Chapter Two
The dream came again
that night.
It started out as it
always did, with Sarah running through a night-shadowed forest,
chasing the soft voice that called to her, as elusive as a spirit.
"Where are you?" her dream-self called out, but she
received no reply but for another gentle whisper of her name,
brushing across her mind and soul, as soft as a kiss.
There was light ahead,
cool and silver in the darkness, and she burst out of the trees into
the forest glen, looking frantically around for the source of the
voice that she knew waited there, even if it remained unseen. It was
here that the dream would end, she somehow knew. She would wake up
and would find herself at home in bed.
And yet ... this time
she remained. She looked around. What was going on? The voice
whispered her name again, and she spun around, trying to find the one
who spoke, but only shadows were there. "Where are you?"
she called out again, her voice echoing eerily through the forest.
The sound of the wings against the wind caught her attention, and she
turned, startled, in time to see a white shape floating silently
away, vanishing into the wide ribbon of moonlight.
An ... owl?
"Wait!"
she called, but it was too late. The owl had fled, and now she felt
the familiar pull of her dream-self being dragged into the smothering
grayness of awakening, and she sat up in bed with a gasp, her heart
pounding, every detail of her dream engraved clearly into her memory.
"An owl," she
whispered, willing her heart to slow it's frantic pace. “An
owl...”
~*~*~*~
"Sarah,
hurry up! We're going to be late!"
Karyn's voice drifted
impatiently up to Sarah, who sighed and zipped her carry bag close.
Two days had passed by remarkably fast, and today was the day they
were traveling to her grandparents' house, where Sarah's father had
grown up. It was a three-hour trip out into the country from the
suburbia she and her family lived in.
"I'll be right
down!" she called back to her stepmother, turning to make sure
her room was in order. It was as perfect as it had always been; it
hadn't changed much in her eighteen years. The furniture was still
in the same order, and her books still lined the shelves in perfect
arrangement. She had never been able to make herself to give away
any of her childhood books, which were so much like old friends to
her. None of them, that is, but for one thin, red novel with gold
stamping on the leather cover. This she had banished into a box in
the back of her closet, and there it would remain, a sad reminder of
a past she would just as soon forget.
Stored in that same box
were a number of other childhood treasures; everything she owned that
reminded her even remotely of the Labyrinth and its king. These
items were packed carefully in newspaper and soft cotton to protect
them from decay, for even though she didn't want to look at them,
they were still important to the small part of her that couldn't
forget. There was the music box her mother had bought her for her
fifteenth birthday, with a princess dressed in a replica of the
beautiful fantasy dress that Sarah had been gowned in during the
enchanted ball; a statue of a fairy prince which bore a haunting
similarity to the Goblin King; her own small labyrinth puzzle,
something she'd gotten ages ago from who-knew-where; the stuffed
animals which bore the eerie resemblance of the creatures she'd met
in the Labyrinth, such as her fiery doll and a small fox-like
creature dressed as a knight. Even her bookends, which bore a
remarkable resemblance to a dwarf she'd once known, had been packed
away and replaced by a pair of dragons. There had been no dragons in
the Labyrinth, after all. So therefore, unicorns were "safe."
Other numerous
knickknacks had been banished to the box, as well. Several small
figurines of fairies had been replaced with cute little winged
unicorns; Sarah had decided that she no longer liked fairies very
much, after her first disappointing encounter with a real one. The
framed print of the four-dimensional stairway room brought back some
rather bitter memories, and thus had been replaced with a drawing of
a wolf howling at the moon. There was also an owl statuette that her
step-grandmother had given her for Christmas the year before. It was
a perfect replica of the white owl whose form Jareth favored, and
Sarah had shuddered when she'd unwrapped it. She'd pretended that
she liked it, so as not to hurt her grandmother's feelings, and had
reluctantly placed it on the shelf on which her stuffed animals had
resided before.
There it had sat for all
of three days, seemingly more alive than its heavy ceramic frame made
it look. Its dark, glassy eyes had stared into her whenever she
tried to sleep at night, which unnerved her to no end. So she
finally gave up and packed the owl into the box as well, wrapping it
securely in a piece of black silk, because she had once read that
silk was supposed to have a muffling affect on magic. Her
stepmother, of course, had been curious as to why the owl was no
longer there. Sarah had stammered for a few moments, trying to think
up a suitable excuse, and finally blurted out that it had fallen from
the shelf and had broken into many pieces. She never liked to keep
things that looked old and shabby, so rather than gluing it back
together, she had simply tossed it away. Karyn had not been happy
with the explanation.
"Sarah! Are you
coming or aren't you?" Karyn bellowed from below, jerking Sarah
back to the present.
"I'm on my way!" Sarah
shouted back irritably, and hoisted her bag over her shoulder. She
grabbed her heavy coat and scarf and pounded down the stairs, almost
glad to be getting away from her room, which had begun to feel a
little oppressive. "Well, let's go already! We want to be at
Gram and Pap's place before Christmas arrives, don't we?"
Karyn muttered to
herself as she buckled Toby securely into his car seat and shut the
door. Sarah climbed in the other side and gave Toby a smile when the
pre-schooler grinned at her. "We goin to Gwanma's an' Gwampa's
howse," he informed her importantly, his large, blue eyes
regarding her seriously.
"I know," she
replied, ruffling the soft blond curls on his head. "Are you
ready for lots of presents this year?"
His face split into
another adorable grin. "Yeah!" he proclaimed. "Lot's
of pwesents fow me!"
Sarah smiled and settled back into
her seat, putting the headphones of her Walkman over her ears and
closing her eyes. She was vaguely aware of the engine starting, and
the car jerked into motion. The soothing strains of Pachabel's Canon
in D filled Sarah's ears, and she allowed herself to relax and drift
peacefully into slumber.
