Disturbing decapitation dream...
Ok, please don't think I'm a psycho, I have no idea where this came from...
So in most dreams I have the ability to either be a character, look through the eyes of a character, or observe invisibly from outside of everyone. Usually I can change modes at will, which is good especially when something bad or painful is happening to me or the person I'm inside. I can read, see colors and retain all my senses, including smell, taste, and pain.
So last night I was in a park in outside observation mode, when my attention was drawn to a young woman with long dark braids being dragged away from the park by a big man. He was telling her that they needed to "get her back home" though it was obvious she didn't want to go, but was unable to fight him.
He took her to a big house where he gave her to his son, a man in his late 20s, *from whom it appeared she had run away. It seems she was maybe his wife? The younger man asked his mother what he should do with the girl, and she said (verbatim), "Love her, punish her, and get her cleaned up for dinner."
At this point I left the live action story and instead all these things were presented *to me as if in a comic book, in black and white (?), I was able to turn the pages and look at the details at will. On the last page was a picture of the younger man sitting at a fancy dinner table with his mother standing behind him. "We're so happy to have your daughter back with us, " the mother said. The young woman was dressed in an evening gown, seated across from him at the table. Her head had been replaced with that of a doll, much too small for her body.
I was confused as to what had happened, so I turned back a few pages. At his mother's suggestion, he had raped her, cut off her head, and apparently stabbed her multiple times in the back with a skewer like object, after which he washed and dressed her, replacing her head with the doll's. This was all presented in 3 static, comicbook-style panels.
The book ended there, but on the bottom of the back cover page there was a note that said, "Symbolism of beheading? Why a doll's head? Size? " as if someone had been taking notes on this story for a class. I woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep again for 3 hours because I was so disturbed ...
I thought the changing of the dream into book form might have been me trying to disassociate from the graphic violence, but the notes at the end intrigued me. I also thought it was significant that it was the younger man's daughter (which seemed to have been revealed for dramatic effect). Also of note, while I was reading the book, I myself was located in a non-place, just black all around me, but not a room.
I don't know, maybe I just had a nightmare. Any ideas?
