Mark Shane

Mark Shane is a fictitious character in the Dreams to Reality continuity, having appeared in the web series and novel series incarnations of the series as a major character in both continuities. In the web series, he is a native of Long Beach, California, who escaped from Skullface along with Holly Stanley to Eagle Creek, Ohio in February 1999 to live with his mother, Molly Shane and younger brother Dale Shane, after he and Holly realized that Skullface had been brainwashing them to do his evil bidding. The identity and location of Mark's father was never revealed in the web series, but can be assumed that he at least at some point lived with his father prior to moving to Eagle Creek. In the novel series, Mark's story begins with him still under the mind control of Skullface in Coral Beach, Florida, but his subsequent escape from Skullface with Holly to Eagle Creek is a major storyline showcased in the series' second installment. In the web series, he is the boyfriend of Ashley Chamberlain, but this relationship will not start in the novel series until some time after he moves to Eagle Creek. More about how Mark first became involved with Skullface is planned to be revealed in the novel series, as well as the identity and location of Mark's father, and Mark is planned to play a significant role in the novel series as well.

Brandon Accidentally Injures Mark During Baseball Game
On a late spring day at Eagle Creek Junior High School, Mark Shane would spend time at the beginning of his physical education class asking his friend Brandon Danber who he planned to take to an upcoming school dance. Brandon revealed his plan to attend the dance with Lisa Walker, who asked him to the dance after Brandon's first choice, Danielle Grayson, turned him down in hopes that she would be attending the dance with the boy she had a crush on, Michael Bennett. Mark pointed out to Brandon that Michael had a crush on Rachel McCarey at the time, so if Danielle was trying to get a relationship started between her and Michael, it had the potential of becoming a soap opera-like love triangle that Brandon should consider himself lucky not to have to deal with. Brandon asked Mark and his girlfriend, Ashley Chamberlain, if they would be attending the dance together, and they confirmed that they would be. When Brandon mentioned that Mark and Ashley had become nearly inseparable lately, Ashley responded that she and Mark had simply realized that they are definitely right for one another of late. Their physical education class that day would have the class go outside the school and across the street to a nearby baseball field for a game of baseball. Mark and Ashley were on the same team together, with Mark playing the role of pitcher, which Ashley was the shortstop for the team. Toward the end of the class period, the physical education teacher, Mr. Long, annonced that Brandon's at-bat would be the final one of the game regardless of the outcome because they needed to head back inside. After Brandon swung and missed at Mark's first pitch, Brandon would hit a line drive directly back at Mark, which would hit Mark squarely in the chest and knock him to the ground and cause him to lose consciousness for a brief period of time. As Ashley and the rest of his classmates gathered around Mark, he regained consciousness and asked what happened to him. Mr. Long explained what happened to him and asked him how he felt, and Mark said that besides the fact that he felt like he'd been hit by a car, he was doing great. He began to tell Ashley something, but then realized that there was a crowd of people around him and changed his mind. Mr. Long told Mark to take it easy and that an ambulance was on its way, but Mark quickly reacted, "An ambulance?! No! No ambulance!" Ashley tried to reason with Mark that he was injured and needs to be checked out at the hospital, but Mark stubbornly insisted that he isn't that hurt and that he'd just had the wind knocked out of him and insisted that he didn't need to go to the hospital. However, Mr. Long informed him that because he lost consciousness for more than a minute, it is school procedure to call in an ambulance for such a serious event. Mark lamented, but said that he'd better not have to be kept at the hospital overnight. Ashley assured him that he probably would not need to be kept overnight, but Mr. Long felt that there was a possibility that Mark would be kept overnight for observation, though noted that this may not be necessary because Mark had since regained consciousness. An ambulance soon arrived at the baseball field, and Mark was not at all pleased when two paramedics approached his location with a stretcher, feeling that he could stand up and walk over to the ambulance rather than needing to be wheeled like into the ambulance like an invalid. He attempted to get up and do just that, but Mr. Long made him get back down on the ground, reminding him that this is procedure, forcing Mark to allow the paramedics to take him to the ambulance on a stretcher. Ashley would walk over to the ambulance with Mark and the paramedics, where she kissed his hand before he was lifted into the ambulance. Mark assured her that he would be fine as the paramedics closed the doors to the ambulance and prepared to take him to the hospital. (DtRW #1)

Background & Trivia

 * Mark's original name was actually Zack, but it was decided to change his name from Zack to Mark in order to avoid having characters names rhyming with other characters (as the name Zack rhymes with Jack Brock's name). The same principle was applied when changing the name of Justin Penney to Lucas Penney in the web series in order to not have a Justin and a Dustin in the same series at the same time. In the novel series, however, a character by the name of Zach will be introduced despite this, though this character is going to be established as Jack's older cousin and will play a small role when compared to either Jack or Mark.
 * Mark was originally planned to eventually be written into the novellas, but the web series was created before he could be. Consequently, he was introduced for the first time in the web series. His primary storyline in the web series was not written into the main plan for the series until after his character first appeared in the web series, so his originally-planned storyline was scrapped in favor for the storyline that played out in the web series.
 * Mark's brainwashing storyline led directly to the initial creation of the Past to Future spin-off series during the web series, and therefore, to the creation of the Coral Beach side of the novel series. This is because with Mark and Holly's continuous references to their time in Long Beach during the web series, as well as their connection to Danielle Grayson as a result of all three characters coming from that city, it was established that many conenctions between Eagle Creek and another setting many miles away exist, and more of these connections were developed until an entirely separate cast of characters was created in the other setting. These established connections would lead to many changes to the series as a whole, the evolution of which led directly to the upcoming novel series to split its time between Eagle Creek and Coral Beach in spite of the large geographical differences between the two settings.