Escape From This Crazy Dream, Prolouge A
Escape From This Crazy Dream
By
Marcus Noble
Prologue A: Catch Me As I Fall
Bowie, MD, 4:30 AM. It was Monday, the day that many, including Shane hated the most. Especially since he had to get up so early to go to class. The alarm blasted loudly, but instead of having it set to the annoying "buzz" he set it to WTOP, the news station for the area. This way he could get the weather and traffic before he went downstairs to get his coffee. He then reached his black furred paw over to the alarm, and flicked the switch to turn it off. Leaning upright he stretched his arms and yawned softly, the comforter falling to his waist. He was a skunk, and his fur reflected that, almost all of hit black, with a white diamond shape on his chest, his triangle ears, and two stripes going down his tail. The hair on his head was fairly short, and fell fairly evenly along his head, and it was a navy blue. This was not the result of dying it, but it was 100% natural. He was six feet tall, but because he rarely ever exercised, so he didn't have much muscle, so his build was somewhere between lean and muscular.
As Shane rubbed his eyes and turned to plant his feet on the carpet, he yawned again. Then, he grabbed his green bathrobe and slipping it over his shoulders before tying the strap around his waist. Slowly going down the stairs, he stopped at the stoop to pet his dog. A chocolate Labrador Retriever named Tiny, because when she was born she was the runt of the litter. At ten years old, she's not as energetic as she used to be, but she always loved to be petted. As he set his foot paws on the tile floor of the first floor of his house he saw a light coming from the kitchen. He lived with his parents still, mostly so that none of them would have to pay for the high costs of student housing. He walked into the light and rubbed his eyes a bit, as he kept walking forward to the counter. Just like his parents, he liked to start the day with a cup of coffee.
Shane's father, Marcus Noble, sat at the kitchen table, he was holding a copy of the Washington Post in his paws, and a cup of coffee in front of the paper and to the right. Shane looked a lot like his father however; his father was 42 years old. So Marcus Noble was about six and a half feet tall, and all the hair on his head was gray. But he was still fairly muscular and still worked out often at the nearby gym. Shane didn't bother his father, he just grabbed a ceramic mug from the overhead cabinet, set it on the counter, and poured himself some coffee. He then grabbed a spoon from the drawer set into the counter, and grabbed the sugar container next to the coffee pot. He then poured some sugar into the spoon, and then into the coffee, and then did it again before putting the sugar back where he found it. He put the spoon into the mug and stirred it gently, the metal of the spoon making as soft clang against the ceramic wall of the mug. As Shane continued stirring the sugar into his coffee, his father, Marcus, lowered his paper and looked over to Shane. He cleared his throat loudly before he spoke.
"Now Shane..." Marcus spoke in a deep, but relaxed tone. "Your mother and I will be taking your little brother to visit aunt Joyce over the weekend, so make sure you feed and let out Tiny okay?" "You don't need to tell me dad, I usually do that anyway." Shane rolled his eyes, even though he was 19 years old, his father always seemed to remind him about the responsibilities he's had ever since he was a kid. "And I'll remember to keep the door locked, close the curtains at night, and turn off my car's lights too." At this, Marcus chuckled deeply "As you should Shane, but I'm sure everything will be just fine, as it always is." He then took another swig of his coffee. A little bit of coffee with your cream and sugar, Shane thought to himself, as he finished his coffee, and put the ceramic mug in the dish washer, he then opened a box of strawberry pop tarts his father was nice enough to leave there on the counter for him. Though he didn't even bother toasting them, he preferred them at room temperature, especially since the toaster seemed to burn anything that was put into it. Even a slice of bread, when it was set on low, burned so badly one morning it set off the smoke alarm.
As Shane finished his pop tarts he walked back up the stairs, and looked into his parent's bedroom. His mother was still lying sound asleep under the covers. Ravenya Noble, or Raven as most called her, was a snake. Her scales were always a shimmering navy blue, and similarly to a cobra, her "hood" was an even darker shade of blue. She "stood" about five feet from the top of her head to where the rest of her body would curve while she slithered. From there to her tail was about another two and a half feet, ending in a triangular tipped tail. She snored softly as he forked tongue flickered out with each exhaling breath. He then peeked into his little brother's room, he was sleeping soundly as well since he and his mother didn't have to get up and get ready for another hour. Since they had too much trouble last year with the county school buses, his mother decided he would drop him off at school; at least it was on her way to work anyway. Especially since the high school was about half a mile away from the Bowie business district.
Shane's little brother, Ray Noble, was 14 years old, and just recently started his freshman year at Bowie High School. However, Ray had more snake features he inherited from his mother than Shane did. Ray was about five feet tall, and had the same fur patterns on most of his body. The only exceptions being that his tail was that of a snake, long, muscular and covered in navy blue scales. Ray also had the fangs of a snake, although he didn't have any venom, so they were really just ornamental so to say. Shane walked in and ruffled his head fur a bit before going into his own room next door, and untying the strap of his robe, and hanging it on a hook in his closet before going into the bathroom to take a shower.
Shane grabbed the towel and washcloth off the nearby rack; both of them were a deep forest green color. He pulled back the shower curtain and threw the towel over the top of the bar that was holding it, and then he threw the washcloth up next to the towel. He moved his paw to the valve for the hot water and watch it fall from the showerhead, he then turned on the valve for the cold water very little. He liked his showers hot and steamy, mostly because it helped keep the fur on his tail soft and poofy after it was dry. Shane then stepped into the shower and let the water run down his fur, wetting all of his body, as he looked himself over. Nothing new or different he thought, though it's not as if he was expecting anything different. As the water continued raining down from the showerhead, he grabbed the hair shampoo nearby and squeezed some into his paw, replacing the bottle as he began lathering it in. As he did this he looked downward and smiled. He was looking at the only other part of his body that was blue. Like most skunks, his sheath and his sac were jet black, however, his member, like the hair on his head, was a deep navy blue. And as always when he was in the shower, the tip of it poked out from the opening of his sheath. He had felt this made him very unique, because, with most mammals, it was more of a pink, flesh toned color. However, in the back of his mind, he figured that as soon as a female saw it, they'd be freaked out by it and leave him. Though he did not know that for sure, as he had never been with any fur of the female persuasion.
He sighed softly at the thought, and leaned his head down, rubbing his paws through his hair to rinse the shampoo from his hair. He then rubbed his face on the towel, and grabbed the washcloth from where it was hanging. He then grabbed the bar of soap from the cubby hole in the tile wall and began lathering up the cloth, replacing the bar of soap in the hole before starting to rub the soap into the fur on his neck, and slowly moving downward, over his chest, his back, his legs, and then pulling his tail in front of him to clean it thoroughly. He always made sure to take good care of his tail, he always had a bit of a fascination with it, though he was never sure why. As he finished lathering his fur with the soap, he rinsed the washcloth under the water and started singing softly. "I say don't you know, you say you don't know, I say take me out." As he sang he hung the washcloth back up next to the towel. Shane loved music, and he loved to sing. He would almost always be found with his iPod hanging off his pants pocket, and earphones in his ears, humming or singing softly. But he never sung in a group while in school, he preferred to sing just for his own enjoyment on his own time.
Shane then moved under the falling water to rinse the soap from his fur, slowly turning to make sure he rinsed himself clean, running his paws through his tail to get rid of all the soap. After rinsing himself off, he turned off the water and pulled the towel from where it was hanging and dried himself off, then wrapping it around his waist before pulling back the curtain, stepping out of the shower, and pulling the curtain back. He walked up to the sink and stood in front of the mirror, grabbing a comb sitting on the counter and combing all of his hair straight back, then he pulled his tail in front of him and did the same thing. After that, he grabbed a couple of q-tips and cleaned out his ears, throwing them in the trash as he turned on the water faucet and grabbed his toothbrush, wetting the bristles under the water and filling a plastic cup that was sitting on the counter about half full with water. He grabbed a tube of toothpaste, opened it and squeezed some onto the toothbrush bristles before closing it and replacing it back onto the counter. As he began brushing his teeth, he began thinking how grateful he was that he only had one class today. It may have started at 8 AM and ended at about noon, but then he'd have the rest of the day free afterward to do just about anything. But he was thinking he'd just play some video games or surf the net like he normally does.
As he finished brushing his teeth, he rinsed his the toothpaste out with the water from the plastic cup. Spitting it into the sink as he grabbed the Old Spice deodorant and rubbed some under his arms, then putting it back onto the counter and going back into his room to put on some clothes. Shane wasn't very fashion minded, as most of his clothes were jeans, jean shorts, and t-shirts, long sleeved and short sleeved. He grabbed a pair of jean shorts, and looked through his shirts until he got to his wrestling themed ones. He was a big fan of WWE and it showed in those shirts, and the posters in his room, as his walls were plastered with pictures and posters of WWE wrestlers, and the WWE Divas. He always thought Trish Stratus was the hottest of all of the divas. She was a rabbit, her fur a solid chestnut brown, and even though she was a "hell" or bad girl character, that made her even hotter and even more appealing. He grabbed his "Shane O' Mac" jersey and a plain white shirt to wear under it. It was the first WWE related shirt he got, and even though it was what Shane MeMahon wore, he thought it was an interesting pun that his name was Shane, and he didn't have to custom order the shirt either, but he also thought Shane MeMahon was a pretty cool character too.
As Shane put on his clothes, he yawned softly. He quickly shook his head to wake himself up, muttering to himself "It's too damn early for me to be up." After he slipped on his shoes, he put on his watch, grabbed his wallet, check book, his keys, and cell phone, Putting them into his pockets as he walked out of his room and down the stairs into the foyer, He had his "luggage" sitting next to the metal and wooden bench sitting across from the front door of the house. The "luggage" was a roll around suitcase with a retractable handle, he carried his laptop, binder, and other school related supplies in this bag. He pulled the handle up and opened the door, pulling the suitcase behind him and closing the door as he wheeled it out to his car. His car was a dark purple, 1992 Ford Thunderbird, and even though he was the only one who really drove the car, it wasn't really his. It was registered in his mother's name, though she was nice enough to let him drive it since she had a car of her own, a golden colored 1998 Ford Thunderbird.
Shane grabbed the keys out of his pocket with his left paw and unlocked the driver's side door, and then he opened it, and put the suitcase on the back seat before sitting in the driver's seat and closing the door. He started the car, shifted into drive, and started driving down the road. As he began driving he turned on the radio, nothing good was on, so he switched to the CD player. He still had his Three Days Grace CD in there and decided to listen to it. He started bobbing his head to "Just Like You" as he turned onto the highway. To get to where he went to college, the art institute of Washington, he had to drive to the metro station and take the subway out to Virginia. When he arrived at the metro parking garage he parked the car, retrieved the suitcase from the back seat, then closed and locked the door. He was lucky, a train was waiting on the concrete lined platform, so he quickly boarded the train and took a seat in the front car. He then fished his iPod from the front pocket of the suitcase, put the earphones in his ears and turned it on. His ears twitched a bit as "Whisper" from Evanescence started playing. He didn't have any manga or any books with him to read, so he just looked out the window of the train as the train made it's way through downtown D.C. and to the Rosslyn metro station in Virginia.
He exited the train and rode the nearby escalator up to the upper platform and made his way to the larger escalator over to the left, it was the longest and deepest escalator in the metro system, or so the station manager had told him. He put the suitcase on the step in front of him and took the slow ride upward, it took about five minutes, but when he finally arrived, the warm, humid summer air hit him like a bitch slap to the face. Being that D.C. and most of the surrounding area had been swamp before it was the bustling metropolis it was today, the summers were very hot and humid. He swiped his ticket through the reader and walked out of the station and grabbed his suitcase, walking up a set of stairs before making his way to the streets. The sun had just started peeking out as Shane carefully made his way across the street, luckily there weren't too many cars traveling on this street this early in the morning, so crossing quickly wasn't a problem. As he hopped up onto the curb on the other side of the street, rolling his suitcase behind him, he looked up a bit and saw the school's logo plastered outside of the building, an upper case A and an lower case I in a bold red color, with the name of the school in a solid black right next to it, The Art Institute of Washington.
Shane grabbed his cell phone from his right pants pocket and flips it open, pressing the memory number for his mother's cell phone. The phone connected and began to ring, after two rings a soft, feminine voice answered with a slight lisp. "Hello there Sssshhane". Shane smiled "Yeah mom, just wanted to tell you I made it out here to Rosslyin okay". "Thanksss Sssshhhane. I'll call you laterrr. We'll be arriving at aunt Joyce's housssee ssssooon." His mother said softly, some static over the connection. "Okay, love you, bye," Shane then ended the call and closed his phone before replacing it in his pocket, and walking into the building. The building was a twelve-floor office building, which had the facilities and classes for the art institute on the top four floors. The other eight floors were for other businesses, though Shane didn't really know anything about them, nor did he really care. He probably figured they were government related agencies anyway since the school was right across the Potomac River from D.C.
He walked into the lobby and to the bank of elevators; there were four of them, two on opposite sides of the wall. He pressed the up button as he waited for the elevator to arrive, and it did only about a minute after the button was pressed. Ding! The elevator sounded as the doors opened, Shane stepped in, pulling his suitcase in behind him as he pulled out his wallet, and waved it over a small, white rectangle set above the number buttons. A light above the numbers flashed green, and he pressed the button for the eleventh floor. It was a security measure, certain people were only allowed on certain floors, and unless you had the right card to scan over the reader, you couldn't get to that floor. An art institute card could only let you onto the top four floors and none of the others. As the elevator hummed softly as it traveled upward, Shane started thinking about who might be in the lounge this morning. On the eleventh floor was probably the most popular room in the whole school, the student lounge. The lounge was where most students would hang out in the morning before classes started, and when they had any time between classes. That's what Shane did just about every morning, since he would arrive at least an hour before his first class started if there weren't any delays on the metro.
Ding! The elevator rang out as it reached the eleventh floor and the doors opened, Shane slowly stepped out and made his way to the student lounge, wheeling his suitcase behind him all the while. The student lounge was fairly simple, vending machines and pay phones on the wall adjacent to the door, and windows along the walls that faced outside, and eight tables arranged in two rows in the center of the room. The parts of the walls that could be seen were just a pure white, but the window sills were a deep grey. As Shane walked into the lounge, he saw a few other furs sitting in the corner opposite the door and walked over towards them. "Good morning guys." He said with a smile, waving to them as he grabbed a chair and sat down at the table with them, pushing the handle of his suitcase back down. The other three furs would seem very odd to most "normal" furs, but being an art school, most of the students were pretty far from what most would consider "normal".
The three other furs sitting at the table were good friends of Shane's and he knew them since he started at the art institute. The one sitting to his right was Theo, a skinny, and kind of short raccoon. He was only about five feet tall, and he was dressed like the stereotypical punk rocker: baggy pants, a t-shirt saying "don't disturb me, I'm disturbed enough already", and his hair a jet black with some purple tips, showing his undying worship for Jeff Hardy, the former WWE wrestler. The rest of his fur was that of a normal raccoon though, all a dark grey with black stripes on his tail, and a black "mask" on his face. The fur sitting across from him was Will, probably most famous around the school for his "saying what we're all thinking" sense of humor, and his fashion sense as well. Just about every day he wore a Hawaiian shirt, jean shorts, and a black beret. He was a chestnut furred rabbit, but no one made fun of him. Not only because most of the furs at the school were just good furs, but because he could probably rip a fur to shreds with his jokes. And the fur sitting to Shane's left was Brent; he was an orange furred and black striped tiger, whose physical build was similar to Shane's. He wore blue jeans, and a solid black, long sleeved hoodie, and he also spoke with a bit of a lisp. Shane had thought that Brent might be gay, but he didn't bother to ask, it didn't matter to him. He liked all furs regardless of what their sexual orientation may be, so he never asked any furs about theirs.
This early in the morning, there usually weren't that many furs in the lounge, but despite this, whoever was there would either play Magic The Gathering together or have a discussion on one of many interesting and varying topics. Today's discussion seemed to go toward the Final Fantasy video game series. "I'm telling you, it seems the lead characters for the past four games look like women but have no boobs!" exclaimed Theo. "I know, but I guess that women in Japan like guys that look more like them." Shane said matter of factly. Being a fan of Japanese anime, he knew quite a bit about Japanese culture. "Yeah, but then, do Japanese guys, like women that look more like guys? You know, a big, burly muscular woman with no boobs and could lift you up with one finger?" Will cut in right after Shane. After a chuckle from everyone and a moment of thought, a Brent let a wide grin cross his face, a glow seeming to emanate from his eyes. "I don't know about Japanese women, but that sounds like the kind of woman I'd like ppprrrrrrr!" Brent let out deeply. Theo and Will chuckled, but Shane just rolled his eyes. "That's a bit too much info Brent. Whatever you want to do in your home, is your business, but don't go revealing your sexual fantasies to the rest of us." Everyone laughed, and even Brent still kept his wide grin, purring softly, as he then spoke in a provocative tone "Oh Shane, don't hate me just because I get the good looking fems purrrrrrr." He grinned and winked at Shane, every chuckled. Shane looked down at his watch and waved goodbye to everyone as he pulled the handle up on his suitcase as he made his way to the stairs, walking down to the tenth floor. He then walked to his left to the computer lab in the corner where his only class for today is held.
It was about five minutes until 8 AM so everyone was already in class at their computers and prepared to work. Though since this class was very small, "everyone" was only twelve students, including himself. Shane went to the second row of computers and sat at the center computer, although he didn't need it. So he pushed the keyboard back and then laid his suitcase flat on the floor and slowly unzipped the top flap, he then opened it and grabbed his laptop and set it on top of the table. He pressed the switch on the front side and slowly lifted the screen away from the keyboard. His laptop was an iBook G4, which was all white except for the gray apple logo on the back. He had been given the laptop by his grandmother for a high school graduation present about a month before he started at the Art Institute.
As Shane grabbed the A/C adapter and the USB optical mouse from another pocket inside the top compartment of the suitcase, the teacher walked into the classroom. Her name was Ms. Desai, and she was a vixen, her fur was almost all a dark burgundy and despite being a teacher, she wore very casual clothing. Today her choice of wardrobe was a pair of khaki pants and a light green, loose hanging, short sleeved shirt. "Hello class." Ms. Desai spoke in a soft Indian accent. "Today will be the last day you have to work on you magazine layout project. I'll be around to help you with your projects." Shane smiled and opened Adobe InDesign. After opening his project that he had been working on for the past few weeks. InDesign, being a page layout program, was suited for projects such as this, and it worked very well with the other Adobe programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.
Shane was at his computer, working on his project for about an hour before the teacher came around to him. "So Shane, are you almost done? You seemed to be when you showed me your work last class." Ms. Desai pulled the empty chair next to him as Shane nodded, going through the pages that he was working on and that he had already finished as well. The eight-page spread he created was for a fictional magazine he called "Otaku Monthly", a magazine about Japanese anime and manga. He used the word "Otaku" because it was a Japanese word for someone who was a fan of anime and manga. After looking over all of the pages Ms. Desai let a sly grin cross her lips, as she spoke in her soft accent "Very well done Shane, just send it to the service beaureau to be printed. Then we can see what may need to be changed before you mount the final version." "Thank you Ms. Desai. If this turns out good, I'll put it in my portfolio." Shane beamed with excitement as he sent his project to the school's service beaureu for printing, retrieving it as he showed it to Ms. Desai "This is great Shane, some of the others students left because they're finished as well. So you may go early if you like." Shane beamed again, thanked her for her help and grabbed his suitcase.
Shane headed back to the metro station, took the train back to New Carrolton, and drove home. As he unlocked and opened the door, he set his suitcase back by the bench, and called his dog Tiny to follow him to the back door, let her outside, then back in. Shane was very exhausted, he stretched and yawned as he sat on the living room sofa, closing his eyes and dozing off. He woke up several hours later, to a loud screeching outside. Shane covered his ears and rose to his feet, the sound was like nails on a chalkboard multiplied like a million as he quickly ran to the back door to look outside and find out what the sound was. He managed to take one paw off his left ear long enough to pull open the back door and step outside. It was dark, but there was a blinding light going across the sky, from north to south. "Is that shooting star making that noise?" he wondered aloud, but before he could go back into the house to grab his camera to get a picture of it, he noticed something odd. The shooting start seemed to be getting larger, and it also seemed to be heading right for his house. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed at the top of his lungs, the "star" sped right into his backyard, shaking the ground and causing him be thrown onto his back against the siding of the house. He was instantly knocked out, his body laying limp against the siding.