Fellow oneironauts, I need your input:
10/24/2007
# 71: “Escape From My Abuser”
I am either an employee or former employee of a very powerful woman. This woman lives/works in an enormous three-storey house which seems to be in the center of town. The house is built on steeply sloping hill.
The woman has apparently invited me back to her house on this night. I am apprehensive about going, because I remember that this woman is dangerous. However, I decide to accept her invitation, and return to the house. I tell the woman that I will stay with her over the weekend.
When I first arrive at the house, everything seems to be alright. I speak briefly with the woman, and then begin to wander aimlessly around this huge house. However, the longer I am in the house, the more apprehensive I get. I sense that something is wrong, and that I may have put myself in danger by returning to this house.
I encounter NE, a current coworker, as I wander through the house. I remember that NE was also a former employee of the powerful woman. NE and I meet up with the woman in a main room of the house, and she begins talking. As she talks, NE repeatedly shoots me looks, as if he is trying to tell me something without the woman noticing. He looks increasingly concerned/nervous as the woman talks. Finally, she tells us that she is going to go take a bath. After she leaves the room, NE grabs my arm.
“Ok, you have to sneak out of here right now,” he says intensely. “Go out the back door, stay out of sight of the windows, don’t let her see you!” I try to pull my arm away but he tightens his grip. “You have to go now, we have to get out of here! She’s just going to start abusing us again!”
As NE speaks, I begin to remember my past with this woman. I remember that she is evil, and that she has abused me in the past. I decide to take NE’s advice, and sneak out. He stresses again that I cannot let myself be seen from any of the windows in the house.
NE leads me down to the basement level where there is a door to the outside. For some reason he stays behind, and I walk outside. It is night, and I am on a back porch of some kind, hidden in the shadows. I look up, and the house seems to stretch up for miles behind me, with thousands of windows, some dark and others bright with light. I think I know which window belongs to the woman’s bathroom, and I continually glance at it as I begin to move.
I am on the lower side of the steep hill that the house sits on. I emerge from the shadow cast by the house, and sneak down the hill. My plan is to reach the bottom of the hill, where there is a street, and walk away that way. I suddenly realize that I am in plain view of the windows in the house. I glance back, and see the woman, staring out of the bathroom window. I can see a look of fury on her face, and I am suddenly terrified. I turn and start to run up the hill, in the direction of the house. I am suddenly sure that the police station is at the top of this hill, and that I therefore must run past the house in order to reach safety.
As I run, I hear running footsteps behind me, and I glance over my shoulder. I see that NE is running behind me with a panicked look on his face. I realize that I have put him in danger by being spotted by the woman.
Up ahead, I can see the police station. Although it is not far away, the steepness of the hill slows us down. We continue running, with NE trailing further and further behind. At some point I realize that he has been recaptured by the woman or her agents, and I feel guilty.
Eventually I reach the police station. It is perched on the top of the same steep hill that the woman’s house sat on. The station building itself lies at the top of a long set of stairs, almost like the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The architecture is very gothic, with many statutes and gargoyles. I run up the stairs, out of breath, and reach the top.
I enter the police station. The interior reminds me of the industrial arts area of my old high school; there is no reception desk or waiting area. It occurs to me that this building must be both the police station and police academy. I look into a room nearby, and see that it is a classroom, with dozens of uniformed cops sitting at desks. A few minutes later, another door opens farther down the halls, and a crowd of officers pour out.
I wander around, looking for some kind of reception area. I walk past a glass door that looks in on a pool which looks just like the pool at my old high school. The pool is full of cops swimming, almost a hundred. I think it is strange that the pool would be that full in the middle of the night (I think it is 2 or 3 in the morning). In one lane, it appears that officers are zipped into black body bags. They are swimming back and forth using a dolphin stroke. I am surprised, but decide that it must be some kind of training.
I continue to wander the halls, and finally come to an area that appears to be a holding area of sorts. I decide that this must be where people wait to speak to the police. Across the room, I see a very petite, pretty young woman with short hair. She reminded me of someone famous, but I cannot remember. I am immediately attracted to this woman. I see that she is crying, and it occurs to me that she has been abused, possibly by a boyfriend or husband. She looks terrified.
A police officer enters the room, and I walk up to talk to him. He cuts me off an begins to ask several questions. As I answer his questions, I slowly remember just how much the powerful woman had abused me in the past. I cannot remember what kind of abuse, but I break down and cry, much like the pretty woman in the room. I am terrified that she is going to find me.
Just as I am about to tell the cop who has been abusing me, he cuts me off, and tells me to follow him. I am confused, but follow him. He leads me back to the front door of the station, where I first entered. I start to worry that this cop is working for the powerful woman, or that he is going to release me and I will be snatched by the woman.
The cop opens a door and tells me to go inside. I find a chair and sit, and he closes the door, plunging the room into darkness. I continue to worry about my fate, while also worrying about what has happened to NE. I become aware that the pretty woman from the waiting room is also sitting in the room, on the floor, with her back against the wall. She is still silently crying, trembling, and I feel an urge to go to her and help her.
I slide across the floor until I am kneeling next to her. She slowly looks up, tears streaming down her face. I take her hand and say “I know more now what you go through than I did before,” referring to the plight of battered women, I think.
“I know, Celestial Toymaker.” She says sweetly, and begins to gently play with my hand. It is a wonderful moment, and I am filled with tenderness and affection for this woman. We sit silently, holding hands and smiling at each other for awhile. I feel protective of this woman, and I feel love for her. The dream ends soon thereafter.
Ok, about me:
24 yr old law student, single but looking. T
The girl in the dream is physically similar to other "dream girls" I've met: short blonde or dark hair, petite, hot, and sweet. She looks somewhat like an old girlfriend from high school. The character NE is a current co-worker of mine who I am friendly with, but not close to.
The town the dream is set in looks like a warped version of the town I currently live in, and I think of it as that town in the dream.
Throughout the dream, the emotions I feel are very strong, ranging from unease when I first visit the powerful woman, terror as I am trying to escape, to love and tenderness when I meet the girl at the end.
Any input appreciated. Thanks!
If anyone is interested, here's my dream journal here on DV. Enjoy!
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=50314
