Death's Other Kingdom

02.01.2014

To Be A Wolf (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I am sitting in the floor beside my roommate's bed. We have both performed some sort of ritual to transform ourselves into otherworldly creatures. Alex is about to become some sort of undead dark lord, while I am going to be a werewolf. We know that the process will be very painful, but we are prepared.

Her transformation begins first. She clutches her arm and screams in agony as a green-gray bruise-like sheen begins to overtake her skin. I sit in the floor and awkwardly watch, knowing that people in the hallway are going to think she's being murdered. After a few minutes, her screams stop and the transformation is complete. "Look!" she says excitedly. "I've completely transformed."

She notices that my canine teeth are beginning to protrude much farther than normal. "Oh, your transformation is starting now, too." I go to the mirror and watch in fascination as my teeth grow sharper and more wolf-like. However, my interest is cut short when the pain in my gut begins. It feels like someone is grabbing my organs and squeezing hard. I fall to the floor, convulsing, shrieking with each stab of pain in my stomach. After what feels like an eternity, the pain fades and I black out.

*time lapse*

A month has passed. It is the full moon once more, and I am excited to experience being the Wolf for the first time, since I was unconscious for the duration of the last full moon. It will be much easier for me the second time around, I know. The only problem is, people know a werewolf is living nearby and they have formed a mob to kill it. I will have to be extremely careful not to get caught.

Unfortunately for me, it is summer, which means that the moon's power hits me early in the evening. I'm attending an outdoor dinner party with my mother when the feeling begins. I know I will turn soon. "I'm going to step out in the woods for a minute," I tell my mother. She doesn't know that I'm the werewolf everyone is concerned about.

"I'll go with you," she says.

"No. I'm going alone." I tell her firmly.

"Then you're not going at all!" she snaps.

I'm beginning to grow angry and a bit desperate. "I'm 20 years old. You can't run my life anymore!" I storm out into the woods before she can stop me. I take my wolf form almost as soon as I'm out of sight from the party. It feels wonderful! A sense of power and freedom so powerful is coursing through my veins, that I throw my head back and howl. The sound echoes eerily through the forest, sounding more dangerous than any wolf. Damn. I'd forgotten about the mob.

Someone comes crashing through the woods towards me--- it was my mother. She has a shotgun, pointed directly at me. I desperately try to signal for her to not shoot, but she can't understand me! It is too late. She fires the gun.

The bullet pierces through my stomach, knocking me to the ground. I'm too weak to feel the pain. As I begin to involuntarily shift back to my human form, my mother's look of realization and scream of horror at what she's done are the last things I experience before everything goes black.

02.01.2014

To Be The Prey (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

My brother and I are standing in our back yard when we notice a chicken and a rooster down the hill. "Let's chase them!" I say excitedly. He agrees, so we take off after the birds. Using what little flying ability they have, the birds easily flutter out of our reach. Suddenly becoming lucid, I fly off after them. Flying, it's much easier to keep up with the chickens, but we still manage to lose them after a while. I also lose lucidity.

My mother has read a task in her scouting handbook that requires the participant to mark their favorite pages in a book and then leave the book outside to show the dogs. I think this is completely stupid and want no part in it. However, my mother is trying to make me complete this task. She is SO annoying that I finally concede, but when I walk outside with the book it occurs to me that the dogs will just chew it up rather than try to read the pages I've marked.

Irritated, I walk to the back of the yard where my dad and brother are sitting. I'm complaining to them about how irritating my mom is being when suddenly coyotes begin howling nearby. The dogs go crazy, and I decide to stir them up even more by howling along with the coyotes.

However, just before I start howling I notice that the "coyotes" are walking directly into our yard. "Woah, are you sure those are coyotes?" I ask my dad. They look more like large wolves.

There are two of them, and they both lay eyes on me at the same moment. They drop to a hunting crouch, growling furiously and stalking closer to me. One of them lunges. I manage to jump at the same instant, kicking the beast so hard in the head that he falls limp to the ground. My timing isn't so great with the other one. He barrels into me, knocking me over. However, I still have my grip on the book, which happens to be a pretty heavy hard back. I begin beating the wolf over the head with my book. It is a long a bloody process with such a terrible weapon, but I somehow manage to beat him to death. My book is now sticky with his blood.

I am irrationally furious that my book has been ruined despite not following through with my mom's asinine task, so I stomp off toward the hill to bury it. But as I approach the edge of the forest, I am at first horrified to see more wolves. However, it seems they are impressed with my fighting skills. They have come to make me an honorary member of their Pack.

The biggest, toughest wolf does not agree with this decision. He attacks me without warning, intending to kill me. His attack knocks me off balance, but I use the momentum to roll on top of him. There are no real weapons nearby. I somehow manage to get a hold of a deer's leg bone, which I promptly shove into the wolf's mouth when he tries to bite me. I shove the bone deep into his throat until he chokes to death. Upon dying, he finally accepts me as an equal.