Dreams are just dreams. Your brain processing information in a chaotic mess that barely relates to your real life, by simple free association of your brain. Not only one should ignore their dreams for the most part, the brain actively does that, flushing down everything down the drains. So if you remember dreaming of teeth falling out it does not mean you should make a dentist appointment. It doesn't even reliably means that your are worried about brushing your teeth more.

When Henry gets around to read about the topic of recurring dreams, there is the obvious problem that all data is self-reported.

Hold on just a moment! Don't just gloss over that "get around to" like it didn't take forever and was done unprompted. Gabe was an important part of process and really wants to have his efforts appreciated.

In that case, Henry wants to tell the story his way.

He will start with the dreams.

He remembers the transition from a normal dream to an awakening dream. One moment he was searching through bread dough for his missing teeth, then a shift of focus. From the bright classroom to a dark bedroom.

Henry was seeing from above, outside of his own body. The hair messy and too long (because he didn't want to risk cutting at the esthetician school again). Gabe holding him tight while covering his eyes with the other arm to protect from the glaring street light...

...slowly the point of view moves away and passes through the wall. His aunt Rose is sleeping in the bedroom, one of her arms also covering her eyes from the street light. But she is alone in the single bed. The other bed in the room is empty.

Great-Aunt Annabeth is in the small living room, sleeping in front of the TV instead of her own bed next to her niece Rose...

...Once again, the point of view moves away and passes through the wall. His aunt Rose is sleeping in the bedroom, one of her arms also covering her eyes from the streetlight. But she is alone in the single bed. The other bed in the room is empty.

Great-Aunt Annabeth is in the small living room, sleeping in front of the TV instead of her own bed next to her niece Rose...

Another living room, with a floor plan that mirrors the previous one. Different furniture, more of it, and more clutter. Two people sleeping on mattresses. The point of view floats away, once again through walls, seeing people in their sleep.

At some point, the scene shifts again, from dark bedrooms to a vast white plane. And no longer shown from above, but at eye-level.

In the dream he had a body, but Henry isn't sure if it was his body. Gabe didn't wake up alone in the bed that night. But he could feel the cold marble beneath his bare feet. The air feeling unusually still as Henry moved about.

Gabe wants to know if Henry was naked.

Anyway, in this part of the dream he was moving around. Taking in the impossible place. The marble surface stretching indefinitely in all directions, the "sky" being another such surface held up by massive pillars that went higher than the purple clouds. In the distance, Henry could see large marble forms, pyramids, cubes, spheres. Too perfect to not be man-made, but with no obvious purpose. He approached the only nearby structure that looked somewhat organic.

A single pitch-black tree.

The tree was a leafless and twisted thing, from a distance it could even be called sad, because it was so dark that one could have mistaken it for have been dead by lightning.

Henry intuitively knew it was alive. And definitely it never had been hit by lightning, because it was no normal tree.

For one thing, it wasn't rising from a patch of dirt, but from the marble. Not through cracks, but from the marble itself, the black veins on it becoming thicker and rising from the white like... well, roots.

And from it hung lump shapes, unlike a fruit, because it was the wrong kind of organic.

This distracted Henry, who was approaching, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Finally, when he was close enough to touch one, it.. stirred. There were quick moments of realization.

The shapes, were some kind of sac, dark and semi-transparent, with dark contents that blended together. Dark on dark.

Then Henry's mind made sense of what he was seeing. There was a malformed creature inside.

Henry had time to ask himself, where its eyes were before the entire tree shook. He took a step back, and scared yelp died on his throat.