Moon Child

By WhiteInfinity21

Disclaimer: I don't own the movie The Labyrinth.

Chapter 1: The end

"You have no power over me."

The words were out of her mouth before she could even think. Sarah watched awestruck as the Goblin King seemed to fall into himself, turning into the white barn owl that she had seen earlier that day before she had wished Toby away to the goblins. She could have sworn that a look of absolute heartbreak and regret had come across his face as he threw the crystal up in the air. She had been so dizzy after pronouncing "the words" though, that she could never be sure.

Upon her return home, she had thought at first it had been just a dream. Her friends showing up in her vanity's mirror to say farethewell swiftly put an end to that idea. The impromptu party that had been held afterwards had been a blast, and Sarah had *almost* wished that the Goblin King might have attended as well.

Almost but not quite.

For while Sarah had been running through the Labyrinth, Jareth had been her opponent, her enemy. Now that she had won her brother back, who she had so foolishly and selfishly wished away, she was not quite sure what to think about the mysterious Goblin King. She could hardly go on believing that he was her enemy any longer, the game had ended and so had the roles the two had played ended as well. No longer was she the willful heroine, she was just plain old Sarah Williams again. It was only logical that the same could be said about the Goblin King. But while Sarah no longer viewed him as an enemy, she didn't trust him either. She wasn't that naive or foolish.

Casting such thoughts aside, Sarah resumed enjoying herself with her new friends from the Labyrinth. The party had been noisy and boisterous, but somehow her father and Karen never barged into her room demanding to know what was going on. It was a few hours before sunrise when Sarah had finally drifted off, her fellow partygoers quickly noticing this and quietly slipping back Underground as to not interrupt her well deserved rest.

Sarah had only gotten about three hours of sleep before Karen was banging on her door, yelling at her to get up or she would miss the school bus. When the sleepy teen finally managed to reluctantly open her eyes, it seemed as if everything around her had lost all its vividness and had become drab and boring. Sarah knew then and there that her experience in the Labyrinth last night had forever spoiled her for plain, normal life. She could not help but be disappointed about how unexciting her life in her birth world was. Always she knew that she would seek the exciting, the mysterious in this place she called reality.

It was with real regret that Sarah decided that she had had her one big adventure in this life time and that she had seen the last of magic, fantasy, and the Underground.

School that day had passed by in a whirl of boredom and wistful day-dreams. After her trek through the Labyrinth last night, she just couldn't bring herself to pay attention to her teachers while in class and had actually fallen asleep in both English and math. Sarah justified herself in her napping since she had gotten so little sleep last night.

The moment she got back home, she did a through and much needed spring cleaning of her room. Many costumes, children's fantasy books, toys, and other assorted paraphernalia went into numerous black trash bags that would later be donated to a local charity. The only things she kept were the few items that reminded her of her trek through the Labyrinth. Sarah had been unable to force herself to get rid of those precious reminders of good friends and well learned lesions. For though she had ruefully concluded that she would probably never come into contact with the Underground or magic again, that did not mean that she had to forget her experiences while she was there for those all-too-brief thirteen hours.

Finally, her drive to get rid of most of her childhood things cooled and died. A quick trip downstairs to grab a plate of leftovers from dinner (tuna casserole and corn on the cob) and a cup of milk was made and in less than five minutes, Sarah was back in her room. Karen had a rule about only eating in the kitchen, dinning room or outside which she strictly enforced, but tonight Sarah could not bring herself to care about it. She quickly polished off her plate, sating her ravenous hunger created by her cleaning spree and then went into the bathroom to brush her hair and teeth and do the other things that one does before going to bed.

Dressed in a clean cotton shift, Sarah collapsed into her soft, welcoming bed. She was asleep within moments.

That night Sarah dreamt of a silent, full crystal moon that shed its bright light over her still form all night. The moon seemed so hauntingly familiar, like the full moons on clear nights in her world only bigger, whiter and even more lovely and mysterious. The girl-child on the verge of womanhood who had stolen the Goblin King's heart awoke the next morning knowing that things were far from over. One day she knew that she would come into contact with the fantastical and supernatural again.

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