The Dream Shifter

Chapter 112

"Yuki?!" Fumiko questioned still trying to come to terms with what just happened. Everything froze for her in that moment as she searched around quickly trying to find Yuki. She had figured he would say something to her or be visible, but there was no one else. 'Where is Yuki? That was him wasn't it?'

The smoke from the attack blew out into the area blinding the three momentarily. However, the beast had turned in the smoke with its attention brought on Fumiko. It believed that she was the cause of its pain. A deep roar sounded through the smoke announcing its intention. She was no longer just a meal for it, but a threat to its life.

Fumiko was still disoriented from her fall and the smoke that it took her a few moments to realize that the animal was targeting her. 'It thinks I hurt it?! But I didn't do anything!' The smoke began to be pulled away in sheets leaving her to start backing up nervously with the massive creature stalking towards her. She had stared down with it before, but the fear and terror she was feeling was so much greater than before. When it was looking at her earlier it was the mark of a predator looking at prey as food, however that had changed so quickly when it felt threatened. The only look it had in its eyes anymore was to kill and tear her to shreds until nothing was left, it was not about hunger. 'It's almost like I can feel its killing intent! I think it would have let us escape before if we were too much trouble, but now…now it's not going to stop until one of us is dead!'

The beast clawed at the ground keeping pace with Fumiko's uneasy retreat. It was only caution that was keeping it from attacking her immediately. There was a deep wound burned into its fur and flesh in a circular pattern that still steamed a little from the burn. The injury had not stopped it; its size was enough to make such a wound seem almost minor. However, it could not easily forget the pain and did not want it to happen again, but the fear that was pouring off Fumiko soon gave away her weak position. The animal dug into the dirt before charging towards her.

'…I'm going to die! Why isn't Yuki doing anything?!' Instinctively, Fumiko put out her hands and closed her eyes with the creature speeding towards her. The impact was within seconds with a heavy pressure surrounding around Fumiko. All she could manage was a prolonged scream of pain as she was dragged along. An explosion of brick from a wall they crashed through flew passed her. The beast crashed her through several more dividing walls until she was suddenly thrown free from the animal, it having come to a stop. Her body continued breaking through into someone's house and sent through an interior wall before being dropped to the floor.

All around her furniture was tossed up lining out the path of destruction that she had followed through the house and echoed outside. Fumiko was feeling lightheaded from being tossed around, but she was able to shake it off. She slowly opened her eyes trying to taken her new surroundings before leaping away in surprise. "How'd I get in here?! Where am I?" The questions she had kept coming as she looked around at the furniture trying to understand what occurred, but it was seeing the hole in the house and wake of destruction outside that left her agape in awe. "How's this possible? I should be dead!"

Fumiko cautiously walked over to hole in the wall putting her hand through the opening to see if it was real. A crumbling piece of wallboard suddenly fell startling her. "Am I dead then? Is this the afterlife? It can't be!" She turned her head around the room with a panicked expression nearly in tears thinking about being dead.

"What's going on in here?!" yelled a deep voice from an adjoining room. "That you, Hajime?" Soon there were footsteps echoing from distance as the owner of the house was coming to check on the noise.

It was in that moment that Fumiko realized that she was someone else's home uninvited. Everything on her froze in terror, her mouth still hung open. 'If I'm dead they can't see me! Right?! Right?' Fumiko did not know how to act as the middle-aged man stepped into the entrance of the room staring on with Fumiko appearing like a thief caught in the middle of a crime.

The two stared at each other only managing to blink as neither knew how to react. "Who are you?"

"You can see me?!"

"Of course I can see you!"

"Ah?!" Fumiko jumped about the wrecked room becoming even more flustered by realizing it was all real. She turned down at herself poking herself having to check reality one more. "Seems real…and I still have feet, I must not be dead!"

"I think that's pretty clear, Miss." The man was starting to become a little impatient with Fumiko as well as question her sanity. Her being on drugs had crossed his mind quickly.

Fumiko pulled at her clothes trying to examine her body for any new injures, but all she was feeling were the claw marks from earlier. "What happened to me?!"

"…more importantly…my house!"

"That's right! I went through the house!" Fumiko looked at the hole once more understanding that it was all real and that she had to accept it as a fact. "But how?! And why?!"

"You did this to my house?!" shouted the man starting to approach Fumiko.

She turned back toward him in surprise realizing that she had trashed half his house with what she had done. "I'm very sorry, sir! I apologize for the damage that I've caused to your house!"

"How—"

Everything was cut off as the beast burst through the house putting an even larger hole in and plowing through the rest of the house. Fumiko had barely managed to dive out of the way knocking down the slightly overweight man with her. Debris slammed into her back covering her as the animal cleared through the rest of the house a second later. Once the house had settled into a creaking hum Fumiko pushed herself up out of the pile of broken wood, ceramic and wallboard.

The damage the house was in looked even worse than what Fumiko had managed, which seemed an impossible feat to her. Destroyed furniture was collected on the exit hole of the house while broken pipes poured out water upon a cluttered floor. Along the walls exposed wires sparked among insulation and whining wood studs. A thin layer of dust left the house feeling foggy catching on the sunlight pouring through the exposed wall. The room that they laid in let out a loud groan that preceded the collapse of the remainder of an interior wall.

Fumiko sat up on her knees looking down at the man as he recovered himself. "Are you hurt, sir?"

"My house!" He jumped out moving quickly about his house looking at the damage. Each part only made him even more depressed than the last.

She rushed over to the man trying to calm him down. "Sir! It's okay! You're still alive, but I think—"

The man snapped his head back around towards her glaring intently at her. "What'd you know?! You don't know anything!"

"But sir! It isn't safe—"

"I just made my last payment on the house a month ago!"

Fumiko could not help but fall over when she heard the reason for the man's anger. She leapt back up to her feet leaning in against the man. "Your house isn't safe anymore! And that's what you're worried about?!" Fumiko started to pull on his arm trying to get him out of his house before anything happened, however she was more worried about the monster coming back through a second time.

"You're not a home owner! You'd never understand!" He threw her away from him storming back into the center of the house until another series of groans were heard around them. The situation was made even worse by the piercing growl of the beast outside of the house watching through the hole looking ready to pounce. "What do you think you're doing out there you dumb dog!?" He threw a part of what used to be a chair through the hole at the beast, which is dodged skillfully.

The fearlessness or perhaps the obliviousness made Fumiko sweat a little before snapping back to reality. She tried to make a run for the middle-aged man, but the animal leapt forward crashing into the house. It had taken her actions as a sign of attack and planned to counter. Fumiko did not have enough time to reach him when debris came flying at her in a whirlwind with the large gaping mouth of the beast charging straight at her. It looked like it was trying to bite down on her as it was attacking her, but that was only the last few moments she saw before she could not help but close her eyes in fear. Her hands were held out in weak defense of her body.

Surrounding her senses was a high pressure feeling of being rammed through walls. While it continued Fumiko began to question what was happening to her. She could understand that she was not being hurt somehow. Fumiko tempted her fate just to see what was happening. A stunned gasp came from her lips as her face grew wide in confusion and panic. "What's happening to me?!" Her body was glowing a purple hue with a sphere enclosed around her. The sphere was rapidly being spun continuously by ribbons of light covered with deeply intricate lines and letters.

When the beast could see that it was failing to reach Fumiko it came to a stop once more. Fumiko was carried away breaking through a stone wall before the sphere disappeared dropping her on the ground. She could see the destruction behind the animal through several homes feeling for what had happened, however she did not have any time to spare on those sympathies as the beast slowly approached her. It was not highly intelligent, but it was starting to understand a little and stalked cautiously.

Fumiko rose to her feet seeing the rubble around her that made her a little uneasy. She did not understand fully how it happened. "Is this not Yuki's doing?" Her hands rose up for her to stare at them questioningly. It was slowly beginning to fit into place in her mind. The blast of fire before when she had been so desperate to save Mieko came flashing back to her quickly. 'That was…me? I did it?' Her gaze turned up towards the prowling animal that watched her. 'It was me…that caused that? …not Yuki?!' Fumiko tried to search through her body moving around and flexing her muscles to see if anything felt different to her, yet nothing seemed to be out of place. All was as it should be for her. "It's not…possible…"

Possible or not was not a question that the animal was asking having decided to make another charge at her. Its roar alerted Fumiko to the incoming attack. The massive feet were extended out bearing the claws to go for a straightforward attack.