"cuz there's nothin' strange about an axe with blood stains in the barn
there's always some killin' you got to do around the farm"

 –Murder In The Red Barn, Tom Waits

I awoke last night to the sound of something tearing and the bang of something on a metal roof. I sat up in bed trying to identify the location and cause of the sound. Then I heard the chickens. Chickens are silent in the dark, unless they are nervous or panicked. This sounded like panic.

I got dressed as quickly as I could, and scrounged around for a flashlight, but in the minute it took me to get out to the coop, something had run off with at least one bird, and left feathers and body parts strewn about as if in a tornado zone. I wasn't sure if the killer was still in the coop or not, and I had no idea what I might be faced with if I went inside, so I circled around and tried to get as good a look at the inside of the coop before I went in.