When I awoke, I was laying in my bed, and I turned over. There I saw the same co-worker plus another one standing across the room, and they were whispering to each other and chuckling. I got out of bed, very annoyed and wondering how they knew where I lived and how they got inside. I looked aside and saw Karen in front of our dresser drawer, her back turned to me. I moved up to her but just before I touched her she vanished. I thought that this was all very wrong, and then I woke up in bed.
I got out of bed, thinking how strange it had been that I had two false awakenings, and headed to the bathroom, where Karen was standing, in front of the bathroom mirror. I moved up to her and put my hands on her. The moment I did, she transformed. She changed into this strange resemblance of myself, except with a severely receded hairline, darker skin, and real bad acne. I looked at the stranger as he sat down on the toilet and I stepped in front of the bathroom mirror. I began saying this was all very wrong, and even pointed out his “mottled head” (my exact words). I began to put toothpaste on my toothbrush, and as I looked back at the strange man, I realized that I was still dreaming. Everything disoriented and went dark for a moment, and then I was still standing in the bathroomwith the man. At this point, a small amount of panic set in. I remembered the previous false awakenings and thought about how it felt like I was just going to wake up (when everything went dark for a brief moment) but didn’t, or couldn’t. I looked at the strange man and said, “Why am I still in the dream world?” I began to think that I’ve never, never had so many false awakenings in a row and that stayed thematically the same (awakening in the same bed, with the same mindset that I was just getting out of bed), and some primal part of me began to wonder if something was wrong with me and that maybe there was a reason I couldn’t wake up. At that moment I gave myself one clear command: to wake up.
I snapped awake in my bed. I looked at my hands and looked around, touching the bed and making sure that I was really awake. I sat up and looked at my clock. Being able to read it properly assured me that I was awake. It was the first time I’ve awoken and been uncertain that I was really awake.
