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When I was about five years old, I had a reoccurring nightmare. My Aunt Lynn used to babysit me from the end of my mom's maternity leave until I was in kindergarten. She had a huge pasture in her backyard. She used to have horses, but once they died, she decided to just get a couple of dogs. The pasture was large enough for my cousin to turn into a Go-Kart track and later into a golf course. She lived out in the country which, oddly enough, was right next to I-72. She was on a well system, and I remember the well being covered by a big cement circle. I used to play on it like a platform. It was like a stage. It was next to the willow tree that I loved to play under.

The dream that I kept having always scared me into my parents' bed. It was actually a little gory for a dream of a five year old, and I still don't know exactly what it means. (If you know what it means, you should send me a message.)

It starts out with me in the pasture. There was an old tree fort at the very far edge of my aunt's property. I was playing there and wanted to go back to the house. So I started walking back. It was a nice sunny day and at this point it's a nice dream. I can't exactly remember what was happening in the middle of the pasture, it was like a black blur, like someone was racing really fast. I was a little afraid of it, mainly because I didn't know what it was. When I got closer there was a little shack. It was newer wood, not like the barn that was closer to the house. The whole thing was only wide enough for a door on one side. From the outside, it looked a little like an outhouse. I opened it.

Inside the tiny shack, was a chair and a table completely flush to the walls and a mannequin hunched over the table with a knife in the back of it's neck. Yes, there was blood, which as an adult, surprised me because I was a sheltered kid.

I felt a sense of fear and that someone was looking at me. I turned to my right and rising out of the well was a sort of creature with a white face and black robes. It had no body and was floating. When it started to chase me, I woke up.

I had this dream so often that I still remember it as an adult. When I went back to my aunt's house I stayed away from the well. I still loved to play under the willow tree and in the old tree fort, but the well was no longer a stage. It was evil. (plus I was afraid the cover would break, even though it was concrete.)

Learn more about this author, Niki Howlett.
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