Fair Sarah

Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth, nor am I profiting from this fanfiction.





Fair Sarah



Prologue





“You have no power over me.”



That was it. Those were the words, the final words, needed to end this game. Toby would be returned, Sarah would be returned, Jareth had lost and everything was right with the world again.



For a little while.



Sarah was not so stupid as to try to tell her story. She did, however, write it down. Her parents would not believe her, and she wasn’t certain if Toby was traumatized by the event, so she chose not to tell him, either. She helped raise her brother, no longer complaining, no longer a child. She grew, she learned, she dated. She aged.



Still she recalled her single thirteen hours in the Underground, how a mere five hours had passed back in her own home. She remembered her friends—Ludo, Sir Didymus, Hoggle especially—and the many others she’d met who had, with time, become her friends.



And she remembered Jareth. Stunning, entrancing, beautiful Jareth. His wild hair, his varied fashions, his beguiling voice, his odd-eyes. In times of wistfulness, she recalled him promising her eternity—a lover’s proclamation. But in times of clarity, she reminded herself that he’d only done so to distract her, to win his game. Everything he’d done had been to win his game.



Still she wanted him, she admitted. A girl’s crush, she told herself. She would grow out of it.



Now twenty-seven, she couldn’t fool herself any longer. She was changed, irrevocably, from her adventure in the Underground. Things around her had changed, too. Toby was a young boy, distanced from her, interested in magic (he was learning sleight of hand). Her father and stepmother were still together, but she’d grown apart from them, as well.



Every relationship she began ended for the same reasons: not enough of a thrill. Not enough fun. Not intriguing or entertaining enough. She needed more than that, more than a single man could give. Heaven knows she’d tried, tried to give them the chance, tried to make herself enjoy their bleak little lives.



It was still never enough.



Pretending to be interested as your date told a story about his skateboarding accident was a difficult thing to accomplish. So was giving yourself to him later, desperately hoping that maybe sex would provide the spark you failed to receive anywhere else. It’d proven impossible.



The more Sarah threw herself into relationships, trying to force herself to like it, the less she enjoyed herself. It took all the fun out of her life, having to focus on fun to actually achieve it. And so the paradox continued, with her telling herself that no, she did enjoy drinking parties when she didn’t in a bid to make herself believe it. On and on the cycle continued, until she was so frustrated she couldn’t bear living with herself anymore.



The Aboveground held no appeal any longer.



She had to go back.



Underground.