Disclaimer: I don't own any of the below mentioned characters.

Sarah didn't know why she had bothered coming to school; she hadn't been able to pay attention to a single class all day. All week for that matter. She had a trigonometry exam tomorrow and she knew she would fail it. Not just because she couldn't keep her eyes open in class, but because there was no way she would get any studying done at home. The shadows had become more persistent, not even needing the lights off now to start shuffling around her room. Sarah smiled wryly, realizing that the shadows were merely adapting to their new situation. She hadn't turned the lights out in her room since seeing that creature outside her bedroom window, and that had been days ago.

She also knew she wasn't coming to school to learn, she was coming to escape that house. She continued to tell herself that she wasn't afraid of the shadows, but the same couldn't be said about the… other. It was still there, she heard it every night, scraping at her window.

She had learned a thing or two about it in the last few days. It only seemed to be able to get inside her house if she was alone. Even then it couldn't get into her room for some reason, so she never left it. She would hear horrifying sounds coming from downstairs, noises that made her hair stand on end, but she never went to investigate. She stayed firmly put on her bed, no one to talk to but her shadow companions. Even when the inevitable thumps and poundings began on the door outside her room, she never budged from the bed, doing her best to ignore the persistent entity that wanted so badly to meet her.

The onslaught would invariably disappear just as quickly as it began as soon as her parents came home, and there never seemed to be any physical sign that anything had ever been amiss. She supposed she should be grateful for that, for Karen would certainly blame her for any destruction to the house, but it also meant that there was no way she could ever talk to her parents about what was happening. There was no proof, was there? She wondered, not for the first time, if the entity did that intentionally to isolate her.

Sarah was in chemistry class now, and she looked around the room. The wall of windows to her left let in a steady stream of sunlight that cast deep shadows against the wall to her right, and some of the shadows were moving. She had seen it yesterday in English class as well, but had hoped it was just sleep deprivation. She knew now that it wasn't, and she sighed heavily. They had adapted again, and now they were following her. She wasn't threatened by them, but the mystery of them was beginning to take its toll on her. She wanted desperately to find out what they were, what they wanted of her, but how could she?

Feeling defeated, she slumped over her work table and absently began doodling on a piece of paper while she watched the shadows in her peripheral vision. A book bag thumping on the table beside her announced the arrival of her lab partner, and the only real friend she had made since coming to this place.

"So I thought that if we add a little more chlorine to the mixture, it would give it a kind of creepy glowy quality." the cheerful redhead began, speaking as though they had already been deep in conversation and not seeing each other for the first time that day, "It would be really neat and maybe we would win the science fair, and then wouldn't that show those snooty Waters twins? They think their so great just because they always win the science fair every year since fifth grade. Well not this year. This is the year that Willow Rosenberg topples them from their nerdy pedestal, and then I will be Queen of the Science Fair!" With that she raised a triumphant fist into the air, and brought it back down again quickly when she realized that Sarah wasn't looking at her and every one else in the room was.

Willow looked down at her friend and pouted. "Are you okay, Sarah?" Sarah looked up at her, her eyes darting around as she did so, and smiled at her sleepily. "I'm fine." she lied. Willow took one look at Sarah's pale complexion and the dark circles under eyes and knew the girl was definitely not fine.

"Are you still having those bad dreams?" she asked, her eyes narrowing as she saw Sarah's once again dart from one side of the room to the other before she answered.

"Yes," she said, "I think they're getting worse." Sarah had told Willow that she was having nightmares as a way to explain her lack of sleep, and in a way it was true. What was happening was definitely a nightmare.

Willow decided to change the subject and glanced down at the drawing Sarah had been creating. "Wow," she said, "Who's the hottie?"

Sarah followed her friend's gaze to the paper in front of her and gasped, dropping her pencil as though it had tried to bite her. She had only been doodling, giving no conscious thought to what she put on the paper. So how was it she had created a perfect likeness of the Goblin King? There he was looking back at her, his features captured down to every detail. The careless sprawl of his hair, his windblown cloak, the amulet that adorned his bare chest, even the mocking grin she remembered so well had all been recreated in photographic perfection. Sarah liked to draw, but she had never considered herself particularly good at it, and certainly not this good. And why him? She hadn't thought of him in years. At least not while you were awake, her mind chided.

In her peripheral vision she saw the shadows moving again, coming closer. It almost seemed as though they were drawn to the likeness on her desk. She glanced back up at Willow and found to her mixed horror and delight that the redhead was also watching the shadows. "Sarah," she whispered, "Are these shadows moving?"

"You can see them?" Sarah asked hopefully, not realizing how much she had feared deep down that they were imaginary.

"They'd be hard to miss," Willow answered looking around slowly, "We're surrounded by them." It was certainly not the strangest thing Willow had ever seen, but for a Thursday morning chemistry class it was definitely not normal.

"Don't be afraid." Sarah said, "I don't think they'll hurt us." Willow's eyes opened wide and she didn't have to ask the question that was plainly written on her face: You don't think? She quickly overcame her fear and began analyzing the situation.

"I think they like your artwork." Willow said, confirming Sarah's observation that they seemed drawn to the picture she had unwittingly made. She reached out for the drawing and Sarah had to fight the urge to take it back protectively. Willow noticed the brief inner conflict in her friend's eyes, but said nothing. Instead she studied the drawing, mentally flipping through thousands of memories trying to find the one this mystery man tugged at. She was almost positive she had seen him somewhere before, probably in a book. One of Giles' books maybe? Her heart skipped a beat. If he was in one of Giles' dusty old tomes, then he was probably no one Sarah should be dealing with alone.

She tore her gaze from the picture and looked back up at Sarah's expectant face. "Sarah," she began gently, "Do you need help? Because I know people who can help, and you look like you need help." She stopped herself before she could start babbling and regarded the other girl carefully.

Sarah didn't know what to say. She wanted more than anything to talk to someone about what was happening. Willow seemed to be offering her that opportunity, but she was terrified that the other girl wouldn't believe her. Or worse, that she would think she was crazy. She closed her eyes and laid her head on her arms. Suddenly she was very, very tired. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Sarah said, her voice trembling with tears that threatened to break free.

Silence stretched between them for a long moment, and she thought that perhaps Willow had left. Then she felt a familiar tingling sensation in the air, a feeling she had only experienced years before, in the Labyrinth. Magic…she was feeling magic in the air. She threw her eyes open with a start, and found her own sharply pointed number two pencil floating in the air in front of her. She sat up quickly and looked at Willow, who was smiling so brightly even the shadows seemed to back away.

She closed her eyes and whispered something softly and the pencil dropped back to the table. "You might be surprised what I'll believe." the redhead said, her eyes still closed.

-

In the back of the classroom, unseen to either of the girls or anyone else in the class, some one was watching, and was very pleased with the situation. The unseen entity smiled affectionately at Willow. I knew I could count on you. Changing the teacher's seating plan so that Willow and the Williams girl would be lab partners had been a stroke of genius.

A/N: Okay, so some of you had already guessed that Sarah was in Sunnydale, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise. If you're a Buffy fan, then I'll tell you that I set this somewhere in the beginning of season three, before Faith or Wesley or the Mayor. It's a little AU, and you'll see why later, but I changed a few things to make the story flow better.

If you're not a Buffy fan, then just sit back and enjoy the story. Thanks for reading and please REVIEW! (Reviews make my world go round.)