said mockingly, picking up the check.

            “That’s what you think.  This is just like a horror movie.”

            Sami rolled her eyes as she paid and they walked out the door.  But once she was outside, Sami felt a chill making its way down her spine.  She absently looked at all the nearby trees.  “There’s nothing there you dummy, what did you expect,” she thought.

            There were no other cars on the roads.  No dogs barking.  Everything was still and quiet.  Sami caught herself looking at every tree they passed, “You would have to live at the end of a f*****g wilderness trail.”

            “My house just borders the woods,” Emily was also staring up out of the windshield at the trees.  They finally pulled into Emily’s driveway.

            “Trees look clear,” Sami cussed herself silently, she was still trying to act like she wasn’t scared.

            “Yeah… still don’t wanna go outside here again tonight.  Oh well… talk to you tomorrow.”

            “Yeah, bye.”

            Emily opened the door, then turned back to Sami, “Maybe the owl was a omen, I shouldn’t leave the house for non-academic activities.”

            “Sure, shut up,” Sami laughed and Emily smiled before exiting the car.  She felt better.  Maybe Sami had the right idea; humor was how to deal with negative feelings.  She walked up her porch and watched Sami’s taillights disappear around the corner.  She reached into her purse for her house key and then she heard a hoot from nearby.  Emily froze, the smile shrinking from her face and she looked up at the tree in her front lawn.  Two black eyes from a white beaked face met hers.  She opened her mouth to scream.

 

            Sami pulled into her driveway.  She pinched the bridge of her nose, squinting her eyes closed.  She wished she had asked to spend the night at Emily’s.  She didn’t want to be alone in her little ‘garage cave.’  The ‘garage cave’ was Sami’s idea of independence: ‘If I live in the garage, I have my own house.’  As scared as she was, there was no way she was going to stoop to the level of sleeping on the couch tonight.  She exited the car, looking up at the trees and over her shoulder.  Once inside she kicked off her shoes and removed her bra before curling up on her bed.

            “Just imagine you are floating, la la la, go the hell to sleep Sami, it was just an owl, no different than a squirrel running out in front us.”  Something rattled the door.  Sami’s head jerked up and she grabbed her pillow, squeezing it tightly.  She was close to dismissing it as the wind when she heard wings flapping against her window.  She screamed and was answered by a ‘whoo-whoo.’  She slowly stood, shaking all over.  She approached the window, shaking uncontrollably.  She parted the blinds, peeking between them.  An owl sat in the neighbors’ tree, staring down at her.  But its eyes were black and slanted, not circular and wide, stark against its pale white face.  Sami dropped the pillow, her hands shaking uncontrollably.

            “No… no… it’s just a trick… a trick of the light.”  She backed into her dresser, hitting her hip and falling to the ground, “Just the light… just a trick of the,” the silhouette of an owl with its wings spread dominated her window and she suddenly wanted to be nowhere other than the sofa inside her parents’ house.

 

            “Sami!... Sami, open up, come on!”  Larson pounded the door to what Sami had always dubbed her ‘garage cave,’ “I really need to talk to you, come on… it’s your own fault I’m here, if you’d just answer your phone, I could talk to you then,” he waited, listening.  He ran his hand through his wavy auburn hair, “Fine, if you’re not here, I know where to find you,” he walked down the driveway, passing her black car.  It was weird, Sami never went anywhere without using her car.  He climbed into his blue Jeep and drove to Emily’s house.

            He made his way up the porch and knocked on the door.  Emily’s mom answered, “Hello, how can I help you?” she asked, obviously confused.

            “Hi, you remember me, Larson?  Sami’s boyfri-ex, is she here?  I need to talk to her.”

            “I don’t know why you think she’d be here.  Emily must’ve went home with her last night.  They never showed up over here.”

            Larson felt a lump growing in his throat, “Uh, okay, thanks anyway,” he forced a smile.

            “Anytime,” Emily’s mom smiled, closing the door.

            Larson turned to walk down the step back to his car when he heard something scrape the porch under his shoe.  He looked down and spotted something silver lying on the planks.  He knelt and picked it up.  It was a key.  He frowned down at it and jumped when he heard an owl hoot.  He jumped, looking up into the only tree on Emily’s lawn.  An owl looked down at him, its eyes round and unyielding.

            “Weird,” he shook his head, slipping the key into his pocket and jogging down the steps and sidewalk to his car.  As he drove away, the owl’s watching eyes elongated and grew black.