I had two consecutive nightmares Sunday night. Both were strangely similar and both woke me up. I had gone to bed extrememly early Sunday evening feeling depressed for no apparent reason but that's how depression falls. It's like a change in the weather, a drifting fog that silently floats in from offshore and settles into your life for awhile. The uninvited guest. Anyway, rather than fight the debilitating effects, I decided to sleep it off. I suppose it manifested itself in dreams.
In the first nightmare, I was alone in an apartment. My apartment, in the dream. It was a studio on the second floor and looked out on a quiet street. Across the street was a highschool. It was late afternoon and I was sitting near the window at a small table daydreaming when I heard the sound of a helicopter. I looked out and saw a black chopper hovering over the front lawn of the highschool. Hanging beneath the chopper was a man in some kind of police or military uniform. He wore a badge and he had a rifle. He was lowered to the ground and then the chopper flew away. It became very quiet and I watched the man come across the street toward my building. He seemed to be looking for something and I felt very uneasy. He squinted in the late afternoon sun and scanned along the first story of my building. He seemed to smile at someone on the first floor and then he scanned up along the second floor. I instintively drew back from the window but saw him scrutinize my windows. Then he disappeared from my view as he walked to the building's entrance. There was a sudden shift in time and I was awakened from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. This is still in the dream. I guess nothing further had happened since seeing the man earlier and I had fallen asleep on the bed. When I awoke, I thought I had heard a loud banging noise as if something had hit my front door very hard. I remember looking toward the window and seeing the faint glow of night reflected back. The room was very dark and there was only little bits of light glinting here and there off various surfaces. I got up and turned toward the front door where I could see a stream of light coming through the peep hole from the hallway. The door seemed undisturbed and the room was very quiet. I walked sleepily over to the door and looked caustiously through the peep hole thinking something was going to suddenly appear on the other side scaring me to death but nothing did. I just felt extremely uneasy and awoke "for real" then.
I was able to go back to sleep almost immediately but soon found myself awakened again. This time I was in an apartment similar to the one I really live in except the livingroom was where my kitchen is. I awoke because I heard the sound of the television on. It wasn't loud but just loud enough to disturb my sleep as if a roommate had stayed up late watching it. However, since I live alone I thought this was very odd and went to investigate. I walked slowly down the hallway and was able to perceive the grayish light of the TV as I got closer to the livingroom. I had to round two corners before reaching the livingroom and passed the bathroom just prior. It was in the darkness of the bathroom that I received my fright. Someone was standing in the darkness looking back at me. All I could see was their white t-shirt. I just stood there stunned and then they suddenly ran passed me back toward the bedroom. Once again, I awoke "for real" but this time I wanted to yell out. I had to sit there for a few minutes staring at the ceiling while my heart slowed down its frantic beat. I became aware of the wind blowing against the windows in the livingroom making them shake every so often. I eventually got up for some water and a walk around the apartment. Everything seemed kosher and I went back to bed again. It was 1:30am.
Monday morning, all the way to work, I kept repeating to myself "force happiness!"
