Around a year ago, I had this nightmare that has dug itself into my memory.

Not letting me forget it.

I remember finding myself In this dark void of a room. I heard whispers echo from every direction, and I had this unsettling feeling of being watched. Or maybe the right word would be observed.

Around me, the vacant silhouette of faces stuck out.

Suddenly, where there once was nothing, now stood a man.

I had never been much of a religious person. Considering myself more of an agnostic.

So I don’t know why, that now, in front of me, stood the redeemer. Praises and shouts are now overwhelming the unintelligible whispers.

However, something was wrong. Even though he stood facing me, my eyes saw his back. And along his back, I saw how it had a deep cut going from the back of his head down to his feet.

I saw how the cut had been sown together with his own hair. When my eyes once again showed me the front of the man again, I saw how hollow his skin looked.

That’s when I noticed.

Someone was wearing his skin like a suit.

Just as I came to the revelation, I felt how the room got cold. How the praises were gone, and now the man wearing the skin of a promised shepherd was looking at me.

It’s sunken in eyes glaring into mine.

Like it knew what I knew. Like it knew I had found out its secret, and I saw it want pleased.

At that point, I knew I was dreaming, but I think it knew as well.

The whispers were now louder as if to warn me in a language the human mind could never comprehend.

I woke up in a cold sweat. The faint whistling of a familiar song seeping through my open window.

It’s been a year, and I still can’t get that dream out of my mind.

And whenever I think of it, that same unsettling feeling of being observed overwhelms me.

And every night I lay down in my bed, it sits there at the back of my mind, reminding me that it still knows I saw its secret.

I don't think I want to dream anymore.