The village of Cedarwood was strangely peaceful, except for a single ash-colored wooden house at the end of the road — where every morning, residents heard a persistent “knock…knock…knock…” knocking on the second-floor window.
“That crow is coming again.”
People whispered as they passed by.
The homeowner, Daniel Ross, 34, lived alone after his fiancée, Amelia Hart, disappeared the night before their wedding, three years ago. No body, no trace, just one unanswered question: Where had Amelia disappeared?
And since that day, a black crow has been knocking on Daniel’s door, every morning at exactly 5:47.
At first, Daniel thought it was just a meaningless habit. He even waved his hand to shoo it away, but the crow was never afraid. One day, he noticed it carrying small objects — pieces of cloth, buttons, keys — and placing them on the windowsill.
Gradually, the pile grew. Daniel was about to throw it away when a piece of metal glinted in the small pile: a broken silver ring, identical to the pair he and Amelia had commissioned.
His heart sank.
“It can’t be…”
He began to note the times the crow appeared. Every day, at the same time, flying in the same direction from the Maple Woods, where Amelia used to love to walk.
After 1,000 days of being haunted by the knocking sound, Daniel decided to install a security camera pointed directly at the second-floor window. He wanted to see what the crow was really doing — and why it always carried reminders of the past.
That night, he sat staring at the screen. 5:46… then 5:47.
The crow appeared as usual. But this time, it didn’t knock right away. It tilted its head, pecked lightly at the wooden frame, then dropped a small, shiny object — and flew away.
Daniel ran up and opened the window. On the pedestal, an intact engagement ring, engraved with the letters A & D – Forever.
His heart stopped. It was Amelia’s ring — the one the police had never found.
Daniel took the ring to the police. But they only said: “It could be a copy. Without new evidence, we can’t reopen the case.”
Reluctantly, he followed the direction the crow flew. The trail led deep into the Maple Forest, where he had dated Amelia. In the middle of the forest, he found a torn piece of white cloth stuck to a branch — the exact type of wedding dress Amelia had worn the night she disappeared.
The crow appeared, perched on a branch, cawing as if to signal.
Daniel followed — until he saw a collapsed hole, revealing rotten wood, cracked cement, and a metal box.
Inside the box, Daniel found a phone with a cracked screen, still holding Amelia’s last video.
“If someone sees this, I might be gone. I heard his car coming, I was scared… if anything happens, don’t trust him, Daniel…”
The video stops, but at the end there’s a mirror frame—the face of a man Daniel immediately recognizes: his best friend, Scott Wilkins.
Scott was the best man at the wedding, and the largest shareholder in Daniel and Amelia’s fashion company. When Amelia disappeared, he was the one who comforted Daniel, arranged a symbolic funeral, and even helped him sell his shares to “start over.”
Daniel understands now: Scott didn’t just betray her—he killed Amelia to take over the company.
But how to prove it? The video is blurry, the police once searched the Maple Forest but couldn’t find the body.
Daniel decides to lure Scott back to where the crime began.
He invites Scott to his house, pretending to say:
“Someone reported that Amelia’s wedding dress was found in the woods. I want you to go identify it.”
Scott paused for a moment, but then smiled: “It’s been three years, Daniel. Maybe you should let go.”
“I just need to finish this one last time.”
They arrived at the Maple Forest at dusk. As they approached the hole, Daniel turned on the recorder. The crow was perched on a branch above Scott, staring as if waiting.
Daniel pointed to the ground:
“This place… looks like it’s been dug up and filled in before. Does it look familiar?”
Scott laughed awkwardly.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
But when the caw rang out, Scott’s face suddenly paled.
“This crow… is still there after three years?”
Daniel looked him straight in the eye:
“It’s the only witness left.”
Scott laughed loudly, trying to stay calm, then shouted:
“You’re crazy! I didn’t do anything!”
But when Daniel took out the ring, the light reflected on his face — Scott’s eyes darkened, and he blurted out:
“That… impossible! I buried it with that girl!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Daniel activated his recording phone, and at the same time, a flashlight shone from behind — the police appeared.
Scott was handcuffed, still screaming:
“Impossible… how do you know?”
Daniel turned around, pointing to the tree branch.
The crow was still standing there, looking at them, then flying around, making a sound that echoed throughout the forest — “Knock… knock… knock…”
A few days later, while the police were excavating the area, they found Amelia’s body, still in her wedding dress, buried deep in the ground. What was strange was that she was still holding something tightly in her hand — a small silver mirror.
When people looked into it, they discovered a small bird’s claw mark carved into the mirror’s surface. The examination showed that the mark had appeared several times after her death — as if the crow had been digging, scratching, searching for her for the past three years.
No one knew why it wasm so. Some say Amelia once rescued an injured baby crow, raising it in the backyard. Perhaps it was grateful, or simply the only thing that recognized her.
Three years had passed since Daniel moved out of the old house, but every dawn, he still heard the knocking echo in his memory: “Knock… knock… knock…”
He kept the ring on the windowsill, next to Amelia’s picture. And sometimes, a small black shadow landed on the wooden frame, looked at him, and flew away—as if its mission had been accomplished.
“Thank you,” he whispered, “for bringing her home.”
And somewhere in the gray sky, the sound of wings—the rhythm of a faithful spirit,
the crow carrying the truth that humans had forgotten.
