Bradley Sides holds an M.A. in English. His fiction appears in numerous print and online journals.
He is a staff writer for Bookkaholic. He resides in Florence, Alabama,
with his wife, and he is working on his debut novel.
Achieved Dreams
At night, she fights. Her sisters offer assurance and hands,
but the girl knows that her dreams are hers alone. Fearing and dreading the coming hours, she wrestles with the
inevitable. Her moans flood her
own bed before they fill her room, and as they continue to build, they leak
into the hallway. Collecting
there, too, until the walls can no longer contain them, her cries creep down
the staircase. When finally Ms.
Hartwell’s Home for Girls can hold no more, the girl’s screams burst through
the door and escape into the nighttime sky, floating upward until they are a
soft whisper. Deeper, further, and
away, Abigail gives into her dreams.
***
“Welcome back, my dear,” she hears a deep
voice address her. “I’ve missed
you.”
Abigail, facedown on a warm, firm
surface, looks up. She no longer
questions her surroundings because they are so familiar to her now. She sees no one. Ripened tangerine flames are all that
light the darkness that surrounds her.
She concentrates on her legs, rallying her muscles to gain the strength
to stand.
“Are you ready to begin?”
Abigail, now erect, faces the direction
from which the voice comes. “Why
do I deserve this? Please, I don’t
want to know anymore from this place.
Please. I just want to be
left alone.”
She hears nothing more. The flames fade into total
darkness. Abigail knows the
plan. She closes her eyes and
counts to ten. When she opens
them, she sees what she expects:
cerulean flames covering the walls with a lone bowl propped atop a glass
stand. She sees dozens of tunnels
surrounding her. She runs toward
one but collapses. She tries
another. Then, she gathers her strength to try once more. All three efforts give nothing more
than proof of a solid wall within fifteen feet of the entrance.
Abigail walks to the glass stand and
looks inside. She sees
Miriam. Abigail shakes her head
and whispers, “Not tonight. Ah,
Miriam. I’m sorry. I’ll try, but I’m sorry.”
***
“Will you be quiet so we can hear who it
is tonight?” Lizzy says to the group of girls surrounding Abigail’s body.
“It’s Mary! It’s Mary!” says Alexi, holding Abigail’s hand. “Hilary, it’s Mary!”
“No, it’s not. She said Miriam.
Will you listen for once,” Hannah corrects Alexi. The girls standing over Abigail laugh
at Hannah and Alexi.
“False alarm, Hilary!” Alexi
sarcastically yells out the door to the group of scared girls gathered outside
Abigail’s door. “Of course, Hannah
heard Miriam so we all know that she’s right.”
“Who is it really? Stop joking!” Katie yells from down the hallway.
“It’s Miriam,” says several small
voices.
Miriam’s name echoes throughout the many
rooms of Ms. Hartwell’s until it finally reaches a group of girls who stand
outside. One yells across the yard
to find Miriam, who is running in a nearby tall field of wheat. Miriam stops immediately and sprints to
the front door. She forgets to
takes off her shoes and instead jumps up over the rickety stairs and into Ms.
Hartwell’s Home. The other girls
stop Miriam and assist in removing her shoes and brushing off her pants. Miriam bursts through Abigail’s door
and sits beside her.
“Have I missed anything?” Miriam turns to
ask Lizzy and Hannah.
Alexi answers, “No.”
“Alexi, will you please be quiet. We can’t hear with you blabbing. Anyways, Miriam was talking to Lizzy
and I,” says Hannah.
Alexi rolls her eyes and starts to speak,
but Abigail’s words make them all stop.
“Don’t die,” Abigail says. The girls look at one another and
squeeze Miriam’s shoulder—unsure of what else to do.
***
Abigail stares into the bowl, as ripples
overtake the once recognizable image of Miriam’s face. The ground begins to shake and the
stand slips underneath her feet.
“Are you ready to fight for her? Do you want to keep your friend alive?”
the voice asks.
Abigail doesn’t hesitate. “Yes,” she says, knowing the
procedures. “I’m ready.”
The voice laughs, and the ground
rumbles. Abigail hears pebbles
fall from the roof of the cave.
The tiny sounds create an echo that begins to build until the walls
surrounding Abigail collapse. Like
them, she tumbles.
Abigail gets back up, not knowing how
much time has passed since she last stood. What surrounds her is no longer the darkness of the cave;
instead, she stands in the middle of a field. When she looks up, the moon illuminates the world she inhabits. Before she has a chance to fully
comprehend her new environment, she hears an explosive splash and a shriek that
pleads for saving.
“Miriam. I’m coming, Miriam!
Don’t die! I’m coming!”
Abigail says, racing toward the sound.
***
Hilary peeks inside Abigail’s room, where
Abigail’s body sweats and twitches.
“Is she winning tonight?” she asks.
“Something
bad is happening. I’ve never seen
her get this bad. I think she’s in
trouble,” Alexi says.
Hannah
and Lizzy look at Hilary and nod.
“Should
I go find Ms. Hartwell? Do you
think she needs to help Abigail?” Hilary asks.
Miriam
looks up, “It’s me that she’s fighting for. I should be the one to go help her.”
Hannah,
Lizzy, and Alexi look at Miriam and then back at one another. “I think it’s Miriam’s choice,” Lizzy
says.
Hilary steps inside the door for the
first time in her life. Next,
Katie comes inside. Then, the
others enter. By the time word
spreads about what is happening, all of the thirty-six girls of Ms. Hartwell’s
Home are inside Abigail’s small room.
They pack tightly inside the quaint room to look at Abigail, whose body
seems to be shaking and sweating more than before.
“I’m going to help her. She shouldn’t have to fight for us
alone,” Miriam says.
“None of us have ever been where Abigail
goes. You can’t just say you are
going to help her. We don’t know
how,” Hannah says.
A creak in the floorboard causes all of
the heads in Abigail’s room to turn around.
She stands tall, with hair the color of a
moonless night. Her emerald eyes
survey the girls. Her skin shines
in the low light of Abigail’s room, but her pale tint blends into the white
paint on the walls. She slips
through the door and saunters by the girls who circle Abigail’s bed. She sits and puts her hand on Abigail’s
leg.
“Ms. Hartwell, Abigail is in
trouble. We think she’s trying to
save Miriam. Miriam wants to help,
but she doesn’t know how. Well,
none of us know how. We don’t know
what to do,” Alexi says.
“Hush, child,” Ms. Hartwell says to
Alexi.
“Alexi doesn’t even know what she’s
talking about. Be quiet!” Hannah
says.
“Alexi knows just as much as you,
Hannah. She’s younger and needs
time to grow. Don’t be so hard on
the girl,” Ms. Hartwell says.
Alexi looks at Hannah and smiles. Hannah smirks back at her.
“What we have here is far more pressing
than your silly girlish bickering,” Ms. Hartwell says. “Abigail is more than just serious
trouble, girls. Our girl is
dying,” she says.
Several of the girls shriek.
“Ms. Hartwell, I can’t let her die. Not for me. I want to go in and help her. Please, grant this for me! Please!” Miriam pleads, resting beside Abigail’s body.
“It’s too late, Miriam,” Ms. Hartwell
says.
“Please! Please let me go!”
Ms. Hartwell reaches into her pocket and
pulls out a small bottle. “Well,
I’ve never met another natural like Abigail, but I know this potion will take
you where you want to go. Hurry
and drink it up, child, if you really want to help her.”
Not even taking time to consider it,
Miriam pours the liquid into her mouth and passes out.
“Good luck, Miriam,” Alexi says.
“Good luck, Miriam,” the other girls
echo.
***
Abigail arrives at the scene and sees
Miriam splashing, trapped under a tree that looks as if it once provided a
summer’s day’s shade to the abandoned lake. “Help! Help
me! Abigail, help me! Please! I can’t move!” Miriam says.
“I’m coming,” she says. Abigail jumps into the water and kicks
as fast as she can. Struggling for
air, Abigail reaches Miriam. “I
can’t feel my legs,” Miriam says.
“It’s
okay,
Miriam. I’m here. I’ll save you.”
Abigail
looks up toward the lake’s bank when she sees someone running toward her. “Abigail, Abigail! Don’t fall into the trap. It’s a dream. It’s a dream,” Miriam says, running toward Abigail and the
other Miriam.
“I
know it’s a dream, but if I let you die here, then you’ll die for real,
Miriam. Remember Kayla? Remember Claire? Remember Logan? Remember Starr? Remember Kennedy? Remember them all?” Abigail asks Miriam.
“Of
course I remember them, but you can’t do this. Your body is not strong on the other side. You are barely alive. It’s a trap. I know that it’s a trap!” Miriam says.
“You
can’t know that. You can’t. No one knows if the connection from
here-to-there is real or not until I wake up. If I let you die here, you might really die, Miriam. I’m not having your blood on my hands,”
Abigail says.
“It’s
not real, Abigail. Believe me,”
Miriam says.
“I
can’t. Stop arguing and help me
save you,” Abigail says, waiting at the bank for Miriam to swim out into the
lake with her.
***
“Is
Miriam helping? Are they going to
be okay?” Alexi asks.
No
one answers her; instead, they watch.
Abigail’s body shakes harder than before. Tears flow down her already damp cheeks. Alexi reaches across Abigail’s body to
grab a tissue. She pulls a couple
from the box and presses them against Abigail’s face to catch her tears. “It’ll be okay, Abigail. I’m here. We’re all here,” she says.
Around
the room, the other girls watch both Abigail and Miriam. Ms. Hartwell coaches Miriam, who shows
her own signs of struggle. “You
can’t forget it’s a dream. You
have to come back. Don’t get
trapped. Stay distant enough not
to get trapped. Listen to my
voice, girl. You have to come
back. Help your friend, but you
have to come back.”
Alexi
reaches back across Abigail’s body to get another tissue, but when she does,
Abigail’s body begins trembling.
At first, the shakes are mild.
Then, her movement becomes violent. Abigail sits up in her bed and her mouth opens. The girls look away, scared of what is
happening to Abigail. The already low
light begins to dim. Abigail’s
lips don’t move, but a raspy, masculine voice comes from her mouth just the
same. “Dreams are coming true
tonight,” it says.
“Girls,”
Ms. Hartwell stands. She points
her hands toward the door. “Get
out of the house! Get out
now! Hannah and Lizzy, help the
small girls. Alexi, go into my
room and get out the small box under my bed. Take it with you.
Do not come back inside this house for anything. Alexi, did you hear me? Do not come back in for anything.”
Hannah
and Lizzy instruct the girls to grab each other’s hands and follow them down
the stairs. When they reach the
bottom, the house begins shaking.
Hanging pictures fall from the walls and glass breaks against the hard
floors. The entire foundation
vibrates. Wallpaper peels from the
walls and begins to cover the ground.
Alexi runs to Ms. Hartwell’s room to grab the chest. On her way down the stairs, she peeks
back into Abigail’s room. “Run!”
Ms. Hartwell says.
***
“I
see you brought help with you tonight, my child,” the voice sounds again. “We had a deal if you don’t
remember: you fight your own
battles; you don’t die. When you
don’t honor your side of the arrangement, I don’t stick with mine. It’s that simple.”
“We
didn’t have a deal,” Abigail says.
“We had nothing. We’ve
never had anything. Do you think I
want to have these dreams? I’ve
had them for as long as I can remember.
This is a curse! Not a
deal! You dictate what happens to
me, what happens to my friends.
You are the one who decides it all. You always have.”
“We
don’t get to pick our curses, my dear.
They are bestowed upon us,” the voice says.
“Abigail,
ignore everything except our task.
You said that we have to free the other Miriam to get back home. Let’s do it,” Miriam says.
Abigail
nods and grabs Miriam’s hand.
Together, they dive into the lake.
When they reach the fallen tree, Abigail instructs Miriam to swim to the
other end. “If we can roll it off
her, she will be free and we can go back home.”
“It’s
too heavy for us to roll, Abigail.
We’ll never move it,” Miriam says.
“This
is a dream, Miriam. A tree isn’t
the same here as it is at home,” Abigail says.
“No,
it isn’t the same here as it is at your home, but it can do the same damage,”
the voice says. “Watch this.”
Two
other trees fall into the lake and trap Abigail and Miriam.
“Girls,
I’m here,” a female voice says, rushing to the edge of the lake.
“Ms.
Hartwell?” Abigail asks.
“It’s
me, girls. I’m coming.”
Ms.
Hartwell jumps into the water. Her
waves splatter the bank’s sides.
“None
of you seem to understand how things work here. Ms. Hartwell, our agreement was that you leave this girl to
me. Her dreams are hers—you can’t
manipulate them,” the deep voice speaks again.
“Why is it getting so cold?” Miriam asks.
“I can’t move, girls. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let you get involved in this, Miriam. I’m so sorry, girls,” says Ms. Hartwell.
“There is nothing you can do. It’s over,” the voice asserts.
“At least Abigail has us here with her. Her dreams are ours now. Forever,” Miriam says.
“Your
nightmares are over, Abigail.” Ms. Hartwell says. Miriam agrees, “Now you can sleep.”
Abigail, Miriam, and Ms. Hartwell look at
one another in the night’s shadows.
Together, they close their eyes.
***
With
all but three of its inhabitants outside, Ms. Hartwell’s Home for Girls
crumbles to ashes. The girls watch
their home fall, thinking of their friends and only mother they’ve known
leaving with it.
Alexi
feels a breeze rub against her face.
“Do you hear that?” she asks.
“It sounds like a lullaby.
Good night, my sisters—my family.
Good night.”~Brad Sides~
