Can i start a short story with a protagonist's nightmare?

ok im in my second year of college and my professor wants us to write a shor story she said that all she wants us to do is to use the elements such as imagery genre ,theme, setting , point of view and especially symbol ( in my case ill use the snake as my symbol of terror maybe )i want to start with the protagonist having a nightmare (an anaconda following her in the water) but without mentioning whats following her (i dont know this sounds silly) and then she (a little girl) wakes up her mother abused her makes her clean and ....then she lives under a dictatorship (the government) do you think the nightmare would be something catchy for the readers or its too stupid ..my professor is very picky