I was doing the IWSG blog-hop last week and discovered another one! Christine Rains is using this blog-hop to promote her paranormal romance novella, FEARLESS.
As a child I didn't worry so much about the monster in the closet or the thing under the bed (unless my older sister had been telling stories at bedtime) but I had the same dream over and over until I was about ten. I would be sleeping in the dark and I'd wake up--the dream was so real that for a long time I thought it had actually happened--I'd stare into the dark for a while and see something moving. The heat-vent would slowly lift up and a witch would come out, complete with black hat. No broom, though. An old woman with a black hat, old worn out black clothes, crooked arthritic fingers and long black fingernails. She'd creep toward my bed, grab me by the ankle and drag me down into the heatvent.
For some reason when I woke up from this dream I always felt the need to get up and make sure everyone was still safe. I'd wander the house in the dark checking all the bedrooms, and in later years checking all the doors to make sure they were still locked.
This dream eventually became an opportunity to sneak outside and pick peas in the garden or read a book with a flashlight. As long as I wasn't in my room near that heat-vent.
You're quite productive when you're scared. Nice. I wouldn't have had the bravery to search the house after a nightmare. I usually just hid underneath my covers. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteJust another level of scared. I woke up every time thinking that someone else had been taken.
ReplyDeleteYou snuck out of the house with that terror lurking? You are much braver than I!!!
ReplyDeleteI guess it's one of those illogical child things. That particular heat-vent was the problem--if I was out of range she couldn't get me.
DeleteFunny, though. I never did find out what would have happened if she'd succeeded. I always woke up when I was being pulled across the floor or up to my waist in the heat-vent.
Interesting how you learned eventually to do something constructive (picking peas) after the dream.
ReplyDeleteUmmm...No. I love fresh peas. I could just sit there for hours if allowed, and eat them right out of the pod.
DeleteMy mother preferred that some of them end up on the table, which seldom happened.
Ugh, creepy dream! You were pretty brave to get up and check on everyone else, though. I understand you wanted to get away from the heat vent, but still. Most childhood fears tend to paralyze us into inaction, so staying in bed would've been the "natural" thing to do. Hat's off to you :) Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was creepy. Worse, it was a "real" dream--full sight, sound, color. Even the hand around my ankle.
DeleteFrightening dream! At least you were vigilant about keeping your family safe... and reading! Thanks for sharing your monster with us and for helping promote my novella.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting topic. I used to write about my dreams, but none of them have turned into novels yet. Thank goodness.
DeleteSo you're like me, you get up to check out the scary noises like the victims always do in the movies?
ReplyDeleteHm...Hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right. I do that even now. Weird noises at night, I'm all over the house to make sure everything's secure. Weird smells, I'm up and looking for a fire.
DeleteLauren
I had a repetitive dream from a young age that carried on right up into my adulthood. It never made any sense, I was in some giant machine that was really loud, that was it, nothing exciting happened, I was just in a giant machine trying to find my way out and the noise was deafening,the dream only stopped after I had a past life reading (regression therapy) , in which I had supposedly been a little Victorian girl crawling into a large machine to fix it when I was killed. the dream stropped after that, never had it again, it was all very strange.
ReplyDeleteAs a child my dreams were nearly always repeaters. With a little distance I can look back and figure out what they were, but at the time they were just frightening. This one has always eluded me, though, in that sense.
DeleteThe subconscious wants reasons. I found that addressing each aspect of the dream as a part of myself worked best. When I asked the questions I got some very interesting answers.
Like you, I've always been the sort to go through the house and make sure it's okay. I do it to this day. I think it comes down to being better to know you're safe than wondering if something's waiting outside the door...
ReplyDeleteMy monster: http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/2012/08/childhood-monster-blog-fest.html