in mulling over the disturbing dreams that flowed through his mind in his life of darkness and isolation , wixelor had always been impressed not by the flights of wild imagination end-of-the-world visions , horrendous monsters and suchlike but by nightmares in which the dreamers saw that there was someone in their home , hiding in a closet or standing above them and staring at them silently while they were too paralyzed with fear to pull the sheet off their heads and find out if this were real or not .