Wishful Thinking

Return to the Labyrinth

It would be about two years before either of the sisters ever saw the labyrinth or the friends they made there again.

Stephanie went about her day quite unsuspectingly. She attended school, where she studied and met up with the human friends she had made since. They were a group of misfits, but that suited Stephanie just fine. She hurried home from the bus stop that day, excited because she had been invited to a school dance by a boy she knew from fencing. It was very last minute, so she had to get her dress today. Her mother had promised she would take her shopping first thing after school.

What Stephanie found waiting for her at home was disappointment in the form of a note from her mother. It said that her mother had gone to audition for a play that she had desired to play the lead in. The actress they originally chose, and her understudy, had both become unable to perform, so her mother was seizing the chance to take the part for herself.

It was for work, so Stephanie couldn't complain too much. She sighed and decided to see if she could find something in her closet that would do.

She stepped into her room. Unlike Sarah's, hers was a little on the messy side and full of eclectic items. Their two-bedroom apartment wasn't very big, so everything was crammed together. She had posters on her walls from the broadway plays Cats and The Phantom of the Opera and movies like The Shining, Ran, and Pretty in Pink and for bands like The Clash and Queen. Also on her walls was an art poster for Salvador Dali's Melting Watch, M.C. Escher's Bond of Union, and a Chinese water color painting of a koi fish and water lilies that one of her friends had painted. She had shelves full of records and books, which Sarah had alphabetized for her by the names of the bands and authors.

She had the same picture Sarah had of their family of four from when they were nine and ten, framed and sitting on her dresser. She had some other framed pictures of herself with her new friends and with her mother and Jeremy and Sarah, her father and stepmother. There were also medals and trophies for fencing. Stephanie felt pride looking at them. Her coach thought she could be good enough for the olympics. She wanted to aim for the 1992 Summer Olympics. She would be done with high school by then, so her schedule would be more flexible. It excited her to think she might one day test her skills against some of the best athletes in the world.

Then she noticed something new. On her dressing table, next to her jewelry box, there was a rose, as red as blood. It was not unusual for her mother to share a flower from the bouquets she received from fans with her. But there was something about the rose that gave her an odd feeling she couldn't quite place. Almost like she was forgetting something she ought to remember.

Stephanie opened her closet and began searching through her dresses. She thought the one she wore for opening night when her mother and Jeremy were in The Merchant of Venice was a possibility. It was a beautiful dress, with it's strapless bodice of black velvet with a sweetheart neckline, full emerald green taffeta skirt. She had a pair of black heels and some mis-matched gloves that were black and emerald green. Or maybe this time she should make them both one color? She went over to her jewelry box and removed a velvet choker that had faux pearls and emeralds on it. And put on the matching earrings, too.

'There. That should do it,' she thought. Now she just needed to figure out what to do with her hair. At the moment her dark, brunette hair, parted at the side, was loose and flowed down a few inches past her shoulders.

"Stephanie!" a voice called out.

She recognized who it belonged to. Jeremy. She wondered if he was there looking for her mother or if her mother had asked him to check on her.

"I'm in my room," she called back. She was just turning back to the mirror when he knocked on the door. Since she was decent, she said, "Come in."