Chapter 11

Mr. Crow, Mr. Crow comes in the dark and leaves with the night with all the children's souls.

Willy Arkansas shook his head, standing at the back of the car. He took a deep breath, looking up into the night sky before he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. The light flashed only for a second in the cold dark of the world around him, but his rage was starting to burn bright from his daughter, causing all this death. The smoke flew away from him as he breathed it out as if it was trying to race from his dark soul. Willy loved the numbing effects of the smoke, but he was getting tired of this little girl trying to run away from him.

                He didn’t mean to be so cruel to her. He tried to give her everything she wanted. She asked for it, and he made sure his men got it for her, but at the same time, she had to learn there were evil people out in the world. Some might say he was one of them, and to some people, he was evil, but when it came to his daughter, he was trying to protect her.

                Her w***e of a mother was going to take Evangeline away from him. She was a cruel woman who caused Willy to step over his limits. She always pushed him to get mad, and she knew he couldn’t control himself once he got mad, so she kept pushing.

                The smoke flew from his nose.

                She was leaving him. She would run to her father, telling the old man that Willy wasn’t a husband. The great man from the city in the sky always thought he was better than Willy. Willy could have looked the other way if she wanted to leave, but to take Evangeline was crossing the line. All he was planning to do was rough her a little bit, but then he found she knew all about his side gig.

                Willy couldn’t let her tell her old man about his other work.

                She made him put her in the ground. He wished Evangeline didn’t have to watch. He thought she hadn’t seen, but when he glanced over to the window, Evangeline was staring at his bloody hands.

                It was the only time he almost cried. He tried to explain to her it was for both of them. He was protecting them both from her w***e of a mother.

                Evangeline didn’t believe him, but she was good at lying like her mother. She made him believe everything was fine until she ran. She ran from him, and Willy knew she was going to bring Hell back to his house.

                He flicked the cigarette off into the night, watching the burning stick fly like a shooting star, and turned back to his men and the house.

                Most of his crew had gone into the house with the candle in the window and found an old man drinking a cup of coffee at his table. The house was shot to Hell, and all men were dead on the ground. One of their cars was missing, and Willy wasn’t thrilled about it.

                He had walked into the house to talk to the old man with the metal leg, but all the old man did was sit there drinking his coffee.

                “Where is she?”

                The old man looked Willy dead in the eyes. “Best to let her go, son,” the old man said, “or you’ll be facin’ an angel of the Lord.” He nodded at the door. “And we’ve seen what he can do.”

                Willy rolled his jaw, shaking his head, and put a bullet in the old man’s head. The blood rain out behind him while his head hit the table. Now, his boys were pouring gasoline all over the house and dragging the men into the place. They were going to burn it to the ground.

                “You called for me, Mr. Arkansas?” a smooth voice came from the darkness around him, and a man who walked like an owl flying overhead stepped out from the hidden world of the night. He was tall, with skin the hue of red mud, and his face was painted up like a warrior from his old tribe. He carried an array of necklaces from his medicine man.

                “I did,” Willy said, uneasy with this man before him. “It’s just you?”

                “I’ll be enough.”

                “All right, Mr. Crow,” Willy said, not knowing his first name; he was not sure the man had a first name but was very sure Mr. Crow wasn’t his real name. He was the best tracker and hunter Willy could buy, and for the most part, coming from the Shadow People, he was great at his job. There were many myths about Mr. Crow, like how he could walk in the shadows using them like doors or how he was made from the shadows of the world, but Willy didn’t believe in anything he couldn’t see with his own eyes.

                “Someone got me, daughter,” Willy said. “Been killing my men as well.”

                “I’ve heard,” Mr. Crow said.

                “Might be a hitter from another family,” Willy said.

                “It’s not,” Mr. Crow told him. “It’s something else. Best to leave it alone if you’re asking me.”

                “Well, I’m not,” Willy growled, almost jumping forward, but Mr. Crow's look caused him to step back. “I just want my daughter back, that’s all.”

                “And kill this man?”

                “If you would,” Willy said, nodding in agreement.

                “Then I’ll deal will be complete, Mr. Arkansas,” Mr. Crow said, sticking out his hand. Willy looked at it for a moment before taking it and shook.

                “It will be completed,” he said as the flames from inside the house swallowed it whole, sending a chill to Willy’s soul as if he had made a deal with the devil himself. He didn’t let go of Mr. Crow’s hand, but when he turned back to look at the man, he was gone, had faded into the night, and was hunting for his prey.