A/N: Sorry for not posting yesterday, I had a really long weekend and when I wanted to update my story the damn internet wouldn't work, It seems to be so bad these days, I don't know what's going on...
Sorry if the format is all messed up- my computer also decided to delete all my chapters and I had to find them in a different place. But I hope you enjoy it all the same, this is the chapter where the story really begins!
Please don't forget to love and review- I do appreciate all feedback and each follow /favourite counts too :)
Life Can't Be Easy
"No Toby!" Sarah yelled, wrenching the baby's hand free of it's firm grasp in her hair, "Stop that!". He looked up at her, from where he sat in her lap, with sudden wide eyes. A tantrum was sure to follow. He grabbed her hair again, this time pulling it harder and Sarah was pushed to the brink. "Enough!" she cried furiously, grabbing the child by his arms and hauling him roughly off of her. She set him down in his cot in her parents room with a thump which brought on quick wailing and tears. "You can't have everything you want. I rescued you from the Labyrinth, wasn't that enough?" Sarah said, clearly annoyed, hands on her hips. She'd had enough of the spoilt, demanding child, and even though she had regretted wishing him away and risked nearly losing him, she still hated him at times.
Her father and Karen had once more gone out for the afternoon, without even so much as asking her if she had plans- as they always did- and they weren't expected back until supper time. Sarah had been left to babysit Toby as usual and she was beginning to lose her patience with him...as she always did. She couldn't understand adults and how all they wanted was a child...it was hard enough looking after Toby when she did and she wasn't even his mother. "I didn't choose to get you." She told him, pacing over to the window. It looked cold outside, as though it were going to rain- she couldn't even escape for a walk.
"Oh..." She muttered, looking out to the grey skies. Toby continued to wail behind her, and Sarah was starting to feel the beginnings of a headache. Turning on her heel, and ignoring his screaming, she left the room and shut the door behind her. She knew he would eventually shut up when he realised no one would give him any attention.
In her room, Sarah sat down at her vanity with a sigh. She stared into her reflection and tried to ignore Toby crying and screaming in the background. She almost felt like wishing him away again but she knew better than to make that mistake twice. One run in the Labyrinth had definately been enough to last a lifetime. Just then, she thought about her friends- she hadn't spoken to, or seen them in days, she had been so focused on trying to forget about the Underground. She looked away feeling guilty. How could she just neglect them like this? With a glance at her clock she decided to call them. Her father and Karen wouldn't be back home for an hour, she had time to talk to them, and she ought to explain things to them.
"Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo." She said, looking expectantly into the depths of her mirror. Would it still work? Just then, Hoggles face appeared, along with Didymus and Ludo next to him.
"Sarah!" He said. "It sure has felt like ages." Sarah spun around and there they were sitting on the same place that they always appeared- her bed.
"Oh, I'm sorry I haven't called you" Sarah told them, hoping they would forgive her. "I've been so busy trying to forget about the Labyrinth, that everytime I thought of you it reminded me of everything. It was horrible of me, I know." She looked crestfallen.
"Why, my lady." Sir Didymus said, shaking his head, the feather on his hat jiggling about. "There is no reason to apologise, I know how hard it must be for thee."
"It is Didymus, but I neglected you all and you are my only true friends. Lifes been so tough here, I feel like I just don't fit in at all."
"Sawah sad" Ludo said, getting up to clumsily amble over and awkwardly put an arm around her shoulder, which nearly knocked her off her chair.
"Sarah, I know it's going to be hard for you to accept, but Jareth really did mean what he said when he told me he would never let you forget. He sure as hell sticks to his word, you won't ever forget the Underground, no matter how hard you try." Hoggle told her gruffly.
"I realise that now Hoggle...oh what am I supposed to do?!" She cried, throwing her arms down and burying her face in her palms.
"What thou needs to do is to be strong" Didymus told her reassuringly. "Don't let him, or any of it get to you, but you do need to come to some kind of acceptance" He said, glancing over at Hoggle and nodding. "You must be strong and fight with all that you have!"
"I don't even think I'm getting that right." Sarah muttered, thinking of her persistant dreams, and her confused feelings.
"Do you mean to say, you're falling for him?" Hoggle spluttered, looking taken aback. "Oh, that rat! Damn you Jareth! Don't believe whatever it is you are feeling Sarah, all he's trying to do is manipulate you...like he always does."
"No, I'm not falling for him." Sarah said, looking up and sounding more confident than she felt.
"My lady, follow your heart..." Didymus started but Hoggle cut him off. "But don't follow Jareth! He's no good, trust me. Remember what he did to you. Everything he put you through...it was all unessesary!"
"I know Hoggle, don't worry." She said, smiling reasuringly.
"I doubt he even wants to see me again anyways."
"Oh, you'd be surprised." Hoggle started, but then looked as though he shouldn't have said anything and stopped.
"What?" Sarah asked, growing curious. " Has he said anything?"
"Ugh, I can't say. All I'm telling you is to look at it this way- if he won't let you forget him, do you think he can forget you? Just be careful".
Sarah looked puzzled, but inside, her mind was reeling. surely...it can't be...he hates me.
"Anyways, we should get going" Hoggle said, jumping up abruptly and pulling a stunned Didymus down off the bed with him. "G' bye"
"Wait!" Sarah cried, "What did Jareth tell you?"
" It's more of what he's done" Hoggle said, and before Sarah could question him any further, they had all gone and Sarah was once more alone in her room. She stood, frozen on the spot for a moment, trying to think things over.
Why had Hoggle acted so strange? He's making things up, Jareth probably hates me. But Sarah knew deep down, that that wasn't at all true. The Goblin King had offered Sarah everything, her dreams had been at the tips her fingers and he had even offered himself, but it hadn't been enough for Sarah.
Well, if ever he hated me, it's now. She thought. I turned him down without even thinking. But of course she hadn't thought about his offer, it had been ridiculous at the time, he had to have seen that. All Sarah had cared about was getting Toby back home safely...
Before she could mull over her rampant thoughts any further, the sound of the front door opening downstairs and her father yelling "Sarah, we're home" snapped her attention away.
She glanced at her clock. Where had the time gone? Toby had thankfully stopped crying and Sarah assumed he had cried himself to sleep- something he seemed to do regularly. With a last check at her vanity mirror, just to make certain that her friends had gone, Sarah left her room and was on her way to meet her father in the kitchen and ask about supper, when she met Karen on the staircase coming up to go check on Toby.
"I hope you were good to him." She muttered, giving Sarah a cold sideways glance as she passed her.
"He was a real little brat, if that's what you mean." Sarah shot back at her. She was sick and tired of Karen and father both just expecting her to look after Toby while they went out and enjoyed themselves. It was most certainly not enjoyable for Sarah, she would much rather have time spent to herself, to ponder over her thoughts when her parents were out.
"Ah Sarah, you're down." Her father said, looking up from his newspaper where he sat in his armchair, seemingly unaware of the words passed between his daughter and wife. "How was Toby? Did he give you any troubles? He really is a sweet little chap you know."
Sarah fumed and stood at the base of the stairs, her arms folded across her chest.
"As a matter of fact, yes. He did give me hassles dad, he always does." Her father looked only uninterested and turned over a page of his newspaper, continueing to read.
"Not that you'd care." Sarah continued. "You always do that, pass him onto me when you want to go out and have a good time, and I'm stuck with looking after a baby!"
"Listen here Sarah." Karen said sternly, coming down the stairs behind her, with Toby in her arms. The baby looked worn out and his face was tear stained.
"I've told you that we only ask you to look after him if it won't interfere with your plans."
"Well how do you know I don't have any plans?! You don't even ask me!" Sarah fumed, turning to face her stepmother.
"I'd assume you would tell me if you did." Karen continued flatly. "But since you never do, how am I supposed to know?"
"It's not fair!" Sarah cried out suddenly. "What if all I want is some time alone? But I'm always stuck with Toby and I didn't even ask for him! I hate that, I hate him!"
Immediately after it was out of her mouth, Sarah regretted saying it. The look on her stepmother's face was pure shock and Toby started to cry once more. Her father who had been trying to stay out of their quarrel, stood up.
"Now Sarah." He began firmly, but she cut him off.
"I'm so sick of this, I can't do anything right, can I?" She cried.
"Do be quiet, you're upsetting Toby!" Karen hissed at her.
"No!" Sarah shouted, now nearly hysterical. "I'm always quiet, I never say anything and nobody cares to think if what they are doing is upsetting me. IT'S NOT FAIR!"
She spun on her heel and rushed past her father and Karen in blind hysterics. She ran to the door and slammed it behind her, leaving them to stand there, too stunned and shocked for words. Toby's crying had increased to a deafening wailing, but Sarah didn't care. All she cared about was getting away, and running as fast as she could, tears streaming down her face. The sky was just beginning to grow dark- it was dusk and it was cold but Sarah didn't notice. She ran down the street and across lawns and between houses to the one place she felt content and alone- the park.
A great, white owl soared above her, circling the skies, taken up by the wind that fluttered through it's feathers, as it watched her through wisened eyes.
Sarah was in no state to think straight. All her build up emotions that she had kept inside her for so long had finally been released and overflowed. Her feet were driven on, running as fast as she could through the ever fading light, by the need to escape- escape to someplace where she wouldn't be so misunderstood. As she ran, memories of the Labyrinth flashed through her mind, and this time, she did not try to block them out. She embraced them, because she had felt something there that she had never felt anywhere else- she felt belonging. She had tried too hard to deny it, and now it all came crashing down on her, like the weight of a thousand bricks upon her shoulders. She finally realised and accepted where she would truely belong and no longer be misunderstood.
The rain that had been threatening earlier started to splutter down onto her but she took no notice. Her dreams came back to her, in flashes, as uncontrollable tears streamed down her flushed cheeks, mingling with the rain that dripped down her face- she was blinded by them- blinded by her thoughts and she continued to run, faster than ever. Her dreams- they had been so sweet and comforting. She had felt contempt- she had felt wanted. She had briefly been held in the Goblin King's arms and she had never felt anything like it in her life. Sarah no longer denied what she felt, now she embraced it and wished for more. She recalled the words he had sung to her, the way he had looked at her...But I'll be there for you as the world falls down.
She realised it all now, what she had been missing all along. Jareth really had cared for her...and she would never see him again.
Just that thought, that single thought led her to collapse, as she reached the park and ran over the bridge, onto the grass on the other side of the path.
Her sides heaved and her tears streamed, relentless as she fell to her knees and burried her face in her hands, sobbing. The heavens opened up and the rain began to beat down in huge drops. She had fallen for him, the King of the goblins, but it was too late. He hated her now- she had turned him down, she had turned everything down. "Oh, it's not fair!" She sobbed, broken and exhausted on the ground. All she had was the little flash of hope that Hoggle had been implying earlier. Could he really still care? She doubted it.
Nearly all the light was gone, but Sarah didn't notice. Didn't notice the owl that had been following her, land in a tree nearby and continue to watch her, it's feathers sodden with water, wings dropped at its sides from the weight.
With thoughts of loss and despair engulfing her, Sarah's crying subsided to quiet little whimpers which shook her body. No one understood her, no one accepted her- and they never would.
"What's not fair?" A quiet voice said out of the dark.