A nondescript car turned into the suburban locality, with a smooth cut. Driver behind the wheels quickly killed the engine even before the car was parked as he took the advantage of remaining momentum to silently swerve the car into the alleyside.
A sudden tiny flash of light blinked in the car breaking the darkness of the car, illuminating the sole passenger. With Car's engine killed it was the only source of light as the eyes of the passenger sitting in the shotgun moved to his wrist watch, the source of this tiny light.
"2:21 A.M. We still have a few minutes before… "
Driver raised his hand and tapped the watch on Adele's wrist making it shut off. He pointed to his own eyes while cutting him off,
"It is a natural time for darkness. Try to use less light during the night. First because it trains your eyes. And second, It hurts, kid."
Youngster shrugged his shoulders as he opened the door silently and walked out. To his surprise, the man who was driving the car was already outside and had walked quite a distance before him. He quickly jogged to catch up while looking around to see if there were any unlikely civilians around at this ungodly hour.
"I have already taught you how to walk in dreams the previous time, at least in theory. It is time for practical. Keep yourself calm, and your emotions in control as we practiced while riding. You have to…"
Adele knew that already and was afraid of hearing any more lectures if he could help it. David had been teaching him theory since he was seven years old in preparation for this moment. Therefore, He hurriedly interjected with an obvious question just to stop his uncle from going on with his lecture.
"Ahem! Uncle, what do we have to do here? I mean this specific place, are we here just for practice?"
Uncle David stopped and gave him a silent stare which made Adele stuck out his tongue in guilt. He hurriedly added,
"I mean you told me about your quarrel with Aunt and then my silly nightmare. Is it related? I mean… "
David shook his head but didn't answer his second set of questions. He instead pointed his figure upwards towards the dark sky. As he saw Adele following his finger to see upwards he calmly answered,
"Moon is in waxing phase, it is a relatively safe day to dream walk so I thought to do this tonight, nothing more than that. I can also do my part for a long term mission - nothing that important."
"Uncle, can I.. "
"No" David refused before Adele even finished his question as he knew what he was going to ask. Though he quickly realized that kid won't be satisfied with simple answer so further explained,
"I am already taking a risk of letting you go to the Dream Walk before approval from the Organisation Leader… And your Aunt.
You are still not a member of Umbra Collective. Therefore, we can't have you join anything which is related to this, but still I am doing this to give you a chance if caught in a dangerous situation, instead of sitting there like a target duck. It is mainly for self-preservation. Other than that you should just focus on your college…. "
He suddenly stopped as he found himself walking alone. He halted and looked back to find Adele stopping suddenly midway and looking towards a specific direction. Before he could ask him anything, the kid raised his finger and pointed in that direction.
"Uncle.. Is that… "
David felt the danger before he could even turn around to see what Adele was pointing at. Owing to honed reactions of living in the supernatural world since his birth, he reacted immediately. A murky dark veil conjured around him which followed along his will and enveloped his figure in black smoke like thing.
David did all of this mentally while physically his first action was to raise his hand to point at Adele who was now visibly panicking, and after that he turned around to face whatever hell that was coming for him, while radiating the pressure of a supernatural predator on him.
A half-wolf half humanoid creature snarled loudly with its huge frame crouched with an aggressive posture on the corner of the building roof, upon which it was hanging on. Its large beastial frame was condensed, muscles contracted in pouncing gesture as enormous power generated in its limbs. It turned its red glowing eyes towards Adele with a posture of imminent attack.
Adele froze, but fortunately David did not. Just seconds before beastial creature pounced upon his inexperienced prey. A portal type thing opened behind Adele that was pitch black and David's voice floated in his ears while he was pushed back into darkness,
"Hide into the Dream Realm, and remember to keep a leash on your emotions. Go… and wait for me to fetch you."
Before Adele could tear his eyes from the sudden danger towards his Uncle, the portal behind sucked him into the ink-black darkness like an open maw of monster. He didn't even have time to curb his fear, or understand completely what his Uncle just said before he got swallowed. Only word he managed to choke out was,
"Werewolf…"
By this time, the enraged beast with drool leaking from its exaggerated canines, turned towards the other prey mid-jump showing an impressive raw power in its monstrous frame. Though his agitation was on peak after seeing its 'easy' quarry slipping away from its claws. It pounced upon the still turning around David with a momentum no less than a speeding truck, which almost caught David off guard.
The murky ink like fog around David proved a paper shield, as it got breached immediately with a sharp tackle of the three hundred pound beast. David got launched forward like a broken rag doll after taking the tackle head-on with his feeble body. He got slammed far into the street light pole, bending it into some awkward shape with a loud 'twang' in the night.
"Grrrr…. "
Werewolf was not satisfied at all, in fact it was further enraged at the turn of events. It had pounced upon the human but instead of landing upon the target, it had fallen short of grabbing him under him. Human was pushed away from him slightly, making his pounce upon him fail into a straightforward tackle, like he had slipped away at the last possible moment from under him.
It was a subtle set of defensive action done by this human. Though with the aggression Werewolf was showing right now in its demeanor, it was a large stretch that anything other than murder was going on in its mind right now.
David whizzed his lungs out as he tried to take a breath through his aching body. He didn't have to look to know that he must have broken more than two of his ribs and there was a large bleeding gash on his chest from the extended claws of this beast. But at least his weaving of shadow at the last moment had helped him survive the initial and most dangerous ambush.
"Oh man! What rotten luck… huhuff…to encounter a crazed werewolf tonight. It's not even.. ugh.. full moon buddy, did you get crazy randomly or f*cking paw patrol behind you is plotting some action?"
Beast howled and snarled loudly as it leaned on its forward legs. All the time it's red eyes fixed on David who had now managed to stand up with the crutch of a street pole. He winced in pain, while holding his chest that was rapidly becoming wet with blood with each passing second.
"Oh! Lost your mind completely, amiright? With the loudness you are barking, people would be waking up anyt…."
He was cut off in the middle as the beast jumped instantly. Once again the speed of lunge was anything expected by a mere mortal. But David this time was ready, he was long prepared for the beast to act and with perfect timing he disappeared from its location in black smoke, making the werewolf crash into the street pole violently.
David walked out of the shadows of a nearby building and whistled in half pain and half admiration.
"No matter how many times I witness these cursed monsters. Can't stop my marvel at their physical prowess… Even comparable to literal demon spawns of hell."
He whispered to himself as he saw the pole crashing into the ground, shattering with a bang. And the humanoid wolf with twisted joints turned around, perfectly unaffected other than a little shake of his head to dispel slight dizziness. It was getting more and more crazed with repeated failure, which honestly was even scaring David a little.
He was a Shadow weaver, a member of the Umbra collective. An organization at the same or somewhat less level of these werewolves in the city. But in any given reality, in terms of sheer power and sturdiness they were anywhere near them. He was simply a harmless human with shadow tricks as compared to these powerful beasts in terms of raw power, in short words - completely unmatched.
And his abilities of weaving shadows, traversing dreams, etc. gives him no kind of advantage in any field except escaping when compared to these werewolves. But now he wasn't even in a position to do so.
Werewolves, abomination of beastial horror nestled within human garb. David, or anyone slightly familiar with the supernatural side, was not unfamiliar with these beings. They live in packs… or gangs, in human terms. They have absolute brotherhood, loyalty and fierceness as their creed.
They are mostly sane except on the full moon nights when their already exceptional powers quadruple and fortunately also takes away their sanity at same time. Otherwise they would be already ruling the world as it is.
In this city, they had formed a fancy syndicate named Moongrave to protect themselves, creating an enormous pack that regularly manhandles the criminal side of both worlds. Individually they were already on top of the food chain, but with such a unified Organization they are literally a heavyweight which makes them throw their weight around incurring anger from other creatures and humans alike.
Only visible overwhelming advantage of this unified Organisation that makes everyone tolerate its existence was that they strictly control their members. The unusual and rogue werewolves, who step out of unwritten rules are put down by themselves before they could harm any other but clearly this time, this one has slipped out of their hold.
'I don't know why this beast has gone mad, but it is clear that it is long gone. There is no human left in it there. I don't know how those Moongrave puppies let this one slip so blatantly.
I can run away. But if I flee, 'it' would be free to go on murder spree. Though I ain't no hero but can't let a crazed maneater go free amongst harmless people. I have to distract it myself until help arrives… '
David once again cursed his rotten luck to meet this kind of incident tonight when it was supposed to be just a simple training night for Adele…
"Oh f*ck.. I totally forgot about Adele. I hope he is still alright, not dragged in by something on the other side. I have already informed the Organisation but… oh god it is coming again."