Nightmares

My eyelids jolted open, and I sat up abruptly to scan the room. My lights are all on, but other than that, everything seemed normal. Shifting my body, I gazed at my phone lying beside me on the nightstand – The screen read 2:59 a.m. Then it changed. 3:00 a.m., exactly. This is becoming a problem.

It all started two nights ago. I had been doom scrolling before bed, as I usually do, before coming across an article. “Does your sleep position affect your dreams?” It mentioned how left-sided sleepers tend to have more nightmares. I laughed at the idea.

“I sleep on my left side all the time and not a single nightmare,” I thought proudly. I was a little too confident; too sure that I would be fine and not jinx the situation. How foolish I was.

That night, I’d had a nightmare that left me speechless. It started off as a normal dream – at least normal for me. I often dream of unfamiliar people and places, like watching a movie unfold in my head.

The dream was of a spy that had been given the mission to find information on a mafia-like family. He was accepted into the family as one of their own. The spy was searching when he was caught and dragged away. My dream stayed on the one scene as all, but one person left – a woman, probably in her mid-20s. Confused, I watched her as her back was turned from me. She seemed to just be staring at a set of cabinets in front of her without moving at all. Curiously, I continued to watch, wondering what significance she would have in the dream. Suddenly, she turned and looked directly at me as if I, the viewer, was in the dream now. I couldn’t imagine how this was possible as I usually lucid dream and am merely an invisible spectator on the scenes that play out. Occasionally, I can sway my dream to play out ideas I have in my head. Like now, I was considering how to help the spy get away. But this girl was looking directly at me. I decided to leave the room but when I attempted to push the scene to follow the spy, the girl let out a piercing scream and charged me, shoving me through the 5th story window behind me. I awoke, heart pounding and frightened.

I couldn’t explain what happened. I knew I normally lucid dreamt because I had since I was a young girl, but I have never had my dreams attack me before. This was odd, but I also found it amusing. I had challenged myself into a nightmare and it sure did deliver. When I reached over to my phone to journal the dream, I noticed the time – 2:59 a.m but turns to 3:00 immediately.

Last night’s nightmare had gotten odder. I was actually watching myself in my dream this time. But it was like a backwards movie. It started off where I could see a child – my child. She was possessed by a demon and floating in the air with all sorts of objects from the house flying around her. We were all screaming and trying to figure out what to do.

Then the scene flashed to an earlier time, prior to the complete demonic possession. She’s sick and laying in bed. Somehow, I retained my memory of the “future” where she was possessed though. I started searching on her body for markings of some sort and found a small mark on her back in the shape of a reverted cross. It looked almost like a birth mark, but I knew she hadn’t been born with it.

I realized she was already possessed in this scene. I tried to push the dream further back, searching for the moment it all began. Then it jumped again.

This time my child was fine. I checked her body – no reverted cross anywhere. I heard a knock at the door and went to look through the peephole and see a lady standing outside.

“Hello, I’m your child’s teacher. I’ve come to introduce myself before the first day of school” she explained through the closed door. I found it very odd for a teacher to make visits to the home and realized this must be how my child gets possessed.

“I’m sorry, you can’t come in. We don’t have time for guests today,” I shout to her, still refusing to even open the door. I won’t allow my child to get possessed. The doorframe begins to shine brightly as if the sun itself was just on the other side and the room around me turns dark.

The lady says, but her voice begins to shift into a low growl, like a demon.

“No, I will meet with her teachers on the first day of school. Please leave now.” I tell her. The light around the door gets even brighter and larger as it forces the door to shift into a shape that allows passage for the demonic teacher to walk through. She lifted me in the air with no effort and tossed me aside just before I woke up.

The nightmare was enough to make my heart race, but when I went to grab my phone to record my dream – I again found the time to be 2:59 a.m. and turns exactly 3:00.

This leads me to tonight’s dream. It all started where I was in my own room, in my bed, my husband had just left for a late-night snack run and I was gazing towards the steps leading up to my room. I slept on the second floor of my home, but being the only room upstairs, there was no door blocking the view.

At first, everything appeared normal, at least, everything except this small shadow at the bottom of the steps. The source couldn’t be any larger than a small basketball but oddly, I couldn’t figure out what was creating the shadow. I tried to glance around but there was nothing and I found myself not bothered enough to actually get up to look around. Then, the shadow began to move.

The ball shape moved up one step, then another. Curiously, I watched it. The shadow gradually gets larger and more formed as it ascended the steps. It looked like it was forming into the shape of a person. I felt my heart racing slightly. The shadow stopped and seemed to turn its head directly towards me.

I awoke slightly bothered by my dream. I could still remember all the prior nightmares I’d had, and they must have shook me up enough to get me scared. With the lights still on and my husband nowhere in sight, I realize he must still be out grabbing the late-night snacks and that I must have fallen asleep in the small amount of time waiting for him. I see the time and sigh. I’m not sure how we managed to time his departure so close to 3:00 a.m, but this really is getting to be too much to happen every single night. I looked down towards my steps and saw no shadow of any kind.

I felt relieved but then my eye caught something in the furthest corner of my room. Why is there a shadow tucked away in corner?

Before I could even think, the shadow formed into the shape of a person again and lunged towards me.

I awoke again, this time slightly more bothered. My lights were off when I awoke this time but the moonlight shining in my room provided enough light to survey my surroundings. My husband was lying beside me, and I saw no shadow. I allowed myself to calm once more and grabbed my phone for the time: 2:59 a.m but turns 3:00 as I look. I realize that I must have dreamt about the time. I explained it away as being “problematic to me” and “must have surfaced in my nightmares”. I try to nestle back to bed but I hear a sound coming from in front of me on the floor. I look down and see the shadow figure is closer now – almost to my bed and it’s quickly crawling on the floor like a very large spider racing towards it’s prey.

I screamed as I jolted awake, scanning the entire room in a panic. I’m not sure how much more I can take of this nightmare. I grab my phone again to check the time, surely, I must have fallen asleep again and my brain is just confused in its delirium.

It’s 2:59 a.m – turns 3:00 exactly as I look at it. My heart is racing and before I can do anything else, my phone screen begins to fade to black. Confused at first, I tried to look up only to realize, the shadow figure is literally inches away from my face.

I woke up again. I throw the lights on and shout to nothing “Please, let this end. I cannot take this anymore!” I grabbed my phone once more to check the time. Of course it’s 2:59. Of course it turns 3:00 a.m as I’m looking. What is this madness? My husband wakes up this time and asks what’s wrong. I’m so shaken I can’t explain. I just get out of bed and check every corner of my home.

My husband joins me as I check each sleeping child’s room and peek out the doors and windows through the house.

“Could you please tell me what’s wrong?” He asks. Still unsure if he would even believe me, I begin to explain everything. The article, the challenge, and each nightmare leading to tonight’s torment. He holds me and consoles me with every trembling word. When I finish, he hugs me tightly.

“That sounds really scary.” He says and I nod into his shoulder, tears streaming down my face. He takes a moment before speaking again.

“How do you know you’re not still in a dream?” he asked, and I felt my body become ridged. Angry that he would try to frighten me further in a moment like this, I pull back from my husband’s embrace to tell him off but it’s not him. My husband doesn’t have dark shadows around his eyes.

“I’m not sure,” I try to say as calmly as I can while simultaneously trying to stand up. My “husband” grabs my hands and holds tightly.

“You’re not sure?” He asks, smiling now. He won’t let go of my hands as I try to pull harder. I can see the shadows around his eyes begin to cover his face then form around his neck and shoulders. It reaches his arms and as it reaches his hands, I’m screaming.

“Let me go!” I tugged and tugged but there’s no escaping. The shadow touched my skin – cold and wet, like creeping mist. I screamed help but the thing that was once my husband only laughed.

“Just give in. It’ll all be over soon,” the voice growled, cold and echoing – like it came from beneath the earth. My stomach twisted, and my skin prickled with a chill that sank deep into my bones. I could feel the mist form all over my body and just as it completely consumes me, I hear the demon say, “Welcome to the shadowlands.”