Another Life, Another World, Another Ending

Daniel sucked in a slow breath and shut off the alarm with a groggy slap. His hands still trembled.

"It was just a dream."

Except it didn't feel like just a dream.

The details were already fading, like water slipping through his fingers. But the emotions? The grief, the urgency, the desperate faces of the people he had lost, they stayed.

And so did the voice.

"Don't forget about us."

Daniel rubbed his temples, willing the words to disappear, but they lingered, settling somewhere deep in his chest.

"Daniel! Breakfast!"

His mother's voice cut through the haze, grounding him in reality. He forced himself out of bed, shaking off the last echoes of the dream as he dressed. School was waiting.

The world outside felt... wrong.

The sun was too bright, the air too crisp, as if the universe had overcorrected for the nightmare he had just endured. His neighborhood was peaceful, with neatly trimmed lawns and cars rolling lazily down the street.

Nothing burned.

Nobody screamed.

And yet, Daniel couldn't shake the sense that something was off.

Maybe it was just the weight of the dream hanging over him.

Maybe it was the way his parents and sister acted normal at breakfast, laughing about some dumb sitcom they'd watched the night before, while Daniel sat there, gripping his spoon like a lifeline, struggling to process the fact that somewhere, in some version of existence, he had died last night.

He glanced at his little sister, Emily, who was giggling at her phone. For a split second, a horrifying thought struck him:

What if I've had a dream-life where she didn't exist?

The idea made his stomach twist. He had never thought about that before. What if in one of these lives, Emily had never been born? Or what if—

"Daniel?" His mom's voice snapped him back. "You okay? You look like you saw a ghost."

He forced a smile. "Yeah. Just tired."

She gave him a look, one of those mom-looks that saw through everything, but she didn't press.

Breakfast continued.

By the time Daniel got to school, the dream was still gnawing at the edges of his mind.

It wasn't the first time he'd had a vivid dream. But it was the first time it had felt so... real.

And that voice.

"Don't forget about us when you wake up."

That was new.

Usually, his dreams faded into nonsense by morning, breaking apart like puzzle pieces that no longer fit together. But this one clung to him. Like a memory.

"Earth to Daniel."

A hand waved in front of his face, and he blinked back to reality. His best friend, Marcus, stood in front of him, smirking.

"Dude, you looked gone just now. What, did you stay up all night watching horror movies again?"

Daniel hesitated. Normally, he would've shrugged it off. But this time, the dream still felt too close.

"I had... a weird dream."

Marcus slung an arm around Daniel's shoulder. "Oh no. Don't tell me. Clown zombies again?"

Daniel snorted despite himself. "No, man. It was different. Like... I lived an entire lifetime. Had a family. A kid."

Marcus made a yikes face. "Bro. That's some old-man anxiety right there."

Daniel exhaled. Maybe he was overthinking it. Maybe it was just a trick of the brain, some bizarre lucid dream that had stuck with him longer than usual.

Still... he couldn't shake the feeling that it was something more.

Before he could dwell on it, the bell rang, forcing them to hurry toward class.

But as Daniel walked through the crowded halls, another thought hit him like a punch to the gut.

What if the dream wasn't just a dream?

What if that world, the people, the memories, was real?

And worse…

What if it happens again?