Amber and Aaron sat in Amber’s room after a long night of partying. Aaron was on Facebook, adding the people he had just met and uploading photo’s that were taken before he returned and fell asleep. Amber was laid sprawled on her bed, reading to new book by TMB. She took a couple of paces to stand behind her cousin, mentioning the names of her friends they had spent the previous night with. Her iTunes was playing in the background and a faint crash could be heard from the kitchen.
“Probably one of the cats.” She simply explained, knowing that they would probably be sleeping near the table.
“Yeah.” Aaron replied, again thinking nothing of it.
It was past noon and neither of them had gotten changed yet. Amber had cooked up an English breakfast each earlier, to help ease the hangover.
“Who went as Doctor Who?” Aaron asked, eager to remember as many names as possible. It was only a small party, but a lot had happened in fancy dress.
Amber gave the name Tom as another louder crash sounded from downstairs.
“What the fudge?! I think that was glass.”
Amber ran down the stairs as fast as she could, turning to the right into the dining room and through to the kitchen. She stopped as soon as she entered, confused as to why not a single cat was in sight. Amber took a couple of steps backward and saw both cats curled up on a chair next to the table. Frown lines burrowed into her soft caramel skin as she turned back to the kitchen counters. Then she saw it. “OH MY GOD!!!” She said loudly and slowly.
“What is it?” Aaron called from upstairs.
“There’s a bird … in the kitchen.” She said, looking at the black and white creature. Its sharp black beak pointed towards her.
“Are you joking?” He called again, this time from the stairs. He walked in, not seeing it at first, just like Amber had.
She pulled his arm over to the side, and pointed at the windowsill, “Do I look like I’m joking?”
“How did it get in?” Asking the obvious question Amber had running through her mind from the beginning. She looked around the room, and noticed the open window in the dining room.
She pointed to it, “Either that, or Fudge brought it in…. but he usually kills birds before bringing them in and he doesn’t seem fussed. Maybe he hasn’t noticed it?”
“Maybe, I’ll call Thelma. She might know what type of bird it is.”
Amber ran up the stairs to return with a laptop and searched for the bird. She walked over to the bird and back to the laptop several times before saying “It’s either a house sparrow or a magpie.”
“Hi Thelma,” Aaron started talking to his nan. Amber chimed in a happy ‘Hello’ while Aaron told his nan everything he knew about the bird and asked what to do. He told Amber to get a box, which she found quickly. After the call ended, they tried to get the bird in a box. Aaron found a pipe, and tried coaxing the bird to a clear corner. The bird looked at the pair with daggers, trying to warn them away. The box was thrown onto the magpie (which is what they now referred to it as) and then they both left the room to shower and get changed. Aaron was the first down and stood outside the dining room door when Amber joined him.
“Why are you out here?” she asked him.
“It’s on the floor, walking around.”
“What?! But we left it in the box…” she was astounded. “Go in and put it back in.”
Aaron opened the door, to find the box open, facing upwards with claw marks around every surface. He looked towards the bird and found it flying into his face. He didn’t have time to scream as he tried to defend himself from the dark, flying creature. The beating wings seemed to grow a little and the beak opened to let out a loud shriek. It pierced his chest first, diving deep into his heart and lungs letting blood spurt everywhere.
Amber was getting impatient waiting on the other side of the door. She assumed the shrieking from the magpie was from being put back inside the box. When she heard a loud thud, not knowing it was her cousin’s body hitting the floor, she entered the room, shutting the door close behind her. The initial shock of seeing Aaron on the floor caught her by surprise as she let out a successful scream. But no one would have been able to hear her as the house was empty. She ran to the kitchen, past the killer bird to grab a knife. As the bird flew towards her, she swished it in the air, hoping to catch it and stop it from killing her too. Each swish missed the bird by millimetres, as she flailed around without looking at what she was doing.
Aaron lay on the floor, slowly dying and wishing Amber would call an ambulance. He turned round with his arms to look towards the fight between girl and bird. His blood was staining the floor as searing pain filled his chest, making him feel weak. His movements were slow as he did not see the object flying towards him.
The bird lunged for Amber, aiming for her left eye. She didn’t have time to react, as it was plucked from her face. She threw the knife at that moment, missing the bird yet again and it landed point first into Aarons head, penetrating his brain and killing him instantly, while she tried to cover her face from the bird.
The bird savoured the taste of Amber’s eye, and wanted more. It flew at the girl, and seeing her arms across her face, it went for her stomach. She brushed him away, leaving a small hole, with the blood seeping through her t-shirt. She now clutched her stomach with one hand and her injured eye with the other. That’s when she saw the knife in Aaron head and she felt sick. With her distracted, the bird lunged again, going for her chest. Amber fell, unable to bear the pain, and managed to knock herself out on the counter as she went down. She didn’t feel the bird pecking at her other eye, nor did she feel sick anymore, or the bird clawing at her chest and drenching itself in her blood, eating away happily.
With that, the bird hopped out of the cat flap, through which a cat had brought it in, in search of his family. Tomorrow he would search for his next victim.
