A few months after she turned fourteen Sarah heard the news; Karen was pregnant. Months later, the letter from the doctor's office arrived. Her father and stepmother sat at the table, clutching each other's hands tightly as they read the result together.
Karen was going to have a baby boy.
Sarah felt as if she were fading into oblivion.
With an expression that wavered between pained and furious she watched on from the doorway, feeling invisible, as Karen and her father began creating the baby's nursery.
Right across the hall from her bedroom.
Her father looked happier than she had ever seen him as he put together the store-bought crib for his baby boy's nursery. He glanced to Karen, who was slowly and carefully painting the walls, with a look of pure adoration. Sarah wondered if that expression would have made her feel happy if she had seen it when she was younger. Now, it only made her feel more infuriated.
That was a look that he had never given her.
It was as if she didn't even exist.
Sarah quickly turned her heel and stomped into her bedroom. She slammed the door hard, which only earned her a shout. "No slamming doors in this house, young lady!"
Unbidden, tears welled in Sarah's eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
From her window she heard a commotion. Upon peering out she saw her beloved sheepdog, Merlin, barking up at her. She put her hand up to the glass, feeling another wave of hurt and anger wash over her.
"I'm sorry, Merlin," she murmured, "But there's nothing I can do. I wouldn't be surprised if they kicked me out, too."
Turning away from the window, Sarah threw herself onto her overly-plush bed with a heavy sigh that quickly turned into a grunt of pain. Reaching under herself, she pulled out the red leather-bound book she had accidentally laid on.
A faint spark of recognition registered when she saw the book, but she somehow couldn't remember where she had gotten it from or how it had ended up in her bed.
"Labyrinth…" she read the title aloud. Curious, she opened the book to the first page.
Immediately, she was sucked into the world of the book. She couldn't tear her eyes away and she didn't stop reading until she had memorized every single line.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered…" she spoke the lines over and over and over again in play until the fateful day she spoke them to a King.