A/N: I own nothing. And it kills me to have to say it...
Haunted
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The next morning, as she was coming down the stairs, she heard her stepmother talking in the kitchen. She was surprised, Karen usually wasn't up this early, and she would certainly never have visitors at this hour. She snuck down the rest of the stairwell, and peered into the kitchen.
Karen was standing in front of the stove, sipping a cup of coffee. She was alone, to Sarah's surprise. She had been so sure she had heard someone else here. Karen looked up, and gave her stepdaughter a warm smile.
"Good morning, Sarah. Sleep well?"
"No, not really," she said, pouring herself a cup of coffee. Karen looked concerned.
"Is everthing all right?"
"Of course, why do you ask?"
Karen shrugged. "No reason. You've just been acting awfully strange lately. I'm a little worried."
"Well don't. I'm fine. Really."
Karen sighed, but to Sarah's relief, didn't pursue the subject. How was she supposed to explain to her fussy stepmother that she was being dream stalked by the king of the goblins? Linda, her mother might have believed it, but Karen? There was no way.
"So, are you excited for school to be over?" Karen asked, taking another stab at conversation.
"Yeah, I guess. I'm really looking foreward to September, though."
"Oh, thats right. You'll be 16. You can get your license."
Sarah nodded as she set her coffee mug in the sink. Karen looked pained at her stepdaughter's lack of interest in conversation with her.
"So Sarah, I was thinking that since you've made it through this school year, despite your previous troubles, we celebrate tonight. How about we go out for pizza tonight? And for dessert, I'll make a peach cobbler!"
"Pizza sounds great. Except, could you make it cherry cobbler, or blueberry cobbler?"
"But I thought peach cobbler was your favorite."
"I'm just not feeling very peachy, I guess."
Karen looked a little hurt, and Sarah felt a little guilty. It was fairly obvious that Karen was trying to be nice, and she was sort of being ungrateful. But no time for that now. If she didn't get a move on, she was going to be late for school. She grabbed her backpack from the kitchen table, where she had left it last night, and ran out the door.
It was a beautiful sunny morning, very suiting for her mood. Nothing could bring her down, not even a certain Goblin king. It was her last day of her freshman year, and in just three months, she would be street legal. She started jogging off towards her school. This was shaping up to be a good day.
She was nearly to the end of the street when she ran right into a woman, knocking her to the ground. The papers she was holding flew everywhere.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Are you all right?" She asked, bending down to help the woman pick up her papers.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," she said, getting to her feet. She had a lyrical voice, that carried the slightest hint of an accent. It seemed familiar, somehow. Sarah placed the papers in her pale hands and looked up at her. She reminded Sarah of a storybook princess, with long blonde curls, thin, porcelin skinned, with wide blue eyes. There was something very familiar about her, just what, Sarah didn't know.
"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Sarah asked.
"No worries, dear. No harm, no foul, as they say." the woman said with a smile. She winked at her, and took off down the way Sarah had just come. Shrugging, Sarah kept walking towards the high school.
Above her head, a snow white barn owl flew.
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A/N: Thus ends another chapter. But don't think for that you know where this is going, because I think I might surprise you. Sorry for the short chapter, though. Next one will be longer.
To Independent. C.: To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if Jareth and Sarah will end up together. I've got three possible endings in my head right now. One does involve Sarah falling in love with Jareth, forgiving him for all the horrible things he's done. The other two are much darker, one involves a character death, the other involves Jareth screwing with Sarah, making her a practically empty shell. So yeah. We'll see how dark I'm feeling when I reach the crossroads.
Oh, and on another note: I've heard about a series of books called return to labyrinth. Are they worth checking out?
Review please. And thanks to all who have thus far.