Chapter three. There's a bad moon on the right.

Sarah heard Rebecca coming long before she actually saw the girl. She wasn't hard to miss seeing, with her red hair flying in the wind as she ran up the campus. The look on Rebecca's face alerted Sarah that things were not going well.

"Sarah, Meg is leaving." Rebecca said in a surge as she tried in desperation to catch her breath.

Sarah felt her mouth drop. "Why?"

Rebecca panted as she spoke. "Her father says…. she's in too … much danger…here." The girl leaned on a tree. "It gets…worse…"

Sarah nodded. "Of course it does."

Rebecca pointed to the administration building. "They are in there now… and they are making Meg tell who…took us…"

"Oh God no," moaned Sarah and she too leaned on the tree. "Great, they make her tell, take her away and leave us to face the wrath of Braden."

Nodding Rebecca agreed. "Meg didn't want to tell, but Sarah, you don't know her father. He could get a confession from the stone faces at Mount Rushmore!"

Rolling her eyes, Sarah quipped. "My father's a lawyer. I know all about that type of man." She looked at Rebecca. "Are you staying?"

"Just until the end of the semester. My folks are up in arms as well." Came the answer.

Sarah could see their point. After all the girls had been abducted, and left out on a dark road in the middle of nowhere. It had taken a toll on poor Meg. Sarah looked at the other girl. "I'm going to miss both of you."

Rebecca frowned. "I feel so bad about leaving you here alone."

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Braden stood emotionlessly listening to the reprimand by her student advisor. He was livid; he did not see any humor in dumping three girls who were most clearly city girls out on a country road late at night as a prank. He warned Braden that he did not want to hear of anymore trouble. The advisor told her plainly that the school would not tolerate such behavior.

Braden was exiting the administration building when the car picking up Meg arrived. Braden watched as Meg was ushered into the car and whisked away. One of the other girls who'd been party to the abduction came up the stairs to meet her.

"They just took Cleary off campus, the little snitch."

Braden nodded. "She was the weakest link of that little snotty clique."

The other girl snorted. "I hear that DuMont is leaving at the end of the semester."

Braden's eyes hardened. "That leaves us just one bitch to deal with. Sarah Williams. And she's mine."

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Sarah and Rebecca were waiting at the main gate, when Meg's car pulled up. The car stopped and Meg stepped out to say a goodbye to her friends. She looked at Sarah pitifully. "I had to tell." She whispered so her father could not hear.

Sarah hugged the other girl. "It's ok."

Rebecca swallowed back the tears and sobs as the car pulled away. "I wish they would have left her here. Or let me…"

"Go with her?" Sarah saw the look of guilt that Rebecca wore and comforted her. "I don't blame you."

Rebecca hung her head, "Sarah I've heard some of the girls on campus talking about you. And about how Braden is going to make you suffer for her being called on the carpet."

"It wouldn't be the first time I've had a run in with a personality that clashed with mine." Sarah turned and began to walk back toward her dorm.

"Be careful!" Rebecca called after her.

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Sarah walked alone to the point; she needed a place to think. The sun on the water and the last leaves of the season painted a picture that should have taken her mind off her woes. She has stood at the water edge for a long time. Listening, and wanting to clear her mind. It was beautiful here, but it was quickly turning into an unpleasant experience. She had not made friends easily, ever. Now it was even harder.

The sign tacked to her door declaring her a witch was still tacked to the door. Or rather, it was tacked up again, Sarah had pulled it down the morning after just before she and Rebecca had gone to collect Meg from the infirmary. When Sarah returned to her room after her classes, the sign was up again. She had ripped it off and found that someone had scratched the word Witch into the door itself. Sarah gave up. She'd been labeled and there was no getting around it.

She knew no one would miss her, not if she did not show up for a meal. Not even if she did not show up for a class. She was odd man out, yet again. She had been though all this back in high school. Back then it was mostly her fault. Her parent's divorce and her father's remarriage had sent her into a tailspin. She had behaved like a brat, and had pushed away what few friends she had. Then had come that fateful night. The night she was desperately trying to forget, trying to erase from her memory. She had tried desperately to salvage a few of her relationships.

Her last two years of high school should have been full of fun, of parties and of planning her future. Instead, it was full of humors, and stories being told about her behind her back. She had been invited to parties only as an oddity to be scoffed at and made fun of. Sarah had made herself a loner, and now she was paying the price for her actions.

Back then, in those early days after that night, she would occasionally call to her friends on the other side of her mirror in desperation. By the time she had graduated, and was planning on her trip to London, those calls became fewer and fewer. More than once she'd thought of calling on them again. However, calling on them meant accepting that HE might find out. She did not want to think about him. She did not want to remember him. Not his face, that wonderful face with those amazing eyes. Not his touch as they had danced, and certainly not that incredible spicy fragrance that surrounded him. Sarah kicked at the soft dirt and chastised herself yet again. It was a trap, she told herself. She could not afford to think about him.

Closing her eyes, feeling the last warmth of the sun as it settled into the horizon she whispered the word that she kept locked away in a secret place in her heart. "Jareth." It brought her no comfort.

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The Owl watched, seeing all and understanding. He did not disturb the girl. Soon enough he would have to deal with her, but there was time. His plans were coming together. Soon she would have no other course.

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When Sarah returned to her dorm, she found Rebecca waiting for her.

"I didn't want to be alone tonight." Rebecca said quietly.

Sarah linked arms with the other girl. "I know. You and Meg were pretty close, huh?"

Rebecca swiped a hand at the tears that kept coming. "We've known each other since we were in first grade."

Sarah looked at the girl. "Did you get anything to eat?" When the other shook her head, Sarah pulled her along. "Come on, we'll got to the student union and get a bowl of soup. My grandmother swears that soup is the cure for all that ails you."

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The attacks began very subtlety, as if not an attack at all. It started with a feather concealed in a book. When Sarah opened the book, the feather fell out. She ignored it. Then next time it was a hand full of feathers falling out of a book. A bit harder to ignore, but Sarah did her best. The third attack was more than brazen. Some one had placed a booby trap outside Sarah's own dorm room door. When she opened the door, the trap released what looked to be enough feathers to fill a pillow. The hall was covered in feathers, and so was Sarah.

She heard the snickers and the gaffs and outright belly laughs. She kept her tears hidden deep inside. She brushed the feathers off as well as she could, and walked away. They were not going to break her! If a Goblin King and an entire Labyrinth could not break her, she sure as hell was not going to allow someone as petty as Braden to break her. There was no mistaking that it was Braden behind the attacks.

When she showed up in the classroom, she was still brushing feathers from herself. The instructor was unimpressed, and informed her feathers were not proper attire for the business class. One or two of the students snickered. She apologized and opened her book. The instructor made a comment that sliced though her armor.

"Perhaps, Miss Williams, you've made a mistake. The wildlife classroom is in another building."

Sarah swallowed what was left of her pride. "I'm sorry…sir."

Rebecca met Sarah at the steps leaving the hall. "Oh Sarah, what happened?"

"Braden got me at the dorm." She stated. "The hall surrounding my dorm room looks like a molted bird was there."

"What are you going to do?" Rebecca gasped.

"Clean up my books and my jacket." Sarah looked at the girl. "Want to lend a hand?"

Rebecca backed up a bit. "I can't."

Sadness filled the emerald green eyes. "OH, I see…Ok… nice seeing you." She walked away trying to keep from bursting into a litany of 'It's not fair.' Sarah had thought of all people, Rebecca would not desert her. She headed for the dorm, when she arrived the maintenance crew was there with a vacuum. They looked at her as if she had done this on purpose. One of the crew grumbled something about spoiled city kids. Sarah went quietly into her dorm room. There it took her over an hour to get all the feathers out of her books and belongings. She looked at her spare jacket, it was covered in feathers and a sticky substance that made the feathers adhere to the fabric. After an hour, she could see that the jacket was a lost cause. The sticky stuff had ruined the fabric. She sighed, "I wish…" and stopped herself. Pulling the jacket close, she let the tears fall.

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Braden sat in student center laughing with her friends. "I wish I could have been there to see her face when she opened the door!"

"The clean up crew were really unpleasant to her!" one girl hooted.

"You got her good that time, Braden."

Braden stopped laughing, "It's still not enough." She took a long drag on her cigarette. "We have to get even more creative! I want her totally miserable."

One of the other girls at the table saw the advisor coming toward them. "Looks like trouble. Do you think, Williams snitched?"

Braden narrowed her eyes, "I wouldn't put it past the bitch."

Mr. Simmons, the advisor was bearing down on the table. His blue eyes were dark with fury, and his usually handsome face was set in a grim frown. He had always reminded the students of Mr. Marlin Perkins, and took it as a complement. Right now, he looked like an angry bear, a skinny angry bear. He looked straight at Braden. "Braden, come with me, now." His voice it was like listening to a whip cracking, and everyone at the table knew he wad serious.

All the way over to his office he had kept quiet, not conversing or making eye contact. Once in his office and having taken his seat he glared at the woman, making her worry. "Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm not sure what you are referring to, sir." Braden lied like a trooper.

Simmons brought a hand down to his desk, hitting it hard, flat out open. "Don't try pulling a line with me, missy!" The whip in his voice cracked.

"It was just a harmless little prank, you know...a joke.." Braden defended her actions.

"Harmless? When one girl could have died?" he shot back. "There is a plaque near faculty row, Miss Braden, that was put up after a 'harmless' prank left a young man dead!" He was building up a full head of steam. "Not much comfort to a grieving family. And while we're on the subject..." He leaned forward. "Your tormenting of Miss Sarah Williams has been noted and reported by the RAs to the dean of housing, who have reported it to me. As you know, the buck stops here. This latest stunt has our forestry department up in arms. Where did you get the feathers?"

Braden was now glaring right back. "What happened to innocent until proven guilty?"

Simmons looked like he was about to choke on his own tongue. "Didn't I just tell you not to pull the line, Braden? Your past school records stand for themselves." He shoved some official looking papers at her. "These are reports on the bullying you've been charged with before."

Braden picked up the papers and read them over. He had her dead to rights.

"You were only accepted here on probation, and you were told that...in writing as well as in person. This is your final warning Braden. Start paying attention to your classes, and stop looking for ways to make Williams miserable." He returned to his seat. "You can forget going to soccer practices, or any other practice for that matter. You are as of now, officially off all school teams. Dismissed."

Leaving the office like a whipped puppy, Braden stood in the hall a long time, plotting on how to get even with the only person to blame for all this. Sarah Williams. Braden left the building, trying to walk off some of her ire. From the moment she'd set eyes on the Williams girl there had been something sticking in her craw. She was like the preppy girls in High School who had given Braden a hard time for not being a girly girl. Her having taken possession of the best spots in the room had set her off. The little twit was nothing more than a charity case! A hardship scholarship, that her 'Daddy's' friend had secured for her. While other's like Braden had to pay full fair. She was going to make her pay, and pay dearly.

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Sarah began to count the days until she would be going home for Thanksgiving. She had weathered the attacks, and learned to keep an open eye as she left her room. She wondered if there was anything she could do to protect herself from Braden. Sarah already ate alone, and went to the campus library alone. Almost two weeks after the hazing, Braden and some of her friends began to come by at night. They would slam their hands on the door to Sarah's room then quickly run out the fire door at the end of the hall. It stopped when a RA hauled Braden down to the Dean's office and escorted her off campus.

On the night of the full moon, Sarah was reluctant to go to her rooms. In just three days, she would be going home. She walked out to the point, and watched the moon rise high above the lake. The leaves were all off the trees, and they looked like bony fingers against the night sky. "I just have to hold on a bit longer." She told herself. "Just three more days." She walked back to the room, feeling a strange coldness go though her. In the hall she stopped. The door to her room was slightly ajar, and a queer glow was noticeable from within. Sarah backed away from the door, that glow was all too familiar. Braden could not be blamed for this one, she didn't have this kind of power.