Tell me about the worst nightmare you ever had

About 4 or 5 years ago, I had recurring nightmares about shadow people. They were people made out of darkness, or maybe just darkness shaped like a person (And the fact that they're actually a reported paranormal phenomenon didn't help).

The worst thing about the shadow dreams were that they would almost always take place in my bedroom, so when I woke up there'd be nothing to indicate the dream wasn't still happening. The one time it didn't happen in my room, it happened in some sort of tower, but the usually silent shadows talked to me that time, and actually told me that they would be in my room when I woke up...

But that wasn't the worst of them. The worst was when I dreamed a shadow replaced my mother.

In the dream, I woke up in the night to hear my mother calling me (I lived at home back then). It didn't sound urgent, she was just softly calling my name. I groggily got up, put on my glasses and walked back to her bedroom.

When I got back to the bedroom, there, standing in a patch of moonlight, was a shadow shaped like my mother. It was even leaning on a shadow walker. And all it did was slowly raise up it's head and look at me.

I woke up screaming so loud I woke everyone in the house. But fortunately, that was the last time I ever dreamed about the shadow people.

A kid was being graphically mauled by a bear, and there was no way I or anybody else could save him. We could only watch helplessly.

I know, boring, but that's the dream that affected me the most.

Scariest? Probably the one I had this morning. I only got three hours of sleep, but in those three hours I managed to have a pretty bad nightmare.

To explain a bit, my dreams are usually really non-sequitur, but make sense at the time. Certain things will be out of place - for example, in this nightmare, there was a red and white polka dot slide available for use instead of a staircase, and the house had three other staircases to use as well. That's not the weird part though.

I've had a really big fascination with the paranormal since I was young - 11, 12 ish. However, for the life of me, unlike some people (or at least like they claim) I am not attuned to perceiving, nor have I ever experienced such phenomena. I go green with jealousy when other people tell me about their true (again, allegedly, but I really want to believe) paranormal experiences.

Well, in this nightmare, I got my wish. One of the staircases was haunted. At first I could only feel a presence there, and I knew. Then the presence started touching me, like stroking my hand or pulling my clothing. Then it began to hurl objects. I began to avoid the staircase, all the while thinking that I hate the house and when I said I wanted to experience the paranormal, this is not what I wished for. The presence, however, grew stronger and moved beyond the staircase. The only room I could be safe was my room, and then later this was taken over to I had to hide elsewhere. It trapped me and my husband and some housemates (people I've never seen before)in the house and wasn't going to let go until we were dead.

I woke up. In a cold room with a thin blanket, I was totally sweaty. Gross. >:[

Most emotionally horrifying, though, was a nightmare I had about a terrorist attack on my town. They dropped all sorts of chemicals on the town, and my brother got hit with a batch of acid that put horrifying burns on his back. My parents weren't home and I didn't know what to do except make him take painkillers and a shower. I cried when I told my mom about it later.

There is one other nightmare I had that I can't even remember because it was so horrifying. Something happened and I started crying and this felt so real I woke myself up - from crying. I think I dreamt that something happened to my husband but I'm not sure. I don't think I want to remember, if that's the case.

The most recent one I can remember was of my brother being brainwashed and trying to kill me. He chased me across the entire city, and I knew that he would never, ever stop until he caught me. That's a common thread in most of my nightmares, being chased and knowing you're going to be caught and there's nothing you can do about it.

Another dream I remember involved disembodied hands, with these horrible twitching white threads coming from the stumps of the wrists. *shudder*

Oh! My childhood scariest dream was one in which there was some sort of war on, and my older brother was taken away to fight. They turned him into this... horrible lobster-like fighting machine, with a shiny red carapace and claws, and told me they couldn't turn him back.

Ok, that brought back bad memories....

edited 4th Jan '11 6:36:00 PM by LoniJay

I was staring at a horse, and then with no warning the horse bit my arm off. I woke up then.

I had an extremely vivid one a few nights ago. In it, some sadistic jackass had me restrained and was ripping my teeth out.

Now, some backstory why this dream was awful: last Jan I had 25 teeth pulled (under anaesthesia, by a professional oral surgeon. Long Story) and I very distinctly remember the pain that followed for a month after it. So, in this dream, I could actually feel that pain, albeit from memory, but still...

God that was awful, man.

For reasons I hope you'll understand, I try to forget most of my nightmares. They usually involve my dad. But I can tell you one that I had rather recently that scared the crap out of me, but it did it in a really awesome fashion. :D

So my dad and my brother, Adam, were walking in front of me, and we were in some overcast town. We then saw a building in the distance. Looked like some kind of small office building. Oddly, I recall seeing the building in my dreams before, but never setting foot in it. The reasoning behind that is something like "I'm not ready." Then, in this dream, the other two said they were going up there (they said it was abandoned, and.. had cool stuff in it), and I said "I'm ready. I'm going in with you." Already, this dream was interesting me.

Then we get to the point where my subconscious started getting awesome. As we're walking towards this building, I look at dad and Adam, and I see they're not really dad and Adam. They look just like them, except.. their faces look like realistic masks, tied on at the back of their heads. So my brain was pulling some Uncanny Valley on me. Sweet. We stepped into the building, and it was like.. a waiting room. A reception room. But there were tons of other people seated, waiting. They looked sick. Even though the building was supposed to be abandoned, there were people waiting there.

At this point, I seemed to wander off into the building, alone. I don't remember much of what happened here, but I know that there were a lot of empty rooms, and from time to time, I'd see a shadow or a skeleton-shaped silhouette nearby. At least once, I saw what looked like that Scream guy. From those old movies. They were always in the background, a la slender man. Then at some point, I found myself in a parking lot, with a friend. I have no idea who the friend was. She was a girl. I never saw her face, or got her name, or anything. No effing clue.

Anyway! Parking lot! We're walking along, going to the exit, when suddenly we see a freaky.. skeleton-type creature with a spoon-shaped head running toward us. Then a turret comes out of nowhere and shoots it down. We carry on, and leave the building. Next scene, we're in the parking lot again, once again heading for the exit. We actually kept going for the exit, again and again, stuck in a neverending loop, but facing worse and worse dangers every time. I only remember two of the dangers, though— the skeleton/spoon guy, and the following...

So we're on the last run out of the parking lot (before I wake up). Then out of nowhere, there's that Scream guy I mentioned earlier! He stands in front of us, ominously. At this point, either I or my friend just walks up to him and pushes him over. My friend then takes his mask off, and.. well.. the face underneath is clear in my mind. Remember Betty Boop? That cartoon girl from long ago? Remember her eyes? Well, this guy's eyes were exactly like that, but.. real-looking. He had no nose, but his mouth was a very, very small dot. Once again, it looked photo-realistic.

All of a sudden, a bunch of images just.. flashed into my head. They were all of scary creatures I've never seen before, just being entirely manufactured by my subconscious. One was a bloody clown's head. One was a.. scaly blob, with feathers.. and a slit for a mouth. Under its skin, it looked like thousands of tiny bugs were crawling around. Then when all the images stopped, we just started running towards the exit, then we stopped when we saw that the path out was covered in rubble. In the rubble, we could see a Santa Claus mask, and all I could hear was Xmas bells jingling. The mask started to move, but then I woke up.

So yeah! It was the single coolest dream I've ever had, and it scared me very much. It wasn't THE worst nightmare I had, but like I said, the scarier ones are.. private.

I was in my house, alone. It was night. I was wandering through the rooms, looking for my family, but they weren't there. Everything that I saw in the corner of my eye seemed broken, dusty, decrepit, but when I turned to look directly, it was clean and intact.

The whole time, evey few minutes, I'd hear a scratch of aomethin like claws on the floor, or a growl, or a ripping noise.

After searching my room, I turned, and everything was silently, cooly burning with green flame. I walked through the hall and down the stairs, still trying to find my family.

I found a hand on the floor. I couldn't tell whose. Everything was covered with that strange, heat-less green fire.

I stepped outside. Everything was torn apart, like an earthquake had ripped through. I took two steps, and three huge wolves made out of flame appeared and eviscerated me.

I can remember lying there in pain for a long time before I woke up.

I remember a dream I had after seeing Restrepo, I was part of a convoy rolling along the side of a mountain pass, and we got ambushed. It was a bad ambush to be in too, a well devised L shape with RPG's, PKM's, and AK's.

I remember opening the door to dismount, and right as I got two steps out of the door, my humvee got hit by an RPG and I got thrown onto my face, into the dirt. I just sort of laid there, my ears ringing and my heart pounding, watching faceless guys in uniform who were also in the convoy getting cut down by heavy fire in the way only a perfect ambush can, in seconds. The last guy fell, and everything was silent except for sporadic bursts of AK fire in the background, I just laid there and stared and eventually I woke up.

Bad dream, very bad dream.

I chased my little sister into my parents' bedroom and choked her to death. Felt pretty upset when I woke up, since I love her very much.

edited 8th Jan '11 6:52:37 PM by Penguin4Senate

There were only two of us left in the colony: myself and my father. The scans had revealed a world covered in forest, seemingly perfect to start a new life, but they had failed to observe the strange, wormlike creatures that boiled up from the ground every sundown. I knew that the woods were misty that late afternoon, and I knew that if I were to look outside, I wouldn't be able to see the sun—but I also knew that sundown was not far away, so I huddled in the only shelter we'd been able to construct, obsessively rereading the only book I'd brought with me. My father had not returned from a trip into the woods, and though I tried not to visualize a broken leg or a broken neck, tried to tell myself that the delay was innocent, I knew in my heart that he wasn't coming back. He was lying somewhere in the woods, somewhere where I could not find him, unable to hide from the worms. Come that nightfall, and every nightfall after that, I would be all alone.

Funny now that I think about it—most people would probably have dreamt about being eaten by the worms.

edited 8th Jan '11 8:10:51 PM by feotakahari

The worst nightmare I can remember was something to do with monsters named after Transactinide elements. I think Hassium was blue and furry.

I was a somewhat unusual 7 year old.

I had a dream, about trying to help one of my friends escape from a horde of Fallout Super Mutants. We were fleeing through some gigantic, four-mile-long mall/school complex, and eventually got cornered in a storage room. They caught him first while I hid in a locker, then after they ripped him to pieces, dragged me out of the locker and beat me to death using his arms and legs as improvised weapons. That one was a few weeks ago.

Last night, I dreamt I was in Diablo2. I changed my character class to 1337 h@x0r, then proceeded down to hell armed with Iron Man's armor, a lightsaber, and a BFG. Once I got to hell, I tortured Diablo by cutting off his tail every time it regrew, until he agreed to send me home. Of course, instead, he sent me into Doom3. So I fought back out of that game's hell (using the same weapons) up to the real world, used my 1337 $k!ll$ to reprogram the martian device, but instead of going home I ended up in Planescape: Torment without my skills or anything but my lightsaber. So I wandered through the Planescape world until I found the Lady of Pain, and started throwing comments at her about Citidel Station until she finally did send me back to the real world, except I arrived with my lightsaber on and accidentally cut an office, a ladderwell, and a particular dick chief in half. At which point I went to court martial, but a bunch of Men In Black types showed up to get the charges dropped if I could show the NSA how to build more lightsabers. I woke up from my dream in an "undisclosed location".

I remember a dream where I murdered my English teacher for the lulz. Chopped his body up into itty-bitty pieces, severing every joint, sinew, and tendon... (This was right before I was starting a new school year.)

it was a while ago, but I once dreamt that a toddler I knew was hit by a car in front of me. Ironically for that pothole, I was less that ten years old at the time of the dream.

edited 21st Jan '11 10:53:53 AM by dontcallmewave

I've had my share of nightmares. One stands out for me because it was very vidid. I was sitting at my computer like always, and I looked out my window. There was a creepy looking biker like guy on the pavement, just standing there watching me. Then he stepped over my fence and THROUGH my window right in front of me.

Then I woke up. Sounds silly, but the vividness made it all the worse - I've had dreams where I'm running from zombies, been shot in the head or spine, etc. with no problem. In fact, I LIKE violent, action-y dreams - they're fun. This was just disturbing.

To a lesser extent, I've had dreams where my pet birds have escaped from their cage somehow and flown away. Not so much scary as saddening. I'm slightly overprotective of my pets, heh.

Also, this is gonna sound stupid, but... I've had dreams which I literally cannot begin to describe. As in, words don't exist for it. I don't understand, but I can say they leave me with a strange feeling of hopelessness. Maybe my brain is being infected by Eldritch Abominations.

Oh, and I get sleep paralysis sometimes, so I've had a few "waking dreams" or whatever you call them. One time I hallucinated a long, pale white face looking at me through the crack in my bedroom door. I was basically awake at this stage, so it scared the shit out of me.

The worst nightmare I ever had, though, wasn't exactly a nightmare at all. Shortly after my mother died, I dreamed that she was still alive. We told her about how we thought she had died, and she laughed it off. Then I woke up, and realized that it wasn't real. She was still dead.

edited 11th Jan '11 12:20:44 PM by Talby

I've had quite my share. Worst bits that come to mind: Being run at by a Zerg Rush of suicide bombers; being zombified and experiencing the process; being infected by something very virulent in my arm, and trying desperately to burn it off, only to have my IRL best friends of the time force me to burn my other arm; either being violently psychotic or under the complete psychic control of an alien, and aware of these; being told that dreams are just entertainment for things that will be quite upset if I ever try lucid dreaming again. Haven't had any since that last one.

There was one I had when I was a kid that still gives me the heebie jeebies today. I can't remember all the details but it was some sort of family get together and it must've been late because it was dark outside. There was also something in the dark that would get you if you went into it but I was the only one who knew this and no matter how hard I tried to warn everyone nobody would believe me. Then the whatever it was got inside the house and for some reason the lights were off everywhere apart from the front room, which people kept leaving. They didn't come back. Then my mum went out of the front room. The last thing I remember happening before waking up was seeing someone standing in a dark room who looked like my mum but which I knew wasn't her, just something that could make itself look like her. And as before, I was the only one who knew and no one believed me.

Oh, and by the way I was about five or six at the time.

I had this really weird dream a couple of nights ago. I was in this post apocalyptic wasteland being stalked by vampires. The scarily thing was that I couldn't just make a run for it as these muntant 'traps weed' growing everywhere. Motherfuckin guillotines would spring out of the cracks in the wall when ever you were going through a narrow corner or a confined area.

edited 13th Jan '11 2:37:30 AM by joeyjojo

I'm fairly jaded to sleep paralysis now, and when it starts up I'm usually like "Dammit, not again" and lucidly start trying to wake up. First experience with it, not so much.

I was staring at the ceiling of my room (I imagine because I was actually in bed, looking up at the time), which was uncomfortably bright. But I was hallucinating the feeling of running through my house and trying to open the closet door, hindered greatly by the fact that I couldn't see anything but the persistent image of the ceiling of my room and having to navigate only by touch.

Now, why I was attempting to open the closet door had to do with the fact that I could hear a man with a gravelly voice break open the living room window and slowly stalk through the place, tapping a heavy knife against the walls the whole time, and muttering creepy things.

Second experience with it managed to top that; the same guy broke in again, but now I was fully paralyzed in my bed and able to see quite vividly everything subsequent. There was much subsequent, and none of it pleasant.

edited 13th Jan '11 10:18:48 AM by Pykrete

Hm..The worst.. i've had quite a lot, so it's difficult..

but when I was around ..5-8 (dunno), I had this nightmare:

I was at my fathers house with my brother (my parents are divorced). Suddenly my brother was holding me down, as my father started chopping me into pieces with an axe. Strangely i didn't exactly die from that, and was still conscious -though unable to speak- when they threw me out in the garbage bin.

My mother then came and found me, and cried over my "dead" but still conscious body..

In the end I was buried "alive" while everyone was crying..

^^"

edited 14th Jan '11 3:49:20 AM by Arikitari

wow, that sounds pretty scary.

Weaver's sounds like a good episode of "Are You Afraid of the Dark." Write a script!

I don't think I've ever had anything this bad. I did have a dream where my mother died and I was stuck living with my stepdad, and we couldn't afford a funeral. I was crying my eyes out and he kept on saying everything would be fine, we didn't need to do anything. I yelled "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! MY MOTHER IS DEAD!" What made this really bad is that this dream seemed to be a jumble of everything that happened in the next month or so. My stepdad's mother died and nobody could/would pay for the funeral(my stepdad wouldn't) and my stepdad and mom broke up.

• Me and my brother (I think there was someone else, but they apparently weren't too important to the dream) were entering a dark house with guns. When we got inside we began searching the place. I went upstairs and began looking around the hallway. To give you a good mental picture, the hallway lit only by the light from 3 broken windows. It was very cloudy outside and everything was various shades of gray. All the doors in the hall were closed except one that lead into large room. As I entered the room I quickly swung around and was facing a man in a hockey mask. He lifted the mask and said something about this being revenge for me trying to kill him (I'm thinking we chased him in here. He was Obviously Evil, so I have to assume there was a good reason for me to kill him). As he ran at me I realized my gun was gone, so I pulled my knife to fight him off. Before I could attack he slashed my hand with his weapon, a screw driver, than pinned me down. He said one last thing and stabbed the screw driver down my throat. To make it worse, when I woke up it felt like someone really did ram a large tool down my throat after slashing my hand.

• I was riding in a bus. As the bus went over a bridge I somehow fell out. I hit the ground and died. Usually that's were dreams end (seeing as the main character is dead), but instead I got an overhead view as a group of people gathered around. I had apparently taken the role of the "camera" now and was watching as my broken and bloody remains were put in a body bag and taken away. Not really as scary as the other one, but it was fairly weird.