THE GATHERING.


So you are home alone on a chilly December evening. Everyone has gone for vigil except you because of the bad case of flu you have. You sit on your bed looking up at your ceiling, feeling very alone and miserable, with your watering red eyes, running nose and sore throat.
You stretch to reach for the aboliki balm your mother left for you on your bedside table when you hear it. You pause and strain your ears, but all you hear are the nocturnal calls of insects and frogs. You stand to switch on your Tv to chase the phobia you are beginning to feel from being all alone in your house.
This time what you hear makes you jump. It is a loud thud, like something heavy fell just outside your room window. You move towards your window in curiosity, part your curtains and slide the window glass open. You peer through the bars cautiously but all you see is the shadowed pavement of your backyard. You move away dismissing it as the clumsy movement of a rodent.
You go back and switch on your TV. You lower the volume though, dividing your attention between the window and the lighted screen. This time the loud thud you hear is undeniable and it is followed simultaneously by a high pitched shrill. Your blood runs cold in your veins, you feel the goosebumbs erupt down your arms and the shrill travel down your spine. You know that the heavy thud that comes from outside your window couldn't be a rodent or any small animal and you are also painfully aware the shrill you heard couldn't come from any animal...it sounded too human.
You continue to stare at the window in growing panic. You are too scared to move closer to investigate but you know you won't be able to sleep without knowing what's really going on.
Slowly, silently you creep to your window. You take a deep breath of courage before you pull your curtains just enough for your face to peep out . Almost immediately you see a big black bird a few feet away. You let out a sigh of relief, the poor thing must have fallen mid flight. That explains one thud, but not the too human cry.
You continue to watch the un-naturally large black bird lieing motionlessly afore you. A movement catches your peripherals and you turn, you watch as a similar bird walk towards the presumably dead one. One by one, more of the birds continues to drop beside the dead/injured bird.
You feel something odd about this gathering, you want to go outside and chase away the flock but still, you stay rooted to your window. Out of nowhere you hear the chants; hoarse, inaudible words that manages to still your heart. It's obvious the ominous raspy sounds are coming from outside your window, from the flock, where the birds seems to be growing bigger and bigger by the second!
Shock, it seems, has rooted you to the floor. Like a deer caught in bright headlight, you're unable to do anything but to stare in awed fright. For right in front of you, in the stead of large feathered animals are naked humans, both male and female crouched on all fours. The diabolic chants at this time has reached a crescendo.
You are all alone at home and you don't want to move lest you alert the malevolent gathering of your presence. What would you do?

.

Wake up and stop dreaming.

I'll stop assuming, shut my windows and dream abt my girlfriend