The past few nights I've been having some unsettling dreams. They all feel tied together, and some share similar themes, namely Sex and Death. Though the last one has neither directly it feels tied into the others somehow. I've put in shorter summaries here to make them easier to read through, but I can also paste in much more detailed versions of them from my dream journal.

~Dream number 1

In this dream I was violently raped and murdered. The rapist/killer was never directly depicted, I had no real feel for who they were at all.

~Dream number 2

Here I am a widow of about 30. My family and my children were killed by a mass murderer some years previously, and has yet to be apprehended. He routinely sends out letters to me taunting and teasing me on, making a game of finding him.

While pursuing him through one of his letters, I came across a tall man standing by his car with his friend. Through the letters I later found his friend dying and went back to try and get the tall man's help. He seemed puzzled, as his friend was in actuality sitting in their car and perfectly safe. I tried to show him the letter I had and ask for help, but the letter was gone. When I pulled out pictures of my family to explain my situation, they were all blank. He explained that he had never even heard of such a mass murderer. I was crushed and confused, I didn't know what was real at all. He and I then had sex. He came home with me and then with a sickly smile on his face he killed me.

~Dream number 3

I was a young student in this dream, with very cheerful disposition. I shared a rivalry with another one of the girls in my class, under which flourished some sexual and romantic tension.

Students had recently gone missing from the school, and there have been some rumors of a kidnapper on the lose. We were all worn thin from the fear, but I did what I could to keep everyone in high spirits. One day my rival and I are sent to the school's basement to fetch something for the teachers. There we found the walls smeared red with blood, the battered bodies of the missing students dangling from the walls and the ceiling. The cellar door closed and locked behind us, and we had to put aside our differences to find a way to safety.

After we eventually make it out, one of the older students approaches me and asks if I'd like him to walk me home. He was well known for his kindness, so I gladly accepted his offer. After a while I realized that he had lead me to a back alleyway where there were no onlookers. I knew then that all along he had been the kidnapper, and the dream ended with his sickly smile. The same smile as the previous dream.

~Dream number 4

A woman dressed in red and white sat by the edge of a small dock, fishing. The sky was foggy yellow, reflecting dimly onto the water. A beautiful but sad song played in the background, reminiscent of an old Japanese folk song. Nothing could be seen except the pier, it was almost entirely isolated between the water and the fog. There was no rod, no lures, just a line with a hook that she dangled into the water. As she caught them she would set them up on the Pier and continue fishing. She thought to herself that she could change forms, and was afraid that by touching a fish she would become one.

Night set in, though it was barely dark. More than anything the fog grew heavier and heavier, shrouding everything in a sickly gray. She set a candle down on the rotting wood of the pier in the middle of what looked to be a mangled human rib cage. The bones were still ragged with muscle and fat, but they all faced inward towards the candle. As it was lit the rib cage filled with blood, somehow not spilling through the openings in the ribs. As it burned the candle slowly drew the blood up, draining it from its vessel.

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 25, Texas

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Female

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? No

Lapis,
There are recurring themes in your dreams that seem to point to some type of internal conflicts that may stem from actual 'violent' experiences. Let's examine some of those images and actions in your dreams.

"In this dream I was violently raped and murdered.". Such language is often reflective of emotional conflict in the dreamer's life. But it may also be using such language to address lesser conflicts, not a real rape and murder but something metaphorical that left a emotional mark.
Are there such traumatic experiences in your life? If so then the other dreams are probably focusing on these emotional conflicts.

The second dream looks to the future. And then looking back to possible past conflicts {same theme as in the first dream}.

Note: Murder and being killed often symbolizes some aspect of the dreamer being 'killed' and not a real murder.

The letters may be from your unconscious. Note the statement "While pursuing him through one of his letters". This could very well suggest you are 'pursuing this inner conflict unconsciously'. The blank pictures and disappearing letter may represent unconscious contents that you wish to forget or repress. And then there is the sex. Could this tie in with the rape in the first dream? This in affect would 'kill your soul'.

Dream 3
This dream may be looking back to childhood or earlier experiences in your life. Basements are often symbolic of the unconscious and locked cellar doors may represent repressed emotions from traumatic experiences. The kidnapping may represent the 'kidnapping' of that 'cheerful disposition' you started out with in life. And the person responsible {if such actions are true} may be someone you trusted.
The sickly smile could very well be something that is remembered from actual experiences in your waking life.

Dream 4
Fish are often symbolic of the 'true self', reflecting true emotions, known and unknown. The clouds and grey setting may be addressing your current emotional status, perhaps reflective of depression. And there are indications of repression of some thing. The rotting wood may be the 'rotting' conditions felt about your life. These emotional conflicts are draining you of your energy {blood}.

Summary
Such dreams as these are usually indicative of some traumatic experiences in the dreamer's life. Again, are there such conflicts of emotions in your life, some past experience that have left emotional wounds that you do not wish to remember?
Your response will help determine where to look next to what these dreams are trying to communicate.

gerard

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 58 Murfreesboro, Tn

Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male

How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes