The Darkened World

A Stranger

Sarah blinked, then blinked again. Then she closed them and rubbed them, as if she could not believe what was happening in the forest. 

All around her the darkness had suddenly turned to light. There had been no rising of the sun, no soft turning from night into day, but a sudden, blinding white and then a fade to a more reasonable shade, if anything about the labyrinth could be reasonable. 

When the light first appeared, Sarah felt as if she had turned on her phone late at night after all the lights were out, when the house was shrouded in complete darkness. Except it was much, much worse.

She blamed the Goblin King entirely.

It seemed she blamed him a lot since he walked, or waltzed, back into her life. He had played her like a finally tuned fiddle, he had used her friends against her and reveled in her misfortune. He had threatened her family and she knew what he said were no empty promises. 

It really was all his fault, but it was also partly hers because she had been so predictable. If she had simply distanced herself from those she loved, if she had been able to bluff him...he would have still found a way to trick her back into the labyrinth. Where it would have been with threats, taunts, or other trickery. Jareth would have found a way.

Almost as soon as the light had faded to a reasonable brightness, Sarah had found the path.

Perhaps not the path, but a path, and Sarah was more than happy to see it. Anything short of seeing the Goblin King again would have been better than stumbling around a tightly packed forest. 

She had been barely able to get free from the brambles and then she had heard the tell-tale singing of the gang and that had spurred her into ripping free-despite the cuts that had been branded into her skin. 

Sarah really had jinxed herself, after all, she had thought that anything but Jareth would have been better and she had been given the fire gang. Blood thirsty little shits. 

The pathway was little more than worn grass where the deer commonly passed. Yet she was over joyed. The brambles were still existent, but easier to avoid and the trees did not reach out to grab her as they had before. Sarah could only hope that the path would lead to a river, and hope that the fire gang did not mix well with water.

She stumbled forward and could not help but wonder how long she would be trapped in the Fae realm. It did not fit into Sarah's careful plan to be in a mythical world. She would not be able to get her Master's if she could not go to class. That thought ignited thousands of other worries. What would she tell her professors when she returned? 

The Goblin King had implied that she would stay as long as it took her to find what she had lost. What if she could not find it? What if she was forever trapped within the maze? What would her family and friends believe? Only Toby would know the truth. Would he wish for her? Would he attempt to make a deal with Jareth? That thought alone spurred Sarah to become determine to find what Jareth needed and return to her home. She would not allow Toby's life to be ruined because of her mistake. She would defeat Jareth once again and find the bauble she had left behind. 

Whatever that could possibly be she had no idea.

Perhaps he was referring to her ring or perhaps he had meant the childhood she had left behind as she journeyed through the living maze. In which case, she still had no idea where to look, after all, she had shed her childish ways willingly, not lost them.

"Hey! Who goes there?" Questioned one of the familiar firey's voice, far to close for comfort. She refused to let them play games with her, to taunt her, and she would not let them catch her. Sarah would not give Jareth the satisfaction of her fear.