Between realities

There was a period of time in which my girlfriend of the time and I would actually fall asleep on my couch, because we didn't feel comfortable moving to my bedroom, but we just felt so comfortable laying down together. I don't sleep well in general, so it was hard to fight off the feeling of drowsiness that came with the comfort. We'd usually sleep like that for maybe an hour or two before she'd have to go home, because again, we didn't feel comfortable moving to my bedroom, so we certainly didn't feel comfortable with her spending the night - not that we didn't want to, we were just concerned about what our parents would think.

I drop in and out of dreams incredibly quickly - I've had full dreams while asleep for a half an hour, and if I'm not awake between dreams for particularly long, I can actually return to and continue a dream that I was just a part of. Occasionally, this makes it difficult to discern when the dream ended and reality began, at least between parts. Some of my dreams have even been realistic enough - if completely ridiculous - that I will forget if a conversation I had was in a dream or in the real world.

One night, as we were cuddling and sleeping on the couch, I happened to have a nightmare. I have absolutely no recollection of what this nightmare was about - even at the time the moment I woke up the nightmare had disappeared - and I might have never even known that I was having a nightmare at the time at all. However, during that same period of time, my dog had a habit of going to the front door and barking at absolutely nothing, right around 8:30-9:30. Which just so happened to be around when we had fallen asleep that night.

The sound of his barking woke me up, but I was also accustomed to his bullshit, so it didn't fully pull me back to reality. But I was scared. I had been in the middle of a nightmare, and the sound of my dog frantically and crazily barking was certainly not the best wake up call. There was a tightness in my body in that was the only thing I was really aware of in that inbetween state.

The thing that really pulled me out of the dream wasn't the barking, but the frantic whispers of my girlfriend telling me that it was alright. I had no idea what she was talking about - but as I came to, I realized how hard my fingers were dug into her side as I gripped her. That was the tightness I was feeling. And my grip had woken her up more than the dog's barking. Even as I realized it, it still took me a second to actually register and let go of her. Even then, that feeling of fear from the nightmare wouldn't go away. I knew I was awake, and that there was nothing to be afraid of, but it still clutched at my heart. And it wouldn't let go of her, either.

Strangely, I didn't have any nightmares when I actually went to bed that night. Fortunately, that was what helped me feel better by morning.