Disclaimer: All references to the characters Jareth & Sarah and the film Labyrinth belong to Jim Henson Studios and other pertinent parties. I do not claim ownership to the characters and / or the original source material.

King, Queen, Rook, Maze: Chapter 10. One Step Forward… (11 hours minutes left)

Without another thought, Sarah jogged down the passageway hoping to stay ahead of the moving walls. She noticed a path up ahead, but the moving walls closed it off by the time she reached it. It had been a dead end anyway. The walls began to move a little faster.

Sarah broke out into a run to reach the next passageway, but she failed again. Glancing behind her, she noticed a passageway open behind her. Quickly she turned and dashed back through the section. In the nick of time, she turned into the new passageway as the walls shifted in the other direction behind her, closing off the passageway completely. The walls here began to move inward.

The whole Labyrinth is shifting and moving! Sarah thought. Even her inner voice sounded desperate. She found an opening and ran for it. She raced down another section. As she took one passageway after another, she found that the walls were starting to move on their own in different directions. Once or twice she dove for an opening only to have to step back. She sucked in a breath as a pair of walls pressed in too close together. Oh, God, this is ridiculous!

Sarah found herself in a tight spot. She couldn't move forward for the walls were only inches apart. She couldn't move backwards because the wall was pushing her forward. I'm going to die! I'm going to die! She looked to her sides. To her right was a blank wall. To her left… Sarah noticed a dark hole being covered by the wall. She scrambled for the hole not really caring if it was a bottomless pit or a spikey one. She fell into it and slide downward into the darkness.

Instead of hitting spikes or sliding on forever, however, cold water made her cry out before she hit the bottom. Carefully she rose to her feet. The complete darkness surrounding her made it impossible to see. By touch, she could feel the water level to be at about her ankles. The water moved downhill, following the natural slope of the tunnel.

Thankfully the tunnel or aqueduct was high enough for her to stand up inside. Sarah gulped wondering how often water filled the whole tunnel. It may be low here, but who knows what I will find ahead? She thought inching to her right to find the wall. She paused for a moment and crouched down with her back against the wall. Sarah dipped her hands into the cool water and washed them as best she could guess in the darkness. She smiled; it felt good. She remembered learning a long time ago that moving water kept the floor of aqueduct clear of algae and other slimy byproducts of stagnant water.

Slowly she began to move forward with her hands and feet testing the ground ahead of her. Inch by careful inch in the complete darkness she kept moving, following the gradual decline of the tunnel. In the blackness, she felt comfortable, almost safe from Jareth's prying eyes and dangerous games. She tried not to think of Certain Death's body, the feel of the sword twitching as he moved up the blade to the hilt. She noticed the water had risen from her ankle to mid-calf.

As Sarah moved forward, she pushed the guilt and anger aside; she began to feel other things. The cuts on the soles of her feet began to ease underneath the cool water. She paused for a moment and rested her right hand on the wall. Reaching up with her left, she tried to determine where the other wall was. When she started, she could easily touch the opposite wall. Now she couldn't. She swallowed hard and noticed the water had risen to the back of her knee. If I don't find a way out of here soon… I'll be swimming with the fishes.

Sarah tried to move faster down the tunnel, but she feared falling into a cistern or an underground well. She felt the water continue to creep up about every ten steps or so. The sound of rushing water filled the tunnel and drowned out her thoughts. Then her fingers bumped into something metallic and hard. Something flaked off onto her knuckles. Using her hands, she felt out the material and squealed with delight.

"It's a ladder!" she cried excitedly. Her voice carried over the moving liquid filling the tunnels. She gave the ladder a shake. It seemed sturdy enough. And again I don't have very many options she thought to herself. Jumping up, she grabbed the second rung and reached for the third above her head. Pulling herself up out of the water, she was able to get her foot on the first rung and continue to climb.

After climbing for a time, Sarah noticed the blackness had faded away. Faint shafts of light, barely the size of her pinkies, stretched out into the darkness of the ladder shaft. Excitedly she sped up. However, when she reached the top, the covering over the ladder stopped her. When pushed up against with her hand, it wouldn't budge. Carefully, she turned herself around on the ladder in order to push her shoulder against the door.

Grunting, she pushed as hard as she could. Something cracked under the pressure and her foot slipped. She gave out a gasp and steadied herself with both feet on the same rung. Okay. Not a great idea, she thought as she stared back down the shaft into the inky darkness.

"I can't go back down because the water is rising. I can't push the grate above me open because the ladder will break and I'll fall," she thought out loud. Carefully, Sarah turned herself back around on the ladder. "Please... can't things go my way for once? Why can't you just open for me? Please."

As if in answer to her pleas and questions, the grate moved ever so slightly. Sarah reached out a hand and pushed on the grate. It moved under her touch. With a cry of amazement and delight, she moved the grate away in order to make an opening big enough for her to crawl through. The afternoon sunlight blinded her for a few moments, but Sarah didn't care as she pulled herself up and out of the shaft.

When her vision cleared, Sarah's heart sank. A pool of black blood, a noxious smelling body of a troll, broken pieces of statuary, a fat satyr sitting on top of a turtle. She sat heavily on the ground next the drain in the middle of the courtyard. She was back where she had been an hour ago.

[A/N: Attempts on Sarah's life now at 3.]