In the beginning of the dream, I was at an empty diner. The only patrons were me, my sister, my mother, and staff cooking behind the counter. We're all dressed very nicely. My sister and I are sitting at the table and my mother is around the corner yelling at someone on the phone. She's so loud, a staff member has to tell her to dial it down.
...
All of a sudden, I'm outside of my work. Or rather, I'm at the front door. It's night time, maybe 11pm or so. The street lights are on, it's snowing, and there are no cars. The snow is getting heavier. In the air hangs an impossible sadness. It's not a violent. gut-wrenching sadness. It's resignation, the acceptance that the world in which this dream takes place is unhealthy. There will never be a better tomorrow. There was a distinct feeling that a lot of people wouldn't escape this night.
My coworker (no one I know) suddenly says, "he's out there again."
A friend of ours in the dream (again, no one I know) has run across the street and now he's running back and forth, up and down the sidewalk, in the snow. Naked.
He'd completely lost it. Our friend had gone off the rails. In dreams, our memories have background and context that don't exist in reality. In this dream, I knew my friend had been struggling immensely. Finally, his struggles had overwhelmed him, he'd snapped, and he'd just cut himself off from reality. I called his name several times (the first time I'd ever been able to shout properly in a dream), but he didn't answer. I knew that he was so consumed by his damage and sadness and self-destruction that he could no longer recognize or acknowledge the world around him, my crying out for him, the cold.
I turn around and my coworker says we have to go, we're closing up. All the lights were now off and she went into the back to get her things. I thought, how strange that she'd turned out all of the lights and said it was time to leave... because someone was sitting in the lobby.
They sat there, all in black, with a wide-brimmed black hat, staring at the floor. I couldn't yet see their features. So I walk across the room and behind the counter. When I turn around, they've moved from one end of the long bench lining our front windows, to the other. And then they rise to their feet as I turn on the lights. Throughout the entirety of the dream, I'd seen a dozen or so people. This was the first one to look at me straight-on. They have extremely pale skin, very androgynous features, and they're looking at me with total malevolence. There is not one iota of good energy emanating from this being.
Suddenly, they begin to move toward me. Not walking or even sliding across the room. They're taking steps toward me but it's jerky. In fits and bursts they're suddenly a few feet closer. I open my mouth to speak - and in real life, my voice, shuddering, let out three words - 'the haunted person' - and that's what woke me up.
- - - - -
It was a very strange night, I had several dreams, and after waking from one later on, I experienced sleep paralysis for the first and so far only time. Lots of energies were at work that night.