Author's Note: Hey, all! This is my first attempt at Labyrinth fan fic. This one is just a 1-shot, but the gears are turning in my head for something longer that I am very excited about, so stay tuned, and if you're interested, I'll get working on the longer one. (I promise not to quit on Mugglefied!)
Her grandchildren were in bed. It had been a long weekend, taking care of them. It was nice to have the house filled with the sound of children again, but four days was a little too long. She wasn't as young as she used to be, and it was hard to get herself to bed at eight, when her grandchildren insisted their bedtime wasn't until nine. The storm raging outside hadn't helped calm them down any.
Her husband snored on the couch downstairs. They hadn't slept in the same bed, or even on the same floor in years. His snores shook the house to its foundations it seemed sometimes.
Sarah's back ached from picking up the littlest one and carrying him around all day, while his two older siblings had tugged at her pant legs constantly. She had only to look down to see the smears of jam and peanut butter staining the fabric. She sat in her rocking chair in the nursery and let herself bounce back and forward. Tonight, she indulged in reading one of her old notebooks. She hadn't shown these to anyone in years. She had always wanted to be a writer, to bring the magic that had filled her childhood to others. But no one wanted the magic anymore. Children grew up too quickly, and filled their heads with pseudo-romance novels instead of adventure.
"Sometimes…I wish…" she started to herself. She sighed. What was the point?
She flipped through the yellowed pages, written long ago: long before work, and life, and childrearing had taken the forefront of her attention and energy. Sometimes, she still almost believed that her half-brother had been kidnapped. She knew it was too absurd to be true. She closed the notebook.
"I wish the goblin king would come and take me away," she said softly.
There was another peel of thunder and crack of lightning.
A lean shape was silhouetted in the window of the nursery, standing just inside, heedless of the rain that was getting in and wetting the carpet. His blonde hair gleamed, and his eyes glittered. "All you ever had to do was ask. What took you so long?"
There was Jareth, looking the same as the day she'd met him, so long ago.
"It's not fair," she said, staring at him and then looking down at her own wrinkled hands. Nearly fifty years had passed since the last night she'd seen him. She really had seen him. It wasn't a dream.
"Dear girl, whatever gave you the impression life was fair? I thought you'd learned that lesson long ago."
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed! My inspiration for the long one I want to do is the line: "Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for *you*! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations. Isn't that generous?"