A Dream within A Dream

August 25st, 2021
I couldn't seem to get out of this dream, it was never-ending. It looked as though I was sleeping on someone's sofa, and had an unsettling view of their living room and dark hallway to the right of the scene. Everything was dark with a blue undertone, and the room felt cold to me. I'm sure at some point I did wake up for real and felt the chill from my ceiling fan, which is why I remembered the living room in this dream to be cold. I would sit on that sofa until I saw that tall shadow man appear behind an armchair across from the sofa. As he ran around the armchair and the coffee table to get to me I would scream bloody murder. Or at least, try to...But I'd "wake up" right before he got to me. But I'd be right back on that sofa where I started, waiting for him to appear again. I never woke up.
This happened about 20 times throughout the night. And at one point I woke up for real, I was once again paralyzed but saw nothing. I went back to sleep a few moments after. But the dream stayed the same. It was torture. My throat was slightly sore due to tightening it up many times as I tried to scream in the dream. The shadow man kept running around the sofa and coffee table to get to me. I was petrified, tears were flowing down my face and my screaming did nothing for me. I finally woke up and stayed awake.
Little backstory in case you're wondering why that dream was absolute torture: I grew up seeing shadow people almost every night. Last time I saw one I was 19 years old. This dream was like them taunting me, as if saying "you may have gotten rid of us in real world, but in here, we can still torment you."
Edit 8/22/25: To this day I haven't seen another shadow person in real life nor have I had a dream about them. And I'm grateful.