Me and a few of my friends were all at a gas station (I don’t remember who my friends were) and we were all gathered around a table. I was the only one standing next to the table. I remember the walls being a rusty red color and the table we were at was right next to the glass doors where usually there would be beverages. Except in my dream, there was large bags of coal in the freezers.

Then, all of the sudden two men ran inside, both dressed in black, screaming. One ran near me and my friends and the other went to the other side of the store. The man who ran to us, started screaming commands at me and jerked me over to him (I felt he grabbed me because I was the closest one and standing). I couldn’t understand what he was saying because it was so loud and he was slurring his words. I said “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you.” He rolled his eyes and began shooting the glass doors with a machine gun. And as he would shoot the doors, I was holding onto his arm because I was scared. He occasionally would lower the gun, still shooting, at my feet. Then I looked down and my boots were all tappered and torn up.

I started sobbing loudly and he told me to stop crying. Then with a pistol he shot the store clerk three or four times and then turned and shot me twice in the head. I immediately felt the blood rushing to my head as I fell to the floor and my head felt warm. Everything went black and I relized I had died. I lay there waiting to see what my eternity would hold, but then I opened my eyes and I was still in the gas station but dead. Then I woke up.

This dream had scared me and I have been thinking a lot about it. Only two days earlier the Columbine shootings took place, and my mother believes that’s why I had the dream. Is this true?

- Brooke, Age 15, OK, USA

Hi Brooke -

I agree with your mom, and believe me, you are not alone in having this dream. Columbine scared all of us. It’s one more reason why we all need to reach out to our friends - and especially to people we know who are troubled. The boys who committed the murders at Columbine needed stronger friends and parents in their lives - who could help them when they were depressed and angry and feeling like there was no way out.

Stay close to your friends and family, Brooke. With love and support, we can make these bad dreams end.