Carpet

Any insights into this?

For a while now (since I was about 12, and I’m 19 now), I’ve been having a recurring dream every summer that I can’t figure out. I was wondering if anyone here can help or give me some insights as to what it might mean. I had the dream last night, and that’s why I’m asking, because I’ve never had the dream during winter—only once every year and in the summer, though I‘m not sure if that‘s relevant or not; the dream is always very vivid and depending on where I wake up during the dream, I’m either very calm and happy or I shoot up in bed in a cold sweat. I’ve only finished it once. Here it is:

I can’t exactly remember how it starts off, because I tend to start at the middle of the dream. It takes place in the 1800’s, and I’m about 18. I usually come into the dream standing at the top of a staircase in a huge mansion. I know I’m engaged and my marriage is in less than three days. The house is dark, except for candles lit here and there. The carpet is a plush, deep red with intricate patterns on it and everywhere there are paintings with ornate gold frames. I’m leaning over the mahogany rail of the staircase, which has two openings to the first floor, and I’m looking down into the parlor below. From here I can see the front door and the hallway leading down to the other side of the house. Across from me is a crystal chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, and there is a group of people standing in the corner next to the left side of the staircase. There are four of them: three adults and one child, and they are talking in hushed, hurried, agitated voices.

The next thing I know, my fiancé places a hand on my shoulder and I turn to him and smile. He whispers to me that he loves me and very much wishes to kiss me; I blush and tell him that it’s improper, and besides, my family is right downstairs and would see us. I risk a peek over my shoulder, and at the sounds of our whispering, my family has all stopped talking and are now looking up at the two of us. My mother is frowning at me, and the child is looking at me with pure hatred (and it sincerely scares me). I turn back to my fiancé and tell him that we have to get away from them.

Now, though it’s never said in the dream, I know two things for sure about my fiancé: that he is Louis, from Anne Rice’s novel "Interview with the Vampire," and that he is, obviously, a vampire. I’m not sure if my family know this or not.

So, after I tell him we need to leave, he smiles at me. I’m watching his face and I can feel the stares of my family on my back when suddenly his expression turns into horror. He’s looking at something behind me, coming from the hallway, and I turn around to see what it is. Before I can yell, a flood of water bursts through the hallway and sweeps me along with it. I’m holding on desperately to Louis, and he is yelling and I am yelling and my family downstairs is yelling as the water rushes over the staircase and onto the first floor. To avoid being pulled away with the tide, they are holding onto the banisters. Louis is still holding onto me and I’m crying and telling him not to let go.

His grip slips, though, and I’m rushed away down stairs. Before I can be carried any farther, something grabs me around the waist and I’m pulled into a room directly next to the staircase. I’m confused and haven’t had time to gather my wits when before I know it, I’m thrown onto a steel slab and my arms and legs are being pinned down by leather straps. There are three women in front of me, and they are very ugly, with gray hair and large noses and blood red eyes, and they’re wearing black, withered robes. They’re cackling and they gather around me: two at my feet, and one at my head. I’m scared, but I can’t scream yet. The one next to my head pulls out a needle and pushes the bangs on my head back. She starts telling me that she knows about my fiancé, that he is a vampire, and she can’t allow “such a pretty little thing like [me] to be turned into a blood-sucking killer.” She’s going to stick me with a potion, but I’m not sure what it does, because she never says.

I see the needle descending and the two witches at my feet are holding my legs down. I start to squirm and scream out, “Louis! Louis! Help me!”

He is banging on the door and yelling my name, but he can’t get it open. This is where I usually wake up. The one time I finished it, Louis got the door open and scared away the witches, but most times I wake up as the needle presses to my skin and I’m still screaming.

So, anyone have any ideas? I apologize for such a long description, but it’s vivid and I wanted to give as many details as I could.