Tessa peeked around the corner, listening carefully for the sound of her housemate. The coast may have been clear. On either side of her, the hallway stretched out before her for what seemed like miles. The freshly painted walls rose like a holy passage. The floor shone in the noonday sun, reflecting blindingly off the glass of hanging photos. Amanda had cleaned the whole house the day before, warning Tessa not to make even the smallest of messes. The normal sized human had a special friend coming over that she desperately wanted to impress. There was a new rug in the living room and the fireplace had been cleaned out for the first time
Where The Raven Sits 18 End by TwinGiants, literature
Literature
Where The Raven Sits 18 End
Chapter Eighteen
Something about the canyon was dark in an unnatural way. It was late, yes, but the sun shown at an angle that lit the rest of the chasm perfectly. It was beautiful in an intimidating way. Kadie looked down into the depths, trying to see a tear or distortion in the space between the walls. Normal humans probably looked into the canyon every day – thousands upon thousands of eyes searched the depths to admire the natural formation making her doubt she’d see something no one else had. It would have been too easy and extremely unlikely that the dopple-ghosts made it so visible. All the same, she walked along the rai
Chapter Seventeen
“How was the movie?” Kadie’s dad questioned as they climbed into the car.
“I cried,” Gale admitted. “It was a beautifully put together film. So much different than what I got to see with my family.”
“The film industry has come a long way in ninety years,” her dad agreed.
Kadie hadn’t been able to concentrate on the movie. His hand felt like stone.
She stared at her hand, still imagining the way it felt. It had been cold, rough, but she could still press her fingers into the skin. She had tried to tell herself that the Gale’s hand was callused from years
Chapter Sixteen
Kadie’s dad had locked the doors and rolled the windows up to where they were nothing but barely visible cracks. He had pulled his feet onto the seat to better balance one of his secret pies on his knees as he sloppily devoured it. Kadie felt thoroughly embarrassed. There were crumbs all over his clothes and face. Even the seat was layered in bits of food. The car was already poorly taken care of compared to hers; her dad shrugged off the scratches that littered the surface. He ignored the dirt that had caked onto the hubcaps and bumpers. Kadie’s mother complained often about it being parked in the driveway witho
Chapter Fifteen
“Since I don’t know how much of this is manipulation, I’m not sure if I’m proud of you or not,” Kadie’s dad said.
Kadie stared straight ahead, knowing that if she met his eye he’d catch that she was using pure manipulating. Or, she was trying to. She figured her request was a huge one and she would need to do something major to butter the strange boy up. The bag in her hands felt wrong. It was full of goodies that she didn’t want to give to the monster; a winter face mask and sunglasses, money, some popular snacks, an old game system with new batteries, and other random things
Chapter Fourteen
Changing into her night clothes, Kadie went over to her window and looked out at the nest in the tree. The birds coddled up amongst the branches didn’t look like ravens or crows. These birds were smaller, their beaks were brown, and their entire torsos were white. They looked like strange little penguins. She had never seen birds like them before, but considered their sudden appearance a coincidence. The tree itself was bent toward the neighbor’s house. The two families often had words about whose responsibility it was to clean the fallen leaves and branches. Kadie’s father was under the impression that if
Chapter Thirteen
Nothing was easy, Kadie knew, and her dad saying otherwise was not going to change things. She knew she could work toward getting the car back, but she had less than two weeks to earn up the money. And she knew that all of her tickets would take far more than twelve days to pay off. Maybe her dad was right about warning other versions of herself not being helpful, but that didn’t mean some connection to that strange world couldn’t be useful to her. Her own dopple-ghost could do something, she reasoned. If that creature was part of her or connected to her or whatever it was, then it had to be part of her past. An
Where The Raven Sits Part 12 by TwinGiants, literature
Literature
Where The Raven Sits Part 12
Chapter 12
“I’m embarrassed to be seen in public with you.”
Kadie looked down at her dust covered uniform. After working in the store rooms, it had become a dingy sort of tanned grey. Particles sprung free when she walked. But Kadie wouldn’t acknowledge her father’s comment considering he was wearing an open Hawaiian shirt over a pink tank top and shorts. Nonetheless, she shook herself off before getting into the car with him. The seat was hot against her exposed legs.
“So, I need a ride somewhere,” Kadie began. “And maybe your help looking for someone.”
“Where? Who? And how man