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I Dream of Pasta: Empty Skin Men



Well, this isn’t the skin-walker you guys are talking about, but it’s also probably the most terrifying aspect of my life.

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought I might not be alone in this. I am haunted at night, in my dreams, by these:

I’ve always referred to them as skin men. I made this drawing today to try to graphically represent what they look like, but I’m not willing to spend the time it will take to accurately portray these things.

I’ve had reoccurring dreams about skin men for as long as I can remember. It’s not an every night thing, and I haven’t had it for at least a year, but these things were the incarnations of absolute terror to me for a long time.

The dreams start out inconspicuous, just regular stuff happens. Usually they take place at night or near dusk, and I am usually at a cabin in the dream. I will be doing something inane at the cabin, but an outdoor light will go on somehow, and through the dark I will see a shifting humanoid shape.

This is the worst part of the dream, because every time it happened I knew what was coming next. The creature lurches into the light, awkwardly stepping on hollow feet. The walking is an unsettling process that is distinctly inhuman, the creature dips and peaks almost at random, apparently based on the way its skin folds as its feet hit the ground. Its skin ripples, but not in the way a flag ripples. It distorts to its movement, often folding so tight as to make him partially flat.

Every time, I am mortified by this creature coming towards me, towards my cabin. when it steps completely into the light, its head wobbles awkwardly, flipping and turning but always remaining mostly erect. Its eye holes catch the light of the house rather distinctly each time, in such a way I can clearly see there is nothing inside its head. The skin man is completely hollow.

It continues walking towards my cabin. Beyond him there is just forest, and I have no chance of escape. He opens his mouth, revealing his cavity yet again, and he speaks. I can’t remember what he says, but I can remember how he says it. It sounds wispy and hoarse, like the only thing inside his framework is a voice box, suspended in his neck. It sounds like everything I don’t want to hear.

He leaves after this, and as I start to calm down/phone the police/begin my task again, the light goes off.

Seconds later, it goes on again. Skin man then begins to walk towards my house again, and it’s still shocking to see, no matter how many times I see it. As he walks closer and closer, I realize that there is more than one of him, and there are many, many skin men walking towards my house.

I either wake up here or cannot remember what happens next. I haven’t had this dream for a long time, but I used to get it at least monthly. Every time I woke up, I’d be pissed off for forgetting that skin men aren’t real, and that I’d forget this even though the dream was pretty much the same every time.

It’s hard to rationalize the dark as anything but skin men now. I just realized how much I typed about a damn dream, so I will cut it off here.
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