Alice watched the dark-haired young woman from across the coffee shop. She knew her, as far as she was concerned, everyone should know her. Alice bit her lip and pressed her palms into the table, wondering how to approach her, wondering what would make her introduction so memorable that the young woman would want to contact her again. Her breath caught as the other stood, swinging a Cambridge satchel over her shoulder as she scooped up a set of notebooks and pens. If she wanted to introduce herself, it needed to be now.
Swallowing her fear, she rose quickly and danced past the few tables between them, arriving at the door at the same time. Quickly she grasped hold of the handle and held it open for the young woman to walk through. She got a smile for her efforts but was as quickly forgotten. It was now or never. "Hi, my name's Alice," she offered her hand quickly, following the brunette through the door and onto the snow blasted streets of London.
"Oh, hi, er… nice to meet you?"
"You're Sarah, right? Sarah Williams?" Alice continued, her heart in her throat, making it hard to think… hard to breathe. This was real, it was really happening.
"Um, yeah. How do you…?"
"Know you? I've read your books, all of them. I went to the symposium you spoke at for fantasy writers last year. I'm taking English Literature at the university, down… wait!" Alice called out as Sarah turned away, walking as fast as she could away from her. She saw her chance disappearing rapidly. "I'm not, I'm not like that," she jogged after her. Sarah turned a corner and Alice followed.
"Please, just leave me alone," Sarah whispered as Alice grabbed her shoulder carefully.
"I'm not like that, I'm not… just look," she scrabbled with her backpack and pulled a sheaf of papers loose. "Please," her fingers darted through the pages, searching for the one that would change everything. At least, she hoped it would. "I don't want help with an assignment, to criticise anything you've written or to submit a draft for a book or anything like that…"
Finally, she found the page and carefully pulled it free. Sarah had paused now, curiosity winning out despite her furtive glances at her. Silently Alice turned it around and held it out to her. The world itself seemed to grow still around them. Nothing could be heard outside of the bubble that now seemed to surround them. Sarah reached for the page, wide eyed, and took it from Alice shakily. "How did you? I never told anyone about…"
"I've been there," Alice sighed. "I've seen him, I've spoken with him and I need your help," she pulled another sheet free. "This is my brother."
Sarah took the next page from her and glanced between them. She knew it was a shock, to see the Goblin King and a goblin in pencil and watercolour. That his eyes were correct even though Sarah had never described them being different colours in any of her works. That the goblin was one she had described but had left out the detail of the scar across his eye. They were drawn perfectly, the Goblin King seeming to loom out of the page, only his eyes in colour. It was what Alice remembered the most vividly. So, she waited, patiently, for Sarah to come to terms with what she was seeing. The truth clearly replicated. "He was turned into… a goblin?" Sarah whispered before placing the two sheets together with a heavy sigh and handing them back out to her.
"I didn't defeat him. Not because I wasn't able to, because I chose not to," Alice whispered, taking the papers back.
"I can't help you," Sarah shifted the strap of her satchel on her shoulder and met her gaze uncomfortably.
"I need to get him back. I need to go back to the Labyrinth," Alice tucked the sheets back into her pile. "I need you to come with me, you're the only one that I know of who has defeated him."
"What do you mean the only one that you know of?" Sarah demanded suspiciously.
"I know you think you were the only one that ever went into that Labyrinth. I did too until he gave me the sight…" Alice trailed off. "I can see the stain magic paints on us, you and I, the others. The Labyrinth leaves its own stain, it's completely unique. Some of them remember, like us, but think they are also unique, that it's just a dream… or a fairy-tale they heard when they were younger. They think your books are those fairy-tales reincarnated, not memories. Others, they remember nothing."
Sarah shuffled uncomfortably in front of her, causing her to pause. Was she thinking she had lost her mind? It wouldn't be the first time that someone had thought that. Alice swallowed nervously, she needed her to believe her.
"I know you still have contact with Hoggle, that he can summon a portal between our worlds," Alice trailed off as Sarah began to shake her head. She'd said too much, expected too much of her. "At least think about it, please! Here, this is my number."
Quickly she tore a strip of paper from one of the pages and scribbled her number down. Handing it to Sarah with one last begging glance. She took it but would no longer meet Alice's eyes. Without another word she turned and walked away, Alice watched her go, biting her lip with nervous energy. There was no point in chasing her, she had done all she could, she'd might have even done too much. A chill wind ruffled under her coat and bit her legs through her tights, hurriedly she tucked the papers back into the backpack. Her flat wasn't too far away and the weather was turning rapidly. She glanced at the heavy clouds over the townhouses, snow was coming. Shouldering the backpack, she turned to walk back to her flat, her shoulder smacking into the chest of someone hurrying in the other direction. She muttered an apology and headed home.
"Where have you been? Didn't you hear the news? There's a storm on the way, here, look at this," Ashley slapped the paper down on the kitchen table as Alice dropped her backpack onto the floor in the hallway.
"I told you, I had to go to the coffee shop," Alice called through, struggling with her scarf.
"Yeah, I know. After that Sarah author again, what's she called? Sarah Williams?" Ashley snapped in frustration. "So, how did it go, did you meet your heroine?"
"Yes, and it could have gone better," Alice muttered walking through to the kitchen and turning the paper round. Ashley tapped a manicured fingernail next to the article she wanted her to read.
"Gone better… what, you told her that you spent five years in an asylum, and she ran screaming?" Ashley snorted.
Alice glared at her before dropping into a chair and focusing in on the newspaper article more intently. It would help with their assignment on the use of language to induce terror and misconceptions in the 'masses'. Ignoring Ashely's continued mutterings, she cut the article out in silence.
"You know, if you weren't so smart, I'd have asked to change roommates years ago," Ashley sighed, in a tortured way, forcing Alice to look at her once more.
"I'd still have helped you, even if we didn't share a flat," she stated calmly. Resting her chin on her palm as she looked at her 'friend'. "After you told everyone about my 'illness' it's proven almost impossible to talk to anyone, never mind make an actual friend. It's just a shame that it labelled you the FFF… 'freaks freaky friend'."
Alice smiled in a falsely sweet way before folding up the paper and placing it to one side, she pushed the cutting towards. Ashley muttered in agreement and took the cutting to the fridge, pinning it in place with an aggressive smack of a magnet. Alice smiled slightly, for all her grumbling there was no one either would prefer to be around. With a shiver she wandered over to the toaster and dropped in two slices of whole grain and two slices of white. Behind her Ashley gave a world-weary sigh before wandering into the living room to watch one of her inane programmes about random people falling in love. By the time the toaster had popped Alice had made two steaming mugs of hot chocolate and rescued the chocolate spread from the freezer. She may have been the one to go to the asylum, but she was amazed that Ashley was even alive sometimes.
Precariously balancing two plates and two mugs she made her way into the living room and handed a set to the other young woman. A grunt of thanks greeted her as she flopped onto the other end of the sofa. "Oh my god, you put peanut butter on as well!" Ashley exclaimed in delight, spraying crumbs everywhere in her urgency to speak.
"I also rescued the chocolate spread from the freezer," Alice muttered through her own toast.
"You know I love you really, you're just weird," Ashley crunched through the words. Alice glanced across at her.
"I know," she tucked her feet under her and turned her attention to the TV. "Weird is relative," Alice and Ashley tipped their heads sideways in confused unison as the latest addition to the TV 'house' introduced himself.