Are these really dreams?

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.

But later that night, while he was sleeping, he dreamt that his dad found a snake inside their house. The snake is mainly green but it has a yellow stripe on its body. Overall it looks poisonous. However ,His dad gently carried the snake outside. He's not afraid of the snake at all , The snake barely moved or did anything either; it just let his dad carry it easily as if nothing 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, so he checked the time on the clock. It was 6:30 AM, the time he usually wakes 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 shouted back, "Mom, is everything alright?"

His mom shouted again, "Snake! There's a snake!" Once Darren heard that, he quickly thought about the snake in his dream ,so he rushed to his mom. What he saw was a snake, 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 to think that maybe it wasn't a dream and he had actually saw that in real life. But he still remembered waking up in bed, which meant that couldn't be right. He started to worry but he thought it might just be a coincidence. But then his dad showed up and gently picked up the snake. The snake barely moved or did anything, just like in Darren's dream. Afraid his dad might get bitten, he asked, "Dad, what are you doing?" His dad replied, "Oh well, this is our neighbor's pet. It's not venomous and completely harmless." "Oh, okay," Darren replied.

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, but he couldn't stop thinking until he arrived at school.

Later on, 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 is sitting with his best friends, Brian, they are fishing. But then Brian accidentally fall into a river ,he is so worried and scared but then he woke up and realize it was just another dream. The teacher asked, "Darren, are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm okay, I just had a nightmare," he replied. Once the teacher heard that ,she continues 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 in the nearby river today. Are you free this evening?" Darren quickly thought about his dream again ,Darren afraid that what happened in his dream might actually happen again in real life ,so he answered, "No, I've got plans, perhaps some other time." Before Brian walked away, Darren asked, "Hey, would you cancel your plans today and come with me? I have something I want to show you." "Oh, what is it?" Brian asked. "It's a surprise," said Darren. "Guess I'll find out today," Brian replied.

While walking to the canteen, Darren ran across Janet. "Oh, hey Janet, how are you doing?" said Darren. "I'm fine, thank you!" Janet replied. Before Darren walked away, Janet said, "Wait, I have a plan to investigate a forest. Have you heard the news? People keep randomly disappearing after they enter this forest, and I am very excited to go investigate with my friend Lucy. Would you like to come with us?" "Oh yes, I'd really like to go with you," said Darren. "Alright! Meet you near the forest before sundown; it's just a few hundred meters away from the school. I'll talk to you later. Bye!" Janet replied.

Darren started smiling, really happy to get an invite from her. But then someone touched him on the back. "Whoa!" Darren instantly shouted. He looked back and saw it was just Brian. Brian said, "Are you okay?" "Dude, you scared me," Darren replied. Then they both walked to the school's canteen together to get some lunch.

While eating, Darren looked up extraordinary phenomena and unexplainable things on Google until he came across the name "Dr. Deno," a lead scientist at EPS Lab (Extraordinary Phenomenon Study Lab). Dr. Deno had written some articles about unexplainable things. Darren suddenly got the idea to visit the lab and forgot about sneaking into the woods as Janet had told him earlier. He told his friend Brian about the plan, and in the evening, they both went to EPS Lab.

Darren parked his car in front of EPS Lab. Brian looked around and said, "Seriously, did you get an invitation or something? There don't seem to be many cars here." Darren replied, "It'll be fine, just trust me," and 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." Then the scientist started calling, "Dr. Deno, there are some uninvited 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. He said, "Hey, I am Dr. Deno. How can I help you, sir?"

Darren replied, "Can I, uh, talk to you privately?"

"Yeah sure, just follow me," said Dr. Deno. Before they walked to the elevator, Brian asked, "Hey, you're seriously going to leave me here alone?"

Darren replied, "Relax. I'll make it quick," then Darren 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 seems to really happen in real life. Except for the dream where Brian fell into a river that didn't happen because I tried to prevent it. Anyways, they don't feel like dreams; they feel real."

Dr. Deno replied, "That's interesting. Can you clarify the other 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, sir," 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. In this dream, he saw Janet and Jenna 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. This hand killed both Janet and Lucy within a minute, leaving Darren in shock. Then Darren instantly woke up in a panic. "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," then they both rushed to Darren's car.

"Care to explain what's going on?" asked Brian. Darren replied, "I'll explain later." Darren quickly drove to the forest. He parked his car and left Brian in it. He quickly ran into the jungle. A few minutes later, he finally found Janet and Lucy.

"Hey Darren, I thought you'd never show up," said Janet. She continued, "Let's head this way."

"Wait, hold up, we have to get out now. There's a shadow monster," said Darren.

"A what?" Jenna replied in panic. Suddenly, a shadow hand came out of the shadow exactly like in Darren's dream. Not long after, the full body of the shadow monster emerged. It looked like a huge man in shadow form, overall very scary.

The shadow monster spoke up, "Finally, you've come."

Then the monster used its hand to strike at everyone at once. They were all on the ground now. Darren quickly stood up and asked, "What do you want from me?"

The monster replied, "It'll be over in a minute."

Then the monster shot some kind of dark energy from its hand directly at 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.Janet and Lucy panic too. Janet doesn't know what she should do at the moment, but she wants to help Darren, so she starts thinking. Janet figures the monster looks like a shadow, so she tries aiming her flashlight at it. It seems to work; the monster is weakening and hurt. Once she sees that, she puts the flashlight on the ground and shouts to Darren, "Darren, let's go! The flashlight should keep it busy." Then they all get out of the forest peacefully."That's crazy! I mean, I can't believe such a monster exists," said Lucy.

While talking, Darren realizes 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."

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, and the blood is coming out. The wound seems pretty big and deep, then Lucy passes out due to blood loss.

Janet quickly try to stop the bleeding and cover her wound.

"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." Then they take her to Darren's car. tell Brian about what happened, and send Lucy to the hospital.