Chapter Three
The princess's muscles screamed when the sun had fallen behind the mountains that surrounded her land and the eerie blue light of Twilight came spilling in through all the cracks of the castle. Finally, the Grand Hall had been cleaned and looked dazzling as the maids and footmen slowly lit the candles to worn away the darkness of night.
Pulling herself up, the princess rubbed her arms wearily and was surprised to see Nana had come over and grabbed her bucket.
Opening her mouth to protest, Nana, however, cut her off saying, "Come now, princess, you are tried enough without a good meal in your belly and with little hours of sleep. Go to your room; I think you deserve a night to yourself and to sulk as much as you'll like."
A little laugh escaped her and, saying thanks to her mother's former handmaid, the princess turned away from the strange magical sight of the Grand Hall in the arriving darkness and started her slow journey up to her bedroom.
But to the girl's misfortune, the moment she had stepped out of the hall, her family had ascended from the upper floors and were gathering themselves for the ball.
"Ah! My daughter!" Her father called out as he saw her standing before them, "How are you on this fair time of dusk?"
"I'm alright father, just a bit tired." She told him.
Walking over to her, he gave her a warm smile and pulled her into a large hug, muttering in her ear, "I am sorry that you cannot come with us daughter, but, if your stepmother says you must stay, then I'm afraid you must stay. But, no worries, perhaps you'll come next year. In fact, I think you shall have to. You are the age of sixteen, am I wrong?"
Smiling, the girl nodded her head.
" Oh, how fast time has flown." Her father sighed releasing her from their hug at last and looked her over with pride, "Why, just yesterday I was holding you in my arms, telling you a nursery tale, and now look at you! A well-grown woman of marriageable age! You'll be a fine queen someday, my daughter, a very fine queen."
"Thank you father." The princess replied, her face flushing with happiness of all the praise.
"Father! Come now! We're leaving!" His stepchild cried out as he and his mother started their way down to the carriage that was waiting for them.
"And don't forget to take care of your brother!" The duchess cried out to the princess.
"Ah! Yes! Well, so long daughter!" Her father grinned, giving her a kiss on the forehead and quickly rushing off to join with his wife and stepson.
Watching them go, all the happiness that the princess had felt before drained out, leaving her feeling miserable and alone as she watched her family go on off to the ball without her.
With a sigh, the girl turned around and started her way towards her parent's bedroom where, by no doubt, her little baby half brother would be. As she arrived, she pulled open the door to the nursery that was adjoined with her parent's room and witnessed the boy asleep in his crib. Smiling, she closed the door softly behind her and walked over to the couch and sank into it, feeling all the pain and weariness that ached her bones and heart.
It just isn't fair, she thought miserable, I've never done anything to deserve this and yet, my stepmother treats me as if I were a demon. A monster. Something that needed to be punished. With nasty thoughts swarming in her mind about her stepmother, the girl leaned back her head, closing her eyes, and within a moment, the fast spreading spell of sleep took her over.
It felt like only a moment, however, when the girl was suddenly wrenched awake by the sound of something crashing against the floor and the outburst of crying. Quickly getting up, the girl hurried into to her half brother's nursery and lit a candlestick. When the light swallowed the darkness, the princess gasped as she saw what the baby had done.
He had thrown one of his pillows at a beautiful music box that had once belonged to her mother. It had often sung the princess to sleep after frightening dreams of ghouls and monsters and when storms of thunder and lightning roared overhead. But now, the beautiful precious music box lay on the floor, shattered into dozens of broken pieces.
Placing the candlestick down on a table, the princess shakily bent down next to the broken pieces, picking one up and examining the laughing faces of the people painted onto it. Laughing smiling people attending a ball. A ball similar to the one in which the princess could have gone to; should have gone to.
The baby suddenly started to scream in anger, shaking the bars of his crib demanding the princess to pay attention to him. But the princess was in no mood to.
She couldn't stand his screaming; she had to wash the grand floor, had only a piece of bread to eat, had her stepmother win again in their war of wills, watched her father leave her behind to go to a ball where everyone whom she loved would be, and now looked down upon her mother's shattered music box and he dared make a fuss and cry about what? About being pampered? About not having a care in the world? About having two parents that loved him instead of having only one left that didn't have time for her anymore? He had no right to cry, no right at all.
"Oh, shut up!" The princess snapped, whipping her head around to glare at the baby, "stop crying!"
But he wouldn't listen and instead began to scream louder. Trying to contain her anger, the princess got up slowly and, walking over and grabbing his bottle, gave it to him stiffly and bent back over to the shattered music box. As she began to pick up the pieces, something suddenly struck her on the head and her half brother started to wail again, shaking the sides of his crib even harder. But his half sister ignored him, placing the pieces into her handkerchief. She knew what he wanted, sweets instead of his bottle. But she wouldn't give him any; he didn't deserve it.
Leaving the crying baby in the nursery, she went back into her parent's bedroom and placed the broken music box onto the table. As she stared at it, she felt tears start to well up and when she heard her brother wail even louder she snapped and began to shout:
"Oh, how I wished the goblins would have taken you! I wish they would take you at this very moment!"
And she buried her face into her hands, weeping at how unfair her life was. As she let all her grief wash upon her for a moment, she soon realized that it became oddly silent. Wiping her eyes, she sat there for a moment and the realization quickly hit her; the baby had stopped crying.
Fear suddenly overtook the girl and she ran back into the nursery and froze as she opened the door; the light had gone out but she could still see the silhouettes of the goblins scattered all about the room and a silhouette of a man pulling her little baby half brother up from the crib. The man turned his head to look her and the princess felt herself hold her breath and her heart beat faster.
He was the most terrifying yet most beautiful man that she had ever laid eyes on; dressed from head to toe in black, a certain type of power radiated from him that would cause anybody, even a mountain lion or the mightiest king, to shrink back with fear. His hair, black as night, danced wildly around his face that was one of a very clever and very tricky person; he was not the sort of man to be trusted. But it was his eyes that intrigued her the most. They were bluer then the sky itself and were as warm as summer's rain after a drought, but at the same time, they were as cold as ice in the long harsh winter. The princess praised herself at her gift of knowing what kind of person someone was just by looking into their eyes, but she could not figure out this man at all and that was what frightened her the most.
Swallowing nervously, the girl said in a shaky voice, "You're him, aren't you? You're the Goblin King."
But the man simply cocked his head to one side and smirked.
Suddenly, her sense returned to her and, glancing down at the baby, she took a step into the room and begged, "I want my brother back, please, if it's all the same."
"What's said is said." He told her, looking her over with the same calculating look.
"But I didn't truly mean it." The girl said feeling tears start to spring up in her eyes, "Please let him stay, please!"
"I can't; you know perfectly well that once a wish is made, it's made." The Goblin King said and with that, he snapped his fingers and the baby disappeared.
"Oh." The girl sob, feeling tears flow down her face, "Please, where is he?"
"You know perfectly well where he is." The Goblin King said once again, leaning against the crib and still looking at her the same way. The princess decided that she did not like that look.
"Please, bring him back!" The girl begged, "I'll do anything! Just bring him back! Please!"
With an aggregated sigh, he looked up at the ceiling, as if that had answers to a question he was asking.
When the girl thought that there would be no hope for her, the man suddenly ripped his gaze back onto her, telling her, "How about I give you a gift instead? It'll be a trade. I get the baby, and you get anything your heart desires."
But the girl just shook her head, telling him, "I can't; it isn't that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do for me, but I truly want my brother back. Isn't there anything I can do to get him back?" Again, the Goblin King hesitated, staring at the ceiling once more causing the princess to whimper, "Please, where is he?"
Suddenly, he straightened him and, muttering a few words under his breath, pointed to the floor and something flashed out of his fingertips, causing the princess to scream.
Opening her eyes after she reflexively shut them close, the princess gasped and she looked through the hole through the nursery's floor and into a land she had never seen before. Large walls linked together and snaked themselves throughout it, creating a maze of colossal size; dead vines and branches clung to the walls and, though she was very far away, the girl could hear lions, wolves, bears, and creatures which she did not want to know the names of filled the air with their loud chilling roars and howls. And in the center, just visible over the towering walls, a large dark castle stood there in the heart of the Labyrinth.
"Your brother is there, in my castle." The Goblin King suddenly said, causing the girl to jump for she had forgotten he was there. "Do you still want to look for him?"
"Yes, I do."
"Are you certain? My Labyrinth is not a pleasant walk through a castle's garden."
"I have to in there?" The girl timidly asked, leaning over the portal slightly and feeling a bit sick as she heard a wolf send a long cold howl through the night air.
"Only it you want your brother back."
Taking a steadying breath, the girl turn her gaze away from the Labyrinth and locked it with the Goblin Kings, "Yes, I want my brother back."
Grimacing, He tugged on his black gloves as he explained the rules, "To obtain your baby brother, you must solve the Labyrinth and find him in my castle. But I warn you; the Labyrinth is full of things you have never seen before. All those monsters and creatures that you fears lived in the shadows under your bed or in your wardrobe when you were young exists and prowls in the Labyrinth. There are tricks and puzzles and it is very possible that you might not come back. Are you sure you still want to go? You can still turn back."
"No." The girl said, not pulling her fierce gaze away from him, "I want my brother and I'm willing to go through your Labyrinth to get him back."
"Then jump into the portal princess," The Goblin King said, "and let the game begin."