Nightmares

When I think of nightmares, I think of the typical fears children have at night: the dark, monsters under the bed, weird creatures outside their window, or ghosts haunting nearby.  Usually my dreams are intense adventures, or scavenger hunts, where I'm searching for an answer.  I never know the question, never understand the clues, and never find the answer, but I have the same cast of people who are with me on the journey getting me further along.  Last night, however, was something completely different and out of the blue.  I had a nightmare.  I won't go into details, but I was violently hurt and woke up crying.  When I went back to sleep my dream continued right where it had stopped.  At some point in the dream, a friend came by to take care of me.  I was having nightmares within my nightmare, but they all stopped when my friend would hold my hand.  Even the real nightmare seemed to stop at this point and I was finally able to drift off to a comfortable sleep. 

I find dreams so fascinating, regardless of them being good or bad.  I'm sure my subconscious is trying to tell me something that I apparently wasn't aware I had been worrying about.  The only thing I don't like about my dreams is that I always wake up so exhausted from them.  It is always feels like I never really went to sleep.  But they do give me interesting stories to tell.