Icy Crabs Are... So Incredibly Bizarre

I was awakened by the bright sunlight. I sat up and looked over the edge. Water. I don't know how I knew what it was, but I did. It seemed like I remembered it from many years past. My first thought was that I had some form of amnesia. I was in a very small, wooden row boat, floating in a huge lake (or ocean or sea)... I didn't remember being in one before. There was no land in sight; in fact, I got the feeling there wasn't any solid earth for miles around. The water was clear: exceptionally clear, in fact. I looked down at it, and besides the transparency, it didn't seem quite right. Almost unreal, in a sense. I couldn't put my finger on it but I knew something was very different. It was much the same with the sky; it was wide and spacious and blue, but I knew a certain something was absent.

Glancing around the tiny boat, I noticed I had no paddle, stick, or any other means by which I might propel my vessel. Which of course begged the question of how I arrived in this position in the first place. I was quite shaken by now, as I'm sure anyone would be, but not so much as you'd think. In actuality, my mind was very relaxed; the humidity and steaminess pressed in on me and rendered me horrifically apathetic. I figured I could go back to sleep then, but in practice I could not. This place was odd indeed; both my mind and the external reality seemed to have been changed in strange ways.

You can't regard me as so stupid that I would not consider that perhaps I was dreaming. I give you my utmost assurance, then, that I considered the theory more than a few times. If you are aware you are dreaming you should in fact be able to guide them; try as I might I could not. Physical properties of objects were also tested for error. I sifted water between my fingers, jumped up in the air (coming down frightfully rocked the boat, I might add), and tasted the water. Everything was as expected; in fact, the water tasted quite nice. What was it, then? Where was I and why was I there?

At this point I realized I did not remember my name. This naturally scared me a good deal, and for a moment I wondered if I was going mad. I then figured that if insanity was anywhere in the equation, it was already present and this was some kind of alternate reality created by my mind and that perhaps I was locked up in some asylum with all the other lunatics. However, I had a strong inkling that crazed men didn't ask themselves if they were. It was indeed probable that their level of awareness, or consciousness, was rather on the level of a small child or animal. I doubted they could think about thinking.

Right then I noticed that the humidity had lowered considerably. The funny thing was that this boat was not moving, nor were there any waves to move it. In fact the water was dead still, aside from the ripples that flew out from under the boat when I shifted around in it. So I couldn't have been moving into a milder climate. Really, the sky seemed the exact same as it had before.

Suddenly I realized that this whole time, I had been reasoning! That meant the rest of my brain was okay. The question was, what happened to my memory? I tried to forget this for the moment and experimented with paddling with my hands. Needless to say it didn't get me very far. I did notice the water was much cooler than the last time I felt it. At this point I got the feeling I might be able to go back to sleep, and with the forlorn hope that this really was all a dream, I drifted off once more.

I gasped for breath when I awakened! My fingers and nose were freezing, and my eyes were frozen shut. I felt around in the boat with my numb hands and managed to sit up. Instantly I lay back down, for a brutally cold wind blew over me. From what I could tell the boat wasn't rocking or moving in any direction, but I was still blind to my surrounding. I attempted to pry open my eye lids with my fingers. They came open, stiff and frozen. I could see, but it seemed like I was viewing everything through a dense cloud. I carefully brought one of my fingers closer to my eye. I felt ice crystals there. Somehow I knew your eyes couldn't freeze like that, but I clawed away at the ice anyway, and they fell like scales.

Now that I could see I noticed that my hand had icicles growing from my palm. Literally growing -- they were forming around an inch every thirty seconds! I also realized I wasn't on the water anymore. It was all frozen into ice, and my boat had been welded into the lake. This was so bizarre, I did the only thing I could think of -- I stood up and tried to walk on the ice. Instantly I plunged into numbingly cold water. I flailed about and tried desperately to get out, but it was no use. I plunged downward, and kept sinking.

I could see everything in the water, for miles around. I noticed my vision was sharper under the ice than on it. Huge monstrosities swam by, and I think I saw a school of goldfish. This didn't seem odd to me at the time. I kept sinking, and noticed that I was picking up speed. Water rushed by me and my whole body numbed completely -- I found it hard to form any thoughts at this point. I saw human bodies everywhere around me. Huge bodies. They were like giants. Giant corpses, floating. One reached its hand toward me -- I grabbed it and I felt a horrible sinking sensation, almost like the feeling you get when you go down a floor on an elevator. Its hand dissolved into a mass of hermit crabs. They started pinching and biting my face. I was going so fast now -- but the crabs stayed around me. The crustaceans then instantly disappeared and I crashed into the bottom of the ocean (or lake or sea). I was still alive but I could not move. A huge pulling sensation then grasped me. Almost like gravity itself was being pulled by something. The pressure on me was enormous, but I was still alive and conscious. The weight kept multiplying, and I finally could not breathe. My hand started slipping. But it was slipping through the ground! I couldn't see it because my face was pressed so firmly in the dirt. My body felt like it was being dissolved into a liquid and melting through all the cracks and crevices. I knew I was falling to the center of the earth. It seemed like years were passing and I figured that very well may be. I saw the huge fiery core of the earth and I passed through it. Oddly enough I was still as cold as ever, but then I felt like I was rising to the surface. I had traveled through the core and was now coming up on the other side, and now I was getting warmer. My body was thawing out and water was dripping off me by the gallon. I found myself rising to the surface of an identical lake (or sea or ocean), and felt myself weighed down by gravity once more. I slowly opened my eyes, and... woke up. This time for real, in an identical boat. I lay there for a moment and soon came to the conclusion that I wasn't wet.

It didn't take me long to realize that the whole ice scenario was a dream; more specifically, a false awakening. I was in the same situation as I was before -- stranded in the middle of nowhere with not a single way to propel my little boat. There was one difference though: there was a man sitting next to me! He sat there staring ahead and did not seem to notice my presence. Odder still, he was wearing the exact same clothes I was. I sat up and he turned toward me.

"So you finally woke up?" he asked.

Trying to sound as calm as possible, I squeaked out a nervous Yes.

"So... uh, who are you?" he asked.

It's strange, I know, but I was comforted by the fact that he didn't know why he was there either. It meant I wasn't insane -- well, okay, it didn't disprove that theory, but at least I wasn't the only one. Unfortunately, I really didn't know how to answer his question.

"I... actually, I don't know," I said.

"Well, I guess we're in the same boat then," he cracked. I laughed. Regardless of the bad joke, I had company now. That was something.

"So..."

"So."

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"We can paddle." He held up an oar.

"Where'd you get that!?" He seemed to think for a moment.

"I don't know, actually. I just woke up with it."

He rowed for a while and we discussed our situation. At one point I looked down into the water.

"That's strange," he said. "You have no reflection..."

"So that's what was wrong with the water! I had been wondering why it seemed so strange."

"It must not be the water; it must be you," he pointed out. "Look, I have a reflection." He looked at me with a hint of suspicion.

"That's odd," I remarked.

As we pushed on, I noticed the problem with the sky: No sun. The light was coming from above, but with no apparent direct source. Right when I noticed this, the Other Man exclaimed that he saw land! It was a forbidding silhouette amidst the sunless sky, and it actually made me very nervous -- I hadn't seen anything like it there yet.

"Mount Doubt," the Other Man said.

"What?"

"That's what it's called," he said matter-of-factly.

"And you would know how...?"

"I know."

We soon landed on this landmass, which appeared to be an island. I won't bore you with the details of climbing the mountain. The only thing I can tell you is that we knew that at the top, we'd know why we were there. We arrived at the top and the view -- well, the view was incredible. We could see everything. On the water was a message written in fire.

"YOU ARE IN A DREAM."

I looked at the Other Man.

"Now I understand!" he exclaimed. "I'm having a dream."

"No, you don't understand. This has got to be my dream -- I've been here much longer than you have."

"If it isn't my dream, then why can I do this?" With those words jumped off the cliff and flew up into the sky. My eyes followed him, quite literally. They flew out after him and I could see him soaring higher and higher up, all the way into space. Then he vanished, and my eyes snapped back into my head.

If it's his dream, and he's gone, then what's going to happen to me? I thought. I knew what I had to do. I jumped. I didn't fly. I plunged toward the ground and as I hit my soul left my body. I realized what I was. I could not die. Dream to dream, in every one, in every fantasy, I would be something else, something new. Yes, that's what I am. I know it. I can't die; I am a part of the dream, I exist in someone's mind. Only when my host mind has perished; only then will I fade away. I have nothing to be afraid of.

I don't have anything to be afraid of... I don't.

... Right?