Emerald Dreams (The Dream Traveler Series) Read online

  It was beautiful and so sophisticated looking.

  This has to be worth a lot of money.

  I got Mom’s attention.

  “Mom, come look at this; I call dibs!”

  Mom walked over to me and looked at the emerald pendant in my hand.

  “Oh wow, this is beautiful.”

  After a moment she added, “Yes, you can have it. But, don’t get too attached to everything in here, we need to be able to sell some stuff,” she smiled at me and walked back to whatever it was she had been working on.

  After further digging, I found the matching earrings to the necklace.

  I also found several tins with cheaper jewelry and some old-time photos of what must be my distant relatives. I noticed the tag nailed into the lid of the trunk.

  Property of Victoria Lane, it read.

  “Mom, who was Victoria Lane?” I asked her.

  “Victoria Lane is my Mother.”

  The words didn’t come from my mother, though. They came from my grandmother, who was standing at the entrance to the attic.

  “Hi Grandma, come take a look at all of this stuff! There are interesting photos of her from when she was young. She’s pretty, but they stop when you are a baby. Are there any others, maybe in another trunk?” I asked.

  I looked between Mom and Grandma. Mom had a look on her face that made me realize that I shouldn’t have asked that question.

  Oh no, what did I stir up now? Another classic foot in mouth moment brought to you by yours truly.

  “Carrie, it is okay. Don’t look embarrassed. It’s natural to want to know where you come from,” Grandma Winslow turned her attention back to me.

  “Violet, my Momma went missing about a year after I was born. My father gave her the pendant around your neck for their first wedding anniversary. She never took it off. That is until Dad found her side of the bed empty in the middle of the night. That pendant was the only thing left in her spot.

  No one had seen or heard from her. Ten years after she went missing, she was presumed dead. There was no body found, and everyone just got tired of looking for her.”

  “I’m sorry Grandma, here you should keep this.”

  I started to pull the necklace over my head when she stopped me.

  “No child, you keep it. It’s beautiful. It should be worn. I would have worn it, but my father asked me not to. He’s long gone, and it can’t bother him now. It’s yours. You look so much like her; you should wear it.”

  “Is that why my middle name is Victoria and yours too, Mom?”

  Mom nodded her head in response. Now some of the family puzzle pieces were clicking together. Some people we didn’t talk about, and now I had some kind of answers.

  “There are some more interesting items in that trunk; I know I went through it many years ago. Take some time to dig through. I think it will give you a sense of where you come from. Her diaries though, are a little weird. It is widely thought she was going crazy before she disappeared. Take everything she writes with a handful of salt.”

  With that, Grandma Winslow turned around and carefully walked back down the stairs.

  It felt like I had been working for hours as I sorted through old photographs and other trinkets. By the time we were finished for the night, Grandma had dinner ready.

  We walked downstairs to the first floor and washed our hands. Grandma had the table set and the food sitting in the center of the table.

  In front of me sat spaghetti with meat sauce. There was a side of warm cheesy garlic bread and a bowl of caesar salad.

  Normally this would be a lot of food for three women to eat. However, my only real meal of the day is dinner. Grandma knows that dinner is my favorite meal and always makes a lot of food. She is a fantastic cook, and as full as I get eating her food, I always finish my plate. It would be a crime to let her food go to waste.

  We sat around the table longer than usual, talking about some of the cool things we found in the attic. We discussed what we were going to sell some of those items for.

  Some of the items were going to be donated to the history museum in town. The furniture would stay until mom could find some men to do all the heavy lifting.

  Some of the older jewelry and clothes were going to be sold to the Pawnshop in the next town over.

  Mom has been seeing the owner a lot lately. He has a fascination with anything old.

  I suspect the reason she cleaned out the attic in the first place was so that she had something to bring to him...

  In my opinion, she should be straight forward with him and ask him out on a date, instead of trying to sell him all of our family heirlooms. That was her choice. But for what it’s worth, I think she deserves to be happy.

  I excused myself to go work on some homework before I showered and went to bed. I walked up the spiral staircase; I listened to some of the boards squeak under my weight. When I made it to my room, I opened the door and flipped on the light.

  I pulled out the chair to my big wooden desk and sat down. The desk matched the rest of the old large dark-stained furniture. Each piece has probably been in this room for more than a hundred years.

  I knocked out my college-level homework and got ready for bed.

  I put on the nightgown Grandma had made for me two years back. It was a beautiful blue. It looked like I was wearing the sky as my skin.

  I climbed into the large bed; I turned off my nightlight and tried to fall asleep. I had laid there for what felt like hours, even though my clock said it was thirty minutes.

  With each passing minute, I became more fed up and restless. Something didn’t feel right.

  My time in the attic earlier stirred up more questions than answers. It bothers me not to have answers.

  I stood up, put on my slippers, and walked up to the attic. I opened up Victoria’s trunk and found her diaries and the earrings that matched the necklace. I dusted them off and took them back to my room.

  I walked over to the reading bench that was built underneath the windows in my room. Underneath the bench cushion is a secret compartment.

  I don’t know if anyone else knows it is here, but none of the items I’ve placed here have been disturbed. In here are my diary and some of my most precious sketches, paintings, and photographs.

  The little bit of money I have is somewhere in here too...

  With everything tucked away for safekeeping, I turned my attention to the earrings.

  I took the earrings into the bathroom attached to my bedroom. I cleaned them, and then I put them into my ears.

  They compliment my green eyes nicely.

  I turned from my reflection and walked back into my bedroom. I was still feeling restless, but I did my best to ignore it and settle down.

  I climbed back into bed and tried to imagine all the ways Kennan could ask me out, but never would because he is with Lacey.

  It’s silly to be thinking about this; maybe I am glutton for punishment?

  Lacey treats Kennan more like her pet dog than a boyfriend. I have been thinking about him a lot lately. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine him kissing me in the rain, or holding my hand on the beach.

  I went to bed dreaming of him asking me to prom and me saying yes. We rode off into the sunset in his yellow Camaro.

  In my dreams, I was sufficiently happy even if they did look like a bad Lifetime movie.

  Chapter Three

  When I woke up, I wasn’t in my bed. I was lying down on luscious green grass.

  Seriously it is the brightest neon color grass I have ever seen.

  It was thick; I couldn’t see a spot of dirt anywhere around me. It felt ticklish on my skin.

  I looked up at the sky.

  On one side of the sky, I could see a golden sun. It was getting ready to set beyond the horizon. It created a profile view of some beautiful looking mountains. On the other side of the sky, I could see the sun rising.

  That’s not right! How is the sun setting and rising at the same time? The one setti
ng on the horizon was bigger than the one rising. I must still be dreaming…

  The grass is too green, and the earth doesn’t revolve around two suns... I’m definitely dreaming. Everything seems so real, but so unreal at the same time. It’s like dreaming in 4k.

  I stood up and brushed some loose blades of grass from my nightgown.

  Why am I still in my nightgown? I would never leave my house in this. Come on Violet, you are dreaming remember? I just need to figure out how to wake myself up… Ouch! Pinching didn’t work, I am still here…

  I could see forests to my right. The trees were all as straight as a board and tall as hell. I started walking without a real destination in mind.

  I decided not to try to uncover the mysteries of the forest yet and chose to stay in the open.

  With all the horror movies I’ve seen, who knows what kind of monsters my mind created that could be lurking in there?

  I don’t have the guts to confront all of those monsters and demons. To avoid the chances of that, I started walking to my left, towards the mountains.

  I was walking barefoot except for my thin slippers but didn’t mind. There were no rocks in the grass and nothing to hurt my feet.

  To be honest, if I had shown up in this perfect world wearing shoes, I would have taken them off to walk on the soft grass.

  It was a peaceful dream. Part of me seriously dreads waking up in the morning and having to go back to the hell that is high school.

  I was following a creek that flowed away from the mountains. There were little creatures underneath the water’s surface.

  They don’t look like any fish I have ever seen...

  The back fin was tiny, almost not there. The fins that were on their sides were massive and elaborate looking. It was like reversing the fins on a goldfish. The fish seemed almost transparent from one angle, and then from another, they reflected the rainbow spectrum back at you. Their colors were hypnotizing.

  They are beautiful.

  I stopped to watch the fish swim around and chase each other. Some of them were big, like large koi, and others were smaller than a goldfish. I’m not sure how long I stood there just watching. I even considered dipping my toes in the water.

  “Who are you?” a voice shouted at me.

  I jumped in response. I felt my heart racing and tried to get it under control.

  I thought I was an observant person; I guess I am wrong about that.

  The stranger’s voice had caught me off guard. I could tell from the tone of his voice that he is pissed.

  What the hell did I do? I’m just standing here.

  I didn’t know where it was coming from. I had been so frightened I didn’t immediately look up to catch a glimpse of the man that the voice belonged too.

  Time to fix that.

  I raised my head to look in front of me and to my sides, but no one was there. I turned around, and there stood a man pointing a sword at me.

  Calling him a man was an overstatement. He is a boy about my age, maybe a year or two older. He has black hair, which was long, a little past his ears in places. It looked kind of scruffy like he had been aggravated earlier and ran his hands through his hair.

  It and he are actually pretty hot. His eyes were a light brown with what looked like flecks of gold in them. I haven’t seen that before.

  His face was angular with no trace of baby fat sticking to it, unlike me, my face still retained some of that extra roundness.

  He is dressed in what looks like armor. It had a red dragon on the front of his chest plate. The dragon was shooting fire out of its mouth.

  This is hysterical; my mind conjured up a knight in armor. This was great. I’m surprised he didn’t look like Kennan. I’m glad he didn’t though this guy is much hotter.

  However, he has a sword pointed at me, which I don’t take too kindly.

  What this guy had in attractiveness, he lacked in manners. He needs to lower that damn sword before I shove it down his throat.

  Then I realized he asked me a question, and he’s been waiting on my response.

  He looks angrier every second he waits for my response.

  “Who am I? More like why are you pointing a sword at me? Does it look like I would be able to hurt you?” I retorted.

  “You can never be too cautious, my lady. How do I know you don’t threaten me with something other than a weapon?” he asked.

  How else could I hurt him, with words? I’d like to see that.

  He pushed the point of his sword a little closer to me, so I answered him. While his sword looked cool, I didn’t want to be impaled by it or have it dragged across my throat.

  I shivered just thinking about it.

  “I don’t know else what could harm you. To answer your first question, my name is Violet.”

  “I am Sir Axel Douglas, a knight under the order of the King Eduard. Why are you in such weird dress? What are you doing, just wandering? Hadn’t your father taught you it is not safe to travel without protection, or a weapon for that matter?”

  He is so hot, but oh so rude. I could change that with my fist to his nose...

  “Well Axel, who are you to think that I need to be protected? This dress isn’t weird, it is normal to sleep in. Who the hell is King Eduard?”

  Has my history class seeped too much into my brain that now I’m dreaming about events from hundreds of years ago? Maybe I need to cut back on studying before bed. My imagination runs too wild for its own good.

  “King Eduard, how have you not heard of him? He has ruled Morthsoul for forty years.” His face became smug as he asked, “Can you actually defend yourself without a weapon, show me?”

  Why is my brain torturing me like this? I am being questioned by a figment of my imagination and getting annoyed by it. Go figure. Maybe I should just wake myself up? Oh yeah, I already tried, and that didn’t work. I wonder if I just stuck my head in the water of the creek… would that work?

  I’ll play along, “Morthsoul?”

  “Yes my lady, you are in Morthsoul. Are you daft?”

  He seemed so adamant about it and so rude in his assumption… He’s really asking for it now…

  “No, this is a dream,” I said to be a smart ass.

  “When I wake up, I will be back in my bed.”

  “You think you are dreaming? You aren’t crazy or unstable, are you? Did you escape from somewhere?”

  He backed up a step, and his demeanor changed a little. He went from rude to sympathetic, like he really thought I was crazy and felt sorry for me. He still kept a tight hold on his sword, though. Like I still wasn’t to be trusted.

  Rude.

  “No, I’m not crazy. I’m not from this place. Where I come from, the grass isn’t this green or soft. We don’t have two suns, we have one, and a moon. The fish have a big fin on their back, and the side fins are much smaller. They don’t reflect crazy rainbows like these do. I don’t live here. I have never been here before,” I said, determined to make him believe me.

  I caught my breath after a small awkward moment. My rant had winded me a little.

  Why do I care so much if he believes me or not? Maybe I am crazy, and my brain is finally letting me in on the secret. Traitor.

  “Well, I don’t know how that can be,” was all he said in response.

  “I want answers, follow me.”

  Sir Axel grabbed my wrist and started towing me behind him. I fought his grip and tried to break away.

  Why was this guy grabbing me? He may be hot, but that doesn’t give him the right to tow me like a prized sheep.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked, still fighting his hold on my wrist.

  “You can let go of me, you know? It’s not like I could outrun you.”

  Sir Axel let go of my wrist.

  I grabbed it with my other hand and massaged it, trying to get some of the blood flow back to my hand.

  Stupid brute.

  “I’m taking you to see Wisdom,” was all he said.

  Hell
o? Am I supposed to know about Wisdom?

  “Who or where is Wisdom? Why am I going there?” I asked, trying to keep any hint of rudeness from my voice.

  I’m not sure why I am bothering, though.

  “Wisdom is the scholar of Morthshadow. He will have the answers we need,” he retorted.

  He said it with an attitude like he was annoyed that I was wasting his time and not giving him the answers he demanded.

  “Is he going to hurt me? I don’t understand?” I asked.

  So help me, if he says yes, I am going to punch him in the face as hard as I can, steal his sword and run.

  I held my breath in anticipation of his answer.

  “Can you stop asking questions? He is going to make this all make sense. He won’t touch a hair on your head if you don’t want him to,” he still sounded rude.

  Maybe I’d just punch him anyway, why not?

  “Okay,” was the only answer I could muster up.

  I couldn’t fight my curiosity too much. I still believe this was a dream, but I will humor the rude boy my mind has created.

  I really am glutton for punishment.

  “One more question Axel,” I said.

  I tensed up, waiting for him to yell at me or say something rude.

  “Sir Axel,” he interrupted. “It’s Sir Axel.”

  Cue the eye roll.

  “Okay, Sir Axel, tell me more about this place.”

  I hoped he would humor me and start explaining something, anything.

  “I won’t be telling you anything you don’t already know. This is Morthsoul. It has been around since the beginning of time. It’s full of many creatures. We have dragons, men that are covered in fur. They have pointy ears and big eyes. They have a tail that they like to swing around as well. They are known as femen and fewomen. They’re very greedy creatures.”

  “Interesting, do they look as ugly as I imagine them to be?” I asked.

  I knew I asked another question, but I was hoping this one would lighten up the mood.