Round Two
Chapter 1: Delusions
Sarah was talking quietly with Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo when she heard the front door open and close. The other Labyrinthine guests had left a while before, fearing the wrath of their King.
Sarah's father called up to her, and she knew that her friends would have to leave. They reminded her one last time to call on them if she was ever in need and vanished, leaving behind a mirror empty but for Sarah's reflection.
She scrambled out of her bedroom and down the stairs, meeting her father and stepmother in the hall where they were removing their coats. Karen looked up and saw her as she hung her jacket on its peg.
"Was Toby behaving? I know he can be a handful, but I'm really grateful." Karen would have continued, but Sarah had turned away and was already addressing her father.
"So, Dad how was that new restaurant? My friends said it was pretty good when they went."
Robert saw the hurt look upon his wife's face. We need to address this now. "Sarah. We need to talk. My study. Now." He followed Sarah as she sullenly trudged up the stairs and stepped into his office on the left. "Take a seat."
Father and daughter sat down in opposing leather armchairs. Sarah pulled her legs under her and stared at the carpeting, while Robert sighed and resigned himself to a lecture.
"Sarah, this has got to stop."
"What? I didn't do anything!"
"That's exactly it, Sarah. It's time that you accepted Karen as a part of this family. She is not your mother," Robert asserted, catching sight of the girl's stubborn face. "I'm not asking that you replace your mom with her. But every time she makes a friendly advance you give her the cold shoulder. At first, I could understand. But now it's just getting ridiculous."
Sarah bowed her head and let the dark sheets of hair act as a curtain. Thoughts were racing through her head at lightning speed. Really, she's not that bad was followed by images of the Labyrinth, of that's not fair! and her mother's face.
Sarah tried to remember the last time that Karen had actually said something mean to her. Something totally unjustified. Nothing.
Sarah began to realize that even banishing of Merlin to the garage had had a reason other than spite. Karen had just had the carpet steam cleaned a few days before and obviously didn't want the large dog tracking in water and mud. She realized that the main reason she was so cruel to her stepmother was out of sheer habit; she had painted Karen with the Evil-Stepmother brush and had never gone back to re-evaluate. She resolved to be nicer from now on.
"Ok, Dad. I think I can do that. I'm sorry. It's just been difficult, especially with Toby…" She trailed off.
"Honey, I know. You've needed time to adjust. But it's time to move on now, right?"
"Right." Sarah rose from the leather armchair and hugged her father, trying to tell him without words that she wasn't mad at him for bringing up the subject. Actually, she was feeling a lot better about the whole situation. "Thanks, Dad. I think I have things in perspective now. I'm gonna head to bed."
"You do that, sweetie. Goodnight."
When Sarah woke up Monday morning, it was to her father pounding rather heavily on her door. Nnhgg, she groaned, before burying her head under her pillow.
"Sarah, get up! It's seven thirty, you should have been up half an hour ago!"
That got Sarah tumbling out of her tangled covers to the ground. She righted herself, threw her comforter back onto her bed and flung herself into the bathroom. Seven minutes and a hurried shower later, Sarah was dressed and quickly swiping a comb through her long brown locks. As soon as her hair was somewhat less of a huge knot, she shoved the comb into her back pocket and ran down the stairs.
She raced into the kitchen, where she found Karen feeding Toby breakfast, who was not willing to cooperate. While the boy smeared food into his face and hair, Sarah rifled through the pantry and refrigerator at top speed, hoping to spy something to eat on the run.
"There's fruit in the bowl on the counter, Sarah," said Karen. "Just help yourself."
"What is it?" Her stepdaughter downed a quick glass of water.
"Peaches."
Sarah turned slightly green for a moment, remembering the last peach she had come across. I think I'll pass this time. "Thanks, Karen, but I'll just steal some of Wendy's daily bagel."
As the girl left the kitchen, Karen stared at her back. But just yesterday peaches were her favorite fruit. I wonder what's going on?
Sarah hurried into the hallway, grabbed her backpack from where it sat by the front door and headed outside. She power-walked her way to school, arriving with just enough time to talk to her friends a bit before class started.
Her three best friends were all by their habitual meeting place, a large tree in the middle of the quad. Laura was sitting by the base of the trunk, shoulder-length blonde hair moving in the slight breeze and Colin was standing with his arms around his much shorter girlfriend Wendy, who was slowly working on a crumbly bagel.
Sarah strode over, dropped her bag with a sigh and sat next to Laura. "Hey, Wendy, wanna gimme a bit of that bagel?"
Her friend broke off half and passed it over. "Thanks," said Sarah. "All there was at home this morning were peaches."
Laura looked confused. "I thought you loved peaches."
Sarah knew she couldn't explain her new distaste for the fruit. First of all, peaches weren't normally hallucinogenic, and secondly, for that to make sense, she would have to relate the rest of her experiences in the Labyrinth—and her friends would never believe that. "I guess these ones just looked funny."
Soon enough, the bell rang and the friends had to disperse, heading off to various classes.
On her way to her first period, Physics, Sarah saw a quick shadow flitter by along the ground. It was giggling. But squirrels didn't giggle. After all, the indistinct shape was the size of a squirrel and scurried like a squirrel and had scrambled down from a tree, so of course it must have been a squirrel. Right? She shook her head and kept walking.
She would have been able to ignore a single odd happening, but that wasn't the only incident that morning. She saw other small shadows, much bigger than squirrels, but much shorter than even the height of Sarah's hips. Around them small accidents seemed to happen, but she could never make out their silhouettes well enough to figure out who, or what, they might be. By the time third period was almost over, Sarah was beginning to question her own sanity, because no one else seemed able to see the little things.
When the bell signaling the end of French finally rang, Sarah sighed tremulously. She packed up her bag, and left the classroom heading for the last class before lunch.
In fourth period, the dreaded Algebra Two, Sarah was seated in front of Laura. So, when her friend poked her in the back while Ms. Truckle wasn't paying attention, she spun around in her seat to whisper quietly. "What?"
"Are you ok? You seem a little off now. You were fine this morning though." Laura's tanned face was creased with a frown. "What's wrong?"
Sarah wasn't sure if she could explain. After all, most days she wasn't half convinced that she was crazy. She saw another little creature by the blackboard at the front of the classroom.
"Look over there." Sarah pointed to the front of the room.
"At what? Ms. Trunkle's hideous sweater? I know. Huge fashion no-no. Argyle in puke yellow and brown is so-o not her style. Well, actually I guess it is. It's just not what a normal--"
"No, Laure. By the door. Next to the trash--" Sarah looked back. No, it wasn't there anymore. Had she really seen it in the first place? "Never mind. It doesn't matter. Although, yeah, I agree, that sweater is hideous. And for another thing..." Sarah trailed off, seeing Laura's slightly panicked face.
She turned around in her seat slowly, to see Ms. Trunkle gazing sternly down at her from a lofty five foot two inches. With crossed arms. And a tapping, sensible black shoe to boot. Sarah cringed, uttered a "Sorry," and returned to her notes.
The indomitable Ms. Trunkle sniffed and whipped around, sharply marching back to her podium where she took up her pointer once again and returned to lecturing.
"No wonder she's never married," muttered Sarah under her breath. Laura stifled a snort behind her. Ms. Trunkle failed to even raise an eyebrow and continued her discussion on logarithms.
When the bell finally rang to signal lunch, Sarah's spirits were much improved. But that all came crashing down around her head, when she saw no less than ten sneaky little shadows hurrying around a corner and out of sight. God, I really might be mad. All the other students are walking right on past and through the scurrying "shadows."
Sarah needed a friend who dealt in the bizarre very badly right now. Hoggle. Yeah, he'd know what to do! She turned to Laura, who was eyeing the cafeteria they were approaching with a speculative eye.
"Hey Sarah, from the lack of screams coming from that there building, they might actually be serving something edible today."
Sarah laughed. Sometimes, she just loved Laura's sense of humor. But she had somewhere else she needed to be right now. She had to contact Hoggle. It was the only way to know if the whole Labyrinth had been a crazy dream. If it heralded madness. If she actually was crazy for seeing those... things today.
"Laura, sorry, but I'll meet up with you guys later. I have to, uh, ask, um, Mrs. Bower a question about the physics homework tonight. 'Cause, uh, I didn't get what we went over in class today. And none of you are taking physics this year, so you can't really help. So, uh, I'm off now."
Amazingly enough, Laura seemed to take Sarah at face value. Of course, why wouldn't she? After all, we've been best friends since kindergarten when I pulled her pigtails because she wouldn't share the plastic dinosaurs.
Sarah waved to Laura as her friend entered the cafeteria to buy her lunch. She started for the nearest bathroom, and then realized that she should probably go to the one in the science department, to make her story believable. Besides, with a stroke of luck nobody would be there, because it was halfway across the campus from most of the prime eating spots.
She hurriedly strode across the quad and over to the Science building. She pulled on the door to the bathroom. Locked. Damn it! Why does this stuff always happen to me? "I wish--no." I think I've finally learned the whole "be careful what you wish for" lesson. She pulled on the handle on last time, just in case. Still nothing.
The frustrated teenager sighed. Well, I guess I'll just have to find another bathroom. She glared at the door in frustration. Then she realized it said, "PUSH." Right. I so knew that.
She entered the bathroom. Along one side were the expected toilet stalls, opposing them were the sinks. Above those sinks was her target: a huge, long mirror that spanned half the wall.
Sarah set herself up in front of the center sink and leaned on it, keeping her shirt from getting wet from the water droplets still sitting on the lip. "Hoggle, I need you." But there was nothing. What?
"Hoggle? Didymus? Ludo?" Still no sign of them; the mirror remained blank, only reflecting a stricken Sarah back at her.
"NO. I don't want-- It can't be. I'm NOT CRAZY! It was real! Those shadows... I don't know what they were, but-- NO! I am sane; I am calm. No, I'm not. What was I thinking?" During her self-targeted tirade, she had collapsed backwards against the door of a stall, which promptly collapsed inward, where she sprawled inelegantly at the base of the toilet, tears allowing tears to pour down her face.
"Er, Sarah?" could be heard echoing through the tiled room.
"Just go away," she opined. "I don't want to talk to anybody."
"Not even me? You did call." Slowly, it began to process in Sarah's head. That was a male voice. This was a girl's bathroom. The only person she had called was Hoggle.
Slowly, she got to her feet. Yes, it was his grumpy old face in the mirror. "Oh, Hoggle! Am I glad to see you!"
"Really?" Hoggle crossed his arms. "From that little display, I don't think you are. Humph!"
"No, really, I am. I've just had a hard day," Sarah suddenly remembered the reason she had called her friend in the first place, "and then when you didn't answer my call, I kind of freaked out."
"It's ok, Sarah. I was just stunning a few fairies around the garden. Oh yes, Didymus and that big furry oaf Ludo say hello. They're both on duty at the Bog now. The king assigned the knight and his 'noble steed' to return to guard duty. And the big guy is building a new bridge with his rock friends. But what did you want me for anyways?"
"It's just that. Oh Hoggle, I think I might be going mad."
"Really? Mad how? Has Jareth been disturbing you? I'll show him!"
"No, no. I don't know where you got that idea. I meant that I think I'm going crazy. I've been seeing these--shadows running around everywhere and--I don't know what they could be. I'm the only one who can see them. So either there's been a huge outbreak of mutant squirrels that only I can see running around, or I'm losing it!"
Hoggle laughed. Sarah stared. "You--you're laughing at me?"
"Yeah, Sarah. I know exactly what you've been seeing. Those're goblins. They're harmless."
Relief. That was the feeling that was rushing over Sarah right now. Sheer, utter, heart-cleansing relief. Thank God. I'm not crazy, I'm normal--hey, wait a moment...
"Why can I seen them now? I'd never seen them before!"
"Of course you hadn't, Sarah. You never fully believed in us before, so you never saw them. Now that you've run the Labyrinth, you don't believe halfway anymore. And because you won, you remember and can still see us. If you had lost, you wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. You'd just feel a little... empty." Hoggle spread his hands loosely, as though allowing a memory to disperse and float out of his grasp.
"Now I don't know whether to feel happy, or concerned," Sarah joked. Hoggle didn't get it and said so. "Never mind," the human girl said. If there was more she wanted to add, she was interrupted by her stomach grumbling quite loudly, causing the dwarf to snort in laughter.
"Well, I guess that's a not so subtle hint that I need to get going and feed my inner beast." Sarah said.
Hoggle looked at her stomach in concern. "Will it eat you if you don't feed it?"
Sarah laughed and shook her head. "Naw, it was a metaphor." Her friend looked blank. "Again, never mind. I'll talk to you later, ok? I'm sure you've got more fairies to stun and more plants to pull up to make room for all those weeds." She smiled while Hoggle looked indignant at the insult to his gardening skills.
"I only leave the weeds planted outside of the Labyrinth, you know," he stated sternly. "The rose beds and the other plants inside are quite lovely, I'll have you know!"
"I was only teasing, Hoggle. I'll see you soon, I promise."
Sarah watched as her friend faded back into the mirror, which once again showed only her own face with the picturesque view of the bathroom back at her. Feeling much calmer, she marched herself right out of the bathroom, remembering to pull the door towards her upon exiting.
She walked back across the grass, passing many students enjoying the tail end of whatever they had brought for lunch. Eventually, she reached the tree that her friends spent most of their non-class time under. The three of them were sprawled among the roots, comfortably leaning against backpacks or roots, and chowing down. Sarah sank down to the grass and pulled a brown paper bag out of her green backpack.
As she settled into the embrace of the roots with the backpack cushioning her back, she pulled out a sandwich, an apple, and a bag of chips, her usual lunchtime staples. Sarah started on her sandwich and listened to the conversation that she had joined.
Colin had been talking to Wendy and Laura, but now included Sarah in the conversation. "So, I heard that we're going to have a new student next month. I overheard the secretary, Mrs. Carmen, talking about him with the vice principal." Colin, of the shaggy light brown hair and easy smile, was a teacher's assistant--or TA-- for the main administration office. This meant that he usually overheard things that would affect the campus before most students had a clue. Of course, he was always willing to impart such information to his closest friends, so the whole group was generally very well informed.
Sarah and her other friends were intrigued. New students were very rare at their school and any fresh faces were welcomed wholeheartedly, just for some change in the small town. "Where's he from?" she asked.
"England apparently," Colin answered. "He's on here on his own, no parents or anything. I guess he's the equivalent of an Emancipated Minor here, 'cause he's renting his own apartment and everything."
"So, is her going to have to get a job?" That was Wendy, ever the practical one, with a frown on her pale face. She tucked a strand of light brown hair behind her ear. "Because then he'd have to get that license or whatever it is..."
"Nope. I heard he's some sort of lord back in England, so he has his own, like, treasury or something."
From the look on Laura's face, she was already planning something to do with this boy. "So, uh, when is he coming exactly?"
"Next week, at the semester turn. Why?"
"Oh, nothing. D'you know what he looks like?
Colin looked to the sky as though sharing his grievances with any pilots passing overhead. "And how should I know? He hasn't even gotten here yet!"
Laura shrugged off his response. "Just wondering."
Sarah, too, was wondering. Just what was this stranger going to be like? Would she be able to learn his accent for the stage? Would he be in any of her classes? She could barely wait to find out.
Well, how was that for a first real chapter? Just some set up for what's to come. Let me know what you think! Please. Pretty please. I'll give you a nice bag of glitter to lure the GK with!