In another part of the city .... at dawn....
A dream wrapped around the sleeping occupant. Long chocolate tresses spread out across the blue pillow and the white sheet tangled around her middle. Shapely legs naked in the early light, she twisted her head to the side and slept on.
"..... in search of new dreams, a love that will last
I'll lay my love between the stars.
"As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense to you.
Every thrill is gone, wasn't too much fun at all.
But I'll be there for you~
... as the word falls down.
"Falling, falling, falling....."
Sarah Williams awoke. Eyes blinking up at her white white ceiling, the last refrain echoed in her mind. She covered her eyes with an arm, breathing in. For a few minutes, she lay there, half covered by a blue and white checkered comforter, remembering. The white sheet trailed down to the carpet below.
Sarah Williams had been fourteen when she had wished away her brother in anger and had come face-to-face with the villain of her favorite novel, the Goblin King. Head tilted to the side and smirking, he refused to let her take those words back yet offered her something else. Her dreams. Sarah couldn't accept and consented to his next challenge to run his Labyrinth. If she could survive for 13 hours and reach him in his castle, Toby would be freed. Thanks to a few choice friends, she had won. At the end, a more solemn king had once more made that same offer combined with something else. Once again, she had refused. As the clock chimed the 13th hour, she returned home, a barn owl flying out of the window and Toby asleep in his crib. Nothing had changed.
Yet everything had.
A high-pitched alarm rose from her desk. Groaning, Sarah sat up, pulling a worn T-shirt back down over her midriff and coving the bikini shorts she wore below. She ran a hand through her fizzy hair, taking a look at the sky from between the blinds of her apartment window. A few clouds drifted across the perfect blue sky, and a robin whistled an early morning song. Her alarm ceased; however, a moment later, a different more insistent beat started screeching at her.
Sarah growled and threw a small pillow towards the noise. With a metallic ring, her cell phone fell off the corner of her desk onto the carpet. The alarm continued to scream at her. Sighing, Sarah pushed the warm comforter to the side, rolling over and slipping feet into the sandals by her bed. She stumbled across the bedroom, leaned down, and with few clicks, blessed silence returned. Still, the alarm had done its job. She was out of bed. Glancing at the time, Sarah plopped down into the seat at her desk.
The piece was a high, roll top, cherry wood desk with a three drawers on each side and a set of cubbies in the middle. Sarah had discovered it at a yard sale and her dad had helped her restore it to its previous glory. Above it, Sarah had nailed two stand-alone shelves into the wall. The first shelf and the space between were filled with books, including a handful of personal novels, worn and loved, a few textbooks kneeling on their side with pieces of paper in between, and a dozen new texts for her classes this semester. She would find more books below her bed. Sarah pulled out a leaf of paper and grabbed a pen from the drawer.
She paused. Unable to stop herself, she glanced upwards at her top shelf display. A large snow globe with New York City in gold letters surrounded glittering skyscrapers, a souvenir from her high school graduation trip. Behind, a framed photograph of her family during Christmas stood. Toby's cheeks were rosy from an earlier snowball fight and her own dark tresses were sparkling with melting snow. Rescued from the garage sale this past year, when Toby had decided that he was too old for stuffed animals, the tattered teddy bear Lancelot stat in the middle of the shelf. A green ribbon hung from his ear, Best Poem of the Year, 9th grade, blazoned in neon blue letters.
Sarah's eyes rested on the last pieces. Framing one side, opposite the skyscraper and family portrait, her childhood music box gleamed. On top, the young dancer spun slowly around in a white ball-gown sewn with stars, face serene. Next to it, half covering the emerald ribbon, a metal statuette of faerie, posed on a stone overhanging above a golden pond, held a set of pan flutes to his lips with one hand and a deep violet crystal ball extended with the other. The emerald of the ribbon reflected off his clothes and the ball-gown's shining details bounced back off the pond and rock structure.
Sighing once again, Sarah let her pen drop back into the drawer and stood, reaching behind Lancelot. She slid the small red book Labyrinth from its hiding place. Sitting again, she flipped through the pages, pausing for a minute at the final page, then turned back to the beginning. On a certain page, Sarah underlined some words at the bottom with her finger. “.... and he had given her special powers." Her fingers halted at the small dot at the end of the page. Then like many times before, Sarah let the book close.
"You have no power over me...." she whispered. Silence answered her.
Finally, setting the little book to one side and still deciding against selling or giving away the statuette and music box, she picked up her pen. She began writing a draft for that afternoon college class, her mind calm after that ritual.
Sarah Williams may have been different after her trek in the Labyrinth, but by the time she had turned eighteen, Sarah had perfected the illusion of a normal girl -- with a few unusual dreams. She would not use her other gifts in this world. She had left that realm behind where it belonged.
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