Sarah tossed her head, flipping her mane of black hair behind her shoulders as she walked across campus towards the auditorium. Walking inside, blasts of cold air hitting her in the face, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. Something that looked a little familiar...but she disregarded it, and walked into the dressing room to prepare for rehearsal.

The play that year was written by a group of alumni, centered around a teenage girl trapped in a fantasy world. Sarah had been cast as Rachel, the lead, and appropriately so. The director, Professor Haskell, kept commenting on how real her performance was, as if Sarah had actually been in a world similar to the one the play was set in. Every time the professor marveled at her ability to be such at ease in acting the role, Sarah just had to smile, shake her head, and say that it all came naturally.

Outside, the sun slowly sank behind the buildings of the campus, and the students one by one emerged from their classrooms, only to emerge a short time later from their dorms, ready for a Friday night out. The actors and actresses finished up rehearsal and dispersed to the dressing rooms, gathering up their things and discussing plans.

"Sarah." Jack Kelley, the male lead, approached Sarah as she was walking out the door towards her car. "I was wondering, if you weren't doing anything tonight, maybe we could catch dinner, and a movie, if you didn't mind, or weren't busy, or anything like that," Jack said hurriedly, blushing a brighter shade of red with every word. "I mean, you don't have to, but I just think we'd have a good time together, that's all."

"Why, Jack, I'd love too!" Sarah was elated. This was exactly what she needed to rid her mind of Jareth. A night out with a potential boyfriend would surely erase every recent thought of the Goblin King, as well as her now frequent dreams about the Labyrinth. "Let me put my things in my car and we'll go, okay?"



Jareth snatched the crystal out of the air and smashed it against a stone wall. Throwing himself on a bed covered with black satin sheets and blue fur blankets, he fought the urge to scream aloud. Instead, he voiced his thoughts to the cold and empty room.

"That boy isn't what she needs, much less wants! Why doesn't she see that I'm here, at her beck and call, waiting to wait on her hand and foot, and all she has to do is call on me? I know I'm what she wants, so why does she deny herself?"

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. A goblin stepped in, armor clattering together as he shook in the presence of his king, obviously aware of his anger. "My lord, the goblins have prepared your meal, if you wish to attend..." He trailed off, then ducked out of the doorway as Jareth threw his cane at him. He had no appetite, no will to step out of his bedchamber, no intention of doing anything until Sarah called on him.

"It's only a matter of time."

Meanwhile, Sarah and Jack sat in a dark, deserted movie theater, watching a movie that everybody else had seen a month ago, when it was a new release. She was enjoying Jack's company, but it wasn't how she always imagined it to be. She thought that she would be full of nervous excitement, complete with a fluttery stomach and sweaty palms. She felt the fluttery stomach when Jack got close, but not the good kind of fluttery stomach. The nauseous fluttery stomach. "Why do I feel this way? Jack's a nice guy, but..."

She didn't dare finish the rest of the thought. She knew what she wanted to say, but she thought that if she didn't say it, maybe she didn't really wish it. She argued with herself until she realized that the credits were rolling, and Jack was slumped back in his chair, sighing.

"Jack? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Sarah. I'm fine. What say we go get a bite to eat?"

It sounded good to Sarah to get out of the suddenly stuffy theater. "Sounds great!" She tried to put on a cheerful voice, but the fun had gone out of the evening. Still, she was determined to make the best out of it, almost as though she was trying to prove herself wrong. Almost as though she was trying to prove Jareth wrong. Jack held the door of the car open as Sarah slid in, and then waited for Jack to get in on the opposite side. As they left the parking lot, a feeling of uneasiness had descended onto Sarah's shoulders. She noticed that they were going the wrong direction-all the restaurants that would of been open at the time of night were on the west side of town, and they were heading east. "Jack? Were are we going?"

He didn't answer, and Sarah's heart started to beat faster.

After a few more minutes of silent driving, Jack pulled into an empty parking lot, turned off the ignition, and put the keys in his pocket. He turned and looked at Sarah, sitting beside him, staring straight ahead. "Look, Sarah. I like you, I always have. But there's something that you must not be getting. I'm Jack Kelley. I get what I want. And what I want is you, baby." He leaned across the car and captured Sarah's face in between his hands and brutally pressed his lips to hers, stubble raking across her chin.

"Jack, stop it this instant!" Sarah barely managed to push him away, only to have him crawl across the center console and unbuckle her seatbelt.

"You know you want it, too, baby. Don't deny it."

Sarah frantically raked at his face with her nails, but it didn't deter him. His hands were busy at his belt buckle, then at hers. It all rushed by Sarah's eyes as a blur, but in slow motion. She felt her jeans being pushed down her hips, and Jack's hands roughly roaming her body while she kicked, scratched, screamed, and fought. Somewhere in her head, a haunting melody softly started playing.

"I'll be there for you...as the world falls down..."

"JARETH! I NEED YOU!" Sarah heard herself scream. She heard scuffling sounds, and felt Jack's weight being pulled off her. Soon afterwards she fainted, letting her semi-conscience succumb to numbness.