Secrets

Underground

A Labyrinth fanfic

It's a crystal, nothing more, but if you turn it this way, and look into it, it can show you your dreams. But this isn't a gift for an ordinary girl, who takes care of a screaming baby. Do you want it? Then forget the baby.

Forget....

Forget.......

How can I forget? So many distant memories, so many secrets, and yet you took them all away from me. You...you...you're name. You even made me forget your name. And yet, somehow, I feel like you've entered my life again, and if I remember...if I can remember you...you would not have done so in a cordial manner. Why? Why would you make me forget everything about you, about your world, except those words that you said to me the first moment I met you. Thirteen hours, for what? What did I need thirteen hours for? Please, let me remember you.

Sarah bounded down the stairs as she heard the doorbell ring. She'd been expecting to hear that doorbell ring for the past three weeks, she'd been waiting to see her, ever since she'd went away to the Navy Sarah had been waiting to see her again. Her big sister.

"Dad! She's here!"

Sarah flung the front door open to reveal her older sister, blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun beneath a khaki cameo cap, sapphire blue eyes gazing out at her younger sister beneath the brim. "Sarah,"

The young girl threw her arms around her elder sister, "I missed you, Ali, I missed you so much!"

Alison smiled as her young sister hugged tight to her US Navy Law Enforcement and Security uniform, "Sorry if I smell like dogs, all I work with are German Shepards."

Their father clamored down the stairs, Toby in his arms, "Alison you're back,"

Sarah could see her sister's eyes grow confused at the right of Toby, "And when were you gonna tell me there was another baby for me to take care of?"

Sarah sighed, "I've been taking care of the screaming baby,"

Alison froze. Screaming baby. Not for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby, those words and more had haunted her for years.

"...Ali? Ali you OK?" Sarah's voice brought her back to reality,

"What? Yeah, I'm fine."

Their father sighed, "Well we tried to get in contact with you but your base said you'd been shipped off."

Alison had grown weary of her father's lies many years ago, "If you'd tried to contact me the base would have put you through to where I was stationed don't give me that crap."

Irene came into the room, "Who's this? A recruiter? Sorry we don't have anyone here old enough to join the Army."

Sarah glared at her stepmother, "She's my sister!"

Alison shared the same glare, "And I'm in the Navy, not the Army," she said the second Armed Forces title with a hint of disgust in her voice, neither branch got a long with the other.

Irene looked annoyed, "Oh, well I'm Irene, your father's new wife, this is Toby, my son." She held out her hand, wincing as Alison accepted as if the young woman's hand was diseased.

Sarah sighed, "C'mon upstairs, I want you to see my room!" The two girls ran upstairs, Alison's combat boots making a little more noise than Irene and Bill would have liked, but neither girl could have cared.

"So what's it been like? Traveling the world?" Sarah asked the older girl, plopping down on her bed.

Alison sighed with a smile, tossing her bag to the ground, her gemstone eyes scanning her baby sister's room, "It's been great, I was stationed in London mostly, got to visit France, Germany, Greece, Spain, and Italy," Alison's attention fell on a small, red-leather bound book, gold embossed letters spelling out The Labyrinth on the the cover.

"W-Where did you get this book, Sar?"

The young, brunette got up and walked over, "Mom gave it to me a long time ago, said it was your favorite book when you were my age. Was it?"

The blonde nodded, turning the book over in her hands, "Yeah, my favorite." She opened the book to a part of the story she knew well, the Goblin King had pronounced his love for the young girl, begging that she live in the Underground with him as his Queen, to fear him, love him, do as he said, and he would be her slave.

"Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City, to take back the child that you have stolen." Alison recited the lines she knew by heart, mostly to herself.

Sarah smiled, "For my will is as strong as yours...my kingdom as great....damn, even after all of that I can't remember it by heart!"

Alison looked at her, "After all what?"

The young girl sighed, "You'll think I'm crazy,"

The blonde sat down on the bed, patting the area next to her, "Try me."

Sarah sighed, "OK, well, a few years ago, dad and Irene left me to babysit Toby, and he wouldn't stop crying. So I wished the goblins would take him away, and...they did. The, Goblin King, came to me, made me face his Labyrinth, and I...I beat him. He wanted me to become his Queen, but I said..."

"You have no power over me?"

The young girl stared at her sister, emerald eyes wide, "How-How did you know?!"

Alison sighed, "Sarah...I'm going to tell you a story, although I may not totally remember everything, but this story is one that I never told anyone before, because people would think I was crazy. But first, I need to take a shower, have something to eat, and get out of this uniform. Then I promise I'll tell you."

Sarah whined, "No! Ali tell me now!"

The older sister smiled, "No, you can wait, you know you can."

"Oh, alright, fine."

Alison was about to walk out of the room to the bathroom, but she stopped at the doorway and turned around, "Do you remember the Goblin King's name?"

Sarah smiled, "Yeah, why you don't?"

Alisong sighed, "No....I don't."

~You don't remember my name dearest Alison? What a pity. And I thought you and I had such a wonderful bond together all those years ago, while you were the one taking care of a screaming baby, who sits on the bed before you now, asking you your story about me, when she herself faced and thwarted me just as you did. But she turned down my offer....unlike you.~

Sarah looked at her sister, who was staring off into a daze, "Alison? Alison!"

"Huh? Oh, sorry."

"It's OK. The Goblin King...his name's Jareth."

Alison smiled, the name caused her entire body to warm.

Jareth. I....I remember now. Some of it anyway.

"Thanks sis, I'll see you in about thirty minutes," the young woman walked into the bathroom, stripped herself of her uniform, which she folded neatly onto the counter, and stepped into the warm shower, each drop of water like a shard of a memory...memories which were slowly beginning to form again, whilst mismatched eyes watched through a crystal at the girl now young woman, who had disappeared from his realm not so long ago.

To be continued...