I was sleeping soundly in my bed, when something woke me. I opened my eyes with difficulty, and suddenly I was overcome by a horrible sense of dread from the other side of the room, where my roommates normally slept in a bunk bed, though I could tell they weren't there now. I knew what it was; it was some sort of demon, come back for who knows what hideous purposes. I say come back, because it had a feeling of familiarity, this thing. Like it was an old enemy of mine, though now I have no knowledge of ever having had a similar dream, or another in which it was involved.
I never actually saw the monster, there was simply a feeling of horror coming from that side of the room. I was, however, able to pinpoint the exact origin of this fear: the thing was perched on top of the bunk bed, on the closest side to me.
I could hear, in my mind, its plans for me, though I don't remember them now. Whatever it thought to do both terrified and ticked me off a bit, but then something weird happened. Somehow I became suspicious, I started to realize it was a dream. Remembering techniques to check reality I had heard of, I looked down at my hands in search of distortions, but that didn't work because everything was slightly blurry anyway, which my grogginess accounted for. So I thought of another way and grabbed the alarm on the desk beside my bed; sure enough, I couldn't read the time, and the symbols kept changing.
I exalted in my victory over my own head at first, but it was a limited victory. For one thing, it did almost nothing to lessen the fear. And worse, no matter how hard I tried, I could not wake up. A few times, I would try, and wake up back in the dream bed, that same dread blowing over from across the room. I decided to employ my subconcious in assisting me. I picked up a book, checking first to make sure the words were indeed changing, closed my eyes, and focused on how to wake up, asking the book almost like a kid asking a Magic 8 Ball.
When I opened my eyes the book had answered me. It declared "ARMAGEDDON" across the cover. The monster seemed to laugh at me, but I threw the book down and concentrated on ending the world, and the scene disappeared. I woke up in bed, forced my eyes open once again, and realized I was back at the beginning. It seemed I was trapped by my mind.
Well, I thought, why not take advantage of my lucidity and go experience some fantasies? So I got up and walked to the door, ignoring the fear from atop the bunk bed. I walked out into the hall, which was dark. From somewhere came a white cat, and it decided to follow me. I attempted to make the lights come on through power of will, but they refused, and I despaired for a time.
I closed my eyes and felt my body lying in bed, but when I opened them I was stll in the dark hall. I wandered with the cat, climbing a stairwell only to find it dead-end, then beginning downwards. I got ahead of the feline, and when I turned to look across the stairwell to the stairs opposite me, it had transformed into a man. I ran to the base of the stairs and turned, expecting to have to fight the catman, but it never came. My vision began to fade, and once again I felt myself lying in bed.
I opened my eyes, hoping in vain to truly awaken this time. I was angry, I stood up. And then, from somewhere came a strange narrative, "...and that was how the cat fight began." The animal, which had previously seemed my friend, viciously attacked my leg.
I woke up, drenched in sweat (for it was a hot night in Fredericksburg), with Maynard screaming in my ear about his third eye.