Recurring nightmare from childhood:
An unseen person is pursuing myself and one other cohort (this person changes) up flight upon flight of stairs in an abandoned, rundown building. Wood stairs. Wood stairs that creek and thud with every step. If we are caught the pursuant will harm us horribly, in inspeakable ways I can't fathom. It's a slow, plodding methodical pursuit on the pursuant's part. For my cohort and I, it's impossible to climb the stairs silently. In some versions of the dream, the stairs are actually so dilapidated in parts that they fall apart under our weight as we climb, slowing us down all the more, and still the pursuant continues with a steady, unstoppable pace, slowly gaining on us. We continue to climb and eventually leave the stairs for an abandoned room with only a bare mattress on a frame of springs. We climb under the mattress knowing full well the pursuant heard us stop climbing and slip into this room. We hide there, cowering, hearts pounding in our ears, every breath loud as thunder. The pursuant enters the room, we see only feet and legs from our hiding spot. The pursuant approaches. The dread is palpable. The pursuant pauses, right in front of the mattress. I'm panicky with dread wondering: does the pursuant know we're here? Our breathing is too loud! Our hearts pounding so we can barely hear. The springs creak ever so slightly. At the moment the mattress is about to be torn off of us, I awake.
In another version, I awake at the moment the pursuant's hand clamps down on my shoulder.
The pursuant changes - most times I do not know who they are at all. All I ever glimpsed was an ambiguous pair of male or female legs, while once it was a witch from a book I read in grade one. I am always utterly terrified. My cohort is always someone I care about and don't want to see hurt - my sister, a childhood friend, one time it was Michael Jackson, who I had a crush on when I was very young. The dread and sense of doom is unbearable. I can still recall it like it was yesterday. I must have had that dream dozens of times, but only as a young child.