Like anyone else, I get suddenly moments of sleep paralysis. All I can do when I finally wake up is try calming my racing heart and just recite lyrics to my favorite songs or say inspirational quotes to assure myself that the “shadows” in my room are just illusions. One of the worst ones I’ve had still stays so clear in my memory.

I don’t remember how old I was when I had this dream, but it was so clear. I honestly don’t think it had a normal start point. I’m strapped to some kind of assembly line conveyer belt, my wrists sort of bound to my ankles. I saw other people there, but I didn’t know them. There was some masked guy there too, the one who I assume had maybe kidnapped me or was holding me hostage or something. I don’t believe he spoke a word but the most constant thing I heard were gunshots, possibly from one of those Uzi guns. He was firing at people at random. I started saying a silent prayer that I wouldn’t be one of the unfortunate people who died. No such luck. I hardly say the man’s cold eyes when my view was filled with the barrel of the Uzi. It goes off and over a dozen bullets pierce and dig deep into my neck. At that point, I woke up in a cold sweat, the residual feeling of the bullets in the same side of my neck where I was shot in my dream. I was paralyzed and scared to move, yet also wanted to move. My mind and heart were racing at a million miles a millisecond. I started saying some inspirational quotes to calm myself down. In what was probably a few minutes, I could move again. I didn’t care about the time; I turned my light on and just sat up in bed trying to keep myself calm.

I didn’t wonder about it then, but sometimes if that was how I was destined to die. Kidnapped or held hostage, maybe shivering and scared. And the last thing I see is the barrel of a gun before the bullets practically tear my head from my shoulders. Like I said, I don’t remember how old I was when I had this dream. But I’m 26 now, going on 27 in a few months, and haven’t run into any trouble nor do I go seeking it out. I pray it was just a strange dream and that I never meet “Mr. Masked Uzi”.