Disclaimer: I do not own anything that originated in The Labyrinth.

Chapter 2: Lunch

"How did you know?" Sarah blurted suddenly into the silence. Apparently she couldn't take the suspense any longer. Tabitha smiled wryly behind the menu she was holding up and reached for her water glass.

"Calm down, Sarah. If you wanted to know so badly, why didn't you just ask sooner?" From the other side of the menu Tabitha could hear Sarah's flustered attempts at forming words.

"Wha. . . ju. . .why?" Frustrated, Sarah dropped her menu on the table and sat back in the booth, her eyes burning holes through the menu her aunt was using as a shield. After a long moment, during which the waiter had come, taken their orders, and brought their drinks, Sarah spoke.

"You know, I'm beginning to think I know where you got your frustrating evasiveness from. It's familiar."

"That's quite a shot in the dark. How do you know he didn't get it from me?" Tabitha asked knowingly, plucking a tortilla chip from the basket and dipping it into the salsa. With her other hand she nudged the chip basket toward Sarah.

"Oh, sure. What are you, his mother?" Sarah asked drily, ignoring the chips.

"I'm twenty-five." Tabitha reminded her for the second time, annoyance flashing across her face.

"His sister then?"

"Oh, please."

"Then what? If you don't tell me soon, I'm going home." Sarah crossed her arms over her chest and waited. Tabitha looked at her and took a deep breath. She felt oddly warm and uncomfortable, despite the restaurant's air conditioning. The lighting in the place was purposely dim, which Tabitha normally liked because it gave off a feeling of privacy. Today, however, the darkness in the room seemed more. . . threatening somehow. She strained her eyes to make out the faces of the people in the tables nearby.

'I'm just edgy,' She thought to herself. 'Because. . . .' Well, she knew why. She hadn't whispered a word of her knowledge to anyone in over twelve years. She had almost managed to convince herself that the whole thing had been imagined when Sarah had arrived that morning and triggered those old, almost alien instincts in her. Some things just could not, perhaps would not, be forgotten. Despite her flippant attitude, Tabitha was anxious and her stomach was as tight as a fist. It was a bit unexpected, really, she had thought she'd gotten over it. One way or the other, there was no going back now. Sarah had become involved.

"Why did you take that book, Sarah?" There was an air of weariness in that question. Sarah shifted uncomfortably.

"You said I could borrow any book in your office that I could reach without a stool. The Labyrinth was sitting on your desk. I always meant to return it to you, but I liked it so much that I put off giving it back." She looked uncertainly at Tabitha, who was giving her an odd, wide-eyed stare.

"It was on my desk?" Tabitha looked pale again, and a little dazed as well. After a moment she seemed to snap out of it, grabbing her water glass and draining it all at once. "Just sitting there on my desk." She murmured quietly to herself.

"Aunt Tabitha?" Sarah interjected firmly. "Where did you get that book?"

"Hmm? Oh, where?" Tabitha shook herself and put the empty glass down. "That's easy. I wrote it."

Sarah stared at her flatly. "You made it up?"

Tabitha shouted with laughter, then clapped her hand over her mouth self-consciously.

"Ah, nooo." She said, still chuckling. "Me, make up the Goblin King? You give me too much credit, sister. No, I wrote it, but I didn't make it up. I simply recorded events as I saw them."

Sarah's eyes widened as those words sank in. "Events as you saw them? Then you saw the labyrinth? You saw Jareth? When? H-how! What. . ." She trailed off, overwhelmed with questions.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I'll try to answer them, but keep in mind I was twelve at the time and I hardly understood everything that was happening."

"You were twelve? It didn't seem like twelve-year-old writing."

"It went through several revisions over the years. The last time I rewrote it I was nineteen years old. There was an old friend of my grandfather's who binds book professionally, and I asked him to bind mine. When he did, I took it home and put it in the lock box I have in my closet. It was at least another year before I unlocked that box to put something in it, and I found the book gone."

"But I swear Aunt Tabitha, It was just sitting there on your desk, by your computer. It was small and thin, so I thought it was a kid's book anyway. By the time I realized it wasn't, I was hooked on the story."

Tabitha sat back and mentally combed through the pages of the book that she could remember, trying to judge if there were anything in it unsuitable for a ten-year-old to read. Nothing came immediately to mind, but she was still uneasy. She wondered if it had anything to do with Sarah's obsession with play-acting and fantasy in the years that followed. But she was just being paranoid. Sarah had been predisposed to fairy tales, and reading The Labyrinth wouldn't have made much of a difference. She sighed heavily.

"I don't suppose you still have the map and the photograph?" She asked.

"What map? What photograph?" Sarah looked genuinely puzzled.

"The ones that were folded up in the book."

"There wasn't anything in the book when I got it."

Tabitha sat back in the booth and closed her eyes. When she opened them again they held a heavy sadness. Sarah took it in quietly, a little surprised. Tabitha could be such a hard woman at times. She had walls that kept her heart neatly protected from just about everyone. To see a vulnerable emotion written in those eyes was rare, and Sarah was unused to it. Her step-aunt always seemed so strong no matter what the situation, as if she were perpetually armed and ready for some kind of attack.

She had once overheard her father describing Tabitha, as he understood her, to her stepmother shortly after their marriage. He had said she was like a fortress, carefully guarding something inside that must have been precious to her. Over the years Sarah had come to understand what he meant. Tabitha could friendly, witty, and often generous, but if she rarely asked anyone for anything and if she were ever scared, sad, hurt, or most anything else, she hid it all behind her walls.

"Ah, well. It doesn't matter." In an instant that trace of sadness was gone. "I don't suppose the map would have been accurate anymore, anyway."

"What was it of?" Sarah couldn't help but ask. Tabitha opened her mouth to say something, then closed it thoughtfully. After a pause she said simply:

"It was a map of the labyrinth."

Again Sarah felt compelled to stare. "But the labyrinth was never the same one minute to the next!"

"It wasn't an ordinary map." Was all Tabitha would say. Sarah pressed, but Tabitha changed the subject.

"So, since you told me this morning that the baby woke you up I assume Toby is alright."

Sarah flinched.

"Yeah, Toby's fine. He - he seems normal too. I don't think he remembers anything."

"Well, he is a bit young. How did it happen?"

"I-I got frustrated. I wished him away. I didn't know it would work!" She cried urgently, willing Tabitha to believe her.

"Of course you didn't," Tabitha laughed drily. "No sane person would expect that to actually work. I guess you just have to be careful what you wish for. Go on, what happened after that?"

Sarah hesitated, her eyes fixing on the waiter approaching with their food. As he set their plates on the table Tabitha glanced at her watch and raised an eyebrow.

"It feels like we've been here longer." She commented. They assured the waiter that they needed nothing else. As soon as he was out of hearing range Sarah began her story. Two hours passed, in which the two women picked slowly at their food and sipped lightly at their drinks, not particularly interested in either. Tabitha constantly pressed for details, but made things simpler with her impressive knowledge of the labyrinth. Sarah didn't have to try and describe locations for her. At length Sarah came to a halt, faltering in the explanation of seeing her friends in the mirror. Tabitha smiled, placing her credit card with the check. The smile was a little sad.

"What happened when you went into the labyrinth?" Sarah asked. Tabitha was silent as she signed the credit card receipt and pulled her wallet out of her purse to make the tip.

"You are assuming a lot." She replied at length, laying a large tip on the table.

"I am not. You knew about Jareth, you say you had a map of the labyrinth, and you guessed out of nowhere that I had been there. I think it's a safe guess that you've been there yourself."

"Yes, but you are assuming that I played the game like you did. I didn't. I almost wish I had. The Goblin King is more bearable when he invites you in to the labyrinth himself." She got to her feet and slung her purse over her shoulder. "Is it alright if I write this down, Sarah? I wont use yours or Toby's names, and it wont be published. But I would like to write it out."

"Well, sure. I don't mind, really, if nobody else knows who its about. Besides, then it wont just live in my memory. Aunt Tabitha, if you didn't play the game, then who is the story about?"

"I don't remember her name anymore. I haven't seen her since, and even when it happened I wasn't able to get very close to her. She faded away from the labyrinth after her victory against Macsen, and if anything happened after that no one told me about it.

"Listen, Sarah. The book you have is the only one I had bound, but there are others. If you really want to know more about what happened to me, I can get the writing for you. But honestly, I think you should let it go. You have seemed more peaceful today than I think I've ever seen you. I don't want to see you lose that by wrapping yourself up in these things again. You said you were ready to move on, and really, what good is dwelling on that place going to do you? Take it from me, it can be quite a burden at times."

Sarah chewed on her lower lip. Tabitha wasn't making a whole lot of sense. She hadn't been invited into the labyrinth? What had she been doing there? If she really felt that it was better to let go of the whole thing, why was she holding on to it herself? She did have a point, though. Since defeating Jareth, Sarah had felt more at peace than ever. She felt like she had a life and future in front of her, and things seemed to make more sense. Yet she was burning with curiosity about Tabitha's story.

"I want to read your other stuff." She decided. Tabitha sighed.

"Alright. I've locked it all away, and it will take some doing to find it. I tell you what, give me a week to straighten things out. Come back next Saturday and I will have it ready for you."

Sarah moaned inwardly. 'A week? She's trying to kill me!' "Oh, alright. I'll come back next Saturday."

"Lets go. I have a lot to do today." Tabitha said, fishing her keys from her purse as they headed out of the restaurant.