Dancing through life without a care in the world was hard to do in this day and age. Things were going wrong wherever you looked, no matter where you turned there was some turbulence or turmoil. The beauty and wonder of a child's fantasy was lost to the harsh, reality that could knock the wind out of your brain and leave it gasping for breath. The child's fantasy became the teenager's, which changed so drastically in just what it was and how it was formed that it left a young brain spinning, wondering what had happened in only a couple of years.

Toby was sixteen this year, his birthday four days past and his sister one day gone back to college. Even Sarah had left behind her stories and costumes for the life of an adult, and, as scary as it seemed, her little brother seemed trapped in the same lifestyle she had. Her old, red, leather-bound Labyrinth book had almost become his religion.

He found himself dressing in elaborate costumes, things unheard of in the early 2000's. Things that hugged his rear in all the right places, things that clenched around his chest and made it obvious that he couldn't be a girl, even if his hair was growing longer and hanging around his jaw bone instead of near his ears. It remained blond, but dyed black streaks ran through it. His eyes were still the crystal blue of his youth, and something about them made him gaze at them in the mirror for hours at a time.

People called him narcissistic because he stared at himself so often. But, when he stared into the mirror and watched the person within it, he hardly saw himself. There was someone else in there, beckoning him, something entirely different than what he had here that wanted him.

Leather-clad hands and hard muscle invaded his dreams, whispers and cries of the name 'Jareth' filled them, and sweat and uncomfortable coiling in his stomach was what he was left with when he awoke.

There was definitely something odd about him that he wanted to look into, but he didn't know how it would work out, or if he could even find a way to investigate.