Sarah watched the little trinkets of her life float past her face. Toys and books brushed her cheeks and hair as if they were alive, seeking to comfort her. She sat on her butt in the cool darkness that overcame her world at the absence of her mother. She awoke alone, cold and feeling like she had been crying for ages. Around her the pieces of her world remained, fading in and out of the darkness, touching her and vanishing, reappearing like they flew through an invisible current and crashed against a wall somewhere else in the darkness to come back to her. She could only see their shapes in the dark, as her eyes grew accustomed.

Her mind tried to piece together the events that had occurred. That morning she had woken up normal, by her standards. A ghost, a faraway person had been in her kitchen, invading her world and then everything had come apart. She recalled things she had seen in the past four years, faces that seemed to keep cropping up, the same faces. The Goblin King was not very creative when it came to fabricating her world.

Sophomore year she had kept bumping into a red-haired woman everywhere she went: the mall, the super-market, the park; she was always around. Sarah finally realized where she first saw the woman: the ball. She was one of the dancers in the ball. At the memory her mouth tasted like peach. She tried to recall more hiccups in the fabrication but her head started aching and she gave up.

"I have to get out of here." She mumbled. In the creeping shadows she was able to stand and she toed the ground around her, searching for possible dips. Edging slowly, arms outstretched she was able to find a wall. A little huddle of toys, books and clothes bunched around her ankles, tripping her into the wall. Using the wall to guide her she tripped and tumbled over the toys, eventually giving up and going down on her hands and knees.

I feel ridiculous, she thought. She dragged herself around the perimeter of the room, pushing junk out of the way. She almost screamed when her hand came down on a doll's head, real hair made her suddenly imagine her brother's curls. She had to fumble the doll head with her hands to prove to herself that it wasn't Toby, but she was still unnerved when she discarded it.

It was when her crawling returned her to the doll's head that she began to panic. From what she could discern the room had no door, no opening to break through. She sat down and pushed the head away, listening to it roll and settle on the other side of the room.

"Hoggle?" She hoped he had been real. "I need you."

There was a little glow in the dark and then the blackness was even heavier.

"What the… Where am I?" Hoggle's voice was a foot away from Sarah.

"Hoggle!" Sarah crashed into him, misjudging the distance between them. Her dwarf friend made a horrible grumble before he realized where he was.

"The illusion…" He said gently. He knew?

"My mother was apparently trying to reach me. I guess I failed the test." Sarah came to sit on her knees before the lump in the dark that was her friend.

"You weren't the one being tested."

"What happened? I'm so confused..." Sarah leaned on his shoulder. "Tell me?"

She felt him shudder and he reached a lumpy hand up to pat her head kindly. "You got to the center, Sarah. But you never entirely solved the Labyrinth. You never found your way out."

She inhaled deeply. "Toby?"

"The king returned him. You did what you needed to to free him."

"I don't understand. Has it really been four years?" Her voice was swallowed up in a little scream by the time her sentence was finished.

"It will be even longer if you take anymore time prattling away."

The voice made dwarf and girl startle and scramble to grab each other in the dark. A snap was followed by light, blinding Sarah temporarily. She began to make out the figure of the king, leather clad and confidently grinning down at her. Hoggle at her side was rolling his eyes.

"You can't just let us talk?" He snapped, surprising Sarah. The king, it looked, was surprised as well.

"Higgle," He began.

"Hogwart."

"Hoggle!" He gave Sarah a spiteful look, but the girl didn't see it. She was wholly distracted by the light radiating from the door behind the king. It had caught her attention and now diverted her from Jareth and Hoggle. She came back into focus on what the king was saying quickly, aware that he had noticed her wandering eyes.

"… Your mother was the one being tested." He was said. "She has failed in her quest to revive you from your entrapment." He said. The same doll head that had disturbed her minutes ago rolled past Jareth's boot and he kicked it away. Sarah could have sworn it let out a little grunt in pained surprise.

"I never left?" Sarah drew her knees in to settle her chin on their tops. Fetal position it seemed was the sitting choice of the day.

The idea still had not really hit her; the four years she had lived were a lie. Her best friends, not real, her relationship with Karen, nothing.

Jareth shook his head, smiling. "I thought it rather stupid of your really. You never questioned that I sent you home."

"I assumed…" She rubbed sweat from her forehead, her hand quaking slightly.

"Well, now that you know where you are…" The king kneeled down to be in level with her. His wild eyes looked darker than she remembered. "Shall you leave your prison? Your company is much desired by the Labyrinth folk."

She searched for malice in his voice and found only gentleness. He seemed to be a brighter Jareth then his past persona. Dark as his eyes might be, she was calm. His eyes were warm, though blue, they seemed engulfed in flame, maybe that was the way magic looked in an iris. She could see the one eye, with the swollen pupil, the black hole pulsing gently. Her hand itched to move, to touch his face. She wondered if the skin of his eyelid was as soft as it looked.

"Sarah, snap out of it!" Hoggle gave the back of her head such a hard smack the girl surged forward and knocked into the Goblin King. His nose was smashed into her cheekbone and the pain of it re-awoke in her the suspicion of him.

"What…" She shook her head. "You were making me forget again!" She yelled.

The Goblin King was rubbing his nose, and her words made his dark eyes glint, like the flames were leaping out to snatch away her words.

"You were learning to trust me." He said and smiled sheepishly. She had never known the king to look sheepish. The façade was irritating.

"Sarah, don't mind this bastard." Hoggle said.

"I need some things explained to me!" Sarah was trying not to shout but speaking calmly didn't feel like an option. She knew her shrill shrieking was making both dwarf and king flinch but she was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. She was grasping sanity fiercely but she was not sure of how long her grip might last.

"Might we leave this filthy chamber?" The king stood. Sarah eyed his leather clad back when he turned to leave. She took Hoggle's wrinkling hand and followed.

She had anticipated walking out into one of the underground labyrinth tunnels, similar to the first time she exited an oubliette, but she was met with the stairs she had taken four years ago to enter the Escher room. The king led her and Hoggle down these stairs and into the empty throne room. Sarah glanced back behind into the dark chamber where a doll's head, a book and a bundle of yarn sat by the frame. They sank back into the darkness as Sarah walked away. She squeezed Hoggle's hand in her unease.

The king took a seat in his throne, looking as grand and ridiculous as he always did. He smiled at her and Sarah unflinching gave him a sarcastic smile back.

"Are you going to tell me what you've done?" Hoggle let go of her hand as she spoke and moved back a few cautious steps.

"I have done nothing," The king said, still grinning. "You never left the Labyrinth."

"You made it seem like I did!" She yelled. "I thought I was home, but it was just like that fake world you made." She was referencing the peach-induced ballroom, but Jareth looked confused.

She realized too late after offering him a sympathetic eye that he was mocking her. His eye twitched and a devious smile broke out.

"I hate you." She said. Her heart was beating with the coming wave of terrified emotions. She was coming to the realization again that her entire life was a lie.

"You do not hate me." He said, pretending to look hurt.

"I wanted to tell you," Hoggle's voice behind her was weak. "But I was a coward again…"

"Yes, coward!" The king laughed. "At least she was alive, Hogbrain. Had she gone home she would have suffocated. It was her mother who ruined the entire deal."

"She tried." Hoggle offered.

Sarah reached to wipe tears off of her face. They fell now in plentiful streams. She was exhausted and growing warm. Her head was bleary and she barely registered the next words of the Goblin King.

"Regardless," He said. "It was the best way to cage my queen until she was of a proper age."

Sarah coughed and it was half a laugh. "Queen…" She spat. "You are kidding yourself."

"Sarah, I never kid anyone." He smiled and the girl felt small. Hoggle cringed and took her hand.

"I'm sorry, friend." He said. "I'm sorry."