Scary Bear

 

 

I was in a big apartment building, the kind you often find in horror movies, with long, dimly lit hallways, antique walnut stained moldings and brass door handles on the many, closely spaced rooms. I was a little disoriented by the layout, a multi-level spiral labyrinth which forced one to traverse the perimeter of the entire building as the architecture slowly ramped up from floor to floor. The rise was imperceptibly gradual, so as to give one the impression of everything being on the same floor.

Around the corner, at the far end of the building, a dark shadow appeared and began lumbering toward me. I could make out the form of an enormous bear just as it became alerted to my presence. He immediately broke into a full, loping run straight for me.

As per dream protocols (and general common sense) I began to panic. I knew I couldn't outrun him, so I tried some of the doors, hoping to get inside one of the rooms before he overtook me. None of them would open, so I kept running until I reached the corner, hoping to ditch him once I was out of his sight.

This tactic worked, and the bear seemed to slow his pursuit once I rounded the corner. In the back of my mind, though, I knew that this wasn't over, and I proceeded cautiously, hoping to reach some kind of exit before we ran into each other again. 

At the end of the hallway, just as I was about to round the next corner, I looked back and saw the same dark shadow appear, and the process repeated, with the bear spotting me and me panicking, running down the hallway toward the next corner. Each time I managed to get around the corner out of sight, the scene would reset, and I would get a moment's reprieve before being spotted and pursued by the bear once again.

I don't know how many times this loop repeated before I eventually woke up, the image of a giant bear--mouth open, barreling down a spooky hallway toward me--seared into my brain.