Loss of Senses

Jenny wanders down the empty street.

All around her, critters sing. They doo-wop in time to the jazz coming down from the massive bank of clouds; they harmonize from deep within the crystal thickets of twisted glass trees. Jenny begins to distinguish words in the warbles of the instrumental insects – a whisper of the words “Remember the Raven” seems to be their chorus. Suddenly, a glimmering black bird descends before her. The dull beating of his wings emits the scent of shade, his eyes glow yellow. He tells Jenny there is nothing left for her to hear and in a two swift stabs of his beak, punctures the girl’s eardrums. The jazz stops abruptly.

Jenny perseveres down the street.

After a few paces, she notices a small flower-patch where flowers, like neon city-lights, beam iridescent. She advances towards them and notices they sway to and fro with the mute music – though there is no wind. Young Jenny reaches out towards the unusual flora. It snaps and growls at her, but despite its warning she cups the flower by its bowl of petals and yanks it from the Earth. Its light goes dead, it becomes as heavy and as cold as led in the cutting winter wind. She smells the flower. It smells like talcum and gin. She drops it and it floats dreamily to the ground, where it collapses into salt. She feels the ground shake behind her and turns around to see the Raven. He tells her she has nothing more to smell, and clips off her nose with his thick, curved beak. The remaining flowers, having nothing left to offer, all crumble to salt as well.

Jenny resumes he walk.

She drifts in silence until she feels a tingle on her arm – a cast-iron spider scuttling in circles over her skin. She screams. The metallic spider scurries up her arm, leaving behind hundreds of glittering mercury footprints. When it reaches her shoulder, it leaps from her body and rappels to a tree on a lightening bolt it projects. Jenny giggles because she still feels a million little creepy-crawlies tickling over her body. The Raven materializes again. He tells her she has nothing left to touch, unfolds his big wings and beats them thrice. The gusts they generate roll over Jenny’s body and her warm, red blood turns to pastel-colored fleece. She goes numb all over.

Jenny continues.

She sees the tree that the spider struck up ahead of her. Its countenance is sour as seawater, and sap like melted glass gushes in streams from a generous gash. Jenny approaches the tree to examine its wound. With her flange, she wipes a southbound drop off of the trunk. To the world, it smells sour and vile – but to young Jenny it seems like a tempting mouthful of sparkling Ambrosia. She puts the finger to her lips, and then pushes it in. It tastes like blood and pennies. Her face becomes as sour as that of the wounded, but she swallows nonetheless. Again, the bird plummets from the heavens. He tells her that there is nothing left for her to taste, pries open her lips and clips out her sticky, spongy tongue. A faint rumor of blood lingers in her mouth until she swallows.

Jenny’s walk goes on.

All of a sudden, day becomes night. The sky goes black, and stars appear suddenly, like punctures, accompanied with the sounds of the solfege. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. And again. Until it stops at fa… when there are no more stars to appear. A shadowy giant hangs the moon, like a ceramic plate, from a nail in the sky. It seems very close. From the top branch of his tree, a rascally creature reaches out and touches it. It teeters so menacingly on its hook that the animal skitters away. Jenny stares at the moon and the stars. The moon is round and white, but the stars are more flaxen. Before she could look away, Jenny realizes two aligned stars are the eyes of the raven coming towards her. His beak is open to the width between young Jenny’s eyes. She’s staring straight up at the cosmos and he’s ripping through the night towards her face. His beak simultaneously penetrates both her eyes. They deflate. The moon and stars disappear.
“There was nothing more for you to see, Young Jenny.”

Jenny screams so loud one would say she’d lost her senses. Then, she goes stiff, dries out and turns to ash. The wind blows her over onto the ground.