A/N: I'm baaaack. My old readers are never going to believe it - if they're still around - as this story was posted to ffnet starting back in 2003. Yikes. However, I have really good news for anyone reading this right now:

1. It's better than last time. Much. I promise, 7 years have really helped my writing ability.

2. It's finished! All of it. It will be updated regularly, and that is actually a promise I can keep this time... because it's already allll written.

Much love to my readers, and without further ado...

October 31, 1989

Sarah stared at the cigarette in her hand, smoke gently curling up from it. Annoyed, because it was quickly becoming a stump and the pack in her back pocket was empty. Slouched against a brick wall, standing on one leg with the other braced flat against the brick, she gave a heavy sigh and leaned her head back against the wall. Trying to draw it out to make it last longer was no good; she brought the cigarette to her lips to take a deep draft. It was heaven. She blew out the smoke in a cloud and contemplated the street in front of her. Little more than a back alleyway, it was silent amid the lengthening shadows as the sun sank lower in the sky. Peaceful, she thought. No one around to bother her. Such moments were far and few between, it seemed. She took another draft of her cigarette.

"Sar! Sar, are you ready yet?" A masculine voice interrupted the slow drift of her thoughts. She turned her head to see a man poke his head out of the door to the building. He didn't look happy. "Babe, you're still in jeans! I thought we were supposed to be getting ready."

She faced the street again, not bothering to look at him as she spoke. "We still have to go over to my parents' place to get Merlin."

"You don't want to change there, do you?" Sarah could tell by the tone of his voice that his eyebrows were raised.

"I left everything for my costume there this morning," she said by way of explanation.

She heard the door slam shut, and turned to look at him again as he took a few steps closer to continue the discussion. "So much for you moving out," he said with a forced laugh, not altogether amused.

Sarah took what she could tell where the last few drags of the cigarette, and dropped it on the cement, grounding her heel into it. "You're the one who wanted the dog as part of your costume," she pointed out.

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, it's all my fault - as usual. I've just got my backpack inside - I'll grab it and we can go." He strode back to the door and opened it, holding it for her. It wasn't a gentlemanly gesture - he just wanted to be sure she wasn't going to stay outside and leave him waiting around inside for her some more. She went in without comment. He let the door close with a bang behind them.

"You couldn't wait to change into your costume, I see," Sarah said as she watched him stride across the studio to grab a ratty backpack sitting on the floor under the mirror that covered the entire back wall.

He looked back at her and grinned. His heavy eye makeup, gelled hair, and leather outfit weren't all that different from his normal getup, but he had added a spiked collar, horns, and a pitchfork, and dyed his hair a fiery orange. "Halloween is the best day of the year."

Sarah just rolled her eyes.

"OK, let's go," he said, crossing the room and pulling open the interior door. The studio was one of several in the back of the local theater, where the two of them spent a great deal of their time. He worked there in production and Sarah, to the extent she was anything, was an aspiring actress, and occasionally had parts in local or school plays. This studio, in fact, was where they had met, almost two years ago now. He'd been intrigued by her quiet, almost secretive attitude towards the world and the people in it; she'd been attracted by his glam rock look and the fact that he was not in high school. Sarah scowled to herself at the thought. She refused to think about the reason she was attracted to the glam rock type or older men.

They made their way through the theater and out the main entrance to the parking lot, where his beat-up old jeep was sitting. They climbed in and he started it, without too much difficulty.

They drove in silence most of the way through downtown and out towards the nicer part of town, where the houses were older and larger and the streets took on a stately air. Finally, he said, "You don't seem too excited about tonight, babe."

Sarah didn't reply. He knew better than to say stupid things like that to her. She made it a habit not to get excited about anything. And other peoples' excitement just irritated her.

He kept talking anyway. "It's going to be the biggest bash of the year. If the cops don't shut it down, that is. Of course, if they do, we'll just move deeper into the tunnels. That's what's great about partying in a cave."

Sarah stared out the window. They were driving by an old park, her favorite when she was little - and not so little. It held a lot of memories. She always looked for owls in the branches of the oak trees - but she never saw any. She didn't know why she always still thought of it.

"Babe, you're not listening to me."

Reluctantly, Sarah unglued her eyes from the passenger-side window and faced forward. "I'm excited," she stated in a flat and unconvincing tone. "Spending the evening underground will just make my day."

Her companion just laughed. "You'll have fun," he assured her.

Sarah snorted and didn't say anything. They had turned the corner onto her street, and were approaching her parents' house. She figured anything she said wouldn't make much of a difference in the next few minutes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him shake his head. "Sometimes you're more of a pain than you're worth, kiddo." His voice was affectionate, but it did nothing to mitigate Sarah's irritation with him. This whole conversation had been a massive waste of breath. Sometimes she suspected that all of her relationships with other people were a massive waste of breath.

They pulled up into the driveway alongside the house, behind a couple other vehicles. Sarah climbed out of the car, and not bothering to wait, strode around the corner to the back of the house. She pulled open the screen door and pushed open the interior door, which was never locked. She had hoped to avoid her stepmother, but no such luck -

"Sarah! Is that you? Don't think you can sneak upstairs without coming to say hello." Karen's voice came from the kitchen, high-pitched and sounding stressed out, as usual. Sarah groaned quietly and rounded the corner into the kitchen, feeling trapped. Karen was standing at the counter, slicing something up and looking too dressed up for domestic activities to be the only plan that evening. She looked over at Sarah as she came into view.

"Oh, it is you." She sniffed. "You've been smoking again. Ah, and you've brought Jade as well." Her tone was icy, but she held out her hand as Jade came from behind her to enter the kitchen and shake Karen's hand. Karen's face and tone could not have expressed more disapproval if she'd been faced with a criminal rather than a goth with a fairly inoffensive personality. The only wrong thing Jade had ever done was bought her cigarettes before she was 18, Sarah thought resentfully. They didn't even drink - much. And she'd certainly never done drugs - Sarah found them unutterably lame - and the tripping was so fake.

"It's nice to see you again, ma'am," Jade said to Karen politely. "We just came over to borrow Merlin for my costume. The heads are out in my car."

Karen nodded. Sarah frowned at her. "Are you and Dad going out tonight?"

"Yes, dear, we are," she said, turning around and dumping whatever she had been slicing into a bowl. She washed her hands and dried them on a towel. "Don't worry, we hired a babysitter for Toby. I expect we'll be spending a lot of money on her if you really do move out." She said the words "move out" with a twist, as though they left a sour taste in her mouth.

Sarah sighed. "We've had this fight already. Jade and I are ready for this."

"You're in high school!" Karen had taken her apron off, but instead of hanging it up, was clutching it in her hands, twisting and wrinkling it.

"I'm 18 now," she noted, the words coming by rote. They'd had this exact conversation fifty - no, a hundred - times already.

Jade coughed. "Sarah, I'm going to find Merlin and get him ready. Why don't you go upstairs and change into your costume?"

That was a good idea. She turned on her heel and left the kitchen without another word to either of them.

Her room was quiet and still, the sanctuary from the outside world it had always been. It was spartan in comparison to earlier years: the stuffed animals and knickknacks were gone, passed on to Toby or others who'd wanted them. The pictures of Linda were gone, as was most of the influence the absent mother had had on her life. Sarah had found out that it was hard to care about all the things she used to care about after discovering that everything she'd assumed about the world and reality was wrong. Her fantasies about life if her mother had stayed lost their attraction once she'd ran smack dab into the middle of a very real fantasy of her own. She wondered for the millionth time if his offer had been sincere, and what would have happened if... But, she reminded herself - as she did every time she started to think about it - she had chosen the mundane life of Sarah, Toby's sister and Robert and Karen's daughter. She hadn't even tried to call her friends from the Labyrinth again, afraid they wouldn't come and she would know she could never get back. She didn't think she could face the certainty of a life here.

She turned away from her vanity mirror with a frown and opened her closet. Most of her clothes she'd already brought over to Jade's apartment, but still hanging there were some heavy black robes, a sturdy and well worn pair of black lace-up boots, and a pointy black hat. She shrugged out of her leather jacket, slipped the robes on over her jeans and T-shirt, laced up the boots in place of her sneakers, and headed back downstairs. She would grab an old straw broom from the shed on her way out, but she refused to do anything stupid like paint her face green or put on a crooked fake nose. The only thing she'd done was grow her nails long and file them to points, at Jade's insistence. Halloween didn't have much charm for her. She suppose she'd been spoiled by exposure to real spooks.

When she headed back downstairs, the house was quiet and empty. She headed back outside to the back yard, from which she could hear laughter and noise. She pushed open the screen door. It was dusk and someone had turned the floodlights on, and the moths had begun to flutter around. Sarah quickly closed the screen door. Karen and her father were standing in the yard, their backs to her, watching Jade do something with Merlin behind his jeep by the side of the house. She could hear Toby's shrieks of excitement over their conversation.

She didn't really feel inclined to marvel over whatever Jade was doing to Merlin, but she walked down the steps anyway and came to stand by her father. Jade had gotten his fake sheepdog heads out of the jeep and was trying to attach them to Merlin's collar, who wasn't exactly cooperating. Toby was rendering no assistance whatsoever; the four-year-old's excitement was only making the dog even more agitated.

At her side, her father was laughing. He seemed to not mind Jade as much as Karen did, although he of course thought Sarah was too young to go live with her boyfriend. He probably was relieved she had finally showed an interest in something, in someone. Her looked over at her as she came up, a friendly smile on his face. "Big plans for tonight?"

"I guess," Sarah shrugged. "Some of Jade's friends are throwing a party. Don't worry, there won't be drugs." She said that in the same indifferent tone of voice - she had no idea whether there would be drugs there, but didn't care. She wouldn't be tempted either way. Robert's expression become slightly less friendly. "Right," he said uncertainly. "Well, be careful. I guess you're coming back here afterwards?" he said, his intonation sounding slightly hopeful.

Sarah just shrugged again. She didn't know, didn't really care. "Whatever."

Jade had gotten one of the extra heads on Merlin, who didn't seem too pleased. She decided she would rather help with that than stand there and continuing talking to her father. She walked over to them and knelt, slinging her arm around Merlin's stomach and drawing him close to her body to restrain him. Jade grinned at her and encountered much less difficulty attaching the second head. He offered Sarah his hand to help her stand up, and they both stepped back to admire his handiwork.

Merlin, decided Sarah, looked nothing like a dog from hell. Wasn't Cerberus supposed to be black? Or at least big and evil? Jade had somehow gotten a hold of two fake dog heads that looked very much like Merlin's - although a tad too small in comparison to his real head - and had decided that he would dress as the gatekeeper to hell, with a three-headed hound as his faithful watchdog. Sarah shook her head. A three-headed Merlin was just comical.

"Well done," her father called out genially. Jade grinned his thanks and helped Merlin jump up into the back of the jeep. He waved good bye to Toby, who suddenly got shy and went to hide behind his mother.

"All right, you kids have a good time and be safe," her father admonished. Sarah nodded to him and Karen without saying anything in reply and climbed into the passenger seat of the jeep. She would have liked to say good-bye to Toby, but it wasn't worth continuing to exchange pleasantries with her father and stepmother. Jade took slightly longer, as he'd gone back to shake Robert's hand and thank him for letting them borrow Merlin, but he didn't say a word to her in reproach for her rudeness as he started the car and drove off. She counted that a small victory - when they'd first met, he'd still thought he could reform her and help her repair her relationship with her father and stepmother. Now, he knew better. Sarah was really stubborn.

They took the highway west out of town, towards a small system of caves about 20 minutes away. A few of the rooms were open to tourists during daylight hours, but all it took was jumping a fence to get in at night. Jade's friends had decided it would be a great spot to celebrate Halloween, and Sarah had gone along with the plan, although she had never liked the idea of being trapped underground. No, some decidedly unpleasant things could happen there. She narrowed her eyes and suddenly despised herself for agreeing to this. Did she really need to tempt fate? Maybe real life sucked, but she was not eager for a second confrontation with powerful and angry magical kings.

Jade was talking to her again, but she wasn't listening. It was absurd to think that just because she was going into a cave system that the night would end up being anything other than a party with a bunch of loud drunk twenty-somethings. She blew air out of her cheeks and made up her mind to quit thinking about the possibility of otherworldly adventures. She tuned back into what Jade was saying.

"...ditch this town, you know. I've got this friend in New York who might know some guys who could find us a place. Wouldn't it be great to go there?"

Despite herself, Sarah smiled at the idea. "Yeah," she said, for once not halfheartedly. "That would be cool." It would be a change, anyway - a change from her awful boring life. Her lips thinned with sudden self-displeasure. What a whiner she was being tonight!

Jade grinned but didn't press the idea. They were there. He turned off the road and pulled up into a dirt parking lot. A bunch of cars were already there, and Sarah could hear the music before she even opened her door. A few kids were hanging out in the lot, drinking already. Jade went around the car and let Merlin out of the back, managing to grab hold of the leash before he bounded away into the night. Sarah came around to see if she could help him, and he surprised her by leaning in and planting a kiss on her lips. "Ready, beautiful?"

She smiled slightly and nodded, feeling vaguely guilty. Jade was a good guy - she should treat him better, really.

"Got all your stuff?" he asked. "Where's your broom?"

"Oh -" she said with a slight start of surprise. "I forgot about it in the shed at my parents' place. Oh well," she shrugged, "doesn't matter."

His face fell and one hand went to his hips. "Sar, how could you! Without a broom you don't even have a costume!"

She eyed him warily. "Chill, it's no big deal."

"No big deal!" The hand not holding the leash was now being waved in the air in front of her face. She took a couple steps back. "You know it's my favorite night of the year - could you at least pretend a little enthusiasm here?"

"God, Jade, grow up, it's no big deal. Come on, let's go." She turned and started walking towards the fence which, she was relieved to see, had been conveniently cut and wouldn't require jumping. Jade followed her with the three-headed Merlin. "You're such a bitch," he muttered. Sarah didn't reply. She was at that, but Jade got upset at the most ridiculous things...

It wasn't too difficult finding the entrance in the dark, with the music to guide them and light streaming out of the place already. They found a well-worn path leading to a set of stairs descending into what was little better than a hole in the ground. Sarah frowned but didn't like the idea of asking Jade to go first and admitting she was nervous, so she and her pride - damn the thing - descended the staircase with trepidation. It widened soon enough to reveal a good-sized room with some cool stalactites, already crowded with kids and noise. Some enterprising person had managed to string orange and black crepe paper from some of the formations on the roof, and the shadows thrown about by the lanterns on the floor threw everything into spooky relief. Quite appropriate for Halloween, Sarah thought.

Jade had followed her down the steps accompanied, not without some difficulty, by Merlin, who was now barking at everyone and generally being obnoxious. Sarah decided to break away from them and hunt out the drinks. She could use some alcohol.

"Hey baby doll, need some help?" The obnoxious voice was coming from Pat, a friend of Jade's Sarah didn't care for. He was dressed up as a cop, which was ironic and actually kind of funny, decided Sarah. Pat made breaking the law a habit, and he was smarmy about it. She wasn't inclined to pick a fight with him right now, though, as he was holding out a bottle of tequila to her, which was just what she was looking for. She grabbed it from him and permitted her eyes to tell him he was cute. Pat knew she hated him, of course, but he grabbed her and leaned in for a kiss anyway.

Sarah hadn't had enough alcohol yet to put up with that. She elbowed him and twisted away. "Thanks for the tequila, bro," she said in a dismissive manner. She ducked away through the crowd and went looking for Jade again, downing swigs from the tequila bottle as she went. About three shots into it, it didn't taste nasty anymore. Very nice, Sarah thought approvingly.

Jade was easy to find - she just had to head in the direction of Merlin's barks. He had found his friends Tim and Scotch, who had been the ones that concocted this whole scheme, and they were laughing uproariously about something. "Idiots," muttered Sarah to herself, and turned to head in another direction. She ran right into Pat - had he been following her? - who grabbed her and didn't miss this chance to try to stick his tongue down her throat. She shoved at him roughly, but her balance was impaired, and she fell down instead.

No need to defend herself, though - of course Jade came crashing over screaming some obscenities at her and Pat. He hauled her to her feet - with rather unnecessary force, was he drunk already? - and tried to level a punch at Pat, who dodged easily enough, and just laughed. The tequila bottle had fallen out of her hands at some point, and Sarah wrenched herself out of Jade's grip and staggered a few steps away.

"What are you doing?" he confronted her angrily. Sarah drew herself upright and put her hands on her hips. She was more pissed at him for being an idiot than at Pat for being a leech. "You jerk," she began heavily, "Don't even think for a second I needed your help! I hate you!"

Jade's face screwed up in an angry knot. "You're an ungrateful little bitch," he snarled. Before Sarah could draw enough breath to argue back, Merlin's barking caught her attention again - and what the hell? He wasn't with Jade anymore!

"What did you do with Merlin?" she asked, sidetracked from their stupid fight. He blinked, thrown off by the change in topic. "I - don't know," he said, sounding confused.

Sarah glared at him. "I hate you - now you've lost my dog too. I knew it was a lousy idea to let you take him as part of your ridiculous costume - forget it!" she exclaimed when he was about to speak. "I'm finding Merlin and getting out of here. Screw you! I can find my own ride back home!"

She whirled around, miraculously keeping her balance, and pushed her way through the crowd in the direction of Merlin's barks. Her head was spinning and her heart was racing from the alcohol and the fight. Jade, she thought with heat, was such an idiot. What was she doing with him anyway? Him and his damn friends and his damn party -

She broke off her train of thoughts as she spotted Merlin. He was in the back of the room, on the opposite side from the entrance, still barking at something - shadows moving on the wall, she supposed. "Merlin!" she shouted. "Come here!" Instead of obeying, he barked louder and moved away from her, towards the dark at the back of the cavern.

"No!" Sarah shouted. She didn't want to go back there, but she ran after Merlin anyway. She couldn't lose him, and who knew if he'd make it back on his own? She took off after him, but there was a tunnel around a large formation she hadn't noticed before - and Merlin had gone through it - and oh hell this was a bad idea. She nonetheless grabbed a lantern from the floor behind her, lifted the skirts of her robe and chased after him. She could see him ahead, and hear him barking at shadows. The stupid dog! The tunnel was large enough for her and she wasn't afraid of getting lost - not yet anyway - Merlin was just a shape ahead and oh hell, he was chasing something too, wasn't he? Those shadows...

Sarah swallowed down her panic. "Merlin!" she called again, futilely. He was still barking, and the tunnel was now heading uphill instead of down - and was it her imagination or could she hear other things moving too? Small creatures who liked the dark - liked mischief.

"Shit, oh shit," she breathed in sudden fear. Her chest hitched up in pain - she ought to give up those stupid cigarettes, she thought wildly. There was a light up ahead - a dim creepy light that was not a reflection from her lantern and was not headlights coming from the parking lot outside. Merlin disappeared around a corner and suddenly Sarah knew with a clear sober certainty that she should stop, should just let him go, and turn back. She could blame the missing dog on Jade, and it would be sad, but bounding off into the dark like this in the mysterious caves had been a terrible idea. And yet... she couldn't for the life of her do anything but go forward. It was Merlin. She ducked down and rounded the corner and burst out into the weird light.