Dear diary,
I had another dream about that girl...Naomi. It's been a long time since she haunted my sleep, since last summer, I'd guess, certainly more than a year. They are much the same, these dreams, with the same villains, the same reactions from the girl...but I sense something new, something more...more real, perhaps, in the quality of the dreams. At least, the girl seems more real, her reactions possessed of a more genuine quality than the stereotypical victim that she seemed to be before.

Listen to me, saying that my dream seems more real. It's a ridiculous notion...and yet, the dreams are so vivid.

Perhaps it was because of those books I've been reading, about the old ones. There was a Lovecraftian Horror in this dream, and it was set to devour the girl. Instead of playing the helpless victim, as she has in the past, she fought all the way, and even injured the creature until she dropped into another dream landscape. This one had the appearance of a market. It is not an unfamiliar setting. Once, while I was exploring, I came across such a market, and it obviously left an impression in my psyche. There were the usual items to be found in an open air market, but also a place where people were being sold off as property, like any woven rug or bottle of lamp oil. So it was in the dream.

No sooner had the dust settled from the girl's landing then a woman, possessed of an unearthly beauty and fiery red hair, came along and tripped right over her. And the girl, proving as weak as she has been in the past despite her recent battle with the creature, practically groveled at the woman's feet, begging forgiveness. I wanted to smack her myself, just to give her some backbone again. Apparently the woman felt the same way, for the dream ended with the smack of her hand against the girl's cheek...and what was oddest, and most disturbing, was that I awoke with the stinging pain of that slap in my cheek. When I went to look in the mirror, though, there was no red mark on my cheek, save that introduced by the press of my own hand, seeking to ease the sting.

And that was not the only oddity. I used to dream of this girl most often as an innocent, though sometimes she would behave as wantonly as a seasoned professional. In this return, I sensed a change in her mid-stream, as though instead of innocence she possessed a kind of...hunger for pain. It was as though, when that slap came, that she longed for it, every fiber of her being stretched thin in anticipation of the sting, and the ache that would follow. It is an interesting concept, this hunger for pain...the desire to experience pain, and I think it bears further study. So too does this woman in the dream. She is very different from the villain that Naomi has faced before, The Mistress, who seemed to be a parody of those few strutting women that I witnessed in the markets on my singular visit. Like the dream-girl, this woman with the crimson hair seemed to be all the more real. She too, I think, bears further study.

Perhaps this was just one dream, not destined to become a series as it has been in the past. But should I continue to dream, I will record my waking thoughts here, so that I may seek to learn from these nocturnal visions.

Until next time, dear diary.
~J