Turn My World
Chapter One: Differences and Similarities
The owl's mismatched eyes blinked as the light left the window he had been sitting in front of all night. She had waved at each creature as they re-entered the mirror; a few earned tight hugs and the dwarf had gotten himself another kiss on the end of his bulbous nose.
He should be thrown in the Bog for that, the owl thought, shifting uncomfortable on his branch. Though, the whole Bog of Eternal Stench seemed rather pointless now. It all seemed pointless. She had beaten him. Worse yet, at his own game.
The soft golden bird watched as the girl's dark figure fell into her bed.
He had seen her place the careful chosen trinkets he had placed in her life into her dresser. Not a permanent place, he knew. Still, the owl bristled as he watched her put all of him away. Though, he had hoped that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him for the brief moment that it looked like she was about to stroke the statue's face that resembled him.
Either way, if she wanted to remember or not, she would return. A deal was a deal after all, and while she might have freed her half-brother, the girl was hardly free herself. He had time.
And he would use it.
*~*
"You want to cut it all off?"
"All of it, Nadine," Sarah said, trying to not run her fingers through her dark hair. "I have to."
"Sarah, sweetheart, this is insane." Nadine pulled gently on Sarah's locks as if they were expensive silk, Nadine's own cocoa colored skin nearly blending in. "I know you want the role, but can't you just, I don't know, wear a wig?"
The young woman shook her head. "A wig is too expensive, and the easier it is to dress me up for the part, the better. You know how it is, Nadine." Sarah turned to her friend, sea green eyes stood bright in a pale face of twenty.
Nadine sighed. "I know, I know. I just hate to see it get…chopped off."
"I don't," Sarah whispered. Five years of waiting for something to happen. It was time to let go.
Nadine picked up the scissors, Sarah attempting not to cringe as she began to chop off Sarah's simple look. How had the under-styled mess of shadows ever caught an eye? Especially those two mismatched ones…
"…Are you even listening to me?"
"Huh?" Sarah jolted from her daydreaming. Piercing blue and autumnal brown danced in front of her vision as she looked up to Nadine.
"Sarah, you really need to start paying attention more." Nadine rolled her purple contact filled eyes and continued cutting. "I was asking you if that cute director was going to be the one auditioning you."
"If that was some type of sexual innuendo, I hate to tell you but, I missed it."
"Oh my god, girl! You're killing me!" The scissors began to do a mock dance of a musketeer's sword. Sarah flinched. "You probably haven't even talked to him! Didn't he ask you for a date?"
"Coffee. There's a difference."
"Difference my ass."
Sarah grabbed Nadine's hand and pointed to her half way completed hair. The hairdresser began to finish.
"Look, Sar"—Sarah cringed internally at the nickname—"I just want you to be happy."
The cringe had taken too much of Sarah's energy so she permitted herself a small sigh. "No, you just want a Barbie doll."
"Well, that too." Sarah's friend grinned and then turned the chair away from the mirror.
Sarah listened to the quick snips and tried to remain calm. Dates were hard for a girl who had been wooed in the most unorthodox way by royalty. Magical royalty. A simple coffee date could hardly compare to being lost in a tricked out maze and the threat of smelling eternally awful by being thrown into some murky water.
"It's done," Nadine whispered dramatically. She then ripped off the black material and allowed Sarah's useless locks to flit to the ground.
"Wow."
Sarah stared at the stranger in the mirror. Short spikes of hair now flared around her pale face. She gingerly touched a wild piece and brushed it behind her ear where it only popped back into its original spot in the defiant mess.
Nadine watched her friend, tears in her eyes. "It'll grow back. I know, I'm being stupid, but you're hair was so pretty, Sar. I mean it looks good now but you look so different. You're not like the little fairytale princess anymore that you usually look like. Oh, I feel so awful for doing this to you! Oh, Sarah, it'll grow back! It'll grow…"
"I love it."
"W-what?"
Sarah turned to her friend. The grin on her face reached her eyes and made them glint elfishly.
"It's perfect. It's exactly what I needed." Sarah gave the speechless hairdresser a quick hug. "Look, I'll leave the money on the counter. I've gotta run before I'm late. Bye, Nadine. Thanks!"
Nadine waved pathetically to the back of the running actress.
"She's always been so strange," she told the barber's chair as she swept the hair from around it.
*~*
Sarah shoved her way through the gaggle of potential actors loitering around the sign up table. Snagging herself an audition sheet, she slumped against a wall and pulled out a pen from her bag, then began to chicken scratch her name onto the sheet using her thigh as a table.
"You know, you could always try a table."
Sarah's head popped up. "Jack! I thought you didn't audition for the small stuff."
"I don't," Jack replied, flashing a practiced grin against sand colored skin. "But I'm here for a friend. Here, you can use this." He handed her a clipboard.
"Friend?" Sarah asked as she began to finish the audition sheet.
"The director of this little play. He asked for me to watch the auditions with him."
Sarah felt her face begin to heat up. "Drake Park?"
Jack grinned at the younger girl's blush. "You know him?"
"I…"
"Uh-huh. Cute, right? Got you all flustered. Poor little Sarah."
Poor little Sarah scowled. "He didn't fluster me. He just asked me out for some coffee…"
Mahogany eyebrows shot up at the mention of "coffee." "And you brushed him off, didn't you?"
"Well, I was busy. I had scenes to work on."
Jack gave the same amount of frustration in his sigh as Nadine did her eye roll. "Sarah…"
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen!" A squeaky female voice came from the entrance to the small auditorium. "Please have your audition sheets ready and come inside!"
Jack ruffled Sarah's hair. "I'll see you on stage, kiddo." He began to saunter away. "By the way, nice haircut. Didn't want a wig?"
Sarah laughed. "How'd you guess?"
Jack winked, tapped his temple and went into the throng of thespians. Sarah waited until everyone had made their way to the door before stepping in line, bringing up the rear.
*~*
"Lady's gone!"
"Not funny! Lemme see!"
Two goblins sat around a small crystal orb. A third slept in a corner, unaware of the sudden terror that streaked across his companions' faces. A moment ago, the crystal held the image of Sarah striding into a room, gripping a piece of paper. Now the orb reflected only a black, swirling mess into the eyes of the two awake goblins.
"Fip! Fip! What we do? What we do?" The first goblin cried to his helmeted companion.
Fip, his helmet now askew and hanging by his mangled ear, stared slack-jaw at the now blackened crystal. The first goblin smacked the helmet off of Fip.
"FIP!"
"GIMP! SHUT UP! FIP THINKING!"
"FIP THINK FASTER! SHE GONE! SHE GONE!"
A rumpled voice came from the corner, "Who gone?"
"She gone!"
The third goblin rubbed his eyes and crawled over to the orb. His eyes bulged. "We must tell King."
Silence sat huddled in the corner, shaking in its boots.
"B-but, Zig…"
Zig shook his head then straightened his permanently wrinkled tunic. "King must know now. He get angrier longer we not tell."
Fip looked as if he needed his stuff chicken and Gimp began to do a strange combination of an Irish jig and a firey breakdown. Zig thumped the heel of his hand to his forehead. How had he ended up with the jitteriest goblins for guard duty?
"Fine," he grumbled, "I go. You watch crystal for change. Got it?"
He didn't wait for a nod and began to trot down the castle's corridors, his iron boots clomping on the stone as he went. Every shadow began to morph into the Goblin King's face shouting two words: "Zig" and "Bog."
Zig sprinted.
*~*
Sarah shivered as she entered the theatre's house. The lights were dimmed but the stage shone in front of the thespians' eyes. Sitting next to a blonde woman who was hurriedly smearing on lipstick, Sarah studied the stage. The skeleton of a set had already been placed upon it. Paint cans, pieces of muslin, overused brushes and miscellaneous tools lay scattered on the set and the stage, as if no one had really cared to what happened to them. A man walked between the skeletons and the chatter in the theatre died.
"Morning, all," the man's voice rang through the hall like a cello's song. "I'm Drake Park and I'll be the director of this little play." He brushed ebony painted hair off of his olive skinned forehead. He grinned and the smile was shockingly white. With one long hand he gestured to Jack who stood at the foot of the stage. "My overly pompous actor friend, Jack London, who found my life's work far too off Broadway to appear in my play, will be aiding me in the audition process. Wave for the nice people, Jack."
Jack mockingly scowled at Drake but waved anyways.
"I would have joined you just…"
"Didn't get enough beer in you, I know," Drake interrupted. This comment gained some laughter from the waiting actors.
"Well," Drake said, sticking his hands in his pockets and smiling lazily, "let's get started shall we? Numbers one through five on stage, please."
Drake Park strolled off stage and settled himself in the back of the audience as the first five actors walked on to the stage.
Sarah listened intently to the selection from the script. Unlike other performances she auditioned for, Sarah hadn't been able to get much information on Park's piece. It was rumored he kept everything secret until audition day, and even then it remained an enigma to the public. So far, Sarah could only piece together that this particular scene was a quarrel between two enemies…or maybe lovers? Either way, it wasn't very clear. Finding the right character for this would be difficult. Even the actresses who held the script seemed to be confused by the female character.
"Twenty and twenty-one to the stage. This'll be the last two, Drake," Jack called as he walked back from the stage.
Sarah stood up and attempted to block out all desire to run her fingers through her shortened hair as she strode onto the stage. The skeleton of a set loomed over her and as she took the script she noticed she was shaking. Oddly enough, this made her grin. The shaking made her feel alive and determined. Fear had no power over her.
"Alright. Well, let's change it up a bit. Twenty take the part of Jareth. Twenty-one, Sarah."
Sarah stopped shaking and stared down at the script. Her eyes darted into the darkness at the lip of the stage. How could he know? How did Park know about…
"Please," came the cello-smooth voice, "begin."
Twenty's voice broke Sarah from her gaze. "Tell me, Sarah, what do you think of my Labyrinth?"
"I-it's a piece of cake," Sarah replied. Her eyes had glazed over. She didn't need the script.
"So, the Labyrinth is a piece of cake, is it? Well, let's see how you deal with this little slice…"