SWW Productions: Eaten By An Owl

"You know how the saying goes.

Never trust a man who looks like an owl..."

Will: You need to calm down!

Ryder: How can a man be calm when he knows that he is facing the inevitable?

Will: Every man faces the inevitable. He faces the inevitable EVERY day.

Ryder: But for me alone the inevitable is TRULY inevitable. I know the number of my days I truly do...

Will: The name the number of thy days! Tell me! I am interested.

Ryder: I have but 5 hours in one day - that is all that I have left...

Will: Then thou know the hours if thy day! Is that a good or a bad thing? I laugh at you Ryder Spring! You are the only man in town who has nothing to worry about!

Ryder: Don't joke with me about such things!

Will: Then speak up! I know not of what thy talk...

Ryder: You have known me a long time haven't you?

Will: Long enough, I suppose.

Ryder: Seventeen years long enough?

Will: I have known you long enough to know that you are an arrogant and stubborn boar blessed with the luck of a prince! A golden boar! That is you. A boar born with a golden hide to flaunt as your royal robe to the world! And I have also known the world long enough to know that some folks have it and some folks don't. I am talking about LUCK! You have luck and lots of it apparently. But that is your business not mine.

Ryder: We were friends at college...

Will: Yes. But you had not yet fired me from my job when we were friends at college, history had as yet to weave that unhappy event for me... Ah! History, history is something that we know so little about except the useless bits that have become the subject of oblivion. So little we know! To have an eye for the unknown is the ultimate eye for a man like I! You were born with your golden boar hide, and I was born with dirt under my feet. I should have stayed in the dirt, except instead I tried to run with golden boars. It is the folly of men like me. Most common men only know how to be uncommon in situations when they should truly just stay common.

Ryder: I am no different from you.

Will: Except that you have a lot of paper in your bank. A lot of a lot of that. Enough to pay people and throw people away whenever the mood fits you. Golden boar...

Ryder: My life is full of horrors - darkness, night terrors and nightly terrors. Terrifying dreams filled with terror!

Will: So I am supposed to feel sorry for you now? I will lend you an ear for old times sake, but then there is suffering and then there is suffering, and a man who lives in a big old building like this bought with seven digit figures cannot be suffering as badly as most of the average suffering suffer. I will weep no tears for thee golden boar!

Ryder: Will you hear my tale?

Will: I said I would lend you my ear. It is yours till the stars leave. So please! Entertain my ear!

Ryder: I am not rich... Well... not like what you think. My folks were poor crab merchants living on the shore - I started out as a crab merchant you know that. I worked for the Kings long enough to put bread on the table. And it was while I was at work I met him... A strange man with a pale face. A very strange man. He asked me for directions to the church. I gave them. He thanked me. I must say again he was a grave looking fellow, sable clothes, skin as pale as the moon! And he had huge eyes, eyes like dishes! He looked like an owl! He had me sit with him on the bench by the lamp near the old church road. He said he was looking for company, and that he had travelled far from far places and that he needed rest. He told me plainly that he did not like to eat or to drink and when I offered to spend sometime with him in the local inn he said NO with a Twee Twoo. He said, "That is not for me!" and then after making a strange twee twoo with his voice, he told me he preferred the night! "I do not like the day," he continued, "I can only stand the night! The day is just too bright! And only at night can I stand on rooftops and sing without other people mentioning a thing! I always sing twee twoo it is what I do! Can I sing for you?" I told him that there was no need for that. He was shaping up to be a truly odd fellow. He would not give me his name either. He made me feel uncomfortable and I grew to bear a deep disliking for him. I felt like I needed to get away. And I reckon he knew it. I reckon he knew how I was feeling. Because just as I stood up he made me sit back down. "I will make a deal with you, twee twoo. Let me give five million to you!"

Will: So this owl-like man wanted to give you five million?

Ryder: Just like that. With five years to enjoy it!

Will: It must have been a joke!

Ryder: Obviously I was thinking the same thing! So I said yes. If it was a joke I would play. He told me I could go home now, so I did. The next day I woke up carrying on doing what I always did. I didn't think any differently about anything. Till one day I received a letter from the bank telling me I no longer owed them anything and then asking me what did I want to do with my inheritance. Hearing that blasted my mind! So I went to check on things with the bank and there it was in my personal account... five million. Just sitting there. I couldn't believe it.

Will: That is how you built your business? That is how you bought this house!

Ryder: I was rich. I could do as I liked. You know I disappeared for a few months that one year in twenty two I think? That was me going on holiday. As many holidays as I wanted! Nothing could stop me. I was invincible. And when I felt that I had had enough fun I thought about getting into business by buying a business - I was going to invest the money. I had the resources so why not? I had all the money anyone could want...

Will: And only five years to enjoy it... how much time do you have left again?

Ryder: Four hours... no three!

Will: You are starting to sweat like a pig!

Ryder: What do you expect? I am terrified beyond belief!

Will: Never thought about fleeing to another country. I mean you can do it. Sell this place free up some capital and get out! Now! Do it! Don't hang around not while you have a chance to get out!

Ryder: Don't you think I have thought about doing that already? It was the one thing that was on my mind. It has been for five years! You want to know where I was last month? I was in Tuvalu, living in a shack in a town that isn't even on the map! I went to sleep one night thinking ALL was fine, till I awoke in the witching hours with a cold sweat and a panic attack - I looked and there he was at the door, half past four, terror at my door - a man with eyes like dishes - skin as pale as the moon, clothes of sable cloth and when he opened his mouth I heard it - TWEE TWOO! My nightmares were made into flesh. I thought I was going mad! Night terrors it had to be? I have drank bad and hallucinating many a time before that day I saw that man at Tuvalu. With my hands held up ready for a fight I attacked him. Such a slight man I will crush him, I thought, but he brushed me off like I were a fly on the coat of a king. He almost squashed me, put his foot on my throat TWEE TWOO - "Only five weeks left for thee! Hee hee!" He told me that I had had my fun, and now the serious stuff had to be done. He told me it was over for me.

Will: Two hours left! Unless you put some juice in your feet it will be over! Rise up and rise out! That is what I would do if I were thee. Run for it Ryder! Please run... one hour and forty minutes. Do you think this owl man of yours will arrive at the door while I am still here?'

Ryder: That man who has the eyes of an owl does not knock on doors. He sits on roofs and he sings and he waits. He does not watch the gates he watches the windows... O yes! The chimneys any crack in the roof that is from where he will strike. That man who has frightened and haunted me for five years strikes from above not below. He will make his move against us from one of the upper rooms.

Will: Right... wait. You said us? Why did you say us? The owl-like man does not know me? I have no business with him. He is your problem. NO! I will not be dragged into this vile mess as well. I say again NO! I am going to go home. Good day to you, Ryder. I hope you figure it out. But I will not be here when that owl-like man arrives to steal you away into the night!

Ryder: You will be here. You will have no choice. There is a reason I have not fled to another country. I am fully prepared to face this night. Have been for a good long while. I have plan. Let me show you what I have in my pocket now. This is a Glock Inc. 45!

Will: What are you doing with that thing Ryder? You plan to shoot the owl? Will it work?

Ryder: I don't know about the owl. But I know it will work against you!

Will: You have gone mad! You can't do this to me! We are friends!

Ryder: At the start of this conversation you told me that we were not friends anymore. You called me a golden boar!

Will: Ryder! Please! Don't do this to me! I have family.

Ryder: I am not going to shoot you. That is not my way. Instead I am going to offer you up to the owl as a sacrifice! Maybe the owl will give me a few more years to live when it has your blood in its veins... a few more years till I can find somebody else to feed to it!

Will: Damn you Ryder! Were you ever a good man? After this night I can only say nay!

Ryder: It is the only way. I have money. You have nothing. I can change the world. You cannot do anything. You have even lost your job. You contribute nothing. Therefore I am the one who should be given the chance to live! And that is how it is going to be. Now sit in that chair! Do it! Now! The owl will be here in... thirty... twenty minutes. TEN... FIVE. The minutes are melting into seconds.

The clock strikes four. There is knocking at the door. A messenger arrives with a letter on which the words written in black ink read - "Hear singing in the roofs? Look up for I strike from above!" A tall thin pale man with dish-like eyes appears at the window. He moves through it like vapour. Ryder drops his gun and stands fully in the grip of pure unadulterated terror: a unique kind of exotic terror very few human beings fortunately will ever know. Will remains transfixed in the chair. The owl attacks. Ryder is done. Only Will shall ever be privy to the true horror that took place that night in The Perilous Hall, the home of Ryder Spring.

Now the police are investigating the matter and they arrive with a few questions for Mr Will Sutherland the good friend of the badly deceased Mr Ryder Spring...

Police: So you knew him, yes? You knew Mr Ryder Spring?

Will: O I knew him, he was a thing in town! Known by all. Rich as a king. He would never take a sting not from any man in town!

Police: And yet he died a horrible death!

Will: He did indeed - died indeed... more horribly than most will ever know. He died worse than dreams.

Police: You were there when he died? You witnessed his death? It looked like the man had been savaged by wild animals. Can you reveal any details?

Will: Ryder was eaten living by a man who looked like an owl. I watched Ryder die a death no man deserves. The memory of it will haunt me. Now I never leave the house at night... I fear the sight and sound of owls. Whenever I hear an owl I must hide under my bed... but I know nothing will save me if the owl returns to eat me. I think the owl will want to get me - for I witnessed the deed - I saw my friend die at its beak and claws. I fear now that only the owl knows the number of my days...

Only the owl knows...

THE END