Tag: family traumas

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Nightmares

Nightmare #319 – Alien Take-Over

(Female, 40’s) Aliens had taken over the planet. Like in a well-paced monster movie, they didn’t make an appearance until the 3rd act, but we knew they were out there.

Most people had been put to sleep in these sleep-unit devices that looked like metal filing cabinets — or morgue trays, now that I think about it — in their own homes. This suspended animation mode was drastic, but it was for their own safety, especially those with children.

I wasn’t asleep, so I had to slink around carefully, avoiding the aliens who were known to come out during the daytime.

I went into the home of some friends at dusk. Something like a power-surge had caused their sleep-units to open, and the mom, dad and 2 kids were standing there, confused and rubbing their eyes. I had to break the news to them: they had been sleeping for weeks, aliens were in charge, and they’d have to go back to sleep before sunrise. So they spent this night getting cleaned up and eating dinner and playing games with their kids. In the morning, I helped them seal up and go back to sleep.

I somehow made it to the apartment building where my parents live in another city. I didn’t know how to bring up the topic of aliens with my parents. I asked my mom if she had noticed anything strange going on.

“What? Like the aliens?” replied my mom. I nodded, surprised and embarrassed for some reason.

“We just don’t go outside in the day anymore. And we have to stay away from the windows so we can’t be seen. But at night, when the aliens are sleeping, it’s safe to go out. The government told us that. We go shopping and visiting our friends.”

I went to another friend’s house. Even though it was daytime, I woke them up on purpose because I was feeling lonely and I missed them. I told them about the aliens and how they would have to stay away from the windows, but they didn’t believe me. I pointed outside to the 30 foot tall, slender metallic bodies striding through the neighborhood. The aliens eyes were like red lasers shooting from their spaceship-shaped heads and blowing up things like trees and cars.

“See? You don’t want to make those creatures angry.”

Categories
Nightmares

Nightmare #303 – My Gothic Vacation

(Male, 40’s) This was one of those dreams that starts off so real then goes straight into craziness. I was sleeping next to my wife — as I must have been when I was having this dream — and in the dream I was cold and uncomfortable — again as I was while I was sleeping. So I roll over and try to get comfortable and I realize that we’re trying to sleep on this pretty narrow stone pew. It’s wide for a pew but far too narrow for a bed. And I look around the room which is dark. I can only make out the outlines of the windows which all have pointed gothic arches… and I remember that we’re on vacation somewhere in Europe and we’re staying in a castle.

And I wonder if the castle is haunted.

I am not going to be able to sleep any more so I get up and start poking around the place. There are no light switches or candles but my eyes gradually get adjusted to the dark. I met a friend in the next room and he was getting his shoes on. We must have gone on vacation with this other couple. He spoke on and on about all the places we’ll have to go to and somewhere in the middle of his monologue I realize that I don’t really like him all that much. It’s funny how one can have friends that you don’t really like.

Then I’m distracted by something in the next room. It’s another friend of mine. She’s sitting in the middle of the room weeping. I go over to comfort her and when I get there she is a child. A baby. Smaller than a baby. A fetus. A doll. I pick her up in my hands and she’s smaller than the breadth of my two palms. Her arms are fastened behind her back with a rubber band. I remove the rubber band and she stops crying. She asked for some food. I looked over at a table that had a white lace cloth on it and silver candelabras. It was set out for breakfast but I didn’t know what this child-thing could eat.

Underneath the table, I could see a large dog-like creature. It was moving so fast, it appeared to flash in and out of existence in different places. It was dangerous. I didn’t want to get close to the table. Then it appeared behind me. I recognized it as actually someone I knew, sort of. He was larger and had a line of spikes down his back. His shirt or maybe it was his skin was a thick brown leather like a lizard. He ran at me. I braced for impact and as he hit me, the force knocked him over. He fell to the ground, stunned then he scuttled off.

A phone rang. I went into another room to answer it. I was now entirely out of the castle because this felt like the front room of yet another friend. The phone was an old style phone and it sat on top of an old TV. I answered it. It was my mother who has been dead for years. When she was alive she would talk on the phone for hours, frantic about one thing or another. This time in the dream she was worried about two life insurance policies she had. What should she do with them? How should they show up on her income taxes. They amounted to $4,732 – that number was very precise in the dream. I told her she should just sign them over to me and I’d worry about them. Then I swelled up with such anxiety I had to put the phone down and walk away. I haven’t felt that anxious since my mother died, in fact. I came back to the phone and she was still talking. I told her I didn’t hear that last part. She asked why. I told her. She asked why I had set the phone down. “Why? Why? Why?” Over and over. Finally I simply hung up on her.

Categories
Nightmares

Nighmare #158 – Mom in Trouble

(Male, 30’s) This nightmare has to be related to Mother’s Day somehow.

I was with my mother shopping, I think. I came across flyer focused on investing that noting how so many different kinds of alcohol are actually the registered trademarks of specific companies. I gather this was supposed to make it more attractive to invest in those companies, or perhaps the parent corporation that owned them all. All of a sudden we were at a house party, in someone’s kitchen that had been set up as a bar. Happy bouncy people were everywhere and the bartender handed me a drink. We looked on the menu for something that my Mother might drink. She’s pretty much a teetotaler and so pretty innocent about alcohol. I think she ended up with a sweet rum drink, maybe with cream, maybe Kaluha…

Before I knew it, it was hours later. The clock said 4:30 AM! The party was still going quite strongly with music and dancing. Mom was smashed, absolutely drunk, barely able to stand even propped against a wall. I felt horrible, like I’d neglected her. Everyone was giggling because someone noticed that the place was surrounded by cops in riot gear. I looked out the back window and was able to hide just as a battering ram shattered the outside kitchen door and a legion of police dogs poured inside. Now that I think about it, there were hardly any policemen at all, mostly ravenous dogs. The dogs started biting at everything that moved. I tucked my hands inside the sleeves of my coat so I had no exposed skin. One of the dogs bit my right hand, swallowed it up to the wrist. Its teeth couldn’t penetrate my jacket so it just sort of hung there, growling, chewing every now and again. I tried to get over to my Mom but another dog bit onto my left hand. The dogs weren’t impossibly heavy but they made walking difficult. Mom had the sense to hide in a back room and turn off the lights. The police either got who they came for or had set up a very loose cordon because Mom and I (and the two police dogs!) were able to escape. The dream gets fuzzy at this point but we we able to get in a taxi and ride away at least a certain distance. Then I realized I was in my old neighborhood, the one where I grew up. The rest of the dream was spent avoiding the police or any official notice while trying to take care of my Mom who was still stupid drunk.

Weird.