The Girl in my Dreams

The Girl In My Dreams
Prologue
Val Bradley's Adventures With "Goblins"

Mr. Brandon Bradley was a balding man of fifty-five. He had ever graying hair, and was rather short, and on the plump side. He had a pleasant face, for he was usually smiling, and his eyes of brown twinkled from behind his glasses. His most proud accomplishment was, aside from his family, the fact that he was a respected business man. At least, he was before "it" happened.

Brandon was married to the fifty year old Elizabeth. Unlike Brandon, "Liza" Bradley was tall and thin. Her hair was just as red as it had been when she was fifteen years old, and it was ridiculously long for a woman of Elizabeth's age.

The happy couple lived in a small town in Rhode Island, and they had four children. Brandon, Jr., was of average height and weight, he had sparkling green eyes, and his brown hair was long, and Brandon, Sr., thought his son's hair quite ridiculous. Brandon, Jr., was the oldest, however, and was away at college most of the year.

The twins, Jenny and Karly, were fourteen, and they were identical in almost every way. They were tall, like their mother, for they were already nearly six feet tall at only fourteen. They had sparkling blue eyes that shone like crystals, and they each had honey-blond hair. Karly wore hers slightly shorter than Jenny's, and she often curled it. Jenny always wore her hair straight, and when she wore it in a ponytail, the shorter layers framed her face and made her look like an angel. Each twin was fairly smart, as they had constantly been on the A-B honor roll during their two years at high school. Karly was more of the girly-girl prototype than her twin, wearing more make-up and being more concerned with boys. Jenny played softball and was much more athletic than her twin. They were equally popular, and wouldn't have traded their lives for anything.

The Bradley family would have been close to perfect if it had stopped there, but in every family there was a problem child, and for the Bradley's, Valerie Elizabeth, or "Val", was that child. The ten year old had the same crystal blue eyes as her sisters, but they were often hidden behind her reading glasses. Her father said that Val always had her nose in a book. Val's hair was straight as a stick, and it cascaded softly around her shoulders on the rare occasion that she wore it down. However, her dirty-blond hair was often up in a messy bun that her parents detested. These things alone would not have been enough to make her the family problem child, for it was the fact that Val was constantly talking about imaginary creatures like dragons and goblins, and the books she read, the ones about witchcraft and imaginary things, was what upset her parents most of all.

Mr. and Mrs. Bradley strongly detested witchcraft, strongly detested magic, strongly detested imagination in general. It upset Val very much that her parents disapproved of the things she loved to dream about, but it was not enough to stop her from reading about these things, not enough to stop her imagination.

Not enough to stop the weird things from happening.

Not enough to stop "it".

It was a perfectly normal day, a good day. The sun was shining brightly, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It wasn't too hot as it normally was on an early summer day like this one, and a gentle breeze ruffled through your hair if you walked outside. It truly was a good day, that day that "it" first happened.

But Mr. Bradley had just settled into his favorite lounge chair when Karly's screams pierced the peaceful air.

"Daddy, Daddy, there's a rat under the rug! Oh, Daddy, please come quickly and kill the disgusting little rodent!" Mr. Bradley jumped out of his chair and ran to where his daughter was screaming. Jenny had joined in the screaming, and Mr. Bradley felt like he was going deaf, for the combined screams of the twins was, indeed, deafening.

But there was no rat to be seen when Mr. Bradley entered the room, only a tousled rug and a knocked over lamp were in sight.

Jenny and Karly both looked horrified.

"I don't see any rats here, girls, just a mess," Mr. Bradley said, as calmly as he could.

"Oh, Daddy, it was there, I saw it with my own eyes," Karly whined, and Jenny nodded in agreement.

"Oh, girls..............."

"Dad, that was no rat," said Val as she emerged from behind the twins. Her statement had an eerie effect, and one supposed her unexpected entrance added to it quite a bit.

"Then what was it, a werewolf?" Jenny couldn't quite hold back a small smile when she heard her twin's crack.

"No, I don't think so. I'm not quite sure what it is yet, but I think it may have been a goblin." Jenny stopped smiling when her little sister spoke these words. It was as though she actually believed in goblins and werewolves, which, she reminded herself, was true.

"A goblin?" Mr. Bradley looked furious, and then said, "Valerie Elizabeth Bradley, how many times have I told you not to talk about magical creatures such as goblins in this house? I will have no more of this nonsense, because it does not exist."

"Ha, small fry," Karly whispered in her ear as she left the room.

"But goblins are real, Jen, you've got to believe me!" Val protested, sounding a bit desperate. Jenny sighed, and walked up to the room that she shared with Karly.

~~~

The next time "it" happened was just a few days later. Mr. Bradley's boss, Mr. Warner, had invited himself, his wife, and his two daughters to dinner at the Bradley's house, and Mrs. Bradley had frantically prepared a marvelous dinner in no time.

Mr. Warner's older daughter, Amy, was a good friend of Karly's, so she felt welcome in the household on that fateful evening. Polly Warner, the younger of the Warner girls, was a sworn enemy of Val's, and her sole purpose in life was to make Val miserable. That night, Val was given orders to humor Polly.

The girls had eaten pizza in the living room and then had headed upstairs, leaving the adults to their fancy meal in the dining room. However, Val and Polly had barely made it into Val's bedroom before the yelling started. Soon there was the pounding of feet as they ran down the stairs.

"Dad!" Polly yelled, "She worships the devil!" Polly pointed an accusing finger at Val.

"I do not," Val yelled back defensively.

The arguing was interrupted by screams from the living room, where Jenny had been watching television by herself.

"Rat, rat!" Jenny shrieked. Mr. Bradley jumped up and ran to the living room, and Mrs. Warner and Polly jumped up on chairs in attempt to protect themselves from the rat. Mrs. Warner clung to her husband.

Val ran after her dad, yelling, "The goblin's back!"

There was a lump in the carpet, scurrying to and fro. Jenny caught the lamp as it tipped dangerously close to doom. Karly and Amy had come down to see what all the commotion was about, and Mr. Warner had freed himself from his wife's grasp, hoping to get to the bottom of things.

Wracking his brain for a solution, Mr. Bradley grabbed a chair and lifted it high above his head. He brought it crashing down, just barely missing his target. One of the chair's legs snapped off from the effort, but the creature under the rug had slipped away again.

"Bradley! You're fired!" Mr. Warner boomed angrily. Mr. Bradley watched Amy, Polly, and Mr. and Mrs. Warner walk out the door before screaming in frustration. He didn't say anything, or look at anyone, he just grabbed a bottle of aspirin and went to be without another word to his family.

Jenny and Karly stared at each other in disbelief, and Val whispered, "Oh, you horrid little goblin, now see what you've done!"

~~~

Two weeks passed, and it happened again.

It started the same old way, with the lump in the carpet, forming and rustling around. Val looked ghostly white as the creature moved about. That's when the lights went out. Mr. Bradley heard a thud, something ripping, screams........ All the noises blended together and penetrated his eardrums; it was impossible for any one sound to register in his mind.

When the lights flickered back on, the Bradley's were faced with a gigantic mess. Broken lamps, shredded books, and scattered papers were littered about the room. There was a large rip in the carpet, and a hole in the floor. Some things, however, remained untouched, and Val had vanished all together.

Jenny glanced at the hole. There was a long tunnel extending into the blackness, but she didn't dare enter it.

Karly, Jenny, Brandon and Liza Bradley all looked around frantically, searching for Val, but she was no where to be seen.

Finally, Karly broke the silence, and asked the unaskable: "Where's Val?" A piece of paper fell from above into Jenny's hands, and she read it out loud.

"If your sister you seek,
Then you must wait another week,
Once I return from my leave,
You must prove that you believe,
To win your sister back,
Prove to me you're on the right track."

"What on earth?" Karly said.

"It's signed 'The Goblin'," Jenny said.

"Damn it, Liza, I should have known," Brandon said.

"Known what? Aren't you going to do something, call someone?" Karly asked, for once showing concern for Val.

"No, girls, there's nothing we can to, your sister's life is in your hands now. You have to wait for the goblin to come back." Liza and Brandon both frowned.

"What are you talking about, Dad? Magic and goblin's aren't real, this is just some sicko's way of trying to throw us off track of his kidnapping," Karly said.

"I'm afraid that's not true, Karly. Your aunt is a witch, and for quite a while, Val has shown magical talent. That's why we were so upset when she became interested in fantasy, and magic. Val believes, and it's up to you to save her." With that, Brandon and Elizabeth walked up stairs, wearing identical frowns.

"This is bogus, Jen! What are they trying to pull? There is no goblin. You know it, and I know it, and we've known it for years, right, Jenny?" Karly asked. Jenny frowned as the realization hit her........ And her twin.

"You! You believe this bull shit, don't you? You've believed this whole time! Why the hell didn't you admit it? Why, Jen? Why do you believe it?"

Karly turned her back on Jenny, leaving her twin with the wreckage. Jenny began sorting through it, looking for something that could be salvaged.

~~~

Jenny felt as if she had been reborn, as if a great weight had been lifted off of her very shoulders. Being able to admit that she believed was the best thing that had happened to Jenny Bradley in ages.

But Jenny believing was not enough to save Val. She had to convince Karly.

Day after day, Jenny tried to convince her twin to believe in magic, but Karly refused. Jenny was persistent, though, and each day she tried a little harder.

Then came the day of the goblin's return.

It was as though there was a huge gust of wind throughout the house. Jenny shivered, not because she was cold, but because she knew that the goblin would not be satisfied if only Jenny believed, and that could put Val's life on the line.

Jenny and Karly tiptoed into the living room. Standing there was the single most ugly creature that they had ever seen. It's skin was a leathery brown-green, and from it's chest poked four things that looked almost like sticks. Jenny assumed they were his arms, but she couldn't be sure. It had large, piercing green eyes and long, pointy ears that resembled it's fangs.

The creature wasn't even the worst part. Next to the goblin was a ghostly white creature. Jenny realized the mass of cloth was Val, and she gasped. Her sister was even paler than the last time Jenny had seen her, and thinner. The goblin must have been starving her. Jenny rushed to her sister's side. Her pulse was low and her breaths were short and few. Jenny shuddered to think that Val, who was always so strong, was on the brink of death.

"I believe," Jenny whispered helplessly.

"Good, good. It's progress," the goblin said, "now you?" He had turned to look at Karly.

"I'll never believe," she said, snarling at the goblin, "Never, never, never." A soft wind began blowing through the house.

"What?" the goblin hissed.

"I'll never believe," Karly repeated defiantly.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you to never say never?" the goblin asked, sounding annoyed.

"No!" she replied. The wind grew stronger and stronger until it sounded like a thousand babies shrieking. It gathered the books and papers in it's arms and they spun round and round. Jenny grabbed Val's cold hand and began chanting, "I believe." The chant grew louder and louder until Jenny was yelling at the top of her lungs. The wind seemed to calm down a little, but Jenny couldn't stop the goblin alone and she knew it. Jenny sighed sadly. If she didn't get help soon, Val would die.
Karly must have been thinking the same thing, because reluctantly she grabbed Jenny's hand and began chanting, "I believe." Slowly, ever so slowly, the wind came to a full stop. The goblin smiled, showing his disgustingly long fangs.

"Congratulations. Your sister is in your hands now," the goblin said, and disappeared. When he was gone, everything in the living room returned to normal, the tunnel was gone and all.

Jenny and Karly knelt over Val, and slowly she regained consciousness.

"You believed," she whispered, and hugged each of her sisters.

To be continued................