Recurring Dreams: Nightmares

[Syrus Magistus]

This is not a dream that I have personally had. It is a friend of mine, though we're not all that close anymore. I would still like to address a nightmare that she had over and over.

She's had the same nightmare since she was 13. It pops up in her head every couple of weeks. Always the same, every single time.

She comes to in her bedroom and turns around to face the door. There's a copy of her standing in the doorway, exactly the same, only lacking a face of its own. She just looks at the aberration for a few minutes and, although she'd have no idea why, something tells her that this illusionary copy is laughing at her. Then the shade starts walking forward and she starts backing up. The copy keeps moving until the girl hits her desk. Then the aberration just stands in front of the girl. She's never really been at the fear stage in real life where one literally feels ill, but this is the point in the dream where she starts to really panic. The ghoul just stands there and after a few minutes of terror, the fear recedes and a potent rage spontaneously replaces it. She don't know why, but she just loses it and attacks her copy. Then the dream ends. Always the same and at the same point. She's had this dream for seven years. At one point she realized that she was in a dream and tried to do something different. She tried not looking around at her copy, tried to run away, tried to say something. She just couldn't change it.

Everything about the dream is sinister. The room is never in focus and sorta moves. All that's absolutely clear every time are her emotions. She literally wakes up wanting to kill something, sometimes even beating her pillow.

I have no real idea what she could do about such a dream. I suggested that she attempt to accept and absorb the critter, but I never really got a response from her. Would someone do me the honor of giving a deep, thorough and insightful analysis of the dream? Not only does it torment her, it also puzzles me. Anyone willing? Thanks.