I woke suddenly, the loud echo of thunder still rumbling in my ears. I sat up with a frustrated sigh and brushed a strand of hair from my face. I shivered suddenly, feeling as though someone had been watching me. I shook the feeling off with an angry murmur.

It had been four years. FOUR YEARS. And I still couldn't sleep during a thunderstorm. My roommate - Rikki – also had trouble sleeping while thunder and lightening were battling outside. But I knew for a fact that it was simply the noise that frightened her. Not the memory of a particular Goblin King bursting through the nursery door after his army of goblins had just kidnapped a particular baby brother. I pushed the covers back and threw my legs over the side of my bed. As I did a lamp clicked on. Rikki sat up resting her head on her elbow and her elbow on her pillow.

"Can't sleep?" I asked and she nodded her blonde curly hair bobbing as she did.

"I hate storms." She groaned and I let out a small laugh.

"I know."

"Do you think you'll get back to sleep?" she asked.

"Do I ever?"

A smile crept over my face. I didn't have to ask; the look on Rikki's face told me she was thinking exactly what I was thinking. I crept from the room and into the poor excuse of a kitchen. I fished a tub of ice cream from the bar fridge and two spoons from a drawer before returning to our room. Rikki had turned on the small CD player on her desk and a soothing melody was forcing its way into my head. I took a deep breath and let out all my anxiety as I exhaled. There was nothing to worry about. It had been four years. The goblin king wasn't going to make a reappearance. I sat cross legged on Rikki's bed, the ice-cream nestled in the blankets between us. We each scooped up a helping and I sucked on my spoon, savouring the double chocolate, choc-chip ice-cream.

"It is impossible to put to much chocolate into something." Rikki said and I nodded.

"If this were covered in another layer of melted chocolate…It still wouldn't be enough."

The two of us laughed. Rikki and I had been friends for the past two years. I'd moved upstate to live on campus, so I didn't have to travel to college every day. There had been a couple of tear filled goodbyes. First with Dad and Karen and then with Toby. After running the labyrinth I'd returned a different person. A more mature person. Karen had certainly noticed the difference and surprisingly we began to get along. I wouldn't go so far as to say we were family, yet. But we talked and sometimes even bonded. That was close enough.

My first day in college had been terrifying but the moment I walked into my room things had been fine. Rikki was a year older then me and had been studying on campus ten months prior to my arrival, so she showed me around told me which lecturers to avoid and took me to the best restaurants nearby. We had clicked instantly and I had found that we had a million things in common. Our hate for storms was one shared idea. Along with our hate for peaches. Again Rikki only hated the taste. I hated the memory of a particular drugged peach... putting me off for life. Rikki was a smart girl, studying to become a physicist. That worked perfectly for me. We had conversations about atoms and matter. We theorized about the beginning of the earth and all the wonders of the universe and we threw mind boggling, periodic equations at each other. It was enough to keep my mind completely occupied. And when my mind was occupied, I wasn't remembering anything about the labyrinth.

A clap of thunder made me jump and I was snapped from my reverie. I smiled at Rikki as she continued talking about her physics lecture this morning. We did this every time a storm swept our way. Sat up all night talking and joking around until the storm finally stopped. It was tradition. I went for another helping of ice-cream when a loud tapping on the window made both Rikki and I jump. My eyes shot to the curtains and I froze.

"Thunder?" I asked, hopefully and Rikki shook her head.

"I don't think it was…"

I dropped my spoon and quickly stood up heading for the window. I took a deep breath before I slid the curtains open. An owl was sitting on the window sill outside, peering in with glittering eyes. I let out a yelp and stumbled backwards tripping on a shoe behind me before I fell to the floor with a crash. Rikki laughed. Unfortunately she didn't share my hate of barn owls. It was the opposite.

"Sarah, I can't believe you're scared of a little owl!" She teased, helping me up as she looked out the window.

"They're such gorgeous creatures." She sighed and I eyed the bird, unsure.

Rikki reached for the window latch and I quickly grabbed her arm.

"WHAT! Are you doing?" I screeched and she rolled her eyes.

"I just want to see if I can pet it. It hasn't been scared off yet."

"I'll scare the stupid thing off…" I mumbled under my breath as the window was slowly opened. I stepped back subconsciously and trembled as the cool night breeze blew in. A loud clap of thunder echoed over the grounds and Rikki screamed, diving away from the window just as her fingers brushed the owls back. It ruffled its white wings and hooted. I was absolutely positive it stared at me before flying off. But I was probably being paranoid. There was a faint click and then the campus clock began ringing loudly.

Dong, Dong, Dong. Dong.

Stupid clock. I ignored the ringing and pushed another spoon of ice-cream into my mouth.

Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong.

They should really consider getting that clock blown up!

Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong.

Finally!

Dong.

I choked on the ice cream in my mouth. Rikki waited for me to stop coughing before scooping up more for herself.

"Did you hear that?" I gasped and she shrugged.

"Yeah. It's midnight."

"No! There were thirteen! It rang thirteen times!"

Rikki looked at me curiously.

"Your probably just tired, Sarah. Get some more ice- cream in you! It'll wake you up. We have some serious chatting to do!"

I nodded and quickly glanced out the window. Just making sure the owl had definitely gone. Rikki was right. I was probably just tired. And I'd always been paranoid. I filled my spoon.

Thirteen times?

I was so sure it had.