Strange Happenings
Midnight. They always came at midnight. The chimes from the old grandfather clock in the den jolted Daniel out of his restless dreams. It wasn't the chimes that woke him so much as the knowledge that They were coming. It was the same horrifying ritual, every single night.
The room was illuminated by an eerie pale green glow. Three figures in haz-mat suits stood around his bed. One of them held a large briefcase, another held a gun, and the third--the apparent leader, from the way he acted--was making entries into a large handheld computer. Daniel tried to escape, to run, to even move, but some unseen force held him in place, as immobile as the bed itself. The leader looked up from his computer and signaled to the one holding the briefcase, who set the case down and began to open it. Daniel strained to see its contents, but couldn't from his position. If only he could move...
The leader reached forward, grabbed the bedcovers and--
The shrill blast of Daniel's alarm clock filled the room. He'd had that dream again, the same one he'd been having every night for nearly a month. Except that it didn't feel like a normal dream. It felt more like a memory, but one that had been partially forgotten. Anyway, Dan had more important things to worry about, so he pushed whatever it was aside for the moment. Today was the last day of school, finally. All he had to do was survive his last few final exams, and he'd be home free. He wasn't about to let a creepy dream get him down.
***
Dr. DiCaoz glanced over his biology classroom. "Is anybody still working on the final?" he asked tiredly. He paused for a moment, then said, "If everybody is finished, you may talk quietly amongst yourselves for the remainder of the period." As the class erupted in chatter, he went back to nursing his hangover.
Daniel loved his biology class. It wasn't just that he was good at it, or that it was the last class of the day. By some bit of luck or fate, he happened to be in the same class as his four closest friends, Gassan, David, Pammy, and Jake. Gassan, David, and Pammy had become absurdly popular since coming to high school. Gassan was Lebanese and therefore "exotic," David was a star swimmer, and Pammy was a cheerleader. In retrospect, popularity was an inevitability. To the other popular kids, Jake an avid follower of the Furry subculture (he called it a craze, but nobody else did) and Daniel, the introspective writer, were social liabilities. Still, Gassan, David, and Pam never let their newfound "friends" keep them away from Jake and Dan. Privately, Daniel was grateful that he had managed to befriend the four people who appeared to be immune to high school drama.
"So, what'd you guys think?" Pammy whispered.
"I'm pretty sure Dr. Di is a nutcase," Gassan answered quickly. He was met with a chorus of approval from his companions.
"Anyway," Pam continued, "are we having our annual Thank-God-The-Schoolyear's-Over party tonight?"
"I can't go," Jake said, "I've got a convention."
"I can't go either," said David, "My dad's taking me camping. He's on a back-to-nature kick."
"I'm visiting my grandma," Gassan said. Pammy rolled her eyes.
"Alright," she sighed, "when do you guys get back?"
"Sunday"
"Sunday evening"
"Sunday, but it'll be late."
"So," Pammy continued, "is Monday night alright with everyone?"
***
The days passed quickly. By the time Monday arrived, he had gone an entire weekend without his mysterious dreams. He was mostly relieved, but part of him wished the visitors would come back so he could find out what they were up to.
The streets were charged with an eerie calm. A summer storm was coming. As Daniel reached Pam's door, he couldn't help but feel a strange foreboding. Something was decidedly wrong. He rang the bell.
"Come in," called Pammy. Dan opened the door and found friend sitting on the floor in a tidy circle. They were all staring at him, an unsettling hunger in their eyes. "We are playing Truth or Dare," Pammy intoned mechanically. "Please, join us. Truth or Dare?"
"Please choose Dare," Gassan said, in the same unearthly voice.
"The Truth is never any fun," agreed David, still in the same tone. Throughout the exchange, none of the four took their eyes off of Daniel.
"Is everything alright?" he asked. "You all seem...different."
Pammy answered in the same monotone as before: "We are collectively unnerved at a series of recurring dreams we have been having. Perhaps you too are experiencing these visions?"
"Yeah," Dan said, "but I'm not acting that weird about it."
"Perhaps," Pammy said, "All will be made more clear if you answer this simple question: Truth...or Dare?"
Written by Zodiac on 31 May 2008
Intruder
Rain began to fall, thunder echoed above, lightning weaved itself through the thick storm clouds. But it wasn't the rain that had woken the young man up, no. It was something else, another strange sound. Daniel had blinked his eyes a few times, he was trying to get adjusted to the darkness around him.
His room lit up with lightning, a silver flare followed by a roar of thunder. The wind racked a branch against the window, it caused him to startle a bit. He groaned softly and got himself up from his bed, removing bed sheets. The flat surface of his feet met cold floorboards, which creaked loudly upon impact.
He looked around the room, wondering what was going on. That strange feeling was still about, he couldn't shake it off. Was he possibly dreaming maybe? Something felt weird, the atmosphere and all. "Who's there?" Daniel would call out. He had to find out who was stalking him, who was there with him.
Suddenly two golden orbs peered through the darkest part of the room. The young man went tense. He scratched his head a bit and gulped. "If you don't show yourself, I'll be forced to call the police!" He warned. The figure in the darkness didn't move. Expect those eyes, they blinked slightly.
Written by Dalkr Moonfire Wolf on 05 December 2017
Confront
Daniel continued to gawk at the sight of the golden eyes peering back at him in dead silence. The only noises he could hear were the pattering of rain rapidly falling upon the roof of his house, the wind outside, and his own racing heartbeat. He wasn’t sure if this was some sort of dream or not, yet the coldness of the floor and the fact he was fully awake by this point told him, no, it wasn’t a dream.
“Who are you?” Daniel asked, his voice quaking.
He tried to make out the figure that the eyes belonged to, yet all he saw was pitch black. It was almost like the eyes were floating there, attached to the darkness in his room, a darkness not even a flash of lightning outside seemed to illuminate.
Daniel’s heart was pounding at the inner walls of his chest. He tried to keep calm, to not freak out, but it was growing difficult because the eyes just kept gazing at him, blinking every moment or so. If there was something in his room, something alive, with eyes like that, it meant he would likely not be alive himself for very long. And there was nowhere to run or to hide.
Daniel balled his hands into fists and stood as straight as he could. He wasn’t a fighter. In fact, he wasn’t exactly the tallest or fittest person, but, like hell was he not going to go down without a fight. He wouldn’t stand there helplessly and be murdered by whatever the hell this thing was.
“I don’t know who you are, but I’m warning you…”
They eyes shifted to the side a little, as if the black mass staring Daniel down was turning its head. There was an eerie, human look of amusement in them, or at least that’s how it looked to Daniel, though he was panicking and chocked it off to him being too full of fear to think otherwise. A deep, almost guttural, noise filled the room - but it sounded like laughter, or something close to laughter.
A shiver rippled up Daniel’s spine. He nearly fell from the surprise at the noise, but somehow managed to steady himself.
“What the hell…”
“You can relax, my friend.” A voice came from the shadow, from the golden, gleaming eyes, a very low, raspy voice that sounded distinctly feminine despite the growl beneath the tone. “If you were in danger, you wouldn’t be standing right now. Take a breath, and calm yourself.”
Daniel gawked. He was stunned, first by the voice and the fact it was coming from the darkness, and then, by the fact this wasn’t a dream. Was he going insane? He was starting to worry he might be, and that didn’t sit well in his stomach.
“Who are you?” Daniel asked. “WHAT are you? And what do you want?”
Written by Hollowpages on 14 April 2019
Wolf?
Thunder rumbled outside. There was a flash of lightning. Daniel’s eyes were fixated on the black mass as it seemed to swirl around rather abruptly, taking on an actual physical shape. He watched, his heart thudding heavily, as it took on a body - a body on four legs, it looked, with a mass the size of a bear or something just as big.
Daniel stepped back, his legs hitting the edge of his bed.
The mass remained on all fours, while the golden eyes continued to stare at him. The way the head was shaped wasn’t shaped like a bear, however, or even remotely close to humanoid. Daniel had to rub his eyes, because the mass looked almost… wolf-like. Then, the mass stepped forward, its eyes boring right through Daniel.
“You don’t listen very well, do you, pup?” the voice asked. It sounded thoroughly amused. “It must be human nature, I suppose.”
“What are you?” Daniel asked again, trying to make his voice less frightened-sounding - and failing at that.
Another deep, guttural chuckle. “This isn’t going to go anywhere without an answer, is it? Another human trait. Typical.”
The mass suddenly shot up, standing on two legs. It shifted around, the features slimming, and when Daniel blinked, he was suddenly looking at a humanoid shape instead of a big animal one - though the eyes stayed the same, and the head remained rather wolf-like in shape.
That was when Daniel saw something else: teeth. Pointed, gleaming teeth, currently bared in a toothy smile. Daniel’s throat went dry at the sight; he swallowed the nervous lump that formed in his throat, yet remained standing, remained as firm as he humanly could.
“To give you a complete answer would be very difficult,” the mass said, tilting its head to the side once more. “I’m not like anything you’ve seen before - your reaction is proof of that, and for good reason.”
Daniel’s mind was spinning, the gears turning at superhuman speed. He was trying to wrap his head around all of this, as difficult as it was. His lips twitched, and he wracked his brain for some sort of answer that would make sense. Nothing was coming to him - this thing sure as hell wasn’t a human, and it didn’t register as anything he could fathom. It was just some weirdly shaped, shadowy mass with golden eyes.
“A-are… Are you an alien?” Daniel asked. That was the first, most obvious thing that popped into his head.
Written by Hollowpages on 15 April 2019
She Changes
Another chuckle. “In the sense you’re thinking, no.”
“Th-then… what are you?” Daniel asked. He was still freaking the hell out and wondered if he could make a run for it before the mass could… whatever it planned on doing to him.
Now, the mass sighed and shook its head. “I am not a living, breathing being such as yourself. Not truly. Rather, I live in a different way, as a sort of…” There was a pause and the eyes squinted, as if it was thinking. “…essence.”
Daniel furrowed his brow. “An essence?” His head throbbed, and he struggled to make sense of that term. His brain couldn’t come up with anything other than… “Like, a spirit?”
“Of a sort,” the mass said. It didn’t sound very convincing.
Daniel just stared at it with wide eyes. His heartbeat wasn’t any calmer, and if anything, he was even more confused now than anything - oh, he was certainly still freaked out, but the confusion was currently overriding the fear he felt.
The mass stared at him before letting out a very long sigh. “This will not get me anywhere, I see. Allow me to try and ease your concerns, so that we may speak properly, without you having the risk of a heart attack.”
At once, the shadowy humanoid mass began to smooth over; the darkness slipped away, and skin formed instead. Daniel blinked several times, watching in astonishment as the features became a mix of human and animal - soft gray fur formed from the head to toe of the mass, with white splotches at the hands, the feet, and the middle of the belly. The features remained feminine, however, including an obvious bust, and shapely hips.
Daniel watched the face shift the most, forming an almost anthropomorphic wolf face, still clearly feminine, however. And then, as if by magic, the shadowed mass was a half-woman, half-wolf being standing before him, naked, though the fur covered the breasts and the crotch areas, almost like underwear made out of fur. It even had a navel, settled at the center of shapely abdominal muscles.
His eyes shot up and down her form several times, a mix of shock and… perhaps a little more throbbing in his head. He shoved those away, and fixed his stare onto her eyes. They gleamed at him.
“Does this form suit you more?” it asked; its voice was a tiny bit less guttural, though still held a good amount of raspiness. It… or rather, she? - smiled again, showing off its pointed teeth. “You seem a little less nervous. In fact, you seem a bit intrigued?”
Written by Hollowpages on 17 April 2019
An Offer?
Daniel was staring at her, slack-jawed, but shook his head. He rubbed his eyes, then pinched himself, and each time, the image before him didn’t change. He was standing, awake in his room at night, while a storm was going on, and this weird wolf woman was standing before him.
“What… the hell is going on?” Daniel asked.
“Is that all you can say?” the woman asked, snickering. “Ah, how simple human minds can be when their notions of reality are challenged.”
Daniel swallowed roughly, trying to ease himself. “Okay, let me rephrase that, then. What do you want with me… whatever you are.”
“Ah, that’s the question, isn’t it?” she asked. She appeared thoughtful, those golden eyes glimmering. “What I want, my dear boy, is to offer you something, the likes of which you will probably never be offered for the rest of your mortal existence. This is no joke, nor is it a game, it is a literal once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Daniel furrowed his brow. “What…?”
She closed the gap between them rather briskly, so fast Daniel almost fell backwards. He managed to steady himself, and was surprised when she stopped in front of him; she was tall, taller than him, in fact, and he only then saw a tail swishing side to side.
“Do you ever grow tired of the limits you possess as a human?” she asked.
“Limits?”
Her toothy smile widened. “Let me try and explain myself, rather than speaking in vague terms, shall I? That tends to make this sort of exchange much simpler.”
Daniel’s lips twitched. “It’d be nice, yeah.”
She chortled. “You see, my kind exist in your world, in a way you wouldn’t normally be able to understands. We live everywhere, invisible to the naked eye unless we will ourselves to be seen. We are… You called me a ‘spirit,’ and this is close enough. We are not the dead, however, nor are we ‘magic’ by any means. We simply are, and that is the best I can explain to you.”
Her tail flicked over and brushed against his arm. He was surprised at the softness, though he registered what was going on - a wolf woman was touching him with her tail, for God’s sake - and he recoiled somewhat.
“Every so often,” the strange woman said, “we will manifest before someone like you. A normal human, living a normal life, with normal hopes and dreams and woes and so on.” She waved a hand. “And when we do, we offer them a choice: a chance to receive our gifts for themselves.”
Daniel stared, absorbing all this. “A… chance to receive your gifts?” He placed one hand onto his chest, as if he could will his heart to relax. “What kind of gifts? And why?”
“The gifts we are blessed with by our natures,” the woman said. “Often, we take the forms of creatures - we borrow their essence, and in doing so, we are given their traits. It’s a bond that goes deeper than blood, deeper than the very soul, and it exemplifies all that we are. I, for example, am bound to the wolf. The hunter, the pack leader, the paws hitting the ground as blood rushes through the body.” Her grin stretched even wider. “And I am offering to give you this gift.”
Written by Hollowpages on 18 April 2019
Accept. Eventually
Daniel was, like any normal person, trying to wrap his head around all this.
He wasn’t the sort to blindly leap into things without thinking - he had never been the type, even though as a kid, he was known for having a big imagination. But this… This went beyond his realm of comprehension.
He was talking to a spirit. A literal spirit, standing in front of him, touching him, grinning at him. She was clearly real, even if he was a hardcore skeptic, it was hard to make some sort of logical explanation for what was standing before him - and while he was freaked out to the very core, the fact he was still alive and not currently dead… well, it made him listen, despite his better senses questioning every single bit of this.
“I…” Daniel did the absolute best he could to control himself. “You want… to give me some kind of ‘gift.’” He was working through this as he spoke. “…some kind of, like, supernatural gift? Is that right?”
“In a matter of speaking,” she replied.
“Okay.” He furrowed his brow. “Why? Why me? Why offer? I don’t understand any of this. I’m not that special, and I hope this isn’t some ‘you gotta go and save the world’ type thing…”
She cocked her head to the side. “I chose you. I have no reason why; you are not a chosen one, not destined for it, nothing of that sort. I simply decided to choose you, and so I am here. As for why? Because I want to.” She grinned again. “It would be an interesting experience, and I feel it would be worth my while - and yours - to try it out.”
Daniel blinked a few times, absorbing this. “Um. What happens if I say no?”
“Then I leave,” she said, bluntly, though the grin didn’t fade. “You will not remember this meeting - whatever you do recall will be vague, and you will play it off as a dream.” Now her grin faded somewhat, and her features smoothed to a rather… comforting expression. “I have no desire to bother you, nor intrude upon your life, and that is the simple truth.”
“And if I say yes?” Daniel asked.
That grin returned. “You will see for yourself, my dear boy. You need only make the decision. I can guarantee you that you won’t regret the choice if you accept; your life will be changed, but it will be changed for the best. And before you ask, yes, you will still be able to live your life the way you do now. You will simply have… abilities that will enhance it. You have my word.”
Daniel stared at her, thinking.
What exactly did you say to something like this? He could say no, sure, and while he didn’t have any sort of evidence to believe that this spirit being would leave him be, he didn’t have a reason not to believe her either, he supposed. Did he have anything to lose if he accepted? He didn’t, not really, anyways. Nothing that stood out to him.
“I… accept,” Daniel said after a long moment of thinking.
Written by Hollowpages on 19 April 2019
Merging
“Excellent,” she said. Her eyes gleamed with glee. “Now, do me a favor, my dear Daniel. Lift up your shirt a little, please. You don’t need to disrobe or anything, I just need your shirt raised a tad.”
Daniel frowned. “I beg your pardon?”
She rolled her eyes. “Lift up your shirt. I’m not asking to ogle your physique, I’m asking for a very simple reason: your… what do you call them? Belly button? Yes, your belly button. I need it in order to do what must be done.”
Daniel thought he’d misheard her. “I’m… sorry?”
The spirit rolled her eyes. “Don’t ask questions, just do it, if you please.”
“Um… but why?” Daniel asked.
“How else am I going to merge with you, to give you my gift?” the spirit asked, mildly amused. “You humans are so strange at times, I swear.” She shook her head and gave him an impatient stare. “Humor me, would you? The belly button is the perfect spot for me to enter you, as it’s the center of your body, the center of your being. It’ll make sense later, trust me on that.”
Daniel was baffled by this demand, but, given that he had kind of already agreed, he didn’t exactly know what to do other than hike his shirt up. He wasn’t the skinniest person around, nor was he entirely chubby, but somewhere in the middle. Still, this was by far the weirdest request he’d ever gotten, which was saying something considering the whole ‘there’s a wolf spirit thing that wants to give him super powers’ thing.
Her golden eyes shot to his navel when he finished, and she grinned toothily at it. “My thanks. Now, hold still and try not to freak out. What will follow will be quick and painless, and it’s all part of the process.”
Before Daniel could ask what the heck she even meant, and how that was supposed to help her in any way, shape, or form, the wolf woman’s body began to melt away, reverting back into a mass of blackness. Daniel could only watch in wide-eyed shock as she winked at him, before the black mass shot down, right into his navel. He felt it enter him; it was like a wave of warmth filled his entire belly, only to quickly spread through the rest of his body within seconds.
Daniel couldn’t react; he was frozen in place as this happened, like there were invisible ropes pinning him down. And by the time his body could move, the mass was gone, having vanished inside of him.
Daniel sucked in a sharp breath of air. He collapsed backwards onto his bed, his legs weak and his chest heavy. His heart raced, and he could barely breathe right for a moment. He blinked, staring up at the ceiling. His vision blurred. Thunder erupted outside his window, and lightning flashed once more, and Daniel’s body started quivering.
Written by Hollowpages on 20 April 2019
Breathe
‘Breathe, Daniel.’
The woman’s voice echoed in his head. He shuddered, sucking in air more quickly. The warmth filled him, from the top of his head down to his toes.
‘It’s okay. I am with you. Breathe. Relax. I mean no harm to you, I promise.’
The warmth grew hotter, and yet, as Daniel’s chest rose and fell, he felt no fear from this. After the initial shock wore off, he felt a strange wave of comfort flowing through him. His limbs relaxed on their own, and Daniel’s breathing and racing heart calmed. He let out a shaky breath, then slowly looked at his hands, which were quivering very faintly.
‘It will be okay,’ the woman’s voice said, again from within his own head. ‘It is time to introduce you to your gifts. Breathe, and all will become clear soon.’
Daniel opened and closed his hands. “Wh-what are you…?”
‘Let me show you.’
The warmth within him grew smoldering; he could feel himself start to sweat. Yet before he could say or do anything, he was hit by a wave of raw lethargy, so heavy his eyes closed within seconds. His body locked up as this happened, and he felt like he was falling.
‘This is the beginning of your reawakening,’ the spirit said. ‘It is not a painful experience, but it will be strange to you. Relax and let me take control; I will ensure you are able to flow through this smoothly. You must trust me.’
In the darkness, he saw the golden, glimmering eyes. They stared back at him, and he watched them move closer, until they were hovering directly before his line of sight. A smile formed beneath them, a bright, white, toothy smile, the same as the wolf woman’s. Daniel could not move, nor speak, yet he could feel; and rather than fear, he felt only comfort from staring into those eyes.
‘It is easier to do this while you are unconscious,’ the woman said; her lips moved, yet the voice echoed all around him. ‘The human body’s reaction to the transformation tends to be unpleasant, due to how foreign a feeling it is. This way, you will not feel it, not until you are awakened. Do not be afraid. It is not permanent, merely a taste of what will come, my Daniel.’
The eyes vanished, melding into the darkness. Then, everything grew hazy.
Daniel felt himself drifting in hazy bleakness for a long time, ages, it seemed like, before consciousness began tugging at him. He very gradually came to, the darkness giving way to dim lighting…
Written by Hollowpages on 21 April 2019
Outside
It took a moment for Daniel to realize that he wasn’t in his room anymore; in fact, he didn’t know where he was. He was outside, that much he could tell from the cool wind brushing against him, from the smells of the forest invading his nose, and… Daniel’s mind was awakened rather abruptly when he saw that he wasn’t just outside; he felt much, much different, like how for starters, he was standing on all fours.
‘What the hell?’ Daniel thought. He tried to speak the words, but instead, they came from his head. The noise that escaped his lips wasn’t a word, rather, some sort of growl.
It didn’t take long for Daniel to realize what was different.
‘You are a wolf, Daniel,’ the wolf woman’s voice said. ‘This is what it means to receive my blessing: you are now more than human, more than animal - you are both at the same time.’
Daniel’s eyes scrunched together. He looked around, whipping his head about to try and take in his own body, yet all he saw was dark gray fur. He looked down, and lo and behold, his hands were now paws. He was a wolf, just like the spirit said. Daniel didn’t know what to think, let alone how to react to this.
‘Breathe,’ the voice said. ‘Breathe and calm yourself. Accept the gift you’ve taken, and adjust to this. This is only a fraction of what you will have gained, Daniel. But here is where we start. Breathe.’
Daniel’s heart - sounding louder and striking harder than he was used to - steadied, and he calmed himself to the best of his abilities. He breathed in deep, and at once, his nostrils were filled with a variety of different scents, more powerful than he had ever smelled before.
He smelled the trees. He smelled the wet earth under his bare paws - which he felt, the softeness, the texture of mud and rainwater. He smelled the moisture in the air, the moisture clinging to everything, and then realized it was no longer raining. The weather had calmed; there was wind, yet no rain, no thunder, no lightning. It was nicer, quieter out. He breathed in again. He picked up other smells, including scents he couldn’t put words to, mostly because they were distant. But he smelled them nonetheless.
‘Now, try to move. Learn to use four legs,’ the voice said.
Daniel glanced down at the ground, at his new paws, then looked forward. He took one step - lifting the right front paw first, then putting it on the ground. It was weird; the sensation of being on all fours, of having four legs, was the strangest feeling Daniel had ever experienced in his life. Yet he was able to adjust to this, rather easily, as he began taking more steps - one at a time, until he was trotting - was that the word, he wondered - forward.
‘This is insane,’ Daniel thought. He was moving on all fours like a wolf - AS a wolf. ‘So this is what it’s like to be an animal on all fours…’
‘Quite intriguing, isn’t it?’ the voice replied. She chuckled, the sound echoing throughout Daniel’s mind. ‘You should pick up speed. Run, Daniel. Feel the wind against your body, let the blood pulse! Run and witness true speed.’
Written by Hollowpages on 22 April 2019