Do you have nightmares?

Ever tried to mine one for a story?

I have them nightly, and I often remember them for several hours after I wake up, though some stay with me for days (or months, or years).

The majority of my nightmares center around death or some kind of escape. It’s typical to have nightmares centered around my parrot—either him dying, or escaping, or getting lost, or some other horrible thing.

Last week, I had a nightmare that seemed inspired by the most recent Prince of Persia game (which I haven’t played since last year), but went even beyond that, and not in a good way.

The first half of the dream is lost, I don’t remember it… but at some point in the dream, I did something to help someone—opened a box or something—and accidently unleashed an enormous, fire-covered demon.

Yeah, I’m not kidding.

In my dream/nightmare, the demon’s voice rumbled, threatening me with death and eternal torture, and I ran through corridors and hallways covered in pillars trying to escape. I could feel him getting closer and closer, but I didn’t want to look behind me. 

At one point, I came to a covered balcony (with more pillars around), and looked down. Two stories (or more) down below was a pool with water lilies, and my dream-self had this logic: If I dive into the pool and drown myself, I’ll be able to escape the fire demon and I’ll be free! But I won’t be dead, because surely the people in the pool will see that I’ve drowned and they’ll be able to revive me in time.”

Yep, my dream self was about to commit suicide with the intention of being revived by strangers. And I dove into that pool, lay face down in the water, and… heard the terrifying voice of the fire demon:

“You’ll never escape that way. I know what you’re doing, and go ahead! I’ll torture you forever in HELL.”

Soooo… I got out of the pool, and the rest of the dream/nightmare did that flash-forward quickly thing, where everything changes so fast that it’s hard to remember what happened once you wake up. I remember running as fast as I could, wherever I could, all around the world to try to escape.

I’d stop in doorways to try and catch my breath, but just when I thought I’d have a moment of rest, the growling and thudding of the demon would be right behind, and I’d have to run again.

Somewhere amidst the running, I woke up.

I’ll be honest—I was surprised after waking up  that I didn’t actually die in the dream, as it’s not unusual for that to happen. But the visual imagery of this one was so powerful that it stuck with me a week later.

Now I’m wondering whether I can harness that sense of primal fear and terror that I had in the dream, and use it in a story.

Have you ever done this? What was your most recent, terrifying nightmare?