This is just something that's been in my head. It may or may not develop into an actual story.
Gabriel felt a cool breeze blow across him. The smell of smoke a char filled his nostrils. He opened his eyes to stare at the wispy clouds sliding lazily across the blue sky. At the corners of his vision he saw the ends of blackened wooden beams. As the wind breathed gently again, little clouds of ash floated up and curled their way through the air. Gabriel focused on the clouds, feeling detached and calm.
The sound of fluttering wings invaded the relative silence, and as sudden puff of ash rose chaotically up next to Gabriel’s head. He watched as the particles of debris gradually slowed their turning in the air and gently began to float down. Then a loud cracking caw in his ear made him jump. He turned his head to find the large black shape of a crow. It stared down at him with one eye, it’s head cocked slightly. Groggily Gabriel realized that its eye was blue.
The boy and the bird watched each other silently, unmoving. Slowly Gabriel began to feel less like he’d just woken up in he middle of a dream. As reality gradually reestablished itself, Gabriel began to think. The crow leaped unexpectedly into the air, beating its wings heavily. Gabriel sat up quickly as it rose with surprising grace. He was momentarily blinded as the blood rushed around in his head. Regaining his sense, Gabriel saw the crow land smoothly on top of one of the charred beams that had once supported the church.
Finally Gabriel searched his surroundings. Yes, the building had been a church, but no longer. Most of what had been walls and the ceiling were now cold and crumbling coals. Large black chunks of the thicker support beams lay next to their cracked bases, dead and useless. The burnt wreckage looked days old, for not a single wisp of smoke rose from the ashes. Ash was disturbed only by the wind, and was otherwise settled.
The crow caught Gabriel’s attention once more as it took off into the sky, disappearing quickly over tall trees untouched by any fire. Gabriel watched the spot were it had disappeared while he tried to remember what had happened. The small church was tucked away on a hill in the woods, a mile from the town it was supposed to have serviced. There was no damage to anything but the church, from what Gabriel could see, though there seemed to be plenty of trees nearby that should have burned. He couldn’t remember how the fire started, or even seeing a fire at all. He couldn’t remember if he’d been in the church when it was burning, or if he’d come afterward.
No, he thought, not after the fire, but before it. And suddenly he remembered. A sudden shock jolted through his body and he brought his hand to his forehead with a gasp. He pressed against his skin with his fingertips, searching for a mark or pain, but found only smooth, undamaged flesh. Impossible. He took a deep breath and let it slowly out, staring blankly past his hand. It was impossible that he was alive.
