Welcome To My Life: Chapter 11/ Who Let The Dogs Out
It was a week before classes and here we are sitting in a car in the hot late August sun. Mom finally got her house sold last week, while Chris and I finished up the rest of our packing. Between my household and Mom's household, we got everything packed into three moving vans, plus the trunk of our cars. Mom was riding with Steph and Mike, while Chris and I got Winky. Chris was driving due to the fact I hated driving in heavy traffic, while I was playing with the radio in the passenger seat. My radio was still not working and it ticked me off, because I hated sitting in silence. Winky was sprawled out in the back seat complaining about the heat. I couldn't much blame her since it was too hot for us to keep on the air conditioner for the entire drive. It did nothing but run if we kept it on for too long in the hot weather, plus it gave us car trouble if we did.
Traffic was hell and it was backed up as far as the eye could see. According to the map directions we got off Map Quest, it would take us three hours to get to our new home. However, we were stuck at the halfway point on 1-66 E by Exit 300 toward Fort Royal and Washington. The clock on the radio said three o'clock in the afternoon and I was bored to death. I pulled out my CD's from under the seat. Opening the case I sorted through them trying to decide what to put in. Winky leaned over the seat trying to put her two cents worth in.
"Hey what you got there Punk?" she asked.
"My CD's," I replied.
"What you going to put in?" Winky questioned.
"Don't know yet," I stated.
Reaching over the seat she grabed the case from me, commenting, "Well let me help you with that."
"Give that back Winky!" I screamed.
Winky put up her hand like she had a puppet on her hand. While closing it's mouth she said in a low voice, "Slow it down Punk. Slow it down."
I glared at her while see starting fumbling through the pages of my CD case. Winky kept making faces at my selection of music. My taste of music varied from country to relaxation music. The music my sister listened to was pure heavy rap music. Finally she found something to her liking and handed it to me.
"Here, put this in," she stated.
Chris turned his head slightly to see what Winky was giving me, asking, "What are we going to listen to?"
I smiled and replied, "Oh why don't you wait and see."
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow then went back to yelling at the other drivers about how bad they sucked at driving. Sticking the CD into the player I was caught off guard and was thrown forward. Chris had to slam on his breaks when an idiot flew by us on the off ramp, then cut us off, nearly rear ending the car in front of us.
Winky was thrown off the seat and screamed, "What the hell?"
Chris, keeping in tune with the traffic, kept on going and glanced over at me asking, "Are you ok Crystal?"
"Yeah just a little whip lash," I stated while rolling my eyes.
"Don't be funny, you could have been seriously hurt," Chris scorned.
Before I could say anything rude the CD started playing and I smiled. The first song that started was Missy Elliot's 'Work It'. Winky began to dance in the back seat, while singing along with the song, "Is
It worth it, let me work it. I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it. I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it. If you got a big something, let me search it. And find out how hard I gotta work ya. I put my thang down, flip it and reverse it."
Chris groaned and I snickered as Winky kept on singing and dancing in the back of my car. Traffic finally eased up and we merged onto 1-495 N. We were now on the Capital Beltway heading toward Baltimore. According to the directions, we had to travel 3.5 miles on the beltway then merge onto VA-267 W via Exit 45 on the left toward Dulles Airport. I yawned and saw out of the corner of my eye Chris glancing at me with worry on his face.
"What?" I asked.
"Why don't you lay down and take a nap? You haven't sleep well in days. A nap will do you some good," he replied.
I smiled at him, knowing he was right. However, if I told him the truth as to why I hadn't slept well in days, he would think I needed a shrink. I know that because of our religious beliefs that he would believe me to a certain extent. For the rest, he would say it was my unconscious mind playing tricks on me. I was still having that dream of being in a clearing, facing a mountain side shaped as a wolfs head, while a packed of wolves circled the forest floor. The dream always ended the same way, with me not knowing who belonged to the voice that whispered in my ear.
I glanced back to find that Winky had fallen asleep, and decided that Chris was right. I eased the seat back and closed my eyes to try and get some sleep.
As soon as my eyes closed, the dream began again, but the location had changed. Music from a sound system beat against my ear drums, while the vibration from the base shook the floor beneath my feet. Looking around I found myself inside a club. It was a huge club. You could have divided it into several different rooms. Towards the front were the bar and the stage where the band were playing. The place was packed with people half of them were on the floor dancing. Towards the left were tables and chairs, while a staircase went up towards a second floor. On the right a doorway led to somewhere else in the club.
I was unaware that someone was watching me until someone touched my arm. Turning around I came face to face with someone's chest. I had to glance up to see who it was. Their face was covered with a mask, only their eyes shoon through like golden orbs. They sparkled with desire and I became lost in them. I couldn't tell whether they belonged to a he or not, so I decided to glance down at the front of their pants. Yep he was a he, thank the goddess. He raised a hand and caressed my check with it, then ran a finger over my lips. My breath stopped in my throat. Before I could say something he leaned down and lightly touched my lips with his.
Pulling back I asked, "Who are you?"
"You will know in time, but for now come dance with me," he replied.
As he pulled me to the dance floor everyone else began to move out of the way. As I looked at them I realized that they to were wearing masks. He led me to the center of the dance floor, then took me into his arms and we began to dance. As the music played something began to vibrate inside me. It got stronger and I was starting to feel like someone had drugged me. The room began to spin, the music beat faster. I tried to focus by looking around the room.
That was a mistake because what happen next would have freaked a sober person out. Strangely I found it natural and erotic. The people began to shift from human to an animal, not just any animal but a wolf. What I saw was something that was out of myth. They looked to be half wolf and half man. As I glanced back at my strange friend he to was changing. I felt like Sarah did at the ball of The Goblin King's castle. Everything wasn't what it appeared to be and that little voice inside me said run, you're in danger. Pulling away from him I slowly started for the door. The crowd had another plan all together. They began to banned together to stop my escape, understanding their motives, I headed for the door in a dead run.
Behind me I heard a voice shout, "You'll understand in time that your place is with us."
Running for the door, I grabbed hold of the door and threw it open running across the parking lot in the cold night air. Something hit me from behind and flipped me over. As it held me down against the cold cement I saw the horror from old stories and ancient myths. What I saw wasn’t human but wolf like and it frightened me so bad that I screamed.
I came awake trying to breathe, horns honked loudly around us as Chris tried to get control of the car. He pulled over to the side of the road, cutting on the emergency lights. I was still trying to leam how to
breathe again. Chris grabbed my purse and pulled out my inhaler and handed it to me. I inhaled on the tube trying not to panic at the same time. By this time Winky had come awake and she looked like she'd seen a ghost. A few minutes past and my breathing returned back to normal. Chris pulled me into his arms hugging me, while Winky was trying to figure out what happened.
I struggled a little and Chris let me go, and then asked, "Are you ok?"
I glanced around trying to figure out what was going on and replied, "Yes I think so, what happened?"
He raised an eyebrow and stated, "You were screaming in your sleep and you went into an asthma attack."
Putting my face into my hands I mumbled, "Ah shit."
I looked up and glanced across the seat at Winky and questioned, "Are you ok Winky?"
She glared at me, smacked me on the arm and squeaked, "No I'm not all right, what the hell was that all about?"
"That hurt," I yelled, then something hit me and I turned towards her and asked, "What do you mean what the hell was that all about?"
She glared at me and said, "That freaked out dream you were having."
My eyebrows shot up and I commented, "How do you know what I was dreaming and why where you in my head?"
Winky and I just sat there staring at each other. We weren't aware that another car pulled in behind us. Steph was following us and must have pulled off when Chris put on his emergency lights.
Chris glanced between us and questioned, "Will someone tell me what's going on?"
I was starting to get a headache while trying to figure out what my dreams meant and how Winky knew what I was dreaming. I glanced at Chris and stated, "I'm not sure Chris. I had this freakiest dream and some how Winky knew what I was dreaming as well. That's all I can tell you right now."
He patted my leg and said, "It's ok sweety, we'll figure this out."
A knock came on the window behind me and I jumped smacking my head against the frame of the passengar side door.
Turning around I found both Mike and Steph glancing in at us. I rolled down the window so we could talk to
them.
"What the hell happened?" asked my brother who looked like he'd had a scary encounter himself.
Chris leaned over and replied, "Crystal had an attack in her sleep."
Mike raised an eyebrow and stated, "I think she had more than an attack."
My eyes sprung open and I nearly screamed, "Don't tell me you were invading my dreams as we."
It was Mike's turn to be shocked and he threw his arms up and yelled, "What the hell is going on with this family?"
Steph grabbed his arms pulling him back to their car while trying to comfort him. Winky leaned over my seat and wrapped her arms around me.
"It'll be ok Punk, we'll get through this. There's got to be an excellent explanation for all of this," she stated.
I hugged her back and said, "I know and I hope you're right. It's just my dreams are getting worse and they're keeping me up."
A voice made us both jump and we turned to find Chris glaring at me.
"Why haven't you told me about these dreams before?" he growled.
I sighed and remarked, "Because I didn't want you to worry. I thought they were just nightmares, now I believe they're events that have yet to come to pass."
Chris raised an eyebrow and asked, "Do you think you are dream walking and seeing future events?"
I shrugged and stated, "I'm not sure but that's possible. I also think that Mike and Winky knowing what I was dreaming is also due to the fact of sibling connection or dream walking. Whatever it is, we need
to figure it out soon, because I don't think I can go through another night without sleep."
He hugged me one more time, cut off the emergency lights, putting the car in drive, and then headed back onto the interstate. It was going on seven o'clock and we were almost at our new house. We had
about five more miles to go before we got to see what it was that our great uncle left us. As I played around with the CD player trying to keep my mind off the horrible nightmare, Willie Nelson's song 'On the Road Again' came through the car speakers. I smiled and sat back in the seat to enjoy the rest of the drive home.