Note: All rights go to the real creators of the Labyrinth. I don't own any of this. Tis but a fan fiction.
Chapter 1
"If you don't like your classes why don't you just quit?" Hoggle asked from the screen of a computer.
He sat, along with Ludo and Sir Didymus, in a pixilated garden that Sarah had designed for them. Hoggle was slouched over, his arms crossed, and his crawfish face scrunched together to show his annoyance.
All around no one could hear the animation talking. That was the beauty of headphones.
IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE.
Sarah typed silently so not to disturb the rest of the people in front of her.
When Sarah entered her electric design classroom she had gone straight for a seat in the back corner. There she could turn her laptop that was required for the class away from everyone else.
To most people Sarah's laptop was surprisingly ordinary. It was black all over with a large screen. Unlike others in her class she had chosen not to place decorative stickers, cases, or pictures on it. But despite this the laptop was never out of her sight. Besides the brief period of time Sarah was in the bathroom she had her computer in her arms or open in front of her.
In her first years in college she had earned plenty of nicknames due to her habit of keeping her computer. Things had only gotten worse due to her secrecy about what was on it. Although if they ever did see what Sarah was doing on her computer they probably would have bullied her further.
"It should be that simple," he grumbled. "You're already a hundred times smarter than those people. If you don't wanna be somewhere you should be allowed to leave when you want."
I NEED THE CREDIT TO GRADUATE. THERE IS ONLY ANOTHER MONTH LEFT ANYWAY.
"But you never have to show up to classes, right? They don't know nothin' about you."
IT LOOKS BETTER WHEN I ACTUALLY SHOW UP.
"Sarah… sad?" Ludo chimed in.
NO, JUST BORED.
"Milady should get more rest." Didymus suggested.
THANKS BUT I DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME FOR THAT.
Class ended not long after that. When it was over Sarah collected her laptop, said goodbye to her friend for the moment, and hurried back to her room.
Ever since she had defeated the Labyrinth game that had been designed by the evil, baby stealing, Jareth, her friends had been booted from their system. Having nowhere else to go Sarah had created a private place in her own computer for them to hide out.
Jareth had no control over them anymore.
But for two years Sarah had been cautious. Anything she did online, which was very little, she monitored carefully. She had become increasingly good at computer programming. Maybe not as good as Jareth, but certainly good enough to fight him on a level playing field if he had ever surfaced again.
Her friends didn't know what had become of him. She had even spent some time searching for him to prove to herself that he did exist. So far her search had drawn up no leads as to who he really was.
Back in her room she found her roommate Erin was still in class. With the time to herself she figured she wouldn't need her headphones.
"Okay, I'm back you guys." She informed them.
Everyone was in the back of the garden lounging in the shade. When they notice her coming back they quickly race over to the screen.
"You're out of class now?" Hoggle asked.
"Yep, I'm free for the rest of the day. Anything you guys need while I'm free?" Sarah had been teaching herself programming by designing furniture and items for her friends in their new world. It made them happy and helped her improve her skills.
"We are satisfied as we are, My Lady." Didymus assured her with a bow.
The first thing that Sarah had designed was a new knights costume for her fox friend. She had sharpened his sword, sewed up all of his rips, and washed them properly. Hoggle had begun to complain about the smell since Didymus had spent all his time living near the Bog.
Hoggle hadn't asked her for many things. He had a garden that had just happened to be part of the original design of the garden and had been content to add new flowers and veggies from time to time.
Ludo was the only one of her friend who had never asked her for anything. Whenever Sarah offered him anything he had just smiled and shook his big goofy head. All he wanted was to see Sarah smiling.
Just as Sarah was getting ready to sit down the door to their room opened.
"Hey Sarah," Erin greeted her, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Erin was a lot of things Sarah wasn't. She was daring and always ready to try new things. Her hair was cropped short and dyed a bright colour of pink. When she smiled her thin lips pulled up into dimples. She had bright blue eyes but people rarely saw them. Each day she would put in different colour contacts to match her bright outfit.
Sarah felt very plain next to her. Since she was a teenager she hadn't changed her wardrobe. Her hair was still the same length and colour. She never wore coloured contacts. Even her jeans were the same pair she had worn when she was in high school.
"No, nothing," she shut her computer quickly. "I thought you had a lab for the next hour."
"It got canceled," she gave Sarah a thumbs up.
"That's good."
After that very little conversation was had. Sarah didn't feel comfortable opening her laptop back up for fear that Erin would ask what she was doing. They had only lived together for a couple of months but Sarah knew that her roommate would always try to figure out what she was doing, even when she clearly didn't want to talk about it.
Thankfully she wouldn't have to wait long to be able to talk to her friends again.
Erin came out from the bathroom with a lime-green dress on with matching contacts. Sarah knew that it meant she was going out with friends. That was the good thing about Erin; she never spent much time in her room.
Sarah waited silently, pretending to read a book, until there was a knock at the door. Erin's friends, each with equally as colourful hair, pull her out the door cooing over their plans for the night. The door shuts slowly behind her.
As soon as she was alone she whipped her computer open again. But instead of her friends faces smiling back at her she found a notification blocking her screen. She had one new unread message in her email box.
She didn't think anything of the email since she got a few everyday from the university. The notifications were only turned on because she had a habit of not checking her email when she needed to.
She hit the link directing her to her email page. Surprisingly the message wasn't just another email from her school reminding her of some useless event being held on campus. It was from her dad.
For a moment Sarah didn't know what to do. Her father hadn't spoken to her since she left for school two years before. She had made it clear to him that as long as he was going to spend all of his money on her brother, not that she minded all that much, than he shouldn't bother her while she attempts to make her own way in life.
She had come to terms with her brother and decided that he was not someone she should hate. It wasn't his fault that her parents were bad parents. A father shouldn't ignore his daughter just because there is another child in the picture. So Sarah decided she was done hanging around just to be the babysitter.
So off she went to school. She had left a gift for Toby and said very little to her father.
He had told her that she didn't have to go if she wasn't ready. She told him to find someone else to look after his kid when he wanted to pretend he never had children. They hadn't said a word to each other since then.
Over the summer Sarah worked at the college to keep her room. She never thought about going home.
Now there was an email from her dad sitting in front of her. There was no subject telling her what he might want.
She thought about asking her friends for advice. She didn't know what she would do if they told her not to read it. She didn't know what she would do if they told her she should read it.
Instead she sat staring at the screen debating what to do. There was no way she could delete it. What if it was something important? She could leave it for later but she didn't know what she would tell her friends.
Hesitantly she clicked on the email to open it. But instead of a note all there was was a blank screen.
Sarah reloaded the email thinking that there must have been some sort of mistake. No one would purposely send a blank email.
It could have just been the internet offered by the school not allowing it to be shown. Sometimes when there were too many people online items, even emails, didn't load properly. The only way she would be able to read it, if that were true, would be to look at the code that came with it. If she went in the back door to the email she might be able to recover what he had written.
The only other option would be to wait until the other people decided to get offline. Even then there was no promise that it would load properly.
Besides, this way was more fun and gave her a chance to practice her skills.
It took her only a few second to pull up the code. And just as she had thought there was a message that hadn't been loading. But oddly the font on the message seemed to be too small for her to read.
Trying to zoom in on the words did her nothing. It started to frustrate her. The words were big enough that she could almost make them out but just small enough that she couldn't read what they said. If zooming in wouldn't work she didn't know what was wrong.
Desperate at that point she picked her computer up and brought it close to her face. So close she thought she could make out a couple of words.
YOUR EYES CAN BE SO CRUEL
Before she could register what they meant a bright light flashed out of her screen. A warm glow enveloped her head. The computer fell from her hands.
She fell into a deep sleep.
