By: Mika Saito
Chapter 19
Sarah took Toby upstairs to his room, making sure he brushed his teeth and washed his hands before tucking him in.
"You don't need to tuck me in," he protested tiredly, rubbing at his eye as he lay down on his bed.
"I know Toby, but I kind of miss tucking you in, so humor me just this one time," Sarah said, smiling fondly at him.
"Ok," he yawned and settled himself comfortably under the covers. "Goodnight Sarah."
"Goodnight Toby," she kissed his cheek and left the room, smiling. The moment to door was closed behind her the smile slipped, her expression becoming grim.
She walked silently down the stairs, dreading what was to come. Her parents would want a full explanation, which meant going back eight years to her first encounter with the Goblin King. She was not to sure of how her parents would react to what she had to tell them. Not many parents would take kindly to learning that their daughter had wished away her little brother, and was very lucky that she had won him back.
Her suspicions were correct. The moment she stepped through the living room door Robert and Karen were on their feet asking questions. Sarah sighed tiredly as she listened to the questions that blurred together so that she could not understand what they were.
"Could you please stop it with the questions?" Sarah asked, looking up at her father. Robert, seeing what she wanted in her eyes, took hold of Karen's arm and leading her back to the sofa. She refused to sit, insisting that she had questions that she wanted answered. Robert shook his head and whispered something to her. A look of understanding came to her eyes as she sat down. Neither spoke, waiting patiently for Sarah to get her thoughts together. Finally, with a sigh, she moved to sit in the chair across from them.
"The best place to start would be the very beginning, I guess." Robert and Karen nodded silently. "Which means going back to when I was fifteen…" Sarah trailed off, unsure of how to tell her parents the entire story without causing more trouble.
"Just tell us the whole thing, don't leave anything out," Karen prompted.
"Okay," Sarah looked up at her, then dropped her gaze to the floor. "It started when I was fifteen. I was supposed to baby-sit Toby. I lost track of time and came home an hour late. Not long after you left I wished that the goblins would come and take Toby away…"
Sarah spent the next hour or so telling, for the first time, what had really happened in the Labyrinth, leaving out as few of the details as she could. By the time she reached the end of that part of her explanation Robert and Karen were looking at her like she had grown another head. Silently she sighed, having known they probably would not believe what she had told them.
She forced herself to continue anyway, she could always answer their questions after she was completely finished explaining.
"I had completely forgotten what had happened, the Labyrinth, the Goblin King, everything. The morning that I was leaving to come here I had a visitor, she claimed to be the Goblin King's sister. She begged me to return to the labyrinth," Sarah paused, unsure of how to fully explain the apparent situation.
"I take it you had another visit from this person?" Robert guessed quietly.
"Yes," Sarah smiled slightly, "she, and this time the Goblin King was with her."
"And that's why you and Toby were so late getting back?" Karen picked up where the conversation was going and guessed what was eventually going to be said.
"Yeah," Sarah nodded, then upon glancing at both her parents' faces she sighed. "You don't believe me, do you?"
"I find it hard to believe that you wished Toby away to another world, got him back, and are now having confrontations with a man who doesn't exist." Karen responded quietly.
"I knew you wouldn't believe me back then, and I knew you wouldn't believe me know. That's why I never said anything." Sarah mused to herself.
Sarah sat quietly, her head bowed in thought, for a long while. Robert and Karen watched her, trying to decide whether or not to believe her. Finally Sarah sighed and stood up.
"I'm going to bed. See you in the morning." With that, she left the room.
Jareth watched the scene in the crystal, and he could not help but laugh at what he saw. Sarah was trying to explain what had been happening lately, and they did not believe her. He knew they would not, adults, for the most part, did not believe in "fairy tales."
"Is it really that amusing, brother?" Pandora raised a dark, slender eyebrow at him.
"You wouldn't understand, Pandora." He replied darkly.
"I wouldn't, would I?" Pandora smirked at him. "You can't be so sure of that, brother."
"Oh?" Jareth set the crystal down and turned to face Pandora.
"I know what it's like to want revenge for something, just as I know what it's like to get some of that revenge," she explained easily.
"Yes, I suppose I had forgotten that incident," he mused.
"Forgotten! How could you have forgotten that incident, as you put it?" She snarled at him in disbelief.
"Because the past is the past, nothing can change it."
"You're overlooking something." Pandora flopped down in a chair, her eyes thoughtful.
"What would that be, dear sister?" He asked in a mocking tone.
"I don't know," she looked up at him, "but I get the feeling that you're overlooking something very important."
"It can't be that important if you don't know what it is," with that said, Jareth picked up the crystal and tossed it to Pandora before turning his attention to the documents that lay on his desk, waiting for him to read over them.
AN: I'm sorry I didn't get this posted sooner, I completely forgot that it wasn't posted yet… I've been so busy getting Lady Caleniel fully edited and posted again and getting the sequel started that I haven't been spending much time working on this story, which has caused me to lose touch with the characters. I'm hoping that now that I have several chapters finished of my next LOTR story I can start working on this one again, and hopefully keep both of them updated at least every other week at the latest. I'll also try to start updating two chapters at a time again.