Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth or any of its characters.

Chapter Two

Sarah had been running about fifteen minutes when she finally saw the front porch of her house. Sarah and Merlin had run all the way from the park, and it had begun to rain so Sarah was drenched to the bone. They ran so fast that Sarah felt like she could collapse. But they didn't stop. Even when Sarah needed to take a break just to catch a breath, they didn't stop. Sarah was actually grateful when her house came into view. But she was also fearful.

"Oh, it's not fair!" she complained, as she and Merlin made their way up the porch.

"Oh, really?"

Sarah cringed at the angered voice of Karen. Sarah looked up to see her standing in the frame of the doorway, hands on her hips.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Sarah apologized, wanting to break into tears.

"Come on, get out of the rain," Karen said, not sympathizing.

Sarah let her head hang even lower. "Come on, Merlin."

"Not the dog!" Karen snapped.

"But-"

"No buts!" she continued, "Into the garage!"

"Go on Merlin," Sarah said in defeat, "go into the garage."

Sarah successfully pushed past Karen, but she didn't get very far. For as soon as she got into the living room, Karen began to nag at her again.

"Sarah, you're an hour late!"

"I said I'm sorry!" she tried to defend.

"Please let me finish. Your father and I go out very rarely-"

"You go out every weekend!"

"And I ask you to baby sit only if it won't interfere with your plans." Karen stated firmly, paying no attention to Sarah's little outburst.

"How do you know?" Sarah yelled, rage building up inside her, "You don't ask me anymore!"

"I assume you'd tell me if you had a date," Karen explained. "I'd like it if you had a date. I mean, you should have dates at your age."

"Well, I don't!" Sarah exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air. "I can't do anything right can I?"

Sarah turned, and began to storm off, outraged with her stepmother. But she didn't leave fast enough not to hear Karen mumble:

"No wonder her mother left."

This shredded Sarah's heart to bits. She began to run to the staircase, almost knocking down her father who had now entered the room. She was glad she didn't knock him over though, because he was holding Toby.

Robert appeared just as Sarah rounded the stairs straight to her room. He winced as she slammed her bedroom door, and turned to Karen expecting an answer.

"She treats me like a wicked step-mother in a fairy story no matter what I say." was all she said.

Robert sighed and decided go talk to her.

Sarah was finally starting to calm down, and looked around her room. There lay old treasured dolls, books that had been read one too many times, scrapbooks and make-up, and costumes. They were Sarah's hopes and dreams, fears and memories. Most of all they made Sarah feel special.

Sarah sat her dresser, continuing to recite the lines when her father knocked on her door.

"Sarah," he said through her door, "honey, we're leaving now. I fed Toby and put him to bed. We'll be back later tonight."

Sarah got up in hurry, angrily throwing herself against her bed when she heard her father and Karen leave. She groaned when she heard the door slam. She would have to face Karen later on. Oh, well. At least she could have some time to sleep on it.

Sarah was about to close her eyes when she noticed that something was wrong. Something was missing... Sarah looked to her shelf of stuffed animals and noticed that her favorite teddy, Lancelot was missing.

"Someone's been in my room!" she growled. "I hate that! I hate it!"

Sarah was about to yell again when she heard Toby crying. She groaned as she threw her legs over the side of the bed. She better go see what he was crying about. Sarah sighed as she heard Toby begin to wail louder.

This, she thought to herself, is going to be a long night.

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