Yadda, yadda, I don't own anything 'cept my characters, kay? All and any song quotes are copyringht to their respective artists.
Also, just a warning, my chapters are long.
Labyrinth goodness coming up, don't worry. I don't want this story to be what you expect. Oh, and if you read this, I'd appreciate if you could drop me a comment to tell me how you like it so far. Thank ya very much. :)
You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breaking my heart in two
Because I never wanna see you sad, girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you wanna leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad
And beware...
~Wild World by Cat Stevens
The doorbell rang.
Treading softly on her heels in order to minimize the tapping noise, the girl crept to the door as quickly and quietly as she could.
"A-hem? Katherina Alexandria Bennett!"
Dang. She halted in her tracks as her father appeared out of nowhere and planted himself in front of her, hands on his hips, barring access to the front door. "Now you just wait one moment, young lady. You're not going anywhere just yet."
"I don't know why I even tried." Kath unsuccessfully suppressed a giggle at her dad's uncharacteristically stern mask and rolled her eyes. She dropped into a neat curtsy, ruffling her blue-green dress artfully. The corner of his mouth twitched. "Why please, sir, do continue into your extensively illuminating monologue."
He shook his head, finally smiling. "Okay, Kath, I know you're a senior now and all of that nonsense, but understand that your mother and I need some peace of mind while you're out there cavorting the night away." Kath's mother poked her head out of the kitchen and, grinning, waved a spatula at the girl before disappearing again and leaving her to the biannual Lecture.
"Even though you're more than old enough to make your own decisions – heck, you could leave the house if you wanted to – just know that as your parents, we only want what's best for you." His honey brown eyes grew soft, and Kath couldn't stop herself from smirking. She practically knew this speech by heart.
"Kath, I know that you are a clever, beautiful, kind, and competent young woman with a heart of pure gold. And I hope you know that too." He smoothed her wavy chestnut hair behind her ear fondly. "But to me, you'll always be my little girl. It's a wild world out there, where you have to take care of yourself, because no one else will. But remember that balance and moderation are key. You can't always serve only yourself, of course, but you can't always be putting yourselves below others. What might look like the right way to go at first... ends up being a lot more than you bargained for." His eyes grew distant for a moment, and Kath waited patiently. She appreciated her dad's affectionate worrying, even if it was a little bit overdone and long-winded. People had their quirks. Kath and her mom had long since accepted Mr. Bennett's overprotectiveness.
The doorbell rang again. Kath raised her eyebrow questioningly. Her dad laughed and shook his head in defeat. "Fine, I'll cut it short. Don't talk to any strange men, always check what you're eating or drinking, especially if someone gives it to you, keep your friends close, don't get lost, don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it, be nice to everyone no matter what, don't let anyone hurt you or take advantage of you, always look for the simplest exit, remember the self-defense I taught you and don't forget your pepper spray--" He sheepishly cut off as Kath's mother walked up with an amused expression on her face.
"Dear, she's going to a dance with a group of her friends, not... whatever you think she's going to do. You're keeping her from all those guys outside. Have fun at prom, sweetie," she cooed, and kissed Kath on the top of the head as the doorbell rang for a third time. Kath thanked her with her eyes for the timely intervention, hugged them both tight, not caring about the increasingly rumpled state of her hair, before finally saying goodbye, grabbing her bag, opening the door and stepping outside into the evening air.
"KATH!" A small group of tuxedoed young men immediately welcomed her with wide smiles and bear hugs. Exceedingly comfortable with the company of her four best guy friends, Kath couldn't help but grin at their exuberant brotherly love. Well, mostly brotherly. As they exchanged silly bantering quips and headed en masse towards Jason's large classic red truck, Jason claimed her side.
"Well hello, Jason," Kath said primly, tilting her head to look up at his face. "What brings you to my side this fine evening?"
The tall football player flashed a dazzling grin and linked arms with her. "My lady Katharina, I come to you yet again in beseeching suppliance. Will you not go to prom with me... as my date?"
"In your dreams, jock boy," Kath laughed. "You know I don't want a date, silly. I don't need a man to feel complete." She made a dramatic flourish and stuck her tongue out at his slightly crestfallen face, feeling a little guilty. "Why? Couldn't find a date? I thought the girls were all over you."
"Nah. I guess it's more fun as a group of friends anyway. I don't need a woman to be happy," Jason mocked jovially, and courteously opened the door of the truck for her. Kath winced inwardly at his subtly resigned expression.
"Well, personally, I can't think of a better way to spend our last high school dance than with a bunch of good friends," Kath agreed cheerily as she climbed into the passenger seat.
"Hear, hear," Tyler, Josh, and Mike chorused, squished into the back of the cab. Jason gave a wry grin and headed around to the driver's side.
"So Eddie is picking Amelie up and we're all meeting there, right?" Kath interjected into the conversation about halfway to the dance. It was downtown this time, in one of the old Victorian buildings with springy floors. The radio played softly on as the guys fell silent.
"Mmhm," Jason affirmed listlessly, staring out the window. He had been overly quiet the entire ride. Kath felt helplessly guilty, though not even sure for what.
Right on cue, her purse buzzed. She wrestled her cellphone out and flipped open the screen to read the text. "Hey, it's from Amie," she murmured. The car stayed silent.
"hey sweetie, just wantd to let
you know not to look for me
the dance, im not gonna b there...
have fun with the boys ;) ~ton amie"
Kath looked up from the screen, suddenly still. "Jason," she began very slowly. "Why won't Amie be at the dance?"
Jason sighed heavily. "Listen, Kath... I talked to Amie and she said she's fine. Eddie's just a jerk. You don't need to go play the heroine for h--"
"Jason." Kath's usually warm brown eyes were hard as ice. "Turn around right now and take me to Amie's."
Jason's hands tightened on the wheel. "Kath..." he began unhappily, "Kath, senior prom is a once-in-a-lifetime event. It's supposed to be something you're going to remember for the rest of your life..."
"He's right, Kath... you can't always sacrifice for others," Mike tentatively offered from the back.
Jason gave her carefully blank face a nervous glance. "Look, I know you love Amie, but she herself said she's fine, maybe she doesn't want you always coming to her rescue, she wants you to have fun.. you never get out, we want to hang out with you too, you know.. you gotta go to your last big event before college--"
"JASON." Kath was perched stiffly on her seat, her voice ringing like a steel trap. "Either turn the car around right now or stop and let me out."
Mutely, Jason turned into a side-street to do a U-turn. The streetlights flashed by for several minutes as the radio switched songs in the background before Kath exploded.
"Do you even know Amie? Oh yeah, she may say she's fine, but she's probably having one of her trademark physical/mental tantrums right this moment!" She turned around to glare at the sheepish-looking guys in the back. "When did you guys find out about this and why in hell did you hide it from me? I'm her best friend!"
They stared unhappily back at her. Kath softened a little at their hangdog dejected appearance. "Yeah, I know you meant well," she muttered, feeling a little guilty again. "And I'm sorry I can't have an awesome time at prom with you guys tonight, but Amie needs me." She shot a look at Jason, who was fiddling with his tie with one hand as he stared intently at the road. "I know you guys will miss me and I'll miss you, but you guys have each other. And I'm sure you could find some girls to... hang out with." She gave a brief, mischievous smile, then grew solemn again. "But Amie isn't like that. She doesn't have a bunch of awesome people like you there to support her. She only has me. And I'm sure as heck not going to ditch her like Eddie did." She sank into her seat, grumbling softly to herself as she justified.
The mood in the car relaxed almost tangibly once they saw that her anger had diffused down from a dangerous level.
"Hear, hear," Tyler repeated weakly, and Kath gave him a soft smile as the car reluctantly pulled up to Amelie's house.
"All right, Kath, have fun," Jordan said in mockingly serious voice as she fumbled with the seat belt buckle, but she could tell it was strained. "Don't run into any creepy stalkers between here and the front door. Oh, don't let Amie's emotions bulldoze you over, don't eat too much ice cream, don't --"
"You sound like my dad," Kath laughed, and to the intense surprise of them both, she leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "And thanks, for everything." She hightailed it out of the car and sauntered up the walkway, ignoring the whoops and whistles coming from behind her. She smiled, ducking her head and resisting the urge to reach up and touch her tingling lips.
She knocked confidently on the wide, familiarly elegant front door before turning and waving as the truck pulled away. She felt a sudden pang of regret as she thought of the warm, crowded, loud, exciting dance hall the boys were heading towards, of the of the classic senior year memories she was missing out on.
The door smoothly opened to reveal Amelie's exceedingly frail-looking and petite mother. Mme Mabouf had a severely preoccupied expression on her face that immediately smoothed out at the sight of Kath. "Ahhh, bonsoir, ma cherie! Comment vas-tu?" She beamed and let her into the bright and welcoming living room.
"Ca va tres bien, merci, madame. Comment allez vous? Ou est Amelie?" she responded more slowly with a smile.
"Ehh... dans elle chambre. Merci beaucoup d'etre venue..." Mme's eyes were wide and pleading. "Because she eez watching heem again."
"Oui, oui," Kath said absent-mindedly, her acquired knowledge of french stretched to the limit, and escaped up the stairs. She had a pretty good idea who 'heem' was...
Light spilled out from the crack under Amie's door. Kath carefully pushed it open and covertly slipped in, feeling like a ninja.
And stopped in her tracks, dumbfounded.
Amie was sprawled out in her prom dress in front of the television, her flyaway dyed blonde hair a chaotic mess and mascara streaks all down her face as she dug into a entire gallon of double chocolatey chunk ice cream and watched a certain someone wearing ridiculously tight pants strut across the screen, dancing and singing fit for an 80's karaoke party.
Wait... was that... she groaned inwardly.
"What did I tell you about watching Labyrinth??"
Amelie gave an ear-piercing scream, jerked around, the spoon flying out of her hand and narrowly missing Kath's head as she ducked. Without warning, the other girl switched from startled fear to exuberant welcome and threw herself at her.
"KATH!! I knew you wouldn't abandon me!" She gave Kath a surprisingly bone-crushing hug for one her size. "You're the greatest!"
Suddenly, Amie's smile faltered and she broke down into tears, going limp in Kath's arms. Gently, Kath propped her up on the bed, dug out a comb from her purse, and started brushing out her short blonde hair. 'Dance, Magic, Dance' continued to play in the background. Kath winced and turned her eyes away from the TV to shield her innocence. Were those pants really necessary? Kath had never actually watched the movie, since watching that song on Youtube was more than enough to scare her far, far away. Which was a pity, because Kath actually liked David Bowie as a singer and songwriter, while Amie just had this weird obsession with the movie, especially the character he played... Jar-something.
After a few long teary moments, Amie sniffled and wiped her nose, muttering, "I'm okay now." She turned around and grinned weakly at Kath, then reached for the remote to sheepishly turn off the TV. "Well, whatever, fine. Let's have some actual fun, now... Who needs boys, right?" She sniffled again pathetically.
Within minutes, a cleaned-and-prettied-up Amelie and a supportively compliant Kath were sitting criss-cross applesauce on the carpeted floor, sipping mugs of hot chocolate, snacking on eclairs, and flipping through stacks of Cosmogirl magazines, pointing out hot guys or 'wise' girl advice. Kath didn't really care for the magazines which she thought were pretty pointless, but the situation called for acting like typical girly-girl middle schoolers.
Almost completely opposite her culture-centric immigrant mother, Amie was all-American in everything but her blood. Apart from the slight accent and occasional French tantrums, you could hardly guess she had moved to the U.S. six years ago. She had immersed herself so utterly that Kath often regretted the loss of her French culture and background, how she had discarded it so completely. American culture wasn't really all that special, especially in comparison to the charming quirkiness of French living. It made Kath extremely sad that Amelie wanted so much to fit in that she rejected her own culture...
Interrupting Kath's careening train of thought, Amie returned yet again to the touchy subject of the male species.
"So did you hear Eddie's been trying to hook up with Kristen?" Amie said, trying to be nonchalant and smoothing out her now-slightly-crinkled low red dress.
Kath chucked a magazine at her. "No, and I don't care, either. Stop brooding, Amie! Eddie is the jerkiest jerk who ever existed. I never really understood why you liked him."
Amie sulked prettily, her blonde hair falling over her eyes as she watched Kath ditch the rest of the magazines and move to peruse her bookcase. "A girl's gotta have a boy," she sighed.
"That is SO not true," Kath muttered, running her fingers over the spines of the familiar books.
"It is so. Boys are happy-making, and you know it. Well, maybe you don't, but someday you will. I refuse to let you die an old spinster," Amie yawned and grabbed another eclair. "Oh, that reminds me; how are you and Jason nowadays?"
Kath's cheeks flared as she remembered her random compulsion to kiss him good-bye in the car. "I'm not interested in having a boyfriend, Amie."
The French girl smiled slyly. "Even Jason? I'm sure he's interested. You're almost cruel to that boy, ma petit cocotte. He's as good as they get, you know." She rolled her eyes. "I just don't get you. What sane girl doesn't want a boyfriend?"
"I thought we've already established that we're both far from sane," Kath laughed a little bitterly, hiding her inward feelings of jumbled confusion. "Speaking of which..." She pulled out a small leather-bound book with gold embossed lettering and held it up. "How long have you had this?"
Amie's face lit up and she snatched the book from her, cradling it lovingly. "I finally managed to buy it a couple days ago!! I can't believe it! It's the original book actually in the movie with the whole princess story and everything!"
Kath sighed heavily. "Do you realize how wrong it is that you are so obsessed with an 80's puppet movie based around a bratty 14-year-old and a creepy old stalker?"
"15. And maybe you would understand it you actually watched it," Amie sulked. "Besides, you like David Bowie."
Kath shuddered. "I've already seen more than I'll ever want to," she countered, looking pointedly at the TV screen. "And I like David Bowie's music. He's not my favorite rock star because of his acting as a Devil King or something in a Jim Henson kid's movie."
"Goblin King. But he is hot."
"And three times your age!" Secretly, Kath agreed with Amie in that respect, but she was never going to tell her that. That would be negative reinforcement.
"You didn't deny it!" Amie crowed triumphantly.
Kath plopped down on the bed with a defeated sigh. "You can't be a megastar with at least something going for you in the looks department," she grudgingly admitted.
Amie was practically dancing with her small victory. Kath decided enough was enough. "What I don't get is that you don't even like his music at all. It doesn't make any sense."
Amie flopped onto the bed beside her. "It's all about the character, woman." She got a dreamy look in her eyes, and Kath shook her head in disgust.
"Whose, Bowie's or the Prince guy?" she asked critically, lying on her back and hanging her head off the side of the bed and letting her long hair cascade down.
"He's the Goblin King." Amie joined in on the head-hanging. "...And he's dark and powerful and just plain smexy."
"I think the blood's messing up your head," Kath groaned. "That --" she waved a hand in the direction of the TV, " -- was NOT dark and powerful."
Amie giggled and flipped open the Labyrinth book, holding it upside down in order to read it while hanging. "You'll never understand... lookie, here. The ballroom scene is the greatest thing ever." She passed it to Kath, but it dropped on the ground. Kath picked it up and opened it to a random page, reading out loud in a dramatic voice as she held it at arm's length.
"Goblin King, Goblin King, take this child far away from me!" Kath intoned dramatically, then squinted at the words. "Wait, is she seriously asking someone to kidnap her kid? That's not very mature of her."
Amelie rolled her eyes. Their heads were starting to prickle and flush from the amount of blood rush to the head. "Those aren't the right words, anyway. It should be more in the format 'I wish the Goblin King would come and take me away, right now.'"
For some strange reason, she paused and held her breath expectantly for a few moments, then looked highly disappointed. Amie turned and gave Kath an upside-down critical look.
"Um." Kath returned her gaze a weird look, wondering why she had altered the pronoun. "I'm pretty sure she wanted him to take away the baby, not herself."
"Read the next paragraph down for me, okay?" She reached over and pointed at a line on the page.
"Uh, okay..." The words were starting to get fuzzy on the page as more and more blood collected in her head. Kath blinked, resolving to sit up soon, and guesstimated the words instead of reading them directly off the page. "I wish we would be taken away to the Labyrinth... right now?"
The lights flickered on and off and Amie shrieked, falling off the bed onto her head. Kath automatically bolted up, then nearly fell over as the blood suddenly rushed out of her brain. Head pounding, she waited for the sparkling lights and darkness to clear her vision. She felt Amie clutch at her as the lights flickered again.
Mostly recovered, Kath turned and looked into Amie's wide eyes, rubbing her head. "It's just a power outage," she told the excited girl puzzledly. Amie was looking around her bedroom, slowly deflating as whatever she was hoping would happen... didn't happen. Kath closed her eyes, still feeling weird from the head rush. "Remind me to stop doing that."
"But.. but.." Amie sounded utterly dejected and Kath heard her floop back onto the bed with a disappointed sigh.
"You can stop tugging on me, too," Kath muttered, massaging her temples.
"I'm not," she grumbled, voice muffled in a pillow. "You're tugging en moi."
"No, I'm not..." Kath opened, her eyes, confused, and suddenly something pulled at her, powerfully and violently, and she felt the strangest sensation of tumbling off a cliff into a bottomless dark abyss...