The Fear

I had my first nightmare last night in 12 years. Yep, that's right. Don't get me wrong, I have had bad dreams since then but there is a difference. Mainly, bad dreams aren't scary. You don't get 'the fear.' You wake up and say to yourself, "Interesting..." You don't wake up screaming and soaked in sweat.

Although it was a very short dream, it was the worst. There was this big piece of scrap wood propped up against a mini fridge. It wasn't leaning right so I went to push on it and that's when it hit me. There was someone behind it. Everything happened so fast after that. The man jumped out from behind the wood, knocking me to the ground. He was middle aged, overweight, and naked. He held me down on the ground and proceeded to rape me. Thank my lucky little stars I woke up just before it got too graphic. I have never in my life woken up screaming until this day. It's a strange feeling. I was dripping with sweat and couldn't move (did you know your brain releases a paralytic while you are dreaming so that you can't act out what's happening? Sometimes it takes a few seconds if you wake during a dream to fully move. And, it will sometimes leave you with an unexplainable fear. Yep, it's that fear again.) Needless to say, I had a hard time going back to sleep after that...