Last night I had a nightmare and woke up my housemates screaming “NO!”

Normally, when I have nightmares, it’s total nonsense that can’t be described - “I looked out the window and suddenly the rain looked weird, so I screamed and woke everybody up”. But this time, the dream had actual narrative content and was totally scary.

I dreamed that I was part of a trio of superpowered sisters. We were raised and trained in the ways of superpowers by our superhero dad. However, when we were still pretty young, he was killed by the Lich - the ultimate embodiment of hatred and death.

We did our best to be superheroes after his death - fighting against the repressive government and all that. But our efforts were often thwarted by a trio of anti-super-sisters – superpowered sisters much like us, who always opposed us.

We could never figure out where they came from or who they were. Furthermore, they never seemed to do anything except oppose our efforts.

Eventually, I figured it out: When our dad was killed, we had manifested these anti-sisters as the embodiment of our fears. We had to master our fears so that we could re-integrate with them. Only then would we be operating at our full capacity, and would no longer be opposing ourselves. Then, working together, we might stand a chance against the Lich.

One sister figured out that she valued her intelligence. Her fear was being wrong. She reintegrated with the anti-sister.

The other sister figured out that she was very young at the time of our dad’s death. Her fear was being helpless. She reintegrated with her anti-sister.

But before I figured out what my fear was, I encountered the Lich while I was alone! Without my full powers, and especially without my sisters, I stood no chance. So I woke up screaming.

Now that I’m awake, I think I figured it out: Being alone was my fear. In fact, maybe that wasn’t really the Lich at all. Maybe that was the process of me facing my fears.

Yeah, this is what nightmares should be like!