I really am sorry for how long this took me. I went on vacation, then work, then school started again...I'll try to get more done a lot faster from now on. I heard a rumour that we arent supposed to answer reveiwers individually anymore, and until I hear otherwise I'll be on the safe side and say now that I do, have, and willread all of your reviews, and I'm thankful youtake the time to leavethem.

Breaking Glass and Blood Stains

Sarah raced down the dark streets to her house running red lights, stop signs like foreign objects placed on corners without any meaning at all. She almost wished someone would hit her, send her hurling through the windshield, just to end it. After all, what did she have to live for now? Her mother, father, Karen, and Toby were gone. She was trapped as a vampire forever, and the only one in the world who knew what she wasSarah didn't dare run to. She would not, could not bare the sight of the man-the monster-that killed her brother.

But…she had let him. And that single thought kept her on the brink of hating him with everything she had. She was as much to blame as Michael. She had asked him to.

Few cars were out this late, or was it early? in her less than average sized city. Rain was pouring onto her car as if an angry angel wanted to punish her, letting ton after ton of water beat down upon her. She swerved madly through the orange construction barrels, all rationality gone. She felt like she could run from what happened, and the faster she went the sooner all of it would be over. Sarah squinted to see through the rain, trying to at least act like she was paying attention to where she was going and how. In truth, she was on theyellow line, favoring she graveled shoulder.

Something glittered ahead but Sarah made little effort to turn. In a second her car slammed into the concrete base of the streetlight. It all happened in a dazed slow motion…and for a moment she felt relief. It was over. Her sides ached, blood trickled down her forehead and neck to stain its way into her shirt. She couldn't feel one of her legs. She fumbled for the door, trying to push the airbag away and cutting herself on shards of glass. At the speed shehad beengoing there was no way any human could survive. But she had.

As she fell to the road, hands bloody from the shattered pieces of the windshield, she held them palms up before her. She watched in disbelief as the thick red lines slowly turned topaper cuts, and then to nothing. Her numb leg began to throb, but it quickly became little more than a tingle. She brushed a hand over where she thought a gash should have been on her brow. Nothing. She rolled onto her back and stared up into the falling rain. She was going to live.

Sarah screamed in anger. It wasn't fair. Everyone could die but her.

In the distance sirens were approaching. Someone must have called nine one one, she thought. She wondered what they would do if they found her in perfectly fine condition beside the mangled metal. They would probably insist on having her taken to the hospital, where she would stay until morning. If she was like all the vampires she had heard about, the sun would kill her instantly. She remembered Michael had been nervous when he awoke in her home. Maybe it was true. Now there was an idea. Let them take her.

She seriously considered staying there, lying on the ground beside what used to be her car. But she wouldn't give them that satisfaction. Who 'they' were, she really didn't know, but she felt like she had something to prove. That Sarah Williams, broken and bruised, if only on the inside, wouldn't be taken so easily.

Flashing lights rounded the corner, and Sarah casually stood and walked away from the scene, adding an unnaturally fast skip now and then.

Sarah was grateful for hernew naturefor the first time. It was pouring, and the wind was blowing hard against her, yet she didn't have the slightest chill. She was perfectly comfortable strolling down the side street in the raging storm. She stayed to the shadows, wary of the bright city lights. They weren't the sun, but they were something, and her new found desire to prove she could make it through this was not about to be ruined by a simple mistake made that very hour. She would gingerly test them another night.

Her mind kept itself busy by focusing on how she would function from now on. She would have to quit her job at the restaurant. There was no way she could continue being a waitress. She'd have to find somewhere she could work the grave shift.

Just as she had started to forget the horror of the night, she passed a child's daycare center. A small blonde boy on the sign was waving at her, inviting her to come enroll a new child. She swallowed hard as she walked up to the painting. She gently touched the boys plastic face. It looked just like Toby.

Toby. The word echoed in her head as the pain swept over her once again.

"This is the second time my stupidity has hurt him," she whispered to the boy. "But this time it's far worse than wishing…him…." Sarah clenched her fingers into a fist. She closed her eyes as she remembered. All the mayhem brought back memories of the past she had desperately tried to loose.

She had forgotten the night, and everything that went with it. The Labyrinth, the castle, the goblins…their Goblin King. She didn't want to be reminded of how careless she had been back then. She was afraid that it hadn't been a dream, and that's just what she wanted it to be. To stay. Nothing more than a teenagers nightmare.

"Why," she hissed,willing the images away, "did I have to remember that now?"

Everything was pounding in her head. She had never felt so alone and helpless in her life. Twice she had asked a strange, dangerous man into her and Toby's lives. History repeats itself, she thought dryly.

Only this time…there wasn't a thirteen hour limit. There was no way to save him. She didn't even have the small comfort of knowing that if she failed he would be alive, even if it was without her. There was no King waiting in a castle at the end of the journey, evil or kind. It was the same thing repeating, yet nothing was the same.

Sarah never thought she would long to be running the Labyrinth as much as she was now. She'd give anything for that chance to save him, but their was no way to run a race to win him back from death.

She suddenly found herself hating the image of the happy boy in front of her. She thrust her fist through his face before running inhumanly fast in the direction of home. To the cars passing, she was invisible. To the few men outside, she was only a blur that didn't deserve a double take.

Sarah sat on her basement couch, awaiting dawn. The sky was just beginning to turn pink when she has stepped down the stairs. It was strange going to sleep in the day, and she knew it would take time for her to get used to it.

She found herself unable to stop thinking of Jareth. She was comparing the two, trying to decide which she hated more, and she was having trouble. She wasn't fond of either.

Jareth had kidnapped Toby, threatened to turn him into a goblin, and played with her emotions while she ran his maze. He had enjoyed every minute of what he was doing. Michael on the other hand, had promised to save him. He did the exact opposite of course, but he had seemed genuinely sorry for what he had done. Jareth had changed his tune and offered his love and undying devotion as soon as he realized he wasn't going to win, and expected her to take it after all he had done. Michael had offered it from the beginning. Maybe he wasn't as bad as the Goblin King.

But Michael had killed Toby. She couldn't forget that.

Sarah awoke the next night to a cold, empty basement. The previous evening was the only thing she could think about. She couldn't stop replaying everything in her mind and dwelling on all the things she might have been able to do to prevent it.

She should of taken Michael to Toby in the beginning. He would have looked him over, or asked enough questions to realize he wouldn't be able to do it. Toby wouldn't have been bitten…he'd be alive.

And so would I, she thought. There would have been no reason for him to turn me into a vampire if we had known it wouldn't help Toby.

Sarah cursed herself as she rose from her couch. She headed upstairs to the kitchen. Her stomach ached, and she realized she hadn't eaten for days. Yet somehow everything in the pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator…just didn't seeming appealing. She stopped the search for something to eat as she tried to decide what she wanted. What was the last thing she had eaten?

Michael's blood. She stumbled back, catching herself on the counter with her right arm as she remembered the taste. She could almost feel it in her mouth, the warm and slightly metallic liquid.

Sarah shook her head violently, chasing away the image of his dripping wrist. She would not become a monster like Michael that fast. But even as she told herself to forget it, a part of her was already planning when, where, and how it would get breakfast.

Horrified at how quickly her new nature was taking over, she hurriedly unpeeled a banana and shoved it in her mouth. Flavorless and unappetizing, she forced herself to eat her once favorite fruit, followed by a frozen dinner. No matter what she ate, the hunger was still there. Unhappy with what she was becoming, she dreaded the night when the urge would be to powerful.

This chapter is dedicated to Leslie. Thanks for your patience.