It's me again : I'm glad you liked the first chapter enough to pursue the second, either that or you're probably hoping it'll get better. It will, I promise!

Song is House of Doom by Black Label Society. Please leave a comment about whether or not you like this story, hate it, whatever. Feedback is greatly appreciated :

House of Doom

"Once you step inside, no one gets out alive"

Not one day went by that Sarah didn't revisit the Labyrinth. The friend's she'd made on her journey had stayed with her--at least for a few years, their faces were imprinted freshly in her mind as if she'd just seen them. She missed them all, Ludo, Sir Didymus, and Hoggle, especially Hoggle. Her face twisted into a smile at the memory of the short, foul-mouthed dwarf, always whining about the 'King this' and the 'King that'. She had been glad when he'd found his backbone by the time they reached the center of the Labyrinth and that he'd been with her at the last battle against the Goblins, even if he couldn't help her against the Goblin King.

Her smile disappeared as the memory of the King chased away the pleasantries of her friends. Cold, calculating, the King had a God complex that grated every last nerve Sarah had, driving her to say and act in ways she didn't know she could. And yet, that last moment before she spoke her final words he'd seemed almost--dare she think it?--human. He looked vulnerable, weak even. A stranger compared to the King she'd loved to hate.

But was it a possibility that the rumors that she'd made up were true? No one knew that the Goblin King was in love with the girl, and gave her certain powers. Impossible. She pushed these thoughts aside, trying to force her mind onto the trigonometry problems before her. It was bad enough to have Karen down her throat for her poor grades, but it was worse to prove her right.

Perhaps a breath of fresh air would clear her mind from her unpleasant memories of the man covered in leather and lace. She stood up, pushed her small chair back under her desk and told her roommate she was going for a walk. The girl looked up momentarily from her own work and nodded, muttering a soft "goodbye" before Sarah departed, pulling a coat from the floor on and zipping it up.

Five years had passed since she'd fought for her brother, leaving her at twenty years old. Now a sophomore at the local college, and an English major in the making, Sarah had had little time to dwell on her old friends and old life. It was hard to believe that there had been a time before college, before parties and getting wasted and forgetting the past too priority, before she had to grow up. Where had the days gone where she'd put on her long, white dress, run to the park and recite an ancient book by the light of the fading sun?

She laughed, and it sounded hollow and derisive to her own ears. What world had she been living in? When she got to the campus doors and pushed the first set open and walking into the glass anti-chamber, she couldn't help but notice the snowy owl perched lazily outside. Her brow furrowed. It couldn't be him, could it?

'No,' she thought, 'he's probably too busy chasing other school girls and whisking away siblings, turning them into goblins and whining whenever he loses. I wonder how many girls he's offered himself so freely too.' The thought made frown. It was unsettling that such a dictator could go on unpunished. 'Anyway, I can't go around suspecting every white owl I see.' Double checking that she had her key card with her, she pushed through the main doors and started down a paved walkway, shoving her hands into her pockets.

The owl continued to watch her. She'd look over her shoulder again and again to check if it was still there, and felt panic boil in her stomach when she discovered it in a new perch closer to her.

"Shoo," she said half-heartedly, "Go hunt or something." It just looked at her as if she were crazy. Maybe she was. It wouldn't surprise her. She sighed and stopped, looking back up at the owl. Its wings caught the moonlight, shining even brighter.

"You aren't stalking me, are you?" she asked, not expecting it to reply back. It just looked at her again, before starting to clean itself, stretching one of its wings out. She sighed, "Of course not. I'm just paranoid. Anyway, you're just an owl. What can an owl do to me?"

Ask not what an owl can do, a voice came on the wind, but what a man will do.

Gooseflesh rose on Sarah's arms and she whipped around, half expecting to come face to face with the pair of eyes that she felt on her. Someone was watching her--intently--but the campus grounds were deserted.

Over here Sarah, came the voice again, the wind ruffling her hair. She turned on her heel, but again her eyes met with nothing.

"No one's here," she whispered to herself, "No one. I'm alone."

Yes, all alone, the male voice said, and so vulnerable, such an easy target. Such a pity.

There were the words she'd feared, the ones she'd heard in her dreams over and over like some sick mantra whispered in her ears day after day. She took off in a run back to her dorm room, adrenaline fueling her. Every shadow seemed to jump and she even screamed when a cat crossed her path, making her stumble and nearly kick it in her surprise.

You can run but you can't hide, Sarah.

She awoke the next day, hair a mess and still dressed in her day clothes. Vague memories flooded her mind of her blank panic, and how she fell asleep almost as soon as she hit her mattress having locked the door and windows before. Her room mate thought nothing of it. She was used to Sarah's odd tendencies, and had even picked up on one or two in the few months they'd roomed together.

"Sleep well?" the girl asked cheerily from the bathroom, poking her head out to look at Sarah, "You were out like a light last night. What'd you do, run around the campus?"

"Yeah, a little," Sarah said, sitting up and running a hand through her hair, pulling at the snarls. That voice on the wind, the hair stood up at the back of her neck at the thought of it. She wasn't alone. It was either that, or she was insane.

'I think I prefer insanity,' she thought, getting to her feet. Something wasn't right. She frowned, eyeing the suitcases near the door. Those sure as hell weren't hers.

"Did you forget that it's spring break?" her room mate asked, noticing Sarah's confused stare as she walked to her half of the room.

"Oh," Sarah said quietly, "I guess I did." How could she have? She'd been dreading it forever. One week with Karen and her father fawning over one another, not giving a rip that she was home from several months of torment and suffering those only extra years of school could bring.

"Are you going anywhere?" her room mate asked, smiling politely. Sarah shook her head, "Just home."

"Ah, well that'll be fun," the girl said sarcastically, smiling a little, "I feel bad for you."

"Yeah, me too," Sarah said, "What about you?"

"North Carolina--I'm hitting the beach and the boys," the girl said, smiling happily, "Sun, surf, and lots of--"

"Spare me the details," Sarah said, laughing a little.

A couple hours later Sarah had piled all of her most useful belongings into a pair of suitcases and a brown paper bag, shoved it all in her car, and started for the three-hour trip back home. She groaned, looking at the time. It was noon, and she was supposed to have been home by two. Karen would be furious. It made Sarah smile a little to know that she was putting some what of a damper on Karen's day. No matter how many times her step-mother had denied it, the truth was that the older woman didn't like Sarah.

Turning on the radio station, Sarah switched it, doing her best to keep her eyes on the road, to a various hits channel she'd grown to love and wound her way off of campus and onto the open highway, belting out song after song as her speedometer rose higher and higher, pushing 90 miles per hour.

'The only way to beat time,' she thought absently, 'is to go faster.' She laughed a little at her foolishness. No matter how fast she was driving, it couldn't save her the missed three hours. She looked down to crank the volume up again, and when she looked back she was granted with the sight of two headlights coming her way.

She pressed her foot on the brake, screamed "Shit!" at the top of her lungs, and closed her eyes tightly. The dashboard before her crumpled up under her fingers, and she felt her seatbelt tighten around her chest, preventing her from whipping forward and slamming her head on the car that was currently invading her own. No airbag game to her rescue, and she felt something sharp shove itself into her side, right above her stomach. She whimpered in pain, felt a second shard of metal caress her right arm before grazing off of it and imbedding itself into the seat, and Sarah knew no more.