Chasing Imagination

Amy

We spent the night in London, wandering the rooms and talking to people and Casper showing me everything about the place. The following morning, we met up with Imogen, Matt and Felix again and took the train back to Kingston. It still didn’t fail to terrify me, descending into the deep underground of Tottenham Court Road, the cramped tunnels closing in all around us, and I knew that, if anything should happen, we had no escape, but our acting—or the others’ acting, anyway—was good enough to get us back to our little division without any incident, and I gladly made my way back down into the subway and deep into the Kingston underworld.

I went to sleep almost immediately, convinced I was becoming more and more nocturnal, and woke up sometime in the early afternoon. It was not the recommended eight hours sleep a day by any means, but it would have to do for now.

I wandered down the corridor, unused to being around here alone, but when I entered the dining hall, Casper was already in there with Felix, Wolfie and the dreaded Phil, who I had met on my first day.

‘Hey Amers,’ said Wolfie cheerfully when I walked in, convinced I looked like the walking dead. I hadn’t had enough sleep for several days now, and I had no doubt that it was beginning to show.

‘Look who it is,’ said Phil jeeringly. He was wearing much the same as he was the first time I met him—a black t-shirt with a dark picture of some seriously scary, weird, fantasy monsters on it, and the word Slipknot written in the middle. What was that—a film? A band? I had no idea. I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Casper had played a few bands now and again when I’d visited his room, but I paid little attention to what it actually was. It was just noise to me, only some of the noise was slightly heavier and angrier than the other noise. I was confident that one of them was called Paramore, and there was another called Young Guns, who I thought were quite good (mostly because when I’d been shown a picture of them, the lead singer, with his thick black hair and blue eyes, resembled Casper rather a lot), but that was about all I knew.

The rest of Phil’s clothes were also black, and his black hair hung limply around his face as though it hadn’t been washed or brushed for a couple of days, and those disgusting bits of metal still stuck out of his round, piggish face. Now I looked a little closer, I realised that many people had metal in their faces (which I’d learnt were just all called various forms of piercings) and skin art (tattoos.) In fact, Casper, by not having any, was probably in the minority, not that I was complaining. Wolfie had a piercing—a ring in his eyebrow and, though I hadn’t seen it, apparently he had a large tattoo on his back. Jay also had a small tattoo on his shoulder, though I had to admit that it was quite good. Whilst it was probably insanely dangerous to have the Dreamer eye tattooed on your body, it looked pretty cool. Even Imogen had three piercings in each ear, although somehow that didn’t seem quite so bad.

Anyway, Phil was leering at me in a way that looked as though he was attempting to be friendly, but unfortunately failing miserably. Casper smiled at me and indicated that I should sit down beside him, which I did in silence, and Felix offered me a plate of pizza.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘It’s kinda cold—we didn’t realise you’d be joining us.’

‘I’ll go and get myself something in a minute, thanks,’ I said uncomfortably. The two remaining slices of pizza looked unappetising, slightly congealed and stone cold on the plate.

Casper sighed. ‘I’m afraid we don’t have a choice of better company.’ He laughed slightly.

‘Ooh, look at you, posh boy,’ Phil jeered.

‘Alright for some, brought up in Surrey,’ joked Felix, his strong Irish accent making the situation even more appropriate. For some reason, it didn’t have quite the same effect when Phil said it. Even though he was evidently friends with my friends, I couldn’t get past the idea that he was very much the enemy.

‘S’alright, we don’t bite,’ said Phil to me. I laughed awkwardly, and Casper sensed my displeasure. It couldn’t be blamed—Phil was the one who’d jeered at me and threatened me the very first time I entered this place. At least when I’d first met Casper, Felix and Wolfie, they’d been civil.

‘Anyway, we were just hearing about what happened in London last night,’ Wolfie said.

London...London seemed like a distant dream. Had I even been up there? There had been so much fear—convinced we would get caught on the tubes, followed by so much knowledge and new information—meeting Nightshade for the first time and hearing all her theories on war...

War.

I wished I’d forgotten about it, but of course I hadn’t. The prospect of war still hung over me like a storm cloud; a cloud that was ready to strike me with lightning.

What would happen, really? If war did descend upon us, what would I do? Where would we go? Would I run, or would I fight?

I was shocked back to reality by someone saying my name.

‘Amy?’ Casper asked.

‘Yeah?’ I replied distantly.

‘I was just saying about Nightshade,’ he said. ‘I know you were a bit worried last night—‘

‘Trust me,’ Wolfie said, ‘what Nightshade says means nothing. She’s amazing, but she’s also pretty cuckoo.’

I laughed, reassured to hear someone other than Casper comforting me. However, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit irritated that they’d mentioned this in front of Phil. The last thing I needed was for him to know that there was something I was scared of. He would take it out on me for weeks; I was sure of it.

‘You’re afraid of the war?’ Phil asked. Great, so he was already starting. ‘What’s the worst that can happen in a war though; face it?’ I didn’t like his tone; I didn’t like what he was saying.

‘Leave her alone, Phil,’ Casper muttered humourlessly.

‘Ooh,’ Phil jeered, and Felix and Wolfie began to talk and laugh, but it quickly became apparent that neither Casper nor I was up for being teased all afternoon.

I was almost relieved when Matt appeared, running a hand through his dark blond hair, though I could see how Casper’s face fell when they made eye contact.

‘What’s up, Matt?’ said Felix.

‘I was just coming over to say that Markus has asked me to lead another little, shall we call it ‘outing,’’ Matt said. I saw Casper tense up ever so slightly. This was just when he thought he was beginning to redeem himself with Markus.

‘Anyone up for it?’ Matt continued. ‘I won’t ask you, Casper; I know you’ve done a couple of things recently, but what about any of you guys?’ He looked to Felix, Wolfie and Phil in turn. Casper purposefully turned to me, giving me a very meaningful glance and sighed.

‘What’re you doing anyway?’ he asked. I knew he was only going to start comparing what Matt was doing to what he had done, and I needed to intervene before the tension grew so thick it could be cut with a knife.

‘We’re heading off to go raid some Marauder base,’ he said cheerfully.

‘Damn! That’s great!’ said Wolfie enthusiastically. ‘Can I join in? There ain’t nothing more fulfilling than frying a few soulless bastards. When’re we going?’

‘Next week, I think,’ Matt said. ‘Markus wants it to be a pretty big thing—he’s decided that the Marauders are closing in on us way too much, and if we could kill a few off, steal some technology, maybe even take a couple hostage—‘

‘Casper?’ I said. ‘Can you come to the storeroom with me a moment?’ I had to use my initiative. With every word Matt spoke I could see Casper’s eyes growing darker and more resentful, his face contorting into anger that was only visible to someone who knew the truth.
He looked briefly confused, but stood up all the same, as eager for an excuse to leave as I was.

‘Uh, sure. Why?’

‘I just...wanted to look for a book,’ I said quickly, knowing that it was a lie (and quite enjoying the new experience of being able to tell it.) I looked down and ran a hand through my hair, knowing that I was a pathetic liar, and wondering how many of them could see through my rubbish acting.

‘Sure,’ he said, stepping out of the bench and walking beside me as we left the dining hall. We got out into the main corridor and walked a few paces in the direction of the storeroom before he turned and looked at me, his expression unreadable.

‘What was that about?’ he asked. At first, I thought he looked accusing, but then his eyes lit up slightly and his face curved slightly into a smile, and only then did I realise that he found what I had just done funny.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘But I had to save you. I could see how angry you were getting listening to Matt.’

He smirked. ‘Thanks.’ The optimism dissipated from within me.

‘Was I really that obvious?’ I asked with a sigh. ‘Do you think they could all tell?’

‘Amy, I think it was about as good a lie as telling a forty year old man that Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy are real.’

‘What’s Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy?’ I asked. ‘Is that another one of your crazy bands?’

Casper was laughing properly by now, practically bent over double as he chuckled.

‘Never mind,’ he muttered, standing up straight and wiping at his eyes. ‘Basically, what I’m saying is that it wasn’t a good lie, but it did the job. I’m sure Matt was too wrapped up in his own ego to notice anything unusual.’

Abruptly, the mood swerved into something altogether darker, and Casper quickly became sincere again.

‘I see what you mean about him having everything,’ I said, ‘but he’s not a bad person.’

Casper shook his head, leaning back against the wall. ‘No, he’s not. But that’s what makes it so much worse.’

I frowned. I had never met anyone nearly as complex as the Dreamers.

‘What do you mean?’

‘If he was a mean guy,’ Casper explained, ‘I would have a justifiable reason to hate him. As it is, as well as everything else he has, he has a great personality, and that makes things even harder, because then I seem like the resentful loser.’

I sighed, sinking against the wall beside him.

‘Him and his fucking Marauders,’ Casper muttered, his icy eyes turning cold like the Arctic winter. ‘Why does he outdo me every single time?’

‘He doesn’t, though,’ I said. ‘What makes raiding the Marauders so special? Who even are the Marauders anyway?’

‘You know who the Marauders are,’ he replied. ‘They’re the ones working against the Dreamers. Well, kind of. It’s complicated. But basically, they hate us, and we hate them, but the government are on their side, even though they’re not exactly the politicians’ biggest fans.’

Thankfully, he had diverted away from the core subject that was making him so frustrated, and I decided to continue down that line. However, I hadn’t even opened my mouth when I saw Felix leave the dining hall and turn to his right, seeing us further down the corridor as he began to walk.

‘Hey—‘ he began, but a positively dangerous flash of Casper’s eyes stopped him in his tracks.

‘We’re just going,’ Casper said, turning and taking my hand in his, leading me off sharply down the corridor. ‘We were just discussing books.’

Considering he had accused me of being such a dreadful liar, he really wasn’t much better.