Labyrinth 1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Hello! Thanks for reading _Sunset Underground_. I've loved _The Labyrinth_ since I was about seven, and I'm going to have so much fun writing a sequel to it. Please review if you have time, and feel free to give constructive criticism. Additionally, if you notice any grammatical errors or typos, don't feel bad about pointing them out. I'd really like to know about any mistakes so that I can correct them. Thanks!

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><p>Chapter One<p>

2B or 4B? Sarah's fingers twitched over the pencils as she tried to make up her mind. She wanted to get the face right this time, she'd erased and redrawn it so many times the paper was almost worn through. Sarah reached for her tea while she considered, and found that it had grown cold. Thunder rumbled outside of her window. There had been dry lightning all day, but the storm had yet to begin. "Just rain already," she muttered, finally selecting 2B. She needed a light touch to get the face of the princess right. If she had to erase it one more time, Sarah was definitely going to throw a temper tantrum, and she liked to think that she had outgrown those.

Sarah had been in advertising for eight long years, and had dreamed of switching careers and becoming an artist for seven and a half of them. It was only a few weeks ago that she had finally stopped dreaming and started putting together a portfolio. She wanted to create traditional fairytale art, the kind that she had loved as a teenager, but for some reason she didn't feel as inspired as she'd expected. She had hoped that after years of wasting her creative energy on advertising slogans, she would be bursting with art just waiting to be drawn. But something wasn't right. Instead of feeling like her inspiration had built up over the past eight years, she felt as though it had dried up.

"Give it time," she advised herself, reminding herself a little of her stepmother, Karen, "it'll come back." With a deep breath, she put pencil to paper, picturing the face that she wanted to draw, a sad, beautiful face with the eyes closed and the lips parted. And then her cell phone rang and she jumped, scratching a dark, wide mark halfway across the paper. "Damn it!" Sarah dropped the pencil, breaking the point off, and banged her fist on the desk with frustration. She'd drawn a big, ugly line right over the princess's pillow and the canopy of her bed, the ruffled canopy that had taken several hours to draw just right. Biting back a curse, she picked up the eraser and tried to figure out how she could get rid of the line without destroying the rest of the drawing, then put it down and sighed. "I don't even care anymore. If I stare at this sheet of paper any longer, I'm going to go crazy." She realized that the phone was still ringing and stood up to answer it, wondering who was calling her so late in the evening. "Hello?"

"Sarah? Do you have a minute?" It was Toby. The moment he spoke, Sarah knew that something was seriously wrong. Toby was using the tone of voice that he reserved for times when he'd gotten himself into trouble and was hoping that she could get him out.

"What happened?" She asked immediately, and then waited, knowing that the longer it took him to tell her, the worse it was.

There was a moment of complete silence, save for a strange sniffling sound from Toby's end. "Toby? Is that someone _crying_?" Sarah tried not to sound as alarmed as she felt.

"Well? Are you going to tell her?" Came a girl's teary voice from the other end. "Anyway, I still don't understand why we're calling her and not the police. Toby? Oh, for crying out loud, give me the phone!" There was a brush of static, and then, "**Sarah!**" The girl's voice was so loud that Sarah jerked the phone away from her ear.

She had already identified the emotional girl as Pat, Toby's girlfriend of four months. Putting two and two together, Sarah arrived at what she felt was a logical conclusion. "Oh my God, you're pregnant!" No sooner were the words out of her mouth then she remembered that Pat had mentioned the police, "...Or you've killed somebody. Patty, what is going on?"

There was a noise rather like a tearful snort from the other end, and she heard Pat ask Toby, "are you _sure_ she's the one we should be calling?" Toby's response was muffled and Sarah couldn't make it out, but it seemed to satisfy Patty. "Sarah? Abby's m-m-missing." Pat's voice broke on the name and she began sobbing into the telephone.

"Who's Abby?" Sarah asked hesitantly as Patty cried. Toby had never mentioned anyone named Abby before.

"S-she's m-m-my sister! I was s-supposed to be watching her! I'm the only one she has!"

The dots began to connect for Sarah. "Abby is your sister, and you were supposed to be watching her? But Toby came over and you got distracted and she ran off?" That would explain why Toby had sounded so guilty.

"N-no! Abby's just a baby, she couldn't run off anywhere! She was in her crib! She just _vanished_."

That struck a chord with Sarah, and she began to feel vaguely uneasy. Pushing away memories of the time she had lost her own baby sibling, Sarah put her tea in the microwave to reheat it. "Patty, calm down, she's just more mobile than you realized. She managed to get out of her crib somehow, and she's probably not far away. Babies don't just vanish." Ha ha. Sarah allowed herself a wry smile.

"But Abby did," Pat insisted. "Toby had just finished saying that he wished she was gone, and then suddenly she was!"

Wait, _what_? Sarah screeched to a mental halt and tried not to jump to conclusions, while part of her was already panicking. "What? What did he say?"

"We didn't expect her to d-disappear!"

"Patty, stop crying. Now tell me _exactly_, what did Toby say, word for word?"

"I don't see why-" but even through her tears Patty seemed to sense the urgency in Sarah's tone. "Toby, what did you say? Your sister wants to know. It was something weird about gremlins," she added to Sarah.

"Gremlins?" This was just getting worse and worse.

"Goblins," Toby corrected faintly on the other end.

"Oh, gremlin, goblin, same difference." Patty paused, listening to Toby. "He says he doesn't even know why he said it. The words just popped into his head like he'd heard them before."

Sarah tried unsuccessfully to repress a pang of guilt. "What words?" She asked, biting her lip, and she could hear Toby clearly as he recited a very familiar phrase.

Patty started to repeat it, "Toby said: 'I wish-'"

"No! Don't say it!" Sarah tried not to think about how crazy she probably sounded. "Listen, what's your address? I'm coming over right now." She began rummaging around on her desk for her keys.

"Toby, she says she's coming over right now, she – what is that? Toby, what is that? Is that an _owl_?"

Sarah's heart nearly stopped beating. "Patty..." she found her keys and gripped them so tightly that her hand ached.

"I've never seen an owl do that before. Do you suppose it has rabies? Do owls get rabies? Oh my God... what if it carried away the baby?" Patty was probably closer to the truth than she realized, Sarah thought grimly as she grabbed her coat and flung her apartment door open, not bothering to lock it behind her. Her cellphone was pressed tightly to her ear with one hand as she ran for the elevator. "Do not go near the owl. Do you hear me? Do not go near the owl! I'm coming over right now!"

"Toby, what is it doing? Oh my God!" Sarah knew the exact moment that Jareth transformed because she could hear Toby yell something and Patty start screaming.

"Patty, stay with me. What's happening? Is someone there? Put Toby on the phone."

"You have to call the police Sarah," Patty was saying hysterically, "there's a man here. No! Toby, stay away from him! What are you doing here? Get out of here!"

"Put Toby on the phone!" Sarah insisted, "put him on the phone **now**!" She was in the elevator, alone, fortunately, and her panicked voice bounced off of the narrow walls. "Toby, do not talk to that man! Do you hear me Toby? Do not talk to him! I'm coming over right now, just stay away from him! Whatever you do, don't-" There was total silence on the other end. With quickly mounting horror, Sarah realized that she was talking to herself. The line had gone dead.

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><p>Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review. Take care!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Hi everyone!

I'd like to thank those of you who subscribed, reviewed, and/or favorited _Sunset Underground_; you guys are awesome! I can't tell you how much it means to me to know that people are enjoying the story as much as I am.

Once again, please review if you have a minute or two to spare, and feel free to let me know if you notice any typos or other errors, since I'd really like to correct them. Thanks!

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><p>Chapter Two<p>

Sarah wasted precious time calling Karen to get Patty's address, and by the time she finally pulled up in front of Patty's house, she was too worried about Toby to be surprised by how dilapidated Patty's house was. She was out of the car and hammering on Patty's door within seconds. "Toby? Patty? It's Sarah, open up!" As she called out, thunder tore through the sky and raindrops fell all around her. The storm had finally begun.

There was the rattle of a chain being pulled back, and then the door opened and Sarah was face to face with Patty, a pretty fifteen year old with long auburn hair and blue eyes. Tear stains streaked her cheeks and at first she didn't seem to recognize Sarah.

"Patty, it's me. Are you okay? Where's Toby? Where's-" she caught herself before she said Jareth's name. She hadn't made up her mind just how much she wanted Toby and his girlfriend to know about her history with the Goblin King.

"Good question. He just left." Patty gestured helplessly. "Out the window or something."

"Toby left through the window?"

"Yeah. I think so. That was what it looked like. There was something on the other side. There was this weird man, he-" Patty paused, she seemed to be trying to gather her thoughts.

"Why don't we go inside?" Sarah asked. The rain was falling heavily now and it was quickly soaking through her coat. Patty wordlessly stepped back to allow Sarah inside. The interior of the house was even dingier than the outside, and Sarah nearly broke her neck tripping over a child's stuffed animal in the hall.

Patty picked it up, looked at it closely and then pressed it to her chest. "That's Abby's," she said, and burst into tears.

Sarah raised her hand to pat the girl's shoulder comfortingly, but it ended up feeling a little awkward. She'd never been good with crying people, babies or adults. Instead, she glanced around the hall and shivered. The déjà vu was so powerful it was as if she was fifteen years old again.

Patty began to stumble down the hall, pressing a hand to her mouth to muffle her own sobs. Sarah followed the girl, then nearly jumped out of her skin when there was the softest sound, almost like a hushed cackle. She quickly reached for the light switch, then frowned when the hall remained dark . "The lights are out," she murmured.

"Y-yes," Patty said, a tear sliding from her eye to her cheek and then vanishing when she wiped her face with her sleeve.

Patty lead Sarah into the living room, which was small and as dark as the hallway. The only illumination came from the flashes of lightning outside, and Sarah shivered. The curtains were open, and so was one of the windows. Sarah quickly shut and locked it, knowing that Toby wouldn't return that way, and then pulled the curtains closed so that no one could see into the living room. She let Patty cry for a minute while she transferred a pile of laundry from the sofa to the coffee table, and then they both sat down.

"Okay Pat, what happened?"

"I don't _know_! I don't know, okay? Can't you give a minute?" Patty asked tearfully.

"No, I can't." Sarah answered, a little more sharply than she had intended. "You aren't the only one with a baby sibling who's missing. I want to know what happened to Toby, and I want to know now. So stop crying for a minute, and tell me what you can."

Patty glared at her, but she stopped crying. "Well, there was this owl... it looked like an owl. But it was actually a man. I think. Maybe the owl was a fake. The man wasn't though. He talked to Toby, he had this big glass ball, and he told Toby that he was never going to get Abby back," Patty's voice wobbled a little, "then he said some other things. I couldn't really hear them."

"You couldn't hear them?"

"No, I was hiding behind the sofa," Patty admitted unabashedly.

"Oh, _really_." Sarah said with a certain degree of disgust, and then she nearly bit her own tongue, because she sounded alarmingly like Karen.

"Yes, really," Patty said, irritation flaring in her eyes. "Anyway, Toby said that he was going to try anyway, since it was his fault that Abby was gone, and then they both walked right out that window. The one that the owl flew in. And I was left all alone, and the lights were out, and there were these noises, like the house was full of rats, really _big_ rats."

"Or goblins." Sarah said, standing. She had caught sight of a tin of emergency candles stowed behind a potted plant, and she hoped that there was also a lighter. Sitting in the dark was making her skin crawl. "Patty," Sarah said, picking up the tin of candles and finding a matchbox behind it, "I'm going to fix this. I haven't figured out just how yet, but I will."

"Well, I think we should probably start by calling the police," Patty said, standing up.

"No!" Sarah said quickly. "Listen to me, the police will be no help. No help whatsoever, do you understand? Where Abby's gone, they can't possibly get to her, but they can get in my way, and frighten Karen and dad, and your parents, and generally make a mess of things. Don't call them."

Patty eyed her warily. "This is something... magical, isn't it?"

Sarah would have preferred not to tell Patty anything, but if she kept the girl in the dark, then Patty would be more likely to turn to the police or her parents, and that was the last thing that Sarah needed. Sarah struck a match and looked Patty in the eye, "yes." She waited, wondering if the girl was going to go on another crying jag.

"Oh my God, this is like my Hogwarts letter."

"... what?"

"You know, when Harry Potter finds out about his magical powers. The guy who came here was even an owl, just like in the Harry Potter books."

"Er, not exactly."

"I don't have any magical powers, do I?"

"No."

Patty looked disappointed. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Sarah said firmly. "You won't call the police, right?"

"Oh, no. Do you have powers?"

"No. Well," Sarah paused. She had certainly used words of power, first to wish her brother away, and then to defeat the Goblin King at the center of the Labyrinth, but that didn't exactly count. "No, I don't," she told Patty.

"Well, does Toby?"

"No."

"But the guy does?"

"The guy?" Sarah repeated, and then gasped in pain when her fingers were suddenly singed. She'd been so distracted by Patty's odd responses that she'd entirely forgotten about the match in her hand, which had burned low and scorched her fingers. She inhaled deeply and blew it out

"You know, the _guy_. With the... hair, and... the tights." Patty said, as Sarah struck another match and quickly lit four candles.

There was a strange sound from above their heads, almost like a small animal scampering across the roof. Patty didn't seem to hear it, but Sarah tilted her head back and gazed up at the shadowy ceiling. It could have been a squirrel, she supposed, but somehow Sarah didn't think a squirrel would be out at night, in the pouring rain. She shuddered, and pushed her hands into her coat pockets, remembering as she did so that her coat was wet and that was probably one of the reasons why she felt so cold.

"Oh, yes, he definitely has powers."

"Well then we're doomed," Patty said, slumping back against the couch. Thunder rumbled overhead as Sarah set two of the candles on the mantlepiece, next to a cold, half-full bottle of babies formula. "The police can't help us, our parents can't help us, and we have no powers so _we_ can't even help us."

"Don't be so sure," Sarah told her, taking off her coat and draping it over a side table. "When are your parents coming home tonight?"

"They're not," Patty told her flatly from her seat on the couch. "My dad's. . . not in the picture, and my mom works nights. She'll be back around 6:30 in the morning. I usually call her around midnight, though, before I go to bed, so that she knows I've locked up and everything."

"Don't forget to call her tonight," Sarah instructed.

"Oh, and what am I supposed to tell her?"

"Lie." Sarah answered, and then she nearly dropped the candles when an eerie cackle sounded from somewhere nearby. "Where is your bathroom?" Sarah asked Patty once she had recovered her composure.

"Down the hall, to your right," Patty pointed. She still looked tear-stained and nervous, but she sounded a little better.

"Thanks," Sarah said, "why don't you put on some coffee? I know I could use some, and I suspect you could too."

She journeyed down the hall to the bathroom alone, a candle in each hand, and hoped that she was imagining the footsteps and whispers that seemed to follow her.

She hadn't spoken to Hoggle in almost nine years. The first few months after her adventure in the Labyrinth she had kept in touch with all of them: Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo, but then things had changed. School had gotten harder and more time-consuming. Sarah had begun to make friends, human friends. Her relationship with Karen had improved a little, and Sarah had spent less of her time daydreaming and wishing that she were anywhere but under her stepmother's roof. Then, when she was eighteen or nineteen, the nightmares had started. She only got them in the weeks after one of her infrequent conversations with Hoggle, and they were the strangest, most bizarre, burningly intense dreams that she had ever known. It was as if she was forced to live through every moment she had spent in the Labyrinth over and over again, but with every color brighter, every scent stronger, every emotion more extreme. She dreamed of the castle, and of her baby brother crawling across the ceiling. She dreamed of the Fireys and their strange dance, and most of all, she dreamed of the masquerade ball. The dreams had frightened her with their potency and ambiguity, and haunted her long after she woke up from them.

Sarah had probably been about twenty-one when she'd last spoken to Hoggle. She'd been plagued by such nightmares in the weeks after their conversation that she had never been compelled to call on him again. She'd convinced herself that he would call on her if he ever needed her, and then she'd forgotten about him.

She felt guilty asking him for help now, after so many years of silence, but her little brother was running the Labyrinth, and she needed eyes and ears on the inside. She wasn't about to tell Patty, but the truth was that on his own Toby had very little chance of recovering Abby. It wasn't that he was too young, he was fifteen after all, the same age that Sarah had been when she had defeated Jareth, but he wasn't as well prepared as Sarah had been. She had read dozens of fairy tales, she had known how they were supposed to work. Most importantly, she had read about the Goblin King, and she had memorized the words that could defeat him. Toby had no clue. He was going to need help.

So Sarah set the candles down on the bathroom vanity and closed and locked the door behind her. Not that locks would keep the goblins out, but it made her feel better. Trying not to look too closely at the mold that was beginning to flourish along the rim of Patty's bathroom sink, Sarah instead leaned towards the mirror, and was surprised by the fear that she saw on her own face. What a shame, she'd so hoped that she looked brave and resolute, like a warrior queen about to do battle. Nope. Instead she was pale and scared and had beads of rainwater in her uncombed hair. Oh well.

"Hoggle?" Sarah spoke, and her voice was dry and cracked. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Hoggle? It's Sarah. I need you." The words echoed strangely in the bathroom, and the candlelight shimmered off the mirror. "Hoggle!" Sarah called one more time, and then she stepped back and waited.

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><p>Thanks for reading!<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: So, I'm back... The real world got in the way for a while, but I have returned to continue my story... for those of you who remember it. Anyway, let me know if you see any errors, and leave a review if you have time. Thanks!

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><p>Chapter Three<p>

Sarah stared at the mirror until her eyes crossed, but no matter how hard she concentrated her dwarven friend refused to appear.

_This is all your fault_, Sarah accused herself as the candlelight played softly against her face. She wasn't even sure which part she was blaming herself for: the fact that Toby was now in the Labyrinth, or the fact that he wouldn't have any help because she had cut all ties with Hoggle and the others years ago.

After a few minutes she couldn't stand to stare into the empty mirror any longer, not with Patty's words playing over and over again in her mind.

_She just __vanished_

_He doesn't even know why he said it_

_The words just popped into his head like he'd heard them before_

_How_ could he have remembered them? In her distress Sarah turned away from the mirror, facing instead the dark, blank wall of Patricia's bathroom. He was an infant when she wished him away. How could he possibly remember the words that she had spoken so long ago?

_He hadn't_. Anger filled Sarah as she accepted that fact. There was no way that he had remembered those words on his own… Someone had to have helped him.

Someone like Jareth, master manipulator and lord of mind games. For a split second Sarah was so furious that she nearly slammed her fist into Patty's unresponsive mirror. Then thunder sounded overhead, softly, like a menacing whisper riding just under the sound of raindrops striking the roof.

_Be careful Sarah…_

Despite her bravado, it had been a close call that night in the Labyrinth. She had been seconds from losing Toby, seconds from offering Jareth anything if he would just let her brother stay a human baby. A few ancient words had been all that stood between her and Jareth's mercy… or lack thereof.

And now Sarah had to go out and face Patty, whose baby sister was just a few short hours away from suffering the very fate that Toby had so narrowly avoided. All because of a few words fifteen years ago, Sarah thought grimly.

When Sarah emerged from the bathroom the hall was cold and dark, and for a moment she thought that Patty had left the house. But no, she found the girl slumped at the kitchen table, a pot of untouched coffee at her elbow. She had stopped crying and was staring into space with her brow furrowed and her lower lip trembling. Feeling that she was intruding on a private moment, Sarah cleared her throat.

"Sarah!" Patty jumped out of her chair, nearly upending the coffee pot in the process. "What's going on?"

Sarah hesitated. "Nothing." She said finally. "I just used the bathroom. Where are the cups?" She nodded to the coffee.

"Right here." Patty jumped up to get them, and Sarah watched the teenage girl, wondering when she would finally work up the courage to break it to Patty that things weren't looking good. "So I've been thinking," Patty said, oblivious to Sarah's internal struggle, "and I know what he is."

"Who?"

"The guy." Patty said. "I know what he is. I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner."

"You can't believe you didn't realize it sooner…" Sarah repeated uncomprehendingly, wondering how Patty could possibly have guessed that the man she had seen was a Goblin King, of all things. She had to hand it to the girl though; Patty certainly had a way of constantly throwing her for a loop.

"Yup. I've read all about it."

"You have?" Sarah thought about the little red book in which she'd first read about Jareth. But Toby and Patty couldn't have possibly gotten ahold of it. It had been in Sarah's safe deposit box for more than six years. Perhaps there was another copy?

"Of course. He's a lycanthrope."

Sarah blinked.

"You know," Patty said impatiently. "A half breed? A shape-shifter. He's a were-owl."

Sarah wasn't sure whether to cry with frustration or just be thankful that Patty was so very far off the mark. "A were-owl. That's…. a very good _theory_." She conceded.

Patty didn't miss her use of the word 'theory'. "Do you have a better theory?" She asked, plunking a mug down in front of Sarah rather aggressively.

"Well, you know, I just wonder what a…. what a _were-owl_ would want with your baby sister."

"Well, lycanthropy is contagious you know. The pack is probably trying to replenish its numbers," Patty said seriously.

"Wouldn't it be a _flock_?" Sarah speculated, but she fell silent at the expression on Patty's face.

"This isn't funny," Patty said, tears gathering in her eyes once more. "Some crazy man has my sister and is probably going to try to turn her into a beast."

Once again, Patty was closer to the truth than she realized.

"Patty, I don't think he's a… were-owl." Sarah said, trying to smile reassuringly. Damn she was bad at this sort of thing.

"Oh, what do you know?" Patty said, raising her voice until she was almost yelling. "Nothing, that's what! And if you do know something, you certainly haven't shared it with me!"

"Patty…"

"Your brother's missing too, you know!"

"Yes, Patty, I know," Sarah said, beginning to lose her own temper.

"Well you don't act like it! Just leave me alone!" Patty shouted as Sarah stood up. "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Before Sarah could so much as blink, Patty had stormed out of the kitchen, and the slam of a door down the hall signaled that she had locked herself in the bathroom.

Sarah stared after the girl for a minute, trying to figure out who Patty reminded her of.

Oh, right. She reminded Sarah of herself.

"Wow," Sarah exhaled quietly in the empty kitchen. "Is this really what Karen had to put up with?" Maybe she should have given the woman more than just a box of chocolates and a card last Mother's Day. Beginning to feel like she was losing her mind, Sarah poured herself a cup of coffee.

The whole experience was surreal enough to be a dream, but Sarah knew better than to hope that she was just having a nightmare. It was as if her thoughts were riding a merry go 'round, and every time she thought she was getting somewhere she ended up back at the same place.

_You have to do something._

_What can I do from here?_

_Nothing, that's what._

_Toby's a smart kid, very savvy and…_

_Oh, who are you kidding? You know he's going to need help._

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" The scream was high-pitched and positively chilling. Sarah's coffee cup slipped from her hand and shattered on the kitchen floor.

"Patty?" Sarah's heart pounded as she raced down the hall toward the sound of the girl's shrieks. "Patty?"

Patty met her in the hallway, her eyes wide with terror. "Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod." She was halfway between sobbing and screaming.

"Patty what's wrong?"

"There's a…. We have to get out of here… I didn't see at first… you have to help me…. Oh my god!"

"Patty!" Sarah grabbed the girl by the shoulders and shook her. "What happened?"

Patty melted, dissolving into tears once more. "There's a _face_!"

"What?"

"I'm serious! In the bathroom. There's a little man in the mirror!"


End file.

Labyrinth, Drama, Romance