Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Not all of them are mine, although I wish they were. Jim is mine, but I am not happy to take credit for him. I will happily say that Anthony and Danika are mine, though.

Summary: Sarah reflects on the past twelve years of her life.

Hello all. Here is the next chapter. Please leave me some feedback when you have finished reading it. Also, check out my other stories and leave me some feedback there. Enjoy!!

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Sarah awoke to a weight pressing down on her abdomen, and when she opened her eyes, she looked right into the brown eyes of her son. "Hi mommy," the toddler say with a lopsided grin.

Sarah smiled and said, "Hi Tony, baby. Couldn't wait for me to wake up?"

The four-year-old boy nodded, and then crawled up give his mother his morning kiss and hug. He then hopped off of her, and ran out of the room to go and watch his morning cartoons. Sarah watched him run off, and then laid back into the pillows and closed her eyes.

"Well, at least I wake up with a beautiful male watching me," she though to herself, and smiled.

After about five minutes of lounging in the bed, Sarah finally got up and walked out to make some breakfast.

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After successfully feeding Tony some breakfast, he was out for his morning nap, and Sarah had some time to herself, so she decided that a nice shower would do her some good.

She climbed into the shower and was instantly relaxed the second the hot water hit her skin. She stood there for a minute, letting the hot water soothe her tense muscles, then reached for the shampoo that was next to her foot.

She squirted some shampoo into her hands, and began to run it through her hair. As she did this, she thought about him.

It had been six months since she and Jim separated, and he hadn't come back to get the rest of his things, or to even see his own son. It tore her apart when Anthony would ask her everyday when daddy was coming back. All that she could say to him was that it would be soon.

Sarah rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and began to wash the morning grime off of her body. She thought about the divorce papers that arrived last week. She hated that she had to find out that they were getting a divorce through his lawyer, who was kind enough to bring the papers to her door.

She cannot believe that she had, at one point, been smitten with him. They met not long after college. They were acting in a show together, and the chemistry between them was great. They had hit it off right away, and began to see a lot of each other.

About two months after they had first met, Sarah discovered that she was pregnant with his child, Anthony. They decided to run off and get married, but also kept it on the down low. They weren't ready to let people know about their new life together.
When Sarah started showing was when people found out about their marriage, and it seemed that no one was happy about it. Sarah's father and stepmother were furious, and they haven't spoken to her ever since. They don't know very much about their grandson, and they want it that way.

The only person that she still has contact with is Toby, and that is very little as it is. The only time that they would see each other is when she would ask him to baby-sit Anthony for her. And when he did, he was so quiet, and didn't say very much to her.

Sarah didn't realize that hot tears had been falling down her cheeks and mixing with the hot water from the shower. She figured that she had been in the shower for long enough, and also assumed that Anthony would be awake soon.

She turned off the water, stepped out of the shower, toweled herself off, and went into the bedroom to put on some clothes.

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After watching a movie and eating lunch with Anthony, Sarah decided that they had been cooped up in the apartment long enough and that they needed some fresh air. So the two of them headed to Anthony's favorite place in the world, the park.

Sarah watched him as he played on the playground equipment and continued to think about the past few years of her life. She jumped to the night that Anthony was born. She had been in labor for 17 hours, and for some reason, she had decided on a natural pregnancy.

That was a big mistake. It was the worst feeling that she had ever felt. But when she looked at Anthony sliding down the slide, she knew that it was worth it.

Anthony looked exactly like his father, from his sandy blond hair down to the dimples that formed when he smiled. The only resemblance of Sarah that he had was in his eyes. He had Sarah's big brown eyes. Eyes that were so full of wonder.

Not long after Anthony was born, things got rough between Sarah and Jim. It seemed like they could never agree on anything. And with a newborn around to take care of, there was a constant tension between the two of them.

Then there was that one night, three months after Anthony had been born. Sarah and Jim had an argument earlier that evening, and Jim had stormed out of their apartment. He returned hours later, drunk as hell, and demanding sex. Sarah was still recovering from the childbirth, and wasn't ready to have sex yet.

Jim had hit her occasionally before, but he had apologized profusely and Sarah had forgiven him. But that night he got so mad when she didn't give in to him, and he hit her so hard that she was knocked out for a few minutes. When she came to, she realized that Jim was about to take advantage of her, and she decided to fight back.

Although Jim got a few hits, he was to drunk to stand up straight and fight, so Sarah was able to get some good shots at his jaw. She threw him out of the apartment and she hasn't seen him at all except for when they filed for separation.

Now she was left alone with Anthony. They had very little money, but they didn't need a lot of it right now. Sarah had been saving money ever since her mother's death, when Sarah got a large portion of inheritance, and she did have a couple of jobs that brought in some money. And as long as Anthony wasn't complaining, things were okay.

As she thought about her life, she saw Anthony fall off of the swing that he was on, and began to cry. She figured that they had been there long enough, so she went over to him and picked him up in a motherly hug as he cried. She then turned and began to walk home.

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After getting Anthony settled down for the night, Sarah decided to catch up on some reading. It had been a long time since she had done reading that wasn't for a play or for legal papers.

She dug through her closet for a box that contained all of the novels that she used to read a long time ago. She pulled the box out of the closet and began to look through the books that were piled in there. She looked at all the titles of the books before her eyes fell upon a small, familiar red book. She pulled out the copy of Labyrinth and lay down on the bed to read it.

She only got through about five pages when her thoughts moved to Jareth. It had been twelve years since she had said those words to him, and she still thought about him almost as much as she thought about Jim. She would often wonder about what would've happened if she had accepted his offer.

A loud boom of thunder brought her back to reality she began to wonder when it had started raining. She sighed and turned her eyes back to the book when the lights went out. Sarah sighed again, this time in frustration.

She got up to check on Anthony to make sure that he was still asleep. She walked into his room and walked over to his bed where he slept. She pulled back the covers to see that he wasn't there. Immediately, he thought raced back to twelve years ago, when the same thing happened, and she expected little goblins to start running around the room.

She tried to think logically and began to search around the room for Anthony. She looked under his bed, in his closet, everywhere that she though a four-year-old would hide. She kept calling out his name, with no response. Frustrated, she stood in the middle of his room as the tears started to fill her eyes.

"It seems that you're looking for something," a voice behind her said. Sarah turned around to see a woman, dressed in Victorian clothing, standing there with her hands on her hips.

"Who the hell are you?" Sarah yelled at the woman. "What are you doing here? Where is my son?"

"My name is Danika." The woman said. "I am Jareth's sister, and he sent me here to take your son away from you. It seems that he still holds a grudge from twelve years ago, and he has asked me to finish what he started."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean 'finish what he started?'" Sarah said.

"Do you really think that saying those words to him would've freed your brother? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Sarah, but those words are useless. Jareth let you win that one time because he loved you. He has regretted it ever since he let you go with your brother. And now, as payback, he asked me to take you son and have you go through the Labyrinth again to get him."

"That not fair," Sarah said.

"Well, that's you opinion. Now if you want to save your son, you'll follow me." Danika said.

Sarah hesitated and looked at Danika, who had turned and begun to walk toward the door of Anthony's room into the hall. She ran after her and saw that as soon as she stepped foot out of Anthony's room, she had stepped foot into the Underground.

She looked around and saw that nothing had changed. It still looked dreary. She commented, "It doesn't look that far." Although in her mind, she was thinking that it looked farther than before.

"Oh, it's very far. Farther than you think." Danika said to her.

"Now, I won't delay this any longer," Danika said, moving so that she faced Sarah. She said to her, "You have thirteen hours to solve the Labyrinth before you son becomes one of us forever." And with that she disappeared.

Sarah looked around, still not believing that she was standing here, about to go through this again. She decided that she would prove Jareth and Danika wrong, go through the Labyrinth, find Anthony, and take him home again.

"Well, come on feet," she said as she headed down the hill to the entrance of the Labyrinth.

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Okay, I know that this seems like it is going to be some teenage puff fiction, but I can assure that it won't be. Please stay tuned for the next chapter. Also, please leave me some feedback on the way out. Thanks