Totem Animals

10th July, 2011 : Totem Animals

I was standing in the night, looking up at the sky. There was a boy with me and we were looking at the stars. I could hear the faint chirps of crickets in the background and the smell of the sea drifting in with the wind. I could hear a slight humming coming from the water and headed over there. The boy, my brother, yelled after me, telling me not to go down there. Stupidly I didn't listen and was hit by something in the head. I fell into the water and felt something swarm on top of me. I was pulled under. Then I was seeing myself from above. I could see myself being pulled further and further down, the only indication, the white of my shirt as it seemed to disappear underneath black... Then I bobbed up, lying in the water. My brother was yelling something but he couldn't move forward, as if blocked by  a shield.

Next thing I knew I was sitting at a table with two friends, who were joking about something. They asked me if I had dazed off again... and I wasn't sure but I smiled and joined the conversation. After a while, my brother walked up and sat next to me, he dropped a bag on the table, threw me a grin and pulled a drink out of it and tossed me one. We all started gossiping when a few people walked towards us into the woods. I had a chilling sensation down my back, and cast my eyes over there. I had a strange sensation of seeing shadows following them, small shadows which didn't appear to be anything at first, but which changed into outlines of images I couldn't quite recognise. My brother looked over in the direction I was looking at and put his hand on my shoulder, "don't" he said. I looked at the guy sitting opposite me, he must have understood the look because he swore under his breath and stood up. "Let's get this over with" he said as he walked over and helped me up. My brother and the girl stood up and followed us, as we headed for the woods. We passed a strange looking manhole cover which I stopped to peer down at. It had a lot of gaps, formed in a strange pattern. The guy took my hand and pulled me away from it, launching into an old ghost story about the sewer system underneath, and how many people were murdered down there, and that their spirits lay uneasy, Shaking the idea from my head, we continued through the forest. A strange sensation of being watched and followed by shadows filled me as we headed deeper and deeper in. The voices of the group who had headed in there before seemed to grow softer and softer the further we travelled in.  Finally we came do a dark street, lined with houses. We walked along the dimly lit pathway, stopping at each house to glance at the buildings. Each house had a strange feel to it, nothing felt quite right, and I noticed shadowed animals on the front lawn of certain places. I had an uneasy feeling at each of the houses, until I came to a two story, old Victorian home, with a sold sign nailed to the rusty black gate. We opened the gate and walked onto the front path. This place felt good, almost like home. My brother shifted an uneasy look across the street at the neighbours who were standing on their porch watching us. I walked up to the door, and reached for the handle. Before I could touch it, the door swung open slowly. The hallway lead to a staircase leading upwards, with what appeared to be a kitchen behind it. To the left was a large living room, stacked with a few old boxes, old furniture covered in dust and a musty smell. I stepped onto the wooden floor of the house and it creaked. Stepping through the door way, fully into the house, I noticed small shadows on the floor coming towards me. The seemed to form the shapes of snakes slithering across the floor at me. Startled I jumped back only to realise the entire house and lawn had these snakes on it. They crawled up my legs and around my arms, however they didn't harm me. I stood on the porch and looked down the street. It seemed all the houses had a variation of shadowed creatures. My brother sighed and said, "you had to get us into this again didn't you?" I looked at him blankly, not understanding what he was saying. A shadow snake weaved its way through my hair and dropped in front of me. It's eyes glowed yellowed as it looked into me.

I was taken back to the night in the lake. Around me were different shadowed creatures, climbing on top of me, pushing me under the water, deeper and deeper I went. Slowly the shadowed creatures seemed to disappear into me, A sharp sensation filling me as each one entered. Lastly was a snake, which curled itself around my arm and burned as it passed through my skin. I lost consciousness and floated to the top, where I saw my brother pull me out. He lay me on the ground and I opened my eyes, coughing up water, I couldn't see shadows however I felt different... then I couldn't remember a thing.

Standing back at the house I looked down the street. I could see all the people looking at me, the animals turning, a strange expression on their faces. Then in a rush they all began to come at me. My brother and the guy pushed me into the house, the slammed the door hard behind them, trying to barricade it with the bookshelf off to the side. I could hear slamming at the door. The snake weaving into my hair dropped down again, this time it came close and close to my face. I closed my eyes and screamed as a burning sensation hit my forehead. I dropped to the ground. The guy came over, to see if I was okay. When I opened my eyes, I blinked. He didn't look the same. The house didn't look the same. "Where am I? Who are you?" I asked. He looked at me with a shock on his face "it's me.." I pushed him out of the way and threw the door open. Standing on the lawn were millions of shadow creatures, they seemed to go on for miles. They sat, waiting... My brother stood next to me and said "I tried to keep you from this you know... guess it runs in the family". I looked at him as the shadows crept up to us. I could feel a burning sensation all over, then I woke up.