On Terrifying Dreams

I awoke this morning, in the dark hours, terrified.

I’d had a dream. And it was not a pleasant one.

It began pleasantly enough.

I was in the office. I had the picture of Percy on my desk. My Professor Henry Jones vinyl statue. Even Sophia Myles as a miniature toy. It was my desk.

The view out the office window was slightly different. I seemed to be higher than the sixth floor. And I had a clear view to a city in the distance.

The sun was rising. It was a lovely sunrise. Pink sky, poofy clouds. It’s one of those sunrises you’ll remember forever.

Some of the other writers wanted to go downstairs and get food. They do this en masse every morning. Sometimes they’ll do it in the afternoon.

I was entranced with the view of the city in the distance.

Only one of the other writers came back from downstairs.

And that’s when everything changed.

Looking at the city, I noticed a flash.

The sky, which had been a light blue, turned an angry red.

And then the rising of a mushroom cloud.

I remember screaming in the dream.

I remember jumping out of my office chair to stand and stare out the window.

I remember watching the mushroom cloud grow and the shock wave of the nuclear blast roll across the ground from the city’s core, through the residential areas in between.

I remember seeing buildings explode.

I remember the shock wave reaching my office.

I remember my window exploding and glass shards flying as I fell to the ground.

I remember the time on the digital clock, which is odd, because I don’t have a digital clock at the office. But it was there, and the numbers were large and they were green.

The clock read 4:14.

At that point, I woke up. My heart was pounding.

I’d just seen a city nuked.

I know, it was just a dream. And yet, it felt real.

I didn’t fall asleep again for about two hours. I couldn’t get the dream out of my mind.

What does it mean?

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

5 thoughts on “On Terrifying Dreams

  1. You haven’t been playing Fallout 3 have you? 🙂 4:14 … could be a date, not a time .. like April 14th. Always uncertain, the future is … Have you ever had visions (of the future) that have come true?

  2. Kim, I considered that. However… I can’t see my alarm clock from where I sleep. I actually have to get out of bed to look at it. (I picked this up in college; if you have to get out of bed to shut it off, you can’t fall back asleep or repeatedly hit the snooze button.) Also, my alarm clock has red numbers, not green. And finally, I did get out of bed to look at it, and the time was 3:48.

    Jack, I wondered that. Was it a date I saw, and not a time? And no, I’ve not been playing Fallout 3.

    Just strange and freaky, the dream was. It kept me unsettled and on edge most of yesterday. Just thinking about it now makes my chest tighten. :/

  3. i can somewhat relate, i have nightmares of brutal murders. watching myself in first person brutally killing people. some people i know some people i dont. demons often appear in my dreams as well as symbols i cannot explain. these dreams have been going on for years now. since i was a lil boy. can you guys decode these dreams? no one i know can

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