> > Maybe you should be thankful instead of getting
> >annoyed. I heard once that if you "die" in your
> >dream, you'll die for real. That twitch-jerk-
> >spasm thing right before you smack the ground in
> >your dream could be a safety mechanism that
> >keeps you from dying IRL.
> >
> > I don't know if that's true, but the person who told me that asked me if I could ever remember
> >dying in a dream or nightmare, and I had to
> > answer no. I *always* wake up before "dying."
> >So maybe it's true. And who knows...maybe some
> >people who die in their sleep dreamed that they
> >died. We have no way of knowing.
> >
>
> Yeah, add me to the list of people who have heard that theory but can knowingly disprove it. In a dream I had once, my then-girlfriend and I were riding in a car that ran head-first into an 18-wheeler. I remember the impact (no pain, though--that's another theory I've heard--you don't feel pain in dreams. Can anyone disprove that?) and then everything going black. Then I woke up. It was more than a little frightening, because I wasn't entirely certain until I woke up that it was a dream at all.
>
> -- Dave

One dream I still remember very vividly (or at least, certain aspects of it are clear) was one of my worst nightmares.

In the dream, I was at a party and was introduced to some people I had never met before. We started talking and then eventually moved into another room where it was just these three new people and myself. During the course of a rather normal conversation, these people told me that they were actually vampires and would like me to become a vampire and join them.

For whatever reason, I agreed and I went with one of them into the bathroom so that she could make me a vampire. I remember this next scene so vividly.

Once we were in the bathroom, she stood facing me, just mere inches from my face. She opened her mouth slightly and let me see her fangs. They were so thin that they looked almost fragile, yet when I put my fingertip on the end of one to test its' sharpness, it made a tiny hole in my finger immediately. They were incredibly strong and sharp, despite their apparent frailty.

At that moment, she spun me around and sank her fangs into the area where my neck meets my shoulder. I remember feeling incredible pain as the fangs pierced my skin; but the real pain came moments later. As she was draining me, I could feel the blood in my body being sucked out. What had started off as a pain in my neck (forgive the pun) became a pain that seemed to start in my feet and magnify as it moved throughout my body. I have never in my life experienced a pain like that. The only way I can describe it is to say that it was at the same time both exquisite and excruciating. I could feel the very life being sucked out of me.

Anyway, it was about that time that I woke up. I knew it had just been a dream, but nevertheless I ran to the bathroom to check my neck. The pain had been so real that before I turned the light on and could see my reflection in the mirror, I was FULLY expecting to see a gaping wound. As my rational returned, I still kept looking for a wound. I thought maybe I had been bit by a spider in my sleep and that's what made me dream of being bit by a vampire.

Needless to say, I was fine. No fang marks (vampire or spider) were to be found. The pain, however, did not immediately go away. It subsided rather quickly, but it did linger for a bit.

I lay awake in bed for a long time that night.

Kel"No...I hadn't been reading Anne Rice"ly