Different dreams, same shadow figures

The shadows have been humanoid, no gender specific details.. they walk on two legs, have two arms and a head, there's no features to them at all (no face etc) and they're not quite solid, they're kind of see through. I'm not sure how long it's been but for a while now, no matter what I dream of I've been catching these shadows in the corner of my eye. It's always been on the periphery of my vision, when I notice and turn to get a closer look, they disappear. Over time, they started to pause.. just for a second, almost like they were looking back at me and noticing me, noticing them. It was only ever one shadow at a time.. until last night.

From what I remember, the dream started with sitting in a theater, the stage was tiny and in the corner of the room with the seats fanning out from around it. They were big comfy seats, almost arm chairs. I was sat at the front and the seats around me started filling with my ex fiancee and his family, they were being polite and friendly but due to who they had been to me I was really uncomfortable in the situation.

The next part of the dream, I was at a party.. I think it must have been an after party for whatever show we'd watched. I didn't drink or eat anything at the party but I started noticing the shadows, there were 3 of them moving around the people there. I didn't recognise the people at the party but I felt like some of them were people I'd known a long time. No one else was noticing the shadows but me. Every now and then they'd pause like they felt me looking and I'd turn away to avoid them seeing me watching them.

Now, I'm not exactly a lucid dreamer, but I have some small amount of control in my dreams. Even when I've been drinking while awake, I've never ever got to the point where I lose complete control of my body. In this dream though, the more I started to notice them and the longer I watched.. the less control I had over my body. I couldn't stand, could barely talk.. it was even a struggle just to keep my eyes open. No one noticed this was happening, except the shadows, they started moving towards me and I suddenly found myself at the bottom of the stairs looking up at them. I sat there staring at them, unable to turn away and all 3 of them rushed at me. Just as they reached me, I woke up screaming and in a panic..

If anyone can provide some insight, I'd be grateful.

I don't want to assume too much or colour your thoughts (which questions always do...), so I'll ask some questions first. They may not even be relevant, since dream interpretation is mostly for you to do; but my questions may make you think of something you hadn't thought of before, hopefully. :cheeky:

Over the course of a few dreams, you've been noticing the shadows more, right? My first thought would be that something significant has recently changed either in your life, such as social contacts; or something in your personality ,such as a recent defeat or failure making you feel low.

Other people still appear "normal" to you, i.e. as regular humans, even when the shadows are around, as I understand. Did you notice any difference in light before and after you noticed the shadows?

Reading what you were saying, at first I didn't think you were uncomfortable about the shadows, merely curious, is that correct or maybe not? I was wondering if you only panicked because they changed to a behaviour you didn't expect or if you were already cautiously afraid of them before that last moment.

Did the shadows interact with each other or the environment/people when they were just moving around? Or did it look they had a specific goal in their mind?

I don't know if you know the feeling, but, what you describe in terms of not being able to move, stand, or talk, sounds to me like what I've had happen when I was confronted with dangerous situations in real life - like situations where I've almost been run over by a vehicle, noticing myself stopped in the middle of the road, staring helplessly before finally being able to move away in the nick of time.