Chasing Imagination

Casper

It was early the following morning that I woke and got washed and dressed, and then went to find Amy. Unsurprisingly, an explosive Leah opening the door revealed that my knock had woken both of them.

Amy, however, was much calmer. She almost looked scared. I wasn’t sure what Leah had been doing to her, but she probably wasn’t a good influence, and she certainly wasn’t representative of all the Dreamers. I knew that, whatever path Amy chose, I would make sure I got her out of this room.

She arrived outside shortly after. She’d washed, but was wearing the same outfit as yesterday. We just needed to go and see Markus, and then that was the choice made.
We walked down the corridor in near silence. I wanted to know which decision she was going to make, but I didn’t want to pester her either. She was probably still making up her mind.

I knocked on Markus’ door, and his grunt was my invitation to go in.

He glanced up at me through his pale, grey eyes. ‘Morning, Amy. Casper.’

So, I knew my place around here, then. He was still far from forgiving me.

‘Sit down,’ he instructed. Amy sat, and I could see her shaking. I stood beside her, my arms folded, watching intently for any slight answer she gave away. I’d always been good at reading people; sometimes too good.

‘Now, Amy,’ Markus began. ‘You know your choices. You can become a Dreamer, and gradually you can earn our trust. You can learn the truth, and you can be a part of making this world a better place. It is a dangerous job, but it can be greatly rewarding, and the life you would experience down here is much fuller than any you would have experienced above ground. I’m sure you get what I mean.
‘The other choice is that you can become our prisoner. I will let you keep whatever values you already have, and I won’t ask you to do anything that could betray them. However, we will be forced to keep you under constant supervision as we cannot let you escape. Your room will be locked. Food will be brought to you on trays. Your contact with others will be limited, and we will search you every time you come in or out. If you become a prisoner, you can still change your mind at any time and become a Dreamer, but sometimes learning to trust an ex-prisoner can be a hard task. Most people do change, eventually.’

He stopped. There was silence. Amy looked down at her hands, not meeting anyone’s eyes, her long, dark blonde hair falling over her face. I had no idea what she would choose. She had hated the idea so greatly yesterday, and a night with Leah was enough to convince her that we were all terrible people, and yet I didn’t believe she was mentally strong enough to stand being in a cage for the rest of her life.

‘I’ve made my choice,’ she whispered, finally looking up, meeting Markus’ eyes. ‘I want to join you.’

Amy

This was it. I had said the fateful words. Now, my life was changed forever.

Behind me, I saw Casper smile and jump slightly. Clearly, he considered this a sort of personal triumph. I shot him a dark glance to let him know that it was nothing to do with him, and I still didn’t like him very much.

I didn’t know what to think of being a Dreamer. It was not a life I would have ever chosen to leave—separated from my family, living in this underground dump, constantly in danger and fearing getting captured. And yet, it sounded exciting. And I had never experienced true excitement before. My sort of excitement was driving really fast or sitting through a thunderstorm. It was not ‘true’ excitement. It was certainly not excitement that could change lives.

Markus looked at me, his wrinkled face and grey eyes giving away very little.

‘Welcome to the family, Amy,’ he murmured, a half-smile creeping across his face. He looked up at Casper. ‘Take her to get some clothes and whatever else she needs. You might wanna take some of the girls with you, though.’

Casper smirked slightly; and I stood up. I wasn’t exactly happy—my choice was this or imprisonment, and there was no way I was going to spend the rest of my life behind bars, but I was beginning a new adventure. This was a new start for me. Anything could happen.

Casper

I took Amy to get some breakfast as the rest of the base began to wake up. We sat around in there for a bit, still not really talking. She received much less stares than yesterday, but there were always going to be a few. I’d get Imogen or Kira or Sammi or any other of the girls that I knew that I could find to help us in the changing room. As a young girl, it was likely that Amy probably liked clothes, and therefore we might be in there for a while.

I managed to spot Imogen walking into the dining room with Matt and Callum, and gestured for her to come and sit with me. If all went to plan, hopefully she would be able to convince Amy that not all Dreamers were malicious and unfriendly.

‘Hey Casper,’ she said, running over. ‘What’s up?’

‘I just wanted to say that this is Amy,’ I said, gesturing to her, sitting quietly opposite me at the table. ‘She’s our newest Dreamer.’

‘Hey,’ said Imogen cheerfully. ‘I heard about you. Apparently, you followed someone down here.’

‘That would have been me,’ I said unenthusiastically, knowing the way that Amy still stared at me with eyes that burned with hatred because of it.

‘Yeah, I did,’ she agreed.

‘And you’ve spoken to Markus about your choice?’

‘Just now,’ she replied.

‘Well that’s good!’ Thankfully, Imogen was full of far more energy and friendliness than both Amy and I put together. ‘What do you think about it?’

We both turned to Amy. I was wondering what she would say to this; I hadn’t asked her a question like this yet.

‘It’s...bearable,’ she finished with. I was a little disappointed, but I couldn’t really expect much more.

‘Well what do you expect me to say?’ she said, giving me an angry look. I instinctively flinched away.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said sarcastically, instantly defensive.

‘It’s alright here,’ she said. ‘I’ll give you that. But I miss my family and my friends and everything about my old life. And yet, at the same time, I’ve already experienced so much new stuff down here, and there’s probably so much more to come, that I do agree with what Leah said last night about how down here you can see that there’s so much more to life.’

I exchanged a glance with Imogen, who was silently asking ‘has she already met Leah, of all people?’ I nodded my silent return.

‘Well,’ I said, changing the subject and addressing Imogen. ‘Seeing as I’m a guy and Leah isn’t exactly the friendliest person we’ve ever met, would you be able to take Amy to the clothing stores and help her find some stuff—you know, a wash kit and books and whatever else she wants?’

‘Sure,’ Imogen agreed, always happy to help out. She was always such a nice girl; it was almost a shame that she had an eye specifically for Matt. ‘Do you want to go now?’

Amy looked at her empty cereal bowl and shrugged. ‘Sure, ok.’

Imogen glanced down at me as she stood up from the wooden bench. ‘You coming, Casper?’

‘Er,’ I said, feeling unsure, ‘you remember that I’m of the male species, Imogen?’

She laughed. ‘Ok, I get that you don’t understand clothes in the same way that girls do. But apparently Markus wants to talk to a few of us later. It seems that you were on the list too.’

‘What about?’ I asked, already dreading it. Anything that Markus wanted me for was never good.

‘I dunno,’ she said. ‘But I heard it from Matt. He’s gathering a few of us younger Dreamers—under twenty-one or something.’

‘What time?’

‘I’m sure someone will let you know,’ she said. ‘At the moment, I don’t know any more than what I’ve just told you.’

‘Ok,’ I agreed. ‘I guess I’ll probably see you in there later.’