What if you knew that horrific events were coming and you figured out a way to protect your home and the ones you love, would you do it?
Yes? Then come along and read When Worlds Collide.
"Where's the wine??" Heather came through the side door to her cousin's house without knocking and tossed her jacket over a chair in the kitchen.
"What?" Stacey looked up from her smartphone, squinting at her cousin. "You okay?"
"Man, I had some crazy shit happen last night," she said, moving to the living room and getting cozy on the couch with her legs tucked underneath her. "You know that wolf?" she stared at Stacey wide-eyed. "I saw it too. It was standing across the street in the pouring rain watching my house. Standing! On two legs!"
"What??" Stacey tried to make sense of what her cousin was saying, while pouring her a glass of red wine.
"Oh, and something was in my room last night too. It started shaking my bed all over the place. With me in it!" she emphasized, poking her own chest. "I swear it put me to sleep too."
"Are you serious?" Handing her the glass, Stacey then topped up her own drink.
"Oh yeah." Heather gulped down a large mouthful and sat back for a moment to feel it go down with a slight burn. "Oh that's good." She then brought the conversation back around to the wolf, while pulling a blanket from the couch up over her lap. "I did some research on what you saw... what we saw, and..."
"Wait, you saw it during the storm?" Reaching to adjust the volume on the radio as Riders on the Storm played softly in the background, Stacey covered helself with the other end of the blanket.
"Ooh Happy Popcorn!" Spying the bowl on the coffee table, Heather scooped up a handful and tossed a few pieces into her mouth. "Mmm... Mm hm," she mumbled as she stuffed in the rest.
"But, it was here last night," Stacey asserted. "It was at my bedroom window, and then on the roof! So it couldn't have been the same one."
"Well, that's what I saw," Heather shrugged, rubbing the crumbs from her hands. "Maybe there's more than one?"
"Now that's comforting," Stacey shuddered, and then pulled the blanket up higher while peering out the patio doors. She kept expecting the beast to suddenly appear in the windows.
"Anyway, I wanted to ask you," she paused, taking another sip of her wine, then continued, "your big wolf, were its ears on the top of its head or on the side?"
"What does that matter?" Stacey scoffed. "I saw a freaking werewolf and you want to get picky?"
"It matters." Heather squared her shoulders and began searching on her phone, then repeated, "on the top or on the side?"
Picking up her wineglass, Stacey stopped a moment to think. "Uhh... top," she answered, then added, "straight up like a dog, more like a wolf. It looked like a wolf. A big ass werewolf because it had a muscular chest and people shoulders."
"Okay, Dogman," Heather nodded. "Werewolves' ears are on the side of the head, like us," she explained matter-of-factly, sticking her hands up beside her head to mimic big pointed ears, and then asked another question. "Did it have people legs or hocks?"
Stopping mid-chew with a mouth full of popcorn, Stacey gave her a quizzical look.
"You know," Heather traced the shape in the air with her finger. "Dog legs?"
Thinking back to when the big wolf was running alongside, and then up past her car, Stacey swallowed her snack and nodded.
"Dog legs. Pretty sure, yep."
Nodding along with her to affirm the answer, Heather repeated, "definitely dogman."
"What the f--??"
"Check it out." Cutting her cousin off before she could finish her expletive, Heather held up her smartphone to show Stacey a list of Youtube videos. "Lots of people are having encounters with these things," swiping her finger along the screen, she scrolled through the small thumbnail images, and added, "all over the world." Finally, letting her hand fall into the soft blanket on her lap, she dropped her voice down low as well. "Looks like we've got 'em here too."
Leaning back against the cushioned couch, Stacey stopped to ponder this information, and looked at her cousin who had also gone quiet. She finally opened her mouth to say something, but promptly shut it again. She then got up to walk across the room.
A metaltic screech cut the silence as she opened the door to the woodstove and added another log to the fire. "Next, you'll be telling me bigfoot is walking around out there too," she said with a small nervous laugh.
A loud bang suddenly rattled the house, startling them both.
"I heard someone saw a sasquatch on Power Dam Drive, in that wooded bit just before the train tracks." Aimee's familiar voice answered. Then coming into the kitchen, she added, "sorry, the wind picked up and slammed the door shut before I could grab it."
Stacey nodded in relief with her hands folded over her heart.
"Did you tell her about the UFOs?" Aimee asked, taking off her jacket while motioning towards Heather.
"Not yet, no." Stacey shook her head, then her voice cracked, "bigfoot? Great, like werewolves weren't enough," she muttered before downing the rest of her wine in one shot.
"Wait, UFOs?" It was Heather's turn to sound incredulous as she gawked at Aimee. "Here?"
"Yeah," Aimee gave her an awkward smile, and then continued, "I heard more people saw them too, past Long Sault, out to Morrisburg. Said they were following the river."
"What the freaking heck is going on around here?" Heather shook her head and pulled the blanket up to her eyes.
"I don't know, but how about that crazy storm?" Stacey poured a drink for Aimee, topped up her cousin's glass and refilled her own. "I was telling Heather that the werewolf..."
"Dogman," Heather peeped from her protective blanket fort.
"Dogman," Stacey corrected herself and continued, "...came back last night and stood right at my window. Then it fought something in my backyward. I don't know what, but it was pretty wicked. Then it was on my roof! Right above me! And howled!" Passing the wineglasses to her friends, she remembered, "oh! Heather saw one too!"
"Last night?" Aimee turned to Heather.
She nodded in reply, freeing an arm to reach for her glass. "In the storm yeah, it was just standing in the rain staring at my house."
"Tell her about your crazy shit." Stacey grabbed a handful of popcorn and offered the bowl to Aimee.
"What crazy shit?" Grabbing a small handful, Aimee looked back and forth between the cousins.
"Something invisble was in my room. Well, that's not unusual in my house, but this time it messed with my bed. Bumped it, and then started tossing it all around with me in it. It was a wild ride." Heather repeated her story.
Aimee could only offer up a look of shock mixed with empathy. She was thinking about her dream and her return trip to the enchanted forest. That's pretty much all she thought about really.
In her mind's eye, she replayed the giant wolves leaping through the doors from the dream into this reality. She knew what it had fought in Stacey's backyard, and she knew why it was watching Heather's home. "Dogmen," she whispered.
"Dogmen," Heather repeated and nodded. "And bigfoot, and shadow people, and now UFOs. This place is getting to be like its own version of Skinwalker Ranch."
"Nevermind Skinwalker Ranch. Hello Paranormal City!" Stacey chuckled, trying to lighten creepy mood that had settled over them.
Just then, the unmistakable introduction to the song Paradise City by Guns N' Roses began playing.
The ladies all turned in unison to look at the radio, and burst out laughing. They then began singing along to the chorus, changing it slightly:
"Take me down to Paranormal City
where the grass is green
and the girls are pretty.
Oh won't you please take me ho-ome..."
"So what about you Aimz?" Stacey tapped her friend's arm. "Anymore weird dreams last night?"
Aimee's giggles disappeared into a long sip of wine as she stared at the crackling fire in the woodstove. "I saw him," she said softly. "I spoke with him."
"Him who?" Heather asked.
"The Voice."
© 2021 by Linda Casselman
Last: Hold The Light
Next: Worlds Collide
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Did You Hear The Call?
Become a Shield Warrior-in-Training
