When a person appears in another person's dreams

I need a verb which would mean a person appears in another person's dreams. Can I use visit?

What other options do I have?

Are these okay?

1. The man who assaulted her sometimes visited her in her dreams. He looked at her with a toothy grin on his face.

2. John dated Amanda for about two years and proposed to her. She rejected him and later married a millionaire twice her age. He never really moved on. Amanda always visited him in his dreams and mock his shabby car and small dirty flat.

 

Maybe 'haunt' for the first one.

 

I somewhat like the second one for its specificity. You can tell the irritation and jealousy of the man because he points of the wealth of the other and the lack of wealth he has attained. This gives values to the character and their personality. I dislike the "He never really moved on" line though as it it gives us something we already can decipher from his reaction to the presence of Amanda in his dream.

 

I was thinking keeping that part there like: "She rejected him and later married a millionaire twice her age. He never really moved on. Why can't I marry a millionaire? he thought every time she appeared unannounced in his dreams."

I'm pretty sure that's not the tone the OP is looking for though.

 

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I dislike that change for the same reason that I didn't like the other line in the original. It just tells us straight up what we could already figure out from the description. Authorial interjection generally just doesn't work as well inference. I'm always one for a little more subtlety in my thematic presence.

 

Not only that, but the pronoun he seems to refer back to the millionaire, not to John, since the millionaire was the last mentioned male.

 

Building on what’s above.

1. Her tooth-grinned assailant haunted her dreams.


2. …and no respite in sleep, she was there to mock and feed his paranoias.

 

The word "appears" works just fine. "Came to" works as well.

 

I agree that "He never really moved on" is telling. I just made that change because I thought it would be a little unexpected that he wasn't jealous at all that she was with another man, but envious that she could attract a millionaire and he couldn't.

 

I see. Though, that would indicate an entirely different personality.

 

Maybe stalked? Try to look at it from her perspective and describe it the way she would (assuming she's you POV character). To her his appearance must be terrifying. Maybe something like:

'The man who assaulted her still stalked her nightmares, taunting her with a menacing grin'

 

I think "visit" is fine. You can also use "appear."

My authority for this is me. For years I kept a dream journal. I'd say the word I used most for such was "appeared."

 

"Stalked" is very good in this context. That's what it would feel like to the POV.

 

"Haunt" is the word you are looking for:

Even three years after the divorce, his ex-wife still haunted his dreams.