unknown
an excerpt

The sun had not yet risen when she stepped onto the balcony, rubbing her eyes and wondering if she would make it through this day. “I need to get some sleep. . . some day,” she said aloud. She shivered as she shut the sliding glass door, careful not to latch it, knowing that if she accidentally locked herself onto the balcony, she would panic.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped to the railing, glad that instead of the openwork of the lower stories, her own apartment had a solid lower wall shielding her from the view to the parking lot. She kept her eyes trained straight ahead, not looking down. She could see the brightening of the sky along the horizon, feel the air around her starting to warm, dispelling the nighttime chill.

She glanced to the side, to one of the tall holly trees framing the balcony . . .

And jumped backwards as she noticed that two eyes stared back at her.

“A raven?” The question came to her lips unbidden. Of course, the bird was black and big, and wasn’t that the description of a raven? Yes, that might be stereotyping of big, black birds, but why not? She had seen several “duck crossing” signs near her house, knew that they were duck crossing signs because she knew the general shape of a duck, having lived in a rural area. She hadn’t seen any ducks, just geese. If the people who had placed the signs considered all birds that swam to be ducks, then she could label all big, black birds as ravens.

“Nevermore,” she said softly, as she stared back at the beady black eyes.

The raven said nothing, though a wad of gooey white wetness hit the branch below it.

“How rude,” remarked Marcie, taking that as her cue to go back inside.