Two years ago, I got myself out of an abusive relationship. It wasn't easy, but it had to be done. My mother threatened jailtime on him and he and his family moved to the south. Shortly after he left, I had nightmares about him. Just a year ago, I'd stopped dreaming about him all together. Now I have a new boyfriend and, since being with him, my ex has returned to my nightmares. I had a particularly chilling one about him last night.

My family was very excited about my new boyfriend and they wanted to cook a special dinner just for him, except that it wasn't my boyfriend in waking life; it was a dream character named Billy. The dream seemed to be set around autumn. Billy and I were walking through a graveyard as the sun set on the verizon. We were going to visit Billy's friends who believed there was a curse put on them. At the end of the graveyard was a shed where his friends were hiding. Some sort of phantom chased them there. Billy said that in order to rid themselves of the ghost, they had to have blood on their hands at all times. His friends found blood to smear onto their hands but they didn't know how to keep it there, so Billy painted some sort of preservative over their skin to hold the blood. The phantom disappeared and they were all grateful towards Billy.

Billy told me he needed to change into nicer clothes for the special dinner and that he would be over my house shortly. I went home and waited for him. My family also had some NBA stars over. While I waited for Billy, I decided to tidy up the bathroom. On the bathroom door, there is a long mirror. I went to windex the mirror and it ocurred to me that I didn't have a reflection. I stared at the empty mirror for a few moments when I noticed a head beginning to rise from the side of the mirror. It was my own reflection. She had a crazy look in her eyes and she raised her hand to strike me when I let out a scream. The NBA players ran it to see what was the matter. I tried to explain what happened but, by that time, my reflection was back to normal again and no one believed me. One of the players said, "Oh, by the way, Billy thinks you're crazy and he lied about his plans to come over today."

I felt terrible and I went into the living room to grieve. A boy I have a crush on in waking life was sleeping on the couch infront of the TV with a nice, thick blanket over him. Curling up next to him made me feel a little better but he discerned me from getting too close to him since he has a girlfriend. What he defined as "too close" was if I went under the covers with him. I tried to keep myself occupied by playing an old Sega Genesis game, but the volume always managed to get too loud whether I touched the TV or not. This boy has always been a heavy sleeper but when everytime the loud sounds woke him he would get very angry with me. At some point, it started to rain inside the living room and there were violent gusts of wind blowing about the room. I was freazing. But, when I tried to get under the covers to protect myself, my crush would just push me out again. Somehow, within the chaos of the storm, I managed to cry myself to sleep.

It was pitch black when I woke up and everyone in the house was gone...Except for my ex boyfriend who was bound in tape on the second floor. From down below, I could hear him screaming how he'd kill me once he escaped and found me. The floorboards raised as my ex broke free from the tape. I heard him stomping as he made his way downstairs. I was terrified. I pulled out my cellphone and ran to the basement. I locked the door behind me and made my way into another room where I locked that door as well. I tried to dial my dad's number on my cellphone, but it was too dark and my hands were too shaky with fear. He broke down the first door and stormed his way over to the door I was hiding behind. By that time, I successfully dialed my dad's number and he was on his way to save me. Then my ex broke down the last door and I had no place to run. The dream ended before I could ever figure out if my dad actually saved me or not.