Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth. I do love the story though, and I am just borrowing some of the characters.
The Labyrinth's Chosen
Chapter 4
How is it that the most basic things in life turn out to be the most difficult?
You are born, you live, you die.
It truly is simple.
So if dying is a part of life, why did Angel feel so terrible about her mother's death?
That too is simple.
Because Angel loved her mother and somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind she knew that somehow this was her fault that Sarah was dead.
Just as Angelina expected, people whispered about her mother at the funeral.
She dealt with it fine for awhile until two ladies looked in the coffin and whispered loudly about how young Sarah looked. (It was true; it was as if Sarah hadn't aged past the age of twenty two.) They snickered then and said how she must not be human but one of those alien imaginary characters she had made up.
Angel was angry and appalled.
How could someone speak ill of the dead that way!
She quickly took a few steps toward the women and stated loudly, "I'm sure that my mother would appreciate the remarks both of you old witches but unfortunately, she cannot hear them. I however, can. If you have nothing polite to say, be gone! Both of you! Respect is required at a funeral, you obviously have none."
Looking scandalized, both women swept out of the funeral home with apparent anger.
Angel said goodbye to her mother easier than she expected. And when all of it was said and done Angel was the only one still out by Sarah's grave when everyone else had gone home.
As she looked at the stone with her mother's name on it, she began to recount aloud stories of Sarah (memories really) when she was a child. Angel kept talking until the sun went down and only then did she decided to leave. Silently, she placed Lancelot next to the flowers some of the others had left and without another word, went home.
It had been three days and Angel had not gone back up to the attic to sift through the many treasure her mother had left behind.
The tape and the journal remained untouched sitting on the side of her desk in her room. She had not had the heart to touch them.
Today, however, would be different, she had no need of a job any longer and time sat patiently in the palm of her hand.
What guided Angel to the journal and the tape was not curiosity, it was utter despair.
Angelina wanted desperately to latch onto the last vestiges of her memories with her parents.
This being said, it was a terribly lonely night when Angel remembered that she had just days ago found her mother's journal and a tape of her three year old self.
Not to decide what to look at first.
She walked over to her desk where she remembered laying them, and picked up the tape and stuck it in her VCR and used her remote to turn on the television.
While she waited for the tape to rewind, she idly wondered if there was any way to transfer the data from the tape onto a DVD.
Probably not.
That would definitely be something she would have to look up on the internet.
Once it was done rewinding, she pushed play and waited patiently for the video to play, not quite knowing what to expect.
A few salt and pepper screens and then a scene that would begin to haunt her through the coming days.
Angel's father was on the screen, a darker skinned man with a bald head (he never allowed his hair to grow, it was a custom where he had come from or so Angel had been told).
He stood near the bed looking down at a three year old Angel who was looking at her father and then looked at the camera and waved "Mummy!"
And then Sarah's voice was heard somewhere close to the camera.
"Hold on Angel." She said sweetly.
Angel knew then that she would have a hard time watching this, her eyes were already beginning to tear up.
"Angel," her father started, "I am going to tell you something." Then he looked at the camera.
"But you will not remember it until you see this recording when you are older. If you are watching this now Angel it is because your mother and I are gone."
The three year old Angel looked about in confusion, her red-brown curls bouncing to and fro in front of her face.
"Father I am over here."
"I know you are honey." He said soothingly.
"Angelina, all of the stories your mother will have by now have told you are true. The other world she talks about that hold one of the many cities called the Labyrinth are all real."
"You must NOT... I repeat NOT go there under any circumstances. That world is real but it is too dangerous for you as of yet. Please obey our wishes.
Angel gaped at the TV in shock.
Angrily, she came out of her trance and shut off the television.
What kind of joke is this?
Then suddenly it hit her, all this time she had been feeling guilty about her mother's death and now she knew why.
Angel had never believed the stories Sarah had told her, but Sarah had died running from a place she never belonged in, a place where her daughter had put her.
AN: I know I don't write much at a time but I am going to try to get it so that I update every Monday. Thanks to Irene, Tigtigtig, Cid Dante, Cariah Delonne, and Sideshowtom for your uplifting reviews. I also appreciate you taking the time to write the reviews. C