A/N: This is my first Labyrinth fic so here's hoping it's any good. Please do leave a review. :) The wonderful Labyrinth belongs to the Jim Henson company.
Remembrance
Chapter 1.
Sarah was sitting anxiously on her bed.
Nervously biting her lip she stared at her vanity before her. On it, perched by the mirror, was a beautifully decorated letter.
She had been dreading this day for weeks.
On this exact day 3 years ago it happened, she'd defeated the Labyrinth. And on this exact day since then, she gets an invitation from the goblin king.
It was always in the same place when she woke up, sitting there perched by the mirror with no explanation of how it got there.
The first time it had arrived she'd read it, torn it up and thrown it away... for that whole day things in her life went horribly wrong. She had lost her keys, her car had broken down on the highway in pouring rain and she swore that every time she was alone she saw goblins out from the corner of her eye.
The second time it had arrived she had left it there and tried to ignore it, that wasn't much better. A concert she had intended on going to with her friends got canceled due to a freak hailstorm and her boyfriend broke up with her after having only the day before declared his love for her.
Now as she was looking over at the letter she felt herself grow more anxious, what was she supposed to do?
Would her one mistake of wishing away her brother follow her forever? Watching her and demanding her attention?
When she had returned from the Underground she had put aside her childish behavior and irresponsibility, she had learned her lesson and had vowed to herself to never think about fairy tales and magic again, it was just too painful.
Her father had recently noted how cynical and sarcastic she'd become when she flippantly spat out a remark about the way things in current society were headed. But what did he know, she needed to protect herself, the world was a cruel place to people with dreams.
But even if she tried to deny it, there it was, sitting right in front of her, painful and inevitable.
She wondered if not moving and just staying in bed the entire day would solve the problem. She ended up deciding against it since that would give her too much time to obsess over it all, and she knew that would not be very healthy to her sanity.
Especially since she tried extra hard not to think about... Him.
She finally decided to at least read it again, to see if it still said the same thing, besides, the letter itself had never done her any harm.
She reached over and grabbed it. Feeling the soft paper with her fingertips, she looked at every inch of the letter admiring it. It was decorated in green and gold and the handwriting on it was exquisite. She opened it carefully and read it.
...
You are cordially invited to the annual Remembrance ball.
Thrown in honor of the Labyrinth, tonight, at the castle beyond the goblin city.
...
It was exactly the same as before. She sighed. When she had read it the first time it arrived she'd been confused by the shortness of it. Normally formal invitations stated time as well as place, means to RSVP and most importantly... whose invitation it was. It would have been a nice thing to be certain of even though her gut was telling her she already knew.
She placed the letter back on her vanity and sat down on the edge of her bed, her hands resting on her lap.
Why would he want her there though?
She could only assume that "remembrance" stood for remembering when she had defeated the Labyrinth and there for wouldn't logic have it that he'd want her as far away as possible? Or was he maybe trying to entice her with a beautiful invitation, only to mock and ridicule her later as he would assure her that the Labyrinth was now more powerful than ever? Oh that would be so like him wouldn't it? Always with the tricks and riddles, messing with her life all because she hadn't accepted his sordid invitation...
And now her whole day would be ruined, she could just imagine him laughing away at her while she searched for her keys or her shoes or whatever while on her way to an important event.
Her thoughts were racing now and she suddenly became aware of fuming anger bubbling up inside of her, who the hell did he think he was! She went to stand up, she would tare up the damn letter worse then before and burn it even! But before she even took the first step she tripped, she'd forgotten about a pile of clothes on the floor from the night before, stumbled to the floor and hit her elbow hard on her bedpost.
That did it, she was furious now. "Who the hell do you think you are, playing at me like this! Leave me alone!" She shouted into the air as she lay on the floor clasping her elbow.
She quickly moved to stand up but wasn't careful and hit her head on the underside of her vanity, shocked she yanked her head up the rest of the way throwing her off balance and sending her tumbling to the floor again, this time landing hard on her butt.
She was sure she heard snickering in her head.
"Alright! I'll go! If you just stop torturing me and leave me the hell alone!" she shouted.
At that she felt a breath of wind sweep through her room.
"Good day lady Sarah"
Sarah gasped and jumped to her feet, spinning around quickly towards the voice coming from behind her.
It was coming from her mirror. A man, neatly dressed but looking rather aged now smiled at her as he kept talking.
"I'm Marion, servant to the King and I will escort you to the ball, I have brought you some proper attire and will be back to pick you up tonight, be ready around nightfall."
With that the man disappeared and Sarah stood gaping at her now vacant mirror. She shook her head and blinked. Did that really just happen?
She got her answer as she turned around and noticed the gown that was now laying on her bed. Hardly believing her eyes she walked over to it and ran her hands over it. It was real enough and was made from the most luxurious material she had ever seen in her life.
She had tried so hard to bury her believes in fairy tales and magic, hoping it would eventually leave her alone. The realization hit her and she half laughed at the irony of the situation. Again with only a few carelessly spoken words she found herself heading back to the Underground. She'd be in his presence again, matching wits with the Goblin King once more.
She shook her head again as her thoughts had led her to remember how devastatingly alluring he could be. No, he was not going to win her over with his games, she'd go, give him a piece of her mind and be over with this forever. This was her life! Not his to mess with!
She looked over at her clock, it was nine in the morning.
"Ready at nightfall." She thought.
That meant she had thirteen hours in which to try to convince herself this wasn't really happening and magic didn't really exist.
She smiled a half smile, walked over to the vanity and tore up the letter.
"There!" she said triumphantly, feeling as if she'd regained at least a bit of control over the situation