Building a new dream

Chapter 1

It was a strange way to spend your time – building a dream. Every night she shut her eyes and conjured up the images, visiting each scene, tweaking here and there, before settling to craft the next item.

Everything in her reality was so much more after the Games. More sensual. More immediate. She would watch a sunset and pick out every colour so she could recreate it later. She would smell the sharp tang of the ocean, feel the crunch of salt on her teeth from the air and hot sand sliding over her feet till it turned cool.

There was definitely going to be an ocean in this dream, and a sunset.

Every lovely moment she experienced in its fullness and stored. She didn't tell anyone. They wouldn't understand. She had thought that Tom had once. He had seemed to…but life has a way of fading the bad. They had changed, they had grown, but that didn't stop just because they had left the shadows behind. They had their whole lives to keep living and changing. The Games had merely pushed them down a particular path. Tom Locke didn't like talking about it; of being reminded of the fear. 'Can't you just forget it Jenny.'

She breathed deeply and felt the rush of sweetness in the air. She'd put that in the dream too.

No. She couldn't just forget. They didn't understand, didn't feel things like she did. She raised a hand to her lips. They hadn't kissed him. She was sure that was the difference. So she didn't tell them what she was doing. She wondered if Dee knew sometimes – the way she looked at her – but she said nothing.

Jenny took a step back and surveyed her dream. Not bad. She tilted her head with a frown. She wasn't happy yet though. Would she ever be happy? She had promised him light and no shadows. She wanted it to be perfect. He deserved it.

She imagined him stood there; looking, experiencing. He was so much better at this than her.

"Am I ever going to have this ready for you?" she whispered as she remembered a new flower she had seen that day and added it to the gardens. "How do I even bring you here when it is done?"

There was a shimmer in the fabric of the dream.

"You just have to think about me."

Water over rock. Ebony and velvet.

'It's too soon. I'm not ready.' Despite the thought, she found she had shut her eyes and a smile had slipped onto her face. She didn't want to turn around just yet, she wanted to just absorb the moment a fraction longer.

"You called me here Jenny. Aren't you going to say hello?"

Slowly she turned, eyes still shut, a weight of responsibility lifting off her and a whisper of relief in her chest, like a muscle relaxing that she hadn't known was tense.

Her eyes flashed open.

"Hello Julian."