Chasing Imagination

The next morning, when I woke up, Casper was already gone. After a very brief panic, I went and looked for him, finding him eventually hunched over the same computer. Carl wasn’t there yet, but Casper was determined. He wasn’t about to let anything stand in his way.

As Carl returned and several hours passed, I was about to go and find Linzy when they seemed to find something.

‘Amy!’ Casper called out excitedly.

‘What is it?’ I asked, rushing over and leaning over their shoulders.

‘We’ve got into the police database,’ he announced.

‘Excellent!’ I said eagerly, only then noticing the solemn expressions on both of their faces.

‘They’ve already processed a few of the Dreamers,’ he continued, scrolling down a list of names and numbers and dates. ‘Only about six people have been sentenced so far; all to their first time in the Institution—a standard six months. But I don’t recognise any of their names. I did find this though:’

He continued down through the list of those whose names and dates of birth and home cities and phone numbers had all been processed, but who hadn't been sentenced yet. They even had fingerprint records and blood samples on this page. Although these people hadn't been sentenced yet, it still gave us an idea of those who had been captured.

My heart stopped, noticing one name.

‘Matthew Cartwright,’ I whispered. A sickening feeling lodged in my stomach. I had no idea what Matt’s surname was, but I had a horrible feeling that this could well be him.

‘Where?’ Casper asked sharply, evidently reading slower than me. I pointed at the screen and his face fell.

‘Is that Matt?’ I whispered.

He nodded. ‘Yuh.’

My heart sank even deeper. Yet another one of our friends who had been condemned. How many was that now? I had long since lost count.

‘Kira’s on this list too, but we already knew she had been taken,’ Casper said. He scrolled down a bit more and found Sammi and Julian as well.

‘The rest we saw captured probably haven’t been processed yet,’ he said. I nodded, too choked up to speak. I had at least thought that Matt had gotten away, even if no one else had.

The computer mouse sat resting above Matt’s name. Seeing him appear on the list of condemned had shaken us both. Looking at Casper, I saw a deep sorrow in his eyes.

‘Are you alright, or would you like me to leave you to it?’ Carl offered, standing up awkwardly before either of us could answer. He clearly wasn’t comfortable in this intensely emotional scenario.

‘It’s fine,’ I mumbled, ‘you stay if you like.’ He moved away a little, but perched at the edge of another desk, doing something on the computer over there instead.

‘Matt’s already been in an Institution once before,’ Casper said, and I remembered back to the time when Matt had told me what the Institutions were about. It had been the first time I’d ever met him. ‘It means he’ll be in there for a pretty long time.’

I gulped back tears. ‘How long is a long time?’

‘Judging by the number of people he’s killed over time, I’d say a good ten years,’ Casper replied.
I gasped. ‘Ten years?’ At twenty years old, ten years was such a long time. And I’d heard what hell those places were; so much worse than prison. Apparently six months had been pure torture. How would anyone survive ten years inside those walls?

Casper looked into my eyes. His were clouded with resentment.

‘We were always in competition, him and I,’ he said bitterly. ‘Now it looks like I’ve won once and for all. But at what price?’

‘Don’t you dare start blaming yourself,’ I commanded softly. ‘It’s not your fault.’

He fell into silent contemplation, looking away for a long moment. Finally, though, we made eye contact again.

‘We’re gonna start a revolution,’ he said simply.

Carl’s head appeared round the side of his computer, his eyes wide. ‘What did you say, Casper?’

Casper stood up, defiant and determined. ‘I said we’re going to start a fucking revolution,’ he announced to the two of us. ‘I’m going to do what Markus always wanted me to do.’

Carl looked terrified but intrigued. ‘You serious?’

‘Course I am,’ Casper insisted, and I could see it in him. He was on fire. He was going to do it.

‘Maybe you and Sonja are going to get on better than I thought you were,’ Carl muttered.

I frowned. ‘What does that mean?’ I couldn’t imagine ever getting on with Sonja; certainly not with the way things had started off with her. But maybe she had just been in a bad mood.

‘She’s the one you want to talk to about revolution. She’s...you know...a pretty active Dreamer,’ Carl said. ‘She doesn’t like sitting around doing nothing. If you get her on your side, you’ve got a good deal. Revolution though...it doesn’t just happen. We can’t just suddenly openly turn against the whole world.’

Casper looked as if he was daring anyone to challenge him.

‘Maybe I’ll talk to her,’ he suggested.

Leaving the room, I couldn’t comprehend ever wanting to talk to Sonja, but that was evidently what Casper planned on doing.

It wasn’t until the following day, however, that either of us saw her.

‘Sonja!’ Casper called, running over to her in the canteen. She glared at him.

‘Yeah?’ she asked in a demanding sort of way.

‘I was wondering...’ he said, unsure best how to put it, ‘do you want to...you know, help us fight the government?’

She raised her eyebrows. ‘What the fuck do you think I’ve been doing for the last few years?’ she asked icily.

Casper looked uncertain as to how to proceed, all the fire suddenly doused from his soul. ‘No, I mean like...a revolution sort of fight.’

A disgusting smile spread across her face.

‘Revolution? What are you saying that’s different from anyone else? Everyone wants to revolt; it doesn’t mean we can just do it.’

She turned without another word and walked away. Even though I hadn’t spoken, I could feel anger burning inside me. Casper was fuming.

‘That bitch,’ he muttered.

He tried to talk to her again in the evening, but got scarcely any further.

‘Try someone else,’ I insisted. ‘She isn’t the only one.’

He tried speaking to Nik the following day, but he said the same thing, just in a much more reasonable way. He also mentioned that Sonja had driven off that morning to go and do a task for the Master, so if we wanted to try and persuade her—though apparently she was notoriously stubborn—we would have to wait a few days until she got back.

‘It’s useless,’ Casper mumbled, dejected, as we sat together in the little bedroom.

I shook my head. ‘It’s not.’

‘It is,’ he insisted. ‘They’re all gone—Wolfie, Matt, Markus, Kira, Phil...and probably all the others too—Felix and Jay and Imogen and everyone else.’ He looked into my eyes, tracing the skin on my cheek with his fingertips. ‘You’re all I have left in the world, Amy.’

‘You too, Casper,’ I said. In becoming a Dreamer, I had given up everything. And since finding so much down here, I had lost all of that all over again. I’d had to watch everything I knew and love fade away. Except for Casper. He was the one thing I was never going to lose sight of.

‘It’s you and me against the world,’ he said with a sigh. ‘And it’s a really, really big world.’

I nodded with a tentative laugh. ‘I know. And it scares me.’ That was true, but what I didn’t mention was that I was ready to face this fear. I had been taught so much about this cold world, and I had been given so many chances to prove myself. I had to utilise everything the Dreamers had shown me to avenge all our friends and seek vengeance on those despicable creatures who had ruined their lives. Casper would do it. I would do it. And maybe, if we worked together, we could achieve something. I wasn’t going to stop. I wasn’t going to give in. I was already intricately tangled in this complex saga, and I wasn’t ready to search for a way out of it. I was going to stay and fight.

Right now, if there was one thing I knew beyond doubt, it was that down here, with the Dreamers and imagination and the truth, was where I really belonged.