So I’ve been dealing with a very specific dream lately, and it happened again a couple of nights ago. I can’t remember most of the dreams, but I do remember enough details to confirm they’re basically the same.

I’m usually with a group of people exploring a dark Victorian mansion. I figure the mansion is haunted, because there’s barely any light and when there is, it doesn’t show much. The mansion changes a lot between dreams; the first time it was just that, a building, but the third time, it was a lot bigger (I remember it had some sort of dining room with parts of the floor lowered) and there were some parts that looked like Alice in Wonderland through an acid trip. Can’t remember much of the second dream. The one constant through these dreams is that there’s a dark room with no ceiling and no light, and there’s hundreds of staircases leading up. Best way I can describe it is a maze. The further the stairs go up, the darker it gets until they’re leading into pitch blackness. In all three of my dreams, I refuse to go up them because I feel like there’s something terrifying waiting for me up there; the first time I dreamed about the stairs, I can’t remember much but I DO know I tried going up the stairs while I was basically telling myself to turn back. I remember feeling afraid and the dream sort of “distorting”, like I’d suddenly find myself in different rooms and then back on a different part of the stairs, and then I’d feel like whatever’s hiding in the dark is all around me.

Honestly, I think this would be great inspiration for some of my future stories, but I’m also a little afraid of falling asleep and dealing with those goddamn stairs again. I’m wondering what they mean; I‘ve had depression for a number of years and I have a bit of social anxiety, so I’m thinking the stairs might be representing that, but I’m also curious to hear about what you guys think they mean.

Thanks!