Ch. 4 Is this more than mere nightmares?

"Help me… I need you… Ethan…"

Rick looked around as he fought to overcome the haze that always fell over him, it felt like the old fashioned ballroom was tilting back and forth side to side like some kind of demented teeter totter, he took deep breaths as he reminded himself again and again 'this is MY dream, I hold the power here, just breath and concentrate… focus and everything will get clearer…'

He closed his eyes tightly as the elegantly garbed dancer whirling across the dance floor all around him began to make him dizzy 'Focus Rick… take control…'

When he opened his eyes again, the room was no longer swaying, the music had stopped and all the dancers were gone… and there standing in the center of the glamourous opulent ballroom, was Rosalyn Bishop… her wide spring green eyes stared directly ahead at Rick, as if trying to determine whether or not this was real… or if it was some kind of cruel joke…

What was going on here?

Taking a deep breath, Rick took a couple steps towards the terrified brunette "Rosalyn Bishop? That's your name, right?"

"Please… please help me… he won't let us go…" She murmured, her soft voice trembling "No one can leave… we don't know what he did… Ethan, I need you..."

"Who won't?" Rick asked, his face etched with confusion as he took another couple steps closer until he stood no more than three feet away from Rosalyn "Are you saying someone is holding you against your will? And who is Ethan?"

Rosalyn opened her mouth to speak, but before a single word could escape past her lips… a powerful swirling gale of black shadows filled the ballroom, Rosalyn screamed and fell to her knees, her arms wrapping around her head as if to protect herself "No! Leave me alone! Stay away! Ethan, help me!"

Rick raised an arm to shield his face from the powerful black wind and attempted to make his way towards Rosalyn, but the moment he took one step closer… a punching gust focused on Rick and barreled into his stomach, sending him flying!

However, just as he was about to hit the wall…

"Shit!" Rick exclaimed, startled as he found himself shaken awake… he was breathing hard as he looked around to see he was still in the passenger seat of his brother's SUV, he released a long heavy sigh as he leaned back into the seat "What the fuck was that…"

Peter looked over from the driver's seat with wide eyes, shocked to hear his usually docile brother cussing like that "Bad dream?"

"I was there again… the ballroom… but I managed to take control this time, got rid of the music and the phantom dancers…" Rick explained, looking to the side out the window to see where they were know, it looked like a remote dirt road cutting straight through thick woods "I talked to Rosalyn for a minute one on one, she was really frightened of someone and she kept calling me Ethan… I'm thinking maybe we're not related to the Bishops at all, maybe we're related to this Ethan guy…"

Peter turned his eyes back to the road with a thoughtful expression on his face "You know, that could explain a lot… I couldn't find any photos of Ethan, maybe you happen to closely resemble him and she thinks you're him or something… anyway, what else happened? You looked like you had a pretty rough waking up over there…"

"Yeah…" Rick confirmed, his expression looking a blend of concerned and confused "This gale of black wind, it came out of no where and filled up the ballroom… Rosalyn was absolutely terrified on her knees and when I tried going to help her… it attacked me…"

"Attacked you?" Peter asked, his eyes widening with shock as he continued to watch the road "Attacked you how?"

"A gust of black wind hit rammed me hard in the chest and threw me…" Rick replied, raising a hand to rub at his eyes "I woke up just before I could make impact with the wall… Peter, do you think this might be a stupid idea after all? I mean, like… do you think we're walking into something way over our heads?"

Peter was silent moment before he eventually responded "We'll check the place out and then if shit starts getting thrown at us, we'll leave and do more homework… sound good? Besides, we're almost there and we've been driving for near two hours now, it would suck to just turn back after coming all this way"

Rick nodded, Peter was right… and besides, he couldn't explain why, but he really felt like he needed to figure what was holding Rosalyn captive and what that black wind was… it was going to eat at him endlessly if he walked away now. He had to know the truth.

"I know, even for a believer, this is a lot to just accept right off the get go…" Rick replied, looking over at his brother with a serious expression "I am really grateful to have you here, helping me figure this crap out… I would never have connected my dreams to the old Bishop mansion without your help, I owe you everything, man"

"It was fate, dude… don't you worry about anything" Peter responded "We'll figure out why Miss Rosalyn Bishop is haunting you and perhaps even, we'll find a way to set her free"

Rick furrowed his brows as he gazed ahead through the windshield at the dirt road "I'm not sure Rosalyn is the only spirit trapped in the house… she said 'we' and 'us' when she was talking about something holding 'them' there, she said 'he won't let us go, no one can leave'"

"He? Hm, maybe that black wind is an evil spirit or entity manifesting itself that way to hide it's identity from you" Peter offered "I've heard of darker spirits doing that when they do not want the truth known"

Rick made a 'hmmm' sound before speaking again "That very well could be, but who could it be? Did the files speak of anyone that might have wished ill upon the Bishops? Maybe someone upset about Rosalyn getting engaged to a low born?"

Peter thought for a couple moments and shook his head lightly "I can't remember any such mention, but that's not really very surprising… the gentry didn't really like publicly airing their dirty laundry like an old fashioned facebook or anything, they were very private. Anyway, like we said before, maybe we'll find some good clues after we search the house… for now though, let's not get too worked up, we'll be little more than jumpy messes when we arrive"

Rick sighed softly and nodded "Yeah, you're right… so how longer you think we're gonna be driving?"

"Another hour" Peter replied "It's quite a ways away, these people must really have wanted their privacy away from the highly populated areas"

"Some people build fences… others move to the ass end of dense woods that seemingly go on forever…" Rick bitterly muttered with a sigh "Mind if I hook up my Ipod to the radio? Some tunes might make this a less dull"

"Go ahead, I've had little else to listen to over the past few hours but your snoring" Peter replied, looking over at his brother with a teasing grin "Nothing too modern… some classic rock sounds good, lighten the mood some. You need to relax man."

"Yeah, sounds great" Rick replied with an exhale of breath designed to calm himself, perhaps the lively rock music would take his mind off things for a little while, he didn't need to be jumping at mere shadows while trying to dig for real answers. He needed to just relax for a while, like Peter said.