I do not own Labyrinth or any of the characters created by Jim Henson.

As the World Falls Down

Chapter 2

The rest of the day seemed to pass with a blur, which is not such a great thing when Sarah had Calculus and Chemistry back to back. There were days she really wondered what possessed her to take her two least favorite classes back to back in the same semester. Between classes she found herself absent-mindedly caressing the cover of the script she had been given. Normally Sarah was content to take on small roles in the college's plays. After all she was still an underclassmen with scads to learn from her various theater classes. Sarah had always excelled at delivery of her lines, but the memorization always seemed to get her. Through years of practice she was now able to confidently and elegantly deliver whatever line she was given, although she still lacked to confidence to audition for a lead. Professor Lutz felt that she had what was needed for this role.

That evening Sarah began to read the play while her roommate Ashley was busy working on what looked like some super complex spreadsheets. Ashley was a Business Major who was interested in learning how to run a theater rather than act in one. Sarah and Ashley had been friends since middle school so when they had settled upon their college of choice they had decided to be roommates. As Sarah read the play she realized that she already knew every word between the young princess who was fighting to save her baby brother and the Magical King who had only given the foolish young girl exactly what she had asked for.

The first time Sarah had read the play, she had identified with the spoiled young princess. Life was not fair now that she had a younger brother and a wicked stepmother, because all good stories have a wicked stepmother. The princess has wished her brother away in a fit of jealousy one evening when her father the kindly king of the realm and his new queen were off attending a state affair. The princess realizing her mistake had to run the treacherous labyrinth as the sand slowly ran out on the large magical hourglass. The princess had succeeded in overcoming the obstacles once she had come to realize that life wasn't about fair, but about doing the right thing no matter how hard it is. She came to realize how much her family loved her and her baby brother so she too should love and protect her brother. After an exchange of words at the core of the castle of the Magical King the spell was broken and the princess awoke in her own bed only to find that only 2 candle marks had passed.

It was Sarah's favorite story, and in many ways it still was for a different reason. Where as she loved the spunky heroine in her younger teens, now she loved the Magic King. The man, who was willing to move the stars only so that the princess would be happy and love him with total devotion. He was the same man who took on the roles of lover and villain, king and slave, and storyteller and character. In the end the spell was broken and the princess left with her brother to leave the poor Magical King all alone. Sarah used the read the line, "You have no power over me," with triumph and pride. Now when she read the line, it was with longing and sorrow.

The week passed by with the daily grind of fun classes and not so fun classes. Sarah enjoyed her classes on Musical Theater, Vocal Performance, Jazz Age Culture, and Modern Dance. Her Chemistry and Calculus classes were the low points of her week. This up coming weekend was Fall Break so it felt like each professor was trying to cram in as much content as possible before the long four-day weekend. With Midterms beginning after break it was a very stressful week even in Sarah's favorite classes. The highlight of Sarah's weekend would be a trip home to see her family.

Sarah's father, Robert, had promised that he had a surprise waiting for Sarah. She had no idea what it was by Toby was super excited and could barely contain the secret. Despite several attempts from Sarah to get the little imp to spill the beans he was still holding onto his secret. After her last class on Thursday, Sarah packed up her old 1982 silver Volkswagen and began the several hour drive home. As Sarah travelled from highway to interstate and then back to a different route she reminisced about her childhood. She thought about her early childhood when both her parents were together. She remembered how distraught her father was when her mother Linda had walked about on them. Sarah had loved her mother's exciting and adventurous life. Back then she did not realize that what her mother did to her father when she left to be with her lover. After the divorce Sarah's relationship to her father had been tense at best. When her father met Irene the feelings of jealously began to grow. In retrospect she was being quite a brat. Back then it felt like her whole world was falling down. Shortly before dinnertime Sarah pulled into the driveway of her childhood home and gave her customary two honks on the horn. As she was getting out of the driver's seat she found herself pushed back into her vehicle by Merlin her sheepdog and A towheaded five year old.

"Sarah," squealed Toby, "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, you little Imp," replied Sarah and she tousled his flaxen hair.

"You are in for such a big surprise," Toby chirped as her father and stepmother walked out onto the large porch.

"That's enough now Toby," called Irene. "We don't want to ruin Sarah's surprise now do we."

"Nope," Toby said cheerfully. "Guess what Sarah? Mom and I made your favorite dinner especially for you. I even got to put the spaghetti in the pot."

"That's awesome," replied Sarah. "I sure am hungry let's head inside."

As the family headed in with Sarah's large blue duffle bag in hand the bush rustled a little bit and for a moment a small goblin was visible, but only Merlin turned to see what had made the noise.

Reviews feed plot bunnies Keep the lazy plot bunny bums working :)