Moon Child
By WhiteInfinity21
Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth.
Chapter 2: The Beginning
After her dream about the full crystal moon, Sarah spent every spare minute she had at the local library looking up information about any and all mystical and magical aspects of the moon and the lunar cycle that she could. Her parents had noticed her odd behavior and had commented on it to Sarah, but she assured them that nothing was wrong. Since all she technically was doing was spending time at the library, even coming home before curfew, her father and Karen thought nothing of it.
What Sarah neglected to inform them was that she was reading the books she had checked out from the library half the night, not going to bed until she was practically falling asleep at her vanity. Sarah didn't even attempt to explain her sudden interest in the lunar cycle to her father and Karen. After her experience with them and her love of all things fantasy, she knew that they would never understand.
Too tied to their material existence, Sarah thought, those who only believe in what their eyes observe can never comprehend the things that exist just out the range of vision and reality.
But as her father and step-mother kept on casting worried and suspicious glances at her when they thought she wasn't looking, Sarah became aware that her interest in the moon was starting to border on obsession. Soon as she found herself taking the bus to other farther out libraries to find new material, she came to admit that there was something unnatural with her sudden interest. Sarah almost felt that something or someone was compelling her to learn as much as she could about lunar magic and mysticism, as if preparation for something in the near future.
It didn't help that every night since the first one after she returned from the Labyrinth she had been dreaming of the full crystal moon. Her dreams were dominated by the silent image and she dreamed of nothing else. For almost two months things continued on like this, spending every available minute immersed in books during the daytime and dreaming of the crystal moon while she slept.
Sarah was becoming even more withdrawn from her family and friends at school and her grades were suffering. It was after the school had called about her third failed test that her dad had grounded her and had forbid her from going to the library any more. Sarah had sat and stewed in her room for a week after her dad's announcement, becoming more and more restless. Without recourse of the books she was researching at the library, inactivity and boredom quickly ate away at the teen.
Tempers in the William's household were quickly fraying and more than once Sarah had gotten into an explosive argument with Karen and even sometimes with her father. Her dreams of the crystal moon continued and if anything, the moon seemed to be growing even bigger. The only time that there was peace in the house was when Sarah was playing with Toby.
Her parents, Karen especially, were baffled to Sarah's sudden overnight change in attitude towards the baby. Whereas before she could hardly stand to be in the same room with the toddler, she now positively adored the little tyke. Her father and step-mother, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth quietly accepted the unexplainable change.
A sense of anticipation filled Sarah as the weather grew colder. As September came closer to an end, the champion of the Labyrinth knew deep in her bones that a big, life-changing event was just over the horizon, that all the preparation she had been undergoing was about to pay off. Sarah had no idea what was coming, just that she was looking forward to it with all her being.
It was the day before the night of the full moon and Sarah's already short temper was ready to spark at the slightest thing. She was halfway into her history class after lunch when it had happened. One of her classmates had made an offhand comment about something that she couldn't even remember later and she lost it. Sarah jerked to her feet and had stomped over and slapped the girl across the face. The teacher quickly intervened and Sarah had gotten into a yelling match with her history teacher.
Security came in ten minutes later and escorted Sarah to the principal's office where her step-mother was called and Sarah was suspended from school for two weeks. The moment Karen came barreling into the office, pissed as hell, she and Sarah engaged in an even more spectacular screaming match. The fight lasted almost fifteen minutes before Karen barely got her anger under control and dragged Sarah out of the office and shoved her into the car.
The ride home was filled with tense silence, and the moment the car screeched into the driveway, Sarah stormed up to her bedroom without a word.
"I just don't get it!" Sarah screamed into her pillow, "why is Karen being such a super-bitch? Why does everyone have to stick their noses into my business? Why can't they just leave me alone? If they had just let me continue going to the library, hell, if they had even let me out of the house once in a while, this never would have happened. Stupid, insufferable, meddling adults!"
"Sarah! Keep it down up there!" Karen screeched from downstairs in the kitchen, "I don't want to hear another word from you, you are in serious trouble girl! Just wait until your father comes home, I'm sure that he will finally be able to straighten you out!"
"Shut up you miserable hag!" Sarah yelled back, "I've had it with your insistent nagging!"
"That's it!" Karen screamed as she stomped upstairs.
She threw open Sarah's bedroom door.
"I just don't know what to do to get through to you," she yelled, "I try my hardest to be a good role model to you, make sure that you have three square meals a day and this is how you repay me? With such willful disobedience?"
"Role model? Like hell?" Sarah screamed back, "all you do is nag me to death and try to mold me into the perfect little housewife. Did the thought ever cross your pea-sized brain that I don't want to be your little clone? I am my own person, stop trying to make me something that I'm not!"
Karen's face turned red as she let out a stream of screeching, incomprehensible sentences.
"And you will have no dinner tonight!" she finished as she slammed the door on her way out.
"Fine with me! I hate your bad cooking anyway!" Sarah called after her.
After her step-mother's departure, Sarah quietly fumed before she fell into a restless slumber. For once in almost two months, Sarah had no dreams.
Persistent, loud knocking on her bedroom door dragged Sarah from her sleep. As she fully came awake, the knocking continued.
"Go away!" she moodily yelled.
"Sarah, open up! It me, your father," a male voice yelled through the door.
"Why do I want to talk to you?" she called back, "you are on the witch's side anyway, you have been since she came to live with us."
"That's it young lady!" Robert growled, "I'm coming in, right now!"
"See if I care," Sarah retorted.
"I think that you will once you learn what your punishment is," Robert spoke after coming into her room.
"I don't care," Sarah mumbled.
"That attitude is what got you in this trouble in the first place, missy," her father lectured, "and after discussing this with Karen, both of us have decided to send you to a private Catholic school, known for cracking down on troublesome teens."
Sarah couldn't believe that this was happening. Her mind shut down. She could distantly hear her father explaining some more things, but she didn't pay attention. Tears started coursing down her face. It wasn't true, they couldn't be sending her away. She though that her father at the least loved her.
Looks as if I was wrong, Sarah bitterly thought, I really have no place here. It has been made painfully apparent to me.
"I don't belong here," she repeated out loud, "no one in this house cares about me, everyone at school practically hates me and no one ever gives me any respect in the streets. I don't belong in this family or this town. Hell! I don't even belong in this world."
And that was the real truth Sarah finally realized. Her journey through the Labyrinth had opened her eyes to the truth and the dreams of the crystal moon and her search for knowledge about it only reinforced it. The fact that she was being sent away only drove the point painfully home. Sarah snarled and punched her pillow in frustration. If she didn't belong here, where did she belong?
With a sigh, she looked out her window and saw the almost full moon. Tomorrow was the Autumn Equinox and the full moon as well. A very rare occurrence, Sarah recalled from her research. If anything were to happen that would lead her to where she belonged, it would happen tomorrow. She knew that without a doubt.
That assurance in mind, Sarah was finally able to fall asleep.
She dreamed that night of the full crystal moon, bigger than it had ever been.
Sarah didn't escape her dreams the next day until jut after two in the afternoon. Quietly getting out of bed and dressed, Sarah listened for sounds of voices coming from downstairs. Everything was silent in the house. Sarah let out a sigh of relief, she did not feel like confronting her father or Karen at all today. She was still pissed as hell at them and knew if she saw either one of them that she wouldn't be able to hold her temper in check.
Sarah jerked the refrigerator door open and looked inside. After a quick scan she decided and pulled out ingredients for a quick sandwich. She sat at the table brooding as she munched her sandwich, trying to figure out what to do to get out of this mess. The thought of running away crossed her mind more than once. The sounds of her father's car pulling into the driveway alerted Sarah to her parent's return just as she finished her glass of orange juice. Soundlessly, she padded back upstairs to her room and shut and locked her door.
The voices of Robert's and Karen's voices drifted up as they were immersed in a deep conversation. The sound of their footfalls on the stairs as they climbed up them told Sarah that they were most likely going to check in on her. She was glad more than ever that she had already locked her door. Sure, enough a few minutes later, the doorknob rattled about as one of them tried to get in.
Hushed whispers were traded back and forth before they decided to leave Sarah alone. Relief swept through Sarah as she heard them go back downstairs. She was emotionally wrung out and exhausted and minutes later she was softly snoring.
The red numbers of her alarm clock informed Sarah that it was 9:16pm when she woke up. Sarah could hear the sounds coming of Karen washing the dishes after dinner from the kitchen. Languorously Sarah stretched and heard a few of her vertebra pop. Warily, she got to her feet and cracked open her bedroom door, in hopes of catching a few words of her parent's conversation.
"I swear, Robert." Karen exclaimed, "ever since that Sunday night two months ago, Sarah had been acting so out of hand. I just don't know what has gotten into the girl."
"I know, dear," Robert responded, "nothing has been the same ever since then."
"It's almost as if her time spent reading all those books filled with rubbish about the moon have gone to her head," Karen continued, "I just don't see her interest in the dratted subject. I almost think that her search has driven the girl slightly mad."
Slightly mad? Sarah thought, puzzled, come to think of it….I have been obsessed with my studies. I really have changed in the last few months, and I'm not sure that I entirely like it.
"It has got to be those dreams," Sarah realized, "they must have had more of an influence on me than I had thought. But what does this all mean? Am I going insane?"
Another thought struck her.
No, not insane, Sarah thought, at least not in the way they are describing it. I came across a mention of this in the literature. It talked about people in the old country that had gone moon mad after spending too much of their time under its influence.
Sarah giggled, the thought was just too hysterical.
"I have gone completely moon mad!" she announced.
The voices downstairs abruptly stopped.
Panic flashed across Sarah's face. She had to get out of her and he had to do it now! But the only way out of the house from upstairs was by going right past her parents. That was something she certainly did not want to happen. After hearing her exclamation, they were more likely to ship her off to the Looney bin than to a private Catholic school. She was trapped! What was she going to do?
Duh, Sarah you idiot! she berated herself, panicking is the last thing you need to do now. And since when has being grounded prevented you from sneaking out of the house?
A sly smile slid across her face. In years past after particularly bad arguments with Karen or when she was feeling too restless at night she had climbed down the tree right next to her window and had scampered off into the woods behind her house on more than one occasion.
Guess that I haven't changed that much if I am still sneaking out of the house like a rebellious child, Sarah thought as she was climbing out of her window.
Sarah dropped to the ground with a soft whump!
"Now what?" she asked herself.
Sarah looked up at the moon and shrugged her shoulders. She decided to go wherever her feet took her. Her feet, not to Sarah's surprise, started down the familiar path through the woods to her favorite place, the park. The moment she rounded the last corner that brought the park into sight, Sarah froze. Bright, sliver moonlight drenched the park, turning it into an unearthly, surreal scene.
Numbly Sarah walked the last few feet that separated her from the park, stopping when her feet rested on the cool, damp grass. Once again, Sarah's gaze was drawn upward to the full moon. The orb was huge and seemed to fill the sky. Never before had Sarah seen the moon appear to be so close. Slowly Sarah's feet carried her towards her favorite spot where she used to recite lines from her red-bound volume of the Labyrinth play.
And just when Sarah thought that things couldn't get any stranger, it did. One by one figures cloaked in silvery material appeared out of thin air in a loose circle. Her eyes bugged out. That certainly didn't happen too often around here, that's for sure! Instinctively Sarah knew that the cloaked figures were not from this world, or at the least had not been living on earth for quite some time.
Almost against her will Sarah felt herself approaching the figures. One of the hooded figures looked her way. Sarah stopped in her tracks. A light voice floated across the space separating Sarah from the group.
"What brings one such as yourself here on this night?" the figure asked.
"I dreamt of the crystal moon," Sarah replied, a distant part of her mind was wondering where the words she spoke came from.
"And what do you intend to do now?" the figure asked.
"I intend to follow its eternal, hallowed light," Sarah answered.
The figure threw back its hood. Sarah almost gasped. The elongated face before her certainly was not that of a normal human. The skin of the female was as pale as the full moon and her hair was as black as the night sky on the new moon. The female's eyes were silver and shinning faintly, her aquiline features could be considered beautiful except for a network of faint scars that ran across her face like a spider web. The feature that had drawn Sarah's gaze was the blue crescent moon that was tattooed onto the female's forehead.
After the female had given Sarah enough time to study her profile, she spoke again.
"Then welcome sister in spirit," she spoke with a smile, "long has it been since one of your race has dreamed of the moon."
The others took that as a silent signal as they too, one-by-one drew back their hoods, allowing Sarah to see their faces. Some were breath-takingly enchanting while one or two were downright frightful to look upon. One of the more disquieting members of the circle actually had no eyes in their face and when that person smiled, Sarah could catch the glint of moonlight off of small fangs. For all their strangeness, Sarah had no fear of these beings.
"Come sister," the eyeless one urged, "let us walk under the moon from this night forward."
The others made motions that conveyed their similar sentiments.
"Yes," Sarah sighed, "by the grace of the moon, I will walk with you."
As if Sarah had just completed some ceremony, the others broke their circle and rushed over to her, greeting her affectionately. Tears were freely flowing down Sarah's face.
"I've found where I belong," Sarah whispered, "at last."
Together the group drew Sarah along with them back into the circle they had arrived in. Everyone linked hands and a soft humming sound filled the still night air. Just as the full moon reached its zenith, the air around the group pulsated and they vanished.
Tell me what you think of my fic so far. Any suggestions, constructive criticisms? Offers of cookies? Thought not (about the cookies anyway).
So give me a review, please? I'll be your friend.
