(Male, 40’s) This nightmare is shocking because it came out of nowhere, out of a very calm and normal dream. I was working in a machine shop. It was very tidy and very well lit. The space itself was contemporary but not overly stylish. I don’t recognize any of the tools in the shop however. There are obvious workstations set up around the room. I must be in some kind of a management position because I’m not actually working at one of the stations, rather, I’m walking around the whole site, answering questions for workers, making things go smoothly. I’m wearing the same clothes as everyone else, that is, a grey canvas-like overalls and a sturdy blue work shirt. Both of these pieces of clothing are worn soft from use and repeated washing.
All of a sudden a worker walks up to me very closely. He says “I realized something about what you asked me to make.” I look in his hand and he’s holding, well, it’s a paper airplane. At least it’s the *shape* of a paper airplane though first of all it’s made of some kind of clear material. It’s very thin and nearly invisible. While I’m looking down at this device, I feel a knife entering my stomach. This guy is stabbing me! But there’s something particularly strange about the blade. It feels like it’s electrified, that it’s shocking me while he’s stabbing me. But the strangest part is that as he’s stabbing me, the impact propels me AND my assailant about 20 feet up into the air. As I’m flying backward with a knife in my gut, I somehow know that this is only the beginning of a fight. That either he’s revealed himself as a spy from another planet, a spy that I’m supposed to neutralize, or that *I* am the spy and that means he’s the counterspy. I thought maybe I could somehow tighten my stomach muscles and trap his hand… However, as soon as we hit the apex of our flight, I woke up.
My stomach still aches where the blade stabbed me in my dream. I was so shaken up, I didn’t want to go back to sleep.