Disclaimer: All characters and locations belong to their creators and owners...which is not me :(
Chapter 1
It had been a year since Sarah beat the Labyrinth and returned home safely with her brother, Toby. In that year, Sarah changed and grew into a generous and caring sister and daughter. She no longer fought with her father and stepmother and could hear the concern and worry in their voices instead of perceived slights and insults. Gone was the spoiled brat who wished to have her home and father to herself again, who refused to grow up. Sarah happily volunteered to watch Toby without raising a fuss and even convinced her parents to increase their date nights from one to three a week.
Sarah enjoyed her time with Toby, playing with him and teaching him all about her favorite subjects. She moved almost all of her toys into his room, with the exception of a few items that reminded her of her time in the Labyrinth. She refused to believe it was a dream, even when she hadn't been able to call her friends to her world since that night.
She read The Labyrinth to Toby every night for his bedtime story, and only at bedtime. Other books were for the day and only The Labyrinth was for bedtime. Sarah's parents did not understand why Sarah was so insistent with that rule, but shrugged it off. Sarah wanted to instill the lessons she had learned during her time in the Labyrinth to Toby in order for him to grow into a better person than her. Part of those lessons was discipline; hence, reading The Labyrinth at bedtime only.
Sarah had begun to think about her time in the Labyrinth a lot. Especially about the Goblin King. She started to notice things she had missed before; like his expressive eyes and how they always showed his emotions when his face did not. She saw his look of smug triumph that night when she first summoned him. His look of pleading when he asked her not to defy him and run the Labyrinth. His admiration at her resolve and his longing during their ballroom dance in the crystal. His hurt when she pulled away from him and escaped their dream. His pain when he knew she would not give up, not give in. When he knew she would not stay. Oddly, she thought she recognized pride as well...
One night, Sarah was babysitting while her father and stepmother were on a date when she heard someone knocking on the door during Toby's bedtime story. Confused, Sarah cautiously walked downstairs, then began to hurry when she saw flashing red and blue lights leaking through the curtains of the first floor. She wrenched the door open, already expecting the worst and the policeman standing on her doorstep confirmed it.
Sarah could not remember the conversation she had with the police officer, just felt the numbness set in. Toby had snuck downstairs to find out what was going on and heard the news. He started crying and didn't understand why his parents were never coming home again. The officer told her they would have to take them into child services since they were both underage, but she managed to convince him to wait until the morning, explaining it would be easier to get Toby to sleep in his own house. He hesitated, then nodded, crouching down to put his hand on Toby's shoulder, then standing and doing the same with Sarah.
He asked about relatives, said that he could start with some leads to try to keep them with family. Sarah smiled bitterly, and told him her mother's name. She was the only relative that either of them had; Toby's mother had no family to speak of and their father was an only child whose parents had died before Sarah was born.
The officer wrote the name down, then paused, "Like the actress?"
Sarah nodded as she fought back her tears, "Just like the actress. She is the actress. She lives in Beverly Hills." Sarah ran off the address and phone number to him. A little dazed, he told her he would be by in the morning with information.
Sarah thanked him for letting them stay in their own home for the night then slowly shut the door. She couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that they were never coming home again. She took Toby upstairs and they fell asleep after a long time of crying together on their parents' bed.
Morning came all too soon, bringing with it the harsh reality of the future's uncertainty. The same police officer from the night before came, along with her mother, much to Sarah's surprise. Sarah quickly found out why the officer had accompanied the famous actress. Apparently, she was willing to take her daughter, but not someone else's kid. Toby was to be put into foster care.
Sarah held on like a drowning person to Toby, furious with her mother. She told her that if she did not accept Toby along with her that she would ruin her in the eyes of her adoring public. That caused the woman to pause. After a few minutes of internal debate, she informed the officer (who had been waiting outside and missed the entire showdown), that she had taken one look at Toby and fallen instantly in love and will be taking both children.
The man looked pleased and sooner than Sarah thought possible, everything was made official and legal. Sarah's mother stayed in town just long enough for the paperwork to go through then went back home, leaving her daughter and now adopted son in the house they had grown up in, at Sarah's insistence. Sarah did not want Toby to be raised in the kind of environment her mother thrived in. Sarah had spent a few weeks each summer being ignored by her mother unless having a daughter was something that the famous Linda Williams decided she needed to flaunt. Sarah had also come across some dubious activities on her last trip, which was she had refused to go to her mother's the previous summer.
Linda took care of the bills, but nothing else and Sarah was informed that should anything unseemly end up in the papers or magazines, Toby would be in an orphanage faster than she could say "Celebrity." There was no allowance for food or clothes for them; she didn't care about the boy, and if Sarah did, she would make it work. 'Good character building,' her mother called it. Sarah realized the scary thing was that her mother actually believed that was reasonable and fair. So Sarah kept her end of the bargain...
