Disclaimer: I dont own Labrynth
There are two things you should know about a psychiatric hospital. One, if you are insane you will not be getting better anytime soon. Two, if you are not insane you will be before long.
Sarah Williams was counting the tiles in her room at the O'Neill Psychiatric hospital for the third time that day. There were twelve padded tiles that lined the room, forty two ceiling tiles and the same number of floor tiles, and one hundred and twelve pale teal tiles that edged the top of the room for decoration. That made two hundred and eight tiles in her room.
Sarah's father and step mother had sent her to this horrible place a few days after she had defeated the labyrinth. No, after she had dreamed about the labyrinth, Sarah corrected herself.
She had gone though daily therapy sessions with a physiologist for three years before she had been able to say that. She had finally accepted the fact that Hoggle, Ludo, Sir Didymus, even the labyrinth it's self had all been an elaborate dream. And yet for all that she couldn't shake the feeling that it had all been real.
The change in how she carried herself and her room after the labyrinth had not gone unnoticed. Her father asked her about it and some stupid part of her said that her father would understand her. Sarah cursed that part of herself. A few days later they had brought her here.
For the first few months anytime Sarah had looked into a reflective surface she saw her friends they were trying to talk to her, to see if she needed help. But Sarah didn't look at them, she ignored their voices in her head, they weren't real she told herself over and over again. There are no such thing as goblins.
Sarah crossed from her bunk to a corner of the room pressed her forehead to the wall and repeated the words to herself, "There are no such things as goblins."
"That's not a very nice thing to say," observed a familiar voice from behind her.
Sarah's shoulders tightened and she bit her lip, when she turned around the room would be empty, she would be alone. She slowly pivoted in place.
Jareth was casually leaning against the door frame clad in his usual poets shirt and leggings but the smile that usually played around his lips was gone. It was replaced by a somber look as he surveyed her.
She hadn't thought about it in so long but she must appear so different than she had three years ago. Her hair and nails had been cropped short and her unique clothes had been replaced with a pair of scrubs in the same putrid color as the tiles at the top of the room.
"You look horrid," he told her bluntly.
Sarah slid along the wall toward her bed eyes never leaving the goblin king, "You aren't really here."
"Then where am I Sarah," Jareth asked.
"You're in my head," she said, "That's all."
"And the others?" Jareth queried.
Sarah sunk onto her cot, "There were no others, I dreamed it all."
"Is that what you truly believe, or what they want you to believe?"
The question stopped the girl, she had never thought about it that way.
The smile returned to Jareth's mouth. "Do you believe in magic Sarah?"
Sarah drew her knees to her chin, and did not answer.
Jareth stopped leaning on the wall and stood. "Do you believe in goblins Sarah?"
Sarah started rocking back and forth on her bed, and did not answer.
Jareth crossed the room to where she was, "Do you believe in the Labyrinth Sarah?"
Sarah began to cry the tears soaked her long lashes, and did not answer.
Jareth knelt down in front of the weeping girl and placed his gloved hands on her shoulders, "Sarah, do you believe in me?"
Finally Sarah raised her head and looked Jareth in the eyes, pale green meeting blue and brown.
"I believe."
Jareth smiled, a true smile not one of his usual mocking smirks, and wiped the girl's cheeks. "And that is all you need," he told her quietly, "If you can remember that, even in your darkest hour then you will never be alone."
The goblin king leaned forward and ever so gently kissed Sarah on the forehead and then was gone in a flash of glitter and light.
Sarah reached up and brushed the spot where Jareth had kissed her. She wondered if it had been a dream, then decided it didn't matter. The stretched out on her cot and, despite the screams and crying around her, slept soundly through the night.
AN: This is my first attempt at anything romantic-ish, so please help me out, give me advice, tell me how bad it was, anything.