Dominance

Chapter 2: School Bus Shenanigans

Ms Endecott was reading through her class attendance list, shouting over the chatter of the class, when the girls boarded. She shot them a disapproving glare as they slunk past her.

Given their late arrival, there were limited choices for seating. Ashlee dove for a free window seat, Sara climbed in next, and then Kate squeezed in by perching herself on the edge of the two-seater.

"Check it out." Kate nodded to the window as Sara nestled her bag into the nearly non-existent gap between her and Ashlee's legs. "Mr Shale's coming too."

"Weird. Isn't he a Math teacher?" Ashlee commented.

Sara followed their gazes out the window. Mr Shale was a new teacher, presumably in his early thirties. He had just started teaching the previous week as a math relief and was friendly with the students, but gave Sara an uneasy feeling. Although she had only been in one of his classes, she thought he tried a bit too hard to fit in with his students. He showed a lot of teeth when he smiled. Which seemed often and forced. Sara watched him push up his thick glasses as he conversed with today's designated bus driver; a man with a face that only a mother could love.

"So, we hanging out at your place this weekend?" Kate grinned expectantly at Ashlee. She tugged her hair tie free and started readjusting her ponytail higher on her head. Her curls bounced enthusiastically as she did so.

"Oh, um. I can't this weekend. Another gathering with the relatives." Ashlee responded, her tone nervous.

"Aw, what? Again? For someone with not a lot of family, you have a lot of family gatherings. Can't you get out of it?"

While Ashlee tried to counter Kate's whining, Sara dug out the miniature spare brush she kept in her schoolbag so she too could make her hair slightly less tragic. As she eased the messy strands through the bristles, she found herself drifting off as she thought back to the dream she'd had. She often did have strange dreams, but usually of someone she knew, or somewhere she had been before. The words the beast had spoken made Sara feel edgy too. She didn't understand what it had meant by them, and despite the fact it was only a dream, it bothered her. She shuddered recalling its soothing voice and beautiful face transition into something scary and dangerous. It's eyes, an extravagant yellow-

"Hellooo!" Kate waved a hand in front of Sara's face.

Sara snapped herself back to reality.

"Sorry. What?"

"Urgh. You weren't listening to a word I said." Kate pouted.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about something."

Ashlee looked concerned. "Did something happen?"

"Ummm, no. I was just trying to remember a dream I had," Sara responded hesitantly. "It was pretty weird."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Another weird dream?" she asked teasingly, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. Her cheeks were still pink from the mad dash.

Ashlee playfully slapped her on the arm. "Let's hear about it then," she encouraged Sara.

Sara took a breath and tried to remember as much as possible.

"There was this thick fog everywhere I looked. It reminded me of somewhere I'd been before... But I couldn't remember where exactly. Something, this creature, appeared. It sort of looked like a wolf, but it had weird horns. It was white like the fog so I didn't see it at first. It was really creepy."

Kate looked bored, but Ashlee seemed intrigued. "A white wolf with horns, huh?"

"Um, yeah," Sara replied. "And it... spoke too. It said, "I can't escape? I-"