Nightmare

It was 9:30pm when I fell asleep on the living room sofa and then proceeded to dream a horrifying nightmare. When I woke up, the upper half of my body literally sprang up from the sofa like the undead being awakened in zombie movies, and with my mouth dry and wide open, I desperately gasped for air. It's one of those dreams that's 100% scarier when you're in it than when you're awake, and it's one of those really rare ones that actually triggers the physical jolt in reality.

I was at my grandmother's house along with my mom, my aunt, and Chris. Chris then left the house, but I didn't know where he went. He had left a pager on the sofa, some guy was suppose to phone him about some job. The guy phoned and I proceeded to use my cell phone in an attempt to inform Chris. I phoned once and reached a traveling agency, phoned twice at the same number and reached an old lady who swears that I've got the wrong phone number. The third time I phoned a man answered with a sinister laugh and told me to wait. For the next 10 minutes all I could hear was the sound from the heel of his shoes striking the cold cement floor in a slow and methodical rhythm. I tried to turn my phone off, but I couldn't. And then along with the cold cok..cok of his steps I heard a man letting out a blood-curdling scream in the background as if he was being tortured. The man sounded like Chris. I finally turned off my cell phone and madly pounded Chris's cell phone number over and over again, only to get the answering machine of the old lady and the automated system of the traveling agency. Tears were streaming down my face as I dialed again and again, with that horrible scream ringing in my ears.

Then I sprang up from the sofa like a vampire and gasped for air. I grabbed my cell phone and called Chris. Thank God he answered. He had made it safety back to San Diego, cheery, and I heard no sounds of leather heels striking the linoleum floor.

Back to Florence
Last night I dreamt that I was back in Florence. We were on the train and we passed by the square in front of the Duomo ( I remember seeing the façade of the woman with her silver nails on the buildings in the piazza). I excitedly tapped on the window and demanded our driver to let me out. I left my friends and decided to stay in Florence for sometime and while unpacking on the street I realized that my plane ticket to NY was in a suitcase other than the one I brought with me. There I was, in the middle of Piazza San Giovanni, without a place to live, without a plane ticket back, and without anyone with me. The dream quickly turned into a nightmare and I found myself struggling to wake up. I woke up alone in my room in the safe haven of my home – groggy, a little confused, restless, and forlorn.

Ps: I have been back in the States for about a week now, I will update my adventures soon on Paris and Florence. I didn’t disappear off the face of the earth, I’ve just been enjoying some time resting.