Here is the first part of the bizarre and scary events which occurred while I was visiting my boyfriend Nick’s family in his hometown of Kinsley, on the peninsula King’s Cove, a few months ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/13o6dfi/festival_of_crows_part_1/
I told you about how we made our way onto the peninsula without further disruptions. Our mood lifted, and I was excited to see his childhood home.
A woman was waiting at the door of the house, waving at us.
Of course I had video-chatted with Nick’s mom Violet before, and she told me how pleased she would be to welcome me to their home over the weekend. Rural connectivity and technology being what it was, our chats never lasted long, but I knew her as a warm, friendly woman.
And now, seeing her in the flesh confirmed that impression. A petite beaming woman with Nick’s finely-etched features, she ran up to the car “Oh my goodness, I thought you two would never get here! I was starting to get worried!”
“You shouldn’t have been worried Mom!” said Nick, somewhat grumpily. “You could have always called, and we saw Sally’s kid Steve on the way and his friends and stopped to say hi. Anyway, here’s Lucille.”
“Oh really!” yelped Violet. It seemed she forgot about me as she fixed her eyes on her son’s face.
“And what were Steve and his little friends up to now?” Nick hauled my overnighter from the back.
“Oh, you know, starting on their costumes. I totally forgot about that old feast - festival whatever it was - do people still do that here? God they must be bored!” His tone sounded strange and I gave him a quick look. Although his eyes were hooded, that sly sneaky smile I had noticed earlier flashed around his lips. There was a moment of silence and it seemed as if both Violet and Nick had frozen in the early afternoon sun. I looked up at the house, a small unkempt building very much of the style of a century ago, with the wooden deck and terrace in need of paint. Nick’s father had passed I knew just before Nick moved to the city. In fact, come to think of it, I think he had died right at the start of the first wave of the pandemic- I recall Nick had mentioned something like that.
A harsh cawing broke the spell. Both Violet and Nick jerked their heads upward and backwards, looking towards the far end of the front garden where a few crows were lazily flapping their dark wings, etched clearly against the blue spring sky.
“There’s so many of them this year” murmured Violet softly.
“I know- we saw some as far out as the causeway” replied Nick.
Violet’s eyes widened, so I could see the whites of her eyes as she snapped her head towards Nick.
“What? By the causeway? Oh no no no!” She covered her face with her hands, moaning.
“Nick!” I cried. “What’s wrong?”
The sound of my voice again seemed to jolt things back to normal. Violet straightened up, removing her hands. She flashed her beaming smile at me. “Look at us, yammering on about our old place’s gossip with this lovely young thing standing here! Never mind our silly country ways, my dear, you come on right in. I was sure you’d be hungry after that long drive, so I have all sorts of snacks ready for you- our farmer’s market here is to die for! Have you ever had rose marmalade? I bet you will be taking at least five jars back with you! The crose marmalade here is famous! Not to mention Pete’s special summer-cured ham! Lucky for you it’s on all this weekend, usually it’s just Saturday mornings you know.”
I wondered if she was prone to little verbal twitches like “crose” for “rose” as she led me in, Nick following. The table was set, as she had promised, with all sorts of lovely foods, marmalades and jams winking in pretty old-fashioned china platters, fresh-baked country breads with gleaming yellow pats of butter and carefully arranged slices of cold meats and cheese. An hour flew by delightfully as we ate. Violet was very pleasant, asking about my family and job in the city. Finally I stood up, quite full.
Nick smiled at me. “Want to go for a little walk, stretch your legs? I can show you something of the town- we’re barely two minutes away from downtown. Mom, you coming?”
Violet laughed. “That’s the advantage of these places, dear, not like your big cities. Everything is two minutes away from everything else. You two go ahead and enjoy yourself, I’ll clear up.”
The little downtown was lined with cute Victorian-style buildings, probably the newest additions to Kinsley. People were hanging banners and bird and feather cutouts in black, orange and blue for the start of tomorrow’s festival. The colors would have felt more Halloween-y than a spring event, but for the warm sun, the green-laced blooming trees, and the not-so-distant rumble of the ocean. I didn’t ask about the festival- I was happy to let it drop, and Nick seemed oblivious to the activity. He stopped at the local antique shop and not big on antiques myself, I wandered down the pretty street looking for a cafe.
At the edge of the town proper I noticed a faint footpath leading directly into a shady gap in the treeline. Idly, and without thinking, I followed the path for a few minutes before noticing black feathers scattered along it.
The sun, the unaccustomed food, and the fresh ocean air seemed to have addled my brains. I kept walking, as if in a daze, noticing but yet not properly looking at the increasing piles of black feathers. The woodsy air was cool after the sun of the open streets. Like Hansel following his trail in the woods I just moved forwards, and then the path abruptly stopped before a large open field. I blinked in the sudden flood of sunlight.
At the far end of the field I saw three poles each topped by a human-size figure held up by their overstretched arms, their heads slumped forward and sideways. For a minute I panicked. Various images from stories and legends tumbled into my brain. Jesus on a cross? No, he was naked- these figures were fully clothed, with straws poking out of their sleeves, pant legs and hats, making sharp lines against the thin blue of the sky. Straw- hay- Oh! that old old movie- the lion- the girl dancing and singing in red shiny shoes, the green witch-They were scarecrows.
I still remember the sudden jolt of recognition my brain received. In fact, I still see those scarecrows, in my nightmares, hanging there forlornly, until they start to twitch. But I won’t spoil the story for you.
A tall figure and a few children dressed in black were standing near the three poles looking up at the figures.
I went closer. I could see the corpse-like wizened figures covered in dried black tar and tied to scarecrow poles with ropes around their arms and feet.
As I watched, the children began throwing handfuls of feathers into the air, aiming vaguely for the figures, chanting. Two of the children seemed to have horribly deformed faces. The man took an axe and started chopping apart the legs of the figure on the pole closest to me.
I opened my mouth, then closed it again, holding in a scream.
A crow cawed. The man and children whipped around and saw me. The man strode towards me, still holding the tar-smeared axe. He started shouting. He was speaking with a fairly strong local accent, but I could pick up what he was saying. He was not happy to see me, and wanted me gone. He accused me of spying for the government. The children stared silently, and I noticed the two children which I had thought had deformed faces actually had the same orange beak-masks tied on, like the little girl from the roadside I had seen earlier.
I took a step back, on the path that had led me to this field, as he drew closer. He yelled “and tell your gov-ment masters-” while raising his axe.
I am almost sure he didn’t mean to hurt me, just scare me- when he dropped the axe and a white grin broke out on his tar-besmirched face. It was even more disturbing than the tirade. He called out “Nick!”
Nick had emerged from the woods behind me. “Craig!” he replied. “You met Lucille already?” They ran up to each other, and made as if to hug, but didn’t, sidestepping awkwardly.
Craig smiled at me. “I’m afraid I gave her quite a scare!” he said, his voice now clear and almost accent-free. “I thought she was a trespasser, and wanted to warn her off. Rather me than Farmer Bill!” They looked at each other and burst out laughing at some shared memory. I stood there feeling like a fool. I looked down at one of the masked children. “Are you pretending to be a crow?” I asked awkwardly.
The girl made a harsh cawing sound in response, and ran away, back to where the scarecrows were dangling.
Somehow I felt that was the last straw. Looking at Nick, who was now deep in quiet conversation with Craig, I announced loudly, “I’m going back to the house!” And turned and went back down the wooded path, down the main town street I had been perhaps thirty minutes before. I found my way easily enough back to Nick’s house, despite the spotty signal on my tele-pendant.
Violet was in the kitchen. “Back so soon!” she cried. “Where’s Nick- don’t tell me you had a lovers’ quarrel already!” she giggled.
“No of course not!” I couldn’t help sounding snappy. She stopped giggling and looked at me with worried eyes. “Oh my dear, are you ok? I suppose Kinsley is a lot to take in for a visitor from a big city-”
I knew I was being rude. “Honestly Violet, our city isn’t that big, and Kinsley is perfectly lovely. I’m just a bit tired- and Nick ran into an old friend- Craig I think- and if I could lie down-”
Violet cried “Yes of course dear! Your bedroom is made up for you- and I wouldn’t worry about Craig- he’s a lovely boy- my poor sister Margaret’s son- and so fond of Nick, quite upset when he decided to leave for the city last year-” she continued chatting as she made her way down the hall, with me following, “- the corvid stuff got to him a bit- well, it did everyone I suppose, but Craig never readjusted properly like Nick. And all the children- the schooling- so hard you know, not socializing and playing properly like children are supposed to, and us women had to do all of it- although poor Margaret- and they never reopened the schools fully anyway- not enough funding for teachers and assistants they said- what kind of government won’t fund schools- I don’t suppose corvid made that much of an impact on you, being in a big city with all the amenities-”
The uneasy fear came surging back. “COVID. Violet- you mean COVID- a couple of years ago, right?” I said, cutting her mid-stream.
Violet laughed. “Well, we must all have our little jokes dear, just lightens the load, right? Now here’s your room, you rest up, and maybe this evening we can play some games! Wouldn’t that be fun!”
She turned and left, closing the door softly behind her. I flopped heavily on the pretty floral bed, breathing deeply and trying to regain my calm.
Looking back, it seems incredible to me at how in love and foolish was I, that even at this point I still didn’t think anything was seriously wrong, and this was just a friendly visit to my boyfriend’s home town, with an odd but colourful assortment of characters.