Journal Entries
A NIGHTMARE SEQUEL
Posted Jun 17, 2001
Is that possible? A 'Nightmare II'?
Well, how else am I going to explain the fact that I knew what was coming?
It was one of those dreams you have just before waking up in the morning, making it a lot easier to remember.
It seemed to be several years ago, since my father was still alive, and my younger brother still lived with our parents.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For some reason I am staying with our parents, in my old room, despite the fact that I have my own flat.
It is early in the morning, I am slowly waking up. Still half asleep, I catch a glimpse of a big, red eye staring in through a gap in the curtains, in the corner of my eye.
Suddenly I am jerked wide awake because I recognize it. I have barely enough time to throw myself out of bed, away from the window, down on the floor, before an enormous, bright red Pteranodon comes crashing through the window, claws spread out to clutch me.
I roll in under my bed, but then I remember that last time it came after me, it had no trouble at all reaching after me and dragging me out from under the bed.
I pull up my knees under me, bent over double, pushing my back against the bottom of the bed, trying to wedge myself in between the bed and the floor (it is a very heavy bed). I also grab hold of one of the legs of the bed, so hard that my knuckles are whitening.
Then my brain, until now numbed by the sheer terror of having to go through this again, starts working again. I remember that this time, I am not in my own home, alone, but in the flat of my parents, and they are both in the next room.
I start screaming, and screaming, and screaming. After what feels like an eternity, I hear the door thrown open, and a lot of shouting, cursing and sounds of fighting going on. Then everything goes quite, and my mother peeks under the bed, trying to ease me out of there. 'It's OK' she says, 'it's gone now'.
I roll out from under bed, and see my mother armed with a rake, and my father with a shovel.
After having a quick look over the edge of the bed to make sure the Pteranodon really is gone, I rush out of of the room, into the hallway, which has no windows.
Finally my mother manages to talk me into having something to eat, in the kitchen, where she has first closed the blinds.
But suddenly, sensing rather than seeing me, the Pteranodon comes crushing through the kitchen window, but gets itself entangled in the blinds.
This time I am scared awake.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
While I lay there, in my RL bed, trying to calm down, I started remembering.
(OK, irregularity no.1: my parents have never had any garden, they have always lived in flats, they do not own a shovel or a rake.)
I remembered why I was staying with my parents. I had just been allowed to leave hospital, and was still a bit weak.
I had been taken in to intensive care two weeks earlier, a bit bruised, and with some nasty cuts that looked like claw marks. The doctors thought that they had been caused with some kind of tool, because there is no creature with claws that big. Ha! Little did they know!
But what they could not understand was my state of mind - by the time I was brought in, I was deep in coma, with a brain fever.
When I woke up from the coma, I could not account for what had happened. Whatever it was that had occurred, I could not remember it. I suffered from amnesia.
But now I that I was awake in RL, I even remembered what had happened to me.
Yep, it was that same Pteranodon, that had come crashing in through my bedroom window, clutching me in its claws, and flying away with me, to its master.
(And now irregularity no.2: from now on, the memory becomes very science fiction-ish, something that is rather uncommon in my dreams.)
Its master turned out to be a mad scientist (how stereotype) trying to build a mind control machine, and use it to take over the world (of course). The machine would be worked by a built in artificial intelligence. For some reason, he needed my mind to complete it. And no, in the dream, I am not a genius, so I do not understand why he needed MY mind.
After that my memory is a bit blurred. I remember being strapped down, with a lot of electrodes connected to my head. I remember seeing the scientist fiddle with the switches on a big control board. I remember weird and scary images floating in my mind. I remember fighting it, fighting him, fighting to defend my mind!
I guess it must have strained my mind too much, and that I had fallen unconscious, and of no use to the scientist until I had recovered - why else would he have made sure they would find me, and bring me to a hospital - and then send the Pteranodon after me once I was feeling better?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What confuses me now is that I do not know if this memory is from an earlier dream, or a dreamt-up memory from the dream this morning...
And then, I had to check if it really was a Pteranodon I saw - I am not even sure I got the name right.
Yep, it was a 'Pteranodon ingens' - I even found a painting of one that looks very much like the one in my dream. URL to painting can be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A531505
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A531505
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Jun 17, 2001
Prejudices
Posted Jun 14, 2001
Yesterday, I met a group of young people with Down's syndrome in a shopping centre. One of them, a girl, looked like an Arab, the others like Swedes.
I was surprised by the confusion this caused in my brain. I try not to be prejudiced, and try to avoid forming an opinion unless I feel I have enough facts.
I now discovered that I obviously had formed a picture of people with Down's syndrome, and another picture of Arabs, and my brain didn't know which one to choose!
Oh well, as long as I understand that I'm just as prejudiced as anyone else, I guess I'll be alright as long as I stay open-minded to new impressions, and willing to change my opinions accordingly.
(Dang, this is what comes from hanging around with the Muse of Confusion)
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jun 14, 2001
Busy, busy...
Posted Jun 9, 2001
Sorry for not having been around much lately, but the first week each month is extremely busy for me - sometimes I don't even find the time to log on to h2g2 for a whole day (or night either)
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jun 9, 2001
Friday April 6th
Posted Apr 6, 2001
It's around 10.15 pm GMT and all is.... hrm.... not well.
I give up. This site takes ages to load, and not for the first time after Beeb...
But it IS a pity that my evening conversations will be limited for the above reason!
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Apr 6, 2001
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