For as long as I can remember I've been a very solid sleeper and very rarely remember anything about my dreams. However, there are a few dreams that I've had over the course of my life that I can still remember vividly to this day. The slippery nature of dreams makes it very difficult to put into words exactly what these dreams encompass, but when I close my eyes I can still see the images that were imprinted into my brain. The only link that connects all of these dreams are their unsettling natures. I am almost always running from someone, the setting is everchanging, and I can't ever pinpoint exactly where I am, or even who I am.
A few years ago I was going through a very difficult breakup that left me mostly with feelings of betrayal--I was angry, hurt, I completely lost my appetite and I rarely slept. During that first month I lost an extreme amount of weight and all of my memories from that time are extremely hazy as I was existing in an almost zombie-like state. Finally, one night I managed to fall into a deep sleep, and I still get chills when I remember the dream I felt that night.
I've always been terrified of the character, Freddie Krueger. It's a combination of the fact that kids would tease me by calling me Angela Krueger and that I ran across the movies on tv countless times as a child when I was home sick and could never change the channel quickly enough. This really childish fear has followed me into adult-hood, and even after seeing the actor on numerous talk-shows.
That night for whatever reason, I dreamed that I had been in a relationship with Freddie Krueger and that I had broken it off with him recently. In my dream, I was in my dorm room, set up exactly as it was in real life, and I remember thinking to myself it's okay, this is only a dream, but also feeling that it was very real. I was sitting at my computer writing a paper when my closet door slid open, and Freddie was standing behind the door staring at me angrily. He lunged at me yelling about how we were supposed to be in love and I had betrayed him, and I was frightened at first but then an intense and terrifed anger built up inside me. I knew that he was coming at me to kill me and I grabbed a pair of scissors from my desk to defend myself. As he attacked, I sunk the scissors deep into his gut and I could feel the resistance of his body to the stabbing--it was the most realistic feeling. As he fell to the ground, he reached out and swiped my leg and I felt the white hot pain as he cut into me. Just as that happened I awoke with a start and sat up, sweating and breathing heavily.
My leg was throbbing and when I looked down, I had a long red welt running across my thigh. And when I looked to my left the closet door was open--the door that I would close every night before bed.
Seriously.
I suppose it could be explained that somehow I had managed to scratch myself in my sleep, and that I had forgotten to close my closet door the night before. Despite any logical explanations I could think of, I think it's needless to say, I was freaked the hell out. The intense anger that I had felt in the dream, the realistic feeling of stabbing someone, and then the appearance of the welt on my leg, it was all more than I could handle, and it was a long time before I was able to sleep peacefully again.
you know what's REALLY freaky? I just so happened to have a Freddy Krueger dream last night. I mean... I know that didn't happen to YOU last night... but I mean, it is weird.
Right. Scary dream!
Posted by: Brittany | October 13, 2006 at 01:39 AM
Creepy. VERY creepy.
Posted by: Airhead | October 13, 2006 at 04:48 AM
I'm behind on the weird dreams, but I did just get married a week ago, so perhaps you will forgive me?
Shortly after my mother died (very suddenly at the age of 48), I had a dream where she was the one comforting me about her death. My brother-in-law dreamed about her shortly before he married my sister. He had only met my mother once years before. My sister dreamed that Mother apologized for not being able to come to her wedding. I have limited belief in what happens after, so I know not what to make of these dreams, but all of us were comforted by them.
Posted by: sophie | October 16, 2006 at 12:40 AM