When I Was a Little Kid

I used to have a problem with reoccurring nightmares. All of these nightmares revolved around the same man, he was a tall pale man with scraggly who somehow would find his way into my bedroom. For the most part, there were two different dreams.

In one of them, he would strangle me until I managed to push him away long enough to run. I would instinctively run into my parent's room and hide under my bed. While under the bed I always noticed that the TV was on and, fearing he would see the cathode glow, would turn it off. Turning the TV off would make him aware of my location and he'd find and kill me. In the second dream he would have a big western-y coat on and have a pack of dogs with him, I would be hiding somewhere in my room and eventually the dogs would find me, and he'd finish me.

I've gone the last twelve years without having either of these dreams. Last night while lying in bed I looked to my right and saw the face in my closet, I was paralyzed, couldn't make a sound, move a muscle or close my eyes, it just stared me down. When I finally broke the stare I noticed there were rats all at the foot of my bed and threw off my blankets and screamed, at which point the dream ended.

I didn't really fall back to sleep and now I'm nervous.

-A