Ch. 1 "Voices and Memories"

A/N 8/30/2020:

Hello! This is a story I originally published in 2005, back in my early high-school years. As is typical for me, my procrastination and short attention span led me to other stories and eventually other things. I returned to continue it in 2012 but again vanished. This time I am hoping to finish and do it right! Unlike any other story I have every written, I have outlined the entire story line and am working on a completed rough draft. I have also updated my original 6 chapters and condensed them into longer chapters.

For any of my original readers, I hope you have returned to finish what I have owed you for 15 years. After all, it's not long at all ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth or any of the original characters. All new characters are a creation on my own, and any resemblance to known characters is a coincidence.

Everything I've done, I've done for you

I move the stars for no one

Your eyes can be so cruel

Just as I can be so cruel

Though I do believe in you...

Sarah awoke suddenly, the melody still streaming through her head.

'What is going on? I need to get over this' she thought, taking a drink of the water that sat on the nightstand next to her bed. 'It was just a dream, all of it. There was never any Labyrinth. Or Ludo, or Hoggle, or Sir Didymus, or... him.'

She laid back down, but knew she would sleep no more. She had convinced herself fully that her experience five years ago had never happened, and she now truly believed it was all a dream. But there were still times she missed her adventures and all her friends, even if they weren't real.

She had lived for years convincing herself she was happy and content. Unfortunately, she did not succeed. As much as she hated to admit it, her step-mother Irene was right. To a point.

She lacked friends outside of her college lab partner, Erin. She had gone out on a couple dates, but none of them had worked out. Even school had been difficult. After her Labyrinth dream, theater failed to hold the same magic for her it once had. Nothing could compare to the experience and emotions she had felt in that dream. She had started college with basic classes and an undeclared major, but 3 years in she still didn't have it figured out.

It wasn't until three weeks ago, on her 21st birthday, that a voice had entered her head. His voice, always singing to her. At first she had thought she was going crazy (or that she needed to lay off the tequila her and Erin were enjoying in celebration of her legal adult-hood), but then the feeling that it wasn't just a dream began to cross her mind.

Soon, thankfully, her alarm struck six a.m. and she got up to get ready for morning classes. She sat down at her vanity to comb her hair.

There's such a sad love

Deep in your eyes

Sarah whipped around, expecting to see the Goblin King himself in her room. His voice had been so clear, it sounded like he was right behind her. Seeing nothing, she turned back around and gazed into the mirror.

A kind of pail jewel

Opened and closed within your eyes

I'll place the sky within your eyes

That's when she noticed it. A crystal, floating in midair above her bed. Slowly, trembling, she stood up and turned to stare at it. She moved closer and gazed into it's depths. Deep inside she saw herself, at the dance, looking around scared.

There's such a fooled heart

Beatin' so fast

In search of new dreams

A love that will last

Within your heart

I'll place the moon within your heart

She reached out a trembling hand and gently plucked the crystal out of the air. As she did, cradling it in her hands, the voice became louder and filled her room.

As the pain sweeps through

Makes no sense for you

Every thrill is gone

Suddenly flash backs and memories of everything that had happened flooded her memory, and she was now certain that it had been no dream.

Wasn't too much fun at all

But I'll be there for you

The voice disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and the images disappeared from the crystals' depths. Sarah continued to stare at it in a daze, remembering that dance. Remembering the Goblin King as he took her hand in his, the electric jolt she had felt as their hands had made contact and he spun her around the dance floor. The look in his eyes, that couldn't have been real, could it?

'No', she thought, shaking her head. 'He never desired, and definitely never loved me. He just wanted to keep Toby and turn him into a goblin.'

"Oh NO!" She cried, looking at her clock. "I'm going to be late! That's not fair!"

She quickly grabbed her bag and ran out the door. One convenience of her school was the close location, less than a mile, to her childhood home. She made it about a block when it began to rain. She grabbed a random folder out of her bag and used it as an umbrella until she finally reached campus. She made it to class right as the professor began her lecture.

"Thank you for showing up, Ms. Williams," her professor said as she ran into the room, out of breath. "Could you please hand in your paper due this morning?"

She suddenly remembered the soaked folder she held and opened it to reveal all her papers, including her paper she had finished writing last night for this class, ruined.

"That'll be another 30 points off your grade, Ms. Williams. I don't where your head has been these past few weeks, but you are not on the right track."

"That's not fair" she mumbled as she sat down in her seat next to the window. She gazed across campus towards the football field as the rain caused a mist to rise, soothing her.

She knew where her head had been, although she would never admit it. She had been thinking of him. The one she turned down. But why? Why had she turned him down? When she stopped to think about it, she realized he had been everything she had ever wanted in a man, if not a little old for a 16-year-old. Magical, mysterious, alluring. But he wasn't real, or so she had thought until this morning.

But I'll be there for you...

She slowly dozed off as his voice rang through her head...

"Where am I?" Sarah asked, gazing around her at the crumbling stone walls that rose above her on three sides.

"Surely you know where you are." A familiar voice said, and she turned to stare into two mismatched eyes that watched her from twenty feet away. The Goblin king stood, leaning against a wall as he juggled a crystal back and forth between his black leather-clad fingers.

"Why did you bring me here?" She asked, trembling slightly and fighting the urge to back away in fear.

"I did not bring you here," he said, standing up straight and walking towards her slowly. "You have brought yourself here. Much to my surprise, might I add."

"That's impossible," she said, once again refusing to back away from him and show her fear.

"You should know very well that nothing is impossible, especially not here in the Underground," he replied, an amused smirk gracing his face as he stopped a few feet away from her.

"But I was just in class and I dozed. No way could I be in the Labyrinth," she replied frantically.

"Oh, you are not here physically, but you have sent your spiritual self here. I hoped my messages might help, but I never imagined you would come to me so quickly…" He reached out and ran a strand of her hair through his fingers, but he stopped when he sensed her tense up, and dropped his hand slowly down to his side.

"You were the one that kept singing in my head!" She accused, narrowing her eyes and glaring at him.

"I merely wanted to show you I meant what I said so many years ago when you defeated me in my Labyrinth," he said with a sigh as he turned from her.

"What?" She asked. "That you wanted to take my brother and turn him into a goblin?"

"Are you so naïve, Sarah?" He asked, throwing his hands up in the air. "Can you really not understand?" He turned and stared her in the eyes. "What must I do to show you I meant it when I asked you to stay with me?"

"I have to go..." Sarah mumbled, for once at a lost of words. Jareth sighed as he once again turned his back to her. With a flick of his hand, she was gone.

"Sarah, wake up. Sarah, the bell rang!" Sarah jerked awake and stared at her friend Erin through tired eyes.

"Ok," she said, stifling a yawn with her hand as she grabbed her bag off the floor. She followed Erin out of the room and nodded every now and then to Erin's random conversation, but her mind was on a certain Goblin King.