Fire at the Country House

Dream this morning: Alone, just after sunset, in a house in the country, I sat in the dark talking on the phone with someone. I stared at a wall papered with sticky notes and push pins.  Instinctively, my head snapped toward the screen door. I'd left it open to let the cooler night air in. For some reason, I recognized the sound I heard- like a pack of dogs running across the backyard.

Seeing  'them' my heartbeat tripled, I dropped the phone and my lungs worked overtime as I ran frantically around the house looking for my two dogs. I'd suddenly felt a need to keep them out of harms way. One, a rottie, I found growling at something that broke through the front door. The second dog, a lab, came up beside where I stood and began growling in the same direction. I kept screaming both of their names and for each of them to run.

The creature strolled in the room, seemingly unphased by the dogs. He seemed to grow tired of the rottie as she snarled and lunged at him. He, the creature, could've been mistaken for a handsome, thick, broad shouldered man except that its eyes resembled that of a lion. He threw one of  his muscular arms in front of his face and tossed the rottie against the nearest wall, knocking her out cold. He walked up to the lab and punched him in the jaw, launching him across the room, shattering furniture. I screamed for him as I watched him fall to the floor.

In my grief, I fell to the floor myself. The lab didn't appear to move or even breathe afterward.

 Tears blurred my vision as I turned to face the creature again. He brushed his knuckles against the cotton of his white, A-frame shirt. I  hadn't realized I'd backed myself into a corner. He pulled a zippo lighter out of the pocket of his khaki pants. A sinister grin spread across his face.  Paralyzed  by fear, I helplessly watched him throw the lighter onto the hard wood floor. The wood seemed to ignite instantly, forming a barrier of fire in front of me. His eyes shown yellow-gold now illuminated by the light the flames cast. He began to laugh. The laugh started low in his throat and rose with the flames and seemed to echo through the walls of the house. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I woke up right before the flames touched my toes.