Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

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Rhett stared at Link unblinking, a certain haziness fogging his ability to form a coherent response. He felt like he decided he was going to take a short nap, and instead of waking up 15 minutes later and feeling refreshed, he woke up a few hours later and felt like he'd been asleep for a century.

No amount of rubbing his eyes could wipe away the sleep, and the urge to curl back up into a ball from which he just came was very prominent. He had to have been asleep for a few decent hours, all things considering. But he had to consider a few other things that were bizarre. Like, how he didn't recall having any dreams even though he was certain he slept long enough to enter the REM cycle. That's the cycle of sleep where dreams occur the most, although it isn't uncommon to have a vague dream in another cycle.

Rhett was a lucid dreamer, as he had them quite frequently. He licked his lips as his eyelids drooped like heavy weights were resting upon them, not being able to bring forth any memories of the sleep realm. He began looking around the room, the disheveled room jogging his memory but him not becoming completely alert. He was in Allison's house, and he remembered that they had come here to find Allison's body after a dream Link had. What had stopped them all of a sudden? Was Rhett really so tired that he needed to lay down and take a nap?

That's when his eyes fell on the hooded figure, frozen and unmoving. He saw the blue light creeping over him like ants on a week old M&M and he arched an eyebrow. Something was very peculiar about that. Wait a second, he must be having a lucid dream right now!

He turned to Link, who was still staring at him with a timid expression amidst his features. He looked like he really wanted to tell him something, but almost couldn't bring himself to do it because it was so horrifying. Rhett scratched the back of his head as they entered a staring contest. He could feel the wariness seeping off of Link. Rhett reached forward and wrapped his hand around Link's ankle, Link's eyes widening. He looked up at Link's face and quickly released his ankle, his eyes narrowing. His hand didn't melt through Link's ankle like it most likely would in a dream, so that was a good sign. There were other ways to check if he was dreaming and he was about to exercise those ways without any shame.

He was about to perform a series of tests known as reality checks. Those are known throughout the lucid dreaming community to help determine whether you're in a dream state or not. If you perform these reality checks frequently enough throughout the day, you form the mental habit and it eventually carries from the habit into your sleeping subconscious. You'll find yourself performing these in your dream and that's when it clicks that you're dreaming. After all, being lucid is just another way of coming to a realization that you're dreaming. It doesn't necessarily deem you control of the dream, however. Control comes with stabilizing yourself once you jump into lucidity.

The first one he was going to do was check the time. Typically in the dream realm, if you look at a clock and then look away, then look back at it again and the time is different, that means you're dreaming. Different as if it went from 11 pm to 2 am in that split second that you looked away.

Rhett pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time, and it read 9:02. Without a second thought, he glanced away from his phone for a second and then looked at it again, and it still read 9:02. He stared at the clock with narrowed eyes, waiting for it to turn to 9:03, but he noticed something peculiar about the way the time seemed to be frozen still. Frozen. Time was frozen. Maybe he was indeed dreaming. He had to perform a few more checks to see if it was really true.

Rhett rose to his feet with a groan, and Link watched with his eyes wide. He had no idea what the heck Rhett was doing, but he watched as Rhett sulked over to the nearest wall, bracing himself against it with the palms of his hands. He pushed all of his weight into his feet as he pressed with his hands hard into the wall. His teeth were bared, his eyes narrowed as he tried to push his hands through the wall. In the dream realm, you're able to push your hands through walls and other solid objects. He really tried to picture his hands melting through the muddied plaster but they just wouldn't go through. That didn't make any sense to him because the time hadn't changed. He quickly pulled out his phone again and with unblinking eyes he saw that it still read 9:02. He glanced at Link real quick before doing something that made Link flinch.

He jumped into the air. He jumped a couple of times, flapping his arms almost as if he was trying to fly. Link almost wanted to laugh, but he just couldn't imagine what Rhett was doing. He figured there had to have been a purpose and he didn't want to upset him by laughing. Rhett continually jumped as his arms flailed out to his sides and then he gave up, leaning against the wall as he tried to catch his breath. You're also able to fly in dreams, and obviously he wasn't soaring into the air. What on earth was really going on here?

"I'm not really dreaming, am I?" He asked breathlessly, and Link slowly shook his head. Rhett fixed himself up straight, eyeing Link with concern. Then his head swiveled toward the figure, then back at Link again. He kept this up for a few seconds before Link burst at the seams, unable to contain it anymore.

"Rhett, when I screamed I somehow managed to freeze time. I did something else, which I don't know how I did it, but I went back in time 10 years."

Rhett stared Link hard in the eyes with a deadpan expression on his face. Did he just hear his best friend correctly? He had frozen time, and then went back in time 10 years? How was any of this even possible? He could see the fear laden in Link's eyes that he wasn't going to believe him, so Rhett closed his eyes and took a deep breath to compose himself. Once he was able to do so, he opened his eyes again and held a hand out in an offering. Link took his hand and he helped Link up, standing in front of each other now. The both of them looked around the room, their eyes falling on the hooded figure.

"That's why he's not going anywhere?" Rhett asked, pointing to him with a weak arm. Link nodded his head. Rhett pulled his phone out of his pocket for what seemed like the millionth time to check the time and it still read 9:02 am. He stared fixedly at his screen for several moments, even counting to sixty seconds in his head. When the time hadn't changed, he slowly lowered his phone and eyed Link incredulously.

"How in the hell did you do that?"

Link shrugged, the color draining from his face. This sounded like something they would do for one of their skits on their Rhett and Link channel, not something that would actually happen in real life. He watched Link expectantly, waiting for him to elaborate. There's got to be more to this creepy story that he's holding back on. More of an explanation. Link sighed, and his entire body quaked as he did so. He didn't know where to begin telling Rhett everything that just happened when Rhett was just freaking out a little moment ago. Clearly he thinks none of this is real, and Link sighed again.

"If anything, tell me if there's a way to unfreeze time. I don't think I could stay frozen in time like this. This is just too freaky," Rhett said as he raked his fingers through his hair, gaping around the room once again.

Link licked his lips.

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