the light shines through the branches of the boudreaux willow, through the tiny bones of bird corpses hanging high on the spreading branches like second leaves. near the trunk of the old willow tree the Boudreaux's only son sleeps, with his back pressed into the cold earth. face turned to the sky, the light casts shadows on the boy's sharp features. the wind sings to him like the hymns of a choir. it's the closest thing to heaven the boy will have, amidst ominous visions and coffins of random strangers. no more voices of the dead whispering in his ear. only a sweet melody plays as background music. The willow is the only thing not completely dead on the Boudreaux property. it vibrates with life, except for the dead who hang in it. Harley can feel the change coming, feel the air shift around him. the wind picked up enough to wake him from his sleep. watching the leaves fall from the tree, the branches grow and come to life in horror. bird corpses transformed into living ones. as if they were reliving their last moments, before life left their tiny bodies. if he closes his eyes maybe the nightmares will disappear. he closes them tighter until his vision goes white. the wind dies around him, everything is silent. he keeps his eyes closed in fear, fear of what he might see if he opens them. A soft touch kisses his skin. peeking out from under her long eyelashes, light floods her gaze. raising a hand to block the overwhelming light from her eyes, Harley notices a small white feather. he wondered if angels had made their home in their willow tree. looking up he finds a white crow perched at the end of the tree branch. staring down at him with huge red eyes, so bright he could have sworn he saw the other side in them. The boy remained ap...... in the center of the card ...... he hoped for his mother's life. he wasn't sentimental or superstitious, but he was because of his mother. he smiled when she talked about witch practices and her life as a former coven witch. a time before his father. he smiled when she told him stories of old legends of their kind that were more like fairy tales. he even smiled when she kept talking about her dreams for her future. so when his voice died he stopped smiling. His mother's suicide shocked them all. everyone felt the weight of his death, but Harley had to bear the burden, except that another bond in her life had been severed and the threads that held it together were slowly unraveling. he couldn't bear to remain in the same coven that had shared bonds with his mother. in a time when most people needed the strength of their coven, he wanted to be left alone. then he walked away from the life of the coven... and didn't want to look back