Last night I had a dream that has been weighing on my mind all day long.  Even now, as I prepare for bed I cant shake the memory of it and I fear that it will be revisited in more horrible ways than before.

The love of my life, Stephanie, is traveling home with two of her male friends from a party.  Their car is forced off the road by a pair of cars and armed men jump out and pull them from their vehicle.  The friends are brutally executed with a hail of gunfire and Stephanie, covered in their sticky blood, is forced into the trunk of one of their cars.  Pleading with the men she is taken to a dark place and sold as an object and she becomes the victim of human trafficking.  For 10 years I pine for my lost love as I wonder about her disappearance and out of the blue I learn of her fate and also her whereabouts.  I go to the gun store she is being held in and spy her in a back room chained inside a cage, her form battered and bedraggled and only a sliver of her once beautiful form remaining.  I make pleasantries with the men behind the counter as I surreptitiously draw from my pocket a blade.  Asking for the price of an item on the shelf behind him, I draw the attention of one of the men away from me, making him turn around; when his back is turned I take my knife and swiftly slit his throat, throwing his gagging body to the floor.  With shocked looks on their faces the other two men in the store watch as I bound over the counter and stab the first of them to death through his chest.  With a leap across the room I take hold of the last of them and we struggle furiously as he forces the blade from my hand, causing it to clatter to the floor.  We fight ferociously and eventually I best my foe, caving in his skull with a piece of furniture and pulling the cage key from his pocket.  Covered head to toe in gore I unlock Stephanie's cage and help her to freedom.  She looks at me like I'm some fresh Hell being visited on her but I reveal myself for who I am and tell her that she is rescued; she bursts into tears of relief and sobs for hours over all the horrible things she has been forced to do and to witness for years nearly uncounted and I console her until she is calmed.  I produce for her a pair of cupcakes that I had prepared before entering the store and had set aside.  I tell her that the first is made of sugar and apples and is all the sweet things I will give to her; the second is made of coffee and rat poison and will taste bitter but will be the end of her suffering at long last.  I give her the choice and without a moments hesitation she takes the latter and eats heartily of it, sending the former to the floor, forgotten.  She smiles a wan grin at me and tells me, "Thank you" before closing her eyes and looking finally at peace with her lot.  I hold her in my arms to keep her warm and safe as she passes on into the next world, unable to live with what has happened to her in her captivity.

At this point I awoke and stared at the pillow beneath me and imagined all the terrible things that Stephanie must have experienced and for a long moment I was Horrified.  It was only then that the realization that it was a dream hit me and I remembered the truth; Stephanie has been dead for fifteen years, she took her own life in a fit of depression and did not in fact fall victim to human trafficking.  At this realization I said aloud, "I'm glad you killed yourself" with an unspoken underscore of this realization, that she hadn't been sold, a thought that in no way has ever formed in my mind or lips before that moment.

Writing out this account already makes me feel better and I think I might be able to brave another round of unconsciousness, though I have no doubt another Mare of the night will visit.

This is my first Reddit posting and I thank you for reading it.