Thank you so much for the comments! Here is part two, and I promise not to wait so long to put out the last chapter. The disclaimer from the previous chapter still applies. I don't own Jareth, Sarah, or the Labyrinth. The Henson Productions has the rights to those. Alara however, is my creation. I hope you enjoy part two, and will leave a comment.
Sarah
Sarah sighed as she ran over her lines in her mind, but it wasn't on the words or the play. She and her stepmother had argued again last night. Karen wanted Sarah to give up her dream of being an actress in favor of being a doctor or lawyer or something. Her stepmother had even threatened to stop paying for her classes. Sarah had stormed off to her room to fume before she said something she would regret later. She had tried to call her mother this morning, but all she got was a message saying her mother was away and couldn't be reached. It didn't matter anyway. Her mother didn't care about her either. Only her current boyfriend or show mattered.
"That was a good rehearsal, Sarah." Sarah looked up startled. Her friend Ally sat down in the chair next to her and began to remove her stage make-up. Ally's pure white hair gleamed in the harsh light. Sarah sighed and smiled. "I still think you should've gotten the lead part."
Ally looked at her, brows raised. "Bite your tongue! I don't want to have to memorize all those lines!" Ally looked back into the mirror. "I would be too nervous and would mess everything up. I'd much rather be the brainless maidservant. No lines to remember. Besides, wouldn't you rather be Tatiana, the Queen of Fancy and Mistress of the Frivolous?" Ally turned to look at Sarah's distant face. "Your parents argued with you again, didn't they?" Sarah gave a short nod and turned her head away. God! She was going to cry in front of everyone!
Alara noticed the tightness in Sarah's. That must have been a bad argument, usually Sarah would rant and rave. "Wait here, Sarah." Alara went to the phone outside of the dressing room and called Sarah's house. People can be so cruel, she thought. Can't they see they were slowly killing their own daughter? It was ridiculous, a drama class wasn't worth the grief they were putting Sarah through. "Hello, Mrs. Williams? Hi, this is Ally. Fine thanks, how are you?" You little worm-rotted pile of pig snot – "I was wondering if you would let Sarah come over to my place tonight. I'm having a little trouble in history class and was hoping Sarah could tutor me. Uh huh, Mr. Williams is having a dinner party tonight? No, I have some food at my place, if it's okay?" Don't want her around to embarrass you, do you? "All right, thanks. Have a good evening." Or not, you rat. Alara quickly went back to her friend. "I just called your stepmom, Sarah. I hope you don't mind. I asked if you could come over tonight to help me study. She said it would be okay." Alara smiled weakly, "You look like you need to get away for awhile." Sarah murmured a thanks and gathered her things, not even bothering to remove her costume. They said nothing for the short walk to Ally's apartment. Sarah was just grateful to have a friend as understanding as Ally was.
She had met Ally at the start of the colledge year in her drama class. Ally's parents had died suddenly, so the rumor went. Filled with grief, Ally had sold everything and moved into her very own apartment. Sarah could believe it; from that first day Ally carried her sadness like a veil. Quiet and shy, she never spoke about it, she just seemed to be trying to get from one day to the next. She looked as out of place as Sarah felt, and just as lost. Sarah watched her for the first few days as she gently and politely rebuffed the other students' offers of friendship. No one was insulted, though, they all assumed she was still grieving. Sarah didn't remember exactly how they started talking; she thought it had something to do with the play. But whatever it was, it sparked a friendship. Ally seemed to understand Sarah's desire to escape from everything, and she never laughed at Sarah's stories or dreams.
Ally unlocked her door and dropped her books onto the floor by the couch while Sarah placed her things on the kitchen table and looked around. She loved Ally's place, it felt like more of a home than her own place was. "Sarah, tell me what happened with your parents last night. You look like you haven't slept in a week." Ally waited expectantly as Sarah sagged into the couch. She looks like she's ready to give up the fight, Alara thought.
"She's not my parent, she's my step-mom. Nothing happened except that she threatened to stop paying for school." Then Sarah felt her face burn red. Oops! What a slip! At least she had parents! She glanced over at Ally's sympathetic face. Sarah looked back down at her hands, trying to hide the tears. God, she felt so stupid! She didn't want to cry in front of her best friend. "And then I tried to call mom this morning, but as usual, she was screening her calls. She didn't want to talk to me." Tears came to Alara's own eyes as she felt Sarah's soul-wrenching pain. How can these people be allowed to have children when they don't know how to take care of them? She was grateful for never having had parents of her own. She watched as Sarah struggled keep her feelings bottled up. No wonder Jareth scared her so much, Alara mused. The poor thing was never truly loved. I doubted she saw Jareth's offer for what it really was. I wonder what she would do if he made the offer again…
"No more masks, Sarah, I'm your friend. You don't have to hide from me, let me help you." At last the wall crumbled and Sarah burst into heart-rending sobs that refused to cease. Alara scrambled off her perch and held her friend tightly as if she were a child. Alara waited until the sobbing had run out and left Sarah a pathetic heap of hiccups and sniffles before returning to her perch on her armchair. How to proceed? "If you could go anywhere in the world, anywhere in time, where would you go?"
Caught off guard by the strangeness of the question, Sarah sniffed and answered without thinking. "The Labyrinth." She felt herself blush, why had she said that? She was so stupid; there was no such place as the Labyrinth. It was just a dream, a stupid fantasy.
Alara pretended to look surprised. "From your dream? Why on earth would you want to go there? Didn't the king from that place steal Toby?"
Embarrassed, Sarah studied a spot on the carpet. She had mentioned the dream only once, and hadn't meant to bring it up. It seemed so real at the time. "Well, actually the goblins took him, and any way, I asked them to." She felt so stupid for having this conversation! Alara tucked her knees up to her chin to hide her smile.
"Didn't he throw a snake at you?"
Sarah shook her head. "I don't think it was real. It turned into a scarf or something when I dropped it."
"You fell into that oubliette-pit after you solved the riddle." Sarah frowned, she hadn't realized that Ally had such a good memory.
"Yeah, well, I guess I was being too smug about it."
"Hmm. What about those red featherheads nearly decapitating you? That's not something I would enjoy."
Sarah snickered, remembering the look on their faces when her head wouldn't come off. "They weren't that bad, they just didn't understand that I wasn't part of their game. And anyway, Hoggle rescued me. I wonder what would've happened if I had gone left."
Alara wrinkled her nose in distaste. "You wouldn't have landed in that stench-filled bog, that's what would've happened!"
Sarah mirrored the expression. "Yeah, but then I would never have found Ludo or met Sir Didymus. I wouldn't have made through the Labyrinth without their help."
"Didn't the king-guy nearly kill you with that slashing machine?"
Sarah shuddered. She had never been so scared in her life; she had thought that she was going to die! "I think I made him mad. I probably shouldn't have said the Labyrinth was a piece of cake. I just didn't want him to know how scared I was."
Alara nodded sagely. "Yes, he seems to have a thing against cakes, doesn't he? He probably never had a birthday party in his life."
Sarah couldn't help but laugh out loud at picturing him wearing a sparkling party hat and blowing on a noisemaker. Then she sobered. "He also tried to make me forget everything." Alara flinched, she hadn't planned on bringing that up. Sarah sighed as she stared into space. "Sometimes I want to forget it all," she whispered. Alara made up her mind, then. She let down the shield that masked her power. Jareth had once gifted Sarah with part of himself, if she still carried that inside her, she would be able to see Alara as she truly was.
"Sarah…" Sarah heard the uncertainty in her friend's voice.
"Wha…" The word trailed off as Sarah stared at her friend. Ally was glowing, literally glowing…
Alara smiled ruefully, "No more masks." Sarah shook off her shock as she scrambled to her feet. "He sent you, didn't he? Stay away from me!'' She backed up the door, ready to run. It was Alara's turn to be shocked; she hadn't expected this! "No, no," she pleaded, "Don't run! Please, hear me out! Jareth doesn't know I'm here, honest." Sarah froze at the door, her hand on the knob.
"What did you say?" Her breath came in ragged gasps as she turned to face Ally. "I never told you his name." Alara shook her head, "You didn't have to. Please, will you listen to what I have to say before you run away again?" Sarah didn't move at first, Alara stood where she was, eyes pleading. Sarah suppressed a sigh, then slowly edged away from the door and gingerly perched herself on the edge of the cushion. Relieved, Alara began to explain, "Sarah, I have a story to tell you about a young girl…"