Waking Up Somewhere Strange.
Posted by Arsene Hodali in FearTales
When I was younger I was afraid of waking up somewhere strange where I was in great danger.
I used to sleepwalk, so I knew it was possible.
The neighbors had brought me home a couple times, and in another house, I was lucky I hadn’t fallen down the stairs. My parents were just as fearful: all it would have taken was a car driving too fast after I had ended up in the street.
It’s probably been a good fifteen years since I last sleepwalked.
I’m still afraid of waking up somewhere strange, however. This makes me glad there are multiple locks on my door. Sure, I want to keep people out, but I also want to stay in. I have no idea if I will ever sleepwalk again, but the possibility of it terrifies me.
Do you ever have a dream, wake up, and think that everything that had just happened was reality?
When your dream is so close to your waking life, the memories feel true instead of imagined? There’s a thin membrane that keeps the worlds separate, and yet sometimes they’re exactly the same. That sameness might lead me to take a walk, imagining myself in my office or at the store. Muscle memory would allow me to undo the locks and probably find the elevator with my eyes closed.
While I’m writing about it now, I actually have done a good job of not thinking about this fear. There’s actually very little I can do about it. Spending time being afraid would make me lose sleep, and eventually my exhaustion could lead to erratic sleep behavior.
I trust when I wake up, I will be in my bed. I know I’m not 9 years old anymore, so if I do end up on my own, hopefully I should manage alright when I wake up. I live with people around me, and I know they would help if something happened.
Those are the odds that I can put in my favor.
Everything else is trust.
photo credit: * karo666 *
