Back To The Lusting King

Author: Sedruce

Rating: R

Summary: Toby has been scarred for life. He's unable to function properly. Sarah pities him. She knows it's her fault he's 'dilusional' and crap. What will happen? (dun dun dun dun!)

Notes: NOT A STORY FOR CHILDREN! If you're underage, get out. Please. If you're still reading this, hey, I warned you, don't sue me for inappropriateness. I know the first chapter is a cliffhanger, sowwy, but seeing as I wrote this some time ago, I won't leave you hanging. All chapters will be uploaded today. ^_^ Love me?

@}~~~~~~~~~~Chapter One: Yet Again

Toby sat on his bed and sighed. He knew his parents were going to soon end up with cash problems, because he had some pricey upkeeps. He had been in therapy since he was six, for eleven years. He had had some horrible childhood dream or something which still haunted him. Sarah had been in it. Of course, he had asked her, when he was nine, if she remembered it. She smiled and said no, it had never happened. People always told him that. But most said it like it didn't matter; Sarah said it with a kind of unease he never saw in her.

She was now thirty years old, but still she lived at home. People said Toby needed to first realize that she didn't think it had happened, before he could believe it for himself. So she had been instructed to spend as much time as possible with him. This arrangement was fine by her, she was a writer and had planned to stay at home anyway.

But Toby knew she believed it. He had looked at her manuscripts once, in a file of stories she put away for rainy days. Or forever. There was one called The Labyrinth, based on the book she had so loved at his age, but with some twists only he would recognize.

He sighed and dug in his bag for his history homework. He didn't want to do it, but neither did he want to think about the Goblin King he still reminisced on all day every day. His friends thought he was crazy, and so did all of his teachers...but he couldn't think about that right now. They're all just afraid of what's different. Yes. That's it. And he was different because he was...

Crazy. That's what he was. He was seventeen and still believed in The Goblin King and faeries and being dragged off in the night.

And he had raised his hand in first grade when they were reading clocks and said, "That clock's not right. There are thirteen hours." Since the ridicule of his teacher and classmates, long forgotten by them but still fresh in his mind, he had kept his mouth mostly shut about the whole event. He was, after all, still only a year old when it had happened.

He heard the door open and close downstairs. "Toby," a voice called, "I'm home!" He remembered that same voice shouting out his name, distraught and somewhat angry. But not at him. For him, the voice had held only fear. "Toby?" He sighed. She would think he'd run off again. He had, after all, run away many times before. "Toby, are you home?"

"Yeah," he called down, trying to sound like a typical 'cool' seventeen-year-old guy. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and a gentle knock on his door. "What?" he demanded, angry now.

"Can I come in?" Sarah's voice called. He sighed, but answered affirmatively. "Hi," she said.

"Hi."

"Look, Toby, I know...I know..."

"You know what?" he demanded, suddenly blowing up at her. "You know how stupid I feel? You know how betrayed I feel? How lied to I feel?" He put special emphasis on this last sentence.

"Yes, I know all that," she whispered softly. "I felt all of it, too, when I was your age."

"What do you mean?" he asked, throwing the teddy bear on his bed off to the side so he could flop back.

"Hey, don't toss Lancelot around like that," she said, fetching the bear from a corner. "He's older than you, Toby. And he's getting really ragged." Toby eyed Sarah. "Okay, okay. No more beating around the bush. Look, I know you've read it." He pretended to look confused. He knew he meant the manuscript, but thought if not, he'd better nor reveal it.

"Read what?" he asked vaguely.

"The Labyrinth. The novel I wrote, two years after..."

"After...?" he prompted, hoping for some answers today.

"After we got back from the Labyrinth, the real one," she said quickly.

"It's true then." More a statement then a question. Gentle. Innocent. Scared.

Sarah nodded. "Yes, it's true. I'm sorry I've lied to you all these years. But when your therapist talked to me and I told him the truth, he told me if I encouraged your so-called delusion, then you'd never be okay again.

"So why the hell are you telling me now?" he shouted, angry again.

"Because I saw him!" she blurted out. "I was fixing my hair this morning, and my mirror, the same mirror I had when I was sixteen, when it happened to me, in my mirror, I saw his face. He had on that horrible smile that means he has something in mind. I think he wants revenge. On me, for winning the game he gave me. For taking you back from him. He knows I'll have no reason to fight if it's just me he brings, I would have given in last time if not for you. Truth is, he's not the only one who fell in love. But if he takes you again, he knows that will get to me. It's probably all silly, not going to happen, but if it does happen, I want you to be ready."

Toby blinked at all this, and fought to keep the emotions from surfacing visibly. Anger at being lied to. Tears of anger and shock. "You're lying. You wrote that book from what I've said. You just want to fuck me up even more!" he cried, unable to contain himself. He got up and stepped toward his sister, who still held Lancelot. "You're lying!" he repeated. He threw a heavy, clenched fist at her jaw. "Bitch!" he yelled as she fell to the floor, half from shock and half from the force of his blow. She scampered backwards out of the room, crying. He slammed the door after her and threw himself on the bed.

Sarah slowly made her way to her room, crying and feeling the pain in her jaw. She tasted blood and felt something in her mouth, solid but small, with jagged ends. As she spat into her hand, a single tooth and blood fell to her soft palm. He had never struck at her before. Dazed, she stumbled into the bathroom and put the tooth in cold water. Her tongue tenderly probed the area where the tooth had been. Pain rushed into her mouth. Looking at her reflection, she wiped her eyes. Her jaw was already swelling, bruising.

Meanwhile, Toby's flushed face had tear streaks on it. He blinked rapidly, rubbing his knuckles. Why had he done that? He had never so much as pinched anyone, much less punched anyone. And now he'd just hit his sister so hard his hand ached. He sighed and stood up, walking resolutely to his door. Before turning the knob, he wiped his face on the back of his hand, to get rid of the tears. Then he opened the door and walked towards Sarah's room.

As he passed the bathroom, he heard soft crying within. He knocked softly. "Sarah?" he called. There was a sudden silence. "Sarah, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." He didn't know what else to say.

"I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now!" she shouted through the door suddenly. All the lights went out, and there was again utter silence. Toby groped for the doorknob and turned it, then threw himself into the blackened room. There was no sign of anyone in there. Oh God, he remembered this. From a slightly different perspective. He had heard Sarah say those words all those years ago, then utter blackness, then silence. Then he had been in the Goblin King's hands, being placed into a small pit in a large room, made of stone.