Retrace the Lines

Josh

In my dream, all I see is fire.

Quinn stands in front of me, crystal eyes warm with laughter. Her hair radiates off her shoulders, red and alight. It dances around the room, touching every inch.

She walks towards me with her eyes now strong and focused. Her fingers lightly brush my arm and I am too stunned to move. She awards me a small smile and leans in closer.

Closer...

I gasp as I startle awake, immediately sitting up in my cramped bunk. What the actual fuck was that? Without a doubt, that is one of the weirdest, most intense dreams I've ever experienced. Spooked, I move to try to take my mind off of it.

I pull the curtain beside me cautiously back, exposing the early morning sun rays as they tickle my skin. I conclude that it must be about five or six, and I take a quick peek around the room. Most of the guys are still asleep and I can hear one of my bunk mates, Derek, still softly snoring. Sighing, I slowly lower myself down from the top bunk and chuck on a hoodie.

Refusing to think about her or the dream, I decide to go for a run around the grounds. Within minutes of my feet hitting the pebbled path I automatically click into my training brain and I lose focus of Quinn.

This only lasts through the run unfortunately. She instantly re-enters my thoughts later as I step in the bathroom to shower. I suppress a groan as the memories of our first meeting come flooding back. The meeting that occurred right here in this bathroom. I angrily shampoo my hair as I try to convince my mind to go somewhere else.

...

Later that day after dinner, all the counsellors sit in the dining hall whilst the kids are off doing their night activity with the staff. A hum of excitement rings around the room as we wait to hear what's on for tonight. During the evening we usually either have downtime or help out with the kid's activities. However, we were informed this morning that tonight Rob has something special planned for us.

I lean back carelessly in my chair and glance over at Quinn's table. She's languorously smiling at her friend Amalia as she listens to her rant. Her starts to giggle and I look away before she can catch my eye. I'm chatting with Andre - the dark skinned, built as fuck football player in my cabin - when suddenly, all the lights in the hall go out. Frantic shouts pinball around the room along with a few screams and chairs start to scrape.

After a few more seconds of this chaos it's halted by a ray of light front of the room. Everyone falls silent as they look at Rob, who's face is now alight from the heavy-duty torch he holds under his chin. 

He shoots us a jubilant smile.

"Let the games begin."

What the fuck?

The hall erupts into frenzied, excited chatter as he turns off the torch and the darkness returns. Within a second or two, the main lights are on again. Everyone looks startled as they adjust, rapidly blinking away the darkness.

"Yo, look at the table," Brent calls out from a few chairs beside me. We all turn back to our table and notice a small package sitting in the middle. I grin as I look around, and sure enough each table has a bright orange box in the centre.

Classic Rob. If there's anything I've learnt about him over the years is that he loves a bit of melodrama. I notice Quinn in my peripheral vision looking amused, and I can see people already hacking at their packages, trying to open them as fast as possible.

At my table, Brent is trying to tear apart the package, arguing with Derek over where the opening is. They continue to scuffle, and I smirk in amusement. Across the hall, someone shouts out, 'there's a message!'.