Six years after defeating the Labyrinth, Sarah accidentally lets the Goblin King back into her life.

Disclaimer: Jareth, Sarah, and all Labyrinth-related stuff belongs to Jim Henson, George Lucas and Brian Froud.

Chapter One

It was a Friday afternoon of late September and Sarah Williams was sitting under a tree in the park where she used to hang out when she was younger. The sun was playing hide and seek with some clouds, but it was still warm enough to enjoy staying outside. The leaves on the trees were already turning yellow and red, and Sarah usually loved to just sit and draw all the colors of fall. Acting had always been her greatest passion, but she soon realized drawing was her favorite hobby. After high school she had decided to set her dreams of theater stages and costumes aside and follow another, more practical interest: architecture.

That day, all she could draw were sad and grim scenes. After finishing the sketch of a man bleeding on a bench, she crumpled it and threw it behind her back.

"Paper ball!" yelled Pymp, running to grab it. It was already the fifth ball of paper the Lady threw away. He opened it and skeptically looked at the drawing. "Me don't like it" he said, and put it with the others he had no interest in.

"I'm sorry Pymp, but apparently today isn't a good day for drawing" she sighed, leaning back against the solid trunk.

Pymp went to sit beside her, patting her leg "Why is Lady sad?" he asked, looking at her with big yellow eyes. He was a small goblin, with short black hair and big pointy ears. With his huge eyes and his sweet smile, he was really cute. He had taken the habit of sleeping in Sarah's drawer short after her adventure Underground.

The Underground.

Sarah closed her eyes and sighed again. It had been six years since she had wished Toby away and run that damned Labyrinth. Six years during which she had grown up, understood that life is not fair and that nothing was always what it seemed. She still talked with her friends from time to time, and they had managed to keep the connection with a mirror in her apartment at the university campus.

That experience had indeed enhanced the relationship with her brother and step-mother, even if she would never really see Karen as a mom. Toby, on the other hand, was her treasure. He was now a lively kid of seven who loved to role play with his sister and couldn't fall asleep without a bedtime story.

Sarah smiled at the thought of her little brother, and frowned when her thoughts led her to the person she never really wanted to think of: the Goblin King. In the first weeks after her run, she had played those last moments in her head over and over again, fighting that part of her that believed in the truth of those words.

No, it had only been another trick, a lie, to distract her and make her lose Toby.

The other memory that kept haunting her was one of the crystal ballroom. She could still recall the song he had sung her, feel his hand on her hip, his eyes staring at her...

"My Lady?" the small voice of Pymp brought her back to reality.

She shook her head and smiled down at him "I'm sorry Pymp, my mind can't seem to find peace today.."

"Lady want cookie?" he said, offering her a chocolate chip from the box she had prepared him.

She smiled and shook her head, before taking the pencil and starting drawing again.

Not too far away, a barn owl was observing them from a high branch of a tree.

Sarah kept drawing for a while, her mind lost again in that ballroom, the melody he had sung filling her head while her hand run on the piece of paper, not paying attention at the clouds that were now covering the sun almost completely.

She looked up as a thunder boomed in the sky.

"Damn" she said, looking at the dark clouds "Maybe we should go back"

Pymp nodded, scared, snuggling against her side. He sneaked at the piece of paper on her lap and jumped up "Pymp like this a lot!" he yelled, pointing at her sketchbook.

Sarah looked down and blushed. Staring back at her was the portrait of the Goblin King, surrounded by human figures wearing masks.

"Pymp can have?" she heard the goblin whisper hopefully.

She frowned "It's not finished yet, Pymp.." she felt confused. It wasn't the first time she had thought about him with such intensity to sketch some lines of his face, but she had always stopped herself from completing it, chasing the memory away. Now she had finally let her thoughts guide her without questioning them and the emotion she was feeling startled her. Did she actually miss him?

No, that couldn't be. She had never really known him, not that she wished to. He was the villain, a cruel, selfish, vicious man who had kidnapped her brother and tried to kill her.

Now that's a bit exaggerated, don't you think? An inner voice whispered in her head.

She shook her head. He sent the cleaners after me! And drugged me!

But the melancholy that the thought of him brought to her was very real, almost like she had never got over that dance in the crystal ballroom. She remembered how afraid she was, wandering among the masked guests, feeling something was wrong, looking for someone... and then how safe she had felt in his arms. She had not felt so safe ever again afterwards.

There had been some love affairs in the following year. She had unconsciously tried to find an equivalent of that thrill in Jack, Mike and Paul, but all she could feel was a detached affection. She cared for them and had fun with them, but either with or without them, her life was always the same.

She had thought she was on the right track with Taylor. He was smart, handsome, and he made her feel like the most important woman in the world. But even he had proved her wrong, and that was exactly the reason why she had ended up on the grass in the park, drawing bleeding men.

She sighed, closing her eyes. "I wish I could feel whole again"