Chapter One: Say the Words
Years later Sarah is now a teenager, she keeps her mother's last gift on her at all times. "Give me the child. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the castle…Beyond the goblin city! To take back the child which you have stolen…For my will is as strong as yours…And my Kingdom is as great! My kingdom is…My kingdom is…Damn it!" Sarah cursed. "I can never remember that line…" She opened the worn book, flipping to her needed page. "You have no power over me." An owl whoo'd in response to Sarah's last words. "Oh Mr. Owl you scared me!" She laughed at herself and smiled at her dog Merlin. Dong…Dong…Dong… rang the clock tower. Sarah whipped around and cursed. "Oh no Merlin! It's 7 o'clock! C'mon boy!" Together the childhood friends ran off in the direction of their home. As Sarah ran the rain began to pour from the skies. "I thought it was suppose to be sunny today!" Sarah shouted to her dog. It was only a few blocks to her home from the park, but it was just long enough to get her soaked to the bone. "Oh it's not fair!"
The young heroine came to the steps of her porch, where her step-mother waiting impatiently. "Oh I'm sorry!" Sarah pleaded. "Really Sarah you're an hour late! Get inside now!" Karen ordered her step daughter. "C'mon Merlin," Sarah told the dog. "Oh no, I said you could come in not the dog." Sarah continued to stand in the rain staring. "BUT IT'S POURING!" She shouted. "Doesn't matter…Go on Merlin, get in the garage." Sarah's head hung down as she repeated her step mother's wishes.
She gathered her skirts and trudged past her wicked stepmother. "Sarah, you're an hour late." Sarah cried out "I said I was sorry!" "Please let me finish! You know I only ask you to babysit when you don't have other plans…" Sarah interrupted her step mother. "How do you even know if I have plans or not,?! You never even ask me anymore!" Sarah shouted. "Well I'd assume you'd tell me when you have dates. You should have dates at your age!" Karen pleaded. Sarah ran up the stairs, almost crashing into her father and baby brother. "Sarah, where were you? We were getting worried?" Robert Williams asked in a worried tone. Sarah's eyes brimmed with tears. "I can't do anything right anymore can I?!" she shrieked and ran up the stairs to her bedroom, where she proceeded to slam her door shut. Sarah stripped out of her soaking wet dress and into dry clothes. "This will have to air dry" she mumbled to herself. It wasn't fair. She was always having to look after the little brat. 'It's not like I have any friends though.' She thought to herself. Shaking her head she sat down at her vanity. Placing a crown on her head, she began to apply lipstick while reciting her telltale lines. "Through dangers untold…and hardships un-numbered…."
Karen threw her hands up in the air. "She treats me like a wicked step-mother in a fairy story no matter what I do!" Unshed tears filled Karen's eyes as she looked towards her husband. He sighed and patted Toby on the back. "I'll talk to her sweetheart, she's just at that age right now…" Robert Williams walked upstairs toward the master bedroom to put his young son to bed. He smiled down at Toby. "Son, please go easy on your sister sometimes…there's just so much you don't understand about her." Toby drifted off to sleep by the soothing voice of his father.
Robert stood outside of Sarah's door, listening to her recite those dreadful lines over and over. The book was the reason Irene left in the first place. He had tried to take it from Sarah as a child but he would cave when she would cry all night. The book was the last thing her mother had given her. The last time she had spent with her mother. He knocked on the door. "Sarah…?" "There's nothing to talk about!!!" Sarah shrieked through the wooden door, making Robert wince. "You better hurry or you're going to be late." She called more calmly. Robert licked his lips and sighed. "Well, we do have to go now dear…but if you need anything don't hesitate to call. We've fed Toby and put him to bed. We'll be home very late this evening." He began to turn from the door when he heard Sarah once more. " You really wanted to talk to me didn't you? PRACTICALLY BROKE DOWN THE DOOR!" she flung herself down on her bed.
Robert sighed and walked down to his second wife. "Well did you talk to her?" Karen demanded. Robert shook his head. "Darling, I know you mean well and just want to love her but you have to understand…" His wife broke in. "Understand?! Understand that her own damn mother ABANDONED her when she was too young to understand?! How could Irene do that to her own child! Have you even heard from that wretched woman since she left?!" Karen did not even break for him to answer "NO! You haven't! All I want to do is be a mother to that poor girl and she won't even give me the time of day! She lets her fairytales play a role in her life. Sarah won't even try to get to know me at all! The only reason she was in our wedding was because you bribed her, Robert!" Robert started to protest but Karen held up her hand. "Don't deny it, Robert I've know about it for a long time now." He sighed. "Darling, I want everything to work out between all of us but Sarah still hasn't forgiven what Irene did. She won't even talk about what was said between them that night. I'm not even sure if she remembers it very well." He put his arm around his wife as they walked to the car. "Give Sarah time sweetie, she doesn't trust women well since that night her mother left. Hell she doesn't even have female friends I don't think. She stays in her dream world, hoping for a better day." Karen nodded in final defeat as they pulled out of the driveway.
Sarah stared up at her ceiling. "It's not fair." She mumbled. Glancing around her room she noticed something was missing. "Lancelot…Someone's been in my room again!" she felt the anger boiling inside her. "I hate that…I HATE IT!" She ran from her room to the master bedroom, where her prized teddy bear lay on the floor. "I hate you…I HATE YOU!!!" she shrieked at the wailing infant. She clutched the bear to her chest. "Someone save me! Someone take me away from this awful place!" Sarah cried into the air. "Toby stop it!" she yelled at the infant. "What do you want?! What?! Do you want a story?! Fine I'll give you a story!" Sarah was shaking with anger. She grabbed the toddlers cap and placed on her own head while looking in a mirror. "Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl whose step mother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was spoiled child who wanted everything for himself and the young girl was practically his slave. But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the young girl. And he had given her…special powers. One night when baby had been particularly cruel to her. She called on the goblins for help." The goblin awoke to these words. "Listen!" they said. "Say your right words the goblins said and we'll take the baby to the goblin city and you will be free. But the girl knew that the King of the Goblins would keep the baby forever and ever and turn it into a goblin! So the girl suffered in silence until one night she was tired from a day of house work and she was hurt by the harsh words of her wicked step mother…" Toby continued to cry. "Alright, alright! Stop it! Stop it!" Sarah cried as she held the child in her arms. "I'll say the words!" she said into Toby's face. Sarah smiled "No I mustn't…I mustn't say…" The goblins gasped. "Did she say it?!" one cried out "SHUT UP!" they all hissed at him. "No you shut up!" one called back, shaking his head. "I wish….I wish…" Sarah mumbled. The goblins held on to each syllable…waiting.
"I can bear no longer! Goblin King, Goblin King! Where ever you may be, take this child of mine far away from me!" Sarah called while holding Toby in the air. The goblins stood dumbfounded. "Oh what was that?!" One cried out "Where did she learn that rubbish?!" another one demanded. "It doesn't even start with I wish!" he shook his little balding head and sighed. The baby continued to wail. "Oh Toby stop it! I really wish I did know what to say to come and make the goblins come and take you away!" The goblins shivered in aggravation. "I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now! That's not hard is it?! HMMMM?!" one goblin spat. "I wish…I wish..." Sarah called again. Sarah laid Toby in his cradle and covered him up. She paused at the bedroom door.
Sarah turned off the light and whispered, "I wish the goblins would come and take you away. Right now…"