A young woman walked down the hall of the seniors' home quickly but quietly, clutching her sketchbook in her hand. She had thick, curly black hair, with the slightest hints of red in it; her skin was a light olive tone, and her large eyes were a dark grey framed by thick lashes. Her nose was a little longer than most, a true Greek feature from her father's family, and her own personal embarrassment; but her mouth had the Italian cheer of her mother's. And right now, the full lips were turned up in an excited smile, showing slightly crooked white teeth. Alysa Hebe just could not wait to show off her latest drawing.
Even if volunteering at the retirement center was, at first, only a way to get her community hours in for school, she could not deny how much she had grown to love hanging out with her elderly friends. One in particular, she became especially close to over the course of five years.
When she reached the door of the desired room, she knocked gently on it before opening it ever so slightly. "Miss Sarah? May I come in?"
"Oh, in a minute, dear, just wait!" Miss Sarah Williams said rather loudly, before whispering, "Go, go now before she sees!"
Alysa smiled. Miss Sarah was talking to her friends again. This was not the first time the twenty-one year old walked in on a one-sided conversation the eighty-six year old had with her hidden friends. In fact, one time, she had knocked and entered immediately, without permission, causing Miss Sarah to go into hysterics. Alysa decided then and there to never do such a thing again.
"All right now, dear, you may come in."
Alysa obliged, asking, "Who were you talking to this time, Miss Sarah? Was it Hoggle again?"
Miss Sarah smiled warmly from her rocking chair right next to the vanity mirror, wearing her usual white garb. Alysa had never seen her in any other color; not even in her snow-white hair. "As a matter of fact, it was. You do know how much I favor him, after all."
Alysa returned the smile. The game had started. "Yes, and actually, I've tried drawing him again. Would you like to see?"
"Oh yes, I would. Did you fix his nose? He was particularly upset at the size of his nose last time."
Alysa handed her elderly friend the large sketchbook as she sat down on the bed. "I think I've made it big enough to his liking. Of course, since I've never seen him, I have to base it on what you tell me. It would be a lot easier if I could have him model for me, though."
"Oh, Alysa, if any of the members of the Underground were to be seen by anyone but me, they'd probably be sent to the Bog of Eternal Stench! The Goblin King is already upset at the fact I can call my friends whenever I need them and that there's nothing he can do about it. Best not anger him further by complicating matters. Who knows what he may do to you."
The younger woman laughed amiably as her elder flipped through the sketches. As she waited, Alysa looked about the room. It was filled with ancient tomes of fantasy and adventure, and there were many figurines of mythical and legendary creatures standing on the shelve and ledges. The whole room just screamed that a dreaming child resided here. Miss Sarah claimed that all of these objects were souvenirs of her childhood, objects to remind her of her adventures in her youth, of the lessons learned within them.
Perhaps that was why Alysa and Sarah connected so well. All her life, Alysa was called a dreamer, ridiculed for believing in supernatural beings such as fairies and goblins. As a child, and well into her pre-adolescent years, Alysa would always stamp her feet and stubbornly repeat, "They are real! They are real!"
Of course, now, it would be just ridiculous and immature to truly believe in such things. This was a fact Alysa reluctantly accepted just before she entered high school. The real world had taken its hold on her mind and life, instilling in her the need to push down her childish whims and fantasies. Still, it was fun to play pretend with Miss Sarah, and get away from the harsh reality of the world. And even though she no longer fights for their existence, she still finds a comfort in that other world, allowing it to inspire many of her sketches and short stories. Miss Sarah gave Alysa the hope that even as the body grew older, the heart and imagination could remain as youthful as ever.
"Yes, this is very nice, Alysa. I'm sure Hoggle will like this one much better than your last."
"Oh, I don't know," Alysa began, "from what you've told me of that dwarf, I'd bet that he'd find something wrong with it."
Miss Sarah laughed, a very pleasant sound. "You know, you're right, honey. He definitely would." She turned to the next page, and softly gasped.
"What? Is there something wrong?" Alysa asked, sitting up straight.
"No, no, nothing. Just... I didn't know you were trying to draw him." Miss Sarah looked down at the charcoal drawing of the Goblin King. There was only his torso showing, but his eyes held that same mischievous glint, and a crystal sphere was balancing on his fingertips, just like she saw so long ago. His hair was just how she remembered it, framing that condescending smirk, and what was shown of the cape flowed behind him in an unseen breeze. However… there were a few wrinkles and creases on his face that most certainly were not there when she last saw him. Grim marks at the corners of his mouth and eyes popped out in front of her, though ever so subtle to a stranger's eye.
"Oh, that? I just thought him up, really. You've never really described his looks, so I just kinda drew what I'd imagined he'd be like. Is it bad?"
"No. No," whispered Sarah. "No, this is... amazing. Your most accurate picture yet. How did you know his eyes were mismatched?"
Alysa was confused. "Mismatched? What do you mean?"
Miss Sarah gestured toward the picture. "You colored in his eyes differently. One is definitely darker than the other."
"Is that what it looks like? Darn it, I was trying to make one pupil larger than the other."
Now Miss Sarah was confused. "Why would you think that?"
The young lady shrugged. "I dunno, it's just, kinda what I remember him looking like, you know, in my head." She paused for a few seconds. "You say this is my most accurate?"
"My dear, it's as if you've seen him in person." Suddenly, she straightened up in her chair, and looked at her guest in fear. "You haven't, have you? The Goblin King hasn't appeared before you, has he?"
'Oh dear,' thought Alysa, 'she's gonna lose it again. Better calm her before Claudia hears her.'
"No, no, Miss Sarah, I've never actually met the Goblin King. And probably never will," she added. "He'd only come if I wished someone away, right? Isn't that how it worked for you?"
'Might as well have her recite the story again, it might calm her down. Well, not that I'm complaining, maybe she'll actually get to finish it.'
"If you wished someone away, or if someone wished you away," Miss Sarah warned.
"Well, lucky for me I wouldn't wish anyone away. I really can't imagine doing something like that. Why did you, anyway?"
Miss Sarah looked regretful, and Alysa felt a tinge of guilt for asking such a question.
"I suppose the shortest answer is that I was a selfish brat. I just didn't like the attention my brother got from my father, I didn't like my stepmother at all, and I just wanted something to go my way. Also, I guess I never really expected it to work. I mean, it was just a whimsical wish, I was only telling him a story to keep him quiet." She paused a moment, lost in her own thoughts. "Honestly, I was such a brat, I wonder how the others tolerated me at all in the end."
Alysa silently agreed. When she first heard the tale of Miss Sarah's 'adventure,' she was surprised to hear the old lady portray herself as such a selfish, unloving older sister, wishing a magical being would take a mere toddler away. Well, maybe that part of the story was true; a resentful older sibling was not unheard of, after all. It gave the tale a realistic touch. However, the fact that she acted the way she did to her 'friends' and they never left her? That sounded a bit embellished no matter how Alysa looked at it.
"And after you realized Toby was gone," Alysa prompted, "he appeared?"
"Yes," Miss Sarah breathed. "Flew right into the nursery, he did. Of course, I regretted wishing him harm. I only wanted him to stop crying." And then she retold the tale Alysa had heard countless times before.
When she reached the final encounter with the Goblin King, Alysa was excited. Perhaps now, she could finally hear what happened between Sarah and Jareth. However, right when Sarah jumped off the ledge to reach Toby in the Escher room, the door slammed open. Both women jumped, the elder one crying out and clutching her heart, and the younger one standing up, taking a defensive pose between her friend and potential enemy.
Claudia Gammel looked into the room with disdainful eyes peering over rimless glasses. "I should've known that you'd be in here, Miss Hebe," she sniffed. The tall and spindly forty year old woman was wearing the staff uniform, a pale grey set of scrubs, along with a tiny hat to keep her gray and silver hair in place. That always made Alysa want to laugh; hats like that haven't been worn since the 1950s, nearly over a century ago!
"I certainly hope that you're not encouraging untolerated behavior," she continued.
"No, Mrs. Gammel, we were only reminiscing Miss Sarah's past," Alysa said with smile on her face, and not wanting to do anything more than shove that stupid hat down the older woman's throat.
Claudia was a nasty woman who seemed to have it in for the younger female the moment she laid eyes on her. Alysa always chalked it up to jealousy; the fact that she's younger, more cheerful, actually liked helping the residents, and maybe the fact that all of the elders seemed to prefer Alysa over Claudia. But that did not explain her original foul mood, why the elders did not like her in the first place. And it certainly did not make the menial jobs Claudia forced her to do any easier. Still, no matter how many bedpans Alysa was told to clean, she would never let Claudia get her down, or make her want to leave.
The strange thing was, apparently she used to be a cheerful helper. All the residents would sigh, "Ah, before she changed, Claudia was a gem. A bit of a hard-ass," they would admit, "but a gem." Miss Sarah would often mention 'that night' when she lost her chance, but remained tight-lipped on any details.
"Hmm," Claudia hummed with narrowed eyes, before turning to Miss Sarah, saying, "Your brother is here for a visit, Miss Williams, would you like me to bring him here?"
Miss Sarah's eyes lit up in fondness at the thought of her brother. "Oh, yes, Claudia, that'd be great, thank you."
Claudia gave Alysa one last withering look before exiting the room. Alysa rolled her eyes.
"Would you like me to leave while Tobias visits?"
"Oh, you don't have to, dear," Miss Sarah protested.
Alysa smiled. "It's fine, Miss Sarah. You just enjoy your brother's visit, 'kay?" She held out her hand for her sketchbook. When she got her book back, she headed toward the door. Before she left, however, she turned and said, "One quick question. I've never understood why the Goblin King just leaves you alone. You always go into great detail about all your friends, but anything about their king is so vague. What exactly did you do to be able to just get away from it all? What stopped him from trying to snatch up Toby again, or tempting you to wish him away?" One can say it was the writer in her, but Alysa just had to have closure on this. A good story needs to answer the tough questions.
Miss Sarah looked deep in thought. "I suppose that I don't talk of him much because I feel guilty. He asked me to stay with him, you see."
Alysa raised her eyebrows. This was certainly new. Was this spur of the moment? Making the heroine, who just happened to be the narrator, have the choice to be a queen?
"But, I declined his offer. Oh, he was tempting, that's for sure, promising me my dreams, adventure, and fantasy, all for the price of loving and fearing him. But I had to get Toby home. And at the moment, I'd had enough adventure."
"But," Alysa pressed, "why would he leave you alone? If your friends can pass through worlds, why doesn't he come for you again?"
"Because he has no power over me and mine, now," the elder answered, in all apparent seriousness.
Then the door opened again, revealing a man just into his seventies. His hair was mostly gone, and his belly was definitely not.
"Toby," Miss Sarah cried, struggling to get up from her rocking chair.
"Stay put, Sarah, I'll get over there," her half-brother said with a smile, walking toward her briskly. Here, Alysa decided to leave, and quietly slipped out the door.
Once she stepped into the hall, she pondered over the last words Miss Sarah spoke to her as she walked to the entrance hall. "No power over her? But how can that work?" she mused. "If he's such a great and powerful king, what on earth did she do to keep him away? Hmm, maybe her rejecting him caused him so much heartbreak, it snuffed out his powers." Alysa allowed herself a giggle at the thought of such a fairy-tale occurrence. "Well, okay, maybe not completely snuffed out. But the way she describes his actions definitely implies that he really liked her. Maybe he just respects her wishes, and that's why he leaves her alone."
Once she reached the entrance hall, she sat down and opened up her sketchbook again, right to the page of the Goblin King. He looked back at her with eyes that demanded the respect and honor that a king should have. And yet, behind it all, there was a tiny hint of sadness and fatigue.
Alysa shook her head. She had hated to do it, but she had not told the whole truth to Miss Sarah about that sketch. In truth, the man, if one could call him that, had been haunting her dreams for a few weeks. He would just stand there, randomly popping up, staring at her as if sizing her up. And then her mind's 'camera' would pan closer and closer to his eyes, staring deeper and deeper into her soul.
She slammed her sketchbook shut. It was bad enough that it happened at night, in her house, it did not need to happen here, in public, as well. Actually, she was not even sure if he was the Goblin King; something in her just told her that he could be that same being. And Miss Sarah's reaction to her drawing proved it. So, great. She has been spending so much time with a child-like dreamer, she was starting to wish that dreamer's reality could seep into her own.
'You have no time for that, Alysa! Get it together, and get your feet back on the ground.'
"Leaving so soon, Alysa?" came a snide voice. Claudia was standing in the hallway, looking at Alysa with that special face of disgust she reserved just for her. Alysa mentally calmed herself down, and faced the older woman with a charming and dazzling smile.
"Yes, I only came to visit Miss Sarah before I went to work," she explained. "So if you don't need me for anything else, then I should probably get going." True, she still had time to spare before she started her job, but that could be used elsewhere, where she was liked.
"Well," Claudia sniffed, "I suppose I shouldn't take you away from your money. But Mr. Kobold has asked to meet you; says he's heard your incessant giggling with Miss Williams and would like to know the source."
"Mr. Kobold?" Alysa asked. "Is he new? How come I've never met him?"
Mrs. Gammel gave her such a withering look. "Because Mr. Kobold is a man who likes to keep to himself. He's been here a few weeks, and is in the room above Miss Williams. I'm actually surprised," she added. "This is the first time he's asked to socialize with anyone. Anyway, if you've got the time, I'd suggest you go introduce yourself. Apparently, he's a man accustomed to getting what he wants." With that, she spun on her heel and walked smartly down the hall.
Alysa glanced at the clock on the wall. About thirty minutes to get to work, which was a fifteen minute walk from the senior center. She weighed her options, and decided that she did not know about this Mr. Kobold well enough to either stand around awkwardly for fifteen minutes, or talk amiably well over twenty. She will just introduce herself tomorrow, when she knows that she can either leave at a reasonable time or stay longer if wanted. So, she gathered up her purse and coat at the front desk, and left the building.
"Okay, walking straight to work will take me fifteen minutes," Alysa mused. "And I really don't want to be there early. Hmm, what to do for the next thirty minutes? I guess I can go to the park. Yeah, that sounds good."
She did not notice the narrowed eyes following her from the second floor.
A/N: And we are finished with the first chapter of my latest fanfic, probably the longest one I'll ever write. Certainly the longest chapter with 3,060 words. Who is staring after Alysa? And why is Claudia such a bitch? You'll find out in the next chapter. Please review, fave, or follow! Or all three, I won't complain. :P