Chapter One: Underwater

"It's not fair!" The girl cried, her voice echoing out of the room and down the empty hallway. Her shoulders arched and her head fell dramatically onto the piano keys and just rested it there, her silky brunette hair falling over her shoulder. The notes the keys coursed out were the total opposite of what the girl had been playing; they clashed together and caused the baby in the other room to squeal in horror.

"Anna!" Sarah Williams rushed out of the kitchen and into the music room where the piano was situated. "What's so unfair you had to wake up Freddy?"

The girl raised her head to turn and glare at her mother, "I can't get this right! These notes don't make any sense!"

"Perhaps if you stopped taking it for granted that this isn't going to magically come to you, then maybe they would," Sarah brushed her hand through her hair and walked into the nursery. She picked up the crying Freddy and balanced him on her hip. She walked back out into music room. Anna was no longer sitting at the piano; she had stormed off into her room. Sarah continued to hush Freddy as she walked into Anna's room. She was sitting in front of her mirror, staring into her own eyes.

Anna looked a lot like she did when she was fifteen. She acted a lot like she did when she was fifteen too. Her hair was straight and brown, not styled and dyed like so many other girls in her year. Her eyes were deep brown, too old, but too young to be the eyes of a teenage girl. Anna was spoiled. She got everything she wanted. Sarah had split up with her boyfriend just after Freddy was born, and now he spoiled their kids. Sarah hated the way Anna had become. Obsessed with lipstick, fantasies, costumes and plays. So much like Sarah's younger self…

"Your dinner's almost ready," Sarah murmured just as she sat down on Anna's bed. Freddy had stopped crying and was chewing on the ear of Anna's favorite teddy bear.

"Mom, why can't he just leave my stuff alone? I hate it!" Anna whined, staring at her mother through the mirror.

Sarah knew that Anna hated her. She preferred her father, who got her everything she wanted. She wanted to go and live with him, but Sarah wouldn't allow it. She had fought for custody of her kids, and wasn't giving them up now. Besides, Anna and Freddy stayed with their father every weekend.

Sarah plucked the teddy out of Freddy's unresisting hands and set it on her bed again. Freddy was about to bawl again, but she handed him a piece of chocolate to amuse him.

"I'll help you with that piece you need to learn," Sarah said to Anna, who was barely listening to her. She was reading a little book she had found in Sarah's room. Hidden in a shoebox under her bed, beneath a pile of old newspaper. The book itself was so fascinating. It was about a Labyrinth, an adventure. Anna loved adventures, but she was never going to experience one. Never in a million years. She could only dream.

"What is that?" Sarah asked as she set Freddy on Anna's bed and got up. Anna stood up quickly and hid the little book behind her back.

"Nothing… Dad got me it," She replied, but Sarah was already trying to pry it out of Anna's hands.

"I want to see it…" Sarah smiled and plucked it out of her hands.

"Anna!" She gasped, staring at the little red book in disbelief. "Where did you get this? You've been looking through my stuff again haven't you?"

"No…" Anna lied.

"Yes you have!" Sarah fumed and stuffed the book into her pocket. She picked Freddy up, and walked swiftly out of the room before slamming the door shut. "No supper, Anna! Maybe that'll teach you to stay out of my stuff!" Sarah had yelled as she walked up to the kitchen.

"It's not fair!" Anna screamed and hid her face in her hands. She began to weep, her body trembling. Why was her mother so cruel to her? Why couldn't she go live with Dad? Sarah wasn't right in the head. She didn't want to live with her deranged mother anymore. She took weird pills three times a day along with anti-depressants. According to her dad, she had been taking them since she was fifteen. She'd had a dream that sent her mental, apparently. She hadn't been right since.

Anna sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. Her mascara was down her cheeks and her lipstick was smudged. It was then her cell phone buzzed obnoxiously and started to play her favorite song. She picked it up and stared at the screen. It was an unknown number. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she hit the green button and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

Sarah swallowed her pills grudgingly before putting half of the pasta in the pot into a plastic tub. Anna's half of their supper, which she would probably just shove in the microwave when Sarah was sound asleep. Sarah wasn't hungry anymore. Her anti-psychotic medication just made her feel bloated and the anti-depressants made her feel even number with each passing day. Sarah was thirty two years old and had spent the past seventeen years slowly getting number and number, all because of that little red book in her pocket.

If she was still as young and naïve as Anna was; she would probably be yelling 'it's not fair' as well. No, it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that Toby died from meningitis not long after the doctor declared Sarah psychotic. She had 'saved' Toby from the 'Labyrinth' for him to die little over a month later. She blamed her 'imaginary friend' for Toby's death. If she wasn't feeling so numb, she would have sworn that 'he' had enchanted him while 'he had him in his clutches'. But of course, as her psychologist said, none of that could ever have happened. She could practically see him putting sarcastic inverted commas over the more theatrical parts of her stories.

Though, it didn't matter anymore. She was crazy. She had learned to accept that after Toby's death.

She couldn't even remember why she had bothered fighting custody for her kids, when one of them hated her and the other reminded her too much of the half-brother she had once wished away. Sarah sighed, and rubbed her eyes with her hands. She was tired. Tired of everything. Sometimes she dreamed of suicide. She told her psychologist this and he had her anti-depressants dosage pumped up. That really did put her off telling that man anything, if his main aim in life was to make all of his patients numb to life so they could die naturally and peacefully.

Freddy was finished throwing his food around the kitchen so she picked him up and took him back to the nursery. She really couldn't be bothered trying to force feed a child that didn't want to be fed. He found it so much more fun to rub into her hair or plaster the walls with it anyway. Besides, it was Friday. Andrew would be around first thing in the morning to pick up Anna and Freddy anyway. Then she would have the whole weekend to lie in her bed and stare at the ceiling, wanting to cry more than anything. But of course, she was too numb to cry. There wasn't enough feeling in her to conjure up the emotions needed for crying.

After leaving the nursery, she ran herself a bath. Stripping herself of her clothing, she sunk into the hot relaxing water and closed her eyes. In the end, it was her lack of emotion that made Andrew split up with her. She never smiled, laughed or even cried. Not once. But she was sure that it was her lack of desire for sex that was the final straw. Besides, she was sure she was bedding the sexy single lady that lived next door to him anyway. Her theory was proven correct anyway. Three months after parting ways, she moved in with him. Sarah hadn't even caught her name.

Anna viewed that woman as her mother. And a mother she was to Anna. She doted over her, did her hair, gossiped about boys, helped her with piano and took her shopping. Not to mention going to every play she had been in. The woman was unemployed, unlike Sarah, who worked most days except weekends. Sarah never doted over Anna, did her hair, gossiped about boys or took her shopping. The reason was because Anna wouldn't let her. The only thing she would let Sarah do was help her with piano. Anna had rejected Sarah a long time ago and that was never going to change, not if she was going to be eternally numb.

Sarah had thought on many occasions to stop taking her pills, but the thought of emotion scared her. The pills lulled her into a sense of security; she always knew that they would make her feel numb and never would they backfire. She'd spent seventeen years numb and she didn't know what it was like to feel anything. Sure, every now and again, there would be the ghost of a spark of happiness or sadness. Just like when she took that little red book from Anna's hand. She remembered that ghost of a spark of an emotion she didn't recognize. Somewhere between happiness, shock and hurt.

Happy because she loved that book more than anything. She hadn't seen it in years and it was a memoir of a younger, happier girl. Shock because she never expected Anna to have it, or take interest in it. Hurt because it was exactly what led to her being diagnosed psychotic.

Seventeen years ago, after she and Toby had been returned from the Underground, her 'friends' (being Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus) failed to visit her again. Nor did the Goblin King himself return to belittle Sarah, as she beat his game, and he of course was probably pissed off. No, she never saw one of them again. Then she made the worst mistake of her life. She told someone of her adventure within the Labyrinth. That person then made her tell the story again and again, until it was a well known fact around the school that Sarah Williams had completely lost her marbles.

After her diagnosis of psychosis, she began a trial term of anti-psychotic drugs to stop the delusions and the idea that she had ever ventured into a place called the Underground. The drugs worked. Sarah began questioning herself whether she really had ever been to the Underground. Of course, she was stubborn and was absolutely positive that she had.

Then Toby died; and Sarah fell into a deep depression. She still believed that she had rescued Toby, and after his death, it seemed all for nothing. She finally accepted that she never did go to a place called the Underground and had her anti-depression pills put onto a repeat prescription cycle. Her doctor was worried that she would be too numb but kept her on the drugs anyway because he even could see in her eyes that spark of fear in her eyes at the thought of being able to feel again.

The sound of Freddy crying echoed through the house like he was in a cave. Sarah ignored him, knowing that Anna would get him. Anna loved her brother, despite the nasty things she said. Sarah knew that Freddy was only familiar thing Anna could depend on seeing every day.

Five minutes must have passed, and Sarah could still hear Freddy crying. She decided that Anna was huffing or something, and was refusing to help Sarah in any way. So, Sarah got out of the bath, pulled the plug and dried herself. She wrapped the towel around her and exited the bathroom. Freddy was still wailing whenever Sarah entered the nursery. She picked him up and balanced him on her hip. Now he decided he was hungry. Fantastic.

On her way to the kitchen, Sarah pushed open Anna's door, while yelling, "Why didn't you go help your brother, Anna? Why are you being so selfish?"

But it wasn't worth it. Anna wasn't in her bedroom… or the music room, or Sarah's room, or the ensuite bathroom. She wasn't anywhere in the house, so Sarah decided she must have gone over to her friend's house across the street.

After successfully feeding Freddy, he put him in his cot and he fell asleep almost instantly. Sarah smiled at the sleeping child before shutting of the light and closing the door. Freddy still had his nightlight on so he wouldn't be scared of the dark.

After all, what was there in the dark to be afraid of?

Her head was pounding when Anna woke up. She didn't even notice she'd fallen asleep. Her eyes couldn't adjust to the dim flicker of orange light at first, but when they did, she gasped at what she saw.

She was in a circular room. The walls were made of stone but beautiful tapestries covered most of the bare stone and the floor was a mosaic, but a rug covered most of it. She was lying on a small brass bed with a single sheet covering what looked like a couple of bundles of hay that served as the mattress. There was steel grey blanket covering her and small feather pillow under her head. Directly opposite her was a large window, no glass, merely just a giant circle in the wall. But yet she felt no breeze.

In front of that window, was a desk and chair. On it was a single book that looked a lot like the one Anna had stolen from her mother's things. She knew for a fact that it was that little book that made Sarah crazy, but she couldn't understand what exactly it was about it that made her lose her grasp on reality.

The last thing she noticed was the man sitting on the chair that belonged to the desk. She jumped, startled and unsure. Shouldn't she have noticed that she had company long before she noticed everything else? Why had she not seen him sooner?

"Good evening," the man voiced, "Sarah."

Anna couldn't see his face; the candle only provided so much light. Why did he call her Sarah though? How did this man know her mother? Did she look like Sarah? Hardly, Anna was much younger than her mother. Anna couldn't help but wonder where she was either.

"My name is Anna," she whispered, fear eating at her. "Sarah is my mom. Who are you?"

The silhouette froze for a long moment, and that scared Anna. Did she say something wrong?

"You are not Sarah Williams. You are her daughter, Anna," the man murmured. "However that does not matter because, I have a gift for you, dearest Anna."

"You do?" Anna grinned. "What is it?"

The man held a small crystal ball in front of the single candle lighting the room. He began rolling it from his palm to his knuckles, repeating the motion over and over. Anna gaped at the illusion, wondering how he could ever do such a thing.

"It's a crystal," he replied, "nothing more. But if you look at this way," he stopped rolling it and held it between his thumb and forefinger, "it will show you your dreams. This is not a gift for an ordinary girl. Do you want it?"

The grin that was plastered on her face didn't falter, "Do I want it? Of course I do!"

The man threw the crystal ball at Anna and she caught it. She couldn't see it very well but once the man left, she would study it more carefully next to the candle light.

"Excellent," Anna could almost hear the smirk in the man's voice. "But in order for that little crystal to show what you wish to see, you must do something for me."

Anna's eyes narrowed at him, "What?"

"You are fifteen now, correct?"

Anna nodded.

"Good, then we are both adults here then," he said, "well more you than I. However, I want your mother and you will get me her. The first thing you must do is to get me those horrible pills she taints her heart with."

Anna's eyebrows furrowed, "Wait, who are you first?"

"I am no one, Anna, simply just a man who has been looking for your mother for a long time," he replied.

"Why do I have to get rid of her pills?"

"Do you not care that your mother is slowly dying because of the medication she willfully ingests?"

Anna swallowed and her eyes dropped to the floor. If she was being honest with herself, she thought it would be better for everyone if Sarah passed on. Sarah was a sunken ship that couldn't be brought back to the surface. Even Anna knew that Sarah had thought about killing herself. Anna would never have reacted positively to the thought, but she wouldn't reject it either. If Sarah decided to take her own life, then Anna respected it.

The man rose from his seat and began to approach Anna carefully, not wanting to startle her. She could see him better now that the candlelight wasn't behind him. He looked; well to be blunt, strange. The downward slant of his eyebrows, the sliver of silver beneath those arched brows, the mismatched eyes and the hard line his lips were set into; they all combined into the exotic features that made up his face.

He sat down next to her on the bed, but Anna shied away from him. There was something about him that her body was instinctively intimidated by.

"Anna," his voice had the smooth twist of an English accent that gave a sort of authoritative tone. "Since you have accepted my gift, I have searched through every thought and memory your little mortal mind have ever known. Why should you let your mother die, when you could simply give her to someone who would never interfere with your life again? I give you my word, that if you succeed in destroying Sarah Williams' medication, you can keep that crystal and never will you see your mother again. I promise you, it will be like she never existed."