Sarah lay looking up on the ceiling of her bedroom. Jareth had let her go, just as Will had said he would. Will had set her up with money and high school transcripts for her new school. Good-byes had been teary back in the Underground, with Will and all the other friends she'd made during her times there. Saying good-bye to him had been the particularly hard and she almost recanted saying she wanted to go. She looked at the ring he'd given her, in the center of it she could often see herself in it sitting beside Jareth as his Queen. It took her a while to realize that what she was seeing and that he'd given her was his dream.

The phone rang but she let it go. It beeped and Karen's voice came over the speaker. "Hey, it's me, I got your message and your right we need to talk. How about the old park where you used to practice your lines, 10 o'clock? I'll get Toby to a sitter and meet you there."

Sarah smiled. She knew Karen would be the one to get her message. Her father never checked the voicemail and Toby was still too you to even talk on the phone. She got out and went to the bus stop without really thinking anymore about her old home. The bus stop near her old Victorian was deserted, a surprise considering it was Saturday morning. Normally there was a group of people out all hours of the morning. The bus itself was practically empty as well to her surprise. She was thankful for the fact that she had chosen to return so close to her old home, it made the ride shorter.

Getting off she made her way to the place she knew Karen was talking about. Over a Chinese bridge, tucked away in a far corner of the park where no one ever went, it was her favorite place in the park. They could speak freely there. Sarah took her time getting there, walking slowly with no purpose like she had once done when she was younger and practicing her lines. Her legs wanted to run over the bridge playing the part she had the last time she'd come here; the heroine from the little red book.

"Hello Karen," she said softly.

Karen still jumped up her face a mask of horror as if Sarah was a ghost. I thought it was a prank, a joke, I hoped she really didn't exist. She ignored her stepmother and sat down on the bench. Resuming her previous position Karen tried in vain to calm her thoughts and her breathing. I knew it was her voice but I was beginning to believe everyone else. "I knew it was you." She panted and then becoming serious she continued. "He told me about what…about what you did to yourself."

Sarah rubbed her arms. "He helped me through that, he saved me."

"And then he just let you go?"

The teen remained silent. Pain shot through her at the thought of Jareth, 5 months apart and he was still all she could think about. "He set me free." She sighed. "Don't think that you did me wrong by sending me away to him, believe me, it actually helped me."

"I can't believe that it was good for you to go with that man, he could have done things to you. Toby said that he loved you in some way, how do I know he wasn't some kind of obsessive stalker?"

"Karen, please let me explain this to you. Once upon a time I wished Toby away. Jareth offered me my dreams but I refused him even though we both knew my dreams were of him. I ran his Labyrinth and at one point I fell into a trap, a dream. In that time he revealed his feelings for me. But I rejected him again in order to save Toby. When I reached the center of the Labyrinth he offered me my dreams again but I rejected him for the third time again in favor of saving Toby for good. I broke him, defeated him, I deserved his rage but he looked past that and saved me from myself.

"When I got home everything was fine-to a point. Over time things got progressively worse; my mind became open to everyone."

"What are you talking about?"

"I could hear people's thoughts and feel what they felt. That's why I became a cutter; my pain blocked everything else out." The horror was evident on Karen's face. "It doesn't matter now. Jareth taught me to control it, to master it so I don't have to do that anymore. And after all that, he just let me go."

Pain choked her but it was only her own. The silence hung around them so much that even the birds were silent. Karen tried to get her thoughts together and to wrap her mind around what Sarah had explained. Jareth had obviously done no wrong by Sarah in fact he had helped her through an extremely hard time that Karen had missed.

"I didn't call you here to curse you, Karen; I came here to return the favor." Sarah stood up. "You sent me to Jareth and Jareth set me free. Now, Karen, I set you free. Go home, let me go, forget about me and go on with your life."

Behind her back Karen smiled softly. "Thank you."

Sarah smiled brightly. "Go home, Karen." Karen stood up and started to walk away. "Tell the little squirt I love him."

She was gone soon enough, leaving Sarah alone where she'd been standing before. Sarah's eyes gazed over the familiar longingly wishing for the owl who always watched her and the conviction she'd felt when she had spoken those words. She sat back down on the bench. She lay down on her back and crossed her legs. "But what no one knew was that the Goblin King fell in love with the girl and gave her certain powers," she whispered the quote reverently holding the ring up in front of her.

She had come to understand several things about the rules of the Fea. Jareth should never have let her go after she ate the peach. She was addicted to the magic, or at least she should have been. Then when she'd been wished away he should have kept her there but he hadn't. She was torn between the two worlds. Her heart longed to be with him but her mind knew there was something left here for her to do.

Her phone rang in her pocket. "Hello?"

"Hey, chick-a-di," Maggie laughed through the phone.

"What's up, Mags?"

"Nothing, what are you doing?"

"Just thinking." Her eyes gazed lovingly at the ring.

"Aaah, so boring."

"I know you think my life is dull." Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Wanna go to the mall?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you there."