Excerpt: A Murder Of Crows

Chapter One

As morning broke, Sarah felt as though she was being watched. The sensation was so strong it woke her from a deep sleep. A chill traveled up her spine and gooseflesh pricked the skin of her arms. She held her breath, listening for a sound that would identify the thing she knew to be there. As she listened, she heard the summer wind blowing through the tall pines, birds singing, and the crushing sound of the forest floor as deer followed the trail leading to the river to slake their morning thirst. She heard nothing out of the ordinary, yet she still felt the watcher.

She pretended to be asleep and slowly turned to the source of the intimidating stare. The hardness of the bed of the pickup pressed into her hip bone and she shifted to ease the pressure. She moved her hands outside of her sleeping bag, getting ready to protect herself from a potential attacker. Gradually, she opened her eyes, peering cautiously through her eyelashes. She didn’t want to alert the watcher to her waking state.

Perched on the cab of the pickup, head angled downward, peering into the opening of the broken camper window, was the intruder. As Sarah made eye contact, the intruder's dull black orbs stared unblinking, uncaring, and with a dull hunger. The crow chose that moment to dive through the broken window and wrap its claws around Sarah's long, curly blond hair.

Sarah released a high pitched warble that pierced the mundane morning. She closed her eyes and began to slap at the crow. Startled by her shriek and flailing hands, it tightened its grip on her hair, flapped his wings and flew out of the broken window, stealing the coveted strands of hair. Sarah screamed again and sat up, ready to fight should the crow return. She shuddered as the moments ticked by. When the crow did not reappear, she rubbed the spot that her hair had been pulled from, taking deep breaths to calm herself.

She inched out of her sleeping bag, grabbed the jeans she wore the day before and pulled them over her feet and up her legs. She laid down, arched her hips and slid the pants over her rear, zipped and buttoned them before sitting back up. She lifted her arm and sniffed her armpit, wincing at the fear fueled sweat smell. She opened her purse, took out a container of baby wipes and pulled one out to scrub the stink from under her arms. She opened a small suitcase and chose a clean pink T-shirt. She threaded her arms through the sleeves and pulled it on over her head. She opened the camper shell and started to climb out over the tailgate of the pickup. She stopped and reached back into her purse, feeling for her hairbrush. She pulled the brush through her hair, gathering it into a ponytail. She twisted it into a knot and clipped it tightly to her head, just in case the crow was waiting for her outside the pickup. Then she climbed out of the camper shell to survey the campsite.

She stood, feet planted in a wide stance, and folded her arms across her chest as she studied the tree branches of the nearest tall pines, looking for the crow. As she looked, she noticed crows perched in every tree that surrounded her camp site. They sat motionless on branches just above her head watching her. Sarah felt an uneasiness and moved toward the driver's side of the pickup.

She heard wings flapping and turned her head towards the sound. The crow flew from the branch, diving toward her. The crows in the surrounding trees began to flap their wings, applauding the lead crow's intent. Sarah screamed and the crow pulled out of its dive at the last minute, flying to the southeast, but not before she saw the clump of long curly blonde strands in its beak. The remaining crows followed in the lead crow's path, all diving at Sarah and pulling up before making contact. Sarah's shrieks echoed in the morning air, quieting the everyday sounds of the forest at sunrise. As the murder of crows darkened the southern sky in flight, Sarah crouched next to the driver's side door of her pickup and cried.

She would need time to pull herself together before driving to her vacation destination at the Oregon Caves.