I Dream in Epic Adventures, Not Nightmares

Today’s Daily Prompt is to describe my last nightmare and explain what I think it meant. My nightmares are not nearly as interesting as the other dreams I have. And I haven’t had a memorable nightmare in years. Although, the zombie epic I dreamed might qualify, simply because I think zombie movies/shows are stupid. So I’ll give you 3 vividly memorable dreams, only one being a nightmare.

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

I’ll start with the nightmare, since that is what brings me to this post. It was years ago, during a not exactly happy time in my life. I was living in the house I grew up in, which was not the actual place I was living at the time. Still, everything was perfectly in place as it was. I walked into the entryway and a small cobra promptly jumped (did you know cobras can jump?!) and seized my hand. It wrapped its body around my wrist and kept striking and striking at my hand, where it started to foam up. I was desperate for help, feebly walking towards the back of the house. The last thing I remember in the dream is my dad getting up from the dining room to help, and then it faded to black. In my dreams, I know I’ve died when it fades to black. I woke up in a cold sweat and nauseous. I absolutely hate snakes, and I’m pretty sure the fear has gotten worse since this dream. I’m pretty sure, given the circumstances of my life at that point, that the dream meant I was on the wrong path. Not necessarily a path that would lead towards death because I wasn’t doing anything harmful, I just wasn’t happy.  An alternative interpretation, proposed by a friend, was that I was going to hell. Either way, it was clear I wasn’t doing so hot. I wish I could say the dream sparked a change in me that go things turned around, but it didn’t. But I’m fine now, thanks for asking.

The Zombie Apocalypse

This dream probably should have been scary, but it had way to much detail to be described as anything other than epic. And it was a long one. The hospital I work in was closer to the water than it actually is in real life. We could see out our window to the Spirit of Norfolk (it’s like a dinner-cruise boat) docked across the street. Suddenly lightning struck the boat, but not quickly, it was like a prolonged bolt latched on. (Think the lightening bolt that sends down the aliens in the War of the Worlds remake.) Suddenly, the ground started to shake and all of the buildings in downtown Norfolk started domino falling on each other. You would think that our building would fall the same way, but our 4th floor actually fell straight down through the floors below. Nobody died, just minor scrapes and cuts. It was dark in the rubble, but eventually we climbed our way out.

I got in touch with my fiance, who met me outside the building. After some discussion we decided I needed to get my car, so we went back in the building. As we went back inside, we realized that everybody was mysteriously dead after all, which we obviously thought was odd, so we decided the car could wait and we just needed to get out of the building before we met the same end. As we were leaving, with it turning dark outside, a zombie appeared from the shadows and started chasing us. We ran to a nearby park, hearing the zombie still behind us. There were plenty of police cars, none of which had any officers inside. Finally we decided just to commandeer a police SUV. When we got in, we realized an officer was asleep in the back. Starting the vehicle startled him awake, and he panicked a little, but once we explained that we needed help because a zombie was chasing us, he told us to start driving towards another building.

Clearly, zombies run very fast, because when we arrived at the building in the SUV the zombie was still right behind us. So the three of us (myself, my fiance, and the cop) run inside the red brick building, and naturally, the zombie follows. We threw everything we could in the zombies path to throw him off, including a trash can. The cop turned to shoot the zombie, fired one round, and the zombie was already on him. And if you know anything about zombies, you know that now the cop is a zombie too. So now they both start chasing us, and I pick up the gun and start shooting. To no avail apparently. We must have turned into zombies too because that’s when I woke up.

I have no explanation or interpretation of this dream. It happened in the middle of my fiance’s new obsession with Walking Dead. I’ve never seen an episode. I think zombie things are stupid. So I’ll chalk this one up to coincidence. But even though I hate zombies, this was a pretty awesome dream.

Don’t Question Gandalf’s Knowledge of Birds

This one is really short, but makes me laugh. Gandalf was leading a group of people, including me, through the woods at the summer camp I attended way back when. Suddenly, we looked up and saw a flock of black crows leaving a tree. Ever the wise wizard, Gandalf slowly says, “A flock of black crows only leaves the tree for one reason…. Canary fight!” And then a few canaries come in to fight the crows in the sky, and the canaries totally kicked ass. I die of laughter every time I remember this dream. Again, no explanation. Just a funny fictional memory.

And there you have it. Snakes, Zombies, and Gandalf. A sampling of things that rattle my brain in my sleep. I almost wake up disappointed if I don’t remember having a dream the night before. I need to find some dream-inducing exercises to try before bed! I’m dying to have a dream based on Lost.