Dreamwalker Beginnings

By Shawn Stack

What does Clair do once she finds out she is a Dreamwalker? She pranks her friends in their dreams. She can’t help herself. She is a teenager who wants to have fun. But when her friends start having nightmares and it causes problems in real life, she begins to see that being a Dreamwalker isn’t all about having fun. People's dreams are mysteries, exciting adventures, creepy nightmares, and private. Fighting aliens in space, monsters chasing you through he woods at night, winning a destruction derby, Clair experiences it all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shawn Stack
• Release date: Mar 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310232848

Shawn Stack

Shawn Stack, a young author, from Michigan.

Book preview

Chapter 1

It was warm on the bus, even with the windows down for air circulation. For Clair the heat was unbearable. She hated hot weather, sweating felt gross and un-lady like, better suited for someone who liked sports or gardening. Her mom said, Clair always felt hot because of her having a high metabolism. She would rather feel cold all the time; one could always put on more clothing and only take off so much. It was too bad she could not wear a swimsuit to school, she would not mind the boy’s stares if she could wear a swimsuit, anything to beat the heat.

Her class was taking a field trip to an island on Lake Huron. Once off the bus they would be taking a ferry to the island. The bus did not have air conditioning, so they rode with the windows down, but that only made it harder to hold a conversation without shouting and having everyone else being able to listen in.

Clair pulled on her top, stretching it out, then let it spring back into space. It caused a momentary cool relief.

Hey! Kelly said.

Clair looked at her best friend sitting next to her. Kelly had moved sideways to block anyone’s view of Clair from the aisle. What? Clair asked.

Your bra was showing. Kelly whispered, looking down at Clair’s shirt.

Clair looked past Kelly at Tucker. He had a look of concern and turned away trying to act like he was not going to listen to them. Clair shrugged her shoulders. It is just Tucker. Not like he hasn’t been over to my pool and gone swimming with us.

Kelly shook her head. You have no decency.

She stared at her friend. Kelly wore a sweater shirt with blue jeans today again. How she managed to wear so much clothing in this heat was beyond Clair. Kell, aren’t you hot?

Kelly glanced at Tucker. A little, but it’s not that bad.

The ride started becoming mind-numbingly boring. Kelly was too sleepy to be engaging. The heat was starting to irritate Clair, and with it still being the morning she needed to vent the irritation. Max and Davis sat in the seat in front of her and she could not help but overhear him.

Man, Max said. I really don’t feel good this morning.

What did you eat for breakfast? Davis asked him.

Cereal.

Was the milk bad?

Maybe… it did not smell that bad. I thought maybe the cereal was stale

Well, I can usually look and see if the milk is bad. I don’t have to smell it.

Clair could not help but start laughing at that, she stood up and leaned over the back of their seat. What are you the milk whisperer? she asked.

Max and Davis looked up at her.

Davis asked, What? He knew Clair had a tendency to torment people when they misspeak or say something silly.

She gave him a look of false amusement and saying it loud enough to be heard by everyone on the bus. Wow Davis! That is amazing! Are you going to get a job as a milkman? Deliver fresh milk and let people know when their milk has gone bad?

What? he asked again.

Well, as the milk whisperer, isn’t that your job?

It isn’t like that. He looked around the bus seeing his fellow students staring at him.

Changing her voice to a country drawl she said, If any of you are ever wondering if your milk is bad, just call Davis here, She pointed down at him, and he will tell you just by looking at it.

Well, I can— He stopped himself from saying anything more. Realizing anything else he said would keep the joke going. He hung his head; it suddenly felt like it was going to be a long day.

Clair felt content for a while, glad to have found something to distract her from the boredom. But Kelly remained unresponsive to her verbal engagements and soon the boredom came back to her.

Something went flying past behind Kelly and hit Tucker’s arm sticking to him. Clair saw it was a spit wad. Tucker looked disgusted and brushed it off. He got up from his seat and turned around looking for who had shot it. Jean, you are such a child. Grow up! Tucker shouted towards the back.

Clair brought her legs under her to sit higher. She turned around to look back at Jean, who was a few rows farther back in the bus. Jean was wearing a face of false innocence. Tucker sat back down and shook his head. Clair knew that he would wait for a better time to get his revenge. Clair looked back at Jean. He tore a piece of paper off from a sheet and pulled it into his mouth to create another spit wad. He noticed Clair staring at him. He raised both his eyebrows twice then made a kiss towards her.

Kelly turned Clair around. You were doing it again, Kelly said.

What? Clair asked.

Staring at Jean. Clair saw Tucker’s back stiffen overhearing her.

Clair gave Kelly a wide eyed stare letting her know Tucker had heard.

Tucker, Clair called. What is up with you and Jean?

Tucker tried to act like he had not been listening to them all along. He looked over at the two girls I beat him in arm-wrestling.

So… he’s just being a big baby, Kelly said.

Another spit wad flew down the between the seat missing Tucker but sticking to the seat. Tucker seemed like he was about to do something, but before he could Greg, who was sitting next to him, pulled on his sleeve pointing out the window. Clair and Kelly looked over to see what it was; the bus had made it to Lake Huron and the blue wide expand of water stretched out to the horizon.

Ms. Muader, their teacher, made an announcement letting them know they were almost to the ferry and what to expect on the island and what to watch out for. She explained: the island was home to a large number of snakes and pigs. About how the pigs ate the snakes and the locals would catch and eat the pigs, as part of the local festival. Clair, uninterested, did not pay much attention.

They unloaded from the bus and Clair stepped off expecting it to be cooler. Under the sun on the black pavement of the road, it was not. She felt like she would give anything to be able to dive into the lake at that moment. To her slight relief it finally did get cooler when they went out over the water on the ferry Dark House. It would not take the ferry long to make it to the island. Even with the full class of 33 students they did not even come close to filling half the ferry’s capacity. As they rode across the lake they were split up into pairs of two; the buddy system.

You can still see the bottom. Kelly said leaning over the rail.

Lake Huron isn’t very deep, Tucker said. We are still in the Saginaw Bay part of the lake which is only thirty five feet all the way across. Between the island and shore it won’t get deeper than ten feet.

Tucker was hanging too close to them for Clair’s likes. Tucker, where is your buddy? she asked giving him a stare. He took the hint and left them alone. Kelly watched Tucker walking away and Clair got a little nasty idea. She moved her hand to Kelly’s back and gave her a little push towards the water.

Kelly flinched pushing herself from the rail. Oh my goodness, you scared me. She flashed Clair a look of frustration letting Clair know she had gone too far.

What? You can swim… you do it all the time at my house.

That is in a pool, I don’t want to swim in there. Kelly glared at the water.

It is a lake. There are no sharks or squids or any monsters.

What about snakes and fish?

Clair looked at the water again. She had not seen a single living thing in the lake yet. Clair saw Kelly was upset, and wondered if Kelly was feeling seasick. She gave her a pass on any more teasing, but once they were back on land she would let her have it.

They were almost to the island. Clair saw a wooden dock stretching out into the water. The shore of the island was a mass of weeds. The dock ran above the weeds further into the island out of sight. The class got off the ferry walking up the dock single file, hanging onto the rail running along one side of the dock. The wooden planks were uneven and the nails holding it together were colored a dark reddish brown from years of rusting.

She could see Kelly frowning staring into the weeds below them. The dense weeds ran all along the shore of the island.

There are a lot of frogs down there. Kelly said.

No, duh, Clair said. What do you think the snakes eat? Kelly’s frown deepened.

Clair would never have guessed the dock would extend so far past the shore. Once they were past the weeds they came to a short sandy beach before a looming forest of tall trees. Once the class gathered on the beach they were handed work packets to share with their buddy. Their teacher explained they would have to fill out the packet based off what they saw as they traveled through the island.

Kelly flipped through the packet checking what they would have to look for. She had a habit of always trying to solve problems faster than she need to. Clair always liked to do it all last minute. If they were going to come to an island she was going to enjoy it, regardless if the trip was for school. They had the whole trip back to school on the bus to finish it anyway.

Ms. Muader led them down the path into the trees away from the beach. You will notice class, she said, the trees closer to the water are much different than the ones father in. In the past the island used to be a bird sanctuary, but the introduction of exotic snakes had severely reduced the number of birds. The snakes hunt and eat a lot of the bird’s eggs.

She went on to point out and talk all about the ecosystem of the island. Often, to put the class at ease, she would say little things to calm them about how the snakes were all non-venomous and more scared of humans, than humans should be of them.

Oh my goodness, look at this little baby snake, one of the girls in the class said. Most of the class went to huddle around the little snake. Kelly moved to follow, but stopped, wondering what Clair was doing.

Clair was watching Jean sneak away to go off on his own. If anyone had been paying attention they would have noticed the class was uneven in number and Jean had never buddied up with anyone. Clair snuck off to following after Jean.

Kelly tailed right after Clair. Looking back at the rest of the class, she regretted not being able to see the baby snake herself, although she kind of did not want to.

The two girls lost Jean among the trees. Clair was unsure of how she had lost sight of him. He was too tall to lose. She did not know why she had chosen to run off from the group like she had. A part of her, deep down, longed to be bad. She knew she would get reprimanded for sneaking off, but the brassiness of youth pushed her forward.

Clair, what is that? Kelly said, pulling on Clair’s shirt making sure she could not get away, something was rustling just out of their sight.

Looking with her, Clair could not make out what Kelly was frightened by. I don’t know. Maybe a pig.

Maybe we should go back.

We can’t. Clair struggled to pull Kelly along after her; Kelly was much taller and stronger. Jean is alone out here we can’t just leave him.

Did he go this way? I don’t see him anymore. Kelly jumped forward pushing Clair ahead. Oh no. That is a snake." She pointed back behind her at a slithering reptile.

Clair tried to be strong for Kelly That is just a tiny one, come on keep moving. She jumped back grabbing onto Kelly’s sweater letting out a little scream. There were more snakes ahead of them. Looking around, she saw there were snakes everywhere. Kelly began to scream as well. The two girls grabbed at each other with both of their minds racing at the thought of being overtaken by the tiny creatures. They froze, hanging onto each other, being quiet, changing to a tactic of hoping the snakes would leave on their own.

All at once the snake’s heads popped up and turned in the same direction. Clair and Kelly followed their gaze and watched as a dirty light-pink pig ran towards them. The snakes bolted in every direction. The fact it was pink was the only thing cute about this pig. Unlike most domesticated pigs this one had much more muscle and a patch of hair along its back. Having to hunt for its own food led it to being much leaner than a pig found on a farm.

Okay, let’s get out of here, Clair said watching the pig chase after the scattering snakes and not wishing to see it catch and eat one of them. She dragged Kelly along towards what she thought was the way back. Kelly was not paying attention, looking around for more snakes, not wanting to get surrounded again. I don’t think this is the way.

What? Kelly said looking around.

Yeah, I think we have to go back the other way. She pointed the way they had just come but soon realized she did not know if that was even correct. Trying to find a land mark of any kind she did see a clearing off the side a little ways. If it was the beach, she was sure she could easily find the way back from there. We will go to the beach. Then head back to the others.

Are you sure that is the beach? Kelly thought she saw something much different looking.

As the two girls got closer they could see a towering white object in the clearing. As they passed