Had a bad, bad dream last night. Woke up yelling "No!" at the top of my lungs. As far back in the dream as I can remember, I was watching a movie which starred a co-worker friend of mine, "Hank". Hank was in a warzone somewhere, maybe in Asia, and things were very dangerous for him; he wasn't a soldier, or at least he wasn't wearing fatigues, but he was involved in something to do with the war, and the city he was staying in was being shelled. In the dream, he was in his apartment, and was trying to call his wife back home; in fact, he had gotten through to her. The dream somehow made it very clear that the relationship between the two of them had been strained, and they were both anxious about it, but unable to bridge the widening divide between them. I can't recall their conversation exactly, only that they were both getting more and more tense, and yet still unable to communicate this. Hank, especially, was becoming visibly agitated, and the music score of the movie kept becoming louder, more shrill, and disturbing. Eventually, Hank got off the phone, but then he had to smuggle something out of his apartment; I don't remember what it was, but he carried it beneath his shirt, kindof hunched over. He was trying to get somewhere with it, maybe to a plane to get out of the city for good; he may have been trying to get back home to his wife, finally.

At some point, I became Hank. I think I was still in the Asian city, but ended up in "my" apartment (some random apartment) with my partner/girlfriend Amanda. My friend James was there too, but he was not exactly James, and partly another friend of mine (can't recall whom). I was already feeling anxious, but then "James" started messing with me, trying to freak me out . . . kindof scaring me and waving his hands all around. I became more anxious, and started panicking, having a real anxiety attack. And in the dream, I was thinking: no, no, no, not this again, I thought I was done with this. The attack kept scaling, getting very unpleasant and intense, at which point I think I was vocalizing and shortly woke up.