My Worst Dreams
Aug. 27th, 2008 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunasarielI've been thinking of doing a list of the worst dreams I've ever had, because I seem to be able to recall and tell them better than the happy, vague, or just plain weird ones. I'll be updating this as I think of new categories.
Worst Childhood Dream: I was maybe five or six when this one occurred, over a couple of weeks. I remember very clearly that this is my only reoccurring nightmare that actually repeats exactly the same way, night after night. Anyway, my dad and I were sitting in the balcony of (I think) the San Francisco Opera House, where we always used to go in real life. We were watching a play, or maybe an opera. It doesn't matter, because a vampire jumped onto the stage and scared everybody away. Then everybody was running and screaming and stampeding for the doors. I remember being scared of the vampire, the dark theater, the running, the other people, of losing hold of my dad's hand... We get outside, and it actually does look like San Francisco, and we're now looking for my mom and my brother, Peter. We find them, but everybody is still panicking. And that's all I can remember of the dream. I always made Dad come in and stay until I fell back asleep.
Worst Starting-School-Anxiety Dream: This one occurred, with a strange predictability, the night before I began high school. I was standing on a huge, flat, brown plain. Utterly lifeless. The only thing around is an enormous gray tower, looking kind of like the Tower of Terror meets a federal prison. I was terribly late. I ran in, and it was *jammed* with students, who were all rushing around crazily but seemed to know what they were doing, and teachers, who were yelling at people to be on time. There were only three elevators, and no stairs that I could see. I didn't know where I was supposed to be going, or how to get there if I did. Everybody kept yelling at me. Just your classic anxiety dream.
Worst Dream Involving Loved Ones: This one started out fairly innocent, even fun. It felt a lot like "Unforgotten Realms," this funny little flash series to be found at urealrealms(dot)com. We (I don't exactly remember who else was with me; I'm pretty sure it was Jay, Heather, and Chris), were just wandering around this traditional forested fantasy world, doing zany quests and having fun. Then we came to this lake, and there were signs of destruction and fire (burned boats, wagons, etc.) along the edge, but no bodies. We kept walking, and we saw this big gray fortress, sort of rounded and squat and twisted-looking jutting out into the lake. Just beyond the curtain wall (which was well into the water itself), there was a big whirlpool. We met someone along the shore who told us that an evil cult had set up there, and that they were sacrificing people to their volcano god. One way or another, we get captured by the evil cultists (who look like those WWII guys with trench coats, gas masks, and assault rifles), and we go inside. It's all twisted and weird, with a lot of stairs. I remember that some other stuff happened, but I forget what it was. Eventually, I escaped and stole an evil cultist disguise. I started running around the place screaming that an earthquake was coming or something, trying to get the evil cultists to halt the sacrifices and get out, so I could free everybody. I run up some stairs and into a little chamber that looks kinda sorta like that place at the old San Francisco Museum of Sciences where they had the fish. There's this whirlpool of lava in the middle, and two evil cultists standing at about two o'clock and ten o'clock, with lines of people tied up and waiting to be pushed in. The one on my left has Jay, and they're just about to push him in. I start up about my whole "evacuation" deal, and the evil cultists are nodding, and I think I've done it, when the one on the left shrugs, shoves Jay into the lava whirlpool, and walks away. When I saw the evil cultist's hand move, I started forward, like I could save him, and when he disappeared over the rim of the lava whirlpool, I screamed "NOOOOOOO!!!" in that ragged voice they use in movies. Speaking of movies, you know when they want to show that someone has had a bad dream, they have them sit up into the camera, gasping and wide-eyed? Well, that was me. Only I didn't jerk upright, I just lay there for a bit, still wire-tense and adrenaline pumped. I think that counts as my worst dream to date.
Worst Secret-Anxiety Dream: I was walking around our yard, and I noticed that my window and screen door were open, and there were voices coming from inside. It was my brother, his friends, and my mom, and they had discovered my yaoi collection. I saw somebody walk past the window, carrying one of the books (I think it was The Lily and The Rose), and I could hear people shrieking with laughter and derision as they read Viewfinder on my computer. One of my brother's friends, a girl I didn't really recognize, came out onto the deck. She was standing just above me, and I yelled at her, and the rest of them by proxy. She looked sort of taken aback. I woke up angry and defensive.
Worst Dream That I Can't Really Remember: I've been worrying about this one ever since I woke up, or even before. I get the impression that I read it in a Yaoi Press anthology somewhere. I remember a forest with lots of pines, up high in the mountains. There was a wide path, and forest off to the right. I remember search parties going along the path, and two big, sunny rocks with flat tops where they laid and were happy, but the searchers forced them to move deeper into the forest. Then a chase, a capture, maybe a rescue? Then the rest of his kind (were they small and green?) were captured, held under a net. They would give their lives so that he could be free with his love. I remember it all ended with death. The worst kind of death, where one dies and one lives. I think that something is preventing my conscious self from remembering it, so I'm sending Mimi back into the dream to try and fix it, because I can't shake the idea that they were calling out for help to me and Section Four. Good luck, Mimi.
Worst Dream That Might Not Have Been A Dream: Sometimes, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I can see someone standing just beyond my sliding glass door, out on the deck. He (I'm pretty sure it is a he) always stands facing me, wearing some sort of long garment, like a cloak. He has something large in his right hand, which he holds out from his body. He rarely moves, except to bend over the object he's holding, and he never takes his eyes off me. This is one of the few times I feel the need to call up the Circle of Blue Flames in real life.
Worst Childhood Dream: I was maybe five or six when this one occurred, over a couple of weeks. I remember very clearly that this is my only reoccurring nightmare that actually repeats exactly the same way, night after night. Anyway, my dad and I were sitting in the balcony of (I think) the San Francisco Opera House, where we always used to go in real life. We were watching a play, or maybe an opera. It doesn't matter, because a vampire jumped onto the stage and scared everybody away. Then everybody was running and screaming and stampeding for the doors. I remember being scared of the vampire, the dark theater, the running, the other people, of losing hold of my dad's hand... We get outside, and it actually does look like San Francisco, and we're now looking for my mom and my brother, Peter. We find them, but everybody is still panicking. And that's all I can remember of the dream. I always made Dad come in and stay until I fell back asleep.
Worst Starting-School-Anxiety Dream: This one occurred, with a strange predictability, the night before I began high school. I was standing on a huge, flat, brown plain. Utterly lifeless. The only thing around is an enormous gray tower, looking kind of like the Tower of Terror meets a federal prison. I was terribly late. I ran in, and it was *jammed* with students, who were all rushing around crazily but seemed to know what they were doing, and teachers, who were yelling at people to be on time. There were only three elevators, and no stairs that I could see. I didn't know where I was supposed to be going, or how to get there if I did. Everybody kept yelling at me. Just your classic anxiety dream.
Worst Dream Involving Loved Ones: This one started out fairly innocent, even fun. It felt a lot like "Unforgotten Realms," this funny little flash series to be found at urealrealms(dot)com. We (I don't exactly remember who else was with me; I'm pretty sure it was Jay, Heather, and Chris), were just wandering around this traditional forested fantasy world, doing zany quests and having fun. Then we came to this lake, and there were signs of destruction and fire (burned boats, wagons, etc.) along the edge, but no bodies. We kept walking, and we saw this big gray fortress, sort of rounded and squat and twisted-looking jutting out into the lake. Just beyond the curtain wall (which was well into the water itself), there was a big whirlpool. We met someone along the shore who told us that an evil cult had set up there, and that they were sacrificing people to their volcano god. One way or another, we get captured by the evil cultists (who look like those WWII guys with trench coats, gas masks, and assault rifles), and we go inside. It's all twisted and weird, with a lot of stairs. I remember that some other stuff happened, but I forget what it was. Eventually, I escaped and stole an evil cultist disguise. I started running around the place screaming that an earthquake was coming or something, trying to get the evil cultists to halt the sacrifices and get out, so I could free everybody. I run up some stairs and into a little chamber that looks kinda sorta like that place at the old San Francisco Museum of Sciences where they had the fish. There's this whirlpool of lava in the middle, and two evil cultists standing at about two o'clock and ten o'clock, with lines of people tied up and waiting to be pushed in. The one on my left has Jay, and they're just about to push him in. I start up about my whole "evacuation" deal, and the evil cultists are nodding, and I think I've done it, when the one on the left shrugs, shoves Jay into the lava whirlpool, and walks away. When I saw the evil cultist's hand move, I started forward, like I could save him, and when he disappeared over the rim of the lava whirlpool, I screamed "NOOOOOOO!!!" in that ragged voice they use in movies. Speaking of movies, you know when they want to show that someone has had a bad dream, they have them sit up into the camera, gasping and wide-eyed? Well, that was me. Only I didn't jerk upright, I just lay there for a bit, still wire-tense and adrenaline pumped. I think that counts as my worst dream to date.
Worst Secret-Anxiety Dream: I was walking around our yard, and I noticed that my window and screen door were open, and there were voices coming from inside. It was my brother, his friends, and my mom, and they had discovered my yaoi collection. I saw somebody walk past the window, carrying one of the books (I think it was The Lily and The Rose), and I could hear people shrieking with laughter and derision as they read Viewfinder on my computer. One of my brother's friends, a girl I didn't really recognize, came out onto the deck. She was standing just above me, and I yelled at her, and the rest of them by proxy. She looked sort of taken aback. I woke up angry and defensive.
Worst Dream That I Can't Really Remember: I've been worrying about this one ever since I woke up, or even before. I get the impression that I read it in a Yaoi Press anthology somewhere. I remember a forest with lots of pines, up high in the mountains. There was a wide path, and forest off to the right. I remember search parties going along the path, and two big, sunny rocks with flat tops where they laid and were happy, but the searchers forced them to move deeper into the forest. Then a chase, a capture, maybe a rescue? Then the rest of his kind (were they small and green?) were captured, held under a net. They would give their lives so that he could be free with his love. I remember it all ended with death. The worst kind of death, where one dies and one lives. I think that something is preventing my conscious self from remembering it, so I'm sending Mimi back into the dream to try and fix it, because I can't shake the idea that they were calling out for help to me and Section Four. Good luck, Mimi.
Worst Dream That Might Not Have Been A Dream: Sometimes, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I can see someone standing just beyond my sliding glass door, out on the deck. He (I'm pretty sure it is a he) always stands facing me, wearing some sort of long garment, like a cloak. He has something large in his right hand, which he holds out from his body. He rarely moves, except to bend over the object he's holding, and he never takes his eyes off me. This is one of the few times I feel the need to call up the Circle of Blue Flames in real life.
