Lost Child/Prologue Dream 2
Apostasy's sleeping pattern is starting to become similar, almost deathly dreamless sleep to start off the night, shifting into happy, then weird, then dark, and once again, she startles awake. Immediately she recognizes something's off. Her body once again is different. This time however she recognizes the scent of herself almost immediately, as well as the arms. She -is- Kale, her mate. She's sleeping in the back of an old ford, a bit cramped.
Apostasy blinks. And then looks herself over. And then blinks again, shaking her head as if to clear a daydream, before looking one more. "Ok.... I'm apparently in my mate's body now.... that's really weird..." She eases herself out of the old ford and stretches out, easing the cramped muscles, before looking around. "Where is this...? And why is Kale here?"
It's dusk, the sun just tipping over the horizon, and Kale is in some generic suburb. Rows of houses with trimmed yards. Houses however are scarred by broken fences, and the occasional busted or collapsed door.
Apostasy looks around. "Hrmm. Generic suburb, trashed houses. What could there be here that she was after? Unless this is just some random place on the way to wherever she's going... wonder where -that- might be." She walks up to one of the houses with a busted door, looking inside for anything that might give a clue as to where she is right now.
The house door has claw marks on it, it looks caved in by -something- feral and large. Inside the furniture is torn apart, she spots a mostly intact mirror, and see's Kale's face staring back at her. The living room is completely trashed, while the kitchen there are knives missing, and a knife embedded in the sheetrock of a wall. The back patio sliding door is shattered and the glass all over the ground.
Apostasy puts a hand to her face -Kale's face- when she sees it in the mirror, and murmurs "Not how I imagined I'd be seeing her again..." As she moves through the house, she tries to avoid disturbing the wreckage too much, in case the noise attracts something. She looks at the knife embedded in the wall of the kitchen for a few moments, contemplating trying to pull it out, before looking out into the garden.
No one's in sight, nor is anything feral. The place is eerily abandoned, as in the feral creature did its job and moved on. The garden itself is small and quant, the backyard not very big. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a phone hanging on off the hook on the wall, the line long since dead, and a phone book below it, open.
Not knowing what else to do, Apo moves over to the phonebook, taking a look at the open pages, on the off chance they might give some sort of clue.
The cover shows that it's a phone book for the southeast district of Portland Oregon, the towns listed are Woodburn, Molalla, Needy, Macksburg, Hubbard and Aurora. Inside, there are bloodstains on various pages, and the page was opened to a section on animal control.
Apostasy frowns. "Portland.... why is Kale anywhere near Portland? What reason could she have for coming here?" She chuckles darkly at the page that was opened. "Heh... animal control wouldn't have been much help. Hell... might've been the animal control guys who did this.." She heads back out of the house, and looks up and down the street.
The sun has gone down, leaving the place in darkness. A shadow moving along the street as the remaining light fades. She feels dizzy, something feels very wrong, more than just her body, her senses are ringing a warning but she can't quite place it.
Apostasy staggers at the dizziness, and hugs herself as she's filled with a sense of... wrongness. "Wh-what is this?" She makes her way back into the house, hoping the feeling fades once she's off the street.
It doesn't. She watches in slow motion as furniture begins to reassemble, and blood from the phone book and seeping up from the floor begins to reassemble and coalesce, growing and sticking blood vessels in the air, and then muscle knitting itself around.
Apostasy backs away. "That's bad. Very bad." Before the creature has a chance to form, she tries to rip it apart again with her claws, figuring it's better to try and get rid of it now than wait for it to reform.
Blood splatters into the air, but she feels nothing, like her hand's passing through air. Another shape begins to reform near the broken window, and noise can be heard upstairs. The forms clearly are not humanoid either.
Apostasy curses. "Shit. That's just what I need." She turns and makes for the door, in the hopes that outside is better than in.
The sun is down, and the moon is up, and the edge of the oncoming shadow has almost reached Kale's car.
With no other ideas, Apo climbs into the car, looking for the keys to get it started.
Apo finds keys stashed between the driver and passenger's seat, Kale clearly not expecting anyone to steal the vehicle. She starts the engine, and puts it in reverse, and just as she's about to back up, -something- smashes into the car's passenger side, deploying the airbags and spinning the car. Apostasy shouts, "Shiiiiit!" as she's slammed around inside the care. She stabs the airbag with a claw, and tries to reorient herself again before making another attempt at driving away from the shadow.
The car begins to move, creaking along, thankfully only the frame seems to be damaged, and she spots out of her mirrors a large hulking creature that tickles the back of her mind, she knows the species from... somewhere but she can't place it.
Apostasy frowns as she spots the creature. "What are you... and why are you so familiar?" She tries to coax more speed out of the battered car, trying to put distance between her and the beast. She seems more of the creatures exiting the houses, they're staring at her, like a piece of meat. She heads down the street toward signs for a main route. She sees the route number, and it chills her, recognizing it as the route that runs through her hometown, and finally it hits her. The creatures are what attacked her family on p-day.
The car veers a little as Apostasy shudders violently when the realisation dawns. She continues towards the main route, not knowing where else she can go, but at the same time dreading getting any closer to her hometown. "Why are you here, Kale.... what possessed you to come out to this place?" A small sound can be heard flickering in Apostasy's ear, as the hummingbird from the night before lands on Kale's petite shoulder, how it got in the car is a mystery. What it's there for isn't obvious until Apostasy begins to feel dizzy, very dizzy.
Apostasy tries to fight the dizziness, the car veering more violently as she loses the battle. "Nnn.... wh-why? I thought you... wanted to... help me"
The bird stares blankly at her, and the dizziness continues. Apostasy suddenly feels so nauseous she has to get out.
The car judders to a halt before Apostasy almost falls out, scrambling to her feet and staggering away from the car. "What is going on?"
Apostasy vomits, suddenly, and sees inky black shadow vomiting onto the ground.
Apostasy falls backwards and scrambles away from the vomit. "No! It's not that! Not in Kale!" The hummingbird lands on Apostasy's muzzle, right in front of her eyes, and then pecks her between the eyes, and Apostasy wakes up.
Apostasy wakes up, rubbing at the spot where she hummingbird pecked her. "Ow! Little son of a..." her words trail off as she realises she's back in her bed. "Another dream..? Or was it all actually happening to Kale?”
