It was all weird if you asked him.
And still, his sixteen-year-old daughter insisted on visiting the crazy aunt. It had come to the point of where Claire visited obsessively... She never told what Sarah and she discussed, but Toby sometimes didn't even want to know. After all, Claire was a teen... She needed her space. And Toby had problems of his own anyways. He and Uma were getting divorced and Toby knew that had to be hard on Claire, their youngest of the two twins. Missy had never cared about her Aunt anyways... Toby liked her.
Meanwhile, inside the room, a whole different set of thoughts were occuring.
"Ludo's in this room..?"
"Oh yes. He thinks you're pretty. He has ever since you first came to visit me as a little girl."
"...I find that so hard to believe..."
"But, you must! He's such a sweetheart and he'd love to talk to you one day." Sarah's brown eyes watched the girl closely as she looked around, seemingly unfazed by her father's yelling. What a stupid boy. He had never been a good apple, and Sarah often hated herself for not taking Jareth up on his offer... Was a boy really that worth it?
Not at all.
Her gaze never left the young teenager as she rose from the ground, grey eyes exploring the pearl walls of the asylum as if they had changed from the last time. Her face scrunched and for a moment she began to walk towards the corner in which Ludo was perched, his shaggy orange fur moving up and down with each massive breath. Sarah's hopes soared upwards at the mere thought of Claire being able to speak with her best friends, but at the sight of the girl's anger Sarah realized that she had not yet been tapped...
Perhaps she just needed a nudge. Sarah began to crawl from the center of the room, towards her niece, smiling warmly. "Claire."
"Yes, Auntie?" Her voice was stoic, cold, much like Sarah had first been when she was placed into this awful room. The eyes of the porclain beauty were stormy grey, skin flawless as it ran across her... Toby's genes mixed with those of the German wench produced a lovely child with hair of chocolate and a heart of stone. According to Claire she had never been with a boy... Never had a crush... She had been alone and involved in books all of her life.
"I want you to find a book in your father's house... It will be very old," The gray-haired woman told her teenage darling. "and the cover will probably be faded. It's red and it's titled 'The Labyrinth'. I want you to read it when you're absolutely alone and feel like there is nowhere else to go,"
Sarah paused, staring at the girl's face for any sign of emotion. At first there was none before a small eagerness flickered deep within them, and Sarah brought herself to continue with a widening grin. "Say every line the main character does. It will seem stupid at first, but I want you to. Can you do that for me?" Claire scoffed, just as she had expected her to. A small smirk lined her features, but when she realized that Sarah was not going to reply without an answer. "...Yes, Auntie."
"GET OUT! Get out now!"
"I'd never want to stay if you /paid/ me..."
"GOD! GO! NOW!"
Claire clutched her new novel in her hands, darting out of the house as her father screamed after her. She'd almost forgotten what she'd done already, as all the fights seemed to blend together now-a-days. Life had never been very kind to Claire, and when something unfortunate happened it was rarely a new (or memorable) occurance.
She skipped down the wooden steps of their home, ballerina shoes snug on her feet as her skirt licked at her heels. It flew behind her like a billowing cloak in the wind, the hem of a white and long-sleeved shirt falling over the start of her low-rider bottoms. As she made her way to the grassy fields (trying to ignore the ominous clouds above) of the park Claire began to ponder on the words of her aunt.
More alone then ever... Lonliness was something that Claire had become accustomed to. Her parents worshipped Missy for her badass ways and somewhat ignored the bookworm that was Claire. She festered within herself and was a nobody in school and at her very own residence... If she /was/ mentioned it was as 'the girl who hated everyone' or 'the bitch'. Sometimes it was even 'the chick who hangs at the asylum'.
It had become something that Claire was not only used to, but embraced... If someone spoke to her she acted as a bitch to them. If a child asked for tutoring lessons she blantantly declined. She froze herself to the world, and she hardly regretted it. Books were better anyways, and books couldn't feel bad.
Approaching the familiar wooden bench, Claire opened the old leather book and set it between two fingers as she sat down. "Through dangers unknown... And hardships un-numbered... I have come for the child that you have stolen..." She gave a great sigh, thinking herself foolish as her eyes scanned over the lines of the Goblin King her aunt talked of so many times before... Golden hair, beautiful, mis-matched eyes... Just as Sarah had claimed. Claire blinked slowly, eyes feeling a tad heavy due to her rough day, she supposed. "For.. For my will is as strong as your's, and my kingdom as great..."
Her hazy eyes scanned over the text, pausing for a moment so that she could lay herself down more comfortably suiting her body's weak condition. "You have..." Slow blink. "No..." Blink. "Power over..." And then there was nothing, the teenage girl falling into slumber in the middle of the park as thunder crackled above and a snowy owl sailed above her.