Someone was trying to kill me. I was in a house. The house was familiar, but I don’t think I’ve ever been there in real life. All I remember about my killer is that he was of average build. I don’t think his face was ever revealed to me in the dream, as if he didn’t have a face, but he just struck me as “average”. Not ugly, not handsome, nothing unique about him. Your generic murderer.

He said: “You can either have sex with me or I can kill you.”

“I can’t, I have a boyfriend.” I said.

“Then you’re going to die.”

I bolted and ran into the bathroom, I knew where it was. The bathroom was small, just a tiny rectangular space with a toilet – the actual sink and shower must have been in another room. I flipped the lock on the gold-colored metal doorknob (not the kind we have in Australia, but the kind in the U.S., with the rotating lock in the middle of the doorknob). I heard him outside the door, can’t remember if he said anything. I think he banged on the door a few times, but couldn’t get in so retreated.

There were mice there…I didn’t see them, but I knew there were a few gray mice in the bathroom. I’m not sure why they were there.

I had to get out of there. I looked in the toilet and (this is really gross, but I have to describe everything I can remember) a bit of poo floated up from the pipes. It didn’t smell. I started messaging HHRay, asking him to come and help me because someone was trying to kill me. He replied, saying he’s on his way. I kept messaging, asking him to hurry. I breathed as quietly as possible so as not to attract attention.

I waited, scared, probably crying. It was getting difficult to breathe. I kept thinking that the person wanting to kill me was going to break through the door at any minute, I heard him moving around the house.

Then HHRay came, I heard him talking to the killer outside. I can’t remember what they said exactly, HHRay was asking where I was. I felt so happy, I’d get out of there soon. But HHRay’s voice was gone. I sent him an SMS: “Where are you? Please come. He’s going to kill me.”

I couldn’t stop thinking about where he was. Why wasn’t he coming to rescue me? I was going to die, why wasn’t he there?

I kept messaging, begging him to get me out of there. Couldn’t he at least call the police? Why wasn’t anyone there yet?

I heard footsteps pounding toward the door, then retreating. There was someone outside. I thought maybe it was HHRay. I sent him another message, panicking.

I heard the killer’s voice from the yard somewhere to my right and back: “It’s HHRay, open up!”

I held my breath. It was obviously not HHRay’s voice. He was trying to make it sound like whoever was at the door was telling me it was HHRay. “It’s HHRay! I’ve come to save you!”

I knew it wasn’t him. There were two of them now. The original killer was in the yard and he must have had an accomplice who was now at the bathroom door. I heard the footsteps retreat from the door and cautiously opened it a crack. I kept doing this, realizing that one time I forgot to lock the door back up and it was actually already partly unlatched. All the killer had to do was nudge the door to get in. I was relieved that they hadn’t noticed and locked the door back up. I felt my throat closing up, it was more difficult to draw breath.

Then, I saw something fall from a little nook at the top of the wall to the right of the toilet (when facing the toilet). It was a mouse, dead. There was blood around its mouth, as if it coughed up blood and died. I heard the killer say something along the lines of “Don’t worry, you’ll be dead tomorrow.”

I looked at the time on my phone – it was late night, but I still had a few hours until 12 so I knew I’d probably have barely enough air to last until then. I realized that he was probably either poisoning the air or cutting it off in the bathroom. He used the mice to show me what my fate was going to be because the mice would die before I would.

I think that’s when I started waking up. Everything spun, I think it was a mild form of lucid dreaming. I realized that I was sleeping, I was feeling myself wake up, but I was still in the dream setting. I had slight control over what I was doing. I could think, and my thoughts reflected what my body did but I had no direct movement control. I thought that I had to escape. I would soon suffocate and had to find air. First I tried to get fresh air through the toilet opening, leaning into the bowl, thinking maybe fresh air would be entering through there. Then, I saw a small window with flywire over it above the toilet. I as quietly as I could stood on it and pulled the latch, trying to stay silent as I peeled the flywire window open. I was already thinking ahead through my plan, almost fully awake now and feeling myself laying in bed as I got fresh air into my lungs through the small window. I was thinking about how I’d quietly climb through the window. It was dark outside. I would sneak from bush to bush and quietly get off the property, then bolt.

My alarm rang. It was kind of a seamless awakening, not the jolt you sometimes get when your alarm wakes you up, as if I was already on the brink of waking up naturally.