Nightmares

[Esotera]

On the rare occasions that I have a lucid dream they never end well, I'll generally become aware that I'm 'awake' and fall somewhere (or get eaten by a dinosaur). One of the worst nightmares I've ever had was just being chased through the woods by two people. I didn't know why I was being chased but knew I had to run, and they were slowly gaining on me...not a pleasant experience.

 

[F'Angus]

I had one where I was being chased by Grendel through a subway underneath Disneyland. I had to take an elevator up hundreds of floors and there were loads of ponies running with me. It ended with a last stand in a sweet shop. I think I got eaten.

 

[Victim of Progress]

I also barely remember the nightmares I have. But the worst ones are probably where you scream but nothing comes out, you can't walk or run, only crawl. The worst ones are where you are choked or drown, because you actually wake up breathing heavily.

 

[norashepard]

None of mine really feel like nightmares simply because I still enjoy myself in them, but the subject matter still probably qualifies as a nightmare. Like one I was at some diner in Chicago talking with a whole lot of high school acquaintances who just happened to be there when out of nowhere a horde of zombie-like things came out from a nearby tunnel and I saw them first so I started sprinting away, warning everyone, but not one person believed me so they all died and I camped out in a windowless public train car for like three days of terror before Captain America showed up and at that point it turned into a semi-wet dream with zombies in the background.

Don't ask.

 

[Bellvedere]

I always have really fucked up dreams when I'm sick that range from tedious (like just continuously looking through a catalog of white cars) to pretty disturbing.

One that sticks in my mind is this one where I was walking on the beach and there were all these large fish just under the sand (alive - they lived there for some reason). When I walked on the sand, I could feel the fish under my feet and when I took a step the force of my movement would rip the skin off the fish and I would fall over. Trying to get up would tear the skin off more fish. Then all the fish would flap around distressed because they had no skin.

I've also died in a dream! It was some sort of collapse of society situation so a few folks I knew and myself all went to live in a jungle treehouse (as you do). At some point a nazi-esque army showed up and enslaved us. They asked us to put on these paper wristbands like you have to wear at music festivals only mine wasn't long enough to go round my wrist. We then lined up so they could inspect the wristbands, when they saw that mine wasn't on correctly, I was forced to kneel, they put a gun to my head and shot me. I sort of expected it to end there, but it didn't and was just dark. I think I woke up after being frustrated for a while that nothing was happening.

 

[Mr Fixit]

I don't have many nightmares anymore... but I do tend to have dreams where I am the horrible monster after other people or after I manage to fight off or escape the big baddies I end up becoming something worse. I also tend to have a lot of dreams where I kill other people. Funny thing is I'm not exactly a violent person, I hate even having an argument with someone.

I had one just last night where I killed this guy that was trying to kidnap some little girl. Kinda makes me out to be the hero, but it felt so real & killing the guy felt good. Makes me wonder about myself at times.

I remember another one where I was running & hiding from some sort of invading army, but I was in a really beautiful place, very beachy kinda place. Ended up facing off with on of these guys in some type of warehouse, managed to break away & hide quick enough for him to walk by me then I stuck a very big knife through his back. Then I stood over the guy as he's dying & said "that's what you get for fucking with me". Again with the very good feeling... I think I might need some counseling.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Being eaten by pirahna or some similarly small numerous group hunter is probably my most common, and I haven't even seen Piranha 3D. I just splash down in a lake and feel the chewing begin at my arms and spread from there, too small and ravenous to stop.

Also this song caused me to have a nightmare the night after I first heard it. It's a great song, but...

Spoiler: WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT ME

Yes, that girl was once human.

The context being, someone whom you love has been infected by a virus transforming them into a freaky warped version of themselves who will soon lose what remains of their sanity and just become a mindless monster with the face of that person. They are crying. They can feel the transformation happening. They know there's no going back, no cure.

So you have to put them down.

 

[TWEWYFan]

Once, I woke up in the middle of the night. I was laying on my stomach and while I was conscious I couldn't move at all. I wasn't sure how, but I could feel something standing over me just out of my line of sight. I was desperately to move away for scream for help but I couldn't do anything. All I could do was lay there terrified as I could feel the figure reach down at me.

Eventually this passed and I fell back to sleep without incident. I'm not entirely sure if this counts; reading up about it later that morning it appeared to be an almost textbook case of sleep paralysis rather than a traditional nightmare. Still, it was scary enough for me that just the thought of having to go through it again is enough to make me want to stay up.

 

[TheRookie8]

Two dreams, both of which I believed to be happening at the time:

I had a dream about some kind of itch I had on the back of my hand. I kept scratching it, and suddenly a massive centipede-like monstrosity burst from my skin, reaching up to my bedroom ceiling. It had this gaping hole for a mouth lined with razer teeth...which I got a great view of when it lunged at my face. Then I woke up. That all happened in about 7 or 8 seconds.

I'm sitting in a classroom in the middle of a lesson with some students, when the room just starts to get dimmer...like someone was messing with the brightness on a screen. The air just started to feel heavy, and then you see that color (you know, the one that can't exist)...sort of pink-purple-red. Then the room whirls around and I get the most delightful glimpse of what can only be described as a cartoon-character interpretation of a demon crouching and grinning at me from an infinite dark space. Big eyes, big smile, and sort of cute in an eat-your-ass kind of way.

 

[Schtimpy]

Nightmare I had once. Don't know how to lead in, so here goes:

I woke up as a 10 year old kid, sat straight up in bed, and put a hand to my head. "Man, that was a messed up dream." I slowly turned my head to the right, and looked through the window. There was a large grass field, a lake and a line of trees. In the trees there were two red dots. The dots rushed towards my house with a black streak behind it, ran around to the front door and there was a crash. The sound of a dog running on wood in the hallway, and my bedroom door busted open. The dark shape rushed at me, last thing I saw was a really freaky wolf face.

I'm looking at the front of the house, door wide open. The kids parents come home. I beg them not to go in, but they can't hear me. They walk in. Time passes.

The neighbors become curious, and the husband leaves his house to come in. I beg him not to go in, but he can't hear me. He walks in. Time passes.

A cop shows up, and I feel relief. Everything's going to be ok. He walks in. Time passes.

Three cop cars pull up to the house. I follow, floating behind them. They walk through the house. It seems normal, undamaged, then we start finding bodies and broken furniture. The bodies have no blood (I never see blood in my dreams) but have chunks missing from their necks/arms/torsos and ripped clothing. The cops get worried, and pull out their guns. Suddenly a dark mass jumps across the room, faster then the eye can see. One cop is on the ground, and the mass blurs at the second. The third manages to get a shot off as the mass come at him. They land facing each other, the cop breathing hard and terrified, the wolf with its eyes closed. The wolves eyes open.

I woke up as myself at ten years old, sat straight up in bed, and put a hand to my head. "Man, that was a messed up dream." I slowly turned my head to the right, and looked through the window. There was a large grass field, a lake and a line of trees. In the trees there were two red dots.

I woke up as myself in real life, 23 and living in a studio apartment. Sat straight up and hit my head on a open dresser drawer corner hard enough to break off a piece of wood and draw blood. I grabbed my head and yelled "OOOWWWWW! That was a fucked up dream!" I stopped for a second, and then busted out laughing.

The cut/bruise was an inch from my eye. Almost lost an eye, I think. Moral of this story: don't sit up straight when sleeping.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I had a nightmare in japanese... with subtitles. My fucking nightmare had subtitles. AND a language I don't speak. Take the plot from Robot Carnival (the anime) and make it real life... add in a whole lot of other weird ass crap and something to do with doors... and fucking subtitles. Woke up in a sweat after being crushed by some odd amalgamation of Akira style flesh/cybernetics. It doesn't make sense to this day, but damn all I can think about is why the fuck my nightmares have subtitles.

 

[Vault101]

I haven't had any real nightmares for a long time

I did have a real bizarre post apocalyptic dream though...I was in a community in the country part if a militia (like metro) abs there was this strange substance that mutated people and turned them insane, we all got infected I think but being insane want so baf

 

[StormShaun]

Well, in the term of my youngest nightmares. It always involved one certain character consuming me.
That character was from Art Attack.

Spoiler: This fucking guy.

Imagine him eating you whole, the darkness was terrifying.

The latest and newest nightmare I had, it was very ... graphic.
Thanks to life for making me older and having these.

Spoiler: My latest nightmare

It all starts with the city or world in a chaotic state. A place where death is everywhere.
I'm running away from the most populated place, the city center, chaos is everywhere.
I feel a hard impact to the head, I get knocked out by some thugs.

I wake up within a multilevelled car-park.
Strapped to a movable medical table.
Medical and cutting tools to the side.
I look down, a cut running down my chest, yet I feel no pain, yet blood flowed.

The people surround me, one white man, one black man, and a white woman.
They tell me that they injected me with morphine. Tell me that organs are selling well.
Shook and fear reach my mind, screaming to get out. Yet I cannot move, my arms are trapped.

I shake with violence, they hold me down.
The white man approaches with a scalpel, telling me "this will hurt".
Determination hold me.

"This story doesn't end poorly." My thoughts say.
As he approaches me, my unpinned legs kick the blade right into his eye.
Blood spraying everywhere, the other two in shock and try to help their friend.
I shake and manage to undo my arm-straps.

I am smiling.
Payment.

They realize I am free. The woman flees. The other man grabs a chainsaw.
The revving of the chainsaw scare me.
I pick up some scalpels as the man charges.

I simply dodge, jab his legs with a couple of the blades.
Screams of agony.
A heavy metal sound drops to the floor.
The Chainsaw.

Picking it up, I slam it down without thought onto the second man.
Sawn in half. I don't care.
His screams of agony.
Once more. Payment.

The woman tries to run but falls.
I walk to her, looking down on her.
Still smiling.

I simply cut her throat, with a scalpel.
She slowly dies.

Dropping the chainsaw, I see the main man.
Blood pouring from his eyes, onto his face.
More screaming. The scalpel still in his eyes.
He was reaching out, but my foot only returns the reach, stepping down on the jammed scalpel.

No more scream.
My smile is a frown.

I look at myself, red eyes and blood everywhere.
And then laughing.

Yeah, I don't know what is worse.
Almost being dissected alive, or seeing your very being turn completely to the opposite.

 

[Vigormortis]

Hoo, boy. Where to begin? I've had some pretty fucked up dreams in my thirty years of life. Some fantastic ones too, of course, but some down-right pants-shittingly-terrifying ones as well.

Spoiler: Like this one from my childhood.

This is going to be a bit of a tale, but bare with me.

The dream started out with me waking up in my bed. It was a school day and I was being woken at the crack of dawn - I always had an early bus.

As I rose from my bed, everything seemed normal enough save for the corner of the room off to my left seeming to still be a bit dark. Assuming the lights were off I reached over to turn on my desk lamp. As I looked for the pull chain I found that the lamp was already on. Even so, the corner still remained dark.

I brushed it off as figment of my drowsiness. Clearing my head I got up and went to shower.

About an hour later I was at the bus stop waiting for yet another dreadful day. (I had a terrible teacher that year)

While waiting for the bus, I noticed the garage of the house across the street seemed oddly dark - for how bright the morning was, anyway. I also noticed the car inside seemed oddly shaped; as if it had suffered some kind of slight torsion. As I pondered what could have happened to the car I then saw that someone was standing beside it. Peering as best I could I barely made out the familiar shape of my neighbor. I began to raise my arm to wave when I noticed that something was a bit off. There was something about his face that seemed....different. Almost as if he was staring at something. As if in awe.

Before I could get a closer look the bus rolled up, blocking my view. I thought about stepping around to get another look but thought better of it.

I climbed onto the bus. Trying not to think about the oddities of the morning.

Throughout the day, at different times and places within the school, I noticed a similar "dark spot" as I'd seen in the morning. It seemed to follow me wherever I went. And, the spot seemed to grow darker every time it appeared.

At one point while sitting in class; just after lunch; the spot was was encompassing a large portion of the back corner of the classroom. It was almost as if the lights were off only in that spot, and the closer to the corner I looked the darker it seemed.

Trying to ignore it I focused all of my attention towards the teacher and the lesson of the day. Even so, I kept finding my thoughts; and my eyes; drifting back towards the corner. It felt as if someone, or something, were there. As if something was waiting. Watching. I felt paranoid. Disoriented. The walls felt as though they were closing in.

Suddenly, my attention was snapped back to the front of the room. The teacher had called my name - and from the looks of things she'd done so several times.

Not knowing what I was supposed to do or say, I asked, "Uh...yes Ms. Sheffer?"

Annoyed, she responded, "Oh never mind. Timmy, can you please go to the back of the room and grab the test sheets to pass out to everyone?"

My heart sunk. I felt my throat tighten. I knew exactly where Timmy was about to go.

To the back corner.

I watched, as if in slow motion, as he walked straight towards the corner of the room. Everyone else had already turned their attention back to the teacher, whom had resumed talking of the lesson. No one seemed to notice the darkness that had befallen that corner of the room.

Not even Timmy.

I watched him walk straight into it. Walk right in as if nothing were there.

But nothing happened. He just continued on to the shelf and grabbed the stack of test papers.

Giving out an almost audible sigh of relief I thought to myself, "What an idiot. What did you think was going to happen, stupid? It's all in your head." Smiling to myself I began to turn back towards the front of the room.

Just as I started to turn my eyes Timmy was turning back towards the room to bring the papers to the teacher. But, before my eyes could turn completely I saw Timmy stop dead in his tracks. Snapping my eyes back in his direction I saw him standing there, staring wide eyed and slacked jawed, toward the center of the room. I saw tears running down his face, his body shivering, and his mouth moving as if he were screaming - though no sound came. His face had a look of absolute terror.

Before I could do or say anything, Timmy suddenly disappeared. The papers he held dropped to the floor with an audible thud.

I was frozen. I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't think. Couldn't breath.

I remained in that funk until I heard the teacher say, "Jessica, would you please pick up those papers from the back of the room? I don't know why they fell off the table. I must have put them too near the edge."

Still unable to move I watched as Jessica arose, moved to the back of the room, and was met with the same fate as Timmy. And, just as with Timmy, the dark spot grew ever so slightly in size. Only this time, it started to move. It was moving towards the front of the room.

My mind was in a frenzy. My instincts urging, demanding, that I do something. Scream. Move. Run. Something.

It was then I heard; as if from from miles away but as clear as if coming from beside me; the teach call my name. I turned to see her getting ready to ask a question about the problem on the chalk board. But, before she could utter a word, the darkness enveloped her. Her body contorted. Her face caught in a shriek. And she was gone.

I didn't hesitate. I jumped from my desk, ran out of the room, ran out of the school, and didn't stop until I got home. The entire time feeling as if the spot was following me. As if it was always there. Just in the periphery of my vision.

My lungs burning, my legs wobbly, I eventually got to my house. I plunged through the front door, slammed it shut behind me, and ran up to my room.

Closing and locking the door behind me, I crawled into bed, pulled the covers over my head, and curled into the fetal position. I tried as best I could to clear my mind. Trying desperately to convince myself I had imagined it all. Wishing my parents were there. Wishing they'd come home.

As my mind raced, exhaustion took me and I passed out. Feeling oddly at ease as the darkness of sleep took me; making a mental note of the irony.

Suddenly, I awoke. Jumping from my sheets with a gasp. Confusion disorienting me.

With in moments, the memories of what had happened came rushing back. I felt the fear return. I started calling for my parents, my brother, anyone. Calling out, hoping someone would respond. Someone I could talk to. Someone to explain what I'd seen and gain some feeling of safety from.

No response came.

It was then that I noticed that it was dark outside. It was night. Well past when I'd come home.

I thought to myself, "How long was I asleep? Why didn't anyone wake me? Did I miss dinner?"

Almost forgetting about the horrors I'd seen, I started for the bedroom door.

Opening it, I stopped dead in my tracks. Peering through the doorway all I saw was black. A void. Nothingness. The hallway, stairs, indeed the entirety of the house, gone.

But not quite. Not quite nothingness. As I stared into that emptiness I saw something. Barely visible and very far away. An indeterminate shape almost the same shade of black as the nothingness.

All other thoughts left me. I forgot about the spot from the morning. I forgot about the events at school. I forgot about my family, my house, everything. All of my thoughts had turned towards this...thing in the distance.

I strained to see it. Squinting my eyes, stretching my neck, and leaning forward in an effort to make it out.

It was then that my vision suddenly changed. I was no longer seeing out of my doorway. I was suddenly looking at my doorway - from very far away.

As suddenly as my vision had shifted, it started then to move. It was as though I was rushing towards the doorway - with ever increasing speed.

As I got closer I saw someone standing in the doorway. I couldn't see who but they seemed vaguely familiar.

As I came even closer, I was able to make out the person's features. Their face.

My face.

I was rushing towards the doorway, seeing myself standing there. Seeing a look of incredible terror on my face. Just as my view zoomed right up to my face; close enough to see the horror in my own eyes; it was then that I woke up. For real, this time.

To this day, I have no idea what spawned that nightmare. But even so, all these years since, I still remember it vividly.

I didn't sleep well for days afterward.

I might return to type out another. Maybe the one I had last year about the hospital, but this one was long enough for now.

 

[dyre]

I had a dream that some kind of unseen, malevolent force was trying to consume me. At some points I actually felt its arms wrapping around me, but I could never dare to actually look at it but I could sense when it was near. Admittedly it doesn't sound that scary, but I find that I am most terrified in dreams in which there is no clear object of terror. Anyway, not all that eventful, but then I woke up in my room, made breakfast (I have a fridge in my room)...and then I sensed that same malevolent force outside my room! I was scared shitless because I thought it had followed me into the real world, when in reality I had simply "woken up" from one dream into the other. Fucking Inception...

I rarely remember my dreams for more than a few hours.

I've found that the act of writing down my dreams helps enormously in remembering them. I don't mean in the "read what you wrote down" sort of way; I mean even if I crumple up the paper and throw it away I still maintain the memories most of the time. When I don't write down my dreams, I forget most of them pretty quickly. Maybe it's a coincidence, but I feel that ever since I started recording my dreams, I've been having a lot cooler dreams. Also, I seem to be a lot more "aware" during my dreams. In one dream I had a few weeks ago, I had the presence of mind to ask the other people in the dream to email me if they were real >_>

Needless to say, I don't write down my nightmares.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I rarely ever dream; or at least, I rarely ever remember my dreams. I just kinda lay down, close my eyes, and suddenly it's time to flail wildly in the general direction of my alarm clock.

The only one I can really remember is one of those dream-within-a-dream (BWOOOONG! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2jUhnCU9iA]) deals. No idea how old I was, but pretty young. Elementary school age.

There's a latch on the ceiling of my closet that leads to a small crawl space above my room that always terrified me when I was little, because I had no idea what was up there. I knew that there was some kind of opening to the outside from that crawl space though, because every once in a while during summer a bird or a bat would get stuck up there and make a racket.

So I woke up in the middle of the night with just sort of a general feeling of unease. I had that feeling in my gut like someone was watching me, and I kept hearing odd noises coming from the crawl space. I stayed in my bed, pretending to be asleep, hoping that it was just a bat or something caught up there and it would go away. Every few minutes I'd hear that shuffling noise coming from above me, but it seemed to be getting slowly further away - heading in the direction of my closet. I held my breath, hoping that whatever was up there wasn't aware of my presence. There was a long stretch of silence, and I began to relax. Just as I was about to drift back to sleep, I heard the sound of the latch to the crawl space opening.

In a panic I screamed for my parents, pulled the covers over my head, and hoped that they would get to me before whatever made those sounds did. The lights came on, my parents came in the room, and I told them what had happened. My mom held me close and told me everything was fine while my dad reassured me that it was probably just a bat trapped up there. I trembled and held my breath as my dad opened the closet, only to find nothing there, and the latch was still closed. He opened the latch and took a look inside with a flashlight, and told me that there was nothing up there. My parents tucked me back in, wished me a good night, and went back to bed.

I laid in my bed silently staring at the ceiling for a long time before finally deciding that it was safe to go to sleep. Just as I was about to drift off again, I heard that shuffling sound - only this time it didn't sound the same as before. The direction was all wrong. It sounded like it was coming from below me. Had whatever was up in the crawl space gotten into my closet, into my room, and under my bed while I was panicking under my covers earlier when I screamed for my parents? I clenched my eyes shut, trying my hardest to slow my breathing, and hoping I was just imagining it. For a split second I peeked my eyes open just a little tiny bit, and caught a glimpse of... something... standing right over me, looking down at me, smiling. It looked mostly human, but everything was just a tiny bit... off. Like uncanny valley off. The hair seemed tussled and greasy, the eyes seemed just a tiny bit too large, the skin seemed a little bit pale and slightly moist, and then I noticed the part that bothered me the most - the smile. The mouth seemed to stretch unnaturally far to the sides. And as if on queue, as if it knew what I was looking at, its smile turned into a full grin, exposing a mouth full of shark-like teeth. I screamed, and that's when I woke up.

My parents rushed into the room, calmed me down, and went through the exact same routine that they'd done in the dream. I demanded that they check under my bed too, but there was nothing there either. I told them that I was still afraid and didn't feel safe, so they suggested that I sleep with them in their room for the rest of the night. So I went with them, and eventually was able to fall asleep. When I woke up it was late morning, but my parents were gone. I figured they had gone downstairs to make breakfast, and let me sleep in because of how little I'd slept the night before. I got up, rubbed my eyes a bit, and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Before heading downstairs I noticed that my older sister was still asleep, so I went in her room to wake her up for breakfast. I shook her shoulder, but she didn't wake up. She's a pretty heavy sleeper, so I shook a bit harder and said loudly that it was time to eat. That's when I heard my words repeated back to me, but in a low growl. "Time... to... eat..." I turned around, and there was the thing from my dream, standing in the shadows in the corner between the door and the wall. Grinning. I'd walked right by it and didn't even notice. I pulled my sister's covers off to try and force her awake so that we could get the hell out of there, only to freeze up as I noticed the blood. She'd been eviscerated in her sleep and was already dead. As I stared at my sister's body in horror I heard it quietly laughing from the corner of the room, and I heard the door slowly close.

And that's when I woke up for real because my mom came in to wake me up for school. Ended up having to sleep with the lights on for a couple nights after that one.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I used to have nightmares with scary imagery, now whenever I do it's mostly just feelings of anxiety or opression.

 

[Nightwolf214]

So I usually have trouble remembering most dreams, but there are at least 3 nightmares I can remember pieces of.

The falling dream. Lots of people have it, but from about the ages of 7-12, I would have this nightmare at least once a month, every month, because I'm scared of heights (plus the area I used to live around, massive valley gorge, with steep drops around most of the highways, terrified me, plus other reasons too). The scariest thing though, is that only did this dream feel real, but every time I finally landed on the ground (on my feet without pain surprisingly), the ground would fragment and disappear, and it would start again. And again. And again.

Another one was also when I was a child, back when I was also a Christian/Catholic, my family and I visited this garden or cemetery or something (maybe it was both, maybe there was a Church, point is, it was a long time ago), and it had this really gorgeous vista that you could stand on top of (there were guardrails and stuff so no one did anything stupid). Anyway, the dream is that I would be lost in this beautiful/creepy place, looking for my parents, and I always thought I saw them over on the vista, and when I went over there to look, the cliff would collapse and I would fall to my death. Similar but different from the falling dream, because I would hit the ground and the dream would end.

The most recent one has only happened once, and I don't remember it too well, maybe happened a week ago or so. I had recently watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars show on Netflix (I used to be a hater of it, but it's actually pretty freaking good) and after that watched all of Arrow season 1, so my mind was a little over-loaded on the action and stealthy illegal job type stuff. Anyway, I remember doing some kind of black ops style heist, like an undercover agent, and when the op was over, I would talk to the mission leader, and he told me he knew I was a traitor, and shot me in the gut. I hit the floor, slowly bleed to death in pain. That idea, the dying slowly part, is honestly terrifying to me, because I've had enough asthma attacks that it scares the living hell out of me.