It was a cool, autumn afternoon. I was walking through the park, heading towards the bridge, so I could get home to my nice warm bed. As I was walking over the bridge, I looked down at the water, like I always do. Only this time, there was a red tint mixing with the water. I found that strange since it’s never done that before. I looked over the other side of the bridge, but there wasn’t any red over there.

'It must be coming from under the bridge,' I thought. I backtracked across the bridge and carefully climbed down the sloping bank. It was a little dark under the bridge, but I could see just fine. I noticed a weird object further on, and I went to investigate. As I got closer, I soon noticed that it was the body of a man I’d never seen before. He looked to be in his thirties, and he was lying face down in the dirt with the top of his body in the water. 'That’s where the red was coming from,' I thought to myself, 'It was blood. He must have an open wound somewhere to bleed like that.' It was strange. I’m sure any normal person would have screamed and ran away, but I was fascinated by this sight. I don’t know why, but it’s kind of funny how I ended up finding a body under a bridge. I continued to stare until I heard a rustle from behind me. I turned around to find another man standing before me. He wasn’t all that tall, but he did look dangerous, especially since he was holding a bloody dagger in his right hand.

“You shouldn’t be here, girly,” he said, his voice scratchy and ragged. “Now I gotta take care of you too.” Before I could run, or even scream for help, he grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. I struggled hard against his tight grasp, but it did no good. The next thing I knew I felt a jolt of unimaginable pain in my chest. I looked down to find that he had stabbed me in the heart. I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t think. The only thing I remember is that I went down on my knees before I fell into a pit of darkness.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I woke up from that strange dream that I’ve been having for the past few days. I looked across the sleeping bodies of my pack before I rose to my paws and headed into the woods. It was early in the morning, and the light was just touching the sky. I was going to visit the town again. I don’t know why, but that place is so familiar to me, even though I’ve only been there a few times before. After all, it’s hard to walk down the street without someone seeing me and calling “Wolf! Wolf!” I made my way towards the opening of the forest where I live in when I noticed a small group of humans walking down the street on the opposite side of me. I’ve never seen these people before in my life, but they had a familiar way about them. As I looked at them more closely, I instantly knew who they were. They were the people from my dreams. There were five of them: the tallest woman, with black hair and crystal blue eyes was Jennifer, who in my dreams was my human mother. The second tallest girl, with red hair like my dream father and the same eyes as my dream mother, was supposed to be Nicole, my older sister. I recognized Amy, who had long fiery red hair and light green eyes, and Kory, who had short-cropped blond hair and hazel eyes, as my two best friends. But as my gaze fell on the fifth girl, I nearly passed out from shock. It was the girl who dies in my dream! She had long black hair and lapis lazuli eyes.

“C’mon Monique,” Kory said. “Let’s go have some hot cocoa and s’mores at your place!” As soon as I heard that name, it was like a flood gate of answers and understanding was released in my mind. I’m Monique! That’s me! But… how? If that’s me over there, how can I be standing here as a wolf as well? This is too weird.

“I can’t,” the girl with long black hair answered to Kory’s earlier proposal. “I have to stop by Gloria’s first to make sure we have the project ready for tomorrow.”

“Well okay,” Jennifer said sweetly. “But just be sure you make it home before dark.”

“Okay Mom,” Monique said before she kissed her mom on the cheek and rushed off the Gloria’s house, which is when I remembered something. This was the day in my dream that I died! I knew it was because Mr. Smith, our next door neighbor, was cutting down the tree that was blocking the driveway to his garage, which he said he was going to do today, and Mrs. Rudy’s cat was lounging on a parked car, which I’ve never seen her do until today. Plus, I was even wearing the same purple coat and blue jeans that I wore when I walked over to Gloria’s and then over the bridge- 'The bridge! Oh no! I have to follow my human self to make sure that I don’t get killed.' I slinked back into the forest and ran to the bridge where my murder was soon to take place.

I ran for what seemed like hours, but I finally made it to the bridge. And just in time. I found myself walking across it before I looked over the edge. Sure enough, as I watched my human self stop and do the same thing I did before I died in the dream. I knew that I had to stop my murder from happening. And who better to do it than a black, threatening wolf? I got there just after Monique climbed down the bank and walked under the bridge. Sure enough, I watched, hidden in the trees near the bridge, as the same man who killed me came out of hiding and followed my human self. I growled and bared my teeth. 'Not this time,' I thought as I stalked after him.

“You shouldn’t be here, girly,” he said, just like last time. I growled loudly, making both the man and Monique jump in shocked surprise. “Easy there pooch,” the guy said, obviously trying to get out of this. 'I don’t think so.' I lunged for him and knocked him to the ground as Monique screamed and ran away. I clamped my teeth in the guy’s throat and fought as he tried to shove me off of him. It soon stopped as he slowly died from the extensive bleeding from the neck wound. I only let up as soon as I knew that he was dead. I stood over his body, a chain necklace that was around his neck stuck between my canines and a metallic tang in my mouth, when I felt a strange twisting feeling in my gut. First it was just a weird sensation, then it moved up 'til it felt like I was being spun around really fast and was about to throw up. I backed away from him as everything started spinning. I laid down on the ground, hoping that it would all just go away soon.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I woke up panting and sweating, sitting up in my dark room. I patted my body to make sure that it really was me and not just the black wolf in my dream. That had to be strangest dream I’ve ever had. Suddenly, I felt something logged in my throat, and coughed it up. As I looked at it in my hands, I had to squint through the darkness to see what it was. It was a chain necklace. Kind of like the one that was between the wolf’s teeth in my dream…

I stilled in shock, thinking that it was impossible for this to happen. I looked at my calendar, then my clock. It was two in the morning. And it was also the day that I was supposed to go over to Gloria’s today to check on the project we were working on. I reached under my mattress and pulled out the pepper spray my mom wanted me to have. I’ve never had to use it before, but if that dream and this necklace told me anything, it was that you could never be to careful.