The Undertaker's Brides

It was dark and storming by time she finally arrived home from work. Seemed since Breaden left, all she had been doing was working. Shaking her head, trying to bring herself out of the past, she quickly scanned the backyard looking for her companion. "Naturally, that dog would pick a night like this to get loose." Grabbing an umbrella, she set out to look for her dog. Suddenly, as the lightening flashed, she saw Thunder out of the corner of her eye, standing at the end of the alley with the most incredible man. As the night went dark again, she started running toward the dog. To her amazement, when the lightening flashed again, the man was gone and only Thunder was left standing there. Afraid to go any further, she called her dog to her and he obeyed immediately. That night her dreams were filled with visions of the mysterious man.

Finally right before dawn, the man in her dreams spoke to her. "Kaliegh, I am waiting for you and the rest of The Brides. I know you will do the right thing." Startled from the dream, she realized that the man's voice was sweetly familiar. Trying to shake the last fragments of the dream from her head, she picked up the phone and called Nikki. Before Kaliegh could tell Nikki about the strange dream, Nikki blurted out "Kaliegh, thank God you called. I had the weirdest dream last night."........

"Let me guess," Kaliegh said uneasily. "There was a voice...it was really familiar, but you just can't place it. And the voice said that it was waiting for you and the rest of us, and that it knew you would do the right thing."

Nikki was stunned. "Ye- Yeah. How the hell did you know???" "Because I had the same damn dream," Kaliegh replied quietly. "I wonder if Jean and Judy had it, too."

"Tell you what - you call Judy and I'll call Jean. I don't know about you, Kal, but I think that something REALLY weird is going on here. And I intend to get to the bottom of it." Nikki said good-bye and hung up the phone, and went to find her address book to look up Jean's number.

There were a lot of phone calls back and forth between the four women that day. They agreed to meet at Kaliegh's house in a week's time to discuss how they would handle the uncanny situation. All four of them were looking forward to the meeting, but at the same time.each woman was both dreading and yet anticipating the reappearance of the unearthly figure. It would prove to be a hellish, dream-ridden week.

**ONE WEEK LATER**
"Okay, ladies, what do you all think we should do about this?" Judy grinned as she set her coffee cup down on Kaliegh's kitchen table. "We're going to have to come up with something. Ooh! Could you imagine if it really was The Man???" The table rattled as she shifted quickly in her chair. Outside, the sun had just set - it would be another cloudy night.

"I don't know, " Jean answered quietly. "As much as we all might hope it really is the UT, I think we have to be open to the idea that someone is playing tricks on us. I can't imagine UT or MC having the time or the desire to come up with such a scheme."

"Let's talk about what we know, then." Kaliegh's voice was firm and held a slight tone of skepticism. "We know that we've been having the same dreams, where he says the SAME THING, and we know that we've all seen a shadowy figure lurking too far away for us to see his face. I have to tell you, at first, I thought that I'd just been working too hard. But it's just too weird that the same thing happened to all of us. Maybe we should-"

That was all Kaliegh had time to say before all the lights went out.

Jean read through what she had written in her email.

"I had the strangest dream last night. It started in some kind of forest and I could hear the excited yelping of what might have been a pack of hounds on the hunt. Then I sensed the presence of a man although I couldn't see who it was. He told me he was waiting for me and the rest of the Brides and he knew I would do the right thing. His voice seemed very familiar somehow.

The scene changed to my sitting room. I then had a phone call from Nikki (it would have cost her a fortune in real life) and I heard that she, Kaliegh and Judy had had very similar dreams. Anyway, we all decided to meet up at Kaliegh's house a week later - which we did. We were discussing this strange situation (and a very logical discussion it was too considering it was a dream) and Kaliegh was about to add something when all the lights went out."

She decided that it didn't sound as if she were taking the dream too seriously, which was her intention. The truth was, however, that it had been one of the most vivid dreams she had ever had in her life and for some strange reason she felt it was very important to share it with the others.

Ten minutes later she was reading the latest batch of emails from the Brides. Everything seemed normal at first until one of the headings caught her eye - "A really weird dream". And it had been sent by Nikki.

Feeling cold she scanned down the list of other emails in her box and shivered as she came across "A really strange dream" from Judy.

She read both emails through several times just to make sure she wasn't imagining things but it was there, plainly, in black and white. Although the other dreams had started out in different settings, both women had met the shadowy man, been told exactly the same thing and finally the same four Brides had met up at Kaliegh's house.

Her reply to both emails was the same. "What in Hell is going on?"

The next batch of emails included one from Kaliegh reporting essentially the same dream. She then went on to say that she hadn't mentioned anything before because she didn't think anyone would believe what had happened in her backyard earlier on in the evening. She sounded very releived that others had shared her dream if not her vision and Jean could well understand why.

Jean wrote back, pointing out that Kaliegh was hardly likely to have been dreaming in her backyard if her dog had seen the man too. She then decided this made the whole thing creepier than ever so added, as much for herself as the others, the observation that Thunder hadn't been frightened or acting as if faced with a dangerous intruder.

'So he obviously gets on with dogs, whoever he is', she thought as she sent this latest email. It sounded comforting so she refused to dwell on the possibility that his amicable relationship with canines didn't necessarily mean he was friendly to humans as well.

There were a great many emails between the four women over the next few days. All of them felt it was very important that they meet up as planned in their dreams but they were thwarted by the practicalities of doing so. Jean even went so far as to comment that if their mystery man wanted her to cross the Atlantic he could bloody well send her an airline ticket. As for who their mystery man was, speculation just went round in ever decreasing circles when they tried to go beyond the fact that his talking about the Brides linked him to the Undertaker. While everyone agreed it wasn't unusual to dream of their favourite WWF superstar and, in some X Files fashion, they must have been linked telepathically in order to share a dream, none of them could come up with a 'logical' explanation for Thunder's behaviour. This left them with Jean's original conclusion that their mystery man - or MM as they'd come to refer to him - really had been in Kaliegh's yard.

"This is the kind of thing you'd expect from the Undertaker" Jean wrote in her latest email on the subject "But he's a fictional character. Or has MC got so carried away with his role that he's started doing it for real? :)" Then, as an afterthought, she added "And he STILL hasn't sent me an airline ticket!"

--------------
That night she was back in the forest. Again she heard the distant yelping of hounds but this time there were the added sounds of a hunting horn and the hoofbeats of a galloping horse.

'Can't be Mark Calaway, then,' she thought. 'He'd be riding a Harley, not a horse. And I'm thinking very logically again considering it's a dream. Hey! I must be having one of those lucid dreams.'

Deciding to test her theory out she concentrated furiously and finally succeeded in conjouring up a lighted cigarette which tasted very similar to the real thing. Delighted with her success she next equipped herself with a cup of coffee and finished her experiment off with a comfortable chair to sit on.

'This is great', she thought. 'As good as having my very own holodeck.'

"Have you QUITE finished?" a strangely familiar voice suddenly enquired. It's owner sounded as if he wasn't sure whether to be amused or exasperated.

She looked across to where the voice had originated and saw a tall, shadowy figure outlined against the trees although she still couldn't make out any details.

"Er..yes." she said nervously. Then, feeling it was about time she had some kind of explanation she added "Who are you?"

"I am the Undertaker - the Lord of Darkness, of course", he replied, sounding a little irritated by the question. "I'm still waiting for you and the other Brides."

'Seeing as the Undertaker doesn't exist I must have conjoured this latest mystery man up too', she thought. 'Or, rather, my unconscious did.'

"And I'm still waiting for you to send me an airline ticket so I can meet up with them,", she told him, emboldened by her logical conclusion.

"Why do you need an airline ticket?" he asked, sounding puzzled this time. "You simply meet up in your dreams as you did before."

"You mean we really did get together at Kaliegh's house?" she asked, feeling somewhat puzzled herself now.

"Yes, or rather its dream equivelent", he confirmed. "But none of you became consciously aware of the fact. I was just in the process of joining you all when you, Jean, woke up and broke the link."

"I'm..er..sorry about that. But my alarm clock went off." she explained, still not entirely convinced that he was other than a dream character.

Her disbelief had obviously come across in her tone because he then said "Look for me on the Parlor message board. When the Brides know I'm real then, maybe, you'll all believe in your dreams."

"Um..you're not taking this ..er..Brides thing too seriously, I hope." she ventured, suddenly worried about the possible implications if things really were as this self proclaimed Undertaker had said.

"I'm only using the name you chose to call yourselves", he replied then vanished without another word.

--------
Jean had a little trouble waking up that morning. She got up, admired her four poster bed, realised she didn't have one so must still be dreaming then woke up again. This time everything looked normal but she tried conjouring up a cup of coffee and a cigarette just to make sure. Neither materialised so she decided she really was awake this time.

As soon has she'd made some coffee she turned on her computer and lit a cigarette. Fortified, she wrote out the details of this latest dream, mailed it and went to see what was on the Parlor message board.

There was nothing which related to her dream at all and she was just about to dismiss it as garbage when she remembered the time difference. If MM had met up with her during HIS dream then he was probably still asleep, all supposing he was in the US, of course. She was just going to have to be patient and try again later.

She returned to the Parlor board in the early afternoon and found an anonymous post headed "The Lord of Darkness Speaks." Her mouth suddenly felt dry as she read "I long to meet my Brides. Maybe one night we can all meet up in our dreams."

Her mouth suddenly felt dry. Of course, it could just be a nuisance post from one of the many idiots at loose on the Internet but after her night's experience, this seemed just TOO much of a coincidence.

Judy had just put in one of the most hellish days ever at Kroger. Not only was it Monday night and because of her schedule at work had missed most of RAW, but on the way home, it had started raining. Not just raining, but the bottom had literally fallen out.. Pulling into her driveway she found herself wishing she had got around to buying that watch dog.. For whatever reason, Judy was nervous coming home tonight. Maybe it was that wierd phone call from Kaliegh the other day. All of a sudden, she wished she didn't live out in the boonies.... no close neighbors...." Maybe the privacy thing was over-rated" CHICKEN!!! Get out of the car and go in the house!!!!!. Shaking her head at her fanciful thoughts, Judy collected her purse, bags ,and keys. as she turned off the headlights for a split second she thought she saw the figure of a man standing off to the side of the house. With shaking hands, Judy turned the headlights back on to see if anyone WAS there. All she saw was the wind blowing the bushes about. Her imagination was getting the best of her. With a nervous laugh, she went up the walk, climbed the steps to the porch,and inserted the key in the lock. Suddenly the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, as though suddenly charged with electricity. Sensing anothers presence, she turned round very slowly. There, standing within arms reach of her was an extremely tall, massive man, completely surrounded by the dark. A blinding flash of lightening lit the yard as though it was mid-day rather than almost 11 p.m. "Who are you. What do you want?" Right out of a b-grade movie, all you could see was his eyes. Almost like they were lit from some inner fire. In a voice that touched her heart by it's familiarty he replied. "You know..... so do the others... just let yourselves believe..... " "But how will we know ?" she said in a trembling whisper. "I'll come to you again. I'll come to you all. Go to one house. That's where I'll come to be with my Brides." Then the man was gone. With shaky hands Judy unlocked the door, went inside, then locked it behind her. Going directly to her computer, she sent out an e-mail to all the Brides telling what had just transpired. Within minutes, though, she had Kaliegh on the phone, telling her exactly what had happened....

Kaliegh sat in front of her TV tryin desperatly to concentrate on the show and forget about what had been happening the last week. Thunder, who had been sleeping on the floor suddenly lifted his head and cocked it to one side as if he heard a noise. "What's the matter, boy?" Kaliegh asked him. Knowing she would not get a response from him, she got up to investigate. Checking to make sure all the doors were locked, she went out to the front porch. Kaliegh was shocked when she saw the front door was ajar. She KNEW she had locked it just like always when it turns dark. A shiver ran up her spine as it felt like her hair was being stroked ever so gently. "Kaliegh, I know you are sad, I can see it in your eyes." It is better that your boyfriend left you when he did. "Yourself and the other Brides have a special bond with me that only you four and I can understand." Kaliegh was stunned at the mention of her ex boyfriend. She had been too ashamed to tell anyone that he had left her again....this time for good. "How did you know?" she asked him. After a long silence, he answered her question. "Kaliegh, I know alot about you" he told her gently. "I know you constantly worry about what other think about you, when it's what is in your heart that really matters." As a tear slid down her cheek, she turned around to face the man that she knew in her heart was the Lord of Darkness. "Don't cry, Kaliegh" he said to her in a comforting voice. As Kaliegh looked deep into his eyes, she thought to herself, "Why is he here? What is so special about the Brides?" As if he read her thoughts, he said "You know in your heart and you will do the right thing." Kaliegh closed her eyes for a split second and when she opened them again, he was gone. "I HATE it when he does that!!" she grumbled to herself. "And just what is this RIGHT thing that we are supposed to do?" Feeling totally drained and confused by what had just happened, Kaliegh decided to call it a night.

********************
Her dream started out normal enough. She was sitting by the pond watching Thunder chase a rabbit. "Finally, a normal dream." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the wind picked up and the sky grew dark.

She was now at an old castle. Kaliegh was relieved to see Judy, Nikki, and Jean waiting for her. "What took you so long?" They teased her. The Brides started walking into the castle, talking about the events that had happened since they last talked to each other. The Brides stopped suddenly as a cold breeze whipped through the castle. "He is here" Jean whispered. With that, the lights in the castle began to flicker and a cold like they had never felt before surrounded them. There was an elecricity in the air that felt warm and inviting, even though it was cold. They knew they were about to come face to face with the man who had been haunting them for the past week......

The four women looked warily at each other as the lights dimmed steadily to near darkness. In the gloom, their faces glowed whitely, their facial bones etched in shadow. Jean giggled, breaking the tension that had crept in to the large room.

"I must be losing my mind. I could have sworn I just heard the tolling of a bell."

Her simple statement worked to dispel the air of unease in the castle. Kaliegh covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes dancing with laughter; Nikki snorted, and Jean and Judy laughed outright. But the laughter ended soon after it started, and a strange feeling of being watched pervaded the four of them.

A shadowy figure was standing in the doorway.

**************
Kaliegh looked up at the figure. "Alright," she murmured. "We're all here. Now what do you want from us? And why do you keep haunting our dreams?"

The man walked slowly into the light, his green eyes and long hair gleaming brightly as the shadows fell away from him. Kaliegh, wide-eyed, swallowed nervously; Nikki crossed her arms and stared at him, while Jean and Judy bit back the urge to make some humorous comment. There was no longer any doubt in the ladies' minds that the dream figure was The Lord Of Darkness himself. His lips parted, and he began to speak.

"I have come to you because I know of The Brides' faith in me, and I need your help. Our minds are most open in the realm of dreams, and the deepest recesses of your hearts are open to my plea while your bodies sleep."

Jean nudged Judy with her foot to keep her from commenting.

"I face a dilemma, my Brides, and it is a dilemma only you can solve for me. For you are the only ones of my Creatures who fully realize the evil that plagues me."

Kaliegh stared at him, her eyes taking in every one of his glorious features. "But what is it that you're facing? And what do you want us to do?"

He looked down benevolently at Kaliegh, and she basked in the warmth of his gaze. "Your hearts will reveal all to you in time. Just know that I am with you always."

Nikki smirked and rolled her eyes at him. "Sounds like a crock of shit to me." All four heads whirled to gape at her. Only he remained calm, fixing his calm green stare on her as she shook her head.

"This whole thing is just a little too strange to be believed. I thought my dreams were my own, and all of a sudden they're like a bad horror movie. All that's missing is the cheesy music. What next, you're gonna tell us to go down the stairs and knock down a wall so that we can rescue some dumb amulet that gives you the power of flight? Please!" Nikki looked at the other three Brides, who were looking at her with mixed expressions of mirth and terror. They had all heard about his short-fused temper, and none of them were entirely sure what he would do next. Only Nikki, the mouthiest Bride of the bunch, dared to meet his cool gaze. She uncrossed her arms, laughed, and began heading towards the doorway where he had first appeared. "This is crazy. I'm leaving - Jean, Judy, Kaliegh, are you with me?"

The other three Brides fell in step with her. Whether they meant to pull her back or follow her remains unknown, for the open door swung shut and bolted itself in front of them as the room filled silently with an ice-cold fog.

The fog took on a blue color and became more luminous until the room and its occupants were revealed surrounded by swirling smoke.

"Well, if we're going in for WWF special effects we might as well do it properly," Jean said sounding relieved at the sight of the modified scenery. Then she addressed the Lord of Darkness. "So what do you want us to do for you? Bring your cauldron back? Sort things out with Kane?"

"Whatever is right for you," he replied, his voice sounding echoey and far away. As he spoke his form became shadowy again and then he just vanished.

"Cauldron?" queried Judy, looking both shaken by events and baffled by Jeans's remark. "Don't you mean urn?"

"I thought we already had a crock of shit without bringing cauldrons and urns into it," Nikki commented sarcastically.

Kaliegh looked upset. "Why isn't anybody taking this seriously?" she demanded. "I think he really does need our help. And I'm going to do what I can for him."

"Why?" Nikki asked her bluntly.

"Because he appeared to me again and talked to me," Kaliegh explained. "I was feeling too drained and confused to send an email about it before I went to bed. But he knew all about me - my doubts and my fears - and he was understanding and kind."

"Perhaps we ought to be more careful what we put on the message board, then," Judy said matter of factly. But there was a hint of a query in her tone as if she was really wondering if the message board had anything to do with the Lord of Darkness's knowledge about her friend. Then she turned to Jean. "But I still don't know what cauldrons have to do with things."

"Well it's only a theory, but it seems to be working out so far." Jean said. "Remember the dreams I had about a forest and the sounds of hounds, a hunting horn and a horse? The Undertaker has always seemed rather Celtic to me because of his druids so when I met the Lord of Darkness on my own I think I unconsciously provided appropriate scenery and sound effects. The cauldron came from a Celtic poem where King Arthur and his men stole it from the Underworld in a raid. And our elusive friend certainly didn't object to the idea of getting it back when I mentioned it."

"While we were thinking more WWF," Nikki put in. "That's probably why we got the tolling bell and fog."

"Which I managed to change into smoke and blue light," Jean explained. "All I did was think about it very hard and it happened."

Judy looked thoughtful. "And when I had that vision of him his eyes were lit with a kind of fire. I must have got that from the WWF video."

"But what about that message he left us on the board?" Kaliegh pointed out. "It was definitely there as we all saw it."

It was Nikki's turn to look thoughtful. "Maybe he can influence other people too. You find a lot of strange messages on the internet from people pretending to be the Undertaker so maybe one of them was suddenly inspired to write that one about meeting us in our dreams."

"The spirit of the Undertaker lives within the soul of all mankind," Jean quoted. "Or, perhaps it might be more true to say the spirit of the Lord of Darkness lives within the soul of all mankind? What if he's in everyone's dreams in one form or another and the way we see him's been influenced by our being WWF fans or something?"

"Whoever - or whatever - he is, he's not very consistent," Judy commented. "He told me we should all go to one house and yet we ended up in this castle."

They all looked at Jean as if expecting her to explain it.

"I dunno," she said. "Unless it's to do with the fact we were all discussing castles the other week. I wonder why we didn't get the entrance music, though?"

Nikki laughed. "Could be because I was thinking this was all like a really bad horror movie and the music ought to be cheesy."

Judy joined in her laughter. "And I've been thinking it's like one of those b-grade movies. And as we all like the Undertaker's theme we probably didn't think it fitted the scene."

"But I still think he needs our help," Kaliegh insisted.

"And I don't think he's going to go away until we do something," Jean replied.

"Such as?" Nikki asked her.

Jean shrugged. "I don't think it really matters as long as it seems to be helpful. As he said, it's whatever's right for us. So we can go to Camelot and get the cauldron from King Arthur, find the Undertaker's urn or take on Kane."

"I rather like the idea of meeting King Arthur," Kaliegh said. "Can you tell us more about the cauldron, Jean?"

Jean looked faintly worried by the thought. "I could quote you a verse of the poem if you don't mind my dreadful pronunciation of Welsh names."

They all looked at her expectantly so she began -

"I'm not sure I like that bit about only seven of the raiding party coming back"," Judy said dubiousy. "I know we'd be returning the cauldron , not stealing it, but that place sounds really creepy."

"If the Lord of Darkness really does have many forms I'd rather we stuck with the version we all know and love," Nikki put in.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Jean said, sounding relieved.

"Our version seems so sad because of what's happened with his brother," Kaliegh put in. "Maybe we could do something to make peace between them?"

"Or get the urn," Jean suggested.

"A great idea except it was last seen in the possession of Paul Bearer if I remember right," Nikki pointed out "And he's got Mankind and Kane with him."

"I don't mind taking on Mankind," Jean volunteered. "I've always felt really sorry for him and I think he's rather sweet in a strange kind of way."

"VERY strange," Nikki muttered.

"Great," said Judy, who didn't sound too thrilled by it all. "That leaves me or Nikki to deal with Paul Bearer."

Nikki grinned wickedly. "You could distract him while I hit him with the urn," she suggested gleefully.

Judy grinned wickedly back. "Then YOU could distract him while I hit him with it."

"Looks like it's the urn, then," Nikki concluded. "Unless anybody's got any other ideas?"

**************************

Book Two of The Undertaker's Brides

© 1998 by The Brides

**this story cannot be used in any way with out written permission