'Tock tock'
A ticking sound resonated in the room still saturated in the darkness while the white satin sheets on the windows blocked the way of the sun rays.
Ella stretched her body buried under the blanket when a sudden realization hit her temples.
"Oh shit." She blurted out while rummaging on the left side table for the alarm clock.
With still half-sleep eyes, she threw a glance at the clock, and the very next instant her eyes became wide opened just as she had witnessed a black bear in the semi-darkness of the room.
"Argh... how can I manage to be late on the first day of my college?" She swung her feet out of the blanket and pushed them in her slippers hurriedly.
"Tock tock"
Again, a ticking sound against the glass window resonated in the room caught her off guard.
Her feet pacing towards the bathroom stopped at this interruption in her room and she turned around alert.
'What is it?' she muddled in her thoughts.
She moved towards the source of the noise, the window, but she stopped for an instant.
'Who it can be? That man? Or his freakish, screwy stare unable to find its way to me, knocking at my window so that I'd open it and get attacked by it.'
"No," she fumbled averting back towards her bathroom and tilted her head in the way to show her final decision. "Let it go, Honey, you're getting late."
She proceeded with her morning routine with the excitement of having her dream come true stirring wild in her veins.
"Tock tock"
That same voice welcomed her when she came out of her bathroom, wrapped in white towels and her mid-length red hair turbaned in a medium-length white towel.
Following her previously formed decision, she decided to ignore the noise coming from the other side of the window, but with each passing second, the sound and intensity of the knocking increased. It had become louder and more tenacious.
Troubled by the disturbance it caused to her she couldn't hold onto her decision for quite a long time.
She threw her hairbrush on the bed and headed towards the window with her feet stomping against the wooden floor of her room.
"Who the heck are youuu..." she pushed aside the curtains as a gush of sunlight drooled towards her, but her eyes were agape, resisted to wince and squint at the rays hitting on her reedy veins shrilling them. She was flabbergasted at the view she had just witnessed on siding the curtains from the window. Since she had shifted to this new place nothing as surprisingly pleasant had happened to her like this. Neither had she dreamt of this nor had she expected anything like this to come and greet her this early morning.
"My God..." She shouted aloud as if she couldn't be heard from the other side of the window and she was making herself heard.
She unlocked the window and pressed aside the slide of it. She didn't know when she started crying as she was still in profound shock at this happening. Outside near the windowsill was standing a black creature hitting his beak on the glass of the window from the past 30 minutes in hope that Ella would open the window and he'd meet her, greet her a good morning as he had been doing from the past 7 years.
Ella named him Raven because it suited his personality more than any other name she could possibly think of. Black as the moonless night sky, his body exquisitely perfect; his chest shines like diamonds in a dark cave and his long-crooked beak produced the most dramatic morning songs for Ella for years.
Ella loved having pet animals and knew the skill to communicate with them and interpret their language. She didn't have many friends and except Jim's family, she never talked to any of their neighbors or went to their houses. Though many birds used to come to her balcony to eat their breakfast from the tiny pitchers decorated with the painting of birds and flowers, Ella had painted herself.
Raven was special to her; a pet or more than that. Her sibling, best friend, and a companion to share her stories of daily routine things she does, or the things she planned to do in the future. He was the best partner she could have imagined of. One who listened to her agreed to her every decision, and care for her.
What else we look for in a partner to spend our lives with or even before befriending someone.
{No. Obviously, she wasn't going to marry him. But who can predict the future better; would she really going to marry a human or a Raven or someone she herself can't even imagine. ~Winks}
"How have you reached here?" Ella leaned forward quickly and stretched her hand forward. Raven jumped onto her fingers and gripped them tightly in between his tiny fingers.
She continued with her early morning cuddling with Raven as she eased back her other hand on his back, chest, and top of his beak.
"Wonk Wonk." He Croaked. This was the first time he spoke, if he'd have croaked earlier, Ella would definitely have recognized his voice at his 'Wo'.
"Oh, what a pleasant surprise it is." She muttered as she buried him into her chest while caressing his back.
"You literally made my day."
"Now that you have flown all the way to here. I won't let you go. You will stay here with me." She announced it authoritatively as if no argument on this matter would be accompanied further.
Suddenly she realized that she was running late but Raven has diverted her attention. She quickly landed him on the back of the rocking chair and went to dress up in the bathroom again.
"I will be home in the noon." She informed Raven as he was still enjoying his stay on the rocking chair and planted a goodbye kiss on his head.
Climbing down the stairs she called for his Dad,
"Dad! I am leaving for college." She shouted as his dad was in the kitchen preparing breakfast for her.
"Wait. It's almost done. I've cooked your favorite pancake with honied strawberries toppled on it." he hollered.
He came out holding a plate of pancakes nicely presented, "taste it and rate it" he said while carrying out the plate towards her like some professional chef offering his special food.
She picked up a sliced piece of it and put it in her mouth.
"Umm…10 out of 10." She curled out her lower lip and raised her eyebrows to show her likeability on the pancakes.
"Good job Dad. Soon we are going to open a restaurant for you. Get your tools prepared for that."
She teased him as he blushed and kissed her forehead. His eyes brewed with tears. He had never dreamt that one day his daughter would attend a college because people of their area usually do not consider getting the worldly knowledge necessary but preferred their so-called secret old traditions and customs over everything. Though he wasn't related to them in any way, they were the people who accepted him when he had nothing and gave him everything.
He put the plate on a small, squared shape dining table with two chairs, one for Ella and the second for him, and reached for the keys hanging on the keyholder fixed on the wall on his left. Yesterday, his father's friend handed him the keys to a mini car which Ronnie droved to their house when they came to meet them.
"Let's go, I will drive you by myself."
"No, I will manage, Dad. You go into your room and take some rest. I'll take a cab."
She refused him as she didn't want to bother him because she had the idea that despite his old age how much struggle he does for her.
She hugged him tightly and left the house.
"Ah." She screamed as a sharp pain crossed her head. She clutched her forehead into her hands to control the sheer streams of pain piercing the veins of her brains traveling down to her back making her body crooked as she let out another scream.
It was going out of her control this time. The yellow bucket bag she had been carrying on her shoulder slipped down and fell on the ground, her notebook which moments ago was in her hand, now lying around her feet.
She dug her teeth in her lower lip to resist her urge to yell but it was all in vain. She couldn't take that much pain. Neither had she ever experience such extreme pain; she had cut her fingers multiple times while cutting vegetables, but this pain was not near to that pain.
It was sucking out her soul, she could feel herself dying. Slowly slowly. It was leaving her cage and cherishing the moment of freedom. Or maybe it wasn't actually the kind of freedom souls yearn for. Or it was just an illusion of freedom her soul was rejoicing. Who knows the future better after all?
She whimpered because she had lost all the energy to wail or scream so that someone could hear her voice quivering with pain and come to her help. The next moment her body fell to the ground, nobody was there to help her, save her, except her notebook and bag.
As another stream of pains went down her body descending from her head, she grasped on her denim jacket tighter and looked up to catch a breath when suddenly her orbs caught someone.
Against all her hopes that someone would come and save her from this devilish torture, she saw the devil himself. This time she wasn't shocked to see him. Though his location was different, it didn't make much difference, his vile, facinorous stare was doing its magic.
"Ughh…" She wailed her lungs out as a stark stream of pain bolted her head and it went down piercing very vain of her body, the moment she contracted her eyes with his. She felt herself drowning into a dark abyss, there was darkness everywhere and no one was around to help her, save her and pull her out of this dungeon. She was on the edge of a mountain with a chasm of darkness on both sides and there was no way around to escape it. She felt hopeless and was on the verge of losing consciousness when she heard hope fluttering in front of her.
But it was too late, she lost complete consciousness.
She found herself groping in the Tartarean abyss. Black bats were fixated everywhere, on the wall, roof, and floor; two around her hands and two around her feet cuffed her to the greenish rocks of the wall of the cave and one on her mouth.
She wanted to scream, 'Help', but her voice was restricted by the bat covering up her mouth. She tried hard to break free her hands and feet, but it was of no help, the bats were more powerful than her. Perhaps, she would have succeeded in breaking them if she were tied with rope or chained but she couldn't set herself free from these living creatures.
She lost her hope and the power to fight back, she felt herself dying. "Is this death?" she wondered.
Then suddenly she saw a silhouette approaching her; a giant shadow taking over her timid body cuffed to the greasy rocks smelling of reeked blood. There was silence, darkness, and a silhouette burdening her figure against the rocks as she felt some sharp edges digging into her flesh. Blood was sluicing down her back just like a waterfall from the hemline of a mountain. She winced as a hot gush blew back her perspiration-streaked hair from her neckline. She felt something moving underneath her dress climbing on her back; a cold, sharp touch, arousing her yet she sensed her wounds healing, her energy reverting in her and the last thing she remembered was a dimmed, wet whisper.
~The Keys~