nightmare

My wife and I had recently decided we wanted a change of pace, and moved to live in the woods. Our house was big enough and was completely removed from the rest of society, secluded and peaceful. As far as we knew, we lived alone out there. A few weeks after moving, I had started to hear a tapping noise coming from outside. I assumed this was from trees outside banging into our walls, as it often got windy out there. Over the course of 2 or so months, the tapping got louder and louder.

We wake up one morning before the sun had risen and I say goodbye to her as she heads off to work. I sit in our room as I listen to her car pull out of our gravel driveway and drive off. A few minutes later, I hear knocking at the door. I'm thinking maybe she had forgotten something, so I answer it. But no one's there. I try to see through the darkness and fog of the early morning out to our driveway, but I don't see anything parked. I look to my left and spot our black dog laying on the veranda playing with his toy, so I assume it was him who had just been scratching on the door. As a soft rain starts to fall, I go back inside.

I close the door. Inside the living room, I hear that familiar tapping on the window, now the loudest I had ever heard it. Like a knock. These taps were too evenly spaced together to have been from any kind of tree being blown about by the wind. The rain is picking up now, coming down hard on my tin roof. Suddenly, from the other wall of the living room I hear that same knock. Outside I see the dark silhouettes of trees surrounding my house thrashing and waving back and forth in the storm's howling wind, and paranoia starts to fill my gut. I try to calm my nerves, reminding myself that I am the only thing out here. As waves of hail and rain come down on my house, I walk back to my bedroom.

I look under the bed, the space between the frame and the floor too small for anything to fit underneath. The closet, full of clothes. Under the desk, nothing but lint and dirt. I go to check behind the curtains. As I start towards the window, I hear footsteps coming from the front porch and my heart starts racing. I pull the curtains back, and peer ever so slightly outside. The sun had started to rise, light creeping across the forest floor. I squint to see who is out there.

A warm wave of relief washes over me as I see my wife and I's dog, toy in mouth, bowing at the front door, his dark coat drenched in mud and rain. He notices me watching him from the window and runs over excitedly, whining at me. His puppy dog eyes put a smile on my face, as I'm reminded that everything is as the way it had always been. I walk back to the front door, but hesitate for a moment. I recall my wife telling me not to let the dog in the house after it had been raining, as he'd get our carpet dirty. But hearing his whines, I tell myself she'd let it go just this once, and I open the door to let him in, quickly shutting it to keep the rain out. I sit down on our doormat and hug his muddy fur as he jumps about in my embrace. He shakes himself clean, now safe inside the warm house. But still his whining quickens, coming out in loud gasps as he drops his toy. The dog turns and takes my hand in his mouth, shaking it urgently. His whines are so loud, it sounds like a faint scream. I pull back from him and look into his beady eyes. As he stares back at me with a fearful expression I try and ask him what's wrong, but he continues to scream. Then his black eyes look somewhere behind me, and his gaze turns wide and white. In the reflection of the door's wood, I see two large, yellow eyes, staring right back at me.
And then I woke up.

----

I'm not the best writer but I tried to capture the absolute terror I felt last night after being awoken by the first real nightmare I've had in years. Couldn't go back to sleep after this one.

My wife and I had recently decided we wanted a change of pace, and moved to live in the woods. Our house was big enough and was completely removed from the rest of society, secluded and peaceful. As far as we knew, we lived alone out there. A few weeks after moving, I had started to hear a tapping noise coming from outside. I assumed this was from trees outside banging into our walls, as it often got windy out there. Over the course of 2 or so months, the tapping got louder and louder.

We wake up one morning before the sun had risen and I say goodbye to her as she heads off to work. I sit in our room as I listen to her car pull out of our gravel driveway and drive off. A few minutes later, I hear knocking at the door. I'm thinking maybe she had forgotten something, so I answer it. But no one's there. I try to see through the darkness and fog of the early morning out to our driveway, but I don't see anything parked. I look to my left and spot our black dog laying on the veranda playing with his toy, so I assume it was him who had just been scratching on the door. As a soft rain starts to fall, I go back inside.

I close the door. Inside the living room, I hear that familiar tapping on the window, now the loudest I had ever heard it. Like a knock. These taps were too evenly spaced together to have been from any kind of tree being blown about by the wind. The rain is picking up now, coming down hard on my tin roof. Suddenly, from the other wall of the living room I hear that same knock. Outside I see the dark silhouettes of trees surrounding my house thrashing and waving back and forth in the storm's howling wind, and paranoia starts to fill my gut. I try to calm my nerves, reminding myself that I am the only thing out here. As waves of hail and rain come down on my house, I walk back to my bedroom.

I look under the bed, the space between the frame and the floor too small for anything to fit underneath. The closet, full of clothes. Under the desk, nothing but lint and dirt. I go to check behind the curtains. As I start towards the window, I hear footsteps coming from the front porch and my heart starts racing. I pull the curtains back, and peer ever so slightly outside. The sun had started to rise, light creeping across the forest floor. I squint to see who is out there.

A warm wave of relief washes over me as I see my wife and I's dog, toy in mouth, bowing at the front door, his dark coat drenched in mud and rain. He notices me watching him from the window and runs over excitedly, whining at me. His puppy dog eyes put a smile on my face, as I'm reminded that everything is as the way it had always been. I walk back to the front door, but hesitate for a moment. I recall my wife telling me not to let the dog in the house after it had been raining, as he'd get our carpet dirty. But hearing his whines, I tell myself she'd let it go just this once, and I open the door to let him in, quickly shutting it to keep the rain out. I sit down on our doormat and hug his muddy fur as he jumps about in my embrace. He shakes himself clean, now safe inside the warm house. But still his whining quickens, coming out in loud gasps as he drops his toy. The dog turns and takes my hand in his mouth, shaking it urgently. His whines are so loud, it sounds like a faint scream. I pull back from him and look into his beady eyes. As he stares back at me with a fearful expression I try and ask him what's wrong, but he continues to scream. Then his black eyes look somewhere behind me, and his gaze turns wide and white. In the reflection of the door's wood, I see two large, yellow eyes, staring right back at me.
And then I woke up.

----

I'm not the best writer but I tried to capture the absolute terror I felt last night after being awoken by the first real nightmare I've had in years. Couldn't go back to sleep after this one.

I'm sitting on a couch in my grandmother's old house. Next to me is a boy I feel a faint familiarity towards, and at least a dozen cats. There are cats everywhere, and they can talk. The boy is talking at me and I acknowledge what he's saying with nods and gestures, but I don't engage in conversation, I'm more focused on this house full of talking cats. Their ability to harness the English language is normal to me. There is one cat in particular im talking to, and she's telling me that my grandmother had left all of them here and that they were starving. It's been years since my grandmother had lived there, so I feel incredibly guilty. I ask the cat why they didn't just leave, but I forget what she said in response.

I start walking to the cats' food bowl and a mastiff-looking dog appears from behind me, who can also talk. I fill up both the dogs and the cats food bowls and sit back on the couch with the boy. As I look out the window into the backyard, I see the shadow of a man walking along the hedges. Everyone in the house quietens. The cats seem to know what this is, but I don't. Then, a small jack russell appears from around the corner of the house where the man seems to be standing, and starts sniffing along the hedgeline. Strapped to the jack russell is a backpack seemingly loaded with gadgets, similar to a crude bomb in appearance.

Seeing this, a deep primal fear is now seated within me. I shakily ask the cat who the two are, and then I woke up.

Another patchy dream, really can't recall much of a cohesive story for this one either

I'm sitting on a white bus next to a friend of mine, and we're on a school field trip. The bus has divided sections for each set of seats, like a caterpillar. I look out the window and see we're driving along a tree line that separates us from a beach. When the bus comes to a stop and we get out, I start arguing with the friend I was sitting next to about something. The next thing I remember is standing in front of a very small model house, before being told to go inside. Then, I'm locked in. I'm pretty sure this miniature house is some sort of escape room.
The next thing I remember is opening one of the doors and a cardboard cutout of a zombie jumps out of the wall and scares me, like a haunted house. (Second dream in a row that has something to do with zombies!) Some other things that I can't recall happen, and then I remember being curled up on the floor of the starting room of the escape house, hugging my backpack and crying. I guess I really didn't want to be there.

The next morning I wake up and realise I'm the only one still there, and I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere in this escape room while the rest of my class have driven back to school. I freak out and call my Dad to pick me up. When he gets there, I walk outside and see my classmates are there, even when they weren't a moment before. Something else probably happens after that, and then I wake up.

First mostly nonsensical dream I've had in a while, I've really gotta stop consuming zombie media or else it'll be the only thing I dream about.