The Mysterious Island at the Edge.
An island that appears only once. That's what they call it, because it has a habit of vanishing. As if trying to be forgotten before anyone can remember it.
It is...
Severed from everything: space, time, height, width, even logic. No laws exist here. Not physical, not moral, not even the kind you could argue in court. There's no time you could check against. Only one tiny island, wedged into the infinity of an ocean.
And nothing.
Else.
At all.
"You understand?" The Ferryman grinned, his voice sounding as though he were both the joke and the audience. "By the way, there's no way out of here. Even if you suddenly start howling in fear, begging with snot and tears streaming down your face. It's all useless. Ha-ha, aha-ha-ha-hahah!"
He laughed. Not because it was funny, but because someone had to. And he continued rowing his boat — not particularly reliable, not particularly beautiful, but alive enough not to sink.
And the man sitting across from him, named Hov, or perhaps just a man who didn't particularly feel like talking, remained silent, staring into the emptiness of the ocean.
"Hey, you know, it's not very fun talking to myself. Though I'm used to it. Are you feeling sick? Or are you one of those people who gets seasick? Tell me, do you happen to have... motion sickness?Ha-ha-hahah... ghh!"
"Shut up. I'm not burning with desire to chat with a psychopath whose laugh screams 'serial killer.' Just row. Wherever we need to go, just row."
"Well, at least you said something! I was starting to think you were one of those... shy types. Though, you know, there are people like that."
"By the way... while we have time, and the island hasn't yet peeked out from behind reality's curtain, want to talk about it? About the island. You seemed so... pensive."
Silence in response.
The ocean only breathed quietly.
As if it too were listening.
"Hm... well, fine. I was planning to discuss this a bit later anyway, once we reach your 'imaginary island.' But, you know, doesn't matter."
"I'm all ears, Mr. Hov!" The Ferryman delivered this with a smile so wide you could take shelter under it from the rain.
"Don't call me that."
"Yes, yes."
"Let's get to the point. So what is this island?"
"Ah! With the greatest pleasure!" The Ferryman seemed to have been waiting for just this chance to begin his performance. "Its name is Ryujima Island."
"Actually, it doesn't exist in any reality. And I'll tell you more... Even this ocean you're looking at is a fake. An absolute fake!"
"It simply doesn't exist. I could say it's a dream, but even 'dream' is too bold. It appears only once in... an unimaginable amount of time! I can't predict when it'll appear again, and honestly... even for me, the ferryman, it's almost a miracle. Almost."
"Your voice sounds too cheerful for someone living in a box between worlds. You already said all this at the beginning, I remember. Nothing new," Hov cut him off, clearly unwilling to sit through a long lecture.
"Hey-hey, but I'm not finished yet. Let me continue. Picture a box. A box in the void. That's how you can explain this place — it's nowhere. It has no dimensions, no boundaries either."
"So I added an imaginary ocean to the imaginary island. Logically, if you're inside the box, everything around you seems real. But if you look at it from outside... you'll just see black emptiness. Principle clear?"
"AHHH... and you're not interested at all?"
"Why are you silent? I just laid out, well, almost all my cards on the table! Where's your 'wow'? Where's your 'what the hell'?! You're a terrible conversationalist! Just throw your hands up and die in your worthless suffering if you can't say anything coherent!!!"
He continued.
Muttered.
Mumbled.
Monotonously, as if counting words instead of sheep before sleep. And then fell silent. Only the ocean remained, and even it, as if embarrassed, coughed and went quiet.
Dull fog hung all around, nothing was visible. Though... if you believe the Ferryman, there shouldn't be anything here except this ghost island that appears once in eternity. So most likely, this isn't fog — it's backdrop.
And suddenly. Out of nowhere.
Out of impossibility.
Out of the very idea of "can't be," an island appeared. Tall trees, outlines, shape — everything was there. It truly "was."
"And there it is!" The Ferryman shouted joyfully, as if he'd won his soul back in a game of dice. "Twelve hours of goddamn drifting, but it finally appeared! And I was already thinking the island had vanished before the game even started. Ha-ha-hah-ha... ghh!"
He said something about a game...
Hov took a deep breath. Breathed in not air, but restraint — his thoughts quieted. And within a few minutes, the boat reached the shore.