Dreamweaver

                                                        Chapter 1 

A breeze. A cold breeze washes over my face, penetrating my dream - cold enough to give me chills but not quite cold enough to wake me up, apparently. I look up into the pale blue sky of my dreamland; a place where almost anything is possible, but for some reason everything is still the same as it is in the real world. I guess Tegan must have left the window open.

I kick a stone along the beach and it disappears into the empty air. Interesting. I suppose a small shred of my imagination still lives...

"I wouldn't do that."

I nearly have a heart attack - spinning around, my heel digging into the wet sand, and my black hair whipping my face as my head snaps back and forth. There's no body here.

I'm bewildered. I'm usually such a light sleeper, it could have been Tegan talking back in our room or something. But there are no boys allowed in our dormitory, and this voice was unmistakebly male. It has a distinct Irish lilt to it... It's definitely not anyone I know.

"W-what?" I stammer, still searching for the speaker.

"I said, 'I wouldn't do that'. Those rocks are pretty and I like to look at them. If you kick them all out of existance I will have nothing to look at."

What the fuck? I continue to look around me, but I still see no-one. No one's here, and I don't usually dream about anyone other than myself. I value my alone time.

"Who are you?" I yell out angrily, my voice echoing over the length of the beach my mind created. I suddeny realise all the colour has drained out of the dream beach - and where I am right now looks alot like one of those depressing pictures on the front of scenic postcards. This bastard's changing my dream!

"On the contrary, Theo. I'm not changing anything. This is a lucid dream - one that I have made for you - and your current fear of my presence is what caused the beach to be drained of colour. You can change it back, you know. You could even remove me, and I would be gone, leaving you in peace. Though, of course, that would be terribly rude of you..."

Agitation boils in my chest - I guess you could say I'm very easily annoyed. So...this is a lucid dream? I blink, and the colour returns to the beach, but then I decide I could do better than that. I blink again, and I'm in the Red Queen's garden from Alice in Wonderland - complete with little white garden tables, laid out with teacups and cake, and even bushes with the white roses painted red. I can feel myself grin.  It's cute.

"Uh-oh. But I so preferred the beach..."

I sigh.

"Listen, arsehole. If this is a lucid dream, it means I can decide what goes on. And this whole 'talking to me while I can't see you' thing is creeping me the hell out. So, I want you to make yourself visible, or I will."

The voice seems to sigh, as if I disappointed him.

"As you wish..."

Suddenly, a man appears at one of the pretty white tables - laiden with tea and cake and napkins, just like they were in the movie. He's sprawling his skinny body on the beautiful garden chair, with his feet up on the table and he's pouring himself a cup of tea. The man is almost offensively unattractive - with greasy shoulderlength black hair and a velvet suit of an unforgivable shade of green, with a bright purple tie. His top hat is grey, with a black band around it and it sits on the chair beside him- he looks like a cross between rumplestiltskin and a deformed leprechaun. Jeez.

As soon as he sees me staring at him he stands up from the table and offers his hand for me to shake, smiling in the way a snake does right before it bites you in the ass.