My Worst Nightmare (7 photos)

Photographer Lottie Davies asked her friends and acquaintances to share the most frightening dreams they'd ever had. From these stories, she created a series of atmospheric photographs called "Nightmares and Memories."

We invite our readers to briefly delve into the dark world of someone else's subconscious. What kind of nightmares do you have?





Lou's Story

"My friend Dani and I were renting a room from a very sweet old lady in a small Portuguese house. As I was falling asleep, I suddenly felt like I fell and hit my shoulder on the wall. I thought I'd fallen out of bed and gotten stuck between it and the wall, and then someone grabbed my arms and dragged me toward the door. I saw the room was filled with people, covering the floor like a living carpet, piling up on the furniture. They were all naked, with long dark hair, and strangely genderless. They looked truly creepy.

They continued dragging me across the floor toward the door, and at some point, I suddenly realized it might be a dream. I started screaming loudly, "Where's Dani?" to wake myself up. Then one of them pulled the bloody sheet off the bed—I couldn't see what was underneath—and whispered, "She's here." Now I was screaming nonstop...

Never before, nor ever since, have I been so frightened by a dream."



The Red Devil

"My daughter Scarlett often dreamed of the Red Devil. She said she could see him in the corner of the room, but he never harmed her. Her safety was always guarded by Indian dreamcatchers."

Viola's Twin

"Everything happens on a sunny and joyful day." Viola, my three-year-old daughter, runs toward me, arms wide open, smiling broadly and screaming, "Mommy!" Suddenly, a second Viola appears from behind her and does exactly the same thing. In an instant, everything changes: the sweet dream turns into a nightmare. I stare at them in silent horror, unable to understand who the second girl is and whether the first is really my daughter.

Another time, I dreamed of three-year-old Viola again. She was blonde and blue-eyed—just like in real life. Suddenly, another girl appears, and in the dream, I realize she's also Viola, though she has green eyes and dark hair. They both act as if I were their mother, but they seem oblivious to each other. I sense something is wrong, because I never had twins, but I can't remember which one is my daughter."



Five

"I have nightmares all the time, so I'll tell you about the last one. I was pregnant with quintuplets, and it was terrible because I didn't want any more children (I already have two, I'm 42, and my health isn't what it used to be). I had to ask my old midwife to deliver the babies, even though she'd already retired. When the babies were born, I immediately started thinking about what size stroller we'd need, how all this bunch would fit in our tiny car, what the older kids would say, what would happen with my job, and most importantly, where would I get the money to feed them all?"



River

"I dream that England is still populated by pagans, but an army of priests is already marching across it to increase the number of Christians. I am a priestess of the old faith, and while others submit to the new order to save their lives, I cannot. The priests are about to crucify me."

Later, I see myself floating in a boat with the chief priest along the smooth, sleepy surface of a river surrounded by old trees. My daughter, about nine years old, is with me. Here, away from people, the priest begins to get physical and harass me, and I am forced to obey.

Before I was killed, I whispered to my daughter her secret name, which she must not pronounce but always remember. I see her swimming toward the shore and reaching a place where the tree branches hang low. She pushes them aside and finds herself before an ancient wall with a figure carved into it. It is her crucified mother. I know this place is sacred to us, and my people will not forget our true faith. In my sleep, I am dying, and when I wake, I no longer know whether I am alive or dead."



What does the future hold?

"I divorced my husband and found myself in a relationship with a very jealous man who tormented me and my ten-year-old son for a long time after I separated from him.

I dreamed my son was a toddler again, playing by the fireplace in an old house that had recently burned down. It was a ruin, no longer a fire, but covered in heavy, eerie ash. My ex-lover appeared there like a shadow and began slowly and gently dusting my son's face with sticky soot. I saw it blacken and the baby's breathing become difficult. The soot clung to his eyelids, and I knew that if he closed his eyes, he would die. I couldn't shake it off, because that would make things even worse. I had to carefully blow the soot off his face... I felt fear and confusion, and when I woke up, I realized that this is exactly what I felt in real life.



The Girl in the Tower

"My worst nightmare is very old; I was about 10 or 11 years old. My parents were divorced, and I missed my father terribly. They told me I had to kill a strange girl, otherwise they (I don't know who exactly) would kill my dad. I took a large knife and began climbing a spiral staircase in a tall, old tower. It was dark and damp. At the end, I saw a wooden door and discovered a room behind it, where a girl was sleeping on a bed. I stood over her and raised the knife. But as the knife was approaching her chest, I suddenly realized that she was me. However, I couldn't stop. I woke up only when the knife had already touched her. My mother was nearby: she was awakened by my terrible scream. I cried for hours. I still can't think about it calmly."