I can always feel the monster before I see it. But I know it is going to be there from the beginning.

It starts in the big white room, it is so big there is no walls to be seen. Just a wide, bright, white space.

I start walking, but I have no idea where I am going. After a while, I feel its presence. It’s scary, menacing, overwhelming. I feel its size. It is massive and I sense, it is expanding too. I have not seen it yet but I’m keenly aware of the monsters colour: jet black, deep as coal.

I keep walking, my pace steady. Letting out that I’m scared is not a good idea. It might sniff it out, like an animal, and become emboldened.

The monster is looming large over me, getting taller and wider and fatter behind me. My heart races, my breathing accelerates. What does it want from me?

The shady monster is now all around me and, as I’m turning round to face it, I wake up.

Before going to bed, I was always scared. I did not want to go back to the big white room. Sometimes, when I was awake I could feel it, the monster and the fear too. It was a fleeting sensation but enough to send shivers down my spine.

One night, one dream, I ended it. Walking into the familiar white room I mustered all the courage I could. I stopped walking and turned around to face my monster. The black shade surrounded me. It is just a dream, I thought, you are not real!, I screamed.

I never returned to the big white room, but sometimes I still feel the monster’s presence and the fear that it brings. You are not real, you are not real, you are not real.