A Crow, A Raven, and a Magpie

𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓢𝓱𝓮 𝓝𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓦𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓭

The sky overhead had already begun to dim. The sun was gradually lowering further and further in the sky, and what little sunlight left peered through the trees that Draven was walking beside. The walk wasn't too long from the graveyard to her home; it was only 15 minutes or so. 

The forest became thicker as she closed the distance between her and the residence she unfortunately called her home, one step at a time.

She wasn't on her phone and she wasn't entertaining herself with anything of the sort. She wasn't even listening to music. She wasn't very fond of music, as she preferred to spend most of her time in silence. The thoughts in her head were more than enough to keep her occupied.

Dirt was smeared on her shoes and slightly on her nylons. She didn't put too much effort into wiping it off, as she figured she could just wash her clothes when she got home. It wasn't too big of a deal, at least to her.

As she walked down the sidewalk, neighborhoods began to emerge from the distance. Houses in an ordinary suburban neighborhood neatly lined the sides of the roads, all with a light colored paint job, a tamed lawn with garden boxes filled with flowers, and sleek cars pulled into driveways. Draven followed the sidewalk to turn down an obscure road of the neighborhood. 

Her residence was at the end of a gloomy, dead-end street. Tall trees overhung every house's backyard, and it always seemed darker here than it actually was.

The color scheme of the exterior presented blacks and grays, but it also included warm browns and wood to break through the gothic appearance. It was at least 2 floors tall, and every window of the house was covered by indoor curtains. The portion of the home that protruded out from the rest of the house had brick-colored paneling, and a large window. To the left was the porch and stairs that led to the blue front door.

The front lawn appeared a healthy green, and practically perfect, although it was quite bare; the wide distance between the sidewalk and the home made it more eerie to Draven, but she didn't exactly understand why she felt this way.

She paused for a moment to gaze at the home. She recalled that it didn't look this unnerving when she was young. In fact, she had originally fallen in love with this home when they first moved in. It looked so much brighter back then. 

She then resumed her walking as she traced the concrete path to the porch stairs with her steps.

The stairs creaked as she walked up them. They were always noisy; not even her father could figure out why in order to fix them.

Despite the small details that made the home stand out from the rest, they never received much judgement over it. The people in the neighborhood were very close with one another; it was a nice, compact community. Most, if not all, were ordinary people. They were kind, but there were very few interesting details about them. Every person in the neighborhood that came to Draven's mind arguably had standard lives. Some were dentists, soccer moms, accountants, office workers, florists, Draven was pretty sure one of her teachers from school lived around here...

Everything was seemingly normal here, but to Draven, it wasn't.

After unlocking the door with the keys she had fished out of her pocket, she shoved the door open.

The lights in the house were dim, and always gave off a cold color. The main entryway laid open to a bathroom on the immediate right, and stairs to the left, while the large open hall led toward the living and dining room.

"Welcome home, Draven!" A voice chirped before Draven could even step foot in the door.

A humanoid figure stood by the door, and Draven wondered how long it'd been there. It presented the physique and typical features of a human, but everything about it appeared slightly off. Its skin was too smooth and extraordinarily pale, its brown center-cut mullet hair was too luscious, its blue eyes were too bright, and its emotions were too loud. It was much taller than Draven and stood at about 6 feet tall. Everything about it appeared fake and exaggerated when you looked at it for too long. It was wearing a black baggy t-shirt and gray trousers, along with a pair of brown Ugg-brand slippers. Draven despised whoever gave it casual clothes such as that.