Werewolves and nightmares

By the time I got to bed Thursday night, I had been awake for roughly 42 hours straight.  Of course, I was completely wired by the sleep deprivation  and the testing (which I can describe later - I need to purge this out of my head first).  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to sleep after all that, so I popped a couple of melatonin tablets (an herbal sleep aid which I have used before).

I laid down around 2300, and even then it took until into early Friday morning to actually fall asleep.  When I did finally make it to sleep, it was a restless sleep, punctuated by dreams.  Nightmares, actually.  The kind of nightmares that linger on after you are awake, even though you *know* they aren't real, you find yourself looking around, turning on lights, with a hovering sense on unease.  A day and a bit later, (and well rested) I still can't completely shake it.

Usually, when I have a nightmare, I can roll over to my other side and the dreams will either banish, or switch to pleasant ones.  Not this one.  I rolled over - the dream came back.  I got up for some water and a pee - the dream came back.  Every time I closed my eyes and started to drift off, the dream came back.

I don't remember every detail, but I remember parts vividly.  I know I was in a bar, not a bar I know, the typical "roadhouse" type bar you see in movies - long and low.  There was a definite reddish cast to the whole dream, and this roadhouse seemed to be in the middle of no-where (of course); a splash of red light in the middle of the dark night.

I don't recall being with anyone I knew in the dream, I was just in the bar.  There were a number of other people in the bar, and I somehow *knew* that many of them were werewolves, even though they were in human form.  Not the warm, fuzzy, socially conscious type werewolves that have been made popular in modern fiction; not they type that blend well with society and eat burgers.  No, these were the "older" type of werewolves, the kind that see humans as toys, prey, and/or food.  Werewolves with bad attitudes.

Sure enough, things went downhill, and the werewolves decided to (for lack of a better term) start a brawl.  It gets a bit fuzzy in my memory, but somehow I ended up in the vestibule of the roadhouse with three young male and really aggressive werewolves (still in human form - they never did "change").

I was fighting back, but I knew they were toying with me, and I knew I was toast.  I suddenly remembered (?) that I had a pistol with me, and silver bullets (its a dream, people.  It doesn't have to make sense).  So I pulled out my trusty pistol and put a silver bullet in the middle of the forehead of the werewolf closest to me ... who smiled, and kept coming for me.  I paniced and fired at the other two ... 

and woke up.

Woke up completely creeped out, and nervous.  Turned on the lights, looked around, tried to calm down.  Looked at the clock - 0300.

Eventually calmed down enough to try sleep again, and finally made it into a dreamless, restful sleep, until about 0630.  I hadn't set my alarm, but I don't "sleep in" well.  Made it through Friday OK, but the dream has continued to rear itself up from my sub-conscious when I am not expecting it - scenes will flash in my mind with no warning.  Went to bed last night around midnight (no melatonin) and had a dreamless sleep.  But the werewolves are still there, just under the surface.

No idea where to even start trying to figure out the symbolism on this one, what my sub-conscious is trying to tell me.  Honestly, just hoping that putting it all on paper will get it out of my head.

Thanks for listening. ♥