I Discovered A New Level of Dreaming

I've discovered a new level of dreaming.
One I hope no one else has the "pleasure" to discover themselves. Before I go on some spill, let me start from the beginning. Fair warning: I can't tell you why it happened, only when it started.
My name is Adam and I’ve always had lucid dreams for as long as I could remember. Whenever I dreamed, I had complete control over anything and everything that happened. If I ever had a nightmare I could turn it into a dream where I’m a badass monster hunter or something peaceful or funny. I could fly around, lift skyscrapers, and do whatever else I couldn't do in real life. I always thought I was experiencing the most complex level of dreaming possible. That was until the day my co-worker John told me he used to experienced Astral Projection as a kid.
Now John isn't someone I consider to be a friend but he's decent enough and we have a few things in common. We're both in our early twenties, work in the same department, and attempting to pay off our student loans. The biggest thing I couldn't stand about John was how boring he was. Over the past six months, we've worked together, I've had to listen to every mundane detail about his life. I could barely keep myself awake during my eight-hour shift. Listening to one of John's stories could cure anyone of their insomnia. But one day, he finally said something that had piqued my interest.
"Did I ever tell you when I was a kid I used to experience Astral Projection?" He stood in front of my cubicle like he did every morning. 
I turned away from my computer, curious. "What was it like?" 
He looks taken back by my sudden interest in something he said. Then he responded with:
"It was like a really lucid dream, but I could still see my own body."
Now I’ve heard of Astral Projection. But I thought it was just some make believe crap like Santa Claus or people who actually like Nickelback. Still, hearing someone I know say they experienced it intrigued me. Don’t get me wrong I was plenty skeptical but intrigued nonetheless.
‘What else did you see?’ I asked gingerly. Still uncertain if I believed what he was saying.
“I just walked around my house. My mother and father were asleep so all the lights were turned off, so I couldn’t see much. but it was just cool to walk around."
"When did it start?"
“It started at about age 5 and stopped when I was about 8."
‘Why did it stop?” I asked.
“I don’t know why, but it just did one day. I never told anyone at the time. I thought it was just a normal thing that happened to everyone."
Then, I thought to ask the most important question:
"Do you remember how to do it?"
“No, and I don’t care to either. It was pretty boring after a while. I couldn’t interact with anything. All I could do was walk around in the dark."
Then he went on one of his boring tirades about his life. After I got home, I looked more into this Astral Projection thing. Apparently, to do it you just need to relax your body, focus on your breathing, sleep in a dark and quiet area and try to imagine yourself outside of your body. Seemed easy enough, but the first week I tried ended in failure. I didn’t even dream at all, which wasn’t unusual, but it did make for a very boring week. Near the end of the week though, I had a weird nightmare.
I woke up in my bed. Darkness encasing everything around me. Only a small fraction of the moon’s light shined through the blinds into my bedroom. In the pitch blackness, I noticed something inside my closet in the back of the room. A tall, shadowy figure stood watching me. It felt like all the air was gone from my body. I couldn't move or say anything. Without warning, the figure started floating towards me. My eyes darted to my bedroom door several feet away. Even if I could run, I'd never make it. The dark figure floated past the window. Its arms moving about in a distorted manner. It was only a couple of feet away now.
I remained in my bed, helpless and unable to move for what felt like an eternity. Then the sound of my oven door slamming open woke me up. The house I'm renting is very cheap and the oven door is flimsy and would never close all the way. So hearing it open by itself from time to time wasn’t unusual.
At the beginning of the following week, I was hesitant to try again because of how much that dream scared me. But I forced myself to try it again. It worked. Not much happened though and it was just like John had said. I was awake outside of my body, but could still see myself sleeping. It didn't last very long as I woke up about fifteen seconds later. I didn't even get to leave my room. Still, in my mind, it was one step closer to my goal. The next night wasn't very different from the last one. I woke up in my room and tried to open my bedroom door. But I woke up before I could. The following night proved better though. I was able to exit my room and upon doing so I noticed something odd.
Unlike John's experience and other Astral Projection stories I've read online, I was able to interact with everything around me. It was as if I was still awake, but of course, I wasn't. I knew that because I could still see my unconscious body sleeping. The first thing I did was an attempt to turn the TV on. To my surprise, it turned on and some news channel was broadcasting. I picked up the remote and started switching the channels. I saw that a rerun of Rick and Morty was on, so I watched some of it. It was the dream inception episode. Ironic I know.
The sound of my alarm clock caught my attention. It was coming from my room. I followed it all the way to my bedroom door. I grabbed the doorknob and slowly turned it, getting it open just a crack. The sound of my oven door slamming open jolted me awake.
I sprang up in bed. Sweat poured down my face. The time on my alarm clock read 6:05 AM. It was time for work. I checked my oven door and indeed it was open. I shut the door and brushed it off then drove to work. When I got to work I told John about my experience. He gave me a disinterested, "Oh that’s cool." 
I was a bit confused by this. "Did you not hear me? I actually Astral Projected. It was just like you said."
“That’s cool and all man, but don’t expect anything interesting to happen."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
“What I mean is that I Astral Projected for over three years. The only interesting thing I saw was a lighthouse outside my childhood home."
With that, I cut our conversation short before he could go on his usual boring tirade. From that day on, I became valiant in proving John wrong. I set out to do something interesting. I waited until my day off and made sure to turn my alarm off so it wouldn’t disturb me. Then I turned off all the lights in my house to avoid any interference. These preparations worked like a charm. I Astral Projected again. First, I explored all of my houses then tried and failed to eat something. Everything I ate or drank just passed right through me. I also attempted to browse the internet but found that some of the keys I pressed wouldn't register. Plus, the lack of light also made it very hard to see the keyboard. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t travel any further than my house. Trying to open the front door didn’t work. It was like the door itself was nailed to the frame.
The only thing I could do was walk around and watch TV all while my physical body slept through the night. So that’s exactly what I did for a whole week and it was awesome, to say the least. It was like actually being awake. I could use my free time to do whatever I wanted. When I was awake I felt fully rested and able to work through the day without dosing off. Even despite John's stories. It was a pretty sweet deal, to say the least. That was until one night.
During another day off from work, I was doing the usual routine of Astral Projecting while watching TV. A sudden knock at my door nearly gave me a heart attack. I looked out the window and saw it was still night time or so I thought. I called out to whoever knocked but received no response. I checked the peephole. It was my elderly next door neighbor Shelly. Seeing this as my chance to push this Astral Projection thing to the next level, I decided to open the door. I unlatched the deadbolt, unlocked the hand lock, and twisted the door handle, holding my breath. The door opened. A gust of wind passed through me.
I jerked up, panting, my face only damp with sweat. This surprised me as I usually wake up drenched in it. I heard Shelly calling my name from outside. I rushed up and ran to the door. She jumped a little, startled.
“S-sorry if I woke you. Your door was unlocked."
"I know." I nervously responded.
“I just wanted to make sure you were ok."
"Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?"
Her eyes were full of concern. “Well, I heard screaming last night.”
"Screaming? Oh, you might have heard my TV."
“Ok. Well, I just wanted to make sure you were ok. Have a good morning then."
"Ok, thanks for stopping by."
I waved her off and closed the door. Then I noted a few things. One, it was now morning but I could swear it was still dark out before I woke up, second, I didn’t hear anyone screaming last night, and lastly, I actually almost left my house. In my mind it was progress. One step is closer to my goal of experiencing a full day outside while in my Astral Projection form.
The next night I was doing the same routine when coincidentally, the dream inception episode of Rick and Morty came on again. I let the episode play and over the sounds of the TV, I could hear something in the background. It was faint, but I distinctly remember it sounded like my bedroom floor was creaking. I decided to see what was making that noise. I approached my bedroom and slowly pushed the door open. Instantly I froze in place. By the window stood a large menacing shadow creature.
It was hunched over in front of the window. I looked over to the left of it and saw my unconscious body lying in bed. Frightened, I carefully backed away and moved into the hallway, attempting to make my way back to the living room. I heard whatever it was stand up and walk out of the room, panicked I started walking faster and faster away from the door. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew I needed to get away from whatever that thing was. I heard its footsteps growing louder and louder behind me. I made it to the entrance of the kitchen before SLAM!
The sound of my oven door slammed open. My eyes flew open. Once again I was covered in sweat. I did the usual routine of getting up and going to work. I neglected to tell John about my experience as I was sure he wouldn’t think anything of it. Though I was terrified at that moment, I still had a burning sensation to try it again. It was one bad experience out of plenty of good ones. Besides that strange occurrence, there was something else on my mind. The interaction I had with my neighbor Shelly. I was a door away from interacting with another person while my physical self was asleep. So because of that I obviously wanted to try again. I thought maybe the next time, I should try leaving my door unlocked. So I waited until my next day off.
This time, I made sure to tie a red string around the oven door so it wouldn’t wake me like all the other times before. When I went to sleep, it was the evening of April 14th. Remember that date: it’ll be important later.
I did the same routine of preparations and went to sleep. I opened my eyes and quickly realized from the clothes hanging above, I was in my closet. This was unusual as I would normally appear near my bed. I stepped out of my closet and noticed my bedroom was much darker than usual also. The door was cracked open slightly. But nothing was strange about that. What was strange though was that my blinds were slightly opened. My window allows me to see a clear view of the street, so I hunched over and peered through it.
I saw something--someone out in the front of my yard. It was the same shadow creature from before.
But now it had taken more of a human form. I still couldn't make out any distinguishing features though. Whoever it was looking around frantically. Like it was searching for something. All the while what I could only assume was its jaw kept unhinging, back and forth. Once again I found myself frozen in fear. All I could do was stand there and stare at this thing--whatever it was. Then the creature jerked its head towards the window.
It SAW ME.
Like some primal animal, it bolted up and started running towards the direction of my front door.
My worries subsided when I remembered that I didn't unlock the front door like I was supposed to. Still, I wasn’t about to wait for this thing to break through the door. Then I remembered what familiar sound always woke me up. I spun around and saw my bedroom door now wide open. I heard footsteps fading down the hallway. I stepped into the hallway and saw a shadow creature, darker than the one outside. It was fast approaching the kitchen. I saw my front door was flung opened. Whatever was outside was now inside my house. The shadow creature in front of me dashed into the kitchen. I knew what I had to do. I raced into the kitchen. Before I even had the chance to enter, there was a loud slam.
Everything turned to black.
I slowly opened my eyes. But Instead of waking in my bed like I always do, I was still in my Astral Projection body. I walked to my bedroom and saw my bed was now empty.
I was now in Panic mode. desperately I checked various rooms in my house. All of which were empty. I walked back to the living room and saw the TV was still on playing that same goddamn episode. Sitting down in the chair in front of it was the darkest shadow creature I'd seen so far. The creature was so drawn to the TV it didn’t even notice me. The sound of the bathroom door opening drew my attention away. What walked out left me in a state of emotions I could only describe as confused and very afraid.
It was me.
But not me. It was my physical self. I watched as it finished getting dressing for work and walked right through me to the door, without even noticing me. It opened the door and stepped outside. Before it could close the door, I ran through it to the outside.
As soon as I did, I immediately regretted my decision. Once outside, I looked up and down my street. Both ends of the street were encased in complete darkness. Stepping onto the sidewalk, I was able to get a better look at the houses around me. They were the same as the ones on my street in my awake state. I tried to get back to my house, but the door was locked. I banged on all of my neighbors' doors to no avail. I even tried screaming for help. I screamed as loud I could for as long as I could. Then I dropped to my knees in desperation. It felt like hours, hell, even days had passed before I started to notice a mysterious object in the distance. It was nearly invisible at first, hidden by a forest of trees. Then it came into view from behind some buildings. A house. But one I had never seen before. I looked around in confusion. I noticed something even stranger.
A lighthouse in the distance. Which was impossible as I didn’t live anywhere near the sea.
I took another look around and saw a little boy sitting on the ground. His eyelids drooped and even from here, I could see the bags underneath them. He stared in the direction of the lighthouse as if he was hypnotized by it. At that point, I knew if I didn't find a way out of here, I'd end up like him. With that in mind, I turned back to my house and saw someone looking from my bedroom window. It's now or never, I thought. I ran to the door. Of course, it was still locked. I slammed my body into it several times. It wasn't budging. I stopped to catch my breath. My shoulder was writhing in agony from me hitting the door so many times. The door began to creak open on its own as if it was inviting me in.
Who the hell was I to pass up that offer? I entered the house and saw that the TV was still on. It was playing that same godforsaken episode of Rick and Morty. Upon entering the kitchen, I saw the red string was still tied to the oven door. I grabbed the door and pulled on it. I heard some movement in the hallway so I increased my momentum. Hurried footsteps grew closer and closer to the kitchen. I gave a final tug and the knot broke. The footsteps halted in the doorway in front of me.
At that moment It felt as though time had slowed down. I looked up to see the shadow creature standing in the kitchen doorway. Left of him, out the open front door, I saw the little boy’s face. He was smiling. Then he vanished as everything around me did too, followed by a flash of white light.
My eyes shot open. I was back in my bed. I did a quick look around to make sure I was actually awake this time. Sunlight pours into my room, giving a bright glow to everything and made it all seem almost dreamlike. The birds chirping gave me reassurance.
The time on my alarm read 7:55 am. I was up in time to go to work. After a quick shower, I threw on my clothes, grabbed my phone, and got in my car. As I checked my phone, I noticed the date, April 16th. This seemed impossible because I was sure it should've been April 15th. When I asked John about it, he said on that date, April 15th, which was apparently yesterday, I came into work the same as always. I told him about my experience and he was convinced it was all just some lucid dream. But it felt all too real. I don’t know what to make of anything that happened.
I do know one thing though and it should come as no surprise to hear.
That I think I’m done with Astral Projection for good.
Category:Dreams/Sleep
Category:Monsters