A Gathering of Crows.

Brian Keene.

For Skip Novak, Paul McCann and Grant Riffle.

NO ORDINARY STRANGER.

The man in black raised one hand and wiggled his fingers. As Stephen watched, the stranger's fingernails began to stretch and grow, turning into long black talons. Stephen blinked, and the man laughed hoarsely.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" In truth, it had, but Stephen wasn't about to let the guy know that.

"No," the man replied. "It's supposed to distract you."

"What do you-"

The man leaned forward and, with his other hand, punched Stephen just below his chest. Stephen grunted, more from surprise at the unexpected blow than from pain.

"Now that," the stranger said, "is supposed to scare you."

The man's arm was still extended. Stephen tried to pull away from him and found that he couldn't. Stephen coughed, and tasted blood in the back of his throat. Then the dark man pulled his arm back and held up his hand. There was something gray and pink clutched in the stranger's fist. His hand glistened wetly...

Chapter One.

When the sun went down, and dusk gave way to night, the mountain came alive. A chorus of insects buzzed and hummed in the darkness. Birds chirped from their treetop nests. Tiny frogs-called spring peepers by the locals because of the peeping sounds they made when they came out of hibernation each spring-sang to one another from shallow, hidden bogs and winding, narrow creeks. Nocturnal animals prowled the mountainside-coyotes and deer, black bears and foxes, skunks and raccoons. Leaves rustled, swaying in the light breeze. All of these sounds and more combined to form a natural cacophony as loud as any city street. The mountain thrummed with energy and life.

And then, all at once, sound and movement abruptly ceased. The mountain fell silent. Animal and insect, predator and prey-all were affected. Even the breeze became still. The only remaining sound was the low hum of the power lines, coming from the electrical tower on top of the mountain. The massive steel structure loomed over the surrounding countryside like a monolith, a modern-age Stonehenge, dour and watchful. The ground around its base had been cleared of trees and undergrowth and replaced with gravel and cement. Beyond the concrete base was a man-made clearing that cut through the forest like a scar. The clearing wound all the way down the mountainside, where further towers jutted up above the treetops. Nestled at the base of the mountain, far below the power lines, tucked safely between the river and the limestone foothills, was a small town. Its lights twinkled in the darkness like fireflies.

Mist rose from the ground around the tower's base and swirled slowly around the arches and girders. For a moment, the electrical hum grew louder. Then, one by one, five large crows with feathers as black as coal appeared, swooping down out of the moonlight and the darkness and the fog-enshrouded trees. They approached each other from different parts of the clearing and landed directly beneath the tower. Then, perched on the tower's lowest rung, they looked down upon the tiny town far below. The fog grew thicker.

A single black feather fell off one of the birds and drifted lazily to the ground, where it landed in a clump of ferns and weeds on the edge of the clearing. The feather lay there for a moment. Then the vegetation began to smoke, as if on fire, although no flames were visible. Within seconds, the vegetation had withered and turned brown. It crumbled and dissolved, leaving the feather to balance atop a small mound of ash.

The largest of the birds cried out. The caw echoed across the mountainside, seeming to gather strength in the darkness. One by one, the others joined in. The echoes boomed through the treetops. Soon, the birds' cries drowned out even the hum of the electrical transformers.

Nights in Brinkley Springs were usually quiet and serene. On most evenings, the loudest disturbance, if any, was Randy Cummings racing his four-wheel-drive truck up and down Main Street. Sometimes, if the wind was right, residents could hear the Ford's engine revving far up the mountain as he went off-roading with his friends. The truck's original paint job was hidden beneath a permanently caked layer of mud and dirt. Occasionally, Sam Harding would cruise by in his black Nissan; it had flames painted on the sides. He didn't drive fast, because he'd lowered the car to the point where hitting a pothole or a set of railroad tracks at any speed over twenty miles an hour would bottom it out, but he did like to turn the stereo up loud, and the bass would often rattle his tinted windows, as well as the windows of the houses he drove past. But most of the folks in Brinkley Springs agreed that since Randy and Sam would both be graduating in a few weeks, these were just temporary nuisances-at least until the next batch of kids got their driver's licenses.

The town was composed mostly of small, rundown, one- or two-story houses and a fragile smattering of battered mobile homes. Some of the dwellings had dirty and dented aluminum or vinyl siding. Most didn't even have that; instead, they showed bare, slowly rotting wood and peeling or faded paint. Shingles had been blown off roofs and never replaced. Porches sagged, waiting for a strong gust of wind to knock them over. For the most part, the homes in Brinkley Springs were built close enough together that you could see the next trash-strewn street or occasional outhouse peeking through behind them. The yards in front of the houses had more dirt than grass. Some held junk cars, engine blocks on cement blocks, tire swings, ceramic gnomes and cracked birdbaths, half-dead trees, stumps, weathered rabbit and chicken hutches, clothesline poles or tattered basketball nets. There was even a rusted, abandoned school bus on one weed-choked lawn. Other yards were completely vacant of even these trappings and contained only dead vegetation. Many of the houses had for-sale signs in front of them, and fully half of those were uninhabited, except by mice or the occasional snake.

No longer idyllic, Brinkley Springs barely warranted a glance from those who drove through it on their way to more exciting destinations. The town had two traffic lights and three four-way stop signs (all three bearing the rusty scars of having been peppered with shotgun pellets at some point in their existence). The town stretched twelve blocks in one direction and fifteen in the other, with a few small cattle, grain and horse farms on its borders. The black, potholed ribbon of U.S. 219 entered the town from the north, became Main Street for fifteen blocks and then transformed back into U.S. 219 again on the outskirts of town.

Most of the people in Brinkley Springs went to bed early, not out of boredom and not because of any quaint, old-fashioned ideas regarding propriety, but simply because they had to go to work the next morning, and that meant a long, arduous drive to other towns. Brinkley Springs had no industry-there were no factories or call centers or machine shops or office buildings. Nor were there any mining or timbering operations, as there were in other parts of the state. Indeed, other than Pheasant's Garage, Barry's Market, Esther Laudry's bed-and-breakfast, the small post office, a scattering of threadbare antique shops and the few surrounding farms, Brinkley Springs had no jobs at all. The last business to start up there-a privately owned turkey processing plant-had shut down after five years of operation and moved to North Carolina in search of a cheaper tax rate. Soon after, the abandoned plant burned down. Some said the fire was suspicious-a chance for the owners to collect on insurance money. Others said it was an accident. More than a few just shrugged and said it was a sign of the times. Whatever the real culprit had been, the plant was never rebuilt. All that remained was a burned-out, weed-choked lot full of broken bottles, rats and copperhead snakes. No one expected new construction to change that anytime soon. Brinkley Springs didn't attract investors or businesses looking to expand. It was far off the major highways and interstates, wedged between the mountains and nestled deep in the heart of the Greenbrier River valley-a bedroom community for those who worked in Beckley, Lewisburg, Greenbank, Roncefort, Roanoke and the other bigger, more prosperous communities within the state or just across the border in Virginia.

Brinkley Springs had never been a big town, and with each passing year, its population shrank just a little bit more. Small businesses like the pizza shop or the movie-rental store closed and never reopened. Houses were abandoned when their owners passed away, and never resold. Potholes appeared in the streets and were never fixed. The town still had a V.F.W. post and a Ruritan Club, but their membership dropped with each passing year. The fire company still had quarterly bean suppers and their annual carnival, but each time, the attendance numbers dwindled. The tiny Methodist church had seating for two hundred people but had a weekly congregation of about fifteen. The Baptist church had been closed for two years, its doors and windows shuttered and boarded over. Brinkley Springs had no police force or school buildings. It was patrolled by the state police, who swung through once or twice a day just to make their presence known, and didn't show up otherwise unless somebody called 911. Its children were bussed to the bigger schools in Lewis-burg. They left every morning and returned every evening, until they graduated. Then they went off to college or the military or a job somewhere else, and rarely returned again at all, except for holidays or a family occasion like a wedding or a funeral. And sometimes, not even then.

Still, despite all this, Brinkley Springs had its charms. The Greenbrier River ran along its eastern border and was a popular spot for both local and out-of-town fishermen, hikers and white-water rafters. The lack of posted property signs attracted hunters during deer, bear and turkey seasons, and a fair number of poachers even when those things weren't in season. The antique shops were an occasional draw for travelers and vacationers who liked to explore off the beaten path, as was Esther Laudry's bed-and-breakfast-a remodeled home built in the early 1900s-which catered to them as well as the occasional hiking or rafting enthusiast. But for the locals, Brinkley Springs was simply where they lived. Nothing more. Nothing less. A place to sleep, eat, shit and fuck. A place to play football with the kids on the weekends or watch TV at night. A place to store their cars and pets and clothing. A place to keep their stuff. Their real lives, the places where they spent most of their time, were at those jobs beyond the town limits.

Some people said that the town was dying.

They didn't know how right they were.

Concealed in shadow, five human figures sat perched upon the girders and steel crossbeams that the crows had occupied on the electrical tower earlier. They were dressed alike-black pants and shirts, black shoes, black hats, and long black coats that flowed to their heels. A passerby might have found their similar garb strangely reminiscent of America's Colonial period, except for its color and the way the fabric seemed to blend with the darkness. Even their facial features were similar; they each had pointed noses and chins, dark eyes and even darker hair. They only differed in size, but even that was slight. The largest stood well over six feet tall. The others were within a few inches of that. Each of them seemed to defer to the biggest, who sat idly, head bobbing back and forth strangely on his almost nonexistent neck as he stared at the town below. Finally, he spoke. His voice was like breaking glass.

"It is good to see you again, brothers."

"Indeed," the second one replied. "The years between each gathering seem to grow longer with time."

"Much has changed since we were last together in these forms," the third figure said, staring at the town and then up at the electrical lines.

"Not really," said the first. "Their technology has advanced since we were last all together like this, but they are still the same-ignorant, petty little beasts, for the most part oblivious to the larger universe around them. They do not change, even as their world changes around them. They are animated meat. Nothing more."

"So were we-once."

"But then we were freed. We were transformed by his grace. Glory be to Meeble."

The others nodded in agreement. Then the fourth figure raised one arm and pointed at the town.

"Is that it? This is why we were summoned tonight? This is where we will feed? This is where we will spread his work?"

"It is," the first answered. "Brinkley Springs, West Virginia."

"West Virginia?" The third figure arched an eyebrow. "Virginia? Are we close to Roanoke, then?"

"Yes," said the first, "but it is not the Roanoke you're thinking of. It is a different town. Named for that one, perhaps. And therein is a great example of irony. As I said, they are ignorant. They know not the importance of naming. They have forgotten it. The more they advance, the less they remember."

"Brinkley Springs." The second one frowned. "It seems...rustic."

"They always do," the first said. "They always have."

The second shrugged. "I do not doubt that, my brother. I just..."

"What?"

"I often wonder, with all of their advances, why we don't feed on a larger scale? Imagine how magnificent our night would be were we to focus our efforts on a major metropolitan area. Think of how much more we could do. To murder an entire city? That would be glorious!"

"Perhaps," said the first, "but then you are thinking of your own glory, rather than the glory of our master. Until the door is opened again and he walks this Earth once more, we must act only out of necessity, and then with utmost caution. Killing an entire city? To conduct our endeavors in such a grandiose manner would attract unwanted attention. Undoubtedly, there are still a few magi among them whose power matches our own. For all we know, they may have organized in the years since we last walked among them. We may be met with resistance."

"Yes, that is true. Perhaps we may find one who knows how to banish us from this realm."

The first one ignored the comment but the others murmured to each other. They fell silent when he spoke again.

"And," the first continued, "were we to focus our attention on an entire city, I daresay we would not finish before the dawn. It would be time to slumber again before we were done, and our efforts would remain incomplete. At the very least, we would certainly leave witnesses behind. They could tell others what had occurred, and when we awoke again, they might be prepared for our arrival. Our master, when he arrives-and he will arrive one day-would be...displeased."

A collective shudder ran through the group. They nodded silently.

"Sunrise comes early," sighed the third after a few minute's pause. "Would that we had more than one paltry night."

"We will," promised the first. "One day we will. He has promised us it will be so. But for now, let us make the most of the time we do have. As you say, sunrise comes early. Until then, it is good to be with you all again, and it is good to be awake. I need to stretch my limbs after the long sleep."

"True," agreed the shortest. "And I am hungry. Nay-famished."

"As are we all. Let us begin. Let us feast. Let us murder. Let us glorify him from whom we have sprung."

And then they did.

The electrical tower was the first to fall. It crashed to the ground with a horrendous roar of twisting, shrieking metal and crackling sparks. Immediately, the twinkling lights disappeared in the valley below. The fallen cables hissed and spit, coiling and thrashing like wounded snakes. The leaves, weeds and other debris began to smolder. The figures seemed unconcerned at the prospect of a forest fire.

"Should we take down the others?" The shortest pointed at the other electrical towers looming above the treetops in the distance.

"Why bother?" The large one nodded toward Brinkley Springs. "That has achieved our first goal-to instill unease and seed their fear. The soul cage will do the rest, once we construct it from the five points. Don't waste time here. Why rend metal when we could be ripping flesh instead?"

Side by side, the five figures walked down the mountainside, laughing as they went. The grass in the clearing withered and died in their wake. The fog grew thicker. Trees groaned. A mother bear, crazed with fear, slaughtered her own cubs rather than letting them fall victim to the presence permeating the mountain. Then she repeatedly smashed her head into a gnarled, wide oak tree until brains and bark littered the ground. Deep inside its den, a rattlesnake swallowed its own tail, jaws opening wider to accommodate its length and girth. Driven by a nameless, unfathomable fear, a herd of deer flung themselves from a cliff and burst open on the jagged rocks below. A pack of coyotes that had been tracking the herd followed along a moment later, dashing themselves upon the deer's broken bodies. Bones splintered. Blood splattered.

Overhead, a thick bank of clouds drifted over the moon, slowly covering it until it was gone from sight.

Down in Brinkley Springs, the darkness grew deeper and the dogs began to howl.

Chapter Two.

When the power went out, Axel Perry was sitting in the wicker rocking chair on his sagging front porch, sipping a bottle of hard cider, listening to the spring peepers and thinking about his dead wife. For a few seconds, he didn't notice the electrical outage. After all, he had no radio or television playing in the background. The only time he watched television was when the West Virginia Mountaineers were playing, and he had no patience for the radio these days-the country stations all sounded like rock stations, and everything else was just the white noise of talk radio. Axel hated talk radio. Everybody was a conservative or a liberal these days, with no room for folks in the middle of the road. All of the good stuff had moved over to satellite radio. He'd thought about buying one, but money was tight and satellite coverage here in the valley was spotty at best. Most of the time, the signals were weak or constantly interrupted. The same thing happened with cell phones and wireless Internet service. Axel had dial-up Internet service that his son and daughter-in-law had bought him to go along with the computer they'd given him for his birthday. They'd come to visit for a week-driving all the way from Vermont to Brinkley Springs-and had taken him to Wal-Mart and picked it out from the computers on display. Then they'd brought it home and made a big deal out of showing him how to work it. They said he'd be able to stay in touch more often, and that they could send him pictures of his grandkids instantly-he wouldn't have to wait on the mail. He'd tried it a few times, but his curiosity had soon waned. Looking at pictures of his grandchildren on a computer screen just wasn't the same as looking at them while paging through a photo album-and neither option compared to actually holding the kids in his arms or hearing them laugh and play in his backyard. Plus, staring at pictures of the grandkids just made his loneliness and sadness that much more complete.

At least once a day, Axel wished that he would die. If he'd had the nerve, he'd have killed himself. But he didn't have the nerve. What if he messed up? What if he made a mistake? What if he lay there in his home, paralyzed or wounded and unable to call for help? Who would find him? The answer was nobody, because no one ever checked in on him. He was an old man living alone in an old house, with only his old, waning memories to keep him company.

He missed his wife, Diane-gone ten years now, not from cancer or a heart attack or diabetes or any of the other plagues that came with old age, but from a drunk driver. They'd taken a bus trip together to Washington, D.C., to see the cherry blossoms for their fiftieth wedding anniversary. On the way back home, a drunken driver had drifted into their lane and sideswiped the bus. The bus driver then swerved off the road and hit a tree. A few folks were injured, but most escaped without a scratch. Except for Diane. She was thrown forward and banged her head against the seat in front of her-hard enough to cause her skull to separate from her spinal column. The doctor had called it internal decapitation. Axel had called it abandonment, and although he missed Diane every day and had been distraught over the loss, there were times when he grew angry with her for going off and leaving him behind to fend for himself. Learning to live on his own had been hard, and he still hadn't mastered it. Even now, with a decade to get used to the idea, he still found himself opening his mouth to tell her something throughout the day, maybe a passing comment regarding something he'd read in a magazine, or a bit of gossip he'd heard down at Barry's Market. Sometimes at night, he'd roll over and reach for her and wonder where she'd gone.

Still, he went on. He survived. What else was there to do?

Sitting on the porch at night, drinking a bottle of beer or hard cider (but never more than one; otherwise, he'd pay for it the next morning by spending an hour on the toilet) and listening to the spring peepers brought him peace and comfort-or at least as close to those things as he could get. The tiny frogs usually showed up in late March or early April. By the end of April, their nightly chorus was as ever present as the sky or the moon and stars. A million tiny chirplike croaks echoed from the riverbank and surrounding mountains. Sometimes, their song was muted, but it was never interrupted altogether. It would continue until fall, when the weather started to cool again.

A stray cat darted across the lawn. Axel called to it, but the wary animal kept running. He'd thought about getting a dog or a cat to help ease his loneliness, but had ultimately decided against it because he didn't know who would take care of it if he passed on.

The chair creaked as Axel leaned back and stretched. He raised the bottle to his lips, took another swig and closed his eyes, letting the sound of the peepers wash over him. Diane had always enjoyed listening to them, too. Unlike most of the other things they'd shared, he didn't get sad when listening to the frogs. Their sound seemed to buoy his spirits. Listening to them made him feel close to her.

"I miss you, darlin'. Wish you were here tonight."

Across the street, Bobby Sullivan sat on a pile of dirt in his front yard, playing with Matchbox cars. A plastic car carrier-one of the little ones that looked like a suitcase-was open before him, and more cars littered the ground around the six-year-old's feet. He made vroom-vroom sounds as he guided the cars through the dirt. His mother, Jean, hollered for him through the screen door, telling him it was time to come inside. Smiling, Axel watched the boy linger, slowly putting his cars away, trying to milk as much time as possible before his mother called for him again. Sure enough, she did, her voice more insistent this time. Bobby shuffled toward the house, shoulders slumped dejectedly. He paused to wave at Axel. Still smiling, Axel waved back. Bobby went inside. The screen door banged shut behind him. The Sullivan's porch light came on. The kitchen light glowed through the window. Inside, Jean and Bobby would be sitting down for supper. Occasionally, Jean brought a plate over to Axel. Most times, though, they ate as a family. Axel didn't know anything about Bobby's father, if he was alive or dead or if Jean even knew who he was. He guessed that didn't matter. The two of them-mother and son-made a fine family.

He glanced down the street. For-sale signs dotted many of the yards. The signs were as weathered and faded as the houses they advertised. Weeds grew up around them, the yards not mowed since the owners had left. Axel had known most of the people who lived in those homes at one time. They'd been his neighbors, and in many cases, his friends. Now they were gone, just like Diane-passed away or moved on, living in a retirement community or with their kids or, in the case of some of his younger neighbors, some place where the economy was better and taxes were lower and jobs still existed. He wondered what would happen to his house when he died. Would it sit here like all these others, dying slowly from wood rot and neglect?

These were supposed to be his golden years, but in Axel's experience, the only thing ever gold in color was piss. He thought about how excited folks had been at the prospect of a new president and a new beginning for the country. All that excitement had waned now. The nation was back to business as usual. Same old story. Same old song and dance. The media said things were getting better, that the economy was improving and folks were happier again. Axel thought that the media wouldn't know what things were like for the average American even if that average American were to walk up and bite them on the ass.

Sighing, Axel sat the bottle down and rubbed his arthritic hands. The spring peepers continued with their serenade, oblivious to his thoughts, concerns or mood.

Farther up the street, the porch light was on in front of Esther Laudry's bed-and-breakfast. Axel assumed that Esther must be happy tonight. She had a boarder, after all. That in itself was rare these days. And this wasn't just any boarder either. If the buggy parked outside was any indication, her overnight guest was Amish. Axel had run into Greg Pheasant earlier, and Greg had confirmed this. The Amish fella had come into town around four in the afternoon and had stopped at the garage that Greg ran with his brother Gus. He'd asked Greg if there was a hotel nearby. Greg had steered him toward Esther's, where he'd taken a room for the night. Greg said that the guy had seemed friendly enough. After parking his buggy along the street, he'd tied his horse down near the river. Axel didn't know much about the Amish, other than what he'd seen in that movie with Harrison Ford, but he supposed they must travel just like other folks. He'd heard tell that there was an Amish community up near Punkin Center. Perhaps this guy was on his way there to visit kin. If so, then good for him. Family was important.

For a moment, Axel's attention was distracted by another noise-a faint, far-away groan, the sound a tree might make as it fell over. There was a distant crash and then nothing, except for the sound of the peepers. He couldn't be sure if he'd imagined the sounds or not. His hearing wasn't as good as it had once been. He was just about to shrug it off when he noticed that Esther's lights had gone off. Across the street, he heard Jean Sullivan holler, "Oh, come on! I paid the bill." He glanced in that direction and saw that her lights were out, as well. Then Axel noticed something else.

The spring peepers had stopped singing.

He took a deep breath and counted, waiting for them to start again.

One...two...three...come on, you crazy little things. Sing for me.

He shivered. The air was growing chillier. His skin prickled and the hair on his arms felt charged.

The Sullivans' screen door banged open. Jean poked her head out.

"Axel," she called. "Is your electricity off?"

"I believe it may be out all over, Jean. Looks like Esther's is out, too. Reckon a line's down somewhere."

"Well, that's a relief. I thought they'd turned my power off."

Shaking her head, she went back inside. Axel strained his ears and heard her soothing Bobby. Then he went back to counting.

Four...five...six...come on, damn it. Peep!

Up the street, the Marshalls' mangy old beagle began to howl. The sudden noise startled Axel, and he jumped in his chair. The dog howled again. It was a lonely, mournful sound-not anything like the happy call a beagle made when it was chasing a rabbit. A moment later, it was joined by Paul Crowley's bear dogs in the kennel behind Paul's house. Then, one by one, all of the dogs in Brinkley Springs joined in. The sound was unsettling, to say the least.

"What the hell is going on?"

Then Axel remembered that there was nobody around to answer him.

He waited for the spring peepers to resume their chorus, but they didn't. Their silence was unsettlingly loud-much louder than the dogs were. Axel rubbed his hands some more and wondered what was happening. The aching grew more severe. He thought of Diane again, but this time, he wasn't sure why.

Jean Sullivan returned to the kitchen table, where her son, Bobby, sat in the dark. His eyes were big and round, and he had the tip of one index finger stuck in his mouth-something he'd done since he was a toddler whenever he was scared or nervous. She assured him that everything was okay, and then fumbled around in one of the drawers beside the sink until she found some half-burned candles and a box of wooden matches. She lit a candle, blew out the match and tossed the smoldering stick in the sink, and then walked around the first floor of their home, lighting all of the other candles she could find. Since she'd bought most of them at craft stores, the home soon smelled of competing fragrances-vanilla and strawberries and lavender and potpourri. The soft glow slowly filled the house, chasing away her discomfort. Jean wasn't sure why, but the sudden power outage had left her unsettled. The flickering candlelight made her feel better. She walked back into the kitchen and smiled at Bobby. He smiled back, clearly feeling better too, now that they had light again.

"What happened, Mommy?"

"I don't know, baby. Somebody probably crashed their car into a pole somewhere. Or maybe a tree limb fell down on one of the lines. I'm sure they'll have it up and running again soon."

"Can I watch a movie?"

"Not while the electricity is off. Maybe we can read a book tonight instead."