This was a separate - a private nightmare.

A private nightmare that I was not going to share with the voodoo lady.

One critic called it "an obsessive-compulsive's own private nightmare."

That memory will be my own private nightmare.

I tried to break through, but he'd retreated absolutely into a private nightmare.

He'd heard nothing of what was happening on the other side of the clearing, his mind locked in a private nightmare.

It was not the terror of her own private nightmare which reared up at her.

Locked in a private nightmare of fear and pain, she heard the opening of the door as if it were leagues away.

But Bella did not notice the tone: she was deep in her own private nightmare.

Maybe the characters are all supposed to be trapped in their private nightmares.