When No One Else Was Looking

Chapter 4: Odd Civilized Conversation

Sarah's feet carried her down to the front of the Labyrinth, or what she guessed was the front. It was absent of any faeries or dwarfs. Hoggle was no where to be seen, and that worried her slightly. She glanced around, "Hoggle? Hoggle!" she called, but no one answered her. She let out an agitated sigh, "Great. Now how am I suppose to get into the Labyrinth?" she asked looking up at the walls before her.

Suddenly the wooden door appeared like it had before and slowly opened wide. She stepped back slightly and quickly turned around to look behind her, expecting to see her friend but finding no one. She turned back to the doors and then up at the walls that surrounded it, "Thank you?" she asked, her eyebrows raised and a questioning look on her face. She slowly walked inside and the doors closed behind her, before they disappeared.

She glanced from side to side, it looked the same but different at the same time. She shook her head, she didn't have time for that. She turned and ran to her right, being careful to avoid rocks and tree branches that had fallen from the nonexistent trees. She hurried along, being careful to watch for the worm that she had met before.

She ran what seemed like forever, until something told her she was going too far. She paused and looked around, not seeing the worm anywhere. She decided to turn and back track, still not finding the small blue worm that had helped her before.

"You won't find him, Sarah." came a voice from behind her.

She jumped and turned around, her eyes meeting the mismatched pair that haunted her so, "And why's that?"

"Because I want you to beat me without the use of your friends. I want to make sure you can win my game without their help."

She set her jaw, she wanted so much to exclaim how unfair it was and how she wanted to go home, but she remained silent. She understood. How could she not? Using her friends would, and did, give her an advantage over him. And even if she kind of needed one, she could make it through without their help, couldn't she?

"Alright, then. Why don't you help me?"

"Pardon?" he asked, looking remotely surprised by her question.

His boot found the wall behind him and he leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest and watching her curiously. Her hair had fallen out of its bun slightly, and her clothes were covered in a thin layer of dust. He watched as she brushed a stray piece away from her eyes.

"Well, you said I couldn't get help from my friends. I don't think you consider us friends."

"Not quite."

"Then, can you help me?" she asked shrugging a little.

"I don't see why I should, you are trying to beat me."

"Well yeah, but it would be nice of you to at least point me in the right direction."

He inhaled, seeming to consider it, "Alright. But how could you tell if I was lying?"

"I couldn't." she answered quickly and honestly, blinking as she never broke eye contact.

A small smirk trailed across his lips, before he raised his gloved hand and pointed to the right.

The smile she gave him, well there were no words for the feeling that surged through him. She nodded a little and walked past him. Her hand ghosted over his arm, barely touching the fabric of his white poets shirt, in search of the wall. He wondered if she felt the electric surge that he did. She glanced over her shoulder and their eyes met, he could have sworn she blushed as she turned back around and started walking down the stretch of floor. She gasped, an adorable sound in his opinion, as her hand found a lack of wall and she stumbled a bit. She laughed a little as she walked through and took a left. He shook his head just a tad and disappeared.

----

It was odd having a somewhat civilized conversation with him, she thought as she wandered down the turns of the maze. She could see the castle looming in the distance and she could almost hear the chaos that she knew was going on in the Goblin City. She laughed a bit as she continued walking, she hadn't felt happier in weeks. Maybe it was years, she wasn't sure anymore. Ever since she had started high school, she had felt lost and out of place.

She called her friends from the Labyrinth often, for she had no one else to talk to. You can only tell an 8 year old brother so much. Of course she had her father... And Karen. Karen, now there was a true character. She had grown to tolerate, for lack of better terms, her step-mother but never quite grew to Like her.

Christmas, Birthdays, Easter, and when she came to pick up Toby was about the only time she saw the woman, so she didn't Have to like her. Thankfully, that went two ways. The tension she had always felt from her Step-Mother vanished after Sarah moved out to go to college, she swore she had never seen the woman smile bigger than when she was pulling out of the driveway.

She wasn't expecting the ground to fall from beneath her, nor was she expecting the ground to come at her so quickly. She barely had time to let out a yelp as she fell. She landed on something soft though, and recovered quickly enough to see the hole close above her. She sighed, "Not again." she mumbled before she tried to feel around in the darkness.