Where The White Birds Fly

Only dust sang for it was truly free. Blood ruled the world. The red rain fell upon the cross. “No more,” they said as they rose from the dust. “No more!”

I was dreaming, and I woke up as I often did in a cold sweat as I scanned my bedroom in the Abbey for intruders. Even now after signing the treaty I half expected any moment they would step out of the shadows with their long, razor-sharp claws and slit my throat.

Walls have ears and doors have eyes. They were here. I knew it. The Strigoi waited at the gates. It was just a simple grey stone bridge between them and us. The children of the cross and the creatures of the damned. Satan’s only sin was not to worship man.

The tower bell rang every hour on the hour to let us know all was well and to remind the unholy congregation at the gate that we were watching. Armageddon had begun. The bell rang to alert us that the enemy was at the gates of Churchtown.

I stepped outside and walked over to the church and climbed the old wood ladder up into the bell tower. Gavin Tyler who was standing watch grabbed me and pulled me close. Reaching down gently he held my face and kissed me deeply. “I lied,” he whispered. “I just wanted to get you up here.”

“Raven is too quiet.” I replied.

“Your concern is not unwarranted. When the white birds flew tonight, they went east away from the mountains. That means that they are on the move. I say we burn their nest.”

“And if you don’t get them all even more will die.” I replied.

He didn’t answer, he just stepped back. “I have to go,” I said.

As soon as I stepped outside the tower, I saw him, and my stomach clenched. He was just there in the shadows. “Good evening my dear. You are absolutely ravishing as usual.”

“What do you want Raven?” I asked. “Never fuck with me.” He snarled.

“Then keep your Strigoi out of Churchtown.”

His eyes narrowed and he took on the appearance of a viper. He moved towards me at a speed that was far too fast for the eye to follow. “Got your message sweetheart now get mine. “Don’t ever tell me what to do. You exist at my whim.”

“How many Raven?”

“That depends on you.” He hissed and then seemed to disappear into thin air. It was really that he moved so fast that the eye couldn’t follow him. Suddenly he reappeared across the courtyard leaning against the wall and then was gone.

There were no flies even though the rotting body parts stunk to high heaven. It was pure putrefaction. They were all still barely alive. Without a word I opened the cage door. “Help us!” What was left of a young woman whimpered. I didn’t want to tell her that there was no help for her. I could see the other two were a teenage boy and a middle-aged man probably her son and husband. They had been put out as feeders for the Strigoi. Their farm had been burned to the ground. The bodies were covered in bruises and punctured wounds. “I’m so sorry,” I said as Gavin poured the gas on them, and I threw the torch inside.

Swoosh! The flames were so intense that we had to step back. The woman’s screams were cut short almost instantly. Thank God she had died quickly.

Before we got back to the others I prayed for their souls and ended in, “and in the name of the father, son, and holy ghost, may you find peace. I then made the sign of the cross and told the others. “Let’s go this place makes me nervous. I feel like we’re being watched. This is only the beginning Raven warned me.”

Strigoi were a highbred mix of vampire and werewolf. They were extremely nasty, they even fed off each other. Just the thought of them made me shiver. Some were human looking, but others were so devolved that they looked like giant rats with membranous wings like a bat’s.

The season passed in a grain of sand, slipping away like moonbeams through my fingertips. There was no warmth in the winter winds, yet the nest survived. From a distance I could see it burn fiery red. It radiated like the glow of the sun, and it was growing larger. “Are the cemeteries all under twenty-four-hour guard?” I asked the council of elders as we rode along.

“They are,” replied Gavin.

Raven had been stealing bodies from our cemeteries. They had developed a system of making red blood cells from marrow after death. It was an abomination in the eyes of the lord. Hoping to slow him down I had placed guards at all the cemeteries and ordered all the settlers to move behind the walls of Churchtown. Of course, not everybody complied.

I saw the odor before I smelled it. It was foul and putrid hung from the branches of an oak tree. From his black coat and white collar, I could see he was priest. “This is not good.” I said as he dangled there lifeless, all the blood drained out of his body. Things had just gotten a million times more complicated. It was not the catholic church of olden days. The church no longer preached love and peace, it was just as brutal and disgusting as the Strigoi. Fight fire with fire, I guess.

I sent the message off to Rome by telegraph and that was why when he appeared on my doorstep, a month later I wasn’t surprised. “I’m Father Mulvaney,” he said, and I hear you have an infestation problem.”

“I’m Amanda Hatcher the preacher here in Churchtown.” I replied jutting my hand out to shake.

He was an older man, and I didn’t know whether he saw my hand and then he clarified things. “I don’t shake hands not with all the nasty little viruses that have developed here at the end of the world. If the Godamned Strigoi don’t get you, some little pissant bug will. Half of Europe is dying off as we speak.”

Suddenly a little girl walked up the steps of the church right behind him. Such angelic looks she walked right up the steps toward us. When she got right up to where we were standing, she raised one tiny perfectly formed hand and pointed it at the old priest. “Killer!” She screeched in a voice that was way too loud to be human. Suddenly Father Mulvaney backhanded her and sent her flying down the steps. As I ran to her, he hissed. “Shut her up she’s a spy and her wails are alerting every nest in the area that I’m here.”

“They know you?” I asked in surprise.

“Oh, yes preacher they know me, and they know I carry the wrath of the living God with me.” With that said he picked the little girl up and slapped her again. Right before our eyes she transformed into part woman part cobra with two huge fangs hanging down one on each side of her mouth. “Preacher, meet Lilith, Adam’s first wife.”

She started to squirm and coil, and he dropped her on the ground and jumped away so she couldn’t strike him. Huge drops of venom like diamonds dripped from her fangs. As he kicked her out of the way he screamed. “You are Lucifer’s Whore. Now slither back to the steaming pile of shit you came from. Then he spun around on his heels and got right in my face. “You need to prepare for an attack for as sure as a bear shits in the woods they’re coming.”

The bell tower was dark, the lit torches were high up on the walls. An owl hooted in the rafters. I closed my eyes as I rang the bell. I could hear the confusion of people and horses shaken hard from their sleep. The direction of the wind changed, and I could smell burning. Looking out I could see houses and woodlands all aflame. They were burning everything in their paths.

Father Mulvaney yelled up. “It will only be a few minutes. I can sense the hoards are on the way.”

I quickly climbed down the ladder and got in front of him. “You knew this was coming.”

He smiled a creepy half smile at me and laughed. “I caused it.”

“What are you talking about?” I yelled over the chaos.

“On my way here, I set fire to the nest as they slept.”

I got right up in his face. “Are you insane?” I screamed. “You don’t think his warrior or him slept in that nest they were just women and children. They had no problem with us.”

He smiled;” they do now.” He hissed. “You were on the verge the Vatican knew that I would push things over the edge. Now get your people ready or they’ll die or worse tonight. You know my dear there are things much worse than death. You can be undead eternally feeding off each other.”

“I grabbed him by the front of his coat and twisted it tight around his neck. “There were human children in that nest.”

Breaking free, he replied. “If they have been nestled in the nest and weaned on the breast blood of the Strigoi they are anything but human my dear. The things I’ve seen. Oh my! I’ve seen beautiful baby girls give vaginal birth to hordes of big black hairy spiders and children soar through the sky on bat wings covered in blood.”

In that instant I had an epiphany he sounded just like Raven. I dropped to my knees. “Who are you?”

“You haven’t figured it out preacher? You can’t have Armageddon without having two sides.”

Suddenly there was a crashing sound as Strigoi broke through the gates and screams of people dying. “Even in the Bible they say how God created good and evil. Who made Satan? He was just an angel that refused to worship men like Gods. No free will for the angels, right?”

The tower rocked as Strigoi busted through the doors and started climbing up the walls. Their razor-sharp fangs gleaming in the moonlight. “I set up my own son to die a horrible death just to show his loyalty to me. Remember? It’s right there in the book.

Just before the Strigoi got to the platform Father Mulvaney shape shifted into Raven. “I am the I am, the alpha and omega. I your God is a Jealous God, and there shall be no other Gods before me.” He giggled.

THE END

Bio: Timothy Wilkie is a local hero in the Hudson Valley. From his music to his art and storytelling. He's an old hippy and a storyteller in the truest sense of the word. He has two grown sons and loves to spend time with them. His writing credits include Aphelion, Horror-zine, Dark Dossier and many more.

E-mail: Timothy Wilkie

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