I have been a practitioner of LD'ing for only a few months now, but I have managed to obtain a relatively strong control over my dreaming. It is October now, and naturally I am thinking about all things hallowed and frightening; more specifically my Halloween costume/character, the Slenderman. After putting much time into the costume (on stilts!) and getting into character (scaring the neighbors), something unexpected has happened.

Let me start off the story by saying that I am ALWAYS self aware of my dreaming with the exception of one type of lucid dream; the kind where one dreams about the immediate and predictable future, or the next day.

Last night I went to bed with the intention of dreaming about the coming day; I find it enjoyable to imagine my immediate future when I sleep. I knew that I would be babysitting before I dozed off, and that was exactly where I was when I was in my dream state. IRL I watch my neighbor's son and daughter, who are four and five respectively. Long and vivid story short, at one point in my dream it was very dark outside and was basically nighttime. I was in the backyard of my neighbor's on the patio, facing the red bricked house and the sliding door which led into the living room -- in front of the sliding door was the little girl that I was taking care of, hiding behind a charcoal grill. She was as pale as a ghost, and was wearing a dark blue parka -- I attempted to coax her out to take her inside, but she kept repeating in a terrified voice "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" over and over.. I tried to pull her out with all my strength, but in my dream state I was surprisingly unable to have any control over the situation it seemed. The entire time, this girl had her back to the sliding door and seemed to be looking over my shoulder. At this point, I became scared -- I slowly turned around, and what I saw was my neighbor's empty backyard which extends about 500 yards until it hits a brambly forested area. The trees swayed in the wind, and it looked as if it was about to storm -- as I quickly studied the background, I got the uneasy feeling that we were being watched. I felt sick; it was no longer a lucid dream, it was a nightmare -- the worst part was that I knew my imagination was becoming my worst enemy. Moments later, I saw him. Slenderman was behind a couple of trees, staring with his blank face directly at us. My heart sank and I quickly turned to face the little girl; but she was gone. I came to my feet as quickly as I could, and I began to run. I jumped over a wooden fence and onto the road on which my neighbor and I live. It was foggy, and my visibility was only a few feet in front of my face. I did not want to be dreaming anymore; I was trying my hardest to wake up, but I could not. So I kept running until I reached my house. The front door was open, and my dog who usually camps by it was no where to be found. I began to cry; I knew it was a dream, but it was too vivid. I felt compelled to entered my house, so I did just that. It was not long before I started seeing it again; Slenderman was stalking me throughout my house, constantly appearing and then disappearing. When he finally caught me, I was frozen with fear -- and then to my joy, I woke up! I was laying in bed in front of my laptop. It was time for my to get out of bed -- but when I tried, my body was paralyzed. To my horror, I realized that I had never awoken. Looking into the blackened screen of my MacBook, I saw him once more -- standing behind me. After what felt like at least ten minutes of an intense and trippy sequence of Slenderman's image distorting itself, I managed to turn around to face him. I do not want to go into anymore detail because I find it unsettlingly disturbing, but he basically ate me. The blank face that was a pale white/ slightly skin colored would show a row of disgusting sharp teeth, and consume me. When I died, I finally woke up in real life. I was asleep for only an hour, and I can honestly say that was one of the most frightening experiences of my life. Looking at the costume in the corner of my room still makes me queezy .