Author's Note: I do not own The Labyrinth or any of its characters. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the reviews, follows, and favorites. It really makes me happy to see all of you have an interest in my story. I hope that I can keep up with your expectations and not disappoint. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, this will be the last chapter without Jareth. I made a slight adjustment in the previous chapter, changing what type of festival Sarah and Toby are entering into. Enjoy the chapter, and please leave me a review and let me know what you think. I'll try to answer any questions I can. Sorry for any mistakes.

Chapter 2

Sarah woke up the next morning to the sounds of an argument happening outside her door. She sleepily lifted her head up to try and listen to what was being said. She could hear Toby and Irene whisper shouting at one another, and muffled her laugh into her pillow.

"But MOM! I have an entire day planned out for us. It has been months since visited last, she's sleeping the entire day away!" Toby complained, and Sarah could hear the absolute exasperation in his voice.

"I know honey, but Sarah didn't get make it home till late last night. She's probably exhausted from her drive, let her have a few more minutes of sleep before you force her into whatever you have planned." Irene tried to reason with him, but even Sarah knew what a losing battle Irene was fighting. She flipped over to lay on her back, staring at her ceiling. She debated whether or not she should open the door and stop the argument in its place, but Toby put an end to it faster by putting his foot in his mouth.

"She didn't even get home that late! If I was awake when she got here, she should be awake now!" Toby realized his mistake when a dark look crossed over Irene's face.

"What do you mean you were awake? Your father and I told you to go to bed an hour earlier!" She could hear Irene's whispers shouts verging on becoming actual shouting, and couldn't help but let the laugh escape when she heard Toby's response.

"Nothing! I'm going to let Sarah have a few more minutes of sleep, bye Mom!" She heard Toby shout as she could hear him running down the stairs. All the while she heard Irene sigh as she followed after him.

Now fully awake, Sarah sat up and took in her room. Her room which once could be considered more on the whimsical side now seemed rather plain, and boring in comparison. After her abrupt shift in her attitude all those years ago, she could no longer stand to be surrounded in her room. The more time she spent inside it, the more she felt as if the walls were pressing in on her. It caused her to become so anxious that she packed up all her belongings and placed them in the attic before they could finally collapse down and suffocate her. The only thing that remained from her childhood it seemed was the little, red book. No matter how many times Sarah moved it, Irene always seemed to put it back on the vanity table. To be honest Sarah couldn't really blame her, given how attached she was to that book growing up. But it always did unnerve Sarah for some unknown reason, making it to where she never could seem to gather the courage to open it up.

Forcing that train of thought out of her mind, Sarah decided it was finally time to get out of bed. After throwing on a pair of loose-fitting shorts and a plain T-shirt she made her way downstairs. She smiled at the image of her family sitting around the table. Her father sat at the head of the table reading his newspaper, while Irene sat next to him glaring at a pouting Toby. She missed being home and surrounded by such a happy, familiar environment. Throughout university, she mainly kept to herself. While she was friendly to everyone, she only had a few friends she was truly close to. She spent a lot of time alone, that it was nice to be surrounded by others again. She was ripped out of her dazed state when Toby finally noticed her.

"Sarah! It's about time you woke up! Mom and Dad wouldn't let me wake you up." He said as he pouted and glared slightly at Dad and Irene. Sarah smiled as she walked over and messed with his hair, making him groan in annoyance. His groan only caused her smile to grow and caused her to let out a soft laugh.

"Come now dearest brother, we have the whole weekend, what's an extra hour here and there?" She teased, knowing it would only rile him up further. Before he could start his rant, Irene gave him a sharp look and gestured to his breakfast. Sarah couldn't keep the impish look from her face as she childishly stuck her tongue out at Toby from behinds Irene's back. Toby glowered at her even more as she returned the gesture when Irene went back to her breakfast. While both the siblings were distracted with one another, their father watches on with a small smile on his face.

"Sarah, how was your drive down? I hope you didn't get stuck driving in that storm for too long last night." Sarah turned away from Toby to smile at her father.

"The drive was fine Dad, and I didn't really hit any bad weather until I was already almost home."

"Good, good, good. It always makes me nervous knowing how long you have to be on the road, makes me wish you could have chosen a University a little closer to home. But it's too late for such thoughts. How are things going at University?" Sarah gave her father a small, sad smile before catching him and the rest of her family up with what had been going on in her life. After she finished she listened as they all tried to fill her in with everything she had missed while she was away.

As they finished breakfast, Irene got up and began taking dishes into the kitchen. Sarah started to get out of her seat so that she could help her stepmother before her father's voice stopped her.

"Sarah, would you mind staying back for a bit? I wanted to talk to you for a moment. Toby, go help your mother clean up." Toby sighed but followed after Irene anyways.

"Yeah, Dad, of course. What is it that you wanted to talk about?" Sarah asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of her voice.

"I just wanted to let you know, that Irene and I, we are so very proud of you. I know things haven't always been easy for you growing up, what with me and your mother, me getting remarried, and then having Toby. But I.. I'm so proud of the woman you have become. Life hasn't always been fair to you, and I wish I could have done more..."

Sarah cut her father off before he could continue to ramble. "Dad, stop, you've always done enough for me. More than enough. I'm old enough to understand that love isn't always enough sometimes. Some people are just not meant to be, no matter how much they love one another. I know you and mom tried your hardest, but I don't blame you for moving on. I know that it might be hard to believe sometimes, given what a brat I was growing up, but I love you, Irene, and Toby more than anything. I want you to be happy, and I know Irene makes you happy. And Irene, she makes me happy as well, she's been more of a mother to me than my actual mother. I'm grateful to be your daughter."

She could see her father holding back tears as she spoke, the same tears she was holding back. When she couldn't hold back any longer, she moved forward and hugged her father as tight as she could. She rested her head on his chest and he placed his chin over her head and sighed. She felt him continue to talk into her hair.

"You've grown up on me, you're not my little girl anymore. You don't need this poor, fool of an old man anymore."

Sarah pulled away slightly and smiled up at him. "I'll always need you, you and Irene. I may be growing up, but this will always be my home. Besides, we both know Toby would never allow me to forget this place. Toby can be an unstoppable force when he wants to be, I would hate to be whatever is on the other side of his warpath." Sarah and her father both laughed at that before he pulled her in closer.

"Okay, enough of this, why don't you run and grab your brother before he tries to break the door down."

Sarah pulled away, laughing and smiling at her father before towards the door.

For the strangest of reasons, as Richard watched his daughter walk out the door, he couldn't help but feel as if this was the last time he would see his daughter walk about his home. As if she would be disappearing for a while soon. It was part of the reason why he asked her to stay behind to talk, but Richard merely shook his head. Trying to shake the strange feeling from his mind, he reasons with himself that it's impossible for someone to just magically disappear. Those things just do not happen. Richard turned away from the door and then nearly jumped out his skin when he looked out the window and saw a barn owl sitting on the tree outside. "Strange, I thought they were nocturnal." With that thought and a final shake of his head, Richard left to go join his wife and children in the kitchen.

Toby and Sarah laughed as they drove down to the fairgrounds. They had the music blasting and all the windows down, gathering them strange looks from the people they passed as they drove. Both were gasping for breath as they tried to sing along to the lyrics while trying to stop from laughing at how horribly offkey the both sounded. Sarah couldn't contain her happiness as she stared down at her brother and saw the look of utter joy across his face. She felt her smile grow as the instruments playing started to grow louder and louder leading up to the climax of the song, as she and Toby both belted out the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Sarah laughed as they both gasped for breath.

As Sarah turned to pull into the parking lot of the fairgrounds she felt some of her earlier joy begin to fade. She didn't understand what it was about this fair that had her so on edge, but she just felt as if something was off. Toby on the other hand didn't seem to feel the same as he couldn't stop his grin from nearly splitting his face in two. As she looked at him, she felt a slight tinge of alarm. For a moment it looked as if his eyebrows were slanted up, ears a little too pointed, and teeth sharper than they should be. He looked almost otherworldly, like an impish child pretending to her little brother. But then in a flash, the vision was gone and replaced with her brother's face as he smiled and tugged her hand.

"Sarah, come on! Let's go! We've wasted enough time as it is!"

Sarah let him pull her along, unable to come up with a witty response due to the unease she felt. So she stayed silent and let her little brother drag her to the gates as she tried to pull herself together. Together they waited in the ticket booth line, with Toby talking a mile a minute about everything he wanted to do while they were here. Sarah nodded her head halfheartedly, trying to focus in on what he was saying. When they finally paid for their tickets and reach the gates for the fairgrounds, Sarah felt a surge of dread flow through her as she stared up at the archway. She felt warning bells ringing through her head, warning her from walking through the gate. Knowing deep down that if she passed through she would be entering into something that she wasn't ready or prepared to face. Her slight hesitation was brought to an end when she felt the pulling on her arm. As she looked down at her brother, she could feel him trying to pull her with all her might through the gate. When she tried to pull her arm back from him, she saw his lip go up as he bared to sharp teeth at her. The vision from earlier came back, and her shock allowed for the imp to pull her through the entryway.

As soon as she passed through she felt as if a chill ran down the length of her body. She yanked her hand away from the imp that was her brother, only to see the look of confusion and hurt flash across Toby's face.

"Sarah, what's wrong?"

Sarah stared down at her brother, feeling slightly hysterical as she felt like she was slowly going crazy. She felt as if she was on the verge of a panic attack. Obviously, this was her little brother, not some imp pretending to be him. She was losing her mind and seeing things that weren't there. She tried to take some deep, calming breathes as she could see Toby was getting more and more concerned. She tried to force a smile on her face as she tried to console him.

"I'm fine Toby, I just got caught off guard for a second. It must be from the sounds of the rides, they always scared me when I was younger." She felt a twinge of guilt hit her as she lied to him. She didn't know how or want to for that matter, explain to him that she was slowly going crazy and imagining things. Luckily Toby seemed to believe her and laughed.

"Jeeze Sarah, I didn't know you were such a scaredy-cat. You don't have to go on the rides with me if they make you so uncomfortable." He offered as he smiled up at her.

"Watching it kid." She laughed, then looked down at him and returned his smile. Starting to feel a little better and more like herself.

Seeing that his sister was no longer as white as a ghost Toby pulled on her hand gently. "Now come on, I hungry, and you promised me some food." Sarah laughed as she got dragged behind Toby. Pushing away all the unease she felt to the corner of her mind.