The Taming of the Goblin King

Chapter 1

Sarah stared out the window as the rain fell. The tiny drops on the glass matched the ones flowing down her cheeks. Everyone was gone now except Mildred who was picking up the plates and trays left by all the visitors after the funeral. Even her father, stepmother Karen and little brother Toby had finally left. They had to catch a late plane back to their home.

That made Sarah smile. Sometime in the last three years, she had come to think of her mother's Manhattan apartment as home.

Sarah's mother, Elizabeth, had abandoned her child and her husband to run off with an actor named Brad to Broadway when Sarah was only six. She had become a great success and even won several Tony awards. She had eventually married Brad. Still, Sarah and her father hadn't heard from her in ten long years. Yet, shortly after returning from the Labyrinth and just a week after turning sixteen, Sarah had gotten a package. In it was a letter begging her to come to New York to visit her mother and a plane ticket. Though at first reluctant, Sarah had decided to go and managed to persuade her father to let her. Sarah's mother had met her at the airport. She whisked Sarah away in a limousine to her large Manhattan apartment. The next two weeks were filled with endless shopping, trips to fancy restaurants and introductions to her mother's famous friends. Their days and nights were a whirlwind of glitz, glamour and fine living. But, through it all, Sarah sensed something was simply not right with the situation.

Finally, at the end of the second week, Elizabeth revealed the truth. Brad and she were now divorced; leaving Elizabeth alone. Worse yet, Elizabeth had recently been diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis was grim. She begged Sarah's forgiveness for abandoning her and pleaded with her to stay in New York. Moved by her mother's plight, Sarah had agreed. For the next three years, Sarah's life centered on her classes a prestigious local high school for the performing arts and her mother's illness.

Rounds of chemotherapy and radiation had prolonged her mother's life, but her illness had eventually won. Though Elizabeth had struggled valiantly, she finally succumbed.

Through her entire illness, Elizabeth had repeated a simple, but powerful message to her daughter. She begged Sarah not to give up the love of her life. Though Elizabeth had been a great success on Broadway, she confessed to Sarah that she still loved Sarah's father and regretted abandoning them every day.

"I thought Brad would make me happy, Sarah, but he didn't. You and your father did. Brad never really loved me, not like you two did. He was never even really faithful. He always had to have someone new." Elizabeth had confessed one day. "Your father was my one true love, Sarah. I was just too blinded by Brad's tales of the glamour of Broadway to realize it. I'll always regret leaving you two. I've never been really happy since. Never let go of the person you love, Sarah and don't waste your chance with them. You may never get another one. If you love someone with all your heart, hang on to them, no matter what. It will be worth all the effort in the end. Look at me. I've got money and fame. But I would trade it in a heartbeat for a chance to undo the mistake I made with you and your father."

Sarah had often pondered her mother's words. In the last month, as her mother got worse, Sarah did what she had longed to do since the night she wished Toby away. She told someone about her trip to the Labyrinth. Strangely, Elizabeth hadn't doubted one word of her daughter's story. She even picked up on Sarah's secret feelings for the Goblin King.

"Obviously, you couldn't make any other choice at the time." Elizabeth had observed from her hospital bed." You were too young and Toby was at stake; but, what about now Sarah?"

"What do you mean?" Sarah had asked.

"If you had a chance now without endangering Toby, would you accept him, Sarah? I guess, what I'm saying is: d o you love this Goblin King?"