My nightmares are becoming reality

Have you ever had the feeling of déjà vu? Where you’ve met someone in a dream before but not in real life? Well, I assume most of us had that experience before, heck, maybe even remember the words they will say before having them even say it. Crazy, right? Well, crazy is a.. strong word. I thought the things that I had dreamt of, wouldn’t be as… vivid and surreal. I wouldn’t have thought that all the bad things I had dreamt of would have come true.

It was just a sunny afternoon, I was strolling down my usual path to the usual MacDonalds I have been eating at for the past 6 years. Somehow, I never really got tired of that place, seeing that same old employees and the same old worn tables the employees never really bothered to clean. It all seemed kinda authentic in a weird way. So, on the way to the restaurant, I had a familiar sense of déjà vu ringing in my head. Recently, I’ve had multiple cases of déjà vu where I would’ve tripped and fall or stepped on some dog shit or something small, so I brushed it off as one of those cases. But, as I casually walked down those very same steps, I had begun to remember what had happened in the dream I had earlier this morning. I was walking down the path, listening to my favourite tunes, and I noticed a maroon car speeding in the distance, before I knew what had happened in that dream, I had already woken up. As I was recollecting my thoughts, I heard a screech in the distance. I looked up and saw a maroon coloured car getting chased by two police cars, and it was heading straight towards me. As soon as I had a realised what was going on, the car was only merely seconds from hitting me, so, like any panicked animal, I jumped away from the oncoming car as it swerved away into a lamp post. I was in a state of shock and panic, finally understanding as reality hit me, I would’ve died if I hadn’t jumped away. The policemen that were chasing the car, inspected the damage dealt to their fugitive, unfortunately, the man had died on impact.

The car incident had me shocked and afraid. There was no way that it could have happened right? Still, the steps were there. Everything in that single dream had happened to me, and it had almost killed me! It had to be a coincidence, it just had to be, but, little did I know, it wasn’t.

The second time I had escaped death was on a rainy evening, just a week away from that encounter. I was on my way home from school and was taking my usual route back home. It had been a wonderful day, and it was about to change in mere seconds. You see, the nightmare I had was of a man holding a serrated knife cutting down a woman mercilessly. He had this bloodlust to him that frightened me. While he was torturing his victim, he was muttering something inaudible, that I can’t quite make out but all I knew is that it made me sick to my stomach. Then, he looked at me. Even remembering it scares me to this day.

So, as I walked down that usual path, I noticed a familiar alleyway that looked exactly like the one in my dream. Then, I started remembering the dream and the car incident that had taken place a week ago. My stomach churned, begging me to run away from it, but, curiosity got the better of me. I walked down the alleyway, hoping to prove myself wrong, hoping that a murderer wouldn’t be in my field of sight as I walked down that crude alley. As I went deeper and deeper, muffled voices echoed through the alley followed by the sound of a stab. All my instincts told me to boot for the exit, but my urge to prove myself wrong was greater. I went forward and met the ugly sight that still haunts me to this day. A man wearing a blood-soaked shirt and jeans, was merrily stabbing a half-naked woman carefully. The woman was sobbing in agony, begging for him to stop. My body froze, I couldn’t move, my nightmare had come true! The man was wearing the exact same clothes, except they were bloodier and he had the same serrated knife that was rending the woman’s flesh. The man even had the same bloodlust emitting from him. Instinctively, I took a step backward, begging myself to run away, but my footsteps had been heard by the two. The woman quickly turned her head to me in a moment of relief, but it had quickly vanished once she realised that it had only been me. The man, on the other hand, was irritated at my presence at first, but as he had realised that I was alone, his frown warped into a perverted smile.

“Come here little girl, don’t be afraid. I just want to know how your insides taste like.”

That line alone, threw countless red flags at me, begging me to run the fuck away, yet, it didn’t matter. My body wouldn’t listen to me, I was frozen solid. At that very point, the man lunged at me like a savage animal, without thought, my body moved to dodge the attack and sprinted out of the alleyway. The man, however, had been persistent, he ran after me, flailing like a mad man, screaming for me to come back. Then, it happened, a sharp pain to my left leg. The pain caused me to flinch and threw me off balance. I fell to the ground and quickly inspected it. The man had thrown his knife at me. I turned to look at my chaser and saw him in the air, pouncing on me like a feral beast. I grab the knife out of my leg, and shielded myself from the pounce. I closed my eyes, fearing for the result. A heavy weight fell onto my chest. As I opened my eyes, the man was on top of me, writhing in pain. The knife went through his chest and out the back. I struggled off him and bolted away from the man. Though the pain in my leg had not disappeared, the adrenaline forced me to keep running to the police station. As I’ve arrive to the station, exasperated and panicked, I quickly told the counter-lady that a man had stabbed my leg and was now at the alleyway with a knife in his chest. A couple of officers were in the vicinity and had overheard my ramblings, so they quickly rushed to the alleyway in hopes of capturing the man.

I stayed at the station for two hours before the two officers had returned, my wound had been bandaged by the counter-lady and my parents had been informed of the incident. As they had arrived, the officers had found no man, but a woman that had bled to death from what seemed to be stab wounds. To that, the officers began to question me about this man. To the best of my ability, I told them about the man and how I had seen him viciously torturing the woman. Though shaken with fear, the man’s image had been ingrained deeply into my mind.

It has been two weeks since then, and multiple reports about half-naked women victims had been spread all across the town. I had been placed under tight police surveillance day in and day out. I couldn’t go out of my house as I was too scared that the man might find me. The same nightmare kept recurring through my head every night, preventing me from getting any sleep. Then, as I am writing to you of this, I had a fresh new nightmare of the same man. This time, the events that played out were all in his eyes, and they were of me screaming and crying.