Mustelid Madness

I think I should start by saying that I'm prone to completely insane dreams - Cerberus, Ragnaroc, a cyborg wolf with wings and a taloned tail, huge hedge mazes and beings of living fire. All of them night terrors, allowing me four hours' sleep a night, sometimes less and sometimes none.
But lately I've been having really mad dreams - the kind that don't make sense but aren't scary, just...really, really odd. Like a bad trip, though I've never touched drugs or alcohol in my life. I've never so much as sniffed a bottle of Tipp-Ex.
Yet, last night, a mad night terror once again plagued me.

I wandered into a big building, blanketed in dust, leaving footprints in my wake. There were other trails of footprint leading up the grand staircase or into the room beyond, but no people. It was just empty. I leapt over a curved desk and dust billowed up in a mushroom cloud as I landed. I searched the alcove under the desk for something, not really knowing what it was I was looking for. Perhaps I was just curious. Perhaps I was bored.
A flash of white disturbed the dust, a trail of grey specks in the sunbeams leaking through the damaged ceiling. Not knowing what it was, I moved to investigate.
A small, white mouse darted past me to the exist, terror giving it speed. It wasn't running away from me - in fact, it headed straight for me to get away from whatever startled it. Perhaps a cat?
A huge, white rat, twice the size it should have been, leapt from the shadows, great rodentures poised to bite me, red eyes practically glowing.
But it wasn't trying to bite me. It's mouth was open in a horrified scream and the rat, too, just ran past me.
I realised that whatever had scared the mouse wasn't a worry, but that it had scared that rat, which would have been capable of taking on and killing an adult cat, should scare me too. A rabid dog, perhaps?
I knew it was dangerous, but I was just too curious for my own good. My unquenchable thirst for knowledge has always gotten me in trouble, always caused me to prod and poke the mystery when I knew I should just leave well enough alone. I searched the shadows, following the footprints in the dust, but I couldn't tell the rat's from whatever the rat had run from.
An albino ferret, white fur yellow with grime and bright red eyes wide with madness, scampered from beneath the desk and along the top. It looked all about it, presumably for whatever had scared it, the rat and the mouse.
And then it turned to me, leapt, and it's pointed fangs dug deep into my hand. I screamed in surprise and the ferret hung on as I jumped backwards, trying to get away from it. I could feel a burning sensation, something like a nettle rash but much worse, where it had bitten me.
The ferret had disappeared. My hand wasn't bleeding, even though those fangs should have torn it to shreds. Just that burning, always getting worse, but with no sign of injury. I darted out the building and, although I noticed the ferret lying just to the right of the door, I turned left, into town. I warned everyone I saw to stay away from the big building at the end of the road, and to run if they saw a ferret.
A massive, brown rabbit with enormous fluffy ears the size of its body lay dying on the path. It was the size of a small dog, larger than a Yorkshire terrier. I ignored it and ran on, warning everyone about the diseased ferret and at the same time asking anyone if they had something I could trap it in, or knew someone who could trap the ferret.
I doubled back, intent on catching the ferret, stopping it from hurting anyone else. My whole right arm ached with the fire of its bite but that didn't stop me. Every time I turned a corner I would see the ferret, it's wide mouth would leap for me, yellowed fangs and red eyes all I can see.
And then I suddenly found myself running away from it, each time I turned a corner there it would be, leaping to bite and then I was running again, unbitten. I leapt to cross an entire road and made it, as though gravity weren't quite working properly. After a few more impossible leaps, not quite flying and not quite jumping, I worked out that I was dreaming.
I tried to wake up, still running, still leaping, but trying desperately to wake up.
I woke up, and saw my sister, her curly hair blowing behind her in some massive wind, just screaming. The ferret leapt from behind her and would have bitten me on the face if I hadn't heard a voice calling me from a distance.
I woke up screaming, and turned to see my boyfriend's concerned expression. He'd been trying to wake me up.
"Were you having a night terror?" he asked, his voice high.
Apparently, I'd been breathing heavily as though running from the Devil himself and tossing and turning in the bed, so he decided to wake me up.
I clung tightly to him and told him about the diseased, feral ferret. That was two hours ago as I'd had a very late night because my boyfriend's step-father had walked in drunk (we plan to change the locks) and didn't leave for three hours. I slept through untill half eleven. I can still feel the burn of its bite.

I have never seen the building before in my life. Nor the streets I ran through, but I remember them all perfectly. I invented them.

Interesting, vivid nightmare, Angua, thanks for sharing it. I was struck by all the animals being white and getting progressively bigger. I once had several dreams about opposums but wicked ferrets don't sound fun! :-) The burning/bitten hand makes me think of "biting the hand that feeds you". I thought you were going to turn into something, was thinking vampire ferret too :-)