A/N: Told you it'd be faster. That's two chapters in one night. Please, please, please continue to review!!! Otherwise I'll stop and I'm sure you don't want that (^_^) Once again thanks to all those who have reviewed so far – you keep me going!

Disclaimer: I don't own the labyrinth, those other movie people do

The two girls had stood facing each other as Kara's heart pounded so loud she was sure Sarah must hear it. Eventually Sarah found her voice enough to speak but it wasn't what Kara wanted to hear.

"Get out! I don't know why he's put you up to this but I don't care!" She began angrily gathering her spilled laundry from the floor and she dumped it in a messy pile on a chair that stood in one corner.

"He didn't put me up to this," Kara protested. "If he knew I was here he'd probably never even talk to me again!"

"Is that the worst punishment he's dishing out to his subjects these days?" Sarah asked sceptically.

"Well since I'm not one of his subjects, yes it is the worst he can do to me. Look, please just hear me out at least, please?"

Sarah looked doubtful, caught between just throwing this girl out of her house and getting back to what she'd been trying to do for the past five years, namely forget all about the labyrinth and its ruler, or listening to what she had to say. She sighed.

"Sit down," she said in a resigned tone of voice. Her heart had won out. For the moment.

Kara smiled and sat cross-legged on the floor, letting Sarah sit on the bed. Sarah gasped when she caught sight of the mirror, which instead of reflecting the room they were in, showed the room Kara had just come from.

"That's how I got here and how I'll get back," Kara explained. "I don't have much time. I don't want anyone to know I'm gone." Sarah nodded her head and Kara began the story of how she entered the labyrinth, telling Sarah everything right up to the most recent events.

"Look Jareth loves you, and it's killing him that he can't be with you, though he'll never let anyone know that."

"Then how do you know?" Sarah asked suspiciously.

"He gets this look when he thinks no one is watching, like he's mourning a dead love only worse because you aren't dead. You're still out there somewhere and he can't make the first move because he'd probably just give up and die if you reacted with him the way you reacted with me just now. I'm just hoping you are as much in love with him as he is with you."

Sarah felt an old familiar anger welling up inside her and she sprang to her feet, "after everything he did to me! You think that was love?" She exclaimed passionately.

"Everything he did that night, he did because you asked him to! When someone enters the Labyrinth there are certain rules they have to obey to succeed, well there's a set of rules for him to. Things he can and can't do. I had a relatively easy time in the Labyrinth, most of the danger I faced didn't come from Jareth it came from others. He's not the evil, wicked King you've made him in your head."

Sarah hung her head dejectedly, "I don't believe you." She said it quietly and she didn't sound half as convinced as she would like to.

Kara stood, "I'll let you think about what I've said. I have to go back, but I would like to visit again, if that's ok?"

"Sure," said Sarah. "It's been a while since I had a true friend to talk to so I might as well talk to the crazy girl from the mirror."

Kara simply laughed, "I know you're twenty one now, but that doesn't mean you're too old for a certain book. Goodbye." With those last words Kara stepped through the mirror and Sarah kept her head bowed until the room's reflection had returned.

She got off the bed and went to the set of draws that stood opposite her bed. She opened one of the smallest and shifted various letters and documents to one side till her questing fingers found the worn leather bound book. She took it out and cradled it against her chest.

"I know," she whispered.

~*~

Sitting in one of the high towers of his castle, Jareth was sulking. There was no other word for it. Everywhere he went it seemed that everyone was happy, so he had shut himself in the tower and was sitting with his back against the wall, one leg stretched out and the other pulled up, his right arm resting lightly on it.

He sighed and held out his left hand, summoning a crystal. He held the delicate globe in his gloved hand, contemplating it for a moment.

A second later it struck the far wall, the shards disappearing as quickly as they were formed. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

He'd been on the verge of summoning Sarah's image.

Why did he do this to himself, he wondered. It was agony to know she was out there and to not be able to see her but he couldn't take seeing her and not being able to touch her or hold her or even talk to her.

And it could always be worse than that. She could be with someone else.

Well she was twenty-one now, he mused. He'd spent the day that marked her birth sulking in his chamber threatening anyone who dared disturb him with the bog of eternal stench. Twenty-one and no doubt more beautiful than when he last saw her. Of course there would be some significant other and seeing it, confirming it beyond a doubt was one more blow than his heart was prepared to take.

Alone, he continued to sulk.