The Labyrinth Sequel

Chapter 14

When my eyes open I am lying down in my bed. Slowly I sit up, and notice that my hands are working just fine as I had hoped. Somehow Jareth decided not to wipe my memories after all, which is nice to know.

Outside Toby is running around in the living room telling Dad and Karen about how much fun he had at the haunted house. It takes me a moment to realize that the haunted house was the last time I had been here on Earth. Has time been stopped this whole time? Or did Jareth 'reorder' time to make sure Toby and I didn't get in trouble?

"Oh Sarah, thank you so much for taking Toby for us last night. He seemed to have so much fun. I hope you didn't have any plans that he ruined." My dad says with an apologetic smile.

He has no idea just how bad going to the haunted house turned out to be. But at the same time, I managed to save the Underground for my friends so I guess it all worked out in the end. It's almost funny how Toby has a tendency to lead me into situation I don't want to be in, but have to in order to change something.

Let's just hope that it doesn't happen again in the near future. I don't think I have it in me to do another adventure.

After having breakfast Dad heads out for work while Karen takes Toby to the park to run around with his friends. I have most of the day to myself, but to be honest I don't really know how to spend it. I spent most of my days Underground working to help things of being taken care of because of my hands.

Now what am I supposed to do to kill the time? School won't be starting up again for another week because we are on our fall vacation, and I don't have a job I need to get to. Even reading doesn't appeal to me after all I went through.

In the end I go to the kitchen and sit at the table staring at one of my books with a bowl of pop corn in front of me.

Last time this happened to me as well when I got back from the Underground. The things I once thought were thrilling don't count anymore. Experiencing a real adventure has left normal things seeming boring again.

With a sigh I decide there is no way I am going to get any good reading done until the thrill of this adventure has worn off. Last time it only took a few months for things to go back to normal, as normal as I could have been considered.

Outside the cool autumn air feels nice against my skin. It has been a long time since I have just gone for a walk without any reason to it at all. I should really consider doing this more often.

In the distance a family walks together with their two children, dressed warmly in fall jackets and scarves. The woman hugs closely to the man, and as they pass he turns to me and winks. My mouth drops as for a moment his face appears to be Jareth.

The family moves unaware of my struggle. With a shake of my head I force myself to keep walking. It must be a side effect of whatever Jareth did to send us back. After all, it was him who said he didn't think we would be able to see each other anymore if I came back. So there is no way he could have been here so soon after I left, right?

I continue into the park where I see Toby playing on the swings with his friends. Karen is off on her phone on the bench, not even paying attention to him. I could step in and tell her to go do work and that I will take care of him, but he wants her there even if she isn't looking.

Toby loves his mother even though she never has time for him. That is something I could never do. I stopped caring for my father when he neglected me for his work and his new wife. It isn't that I don't love my dad anymore, I do, it's just that I am not so emotionally attached to him as I used to be.

Toby is too young to understand that he doesn't need to rely on his mother's love to survive. He doesn't have it as it is but he is too young to realize it. Hopefully Karen will get her act together before Toby realizes that she isn't really there.