Underground

She stood at center stage tall and proud. She had solved the labyrinth and had now come to claim her prize. The Goblin King, a beastly looking creature, shrank away from her as the audience cheered her on. "And you have no power over me." The Goblin King dropped his last power against her, a crystal ball that held an imitation of her dreams, and by doing so he released Toby and sent Sara home; where she lived happily ever after. The lights brightened and the Aristotle Theater echoed with the crowds cheers for the play. The actors and actresses formed five single-file lines; each line taking a final bow before disappearing behind stage to help with clean-up. Trenity Mejorium, usually a shy and quit girl, put away the remains of her Sara costume and started to pick up the scenery when the town's clock tower chimed seven. "I should have been home an hour ago!" She moaned as she ran out the back door. Passing the strip mall and cutting through the park it was a fifteen minute jog to her apartment and she knew that her boyfriend Eric would not be happy.

By the time she got home it was pouring rain and she was soaked, chilled to the bone, and very irritable. As Trenity opened the door to the apartment she shared with Eric she could hear a baby screaming as hard as he could to be heard over the blaring sound of rap music. Eric, not making any gesture to go to the wailing infant, opened another beer and took a sip. Trenity stormed across the room and turned the radio off.

"What the hell are you doing?" Eric yelled

"What the hell am I doing? What are you doing! Your son is in there screaming and you're not doing a damn thing!"

"He wouldn't be screaming if you were home on time and not working-"

"At least I'm working! I'm the only one trying to do anything for him! I work, cook, clean, and take care of the baby while you sit on your lazy ass all day. You're worthless!"

At this point Trenity had crossed the room and was stabbing Eric in the chest with her finger.

"If you don't like it you can leave." Was the childish response.

"This is my apartment, it's under my name, and I pay the bills. Without me you have nothing!"

Her words struck home as realization of what his life would be like without her began to sink in. Eric's face reddened with rage and Trenity knew he was about to crack. She ran to the kitchen to try and get away from him. Eric followed her, grabbing objects that were in his way, and hurled them at her. A large brass lamp hit her on the back, shooting sparks of pain up to her shoulders and down to her knees. The force of the blow made Trenity trip and fall on her stomach. Eric grabbed her by the shoulder and slammed her against the refrigerator.

"You won't do anything, because you will keep your mouth shut about everything!"

The baby started to scream again as loud as he possibly could from his room. Trenity winced in pain. Looking around for anything she could use as a weapon her hand fell on a frying pan.

"Okay, Trenity, love!" He screamed at her. She refused to look at him, instead looking down and muttering, "I knew cooking eggs this morning was a good idea."

"What? Speak louder Trenity I can't hear you!"

She shifted her weight to her right leg. Using skills only years of softball could have given her she grabbed the frying pan and hit him at a full arch. The force behind the frying pan knocked him backwards, making him smash his head on the dinner table. Trenity tried to swallow the lump in her throat as the sound of her child's scream registered in her brain.

Going to the baby she saw that his dipper was full and his daughter was empty. Hot tears burned her eyes but she didn't wipe them away, it had been too long since she last gave into her emotions. Checking to make sure the door was locked Trenity started to tend to the needs of her now whimpering infant. With her baby fed and cleaned up Trenity was about to feed herself when she heard movement from within the kitchen. Cursing silently she moved her baby to the back corner of the room and grabbed the knife hidden under a pile of stuffed animals. The sudden movements made Trenity wince in pain, her back throbbed and fresh bruises covered her shoulders. Trenity smiled over at her little boy, Rebel Mejorium looked exactly like his mother, with bright green eyes and thick soft black hair with a pixie nose, and pushed his playpen in front of him.

Heavy footsteps echoed though out the apartment and Trenity held her breath for a minute. The footsteps grew fainter and the sound of an engine starting filled the night air. Rebel started to whimper from behind the playpen. Trenity put the knife back into place and picked him up, tears stinging her eyes. "I have to hide a knife in my own home Rebel. This isn't like in the plays, I can't say a few magic words and make the evil things go away." Rebel started to cry and Trenity kissed his forehead. "There is an amazing part in the play. Sara is being a total brat and calls on the Goblin King to take her little brother away. It's where everything starts to go wrong. All that trouble because she said, 'I wish.'"

Somewhere in a parallel universe a group of dormant goblins woke up. "Hear that? She's going to say it!" One of them hissed. "Say it child, it's in your play." The other said with a German accent. On the other side Trenity started to feel drowsy, "I wish-"