It doesn't get much creepier than this.
Have you ever had one of those dreams that seem to somehow take a jagged short-cut into reality? I think a part of the reason I have such a hard time lying still in order to fall asleep can be attributed to the fact that I really hate those in-between places. Weird things happen to me when in limbo between wakefulness and dreaming.
Have you ever "awakened" while still in REM sleep mode? This used to happen to me quite frequently. While dreaming, you suddenly become aware of your surroundings but your body is still subject to the paralysis that comes with deep sleep. You hear voices, you hallucinate - you see things that you shoudn't and you sense the presence of people and things that absolutely should not be there. You're aware but not awake, so you become conscious of desperately wanting to wake up but you can't. You can't move, can't shake it off - dreams blend into reality and it all becomes so muddled that you can't tell them apart, so panic sets in. This sort of helplessness induces the fright that many probably know as night terrors. I imagine this is how drowning feels, being caught in the grip of an undertow. Your first instinct is to struggle, so you do - for what feels like an eternity. Sometimes, you wake up and sometimes you summon the will to relax long enough to let that current drag you back under and into deep sleep. Other times...
There are three constants in every dream that I remember. The first is the river. There's a cool, dark river that follows where ever I go in my dreams. It varies in depth and girth. Sometimes, I'm walking or running beside it, sometimes it's faraway and benign. The only constant thing is that it's always there.
The second constant is the mountain that sits on the distant horizon. It's dark, shrouded in mist and seems unreachable, impenetrable. In my dreams, it definitely frightens me beyond reason. It's a primtive sort of fear that uncoils in my gut. I don't know what's waiting there but no matter what my situation in my dream might be, I'm always moving toward that mountain. Sometimes I'm moving toward it at impossible speeds and sometimes, barely inching along. Sometimes, I lose sight of the mountain. Sometimes, I briefly get lost on a tangled path or find myself wandering obliquely instead of straight toward it. Doesn't matter, it's still my destination.
The third constant is that I'm always either chasing something or something is always chasing me. If I have everyday type dreams about the people in my life, I don't remember them. My dreams almost always have a Sci-Fi/Fantasy theme. That's either the reason for my obssession with the Speculative Fiction genre or the result of it. I think a part of the reason I don't much like post-apocalyptic themed stories has a lot to do with the fact that I once had recurring dreams about something of the sort for weeks on end... but that's a whole other story.
Now here's the really creepy part:
From time to time, amidst all of the wandering or running around from chasing and being chased - something or someone odd shows up in my dreams. Now this thing or person often seems quite ordinary and not at all out of place until suddenly, I become sharply aware that this person thing is absolutely not supposed to be there! It's sort of like the voice that abuptly stops talking at the very moment you realize that there's something more pronounced than static being produced by white noise.
The first time I can clearly recall this happening was the night after an informal Wiccan, gathering a few years ago. I'll point out here that there really isn't anything creepy about Wicca itself - at least, not to me. It's a worthy spiritual path to travel, it just didn't happen to be mine. The creepy factor is related to a man I met there briefly. Something seemed "off" about him, so while he didn't seem all that intimidating, I found myself instinctively sidestepping this person. That night, he suddenly showed up in one of my dreams. I suddenly became aware of how much he didn't belong there and I was instantly catapulted into wakefulness. As you might imagine, I became rather irked with this person and continued my avoidant behaviour, fully well knowing I was being completely irrational about the whole thing.
The next time I had this you're-not-supposed-to-be-here dream experience, I learned the next day that the time of that dream roughly coincided with the time of death of the person in the dream. Yeah, that one was a real kick in the gut and I won't elaborate.
This all brings me back to the dream I woke up from today. Mid-whatever I'm somehow, suddenly in my bed sleeping when someone from my dream comes to my window. She taps on the glass, waking me up and asks to be let in. Without hesitation, I get out of bed and go to open the window. As my hands reach out, I'm suddenly struck by this what-the-hell-are-you-doing feeling. In that instant, I suddenly woke up in my bed.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't be bothered by this kind of dream experience. The problem is that I have had this exact type of dream before and it has even induced sleep walking on one occasion. At that time, my bedroom was on the second floor of the house I lived in. Just like today, mid-dream - I was suddenly "asleep" in my bed when that person (that time it was some guy I was seeing) tapped on the window, asking to be let in. Just like today, I unquestioningly got up and went to let him in. I woke up in the instant that I reached out to open the window in that dream too. It was almost exactly the same except on that particular day, I woke up to find myself mid-step halfway down the stairs instead of in bed. Needless to say, I was completely freaked out about that for a while.
What I'm not failing to notice is that each time, the "person" asking to be let in appears in the guise of someone that I seem trust implicitly in my dreams. So what hell is that thing, exactly? Why does it keep trying to be let in? More importantly, what the hell is it trying to get into???
You see? This sort of dissonance is exactly the reason I have trouble sleeping! Like I said at the beginning, it really doesn't get much creepier than this.
