AN: Sorry for the really long delay. This will probably happen a lot. I apologize in advance.

WARNING! Jareth is not a sparkling semi-baddie in this. He's a hardcore villain here.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, everything belongs to Jim Henson. If I did own Labyrinth, Jareth and Sarah would be canon. Just saying.


Chapter 2: Rabbit from the Wolf

Click

Sarah didn't move. She didn't breathe.

Don't panic. Don't panic Sarah.

But she could feel the panic flowing through her veins like ice. She had started breathing again but it was closer to hyperventilating than normal breathing.

Don't panic. Everything's fine.

Everything was not fine. The phone was dead –

Maybe you forgot to charge it. You've done it before. In fact, this same scene has played out before. Toby calls you, you talk for hours, and then your phone dies because you keep forgetting to charge it. Just plug it in and call him in the morning.

But Toby had said-

You might have heard wrong. Whatever he said doesn't matter. It's just coincidence that the phone went dead then.

She placed a hand on her heaving chest, her heart still thundering away.

But what if it's true?

What if nothing. What if the sun imploded? What if the ocean evaporated? What if the world stopped? Just take a deep breathe. One, two, three. See?

Sarah's breathing steadied out and she looked around her with wide eyes, pupils still blown wide with her brush of fear. What she saw was plain and normal and helped sooth her nerves.

Her regular old dorm room in her regular old dorm building at her regular old college. She was sitting at her standard-issue desk that was pushed against the south wall. To the right was her tiny-ass bed with her grandmother's quilt. Her dresser was against the far wall, clothes spilling out of the drawers, and next to it, the door. The wall opposite her bed was where the only window in the room was located, framed by bookshelves stacked to bursting. She could see the same dark sky outside that window, the same stars and the same trees.

Nothing was out of order. Nothing to suggest that anything was different in any way.

She closed her eyes. She took another breath and let it out slowly.

Last time those words had been spoken, the reaction had been instantaneous. The baby had stopped crying. The lights wouldn't come back on. A gob-something had been in the baby's place and then there had been nothing. Nothing. And then the laughter. The snickers and giggles, the chuckles and snorts. The movement just at the edges of her vision. And then the window-

But she wasn't nothing. She was sitting right here. Right where she had been throughout her phone call with Toby. The lamp on her desk was still on and the only sound to be heard was the whoosh-foosh of the air moving through her lungs. Nothing had been moving when the phone call had ended abruptly. Her window wasn't shuttering as he- Nothing was wrong.

Upon opening her eyes, her gaze went to the plastic in her hand. The screen was black. She resolutely got up and started digging for her charger under her bed. Upon finding it, she plugged it in and smiled grimly when the screen lit up again.

See? Nothing out of the ordinary.

Except those words.

The smile melted off her face and she sat heavily onto the bed. Her dark hair slid over her face as she ducked her head and hunched her shoulders against the weight of those words.

I wish the goblins would take you away.

Fear sliced through her heart like a piece of glass. In the back of her mind, she noticed her hands trembling.

She hadn't thought about those words in a long time. So long in fact, it had taken Toby telling a simple story to drag up those memories-no dream. Just a dream. A dream that had seemed so real but a dream it was. All it was.

Now that the dream was back in her mind, she could remember it as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. The sparkling stone, the twisting passages, the oubliette, the disgusting bog, the disorienting Escher room, and her friends. Here a smile spread tentatively across her face. The grumpy dwarf, the innocent monster, the courageous fox and his cowardly steed.

And then, and then there was him. Her smile turned into a grimace and she squeezed her eyes tight shut. The man who wasn't a man. The man who wasn't even human. How much like a nightmare had he haunted her? Weaving in and out of her dreams. Sometimes she even swore she had seen him in her waking moments. Those were the times that scared her the most. If a dream was just a dream, then why was he haunting her so?

But she had no answer. Even with all of these psychology classes, she didn't have an answer. If it had been someone else, anyone else, she might have been able to give it a scientific name, a diagnosis. But her mind was blank.

One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands.

Well, Sarah was sitting right now. But what was there to judge? If she was judging herself then she would have to stand. But if she were to stand, who was to judge? Could she rely on someone else to judge her sanity? What if she was thrown into an asylum?

She pulled a hand through her hair, hazel eyes glazed as she looked within herself for answers.

But answers were always hard to find by oneself. You had to go looking for them. You had to have an adventure, like all the books said. You had to find the answers by finding yourself.

She huffed out a breath. Her mind was no longer blank. In fact, it felt like it was trying to overload itself on questions. Maybe she should just take a walk. Calm her mind, breathe.

She got unsteadily to her feet and sighed. Now where were her shoes?

Once she had successfully found out her shoes and a jacket, she changed from her pajama bottoms into a pair of jeans. It was cold outside.

With one final glance at her phone, she grabbed her dorm key and left. The lamp on her desk flickered as she closed the door.

'Christ is it cold.' Sarah thought.

She hugged her jacket closer around her body as she pushed open the dormitory building door. An autumn wind slipped through the cracks in her armor and chilled her to the bone. Leaves fell in heaps as she walked across the courtyard. In the middle of the paved square, a fountain tinkled merrily, the school motto emblazoned in bronze shone in the light from the building behind her. Another student was sitting at the fountain, a thick tome in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

The door closed with a bang behind her, making her jump. The student merely looked up briefly before returning to his book. He took a drag of his personal poison as Sarah walked along the other side of the fountain. She didn't want to start any conversations or walk away awkwardly. Avoiding confrontation altogether seemed the best option.

As she strolled leisurely around the fountain, leaves crunched in tune with each step and, coupled with the music of the falling water, her mind started to calm down. Soon, it felt like a still pond, rippling occasionally in the wind but not disturbed.

Sarah took a deep breath and let it out in a white poof. It really was starting to get cold out. She hunched inwards, trying to conserve what little heat her jacket was keeping in.

Sarah followed the pavement idly as she let her mind think of nothing in particular. Her feet took her away from the fountain but just as she was about to turn a corner and walk along the building's side, she turned back on an impulse. The student was no longer there.

She frowned and looked around. She hadn't heard the door slam shut, was he still out here? Or had he just closed the door softly, knowing it would slam and possibly wake someone? Her eyes flickered around the courtyard but she could see no one.

The wind howled through the trees and she shivered. She really should have brought a thicker jacket. Sarah turned and continued walking.

Now that she was out here, the wind seemed to blow a lot harder. From inside, it hadn't looked that bad. Now she could barely see for her hair flying in her face. At one point she nearly choked when it tried to climb down her throat. She spat it out and tied it up in revenge. Though now of course the back of her neck was exposed to the cold air.

She growled low in her throat. Tonight just wasn't her night. At least she was calmer though. Her phone would be charged by the time she got up later today. She stopped in her tracks. It was already day. She looked at the watch around her wrist and with a jolt realized that she had been twenty-one for thirty-five minutes now.

"Happy birthday to me," she smiled wistfully.

The wind blew harder, the branches overhead screeching as they rubbed against one another. A cloud floated across the moon like a tattered cloth had been thrown over a lamp, drowning the world underneath in darkness.

"Alright, alright, I give up! I'm going back inside," she shouted at the sky. There was no answer but the howling of the wind and the leaves scratching across pavement as she turned back.

Then a new sound came. A sort of clicking.

Sarah stopped and turned her head to listen better. It sounded almost like heels on the pavement. The sound stopped a second later. She turned to look behind her but she couldn't make out anything in the darkness. She continued on.

And so did the new sound.

The paranoid thought that she was being followed entered her mind, bringing with it a slight jolt of adrenalin. Sarah deliberately scuffed her feet along the pavement just to be sure it wasn't her and when the heels kept along at their patient pace, her own feet subconsciously moved faster. Before she knew it, she was running.

How had she gotten so far from the fountain?

Her breath was coming in gasps, the air stabbing at her lungs like ice shards. She couldn't hear anything over the sound of her feet slapping on pavement and her heart pounding in her ears. The thought I don't want to die on my birthday ran through her head before she shoved it aside. She was not going to die. Don't be ridiculous.

Up ahead, she saw the building's corner, light was pouring from beyond it and she knew that if she only got around the corner, she'd be fine.

A figure suddenly turned around the corner and she skidded to a halt, nearly falling. The slender silhouette was barely distinguishable. The pounding in her ears only seemed louder now that her feet had stopped.

The figure merely stood there. It was obvious the person was wearing heels and they seemed to have a large quantity of hair and Sarah automatically relaxed. It was probably just another early riser out for a walk and she too must have stopped at the shock of seeing someone else. Though maybe she couldn't see her, it was dark after all. Maybe she had just heard running feet and stopped.

"Hello!" Sarah shouted over the wind, raising a hand in greeting. She took a few steps forwards.

The figure didn't move.

Something about the absolute stillness of the figure made a shiver of foreboding crawl up her spine. Her feet stuttered to a halt as her hand fell limply to her side. Something wasn't right.

The wind howled and this time, it had a voice.

"Sarah."

She froze. And then she started to tremble, her teeth chattering in her mouth. A hand came up to grasp at her collar.

"Sarah."

She took a step back and the figure mirrored her, taking a step towards her.

"No," she whimpered. "No, no, no." She took another step back and the figure took one in turn. Like a dance. A dance from hell.

"No," she choked out. She turned and ran.

Across the pavement and into the bordering woods, she ran full-out, the laughter ringing out behind her and around her. She could barely make out where she was going it was so damn dark.

Why did you come out here? Why? Why?!

She was practically sobbing as she ran. Something whooshed overheard and something soft brushed her head. The sound of flapping wings had her skidding and making a sharp turn, nearly smacking her head on a low-hanging branch.

She was now thoroughly lost. She didn't know in what direction she was running, she didn't know if a tree was in front of her before she was swerving around it. And she didn't know where he was. But he was there.

Sarah looked behind her and saw a dark shape bearing down on her. Suddenly she was on the ground and her ankle gave a sharp crack as her foot twisted around a root.

She screamed. Her fingernails dug into the cold, hard earth beneath her as tears started to fall from her eyes.

Get up, get up, GET UP!

She managed to get to her knees when a heavy weight settled itself on her ankle. She cried out as claws dug into her already bruised flesh. She kicked out with her other foot and felt it connect. A harsh screech stabbed at her ears as the weight left her leg but she was already up and running, her ankle throbbing with every step.

You're just a mouse to him, Sarah. You're his prey.

Prey can escape, they can! She thought back to all those biology documentaries she had had to watch in science class all those years ago. The rabbit running from the wolf. She remembered how the rabbit changed direction as often as it could and she too started swerving and turning.

Sarah turned around a thick oak and there was light ahead. She sobbed in relief. The courtyard was just ahead.

Get to the door, go, you can make it.

The pain in her ankle intensified but she kept going. She was almost safe. She stepped out of the dark skirts of the trees and smacked into what felt like a wall and steel bands wrapped around her waist.

She looked up in alarm just as the cloud ran from the moon and light fell upon the face she had hoped to never ever see again.

"Hello, Precious."

Her breath escaped her in a whoosh. Had she ever had air in her lungs to begin with? Her head felt woozy. This couldn't be happening. This was impossible. He couldn't be-

"Jareth," she breathed. Her breath hitched once more as his lips pulled up in a knife-sharp smile. Mix-matched eyes gazed hungrily down his aquiline nose at her as his arms wrapped themselves more securely around her and the cliché thought that if he hadn't, her knees would give out passed fleetingly through her mind. Her ankle stabbed at her nerves.

"Aw, so you remember now, do you?" He laughed. Feather-light hair that seemed just as soft flowed gently in the gust of wind around them while hers whipped around in its ponytail. "Are you done running?"

She swallowed around the lump in her throat and his eyes followed the movement. She shook her head minutely.

He didn't smile this time. He merely let his eyes wander across her face. Tracing the curve of her cheekbone, the arch of her eyebrows, the plain of her forehead, the dimple at the corner of her mouth, the bridge of her nose, and coming to rest briefly on her slightly parted lips before darting back up to her eyes.

He cocked his head. "You've grown up, princess," he said.

She shuddered and turned her head at the hungry light in his eyes. Her hands came up to his chest to push him back and, to her annoyance, found that he was giving off enough heat to warm her smarting fingers. She pulled away quickly, her fingertips brushing the weird medallion he always wore.

He laughed deep in his chest, the sound rolling through her. He bent closer until his mouth tickled her cold ear. He blew on it and the blood starting flowing back to the exposed skin. A shiver ran up her spin and she tried to break away again but he held her fast.

"Not this time, precious," he breathed against her, his lips tickling her ear. "This time, you're mine."

"Please," was all she was able to say as her senses started to fade. Before she blacked out completely, around the corner and across the courtyard a clock started to chime the hour. It rang thirteen times.


When she awoke, the first thing Sarah was aware of was the pain in her ankle.

She groaned. Without opening her eyes, she stretched out a hand to feel the swollen area. Her hands only reached her knees when they were stopped.

Her eyes sprang open. Around each wrist was a thick manacle. There was even one across her undamaged ankle. The chains were bolted the floor a few feet away from her.

Looking around her, she saw that she was once again in darkness. But unlike before, this darkness felt close, the air was stale and earthy. She was lying against cold stone floor and the only meager light came from a hole in the ceiling directly above her. The light was very little, as if through a long tunnel. She couldn't see anything outside of the circle of light but she felt eyes on her all the same.

She pulled on the chain in desperation. But the only reward she got was chafed wrists and the clink of metal ringing and echoing in the close space.

Sarah didn't even bother crying out. Whoever had put her here wasn't going to let her out anytime soon. She curled into a ball and fought the tears stinging her eyes.

She didn't know how long she lay there when she heard footsteps. The same clicking, slow paced footsteps from before. Something brushed against her back and she curled tighter around herself, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Tut, tut, Sarah," he admonished. Of course it was him. Who else could it have been? "I never took you for a coward. You were always such a spitfire."

She didn't acknowledge him with a response, merely grabbed hold of her collar and stayed silent.

He made an impatient sound. Then her eyes flew open as he kicked her stomach, effectively turning her over and knocking the wind out of her in one swift move.

She chocked as she clutched at her middle. He walked calmly around her prone figure, his black cloak sliding across the floor softly. He knelt before her, his face half in shadow.

"You've brought this upon yourself, princess," Jareth tsked. He thrust a hand into her hair and brought it up to his level.

She cried out as her hair pulled at her scalp, her neck at an odd angle as he tilted it so he could see her in the light falling upon the scene.

"If you hadn't wished away your poor baby brother all those years ago, we wouldn't be here." His hand twisted in her dark hair harshly. She winced.

"But I won." She croaked, glaring disdainfully into his face.

His lip curled angrily before he started laughing. The reaction was so unexpected, Sarah jumped.

"You were never supposed to win, precious. And," he pulled her head even closer to his own, their lips a mockery of an almost-kiss. "Now that you've been given so freely to me," His sharp teeth bit into her bottom lip, tearing the flesh. "I'll never let you go."

Bracing herself, she spat a mouthful of blood into his face. With a growl of rage, he threw her head down. She managed to catch herself before she slammed into the stone floor but she knew she was going to pay dearly.

Jareth got languidly to his feet and stood over her, his face not betraying a hint of emotion. His medallion flashed in the light as he brought his hands up and made a twisting motion with his wrists. With a flash, three silver baubles were twirling in his gloved hands. Sarah couldn't help following the motion with her eyes even as she sat up and inched away from him.

"Sarah," he said her name in that special way he did. "Don't defy me."

Even as Sarah warily watched the Goblin King juggle the balls in his hands, she felt a jolt of recognition go through her. Jareth had said those exact same words the first time they had met and had then promptly thrown a snake at her. She flinched when two of the balls disappeared in a burst of light and glitter. Despite this odd feeling of déjà vu, she wasn't going to play along.

"You have no power-" He moved faster than she could track. One moment he was standing outside the ring of light in which she lay and the next she was dangling in the air, his hand around her throat.

She gasped, whether from surprise or lack or air she didn't know. His hand was like a vice around her esophagus. Her hands tried to come up and pry his gloved hand off but the chains kept them waist high.

"Wrong." He breathed, eyes flashing dangerously. His grip tightened even more, making her gag. "Too long have you been able to escape my grasp with those pathetic words. Too long have I had to wait for my chance. And now that it's here, precious," he leaned closer. "I won't be passing it up for anything."

Sarah's mouth worked as she tried to breathe, her hands jerking, trying in vain to free herself. Black spots were starting to swim before her eyes.

His dagger smile flashed and he let her drop. She fell to her knees before him, gulping in as much air as her abused throat would allow.

"I rather like you on your knees, bowing before me." He hummed thoughtfully, circling her.

"Why?" she gasped, her hand coming up to massage her throat.

"Well, because I've been thinking of overpowering you for years now. I always thought you were such a strong little spitfire." He laughed raucously. "But now that you're here, I can see you for what you really are. And it's just marvelous how very weak this new you is."

"No." She shook her head.

"No what, sweetling?" He snapped.

"Why didn't you finish it just then?" She watched his feet through her hair. He was still circling her, like a bird of prey circles it's lunch. "You could have ended my life not two seconds ago. Why didn't you?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead he continued to walk around her for another minute before stopping right behind her.

"Because it wouldn't suit me."

"What the hell is that supposed to-?" Sarah turned to look behind her but he was gone. Her head whipped from side to side. She was alone.

Sarah slowly sat up, every bit of her aching. She stretched her right foot out, her ankle now pulsing angrily, and pulled her other knee up to lean her head against it.

Because it wouldn't suit me.

I've been thinking of overpowering you for years now.

It wouldn't suit me.

What was that supposed to mean? If he wanted to overpower her, wouldn't killing her be the sweetest treat? Though torturing her seemed to have its merits too, wouldn't getting rid of her forever prove the ultimate overpowering? She ran her tongue over her torn lip.

None of this made sense. Sure Jareth had been the bad guy when she solved the Labyrinth, but this was almost too much. Last time, he had merely been another challenge to getting Toby back, just another obstacle to overcome. Now…now he incited fear. He was now the ultimate villain. Cruel, vicious, nigh on unhinged and unpredictable.

How had this happened?

Sarah reached out and tenderly prodded her swollen ankle. She hissed as the pain intensified. Broken. She sighed. How was she going to get out of here on broken ankle? How was she going to get out of here period? If Toby had wished her here, then wouldn't he have to travel the Labyrinth too?

She closed her eyes in defeat. She had tried so hard to win her little brother back and it seemed like they were both being subjected to Jareth's little game all over again. But where was Toby? Jareth hadn't said anything about Toby battling his way to the castle. Hadn't mentioned him being here at all. With a sinking feeling, Sarah felt that this time, there would be no hero to rescue the maiden.

"Some birthday you're having Sarah," she said to herself. "Some birthday." She curled up on her side and willed herself to sleep, wishing that when she awoke, she'd be right back in her regular old dorm room.

She dreamed she was studying for her Juggling Class exam. But she couldn't quite remember the technique needed to juggle twelve different goblins. She was standing in her family room at home. Toby and her parents were sitting on the couch ignoring her. Another goblin jumped into her arms cackling but still, her family took no notice.

"Dad, can you help me?"

Robert merely pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and stared at the television screen.

"Ellen?" Sarah called desperately. Her stepmother yawned but showed no sign of hearing her. "Toby?!"

And to her astonishment, he flinched and looked around. But his eyes passed right through her and the now fourteen goblins in her arms. He blinked and returned to watch the screen, a frown pursing his lips.

"Why can't they see me?" She asked no one in particular. The goblins seemed to find this amusing though and they all started laughing. One with a rather large snout squeeled.

"They don't know who you are, peach-eater." It cackled. It pulled a face as one of its friends started snorting. "No one knows who you are!" They all started laughing loudly as the room around them blurred like a window when it rains. When it cleared, Sarah found they were in the hallway. What she saw made her gasp and nearly drop the goblins.

Along the wall was a collection of pictures throughout the years. Where there should have been the photo of her graduation and the family photo of all four of them at Christmas, a picture of Toby and a new dog was in the place of her in her blue robes. But the thing that shocked her the most was the Christmas photo. Everyone was in the same exact spot but Sarah wasn't to be found.

"Is this real?" She gasped. The goblins jumped down from her tired arms as a voice whispered in her ear.

"Yes precious. I would say it is very real indeed."

She turned on her heel and ran but his laughter followed her. She wouldn't be able to escape this time. The wolf had gotten the rabbit at last.