Drabble #195: Blind

[redwolf]

...we had a nice response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 194, with entries by apachefirecat and redwolf, and comments by apachefirecat and redwolf

For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Blind

Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:

Word count: # of words
$your_beautiful_drabble

I'll be running weekly challenges in the space around jalenstrix's monthly challenges.

You can see our current collected suggestions here.

Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand. Authors generally write for love.)

Comments

Exhibit

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

Sarah was working her murder board, adding information provided by the healers. Jareth had been amused at the term and with the number of girls who had wished themselves away, Sarah had long since lost her squeamishness over her work being potentially used to commit rather than solve a murder.

Statistically, the types of sexual assault they were seeing tended to be committed by someone close to the victim, and with so many unrelated girls involved, it was unlikely to a family member. Well, the same family member, the chance of collusion was unlikely, but Sarah wouldn’t rule it completely.

None of the girls had any memory of their assaults, which was making finding a perpetrator slow work. Sarah had suggested that a date rape drug would account for the memory loss and they were metabolised fast enough to leave no trace unless tested for immediately.

What did work in their favour was the limited circles the girls moved in. They were all home schooled and hadn’t been permitted to partake of any sporting or other extracurricular activities, which ruled out teachers and coaches. Sarah ground her teeth in frustration that none of the girls had received any sex education and all they knew was that they were missing a chunk of their memory, had bruises they couldn’t explain, pain in a part of their body that they didn’t understand and an overwhelming sense of fear and dread.

The only overlap of activity Sarah had documented was church related. The girls shared a strictly monitored life that kept them sequestered from the outside world and that still hadn’t protected them from a predator, one that their parents had no qualms about being alone with their daughters.

Several of the fox guardians were rotating through the community investigating on site. Both Sarah and Jareth had been surprised to learn that the Labyrinth had not erased the existence of the wished away girls. The foxes were reporting back on distraught parents missing their children and pressing the police to treat it as kidnapping. The exception to the chorus was the church leader who was insisting they were runaways who would return on their own.

The anomaly of his belief flagged him as suspicious. When the healers transferred the pregnant girls’ embryos to suitable adults it was determined that they shared the same father. That allowed the foxes to match that signature to an Above target, whose connection was a surprise to no one.

“For all the good it does us,” Sarah folded her arms as she glared at the board. “He’s a leader of the community who will blame the victims for his behaviour and the families will swallow his lies about contrition. The best we could hope for would be his expulsion, but he’ll just continue elsewhere.”

Jareth pulled Sarah into his arms. “We can follow the lead of the Labyrinth and adjust reality to allow Above justice to play out or we could always let the goblins play with him.”

King and Queen's Blessing

[apachefirecat]

Word Count: 500



She watches her husband intently as he goes about his night-time ritual. She is unaware he knows she is watching him until he speaks softly, "You know, Sarah, I've told you you can ask me anything." She is startled at first, but he turns to her with a sparkle in his beautiful, blue and brown eyes.

The way he gazes at her relaxes Sarah, draining away the last remains of tenseness from a long day dealing with various court rituals as well as her doubts of asking him. This is the first day in which she has seen all of her husband's -- of their -- subjects, as well as representatives from all the surrounding kingdoms. Of them all, however, she had not seen another single being who resembled her husband, who, she has to admit, did look more like a human than any of the other beings. He comes closest to one of the Elves, but his ears are not pointed enough and his regal back bears no wings.

He looks, for all the world, like a human. The most beautiful, practically ethereal human but a human nonetheless. Yet he is the King of the Goblins. Throughout their night, she had recalled some of her concerns about him during her first journey through the Labyrinth. Is what she sees some sort of mirage, or does he turn into a giant Goblin at another time? She knows love is supposed to be blind, but she can not imagine the gorgeous man before her becoming twisted with the features of one of his countless Goblins.

"I -- I was just wondering -- " Her eyelashes bat in her nervousness.

"Yes?" he asks patiently, standing before her. Her King's smile grows with the longer she hesitates until at last he speaks for her, "You are wondering if I might turn into a Goblin with the next phase of the moon?"

She blushes. "Something like that," she murmurs, her eyes dropping from his.

"No." His smile fades, but not for the reason she thinks. "Sarah... Beloved... Not all little boys who are wished away to the Labyrinth are as lucky as your brother. I could not understand your determination to save him at your own loss because I never had that." He shakes his head once, twice. She's looking back up at him now and sees the emotions storming in his beautiful eyes. "Very few women, especially human women, have a heart like yours," he concludes at length. "Your heart is one of the many reasons I know your love blesses me."

He starts to turn away, but she's on her feet in an instant. She cups his face in her hands, holding him still before her. How anyone could ever throw away such a majestic man, she will never understand. Just as she will never understand how many mothers and big sisters throw away little boys. "I am the one blessed, my King, my husband." She witnesses his tears but speaks not of them, kissing him instead.


The End