I haven't actually had this dream in a while, but I've had it several times in my life, always with the same general happenings. It always goes something like this:

I am in a familiar place like home or my school. An entity is out to get me - whether it is a group of people, or just one person, and for various reasons. I know this, and this knowledge gives me a head start to flee before they come after me, so I get a few brief minutes of hope that I can escape. As I am running I change my mind and decide to hide instead, so I look around and hide under something. (It's always under, not behind or between.) But then just as quickly I realize that my hiding place is horrible - it doesn't cover me completely, and I can easily be seen. Now that I have wasted time hiding, I don't have a head start anymore, and the entity has caught up to me. When they lift off whatever I'm hiding under, of course I wake up.

Various incarnations of this dream:
- In my school, where an organization is chopping the heads off everyone in a school. They're all lined up for the guillotine. I flee, and run home, start packing up my stuff. I realize people are looking for me in my house, so I escape out the back door and flee through the neighborhood. I hide under a car. In a few minutes, they look under it and find me.

- In my childhood home, where I lived until I was 7. There are ninjas in the house. I flee down the back hallway, out through the garage and into the backyard (which appears bigger and more tree-filled than it does in real life). I spot the ninjas swinging around and I realize that it would be a bad idea to outrun them; I quickly hide underneath the woodpile. They find me.

- In a school I used to go to which I absolutely hated. I think I was still attending this school when I had this particular dream. I can't remember who was chasing me this time, but I was running through the halls of the school, and finally found my hiding place in a pile of stuffed animals underneath a counter. (Why would there be stuffed animals in a school?) Stuffed animals don't provide very good cover, so I am found.

I am sure that there is some symbolism to a ton of elements in this dream, but I can't seem to piece it together myself. What could be significant about having a head start? What is the significance of running at first but then always hiding, and hiding badly?

I regularly have dreams where I being chased by people who mean me harm.
Often it is a war scenario.
Usually I'm a soldier or a spy.

I haven't had any of my recurring dreams lately (knock on wood!), thank goodness, as they are very disturbing, but maybe someone can help me figure them out. My worst dreams always take place at my bio. moms house, I can understand that a lot of bad memories revolve around that place, but inevitably I am desperately fighting evil cats who fly around by their tails (like propellers)and I try to twist their heads off (I told you it's my worst dream!) and it doesn't work they just go Exorcist on me. Sometimes scary movies trigger my dreams, but sometimes nothing. Cats are my fave animals though, I have a slight fear of them also (re: Pet Semetary, Strays, and one attacked me once for no reason). Any thoughts? Besides the fact that I'm messed up. I KNOW that!:D

To me, it sounds like someone you loved and trusted, hurt you. And you are still trying to stop the pain.

I can imagine that it must be a terrible, full of fear sort of reacurring dream.
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It's funny you say those things 1st, b/c my parents divorced when I was 2. I saw the last big fight, they did it right in front of me and I saw my mother walk out the door and not come back for a long time. Funnily enough, it happened at my granny's house not my bio. mom's and in some of the dreams I had when I was younger my granny's house was that one place that if I could just get there I'd be safe.

The dream causes so much fear that, even at the age of 26, I need a "nightlight" (I imagine cat tails walking around the bed otherwise, I have a very active imagination), soft music and my husband to read a Psalm that says something about not being afraid of the terror by night so I can repeat it to myself. That's a slightly embarrasing confession, but true. Thankfully, the dream hasn't come back in a year or more. I was just curious about what it meant. Thanks!

NewKeetMama, negative things that happened in childhood, and which were not dealt with, and which seemed forgotten, have a way of nudging you until you confront them.

I've known it to happen many times.

Good luck!

I remember having lots of scary dreams when I was younger, but they've lessened over the years. I remember some, but not all. My first recurring dream (the one described is a different one), I must have been 8 or 9 and it only recurred a couple of times. I still remember it, is that weird? I was in the passenger seat of my daddy's old lime green Club Wagon van (that's important b/c it had been repainted by the time of the dream), it's completely dark all around except for a few lights here and there and my Barbie doll was "driving", next scene I've arrived at my mother's house (that's where we were going)my little brother is there watching tv, I'm scared for some reason, we talk for a moment, but I don't remember what was said, and I go to the kitchen looking for my mother. The kitchen is dirty like it always is and on the stove a huge stockpot is boiling. I start looking around for something/someone, and then I feel someone walk in I'm scared and I wake up. I had this dream one other time and then it changed a bit, I became aware that I was looking for a body, and it's in the cabinet, the boiling pot attracts me next and then just as I'm about to look in the pot, someone walks in behind me just like before.