My first day teaching was rough! The students spoke almost no English and they were hard to control. I wanted nothing more than to wash and get some rest.

I got out of the shower and dried my hair when I noticed the painting above my bed. Strange that I only noticed it now because it was quite a sight to behold. It was of a girl and a big tree with large extended branches, all black as if it had been burnt. The girl was kneeling at the foot of the tree bent over, but was she crying or praying? I wasn’t sure but she held her face in her hands in a very dramatic way. There was something unsettling about it. The intricate way the tree branches were drawn made me think there was something more to it. I made a mental note to myself to get that painting removed…and closed my eyes to sleep.

The next morning I woke up in a cold sweat. I had the most horrific dream! I dreamt that there was a little girl crying on my bed, but this time my room was dark as if someone had dimmed the whole world’s source of light. Everything was in a grey shadow. I walked to the girl cautiously and recognised her clothes and her hair, she was the girl in the painting. As I reached out to touch her she snapped her head back so far that the top of her head touched back. Her eye sockets were stretching impossibly wide making her eyeballs unnaturally large. They were completely red as if blood spilled over them. She let out a long drawn-out scream like a cat in a fight and as she howled her mouth became a gaping hole. No teeth and no tongue, just a never-ending black hole. Still screaming she slowly lifted her head back to the front and before I could get away she grabbed my shoulders at the speed of light. I was terrified as she held me and pushed me backwards until I went over the balcony falling to my death. Before I hit the ground I woke up. I was shaking uncontrollably.

For the next five nights I had the same dream. On the third night in my dream I did not try to touch the girl, but she always seemed to come out of the darkness somewhere and push me over the balcony. On the fifth night of my dream I was pushed off the balcony again, but this time I did not wake up when I hit the ground. I lay there, still stuck in my dream, twitching as I felt how every bone in my body had shattered. I tried lifting my hand to touch my face but the broken bones could not support my arm. I was barely breathing while hoping someone would kill me to get me out of this dream. Why did it feel so real? Why did she keep pushing me off the balcony?

***

Tell us: Have you ever experienced such scary dreams?