Noah was deep in sleep. His dreams were filled with weird patterns and shapes that all wiggle around him. There was no floor, no walls, no one else. just him in the middle of darkness surrounded by these shapes as he floated around his dream. It was as if he was a spirit with no place to be.

Soon a strong gust of wind pushed him and the dream seemed to pull him farther in, pushing him through barricades of color. He was pushed through every one of them, but each one was harder to get through than the last. He got halfway through the last barricade.

He was stuck and could not escape no matter how hard he tried.

Suddenly a rip in the darkness appears. he saw a hand reach out from that rip and reach towards him. He reached out and grabbed it. It pulled him out of the last barricade And inside the rip.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was in a different place. A library to be exact. But it was not a normal library. The ceiling was completely glass and you could see the endless vastness of outer space outside. There were multiple Giant telescopes and globes of worlds that didn't seem to be earth. The walls were lilac and the carpet was blue with multicolored geometric patterns that looked straight out of an 80s arcade. The bookshelves held books of every possible language, even languages Noah had never seen or heard of.

"Where the hell am I?" Noah said, looking around.

"You're on another planet!" said a female voice. Noah turned around to see what creature had pulled him in.

It was a woman, she had long white hair, and her body was a light blue and seemed to have what looked a purple drawing the entire galaxy on it. She had no pupils, her eyes were completely white. She was also completely naked but had none of the genitals of a human, her body was completely smooth. She seemed familiar yet unfamiliar and ethereal at the same time.

"I'm asleep right? Like, this is a dream?" Noah asked her.

"Well your body is asleep. Your mind and soul are right here, standing in front of me. So to answer honestly, kind of? I mean it's not sleeping, or for that matter awake, like.... SLEEPWALKING! No, that's not right either. It's not that." She somehow looked like she was more confused than him.

"I'm Noah. Who are you?" Noah asked.

"I am Anne. I'm the owner of this place. I guess your species would refer to me as an alien." Anne replied. Noah's confusion didn't vanish in the slightest. Nonetheless, Anne continued, "The reason I need you here is because I'm testing out my new experiment."

Anne circled around Noah, examining him.

"The experiment is latched onto the subject, once latched, the subject forgets about the experiment. Their life will start changing drastically, unbeknownst to the subject. Weird unexplainable occurrences happen and the people around the subject stop realizing that anything weird is going on either. I need someone to test it on. Preferably human. It's going to make life so much more interesting."

"So, am I the subject?"

"Yes indeed! you are my test monkey!" She grabbed his hand and took him to a different area of the library that was more open. Noah still didn't know exactly what was going on. The warmth of her hand felt so real, yet synthetic like silicon.

She took out a tube of lipstick and placed the pigment onto her lips.

"Now for the first step of the experiment to work I must kiss your forehead. The contact of my skin and its knowledge, mixed with this lipstick chemical, causes it to activate." Anne said, leaning towards Noah. "Do you comply?"

"I don't get anything that you just said." Noah replied.

"That's perfectly fine. It's your decision at the end of the day."

"Well, I guess it's fine. So I'll forget this whole dream?"

"You'll never forget me or this place, just the fact that you're an experiment. You'll be able to visit me in the future."

"Okay then, fuck it I guess."

Anne put her hands on Noah's shoulders, leaned in closer and gave him a small peck on the forehead. Noah didn't really feel different besides a small tingle from where her lips met his head.

"Okay you may now return to your world." Anne said.

Noah began to float back up to the ceiling.

"Oh and beware of puddles!" As she added.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

And with that, Noah's body was pushed back, through all the colors and shapes. He was steadily hurling through space and seemingly time. He approached the earth, falling like a meteorite. He fell through the atmosphere and sky, continuing to fall until he saw the roof of his house. his body slammed into his room and finally back into his body.

******

Noah woke up. He was loopy and confused. He looked at his phone and realized that he had overslept. He could hear his brother walking around outside of his room.

"WAKE UP! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE TO SCHOOL!" Yelled his brother from downstairs.

"COMING!" Noah yelled back in reply.

Noah quickly got dressed for school, and was out the door with his brother.

"Dude what the fuck? I was starting to think you died in your sleep." Jayden said with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Huh?" Noah was still drowsy.

"I tried knocking on your door for like 10 minutes. But then I gave up."

"Oh sorry. I think I was having a dream."

"About what?"

"I don't remember. Probably aliens."

"Well, whatever it was it was probably stupid." Jayden looked up at the sky. "Did you bring a jacket?"

"No?"

"God, you're predictable. Have fun getting drenched, dumbass. I'll frickin choke you to death"

Noah looked up. Gray clouds were covering the sky. Everything around them had a gloomy blue atmosphere.

It seemed like it was going to rain.

"Anyways, let's hurry. Thanks to you we might be tardy to the first period." Jayden said, picking up his pace.

"Alright, alright. I'm sure it'll be fine. Just tell your teacher you got lost." Noah chuckled.

"Only a dumbass like you would get lost on their way to class." Jayden looked at him with an annoyed demeanor. "God Noah, I can't believe you forgot your jacket. You're so dense." Jayden said.

"You're still worried about that? Don't worry I'll be fine." Noah reassured him.

"I'm not worried. I'm just… I'm just wondering how the hell we are related. Are we absolutely sure I wasn't swapped at birth?"

"Nope, you're my little brother, because when a mommy and daddy love each other very much-" Jayden cut him off right there.

They continued walking to school. As they did, Noah heard footsteps and then a familiar voice.

"Hey wait up." It was Benjamin.

The tall blue haired boy walked toward them. He was wearing a sleeveless blue hoodie. Jayden instinctively hid behind Noah.

"Hi benji!" Noah said, waving.

"Oh a nickname already? Cool. Can I walk with you?" Benjamin asked.

"Of course! Oh, by the way..." Noah grabbed Jayden by the shoulders, and moved him in front of Benjamin so that he'd have to face him. "This is my brother that I was talking about . Jayden, say hi!"

Jayden didn't look at Benjamin, he just looked down. Benjamin looked at him. Wondering if he was going to say something. He didn't. So he decided to say something first.

"Hey, my name's Benjamin. Nice to meet you." Benjamin reached his hand out to shake Jayden's.

Jayden looked up at Benjamin. He weakly took Benjamin's hand. Benjamin put his other hand on top of Jayden's hand and shook it.

"I'm … Jayden." Jayden said shyly.

Benjamin gave him a warm smile. He could tell he wasn't like his older brother, who was more outgoing. Benjamin thought he seemed cool, despite how shy he was at the moment.

"It's nice to meet you." Benjamin said.

You sly dog Noah. thought Noah. He could already tell that they were going to get along. On top of that he'd always try to set someone up with his brother. It never works usually, but he had a good feeling about this one. He didn't want Jayden to feel alone forever.

"Why are you running late by the way?" Noah asked Benjamin.

"Oh uh, y'know. I overslept." Benjamin looked a bit embarrassed.

"Oh that's why we're late too." Noah chuckled.

When the three of them got to school , Benjamin and Noah said bye to Jayden, and walked over to Jason and Liam who were sitting on a bench.

"Hey Noah!" Liam greeted.

"Hi guys! " Noah said as he walked over.

Noah immediately went over and hugged Jason by the neck in a choking gesture. Not exactly in a violent way, it was more of a weird way.

"Ow? What are you doing?" Jason asked, trying to pry Noah off of his neck.

Another thing about Noah is that he's sometimes too touchy. He never means any harm by it, but it always confuses people when they find out he's like that.

"I'm hugging you!" Noah said as if it was obvious, still clinging to Jason.

"Go hug Liam."

"Fine. Suit yourself. Liam, get ready." Noah let go of Jason then grabbed Liam by the neck.

"Don't worry about Jason, he's never been hugged before so he doesn't know how to handle it." Liam smirked in a false sympathetic way.

"What the hell are you even talking about?" Jason was confused.

Once the bell rang, Noah and Liam walked to their class together. It was an algebra class. Noah has never been great at math, but lucky for him, it seemed that Liam happened to be an expert in math. He even finished with the assignment early, so they just chatted the rest of the class period.

"Do you actually have a crush on Jason?" Liam asked.

"Hm? no. I just met him after all. it'd be kind of silly if I did though." Noah replied.

"Besides, he's probably straight, right?"

"Probably. Why did you ask me if I liked him in the first place?"

"Oh, just cause you hugged him this morning."

"But I hugged you too."

"Well, yeah. but you like, immediately hugged him."

"I just like hugs okay?" Noah chuckled at Liams analysis of him.

The bell for the second period rang. Noah walked out into the hall. He was about to head to his next class when he felt a hand grab his shoulder. It was a tall pale man with black messy hair and a patchy beard.

"Who are you and why are you in my school?" the man asked in a deep voice.

"Your school? Pffs. What are you, the principal?" Noah laughed mockingly.

"yes."

"oh."

"I know what you are. I can't-"

"Okay wait, so you know who I am and yet you asked my name?"

"Well, no. I… I was asking what you are!"

"Alright dude, you can't just ask people what they are. I'll see you later creep." Noah walked away from the principal and headed to class.

******

The end of the day came around and Noah was waiting for Jayden in front of the school. It had rained earlier, so everywhere was wet and murky. When Jayden finally got there he looked kinda sad. He had his hood on and didn't even stop walking when he saw his brother. "Let's go." He said, hurrying past Noah.

Noah followed his younger brother. They were almost out of the courtyard when they heard Benjamin.

"Hey. Do you guys mind if I walk with you guys home too?" He asked.

"Of course we don't mind Benji!" Noah said happily, making a come join us gesture with his arms. Jayden didn't say anything.

They all walked together. Benjamin kept looking at Jayden with a concerned expression.

Jayden suddenly stopped.

"Fucking great." He was standing in front of a huge rain puddle. "My feet are going to be wet."

"I could carry you if you want?" Benjamin offered. Jayden shook his head and started walking through the puddle.

Jayden and Benjamin walked through the puddle with no problem, besides from their shoes getting soaked. Noah tried to do the same and follow them, but when he did, he got surrounded by water.

He'd fallen through the puddle.

It was like he fell in a pool, only it was a puddle, and not a pool. He could see the concrete from the road around him, and when he looked up he could see the blurry sky. Noah swam up above the surface of the water and violently waved his arm in the air trying to get out.

Benjamin and Jayden turned around and saw this confusing scene in front of them, and ran quickly over to him.

"Are you okay?!" Exclaimed Benjamin.

"Holy shit!" Exclaimed Jayden.

They both grabbed his arms, and pulled him out of the puddle. Noah gasped for air. He didn't know what just happened to him, and neither did the other two. Then he remembered something that he'd always been told: watch out for puddles.

Benjamin and Jayden stared at him.

"What are you guys looking at guys? That always happens." Noah chuckled.

"It does?" Benjamin looked at Jayden to see if he had anything to say. Jayden just kept looking at Noah.

"Hopefully

there aren't any more big puddles around." Noah said as he stood up. "Let's go home."

Noah started walking in the direction of his house. The other two followed him.

Seems like everything is going to be different from now on.