On a Chain

This happened to me in 2006. I had just moved out of my parents' house—I wanted to live on my own, although no one was kicking me out or pressuring me in any way. I rented an apartment in the city center, tidied it up, and started living.

About a week later, I had a dream: I woke up, opened the balcony, and felt someone staring at me. I turned around—an elderly woman standing behind me, wearing a knee-length white shirt. Her long gray hair was loose and standing on end in small strands in different directions, as if someone was holding it. In the next scene, I was chained by the leg, holding a broom, dusting the entire apartment, and this woman was laughing from the bathroom... I went up to her, asking her to let me go, and she laughed, holding some kind of stick.

I woke up in a cold sweat, laughed, rolled over, and went back to sleep. And the dream continues—the same woman, the bathtub, the broom, but the water is now ankle-deep in the apartment. I'm already begging her to let me go, and she's laughing, though her mouth isn't moving. And then I realize she wants me to wash her...

I woke up. I was beginning to fear I'd fall asleep and it would all start over again. I went out onto the balcony, smoked, then returned to bed. The dream continues again! But this time I was able to escape her—I'm running down the street, people are walking around, cars are driving by, bus stops are flashing by. She's gone... And suddenly two long arms grab me from behind, and I find myself chained back in the apartment...

I had the dream several times, then it went away on its own. Later, I learned from the landlady that her aunt, an old, sick woman with long gray hair, had lived there before me. She died of drowning in the bathtub (most likely a heart attack). Her body was found only three days later.