Didn't see that nightmare coming...

The nightmare: There's a monster, probably an alien, that's been creeping around eating people. I am on a train trying to get away from it, or trying to get to help. There is some reason to suspect that it might be following us or on the train with us.

The creepy part: I am in some sort of dining car on the train and talking to my friend. I ask him if he's planning to eat all of the rather large steak on the plate in front of him. He says, "Yeah, that would be tragic, wouldn't it, if I ate my whole steak?" At this point the lights go out, for about the duration of his sentence - we've passed through a tunnel or something.

When the lights come back on, I am staring at his head and the head of another of our friends. Their bodies are gone. Their heads are mounted on the wall, looking down in my general direction. They are part of a large, fleshy mass that is suspended across the ceiling and hanging down partway onto the walls.

This freaks me out sufficiently that my brain insists on ducking down under the table, scooting it over to the door of the train, and jumping off the moving train - complete with tuck, roll, and hope-nothing-breaks landing sequence. I am actually picking myself up and checking myself for injuries in the grass beside the train tracks before my brain will let me wake up.

The REALLY creepy part: I wake up and realize that out here in the real world, something soft and gentle is touching my face. Apparently I am sleeping in Firstborn's bed, and he has rolled over and put a hand out.

Despite the fact that it's only 11:30 or so at night, and I have spent the entire day - and, as a matter of fact, most of this week - so completely exhausted that I could barely see straight... Despite that, I am now wide awake.

Yeah. Thanks, kid. I needed that.