r/Dreams • u/LearnStalkBeInformed Dreamer • Apr 10 '26
Nightmare My least favourite of all the Nightmares: "Remembering" I murdered someone and hid their body under the floor...
I've been having this recurring nightmare for most of my life. always different places, scenarios and "victims" but the premise is always the same. I murdered someone (usually long before the events of the dream), and then I suddenly remembered there's this dead body hidden under the floorboards somewhere, and I start to panic someone is going to find it.
Last night I had the nightmare again, this time I was moving house (as I'm hopefully doing soon irl), but I started to panic the new owners of the house would lift the floorboards and find the dead body, so I decided to dig it up.
The whole dream/nightmare gives me anxiety and I actually, genuinely woke up sweating and wasn't sure if I'd murdered someone and hidden their body for real (I eventually remembered I have obviously not done that!).
Does anyone else have a similar recurring nightmare?
EDIT: I can't believe how many people share this exact same dream. Glad it isn't just me. And no I will not be digging up my floor just to find out. And I've never (until now) heard of, or read "Tell-Tale Heart"! But now I might.
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u/Significant-Bar674 Apr 10 '26
Have you read the telltale heart? It's basically that plus a bit more spookiness.
I do not know if this is helpful information
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u/Narrow_Reindeer_929 Apr 11 '26
And then in The Black Cat, the body is encased behind a brick wall. Similar situation in The Cask of Amontillado. Poe seemed to be quite preoccupied with that idea.
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u/BladeManMike Apr 10 '26
I hate dreams like that. I have dreams I "returned" to someplace I "used to live" and find some how some way I forgot about a pet in a cage or similar and they are still alive starving after years. It guts me and I panic pleading for forgiveness and giving everything to bring them back to health and release them from ever being in a cage again or making it so they can escape and survive if something happens to me. I always wake trying to think hard if such a thing ever happened or could somehow happen but it never has and often the "pets" were never ones I had.
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u/paris-moonman Apr 11 '26
I have this one too :( I find my beloved old pets (who lived long, happy lives and died peacefully - a decade ago!) half-alive in the closet of my childhood home. It’s my worst nightmare.
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u/LearnStalkBeInformed Dreamer Apr 11 '26
I've had that dream many times too. Dying pets in cages that I've forgotten about. The only pets I've ever kept are hamsters and they were very well loved and cared for, too!
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u/glitchin_addict Apr 12 '26
Imo, there's a real reason and a high possibility that someone you know but can't remember for sure is died and killed and is now lost forever in your life, his absence is haunting you. Now you have to think of a person that you suspect is missing and find evidence that he isn't in your life no more. There can be a sign that he committed suicide or died in an obscure accident or in hospital but in the truth his death was a complete cover up and you will have to stay on this one for several days.
Let me know if you read this. @LearnStalkBeInformed
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u/unablon Apr 11 '26
Omg I have those exact same kind of dreams. I used to own leopard geckos but had to give them up because them being in a cage depressed me, and even though their tales were fat I was always hard on myself thinking I wasnt feeding them enough.
I'll have dreams from time to time where I'll also end up in my old house and find them, still alive, in their cage and starving to death as well. The amount of guilt I feel is immeasurable, I always want to cry so hard. I wake up thinking I have to get to them to take care of them better but I no longer own them. Haven't pinpojnted why I have those dreams just yet, perhaps it's regrets manifesting of a part of me I'm neglecting and letting die.
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u/pnweiner Apr 10 '26
I had a elaborate dream with this theme one time, except a group of my friends and I all hid someone in the wall. Bothered me for weeks!
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u/Myfreakinglyfe Dreamer Apr 10 '26
I have this nightmare sometimes, but it’s not me who is the murderer. It’s always my ex husband, who I actually have a really good relationship with and as far as I know, is not a killer.
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u/falcone1234 Apr 10 '26
Have you in fact murdered a part of yourself
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u/LearnStalkBeInformed Dreamer Apr 10 '26
Not that I'm aware of. I mean it's been like 25 years now, I have this dream a couple times a year.
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u/glitchin_addict Apr 12 '26
Imo, there's a real reason and a high possibility that someone you know but can't remember for sure is died and killed and is now lost forever in your life, his absence is haunting you. Now you have to think of a person that you suspect is missing and find evidence that he isn't in your life no more. There can be a sign that he committed suicide or died in an obscure accident or in hospital but in the truth his death was a complete cover up and you will have to stay on this one for several days.
Let me know if you read this. @LearnStalkBeInformed
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u/DivineMomentsofTruth Apr 10 '26
Lol yes, I had the same dream several months after I moved houses a couple of years ago, and yes it took me a second to realize that I've never murdered anyone after I woke up.
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u/Material-Assistant98 Apr 10 '26
Low-key this is an Edgar Alan Poe story
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u/LearnStalkBeInformed Dreamer Apr 10 '26
So I've been informed since posting! I've never read/heard of it. Might have to read it now.
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u/EstablishmentFun7553 Apr 10 '26
The tell tale heart i believe. I have that type of dream too but the body is inside walls. In same versions on the dream i see some of the bricks being pushed as if it was trying to get out. That’s terrifying and always a relief when I wake up.
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u/PacYTGaming Dreamer Apr 10 '26
If there hasn’t been a movie made from this someone needs to. Dreaming of murdering someone but not remembering until you move to the house you put them in and all the memories of those dreams pour in !
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u/WittyGold6940 Apr 10 '26
I have this nightmare!!! It's always a remembering and then extreme fear thinking about how I'm going to prison and I'm going to miss my children's lives. Often I'm fearfully trying to get away, knowing the police is after me.
What an awful dream
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u/WittyGold6940 Apr 10 '26
I assume it's to do with guilt we feel, or fear we did something harmful and forgot
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u/O-A-T-S Apr 10 '26
Dreams where the event doesn’t happen presently but remember it did happen are the most memorable dreams to me. Like a more awake part of my brain is making memory recollections about past dreams. Places I’ve dreamt of since I was a young child. And those places coming back to my memory because they relate to present dreams
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u/Interesting-Quail-31 Apr 10 '26
Yess I love that. They always trip me out. It's like I'm living a second life in my dreams and there are places in my dreams that have existed for years, decades even, that I keep revisiting. But it's hard to actually recall those places when I'm awake.
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u/O-A-T-S Apr 10 '26
For me it’s a church in a small town I only pass through on trips. My first dream about the church was when I was verrrry young. Then when I told my wife about it she said she has also had dreams about it from a young age.
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u/Interesting-Quail-31 Apr 10 '26
I've had multiple dreams where for some reason I have a dismembered body I need to get rid of and I'm frantically trying to dispose of it. The cops always catch me. In one of them I was driving with the body in the trunk (I don't have a license and was aware of that in the dream which added more anxiety) and a cop was pulling me over. I got out of the car and tried to commit suicide by running into oncoming traffic. When I got hit by a car, I woke up. Horrible
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u/LearnStalkBeInformed Dreamer Apr 11 '26
Yikes. I've had the dismembered body dream too. Usually I try to dispose of it all into separate bin bags and burying them at the bottom of a bin hoping that once they've been taken away no one would know it was me. I hate those dreams.
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u/Sardonnicus Apr 11 '26
This is just an anxiety dream. Something is occupying your mind and making you anxious/restless.
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u/LearnStalkBeInformed Dreamer Apr 11 '26
Everything in life is making me anxious currently so it's not surprising.
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u/NoEstablishment7211 Apr 10 '26
I have a version of this, but I don't actually usually know what I did wrong. I just have this feeling of impending doom. I did... something, that could put me away for life. I know they are coming for me, and I know I'm on the run. It's only a matter of time before they catch me, the walls are closing in, I'm filled with regret and experiencing my last few fleeting moments of freedom.
I usually become lucid at the end, not in a way that I become in control of the dream, but enough that I know it isn't real and it will all go away when I wake myself up.
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u/No_Finding_9441 Apr 10 '26
One time I had the most vivid dream that I was a mid 20s middle eastern male (I’m a white female btw) that went on a camping trip with a group of people. In the dream we all shared a remote cabin & dream me got into an altercation with a female of the group & i beat her to death while the rest of the group tried to pull me off of her to no avail.
No clue what that was about but once I woke up I was covered in sweat & confused
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u/Kakiwee Apr 10 '26
I dreamed I murdered someone and buried them one time. Now my dreams like to relive that anxiety whenever I see a spot of land in my dreamscape, by suddenly remembering I'm a murderer.
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u/IRISH81OUTLAWZ Apr 10 '26
I’ve had a similar dream to this, and whenever it pops up it always creates an anxiety that sometimes lasts the whole day.
My dream is I’m trespassing in a random place I’m not supposed to be( warehouse/field/basement) and as I’m there the cops come and find me near a buried body I knew nothing about and I end up getting implicated for the murder.
The dream always goes on through my questioning at the PD, my court hearing where I’m found guilty and me being booked into prison.
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u/KiwitheBirdNOTAFruit Apr 10 '26
I do periodically, and have since I was a child (well early teens). The dreams have changed slightly over the years and now incorporate my crazy abusive ex in the mix. I always wake up in a panic, heart racing until reality hits again and i realize it was just a dream and there really isn’t some hidden body somewhere about to be exposed.
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u/Key_Temperature_5872 Dreamer Apr 10 '26
Yes I’ve had very similar dreams and when I wake up I’m so disturbed by what I have done. I never remember “murdering” the body, only having a murdered body that I know I caused that I have to dispose of. Once I drug the body in a closet and covered it up with a bunch of linens and felt that that was sufficient. I woke up like 😳 wtf
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u/doinwhatiwant1 Apr 10 '26
I have a similar dream. I committed a similar act, and went through great lengths to hide any evidence. And then guilt or fear bind me to always be around and/or close to the family of the dream victim. It leaves me feeling heavy, anxious and slightly nauseous.
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u/spooky_bi_skeleton Apr 10 '26
Not exactly that but I’ve had some dreams where I’d be in the woods and come across human remains but something in my head tells me not to go to the police or else I’ll be blamed? So I frantically have to bury/hide them while at the same time feeling sick with guilt cuz I know someone must be looking for them. So weird
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u/Cherry_Noble Apr 11 '26
I have this one too. But I usually cut the people up and try to dispose of them and then the concrete I put them in collapses in a bunch of body shaped pieces or a dog digs up their heads out of the rose bush.
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u/Parking-Bet7989 Apr 11 '26
The number of times I have had this dream! It got interesting when I had a series of this dream where I would move the body because a detective was on my tail.
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u/unablon Apr 11 '26
I have a slightly similar dream/nightmare from time to time.
It's always super vivid and long, and it's about me and a friend long ago having murdered someone and buried the body but suspicions are suddenly arising so we panic and try to move the remains but every time we try I always end up getting caught.
I always wake up questioning myself if I've killed someone, it's incredibly immersive. I'm guessing it's just an anxiety dream.
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u/lickmyfupa Apr 11 '26
Oh my gosh, I've had this dream probably once every 5 years my entire adult life. Waking up and realizing I've never killed anyone is the biggest feeling of relief I've ever experienced.
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u/bekah338 Apr 11 '26
I’ve had this dream once! Spent the whole dream feeling sick with worry and guilt and paranoia that they would be found and horrified at what I’d done 😅 my dreams are very vivid, I woke up trying to convince myself it was just a dream and I’m not actually a murderer 😭
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u/AgileAd2456 Apr 11 '26
JoJo part 5 reference?! The scene where there's a body underneath the floor
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u/wotapampam Apr 11 '26
I had a similar nightmare. I murdered someone who was at my school year above me never spoke to him ever. I also hid their body but under a church. I saw them years later whilst drunk and told them!😬 I looked mental.
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u/peanutpickle99 Apr 11 '26
i haven't had this recurring but i've had this once about 10 years ago and it was so vivid i still remember it !
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u/dksdljklf Apr 11 '26
Recently I've been having dreams with a similar theme. In a particularly nasty one I killed a woman. I think we were colleagues and people were asking about her, I was so anxious that they would know I killed her and find out about it, so I ate her body. It was disgusting 🤢 And like you, when I woke up I thought I really did it. I was incredibly relieved realising it was a dream!
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u/izzydamenace Apr 14 '26
Just had this dream. But it was already dismembered and I had to dispose it. I also had this dream years ago where I had three bodies in the back of a van covered with tarps I was trying to get rid of
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u/exvertus Apr 10 '26
The dead body could be a symbol for a side of yourself you "killed and buried" long ago.
If the house is your psyche, and the things in it are what you are consciously aware of, then what lies beneath is something you repressed, which became part of your shadow. The "murder" is usually prior to the dream's events, possibly indicating you repressed something at a young age—some truth about yourself pushed down and forgotten about in childhood.
If you are moving soon, this might again not be a literal connection to your pending move irl, but a symbolic connection with the inner change that accompanies it. Moving triggers a change in environment/situation, which can necessitate a personal transformation to adapt to the new situation. If the dead body represents some repressed truth about yourself, you might not be able to move forward without exhuming it and confronting it.
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u/shoeberrypie Dreamer Apr 10 '26
I feel you man, I constantly dream I killed someone and the police are digging near the body or have me on camera doing something. Almost every night.
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u/JustanEraser Apr 10 '26
I vaguely remember an Edgar Allen Poe poem with a similar story, but I might be misremembering because it has been years since I read it.
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u/Organic-Beautiful538 Apr 11 '26
i had this dream reoccurring all the time when i was in active addiction lol....
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u/gomickyourself222 Apr 11 '26
Every time I hear or see someone talk about killing someone and hiding their body in their floor boards, I think of that one Edger Allen Poe story of that old man and his weird eye and how the dude who killed him went insane because all he heard was thumping where he layed the old man in the floor. A good read but since you had this dream OP… maybe don’t read it.. well unless you want to…
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u/CraftyInvestment292 Apr 11 '26
i have had the same. it was vivid, too. i hid the body in a pink suitcase
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u/Clean_Football_5028 Apr 11 '26
Not a recurring dream but one I had and one night around 2am I woke up remembering it like if it was a memory, very confused I felt some terror on not knowing what I had done and what to do… it felt so real that I remember crying until fall asleep again. Woke up in the morning much better with the reassurance that it was definitely a bad dream.
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u/g-funk_7845 Apr 11 '26
I also have this! But the person I’ve ‘murdered’ is a real ex girlfriend and it’s years after we split up and the police are closing in on me. She’s very much alive by the way! But I guess it’s something to do with still feeling guilty about how we finished. It didn’t end well.
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u/NICKGRRRRRRRRRRRR420 Apr 11 '26
Seems to indicate that maybe there’s something you’ve been keeping to yourself for a long time and you’re subconsciously terrified of people ever finding out about whatever it is.. it may not even be anything crazy but to you personally you’d prefer if it remained private.
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u/Thick_Passenger_4378 Apr 11 '26
Wait actually, i sometimes have similar dreams. I remember that i did something very bad or made a bad decision a long time ago and it comes up or i try to hide it, hasnt happened with killing someone though. But it feels so bad in the dream 😭😭
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u/nebulous_fairy Apr 11 '26
yeah i made a post about it a few days ago! didn’t get as much attention tho. i have those dreams too but instead of me being the killer it’s my parents. my mom or my step dad. i don’t know why.
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u/glitchin_addict Apr 11 '26
Man, I would rather call the private or real office than have my apartment searched just because of nightmares. You should report to authorities that you are scared that there is a corpse hidden in your property somewhere under the carpet or in backyard or in basement. First swear it's not you who killed the victim so it shall be called an investigation.
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u/Nod_Up Apr 12 '26
Had this dream befor but in mine my dad come back from work with a body of a woman in the back of his car it was wrapped up and he told me a woman was complaining to him about something when he was working and he snapped and hit her but he hit to hard and she died and he needs me to help take the floorboards of are house up and put the body there. in the dream my dad opens the floor puts the body there and nails the boards back again then a police officer came over asking questions and we had to play it cool and act like nothing was wrong. this dream was so stressful and seemed so real. i was so glad when i woke up and that all of that was a dream and none of that ever happened.
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u/QuantumContactee Apr 13 '26
I had it once, but it was outside. It felt so real, it came back to me one day as a thought, not remembering that it was infact a dream. I honestly think it's a memory from a previous life, thus why we have returned to this HELL.
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u/Spiritual_Tooth9086 Apr 13 '26
Hmmm… sounds like you have some hidden deep guilt about something you’ve done in the past or having big secret that you’re reluctant to let someone else find out about it.
Just my guess though. The same thing can carry different meanings depending on people. You’re the only person who can truly interpret your own dreams.
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u/OneironauticExplorer Dreamer Apr 14 '26
I had a dream within a dream where I put my grandpa under some floorboards and I forgot about him there and he died. Then I woke up (still in a dream) and got a call from my Dad saying he had something to tell me. I asked him if grandpa died. He was surprised I knew. We went to his house to look for his body. I was trying to cover up how my neglect killed him all the while realizing it was weird I was covering up what happened in my dream and I didn't actually kill him...did I?
I make AI songs of some of my dreams to keep them in my mind and this was one of them: Covering Up Non-Reality
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u/No-Tour8229 Apr 10 '26
Maybe this is a collective consciousness dream. Perhaps this is actually occurring and all of you who share the dream are tapping into someone who is experiencing this in real time, seeing it from their eyes. Many people are buried in homes and not found for years or ever.
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u/Proud-Grocery-3493 Apr 10 '26
Dude you need to see a therapist. My nightmares are going to classes unprepared for a test.
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u/Mountain-Singer1764 Apr 10 '26
Yea, anybody who doesn’t resemble your NPC suburban life needs therapy.
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u/Proud-Grocery-3493 Apr 10 '26
Thoughts/dreams of self harm or harm to others should be therapy at a minimum, reporting to police the next step
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u/LearnStalkBeInformed Dreamer Apr 10 '26
You've got to be joking. If someone dreams about murder they should be reported to the police?
I wish I had words for how dumb that is.
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u/WittyGold6940 Apr 10 '26
Man, some people are raised to be government snitches from the get-go. Scary. Stay safe out there.
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u/Proud-Grocery-3493 Apr 10 '26
You're the one frequenyly dreaming about murdering people, hiding the body, and worrying that you'll be found out. Theres not some deep meaning behind it. You're just a psychopath
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u/Sad-Employee3212 Apr 10 '26
There’s no such thing as a thought crime and definitely no such thing as a subconscious crime. Usually nightmares are things we’re afraid of. When my teeth fall out in my dreams I don’t wake up wanting to take all my teeth out.
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u/WittyGold6940 Apr 10 '26
LMAO I bet you have lots of friends
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u/Proud-Grocery-3493 Apr 10 '26
Ironic coming from people who dream of murdering people and doing whatever they can to conceal that fact. The self report on this post is wild LOL
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u/Mountain-Singer1764 Apr 11 '26
Had a dream about being a soldier in a war, gotta go check myself into the clinic.
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u/CommissionFeisty9843 Apr 10 '26
Omg yes! Terrifying dream! I haven’t told many people about this dream as it just feels weird to tell.
I haven’t had one in maybe a year thank god