My darlings! This story will be SarahxJareth so I do hope you enjoy it! This chapter has been updated to revise some major grammatical errors on my part, so hopefully, it'll be much better! A big thank you to Lylabeth1 and Honoria Granger for making me aware of them! Happy holidays!

Chapter 1: What the Blazes?!

Keys jingled in the darkness as Sarah struggled to open her front door. Exhausted from a long day at the police station, her hands fumbled with her door knob. Her boss Kevin had given the order that nobody could go home until all the paperwork was finished, and working in the Missing Children Unit, Sarah breathed paperwork for a living.

Finally she managed to get the correct key in the lock and pushed open the large oak door. Automatically, her right hand found the light switch and flipped it on. Shrugging off her detectives jacket and kicking the door shut simultaneously, she made her way into the dimly lit hallway.

Dumping her purse and troublesome keys onto a short table, she stood facing a small silver mirror. She looked a mess. Working the night shift was starting to take its toll, as she noticed small bags under her eyes from the sheer lack of sleep. Reaching up, she tugged her hair free from its' tight bun and sighed as she felt the long brown tresses cascade down her back.

"Tonight Sarah, you're going to get...at least five hours of sleep." She promised herself wryly. "But food comes first." She added as she heard her stomach rumble loudly.

Making her way towards the kitchen, Sarah flipped on lights as she delved further into her house. Reaching the threshold of her small kitchen, she remembered she still had her shoes on and leaned against the wall to remove them. Leaving her tennis shoes and socks stacked on the hall rug, she took a few steps onto her tiled kitchen floor and bit back a squeal.

"Damn that's cold!" Sarah let out in a gasp. Rising onto the balls of her feet, she scurried over to the refrigerator across the room. Switching her weight from one foot to the other, Sarah surveyed the contents of her freezer.

Raising an eyebrow, a small smile lit up her face. "Looks like frozen lasagna...ooh and look! More frozen lasagna!" She said sarcastically.

Shaking her head, Sarah pulled out a box and stuck it in the microwave for two and a half minutes. While the microwave was humming, she tiredly meandered over to her telephone. A flashing red light indicating missed calls and messages, lazily her finger pressed the button to hear them.

"Sarah this is Karen! Your father and I wanted to know how everything was going, and wanted to invite you over for dinner this Sunday to catch up! Call me when you get this sweetie. Okay honey, talk to you later!" Came her stepmother's enthusiastic voice over the receiver.

Hmm. Glancing at the clock, Sarah cringed. Nope, it was wayyy too late to call back. Over the years, Sarah and Karen had formed a relationship, and Sarah no longer treated her like the evil stepmother from fairytales. No, Sarah found that she and Karen were more alike than she had originally thought, and gradually had accepted her dad's new wife as a part of her life as she got older.

Mentally promising that she would call back Karen first thing in the morning, she deleted the message and went onto the next.

"Hey Sarah...this is Brad...so I know our date on Tuesday didn't go as planned...but I was wondering what you were doing on Fri-"

"Ugh. Delete!" Sarah bit out disgustedly. "And no I will NOT be going out with you on Friday, or for that matter, EVER!" She told the answering machine forcefully.

What Brad called a date, Sarah called trying to get to second base. "Hmph. No wonder it didn't 'go as planned'! He should've taken my smack as a big, loud NO." She mumbled aloud. "Next."

An automated voice sounded over the speaker. "This message is for Sarah Williams. You have one overdue library book. Please return as quickly as possible. Fines will accrue."

"Heh heh. Oops!" Sarah cringed. This particular library book had been overdue for quite a number of days now, and judging by next week's schedule, would have to be overdue for a little bit longer. "Next."

"Sar! We need to go out dancing sometime! You know, you work way too much, let your hair down for a few hours, and you, the girls, and I will hit the town! After all, it's not everyday you turn twenty-two! Kay babe, call me back sometime. Love ya!"

Sarah laughed out loud as she heard her best friend's energized message. Brinlee hadn't stopped hounding her since she found out Sarah's birthday plans. Or in other words, absolutely nothing. Sighing, she knew that if she didn't call Brinlee tomorrow, the girl would never let her live it down.

Waiting for the next message, but only getting the click that signaled she had listened to all of the new ones, Sarah turned back towards the microwave. Running her fingers through her hair, she picked a plate off of the shelf just as her lasagna finished cooking. Grabbing a fork, she opened the microwave door and dumped her meaty lasagna onto her plate. Humming absentmindedly to herself, she sidled into the front room, and plopped very unladylike onto her brown couch. Angling herself so that she could see the television and still be comfortable, she settled onto the plethora of pillows. Grabbing the black remote off of the coffee table, she started flipping through channels.

Landing on the news channel, she watched as Amber alerts ran across the screen announcing two more children had gone missing today while playing. Sarah frowned as she looked at looked at the pictures on the screen. Two little girls with curly red hair smiled back at her. After running the Labyrinth, Sarah had begun to have a keen interest in working with the police solving missing persons cases. She had experienced real fear when she had wished her baby brother away and after she had solved the Goblin King 's maze, she had promised that she would do whatever she could to help find wayward children that had gone missing.

As a video showing the girls playing on a swing set broadcasted, a tear fell down Sarah's cheek. Sometimes the kids were found, and other times...she wasn't so lucky. Detective Sarah Williams had had her share of bad luck. Two years at the police station had taught her that life wasn't always fair, and that good innocent people can get hurt. Once or twice a child turned up dead, and Sarah was the one that had to report the death to the parents.

'That's the hardest part.' She thought to herself. 'Watching the mother's face crumple when she realises her baby isn't coming back.'

Other times, she had called off the investigation because after searching the house, telltale traces of glitter and goblin mischief were scattered in the child's room. That had caused some interesting arguments between her and the chief, but not backing down, the chief had finally relented and started respecting Sarah's "hunches".

Blinking and returning her attention back to her television, she saw that the news had finished and now an infomercial promoting knives from Japan was playing. Boring. Flipping through the different channels until she reached MTv.

Catchy tunes wafted from the speakers. "Right on! I love this song!"

I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins
Like dolphins can swim

Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes just for one day

I, I will be King
And you, you will be Queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be us just for one day

I, I can remember
(I remember)
Standing by the wall
(By the wall)
And the guns, shot above our heads
(Over our heads)
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall
(Nothing could fall)

And the shame, was on the other side
Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes just for one day

We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be heroes

As the last strains of David Bowie's Heroes faded, Sarah powered down the television and flipped her long legs onto the plush carpet. Sitting for a few moments on the edge of the cushion, she rocked to her feet quickly before she just stayed and slept on the comfortable couch. As tempting as sleep was, sleeping in her bed was more tempting.

Putting her dishes in the sink, she walked up her stairs shutting lights off as she went. Opening the paneled door to her bedroom and locking it behind her, she walked past her two bookcases straight towards her vanity. This vanity was the only piece of furniture she had claimed as she was moving into her house. Taking out her earrings and placing them in a small ornate jewelry box that was the color of the ocean, she brushed her hair until it shone. Satisfied that there were no more snarls, Sarah walked to her closet and changed out of her uniform into an oversized shirt and a pair of men's flannel boxers.

Hoping that the station wouldn't call her in before a reasonable hour, she set her pager on her nightstand and crawled under the inviting sheets.

3:00 a.m. Sarah opened her eyes. Wide awake, she squinted to glance at her clock. Groaning as she noted the time, she flung an arm over her face.

"What on earth could possess me to wake up this early?!" She moaned.

A quiet thud coming from downstairs caused Sarah to pause her silent pity party. Adrenaline pumping, Sarah strained her ears to hear any other noises.

Nothing. Absolute quiet greeted her waiting ears.

Reprimanding herself for her overactive imagination, she exhaled her pent up breath loudly. Chuckling nervously, she flipped over onto her side and closed her eyes.

THUD

Squeezing her eyes shut Sarah counted to ten.

"Maybe it's just the house...yeah...old houses make weird noises at night...it's just the house." She reassured herself. "Please let it be just the house..." Sarah continued in a whisper.

CRASH

Nope. Old her house may be, but Sarah had never heard of houses breaking dishes. Someone was in her house.

Slipping out from under her sheets, Sarah grabbed some pepper spray that Karen had bought for her years ago out from under her bed. Trembling with fear, she crouched down and waited.

Slowly, the stairs could be heard creaking as the intruder climbed towards Sarah's room. Preparing to spray liberal amounts of pepper spray into her would-be attacker's eyes, she held her breath as footfalls stopped at her door's threshold.

Heavy, rasping breaths were the only sound Sarah heard in the pitch black of the night. Then, silence.

Quietly, her doorknob began to turn. Thankful that her door could only be unlocked from her side, Sarah stared at the revolving knob. Receiving no entry into the bedroom, the knob stopped twisting and she closed her eyes in relief. That was when the laughter started.

Ragged and dark laughter echoed from the other side of the door. The sound grated on Sarah's ears and curdled the contents of her stomach. If it was possible, the house turned darker, and as she continued to listen to the awful noise, Sarah felt cold. Curling in upon herself, Sarah thought, 'pepper spray will do you no good...'

A deep, harsh voice sounded after the terrifying laughter.

"I may not be in your room, but let's see how you deal with this little slice..." she could hear his sadistic smile through the door.

Smoke came first. Floating in under her door and wafting into her bedroom, the thick, black fumes took up the space and was quickly depleting the oxygen levels.

"What the heck is this guy playing at?!" She muttered under her breath.

Then came the fire. Bright blue flames licked the underside of her door and as she sat their clutching her useless can of pepper spray, a distant thought lay in the back of her mind.

'Oh. He's burning the house down...and me with it.'