So… yeah this is my first EVER  fanfiction. Please be kind, but please don't lie if you think that it sucks. I'm a big girl I can handle anything that you throw at me, but I don't believe in being vicious towards struggling writers who only want to improve their writing and I don't think that others should either.

-Lady of Scarlet Darkness

Disclaimer: I own nothing but myself. So this means that I did not create the Labyrinth or anything seen/mentioned in the Labyrinth. So please do not sue. You would simply waste your time and pay more to your lawyer than you would get out of me.

" – Means dialogue

' - Means thoughts

PROLOGUE:

"I don't know why but every now and again for no reason at all I need you…all of you"

"Well! Why didn't you say so!!??", Hoggle cried as suddenly the room was filled with every being that she had met on her journey through the Labyrinth. (And even a few that she didn't meet. Some for the party and some just to see the mortal girl who had bested Jareth)

Sarah sprang forth from her vanity table with a cry of joy and flung herself into the embrace of her friends, who were dancing and talking in joyous abandon. Sarah knew that later her room would be trashed beyond belief and that her overbearing parents would demand an explanation to all the racket during the night, but for now Sarah didn't care. She was with her friends from the Labyrinth, all of them. As she thought this though, doubt crept into her mind. It seemed that the aristocratic sneer of a certain Goblin King was nowhere to be seen.

" Of course he isn't here! Why would he want to come to a party in honor of the one who had defeated him and his un-beatable labyrinth!" Sarah thought sensibly, ignoring the pang of sadness that this realization brought.

Even this did not stop the hope that he came as she vainly searched the growing crowd, ignoring all others in her elusive search. Suddenly she had a vague sense of déjà vu and certain memories of another search began to seep into her consciousness; Sarah stopped dead in her tracks. The Peach….. the Dream……the Dance.

"Oh dear," Sarah thought bringing her fingers to her lips to stifle the gasp that threatened to escape. In her quest to save her brother her mind conviently forgot that………incident.

Suddenly the memories sprang forth in a tempestus torrent filling her mind with nothing save the ball…the emotions…and Jareth. Sarah blindly searched for a chair in which to sit and contemplate her confusing emotions and thoughts. She sank down gratefully into her window seat. Outside the night wind stirred the leaves in the trees, awakening them from their placid slumber. Suddenly she saw a flash of white in trees from the corner of her eye, Sarah turned fully so that she was looking completely out the window. Sitting in the branches straight across from her window was a large barn owl. This time the gasp did escape the confines of her mouth, for the owl stared unblinkingly at her with Jareth's mismatched eyes. As Sarah lost herself in the endless depths of those piercing eyes Sarah saw something. Something that made her heart race and her breath quicken……..a promise.

With a flurry of wings the owl ascended into the star cloaked darkness of the night.

She thought idly why she had searched for him among her friends. She wondered vaguely if she considered him a friend (if not more but it was still to early to even begin to dwell on that). She decided that yes, she did. This sudden admission to herself completely unnerved her.

'He was a monster! He kidnapped Toby! How can I count him as friend?' Sarah thought wildly.

'You asked him to take Toby', a voice said in her mind, which could only be her conscience (or at least she hoped because if not then that would make her both crazy and skitzo!)

'But I didn't mean it' Sarah mentally shot back to the disembodied voice in her mind.

'You said the words and you know that he had to take him', the voice replied back in a voice serenely confident in it's reasoning.

'I didn't know that he was real!' Sarah cried back (mentally of course) grasping at straws

'True but you were hoping that he was so that doesn't matter' the voice said back in the same confident voice that was beginning to grate on Sarah's nerves.

'Damn! Point to spooky disembodied voice…..well he was still unfair and made it next to impossible to get Toby back!'

'And what he was supposed to make it easy? Come now Sarah be sensible!' the voice replied with a light chuckle.

'Well……what about the peach? Hmmmmm?'

The voice said nothing.

'What? Nothing to say to that?' Sarah began to taunt thrilled at finally stumping her subconscious , but decided on dropping that subject before she began to dwell on it again and would be forced to confront both her thoughts and emotions.

'Only I would be fighting with a disembodied voice over the actions of the Goblin King while a party in MY honor was in full swing! I am such a loser!'

Laughter came from her supposed conscience as she thought the last part of her thought.

                Although the party lasted for several more hours and was considered to be a huge success by all who attended, it held no joy for Sarah. Her mind was somewhere else, somewhere in the darkness along with an owl on its long flight home.

                None of her friends seemed to notice her lack of enthusiasm, or if they did they simply wrote it off as exhaustion. After all she had spent the past 13 hours running the Labyrinth, and once the adrenaline wore off she would be sure to sleep like a baby. So they left her with goodbyes and promises to visit (along with a trashed room). Of course they were right, Sarah DID sleep like a baby. Too bad it was like a newborn, for she awoke several times during the night and more often than not crying. She could never fully understand or explain those tears, but a part of her felt empty as if she had lost something precious.

~~~

Author's Notes:

                Yes that's it. I know not a literary masterpiece, but hey it's mine. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read it to the very end. So, I would love to hear from you! Did you love it? Hate it? Want to print it out then burn it in a ritualistic sacrifice? Tell me and I will be happy at any comments!

Peaches to EVERYONE (even the lurkers who didn't review, cause hey I've done it too!)