Author notes: I don't really interact with horror much so tell me If I over do it or don't. Happy Early Halloween!
Content Warning: Horror, Blood, Gore, Ornithophobia
A Unkind Murder...
By SolarGemX
Why do villains exist? This question has been asked since the beginning of human morality. We as a species seek cooperation and yet we are determined to abuse that companionship if it means we can get a leg up on the "competition". This can be seen in the myriad of ways people, heroes and villains included, seek various things to either ease their life or improve it. Food, Sleep, companionship, wealth, territory; many of these can lead an individual to cause horrid crimes. The difference between a hero and a villain that seek these things is that the hero seeks to secure and protect those that can't defend themselves (....most of the time) while villains seek to enrich their own lives at the cost of others (again... most of the time). So, why don't we examine an example of one of these villains? Stop me If you have heard this line before: "It all began in a dark and stormy night".
Our little tale begins in a run down bar in the middle of a undisclosed city, in this bar lies a adult male of about 30-35 moons, the man has been drinking for the last 3-4 hours, give or take a pint or two. This sorrowful drinker has just been laid of his work at one of the many different shell corporations that litter the cityscape, he was "unjustly" laid of because of "Budget cuts" when in actuallity he was laid of because he was the most expandable of the employees. Its understandable really, anybody would be driven to drink if their life was suddenly up-ended like that, sadly its nearing 12 AM and the bar needs to close down, the disgruntled ex-worker haphazardly pays his tab and begins leaving the establishment, ignoring the bartenders insistence in calling for a cab to take him home. "Its not safe to wander the streets at this hour!" he says. The man ignores him, not knowing of a pair of beady black eyes observing him from a top of the buildings sign. Perhaps, if the man had heeded the warning, this tale may just have ended differently. But alas...
HE IGNORED THE WARNING.
The man began to walk under the light drizzle of the rain slowly and quite angrily heading in the direction of what his inebriated mind considered the right path. The way was dark, with nary a car or person in sight, only the hum of streetlights, the buzzing of bugs and the flap of wings being his companion.
A pair of eyes become two pairs. The man continues walking stopping for a moment to heave, nearly loosing the contents of his stomach.
Two pairs become four. He continues walking, slower now, hoping that the sensation in his stomach and throat subside, he notices a large park in his way and decide to head towards it, hoping to find a bench where he can sit for a moment before continuing his journey.
Four pairs become eight. The man finds a bench and manages to rest, for only a minute or two, not noticing the body that slowly and quietly glides, resting in the same bench as him, staring without making a sound.
Eight pairs become sixteen. Quite the ensemble ain't it? Well... its about much,
much, worse.
The silence is broken by a small sound, a caw. The man, still slightly out of it jumps at the noise, moving his head towards to left he notices the little creature, a jet black raven. This man has obviously seen this species of corvid before, hard not to since they are one of the most famous birds in the world, known for their intellect, but it was the first time he had seen one so close to him. If he moved ever so slightly he could easily touch it. As his mind began to wonder why this bird had gotten so close to him, he heard a second a caw, Another bird had just glided down and sat next to him, also staring. Perhaps if he was less inebriated he may had asked why there were 2 birds so closely next to him, just staring. But the thought never came, interrupted by two more caws in front of him. There standing just out of reach was two more Ravens just....staring. The man brain began working faster now noticing that each bird was unmoving like a statue, and staring at him with unblinking eyes, he began getting unnerved, yet those nerves are probably what managed to save him, if even for a few more minutes. Four more caws, four more ravens now staring at him from above the streetlights and nearby trees. The man began getting scared and as soon as he tried standing up... the screeching began. The ravens began screeching, feathers spreading everywhere and as a group they flew directly at the man, talons raised, beaks gleaming in the moonlight. THE MAN RAN.
Sixteen becomes thirty-two.... let the unkindness... begin.
Fear and adrenaline pumping through his body, all signs of intoxication gone, the man screamed and ran. The corvids followed, talons raised scratching at his arms, legs and face. He used his arms trying to shield his face, he began screaming for help, but the rain had finally began to fall, a proverbial downpour, drowning his voice, only the sounds of the angry birds was heard as they launched themselves at him. Four more launch at him from the front and left, making him move right, Two more came scratching at his face as the water made it hard to see where was going, for a split second he sees six more flying at eye level in front of him, he panics, but then sees an alleyway to the right, not thinking, he runs towards it as the ravens fly higher in pursuit. He ducks into the alleyway and hides behind a dumpster, just out of sight... and for a brief moment... there's calm, no caws in his ear, no sting of talons and beaks in his flesh, for the briefest of moments, he thinks he is safe...
he is wrong.
*Step, splash* *Step, splash*
There is someone behind him, but before he can react he is hit hard in the back of his head with a baton. Bruising his head and disorienting him, he falls on the ground. Rolling on his back like a defenseless turtle, he looks up as his assailant fighting the pain in his head and the urge to fall unconscious, and he
sees. Tall, that's the first thing he notices, followed by the suit, red and black; fanciful if he was being generous. To the left and arm with what seemed like a baton, the type used by older gentlemen to assist in their walks, to the right what seemed like a mask with a sharp curve to it (A beak), higher up he sees the general outline of a face with a bowler hat resting on the head. The pain subsides a little and he can concentrate a bit more on the details, red stains litter the suit and the weapon, the face a pale complexion, a slight stubble and sharp cheekbones.... but what he notices the most are his....no..
ITS eyes. People say eyes are the window to the soul, that you can tell a lot of a person just from their eyes alone... so what do you think the man thought of the thing standing in front of him when he saw to bitch black orbs looking right at him, no pupils, the sclera completely black.
The man flinched and looked away.... only to pale in horror, as just above above the two individuals were the RAVENS... 32 in total, unmoving, unblinking, staring at him like they were waiting for a unknown signal. At this moment the man realized what was happening... an empowered! But just as he was about to scream for help, the creature moved his arm, pointed and the birds descended on the soon to be victim. Talons slashing through clothes and flesh, blood beginning to drip and spill before being watched away by rain, beaks heading straight for the eyes, picking at them like fresh grapes and even one of the corvids bulged and flew straight at his mouth silencing his screams.
It was not quick, it was not clean, the man suffered greatly and the last thing he saw was the creature staring at him, before it all went dark.
30-40 minutes later? There was mutilated corpse on the ground, organs pecked and sliced, the head clawed opened like a hard seed. There were only 6 ravens still picking at the corpse, but they soon began leaving until only one remained inside the body. The creature waited... and waited... and waited, but nothing happened. It sighs and in a low voice you can hear it say: "Another....failure". It moves its hands and a large raven pops out of the head of the victim, right through what once was his eye socket. The remaining ravens slowly flew up... and flew straight towards the creature, borrowing into its flesh, a tar like substance leaking through the holes they made... before sealing back up. Now only two beings were left in that alley. The monster in shape of a man and a Raven larger than the rest standing on the monsters shoulder.
The creature walked towards the corpse and bend down, grabbing a watch that adorned the corpse, before pocketing it. As it made to leave the scene of the crime, it stopped and turned around. "Waste...not". It murmured, before its head began to bulge and blacken and in less than a minute a giant avian head stood where "man's" head was before, it got close, moved its head back.... and it descended once more, as the screen turns black... the only sounds you can hear are the sounds of flesh and bone being crushed.
At the beginning of this little tale I asked what may cause a person to do heinous acts of crime? Well, for this individual, for the man previously known as Dante Evermore it was quite simple. Food, sleep, and money guided his actions. For the Creature known as Ravenhome? Its quite similar: Food, sleep, objects of worth and companionship. This creature has no need for territory, why should a predator of the skies worry for something simple as territory? The skies... the World; its his territory and there are plenty of prey to go around.
Authors note 2:
There we go, here is my villain, a wandering serial killer. Ravenhome! This not so little monstrosity is my unholy mix of the godfather, Honchkrow from Pokémon, the drip from season one henchmen from RWBY and the unholy abomination, The Crow Mauler from Fear and Hunger (Never played this, but holy shit is that game gory). Ravenhome is less a man and more a amalgamation of 30 or so crows and ravens inside of a man shaped "shell". Outside looks normal, but inside is mostly tar like blood, and birds. The corvids can borrow and rest inside of the "main" body for transport. The main human body is used for moving around during the day and actually uses the baton seen to move around. Yup, those pitch black peepers aren't for show, Dante's body is actually blind... technically. While the human body cant see, it can "look" out of the eyes of the corvids he controls, the most powerful of the group being the head honcho Corvid that usually follows the body or rest on its shoulder. In addition to bein a bird motel, Ravenhome can turn his head into a giant crow/raven head capable of easily crushing flesh and bone (as seen at the end there).
When it come to fighting, Ravenhome is an ambush predator, because other than a the birds and the head transformation its strength is baseline human, anything with aoe or let's say a bomb could drastically injure it and if all 30 something birds die? Game over. You may also be asking yourself,, why does it want companionship? Well, remember when it waited at the corpse and there was a single corvid left in it? Well, RH is kind of... lonely? In a sense, that its going on animal instinct to find a pair so its trying to create a new head honcho bird to make a companion (Body snatcher style) so it keeps eating and feeding its birds in the hopes one of them will reach that point. As for why I called it Both Dante and a It? Well, lets just say there's not a lot of Dante left in there anymore. So you can decide if Dante is also a victim of the amalgamate or hes just at fault for all of the victims they killed.
