Never ask a baby what’s on her mind

Original Prompt:

Rey and Riya are living happily with their 10 months old baby girl… Everyday the baby woke up,sleep, ate, sleep, ate and sleep like all good babies do on that age…

One day evening, Rima(Riya’s little sister) was came to Riya’s house for a holiday…. She was watching a TV while the baby was sleeping peacefully…. Suddenly she woke up from a nap and looked at Rima…. In that moment, she seemed to know that Rima was in charge of her that moment…. She let out a wail and looked away….

“What’s on your mind?” Rima asked the baby…. She wailed harder….

Rima don’t know what to do… Riya also going out for a marriage reception with neighbour aunty… She will be back little late…. So she called for her brother-in-law(Rey) who is doing some office work…..

Rey also came and asked her “what’s the matter?”

Rima passed the baby to Rey, but the baby continued to cry….

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked Rima.

“Don’t ask me. Ask her,” Rima told him.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked his daughter….

He tried rocking her, walking with her, and even singing her a lullaby…. Nothing worked! She continued to cry…. He passed her back to Rima….

The baby kept crying and they continued to pass her back and forth…. Suddenly at 9:00 pm...!!!!




Suddenly at 9:00 pm, as Rima was trying to rock the little baby girl, the lights in the room went out. It was so sudden that Rima couldn’t hold back a small shriek, alerting Rey of an issue. Shortly later tha man appeared in the room, noticing the sudden darkness.

“Rima, are you ok?”

“Yes, Rey…Sorry, it’s just...scared me”

“Don’t worry. Just sit and wait, I’m going to check on the control board…probably a fuse shorted out or something.”

As Rima sat in the now obscured living room, she couldn’t refrain from thinking that the poor baby had to be terrified. She almost began to whistle a little lullaby when the baby girl in her arms stopped wailing and suddenly released a chuckle. Rima didn’t know what to think.

So engrossed she was, trying to understand what manner of girl she had in her arms, the she noticed at the last moment that, even though there was still darkness in the room, there was also a gentle, cold, light coming from the outside. Surprised she began moving toward the balcony from which the moonlight was entering and she stood speechless observing at how bright the moon seemed that night, so bright that it seemed almost day-light. After a few minutes, though, her mind returned to Rey, her sister husband.

What kind of issue could he have found that it was taking so long? Why wasn’t he back? Why the light was still out?

As she returned to the couch, a sudden gush of wind opened the balcony windows, a fresh breeze pouring into the room as Riya tried her best to keep the baby girl out of the cold. The poor woman had wanted only to stay a bit with her sister and the baby girl, she had never imagined that this evening could become so full of emotions. Still, there was the windows to close and so, once again she began to rise from the couch but she stopped when she noticed a figure standing still in the room, right in front of the windows.

“A lovely night, wouldn’t you say so, my dear?”

Rima was speechless. Who was this man, what did he wanted?
Where was Rey?

“Oh, worry not, Dear. Rey is fine. He’s just rather…busy.”

Rima began to stutter as she rose slowly, trying to reach the door that led to the kitchen, she didn’t know how that man was doing it but, he seemed to be able to read her mind. And although his voice was gentle and caring, she couldn’t stop herself from shaking from head to toe in the presence of a stranger.

“What? What is she doing..?
You, human. Stop shaking, she doesn’t like it.”

Rima freezed. It was a madman! He hadn’t been talking to her until now, until he called her…human?

“W-Who are you? W-What do you want?”

The figure moved closely and Rima breathed in sharply, for the figure that had approached her was strange indeed. He wore some kind of long vest, over a tight leather cuirass that showed off his perfect figure. His hairs were long and puffy, resembling more a fluffy, and somehow spiky, ball of light golden hairs. From the sides there were two, long and thin, elfin ears. But what left Rima enraptured most of all were his eyes.

They seemed to never be of the same color as they twirled and changed at every moment and still, always being beautiful. So mesmerized by the sight she realized later that she was back on the couch.

“Who…Who are you?”

The figure seemed deep in thought, as he didn’t seem to hear her question, until he turned toward her, looking at Rima with an annoyed glare.

“Why you Humans have to be always at the center of the attention?

I’m trying to converse amiably with someone and you, pathetically low, life form have to interrupt. Who am I, you say? Well, my dear, what do you say? Should I present myself to this little mortal with all mu cohorts, or not?

Oh, what a lovely idea. I always said that you have the most splendid mind, one as I could ask.

So, Human Rima…is that your name isn’t it? You wanted to know who am I? Well, isn’t your lucky day…”

Rima wasn’t understanding anything of the situation she was in. The strange figure acted as if he was such a bigshot but, as she made to reply she heard some grumbling voices behind her. Turning her head around she caught a shadow quickly slipping behind a curtain but nothing else. Still troubled she heard a different set of voices coming from her right, just behind the second couch. Also this time she thought of having seen something but it was nothing more than a shadow.

Her breathing soon became quicker as these sudden appearance/ disappearances began to come more and more frequently, and every time closer and closer to her. Until, she shrieked in fear as a small, impish creature suddenly moved in front of her eyes, keeping itself steady on her hair.

“Booo!” it snarled impishly as Rima went into panic, suddenly raising both her arms to throw away the strange creature.

As she did so, she froze in horror.

For, the sudden movement, caused her sister daughter to be launched away from her!

Stricken with fear, and ignoring the impish beast tickling her scalp, she tried to move and jump forward, trying all she could to save the little one, only to see the small bundle being taken by a small tower of strange beings, the tallest of them not even reaching four feet, dressed in rags and pieces of medieval armor.

Those monsters, though, seemed to care a lot for the baby since, as it passed from creature to creature, each of them giggled and gaggled to the small child, until they gave it to the strange tall figure right in front of her.

“Oh, dear me…what manner of beast are you, Rima, to put Her in such a danger? Oh, don’t worry, little lady, I’m here to protect you.”

The figure then moved forward, infant gently held within his arms, standing tall and proud in front of the terribly afraid Rima.

“I’m the Goblin King and these are my cohorts. And you, who dared to put the life of my most cherished treasure in danger, you deserve a punishment. Oh, yes…But which? How should you punished for your carelessness?

Mmmh…Oh, my! My Lady, you sure are the best gem of all the gems in my eyes.

That is a wonderful idea!

Since you treated my poor little gemstone in such a manner, throwing her away as if nothing more than a doll…Guess what…You shall become one, instead! Ha-ah!

Kazam!”

Rima had been crying, in fear and happiness since, even though her precious niece was in that mad man arms, she was safe and sound. But as she tried to stand from the couch, she suddenly realized she hadn’t any control over her own body. Even worse, everything surrounding her seemed to grow taller and huger. In panic she tried to move, to yell, but she couldn’t! She was utterly trapped by whatever trick that raving madman had left her in.

Slowly she tried to calm down, she closed her eyes and began breathing slowly, but her breath was cut away as she felt something hard and warm closing around her. Opening her eyes she shrieked in terror seeing herself closed in the hand of the madman, as he moved her just like a…just like a…

Slowly, she managed to turn her head a little and she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror.

She was a Doll! A wooden Doll!

As that thought appeared in her mind, she simply fainted unable to take anymore.


“Oh…look at that…” The goblin king said with a hint of mockery in his voice “The low life human has fainted…how unpredictable.

Now, my dear, tell me what would you like to do…and I’ll grant it for you!”

As the now doll-like Rima fainted, the Goblin King released her letting her fall on the floor with a small sound, concentrating himself on the young bundle of joy within his arms, cooing to her and preparing himself to leave that horrendous human place, bringing the baby girl with him to his Realm, in the Capital city of Goblin Town.

The figure had just opened the windows when a voice called from the main door of the house. A feminine voice who forced the figure to hunch his shoulder in worry, as he slowly turned his head toward the doorway where the owner of the voice appeared, her smile changing in a scowl.

“What are you doing here, Jareth?”

“Oh…Welcome home, Riya…uh…Nice evening ?”

The woman who had just entered the house was none other than Riya, the mother of the baby girl actually nestled between the arms of the Goblin King.

“And what were you doing with my Daughter?”

“Now, now…Don’t be hasty Riya…She’s our Daughter, after all.
And I just wanted to bring her to Goblin Town, only for a few hours! I Promise!”

Riya scowl deepened as she moved toward the elfish man, taking away from his arms the baby girl, keeping her with all the love that only a mother could give to her own child. She had heard the Goblin King, Jareth, and had learned to recognize when he lied and when he said the truth. And she had to admit that if he had ever loved anything, it was their baby, so she was certain he wasn’t going to harm her…still he was trying to hide something from her.

“Jareth? Are you sure you’re not hiding anything from me?”

“Who? Moi? Oh, Riya, you should know better…Has your coming to Goblin Town taught you nothing?”

“Yes, Jareth. I learned you can be manipulative and cruel, even when you don’t really want to be. So, tell me the truth, Jareth.

The truth.”

The Goblin King seemed to deflate in front of the ‘little’ woman. He who was known in all the fairy lands as the Evil Jokester, found himself powerless in front of the only woman who had ever loved him back, even if it had been for a short amount of time.

“Alright…Alright.

I heard her wail, loudly and constantly, she was calling me Riya. She was calling her daddy to come and have fun with her. When I arrived she wasn’t alon..Uh…I mean she…”

“Wait a minute.”

Riya, realized only in that moment that she was in her house, at almost 11:00 pm and nobody else was there. Where was her husband, Rey? Or her Sister Rima? Where could they have…

“Jareth?”

“Y-Yes, Dearest?”

The Goblin King swallowed noisily as he recognized that sweet, sweet tone her old love used to get, before exploding and start screaming like a banshee.

“Jareth dear. Mind you telling me where my husband and my sister are? You surely don’t know where are they…Do you?”

“Uhm…Well…They’re…well…they’re fine…They are…rather busy as of now…though.”

“Where. Are. They? Jareth, don’t let me become angrier than I already am.”

“Oh…eh…eh eh…Well. Your sister’s …she’s there…o-on the couch….”

At this Riya turned and saw nothing more than the slumped form of a wooden doll on the couch, and swiftly made to turn again toward Jareth, only to realize that that doll seemed awfully similar to her sister Rima.

She then turned toward Jareth, an angry growl rising from her throat, as the Goblin King seemed to shrink in size until he was almost bawling against the floor as he offered up a second doll like figure, this time with the same build of Riya’s husband, Rey.

“JARETH!”

As the sound of bickering grew up of level, the small baby girl nestled in her mother arms chuckled, enjoying hugely as she thought ‘Why adults have to be so serious all the time?’



P.S.
The Movie from which this story takes the idea is "Labyrinth" With David Bowie in the role of Jareth, the Goblin King.