Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth or anything recognisable.
Warning: This fic involves somebody suffering depression and it's symptoms including talk of suicide and self-harm. There shouldn't be anything graphic but if you're uncomfortable about that kind of thing then I'd advise you to hit the 'back' button now.
Lithium
Chapter 1
Sarah sat alone in her apartment and stared through unseeing eyes at the box in her hand. She had finally been to see a doctor. Her few friends were worried about her, though none were quite sure what to do or say about her behaviour. She'd been having trouble getting to sleep each night and then no matter how long she slept she just couldn't get out of bed in the morning to go to classes. So she missed them and she dropped farther and farther behind. She knew she'd begin failing soon but couldn't bring herself to care. Her appetite had diminished drastically and when she did eat it was never much. Her old high school habit of self-harm had come back stronger than ever and she didn't even know why.
The first time Sarah's thoughts had drifted towards suicide she had pushed those thoughts aside knowing that they were stupid. But those thoughts were coming more and more often and were becoming increasingly difficult to push aside as nothing. She was cutting herself more often and no matter how deep she seemed to go it was never enough. Lately the only thing that had been stopping her was when there was simply too much blood and she couldn't soak up anymore without stopping.
When one day Sarah came to the realisation that her behaviour was destroying her life she finally took herself off to the doctor; this visit had led to her current situation. The doctor had given her a box of anti-depressants. He told her they would help with her mood, her difficulties sleeping and the thoughts of suicide. He had also given her a referral for a psychologist to help find what had caused her problems.
Yet for some reason she couldn't bring herself to take them. She wasn't sure if she could even function normally anymore, she could barely remember a time where she hadn't felt like this. It had begun when she was fifteen, though she had gotten over it; or so she had thought. When she was seventeen these feelings, thoughts, her loss of control had started again, but once more they went away with time. Now at twenty they had returned full force and worse than ever before.
She knew that she should take the pills. They would help her. And she knew that she needed help. She even wanted help. Just not in the form of pills or a psychologist. Sarah was almost certain that if only she had someone who cared for her, loved her even that she could get better. The thoughts that haunted her at night as she tried to sleep, the aching fatigue she felt no matter how long she slept. The self-harm…
But there was nobody who cared for her. She didn't even know where her mother was at this stage, her father had died of a heart attack two years ago and Karen and Toby had moved away and no longer contacted her and she had no way of getting in touch with them. She had a few friends, but she wasn't very close with any of them and she didn't have a boyfriend.
There was one though. But no, she dismissed that thought as quickly as it had come.
"Don't be ridiculous Sarah, there never was a Labyrinth, or a Goblin King…none of it was real. It was only a dream," she muttered to herself, she shook her head and finally got up from her position on the floor. She deposited the box of pills on the kitchen counter and went through to her bedroom and let down on the bed, for once quickly falling into the darkness of sleep.
xxx
A/N: I was just going to keep writing and make this a one-shot but I thought I'd break it up and write a couple of chapters. This won't be very long and if everyone thinks it's crap anyway I won't worry about continuing. I haven't written anything in a while and anything Laby in even longer so forgive me if there's too many errors.
