I, unfortunately, do not own the movie Labyrinth, or any of the characters involved in the movie. The Labyrinth (character) is my creation, but so far she is the only one! Oh, and Laura. (I do not expect to use her again...)

I move the stars for no one...

Your eyes can be so cruel...

Just as I can be so cruel...

Though I do believe in you...

I can't live within you...

Lyrics echo in my mind, tied to memories of the only place I felt at home. I suffer through my life, always eager to return to my bed, where I can dream of magic and impossibilities and and ever changing maze with improbable creatures and my implausible friends.

They are too busy for me, I suppose. After that first night, they have never come when I called. And I'm sure if I called Him, he wouldn't answer anyway. With his mismatched eyes and poets shirts and crystals and glitter. He would never come to the one who defeated him the way I did. The one that made him look like a fool.

But I miss him. So much. All of them. I sit in front of my mirror, preparing to try one last time. I have given up hope that they will answer, I've almost given the entire adventure up for fantasy. "Hoggle? Ludo? Didymus? I need you. Please come." I sit and I wait, waiting longer than I know I should. But as the minutes drag by, no one answers my summons.

"I just...I wish..." I know the dangers of a wish now. I know how a few thoughtless words can send you place you could only dream of. And I haven't made another wish since that day. Not even to myself. It's too risky. But tonight, if someone or something doesn't convince me otherwise, I'll really believe it was all a dream. And I don't know that I can handle that.

"I wish someone from the Goblin City, the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, the Labyrinth, or surrounding lands, who would do no harm and only what I ask of them, would come to answer my questions. Right now."

I'm as specific as I feel I really can be. I can't risk losing Toby, or anyone else, again, but I have to know. I close my eyes as the words leave my mouth, then slowly open them again. Looking around, nothing has changed. No one is here. It's still just me, alone in my bedroom, four years after the events of that night, to the day. I'm 21, now. And I return to collage in a month. I can't let myself continue to believe a lie, if that's all it was.

I guess, I guess it really was all just fantasy. I stand up and move to the window, feeling numb to my core. It was all a dream. Nothing more. Hoggle, and Ludo and Didymus. All of them, just made up. And...Him.

For the first time since that night, I allow myself to think of the Goblin King. Of Jareth. Of his brilliant mismatched eyes, his glitter, his arrogance. I think back to the dream within the dream, where I danced with him to the music he sang. I know now, I know it was just a trick, a way to keep me there, in a dream world beyond the dream world, but it felt so real. It felt, like maybe, just maybe, he could really care about me like that. And that's what did it. Locked him in my mind. That, and the heartbroken way he looked at me, there at the end. When I said those words. I still hate myself for that. But I didn't see any other way. I had to save Toby. Besides, they were probably both just there to mess with me. As if the Goblin King, on his mighty throne in his kingdom, could ever care about a lonely human girl from the Aboveground.

"Sarah." I stiffen and whirl around. And there stands a vision in white. She is beautiful, ethereal. Her hair is a beautiful, flowing black, deeper than could be natural, but there is no way that came out of a bottle. Her eyes are a piercing, haunting gray, perfectly set in alabaster skin. Her flawless complexion ties it all together. I may not have spent much time Underground, but I spent enough to know she's not human.

"Who are you?" I carefully keep my voice formal, no agitation or anything else. These creatures are not to be trifled with.

"I am, what were your words? I am someone from the Goblin City, the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, the Labyrinth, or surrounding lands, who will do no harm and only what you ask of me who is here to answer your questions." she looks like it is the obvious thing in the world.

"What's your name?"

"I don't have one. Not in the way you think of them at least."

"What is your position in the Underground society?"

"I don't have one."

"Are you from the Labyrinth, the Castle, or the surrounding lands?"

"A bit of all of them, I suppose. Honestly, Sarah, I thought you would have learned to ask the right questions by now. If you can't even do that, you are not who I thought you were when you were a Runner."

As frustrating as that is, I have to admit she's right. I know how they can tap dance around the truth. I have to get used to dealing with them again. "Who are you to the citizens of the Labyrinth, the Castle, and surrounding lands?"

"That's much better. I am the Labyrinth."

I blink in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Did you really think the Labyrinth was like the buildings of this world? Just some stones? Dead? My dear Champion, I know you noticed during your run that I change. I am constantly changing. I am alive in my own right. After all you saw there, is that really so hard to believe?"

"I...I suppose not. It's just a lot to take in." I think for a second, then decide on my next question. "Why haven't my friends come to see me when I called?"

"I am sorry to say, they have forgotten you. And without the memory of you, they have no desire or power to build a bridge to your world."

"What? How could they have forgotten me?" the pain is swift and strong, stabbing somewhere precariously close to where my heart is.

"There are certain rules that must be kept. One of them is that whoever runs through my challenges must either forget or be forgotten. It is to protect the runner. It helps them think that it was all a dream, and allow it to fade into just that. And if they refuse to allow it to fade, they keep their memories, but the other side forgets theirs. The Runner can't prove anything happened, and the Underground remains hidden and protected. In every other case, the Runner allowed their memories to slip away. But you, my dear, you fought harder than all of my citizens, including Jareth. And he fought the hardest. But, as I do recall, your will is as strong as his, and your Kingdom as great. He has no power over you, and that includes your memories."

"So, no one there remembers me?" It hurts, knowing that someplace that means so much to you has forgotten about you.

"I do. You are the only Runner to ever defeat me. And when you won, Champion, you turned down your prize. Of course, my darling king should have put his pride to the side for a moment and made it clearer, but he never was good at that."

"What prize?"

"As the first runner to ever beat the Labyrinth, you earned the title of Champion of the Labyrinth. That is nonnegotiable. But, had you chosen to accept his offer, you would have been known as Sarah Williams, Queen of the Goblins, Ruler of the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, Champion of the Labyrinth, Duchess of the Western Lands of the Fae Court, and Wife of Jareth, First Child of Oberon and Titania, Heir to the High Throne of the Fae Court, King of the Goblins, Ruler of the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, and Duke of the Western Lands of the Fae Court. Of course, that would be the official title, which would never really be used. You know, that title really is a mouthful. Most of the time, you would simply be Sarah, the Goblin Queen."

"What?"

"I'm not repeating that."

"No, I heard you…What offer? When did he promise all that?"

"Once you made your way through the castle, when you told him he had no power over you."

"But I don't want a loveless marriage!"

"My dear Champion, I would not want one for you. Nor would my king. Where did you get that idea from? I do believe you are forgetting a very important line from that little red book he gave you."

"What?" I'm sure my confusion is evident.

"The book. The Labyrinth. There was one very important line you should remember before you assume it would have been loveless. The line that explained why the very important, immortal King of the Goblins, who by the way is considered quite handsome and desirable by Fae standards, not to mention the bonus of his being the third most powerful individual in all the Fae lands, would be interested in using the considerable power at his disposal to impress and help a single, lonely, mortal girl."

"And what line would that be?"

"Why, you said it yourself, Sarah. When you told that rather exaggerated version of your life story to your brother." The Labyrinth indicated my mirror with a nod of her head. As I walk closer and look into it, I can see myself the night I wished Toby away, almost as if it was a movie. In the mirror-movie, I am in my parents' room on that fateful night, talking to him angrily after he took Lancelot. Looking back, I can see how over-dramatic I was, and my tone was not going to help Toby sleep.

"I hate you! I hate you! Someone save me, someone take me away from this awful place." When no one appeared to save me from my mostly imagined troubles, I turned angrily to my half-brother, taking out my misplaced teenaged angst on the helpless baby. "What do you want? Do you want a story? Huh? Ok. Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was a spoiled child and he wanted everything for himself, and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew was that the King of the Goblins had fallen in love with the girl and he had given her certain powers. So, one night, when the baby had been particularly cruel…" The image in the mirror began to fade, leaving me staring at my shocked expression.

"He loves me? He honestly loves me?"

"Yes, my dear Champion. Well, he would if he remembered you right now."

"I suppose he'll find a new love now, won't he?" I feel my heart, so recently repaired, break again at the thought of him loving another.

"Not quite, Champion." That shouldn't make me happy, I know, but I'm selfish.

"What do you mean?"

"Fae are different than you humans. Humans live such short lives, they don't understand what it is to have something lasting. Fae are immortal, Sarah. They live forever. A human can become a Fae, but a Fae can never become human. When a Fae feels something as incredibly powerful as love, when he or she falls in love, that's it. The Fae can never love another in that way. It is where the human concept of true love comes from. Jareth does not remember you, but his heart does. Jareth will never fall in love again. I'm sure eventually he will love a girl, he will marry her, they might even have children, but it would not be true love. It would be as if you married your best friend. You love him, but it is not the same. And you could convince yourself that it is, but when you are alone, and the storm rages outside, you would know that it wasn't quite right."

"So, basically, I'm Jareth's soul mate?"

"Yes, if you must put it in such clichéd human terms. But he has forgotten you."

"Is he mine?"

"As far as I can tell? Yes. You complete each other, Sarah. And you never quite have been able to forget him, have you?"

"No. He was the reason I fought to hold onto my memories so hard."

"And he is worth it, my Champion."

"So, what do I do?"

"It is entirely up to you, Sarah. However, if you will permit, I would offer some advice." At my nod, she continues. "Go to him, Sarah. Make him remember. If he doesn't remember soon all of his memories of you will be lost forever. And if that happens, it will happen to your friends, too. Sarah, I chose Jareth as the one to rule me. When he was a small boy, I chose him. I have watched him grow up. I do not wish to see him unhappy, and he is now. He doesn't know why, but he is. And I think it is because he is missing you. He dreams about you. Even after he has forgotten all about you, he can't quite forget you. Only you can make my king happy again."

"And what about you? If I come and he remembers me, what will happen to you?"

"Me? I will grow stronger. I will be more beautiful. There will be flowers. My people will be happier. Only good things will happen if he remembers."

"And if I stay?"

"Things will remain as they are now. As they were when you were there two years ago. Even if he married another, things would remain as they are."

"Then I'm coming. I have wanted to return since I left. But…I can't leave now. I can't leave Toby alone. I'll need to tell my parents I'm somewhere, so they don't get worried." My best friend will work as a wonderful cover, and I know she will do it without too much begging. "Can I leave sometime tomorrow?"

"Yes, my Champion. But don't take too long. Time passes differently in the two worlds."

"How long will I be gone my time, do you think?"

"I'm not sure. But hurry in making your preparations. Time grows short. Soon, my king will forget you for good."

A/N

Sooo, hope you enjoyed chapter one. I've had this rattling in my head for awhile. I've seen a lot of stories where Sarah forgets Jareth, but none where he forgets her. So, I decided to turn the tables.
I tend to start my stories with nice long chapters, but then let them fade into shorter and weaker chapter as time goes on. I'm going to try not to do that this time.

Ok, I have to say it.

Please, leave a contribution in the little box.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you will come back for chapter two (which should have Jareth. He's glaring at me and playing with his crystals for not putting him in this chapter, so I think you can definitely expect him in the next one.)