Death Is A Dream Come True

That phrase has layers of meaning, if you're willing to look, and not just the obvious one which I'm sure Satanic Thoreau would agree with. It's amazing how often I stare death in the face in my dreams. It's like my dream world is trying to live on the edge in order to counter my mundane waking existence.

So last night, I dreamed I was in an Aliens movie. I don't know which one it was supposed to be, but the idea was that at the end of the movie, there was a scene where a Predator attacks, and it was supposed to be some sort of lead-in to the Predator movies (the Predator movies, not the AvP movies). Here's the trick - the movie was simultaneously an actual movie, and real events that were occurring to me. I was *in* the movie, and despite knowing that it was a movie, I wasn't just acting - I was really being chased by a Predator and my life was really on the line.

It was pretty harrowing. At first, before the Predator showed up, there were three of us, and we knew the Predator was coming. We tried to hide in this one chamber. For some reason, the Predator's sight worked like a T-Rex's in Jurassic Park, despite the Predator's awesome technology. In other words, he couldn't see us, or at least tell that we were living creatures, as long as we didn't move or make any sounds. So I was lying there when the Predator entered the room, staying deathly still, with the thought on my mind that any second I would feel something sharp jab into me, and I would have to face an extremely painful death. Sounds like fun, don't it?

Well actually, my hiding place was a little bit better than one of the other two people that were hiding, and I was kind of hoping that the Predator would kill the other dude who was more exposed, so that maybe I could escape or something. Grim, I know, but hey, in a situation like that, you'll take any chance of survival over the entire party's total annihilation.

In any case, the Predator left the room for a moment, though for some reason I knew he would be back very shortly. But an image flashed in my mind and suddenly I knew right then that my best chance of survival would be to run for it. And I did. Unfortunately, the Predator came in at just that moment, saw me running, and came after me. I got outside, and as it happens, we were in a house instead of a spaceship. In fact, I think it was my gramma's house. Anyway, I thought that outside, with people around (and there were a few people around in adjacent yards), I'd be somehow safer. But even as I ran down the street shouting for help, it's not like the Predator stopped chasing me.

Although he did get distracted by one of the people long enough for me to run around the side of a house, and to my utter surprise and jubilation, it looked like I had actually managed to outrun and hide from the Predator. The Predator came around, wondering which direction I had run off in, and I snuck around the house to keep out of his sight. Unfortunately, the house, for some reason, was much like a car, in that it was raised a few feet off the ground, and sat on four wheels. I tried my best to climb up the side of the house or hide behind the wheels, but when the Predator checked under the house, he saw me. My oh-so-successful escape had been foiled.

I don't remember what happened after that. Perhaps the dream ended. Surely, I'd have no chance against a Predator. I'll tell you, though, sitting in that chamber with my eyes closed, waiting for the Predator to slice and dice me in an instant... Have you ever faced death in such a manner in any of your dreams?