It all began when someone left the window open. It had been an unusually warm day for late January, the snow that had fallen a few days before had completely melted away, and a few birds chirped in the nearby tree. The house needed to breathe. Its doors had been forced shut for over a month, opening and closing just far enough for its inhabitants to slip in and out. But this being an unusually warm day, the house finally got the chance to breathe.
Every window and every door was yanked wide open, a cool breeze flowing freely through the halls of the stuffy house. The wind forced movement through the stagnant house, making the curtains dance around the windows, and slamming doors shut and open again with its force. But as night fell, the temperature dropped and everything shut again. The house was once again trapped in its fresh, oxygenless prison. Except for one room.
Through the giddiness of having gotten the task to open and shut all of the windows, the youngest child of the family had forgotten one. Typically, this would not have done much harm, but the forgotten window was in the upstairs office rarely visited by the family. And the unusually warm day had led to an unusually cold night.
As soon as night fell, the snow came hurling from the sky paired with a tremendous wind. The birds which had just hours earlier chirped happily in the tree were now striked with fear of the impending cold. And the open window to the otherwise cozy house seemed like the perfect haven. And so all through the night, in a mixture of snow and wind, the birds flew through the window and into the house. They made nests out of the loose papers scattered on the desk, and huddled around the burning desk lamp for warmth. There were feathers everywhere, and snow covered the entire floor, melting on the books in the shelf and on the expensive rug.
And through this all, the family was completely oblivious. Until late the next day, noticing a draft drifting down the stairs, the mother carefully walked up to the room and opened the door. She was met with a pigeon flying start at her head, giving her barely enough time to duck out of the way as it sailed down the hallway. Stricken with horror and confusion, the woman let out an ear shattering scream, sending the rest of the birds to fly around the room and through the door to the rest of the house out of fear. And just like that, the once stuffy and stagnant house was filled with life.