Labyrinth 2: The Queen of Dreams

Chapter 7: Damn it all

Sarah

"When are you going to back to college Sarah, your mother and I are concerned..", Sarah's father said quietly over the phone. Sarah clutched her cellphone tightly. "She is not my mother, " she snapped. He always says that and she was tired of correcting him. There was a long silence before she heard father sigh and say " I understand you've had it ...rough... for a year or so but maybe if you hit the ground running...you know...put all your energy into studying... you would feel ...better?". Sarah glanced at the alarm clock on her side table. She had only been talking to her father for fifteen minutes and he was already pissing her off. "I have to go to work dad, I'll call you later," she mumbled. "Sar.." , she heard him say before she hung up.

Yanni was sleeping by her pillow and stretched her legs before curling back into fetal position. "You're so lucky Yanni, " Sarah said as she stroked Yanni's ear. Yanni didn't have to deal with stepmothers and "concerned" fathers. She tossed her phone across the bed and headed to the bathroom to get ready for work.

She stripped out of her worn out pajamas and stepped into the shower. As she turned on the hot water, Sarah's lips began to tremble. "Stop stop stop stop", she whispered to herself, but it was no use. As soon as the hot water touched her skin, tears started streaming down her face and the bathroom echoed back  the sounds of her pathetic sobbing. All her loneliness, regrets and anger crashed down on her all at once. Damn her father. He stopped being her father when her mother died. Damn her stepmother for taking her place. Damn her former high school friends for ignoring her the remaining two years because she "wasn't the same Sarah". Damn University. The semester workload and the stress from the nightmares was driving her crazy. Taking a year off was the best thing she did. Yet when she was getting better, he came back. He came back. He came back. He came back. Why did he come back? "Why? why? why? why? why?, " she sobbed. Her life was a mess after she left the "Goblin Kingdom". Just when it was all coming back together he came back to ruin it. She pounded the tile walls of the shower with the side of her fist. It was all suppose to be in her head. Some messed up dream she conjured with her psycho imagination. Yet the memories haunted her for seven years. She even found herself missing it all which repulsed her. "Pathetic," she mumbled and let the hot water wash away all evidence of her tears.

Sarah turned the water off in the shower and stood in front of the bathroom mirror naked. Her skin looked dull and lifeless like her stringy brown hair. There were purple circles under her eyes and they matched the multiple bruises she had on her arms and legs from bumping into stacks of books all the time at work. She was told by many relatives that she looked like her mother. Her mother was the most beautiful and elegant women she had ever seen and to call herself that woman's daughter in her current state would probably make the poor woman turn in her grave. Sarah signed and walked out of the bathroom and headed for her dresser. She pulled out a pair of holey white socks, and old bra and her anything but ladylike underwear. As she was getting dressed, her cellphone started buzzing. Praying it wasn't her father, or worse her stepmother, Sarah picked up. "Hello?" she said. "Hey..." said an familiar voice, "Do you still want a ride to work?" Sarah looked at the clock. "Yes, thank you. I'll wait outside my apartment" she replied.  Whatever happens, she had to carry on each day and get her life back.