Dreaming up Reality

Ch. 4.

'Splashhhh' Aleice jumped and quickly sat up on her elbows gasping. Water dripped down from her bangs and covered her shirt. She cleared her eyes to see more clearly. The living room lamp..? Was she back in the living room? "Way to try and run away loser." Her brothers annoying voice echoed through her ears. She turned to give him an evil glare before he ran off to get her mother. "Yo mom, she's up." What time was it? She didn't have time to look at the clock before her mother came bursting in frantic and angry. "What the hell! Why did Keith from down the road have to bring you home earlier? He said he found you laying in a ditch unconcious!" She was screaming now. "Wait.. I was unconcious in a ditch and he didn't call the cops? Wow." "No he didn't thank god. They would have came after me for letting you run around like that. I don't care if you are 18 you're grounded until you move out!" Aleice just sighed and looked away. Her mom was all talk and no action, so the punishment was more steam than fire. Still.. why had she passed out in a ditch last night? Everything was all a blur. Everything except that rather vivid dream.

Lex, Kain.. they were wolves? Why was she suddenly dreaming about wolf people? That thought brought a smirk to her face which her mother took personally and called her a rather hurtful name, then left the room pissed. Again, Aleice just shook it off. Back to the matter at hand. WHY HAD SHE PASSED OUT? She could faintly remember being in pain from her headache. It must have progressed to migraine level and put too much pressure on her brain or something. Eh. Whatever, she was okay and home now.

"Aleice! Come do this laundry! Your brother needs his school clothes for tomorrow." Her mom yelled from the kitchen. Aleice groaned and slowly stood, slugging her way to the laundry room. It's where she'd be for the next two hours or so.

Two hours of repeatedly washing/drying/folding clothes could wear anyone out. She had yet to have dinner though, and her stomach was yelling at her. Heading to the kitchen she passed her sister who gave her a rather rude face. It was normal though, nothing she could do but brush it off and keep going. There on the counter was what she usually had whenever she missed dinner. Ramen noodles.

Grinning to herself she popped open a bag and dumped it in a bowl, pouring hot water over it and sitting at the kitchen table to look at the paper while she waited. Of course she checked the classifieds, but there was nothing, as usual. Sighing to herself she went on to read the front page story about a local boy getting his wish granted for having cancer. He asked to see the Ohio State football team live. Why would you ask for that before you die? There were so many more things she'd rather see and do before she died. Bungee jumping, skydiving, swimming with dolphins and playing actual laser tag!

The timer beeped and her noodles were done. She grabbed the bowl and headed to the living room. Her mom had already went to bed so the living room was empty except for her, as usual. She stared at the steam coming from the bowl and just closed her eyes. She thought of her walk the night before, the talk with her aunt, the extreme migraine.. now remembering how it had progressed to the point of fainting. Then there was the dream. Kain was something else.. he had been so, so.. forward. She blushed slightly. How come guys only did those things to her in her dreams? It made her feel like a complete loser. She was lonely. She couldn't hide it either. But what was she to do? How was she supposed to meet anyone around here.. especially living the way she did now. Her blush faded as she ate her noodles, slowly slurping herself into another headache. She wouldn't let it get as severe this time. Before it had the chance to turn bad she grabbed two extra strength Advil. After which she cleaned her dishes and turned off all the lights. "Bedtime I guess.." She sighed, making her bed on the couch as always. Everything was so routine. It was dull and boring.. Things needed to change.

She could feel the medicine begin to kick in, and by the time she rolled onto her side and cuddled her pillow.. she was out.

Birds could faintly be heard chirping in the distance. She could feel the suns intense heat bearing down on her through the same window as before. Before she even opened her eyes she knew where she was. Her lips bent into a small smile. Fully aware from the first moment she was in her dream she really didn't care what happened this time. She sat up and stretched, the blanket falling off her bare chest. It was good to not care. Something was missing though. Where were the goons? She looked around scanning the wooden room. She hadn't really gotten a good look at it before through all the ruckus. It was like a cozy little log cabin. The dining room table was a stump with a wider peice of wood ontop. The furniture were bean bag shapes covered in what looked like animal fur. The bed she was laying on was really only a pile of leaves and feathers. She liked it.. As she looked around she noticed her clothes sitting on one of the "chairs". Dream or not she still felt more comfortable clothed, so standing and dropping the blanket she got dressed. Time to find the boys.

Leaving the small cot she scanned the surroundings. They were nowhere in sight. Sighing to herself she sat down on a stump conveniently behind her. What was she supposed to do in her dream if there was no one to do anything with? Of course, she spoke too soon. Out of nowhere something darted out of the nearby bushes and twisted up her leg. She jumped up and screamed, kicking franticly trying to get it to let go. It wouldn't though, and instead made it up her leg and slithered into her shirt wrapping itself around her stomach as it crawled further up. She grabbed for it with her hands but with it inside her shirt there was little she could do.

Finally the thing came out her neck hole and dropped to the ground. It was a snake. Her whole body shivered. A snake. A snake had attacked her and was now sitting infront of her, completely still. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she stared into it's beady black eyes. It had a decent length body, covered in darkred scales with random splotches of fire engine red. She was just about to make a run back inside when the snake began to shed it's scales. It slowly turned into a foot, leading to a leg, a second leg, a groind, stomach, chest, shoulders, and then head. Of course. Another one.

She bent over to grab her knees and sighed a sigh of relief. "My god.. you scared me." Standing back up she scanned him over. Of course he was naked too. He had a slightly darker red hair colour than her. His eyes were black. Just black. On his shoulders were scars, distinctively shaped too. One was a star, the other was a moon. He smirked at her, revealing two pearly white fangs. She stepped back, no longer feeling safe. "Whaaat? I scared you? All I did was check who you were." He chuckled and stepped closer. She decided trying to run wouldn't be a good idea. Instead she masked her fear. "I'm Aleice. And you?" "Aleice? I've never heard of you before. You live round here? What's your mark?" He didn't answer her. So she wouldn't answer him. "I asked what's your name." She was firm. His grin faded and was replaced with a glare and frown. His face showed darkness. Her fears shined through again and she began to shiver. "I do believe I asked you a question, little girl." Just like that his hand was around her neck. He had a firm grip, but not so firm so that she couldn't breath. Her hands gripped his and tried to pry his off. "Let go!" Now his grip tightened. Her airways were being clenched and it was harder to breath. She tried fighting back with weak kicks to his shin, it did little. He just laughed at her. "Are you going to answer me or am I going to have to break your scrawny little neck?" His grip tightened even more. Now she was gasping and kicking franticly. This may had been a dream but it sure felt real.

Out of nowhere the black wolf from earlier darted out from behind them and tackled the snake boy to the ground. He was barking and growling feriously, clamping down on the boys arm and shaking his head back and forth. It was Kain. Lex followed him, but instead of attacking the snake he crawled up and took her shirt in his mouth, tugging on it and pulling her inside. They left the fighting and closed the door. Inside Lex shifted back into his human self.

"Sorry bout that. We weren't expecting you to wake up so soon." She was still shaking. Taking a seat on one of the fur chairs she stared at him with wide eyes. "Who was that?" He laughed. "That? That's Damien. He's.. well he's an asshole. As you can see he has a temper." She nodded. "Should we help Kain?" "Nah, Kain and Damien are best friends. They fight like that constantly. They can never just goof off, everything has to be serious with them." She stood to look out the "windows", which were really just holes cut in the wood. They were nowhere in sight. Suddenly the door burst open and they came walking in, Kains shoulder around Damiens. They were laughing. The door closed and they plopped down onto the chairs, still laughing. "Dude next time you're mine!" Damien proclaimed to Kain, apparently meaning Kain had won. Kain laughed and winked. "Nah. You'll never beat me." Their laughter died down before they even noticed her standing awkwardly in the corner. "Oh hey, sorry bout that. I can get.. eh.. mean I guess when someone annoys me. Just answer my questions next time, kay?" Damien winked at her and looked to Lex. "Get me somethin' to drink bro." "Get it yourself lazyass." They laughed again. Was she missing something? The dude had just almost choked her to death. He wasn't going to get by with just a sorry..

Not thinking she walked over and in one swift movement slapped the piss out of him. His cheek and her hand were red, and she was staring him down as his expression grew wide eyed. It didn't stay that way for long, slowly his face morphed into the most demonic looking expression. That was a bad idea.

She could hear Lex sigh behind her, and then what sounded like him shifting. Kain just sat there grinning and shaking his head. She backed away behind Lex, who was now in his wolf form. He was bearing his teeth and in a defensive stance. Damien stood and held his cheek, staring her down from infront of Lex. His sneer slowly turned into a smirk, and then a grin. "I guess I deserved that." Both her and Lex's jaw dropped. That was it? No retaliation?

Maybe Damien wasn't the heartless bastard he seemed like. "By the way, you never answered me earlier. Are you from here? And what's your mark? I couldn't find it." She shook her head and sat at the table, relaxing. "I'm not from here.. where ever here is.. and mark? What's that mean?" Lex shifted back into his human self as they all stared her down with puzzled looks. "You have to know what a mark is.." She just sat there with a blank expression. "You know.. the mark. The mark which distinguishes who you are? Like Damiens scars and our canines?" Kain was just as confused as everyone else. "It's how we know which animal you beling to. Which is another thing.. you haven't shifted yet. What are you exactly?" "She's a cat, remember?" Lex said. "Nah.. I think she was just being cute with us." Kain smirked. "Plus, if she were a feline she'd have that pawprint on her chest. I saw nothing." Damien added.

"Guys.. I'm not an animal.. I'm a human." She gulped. "Uhh.. that's pretty much impossible. You have to belong to an animal to exist here. C'mon.. stop jokin' with us." Lex laughed. "No really, I can't turn into any animals.. I find it strange you guys can." They were all speechless and wide eyed. "You mean you can't shift?" "I guess.." "I refuse to believe that. The only way I'd believe it is if James told us himself." Kain crossed his arms and looked away. "James?" She asked. "James is sort of like.. the wise one around these parts, I guess." Lex explained. "Hah! I know more than that fool." Damien sneered and they all shared a laugh. "Anyways, let's go see James. We'll get to the bottom of this." Lex said and then grabbed her hand, motioning for the other two to follow.

With that, they were out the door and on their way to where ever this James guy lived.