My eyes snapped open, and I was immediately blinded in the harsh light. Rolling over, I reached for the light switch only to find it missing, and no amount of blind groping located it. Painfully, I screwed my eyes open and waited until they adjusted.

The first thing I noticed was that I was definitely not in my own room. The next was the dawning realization that this was probably going to make me late for work.

My surroundings could have best been described as white. I would be more descriptive, but that was all there was. It was as if someone had erased the world and missed me. Every footstep I took echoed infinitely into the distance, every breath I took unbearably loud in the otherwise soundless and featureless landscape. The ground was hard and made a dull knocking sound when I wrapped my knuckles against it. *knock knock*

"Who's there?" came a voice from directly behind me. I whirled around to see an old man in a pressed suit. He looked like a proud old lion, his beard wild and unruly and eyes glinting with the knowledge of secret things.

"What?" I said dumbly.

"What who?" he asked as he made a slow circle around me. It felt like I was his prey. Finally, he stopped his circling and sighed. "That's not much of a joke."

"I'm sorry... who are you?"

"No one" he smiled.

"Okay, and where are we?"

"Nowhere" he chuckled.

"Anything else you don't know?" I sighed.

"Many things, most of them in fact"

"Well then, what do you know?

"I know why you're here"

"Oh? What is it then, have I won the lottery? Am I on TV?"

"No, no, nothing like that" he smiled. "You're here because you want to dream." I stared at him in confusion. The crazy old man just stood there.

"What?"

"You ask a lot of questions" he said after a pause.

"Fine!" I threw my hands up and stalked away, not glancing back. The old man could rot for all I cared. I was going to find a way out.

This place, this "nowhere" was messing with my sense of time. With no sun, no clocks, and nothing to do but walk, I could have been going for hours or for minutes. Finally, I decided to look back the way I had come. My jaw dropped as I saw the old man standing right behind me, as if I had never moved.

"Are you quite finished, yet?" he asked.

"How did you..."

"Not important" he cut me off. "I have something for you"

"What is it? Will it get me out of this place?"

"Listen to me" he said "I can give you any dream you want."

"I want to get out of here, can you do that?"

"I don't think you understand," he said "there is no 'out' of here."

"What?" I asked "there has to be, I mean, I was just in my room..."

"That's what I mean" he said. He slowly extended his hand and pointed at me. "Have you looked at yourself?" I rolled my eyes and looked down. As my mind registered what I saw, my face contorted in horror. What I saw, or really what I didn't see, was my body. All that was there was a floating translucent torso ending in a tail.

"What is this?" I shrieked "where's my body?"

"Let me explain, and please try not to panic this time" he said, pushing on before I could question him further. "Luther Harrison, that's who you were, but Luther Harrison is dead." He held up his hand to silence me as he continued. "Luther Harrison died in his bed of carbon monoxide poisoning."

"What?" I blurted out "so I'm dead?"

"No" the man sighed, closing his eyes. "You stopped dreaming."

"I..."

"This is real" the man gestured to the blank page that was the world. "Luther was a dream, as were all the other lives."

"What other lives?" I asked "are there other people?"

"No, your other lives" he pointed at me. I stared blankly at him, waiting for an explanation. He sighed "you don't remember, of course, but you have dreamed countless lives before Luther."

"Who else?"

"Well, every other man in history" the man shrugged. "Every man, Luther, his father, his father's father... every single man to ever be."

"So I was George Washington?"

"and King George the third, and Gandhi, and Hitler, and every other man."

"Only the men?"

"Yes"

"What about..."

"The women, yes, you always ask this question when you wake up."

"So are there others?"

"There is one other" said the man.

"And she is all the women?"

"Yes"

"Where is she?"

"Dreaming" the man said with a slight shrug. "You can't expect to wake up at the same time, now can you?"

I stood there, processing all this. The man rested a hand on my shoulder.

"I know you have questions; I wish I had time to answer them."

"What? Where are you going?"

"Nowhere," the man smiled warmly "but you'll need to start dreaming soon."

"At least one more question?" I pleaded.

"Ask" he said.

"What's her name, her real name?" I asked. The man smiled at me.

"You always ask that one" he said. "Her name is Eve. Now it's time for you to dream. Do you have a preference to where you go?"

"Surprise me" I said. It was then that what he said clicked into place. "Wait! Her name is Eve? Then, who am I? Who are you?" The man smiled and let out a roaring laugh as he snapped his fingers. The white began to fade into darkness.

"Who do you think, Adam?"