Now matter how much I beg or plead, I do not own the Labyrinth in any way. :)

Hey guys! Nopa here. :) Before any one gets mad at me, I promise I am hard at work on the final chapter of The Challenge. It's going great, and hopefully I won't make everyone cry again... Or will I... o.0 This story just popped into my head yesterday, while my niece was watching the Charlie Brown Halloween special, and I just decided to go with it. It'll probably be a few chapter long and I want to post the last chapter on Halloween. :) So yeah, it's just for fun and I didn't send it to my betas first (but I still love you girls!). I hope you enjoy it, and please remember to review!

Oh, and don't forget to come see me on myspace. Link is in my profile. I check it often so if you ever have any questions, ideas, or just want to chat, feel free! And now enjoy my Halloween present to you all...

Chapter 1

Halloween had always been her favorite holiday. Better than Christmas or Thanksgiving, Easter or the 4th of July, Halloween beat them all hands down.

While the other holidays brought friends and family together, good food and presents, Halloween was the one night of the year where you could be whoever or whatever you wanted. Little girls could be the faeries that visit them in their dreams, little boys could be the monsters that they pretended not to fear, and the adults could be the figures from their childhood worlds of magic that they were no longer suppose to believe in.

Whether or not you were supposed to believe in them didn't matter to Sarah Williams, because she knew the truth: all of those things were real. She knew that faeries were beautiful, but weren't as nice as one would have you believe. Monsters were not always to be feared and in fact sometimes they could be your truest friends. And the world of magic everyone said didn't exist had been the place where she had learned all these things.

Every other day of the year Sarah Williams had to be Sarah Williams; twenty year old college student, unmagical, unimportant, and down to earth. However, on that special one night a year, she could shed that façade of normalcy she had adopted to suit the mundane world and she could become Lady Sarah, conqueror of the labyrinth and beloved by all its creatures.

On that night she could don her medieval costumes, the ones that she had forced herself to put away because she had "grown up", and she could call to her friends from her mirror and into her world, where they could dance and romp with out any suspicion. With all of the other goblins and ghouls running around, who would notice one lone dwarf, a rather large beast, and a fox dressed as a knight? Humans had lost their imagination long ago, so even if the trio were noticed, the rational mind would come up with an explanation and the person would compliment them on their amazing costumes. For that matter, even when some of the other creatures came along, goblins that Sarah had befriended, the mischievous fieries, and the old wise man with his sarcastic bird friend, none of the unimaginative, unbelieving mortals suspected anything, or even took a second glance.

This Halloween would be not different. Sarah woke up early, eager to begin her day. As usual she was the one to wake up seven year old Toby and get him ready for school. After their ordeal together so many years ago, the sibling bond between them had grown tremendously and Sarah no longer begrudged the fact that she was the one who always took responsibility for him. Her father and Karen worked long hours and took many trips, so she was almost like a mother to him. Toby had grown up to be an amazingly precocious boy, intelligent and kind, with an imagination to rival Sarah's. She had carefully questioned him several times, but to her relief he didn't seem to remember his time spent in the Underground at all.

She went into his room to wake him, stopping for a moment to smile down at the small form clutching the teddy bear Lancelot that she had given to him on that fateful night. Joining him on the bed she brushed the hair out of his eyes before calling his name. "Toby, it's time to get up!" He stirred briefly but then settled back down, attempting to turn away from her. "Toby," she said again, slightly louder this time, "You have to get up now if we're going to have time to get you in your costume." Again he shifted, but he refused to open his eyes. Finally she resorted to her "desperate measures". Whipping the blankets off she began to tickle his sides mercilessly, while he abandoned all pretenses of sleep to shriek in delight.

"Ok, ok," he shouted in glee, "I'm awake!"

Sarah stopped the torture and smiled down at her gasping brother. "Next time, don't fake it, or I'll keep going!" He laughed at her before tossing his pillow, which she deftly avoided. "Go wash you face and brush your hair and then come down for breakfast. You have to eat before we can put your costume on."

He leapt out of bed at that; he had been looking forward to this day for weeks and she knew he would be done with his morning routine in record time. With a smile on her face she made her way downstairs, stopping in the living room to take a peak at the costume she had spent long hours sewing. Out of no where weeks ago, Toby had told Sarah that this year for Halloween he wanted to be the Goblin King. His announcement had almost stopped her heart. Calmly she asked him where he had come up with such an idea and he said, "I found this book in your room and it talked about the goblins and their king. He just sounded cool, so that's what I want to be. How come you never told me that story?"

She had felt very relieved once she knew that he had just read the character out of her book. For all the years that she had cared for him and told him stories she had always been careful to never bring up the labyrinth or that man that had almost succeeded in taking her brother away. So while Toby had loved stories about a loyal dwarf named Hoggle, a friendly beast named Ludo, a brave fox knight named Sir Didymus, and other tales about creatures that Sarah had once met, the handsome king that both terrified and intrigued her had been kept secret.

For a few days she had tried to talk him out of being the goblin king, but it had been useless from the beginning. Finally she gave in to her sibling and began constructing a costume that belonged to the man that had once been her foe, but now resided solely in her dreams and nightmares. It had taken her some time to figure out which of his outlandish outfits would be the easiest to recreate and finally she had settled on the one that she had first seen him in. All black, which would be a good color for a little boy that seem to attract dirt, breeches made from a heavy material and not nearly as snug as the fearsome king seemed to favor, boots she had managed to find at a costume shop along with a pair of small gloves, and using an old leather bodice and poet shirt she had grown out of she constructed a similar looking shirt. The long cape with its midnight blue lining had been the hardest for her to make and she had actually just finished it last night.

While her brother's choice of costuming still gave her moments of slight panic, she had to admit to herself that it was impressive. When Toby came bounding down the stairs a few moments later she made up a quick and hardy breakfast for him, which he managed to wolf down with out choking. Helping him don the costume didn't take very much time, but she knew it was the finishing touches that would take forever. Getting him to sit at the kitchen table again she used a hair brush, blow dryer, and copious amounts of hairspray and gel to construct a hair style to match the outfit. Even though Toby didn't have nearly as much hair as the goblin king had, she figured it was a pretty close match.

Excited to see the finished product, Toby jumped up from the chair, swinging the cape around him as he went. A brief moment later and she heard a loud, "Cool!" Coming from the direction of the guest bathroom. Chuckling as she tidied up, she wasn't surprised when he came back out and tried to strike a terrifying pose for her. Feet spread slightly apart, hands planted on hips, and an angry frown on his face, he asked her in his high voice, "How do I look?"

"Very imposing," Sarah told him just as seriously, holding back her giggles. He definitely was a sight for her eyes, but not the scary one he had probably hoped for. While the clothes and hair could have made him pass as the king's younger brother or maybe even son, the little boy just didn't have the same force of personality that her old foe had. "C'mon your majesty," she said to him, "Time to get you to school."

Toby ran upstairs quickly and grabbed his backpack while Sarah gathered up the cookies she had made for his class. All elementary school teachers knew that it was almost impossible to get any work out of the kids on Halloween and Toby's teacher was no exception. Mrs. Henderson was making a fun day for the kids, with games and activities planned for the morning and spooky stories and movies planned for the afternoon. All of the parents were chipping in with snacks and most were also coming in through out the day in shifts to help the aging woman with the rambunctious children. Sarah had volunteered to come in for the afternoon to help with story time, which had made Toby happy. He loved all of her stories and had been telling all his friends about them.

Loading up Toby and the cookies didn't take too long and they were soon on their way to the school. Halfway there Toby asked in an excited voice, "Which story are you going to tell my class?"

"I thought I would leave it up to you," she told him. "You know all of them, which one's your favorite?"

Immediately he began to shake his head. "Nuh uh! I don't know the one about the Goblin King! You should tell us that one!"

Fists clenched hard on the steering wheel, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Toby, I don't think that's such a good idea."

Like lightning, that pout that he was so good at and she was helpless against appeared on his face, and he voiced his plea. "Please Sarah? I want to hear about the Goblin King!"

"I thought you read the story already?" She asked him warily.

"Only a little bit of it. There were lots of big words and it was hard. Plus it's always better when you tell it!" She didn't know how he managed to make his eyes look so big and innocent, but she had given up trying to figure it out long ago. "Please Sarah," he said one last time.

Letting out a sigh she gave in. "Alright Toby, I'll tell the story about the Goblin King." The small boy couldn't jump for joy in the car, but he was able to pump his fist in the air. Sarah shook her head in amusement as he squirmed around excitedly.

A few minutes later they made it to the school and Toby flung open his door. Leaning across the seat he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before dashing out of the car yelling over his shoulder, "Thanks sis! See you after lunch!" She watched with a smile on her face as he met up with some friends, who where also dressed in their costumes. Now that Sarah thought about it, everyone would probably assume Toby was a vampire, in his all black costume and long cape. One of his good friends was in a similar outfit, but the materials had a cheaper look to them and were clearly store bought along with the set of plastic fangs.

She pulled away slowly in the car, shaking her head in rueful contemplation. After all these years of panicking over whether or not Toby recalled anything about that time, she had just agreed to tell him all about it. "What was I thinking?" She said out loud to herself. "Something tells me this isn't going to end well." Unnoticed by her, a snow white owl perched in a tree that her car passed by blinked its eyes in silent agreement.