I’ll start from the beginning. This might be a little rambly, I just need to organize my thoughts. I went on a date a few weeks back with a woman, I’ll call her Anna. We were talking about conspiracies, stalkers, online groomers, famous criminals, astrology, witchcraft… typical date stuff. Then she asked me
“Have you had dreams with a red door in it?”
Something I should put out there, I didn’t believe in the supernatural. The world was just a boring place. we’re just meat that thinks and it’s been nothing but trouble since. That said I enjoy the paranormal, ghosts, aliens, all of that shit. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a visual imagination? I’ve never experienced anything that couldn’t be explained, outside of dreams; I don’t dream every time I sleep, and it’s even rarer for me to remember, but, about a year ago I started noticing randomly in my dreams… this… red door..
I stopped eating my fries and asked “A bright red wooden door? So red it almost glows?”
“In mine It’s metal but yeah, that color for sure”
I don’t remember the rest of the conversation exactly. The gist of it was she’s been seeing this door in her dreams since she was a kid. And she only knows 3 other people who’ve had that experience. Neither of us have interacted with it. As far as we know no one has. I didn’t know if I believed her at that point, but I was definitely curious now…
A couple days after that date, I had a dream. Normally, the door is just a distracting background element I don’t even notice till I wake up. But this time, my dream went from a third person fly over of a grocery store smash cut to a first person view of the door. Almost like it was a shot from a horror movie.
I remember, there I was just standing in front of it. Then… I woke up.
I texted Anna about my dream and she said she was jealous. She asked if I touched the door. And I said hell no.
“Why not Mr. Science? Scared of a dream?” Anna teased. And at the time I agreed, it was weird for me to be scared.
“It’s Dr. Science, thank you” I sent
“I can see that stupid smug grin through your texts” Anna Sent “But seriously, why not?”
“Look I just want my four and a half hours of sleep in peace, no adventure”
So, there was a prompt on my dating profile, I mentioned something about lucid dreaming, I think. It’s a thing Anna brought up when she matched with me so I was not fully surprised when she said:
“Why don’t I come over to your place tonight, show me how to lucid dream.”
So obviously I said yes.
That night I explained to her how I Lucid dream. There are only 3 rules.
First, you want to put something in the dream that you immediately recognize it’s a dream, it can be anything. As long as it stands out enough to remind you that you’re dreaming. It’s not 100% necessary but it does get you in control sooner.
Second, you always want to be aware of where your consciousness is. You can drift out of your body if you’re not careful and it’s back to normal dreaming.
Finally, most importantly, you need to monitor your emotions. If you lose control of your emotions, you lose control of the dream.
First thing I remember about this dream was the location. At first I thought we were at a university, some sort of college campus. But the architecture was off. Everything was both old and new, like gothic cathedrals built by Apple. Flying buttresses and steeples of glass and pearl white plastic. The first person I saw was Anna. and Since I didn’t find any copies of Petz for the Nintendo DS around, I think I made her my anchor by accident. I wondered, maybe she did the same? I’ve never dreamed with someone else before, the way she smiled, played with her hair out of boredom… it was hard to remember this was just a dream….
Right, back to the dream. We looked around for a while. No other people, no dream monsters, all doors were solidly monochromatic. I think it’s when I brought up how this is from me playing too much Bloodborne, then explaining what Bloodborne was to dream Anna in excruciating detail. But then Anna says :“but that doesn’t make sense. This is my dream”
Before I could argue. There it is. In the middle of a promenade flanked by white arches in front of a white sandy beach with a blue ocean that stretched across the horizon.
I remember just standing there. Those moments felt way different than the rest of the dream. I was physically present in my own body in a way I’ve never been while asleep.
“Yeah, there it is” Anna looked at me, almost expecting me to say something. Was it actually her?
I walk closer, hearing the sound of my steps as they move from pavement to the clay tile of the promenade. I reach out and touch the door… It’s warm, solid.
“I think this is good enough. You go ahead and touch it in your own drea-”
As I look back at Anna she’s right behind me, turning the handle for the door.
“Shi-”
The door yields open as Anna twists the handle. I jump back on instinct. I feel my heart racing even though I’m in the dream.
“Anna!” I yell out.
A light engulfs her then–
I’m at the start of my dream. But now there are people walking from building to building. The only thing… Whenever I look toward a person they immediately mirror my gaze. Everyone. And with that same horrified expression. I close my eyes. I’m losing control! And then-
“Wake up!”
Anna’s voice brought me back. I was awake. I looked over at the clock, 5am.
We compared dreams as I brewed some coffee, she occupied my cat’s attention.
Her dream started at a construction site near her old high school but once we reached the promenade things were weirdly similar. Anna thought otherwise
“I told you, I have” she waved her arms around erratically “GIFTS!!”
“Yeah, doubt it”
I remember thinking If Anna dreamt that Bloodborne conversation or something similarly nerdy then I would be more willing to coincide, but honestly it wasn’t worth bringing up. Besides, in her dream I was weirdly more serious and stoic.
“What about this?”
Anna turned around and grabbed something from my shelf. “You wouldn’t shut up about this videogame…” She turned around with a ps4 game in hand. A man with a hacksaw in a gothic city that reached up to the sky.
shit…
I don’t have a funny quip, and the moment she saw it on my face, she had the widest smile, she got me.
“Whatever, did you open the door though?” I asked before taking a sip of coffee.
Anna looked away from me before speaking “…Yeah, I think i woke up as soon as i opened it”
I noticed something was on her mind, something she didn’t want to say
“Did you see what was inside?” I asked.
“I think… I think I should go home. I’ll text you later?”
We didn’t talk about dreams for the next week or so. I hadn’t had any I remembered since then.
It wasn’t until our next date that Anna brought it up.
“Do you… ever see things?” Anna asked in a hushed tone. We were at a boba shop in the arts district downtown. Strange conversations happen here all the time so I knew something was up.
“Not really” I said, I told her I have aphantasia, zero visual imagination. The only time I see things that aren’t real is in my dreams. “Why do you ask?”
“I see it when I’m awake.”
“…See what?”
“The door”
So I don’t know if I made the right call. But I invited her to stay at my place for a while. I knew Anna had been through some shit, and she’s had her own mental issues with not that great a support system in the city, not that it mattered. This woman was basically the complete package, weird, smart, hot, everything you could ask for. But also, I felt responsible for this mess in the first place.
I realized immediately Anna wasn’t sleeping, at least not deeply. She’d get up all through the night. The third night we had a conversation and finally. She told me what she saw in that dream 3 weeks ago.
“I was in your room. It’s not that I woke up. I opened the door and I was in your room.”
I took a pause to search how I should react ”well I guess, on a technical level, that’s pretty unnerving but–”
“I wasn’t alone. I felt– I feel, something watching me.”
It was then we made a plan. We were going to go in again. This time we’d enter the door together. As we were getting ready to sleep. I held her hand and looked her in the eyes
“Best case scenario, a night of real sleep might help. Worst case scenario… well whatever happens we’ll handle it together. Promise.”
This dream was a little different. It took a while to become aware. I made Anna my anchor this time intentionally, but the first part of my dream I don’t remember. But when I saw Anna sitting at a bus stop, tapping her feet, twirling her hair. I knew I was in the right place.
“Did I keep you waiting long” I asked
“Oh, so you believe that I’m real now?” Anna asked.
I looked around, there was a great ocean view, white buildings, blue roofs, we were in Santorini Greece.
“I don’t know. Maybe? This is definitely too normal for one of my dreams.”
We started off looking for the door, but as time passed, we just decided to go sightseeing. The weather was nice, there was a festival going on but it wasn’t too crowded. We spent all day talking and walking around the city. I almost forgot this was a dream.
“There it is!” Anna squeezed my arm like a vice, and suddenly. That feeling again. Hyper presence. I wondered if our dreams were in sync again. Part of me hoped we did share the whole experience somehow– right I can’t be getting distracted in my own dream.
We make our way to the door. Together reaching for the handle when a familiar voice calls my name.
“Wouldn’t do that kid, you don’t know how deep this thing goes”
I Freeze. Was that… My dad?
Anna looks at me unsure.
I turn to look, standing about 9 or 12 feet away, I 100% recognize that man as my father, from the bald head to the leather sandals. But it’s too correct. His smile is a little too wide.
“Who are you?” I grabbed Anna a little tighter.
“A friend.” the man says. “We need to talk… just us.”
I take a second. Looking at the man in the shape of my father, the ominous red door, and Anna.
“…go. GO!”
I twist the knob and we both fall forward into a bright waking light and…
Just like Anna said…
I stumbled into the room I fell asleep in…
alone.
The next 24 hours I spent all day calling, texting, trying to figure out… look trust me I’m not crazy, I didn’t just make up a girlfriend for a story. But…
I checked her belongings, no ID, her car, no registration. But her things are HERE. They’re still here!
It’s been 2 months. I’ve exhausted all my other leads. No social media, no missing persons. I haven’t told anyone until now, I don’t know what to believe. But everything that happened, happened. The only thing left is that door. The red door. I Haven’t been able to dream at all since then, but there’s at least three other people out there who can.
Do any of you remember a dream with a red door?