“No! Git away… Git off of me….”

Yes, it was Momma’s voice, shrill and piercing, from back behind the house.

“No…Noooo” she screamed again against a racket of screeching birds.

Maybel flew to the door “Momma! I‘m coming…”

“Don’t go” Cassie panicked “you can’t leave me here….alone” the terrified girl begged from the bed, her glassy eyes wide as saucers, the quilt clutched feverishly in her tiny fists. “You can’t….It’s here…It‘s with us” she whimpered, glimmering tracks of tears tracing her full cheeks.

“I’ll be right back, I promise…”, Maybel hushed. “Stay put ya hear…” she commanded calmly as her own heart thumped thunderously behind the bib of her overalls.

“Nooo” cassie squealed excruciatingly.

“Nooo” Momma’s voice called in the distance.

Maybel glanced back at Cassie and frantically grabbed Papa’s rifle, rounding the corner of the shack, pouncing over the rusted metal debris  and odd scraps of lumber that littered the yard. Please let there be buckshot in here Papa. Please don’t say you forgot. She screeched to a halt as she came upon her mother reeling frantically between the two dead trees which served as their makeshift clothesline. Momma spun wildly as a swarming cloud of massive black crows circled above her, diving one by one and snapping at her flesh; the damp laundry crumpled and strewn across the brown dry grass.

“Help Maybel! Child do something…” Momma swatted futilely, as if swimming against a violent current, her arms and face speckled with crimson, the noise of caws and rustling feathers now deafening.

Maybel raised the rifle high above her head and fired. Once, then again, the weapon jolting in her trembling hands. The birds scattered like a trail of fireworks, vanishing into the blue of the late afternoon sky, their violent screeches dissipating as Maybel watched the creatures reduced to mere small black specks before vanishing completely.

She dropped the rifle, sprinting to her mother’s side. “Momma what happened?”

“They tried to kill me maybel….I swear it, they tried to…” Momma covered her face with her hands, rivulets of scarlet leaking between her quivering fingers. Her strawberry hair entangled with small black feathers and patches of deep russet blood. She sobbed onto Maybel’s shoulder.

For the second time that day, and probably in her whole life, someone needed Maybel. Not needed to help dig weeds til her fingers bled, or run to town for a bottle of whisky, or keep “secrets”, but really needed her, and she found she liked it.

“It’s alright mama, they’re gone”

Momma forced a weak smile through her tears, inspecting the seemingly superficial nicks and scratches. Almost chuckling she sputtered, “Dang birds, who knows why the hell creatures act so damn crazy sometimes.”

“Don’t know Momma. Somethin’ got into em” Maybel added, glancing at the now steely grey sky. Three crows had returned and were silently staring down at them from the twisted branch which hung above the sloping roof of their home.

“Let’s go Momma” Maybel set Momma gently on the wooden bench by the front door where Papa would sit at night with his bottle. She grabbed the cleanest rag she could, holding it under the pump until the water ran cold. She gingerly wiped the blood from her mother’s face and arms. She smoothed her tangled copper colored hair, gently brushing it out of her pale face, an algae green bruise still lingering above Momma’s left temple, her pale pink lip swollen. Damn papa. She bet Momma was a beautiful girl, before she met Papa.

“Momma, I need your help.” Maybel had almost forgotten Cassie. I found a girl, Momma, in the woods, she was hurtin’ so I brought her back…can we help her?”

“Maybel. You know I don’t like strangers hangin’ round here” She pressed the cloth against her forhead, closing her eyes.

“Please Momma, she’s real little, and real scared”

“Alright, child, I figure I’m Ok, I’ve had worse.” Momma rose, wincing.

Maybel frowned and led the still trembling woman into the house.

“I let her lay down” Maybel announced proudly “ figuring she was sick an all”

Maybel stopped and stared at the bed. Cassie was gone.

“Child, I don’t have time for these games” Momma turned angrily.

Maybel grabbed Momma’s arm. “I swear Momma, she was right here” She pulled back the rumpled quilt.

In the center of the mattress, against the ruddy, once white sheets was a ruby smear of blood, spreading larger and larger as it slowly soaked into the bed linens.

They both stared bewildered as the rustle of feathers echoed outside.

“It’s here…” whispered Momma.