A Muddy Tale

Callie shivered as she walked home from Abigail’s. The wind rustled through the treetops as the sun sank, leaving a fiery haze in its wake. A pack of wolves howled ominously in the distance. Callie walked faster.
This town her father had moved her and her brother Andy to was downright creepy. Wolves howled at the moon nearly every night, and there were crows and ravens in the hundreds nesting in the surrounding forest.
She thought she glimpsed shadows scurrying across the road more than once, though there was nobody behind her. Maybe it was a deer sprinting lithely among the layer of trees beside the road.
Road. Ha. More like a collection of potholes in a row.
Callie looked up to see a crow, cawing like a fire alarm above her.
“Hey, bird, not helping,” she snapped.
The bird landed on the ground almost beside her. It cocked its head comically, and hopped a few feet before flying up to land on a tree branch. Callie smiled as she heard it following her. Unlike everyone else, Callie didn’t think crows were bad omens at all. At least she had a travelling companion now.
The happiness vanished and Callie wished she’d brought another layer. It was freezing outside-the cold seemed to pierce through her sweater like a dagger. She was only wearing a T-shirt underneath, hardly protection against the chilly winds. She bit her lip in resolve. She told herself sternly that she was complaining for no reason; that she’d be home in just a couple of minutes.
Suddenly, instead of landing on the ground, her foot pushed right through. It couldn’t be quicksand, but the muddy area acted just like it. There was a loud slurping noise as the ground sucked more and more of her leg into the mud.
How deep could this be? Callie wondered as she struggled to pull her calf out. By now, the muck and mire was up to her knees. Moving her foot around was a chore, but she had to try and find the ground somewhere in there. There was nothing...
Callie screamed as the mud rose up to her hips. She struggled to find a hold on the road, but there was nothing but dirt to grasp. And then she felt it-a strong grip on her foot. Something was dragging her down, and it wasn’t just her weight.
“Help!” she shrieked. “Somebody, help me!”
The process of being sucked down alive was getting painful. The thing in the mud was slowly dragging the rest of her body in. Callie had never had upper body strength, and now she resented that as she attempted to pull herself up and out.
She was panting now, and she was rapidly descending into the mud. She felt it worming its way into her sweater, coating her body with the disgusting slime. Callie was in deep trouble now-the mud was up to her neck.
Up to her chin. Up to her nose.
With one last struggle, Callie pushed up so her mouth was just above the line.
“HELP ME! SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, HELP ME!”
Her cries were muffled as the force of her weight pushed her down.
Nobody answered her desperate pleas. Nobody-except the crow, who shrugged, crowed happily with a wicked gleam in its eye, and flew away.