A Price

Otay let's see…. Disclaimer: I do not own the following; Labyrinth David Bowie (or any of his music) or Evanescence (or any of their music)

_-_-_-_

Chapter 1

"Through Dangers Untold and heart ships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City. For my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as g-"

What is this?

"Stop, wait… look Sarah, look what I am offering you; your dreams."

Who is that?

"… and my kingdom as great,"

"I ask for so little, just let me rule you, and you can have… everything that you want,"

Why can't I see his face?

"My kingdom as great… damn, I can never remember that line,"

Where have I seen this before?

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave."

Who is that man?

"My kingdom as great… my kingdom as great…"

My kingdom as great?

_

It's a nice and calm night in the quiet and practically lifeless and otherwise unconscious dorms of NYU. Sarah Williams, as anyone else majoring in Literature at the age of 22 with Graduation just days away, is adding her finishing her perfect touches on her last two essays that she will ever have to do again as long as her tissue of being will let her. "The courageous and frantic mind of the average Philosopher" is the one that she is finishing up with that is due is a few hours. But as she gets closer to her ending her final paragraph, her mind starts to wonder onto the not-so-important things like the horrendously loud music blasting through the headphones of her pompous roommate.
Sarah often wonders on how she ended up with this one, this cute and bubbly blonde bombshell that sleeps soundly with the music of Lady Gaga as if nothing hit her ears. How on God's green earth was she not selected to stay in the leading sorority house, trading nail-polish for magazines, and gossiping about the cute piece of meat that they could lay their eyes on, starring eyes first at the brainless Neanderthals that so called "Ruled the School"?

But instead of dwelling on an endless debate in which has not been settled since the morning of August 8 of Last year, Sarah sets the dimwitted pretty girl aside and slips in her own music consisting of classical favorites as well as artist like David Bowie and Evanescence. She smiles as she shuffles her music and finds a favorite song of hers that she writes on beat to. All is well as she hears the song Imaginary, By Evanescence sending her into a certain trance, somewhat of a memory lane. She listens to the song intently hearing and putting meaning to every memorable word, bopping her head at the rhythmical beat as she sat back on her chair and relaxed as she reclined her feet. But as she gave her casual look at the clock, she goes on a tantrum as she realizes that her check on the time isn't so casual after all.

She reads a little more of her paper trying to find a way to really end it with a bang. She keeps reminding herself that she is only graduating in a few days and this is her ticket to a perfect score. Why not really make this one pop, she asks herself writing slowly thinking very carefully. She eventually ends it well (as always) but is never satisfied with her work, always thinking that she can fix it somehow, though her fellow classmates nor her teachers seem to think so. All of the people continually nag on her for doing extra credit and being a teacher's pet, and so on, with that seeming the reason why she stays single, so she is an instant outcast. But what's wrong with doing well in school, and what's wrong with staying single?

She does admit that there is something missing; something at the very tip of her tong that can never seem to flow as does her astonishing work and ability to pop from a crowd like a sore thumb. She wants to get out of this rut and do something…

Finally finished with the essay, she leans back looking at the clock once more. Too late to go to sleep, yet too early for class, she thinks to herself. So she simply lies on her bed and listens to her favorite song once more once again drifting into her down a one way trip to "La la land" in which she can be by herself with no worries, no essays'  and no jackass students. She is by herself in her own world, a world in which she has traveled to many times before, a place in which has helped her mature into the woman that she is today.

On occasion, she will have her problems appear in her relative mind, but they seem to simply pop like a bubble as If ending a bad dream into a good one. She imagines her old friends, most of which she cannot find faces to, but remembers friends from her adolescence, and a man…
The man from her continuing dream,

She is always dreaming of this… man that is trying to persuade her into something. Where or what she did not know, but has always been a continuous mystery to her. All she ever sees of this man or anyone else is what they look like from behind as if watching a movie or something.

Trying to ignore, the constant drop-in's of her irrelevant past and thoughts, she starts the song once more and finally finds her home away from home. She sees a simple yet complicated scene, a rare site to see being a gentle sunrise highlighting a long and wide place of sorts in different shades of yellow. A maze, or a- a Labyrinth, as she recalls learning. There is a; not exactly grotesque but a touch of a dark torture of magic with the same ambiance of touch of comfort of a home, almost as if she belonged here. Beyond the endless twists and turns of the walls that reminds one of the Great Wall Of China, stood a small but very noticeable peak in the center.

To this day Sarah Williams has no idea whatsoever on how this could have started to sprout from her mind. She has always tried psychologically to rid of it, but nothing worked. It always returned to her and at some point on her daydreaming, she started agreeing with it and returns just for the scenery. But every time that she starts to attempt to open the doors and to try to find the core why this stays in her mind, she always wakes just before a major discovery like a cliffhanger in her favorite story, and the only way to get back to it is to start all over!

But sometimes… she is glad that she wakes, baffled as to what comes as if she was scared.

_ -_-_-_

She stands in bewilderment as she blindly tosses her black silk cap in the air with 723 others, watching the sea of black caps fill the air, like a hurricane surrounding the blank and blue sky. Sarah sighs in relief as she sees her little step brother Toby runs to her in congratulations. She picks up the 8 year-old boy in a laugh of surprise with their parents shortly behind.

"Well, I'm glad that we are here for this historic moment!" Karen, her step-mother says as she gets out a camera and starts to snap endless shots.

"You have proved us proud, my little princess." Her father Robert said as he hugged her tightly and kissed her on the forehead with a smile. With Karen is still taking pictures, Sarah, instead of dwelling on the camera in her hand, smiles with Toby in her arms and poses with him awaiting the flash on the little contraption.

But as the flash shot in Sarah's eye, it was as if time slowly and instinctively came to a graduate halt with severe slow motion as she saw something.

Someone…

A very familiar face with pale white blonde hair, cut and styled just below the ear with a few strands
blowing in the wind, a dark tan business suit and a long-tailed coat on, an ever so slight grin on such an angelic face showing just the tip of his fang-like teeth and…those eyes –

'Sarah'

Those eyes have meaning

'Turn back Sarah'

And he knows something

'Everything I've done'

Do I know this man?

'As the world falls down'

Or does he know who I am?

'There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes…'

"Sarah," Toby shouted making Sarah's world return to its normal speed suddenly giving her whiplash.
She looks up to her big-eyed brother and soon to her worried parents. "Are… are you okay?" he asked hugging her.

She gave a reassuring smile; she still has her acting skills after all. "Yeah," she says kissing his nose with hers, "I'm fine," she says with the bright smile that reassured Toby of her well being. She looked at the Camera once more with her father behind her. And as the snap shot was taken, the flash blinded Sarah's vision for just another Millisecond and in that time, he was gone.