A mysterious man in a tan over coat slowly paced around the darkened tunnel, looking as if he was waiting for something. I didn’t understand what I was doing here, nor how I got here. He was far, far away from me, but still in sight. I tried to say words, but nothing more than a faint sound came out of my mouth. I had no idea what was going on. Was this real life? Am I hallucinating? Am I dead? I had no clue. The man in the coat was still walking through what seemed to be this never ending tunnel. There were no cars driving through the cylindrical hell, just my panicked self, and the mysterious man in the over coat.

I realized I hadn’t even attempted taking a step yet, and luckily unlike my try at speaking, I was able to walk as if it was a normal day, a normal life, that didn’t seem to be existent any longer. I walked as quietly as possible; trying not to catch the man’s attention, cause stealth just seemed to be the best way to play out this situation. I just wanted figure out who he was, why I was here, and then leave as soon as possible. After a few minutes of this slow walking, I was around 100 paces from the man. Then began the pit-patter of rain against the hollowed concrete. This rain was a godsend, as it muffled any noise I made from my tiny, yet important steps.

Sooner than expected I was within arms reach of the man, and had no idea what to do. It seemed dumb to actually approach the man, just because the situation seemed so bad to begin with. Then again, this was a situation I’d never encountered before, played out in my head, or even thought of. So what was there to lose? Nervously, with my hands shaking frantically I lightly tapped the man’s smooth tan overcoat, as a strike of thunder came from above. I could tell he’d felt it because he’d jolted ever so slightly, but much to my chagrin slowly began to turn around. My mouth gaped at what could possibly be turning around. But I never saw it...

I came back to reality, awakened and nearly woke up my entire neighborhood with the noise I made after realizing what had just happened was not real. I couldn’t believe it... it was just too realistic to be a dream. I took me at least 2 hours to convince myself that it was just a dream. I tried as hard as possible to go back to sleep, but no more sleep came, and to be honest, I was a bit relieved.

I tried to go on with the rest of my day without thinking about any of things that had occurred that previous night, but everything I saw, I began to associate with an overcoat, or a tunnel, or thunder.

That night, I slept restlessly, but luckily that man never re-appeared in my dream, and still hasn’t to this day. Some days though, in the back of my mind, I have thoughts about that mysterious man as if he was someone I saw daily, but then remember that it was all just a dream.