Though We're Strangers Till Now…:
Sequel to The Way Forward Is Sometimes The Way Back
Author's Note: Okay, after an especially tough intense intro chapter, I really want to bring some happiness to the story… I originally planned for Rory and Sarah meeting more towards the end of the story, but after rereading Chapter One, I decided I'll have them unite now, but I'll do it from Rory's point of view…
I'll probably be switching to different characters' point of views throughout the story now, but for the most part between Rory, Sarah, and Jareth. You're probably thinking, "Of course you'll be switching from Rory and Sarah's point of views, this story is about them meeting… How big is Jareth's roll going to be in Rory's custody, though?" Aha, now see that's the thing… Sarah's been in the Underground for nearly 25 years now and… well, let's just say that Rory and Jareth don't really mesh…
Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape, or form own Labyrinth, its characters, its scenes, or quotes. They all belong to the geniuses Jim Henson, George Lucas, David Bowie, Brian Froud, Dennis Lee, Terry Jones, & Trevor Jones. I only own this fanfic storyline, the fanfic it is based off of, and the characters I made up (if I make up any).
Chapter Two: Though We're Strangers Till Now…
Rory sat on the windowsill of her small room looking out at the rain that was pouring down the window and the lightening that flashed, listening to the thunder that would rumble softly. I hate being in this tiny little room… I want to be in my own room… She thought angrily, but then tears welled up in her eyes as she realized she could never be in her own room again. She'd never be able to leave this tiny, little room in her foster family's house… her parents were dead. She was an orphan.
The worse thing about it though, was Rory knew she should be dead just like her parents. Her foster parents gasped and were horrified when she told them that, but Rory knew the truth. The night her parents died in the car crash was the night she was supposed to go on vacation with her parents.
They were all packed up and ready to go, but she decided to fight with them about her aunt. So they went back and forth yelling until Rory yelled she wasn't going to go anywhere with people that kept secrets from her and her parents decided to leave without her.
She was so sure that they would turn around and come back, just like they always did. But then an hour passed, then another, and another… Rory waited anxiously for her parents to return, but they didn't. Then the phone rang. She ran to answer it, hoping it was them; she didn't care if it was an apology phone call or an angry one, she just wanted to hear from them.
"Is this Lorelei Williams?" She heard a woman on the phone ask.
"That depends… Who is this?" Rory answered suspiciously (as she always is of strangers).
"This is Dr. Miranda Jefferson, I'm calling from the Henson Medicinal Center… A Delilah Macayle-Williams and a Toby Williams were admitted here a few hours ago…"
Rory sank to the ground, clutching to the phone and clutching on her last bit of hope.
"I'm very sorry to inform you that they both passed away… They had been in a serious car accident, and we lost them… I'm very sorry for your lo—"
Rory did not hear the rest of Dr. Jefferson's empty pity and commiseration for she had dropped the phone and begun to sob. She soon heard a dial tone from the phone, Dr. Jefferson had given up. She began to sob heavily as all of her built up emotions flooded out of her and combined with her anxiety and fear that she had recently been feeling.
It all seemed so surreal… It can't be true… Rory decided. She half expected to suddenly wake, sitting in her bed, everything just a horrible dream that wasn't real. But soon Child Services came to collect her and Rory found her self trapped in a horrible and traumatic nightmare she couldn't wake herself up from.
Rory got up from the window sill, tucking her long, fiery red hair into her black hoodie and pulled the strings around her face, sinking into the warmth, trying to rid herself of the chill she'd felt as she remembered that awful night. She rubbed her thighs anxiously as she sat Indian-style in the middle of her floor. Her normally comforting favorite jeans were feeling rather worn and different to Rory; just like she felt.
She was by no means a very preppy girl before her parents died, but after she was put in this foster home, she clamed up, shying away from the world she no longer felt a part of. She wasn't gothic by any means either, but she was haunted by a forbidding depression that she could not break herself from and she continued to wear black and other dark colors, mourning her parents. Much to her foster parents' dismay, at that. Even though she's only been with them for 3 weeks, it's felt like an eternity.
Rory pulled the edges of her hoodie sleeves to her fingertips and began to sift through a stack of papers that were scattered around her floor. Since she'd turned 13, she had begun to compile as much information she could find about her; Sarah, her aunt. Rory grew up without the huge families that her friends had. All her friends had grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her mother's parents had died when her mother was in high school and her mother's only brother had died unmarried, child-less, and unexpectedly just before Rory was born.
Her other grandfather had died when her father was just a little boy and Grandma Karen died when Rory was 4 or 5 years old. Rory could only remember her faintly if anything at all. She saw her all the time, but she only knew the woman for 5 years, and most of those years she couldn't remember anyway! That left her father's only sister; his half-sister, Sarah. Her father never mentioned Sarah and Rory was always curious about her aunt, but never asked Toby, unsure of his reaction.
When she turned 13, she finally mustered up the courage to ask him, and he had responded, "Why do you care about her? Have you ever heard from her? What does it matter?" His defensive and angry response shocked Rory. Out of the both of her parents, her father was the kindest and the most broad-minded.
Of course she loved her mother, but she had more of a connection with her father. He was always the one to build forts in between the furniture when it rained or stay up late with her, telling her stories; stories of kings and goblins and magic. He told her the stories as if he had experienced them himself with vivid descriptions and lively enthusiasm. And all of the stories, for some reason, included one female heroine.
After his defensiveness and his unwillingness to tell her about her aunt, Rory decided to find out about her herself. Rory was shocked to find out when she began investigating: there wasn't much to learn about Sarah. Apparently she'd gone to Julliard, but she dropped out in her Junior year, when Rory's grandfather died she was able to figure out. Then two years later, she just vanished. Into thin air.
She poured through state records, imagining that she'd moved to a different city. When she found no record of any "Sarah Lynn Williams" in the state, she searched for her in any other state: she found no record of her anywhere. She hypothesized that Sarah could have left the country, but the more she looked, the less and less she was able to find of her. Sarah had literally vanished off the face of the earth.
She considered that Sarah might have died, but she was not sure since Toby said, "Have you ever heard from her?", implying that Sarah might still be alive but does not keep in contact with him. For argument's sake, Rory checked every death record there was to check. She found that her grandmother had filed a missing person's report for her, but she was never found. She was presumed dead, but no body was ever recovered.
Rory was so sure that Sarah was still out there somewhere and she was determined to find her. She was a part of her and a part of her father. She knew she was still a part of her father, because while she was reading the main book that her father would read her stories from, she saw written in the inside cover, "Sarah Williams". If Sarah really meant nothing to him, Toby would not have kept a book that Sarah had obviously treasured to much. Rory knew Sarah treasured the book as it had little notes in her handwriting written in the margins and at the tops and bottoms of pages and there were certain sections and lines circled.
As Rory's eyes flew over the papers scattered around her, she shifted for a moment and stared out into space and began to consider. It always seemed like Dad's stories were based off of that book… but why? She suddenly moved to her bed, crouched down on the floor and reached under her bed, pulling out a wooden box, ornately decorated with carvings. She opened it, revealing her most treasured items.
She fingered the last few items she had left of her parents: her mother's locket, her father's watch, her mother's wedding ring. The courts gave her these little tokens at her request. She lifted the little shelf that held the cherished valuables. Under the little shelf was an assortment of pictures. Rory felt tears welling up in her eyes as she saw her parents' happy and smiling faces looking up at her. She noticed the only picture she had of Sarah. She was swinging her father on a swing, he was about 5 and she was 16. Rory though Sarah was absolutely beautiful, with ivory skin, long, pin-straight dark-brown hair and a lovely round face with pale green eyes.
Rory sifted through them, pausing at a picture of the three of them together. Rory remembered, it was her 9th birthday, she was sitting in her father's lap after blowing out the candles on her cake. His arms were wrapped around her waist holding her hands and her mother was hugging her from behind, wrapping her arms around Rory's shoulders. The three of them were looking at the camera, smiling and happy.
Rory wiped away her tears quickly and moved the picture aside and pulled out a book that was buried underneath the pictures. Rory ran her hands over the red leather of the small book. In the flash of lightening, in gold letters stamped in the leather, the words "The Labyrinth" could be seen on the cover of the small but elaborate book. Rory began to flip through the book, feeling connected not only to Sarah, but to her father as well. Even as she read Sarah's sprawled handwriting, she could hear her father's voice in her head telling her the words that she new only too well…
"Through dangers untold… and hardships unnumbered… I have fought my way here to the castle… beyond the Goblin City… to take back the child that you have stolen…"
Rory felt herself choking back sobs as she thought about her father reading the very words to her when she was a small child, her hanging on to his every word. He was always there to tell her a story when she was blue, enchanting her with stories of kings, goblins and magic. Rory's sadness soon turned to anger as she realized that magic that she loved so much had died with her father. She could never get that back.
And now I'm left to rot in this horrible foster home where nobody understands what I'm going through or what I'm feeling… I'm alone… Completely alone… Rory suddenly threw the book across the room and she could see it in the flashes of lightening lying on the floor helpless and abandoned; just like her.
"Why couldn't I have died with them! Why couldn't I have just died with them, instead of living alone with no one in the world to care about me?" Rory asked aloud, angry hot tears streaming down her face.
"The courts and my foster family don't give a damn about me… Nobody gives a damn about this poor little girl that lost her parents and has not a family member in the world…" She cried angrily. She began to sob, releasing all her built up anger and frustration.
When she had calmed down more, she crawled across the room on her hands and knees to the book. She sat down by it and picked it up and cradled it tenderly, stroking the soft cover. Wanting to feel closer to her father, like she had felt before, she opened the pages again. As her eyes flew over the words, she suddenly began to think. Dad always said that "Sometimes the things that we believe in the most are the things we least expect to be real…"… he always made the stories seem so real… what if they are real?
Rory shook her head as she laughed to herself. Oh, right… goblins are real and the Goblin King and the Labyrinth are real… Rory sighed, as she thought, Dad, you're wrong… Just because we believe in something doesn't make it real… But then… what if I want it to be real? What if I decide that it's real?
Rory rose up into a more comfortable position as she read over the words, "But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl… And he had given her certain powers… So one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel to her… She called on the goblins for help…"
If any of it was even real, Rory doubted that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with her and she doubted even more that he had given her any powers… Still, she figured that life had been particularly cruel to her, so she decided to call on the goblins for help… It was worth a shot…
Rory took a deep breath as she recited clearly and distinctly, "I wish the goblins would come and take me away… right now!"
The few, dim lights that Rory had had on suddenly flickered out. She glanced around as especially loud roll of thunder clapped and lightening flashed in her window. She heard this weird inhuman cackling around her and she rose off of the ground, clutching the book.
Her window suddenly flew open and a big gust of wind flew through it, blowing her papers all about. Rory dashed to try and retrieve them and was suddenly shocked to realize that they were blowing around her. What the hell is going on? She thought, frantically. They circled in closer to her to the point that Rory put her hands up to shield her face. She felt the wind diminish and she heard the papers flapping around her.
Rory lowered her hands to see a woman in professional looking black pants, black boots, and a feminine but very connoisseur looking black blouse with a black cape billowing behind her. Rory noticed that all the black set off the woman's pale ivory skin and the realization of who was standing before her hit Rory in the face like ton of bricks as she saw the woman's pale green eyes and long dark-brown hair flowing about her.
"S-Sarah?" Rory whispered.
Author's Note: Bum… Bum… BUM! LoL Sorry, had to get that out of my system… But yeah, now Sarah and Rory are finally going to meet.. And I know some of you are probably thinking, "Oh come on! She's just wishing herself away like Sarah did?" Well yeah, but there is going to be more conflict and trouble caused because Rory's in foster care and if they believe she's "run away" depending on how long she remains missing, if she was to return, she might be put in a juvenile detention center… And there's going to be all this drama between Rory and Jareth because like I said before, Rory and Jareth don't really mesh…
Well… More to come! X-P