Nevermore

A young man is haunted by a raven in his library.

I believe I’ve lost my mind. For the past two nights I thought I’ve heard the sounds of a strange creature outside my study window. Tonight though, I was made certain of the fact that I am being watched. My tormentor is a raven.

It all started, I believe two days ago. My fiancée of three years; Mina Serene and I had, were playing to go to the movies then out to dinner. It was there that I was planning to talk to her and ask her to marry me.

The night was cold and windy, and I was hoping that it might warm up before we got to dinner. Checking my watch, I noticed it was time to pick up Mina. I was the most nervous I’ve been since the day I asked her out.

When I arrived at her house, I called her to let her know I was outside waiting and I just got sent to her voicemail. That wasn’t unusual because she never really carried her phone with her unless she was out. I waited a couple minutes and tried calling her again, and again it was sent to voicemail.

I got out of the car and knocked on her front door, no answer. Again I waited, thinking that maybe she didn’t hear me knock. After waiting another twenty minutes, I decided that I would go in and see if everything was alright.

I took out the key to her house that she had given me and stepped into the living room. I called her and received no answer so I started to make my way upstairs to her bedroom. I got more worried as I kept receiving no answer. I was afraid now that something bad had happened. I remembered her saying that sometimes she gets depressed and has suicidal thoughts; but I shuddered to think about that possibility.

I placed my hand on her doorknob and turned it to open her bedroom door and the sight I saw was enough to drive me completely out of reason. I found Mina lying in a pool of her own blood with long gashes going all the way up her arms. I ran over to her and dropped to the floor. Picking her up in my arms, I hugged her against me and began to cry into her shoulder.

Once I regained myself, I quickly called the ambulance and followed them to the hospital. They declared her dead on the scene. The next day a brief service was held.

Everyone felt so sorry for me, but I only dealt with it to be nice. I found a way to politely excuse myself early so that I could spend time in my library at home to dwell on my thoughts. I kissed and hugged her mother goodbye and made my way back to my house to think things over.

As I sat in my armchair, it started to rain heavily and I heard the wind blowing frantically against my window begging to get in. Despite the fact the storm was very brutal it calmed my mind so much that I felt myself starting to doze off. At the same time, I heard a very soft yet audible tapping.

I looked toward the door to my library thinking that the noise had come from that, but I shook myself lightly and told myself that it was probably just the rain against my window. I decided to go back to my reading. As I continued my reading I noticed that the library started to get cold. I got up to turn up the heat when I noticed the curtains rustling and found my window open. What disconcerted me the most about this is the fact that I knew I had shut and locked it earlier in the day.

Looking sideways in the middle of my reading, my eyes caught the picture of my fiancée and I on the last date we spent together. My heart started to grow heavy and I felt warm tears coming to the surface. I hastily wiped my eyes and stared aimlessly into my fireplace when I heard another tapping sound.

This made my heart start to race a little and I began to grow uneasy. I stood up and started to walk towards the door of the library. “I apologize for not hearing your knock before,” I responded hesitatingly, “To be honest, I had fallen asleep after the first knock because I thought it may just be the terrible storm outside.” I opened the door and saw nothing.

I stood there for a while looking down my hallway but all I seen was darkness. I turned back around and heard a tapping again. This time it sounded like it was coming from my window sill outside. I went over to it and pulled it open and again, nothing but darkness.

As I went to close the window, a large bird flew into my library and perched on top of my marble bust of Athena. It looked at me out of its cold and lifeless eyes and cawed at me menacingly. I looked at the bird in interest, all it was doing was sitting on the bust I have of Athena and watching me. I didn’t know what to do, so I did what I would normally do to a stranger and asked the bird its name; it responded “Nevermore.”

I was completely taken aback at the bird’s clear response. I stumbled backwards into my chair and never once took my eyes away from my tormentor. I’ve never known ravens to speak and when this one did, it broke my already shattering nerves.

It turned its black feathered head and stared directly into my eyes and kept croaking that one word as if all the world’s pain and mine were summed up as “nevermore.” I turned away and thought that eventually this nighttime friend will leave me as other friends have done. As if it were answering my innermost thoughts it replied, “Nevermore.”

What caused this creature to utter such a word as “nevermore?” I imagine that this bird has seen many a dark and melancholy thing to know such a word as “nevermore.” I was enthralled by the beauty and eloquence of this raven. I pulled my chair closer to it and watched it closely hoping that it would speak more, while inwardly dreading it as well.

I sat in front of the bird quietly with my head resting against the back of the chair thinking about “nevermore,” and what it meant to this raven. But the more I thought the deeper and more twisted my thoughts became until I could no longer find a straight thread of thought. Suddenly, I imagined that this raven was here as a messenger of my dead fiancée.

“Who has sent you?! What do you want with me,” I screamed fearfully at the bird. “Leave me in my peace, leave me alone!”