Perpetual Ruminations

Awake in a Nightmare

Happy Thanksgiving. Yes, it's Thursday night here at home even though it's after midnight within the site.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even though it wasn't starting out that way. Our plans were to spend the day with my mother-in-law at her house with my sister-in-law and her family also meeting us there. Of course, things changed; that's the motto for this year, go ahead and plan, but it will change.

A couple of weeks ago, they had a positive covid exposure within their family. It turned out fine, the fella who contracted the virus didn't even get sick and if it hadn't been for mandatory testing, he wouldn't have even known. Not only did he not get sick, but he also recovered very rapidly and tested negative the following week. The rest of the family also tested negative to covid but had contacted another virus, the common cold. Since they all got sick with the cold, they stayed home to prevent spreading it, even though they're all feeling better already.

We had plans to be up early, get things ready, then head over to my mother-in-law's to fix dinner, with plans to eat around three. That meant getting everyone to bed on time, but the youngest girl couldn't sleep. I finally got her to doze off around midnight, spent another hour online to ensure she stayed asleep, then retired myself at one-thirty. I was very tired and fell asleep quickly.

A couple of hours later I woke from a bad dream; a real nightmare. In my dream, the youngest girl woke up and went out to the living room and turned on the television. Instead of streaming from Netflix, it streamed a demon into the living room which killed her and left her lying on the floor in front of the set, then proceeded to the older girl's room and killed her. In my dream, I had woken up and found my youngest daughter on the floor. Before I ran to the older daughter's room, the demon had done its work and had moved to our room, and even as I checked on the older daughter killed my wife.

I knew it was a dream, but I had to get up and check. I told myself, "No, it's just a dream." then went to the bathroom and was going to return to bed. But I couldn't without checking on the girls. I looked in on the youngest daughter and her bed was empty!

I hustled out to the living room and there she was, flat on her back in front of the tv, just like in my dream. I knew the dream wasn't real, and the last thing I wanted was to wake her, but I had to check. I got down on the floor beside her and put my ear close to her mouth. She was breathing slowly and deeply, sound asleep. Satisfied, I checked on the older girl and found her safely sleeping in her bed. It was, I repeated, "Just a dream."

I got back into bed and snuggled up to my wife and soon began drifting off to sleep. But even as I began to doze, the nightmare continued. The demon was there telling me in my half-sleep that I had missed my chance to save the girls and send it back to hell by turning the tv on and capturing it. It then turned and kind of wafted into my youngest daughter's room.

I had to save her so I forced myself to wake and follow. But even as I got ready to turn on the tv in her room, it pushed past me for the living room. It halted at my room and commanded my wife to stop me, then floated on. As I tried to follow she got up and started asking me if I was alright and what was wrong. I told her I was in a nightmare and pushed past her to the living room. As I got to the room the demon was leaning over my daughter and reaching for her chest. I grabbed the control and turned the tv on just in time. The demon went into the bright screen and was gone. With a sigh of relief, I returned to bed.

But when I got into bed, my wife sat up and asked me what was going on and if I was alright. I couldn't tell if it was still the nightmare or if I was asleep; I was stuck half awake, half asleep, half in reality, and halfway in a dream. I told her I had a bad dream and that everything was fine, but I wasn't sure if I had woke up or if I was still dreaming about everything. I got back up, grabbed my robe, went out to the kitchen, grabbed a cigarette and went outside into the cold.

I sat out there in the cold smoking my cigarette until I was sure I wasn't dreaming anymore. I put it out, went back in, checked on everyone, then went back to bed and fell asleep a little after four. I was up again at seven-thirty, very tired and feeling very beaten down. My wife was also up and knew I had a rough night. She told me I was up a couple of times, went to the girl's rooms, turned on the tv just to turn it back off, and when she asked, just ignored her and got back up and went out to smoke.

I explained it all to her before we left, took a nap after dinner, and so far it's been a good night. I hope by writing it all out, the dream will not return and I can sleep soundly tonight. Perhaps somewhere in all of this, there's a good story to be told one day.