AN: I don't own anything, this was just something I wanted to share with other fans. This is my first fan fic so please be gentle and understanding. Any errors are my own. Thank you for reading and reviewing.

"I was just like you when I was your age." Sarah looked closely at Amber it was almost like looking at a negative. Where Sarah was and had been dark haired with fair skin, the Sophomore was a blonde with a tan. "I loved this book too, but I am a little concerned you seem to be withdrawing into the fantasy world." She picked up the girl's copy of Labyrinth and smiled at memories she hadn't really thought of in thirteen years. Sarah could recall a similar conversation with her English teacher.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me, I just might surprise you."

"Even if I did want to talk, which I don't. I gotta get home to watch my baby sister." The girl picked up her backpack and left the classroom.

Sarah pulled her dark hair down from the bun, glad the day was finally over. Stretching her neck by rolling her head in a circle from shoulder to chest to shoulder. She sighed, "Oh Jareth. What are you doing with my student?" She didn't expect an answer. Her calls to the Labyrinth and the responses from them had gotten fewer and farther apart over the years. She was afraid it was like the movie she'd seen about the 'Neverending Story.' That as she'd outgrown using her imagination, the labyrinth had ceased to exist, the thought terrified her.

So just shy of her twenty-ninth birthday she'd left her well paying corporate job with a publishing company to teach literature and drama to a bunch of teenagers. Her parents, step-mother Karen and all her friends thought she was having a nervous breakdown.

Maybe she was, but not the way they thought. Sarah would give anything to get back that spark of magic that had been missing from her life recently. No not recently she corrected herself silently. It had been missing for a long time now.

Amber had been so anxious to leave that she'd left her book. Sarah opened it and her eyes caught on the familiar passage. "Give me the child. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the goblin city." She shut the book as she answered her ringing cell phone. "Hello."

"Hey beautiful."

"Matt."

"So I was thinking of coming up this weekend, checking out your new digs, and maybe break in the new bedroom over a bottle of Dom."

Sarah swallowed at the thought; she'd rather kiss a goblin. Without thinking she dropped the book into her purse. "Gosh I'm sorry I can't. I have a lot of work to do this weekend. Sorry I have to run, late for a meeting, but it was nice talking to you." She turned off the phone without waiting for him to reply. She knew it was rude, but he hadn't listened to any of her polite hints that she wasn't interested. Maybe this more direct approach would work.

Sarah grabbed the last of her things. It had been a long week and all she wanted was to go home, take a long hot bath and curl up with a good book. She smiled as she turned onto her street and caught the street sign 'Shadowfax Way.' Maybe all the magic wasn't gone from her life. Sarah liked the new life she was creating for herself better than the one she'd left behind in San Francisco.

Her new home was the darling cottage at the end of the road. Stepping out of the car she trailed her free hand over the white picket fence, opening the gate to step into her yard. Tomorrow she'd sit in the Living Room enjoying the daffodils blooming beneath her Crepe Myrtle tree.

"Merry, Pippin, I'm home." She announced to her cats as she set her things down. Scratching the fluffy white cat's head and then petting the other one's black head. Walking through to her bedroom she thought about Matt's call. She couldn't imagine him in her bedroom. She tried to picture the tall, dark haired, blue eyed stockbroker on her bed and giggled. No, he didn't belong in this room.

It wasn't the fantasy princess bedroom of her youth. Though certain things remained; a few stuffed animals, her vanity and other items too precious to move far away. The rest was either in storage or in the spare bedroom. The princess had grown up and had adult fantasies now. She sat bed, enjoying the rustle of the silky comforter beneath her as she removed her shoes.

She caught sight of the plush white owl sitting on a pillow and wondered what Jareth would think of her bedroom. Would he appreciate the dark blue silk sheets? Or the wispy black netting the draping the four poster bed? She could imagine his sardonic grin at seeing the pictures on her walls. There was the one of the stairs that reminded her of their final meeting. Another of a hand holding a crystal sphere that reminded her of his magic. Finally there was her own attempt to capture Jareth in black and white with charcoal. She hadn't captured him, not really, but it was the best of more than a dozen different attempts. His face was mostly in shadow.

She'd found herself thinking of the Goblin King more often since she'd discovered Amber's interest in the book. It had reminded her of that magical time. She walked to her vanity and wound the music box. Slipping into a cotton nightgown, she laid back on the bed and listened to the music.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember the memories that haunted her dreams and fantasies. Of all the things that had happened to her in the labyrinth she expected to remember the experience, but hadn't expected to be haunted by the Goblin King. Haunted by his touch, his eyes and her own desire for him.

"I want to remember it all." Sarah whispered, trying to recapture the magic of the masquerade and how it had felt to be close to him. That final meeting where he'd offered Sarah her dreams. She hadn't really listened then, but had re-lived it so often in her dreams that she could remember the look in his eyes when she'd said those six terrible words.

It had taken years for her to give up trying to pretend it never happened and live a normal life. Another decade had passed before she was finally ready to admit that she compared every man to him and it was an impossibly high standard for a mortal man. She longed to return to the Underworld, but was terrified of being rejected. It was easier to be unhappy, then to know how much he loathed the girl who'd defeated him.

She felt a tear trickle down her face as she looked at her drawing of him, but didn't brush it away. That picture seemed an appropriate decoration in a bedroom that was a tribute to lost love. It was only now that she realized that Jareth had more power over her than any other person had before or since. A tear ran down the other cheek. She had lied in the labyrinth, lied to him and to herself.