The River

I awoke in the middle of a dream last night; on frozen grass covered in frigid dew. The sky was overcast with gray and I was surrounded by the dull green of rustic grass. Dead trees scratched at the sky with their branches, surrounding me and the shoreline ahead, which stretched out before my eyes.

When I approached the shore, the expanse of a river revealed itself. It was the water of deep Winter; that deep gray-white color that anyone who lives near a city knows all too well about. It's beautiful, yet haunting. It's moving and alive, and yet it seems so still and dead.

Across the aquatic sprawl, there was the opposing shoreline. It was far, far away, and yet not too far. It was a contradiction of time and space. And on the shore, there were structures. I could hardly see them, and yet they were as clear as the water sloshing at my feet. They were rotting, decayed abandoned urban leftovers from some past decade I never got to suffer through.

I sat there for God knows how long. It was somber and yet fulfilling. I felt at ease, almost. I had always been surrounded by Death... but it was always hiding. It was a nice change of pace to finally see it all out in the open, instead of hiding in other people and objects.

But then I saw him on the opposing shore. He was sitting exactly like I was, and had seemingly just noticed me too. We stared at and into each other for almost a minute.

But then his gaze shifts to his right and I shift my gaze to my left, to find him sitting right next to me with his face close to mine. The shock startled me into jumping back a few feet away.

He looked... like me. Almost exactly like me. Only his hair was grayish white, and his eyes... it's hard to describe them. One moment I thought they were blue but the next I only saw everlasting gray. His face was pale, paler than even a corpse's face, and he was biting his lip in anticipation. He stared at me.

He didn't say anything. So I tried to say something.

"Uh... hello...?"

He disregarded the reluctant greeting and continued the staring contest. I straightened myself up, and quizzically stared back at him.

He finally replies one uncomfortable silence later.

"Yes. Hi."

I squint my eyes in disbelief. Seriously, was that all?

"Is that all...? Hi back? ...Who are you?"

His lips curl up in satisfaction.

"Blue eyes?"

He points at my eyes.

"Uhhhh. Yeah, I guess?"

He laughs.

"Me too!"

His eyes quickly shift again from gray to blue. Dreams are weird.

"Uh. Sure...? So, are you like my inner consciousness or something? What's the point of this dream?"

His face morphs into a serious grimace and he pushes his face towards mine. I jump back once again. His face, inches away from mine, contorts into another playful grin.

"How do you know this is a dream? How do you know this isn't reality?"

I search for an answer. I can't find one. Too philosophical and hypothetical for my stupid brain to grasp.

"Ha! Cat got your tongue, eh?

I shake my head and look down at the grass. He was annoying me.

"But really... yes, this may be a dream. For now.."

He gets up from the ground, and looks down at me. He offers me a hand.

I felt nervous looking up at him. I felt nervous just being around him. I wanted to run. Run far away. But what was the harm anyways? He was a) apart of me, b) I can't get hurt in dreamland and c) he was no better than a toddler. What was the harm in it?

So I grabbed his hand. It was colder than the grass, and yet there was this other feeling about it as well. It was neither hot or cold. It was something I can't describe now, and hell, I don't think I'll ever be able to.

He pulled me up from the ground and I stood literally eye level to him.

"What do you want anyways?" I asked bluntly.

That was when he placed his hand on my shoulder. The alien feeling seeped through my clothes and into me.

"I wanted to meet you. That's all!"

He placed his other hand on my other shoulder.

"Your name is Owen. And my name is..."

The dream ended. I awoke in my bed as the morning sun dug into my feet. Despite the dream cutting off before I could hear the name directly, I still somehow knew his name.

His name was Grey. He stole my middle name and made it his own.