On a normal day, Darren Foster, a high school student, was on his way back from school. After he reached home, he did his homework and went to bed like every other day.
Later that night, while he was sleeping, he dreamt that his mom found a snake inside their house. She quickly shouted to her husband. The snake was mainly green but had a yellow stripe on its body. Overall, it looked poisonous. However, when his dad saw it, he gently carried the snake outside. He wasn't afraid of the snake at all; the snake barely moved or did anything either, letting his dad carry it easily as if nothing had happened. But suddenly, Darren woke up in bed.
He realized it was all just a bad dream. He looked around and saw light outside the window. He checked the time on the clock. It was 6:30 AM, the time he usually woke up. He got out of bed, brushed his teeth, took a shower, and then went downstairs to have breakfast.
While he was eating breakfast, his mom suddenly screamed, "AAAH!" He turned around and shouted back, "Mom, is everything alright?"
His mom shouted again, "Snake! There's a snake in our house." Once Darren heard that, he quickly stood up, thinking about the snake in his dream that his mom had found. He rushed to his mom to see the snake. He saw the snake his mom mentioned, his mom cover it with a transparency basket ,but that wasn't the weird part.
The weird part was that the snake was exactly the same as the one in his dream, with the same stripes and color.
Darren instantly thought about the dream he had last night. He started breathing heavily, thinking that maybe it wasn't a dream and he had actually seen it in real life. But he still remembered waking up in bed, which meant that couldn't be right. Darren sighed. He started to worry but thought it might just be a coincidence. Not long after, he decided that this was just a coincidence, but then his dad showed up.
"Oh my God, honey, I heard the scream. Are you alright?" asked Darren's dad.
Darren's mom replied, "There's a snake in here."
His dad quickly grabbed a pole nearby and came into the kitchen. "Where is it?" asked Darren's dad. Darren's mom replied, "Under that basket, I used it to cover the snake."
Darren's dad opened up the basket and was ready to smash, but just before he did, he realized what it was. He thought for a while and then gently picked up the snake. The snake barely moved or did anything, just like in Darren's dream.
Darren's mother, afraid he might get bitten, spoke, "Honey? What are you doing?"
Darren was also afraid his dad might get bitten. He spoke, "Dad?"
His dad replied, "Oh well, I just realized this is our neighbor's pet. It's not venomous and completely harmless. I'm gonna take it back to the owner."
"How could you be so sure?" Darren asked.
His dad replied, "The neighbor told me about it. I've seen it a couple of times already and this snake is really different from the others. Besides, it isn't aggressive at all. Is it?"
Darren started to think, "Now this can't be a coincidence," but since he still had to go to school, he ended up going like every other day. He tried not to think about it. He tried to act like nothing had happened.
Later on at school, when he was studying, he started to feel bored and sleepy. A few minutes later, Darren began sleeping on his desk. Nothing happened at first, but then he started dreaming again. In this dream, he was sitting with his best friend, Brian, and they were fishing. But then Brian accidentally stepped on a stone and fell into the river. Darren was so worried and scared; he couldn't save Brian. But then he woke up and realized it was just another dream. Darren breathed heavily. He didn't know if this dream is going to be true again or not.
The teacher noticed and asked, "Darren, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just had a nightmare," he replied. Once the teacher heard that, she continued teaching.
At the end of the class, Darren quickly walked to Brian. "Hey, Brian," said Darren.
Brian replied, "Oh, there you are. I was going to ask you to go fishing with me. Are you free this evening?" Darren quickly thought about his dream. Darren was afraid that what happened in his dream might actually happen in real life, so he answered, "Um, no. I'm not." He started to worry. He didn't know what's going on with him.
Brian noticed and asked, "Are you okay?"
Darren answered, "Yeah, I'm okay. I am just tired, that's all."
Darren was still afraid that Brian might go fishing alone and fall into the river, so he decided to ask Brian to come with him. He said, "Actually, can you come with me this evening? I want to show you something."
"Yeah, sure," replied Brian.
During lunch break, while Darren was walking to the canteen with Brian, Janet accidentally bumped into Darren. "Oh my God, Darren, I'm sorry, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay, How are you doing?" replied Darren.
"I'm fine ,thank you." answered Janet.
Darren replied, "Oh ,That's great."
"Wait, I have a plan to investigate a forest. Have you heard the news? People keep disappearing when they enter this forest, and I am very excited to go investigate it with my friend, Lucy. Would you like to come with us?"
"Oh yes, I'd really like to go with you," said Darren.
"Great! Meet you there before 6 PM; it's just a few hundred meters away from our school. I'll talk to you later. Don't be late. Bye!" Janet replied.
Darren replied, "Bye!" Darren started smiling. He was really happy to get an invitation from her. But then someone tapped him on the back.
Darren looked back and saw it was Brian. "Dude, you scared me," said Darren.
"Ah, I see. You sort of forgot I'm here because of Janet? Hmm." said Brian.
Darren replied, "Oh no ,It's not like that. I am just thinking of a lot of things lately."
"Really? What were you thinking?" asked Brian.
"I'm thinking about the forest. About why people disappeared?" answered Darren.
"You're lying." said Brian. Darren replied, "No ,I'm not."
Then they both walked to the school's canteen together to get some lunch.
While Darren was waiting for Brian at the table, Darren looked up extraordinary phenomena on Google. He searched, "Dream is telling me what happens in the future," and something similar. He started looking into websites. Most of the websites he looked into sounded nonsense. He couldn't find one that actually matched his conditions and had supporting details until he ran across one website written by Dr. Deno, a lead scientist at EPS Lab (Extraordinary Phenomenon Study Lab). Dr. Deno had written some articles about unexplainable things. Darren looked into those articles and found them interesting.
Darren suddenly thought Dr. Deno might be able to help or explain what's going on with him. At the same time, Brian arrived.
Brian spoke, "ESP Lab? What're you looking at?"
Darren didn't know what to say, he knew Brian wouldn't believe him if he said his dream came true ,so he lied, "Oh, uh I got an invitation from ESP Lab. I was thinking if I should go there or not."
Brian replied, "Are you kidding? Going to ESP Lab is one of my dreams! I'd really much like to go there."
Darren thought maybe going to ESP Lab with Brian would be a good idea, that way Brian wouldn't go to the river alone and fall down like in his dream. Darren replied, "Sure, let's go together," he completely forgot about his plan with Janet and Lucy.
Later that day, after school, Darren parked his car in front of EPS Lab. Brian looked around. The lab didn't look open, and there weren't many cars around, so he asked, "You sure we're in the right place?"
Darren replied, "Yeah ,believe me. I follow Google Maps." ,Darren looked around and saw the text ESP Lab. He spoke, "Yeah ,this is it. Look at the text."
They came out of their car and walk toward the lab. "Seriously, did you get an invitation or something? There don't seem to be many cars here." said Brian.
Darren replied, "It'll be fine, just trust me," They both walked into the lab. Once they stepped in, everyone looked at them as total strangers.
One of the scientists said, "Hey, is there something I can help you with?"
"Uh, yes, can I please meet Dr. Deno? I have something I want to discuss with him," Darren said.
The scientist replied, "Okay, I'll call him right away." The scientist started calling, Not long after ,he picked up. "Dr. Deno, there are some guests asking to meet you. Could you please come down and meet them?"
"Okay, I'll be there in a minute," said Dr. Deno.
A minute later, Dr. Deno came down from the elevator. As soon as Dr.Deno saw the guests ,he realized they weren't invited. He said, "Hey, I am Dr. Deno. How can I help you?"
Darren replied, "Can I, uh, talk to you privately? You ,me and Brian."
"Yeah sure, just follow me," said Dr. Deno. Before they walked to the elevator, Brian asked, "Hey, what is this about?"
Darren replied, "Relax. I'll tell you." Darren and Brian walked into the elevator with Dr. Deno.
"So what do you want to talk about?" Dr. Deno asked.
Darren replied, "Okay, so I've been having dreams, and what happens in those dreams will happen in real life. Or might happen. Anyways, they don't feel like dreams; they feel real."
Dr. Deno replied, "That's interesting. Can you clarify the dreams you had?" Darren then explained his dreams to Dr. Deno.
Dr. Deno said, "I'll take you to do a brain wave scan; we'll see if it picks up any weird activities in your brain." Then Dr. Deno took Darren to the 23rd floor to check Darren's brain waves.
Darren started looking around. What he saw was a hallway with many experimentation rooms. Darren couldn't stop himself from saying, "Whoa, I can't believe this, this is amazing!" "They might be cool, but some of them didn't really work out the way we planned," said Dr. Deno. A minute later, they reached the Brain Wave Machine.
"Alright, here it is. All you need to do is lie down on that bed and start sleeping. I'll be picking up the activities," said Dr. Deno.
"Okay, thanks. I really appreciate you doing this for me." Darren replied. Then he started doing what Dr. Deno said. He lay on the bed and started sleeping.
A few minutes later, Darren started dreaming again. On the screen ,Dr.Deno saw a very odd brainwaves. In this dream, Darren saw Janet and Lucy in the woods, which reminded him that he forgot to meet them as promised. However, that wasn't the scary part.
The scary part was that when Janet and Lucy continued further, a mysterious shadow hand came out of the ground. Leaving Darren in shock. Then Darren instantly woke up in a panic. Dr.Deno quickly turned off his machine and rush to Darren. "Are you okay?" asked Dr. Deno.
Darren replied, "It's my friend Janet and Lucy; they're in danger. I've got to help them." Then Darren rushed to the elevator and came down. "Brian, we gotta go now," Darren shouted. Brian replied, "What? Go where?" "No time to explain, come on. Just follow me," They both rushed to Darren's car.
"Care to explain what's going on?" asked Brian. Darren replied, "I'll explain later."
Once they got in the car. Darren quickly drove to the forest. He parked his car and get off. Brian quickly follow him. Darren and Brian ran into the jungle. A few minutes later, they finally found Janet and Lucy.
"Hey Darren, I thought you'd never show up," said Janet.
"I'm sorry ,but we gotta go now." said Darren.
"What? Why?" asked Janet. Suddenly wind start blowing their way. Everyone looked and saw a huge shadow hand coming out of the ground.
"What the freak is that?" shouted Brian.
At this point ,Darren knew it wasn't a coincidence anymore. He knew something weird on going on with him. Not long after, the full body of the shadow emerged. It looked like a huge man in shadow form made of some kind of dark particles, overall very scary.
The shadow monster used its hand to smash Janet and Lucy at their legs. They're lying on the ground now.
The shadow monster spoke up, "Finally, you've come."
Darren quickly asked, "What do you want from me?"
The monster replied, "What I want ,I will get it in a minute."
The monster shot some kind of dark energy from its hand directly to Darren. Darren didn't know what to do, so in a brief moment, he decided to use his hands to block the attack of the monster ,he closed his eye as if he doesn't want to see what'll happen ,however when he open his eye he see that his bare hand was able to block the attack.
At the moment, he starts smiling again. Everyone is panicking right now. No one knew what to do. Darren is blocking the attack of the monster. Janet doesn't know what she should do , but she wanted to help Darren, so she try to stay calm and started thinking. Janet figured the monster looks like a shadow, so she tried aiming her flashlight at it. It seems to work; the monster is weakening and hurt. Once she saw that, she put the flashlight on the ground aiming the monster ,and she shouted to Darren, "Darren, let's go! The flashlight will keep it busy."
Darren try to push the energy of the mobster forward, and somehow it worked. The energy came back to the monster, Darren saw an opportunity to escape. He quickly said, "Run!" ,They all start running away. Not long after ,all of them got out of the forest peacefully.
"What the hell was that thing?" asked Lucy.
Darren replied, "I don't know ,maybe a monster?"
"That's crazy! I mean, I can't believe such a monster exists," said Lucy.
While talking, Darren realized a scratch on Janet's legs. He speaks up, "Janet, are you okay? Your leg might have got a scratch from the monster."
Janet looks at her legs and says, "Yeah, I'm okay. Luckily, these scratches only reached my pants. It hasn't reach my skin yet."
Suddenly, Lucy starts feeling liquid on her legs, and at the same time, Janet sees it. Janet speaks up, "Oh my God, Lucy, are you all right?"
Now they've realized the scratches reached Lucy's legs, her pants slowly started turning red. She's loosing blood. Janet quickly put her down and roll up her pants. The wound seems pretty big and deep, A lot of blood is coming out ,a second later Lucy passes out due to blood loss.
Janet quickly try to stop the bleeding and cover her wound. However ,they know it's not much helping ,when it comes to the wound that deep.
"We need to call an Ambulance" said Janet
"Wait ,The hospital is just right there and there is my car ,we can take her there and I will drive her to the hospital." They quickly carried her to Darren's car send Lucy to the hospital.