Legends of Windemere

West Park Asylum

“I wish I could remember why I brought you here,” Corvus says while staring across the ocean. Choppy waves slam into the eroding shore, each one delivering small pieces of Crow’s Landing. “There are so many lies I’ve weaved over the years that I can’t keep them straight. It might be a good thing that you’re forcing me to start again. Perhaps you were brought to my world for Grace’s benefit and I had no reason to toy with you. After all, there’s nothing that you’ve truly given me that I would call useful.”

“Your wife might be dead,” Ian states as he reaches the shore. With a grunt of pain, he rips a chunk of glass from his arm and tosses it onto the pier. “To be honest, I don’t care why you brought me here. All I want to know is what you are. Some kind of god? An alien? Was Rich right and you’re a ghost?”

“My wife will be fine. She’s tougher than you think,” the other man replies with a sigh. Still wearing his suit, he adjusts the cuffs and considers the choices he has been given. “I know I’m from Earth and I know I’m not dead. Yet, I don’t think I’m arrogant enough to call myself a god. My origin is the same as every other being. I was born from a forgettable woman and grew up to be an unforgettable man.”

Ian scratches his head and winces when he finds more shards in his scalp. “Then why are you hiding on an island? If you have the power to do whatever it is you’re doing here, it seems foolish to squander it in isolation.”

Corvus lifts his hand to allow a raven to land on his wrist, the bird dropping a small shell into his palm. He quietly turns the object over and runs a finger along its ridges, the design reminding him of an ancient memory. He smiles when the crab pokes out of its home and wanders up his arm. The tiny creature makes it to his shoulder before it is callously flicked into the ocean.

“Humanity feared my ability to make dreams reality and they drove me away,” Corvus explains as he walks along the coast. Bodies are appearing in the surf, so he waves his hand to transform them into pieces of driftwood. “I wandered the wilderness and attempted to swim across the ocean. When I nearly drowned, I subconsciously made this island and it has been my home ever since. Sadly, humans are social creatures and I craved such contacts. That is where Grace and Raven’s Hold came from. She was a blacklisted psychologist and I gave her a purpose in return for people that I could play with. The first few didn’t take to my physical presence, so I became the ghost. Everyone got something and I gained more when my dear Dawn was brought to me. To be honest, I never planned on marrying her since I find the tradition pointless for someone like me. Yet she insisted since our world was coming to an end. Is that the reason I wanted you to come here? No because it’s such a minor thing and it leaves us having to start with nothing.”

“You could go somewhere and live among people,” Ian suggests as he puts on the penguin necklace. “It seems like you’ve been here for a few decades, so society has probably changed for the better. Even if it hasn’t, I’m sure you’ve learned more control and can use your powers with more subtlety. Maybe you can be a living superhero and save the world instead of toying with the broken-minded like me.”

“Can you repeat that?”

“Maybe you can save the world?”

Corvus laughs and does a little dance before hugging the surprised man. “That’s why I wanted you here. It wasn’t to destroy my world or to make things easier for Grace. Let that old bag suffer in . . . well she’s dead, so no point in finishing that sentence. The reason I wanted you here Ian Connors is because I was in a rut. My life has been Raven’s Hold for so long that I can’t think of anything else. My dreams have become stagnant. You sparked the only dream that I’ve yet to fulfill. Thank you, my friend.”

“So you only wanted to be a superhero,” Ian cautiously states before a rumble of thunder shakes the island. Lightning can be seen in the distance, but it never gets any closer than a mile offshore. “That’s a rather noble dream. Superheroes have always been popular so-”

“Hero? Not at all. I’m going to be a villain,” the black-haired man proudly declares with a frightening twinkle in his eyes. Licking his lips, Corvus releases Ian from his embrace and cracks his knuckles. “Why would I want to save a species that cast me aside? They had their chance to reap the rewards of my existence. Now I’ll see who is the strongest and forge a better society than anything ever witnessed before. It isn’t like anyone out there can stop me. Yes, it seems villain would definitely be a smarter choice for me.”

Grabbing a piece of driftwood in his remaining hand, Ian takes a swing at Corvus and shatters the makeshift club on impact. A few splinters are in the side of the other man’s head, but they are pushed out by the healing flesh. The ravens swoop out of the sky to attack and stop once their master raises his hand, a restrained laugh making him shiver.

“I assume this is where you swear to stop me and warn others,” Corvus says as he approaches the scared human. Gently patting his enemy’s cheek, he yawns and casually walks in a circle. “You are right that I probably require an adversary to make things more enjoyable. A being who can earn my respect and disdain. Sadly, you only have the latter and I find myself wanting a foe with more bite. Also two hands and more of a spine. One big loss and you’ll kill yourself. Nope, I need an enemy with staying power.”

“Then what are you going to do?” Ian asks, refusing to back down. He throws a punch with his stump that harmlessly glances off Corvus’s shoulder. “You’re right that I would break too easily. In fact, I hope you kill me now.”

“It was a consideration, but I want to make you suffer for what you did.”

A broom closet erupts from the ground behind Ian and the door swings open to reveal a padded interior. With a one-handed shove, Corvus sends the man stumbling into the small container and locks him inside. Sparks fly from the frame and the wood hisses as all of the seams are sealed, preventing anyone from opening the box. Irritated by the constant banging and screaming, Corvus has the closet sink back into the earth and covers the area with a mat of drooping tulips. Frowning at how close the cage is to the shore, he waves his hand and sends it burrowing deep into the center of the island. More of the decrepit flowers sprout along the path and a leafless willow grows at Ian’s final destination.

Noticing dirt on his hands, Corvus uses his handkerchief to clean them and watches as his wounded bride limps toward him. Worried that Dawn might be too hurt to reach him, the man breathes into the wind and coats the island in a reviving mist. Not being used to healing severe injuries with his powers, the expenditure creates white streaks in his ebony hair. The sacrifice is worth it as every step she takes is stronger and her injuries gradually disappear. By the time she joins her smiling husband, the only sign of her defeat is a gaping eye socket. When Corvus reaches out to rebuild the missing part, Dawn stops him and pulls the unicorn horn from her skirts. Without a word, he shoves it into the hole and transforms it into a golden eyepatch that is bonded to her skin.

“I love it. So much better than a ring,” Dawn says after a mirror appears before her face. She taps at the solid decoration and uses her nail to carve a crude flower, which she erases by rubbing on the metal. “It’s beautiful and I appreciate it, but I don’t think I can go with you, sweetie. The outside world is scary. People are mean. They’re . . . normal out there. There’s never any fun in normal. That’s what you always say. How are we supposed to live among normal people?”

“Don’t worry, my love. They won’t be that way for long.”

West Park Asylum

Racing through the dissolving hallways, Ian fights to avoid falling into the abyssal gaps that are devouring Raven’s Hold. Doors have melted into puddles to expose rooms that are crumbling into dust. Several of the chasms have exposed bone around their edges and sticky blood seeps from the ivory frames. Turning a corner, Ian watches a cowering guard drop into a pit that opens beneath his feet. The man has no time to yell before he is gone, unlike the panicking orderly down the hall. A vertical abyss is slowly swallowing the woman who is clawing at the ground and screeching in terror. When she is nothing more than a head and arms, she stops fighting and cries while being sucked into the void. Being so close to freedom, Ian only looks at her demise as giving him a clear run for the door. He sprints as fast as he can and dives between two abysses that pull at his skin until he is out of their reach.

He realizes that the building is different than before when he bursts into the common room, which should have been in the other direction. Parts of the garden hang from the ceiling and reach for the surviving residents that are hiding under tables. Ian leaps from one island of solid ground to another while the screams of people erupt and are swiftly cut off. He stops himself from dwelling on what would happen if he falls into the one of the voids, focusing entirely on reaching the exit. With his hand on the handle, he believes he is going to survive and put this nightmare behind him.

The crackling of a stun gun causes Ian to stop and twists out of the way, the weapon discharging against the door. He catches Gina by the arm when she tries to shock him again and the pair tumble to the floor. With the abysses growing around them, the siblings’ struggle consists mostly of pulling back and forth on the sparking stun gun. Seeing the cuts on Ian’s chest, his sister smacks him on the wounds and tries to use the jolt of pain to wrestle the weapon away. Instead of getting the device out of his hand, she accidentally ends up pulling it against her stomach. Before she can turn the stun gun around, her brother presses the button and unloads the last of the electricity into her body.

“They really should have stuck to the sedative syringes. Stun guns are too easy to turn on the user,” Ian mutters as he catches his sister and puts her over his shoulder. He puts her down as soon as an elbow strikes the back of his head. “Do you really want to keep fighting? We don’t have much time before this room is gone.”

“How did I get here and why am I wearing these clothes?” the orderly asks before she recognizes Ian. Unaware of the danger, she gives her brother a tight hug and nearly knocks them into a void. “I finally found you. Let’s go home, Ian. We’re going to have a long talk about your behavior.”

“Wait. Are you Carla again?” her brother asks as she leads him to the door. He slips his wrist free and cautiously watches her in case this is another trick. “Do you remember calling yourself Gina and working here?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Carla answers, her eyes following the dangerous gaps. A vague memory of what is happening crosses her mind, but it vanishes before she can focus. “The last thing I remember is arriving in Crow’s Landing and getting a boat. There was a storm, I fell into the water, and now I’m with you in this creepy place. Something tells me that we have to move quickly, so we can discuss this later. Don’t stand there like an idiot!”

Ian finds himself numb to his sister’s revival, the constant stress making it impossible for him to feel anything more than a twinge of relief. He lets her guide the way to the door while he takes a final look at the common room. The fingers of the final resident are vanishing into a hole in the floor while the furniture rapidly ages into dust. A few vines remain from the garden, which is dead and crumbling off the ceiling. The creak of hinges draws his attention back to escaping, but his heart leaps into his throat when he sees the fringe of a white dress through the expanding crack in the doorway.

Dawn barrels into the room and slices Ian’s hand off with her bouquet, the severed part still clutched in Carla’s fingers. There is no blood coming from the wound, which seems to heal into a crusty stump. A burst of thunder shatters the window, but the enraged bride merely aims her middle finger at the outside world. The distraction is enough for Carla to tackle her from behind and try to throw her into an abyss. Dawn catches the edge of the nearest hole and yanks herself to safety, but the front of her skirt is sheared off in the process.

“You’re always ruining my stuff!” the woman shrieks while she stares at her exposed slip and garters. Pulling the ruined fabric together, she makes a tighter skirt that sprouts lacey flowers down the sides. “This was never meant to be your home. Sweetie should have kept you away or killed you. He won’t tell me what your purpose is, but I don’t think he knows. He’s confused and lost now that our world is disappearing. Both of you destroyed us.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Carla claims before grabbing Ian by the arm. She shoves him toward the door, but it closes in his face. “Damn it! Let my brother go and we’ll settle whatever this is.”

“Nope. He needs to stay and see you die,” Dawn replies with a smirk. She licks her lips while drawing the unicorn horn from behind her, the golden spike humming in her hand. “I have a powerful weapon and you have nothing. You’re a mistake and I’m going to erase you from the world. Nobody will remember that you ever existed. Even your children and husband will forget about you.”

“You’re going to fight me with . . . what is that?”

“A unicorn horn.”

“Right. I’m guessing it’s fake.”

“We’ll find out when I carve up your daughters’ faces with it.”

“Don’t you dare go near my family.”

“They’re Sarah and Allison, right?”

“Shut up.”

“Pretty names for me to write on their tongues.”

With a scream, Carla rushes at Dawn and attempts to tackle her to the ground. She is unable to stop her momentum when her target yawns and steps out of the way. A tug on her neck turns the woman around and she feels the necklace snap against her skin. Carla takes a final look at Ian who is starting to move forward, but will never reach her in time. Closing her eyes and ignoring Dawn’s giggling, she thinks of her family and wishes she stayed home. To her surprise, there is no pain as she falls into the abyss and ceases to exist. As far as she would be concerned if she still had the ability to think, Carla is simply removed from the world.

“Like I would get my unicorn’s horn dirty. I still need to plant it and grow a new one,” Dawn states while she examines the penguin pendant. She tosses the bauble to Ian and smiles at the stunned man. “Us and sweetie will be the only ones to remember her. You know, I was only defending myself. This is really your fault for accepting the invitation. Though I’d still blame Grace because the dead can’t defend themselves. Now, I’m going somewhere safe and you’re going to stay here to die. Seems things go wrong whenever I try to kill, so I’m going to let you do the work for me.”

“My sister,” Ian whispers while he clutches the necklace. Coming within reach of Dawn, he stares into the gaping void that devoured Carla. “I saw her unravel in there. Piece by piece came away and dissolved. Now I have nobody and there’s no reason why. Tell me why I shouldn’t throw you in there, Ms. Addison.”

“It’s Mrs. Sweetie now and don’t even try it,” the brunette replies while moving around the young man. Unable to reach the far exit, she tiptoes her way to the glass door that would normally lead to the garden. “You don’t really have it in you, little puppy. Even if you did, my sweetie would stop you.”

Ian takes a slow step toward the woman, his attention focused more on his own reflection in the glass door. “Where will you go? This place is falling apart and everyone is dying. Raven’s Hold is no longer a haven.”

“Go? There’s nowhere for us to go, little puppy,” Dawn replies in shock. Watching the common room get consumed, she feels an emptiness in her heart and releases a shuddering breath. “This was and always will be our home. Like any strong couple, we will survive this disaster and rebuild. It won’t be the same and might not be as good, but we’ll be together and that’s the important thing. After all, we’re married now. Unlike you, which really is your fault like you’ve always believed.”

Ian waits for the brunette to turn around and reach for the door handle before charging. With a roar, he tackles her and the pair smash through the glass as an abyss appears where they once stood. Jagged shards stick into their arms and legs, but only Dawn has a few large pieces embedded in her face. One of them is in her eye and removing it causes her to scream loud enough to echo across the island. Agony ripples through her body as she realizes that there is only an empty socket left. She picks the rest of the glass out and tries to stand only to be knocked down by a blow to the back of her head.

Leaving Dawn unconscious and bleeding on the grass, Ian limps away to watch Raven’s Hold finish consuming itself. He can see several people on the roof, the figures cornered against the side. One man jumps and shatters on the ground, making one wonder if any of the patients and staff members were real. The rest of the survivors huddle together as the abysses converge on them and the entire building blinks out of existence. With Raven’s Hold no longer in the way, Ian can see to the pier where a lone figure is patiently waiting.

West Park Asylum

Ian calmly walks toward Dr. Rutherford’s office while orderlies and guards run by to stop the brewing riot. Coming to the door, he leans against the far wall and waits for the hallway to clear of watchful eyes. He chuckles when he sees that the name plate has fallen off and cracked in half, a sign that Corvus is trying to be funny. The sight does make Ian hesitate when he approaches the office and he wonders if this is part of the mysterious man’s plan. Yet the desire to know more about Raven’s Hold drives him to slip inside the room and wedge a chair under the handle. He goes about pulling the small shade on the door’s window and closing all but one of the blinds. He peers outside to watch the orderlies chase a few patients around the garden and to the distant tennis court. A trio of ravens watches him from the trees, the largest of them peeking at the remains of a rabbit.

“I probably don’t have much time, so let’s look at the files,” Ian whispers while approaching the desk.

Opening every drawer, he is surprised to find nothing more than piles of notebooks and clipboards. Digging to the bottom of a drawer, he tries to find the oldest information and uncover more about Corvus. Ian flips through the notebook and frowns when he sees nothing more than illegible scribbles. A knot forms in his stomach as he rapidly checks every piece of paper in the desk and tosses each one to the floor. None of them have clear words and remind him of when a person pretends to write something down. The only objects he can discern on the pages are the occasional raven doodles that the late doctor had put in the margins.

As the distant shouting grows louder, Ian turns his attention to the filing cabinets and finds the same useless pen marks. He has some hope when he finds a folder full of yellowed newspaper clippings, but they are nothing more than old articles on psychology and the benefits of therapy. Only one of them mentions Dr. Rutherford and how she graduated from the top of her class. The article is nothing more than a biographical piece from her college paper, which only reveals her ambition and previous success. The quote from the doctor talks about changing the world even if it does not want to be changed, which sounds both egotistical and bizarrely noble to Ian. If anything, he has no idea how somebody that wants to make the world a better place would end up creating Raven’s Hold.

“There has to be something on Corvus in here,” Ian says to himself while he walks among the strewn papers. He wanders to a bookcase and checks the largest tome to see if it has real words in it. “These are real, but the spines are so stiff. It’s like they’ve never been opened, which wouldn’t surprise me. She could have hidden the information in one of the books, but there are too many to check. I’m pushing my luck already. Maybe I’m wrong and she did keep everything in the staff area. Kind of risky considering Corvus isn’t something she’d want other people to know about. I think. I’m not really sure what he is.”

Flapping wings beat on the windows, so Ian goes to open the blinds and finds the massive flock of ravens have gathered outside. Barely moving and patient, the ebony birds are perched in the trees and on the fences. The grass is masked by those that were too slow to get a higher seat for whatever is about to occur. Gazing out to the forest, Ian notices that there are no leaves on the branches and the black coating are more ravens. He remembers that there were people outside and searches for them, which makes him nervously aware that the shouting has stopped. With nothing to hear besides the occasional caw and ruffling feathers, the young man fears that he may be the only person left on the island.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, Corvus, but bringing your own house down won’t help you,” Ian says, earning a hiss from the nearest bird. Backing away from the window, he relaxes when he hears several people rush by the door. “Guess they got everything under control, which means they’ll check the office soon. I don’t care if they find me in here, but I want to uncover something. Where could she have hidden the information?”

“You assume there’s something to be found,” Corvus answers, his voice emanating from the flock outside. One of the ravens leaps onto the sill and opens its mouth to reveal a human tongue inside. “I can always rebuild my home. The question is if the same can be said about you. I don’t know why you’re so driven to learn about me. You can live here in bliss like the others. Even your sister has found a role here.”

“What about her husband and daughters?”

The raven ruffles its feathers to appear twice its normal size and releases a maniacal chuckle. “Wives and mothers are lost all the time. The girls will survive and grow up. If either of them perk my interest then I’ll use their mother to bring them to me. After all, I prefer to have damaged toys.”

Ian grabs the nearest blunt object, which is a raven-shaped paperweight, and hurls it at the bird. The animal explodes into a curtain of feathers and the rest of the flock takes to the sky where they circle the entire island. Watching the mass of shadows, Ian gets an idea and hurries around the room in search of every raven figurine. He smashes each one on the floor, which causes the building to rumble and the island to gradually lose its color. Grabbing a book, he throws it at the stuffed bird above the door to knock the yellow-eyed decoration down. Pouncing on the raven, he tears its head off to find a crisp piece of paper inside. The quakes stop and Ian can hear a sigh of defeat that chills his blood.

“This is an invitation to Raven’s Hold and it’s addressed to Dr. Rutherford. It was sent thirty-seven years ago,” he says, jumping when the door shakes from a strong blow. He moves to a corner and searches for a weapon, but all he can find is a wooden backscratcher. “I thought she made this place and you were a patient who took over. Maybe even an entity that she uncovered or something. I mean, you’re obviously not human. Never thought you were behind Raven’s Hold. Are you even listening, Corvus?”

“Sweetie isn’t happy with you, little puppy,” Dawn whispers as she slips through the window. The brunette is wearing a beautiful wedding dress and spins a bouquet that is made of rose-colored knives. “We were happy here and you ruined it. Every chance we gave you to be part of our family was thrown in our faces. Because of you, we had to kill Grace and so many patients. All to keep up appearances and remove the threats. Now I might have to go away and on my wedding day too.”

“Why didn’t you just kill me?” Ian asks while he moves for the door and points the backscratcher at the weeping woman. He trips over a large object and crashes to the floor next to a gutted unicorn. “If I was becoming such a threat then you could have eliminated me like you did with the others. So, why am I still alive?”

“I don’t know, but I still hate you. I want you to suffer for hurting my sweetie,” the young woman answers, wiping her tears with the sharp bouquet. Deep cuts are left beneath her eyes, which bleed down her cheeks, along her neck, and under her collar. “Maybe sweetie saw something in you that he wanted. He senses stuff even from so far away, but he doesn’t always know what it is. That’s how I came here. He had Grace bring me to his world and raised me from the depths. He would have done the same to you, but you’re so ungrateful, little puppy. Such a naughty, evil little puppy.”

Ian scrambles to his feet and backs against the door, which merges with the wall. “What are you two?”

“My name is Dawn Addison and I was alone until my sweetie freed me from my prison. He makes me whole and you’re being a bad puppy,” the woman replies. She kneels next to the dead animal and removes its horn, slipping the golden piece under her skirts. “My sweetie holds reality in his hands, but the human world is cruel. He was driven into the shadows and took refuge on this island. Lonely and bored, he created Raven’s Hold to bring the broken ones to his doorstep. Then he found Grace and they turned his haven into an Eden for those of us strong enough to thrive in his world. Nobody really misses people like you, little puppy. Eventually they stop looking and write down that you died by your own hand. Funny how you don’t need a body to claim somebody is dead.”

“So you’re human?”

“I’m his imperfect, loving bride.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“That’s because you’re too normal. Sadly, it’s too late to fix that.”

When Dawn surges forward, Ian swings the backscratcher and catches her in the eye. As she screams and flails, the bouquet still slashes him across the chest. Falling back in pain, the young man passes through the door as if it is not there and lands in the hallway. With a rippling shriek, Dawn tries to follow by pouncing through the entrance. She makes it halfway through before the wood becomes solid and she is trapped within the portal. Crying and cursing, the brunette beats on the floor and tries to free herself while Ian backs away. A look of surprise is on the woman’s face before she is violently yanked back into the office and the doorway changes into a piece of solid wall.

Without a window to see through, Ian is unaware of the desolate wasteland that covering the island. From the depths of the distant lake, a figure composed of shadows and feathers emerges. Corvus sheds his outer coating and gazes at the raven-infested sky, the brief views of the sun too much for his amber eyes. Having been in the basement for decades, he savors his first breath of fresh air and releases a tired sigh. Staring at Raven’s Hold, he can see patches of the distant building blinking out of existence. The screams of those inside the vanishing sections makes his heart ache, which cause the barbed vines of the forest to race toward the shore.

“Now my home crumbles before my eyes,” Corvus whispers while a black suit sprouts from his exposed skin. Reaching down, he captures the last flower of the island and tucks the green blossom into his lapel. “And on my wedding day too.”