I got a ques­tion from Tony Q on my Form­Spring account yes­ter­day. It’s been so long since I checked it, I for­got all about my queue of ques­tions wait­ing to be answered. Sorry for not hit­ting your ques­tion right now, Tony Q, but I looked over my list, and this one just made an old mem­ory jump out and slap me.

What’s the scari­est dream you’ve ever had?

Although I wouldn’t say that I do not believe in the super­nat­ural, I would have weigh in some­where in the range of a hard­core skep­tic. How­ever, if there is a sin­gu­lar expe­ri­ence that would ever con­vince me beyond any doubt of the Great Beyond, this would be it. (Yes, even moreso than my weird Ring video story.)

My fam­ily had just moved back to San Jose from Chicago. My new bed­room was at the end of a hall­way, with the foot of bed pointed towards the door to my room so I could see part­way down the hall. I don’t know if it was the new bed or what, but I was pretty rest­less the first cou­ple of nights, and just had a really hard time falling asleep. Then I had the strangest dream.

I dreamed that I would wake up in a cold sweat in my bed, but that I was par­a­lyzed. I couldn’t move my body, and when I tried to yell for help, noth­ing came out.

Then I would notice that my bed­room door was open and the hall­way light was on. I’d feel the pres­ence of a shad­owy fig­ure at the end of the hall, and saw that it was slowly approach­ing me. It seemed to glide, not walk, and the closer it got, the more I filled with dread and my chest would feel like it was get­ting squeezed tighter and tighter until I would burst.

I’d panic, and try to fight it, to get out of bed, to scream, any­thing. But noth­ing worked in my dream. My only release was sud­denly wak­ing up and see­ing that there was noth­ing there; that I was actu­ally OK. But the next night, I’d have the same dream again. I actu­ally real­ized that I was dream­ing in my dream, but it didn’t mat­ter. I was still stuck, and the fig­ure was still com­ing. Each night, the fig­ure got a lit­tle bit closer before I could wake up. I kept try­ing to think of new ways to get rid of the dream. I’d make sure I locked my bed­room door before I went to bed. I’d always double-​check that the hall­way light was turned off. I’d try keep­ing the light in my room on. Noth­ing worked. Every night, I’d have the same dream. And every night, the fig­ure came a lit­tle closer. I asked my par­ents what to do, and they told me to pray and that Bud­dha would keep me safe. I tried pray­ing before I went to sleep and in my dream, but nei­ther kept the fig­ure away.

One night, the fig­ure came all the way to the foot of my bed. She pulled back her dark hood to reveal an old witch. And then she slowly floated up over, her hands reach­ing towards my face. I had never been so ter­ri­fied in my life. Her fin­gers were to my eyes when I finally woke up. And then I never had the dream again.