Pomeroy Street was silent. Even though it was 8:00 on a Wednesday and the weather was promising to be good, with no rain clouds in sight. It was so quiet that Ianto was sure that there was no-one else in the little street, even behind the curtained windows.

He realized that he was wrong. There was something else.  A crow sat on the bonnet of a stationary car, pecking at something on the windscreen. Then, Ianto noticed another crow, perched on garden fence. It was, Ianto mused, like when you look at the ground and watch an ant scuttling around and suddenly you start to see more and more ants until you realize that the whole place is swarming with them and you’re sitting in the middle of a nest.

Crows squatted on every available perch. Silent rows of black wraiths along rooftops, phone wires, walls, cars, trees, even the post box on the corner was black with feathered bodies. All staring at the five humans in their midst.

In a messy flutter and a whirlwind of feathers, a large crow landed in the middle of the road, cocking its head on one side. It shuffled forward, its clawed feet scraping the ground was the only sound in the soft silence. It wasn’t that close to them but Ianto could see its pale, ice blue beady eyes pinned on them. All three of its pale, beady eyes. Maybe these weren’t just crows.

Jack broke the silence.

“Do you know” he asked Ianto “what the collective noun for crows is?”

Unable to tear himself away from the gaze of hundreds of trios of eyes, Ianto shook his head.

“It’s a murder of crows” Jack said, with a slight shiver, adding “I don’t know about you, but I always preferred ‘a dopping of ducks’.”

Attention caught by the sound of Jack’s voice, the crow’s eyes locked onto him. And it spoke.

“Broken.” It croaked in a harsh voice. It took a step closer. “wrong.” another step. “Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.” For each word it took a step closer.

“Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.” One by one the other crows joined in until all Ianto could hear was shouting.

“Wrong. Wrong. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG…”

Black shapes rose from their perches to create a blizzard of black feathers.

“WRONGWRONGWRONGWWRONG”

Ianto could dimly hear Jack shouting “...down…nto! Get….own!” Ianto dropped to his knees, covering his face to protect against sharp talons and beaks.

Then he heard a young voice above the cacophony of harsh cries, it was a quiet voice but it sounded clear against the backdrop of cawing and Jack’s muffled shouts:

“Stop it! Stop hurting them!” and immediately the crows lifted away, flapping back to their silent posts.

A little girl of about six or seven stood in the middle of the road. She had blond hair and serious brown eyes.

“Are you ok, sweetie?” Gwen asked, still slightly breathless. Like everyone else, she was covered in scratches, but the little girl was untouched. She nodded imperiously in answer to Gwen’s question.

Jack stood up slowly.

“Who are you?”

The girl smiled “I am Someone.” She answered, somewhat cryptically.

“I know that, everyone is someone...oh.” Jack realized as the girl laughed. “you mean that ‘Someone’ is you’re name, don’t you?” he asked. The girl nodded, laughing.

“Where are you…” Jack began, but before he could finish a crow interrupted.

“No more questions. No more questions”

Jack eyed the crow suspiciously “why not?”

“NO MORE QUESTIONS.”

Jack turned back to Someone “come with us?” He asked “we can help you…” he reached out his hand for her to take…

“NO TOUCHING! MUSN’T TOUCH!” Jack took her hand and the crows dived.

“quick! the SUV!” Jack shouted.

They barely had time to get in the car before Jack accelerated away. Ianto, in the passenger seat, ended up with Someone on his lap. Looking in the rearview mirror, Ianto saw a black cloud of crows following right behind them. Wondering how much RetCon they would need this time, he took a gun from the glove compartment.

“Cover your ears.” he warned Someone “This will be loud.” He started to open the window, but felt a small hand on his arm.

“don’t hurt them!” Someone insisted “please, you mustn’t hurt them!”

Ianto glanced over at Jack, who nodded. “ok,” he reassured her “I won’t hurt them, but can I scare them away so that they don’t follow us?”

Someone, after a moments thought, nodded.

Ianto wound down the window and fired a few shots, scattering the birds that, eventually, dispersed. With a sigh, Ianto closed the window. Probably a lot of RetCon, he decided.

 

 

 

please comment, then on to part 3

http://mogamus-ii.livejournal.com/2820.html#cutid1