A/N: I kinda wrote chapters one through eight ahead of time so I'm gonna post them all at once and see what happens.

XxXxXxXxX

Xander slowly wakes up the next morning, still shaken from his nightmare. He climbs out of bed and looks out the window. He hears his name being called and looks down from his second story window and sees his two best friends, Soela and Crayson waving to him on the ground. Xander opens his window.

"Hey! Xander! Where've ya been?" asks Crayson.

"Yeah! We can't wait forever, ya know." adds Soela.

Xander is confused, mostly from just waking up.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Remember? We had to go help out Hanton with the tree house today." Crayson replies.

Xander panics. "Oh crud, I'll be right down!" He throws some pants on over his boxers and runs right downstairs. He soon meets his friends outside.

"What kept you, Xander?" Soela asks. At first Xander is reluctant to tell.

"I had the nightmare again."

"What, the one where your chased by a giant teddy bear?" Crayson jokes. Soela punches him slightly hard in the arm. "Ow! Geez! I was just kidding! Relax! Sorry Xander"

Xander knows he was just joking around. "It's ok. No...the one about the darkness..."

Soela tries to comfort her friend. "Its only a dream. Dreams pass in time".

"But this one's different." Xander exclaims. "It's like...I don't know, more than a dream. It's almost like...a memory or something."

"A memory? You mean a memory of a dream?" Crayson asks.

"No...I remember being scared. I remember running...but in the dream, it's not me who's running."

"Well who is it?" asks Soela.

"That's just it. I don't know." answers Xander. "It's someone...I feel like I've known forever, and he seems familiar. But I can't recall ever meeting him, or seeing him, or even knowing his name".

Crayson looks at his watch and jumps in surprise. "Sorry to break up this little dream chat, but we gotta get going! Hanton's gonna kill us if we don't show up to help him like we promised. I mean, It's our tree house too."

Xander and Soela look at each other and nod.

"Alright. Let's go" Soela says with a smile.

Soela and Crayson begin walking with Xander right behind them. Suddenly, Xander stops. Soela looks back and sees him.

"Xander, are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh; yeah."

"Alright.; let's go."

"Wait...Soela"

"Yeah, Xander?"

"You ever get feeling you're being watched?"

"What do you mean?"

"HEY GUYS! COME ON!"

Soela and Xander realize that Crayson is way ahead of them.

"YOU GUYS COMING, OR WHAT?!"

The two run to catch up with Crayson. As they run, a hooded figure hidden in the shadow watches them, then disappears into the darkness...