A/N: This is my first ever Labyrinth fic, though I've been an avid part of the fandom since I was about five years old. . Anyway, I would really appreciate reviews--especially as Jareth is so hard to keep in character. So now, without further ado…

Disclaimer: I hate to confess it, but I don't own the Goblin King or any of his various minions or love interests. I don't even own the DVD. But life isn't fair. Don't sue me.

Sarah sat at her vanity, brushing her long, glossy hair back into a ponytail with absolutely no spark of interest in her eyes.

"Sarah Michelle Williams! Hurry up or we'll be late for the appointment!" her step-mother's voice floated up the stairs.

"Because I totally agreed to doing this." Sarah muttered.

"Honey?" her dad's voice now, directly outside her bedroom door. "Are you okay?" Sarah slammed her brush down on the vanity and scowled at her reflection.

"Oh, sure, Dad!" she snapped sarcastically. "I mean, what nearly-sixteen year-old isn't okay with being carted off to a psycho-doctor?!" She heard her dad mumble something incoherent in reply and shuffle away from the door. Sarah shrugged and started to brush her hair again.

This had all started a few months after she had beaten the Labyrinth and saved Toby. At first, everything had been fine. Hoggle and Didymus and Ludo had visited her all the time and she was happy. She and her step-mother had even started getting along to some extent and Sarah's relationship to her brother had become amazingly strong.

But after a while, Sarah started to feel like she was missing something. Sure, her friends were there, but it seemed like there was something important that she had left behind. Never one to enjoy reality to begin with, she despised it now. She wanted to go back to the Labyrinth--to the other world and she called her friends more often and was less careful.

Her father and step-mother had started hearing her one-sided conversations with Hoggle. Of course, they never heard Hoggle, so they thought she was talking to herself. But after a while, even these conversations stopped. The more gloomy and depressed Sarah became, the less she called on her friends and the more alone she felt. Her grades started dropping, she and her step-mother had started fighting again and Sarah was found, once, standing outside in the middle of the night, in the rain. Needless to say, her parents were worried. They thought it was a phase though, and probably would have let it go.

But everything had really come apart when Sarah had come home from school one day and found Karen in her room, filling a box with her stuff.

"What are you doing?!" Sarah cried, looking at the huge box in the middle of her bedroom floor.

"Just a little spring cleaning." answered Karen cheerfully. "I though I'd help you out by getting rid of some of the stuff you never use. We're going to have a yard sale."

"You have no idea what I want to keep!" Sarah exclaimed angrily.

"Why bother keeping things that you never use?" Karen wondered, reaching out and picking something else up, her back to Sarah, so the dark haired girl couldn't see what it was. After a moment of looking at it, she tossed it carelessly over her shoulder into the box.

Sarah realized what it was as it hit the side of the box and a flash of blonde hair confirmed her suspicions. It was the doll of the Goblin King that her mother had given her. Sarah went ballistic.

"Get out of my room! GET OUT!" she screamed.

"What has come over you, Sarah?" Karen demanded.

"Get the hell out!" Sarah shoved over the cardboard box and everything spilled out. "I hate you! Get out NOW!"

Karen's eyes, wide with shock and hurt were the last Sarah saw of her before she vanished out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

She had sat on the floor, by the mess for what seemed like hours, clutching the Goblin King doll to her chest and sobbing. When she had finally calmed down, she left her bedroom to get a drink of water, still carrying the doll. At the bottom of the stairs, she had seen her father and step-mother sitting at the table, talking about her. She had crept closer, trying to hear and, at the same time, not be heard herself.

"I just don't know what to do." Karen was saying. "This has been going on for months and I'm worried."

"I know." her father said quietly. "I am too."

"Then what do you think, should we take her to Dr. Ako?" probed Karen.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face. "I suppose that's the only thing we can do."

Sarah had slipped back upstairs at that point; she hadn't wanted to hear anymore. They thought she was crazy and wanted to take her to a psychiatrist! That was fine. She could prove to any doctor that she wasn't crazy.

"Sarah." her father's voice interrupted her musings. "You need to get down her this instant!"

"I'm coming!" Sarah yelled back rudely. She looked up at her mirror to check her hair one last time and felt an electric current course through her body. Just past her shoulder's reflection was a man, tall with dark, intense eyes and blonde hair. Sarah screamed and threw her brush at the mirror. The glass shattered and she was still screaming. The pounding footsteps on the stairs only vaguely registered in her mind before the bedroom door opened.

"Sarah! My God what's wrong?" her father's concerned face floated into her line of sight. "Stop screaming!"

Her mouth clamped shut; she hadn't realized that she was still screaming.

"What happened?" Karen was behind her father, surveying the destroyed mirror and the panicked teenager with a horrified look on her face.

Sarah's heart was pounding in her ears and she found she couldn't speak. After a couple gulps of breath, she was only able to get one word out before she fainted.

"Goblin."

A/N: I'm not sure I like the ending of this chapter too much, but it was necessary for what happens next. Please R&R!!