Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They are from the brilliant mind of Jim Henson for his film Labyrinth. This is merely my attempt at a prequel (and this is only an excerpt from a very long story I've created). In case you are unfamiliar with the film, I will try to clear a few things up for you. The film tells of Sarah's journey through the Labyrinth when she wishes away her brother and the Goblin King takes him. Well, this is the story of when she herself was wished away by her mother.

By: Alorin Danya

Linda's Wish

Chapter 1
Contemplation and Remembrance

Linda Williams sat stiffly on the sofa with her knees curled under her as she waited for her husband to make their daughter go back to sleep.

"Mommy, Mommy!"

Linda repressed the instinct to go to her wailing daughter. Why did Sarah always need her to be the one to tuck her in? She hadn't even wanted Sarah to know she had returned and thought the child would be sound asleep at such a late hour. But the second she and Robert had started arguing Sarah had heard her and called out for her. Now Linda sat in the darkened room wondering why she had come back at all.

She saw Robert stand in the doorway, the light from the hall making his body a shadowed silhouette.

"She's asleep. I told her she was dreaming she heard you. She's had a fever all night. I've done all I can do. Hopefully she'll be out the rest of the night."

Linda sank into the sofa in relief. She saw Robert approach her, could feel his eyes glaring at her as he sat, though his face was in shadow.

"Are you serious about this? You leave for four days with out a word and you are just going to join this troupe on a whim?" He tried to keep his voice down so not to wake Sarah, but he was having a difficult time. "Did they even offer you a part?

"They are a traveling company," She tried to sound convincing, "They are always in need of new actors."

"And you just decided to do this?" Robert was exasperated; "I can't take care of everything here alone. We've always done it fifty/fifty…Who's going to be here for Sarah? I work so much just to pay for…"

Linda huffed; typical for a man to assume the woman should take care of the child. "There are such things as daycares, Robert. Let someone else take care of her."

"You're the one she wants, Linda!"

Linda just shrugged.

"Oh my god," Robert was astonished, "You don't love her."

Linda turned her head, "I didn't say that."

Robert brought his hand to his head, as if trying to push away a headache, "I have been so blind. Have you ever loved her? I know you stopped loving me, but Sarah…"

"She has nothing to do with this."

But that was a lie. The only reason Linda had stayed with him as long as she had was because of the three-year-old. Three years of lost parts and missed opportunities. Sorry Linda, this role is for a virgin-your tummy shows. Sorry Linda, weight gain from pregnancy-maybe after you loose a few pounds and this role will be yours. Oh, too bad you had to stay at home with your sick daughter and miss that rehearsal. Too bad you met motherhood.

"If it's not her Linda, then what is it?"

"I Want My Dreams Back!" Linda shouted; but she quickly backed down at the thought of waking Sarah.

Robert jerked himself from the sofa, "I don't understand you. Nothing you're given is good enough."

She watched as he stormed out of the room and a minute later heard the typewriter keys being beaten as he escaped into his work. Linda wished they didn't have such a small apartment so she wouldn't have to listen to it. She quickly lifted herself and headed to the furthest place away from the noise, the master bedroom.

The closer she got to the room, the more determined she was to leave-pack her things there and then. She hardly glanced at the closed door covered with pink unicorns and blue dragons, hardly even remembered who was asleep behind it. She passed Sarah's room without a second thought.

Once inside the master bedroom, Linda immediately went to her closet, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder as she bent for a suitcase on the floor. She flung it on the bed and unzipped it, leaving it wide open so she could quickly throw things inside as she found them. She didn't care to fold her clothes before packing them as she yanked shirts and skirts off hangers and tossed in underwear from the burrow drawers. She returned to the closet where she kept boxes of old things and she flung them open too. She couldn't take everything they held with her; she had to pick and choose.

But then she found something she vaguely remembered being given to her, and the memory was suddenly very important. She looked wildly at the small red book with its golden letters with the title Labyrinth embossed on the cover as the memory surfaced.

"I'm sorry to hear you have to leave us. So untimely."

The lavishly dressed middle aged woman definitely stood out in her sparkling jewels and her scantly there day dress in the quaint and plain coffee shop. This woman speaking to Linda was her idol. Linda couldn't even believe the actress had approached her at all, but the past three months this star of stage and screen, Ms. Milly Malone, had set her eyes on Linda. However, now the promises the woman had said were coming her way were dashed.

Linda smiled sadly, "My mother always told me I should never have a kid until I was ready. Unfortunately, this wasn't planned." She then threw down the latte she had been holding, causing the liquid inside to slosh out and drip down her wrist. In frustration she tried to wipe it off her blouse but gave up, the thought of loosing her part too devastating, "Damn...I shouldn't have even told Victor. The play's in just two months and..."

"You're not showing…you could just," Milly leaned in and whispered, "get rid of it. It's not like you'd be the first actress to do so."

"No," Linda shook her head, "I've already told my husband. He's looking forward to daddy-hood. I just can't do that to him."

Milly sighed in disappointment, "These are your prime years, and you have such potential. If I had your talent…"

Linda blushed, "I don't think I'm that good."

"Oh, my dear, but you are."

Linda watched curiously as the woman's face scrunched in thought, as if she was having an inner debate about something. Then she snapped her black eyes into Linda's and nodded, as if agreeing with herself about something.

"I…" Milly took a deep breath as if to assure herself she could speak what was on her mind. "I once had a problem similar to yours. I have a solution for you, but you might not believe it." She placed her hand over Linda's, "Will you meet me tonight at Rollin's restaurant? 9 o'clock?"

Linda nodded, her curiosity peeked, "Anything for a chance to be a star. Besides, since Vic kicked me out of the show I have nothing to do."

That night Linda didn't know what to expect as she entered the very quiet and very elegant restaurant. Normally, this place was a vibrant, crowded scene, but now it was eerily vacant, with only herself, Milly and three servers present.

"Where is everyone?" Linda joked, tossing her long chocolate hair over her shoulder as she sat down, "I didn't think this place closed until 11."

Milly almost snapped at her, "This is my favorite restaurant and I didn't want anyone to overhear what I'm about to tell you. It's costing me a lot of money to keep it private, so have a seat."

Linda blinked at her but didn't know how to react at this unusual display. Milly was so refined, so glamorous. Such a retort Linda would have never expected from her.

Milly signaled for the waiter, who had been standing near the kitchen door, to approach and take their order, "I'll have the salmon, no lemon this time. I can't stand that. And make sure the spring peas are sweet and crisp."

The waiter bowed, rolling his eyes in the process at Milly's demands, then faced Linda, who smiled at him and gave a apologetic smile for her friend's rudeness. He seemed relieved for her sympathy and gave her a wink. "And for you, mademoiselle."

Linda gave him a sly smile…he did have a nice face and beautiful green eyes. If only she were single. She cleared her throat, "Just water thank you."

After he left, Milly gazed at Linda with a stern eye, "What do you want out of life, Linda?"

"I want to be a great actress. I want to be loved, like you."

Milly nodded, pulling something out of her black leather handbag and handing it to her. "Then listen closely."

Linda couldn't believe what she was told about the little red book Milly was giving her. Milly said the book sounded so convincing that she did what it said and wished for the goblins to take away her son, and they did. The ruler of the goblins came to her and asked her if she wanted to attempt to retrieve her son by going through the Labyrinth or if she would choose her dreams. She took her dreams and became the star she wanted to be.

"Keep it," Milly said, "call for the goblins to take the child once it is borne. Take your dreams, make your career."

It sounded too good, yet so unbelievable; Linda didn't know what to think, "But Robert, he'll..."

Milly gave Linda's hand a reassuring pat at her look of disbelief, "He won't remember. No one will know the child ever existed. I am the only one in the world who remembers I had a son."

Linda left with the book but couldn't bring herself to believe what her mentor had told her. Linda read the book that night but found it so fantastical that she couldn't fathom it being true. She didn't have the courage to call on the goblins and instead hid the book away. Well, she had the guts to do it but she didn't want to look a fool if she was wrong. It was rather a farfetched notion, wishing to goblins. Like something out of a fairytale. Worse, she hated that she even contemplated such that a talented person as Milly could be so mentally unbalanced, if the tale wasn't true.

But what if it wasn't just a story?

Holding it now, Linda skimmed through the book once more, wondering if there could be any truth in its pages…

"Lyla felt alone, despite everything being given to her. She wanted something more. She wanted her plans of being a famous dancer to become a reality. Yet ever since her marriage and the birth of her child she had become wife and mother, her dreams of dancing were destroyed. But she knew if she called on the goblins they would take her daughter away to the Underground, to the land of the Labyrinth, where the child would be loved by the Goblin King and rule with him.

Lyla knew she could find no love for her little Shanna and felt pity for the child. Knowing all creatures deserved love and that the Goblin King would love Shanna, Lyla called on the goblins and the girl was taken. At the appearance of the Goblin King, Lyla was frightened. He offered her the chance to save her daughter from becoming a goblin or her dreams. Lyla feared for the child then. Goblins were horrid and loathed, smelly creatures that did little other than wreck things. To allow such a thing to happen to a fellow human being would be as if Shanna was being punished, and this was not her fault. Out of a guilty conscious Lyla tried to save her, but she failed and the child remained in the Labyrinth forever. However, with not having Shanna to care for she began practicing her dancing again and made her own dream come true."

The story was not the same story she remembered reading when Milly first gave her the book. Before the woman was a singer, not dancer, and had a son, an adolescent son at that. Milly had told her that the book was true, that the Labyrinth did exist and the goblins had come for her son. Maybe the book changed whenever anyone needed it? Linda had no way of knowing. All she knew was that her heart beat hard at thinking how similar the woman in the book's life was to her own. Although Linda might not have read the book in three years, she never forgot what happened in the story. How many times had Linda herself thought back to the idea of making the wish or threatened Sarah that she would have the goblins take her if she misbehaved? Linda realized some part of her must have believed in the story all along.

But now Linda didn't care if it were real or not. She only knew that she wanted it to be. To have no body know of Sarah, to be rid of the child -there would be no reason for her to stay with Robert, nothing to stop her from getting what she wanted out of life. To have her dreams, that is what she wanted, to be like Milly, to be the best.

Linda noticed that as she sat on the bed, her eyes were staring at Sarah's closed door in the hallway. She slowly got up to walk to it. With her heart beating quicker, she touched the doorknob but hesitated, suddenly uncertain of what she was doing. At hearing the ever constant clicking of Robert's typewriter, however, she opened Sarah's door.