The Dream

The Dream

I woke from a bad dream, which escaped me immediately. Unfortunately, the feelings stayed. My heart pounding, forehead damp with sweat. I sat up, whipping on my room lights, then ran to lock the door. The fact that I had no idea what I was trying to hide from didn’t seem to matter. I was terrified.

As the minutes passed, I calmed down. I even started feeling silly. Running from a dream, ha! I still had no idea what the dream even was, only that it scared me. I laid back down, not ready to sleep yet, but not shaking anymore. After a few minutes, I closed my eyes.

Immediately I was back in the dream, in my room, I even knew what I had just done, the waking up, locking the door, being terrified. Only now I knew why. I could, once again, hear someone coming up the stairs. My stairs, in my house, where I lived, alone.

I could tell that the person was half way up just by the sounds on the steps, the staircase being across from my bedroom door. Somehow this time though, I wasn’t frightened. This time, as I listened to the footsteps, I suddenly realized I was not who I thought I was. In my dream, I was an adult, but in reality, I’d just turned eleven. I lived in my parents’ house, with my parents and my brother. This house.

Confused, but still not afraid, I jumped out of bed and ran to the door flinging it open! There on the steps, startled, and looking at me, was a young man. I woke instantly.

I’ve been watching for that young man ever since that night. Fourteen years actually, I am a young woman myself now. And today, I saw him.