No one saw the barn owl in the shadows, watching. Everyone was too busy getting caught in the spell of a teenage girl. With striking blue eyes, shimmering dark blonde hair, and a voice that was almost otherworldly in its talent, Caitlin Williams was not a girl who could easily be ignored. The owl, if such a thing was possible, was smiling a tight-lipped smile as Caitlin closed her eyes and began to sing.
"Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing! Thanks for all the joy they're bringing! Who can live without it? I ask in all honesty, what would life be? Without a song or a dance what are we? So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me!"
The owl let out a soft hoot. The girl did have potential, an impressive amount of potential. Caitlin kept singing, "Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk... She says I began to sing long before I could talk... And I've often wondered, how did it all start? Who found out that nothing can capture a heart like a melody can? Well, who ever it was, I'm a fan! So I say thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing! Thanks for all the joy they're bringing! Who can live without it?I ask in all honesty,what would life be? Without a song or a dance what are we? So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me!"
Oh, yes, it was in her blood, alright. The plan had worked just as he'd hoped. She was everything he could have asked for. "I've been so lucky," Caitlin sang with passion, releasing her blonde hair from its ponytail and letting it cascade down her back. "I am the girl with golden hair! I wanna sing it out to everybody! What a joy! What a life! What a chance! Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing! Thanks for all the joy they're bringing! Who can live without it? I ask in all honesty,what would life be? Without a song or a dance what are we? So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me!" Everyone in the old barn was standing up now, dancing and clapping along as Caitlin finished. "So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me!" The clock chimed in the distance, seven full pure notes.
"Aw, crap!" Caitlin yelped. "I don't believe it, it's seven o' clock! Come on, Erik!" The little black terrier with the white patch on the right side of his face scampered over from a hay bale, leaping into his mistress's arms. "I'm sorry, guys! I'll see you in rehearsal tomorrow!"
"Bye, Cait!" several of the other children called. The owl took off, soaring after the young girl, fully aware that she was completely oblivious to how very like another lost girl she sounded.
XxXxX
"Oh, it's not fair!" Caitlin wailed, desperately trying to keep her long white skirt out of the mud as she ran towards her grandparents' house.
"What's not fair?" a voice asked coldly. Caitlin's heart sank. Sarah Williams stood on the porch, dressed way too nicely for a night of babysitting Uncle Toby's girlfriend's baby niece.
"Mom! I'm sorry! I told you I had rehearsal!"
"You said six o' clock! You're an hour late!"
"I didn't think it mattered! I mean, it's not like we had any plans," she paused to look Sarah up and down. "Any plans that I knew about, that is."
"Caitlin, I've taught you to be impeccable with your word! You said six o' clock, and you did not keep that promise!"
"Sar? You ready to go?" Caitlin whirled to see Paul Dunn, her Lit teacher standing by his old VW, wearing a shabby trench coat over a suit and holding an umbrella. "Our reservation should hold long enough for us to get there."
"Caitlin—" The fifteen year old didn't hear her mother as she stormed into the house and upstairs. Baby Lucy started screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Oh, shut up, Lucy!" Caitlin shrieked. "What? Do you want a story? Fine! At least one of us will get what she wants!" She picked up the old red leather-bound book from the bedside table. "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl who had everything she could possibly want! She had a wonderful mother, and they lived in a land teeming with energy and magic. But the mother became selfish, and began to change, taking the girl away from everything she knew and loved! But the girl loved her mother, she wanted to believe there was still hope! And so, she suffered in silence.
"But there was a secret that, in fact, not even the girl knew. She was born to magic! It rang out in her blood, it sang in her heart!" Thunder crashed outside, and Lucy kept screaming. "And the girl realized she was special, so she called out with the deepest ache of her heart to a race that might help. The Goblin race."
XxXxX
"Listen!"
"Is it her?"
"Will she say the words?"
"Shut up!"
XxXxX
"She cried out, 'Goblin King, Goblin King, wherever you may be, take me away from here to my destiny!"
XxXxX
"Ah, no better than the other one. Where do they come up with this rubbish?"
"Not even using 'I wish.' Honestly!"
XxXxX
"Lucy, stop it!" Caitlin ordered, slamming the baby's pacifier into Lucy's mouth. A rap sounded at the door.
"Caitlin? Baby, can we talk?"
"God, Mom, there's nothing to talk about!" Caitlin snapped, yanking the door open and brushing past her mother.
"Look, I know it's weird to have me dating after all this time—"
"You're not going to listen, are you? YOU NEVER LISTEN! Sometimes... sometimes..." Caitlin turned to stare her mother straight in the eye. "Sometimes, I wish... I wish..." Sarah's face paled and her eyes widened, as if she'd just seen a ghost.
"Caitlin, don't—" But Caitlin stomped into her room and locked the door behind her, whispering her wish.
"I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now." She clutched the little book tightly to her chest, the gold lettering winking in the light.
The Labyrinth.
XxXxX
Outside, the barn owl's eyes gleamed wickedly, as it spoke with a low, lush human voice. "Finally, Sarah. Finally."

I DO NOT OWN LABYRINTH EXCEPT ON iTUNES. I
Caitlin Williams (c): Me
Sarah Williams (c): Jennifer Connelly, Jim Henson
Jareth (c): David Bowie, Jim Henson
'Thank You For The Music (c): ABBA/Mamma Mia!
Keep in mind this is set in 2002, 16 years after the events of the original film. So, if things ever seem dated, that's why.