~*~ With or Without You
Hello there; thank you for visiting my story, 'Behind Your Eyes', a "Labyrinth" fan-fic. I hope that you enjoy this story, but I have a few disclaimers to present to you before you begin.
1.) I do not own "Labyrinth" or any of its characters, locations, etc.; "Labyrinth", etc. belongs to Jim Henson, Henson Associates, The Jim Henson Company, and Lucasfilm.
2.) This story contains heavy spiritual themes, specifically Christian-oriented. I have done this because of personal preference, understanding that this choice may limit my audience. I do not mean to offend anyone by my decision here, but I will hold to my personal beliefs throughout this story and all of my other writings.
3.) There is an original character of mine coming in as a new cast member whose name may easily be mispronounced (it is Greek, after all) and so I am putting a pronunciation key here for your convenience. I hope that it is helpful to you.
The name "Charis", written phonetically, looks something like this: kah-RISS.
I have most of the entire story written already, so updates should not be too sporadic (but we shall see how it goes...) Again, thank you for visiting my story - I hope that you enjoy this story!
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"How do you like your new room?"
Sarah turned away from the window to face the speaker, "It's wonderful, Charis. Thanks for arranging everything with your aunt and uncle."
The young woman in the doorway nodded, "I'm just happy that they don't feel like they have to baby Ethan and me anymore. It's been three years; we've adjusted enough to live on our own. But having you here with us was, without a doubt, the thing that convinced them that it would be all right for us to live on our own again. My aunt, especially, just didn't feel right about leaving us to go back to Iowa."
Sarah shrugged off her jacket as she sat down on the bed. Sighing, she remarked, "I wish that they trusted you enough that—"
Charis waved a hand dismissively, "Don't worry about it, Sarah." She scratched her head, "it's been hard for them to have confidence in me since…
"Since the accident," Sarah finished..oOo.
Sarah turned the key in the ignition and buckled her seat belt. As she backed out of her parking space at the church, she thanked God that she had survived being the maid of honor to a friend…again. During her drive home, Sarah let the day's events play over through her mind. She processed the difficulties and cherished the joys a final time before she would recount the wedding to her housemates.
She turned onto the drive leading to the farmhouse where she now lived, and Sarah smiled to herself as she thought of Charis' inevitably eager questions about the details of the wedding in contrast to Ethan's predictably mischievous and off-handed remarks. Charis loved to hear Sarah paint pictures of events, claiming that Sarah was the best storyteller who ever lived. While he had never said it outright, Ethan had never disagreed with his sister's sentiments. Be they accounts of events like the wedding she had attended earlier that day, or original fantasies she hoped to one day turn into scripted plays, Sarah was always flattered by their attention to her stories.
Turning off the ignition and lights, Sarah extricated herself from the vehicle and made her way out of the garage, her garment bag and purse in tow.
She laid the garment bag over the arms of the cherry wood butler in the foyer and hung her purse on one of the hooks at the top. "I'm home," Sarah called out through the foyer. Glancing at the old clock on the wall, Sarah wondered if she shouldn't have called out so loudly. But she then noticed that the kitchen light was on, so she released her fears of any sleeping persons being disturbed upstairs. She knew that the light was evidence that Ethan would still be up studying, and Charis undoubtedly would be by his side, doing her best to help her brother muddle through his mathematics course study.
After slipping off her heels, Sarah made her way down the hall and found the two siblings precisely as she had supposed they would be. Charis sat at the breakfast nook, a sleepy expression on her face. Beside her, Ethan poured over his mathematics textbook. Sarah leaned against the doorframe, "And what's this I see? I leave for one day and come back to find that owls have taken up residence in my kitchen?"
Charis woke up a little at Sarah's voice, "Sarah; how was the wedding?"
"Dreary, draining, and dramatic?" asked Ethan, playfully.
Sarah scoffed, "You don't even know the half of it. How are you feeling about tomorrow?"
Ethan closed his book, "Like I'm gonna eat that test for breakfast!" He grinned and stretched his hands behind his head, "All I can say is bring it on."
Charis giggled, 'I think he's ready. Not that my opinion means much, seeing as I only just barely passed my own math classes in school…but there you have it."
Ethan shrugged, "You know it helps me to have someone to 'think at', sis. The wall just isn't as responsive as you can be." He grinned as his sister scoffed.
Sarah smiled, very thankful for this small family she had been blessed with. Not that she was on bad terms with her own family – everything had begun to improve with her parents and with Toby after the Labyrinth – but the twins Charis and Ethan Stavros were two of Sarah's best friends; they had been since high school.
Charis was Sarah's age; going on twenty-six. Charis was a petite five feet three inches, but strong and full of life. With shoulder-length hair the color of a lion's mane and an ivory complexion, she was a pretty little thing. She brought life with her everywhere she went. Her eyes squinted when she got to laughing too hard and the light sprinkling of freckles over her face added to her innocent charm. She was most usually quiet, but very thoughtful and the most wonderful listener Sarah had ever met. They were very like sisters to one another.
Ethan was Charis' older brother by twenty-three minutes. At six feet on the mark and one hundred fifty-five pounds, Ethan was quite the man. His hair and complexion matched his sister's, and his laugh was as contagious as hers was life-giving. With his expressive, dark blue eyes, Ethan was always cracking jokes and bringing in comic relief, but at the slightest provocation he would become the most steadfast protector to his sister, and to Sarah, whom he had added in his heart as a second sister some time ago.
Though they were so vastly different from one another, Charis and Ethan were bonded together closely. Charis was a constant support and encouragement to her brother, who fell into self-doubt rather easily. Ethan was always looking out for his little sister; she had been born a little bit sickly, and consequently had always been more susceptible to illness and physical detriments than her brother. From a very young age, Ethan had become a self-appointed lifeguard for her. Many hardships had come over them in their lives, but they clung together and made it through every time. Sarah wondered whether they would ever be able to do without the other.
But that was too sad a thought to contemplate for long; they were here, together now, and laughing about the various marital shenanigans which Sarah had recounted to them, such as the Yorkshire terrier in the punch fountain and the fact that the frosting of the cake had been light grey down one side.
Later on, after bidding the girls sweet dreams, Ethan gathered up his schoolbooks and headed upstairs to bed. Charis and Sarah were left alone in the kitchen to talk.
Sarah sat down carefully. Her entire body ached from being on her feet practically all day, and in four-inch heels, too. Resting her forehead on the table, Sarah groaned, "I'm so glad that it's all over!"
Charis chuckled at her friend's drama, "Oh? Was it as bad as all that?"
Sarah lifted her head and began massaging her temples, "Charis, Charis, Charis…you can try to imagine what it was really like for me today, but you really wouldn't come close; I had to re-organize the event because that wedding planner quit on us two weeks ago, and I tied up all of the loose ends which that left behind. I played peacemaker between squabbling relatives. Liv had her moment of second-guessing; I extinguished it. Coty had his moment of doubting; I helped to calm him down. And I did all of that on top of being the perfect maid of honor 'who is just so unspeakably happy for the two of you!' And I had to make a toast at the reception!" Sarah buried her face in her hands with another moan.
Charis rubbed her friend's shoulder consolingly, "There, there, dear friend; like you said, it's all over now. You can go to bed as soon as you please."
"Can I vent a little more before I go?" Sarah asked in a playfully innocent voice.
"There's more? Do please tell all," Charis grinned.
"You'd better believe there's more! I haven't even begun to complain about the dress and decorations…"
Charis frowned, "What's wrong with your dress?"
"Well, for starters, I think that 'puke-y' is a better word than 'pretty' for the nature of this color; it's a very peculiar shade of purple. Liv insisted that there be all of these faux crystals and glitter throughout my hair and around my eyes; she's fascinated with fairies and magic princesses, remember? She said that the glitter helped to achieve that 'enchanted look' she was aiming for in the theme, but all the glitz did for me was to remind me of that dratted Goblin Kin—"
Sarah stopped, having realized why this wedding had so bothered her.
Charis prodded her, "Sarah…?"
"You know Charis…" she said slowly, "I think that I was so grumpy about this wedding because everything Liv chose reminded me of that dance I had with the Goblin King when I was fifteen."
Charis nodded, "From how you described everything over these past few weeks, it sounded very similar to me. I wondered if it would bother you, and I guess it did."
"I didn't even connect the two things until just now…" Sarah felt rather silly for failing to recognize the similarities; especially since the wedding had been on her mind for so long.
There was a short silence, and then Charis spoke again, "Are you okay, Sarah?"
Sarah gave a half-smile, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just wish I could forget about him, is all. Or at least hate him completely."
"You don't hate him already? With all of your complaining, I would have thought that you had come to loathe him ages ago." Charis teased.
"So would I, but…I don't always hate the times that I remember him. He teased me at that masquerade, hiding while he played that cat and mouse game with me. But when he did reveal himself to me, and we danced…it was the first time I thought that I felt love for and from someone."
"'He was gentle; he was cruel. He was open; he was mysterious'," Charis quoted words which her friend had spoken to her years before when she first shared the tale of her adventure in the Labyrinth. She continued on to say, "But never forget, Sarah, that evil, no matter how entrancingly tempting it may be, is still evil. And the Goblin King is most definitely evil."
Sarah laughed, "You still remember? After all this time?"
"Sure I do; you made me swear to say that to you every time we discussed the Goblin King. I think you wanted to make sure that you didn't ever begin to fall in love with him for real."
Sarah grimaced, "Heaven forbid…I just want him to leave me alone forever; is that too much to ask?"
Charis' face took on a look of concern, "He hasn't tried to visit you again, has he?"
"Oh no; he can't anymore. Not since I banished him." Jareth had begun visiting Sarah in the Over Ground about a year after she had won Toby back from him. Sarah had told Charis all about Jareth and the Labyrinth after the idiot Goblin King had nearly trampled the poor girl while chasing Sarah through the high school the girls had attended together. He had posed as a substitute teacher, but the disguise was not clever enough to fool Sarah for even a second. He made occasional appearances throughout her academic career, at times even stalking her in owl form. Finally, a few days before her college graduation, Sarah screamed at the Goblin King; she said that she banished him from ever approaching her again without an invitation, and since that day she had not heard one snicker or seen one feather of his royal person. "I wish that I had known that I had the power to do that when I was younger, though. It would have made college life so much easier."
"Mm," Charis agreed. "But then again, it would also have been a lot more boring for me."
"Not really; Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus would still have come to visit like they always do."
"Oh, yeah." Charis cocked her head askance, "Speaking of, is Hoggle coming tomorrow to help you plant the back garden?"
After she had moved into Charis and Ethan's house, Sarah had asked her friends from the Labyrinth to come and help her turn the muddy backyard into a garden. The first time had proven to be more troublesome than she had anticipated; Sir Didymus was more interested in defeating the dangerous shrubberies than helping her and Hoggle plant them, and Ludo was almost impossible to hide. Every year after that first one, Sarah only invited Hoggle back to help her plant the garden. She still invited the other two over for game nights and the occasional – very occasional – dinner. But only Hoggle came to garden. He was a master at landscaping, and every guest who visited the Stavros home complimented the gardens he designed with Sarah.
Looking at the calendar, Sarah realized that it was nearly the time to plant the spring flowers again. "You're right; I'll call him later and see if he can make it."
Charis nodded, "Sounds good. Just make sure there's lots of stuff that smells good; it's not enough for me that they look pretty, you know," she smiled and rose to leave. "Are you really okay now?"
"Yeah, I'm fine; just tired. Goodnight, Charis."
"Good night, Sarah. Sleep well."
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So? How did I do? Does the grown-up Sarah seem consistent with her character thus far? Is it too soon to tell? What could I have improved? Are you honestly just wondering where Jareth is in all of this? Well, I can promise that he will come in to the story very soon, in all his glittering glory. See you for the next chapter!