This story was inspired from the song
Call it what you want by Taylor Swift. The first song I am in love with from the new album.
I hope you all enjoy this little blurb.
Tina.
No one said life was easy, and Sarah Williams learned that first hand after she followed in her mother's footsteps. Falling into the world of the Industry as it was called. Auditions, casting calls, seeing her name up in lights on Broadway theatres boards. She was beautiful with her peaches and cream skin, dark tresses and vibrant green eyes. A slender body with just the right amount of curves for the wardrobe to appreciate when making her costumes.
Yes, she was a star, even if she made enemies doing it.
She learned the gritty side of the business and the men who ruled the roost, who used their power to take advantage of the young women who were trying to make a name for themselves. She fought, fucked and lied her way to the top; the string of men that came and went on her arm. They never compared to her ideal in the end. She hadn't meant to break up a marriage, she didn't want to be her mother. Yet she let the limelight blind her, she lost herself in the process. She was on top of her career, she was sought after and wanted by everyone whether it was for a role or to wear a couture gown at the Tony Awards. Yes, Sarah Williams was a superstar.
She had men falling at her feet, relationships ending and beginning each season. Soon she was too picky, too temperamental for them to put up with.
'Someone somewhere is sick of her shit' was the saying they recalled as they said her name on TMZ one night.
Then it came tumbling down piece by piece. Suddenly the Broadway princess was tarnished, she didn't want to be known as the woman that one young girl would know as daddies mistress one day. She holed herself up, stopped drinking and the needless prescription drugs that made up her life. Maybe her therapist was right and it was all in her head. Everything thing was just a made up fairy tale? It had been just all a strange dream.
No one would call on the Goblin King thinking he was real. This was just proof that she wasn't crazy. No one would show up in a cloud of glitter when called or in a form of an owl. Pictured like the one that sat on her hip, a white and brown barn owl taking off in flight.
How wrong had she had been when he stood in front of her when she spoke the words. Her adolescence was shaped by a dream that she didn't believe to be real. He had been keeping tabs on her through the years, he never could come to her because she took back that power that fateful night. Instead, he watched from afar flounder and drown in her own lies and affairs, he watched her realize that mistakes she had made and what she destroyed in the process.
How he saw beyond the frayed ends and knitted them back together was a mystery. She felt whole once again as she hid away in his kingdom.
They had no label, it was just them wandering the labyrinth, the castle. Telling him stories of Toby before she cut herself off from her family. They didn't understand the Industry it was simple as that. Her father gave up giving her legal advice and Irene well she only cared for the designer samples that Sarah sent to her.
She sent them a note saying she put herself into a rehab retreat. A place to think for herself and reevaluate her life. She spent her days by his side now, living a simpler life. She noticed things about him, despite being a king he was humble and kind to his subjects. He ruled fairly and did not use terror as a way to get what he wanted. How the roles reversed as she once considered him to be the villain. Instead, she was now the one who was vain and conceited. It comes with age he told her; he had his moments in his youth.
Slowly she returned to her life she was under contracts and needed to work so she wouldn't be blacklisted. She was cautious about being seen about the city at first. Refusing to let him be seen. This was theirs and the media would just ruin whatever they had.
They were meeting at a bookstore, they already caught wind of her already being there. She watched him from the window, his head down his blond hair falling forward as he was dressed in a long jacket, warm scarf and leather gloves. They locked eyes as she waved to him and greeted him from the window of the bookstore cafe.
Who was this unknown man? Who was Sarah Williams new beau? The tall, lanky golden hair man who looked dressed from the high streets of London?
The media were puzzled at the changes of the tarnished star who seemed more meek and modest in her words and actions. She kept to herself, she even skipped the Tony's that year which leads to an ambush of what was going on in her life. Her revivals were relishing in her seclusion as she worked less than she ever did. Rumours spread rampantly on her seclusion, the lack of social media. Some praised her for changing her life around other called it was a ploy to get attention when she decided to return.
Press are going about how she showed her true colours to the world. Everyone placing bets on when she would mess up and throw aside this mystery man. They didn't know it has already been months for them, you could even say this had been in the works for years. He was the one to keep her stable in this world she lived in. Warm and fed most nights when he was there, letting her cry over new tabloids and telling her that it didn't matter what people thought of her anymore.
After everything, all she needed was to look in those strange eyes of his to feel grounded to know she did one thing right in her life. All she had to do was believe, believe in the magic she once longed to forget or believe was all a dream.
She did the right thing, she told him one night. Her secret that haunted her, she didn't regret it but she couldn't hide it from him. No child should have been brought into a world of chaos when her world tumbled from undeneath her. He told her understood, that he didn't judge her for her decision. She made the one that seemed right for her and her life.
Nothing matters beside them as the curled up in her apartment, or his bedchamber. She could trust him. Something she hadn't done in so long was trust someone. Friends were rare in the industry you never could be real without the fear of being betrayed. He however she trusted, he was the one thing she did right.
It was him who managed to get her to reconnect with her family; to reach out and apologize. It had been an emotional upheaval for everything that day. Toby was a teenager, who seemed confused by his sister. He had been hurt when she cut them off from her life, but now was trying to make amends. He wanted to be happy to see her but didn't want to have her disappear again. It took a long talk that she would never do that to him again; she told him she understood that trust had to be earned and she would try her best to earn his trust once more.
She did the right thing by calling him; without him, without that those eyes that could piece together her broken soul and heart in the aftermath of her downward spiral. The same ones she looked into in the large candle lit room as he kissed her body over and over. Leisurely lovemaking in the early mornings so that slept late into the mornings.
Slowly they ventured out together more in the cities, slowly the media became for positive as they chased for the story of her life changes and choice in jewellery. The small charm with a tiny J on it. Was that his name starting with J?
Soon stories were fabricated, elaborate tales of being a wealthy businessman. Jared King, so if she accidentally called him Jareth it could be put down as being misheard. They were happy, keeping out the spotlight as often as they could. They were boring and mundane in their lives which lead to the press getting bored.
The rare time she spoke of him she was quoted after being asked how he played a part in her recovery on the red carpet for a premiere of her latest show
"I told him he didn't need to save me. We are happy and in love, that is all you need to know." She held his arm as they walked down the long line of carpet. The photos would show like a King and Queen, dressed in their finery. Her ethereal silver-white gown that floated around her. Everyone noticed just how much her eyes sparkled as she gazed up at him. Even his suit being exactly tailored to him that it showed off his lean frame. The fashion police commenting just how well his pants fit him, and if that it was a roll of change in his pocket or not. Sarah Williams seemed to be one lucky woman they concluded.
He rarely spoke a word to the press, keeping silent as she did her thing. The only indirect quote that you could take from him was him telling someone in an annoyed tone, "Your past doesn't define your future. I love her because she is everything to me."
The mystery of Sarah Williams and her eventual disappearance from the industry was a mystery. If they only knew that she was a Queen in another world, with her king beside her. Occasionally you could spot them wandering the park or visiting a museum with two small children; a little blonde girl, and a dark-haired boy who inherited their father's tall slender form.
They came and went as years passed by. Her name once up in lights now was know something of the past. Still, her name echoed in the media, sometimes when another star fell, or maybe it was when a young woman credited her in allowing a generation to see you could save yourself if you truly tried.
Call it what you want, but Sarah William made a name for herself in this world and another.
Let me know what you thought of this little one! I love feedback!
Tina