Have been working with kiddies today - also writing Gothic!  A small sample from a Year 6 student:

'The crow, which flew at my son's head, clawed his face; ripped his hair out. I hurled the rock. The crow hovered away then it hit my son on the forehead. I rushed over. No pulse. He was dead.'

We have been focusing on sentence variety and dynamic verbs - I reckon this young man has it cracked.
And as for the crow - evil! 'Black Cat' inspired? Probably!