Author's Note: I'm so sorry for leaving this story hanging for so long! Thank you all for the nice comments and the views and favs ~ this is the last chapter, I hope you enjoy!
The neon green numbers on Sarah's small alarm clock proudly flashed that it was eight in the morning. She groaned and rolled over from where she had fallen face down and exhausted the night before. The pain on the sides of her head told her she had been too tired to take her earrings out, but apparently not too tired to cry, as evidenced by the smeared makeup stains on her pillowcase.
She must have cried out all her sadness though, because she felt a certain resolve in the light of day. Liam was not worth her tears, she saw that now. Those tears from the other night were for herself and for not realizing things sooner - for spending so much on time trying to salvage something that wasn't even there. She slowly got up and began the process of getting ready for the day, starting with washing her face and brushing out her hair.
She thought back on her now former relationship. It had held such promise when it first started, and she couldn't even put her finger on the moment it started to turn sour. All she knew was that what once was a fun and easy connection had ended in one fight too many and realization that what used to be there wasn't anymore - and perhaps never really was.
She had been a freshman when she met him and was surprised when he, one of the star football players, had shown interest in her. Conversation had flown easily between them, at least at first. Perhaps it had started after they had agreed they were "official" - knowing he had won her, he found less need of his charm that she loved, less need to be there for her except when it was convenient.
There had been a handful of times she stopped to consider whether it was still a good relationship, but each time she managed to convince herself she was overreacting, things were fine and no one was perfect. Sometimes she could even think that maybe if something was wrong it was her own fault, as he sometimes said. Her friends, whom she rarely confided in about the details of her dating, all thought he was just the best, and she had to admit there were times when the jealousy of others girls felt nice. She had never been the one with the coveted prize before, and surely if so many girls were longing to be in her place, it couldn't be all bad, right? She would be silly to toss away what others were dying to have. So she held her tongue and hid her concerns.
But somewhere along the lines the boy who had wowed her with his knowledge of mythical animals and who seemed to love going places with her had slid into the person who would rather have tabletop game night every night with his buddies which she was specifically not invited to rather than spend an afternoon with her discussing those very same elves and dragons, and seemed to only want to go out to either drink or show off his pretty girlfriend instead of actually wanting to spend the time with her.
She vowed to herself that she would never be in such a situation again, that she would pay close attention to anything in a relationship that felt off, that she wouldn't just brush off the little warning signs of the type of person who would leave her to become a goblin after wishing her away - all preferably before he actually wished her away.
She still felt pleasant shock that Jareth would have done such a thing for her. It certainly would not have occurred to her that he might - or even that he could.
She knew the line from the story, of course, about the Goblin King falling in love with the girl - and she had a sneaking suspicion of just who that girl was. But she had never known a love like this. It was intriguing. It would have made sense if he had let Liam go and left the matter at that. It would have been the easiest thing in the world, and she couldn't even fault him for it if he had done it. With her champion gone, she would have been stuck there in the Labyrinth with him forever. Was that not what he ultimately wanted? For him to give that up after the perfect opportunity had presented itself, all because he knew she would rather go home to the Aboveground... She certainly wasn't new to the idea of a person putting their own personal wants on the back burner for the other person, but she was new the idea of that person begin the other person and not herself.
As she left her dorm and walked to class, she remembered the almost sad look on his face when she asked about visiting. She had been so concerned about whether or not she would ever come back, she hadn't thought to try and enjoy her time there or even to think of asking to see Ludo or Hoggle. How disappointing to know that the only way to see them again was fraught with the danger of never coming back.
She slid into her chair in the classroom, still going over it all in her mind. A girl gestured to the empty seat next to Sarah.
"Is this seat taken?"
Sarah glanced over and shook her head. The seat had been empty all semester so far, and she had never seen the girl before.
"Oh, great!" she sat down. "I had to miss one of my classes last week due to practice, I'm lucky my professor is letting me make it up by coming to this one. I'm Zoe."
Sarah smiled at her and shook her hand. When she glanced down, her eyes went big.
"Your keychain!" Sarah exclamied.
Attached to the zipper of her backpack, Zoe had a small 3-dimension keychain in the shape of an Escher staircase. Zoe grinned and held it up closer for Sarah to see.
"I've had this for forever. Isn't it awesome?"
"I love it. I have a print of that hanging on my wall, actually."
The professor walked in, and class began. Sarah tried dutifully to take notes the best she could, but her mind was still distracted.
When class was over, Zoe struck up another conversation with her. Sarah was surprised at how many thing they had in common, and she felt like this could be the start of a great friendship. Zoe had track practice next, but Sarah had the next few hours free. She decided to go with Zoe and watch from the bleachers.
Sarah needed a PE credit for the next semester, and she had been considering doing track as one of her options. It would be nice to already know someone on the team, she thought to herself. She was very impressed with Zoe's skill - she didn't think she'd ever seen anyone run as fast she could, and she finished first on almost every lap - except for a few Sarah felt certain she was holding back on.
After all of their classes were done for the day, Sarah and Zoe went to a cafe to get some dinner. The conversations seemed to flow so easily, and Sarah hadn't laughed like this in a long time. During one of her stories, Zoe accidently knocked the salt shaker over with her hand. She paused her story, pinched up some of the spilled salt, and threw it over her left shoulder. Sarah giggled.
"Are you very superstitious?" she asked.
"Yeah, kinda." Zoe smiled. "I know it probably seems really silly, but I've always been that way ever since I was a kid."
"It's not silly." Sarah assured her.
"My mother would read me fairy stories every night, and some of that just stuck with me, I guess. I loved hearing them - about different beings and strange new places. It's such a nice thing to be able think, that there's some other worlds out there, waiting to be discovered and explored."
They stayed and talked until closing time, and made plans to go running together the next day on their lunch break.
Sarah felt better that night than she had in weeks. As she lay in bed thinking over all of the things that had happened that day, they all seemed to come together in quite an unexpected way. Her mind, stuck in the twilight space of not-really-awake and not-yet-asleep, was formulating a plan. How fortuitous of the universe to bring these two college girls together.
She drifted off to her dreams and thought of what the future might hold for them - for the girl who loved running faster than the wind and longed to discover a fairy world she could touch and feel, for the Goblin King who would willingly sacrifice his seemingly only chance at what he hoped for, and for the girl who loved - and was loved by - the mysterious ruler she knew she would meet again one day.
