I really didn't want to write this chapter, because I'm as anxious as everyone else for them to get into the woods. But if I left this out, it would have felt lacking in the rest of the story. So, necessary evil. Thanks for the reviews! You guys rock!

Disclaimer: "The Labyrinth" and "Choices" universes are not mine. I just play in them.

.*.

Chapter 8: The Calm Before the Storm

*.*

Sarah turned onto Main Street's sidewalk, a few minutes after leaving Stacey and Emily. Brightly colored neon and electric lights glowed on her face but she paid them no attention. There were a few people still out, since it was only 7:00 but things were quieter than they've been all summer, and parents obviously were reinforcing the school-night curfew to prepare for tomorrow. Sarah sighed and thought about her own parents and Toby. They were supposed to be coming back in a week. They hadn't wanted to leave her alone for her first week of school, but her great aunt Connolly's inheritance was really a big deal. And with her dad being a lawyer, he had to try and fix things. It was a testament to how much they trusted her level of maturity when they reluctantly allowed her to stay for the two months they were going to be away. Now, all Sarah wanted was them to be home with her during this scary time. She wanted to be able to go home to a warm house with dinner on the table.

She spotted the bright sign 'Gunther's Hardware' and walked over to where everyone was waiting outside.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." She nodded and smiled sheepishly.

MJ held up her black nail-polished finger in a "wait a moment" signal and Sarah realized she had her cellphone pressed to her ear.

Taylor frowned over at her, "What took you so long?"

Sean spoke up as well, glancing at Taylor, "Yeah, we were getting worried."

"Sorry," Sarah apologized again, "I had to handle some Britney drama, but I got out of there." She rolled her eyes, but quickly changed the conversation, not wanting to get Stacey and Emily involved, "Anyways, I was thinking we should gear up before we go. That weird demon-fae creature that came after me this morning could still be out there...plus who knows what else."

Taylor nodded in agreement, "Good point...if the Goblin King is back, we need to be ready for anything."

MJ's voice carries over to the gang from where she was standing… "Yeah Dad, I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be late. Sarah and I are working on a project together and it's really..." MJ listened for a minute then turned angry, "No, Dad. And that was one time, by the way. Ugh, here, I'll prove it."

MJ shoved the phone into Sarah's hand. Sarah faltered for a moment, and then slowly brought the phone up to her ear.

"Uh, Hi, Mr. Adams...Yeah, it has been a long time….Yeah, we just have a school project…..yeah, giving us projects on our first day of school, I don't know what they're thinking either…...I'm glad we're talking again too...Okay...Thanks Mr. Adams, she won't be home too late...Bye Mr. Adams."

She hung up and handed the cellphone back to MJ.

MJ grinned, "Sick. One call from you and I get to ditch curfew? I don't know what to do with all this power."

Sarah chuckled, "Maybe next time we can actually do something fun."

"Uhhhh, more fun than going into a demon infested forest? I don't think so." MJ's black goth make-up was even blacker at night, and her black painted lips pulled up into a happy smirk. Sarah rolled her eyes. MJ is obviously in a good mood.

"So... if that whole weird exchange is over, can we go buy some hardware now?" Taylor crossed his arms, looking unimpressed at the group.

"Yeah, better be ready to defend ourselves from all those spooooooky bushes." Sean teased. He still wasn't taking the Goblin problem seriously.

"Very funny." Taylor glared at him. Sean just held up his hands and shook his head, smiling.

Inside, everyone wandered off to browse the assorted home décor and impovement aisles, but Sarah stopped right in her tracks, staring at the guy behind the white cashier's counter.

"You?!" She said, surprised.

The guy looked up from his phone, smiling in recognition. "Well if it isn't the blast from the past! How's it going…Sarah?"

It was the guy with the black Camaro she saw this morning. The hot guy. He was clearly enjoying her shocked reaction, and set his phone aside.

She raised her eyebrows suspiciously, but smiled, "Well, it sounds like someone found out how we know each other. Gonna let me in on the secret?"

"I could, but it's so much fun to mess with you." He chuckled and leaned towards her from behind the counter top, covered in assorted snickers bars, m&ms and other assorted sweets and chocolates to tempt the customer checking-out. "Here, I'll give you a hint. I figured out who you were when my sister mentioned that you helped her out at the pep rally this morning."

"At the pep rally...OH!" Sarah's eyes widened comically, "You must be Stacey's brother! You're Connor Green!"

Sarah relaxed instantly, remembering him. Gosh. He grew to be a cutie. But Stacey's one of the prettiest girls in school, so it makes sense. Looking at him, she recognized the blonde hair and blues eyes he shared with his sister. He used to be 'too cool' to hang out with Sarah's group since he was a couple of years older. But every once in a while when he had nothing better to do, he had followed them around with a video camera, most likely waiting for them to do something dumb like fall into the pond or light something on fire so he could send it in to 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.

"Right in one! You always were the smarty-pants of that group." He joked.

"How have I never seen you here before?" Sarah leaned against the counter too, trying to go for a 'curious-but-not-too-curious' look.

"Been traveling a lot since high school. Spent this past summer crashing at my friend's place in Oakland." He explained, "Figured I should be around for 'Campaign Season' though. Make sure mom and Stacey don't murder each other."

"That's thoughtful of you." Sarah started up to play with her hair but she stopped again before he could notice. Are you...in town for long? Are you single? "Umm, are you happy to be home?" She settled for asking nonchalantly.

"Sure, it's cool to see Stacey and catch up with old friends. Can't say I've missed my mom and dad's lectures though." He shrugged, "Every time I go over there it's 'apply for college' this and 'get a haircut' that."

"Sounds terrible." Sarah said sympathetically, thinking back to what Stacey revealed to her about her parents. "I dunno…I think your hair looks fine." It went to his shoulders and was a dirty blonde color, a little lighter than Stacey's but not very. It looked soft to touch. Reminds me a lot of Jareth's hai...
Sarah flinched. Hard. Conner noticed that.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked, concerned. "Are you hurt?"

Probably wondering what the heck is wrong with this mental chick. Sarah tried to laugh it off and said, "Hmm? Oh nothing! I just, uh, feel like there's a piece of glass in my shoe! I better go get that taken care of."

Sarah hopped away from Conner on one foot, down an aisle of assorted metal screwdrivers and wrenches. Once she was around the corner, she pretended to take off her shoe.

Real smooth Sarah. She slapped her hand across her forehead, embarrassed. She wasn't sure which was worse…. her dorky/awkward blunder, or the traitorous thought of Jareth's hair being attractive. Well it IS. No, stop! I'm going to chalk it up to not getting enough sleep last night night and then—

"Hey Sarah! Ya think I can lift this over my head?"

Sarah turned, lost for a moment, and then saw who was talking. Sean held a large white 90lb bag of dry cement in his arms. Sarah scoffed, smiling. Typical Sean. He and Dan had always been the ones wrestling in the dirt in competitions of strength. Dan usually won though.

"I think you can totally lift that." Sarah shook her head in amusement. He used to be thin and lanky, but it was apparent that he had gained quite a bit of muscle underneath his hoodie. He had had to push himself to overcome the racism. Some of the girls even seemed to notice him now. "C'mon Sean Kang, show me what you've got!" She folded his arms, goading him. She wanted to use this as a distraction and completely forget about her odd social blunder with Conner. I don't want to think about Jareth's hair. Or Jareth. At all. Ever. STOP!

Straining, Sean hoisted the bag up to his chest, and then pushed it up over his head, breathing heavy. "Woooooooo!" He breathed out, ecstatic. Sarah clapped and whistled as he pressed it a couple more times before setting it down on the floor.

"Daaaang, you're a beast! You should lift me! Be careful not to wear yourself out before we get to the woods." She looked around at the different garden tools on the shelves. Bricks, cements bags, mulch bags, wood chips, hoses….what do you arm yourself with against a Goblin King? Maybe we should have gone and asked 'Pritch the Witch'...

"Pfft, I'm just getting warmed up." Sean brushed an imaginary chip off his shoulder.

Sarah grinned and headed down another aisle full of tape measures, nails, and hammers, as he started doing arm curls with a coiled-up garden hose. She found Taylor's slouched figure browsing the aisles at the back of the store.

"Finding anything useful?" She asked, coming up beside him.

"Not unless you wanna go after the Goblin King with a bunch of duct tape and twine." He muttered, not looking at her.

An image of the Gobin King bound with duct tape and twine at her feet was strangely erotic. She flinched again, but luckily, Taylor didn't see. She corrected her mind: it's not erotic, it's NEUROTIC. And don't forget it!

She turned her head and watched Taylor for a moment, studying him. Finally, she confided, "I don't get how you can be so calm. I'm on the verge of a breakdown over here." She scoffed self-deprecatingly.

"Hmmm. Calm isn't the word I would use to describe it...I just...I have to know." He glanced over at Sarah and she saw what he had been trying to hide before. His eyes were a little watery.

Ah, no. More tears? Emily, Stacey, now Taylor? This seemed to be a super emotional day for everyone.

He sighed, rubbing his face. "This has been haunting me for years Sarah. What we did...what HE did."

Sarah got hit by a sudden, vibrant memory. A little red-haired girl in a blue dress, giggling as she ran through the trees... "Come on Sarah!" She called to her happily, beckoning.

Sarah shook herself, as Jess's laughter echoed in the back of her mind. "Yeah...me too..." She said quietly, turning to look at the lightbulbs to hide her face while it was his turn to stare curiously at her.

"Mom blames me, you know...for Jess. And for my Dad leaving right after." He mentioned casually, still watching her.

Sarah turned back to him, feeling sick, "I'm sure that's not true."

"It is. She's said it to my face. Regularly, actually." He stated.

This whole day was one tearful encounter after another. And it was only the first day of school. Sarah never remembered having a more crappy/emotional first-day at school in her entire life. "Taylor. I'm so sorry."

Taylor shrugged. Then after a pause said, " The worst part is that...and this sounds as lame as hell," he scoffed and rolled his eyes to stare at the ceiling, "but the day I lost my sister, I lost my WHOLE family. My mom, you guys...everyone."

Sarah didn't know what to say to ease his pain except... "If it's anyone's fault, then it'd be mine. I didn't heed the warnings. I didn't know what he was."

She never should have introduced her friends to him, never should have gone Underground with him. If Sarah could go back in time, she would have made it so that she never went through that stone doorway in the first-place. Sarah's eyes start to get watery too. This was probably why they had all broken up, she realized. There was a lot of regret, and everyone blamed themselves in a way for not doing enough to stop it. And now the Goblin King was back...and they were all together again.

"Don't." Taylor looked a little angry, and waved the comment away. "We all were deceived by him." He looked like he wished he could say more, but didn't.

Any strange feelings that had come up tonight about blonde hair and duct tape went cold as Sarah made herself remember what Jareth was and what he had done. How could she feel anything other than hatred for such a heartless monster? It made her feel guilty as hell that even though she KNEW all those things...she felt…. other things than hatred when Jareth was involved. But she tried to hate him. She DID hate him. She had to make herself believe that.

Her mother had always said, "The heart wants what the heart wants, Sarah." and Sarah grew up believing that love was a destiny; An uncontrollable connection between two people. That love was not under conscious, cognitive control. You cannot simply decide to fall in love with somebody, no matter how suitable. Similarly, you cannot just decide to stop loving somebody, no matter how hopeless the situation was. This was all according to her mother, however. And it was something Sarah wasn't sure how she felt about. If her mom was correct, then somehow, someway, she had been destined to...be attracted to...a cold, heartless killer. But then her mom died when she was 11. Before she knew it, her dad had remarried (3 years later) and another kid was on it's way. She and Toby were fine with each other, it was nice having another sibling and they had hit it off from the start. But, while Irene wasn't horrible, it had been difficult for Sarah to come to terms with the fact that her dad moved on and found someone other than her mom, the woman he had adored. Even now, she would look at her step-mother and father together and it seemed that her mom was right.

The heart wants what the heart wants.

The two of them continued to browse the aisle in silence, lost in their solemn thoughts until MJ came around the corner, swinging a baseball bat with her black nail-polished fingers, and a huge black smile.

"Here Sarah! Happy Hanukkah." With a grandiose bow, causing her maroon and blond dreadlocks to all fall forward, MJ bestowed the wooden bat to her.

Sarah grips the smooth wood with her fingers smiling widely. "Niiiiice! It's perfect!" She waved it around, testing it out. "Now if only there was some iron to wrap around this bad boy, that fae won't know what hit him!"

MJ had been one step ahead of her, and held up a coil of barbed wire. Her black-painted lips pulled up into a "cat-ate-the-canary" grin on her face.

"MJ, you're a savage!" Sarah gushed, "This is perfect!" …then she looked at the price tag. "Ummm, it's not exactly in the budget." She sighed, only having brought 20$ from home.

"Oh poo. You would have looked so badass carrying a bat wrapped in barbwire through the woods with you." MJ pouted.

"Ha! Actually, that seems more like something YOU'D be carrying, MJ." Sarah grinned again and swung the bat around for good measure, imagining the scene.

Taylor came back, hefting a heavy black flashlight. "How about this? It's going to be dark out there and I don't want anything sneaking up on us." He waved the flashlight around, "Plus, it can double as a club!"

The group walked to the front of the store and Sean stopped his workout to join the rest of the gang. Both he and MJ didn't buy anything as they hadn't bothered to bring any money to school with them. No one had imagined that their "after-school-activities" would consist of a Search-And-Rescue in the woods for an old friend. Luckily, Sarah's parents left her with some cash so she was able to at least get her bat.

Connor looked up at Sarah as he rung them up the bat and flashlight and smiled, "Find everything you need? How's your foot?" He looked down at her shoes.

"Oh, it's fine. It wasn't glass. It was just a sticker…from a bush. From outside, in the bushes, you know?" It took all of Sarah's willpower not to slap herself in front of him just to stop herself from talking. MJ, Taylor, and Sean all looked at her oddly.

He nodded understandingly, seemingly completely unaware of anything odd she might have been saying. He smiled at her. "Alright then. See you around, Sarah."

Sarah stared at him and felt herself smile. He wants to see me around? "Definitely." Sarah blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. She turned away and, steeling herself, stepped out into the cool night after her friends...

The group navigated through quiet back roads out of town until they found themselves standing at the edge of the forest. The full moon offered as much light as it possibly could to aid the brave teenagers. But, more often than not, it was hidden behind the wispy clouds that cast undulating shadows down onto the tree branches and the forest floor. The vivid green hues from earlier in the day had all but disappeared, now emitting varying shades of dark teal. The group hesitated for a moment, listening.

The crickets offered soothing tones of chirps and whurrs. An owl hooted in the distance. There was no spooky breeze, and the trees were calm. But the group didn't feel soothed. It was almost like they expected to hear creepy growls, howls, and snapping twigs of monsters and wraiths in order to scare them away. But the forest didn't demonstrate any clichéd Halloween themes. It appeared calm and content. Deceptively quiet. Like before a storm.

Sarah gave her bat a few experimental swings, took a deep breath with a shaky exhale and declared, "OK. I'm ready." She gulped. She didn't feel brave or ready. In fact, she was super hyper, jumpy, and to be honest felt like she was going to throw up at any second.

Jareth was in there. Somewhere. And before the night was over, who knew what they would face?

Sarah didn't know what her face looked like, but Sean noticed and grinned, "C'mon Sarah, lighten up. Let me know if you need someone to hold your hand." He winked at her, teasingly, then strode forward. His steps barely faltered as he crossed into the undergrowth. Swallowed up by the dense trees.

The group waited for a moment. Tense.

When Sean didn't scream in horrible pain or agony, MJ turned casually to the group. "Welp! Here's hoping we don't get eaten, possessed, or maimed." She snapped her gum in her mouth she had got from the gumball machine at the hardware store for 20 cents, which, unfortunately, seemed to be the only thing she had bought. Hands in her pocket, MJ walked unhurriedly forward. The trees swallowed her up too.

"You coming or what?" Taylor looked over at Sarah who was standing there, stock still. He then headed into the woods, not waiting for a response.

Sarah found herself suddenly and completely alone, the air silent except for the faint footsteps of her friends parading through the forest in front of her.

"Sarah Williams, what are you getting yourself into?" She muttered lowly to herself...and then stepped into the woods.

.

.

Housten, we are in the woods, I repeat, we are in the woods, over.

Hooray! This chapter is different than the others. I changed the words from being in the present tense, such as "she looks" to the past tense "she looked". Do you like it? If you do, I'll go back and change the grammar tense so it's easier for people to read. Be safe! Don't go into any woods in the middle of the night (unless you have a flashlight). Not a good idea, lol.