It could get long I apologize...

When I was around 13 I had a dream that I was in a very large house or mansion. I never saw the outside but in this house there were all kinds of hidden rooms. I discovered many of them on this visit. I remember exploring and that a friend was with me though I never recognized her from my waking life and in the dream I don’t recall using her name. Every room in this house both hidden and otherwise was fully furnished, it looked lived in, and old. The dining table was set for a large party of people the end tables had photos, the lighting was dim, the banisters, tables, chairs, and trim were all a dark wood. Everything looked dark yet inviting at first and then when we were in one of the hidden rooms several floors up something frightened us. There was never a clear image of what we were afraid of just that a man was after us and we had to get out. On the third floor we came to a spiral staircase that took us to the second floor and just a few feet from this landing my friend suddenly got hit with something that acted like acid melting her skin and killing her. I remember being terrified I took a few steps away and looked at my friend lifeless on the floor and woke up.

I am 26 now and had forgotten about this dream until about a month ago it happened again only it had changed a little. Now I am bringing my fiancé into the house, I want to show him all the cool hidden rooms I had found in my youth. A woman owns the house now, she’s in her 70s, gray hair in a bun and long Victorian dress, she tells us she has been getting rid of all the hidden rooms, opening them up to be useful. She lets us explore on our own, everything looks the same in the main part of the house only cloths are laying out on various items. Full outfits lain out deliberately placed on banisters and table settings and photo filled end tables. One of the tables with photos I stop to look at are all photos of people I know yet have never seen. A photo of an older cousin dressed for Halloween when she must have been a young teen with 3 friends I never met, another cousin at the beach when she was a toddler, dozens of photos that look like something I would have in an old family album yet have never seen. I’m a little weirded out at this point but we go on, all the hidden rooms are gone except the one on the very top floor, you can only get to it from a crawl space. I suggest that my fiancé and I go in there and the suggestion of trying to make a baby is brought up. I’m not sure what the reason but we turn and leave the room at that point. We aren’t scared we just walk downstairs, we fined our way to the spiral staircase and walk down and we see human bones still laying where my friend died. I tell him the story and I’m a little scared that the bones are still there. I call her Kristen when I talk about her now, we walk past her feeling that we need to get out of this house and I wake up.

In your dreams, the house represents your mind. In the first dream, you are exploring the different levels and areas within your mind. Your friend symbolizes one aspect of your concious thinking. In exploring your mind, at that time, you may have looked at things as black/white, good/bad, etc. Perhaps a little judgemental toward yourself. Your friend's melting skin and death indicates that, as you explored your mind and how you though, a part of your thinking was changed. You were most likely unable to fully express yourself at this stage of your life. The darkness symbolizes you ignoring a situation, memory, problem, etc. The dream shows that you have been a thinker but something (or someone) happened to you and a part of you changed and you've ignored and/or avoided a related activity surrounding the event.

The second dream is a follow up of sorts. As you've gotten older, you have learned to see, understand, and cope with some of this previously 'secret' or hidden areas of your mind. The old lady represents the long standing thoughts that you've had that kept this house, your mind, the way it is. However, with age comes the ability and desire to 'clean house'. Your fiance represents an action or behavior that you are willing to be committed to. (Like sorting your thoughts or overcoming past hurts.) In the process of understanding your previous ways of thinking and opening up these 'hidden' memories and thoughts, you find yourself looking at things from a higher perspective and get the desire to start something new...something fresh. This is symbolized by the idea of making a baby. However, you realize that you can't begin anew and keep the same frame of mind as before. You know in order to move on, you have to let some stuff go and remembering how it has affected you from before helps validate that.

I hope this makes some sense for you and that it's not too late in coming.