This post is originally created by /u/peterwilli at Tue, 18 Jul 2023 09:16:47 GMT UTC. Click here to view original post.


As a child I had a constant nightmare pretty much every night. While slightly varying from dream to dream, they all share the same main story line: I wake up in my bedroom, and I can just feel that something is up. I try to run away, but a force pulls me back into my room.

Whenever I do manage to pull myself out of the room, I can run down the stairs and cry for my mom for help. The running down the stairs is often very slow and when I do make it downstairs, my mom isn’t real. She is some kind of demon that is part of the nightmare.

I know this, but even then I still go to her, because in my mind I just want to believe it’s her…


Fast forward to adult life, and a nightmare like this hasn’t happened in 20 years easily.

That all changed when I woke up in the same bedroom (I still sleep in the same bedroom, but the entire interior including the bed has since then changed).

What immediately struck me as that I was little again, and the bed was in the same spot it was many years ago, as if going back in time. Like the other nightmares, something felt wrong.

I quickly got up to run away and indeed a ghost manages to pull me back in, but I ran away hard enough to make it downstairs, where my mom was sitting with my sister, who also was much younger, singing a song.

Unlike other nightmares, I halted in this moment, and told myself slowly “…your not my real mom!”

This is where the nightmare deviated into a regular dream. There was a family gathering, everyone was there. But no ghosts, no surprise or nightmares anymore. We were outdoors and it was clear as day.

Outside of family, there was only one person I did not recognize. It was a young blonde female with a black motorbike suit on and having hair gel in her hair. She had slim, blue eyes and lips that were red-grey and her skin was smooth.

My mom and dad walked up to me and began checking me out by asking me “Hey Peter?” naturally I answered.

“what is it?” I asked.

“We have to be sure it’s you”, they said. “a demon tries to take your body every time you wake up”

“why only during waking up,” I asked surprised.

“the demon is very strong, but so are you. it can only possess your body if you are asleep, every night is a war between 2 entities.”

This scared me, what if the nightmares weren’t to scare me, but to trap me long enough for the demon to take over? It would explain why they are relatively mundane and don’t have any jump scares in them.

Throughout the gathering, there was food and music and various groups talking. However, the lady always stood out, and she seemed to be angry at me, judging by her look at me.

I walked up to her, full of courage and told her: “I think you are the demon.”

She looked down on little me and asked: “oh yeah, why do you think that?”

“You are angry at me because I didn’t get scared anymore in the nightmare and you missed your opportunity to trap me so you can take over this body.”

For a moment it was silent. She broke the silence after a loud demonic scream broke out of her, followed by her transforming into black smoke, flying up in the air while continuing to scream!

Nonchalantly, I wove my hand in the air, and the scene was surrounded by invisible walls. The smoke first hit the wall in the back, then flew towards the right wall, hitting it again, confirming it was trapped in the dream.

With the demonic screaming fading into the distance, I woke up.


The scary part was the sudden twist in all my childhood nightmares. I remember these dreams all too well, but they never came back to me until now.

I also had the feeling that if this were somehow true, that the demon is far from finished and might reappear in another night.

Whatever it is, this twist certainly re-ignited the fear I had of these childhood nightmares!