Dreams

            Tom woke up with a start.  He had been dreaming again and he had no idea why he had been having such dreams – unusually frightening dreams.

            For the past three months, he had been having dreams of a similar nature.  Dreams about grotesque monsters going after him, dreams about vampires sucking the life force out of him and dreams about gigantic statues coming to life and crushing him to death.  He had not had a good sleep for the past three months and he was at a loss as to how to improve his situation. 

            Out of desperation, he went to the local bookshop to pick a book on dreams.  He searched under monsters, vampires and sections where it explained the significance of running away from intimidating things.  It was about issues which he could not face, issues if unconfronted would wring the life force out of him.  “But what are they?” Tom mused.

            Taking a suggestion from the book, Tom decided to practise lucid dreaming to see if he could improve his sleep.  The next time the bad dreams began, he would mentally remind himself that the nightmare was just a dream, and he would take charge of the ‘life-threatening’ situation as and when it occurred. 

            That night, before he went to bed, Tom recited this to himself repeatedly as he fell asleep.  “When the monster appears, I’ll know that it’s all a dream.  When the monster appears, I’ll know that it’s all a dream…”

            Before long, he was asleep, and true enough, the monster was appearing in his dream again.  “It’s a dream.  It’s a dream.”  Tom realized that whatever thing he feared was nothing more than just a figment of his imagination, and he could easily overcome his nemesis if he wanted to do it.

            Tom turned around and shouted at the monster.  “Get lost, you moron!”  The monster looked at Tom, froze in terror for a moment before taking to his heels.  It was as easy as that.  The bad dreams stopped and Tom had the most peaceful sleep in months.

            When he woke up, he knew what he had to do.  He took everything that reminded him of his ex-girlfriend and threw them in the rubbish bin.  They had broken up three months ago and Tom had kept all these things to remind him of the good times they had had.  He had thought that he had got over his sadness, and that by keeping those things, the good times would resume.

            “Time to let go…” Tom said as he dumped everything.  He was free again.  Tom never knew that throwing things away could be that cathartic.

1. grosteque - ugly

2. significance - meaning

3. intimidating - threatening

4. wring - twist

5. lucid - clear 

6. figment - creation

7. nemesis - opponent

8. carthartic -  healing

9. mused - pondered

10. gigantic - huge