Disclaimer: Ukee, Faryn, Heather, Jack, Eric and Joshua, as well as the
story itself, belong to me. The portrayal of Jareth that inspired my
depiction of him is David Bowie's. Everything from the movie, any goblins
not previously mentioned, and anything I forgot (probably), belongs to Jim
Henson Studios, Brian Froud, or Terry Jones depending on where I got it
from. I'm not doing this for money, and I don't have any!
Also, any similarities to a five year old story entitled "Do You Love Me?" are purely intentional. This is the rewritten version of that story.
This Story Exists Thanks to:
*Genesis Grey, without whom I'd never have bothered to write this (again).
*A woman I only know as Caillean Greywolf from way back when the Labyrinth ml's were only one. As I reread my old story, I realize just how kind people were to give me encouragement whatsoever!
*And to Terry Jones and Brian Froud who's Goblin Companion inspired the labyrinth's madness in this story.
o/~********~\o
Sarah, formerly Sarah Williams, the last teenage girl to have grown within the house's bosom had suddenly found her sanity again one night, during her fifteenth year. Of course, the others of their kind did not see it that way. They saw Sarah as a girl who was confused, who had dreamed an experience and never let it go. In point of fact, Sarah was more sane than any around her. Her life, by human standards, had been one long traumatic experience. After her fanciful adventure, everyone treated her like a fragile doll. When one is treated in a way, one tends to that way, and after a time, Sarah began to live inside of her assumed madness. She had gone on to become a high school actress, and then a college theatre major on an English scholarship. So lost inside the waves of sanity was she that even when she did poorly, she received rolls. She had an air of lost fantasy that made her mere presence powerful enough for the stage.
The ingenue eventually caught the attention of a wealthy investor. That led to marriage and children, and the divulging of a secret she had kept for a very long time. What Sarah never learned was that her husband, one Eric Talenka, had already known. Known, seduced, and possessed her for that very reason.
It was his eyes that had drawn her to him. His brilliant devil blue eyes. Eyes she had longed to forget and possess throughout her life, since that secret - that night - had changed it forever. When she quietly admitted her strange story to him, Sarah had told Eric she believed she had been born that night, in those eyes. Created anew with passion for the arts, anything to get her close again to the sense of magic those thirteen hours had given her. Eric, of course, knew that as well.
Four years later, they had a daughter. Four years after that, a son. Both times, she dreamed of the unending maze, and of Jareth. Both times Eric told their friends his wife was getting crazier. They all worried for the safety of the children. It wasn't until four years later still, that Eric was given his opening.
Sarah woke from a dream, screaming. Eric was gone, and that was for the best. He always seemed to vanish on full moons, and Sarah attributed it to his religion. What didn't make sense, however, was that he kept her from speaking to their daughter whenever she woke from a dream about the labyrinth. When she woke, it was all she wanted to do. Tell Faryn, warn Faryn.
Prepare Faryn.
Eric, however, wanted the girl to have no knowledge whatsoever of her mother's 'craziness,' as he put it. It didn't make any sense. If it was just madness, then it could hurt nothing, Sarah reasoned. If it wasn't, the girl would be forewarned. Sometimes, though she feared to admit it, Sarah found herself wondering if she was as they said. If she was mad.
None of that mattered when she woke from the dream, however. She knew only that Eric was gone, and she finally would have the chance to tell her daughter of the labyrinth, of Jareth, and of his threats.
She rushed immediately to the child's room, stopping only long enough to don a robe to keep warm. Opening the door as silently as possible, she was surprised to find Faryn still awake, reading by flashlight under the covers. She smiled warmly as the girl scrambled to pretend she hadn't been disobeying her bedtime. The fret was needless. Sarah knew she should love both of her children equally, but at times Joshua was hard to understand, and always seemed to shine on his father or uncle more. Eric had come from a prestigious family in which men raised men and women raised women. His heavy hand in their family life had seen that repeated.
Sarah believed that she would have favoured Faryn all the same, regardless of Eric's involvement. They were so alike. Faryn had her wide and innocent eyes, her hunger for anything chimerical. Her honest and passionate belief that those things were, indeed, real. It was always Faryn who knew what to say when her mother was sad, and it was to Sarah that the child came for comfort.
"Momma?" Faryn's quiet voice pierced her musings, waking Sarah from her reverie. Her staring had doubtless worried the child.
"Hey, there," she greeted, slipping in and closing the door behind her. "What are you doing up so late, my little Lorialet?" She glided through the room, settling on the bed next to her daughter.
In a guilty rush, Faryn tumbled a small red book into her mother's lap, speaking almost too quickly to understand. "I'm sorry.Ididn't takeit.Ifounditonmybed.Iwasgoingtogiveitback,Ijusthadtoreaditonemore time! Here, I'm sorry."
Laughing quietly, she put one finger to her lips and picked up the book. "Shhh, we don't want your father looking if he happens home early, do we?" She turned the book over in her hands, and chuckled again. "The Labyrinth. No wonder you wanted to keep it." She smiled at her daughter, brown eyes sparkling. "It was my favourite book, too. I thought Eric had thrown it away years ago, though."
Faryn dropped her head guiltily. "He did. But I found it, and Joshie said you had read it to him once. You never read it to me," he voice dropped to a near whisper. "I just wanted to know what it was. I'm sorry I took it."
"Oh, my beautiful dove," Sarah crooned. She wrapped her arms around her daughter, rocking them gently. "You didn't take it, you saved it. And I'm very happy you did." She kissed the top of Faryn's head, giving the girl another warm squeeze before letting her go. She put the book back into her daughter's surprised hands. "And since you hid it so well, I want you to keep it."
Faryn stared at her mother, her mismatched eyes wide in shock. "Serious?"
Sarah stroked her hand through soft hair, so like her own aside from the curls Eric's heritage had added. "I'm very serious." She kissed her daughter's forehead, nuzzling noses with the girl. "Just don't let your father find out."
"Never," Faryn laughed, fiercely hugging her mother.
"Now, I'm afraid it's time you went to sleep." Sarah stood, pulling the covers back as she went.
Resolutely, Faryn rolled under them, allowing herself to be tucked in while she tried with all of her nine-year old might not to scowl. When she was warmly squared away, Sarah settled onto the edge of the bed once more.
"But first," she told the girl with a mischievous smile. "I'm going to tell you a story about that book, and why your father threw it away."
Sarah felt her heart lighten and float away at the image of her delighted daughter, then. Tucked into her star speckled dark comforter, with the light of the moon spilling onto her brilliant smile. Faryn's gray eye seemed darker with the light on the right side of her face, while the blue one seemed to shine in the shadows. Sarah was forcibly reminded of a very different set of mismatched, blue, eyes.
"Once upon a time," she began somberly. "There was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. She was practically a slave in her own home - or so she thought.." And Sarah told Faryn the story she had only told to her brother and her husband. This time, she told the story for her daughter, not her sanity.
Quietly finishing, Sarah tucked the very sleepy girl in once more, kissing her forehead. She felt different, somehow. Complete. As if the story had bubbled inside, tormenting her, for all this time just to be told to her beautiful daughter.
Smiling contentedly, she slipped into the hallway, making her way to her own room. She frowned for a moment, realizing that she had forgotten to warn Faryn of Jareth's threat. His voice from her dream came loudly into her ears, making her stumble at the top of the stairs.
"I will take her from your world, Sarah. She will never return."
"No," she argued to nothing. The next day was Faryn's ninth birthday, and Sarah had made her a gift that would keep her safe, no matter what. She had learned a few useful things from Eric, and had put them to good use. A tiny braid of her hair, held together by her dried blood and tears, sealed safely within a silver clock. A clock with thirteen hours and hands made of stone, designed to be worn about the girl's neck on a chain of iron plated silver.
"Sarah?" Eric's voice came from the floor below, startling her into motion.
She had only gotten as far as their bedroom door when he found her. "Sarah, what are you doing out of bed?"
The rest of the night did not go well.
When Faryn climbed out of bed that morning, she was happy. She had fallen asleep to the beautiful sound of her mother's voice. And she had told her of the labyrinth! A fantastic gift. Today was also the day she would turn nine. Which meant that she would see her grandfather, her Uncle Toby, and her Aunt Heather. And get cake. Faryn grinned into the sunlight as she tugged on her favourite shirt. She knew it would be a good day.
But it was not meant to last.
She raced downstairs as soon as she was dressed, nearly tripping over her brother who was headed to the other end of the house. "Hi, Joshie," she squeaked in passing. She was bent on the kitchen, where she knew her mother would be. Sarah had always insisted on baking her children's birthday cakes, herself.
Upon finding her, Faryn was forced to frown. Her proud, beautiful, mother was dressed in rumpled blue jeans and a distressed white dressing shirt. Her ever perfect hair was slightly tangled and loose about her face. As Sarah crossed the kitchen to reach the sugar, Faryn saw her limp with her right side.
"Momma, what's wrong?"
Startled, Sarah nearly dropped the sugar jar. She set it on the counter next to her mixing bowl and beamed at her daughter. She knelt before Faryn, carefully keeping the left side of her face concealed in her hair. "Nothing, dovey. I want to give you your present before anyone else. Okay?"
Faryn nodded. While Sarah turned her head to retrieve something from the apron pocket, Faryn pushed the hair from her mother's face. Around her eye, a large and sickly patch of skin was mottled black and purple. Her eye was nearly swollen shut with the wait of the bruise, and there was a thin but jagged cut across her cheek. Faryn placed her hands on her mother's cheeks as Sarah turned back to face her.
"Oh, momma, who did this? I'll make poppa beat them up!"
Sarah grimaced, and Faryn displayed the perceptive abilities she had inherited from her fairer parent. "Poppa did it?" The girl couldn't help but gasp and stare.
Sarah shook her head, trying to ignore the wetness creeping down her cheeks, even as Faryn wiped it away. "Momma."
Sarah interrupted her daughter, pushing the girl's arms away. She put the chain of her gift over the girl's head, and pushed the pendant into Faryn's shirt, letting the clock thump quietly against her chest. "It's a charm, my little Lorialet. It will keep you safe from many things, as long as you wear it." She put a hand to her mouth then, trying to keep from crying as she looked at the worried expression on Faryn's face. "Even your father, baby-doll," she added in a whisper.
Faryn flung her arms about her mother's neck, holding onto her tightly. "I won't let poppa hurt you again, momma - I promise!" She heard her mother crying quietly as her arms hugged back.
"I love you, my little Lorialet," Sarah whispered. "I love you with all my heart."
On an impulse, Faryn looked up to find her father standing in the kitchen archway. Terrified, but valiant, she put herself between her parents, glowering at Eric.
For his part, Eric managed to remain calm for a few moments. Then he bellowed, "What did you tell her, Sarah? Did you tell her it was all my fault?" He advanced on them, his eyes gone wide and wild.
Faryn didn't move.
"Did you tell her that you didn't bring it on yourself by disobeying me," Eric demanded, pushing Faryn roughly out of the way without a second glance. She hit a cabinet soundly, and had to shake her head several times before clearing her vision.
Eric then grabbed Sarah by the shoulders, heaving her up and forcing her to stand on her toes to keep from falling again. "What lies have you been feeding the child with? What did you tell her," he screamed in her face, dropping her abruptly.
He turned to Faryn, who had just regained her feet. He snatched her arm, dragging her to him. She had to scream as she felt something pop in her wrist. "What did she give you, hmm?" Eric ripped the chain out of Faryn's shirt, tearing the collar as it came. "Something to stop me, is it?" He palmed the clock, and snarled as it burned his hand.
Next Faryn knew, the sound of her father's knuckles colliding with her face echoed through the kitchen. She felt her body shake as she came to rest under the kitchen table, her head lolled to one side. Faryn could see the window from where she lay. It wasn't sunny anymore.
Her father's voice came from the other side of the room, making her turn her head. She was instantly dizzy again, but could still hear clearly.
"First you turn the girl against me, and now you try to kill me, Sarah? Have you forgotten your place? A slave should never raise her hand to her master."
Just as Sarah screamed, Faryn's vision began to clear. For years later she would wish it hadn't. Eric knelt over her mother, demanding that she obey him, as something flashed repeatedly above him. Sarah screamed, and screamed again, crying between screams and pleading with her husband to stop. She swore that she loved him, promised to obey him, but nothing stopped him.
He kept bringing the knife down into her.
Again.
And again.
Someone else was screaming, and Faryn thought it was herself.
Another voice came, and everything changed.
"Eric, get away from Sarah," Toby shouted from the other side of Faryn. She heard a gunshot, and her Aunt Heather sobbing out their address, as Eric jerked violently into the cabinet below the sink. A third male voice from somewhere near her feet, told Eric that if he moved, the man would kill him. At that point, however, Faryn wasn't paying attention anymore. She was crawling to her mother.
Dimly, the voices came.
"Faryn, come here."
"Heather, don't go any closer. Jack, if he so much as twitches, you shoot him in the head."
"She should have listened to me."
"Momma! Momma!"
Faryn crawled onto her mother's chest, tears blurring her view, making Sarah's face clean and untouched. "Momma? Momma don't go."
"Faryn," Sarah sighed. She gently stroked Faryn's hair behind her ear, running fingers over her cheek. "My little Lorialet."
"Momma!" Faryn could find no other words as she sobbed. She gathered her mother's hair in her hands, pulling Sarah into her lap. "I love you."
She ran her fingers tiredly through the girl's hair. "I love you so much," Sarah whispered, staring into her daughter's mismatched eyes. Her hand fell, tangling in the mussed locks. But her eyes never left Faryn's.
Faryn noticed the window, and the rain looking in at her.
There was a thunderstorm the day Sarah Talenka was laid to rest. Eric Talenka was sentenced to life in a maximum security asylum, with absolutely no custody or visitation of his children. Toby and Heather Williams adopted Joshua Talenka and his sister. But Faryn would be forever distant from them, having learned that the world of her father would never be happy, with such memories to haunt her.
Also, any similarities to a five year old story entitled "Do You Love Me?" are purely intentional. This is the rewritten version of that story.
This Story Exists Thanks to:
*Genesis Grey, without whom I'd never have bothered to write this (again).
*A woman I only know as Caillean Greywolf from way back when the Labyrinth ml's were only one. As I reread my old story, I realize just how kind people were to give me encouragement whatsoever!
*And to Terry Jones and Brian Froud who's Goblin Companion inspired the labyrinth's madness in this story.
o/~********~\o
Sarah, formerly Sarah Williams, the last teenage girl to have grown within the house's bosom had suddenly found her sanity again one night, during her fifteenth year. Of course, the others of their kind did not see it that way. They saw Sarah as a girl who was confused, who had dreamed an experience and never let it go. In point of fact, Sarah was more sane than any around her. Her life, by human standards, had been one long traumatic experience. After her fanciful adventure, everyone treated her like a fragile doll. When one is treated in a way, one tends to that way, and after a time, Sarah began to live inside of her assumed madness. She had gone on to become a high school actress, and then a college theatre major on an English scholarship. So lost inside the waves of sanity was she that even when she did poorly, she received rolls. She had an air of lost fantasy that made her mere presence powerful enough for the stage.
The ingenue eventually caught the attention of a wealthy investor. That led to marriage and children, and the divulging of a secret she had kept for a very long time. What Sarah never learned was that her husband, one Eric Talenka, had already known. Known, seduced, and possessed her for that very reason.
It was his eyes that had drawn her to him. His brilliant devil blue eyes. Eyes she had longed to forget and possess throughout her life, since that secret - that night - had changed it forever. When she quietly admitted her strange story to him, Sarah had told Eric she believed she had been born that night, in those eyes. Created anew with passion for the arts, anything to get her close again to the sense of magic those thirteen hours had given her. Eric, of course, knew that as well.
Four years later, they had a daughter. Four years after that, a son. Both times, she dreamed of the unending maze, and of Jareth. Both times Eric told their friends his wife was getting crazier. They all worried for the safety of the children. It wasn't until four years later still, that Eric was given his opening.
Sarah woke from a dream, screaming. Eric was gone, and that was for the best. He always seemed to vanish on full moons, and Sarah attributed it to his religion. What didn't make sense, however, was that he kept her from speaking to their daughter whenever she woke from a dream about the labyrinth. When she woke, it was all she wanted to do. Tell Faryn, warn Faryn.
Prepare Faryn.
Eric, however, wanted the girl to have no knowledge whatsoever of her mother's 'craziness,' as he put it. It didn't make any sense. If it was just madness, then it could hurt nothing, Sarah reasoned. If it wasn't, the girl would be forewarned. Sometimes, though she feared to admit it, Sarah found herself wondering if she was as they said. If she was mad.
None of that mattered when she woke from the dream, however. She knew only that Eric was gone, and she finally would have the chance to tell her daughter of the labyrinth, of Jareth, and of his threats.
She rushed immediately to the child's room, stopping only long enough to don a robe to keep warm. Opening the door as silently as possible, she was surprised to find Faryn still awake, reading by flashlight under the covers. She smiled warmly as the girl scrambled to pretend she hadn't been disobeying her bedtime. The fret was needless. Sarah knew she should love both of her children equally, but at times Joshua was hard to understand, and always seemed to shine on his father or uncle more. Eric had come from a prestigious family in which men raised men and women raised women. His heavy hand in their family life had seen that repeated.
Sarah believed that she would have favoured Faryn all the same, regardless of Eric's involvement. They were so alike. Faryn had her wide and innocent eyes, her hunger for anything chimerical. Her honest and passionate belief that those things were, indeed, real. It was always Faryn who knew what to say when her mother was sad, and it was to Sarah that the child came for comfort.
"Momma?" Faryn's quiet voice pierced her musings, waking Sarah from her reverie. Her staring had doubtless worried the child.
"Hey, there," she greeted, slipping in and closing the door behind her. "What are you doing up so late, my little Lorialet?" She glided through the room, settling on the bed next to her daughter.
In a guilty rush, Faryn tumbled a small red book into her mother's lap, speaking almost too quickly to understand. "I'm sorry.Ididn't takeit.Ifounditonmybed.Iwasgoingtogiveitback,Ijusthadtoreaditonemore time! Here, I'm sorry."
Laughing quietly, she put one finger to her lips and picked up the book. "Shhh, we don't want your father looking if he happens home early, do we?" She turned the book over in her hands, and chuckled again. "The Labyrinth. No wonder you wanted to keep it." She smiled at her daughter, brown eyes sparkling. "It was my favourite book, too. I thought Eric had thrown it away years ago, though."
Faryn dropped her head guiltily. "He did. But I found it, and Joshie said you had read it to him once. You never read it to me," he voice dropped to a near whisper. "I just wanted to know what it was. I'm sorry I took it."
"Oh, my beautiful dove," Sarah crooned. She wrapped her arms around her daughter, rocking them gently. "You didn't take it, you saved it. And I'm very happy you did." She kissed the top of Faryn's head, giving the girl another warm squeeze before letting her go. She put the book back into her daughter's surprised hands. "And since you hid it so well, I want you to keep it."
Faryn stared at her mother, her mismatched eyes wide in shock. "Serious?"
Sarah stroked her hand through soft hair, so like her own aside from the curls Eric's heritage had added. "I'm very serious." She kissed her daughter's forehead, nuzzling noses with the girl. "Just don't let your father find out."
"Never," Faryn laughed, fiercely hugging her mother.
"Now, I'm afraid it's time you went to sleep." Sarah stood, pulling the covers back as she went.
Resolutely, Faryn rolled under them, allowing herself to be tucked in while she tried with all of her nine-year old might not to scowl. When she was warmly squared away, Sarah settled onto the edge of the bed once more.
"But first," she told the girl with a mischievous smile. "I'm going to tell you a story about that book, and why your father threw it away."
Sarah felt her heart lighten and float away at the image of her delighted daughter, then. Tucked into her star speckled dark comforter, with the light of the moon spilling onto her brilliant smile. Faryn's gray eye seemed darker with the light on the right side of her face, while the blue one seemed to shine in the shadows. Sarah was forcibly reminded of a very different set of mismatched, blue, eyes.
"Once upon a time," she began somberly. "There was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. She was practically a slave in her own home - or so she thought.." And Sarah told Faryn the story she had only told to her brother and her husband. This time, she told the story for her daughter, not her sanity.
Quietly finishing, Sarah tucked the very sleepy girl in once more, kissing her forehead. She felt different, somehow. Complete. As if the story had bubbled inside, tormenting her, for all this time just to be told to her beautiful daughter.
Smiling contentedly, she slipped into the hallway, making her way to her own room. She frowned for a moment, realizing that she had forgotten to warn Faryn of Jareth's threat. His voice from her dream came loudly into her ears, making her stumble at the top of the stairs.
"I will take her from your world, Sarah. She will never return."
"No," she argued to nothing. The next day was Faryn's ninth birthday, and Sarah had made her a gift that would keep her safe, no matter what. She had learned a few useful things from Eric, and had put them to good use. A tiny braid of her hair, held together by her dried blood and tears, sealed safely within a silver clock. A clock with thirteen hours and hands made of stone, designed to be worn about the girl's neck on a chain of iron plated silver.
"Sarah?" Eric's voice came from the floor below, startling her into motion.
She had only gotten as far as their bedroom door when he found her. "Sarah, what are you doing out of bed?"
The rest of the night did not go well.
When Faryn climbed out of bed that morning, she was happy. She had fallen asleep to the beautiful sound of her mother's voice. And she had told her of the labyrinth! A fantastic gift. Today was also the day she would turn nine. Which meant that she would see her grandfather, her Uncle Toby, and her Aunt Heather. And get cake. Faryn grinned into the sunlight as she tugged on her favourite shirt. She knew it would be a good day.
But it was not meant to last.
She raced downstairs as soon as she was dressed, nearly tripping over her brother who was headed to the other end of the house. "Hi, Joshie," she squeaked in passing. She was bent on the kitchen, where she knew her mother would be. Sarah had always insisted on baking her children's birthday cakes, herself.
Upon finding her, Faryn was forced to frown. Her proud, beautiful, mother was dressed in rumpled blue jeans and a distressed white dressing shirt. Her ever perfect hair was slightly tangled and loose about her face. As Sarah crossed the kitchen to reach the sugar, Faryn saw her limp with her right side.
"Momma, what's wrong?"
Startled, Sarah nearly dropped the sugar jar. She set it on the counter next to her mixing bowl and beamed at her daughter. She knelt before Faryn, carefully keeping the left side of her face concealed in her hair. "Nothing, dovey. I want to give you your present before anyone else. Okay?"
Faryn nodded. While Sarah turned her head to retrieve something from the apron pocket, Faryn pushed the hair from her mother's face. Around her eye, a large and sickly patch of skin was mottled black and purple. Her eye was nearly swollen shut with the wait of the bruise, and there was a thin but jagged cut across her cheek. Faryn placed her hands on her mother's cheeks as Sarah turned back to face her.
"Oh, momma, who did this? I'll make poppa beat them up!"
Sarah grimaced, and Faryn displayed the perceptive abilities she had inherited from her fairer parent. "Poppa did it?" The girl couldn't help but gasp and stare.
Sarah shook her head, trying to ignore the wetness creeping down her cheeks, even as Faryn wiped it away. "Momma."
Sarah interrupted her daughter, pushing the girl's arms away. She put the chain of her gift over the girl's head, and pushed the pendant into Faryn's shirt, letting the clock thump quietly against her chest. "It's a charm, my little Lorialet. It will keep you safe from many things, as long as you wear it." She put a hand to her mouth then, trying to keep from crying as she looked at the worried expression on Faryn's face. "Even your father, baby-doll," she added in a whisper.
Faryn flung her arms about her mother's neck, holding onto her tightly. "I won't let poppa hurt you again, momma - I promise!" She heard her mother crying quietly as her arms hugged back.
"I love you, my little Lorialet," Sarah whispered. "I love you with all my heart."
On an impulse, Faryn looked up to find her father standing in the kitchen archway. Terrified, but valiant, she put herself between her parents, glowering at Eric.
For his part, Eric managed to remain calm for a few moments. Then he bellowed, "What did you tell her, Sarah? Did you tell her it was all my fault?" He advanced on them, his eyes gone wide and wild.
Faryn didn't move.
"Did you tell her that you didn't bring it on yourself by disobeying me," Eric demanded, pushing Faryn roughly out of the way without a second glance. She hit a cabinet soundly, and had to shake her head several times before clearing her vision.
Eric then grabbed Sarah by the shoulders, heaving her up and forcing her to stand on her toes to keep from falling again. "What lies have you been feeding the child with? What did you tell her," he screamed in her face, dropping her abruptly.
He turned to Faryn, who had just regained her feet. He snatched her arm, dragging her to him. She had to scream as she felt something pop in her wrist. "What did she give you, hmm?" Eric ripped the chain out of Faryn's shirt, tearing the collar as it came. "Something to stop me, is it?" He palmed the clock, and snarled as it burned his hand.
Next Faryn knew, the sound of her father's knuckles colliding with her face echoed through the kitchen. She felt her body shake as she came to rest under the kitchen table, her head lolled to one side. Faryn could see the window from where she lay. It wasn't sunny anymore.
Her father's voice came from the other side of the room, making her turn her head. She was instantly dizzy again, but could still hear clearly.
"First you turn the girl against me, and now you try to kill me, Sarah? Have you forgotten your place? A slave should never raise her hand to her master."
Just as Sarah screamed, Faryn's vision began to clear. For years later she would wish it hadn't. Eric knelt over her mother, demanding that she obey him, as something flashed repeatedly above him. Sarah screamed, and screamed again, crying between screams and pleading with her husband to stop. She swore that she loved him, promised to obey him, but nothing stopped him.
He kept bringing the knife down into her.
Again.
And again.
Someone else was screaming, and Faryn thought it was herself.
Another voice came, and everything changed.
"Eric, get away from Sarah," Toby shouted from the other side of Faryn. She heard a gunshot, and her Aunt Heather sobbing out their address, as Eric jerked violently into the cabinet below the sink. A third male voice from somewhere near her feet, told Eric that if he moved, the man would kill him. At that point, however, Faryn wasn't paying attention anymore. She was crawling to her mother.
Dimly, the voices came.
"Faryn, come here."
"Heather, don't go any closer. Jack, if he so much as twitches, you shoot him in the head."
"She should have listened to me."
"Momma! Momma!"
Faryn crawled onto her mother's chest, tears blurring her view, making Sarah's face clean and untouched. "Momma? Momma don't go."
"Faryn," Sarah sighed. She gently stroked Faryn's hair behind her ear, running fingers over her cheek. "My little Lorialet."
"Momma!" Faryn could find no other words as she sobbed. She gathered her mother's hair in her hands, pulling Sarah into her lap. "I love you."
She ran her fingers tiredly through the girl's hair. "I love you so much," Sarah whispered, staring into her daughter's mismatched eyes. Her hand fell, tangling in the mussed locks. But her eyes never left Faryn's.
Faryn noticed the window, and the rain looking in at her.
There was a thunderstorm the day Sarah Talenka was laid to rest. Eric Talenka was sentenced to life in a maximum security asylum, with absolutely no custody or visitation of his children. Toby and Heather Williams adopted Joshua Talenka and his sister. But Faryn would be forever distant from them, having learned that the world of her father would never be happy, with such memories to haunt her.
