Sarah collapsed on her bed and blinked at orange sunlight streaming through the dorm windows. Dust motes floated overhead.
Then the light shifted, turning golden, and the dust to sparkles.
Sarah squeezed her eyes shut before they rained down on her.
Sure, college was a time where things changed. It felt small and stifling and it wasn't at all what she had dreamed, but her dad and her stepmother had insisted, had said she would learn things here. And she was, kind of. From what she could see, plenty of other students were experiencing … strange things … too.
…But Sarah was pretty sure that most of them didn't start to see lights where there should be none. Or, instead of crying from midterm stress, heard music when they dragged their fingers along book spines in the library. Or looked down in the middle of the dining hall to see they had four shadows branching off from their feet.
Rolling onto her side, Sarah hugged a pillow to her stomach. She could see herself in the mirror glued onto the dorm wall next to their door. Her hair was wind-blown and hanging off the side of the bed. And… was that a leaf in it?
She grunted and sat up, grabbing her hair brush. This day was just never going to end. At least the air wasn't sparkling anymore. There was only so much she could take at once.
Magic wasn't Aboveground. It was only Underground, in the Labyrinth and hidden places like it. Sarah knew that with all her heart but it was getting harder and harder to remember these days.
Magic leaked to her world through cracks, that was all. It shouldn't pop up in so many places around her. It shouldn't begin to fill her world.
Her life felt full of cracks that had been there … had been there, for so long… no, wait. She squeezed her eyes shut. For five years. She was twenty now and she'd been fifteen when it happened. No matter how much it felt like the Labyrinth had always been a part of her life, she had to remember that it had only happened when she was fifteen.
If she didn't hang onto that, it would start to creep through the rest of her life. If she forgot, if she relaxed her grip on herself, she might let more magic in. And she couldn't let that happen. It would make her lose her mind. It was hard enough seeing extra shadows and sparkles and hearing sounds that shouldn't exist. No one knew about that - no way in hell would she tell her Aboveground friends, but she couldn't bring herself to tell the Underground ones, either.
It might be magic. But it wasn't doing anything except making her jumpy. Magic had a purpose and this didn't. Sarah wasn't sure if there was some hidden reason magic kept appearing around her, or if she was going crazy.
She opened her eyes, startled to realize that she had shut them without thinking. The mirror reflected back the pale wood of her hair brush, the leaf she'd picked out sitting on the floor, and, unfortunately, the mess of stuff shoved underneath her bed.
That, and the outline of something hanging on the outside of her window.
Sarah gasped and whipped around, tangling herself in the sheets. The window was empty. Sliding off the bed, she had to hop over to the window with the sheet wrapped around her foot to look out of it.
The same scene as always: people walking up and down the path that lead between the dorm and the class buildings out in the distance. Which reminded her, of course, that she had to head out again soon. She wasn't even supposed to be back here. Just grabbing lunch. But the dorm was so much more comfortable, and this math class was so boring, she couldn't believe that she needed it to graduate, what would she use it for…
Sarah shook herself and turned slowly back to the mirror. She squinted at it. There was nothing there now. And it had gone by so fast, she wasn't even sure what it had been.
Then the window creaked.
There was nothing reflected in the mirror. Sarah's eyes were glued to the glass, her feet stuck fast to the floor. The window creaked again. She could imagine the wind pressing against it, whipping around the building. There was no storm predicted for today but that wouldn't matter.
Sarah swallowed and squared her shoulders. Of course she knew what had been in the window, even if she couldn't remember the exact shape of it. It was always the same.
Jareth was the only one who ever came uninvited.
"Go away," she whispered. She stared at a point just above her shoulder in the mirror - where the window was shown in the reflection. "You are not welcome here."
The glass rattled as the wind picked up. Sarah moved her eyes over the mirror and thought it would be nice if there were trees out there. Then she could see if this wind touched anything in Aboveground except for her. Would it beat her back and forth across the path if she left this safety, if she tried to go to class?
She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, snapping, "Leave. You aren't welcome here!"
The next moment felt like she was hanging in the air. But the wind stopped. She felt her feet come unstuck from the floor and was able to turn around and stare at the window. It was still empty.
Sarah shut the blinds anyway.
The idea of losing her mind scared her down to her bones.
She grabbed her backpack and keys and bolted out of her room. Sometimes she wondered if going crazy might be better than having so much magic in her life.
The only time Sarah could talk to her Underground friends now was when her roommate wasn't around.
She had tried, before, to contact them during Ruth's classes… that hadn't worked out so well. Sometimes it was hard to convince them all to actually leave. Ruth nearly walking in on Ludo fading through the mirror had cured Sarah of that, though. Now she just waited for Ruth to go to parties on Friday nights or home on the weekends.
"You cut your hair," Hoggle said. He popped half a donut into his mouth.
They were all sitting on the floor of her room eating snacks she had pilfered from the dining hall's unlimited desert bar. Friday night, which meant that even her neighbors were gone. That was fine. No one outside ever asked about the noise. Her friends had learned to be a little quiet when being too loud meant waking Toby up.
"Hoggle, I cut my hair over a week ago," Sarah said, laughing. It was still long, but chopped and layered, more prone now to holding the waves she tried to press into it after the shower each morning.
Sir Didymus held out a handful of crumbs for Ambrosius to lick up. "But my lady, it was exactly fourteen nights since we were last invited here."
"Ludo wait," Ludo said. He shifted, and leaned against her roommate's bed frame. The wood creaked at his weight. "Ludo wait…" He faltered, and looked back and forth across the group's faces. "Long time," he finally said.
"Fourteen nights. I never misplace a date," Didymus proclaimed, lifting his nose in the air. Ambrosius shuffled forward and started licking at Didymus's plate. "Or was it fifteen… Or twelve…"
Sarah's chest constricted. "I guess… time got away from me," she mumbled.
Her face flushed at the frown Hoggle wore. "Time slipping is bad news, Sarah," he said.
Didymus stood up and sniffed the air. "Perhaps it's time for a quest!" he declared. He hopped up on Sarah's bed and she felt herself relax enough to laugh as he strutted back and forth over her sheets. "We should root out the source of this malignancy!"
"Aw, can it," Hoggle muttered. "You know we can't run about this place."
"I didn't mean it literally, Sir Didymus," Sarah added, smiling. "I just meant… I suppose I've been busier than I realized." She looked around at her group of friends as Didymus sniffed and perched on the edge of her bed. Her mood settled again and she folded her legs underneath herself. "I do still want you all in my lives."
"Didn't say anything about that," Hoggle muttered. He scooped up a cupcake. "Just have to be careful, when magic sticks to you."
Sarah blinked and things looked different when she opened her eyes again. Though no one in the circle had moved, the room seemed to have shifted an inch to the left. She opened her mouth to speak, but Didymus beat her to that.
"Magic," he sniffed. "Not to be trifled with!" He waved his sword vaguely in Sarah's direction. "My lady, ensure that you don't entrap yourself with such rubbish!"
"Guys, don't worry about it. I don't have magic," she assured them. "There's a big difference between magic and just having a strong will. Sir Didymus, maybe you should sit down before you … miss the rest of the food." Or stab a hole in the bedding.
Hoggle shifted his weight. "May not have magic, but there's magic here. How else could we pop back and forth? Besides, you bent things the way you wanted in the Labyrinth."
"That was just strength of will," Sarah repeated, flustered. She remembered that time in incredible detail, and she knew that it was her heart that broke her and Toby out of there, not a spell. "It wasn't magic. Otherwise I could fly, or make my homework do itself, or something."
Hoggle looked like he was going to protest that, too, but had to jump to the side when Didymus slid off the bed and nearly landed on Hoggle's foot.
Then they started arguing, and before Sarah knew it, she was yawning everyone was getting up to go home. She just managed to say goodbye, and to promise not to take so long before inviting them back, before Hoggle and Didymus and Ambrosius were gone.
Ludo's face was bent in concentration, though. "Ludo… like Sarah hair," he said, after a moment, smiling.
Sarah smiled back. "Thank you, Ludo," she said, waving as he vanished.
The nearest post office was a good twenty minute hike away, and she'd forgotten her bus pas. But if she didn't go now, the package wouldn't get out until next week, and Sarah would never hear the end of it.
No matter how many times her stepmother told Toby that Sarah wasn't his personal comics provider, the kid had barely just turned six. And Sarah had to admit that the comic shop near her school was much better than anything in the tiny little town where her family still lived.
She slid the package under one arm and pushed a crosswalk button with her elbow. It was so hot and bright today she was sure that when she finally got back to the dorm, she'd have the shape of her sunglasses burned against her face.
At least the post office itself had air conditioning. She fidgeted and tried not to lean against the ropes designating the aisle while people hemmed and hawed at the counter. The two people in front of her, an older woman and a young man, were still filling out forms.
The old woman looked up and frowned. "Do you have an umbrella in the car?"
"…No?" The man looked confused. He fumbled to pull a piece of paper out of his pocket and start copying the information onto his package. "It's ninety-five and clear skies. I checked the weather last night."
"Pfft." The old woman licked her pen before scribbling something on an envelope. "I checked my bones. It's going to rain soon."
Sarah reflexively glanced out the front doors. For a moment it looked like it had darkened incredibly outside, and then she realized that the glass in the doors was tinted. Were there more clouds in the sky than there had been when she'd left her last class? Trees were clearly rustling in the breeze, but she'd felt nothing like a sharp, cold wind on the way over that would signal a storm. At least from the looks of it, this was a wind that other people could see and feel.
"You should always keep an umbrella in your car," the woman complained. "You better hope we don't get drenched."
"We're going to be fine, Gram."
A few minutes later Sarah sighed to herself when one of the counters closed. Toby had better appreciate these comics. He'd originally wanted her to send them every week, when new ones came out, but Sarah couldn't manage that kind of schedule. Now he sent her his 'comics allowance' in the middle of the month, and she'd send the comics out every four weeks. Or bring them home, if she was visiting.
It ended up taking twice as long as she'd planned before she finally managed to get her package weighed, stamped, and sent off. She missed the post office at home. It had never been as crowded or slow as this one by the school.
On her way out, she pulled her sunglasses back out of her purse. Maybe there was a better post office somewhere else around the school she could go to next time…
She paused with her sunglasses on her nose and glanced above the rims. "Oh."
Gram had apparently been right that it was going to rain soon. It was still swelteringly hot, but the sky was no longer bright and Sarah could comfortably tuck her sunglasses away without feeling blinded.
"No eating dessert outside tonight," Sarah mumbled to herself.
She looked both ways and crossed the street, veering toward a parking garage with a tiny alley sidewalk next to it. It was much easier to cut through here than walk completely around the garage, then back down the street nearly a block. Her dad and stepmother would have a heart attack if they knew she did this, but all of the college students seemed to. Sarah even passed someone else on the way through it.
The sky was dim enough now that she could glance down to see if anyone was close behind her. She didn't hear any footsteps, but she did see a long shadow bobbing a few inches behind hers - which could mean they were a good distance behind, but still. She took the first opportunity to look over her shoulder.
Her eyes slid off the person before she could fix on their face, and when she looked back, the sidewalk was empty all the way to the other end.
She reached out one hand and braced herself on the wall of the parking garage. "Leave me alone," she hissed. Her fingers dug against the concrete and she slowly turned so her back was to the wall. All around her - nothing.
Magic didn't stick to her. It didn't collect around her. This could not be…
She looked down, and nearly exhaled with relief when she saw there was only one shadow branching off from her feet.
But there was definitely another one, just a couple steps in front of her, facing the other direction. From the body of a person who wasn't there. Or wasn't visible.
"Get away from me!" she snapped. She dropped her shoulder so her purse slid down to her elbow, then crooked her arm and swung as hard as she could. The purse flew through the spot the person would've been standing if they'd really been there. There was no impact, no thud of her purse against someone's body.
When Sarah's arm crossed her body and she could see the sidewalk again, the other shadow was gone.
She ran the rest of the way back to the dorm.
A/N: This story has three chapters. The other two will be added over the course of a few days.