Title: When Words Aren't Enough (Prologue)
Author: Amber
Distribution: Email me first ([email protected]), but other than that, all I ask is that my name and email addy be left attached!
Disclaimer: Song lyrics to "The Logical Song" belong to Supertramp. Labyrinth and all its characters belong to Jim Henson and Lucasfilm(s?).. I own nothing, and I'm not looking to get any profit from this story! The only characters that belong to me are Hetta and Rilum!
Summary: This story is a sequel to 'Say the Words'...it happens about seven years after Sarah left the Underground, and we see that Sarah has become quite a different person!
A/N: Okay, basically, if you haven't read 'Say the Words' yet, then you'd better do so now. ;) You'd probably be able to understand this story without reading the other one, but really...what's the fun in starting right in the middle of something? ;) Also, this first part has a quasi-dark undertone to it...I'm not really planning on making the entire story this dark (well, you guys might not even think it IS 'dark'), but I thought the tone fit this part...kind of like a flashback of that nightmare she had when the dream-power crystal was taken from her...(did I give too much away?)...on one final note, I don't know that there's any real significance to this title...I should have chosen Unicorn Lady's suggestion of 'Say the Right Words', but what can I say, I'm silly. ;) Anyway, read on, and I hope you like it!
When Words Aren't Enough
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And then they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.
There are times when all the world's asleep,
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned,
I know it sounds absurd,
But please tell me who I am…
-The Logical Song, by Supertramp
Sarah shut her car door and ran lightly up the steps to her apartment, keys clasped in one hand while in her other hand was a fat manila folder. As she entered the building, her hazel eyes never even noticed the drably painted walls. The gloomy foyer normally made her wish over and over again that she had enough money to move somewhere nicer, but today her thoughts were somewhere else entirely. No amount of business work or gloomy gray paint was going to bring her spirits down.
Not even twenty minutes ago, she had agreed to go on a dinner date with a friend from her job, a man named Ryan. She knew he had been interested in her for quite some time, but until now, she'd always avoided his attention. Not for any particular reason--she had felt herself growing attracted to him, too--but whenever he'd gotten that look in his gray-green eyes, as though he wanted to ask her out, she suddenly became nervous and withdrawn, for reasons she couldn't explain even to herself. Today, however, she'd suddenly decided that she was tired of avoiding him, and so when he asked her to go out with him that evening, she immediately said yes. Thus far, she hadn't regretted the decision, so she took that to be a good sign.
Her apartment was a cozy, one-bedroom affair, with carpets the usual shade of neutral tan and walls painted a pristine white. It was decorated simply, yet still seemed to exude a sense of familiarity, as though anyone who stepped in the door was immediately at home. Sarah fell gratefully onto her sofa, dropping the manila folder onto a nearby coffee table. Despite Ryan's invitation, she had had a hard day, what with all the filing and arguing she had been doing.
Now twenty-two, Sarah had long ago given up her ideals of becoming an actress. She'd soon realized that in order to survive, she needed a secure job, one that didn't depend on whether or not she'd be able to land an audition. All of her childlike dreams had been abandoned as she fell into the routine of an adult, but despite the exhaustion of working a nine-to-five job, she was still content. She smiled a little to herself, remembering how bleak and hopeless life had looked when she was fifteen, and wishing for a man who didn't even exist.
The Goblin King. She rarely even thought about him anymore, so completely had she lost the dreamer within her. And even when her thoughts did dwell on him, they held none of the bitter anguish she had felt in her melodramatic teenage days. She had been so sure that life couldn't go on without him by her side, but gradually, she came to realize that none of her experiences in the Labyrinth had been real at all. Her father and stepmother hadn't noticed the absence of either herself or Toby (and if she'd really been gone, wouldn't they have been worried about their children?), and Toby showed no signs of having been stolen by Jareth or being turned into a goblin. It had taken Sarah only a year to realize that everything had been a dream, and since then, she had moved on with her life. Her red leather-bound book had been placed safely in a box in the little storage area she rented, and all of her other childhood possessions had either been stored away or given to Toby (though, now that he was a big boy of seven, he didn't want her toys).
Still, it had been fun to pretend. She could remember those days after she had 'returned' from the Labyrinth, when she would sneak into Toby's room and wish once again for the goblins to take him away, just so that she could somehow find a way to go back to Jareth. She'd even tried on occasion to wish herself away, but nothing ever happened. For awhile after she'd stopped believing in the Underground, she continued to pretend that she was the Queen of the Goblins just for the thrill of acting out different adventures, but then her stepmother Karen had pointed out that young women shouldn't play imaginary children's games, and surprisingly enough, Sarah had realized the truth of the woman's words. After that, she never even pretended anymore.
Her relationship with her family had improved greatly after she'd forced herself to 'grow up'. She no longer went into her childish temper tantrums, and she didn't complain when asked to babysit Toby. Karen no longer seemed to be the 'evil stepmother' from a fairytale, and Sarah was sure that she no longer seemed like an evil stepchild. However, while she became more open and honest with her father, the two of them never became any closer than they had been. Of course, he had always been the brisk, professional type, and didn't show emotions as well as other men might, so Sarah didn't let herself worry about it. As for her mother, the woman Sarah had aspired to take after, she was soon forgotten along with dreams of acting. In every way, Sarah had turned into an adult.
By the time Sarah realized that her thoughts had begun to lull her into a drowsy state, she was already slipping into slumber, unable to even fight her way back to alertness. Soft, soothing darkness washed over her, and she was lost to the world. Or at least, she was lost to her world. In her dreams--the only dreams she couldn't force away--the inhabitants knew exactly where she was.
The nightmare seemed to come out of nowhere, sucking her into its gruesome depths as she tried to claw her way out of it. Within the nightmare, she saw creatures too appalling to look at, with long, wicked horns and sharp claws that they used to slash at their victims. Sarah tried again to fight her way out, thinking this to be just a product of her imagining the Labyrinth before she'd fallen asleep, but the images refused to fade. Instead, they grew in intensity, and she found herself watching a full-scale battle.
Fighting against the demon creatures were what looked like goblins, suited in mismatched pieces of armor and armed with whatever weapon they had been able to find. In short, it looked like a group of farmers trying to fend off an attack of the Huns, and losing miserably. The demons' dangerous twisted horns easily ripped through the goblins' leather armor, and even for those few goblins who had managed to find metal armor, death found them…though it came more slowly than for the others. As Sarah looked around frantically, she saw many fallen bodies, but none of them were bodies of the demons. Every last one of them was a goblin. Her heart lurched into her throat, despair washing over her at the sight of so many goblins…goblins that had once been her subjects, for however short a time.
Subjects? she thought in confusion, keeping well out of the way of the battle. You were never a Goblin Queen, Sarah! It was all a dream, just like this one! Yet even as she tried to convince herself that she should have no sadness toward dream images, she couldn't keep back the tears forming in her eyes. It was then that she finally noticed her surroundings. Not that it was very easy to tell, what with half of the walls broken down, but Sarah realized that she was back in the Labyrinth. She snapped her head to her right and found herself looking upon Jareth's castle. Was he inside, watching this slaughter take place? Carefully picking her way through the rubble, she left the battle and escaped into the Goblin City.
Yet even being within the Goblin City was no escape, for the demon creatures were there as well. Most of the goblins were fighting outside the walls (or what would have been outside the walls, were the walls still standing), but there were a few still desperately trying to protect their homes. To the left, the screaming cries of a child caught Sarah's attention. She looked over to see a small goblin boy being brutally ripped from his mother's arms...and the mother was Hetta. Had the situation not been so severe, Sarah might have laughed at the irony of it…couldn't Hetta keep her son safe from kidnappers? She almost went to help the old goblin woman, but yet another sound caught her attention. In the city square just ahead, she saw a flash of a blue hat with a wilted yellow plume. A familiar voice met her ears in a valiant war cry. It was Sir Didymus.
Sarah ran forward to see who her old friend was trying to conquer this time, but as she approached the square, her feet stopped moving, and refused to start again. The small fox had taken on a group of demons, and while his loyal steed Ambrosius had the right idea in trying to retreat, Didymus refused to let himself be beaten. As he charged at one of the demons, wielding his little cane like a spear, the demon reached out and swatted him effortlessly off the sheepdog. Sir Didymus' small frame flew through the air like a rag doll before slamming against a nearby wall and slumping to the ground. He wasn't breathing.
"Nooo!!!!" The cry ripped from Sarah's throat in strangled fury, but the demons didn't notice. Ambrosius made a hasty escape before they could tear into him with their vicious claws. Crying freely now, Sarah moved toward her friend's lifeless body, hands trembling as she did so. The little fox was lifeless, his good eye glazed and unseeing. The black patch he'd worn over his other eye had been slashed by the demon attacker's claws, and blood matted his tawny brown fur. Sarah wanted to reach out and hug her dear friend's form, but something was pulling her, moving her inexorably toward the castle. Jareth…
She ran into the main hall and looked around frantically for the Goblin King, but all that met her eyes were the bodies of goblins sprawled over the ground. A sick feeling twisted her stomach as she took the stairs, two at a time, toward the Escher room. It was the only place she could think of to find Jareth. And as she entered the room of twisted stairways and doors, she found him, along with several demons. Sarah had to admit that Jareth had found a clever way to keep the demons at bay, for as he walked upside down and sideways along the stairs and walls, the demons were too afraid to follow him. Thankfully, they didn't notice her standing there, because she was within quick reach of their bloodstained claws and horns.
"Jareth!" she called, now fully within the grip of the nightmare. Any thoughts that Jareth and the Labyrinth weren't real had been forgotten in her fear. A pair of mismatched eyes--one blue, one hazel--focused in her direction, and soon after Jareth was making his way toward her. Fearing that the demon creatures standing nearby would get to him first, Sarah jumped quickly to another ledge at the same time that Jareth reached it.
"Sarah," he murmured, tentatively reaching out to touch her face. He stopped short, however, and his hand fell back to his side. The soft tenderness in his expression vanished, leaving his face all harsh angles and lines. "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know…I don't even know if I am here. What's going on?"
"Isn't it obvious?" He grabbed her by the waist and swung over the edge of the ledge they were standing on, to leave them both standing upside down (yet seemingly still right-side-up) on the opposite side. "My kingdom has been attacked."
"Yes, but…by whom?"
"It's none of your concern. Go back home, Sarah. You have no reason for being here."
"The hell I don't! I just watched those demon things kill Sir Didymus! Do you think I'm going to let them kill the others? I want to help!"
Jareth sneered, once again moving them out of reach of the demons. "How do you think you could help? By screaming 'It's not fair' so often that they get annoyed and leave?"
"I've grown up, Jareth," she replied in so soft a voice that it was almost a whisper. Strangely, the Goblin King's eyes acquired a depthlessly sad twinkle. It didn't take long for her to realize that she had just unconsciously admitted to him that she no longer allowed herself to dream.
"I see. Well, you had better wake up now. Wake up, Sarah. Sarah?…"
Sarah sprang up at the insistent knocking upon her door. Outside, Ryan was calling her name in a voice heavy with worry. She went over to the door and opened it, trying to calm her frayed nerves. "Sarah!" Ryan exclaimed, placing his hands on her shoulders as he looked intently at her. "Are you okay? Your face, you look so…"
"I'm fine," Sarah assured, smiling. "I fell asleep when I got home, and I was having a really bad dream. Thank you for waking me up!"
He flashed his endearing, lopsided grin. "No problem. I take it you're not ready to go out then?"
Glancing at her watch, Sarah swore silently. She'd been asleep for over an hour and a half! But that nightmare had seemed to happen so fast…"I'm sorry," she apologized, ushering Ryan over to the sofa. "It won't take me long to get ready, promise. I'll just change my clothes, and then we can leave, okay?"
"Don't worry about it." He sat down and smiled at her as she rushed into her bedroom to change.
The images from her nightmare refused to fade even as she brushed and styled her hair. She continued to tell herself that none of it was real; she had only imagined the Labyrinth because she had been thinking of her childish antics right before falling asleep. There was nothing more complex to it than that. Yet each time she tried to convince herself that none of it was real, she saw Jareth's face, his expression etched with sad love as he looked at her. Had it been real?
"Of course not, Sarah," she muttered impatiently to herself, reaching out for her delicate cherrywood jewelry box. "It was just a nightmare! Jareth doesn't exist, the Labyrinth doesn't exist…you just must be worried about something, and that's why you saw all those bad things happening."
Satisfied with all her rationalizations, Sarah opened the lid to her jewelry box and went to grab a pair of diamond earrings. Her hand stopped short, and a choked gasp somehow made its way past her lips. Unbelievingly, she reached inside the box and pulled out the object.
It was a pendant, shaped like a silver crescent moon with golden patterns along the edges and a tiny crystal suspended from the moon's top point.
Tada! And thus ends the Prologue of my newest story. Please tell me you liked it! *grins* I won't be able to post any more for another week or so, but I promise to try to have the next part out by the time I get back from vacation! :)
Author: Amber
Distribution: Email me first ([email protected]), but other than that, all I ask is that my name and email addy be left attached!
Disclaimer: Song lyrics to "The Logical Song" belong to Supertramp. Labyrinth and all its characters belong to Jim Henson and Lucasfilm(s?).. I own nothing, and I'm not looking to get any profit from this story! The only characters that belong to me are Hetta and Rilum!
Summary: This story is a sequel to 'Say the Words'...it happens about seven years after Sarah left the Underground, and we see that Sarah has become quite a different person!
A/N: Okay, basically, if you haven't read 'Say the Words' yet, then you'd better do so now. ;) You'd probably be able to understand this story without reading the other one, but really...what's the fun in starting right in the middle of something? ;) Also, this first part has a quasi-dark undertone to it...I'm not really planning on making the entire story this dark (well, you guys might not even think it IS 'dark'), but I thought the tone fit this part...kind of like a flashback of that nightmare she had when the dream-power crystal was taken from her...(did I give too much away?)...on one final note, I don't know that there's any real significance to this title...I should have chosen Unicorn Lady's suggestion of 'Say the Right Words', but what can I say, I'm silly. ;) Anyway, read on, and I hope you like it!
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And then they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.
There are times when all the world's asleep,
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned,
I know it sounds absurd,
But please tell me who I am…
-The Logical Song, by Supertramp
Sarah shut her car door and ran lightly up the steps to her apartment, keys clasped in one hand while in her other hand was a fat manila folder. As she entered the building, her hazel eyes never even noticed the drably painted walls. The gloomy foyer normally made her wish over and over again that she had enough money to move somewhere nicer, but today her thoughts were somewhere else entirely. No amount of business work or gloomy gray paint was going to bring her spirits down.
Not even twenty minutes ago, she had agreed to go on a dinner date with a friend from her job, a man named Ryan. She knew he had been interested in her for quite some time, but until now, she'd always avoided his attention. Not for any particular reason--she had felt herself growing attracted to him, too--but whenever he'd gotten that look in his gray-green eyes, as though he wanted to ask her out, she suddenly became nervous and withdrawn, for reasons she couldn't explain even to herself. Today, however, she'd suddenly decided that she was tired of avoiding him, and so when he asked her to go out with him that evening, she immediately said yes. Thus far, she hadn't regretted the decision, so she took that to be a good sign.
Her apartment was a cozy, one-bedroom affair, with carpets the usual shade of neutral tan and walls painted a pristine white. It was decorated simply, yet still seemed to exude a sense of familiarity, as though anyone who stepped in the door was immediately at home. Sarah fell gratefully onto her sofa, dropping the manila folder onto a nearby coffee table. Despite Ryan's invitation, she had had a hard day, what with all the filing and arguing she had been doing.
Now twenty-two, Sarah had long ago given up her ideals of becoming an actress. She'd soon realized that in order to survive, she needed a secure job, one that didn't depend on whether or not she'd be able to land an audition. All of her childlike dreams had been abandoned as she fell into the routine of an adult, but despite the exhaustion of working a nine-to-five job, she was still content. She smiled a little to herself, remembering how bleak and hopeless life had looked when she was fifteen, and wishing for a man who didn't even exist.
The Goblin King. She rarely even thought about him anymore, so completely had she lost the dreamer within her. And even when her thoughts did dwell on him, they held none of the bitter anguish she had felt in her melodramatic teenage days. She had been so sure that life couldn't go on without him by her side, but gradually, she came to realize that none of her experiences in the Labyrinth had been real at all. Her father and stepmother hadn't noticed the absence of either herself or Toby (and if she'd really been gone, wouldn't they have been worried about their children?), and Toby showed no signs of having been stolen by Jareth or being turned into a goblin. It had taken Sarah only a year to realize that everything had been a dream, and since then, she had moved on with her life. Her red leather-bound book had been placed safely in a box in the little storage area she rented, and all of her other childhood possessions had either been stored away or given to Toby (though, now that he was a big boy of seven, he didn't want her toys).
Still, it had been fun to pretend. She could remember those days after she had 'returned' from the Labyrinth, when she would sneak into Toby's room and wish once again for the goblins to take him away, just so that she could somehow find a way to go back to Jareth. She'd even tried on occasion to wish herself away, but nothing ever happened. For awhile after she'd stopped believing in the Underground, she continued to pretend that she was the Queen of the Goblins just for the thrill of acting out different adventures, but then her stepmother Karen had pointed out that young women shouldn't play imaginary children's games, and surprisingly enough, Sarah had realized the truth of the woman's words. After that, she never even pretended anymore.
Her relationship with her family had improved greatly after she'd forced herself to 'grow up'. She no longer went into her childish temper tantrums, and she didn't complain when asked to babysit Toby. Karen no longer seemed to be the 'evil stepmother' from a fairytale, and Sarah was sure that she no longer seemed like an evil stepchild. However, while she became more open and honest with her father, the two of them never became any closer than they had been. Of course, he had always been the brisk, professional type, and didn't show emotions as well as other men might, so Sarah didn't let herself worry about it. As for her mother, the woman Sarah had aspired to take after, she was soon forgotten along with dreams of acting. In every way, Sarah had turned into an adult.
By the time Sarah realized that her thoughts had begun to lull her into a drowsy state, she was already slipping into slumber, unable to even fight her way back to alertness. Soft, soothing darkness washed over her, and she was lost to the world. Or at least, she was lost to her world. In her dreams--the only dreams she couldn't force away--the inhabitants knew exactly where she was.
The nightmare seemed to come out of nowhere, sucking her into its gruesome depths as she tried to claw her way out of it. Within the nightmare, she saw creatures too appalling to look at, with long, wicked horns and sharp claws that they used to slash at their victims. Sarah tried again to fight her way out, thinking this to be just a product of her imagining the Labyrinth before she'd fallen asleep, but the images refused to fade. Instead, they grew in intensity, and she found herself watching a full-scale battle.
Fighting against the demon creatures were what looked like goblins, suited in mismatched pieces of armor and armed with whatever weapon they had been able to find. In short, it looked like a group of farmers trying to fend off an attack of the Huns, and losing miserably. The demons' dangerous twisted horns easily ripped through the goblins' leather armor, and even for those few goblins who had managed to find metal armor, death found them…though it came more slowly than for the others. As Sarah looked around frantically, she saw many fallen bodies, but none of them were bodies of the demons. Every last one of them was a goblin. Her heart lurched into her throat, despair washing over her at the sight of so many goblins…goblins that had once been her subjects, for however short a time.
Subjects? she thought in confusion, keeping well out of the way of the battle. You were never a Goblin Queen, Sarah! It was all a dream, just like this one! Yet even as she tried to convince herself that she should have no sadness toward dream images, she couldn't keep back the tears forming in her eyes. It was then that she finally noticed her surroundings. Not that it was very easy to tell, what with half of the walls broken down, but Sarah realized that she was back in the Labyrinth. She snapped her head to her right and found herself looking upon Jareth's castle. Was he inside, watching this slaughter take place? Carefully picking her way through the rubble, she left the battle and escaped into the Goblin City.
Yet even being within the Goblin City was no escape, for the demon creatures were there as well. Most of the goblins were fighting outside the walls (or what would have been outside the walls, were the walls still standing), but there were a few still desperately trying to protect their homes. To the left, the screaming cries of a child caught Sarah's attention. She looked over to see a small goblin boy being brutally ripped from his mother's arms...and the mother was Hetta. Had the situation not been so severe, Sarah might have laughed at the irony of it…couldn't Hetta keep her son safe from kidnappers? She almost went to help the old goblin woman, but yet another sound caught her attention. In the city square just ahead, she saw a flash of a blue hat with a wilted yellow plume. A familiar voice met her ears in a valiant war cry. It was Sir Didymus.
Sarah ran forward to see who her old friend was trying to conquer this time, but as she approached the square, her feet stopped moving, and refused to start again. The small fox had taken on a group of demons, and while his loyal steed Ambrosius had the right idea in trying to retreat, Didymus refused to let himself be beaten. As he charged at one of the demons, wielding his little cane like a spear, the demon reached out and swatted him effortlessly off the sheepdog. Sir Didymus' small frame flew through the air like a rag doll before slamming against a nearby wall and slumping to the ground. He wasn't breathing.
"Nooo!!!!" The cry ripped from Sarah's throat in strangled fury, but the demons didn't notice. Ambrosius made a hasty escape before they could tear into him with their vicious claws. Crying freely now, Sarah moved toward her friend's lifeless body, hands trembling as she did so. The little fox was lifeless, his good eye glazed and unseeing. The black patch he'd worn over his other eye had been slashed by the demon attacker's claws, and blood matted his tawny brown fur. Sarah wanted to reach out and hug her dear friend's form, but something was pulling her, moving her inexorably toward the castle. Jareth…
She ran into the main hall and looked around frantically for the Goblin King, but all that met her eyes were the bodies of goblins sprawled over the ground. A sick feeling twisted her stomach as she took the stairs, two at a time, toward the Escher room. It was the only place she could think of to find Jareth. And as she entered the room of twisted stairways and doors, she found him, along with several demons. Sarah had to admit that Jareth had found a clever way to keep the demons at bay, for as he walked upside down and sideways along the stairs and walls, the demons were too afraid to follow him. Thankfully, they didn't notice her standing there, because she was within quick reach of their bloodstained claws and horns.
"Jareth!" she called, now fully within the grip of the nightmare. Any thoughts that Jareth and the Labyrinth weren't real had been forgotten in her fear. A pair of mismatched eyes--one blue, one hazel--focused in her direction, and soon after Jareth was making his way toward her. Fearing that the demon creatures standing nearby would get to him first, Sarah jumped quickly to another ledge at the same time that Jareth reached it.
"Sarah," he murmured, tentatively reaching out to touch her face. He stopped short, however, and his hand fell back to his side. The soft tenderness in his expression vanished, leaving his face all harsh angles and lines. "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know…I don't even know if I am here. What's going on?"
"Isn't it obvious?" He grabbed her by the waist and swung over the edge of the ledge they were standing on, to leave them both standing upside down (yet seemingly still right-side-up) on the opposite side. "My kingdom has been attacked."
"Yes, but…by whom?"
"It's none of your concern. Go back home, Sarah. You have no reason for being here."
"The hell I don't! I just watched those demon things kill Sir Didymus! Do you think I'm going to let them kill the others? I want to help!"
Jareth sneered, once again moving them out of reach of the demons. "How do you think you could help? By screaming 'It's not fair' so often that they get annoyed and leave?"
"I've grown up, Jareth," she replied in so soft a voice that it was almost a whisper. Strangely, the Goblin King's eyes acquired a depthlessly sad twinkle. It didn't take long for her to realize that she had just unconsciously admitted to him that she no longer allowed herself to dream.
"I see. Well, you had better wake up now. Wake up, Sarah. Sarah?…"
Sarah sprang up at the insistent knocking upon her door. Outside, Ryan was calling her name in a voice heavy with worry. She went over to the door and opened it, trying to calm her frayed nerves. "Sarah!" Ryan exclaimed, placing his hands on her shoulders as he looked intently at her. "Are you okay? Your face, you look so…"
"I'm fine," Sarah assured, smiling. "I fell asleep when I got home, and I was having a really bad dream. Thank you for waking me up!"
He flashed his endearing, lopsided grin. "No problem. I take it you're not ready to go out then?"
Glancing at her watch, Sarah swore silently. She'd been asleep for over an hour and a half! But that nightmare had seemed to happen so fast…"I'm sorry," she apologized, ushering Ryan over to the sofa. "It won't take me long to get ready, promise. I'll just change my clothes, and then we can leave, okay?"
"Don't worry about it." He sat down and smiled at her as she rushed into her bedroom to change.
The images from her nightmare refused to fade even as she brushed and styled her hair. She continued to tell herself that none of it was real; she had only imagined the Labyrinth because she had been thinking of her childish antics right before falling asleep. There was nothing more complex to it than that. Yet each time she tried to convince herself that none of it was real, she saw Jareth's face, his expression etched with sad love as he looked at her. Had it been real?
"Of course not, Sarah," she muttered impatiently to herself, reaching out for her delicate cherrywood jewelry box. "It was just a nightmare! Jareth doesn't exist, the Labyrinth doesn't exist…you just must be worried about something, and that's why you saw all those bad things happening."
Satisfied with all her rationalizations, Sarah opened the lid to her jewelry box and went to grab a pair of diamond earrings. Her hand stopped short, and a choked gasp somehow made its way past her lips. Unbelievingly, she reached inside the box and pulled out the object.
It was a pendant, shaped like a silver crescent moon with golden patterns along the edges and a tiny crystal suspended from the moon's top point.
Tada! And thus ends the Prologue of my newest story. Please tell me you liked it! *grins* I won't be able to post any more for another week or so, but I promise to try to have the next part out by the time I get back from vacation! :)