I'm back -again. *Shy little Godzilla wave*


Sarah hated hospitals.

The wishes were overpowering there. Seconds after she stepped on the perimeter she was overcome. The grief almost crippled her and Sarah let out a gasp as it quickly stole her breath.

I wish…

I wish you would wake up.

I wish it was me instead.

I wish you didn't have to leave.

I wish we had known sooner…

Sarah clutched at her chest. Her thin, red slip of a dress hardly protected her against the cold corridors of the ward.

She didn't know if she could answer these wishes. Some of them she was reluctant to, most of them made her worry about the consequences for granting a wish that dealt with life and death, and some of them she wanted to grant with all her heart and felt guilty and selfish for not doing so. All wishes had consequences. Some terrible, even if the wish itself was as innocent as a child's dream.

"Focus, Sarah." She clenched her eyes shut momentarily as she traveled the halls looking for Toby's room. "You're here for a reason," she said as she tried to block out the thoughts.

Sarah turned the corner and let out a relieved breath of air. "Dad." She ran over to him, as best she could in heels, and enveloped him in a hug.

"Hey, sweetie," Richard said. It looked like he had just come from the firm. He was wearing one of his suits but it was wrinkled and a bit unkempt. His mouth refused to smile properly, Sarah also noticed as she pulled away. It was pulled down at the ends.

"Is he in there?" She motioned to the closed door to her left.

He nodded. "Karen is with him. He's resting."

"What do we know?"

Richard shook his head. His eyes looking up at the ceiling as if he was refusing to allow tears to escape them. He looked back down at her after a moment. "It doesn't look good."

Sarah nodded. Quietly. Pensively. She put her handbag down on a hallway chair that her dad had been sitting on before she interrupted him. "I'm going to see him."

Richard nodded. "You'd better," was all he said, but it told her enough.

When she entered the room it was dark. A bedside lamp was lit, illuminating the face of her step-mother and the small, skinny body of Sarah's little brother that lay in the hospital bed. His eyes were closed.

This was the worst part. When one knows someone at their best, it's the hardest thing seeing them at their worst. Seeing her energetic and happy-go-lucky brother sobered by his sickness made her heart feel as if it was weighed down by stone.

Sarah crept closer to Karen, and was surprised and comforted when her step-mother's hand found hers. She looked at the older woman, who gave her an appeasing smile, which was then ruined by a held-in sob before Karen looked away.

Sarah looked back at her brother. The baby she had rescued from the goblin king all those years ago. She found she hated the Goblin King in that moment. For stealing him away from her. For stealing away time she could have spent with him.

But then the hate dissipated quickly when she remembered the love that the labyrinth taught her to access within her heart for her brother. She wanted something to blame. Something to be angry at, but she nothing could come to mind. Sarah had nothing to blame.

Her father came in the room. His face was puffy. He quietly shut the door and joined the two of them. Karen let go of Sarah's hand, turning around and seeking comfort in Richard in the form of a hug. Sarah watched as sobs wracked the woman's form. Karen muffled them in her husband's chest.

I can't, Sarah thought as emotion spread and threatened to overwhelm her. She wouldn't let Toby wake up to see his strong protective big sister crying over him.

Sarah moved to leave the room before tears consumed her when Karen raised her head from Richard's chest and muttered a phrase that one could barely hear. A phrase that Sarah would sell her soul to. Words that, no matter heaven or hell, Sarah would kneel to, would give her life for.

"I wish his cancer would just disappear."

A tear escaped Sarah's right eye as she stopped in the doorway and answered with a word that sealed her fate:

"Granted."


Sarah slipped from the room and froze when she entered the hallway. The hair on the back of her neck prickled. She felt static in the air and her soul shivered as if a ghost - no, a demon - had passed through it.

He'd found her.

"Not here," Sarah ground out.

She briskly turned and strolled through the winding walls of the hospital until she came upon the entrance. Sarah burst through the doors and was soon running home in the darkness. The streetlights were the only thing that lit her path. She noticed she wasn't as resilient as she'd been when she was a teenager and thought herself lucky that she was in a small town.

She continued to run, panting, then growling in frustration, pausing and tearing off her heels. Pebbles stung and lodged in her skin as she took off again, but time was of the essence, and she continued.

Sarah found herself wanting to keep the symbolism as she burst through the front doors of her family home. She threw her heels aside and slid on her flats that were by the entrance, and stormed up the stairs. Sarah ignored her old bedroom door, instead continuing straight into her parent's room - Toby's old nursery.

Her heart skipped a beat and she stopped in her tracks.

She hadn't really expected it. Sarah had her intuition, which is why she'd ran, but was confused with the reality of it. There, in the dark, standing before her in the moonlight lit bedroom was a startlingly black and tall silhouette. The hallway light didn't frame her shadow, and she turned around to see that it had gone out. When Sarah turned back to the shadow man, he was gone.

Her breath caught in her throat. When she spoke she cringed at the sudden sound, as if she had just alerted her predator to her existence.

But he already knew...

"I didn't make a wish," was the quick thinking her brain came up with.

"No, you didn't." He agreed. His voice was all around her, in every direction, and Sarah found herself circling around quickly.

She saw nothing but the outlines of her parent's bedroom set.

Sarah faced the balcony doors again, noting how the moon shone through the thin curtains and glass.

"Why are you here?" She asked. Sarah already knew, but there was no way she would be the first one to admit it.

"Selfish, spoiled and a thief you are, Sarah, but stupid… you are not."

The air around her felt thin, and she found herself struggling to breath. Her breath came out ragged. She swallowed. "You're not going to do anything to Toby, are you?"

She felt his eyes on her. Her ears burned. Sarah searched the darkness and that's when she realized that she could hear nothing. There were no wishes, no thoughts or dreams coming off of him. Either he knew how to conceal these things, or he had none. Neither of those options were a comfort to Sarah.

He laughed, and Sarah tensed, wondering if he could read minds, but then he answered her question instead.

"I have not come for the boy. This time I've come to take back what is mine."

"No, Sarah!"

The sound of her dwarf friend Hoggle broke through the quiet and tense atmosphere. Sarah whipped her head around to a mirror that was now over a dresser - but seven years ago had been over Toby's crib - just in time to see it shatter.

A large crack swelled up the center of it, over the leathery face of her dwarf friend, Hoggle Thick lines spread quickly across the surface, and then the mirror fell apart in a loud, sharp shatter. The pieces of glass hitting the ground and breaking. Sarah covered her face and turned away.

When she faced the other side of the room again he was there.

He stood a few feet from her. Face cold and cruel. There was no smile on him now. No glint of amusement. His cape fluttered around him. Largely like the one he had worn in this room all those years ago. Except, this time, his outfit was a dark, deep burgundy red bound with leather.

"I'm sorry," Sarah cried, feeling true fear.

"Do you think I'm going to hurt you, Sarah?" He cocked his head slightly. The sides of his thin lips tilting up. His eyes remained emotionless.

Sarah heard snickers around the room. Goblins. Her eyes stayed on him, tracing his sharp cheekbones. Odd how she could find cheekbones cruel.

"You don't seem to be in the generous spirit tonight," Sarah said, backing up and hearing the crunch of glass under her feet.

He raised a gloved fist, unclenching it to reveal another crystal, and slid it from arm to arm. Toying with her.

Sarah staggered back another step.

He watched her expression passively. The sphere rolled to a stop in this right hand, and Sarah watched as it transformed into a tome that looked a lot like the one that Sir Didymus had 'liberated' from the Goblin King's library a few days before.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" He asked softly. His voice was like butter but sounded more dangerous than when he was hissing at her.

The Goblin King carelessly tossed the book towards her, but the throw was calculated enough to land right in front of her feet with a jarring thud. Sarah was visibly startled.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Sarah said.

He took a step closer to her. Not close enough to be threatening, but enough to make her take another step back. The shards beneath her feet broke into pieces too small to fit back together. Her eyes were trained on his black, lithe leather-clad figure. His cloak swayed with his movements.

"Sarah," and some amusement did appear on his features then, "Are you cowering?"

"No," she answered quickly. Sarah stood up taller and set her jaw. "What do you want?"

"I wish for what is mine."

His voice tugged at her. The force was strong. It felt like the accumulation of a thousand mortal wishes. His wish was forceful - demanding. A strong desire set deep within her body almost propelled her forward. She had never felt that before. A compulsion to grant this man's words so forceful that it almost made her fall to the floor.

She grit her teeth and latched onto the spark of anger that had ignited inside of her. How dare he force her to give up the small power she had?

Sarah remembered a train of thought that she'd held a few days ago, when Karen had wished for her to have everything she'd ever wanted. She'd been tempted, but hadn't faltered, knowing that people who were given everything were hollow inside. Sarah remembered Hoggle's last, brief warning, risking treason to appear in her parent's mirror. Her decision was made.

She chose to forget the book that was at her feet. The one that said it didn't end well for those with the gift of wishes that refused to give it up. She was quite aware of that already. Her green eyes narrowed on him.

"Wish denied," she said with stern annunciation.

Something flashed in the darkness of the room. Sarah's stomach flipped. He held out his hand to reveal another crystal. "I suppose it could never be easy with you," he said, his eyes holding hers.

He raised his gloved hand further. Sarah tensed, and when he made to throw the sphere at her. Sarah opened her mouth and blurted out the first thing she could think.

"A deal!"

He paused.

"What sort?" He seemed disinterested, and Sarah floundered for a second, but then she caught the glint of curiosity in his eyes and watched as his hand hovered in the air.

She spoke with much more bravery than she felt, "I'll answer wishes for you - whatever ones you want me to grant for whoever wishes them - as long as I don't find them… morally reprehensible, and in return I get to keep this power."

He seemed to consider it for a moment, but when he spoke Sarah's shoulders dropped. "I do believe I'd rather stick you in an oubliette until you relent or are driven insane."

"That's… That's not fair," Sarah said, and internally cringed at her own choice of words.

"There is no honor among thieves."

"I haven't stolen anything. I - I…" Her mind wandered its four corners, looking for some sort of information or phrase that could save its soul. Then she found it. It was reaching, but it was something. "Who's to say you didn't give me this power," her voice was inspired, "The book said that the 'King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and given her certain powers.'"

Sarah heard a snicker from behind the bed.

Where'd she hear that rubbish?

Love her? Hah, should've heard him last night like I did.

The King loves no one, just like us Goblins. That's why he's the King!

Sarah ignored the small tittering voices, but her cheeks began to flush in embarrassment despite pretending not to hear them.

He was still and regarded her as if he was testing out the theory in his mind. Then he scoffed. "Sarah," he said as if he was just making conversation. He began rolling the crystal between his hands again, this time taking his eyes off her to coolly watch it. "Your dreams, an offer that I rarely make once. I suggest you take it before you've lost and have nothing." He held out the crystal to her once again, and Sarah felt the urge to knock it out of his hand.

"You don't seem to get that I don't want my dreams from you." Sarah said, her eyes ignoring the crystal completely. She stared at him openly. "Besides, you're hardly in any position to be offering wishes, are you?"

She saw true, genuine anger ignite in his eyes, and had the distinct feeling that she had poked the sleeping lion thoroughly.

"So be it." And the crystal vanished. "I shall put you away then, like a child's toy, and take you out only to grant the wishes of others. Wasn't that your bargain?"

"I - no. Not for you to put me away. You've twisted it," Sarah argued emphatically.

He smiled then, cruelly, and Sarah found herself feeling very small. He raised an arm and made a motion with his hands. Sarah watched with curiosity and terror as the heads of goblins drew from their hiding places. They crept out, like monsters, and reached towards Sarah.

She backed up, fumbling, until her back hit the hollow broken mirror behind her. Their grimy hands reached her, twisting the red fabric of her dress.

She looked back up at him with fear rimming her bright green eyes.

"Well, then we're done here. You should have accepted your dreams, Sarah," He said as if he was simply informing her of the weather. "Such a pity."

Now, just like seven years before, the balcony doors swung open. Sarah gasped as sudden rain poured in the room. The Goblin King backed away into the shadows of the room, and when he appeared again he was white and an owl. He took flight out the french doors and into the stormy night. His wings span long across the nighttime horizon.

Sarah soon found herself overcome with swarming bodies of goblins and her vision was covered. She gasped as she felt reality - the mortal world - fall out of her grasp.

What happened next was bleary. The events colorful, but soundless and happened so fast that she would only remember it in pieces. Sandy stone. Ugly, smiling faces mocking her. The feeling of tears slipping down her cheeks, until she looked up from the floor and centered her eyes on the bone-made throne before her. A King - icy eyes and thin lips - rose from it and held out a necklace to her.

Sarah watched herself take it from him and adorn herself with the pendant, barely recognizing the crescent shape of it from what he'd worn before.

She looked down at it, half of it resting over her pale skin and the other over her red dress, and then she blinked.


More chapters coming soon! I've missed this community for sure.

Please, leave a review! I love hearing from you all. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next one! :D