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Chapter 1

Brothers

Have you ever had that feeling where you felt like something was about to happen, that your life was going to change. I had never felt like that until now, little did I know as too how much different my life was about to become.

"Lucas, time to get up," Jerry was packing up his fishing gear, "we have to things going for the day."

"What time is it," I asked, letting out a large yawn.

"It's about six-thirty. I'm going fishing since we finished off the food last night. Do you mind getting the fire going again while I'm gone? We can eat sooner that way" he said, grabbing his fishing pole, and resting it on his shoulder. He unzipped the door to the tent and walked out.

"Yeah sure," I said, as I watched him walk off into the woods, I re-zipped the door shut again, returning to the warmth of my sleeping bag.

I had just woken from a great dream that I didn't want to end. For the past week it had been the same one, and I hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. It had seemed so real and strange at the same time. It was one of the best dreams I had ever had. I was running through the woods as a wolf. It had never scared me a bit; in fact it was quite comforting.

I didn't want to get up. I never have been the type of person that can stand getting up early, and since I was nice and warm in my cuddly sleeping bag, it was even harder to crawl out of it. It was cold this morning, even more than usual for this time of year, but we were used to colder weather, you tend to expect it while living in Maine.

Jerry and I lived really close to the woods, only a few miles from one of the few state parks spread across the state. It made it the perfect opportunity to go camping again before school started up again.

He would be starting his freshman year of college at the University of Maine, and I would be going into my last year of high school. He would still be living at home, but this was our last chance to do something together for a while.

I slithered out of my sleeping bag, almost like a snake out of its skin. The cold air hit me all over; the thin wall of the tent didn't do much to keep out the cold. I raced to get on some warm clothes so that I wouldn't freeze.

When I left the tent, it was already starting to warm up. It was turning out to be nicer than I had originally thought, a beautiful summer morning. Two days ago, it had been pouring rain, so today was a nice change.

I figured I could enjoy the weather later; I needed to get a fire going so that I would not have Jerry on my case when he returned from catching us breakfast.

There was paper trash left on the ground from dinner the night before. I started picking them up; I figured that they would be a good fuel source to get our cooking fire going.

All around the area imprinted in the dirt were tracks. They were obviously canine, but they were too big to be that of a coyote or domestic dog. We were so far out into the woods that I didn't think anyone would bring their dog into the woods, unless it were hunting season, which was still another two months away.

It didn't take long to pick all the wrappers up, but I still needed wood to burn, so I headed to the woods to gather some. As I walked through the area, all I could hear was the sound of my footsteps and the leaves on the trees rustling in the breeze. It was eerily quiet. There was nothing, not even the sounds of birds chirping.

A chill ran up my spine. I could have sworn I was being watched, and the feeing would never leave me. I looked all around me. I didn't see anyone, or anything for that matter. It was just creepy.

The weight of the wood in my arms began to overwhelm me, I had gathered enough as far as a first load goes. So I returned to the camp and dropped it off before going off to grab another load.

As I was walking around again looking for more firewood, there came a loud cracking noise from behind me. My first reaction was to yell out, "hello?" I got no reply.

My feet began to act as if they had a mind of their own. I was on the move, and I had almost gone into a run. My feet went out from under me when I tripped over a root that was sticking out of the ground. I hit my head hard and reached up gingerly to rub it when I hear a voice, Jerry was back.

"Lucas? Is that you?"

"Over here!" I yelled, relieved that it was only him

He walked out of the bushes, reaching a hand out to help me up. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, staggering as I was pulled to my feet. I brushed the dirt off my jeans and t-shirt.

"Come on, let's head back to camp, I'm hungry." He said. And we headed back.

When we arrived back at the campsite I sat down at the fire pit, there were still coals smoldering from the night before. I hadn't had time to get it going. I thought it would take longer than he had to get his catch.

Jerry sat down beside me and took out his pocket knife, grabbed a large flat, rock and began to cut open the fish to gut and cook them. When the guts of the fish splashed out on the rock, it hit me, the feeling of nausea. The sight of blood and guts was always enough to make me want to puke. I was lucky enough to have the job lighting the fire to distract me from it, otherwise I would have thrown up.

I finally had the fire going when he finished with his job, and I was happy when he gathered up the fish innards and threw them into the woods out of my sight. It was a relief. With the fish prepped and the fire going we could finally cook. We than took the fish and stabbed them onto sharp sticks and positioned them over the fire. The smell of fish cooking filled the air the instance we placed them over the flame.

As the fish cooked over the roaring flame, thoughts began to rush to my head, specifically of the dream I had been having all week. I wanted to tell someone about it but I couldn't, I was too embarrassed. What would Jerry think if I told him about it? I knew he was my older brother, but how would he react if I told him? Would he laugh at me and think I was crazy, or would he simply shrug it off as if it were nothing. I wouldn't find out unless I said something, so I finally spoke up.

"Jerry, have you ever had a dream that was weird, yet seamed real at the same time?"

He picked up the canteen from beside him and took a sip before answering, "I've had a few of those but after a while I just shrug it off."

"I had the most interesting dream last night; actually it's been the same one all week"

"What about," he asked.

"I don't really want to tell you."

"Just tell me, I promise I won't laugh."

I was hesitant, but I finally told him. "Well I dreamt that I was running through the woods on all fours last night, like some kind of animal."

"What kind of animal?"

"I was a wolf, and it wasn't just last night, it's been every night since we got here. Am I going crazy?"

He started to chuckle.

"I knew it, I shouldn't have said anything. I knew you were going to laugh at me."

"Sorry, I don't know why I found it so amusing. That actually sounds kind of cool. I personally have never had that kind of dream before." He took a sip from the canteen sitting beside him.

"Yeah, but why would I ever dream of something like that?"

"Beats the hell out of me. The weirdest dream I ever had was the one where I went to school on Exam day in my Scooby doo underwear. But, I've heard that when you dream, sometime it is your subconscious trying to tell you something."

"What the hell could my subconscious be trying to tell me?"

"I have no clue, I'm not a shrink. Anyway I wouldn't dwell on it. Let's eat, I smell fish and I'm starving."

He was right; maybe I shouldn't dwell on it. It was only a dream after all. All I knew was that I was hungry, so I grabbed one of the fish and started to choke it down.

"After we eat, do you want to go swimming?" I asked. It was the first and only thing I could think of doing. Not much to do out here besides hiking fishing and swimming.

"Sure, I mean it's not a long walk to the river."

"How far is it?" I asked, fish bits flying out of my mouth

"Roughly half a mile, short walk."

"Alright, I'm going to go get changed, I'll be right back." I got up and walked over to the tent, and went in. I emerged several minutes later changed and ready to go.

After Jerry was ready to go, we were ready to head off. "Lucas grab the water jugs, we're going to need to fill em."

"Grab the fishing rods; we may want them so we can eat later." I said

"Touché" and we headed into the woods, water jugs and fishing gear in hand.

The walk wasn't long, but it seemed to be like eternity, probably because of my lack of sleep the night before. The fact that the path was full of rocks and protruding roots didn't help the matter much, I was almost constantly tripping over them. There was a sigh of relief when I heard the sound of running water in the distance.

Moments later I couldn't just hear it, I could see it. The calm clear water reflected the blue of the sky above like a mirror and you could clearly hear the rapids downstream. It was a beautiful sight to look upon. It was looking at a post card. We hung our towels from a nearby maple tree, took off our shoes and carefully walked down to the shore line.

I was the first to jump in. The water was freezing cold. I was hit with the sensation of being poked with a thousand needles all over my body as dived underneath the surface.

"Come on in, the water is awesome," I teased from the shore, he looked reluctant to get in.

"Looks cold," he said

"No, it's not. Seriously come on in it feels great."

He jumped in and hit the water, screaming at the top of his lungs, "COLD!"

"You're such a wimp; you can't even handle a little cold water." I was laughing so hard I almost peed myself.

"This coming from a guy who can't even stomach a little fish guts!" he yelled at me, looking extremely ticked off.

"You win" I didn't want to start an argument with him.

We moved downstream a bit, where we could ride some of the rapids, and slide down some of the rocks into the water. It was fun to do, we spent most of the afternoon doing it.

Time passed quicker than we would have originally hoped and by the time we had realized it, it was mid afternoon. We were starting to get hungry again and I could have used a nap, so we decided to call it and head back to camp.

"I'm heading back to camp, catch our dinner will you? I'll have the fire going when you get back." Jerry asked, removing the towel from the tree and wrapping it around him.

"Fine, but fill the canteens and take them with ya."

"Alright," he said grabbing the water jugs. He dipped them into the river to fill them capped them shut and then headed off back toward camp.

"I should be back at camp in about half of an hour,"

"Okay, see ya in a bit," and with that he disappeared from sight.

"If he knew he was going to leave me behind to catch dinner, than why did he bring his rod?" I thought to myself. I decided it was only fair, but it was still annoying.

I patted myself dry as I headed down to the bank with my pole. I spread the blanket on the ground and took a seat on the ground. I let out a loud yawn as I casually cast the line and waited.

I started to drift to sleep, when I heard something. I looked over to the woods in the direction of the sound when something caught my eye. I thought I was seeing things, what I saw appeared to be a white wolf.

I just watched it, but I started to get a little nervous when it began to move toward me. It looked like it was ready to attack me. I got up and started to run. It started to chase me, moving on two legs like a person would. I got maybe ten feet before I felt the sharp pain in my ankle.

I screamed at the top of my lungs, the pain was unbearable, worse than anything that I had ever felt in my life before. I could feel the warmth of blood oozing out of the wound on my leg.

I tried to kick off my attacker, but was unsuccessful. It refused to let go. I could only continue screaming, there was nothing I could do.

Things started to go dark. I felt as if I were dying. I heard a yelp and the wolf finally released its grip on me. Jerry was back, trying to fend it off, risking his own life to try and save mine. It went for him immediately, latching its teeth into his arm.

Then suddenly, everything went dark.