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delilahirina · 1 year

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Once upon a time there was a gloomy midnight, cursed, plunged in the deepest purples and reds, while I was looking, on my bed with a sheet printed with basketballs, weak and tired, many photo albums, full of memories, while my eyes had not slept for a long time and my dark circles had become painful...

As I was nodding off, almost taking a nap, something I had sworn I would never do again, suddenly there was a tapping sound, as of someone knocking softly, banging on my front door.

"At this hour?", I muttered, "No, it can't be, there can't be anyone at this hour, it must be just the wind...just that and nothing more".

I distinctly remember it was in the bleak December; and every dying ember left its ghost on the ground.

I anxiously looked forward to the next day, and the day after that, until the end of my days. From my albums came the relief of grief, grief for my rare and radiant friend, named Sunny, once a whole person, full of life, strange but overwhelmingly happy...now, in the ground, under a coffin, now nameless here and forever more.

And the silky, sad, uncertain whisper of each orange patterned curtain of those stupid basketballs...I shivered, filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; so now, to calm my heartbeat, I kept repeating....

Suddenly my soul grew stronger; then I hesitated no longer, and carefully made my way down my darkened house, avoiding bumping into the stair railing, and grabbed the knob of my front door, and peeked out part of my face, feeling the cold night air crashing against my features.

"'It's Hero, my parents, they want to come in the house. Yes, that must be it. It's that and nothing more."

"Hero?" I said, "It's 3 o'clock in the morning, Hero, why are you coming home at this hour?" here I opened the door wide... darkness and nothing more.

Deep in that darkness, looking out into the empty street, hearing the little creaks of the flow of electricity powering every house in this cursed town, I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, imagining things no mortal dared to dream before, a ghost, a creature, anything inexplicable to the human; But nothing was happening, but the silence was unwavering, and the stillness gave no sign, and the only word I managed to utter from my mouth was the whispered word, "Sunshine?" This I whispered, and a cursed echo, a resonant, haunted echo from the darkness of the night, beyond the trees, murmured the word, "Sunshine!"... only this and nothing more.

I went back to my room, slamming my door shut, running, with beads of cold sweat running down my forehead, my soul on fire, feeling my body tensing and my breath quickening, and my eyes bloodshot as I locked my room, when, soon I heard again a knocking somewhat louder than before.

"Surely," I said, "surely it must be some drunk wanting to play a prank, surely it's some person, Kim, someone, wanting to punish me for not saving Sunny, probably it's nothing, yes, it must be that, just that and nothing more."

Here, I walked down towards the living room, my hands shaking, and flung open the door expecting some infamous, Mephistophile creature, when, with much flapping and effort, in came a majestic raven from the holy days of yore. A plumage black as night, and pupils as black as Sunny's. Not for a minute did he bow, not for a minute did he pause, but, with arrogance and elegance, interrupted in my home, ascending to my room, and finding himself in my room dimly lit by the night lamp I own, he perched on an old photograph with my group of friends, right next to my bed... he perched, sat down and did nothing more.

Then this ebony bird seduced my sad fancy to smile, by the grave and severe decorum of the countenance he wore, I could see him, I could see him.

"S-Sunny," I said, plunged into the deepest madness and delirium, "It's you! I-I knew you couldn't have died, I knew you would come back to me" I said in tears, almost sobbing at the sight of the raven's black eyes, as I tried to erase from my memory his crushed body and non-existent head on the hospital parking lot floor "Sunny! Say something, please, please, please say something, I need you, I don't know what to do, Basil was murdered and Aubrey hasn't left her house. Please, what can I do, say something." Forgetting that crows couldn't talk, I don't know what I expected, even if this crow was Sunny, he obviously couldn't answer me, when, unexpectedly, the crow uttered: "Nevermore".

I was amazed to hear the voice of this raven, it was identical to the voice of my beloved Sunny, and not only that, this ungainly bird spoke so clearly, the mere fact that it spoke was wonderful, however, its response held little meaning, little relevance in my eyes, for we cannot help but agree that no human being alive has ever been blessed to see a bird with the countenance of his beloved, in his own room, and have it answer him with a word such as "Nevermore".

And the raven, sitting placidly and solitary in the picture frame, said only that one word, as if his soul in that one word was poured out. Nothing more did he utter, not a feather did he flutter, nor did his beak gesticulate, nor did his eyes move....

Until I barely murmured "Sunny, you don't know how happy I am...thank you, thank you for coming back, promise me you'll never leave again, that you won't fly away again like my hopes." Then the bird declared, "Nevermore."

Startled by the answer so aptly delivered, I smiled, trying to make sense of the answer "Sunny" I said, "You are so sweet, so beautiful, in spite of all that happened you came back, but please, say something else" then I pondered. He jumped off the roof, wanting to end his life, and whatever was tormenting him would stop him at that moment, and so he can only exclaim the word "Nevermore".

But the raven kept seducing my sad fantasy to smile, to smile at its soothing presence, so similar to that of my beloved, and so, I stood on the edge of my bed, moving my head to one side like a curious labrador dog, looking at the beautiful bird and the open door to the darkness.

Then, letting myself sink into the soft mattress stamped by those damn basketballs, I started thinking.

I was thinking, thinking fiercely, thinking about what this ominous bird of yesteryear, possessed by my departed beloved, my gangly, ghastly, emaciated, ominous bird of yesteryear with the voice of my extinct sunbeam wanted to say as it squawked "Nevermore."

But the bird did not utter another word, the raven did not utter another sentence, and stood there, watching me, dimly illuminated by the orange lamp, a bird with the countenance of my beloved represented in that photograph on which I was sitting, ready to return to school after a hard summer, now unable to see a summer again, a bird whose dead eyes now slaughtered my heart. With this doubt, I stared at the bird, as I felt my head burn with a thousand doubts, observing the shadow the bird cast on the wooden floor of my home, a black that reminded me of a hole, a hole into which my beloved fell, and from which he may come out nevermore.

Then, it seemed to me, the air became thicker, perfumed with the pretty scent of tulips that my beloved was expelling as he walked, with a tired but beautiful face, and then, in desperation, I grabbed the face of the raven from its banks.

"Sunny", I cried, "Say something else, I will do anything, I will play with you, I will give you everything you ever wanted, we will go on adventures, everything will go back to normal, we will return to happiness, but please, say something else" And then the raven said a prayer word I feared: "Nevermore".

"Sunny!" said I, "I'll be good, but please tell me something! Where did you come from, where did you appear from, why did you do it, in heaven there is happiness and cherubs and angels?" And then the raven said: "Nevermore".

"Sunny!" said I, "Death was...immediate? Death is not so bad? Death made you happy? What's after death? Were you happy when you died?" and then the raven said words that devastated me: "Nevermore".

"Sunny" said I, plunged into the deepest despair, looking for some other question, something else that could answer me, when defeated, and knowing what I would probably answer again... "Will we ever be happy again? Will there be no more deaths? Is Aubrey going to live? Will Hero live? Will I live? Will we ever get over you leaving? ...Are you happy?" And then the raven answered, with what seemed more forcefulness, more mercilessness, but at the same time, analyzing his face, he looked sad, he looked resigned, he looked defeated, while he said his phrase: "Nevermore".

I fell resignedly to the floor, as my eyes, briefly glittering, plunged back into the deepest darkness, watching my shadow cast by the orange light of my room, mingled by the shadow of the raven, and the shadow of my beloved trapped in the bird, seemed to pierce my heart. And from the blended shadows, I looked deep into the darkness of that compound shadow, injecting my eyes into the darkness, until I seemed to see a hole in the center of reality, in the center of my soul, and any hope I had was swallowed up by that hole, as I said to myself, Aubrey will die. Hero will die. You will die. You will all die. And the light was in my soul, nevermore.

And the raven with the spirit of my beloved, who never flutters, still sits in the frame of the old photograph, looking at me every night until the end of my days, without eating, without drinking water, impassive, unbeatable. And his eyes look like those of an angel dreaming, and the light of the lamp above him casts his shadow on the floor, with my soul trapped in that shadow, while I understand. They will all die. I loved him so much. Oh, I loved him so much.

And my life will be held in the shadows.

And my body will be swallowed by the underworld.

And my soul swallowed by that shadow of that raven with the soul of my beloved, will be raised.... nevermore!

Adaptation of The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

Original art by @madnopost in Twitter and Instagram, as well as Your Time AU, in which this story is based. written by me

#omori #omori aus #omori sunkel #omori kel #omori sunny #omori suntan #omori caprisun #omori bad ending #omori fanfic #omori writing #omori angst

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