It's Only Forever- Part two
It's Only Forever- Part two
I don't own Labyrinth or any of the characters affiliated with it. I know, what a pity.
"Where the hell is my bag? It was just right here! Please god no, tell me I didn't lose it. What the? Where the hell are my keys? I had them five minutes ago! Where is everything? I cannot handle this right now!"
"Miss Williams! They are right here. You left them in the arm chair. See, here's your bag, and here are your keys." Sarah ran her fingers through her hair and let out a sigh of relief. She gently took the bag and keys from the young girl and shook her head.
"I'm sorry Anna. It's just going to be a busy day today. Finals are in two weeks and my kids aren't close to being ready. I don't know how I'm going to pull this off. They don't study, they refuse to get extra help… they aren't bad kids they just don't want to do the work." Sarah slumped down into the arm chair and put her head in her hands.
Anna was Garrett's babysitter. She was in her mid twenties and absolutely adored the baby. Almost as much as Sarah did. Anna was Sarah's savoir. She could not ask for someone better with her child. Thank god for news paper ads.
"It's alright Miss Williams, everything will work out. The closer the finals come, the more worried they'll get and the more they'll want to study. You're a great teacher and the kids love you! They wouldn't want to disappoint you." Sarah looked up at Anna and gave a halfhearted smiled. She stood up and put her hand on her shoulder.
"Thanks Anna. That ought to get me through the day. When Garrett wakes up tell him I love him and that I'll see him when I get home alright? Oh, and remember, it's Friday so he likes to be pushed in his stroller around the park, and he gets to play in his walker after lunch, and his nap should be at least –"
"Miss Williams! Don't worry about it alright? I've got everything under control, as always." Anna held up her left hand and put her right over her heart as to make an oath. Sarah smiled, waved a little goodbye and walked out the door.
As Anna lounged in the armchair and watched the morning news, she heard a soft noise upstairs and figured Garrett was waking up. She set down the remote control on the coffee stand and stretched her arms. Letting out a sigh, she lifted herself from the chair and headed toward the stairs.
Grabbing the railing to steady her tired body, Anna started to make her way up to Garrett's nursery. As she went up, she heard some strange noises coming from upstairs. She stopped to listen and heard what sounded like the pitter patter of little mice across the floor. As she listened harder, she could hear what she thought were a pair of boots walking heavily across the floor. Straining forward so she could hear better, the stairs made a loud creak and the noises stopped.
"Garrett?" she called up the stairs, "Garrett are you awake?" There was complete silence until she heard the doors from the balcony to the nursery fly open and slam shut. "GARRETT!" She yelled and began to race up the stairs. She reached the door to the nursery, flung it open and ran over to the crib.
There was Garrett. He was sitting up in his crib, smiling and making his cute little gurgling noise. Anna let out a deep sigh and cracked a relieved smile. She reached into his crib to stroke his soft fiery hair and noticed he was holding onto something. Re-directing her arm, she reached for whatever the tiny child was holding in his hands.
"What have you got there Garrett?," she asked more to herself as she pulled the object up closer to her face. She turned it over in her hands and all it appeared to be was a small crystal sphere. It was completely smooth and had nothing engraved onto it. No knicks or scratches, just a perfectly rounded crystal. Anna held the crystal up to her eyes and peered into it, she saw nothing, but a small chill made its way up her spine.
Holding the crystal with one hand, she lifted Garrett out of his crib with her free arm. Shifting him onto her hip she walked over to the door then turned and looked at the balcony doors. They were shut and locked.
"Good morning everyone!" Miss Williams sang cheerfully as she walked into the classroom. All of the students smiled and greeted her as well. "I have quite a few papers to pass back to you this morning, including your most recent quiz. I must say that I was rather impressed with the grades. I'll have to say I'm satisfied. Also, I would like all of you to please pass up your homework and if it is not done, you have five minutes to pull it out and get it done while I pretend I don't know you're doing it alright? But those of you who do have it will you please pass it forward?" The class laughed and there was a sudden shuffle of papers as the students pulled out their homework. Sarah walked along the rows collecting to completed assignments and cast a blind eye over the ones who were racing to get it done.
Sarah settled herself into her desk and stacked the homework into a neat pile. She pulled her blue pen out of her desk drawer and began to correct the assignments. She always used blue pen, never red. Studies show that using red pen to correct a student's paper had a negative effect on them and that was the last thing she needed. Halfway through the stack of papers she looked down to gaze at her class. They looked so peaceful sitting there doing their work, she could only imagine how they were outside of school. She laughed at the thought and looked down to finish correcting the papers. Halfway down the page, she stopped to look at the drawings in the margin. This had to be Zack's paper, he always left little doodles. Looking at the images, they weren't his normal drawings. They were different. She turned to paper sideways to get a better look at them. The smile fell from her face, and her insides tightened. She set the paper down and felt her heart begin to race.
After the bell had rang, Sarah walked up to Zack and grabbed his arm before he walked out the door. "Zack, can I speak with you for a moment please?" The boy with dark hair and green eyes nodded softly and followed her to her desk. Sarah sat in her swivel chair and Zack pulled up a chair on the other side of her desk. She pulled his homework assignment from the stack of papers and placed it in front of him.
"Zack I need to ask you about these drawings. Where have you seen them before?" The boy shrugged and let out a sigh.
"Dreams. I see them all the time. I mean, the dream doesn't have to be about them but they are always there for some reason. Usually toward the end. It's not every time though, couple times a week maybe." Zack reached forward and pointed to one of the images. "This one here though, says the same thing every time. He always says, it's almost time. I can't wait much longer. He doesn't say it to me in particular, he just says it and disappears. Why do you ask?'
Sarah licked her dry lips and shook her head. She put on a fake smile and let out a deep sigh. "No reason. Thank you Zack, you may go." Zack shrugged and headed to the door. Sarah picked the paper back up too look at the drawings again. She winced a little as she looked at the drawing of the shabby castle with winding pathways surrounding it. Her eyes scanned over the picture of the white owl, goblin masks, and finally rested on the drawing of the intimidating man with crazy blonde hair, mismatched eyes, tight pants, and a crystal sphere in his gloved hands.
Sarah blindly drove home that day after school. The pictures on Zack's paper were still flashing through her mind. How was that possible? He can't know about Jareth and the Underground could he? Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe he read the book and that was his idea of how the images should look. But yet they were still identical … Her mind was spinning as she thought about all of it. She hadn't give any of her past a second thought in years. She had forgotten all about the mysterious man who lived in the Underground. Seeing those drawings brought that whole night back to her in one whopping blow. At first she didn't realize what she was looking at, she knew she recognized them but she couldn't recall where. It suddenly hit her with the force of a metal bat. This was impossible … this just wasn't happening.
Sarah flung the front door open and dropped all her things in the threshold. She slumped over to the couch and threw herself upon it, burying her head into the pillows. There were footsteps behind her and they stopped when they made it too the couch. Anna kneeled down beside her and tapped her arm.
"Uhm… Miss Williams? Are you feeling alright?" Sarah groaned and lifted her head. "Yes Anna I'm…I'm fine. Where's Garrett?" She said rubbing her eyes. "Sleeping." Anna answered simply. Sarah nodded. "Good. How was he today was everything… everything … ever- Anna what is that??" Something sitting on the coffee table caught Sarah's attention. Anna shrugged," I'm not sure. I found it in Garrett's crib earlier this morning." Sarah stood up so fast the made herself dizzy. She stumbled over to the coffee table and picked up the small crystal sphere. Her hands began to tremble as she stared into it. "No … no …" she whispered and dropped it to the floor. Anna walked over to her. "Miss Williams … Miss Williams can you hear me?" Sarah ignored her and bent down to pick up the crystal. She marched over to the window and threw it open. Putting one hand on the sill and holding the crystal in the other, she arched back and hurtled it as far back into the woods behind her house as she could. She slammed the window shut and locked it, slumping to the floor she began to shake. This was not happening. She wouldn't let it. Not again.