Kodama forests's Curse

Chapter one - The Nightmare

He never took much interest in dreams. The majority of the time they made no sense, just a Picasso painting of a million different stories, too scrambled to make out what they were. They say dreams have meanings behind them, like dreaming about the world ending or aliens implies there's a big change ahead, or if you dream about falling means you feel you're in a situation where you have no control. There were no results on what the dreams he had meant. Usually they were quite calm dreams, despite how he never had control over them he still enjoyed them. It was uncommon for him to have very scary nightmares since they were often so nonsensical, and if he did have a nightmare he'd just wake up with a slightly lingering fear and then forget about it. Dreams never had much meaning to him, but that changed after he awoke from a ghastly nightmare.

Dauirmuid jerked upright, he could feel tears dripping off his face. The mirror showed the reflection of him, but his appearance felt unfamiliar. This time he was expressing the most fear he'd actually shown in years. His usually fluffy hair was tangled and many strands of it were sticking off the side of his head here and there. The senna toned skin on his face was covered in tears that reflected the light shining through his curtains. His often dull grey eyes were slightly puffy, red and wide. For a second he looked relieved to see his own face in the mirror and not.. he then recalled what happened in the dream.
A rope? He thought to himself. His voice was in a slightly panicked tone in his head, as if he were actually speaking. His voice was calming usually, people would often refer to him as a voice of reason since he was laid back and sincere.
I was dangling from a rope, my.. hands? He looked down at his hands as if to check if they were still there.
There was a voice. What did it say again, or was there a voice at all..? No, there was a voice. It said "You must learn to climb, Dauirmuid." over and over..
It felt peculiar to hear his name from an unfamiliar voice. But then he remembered it was his own brain.
I was climbing.. I know there was something off about my hands, what was it? Then the voice began to speak faster. And a hand grabbed my.. he felt around behind him, then turned to see nothing. Or at least, nothing that he was looking for.
"You awake, Jeremy?" A voice called from downstairs and Dauirmuid jumped, the voice belonged to his sister. Jeremy was an English term for his name that his sister used, since she had trouble pronouncing his actual name. He got up in a dizzy fashion, still shaken by the dream and how real it felt. Each step he took the more he seemed to forget the dream. And the more he realized how much he was over-analyzing this. It was just another weird dream he'd forget in no time. He was right up behind Kayleigh, she called for him again thinking he was still in his room but mid sentence Dauirmuid grabbed both her shoulders tightly and abruptly in the attempt to scare her. She jumped nearly headfirst onto the table and as a reflex, kicked him in the stomach. Dauirmuid clutched his stomach and stumbled backwards. Upon turning around Kayleigh exclaimed;
"Jesus Christ, Jeremy. We talked about that kind of thing." He didn't reply, instead he smirked through the pain and grabbed a bagel and knife from the food cabinet. He then remembered his face was still wet and his eyes were red from tears.
"Jeremy? Were you crying?" He hated when she notices these things, his sister is incredibly nosy and feels she has to be in charge, often acting the role of their mother. Since their mum was always away somewhere there was what felt like a hole to be filled, and who else to do just that but the older sibling? So when something goes wrong or if she is suspicious that something has happened, she will attempt ridiculous things to "fix" whatever has happened. Dauirmuid on the other hand, couldn't care less, and knew what it was like to not want to talk about things. So he never talked about anything. This time he was just zonee out, staring on a bird sitting on the windowsill. It seemed to stare right back at him.
"I'm alright, 'ma'. Just a weird dream." He finally replied.
"Whatever you say, 'darling'." She said back as Dauirmuid reached over her to get the half of a bagel he was holding to the toaster. "And wait your turn."

Technology college wasn't anything abnormal that day, same people, same stairs, same tiled floors, doors, rooms, chairs and the same Drake. Until Dauirmuid ran into him on the way to the bathroom. Drake was saying something about blueprints for an assignment, but Dauirmuid couldn't hear him. He was away in his own world, slumped over slightly and walking quite slowly. He yawned as Drake was talking, until Drake stopped and slowly turned his head to look at Dauirmuid. He stared back.
"What on earth was that yawn? You sounded like a squirrel." Drake then chuckled to himself. Dauirmuid hates his laugh. There was something about Drake he simply hated with every fibre of his being, but he just couldn't put his finger on what. He put off the comment and continued walking.
Once the two reached a corner, Drake kept walking down to campus to get something he mentioned forgetting about. Dauirmuid turned the opposite direction towards the male's toilets.
He walked out of the stall and took a long look at himself in the mirror. He always seems to not care about his appearance because he was "messy", but that's how he looked on purpose. He thought it suited him. A grey t-shirt, black jeans and a green jacket, his favourite outfit. His hair was in the same form as when he woke up, but the parting was even. He looked back down at the sink to wash his hands-
He took a second look at his hands. His nails were long and black, his fingers were tinged a darker color and significantly longer, all were nearly the same length and still extending. He looked up at the mirror again, in hope to see his hands were normal in the reflection, only to be scared straight. His eyes were inverted, his iris and scleras were pitch black and his pupils were glowing white. His ears were now a darker shade too, and slightly pointed. He fell backwards and hit the back of his head on the wall, he felt as if he was going to throw up until he heard somebody walk in. He looked up at the person.
"..."
"..."
They stared at one another for a few seconds, silent. As if someone had muted the world. Dauirmuid waved awkwardly at them and stood up, walking past them abruptly. Glancing at the mirror on the way out, his eyes and ears were back to normal. Once he has turned the corner he took on the way down, he checked his hands. Same story. He raced down the hall with his hands tucked in his sleeves, in fear of someone seeing his hands the way he saw them a minute ago. He was suddenly too aware of everything around him. Everything was louder, everyone was staring, and they all knew something had happened.

Dauirmuid didn't speak a word to anyone for the remainder of the day. On the bus back home he just stared into space, and upon entering his house he ignored everyone asking about his day. He just took some light medication for any anxiety and tried to sleep everything off. But couldn't. He wasn't sure wether this was the coolest thing that ever happened to him or the worst.
"What if I'm was some kind of werewolf? Or.. something.." He eventually gave in and started up his computer.