Chapter 1 Prologue

"Caw"

"Caw"

Have you ever noticed a flock of birds singing around you so loudly that it made your head hurt, and then suddenly you hear nothing? So quiet that the dead could wake, and you would hear their caskets creaking as they open them? Or better yet, have you had just a strange feeling that something very bad is about to happen?

That is exactly how I felt when I heard the crows cawing outside of my room at the hotel. One minute they were giving me a migraine and my head felt like it was about to burst. The next, it was dead quiet, and I could swear I heard a hiss coming from behind the bathroom door. It is so quiet that it freaks me out a little when I get the feeling that "She" will poke out from under the bed or leave a present for me to find in the morning.

Looking up from my book, I listen for them again. I strain my eyes as I try to look out the window to see where they went, but all I see is Darkness. Seeing no movement, the ringing in my ears starts to get to me.

Thinking about it more, I realize that it is just plain eerie, and it gives me the creeps. Trying to get my mind off it, I decide to go to bed. As I lie there, I keep thinking about it, how strange it all is. So, finally I get up and watch a little television.

A few hours later, I look at my watch and realize that it has been longer than I thought it was and climb into bed after shutting the television off.

"Ugh."

I lay down on a particularly lumpy part of the bed and it pokes me in the back. Not being able to remember the last time I found a comfortable bed in one of these seedy hotel rooms, I ask myself aloud, "What do I expect? When you pay 50 bucks for a room that normally anyone else in the city pays 200 for, there must be a catch, right?"

Shaking my head, I realize that this time, it ends up that the beds are lumpy and old. I mean they have more lumps than my mother's mashed potatoes and that's saying something. Really.

Laying my head down on the pillow, I go through my mental checklist of the room. Door locked, check. Windows locked, check.

Did I do a once over of the grounds? Check. I think that's about it. This is something I must do every night, because if I don't, I won't sleep a wink knowing that she could show up at any time or place right behind me.

The last thing I do before I close my eyes, is count to 20 and then feel myself relax as the darkness takes me, while I fade away.