Disclaimer: The labyrinth and all its characters do not belong to me they belong to Jim Henson and the Labyrinth film, everything else is mine.
Chapter 1
They were back, like every night, biting, scratching, nipping at her flesh. She couldn't see them properly but she could hear them, cackling, laughing at her as they crawled all over her body. It was dark, she couldn't move. She tried crying out but she had no voice. Sometimes she might see some glowing orange eyes, the swish of a spiked tail or some pointed ears. But not tonight, the little demons were staying in the shadows, she knew they were there though, they always were. She could feel them clambering over her naked form. She was always naked, never clothed, a breeze would blow over her reminding her of that fact. They were just playing at the moment, looking for the place they wanted, the spot where they could inflict their damage or were they just going to torment her with their laughing tonight. Then there was silence, no movement, she knew they had decided. Then she felt it, a hundred razor sharp demon teeth biting down on her upper arm, she cried out in pain and awoke abruptly in a dimly lit room.
Sarah sat up and looked at her arm, there was a bite mark just where she knew there would be. It was red and oozing blood, she took a tissue from her bedside table and pressed down hard on it. She looked at herself, dressed in her regulation nightshirt, lying in her regulation bed with regulation sheets and blankets. There was a mumbling noise from across the room, Sarah looked over at her roommate who was scratching furiously at her arm so she got out of bed and walked over to her.
"Annabel what are you doing?" She said softly as she stopped at the side of the bed.
"They thought they could hide it all from us, but I found something. Yes something sharp. I can use it, they should be more careful." Annabel said quickly not even looking at Sarah as she continued stabbing and slicing herself with a plastic knife. Luckily it wasn't doing much damage, but that was not from lack of trying.
"Annabel," Sarah said angrily, "where did you get that?"
Annabel stopped what she was doing and looked up at Sarah. "Took it at dinner time." She said matter-of-factly. "When no one was looking, hid it in my panties, right down inside them, no one's gonna look there are they?" She continued giggling.
Sarah held out her hand and Annabel gave her the knife. "I'm sorry sweetheart," Sarah said, "but it's for your own good."
Annabel frowned. "Well that's just fine." She said. "Well I'm not going to bite myself you know, even though I know you do."
Sarah looked at her and said quickly "I don't bite myself, it's the..."
"Yes yes." Annabel interrupted. "I know it's those demons of yours. Well you know I have demons of my own sometimes, they want to get out of me, out in my blood so I need to release them or they will get sad, then I will get sad" She said sighing.
"Good night Annabel," Sarah said as she walked back over to her bed, placing the knife under the mattress, she would get rid of it tomorrow. She looked down at her arms and legs, they were covered in scars, bite marks, scratches, burns. She hadn't done any of them, it was those fucking demons that plagued her dreams, every night since, she tried to think. What had triggered the whole thing off? She couldn't really remember now, her body had been pumped so full of drugs she had probably lost half her brain cells. She did some times get strange flash backs in her dreams, images that didn't fit in with anything, feeling she didn't recall ever having. She closed her eyes and thought about them now. There was a tall man, blonde hair, strange eyes, who was he? And Toby, Toby was always there in the back of her mind, but she didn't know why.
She climbed back into her bed and lay down, she did remember the first time the demons had visited her, it was nearly four years ago when she had been fifteen. She had woken up after a strange dream and headed down stairs for breakfast to be greeted with the eyes of both her father and step mother staring at her. They demanded to know why her left arm was covered in scratch and bite marks. She remembered looking down and was just as surprised as they were to see what was there. They decided she needed help and so took her to the doctor, but nothing did help, every so often she would wake up with new injuries that seemed self inflicted but she denied she had caused them. They tried everything, hiding all the sharp objects in the house, staying awake by her side all night, but the injuries still came. So when she turned sixteen they took the doctor's advice and bundled her of to this place "Green acre residential home for young people" She snorted, there wasn't anything green about this place, everything in it was white or off white. She yawned loudly and closed her eyes hoping the demons had had enough of her tonight.
Sarah awoke again to hear the heavy door being unbolted. She opened her eyes to see the nurse walk into the room.
"Good morning Sarah, good morning Annabel." She said in a mocking tone. The two girls just stared at her from their beds. "Well up you get now girlies." She said smiling as she yanked the covers of Sarah's bed and then did the same to Annabel's.
Sarah climbed out of her bed and stood up, the nurse looked back over to her and the smile on her face quickly changed to a frown when she noticed the mark on Sarah's arm. Sarah, realizing she had seen it, quickly tried to cover it up. The nurse marched over and yanked Sarah's hand away. It was no longer bleeding but was starting to bruise.
She put her hands on her hips and stared Sarah deep in the eyes, Sarah looked at her feet.
"At least you have the good grace to feel bad at what you've done." She said loudly. She then put her hand under Sarah's chin and lifted her head up. "Why Sarah?" She asked softly. "You were doing so well, you were up for a weekend home visit soon because of your good progress." She said sighing. "I don't know if you will be allowed now honey."
Sarah bit her lip, she loved going home, it was the only time she felt normal. Even if Karen wouldn't allow her to be alone with Toby she still treasured every moment of her home visits.
"I'm sorry." She said looking at her arm. "I don't even remember doing it." It wasn't really a lie because she didn't remember doing it to herself, there was no point trying to explain about the demons, she had given that up long ago when she realized no one believed her and everyone she told thought she was crazy.
The nurse looked at her for a second. "Well come on." She said as she led Sarah towards the door. "Maybe you can catch Dr Campbell before he does his rounds, he might be lenient if you tell him yourself."
"Can I not get dressed first?" Sarah asked.
"No time if you want to catch him." The nurse said as she grabbed a dressing gown hanging from the back of the door. Just before they left the room she turned back to Annabel who was standing motionless next to her bed. "You can get dressed now Annabel dear." She said. "And then go have some breakfast." Annabel smiled and busied herself with her clothes as the nurse shut the door behind her.
The nurse knocked on Dr Campbell's door and waited.
"Enter," a voice boomed from inside.
"In you go then dear." She said. "When you've finished you can go and get dressed and have some breakfast."
Sarah walked into the room, the blinds were closed and the only source of light was a lamp on the desk straight in front of her. Behind the desk was a large black leather chair with back facing her.
"Shut the door please." Said the voice from behind the chair.
Sarah did as she was told and walked over to the desk. When she reached it the chair swiveled round.
"Ah Sarah," Dr Campbell said. "What can I do for you?"
Dr Campbell was a short balding man, shorter than Sarah. He wore a grey shirt with a dark blue tie. On top of that he wore a white lab coat with a pin badge which had his name printed on it in bold letters. He also had a stethoscope draped round his neck and had on a pair of round lens glasses so close to the end of his nose they looked like they might fall off. He peered at Sarah over the top of them.
"Nurse Johnston told me I should come see you about, ummm, a mark on my arm." Sarah said quietly as she fidgeted with the frayed end of the dressing gown tie.
"Ah, so you have bitten yourself again child." Dr Campbell said sighing as he got off his chair and walked round the desk to where Sarah was standing. "Well take off your dressing gown and let me see then." He said impatiently.
Sarah hesitated for a second.
"Come on now Sarah, I don't have x-ray vision you know." He said as he reached over and untied the dressing gown and pulled it off the shivering girl.
Sarah felt very exposed, she was just left wearing her sleeveless nighty, it only came to just above her knees, she tugged it nervously.
Dr Campbell placed the dressing gown down on his desk and took hold of Sarah's arm examining the bitemark. He sighed and walked over to cupboard on the other side room. Sarah watched as he opened the cupboard and gathered up a few things then brought them back and placed them on the desk. He picked up the large bottle of antiseptic from the desk and tipped it up to moisten some cotton wool balls. He than dabbed it onto Sarah's wound. She flinched as it liquid stung her.
"Come now sarah." Dr Campbell said firmly. "I'm sure it hurt more when you actually bit yourself."
"I didn't bite myself." Sarah said quickly, "I mean I don't remember biting myself." She corrected herself when she saw a frown creep along Dr Campbell's brow.
Dr Campbell began wrapping a bandage around Sarah's arm in silence. When he finished he replaced the lid on the antiseptic bottle. "You know Sarah I'm not sure I can let you go on that weekend visit you had coming up." He said not even bothering to look at her.
Sarah felt tears begin to well up in her deep hazel eyes.
"Unless," he turned back to face Sarah. "You can think of a way I might be," he paused and began stroking Sarah's dark coal colored hair away from her face, "persuaded." His eyebrows raised at that last word and Sarah took a step back towards the wall. Dr Campbell removed his glasses and placed them carefully on the table and began walking towards Sarah, who continued walking backwards until she was pressed right against the wall.
He placed on hand on her hip and the other began stroking away a tear that had silently fallen down her cheek. "You know you could be quite pretty if it weren't for all these unsightly scars." He whispered in her ear.
He lifted his hand away from her hip and Sarah felt him place it near the top of her inner thigh, and he began stroking slowly upwards staring at Sarah the whole time. Sarah then mustered all her courage and pushed him away.
Dr Campbell hit the desk quite lightly but he was angry now. "Come come come now Sarah." He said quickly as he approached her again. "You'll be getting something that you want and I'll be getting something," he paused and eyed her up and down, Sarah could feel him undressing her with his eyes, "that I want." He pushed her up against the wall and grabbed both her wrists, pinning them above her head and with his other hand lifted her nighty right up. Sarah was about to scream out when suddenly the room went dark and there was a rumble of thunder.
Sarah heard a clicking noise on the wooden floor.
Dr Campbell let go of her. "Who's there?" He said nervously. There was a flash of light and he was thrown across the room, Sarah heard a thud as he hit the other wall. Then as suddenly as quick as the light had gone off it was back on again.
Sarah looked over at Dr Campbell as he lay against the wall, one of his legs was sticking out at a strange angle.
"You little bitch!" He shouted as he reached over to the alarm button under his desk and pushed it down hard. "You are going to pay for that." He spat at her just before two armed guards entered the room.
"She attacked me!" Dr Campbell shouted. The two guards looked over at the shivering young girl, wearing only a nighty, standing at the wall. "She tried to kill me, grab her!" He shouted at them.
"Run Sarah!" A familure voice whispered in her ear.
The two men walked slowly towards Sarah, but she was too quick and ducked between them running towards the door.
She bolted out of the door, past the startled secretary, closely followed by the two guards. One of them shouted back at the secretary, as he ran off down the hallway in pursuit of Sarah. "Call for back up, get them to bring the tranquilizer gun, we might need it." The secretary quickly picked up the phone and hastily began dialing numbers.
Sarah was really crying now as she ran off down the hallway. What the hell had happened back there? She was going to be in so much trouble now, there is no way anyone would believe her story. She ran past startled patients and nurses and the old lights that lined the corridor ceiling were beginning to flicker. She didn't know where she was going to go but she knew she had to keep running.
She ran quickly round the next corner straight into the arms of a large fat man waiting for her.
"Got you my sweet." He said as he clamped his thick arms round her. Sarah tried to struggle free but it was no use. More men were approaching her and one was carrying something that looked suspiciously like a straight jacket.
She was just about to accept defeat when she heard a large booming voice from behind. "Get away from her." The voice said.
She twisted her voice round to see a tall blond haired man walking towards her. He was wearing black boots and tight pants, a white loose shirt and black gloves. On top of that he had a black cape which was billowing out behind him, it was the man from her dreams, he was real. "No." She whispered quietly.
"She's mine." Jareth said and he raised a gloved hand so all Sarah's captors went flying across to the other side of the hallway. Sarah collapsed on the floor as Jareth approached her. He picked her up by her arm and used his other hand to produce a perfectly round crystal. The men that he had recently thrown the length of the corridor were closing in on them, but before they could reach them they were gone and the confused and startled men were left just grasping air.
