Cassius sat up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding heavily, slamming against the inside of his chest like a hammer to an anvil. He looked around the dark room, drawing deep breaths and letting his heart rate settle.

More slamming sounds caught his attention. In contrast, his heart did clearly settled from the horrendous nightmare. The sound matches his heart perfectly, so he initially assumed it was just his heart thumping in his ear.

He rubbed his throbbing temples and realized what the sound was. Someone was knocking on the front doors of the clinic. He looked up at the window and sighed. The moon was still high in the sky, meaning whoever had come here was likely extremely injured.

That was always the case this late in the night. They usually had drunkenly shot their friend or had been attacked by some creature out in the hollars.

“God fucking dammit,” Cassius grumbled as he tossed his feet out of the bed.

He sat there for several moments, annoyed by his interrupted sleep. He highly doubts that he is even relatively sober at this point, still being able to feel a somewhat hollow feeling in his chest and a slight burn on his breath. Not that the hicks at his door would even notice. The locals were drunk half the time anyway.

As if whoever was outside knew Cassius was awake, they started to knock harder and faster. Each hit against the door rattled his skull.

“God dammit. Hold on, I’m coming!” Cassius yelled into the darkness of his home.

As if the person at the door had heard Cassius yelling at them or that they did not care in the slightest, the fervor and insistence of their knocking only increased by the moment.

Cassius got up and lazily tossed on a shirt and a set of trousers, not bothering to tuck his blouse in or even put on any shoes.

As Cassius Lazily worked toward the front door, the floorboards creaked and groaned each time his bare feet plodded on their cold surface. He glanced over to the window and saw several crows pecking at the pane of glass. Something about those birds was not right. They felt like they were waiting for his approach because the moment he spotted them, the small murder fluttered away into the black abyss of the night.

Cassius flicked on a match and lit one of the candles in the center of the room. He would have to light more to treat the individual if they actually needed something. Hopefully, they did not, and they were just drunk, stupid, and wanted to yell at him—that would be a quick issue to deal with, letting him go back to bed.

Cassius struggled for a few moments with the door latch. Though he did his best at building his home, he was no carpenter, which led to the house's many quirks. Pushing open the door, the cold winds of the night rolled in, causing a shiver to roll down his spine and the wan candle to flicker.

Recovering from the sudden sobering effects of the unusually chilly night, Cassius paused, seeing his unwanted guest. He expected many a type of local, but an older woman who looked like a decrepit grandmother was not one of them.

The woman in front of Cassius was relatively short, the top of her jet-black cowl only coming up to his mid-stomach. The black cowl draped over her shoulders and concealed most of her face, only allowing him the most fleeting glimpses of her gaunt, heavily wrinkled face.

She looked unsteady on her feet as she leaned slightly on a cane. It was difficult for Cassius to tell in the dark of the porch, but he could swear the skulls that made it up moved and chittered in the winds.

She shifted her skeletal frame and looked up at Cassius with a gentle grin. It could be a welcoming smile if not for most of her teeth have rotted and fallen out—An all too common sight for locals.

“Hello, Cassius,” The old woman said.

“What do you want? Gout acting up? Or did one of your hellion family members hurt themselves somewhere else?” Cassius said with a slight dry grumble.

“Oh, no, nothing like that, Cassius. I saw your issues earlier and wanted to offer you a hand,” The woman smiled while pulling out a small flask of what looked like whiskey.

“Hell, if all you want is a drink. You won't hear me complain,” Cassius replied, stepping abreast of the door and waiving the woman in. “What is your name anyway?”

“Oh, you can call me Corvus, and that is quite hospitable. I've only heard horror stories about you from the locals,” The woman smiled as she stepped inside and quickly found purchase on one of the chairs at the table.

“Not surprising, these hicks are horrible inbred freaks. No offense meant,” Cassius chuckled as he ambled around the room, lighting a few more candles to make it easy for the woman to see. It was the least he could do for someone giving him more booze.

“None taken, my dear. I am not a local anyways,” The woman replied.

By the time Cassius was done with that, and he slumped into a seat across from the woman, she had already pulled out two shot glasses and filled them. Cassius was so excited to get anything inside him to take the edge off his hangover that he did not question where the woman pulled the glasses from because he did not own any glasses colored with purple spirals. But he frankly did not care.

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“You aren’t?” Cassius replied while gesturing at her, “I figured you were. You look like one of the hill folk.”

The woman pushed a drink over to Cassius and took her own in hand.

“I am just a passerby looking to meet interesting people,” The woman said with a slight hiss. “From what the locals down there told me… You seem to meet that bill.”

Cassius took his drink and emptied it. Whatever the drink was, it went down like water—a far cry from the horrendous moonshine the locals made.

The woman smiled at seeing Cassius enjoy the drink and quickly poured him another before he even asked for one.

“Enjoy it as much as you want, my dear. I have plenty more,” Corvus smiled

“With pleasure, thank you,” Cassius replied.

“Of course,” Corvus replied.

The woman tapped her small walking stick on the ground, adjusting herself in her seat before she took a small sip of her drink.

“Now, my dear, what is on your mind?” Corvus asked in a gentle, reassuring voice. Something about her voice pushed its way into Cassius’s mind like a vice being tightened on his head.

Cassius took the feeling as a symptom of a lack of booze in his system, and withdrawals began. Other than the shot he just had, it was likely ten hours since his last drink, AWS(alcohol withdrawal syndrome), was probably taking its effects.

Cassius knew that feeling and the effect a lack of booze had on him and plenty of the locals. He drank so often that if he was ever genuinely sober, he might just kick the bucket. Plenty of examples of that had been shown and described to him in medical school.

To alleviate the pain, he took another shot, hoping it would start taking effect soon.

“Oh, my horrible hangover, my dead wife, the odd lady I invited in. Where would you like me to start,” Cassius said, his words slurring.

“Here, let me top that off for you,” Corvus smiled, seeming more than happy to have Cassius drink her heavenly liquor.

“Thanks,” Cassius burped.

“Not a problem,” Corvus replied. “Now, what was that about your wife?”

Corvus tapped her fingers on the table—her bone-like fingers clicking like her staff. Cassius shivered, feeling a sense of icy cold waft over him.

“Those stupid hicks blamed me for her dying, and I'm stuck here,” Cassius chuckled, downing another shot.

“Well, that sounds horrible, my dear. Why on earth would they blame you for her death? You seem like such a well-intentioned man,” Corvus purred.

“Haa, yeah. Those stupid bastards don’t believe me. I saw some huge thing slinking away when she died,” Cassius said. He gestured to the door. “But those bastards are blaming me,”

Corvus took a small sip of her drink and looked at him briefly. Cassius felt what seemed like a draft. He looked around the area to see if he left a widow open.

“Do you feel a draft?” Cassius grumbled, having not found any open windows visible in the area.

“I do not, I am afraid. Maybe you should just keep having something to drink,” Corvus said.

“Yeah, I suppose,” Cassius replied, tossing another drink of the heavenly cocktail Corvus was offering.

As soon as the drink hits Cassius’ gut, he burps and feels a wave of euphoria slams into him again, almost making him pass out.

“Now, you mentioned your wife. Do you want her back? Do you want those people to pay for how they treat you?” Corvus asks as she refills Cassius’ drink, tapping on its side while she holds the glass out for him.

Cassius took the glass, and for the briefest moment, when his hand touched Covus’, her hand was as cold and ice and hard as diamond. He blinked a few times and struggled to focus on what was happening with Corvus. Her entire figure was slowly shifting, but Cassius choked it up to his drunk mind, failing to register everything. It would not be the first time he forgot details while drinking, after all.

“Of course, I want her back, and yes, I want those hicks to pay,” Cassius drunkenly growled. “I would set them all on fire if I could get away with it.”

Corvus drank and refilled her glass, her mouth drawing into a wry, toothless grin.

“Well, that is wonderful. What would you say If I could make all of that possible for you?” Corvus said with a dry chuckle.

Cassius drank another shot. This one went down faster and easier than all the others and slammed into him like a sledgehammer. He halfway slumped into his chair. As he thought about the idea, a flower of hate blossomed inside him.

“I would love that idea. Anything would beat what I'm doing now,” Cassus grumbled.

“Marvelous Cassius, Marvelous. I will help you,” Corvus smiled tapping on the table.

Cassius roughly shifted to look back at Corvus. His body was heavy, and every motion felt like he was dredging through water. She was different when he looked back at Corvus and was leaning on his elbows.

“What on earth are you on about, you old….” Cassius started, but his words were caught in his throat.

Corvus did not look like the old lady who entered a short while ago. Before, Cassius was an ocean of black plumage. A row of purple crystal teeth and a pair of eyes that were the most icey blue Cassius had ever seen.

Both of Corvus’ teeth and eyes glowed so brightly that they were clearly visible, even through the dark black veil covering the details of her face.

“What the fuck,” Cassius said, his heart slamming in his chest from the start of seeing the creature before him.

“Oh, no worries, my son, the deal has been struck,” Corvus said.

As Corvus finished her words, she blew a sharp, rotten breath into Cassius’s face. It was so rancid it could gag a maggot and so powerful all the candles of the house blew out in an instant, plunging the entire room into darkness.

The gale pushed Cassius out of his chair, collapsing onto the cold, unkempt floor. He tried to sit up, but his body would not listen to his commands. It felt as if a heavy weight was covering every inch of him.

The sharp clicking sounds of Corvus stepping forward kept time with a stammering heart rate.

Cassius could not tell she had made it in front of him until Corvus’ piercing blue eyes were right before him.

“I am so glad we came to an understanding Cassius. May your pneuma be your savior,” Corvus said as she pressed a needle-like claw into his back.

A searing pain shot through Cassius, like a million tendrils of fire, pushed into his body. A million roots curled around his bones and dug into his soul. Cassius tried to scream in agony, but Corvus brought her hand up and covered his mouth.

“The deed is done, my son. Now, just wait for your retribution. Oh and watch out for foxes,” Corvus grinned.

The last thing Cassius saw as darkness entirely overtook him was the horrendous flutter of raven wings, and the eyes of Corvus burned into his retina.