A/N: This chapter is a short one: I know. But the next one will be longer, I promise! Besides; these two didn't fit together all too well.
Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth.
This chapter is dedicated to all of you who have ever lost a mother.
I cannot, in truth, say that I understand.
But knowing how much I love mine…I imagine it must have been hard.
My heart goes out to you.
New Words
Three months after her eighth birthday, Sarah learned many new words. She learned "pain". She learned "despair". She learned "cancer". And, after a while, she learned "death".
She didn't fully understand death, but she was sure it must be a little like leaving, because that's what happened to her mother. She left. Sarah wasn't allowed to go to the funeral, but that didn't matter to her. The child thought that her mother left because she hadn't eaten all of her veggies last night. So Sarah was good, an angel for a very long time. She hoped that if she was good, her mother would come back. At least…she liked to think she'd come back. But deep down, she knew her mother was gone for good. It wasn't until she was nine that she fully admitted it to herself: She just wasn't coming back.
On that Friday afternoon, she locked herself in her closet and cried. "It's not fair!" she sobbed. It was not the last time she would utter this declaration.
When Sarah turned ten, her father remarried.
"It's for you, Sarah." Her father told her. "You need a mother and Karen is perfect for the job." Sarah had thrown a tantrum.
"I don't want a Karen!" she had screamed. "I want my mommy!" Her father had assured her that she would grow to like Karen, maybe even love her. Sarah's reply was an adamant "No!"
"Stop it, Sarah!" her father had yelled. "You need to get your head out of that fantasy world you live in! You need to grow up!"
"No!" Sarah screeched. "I'm never going to grow up! Ever!"
That night, she went to bed without dinner.
"Stepmother"; that was Karen's name. Stepmother; like the wicked stepmothers in Sarah's fairytales. Sarah hated Karen. It wasn't anything about her in particular, it was merely the fact that she was trying so hard to replace Sarah's mother, and Sarah didn't like it.
"Stepmother"; that was Sarah's newest word.
A/N: Okay, what you need to realize in this story is the fact that I'm not going to make Karen a monster. Sarah doesn't like her for the sole reason that she isn't her mother who she misses very much.
And while we're on the topic: Sarah's father isn't really evil; he's just your typical workaholic father who gets frazzled at the slightest shift from the norm. This doesn't mean that I condone him yelling at Sarah for missing her mom….--grumblmeanygrumble--
All in all, they aren't bad parents. They just aren't right for Sarah.
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