THESE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MINE.
This is the next story with my Black Iron Owl stories. For anyone who hasn't read it, Sarah and Jareth were both created by Labyrinth to be together.
Labyrinth is a living being.
Sarah had been killed years ago and then reincarnated, that's why she didn't remember anything in the movie. Now, they're together, but Sarah wants a baby.
OUR ERIK
WRITTEN BY COUSIN D
Sarah leaned back on her elbow and stared out the window of her bedroom, her lover was breathing softly by her side. The large silver moon shone brightly tonight and let it's light into their chambers.
Without bothering to cover herself, Sarah stood and walked to the window that looked over her home. The maze stretched out in all directions, sometimes fading into forest and sometimes hardening into stone walls.
Strange as it was, the Labyrinth was home.
"I want a baby." She sighed to the cool night. It was an old complaint.
Jareth had tried to comfort her, but the fact was that they weren't built to make babies. Neither of them were human and they were both ageless, so there was no need for them to reproduce.
But there was still a need, one that she knew Jareth felt as well. They needed someone other than the goblins. Someone who could grow and learn from them. A silent tear fell and struck her on the back of the hand.
"Sarah..." She turned to find Jareth starting to wake. "What's wrong?" He rubbed his eyes and blinked at her.
"Nothing." She replied. Why worry him? There was nothing he could do to help and it would only make him feel badly.
"Come back to bed, love." He opened the covers for her and let her crawl in beside him. Sarah cuddled up to him and thanked Labyrinth that she didn't have to be alone. That would be unbearable. Jareth put his arms around her and whispered into her ear, "I know what you want, sweet one. Don't worry.
We'll think of some way to get our baby."
Sarah began to cry into his shoulder softly.
-Wake up. -
-Wake up. -
Jareth woke first to the echo voice that called to them softly.
"Labyrinth?" Jareth pulled away from Sarah was still sleeping and stood. He began dressing as he listening to his creator.
-There is a child to be born on the Earth and he will need you. Paris. -
Jareth obediently went to the mirror in the throne room after kissing Sarah
on the cheek, lightly so as to not wake her. The large mirror stood next to his throne and Jareth touched it with one gloved hand and his reflection vanished to be replaced by a familiar sight.
A pregnant woman was sweating heavily, attended by a fussing woman. The baby would be born very shortly and he would inevitably be called to take the poor child.
"Jareth?" Sarah was suddenly at his side, tying closed her white robe and looking at the picture before her. "Is this our next one?"
"Yes. Any time now."
The labor went on for hours until finally the child was born. They couldn't see it clearly, but both the watchers waited impatiently. The midwife went completely white as she stared at the newborn.
"What do you suppose could be wrong?" Sarah whispered nervously.
Jareth shrugged with a frown. What was going on?
The midwife gingerly wrapped the infant in a blanket as if she were actually afraid to touch it. Jareth would have though that it was still born, but he distinctly saw it move. The midwife called for the village priest and left the child in a corner of the room to attend to it's exhausted mother. As the minutes dragged by, Jareth noticed she kept casting frightened looks at the silent child. Sarah grabbed his hand tightly.
"What's wrong with the baby? Why won't they give it to the mother?" Her brown eyes were wide and frightened for the child's sake and Jareth wished he had an answer for her.
Finally, the midwife gave in and gave the baby to its mother. She screamed in terror and nearly threw it from her. This, of coarse, frightened the baby and it began to cry, a low, pitiful cry.
"Take it away!" The mother demanded, thrusting it at the midwife, but the plump woman wanted nothing to do with the baby and backed away.
"Can't we go?" Sarah looked at Jareth. She still didn't know what was wrong before she did something stupid.
Jareth scowled. "No. The words have to be right. She has to say it." He was obviously fighting with himself not to go to the baby.
Finally the view on the mirror revealed why the woman couldn't bear holding her own child.
"Oh, dear goodness." Sarah gasped.
"The poor child." Jareth felt such pity at the fate of the newborn.
Half it's face was missing. There was no skin on part of the face and it had no nose. There were other things wrong with its face and Jareth, with all of the suffering he had seen, had never seen such a horribly looking child.
The priest came shortly after and stared with the same macabre fascinating the others had. "What is his name?" The priest asked.
The mother didn't even look at her child. "I don't care. Name it anything."
The priest looked a little surprised at her cold tone, but not much. "Erik.
I christen you Erik Destler."
The weeks passed but the expected wish never came. Sarah and Jareth waited for what seemed an eternity and watched the mirror constantly, but the wicked mother never called.
"We can't just leave him there!" Jareth yelled to himself as he stormed through the castle, roaring as if that could help the innocent boy who was neglected beyond belief. "I have to save him. Perhaps I can plant a puzzle of some kind to trick the woman." He mused on this when he suddenly realized he was talking to himself.
Jareth looked around the hall but it was completely empty. Now where had Sarah gone?
Sarah looked around the throne room and peered into the mirror. "Show me Erik." She said.
The image faded into a nursery that had been previously an attic. There had been little effort to clean the room or make it pleasant for the baby. Sarah touched the glass only to feel a slight burning on the tips of her fingers.
Sarah spoke to the empty room. "I won't do anything. I just want to see that he's all right."
-Don't take him, Sarah. The wish must be made. For her own reason the mother has not wished. -
"Maybe she just doesn't know that the wish will work." Sarah suggested. "Please, let me tell her. I'm sure she will give him to us!"
The glass burned under her fingers when Sarah suggested breaking the rules. -No. You will not suggest this again, my child. She must make the wish freely. -
The glass stopped burning her fingers. -But you may visit. Do not take the baby, Sarah. That is Jareth's task. -
In the baby's small room, Sarah stepped out of the mirror she had created. Immediately, she went to the elaborate crib and peered in. Sarah snorted in disgust at the white mask that hid his face and she gently untied it.
Sarah cooed at the tiny boy with such intelligent eyes. He looked at her and smiled. Sarah couldn't see the malformed face, she only saw the baby that she could never have. Sarah cuddled him, sitting in a dusty rocking chair. It obviously had never been used. Together they sat in the darkness with the moon shining through a tiny window and Sarah was delighted. Erik was everything she had ever wanted in a child.
Erik's mother had been expecting a beautiful child she could show off to her friends and spoil horribly. Instead she got this little one and apparently didn't care whether it lived or not.
Sarah sat with the baby and sang to him. She sang about Labyrinth and the crystal moon, her beloved Jareth and the many friends she had, until Erik finally fell asleep in her arms.
"I want you, Erik. If this world doesn't want you, I'll take you." She told his sleep form. She felt tears starting. "Please, just don't forget me. I'll be back for you. One way or another, I'll come back for you."
She lay him carefully in the crib and covered him with a soft quilt. She kissed him on the forehead, but she couldn't stand to strap the mask back on. That horrible thing she left in a corner of the room.
Before stepping through the mirror that would take her home, Sarah looked back at him in the shadowed room. "I will come back, Erik."
Jareth was waiting when she got back, pacing in the throne room with his long arms behind his back. "Finally!" He said when she stepped through the mirror. "I feel like I've been waiting for hours! How was he?"
Sarah tried to speak, but she couldn't and ran into her husband's arms. Jareth caught her and held her silently until she could talk.
"It was awful, love." Sarah wiped tears from her eyes and she looked up into Jareth's beautiful mismatched ones. "He was just left in the dirty attic all alone. She's put a mask on him, I can't stand it! A horrible white mask. We have to do something."
"Shhh." Jareth stroked her dark hair and he tried to calm her. "We will do something, but we have to find a loophole. Labyrinth won't just let us take him."
Sarah broke out of his embrace roughly. "Labyrinth is wrong!" She declared hotly, ignoring the sudden angry rumble of thunder that echoed through the castle. "I won't let him stay there!" Her voice was raising with her fury as she began to pace angrily.
Jareth watched her irrational yelling and the temperament of Labyrinth was not improving with her rash words. Jareth blushed with some of the language Sarah was spouting at their creator. He had to do something before Sarah did something she would regret later.
Jareth created a crystal in his hand and launched it at his wife without warning. Sarah froze with her mouth open in mid scream and her fist raised as she cursed Labyrinth.
"She's going to kill me." He muttered. Jareth left her frozen in time and went to the Esher room, heart of Labyrinth.
He was instantly lifted into the air with the gentle pressure of Labyrinth surrounding him.
-Sarah is not herself. This child has affected her. -
Jareth was silent a moment. Could Labyrinth really not understand how much Sarah, and he, wanted a child of their own?
"She fears for Erik." Jareth started carefully. "The child's mother won't care for him and we both desperately want him." Perhaps the loophole was here.
-We have no claim to the boy until the wish is made. - The voice whispered into his ear.
"But, what if the wish is not made?" Jareth asked. "The child may not survive his childhood."
-It has happened before. - Labyrinth told him sadly. -Many children die when they are unwanted and not given to us. -
"Do you want this one to die, also?"
Jareth choked when his breath was suddenly squeezed out of him. -Do not anger me, my son! I never want a child to die. We can not break rules for every child who deserves pity or needs us. -
"Why not?" Jareth gasped as the words were squeezed out of him. "Erik won't survive without us."
Suddenly Jareth was lowered to the floor and room darkened as Labyrinth's voice became stronger, more forceful.
-I made the rules for many reasons. We can not break them. Find the loophole you are looking for, Jareth. Find it and I won't fight you. I want Erik as much as you do. -
Jareth left the room wearily. Now came the hard part.
Sarah was still frozen when he went back to the throne room and Jareth hesitated just a moment before unfreezing her. When he did this to mortals they never remembered what happened. Sarah was not mortal so there was no telling how this would affect her.
Unfortunately, she remembered everything. "How dare you do that to me?" She demanded when he released her. "You've never used you're power on me, how would you like it if I used my sword on you?"
Jareth held his hands out to pacify her. "Take it easy, darling. I wanted to talk to Labyrinth about Erik before you said something silly."
Sarah crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Well, what did it say?"
At least she was willing to listen. "We can't just take him." Seeing her gearing up for another scream, Jareth quickly continued. "But there is a loophole." Sarah closed her mouth. "It didn't say what the loophole is, but there is one, we just have to find it."
Sarah thought a moment and then smiled shyly. "I guess I did get a bit worked up."
"Just a bit."
"Forgive me?"
"Always."
They spent the next few weeks looking through all the books in Sarah's vast library and watching Erik through the mirror. Jareth came to visit Erik with Sarah at night and took delight in holding the infant and creating toys for him.
That stupid mother would never know how the strange toys appeared in the attic every night.
Finally, after nearly a month, Jareth found it.
There was no secret, really. It was just common sense. "All we have to do is wait for the full moon." He told Sarah one night while they sat in front of the fire.
"The full moon? Why?" She asked.
"When the moon is full it makes it possible for us to bring a mortal here, but just for one night."
Sarah frowned. "I know that." She told him. "But it'll only work for that one night. We won't be able to keep him."
Jareth deflated a bit at this. "It's the best we have. Isn't one night a month better than no time at all?"
Sarah wrapped her arms around him and gave him a passionate kiss. "Yes. It's much better than nothing. The full moon is only a few days away."
And so it happened that Erik was brought into the Labyrinth one night every month. They faithfully brought him into the mirror and gave the unhappy child a night of bliss filled with music, stories, and adventure. Jareth taught him to sing and gave him the voice of an angle.
Sarah taught him to read and gave him an excellent education in her library. She also taught him to fight, as she knew how cruel his world would be to him. Sarah had started to teach him to use a sword as she did, but Erik quickly chose his own weapon.
The Punjab lasso was a thin string that he could strangle within a heart beat. Frankly, Sarah was most impressed and pleased that he would be able to take care of himself.
As he grew Erik loved his visits to the magical land where no one noticed what he looked like and the people didn't like to look at his mask, they wanted to see his face. They never made him wear it.
Erik ran through the Labyrinth playing with the goblins and other creatures he found there.
Erik began to grow up and he wanted to explore his own world. He had never been wished away and they weren't allowed to tell him the secret words any more than they were allowed to tell his mother.
Unfortunately, Erik grew resentful at this.
"Why can't I stay with you?" He demanded as his monthly night drew to a close. Sarah and Jareth wanted so much to tell him, but there were the rules. He had to say the words on his own without guidance.
"I'm sorry, Erik." Jareth said softly. It was a conversation they'd had many times. "I've told you we can't just keep you. You belong to the other world. No matter how much we love you."
Erik snorted bitterly. "You would keep me if you loved me." He glared at his beautiful family. "I don't want to come back if I can't stay." He crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly.
Sarah went to Erik and tried to put her arms around the boy who'd become like a son to her, but he pulled away from her.
"Why do you bring me only once a month to Labyrinth?" Erik demanded. "Why can't I just stay. It's not like anyone would miss me in the other world. My own mother would weep for joy if I just disappeared."
"The rules, Erik. The rules." Sarah told him with tears in her eyes. She hated those awful rules. The rules she had been created to obey were keeping her from her child and she cringed from the terrible anger in his eyes.
Jareth knew this had been building for a while. The past few months, Erik had grown quiet and seemed so unhappy. It wasn't hard to figure out why, he felt like the only people who loved him were betraying him, somehow.
Suddenly, Erik burst. "I don't ever want to come here again if I can't stay!" And with that he jumped through the mirror that was his path to the mortal world.
Sarah burst into tears and Jareth held her while tears ran down his own face. There was nothing they could do if he didn't want to come back.
"We can't lose him." Jareth whispered into Sarah's hair. "We can't lose our son."
"What can we do if he doesn't want to see us?" Sarah asked him.
"We wait. Who knows, someday, he may wish to return to us."
Erik continued in his life in the mortal world with Sarah and Jareth unable to help from their side of the mirror. They watched him amaze crowds with his beautiful voice and horrify them with his face.
"I wish they would stare." Jareth confessed to Sarah. "It hurts him so much."
Years later, Erik was a feared magician in the court of Persia where he committed his first cold-blooded murder for the amusement of a queen. Sarah yelled for hours and threatened to throttle him. That was nothing compared to Jareth's reaction to the first time they saw him with opium a friend had given him.
"Opium? What's that boy thinking?" Jareth demanded, throwing his arms up. "He's smarter than that!"
"Erik!" Sarah screamed in horror. He fell to the floor of his dark home and Jareth reached out to the mirror as if he could somehow help.
"Labyrinth, please, let us help him!" Jareth cried. "He's our son!"
In the mirror, they heard the approaching mob, thirsty for Erik's blood. "Please, I beg you!" Jareth put his arms around Sarah.
Some distant part of Labyrinth felt a stirring in its soul. It saw its children crying and a child, who had graced them all with his laughter long ago, was in danger. But the rules...
In his dark labyrinth, Erik closed his eyes and wished softly to see his family one last time.
Jareth and Sarah found themselves in Erik's underground home. His own created Labyrinth. The knelt next to Erik and Jareth took his son's head in his lap.
"Father?" Erik's eyes fluttered open and he managed to focus on them. "Mother?"
"We're here, Erik." Jareth whispered, stroking his child's long, dark curls. "We've missed you."
"Loved her so much." Sarah turned her head and saw the girl Erik was talking about. Christine. She was pale and fragile looking with wide dark eyes. Sarah could see that she was trembling and the young man at her side was holding her upright. That would be Raul. "I can't let her die. Not here, like this." He was struggling for breath and looked at Sarah. "Mother, please."
Sarah reluctantly nodded, more for her son's peace of mind than the girl's safety.
There was a glow of light surrounding her and Christine covered her mouth to keep from screaming. When the light vanished, Sarah stood in her black iron armor with her massive sword in her hand.
"Just rest, Erik. I'll take care of your visitors." She reassured him as she pulled her visor down to cover her face. A mob of angry opera singers was really nothing to worry her. Sarah had fought demons and armies of the Faye.
When the mob reached Erik's home all they saw was a black devil swinging an awful sword. The demon roared at them and flew through the air at them. Everyone forgot the revenge they'd planned on the phantom and ran back up to the safety of the theater, convinced that Christine had been murdered by the thing from Hell.
Sarah stopped, just keeping herself from killing those who'd made her son's life miserable. They were waiting for her when she came back to them, Erik was still resting on Jareth's lap and now Christine was kneeling next to him. She was holding his pale hand in hers.
Sarah put her arms around Jareth and they let the two speak.
"I love you Christine. I have since I saw you in the chorus." Erik gasped out painfully.
"I love you, Erik." She whispered to him and Sarah knew this was probably the first time she had admitted it to anyone, even herself. "Don't leave me." Tears streamed down her cheeks and Erik reached up to wipe them away.
"Go now, Christine. Go and be happy so I can be happy." He looked passed her to Raul. "Take care of her, young man. She is to be treasured."
Raul stood behind Christine. "I know." And when he looked down at her all the love and admiration shone in his eyes for her. He loved her as much as Erik did and he would care for Christine his whole life.
Raul took Christine away while she sobbed and tried to get back to her dying love. When they had finally vanished down one of the darkly shadowed tunnels Sarah kissed her child on his cheek.
"My baby. My sweet, baby." She stroked his hair as Jareth had done. "Look how much you've grown." How had he gotten so old? He must be nearly fifty and Sarah had never noticed.
"I've missed you, mother. I miss the music and the dancing." A tear sprang from his eye. "I can see it all in my memory, you know. Every night, my whole life I see the tall green hedges and those awful little fairies. I can see the stars and the crystal moon high over the land. I feel Labyrinth in my heart and it was the only place I ever knew happiness."
Jareth was crying now, trying to soothe his son, his little Erik.
"But," Erik continued, as his voice grew softer and softer. "I don't regret my life. It brought me to Christine and I can never regret knowing her. She is my heart and I would gladly relive any pain for the chance to know her." Erik closed his eyes and went limp in Jareth's arms.
"He's gone." Sarah cried, gripping Jareth's hands tightly. Her heart felt like it would burst. "My baby is dead!"
Jareth was quiet for a moment and brushed the tears roughly away. "No! This can't be the end! I won't let him die!"
Sarah looked at her husband with reddened eyes. "It's to late, he's gone."
Jareth gave her a bitter grin. "You were dead once, also, but you came back."
In their arms, Erik began to fade. "What's happening?" Sarah asked as she tried to get a hold of him, but there was nothing to hold onto. "This isn't how human's die!"
"Hold him! Get him!" Jareth yelled, vainly trying to hold their son as Sarah was.
It was no use, Erik was quickly gone from sight and Sarah and Jareth were alone in the silent room. Suddenly, Sarah gasped and clutched her stomach. There was a strange sensation, not pain, exactly, but something very close to it.
"Sarah? What's wrong?" Jareth asked, worried. He'd just lost his son and now he didn't want to lose his wife in the same night.
"I don't know. We have to go home." She doubled over as another wave of pain hit her.
Jareth picked her up and instantly they were in their chambers where he lay her on the bed. Sarah was sweating and rubbing her tender stomach. "What's happening to me?"
Labyrinth's echoed voice answered. -My daughter, you wished for a child for so long and you wished for Erik. I grant you both wishes. -
Jareth spoke to Labyrinth. "What do you mean? Erik died. Why is Sarah in pain?"
There was a soft laugh. -Sarah will bear the child you have both wished for. The pain is from her body changing. I took your suggestion, Jareth. Erik will be reborn as your first child. -
Sarah and Jareth looked at each other with shocked expressions. Neither of them had expected this.
-He will look exactly as he did in this life and his personality will be the same. I will not curse him with the memories from this life, though. He will be as happy as you make him. He will be my child and will not turn into one of the goblins. One day, I will remake Christine for him. -
-Erik lives, Sarah, within your body. -
Sarah and Jareth smiled. Jareth reached out, almost shyly and touched his wife's belly.
END
This is the next story with my Black Iron Owl stories. For anyone who hasn't read it, Sarah and Jareth were both created by Labyrinth to be together.
Labyrinth is a living being.
Sarah had been killed years ago and then reincarnated, that's why she didn't remember anything in the movie. Now, they're together, but Sarah wants a baby.
OUR ERIK
WRITTEN BY COUSIN D
Sarah leaned back on her elbow and stared out the window of her bedroom, her lover was breathing softly by her side. The large silver moon shone brightly tonight and let it's light into their chambers.
Without bothering to cover herself, Sarah stood and walked to the window that looked over her home. The maze stretched out in all directions, sometimes fading into forest and sometimes hardening into stone walls.
Strange as it was, the Labyrinth was home.
"I want a baby." She sighed to the cool night. It was an old complaint.
Jareth had tried to comfort her, but the fact was that they weren't built to make babies. Neither of them were human and they were both ageless, so there was no need for them to reproduce.
But there was still a need, one that she knew Jareth felt as well. They needed someone other than the goblins. Someone who could grow and learn from them. A silent tear fell and struck her on the back of the hand.
"Sarah..." She turned to find Jareth starting to wake. "What's wrong?" He rubbed his eyes and blinked at her.
"Nothing." She replied. Why worry him? There was nothing he could do to help and it would only make him feel badly.
"Come back to bed, love." He opened the covers for her and let her crawl in beside him. Sarah cuddled up to him and thanked Labyrinth that she didn't have to be alone. That would be unbearable. Jareth put his arms around her and whispered into her ear, "I know what you want, sweet one. Don't worry.
We'll think of some way to get our baby."
Sarah began to cry into his shoulder softly.
-Wake up. -
-Wake up. -
Jareth woke first to the echo voice that called to them softly.
"Labyrinth?" Jareth pulled away from Sarah was still sleeping and stood. He began dressing as he listening to his creator.
-There is a child to be born on the Earth and he will need you. Paris. -
Jareth obediently went to the mirror in the throne room after kissing Sarah
on the cheek, lightly so as to not wake her. The large mirror stood next to his throne and Jareth touched it with one gloved hand and his reflection vanished to be replaced by a familiar sight.
A pregnant woman was sweating heavily, attended by a fussing woman. The baby would be born very shortly and he would inevitably be called to take the poor child.
"Jareth?" Sarah was suddenly at his side, tying closed her white robe and looking at the picture before her. "Is this our next one?"
"Yes. Any time now."
The labor went on for hours until finally the child was born. They couldn't see it clearly, but both the watchers waited impatiently. The midwife went completely white as she stared at the newborn.
"What do you suppose could be wrong?" Sarah whispered nervously.
Jareth shrugged with a frown. What was going on?
The midwife gingerly wrapped the infant in a blanket as if she were actually afraid to touch it. Jareth would have though that it was still born, but he distinctly saw it move. The midwife called for the village priest and left the child in a corner of the room to attend to it's exhausted mother. As the minutes dragged by, Jareth noticed she kept casting frightened looks at the silent child. Sarah grabbed his hand tightly.
"What's wrong with the baby? Why won't they give it to the mother?" Her brown eyes were wide and frightened for the child's sake and Jareth wished he had an answer for her.
Finally, the midwife gave in and gave the baby to its mother. She screamed in terror and nearly threw it from her. This, of coarse, frightened the baby and it began to cry, a low, pitiful cry.
"Take it away!" The mother demanded, thrusting it at the midwife, but the plump woman wanted nothing to do with the baby and backed away.
"Can't we go?" Sarah looked at Jareth. She still didn't know what was wrong before she did something stupid.
Jareth scowled. "No. The words have to be right. She has to say it." He was obviously fighting with himself not to go to the baby.
Finally the view on the mirror revealed why the woman couldn't bear holding her own child.
"Oh, dear goodness." Sarah gasped.
"The poor child." Jareth felt such pity at the fate of the newborn.
Half it's face was missing. There was no skin on part of the face and it had no nose. There were other things wrong with its face and Jareth, with all of the suffering he had seen, had never seen such a horribly looking child.
The priest came shortly after and stared with the same macabre fascinating the others had. "What is his name?" The priest asked.
The mother didn't even look at her child. "I don't care. Name it anything."
The priest looked a little surprised at her cold tone, but not much. "Erik.
I christen you Erik Destler."
The weeks passed but the expected wish never came. Sarah and Jareth waited for what seemed an eternity and watched the mirror constantly, but the wicked mother never called.
"We can't just leave him there!" Jareth yelled to himself as he stormed through the castle, roaring as if that could help the innocent boy who was neglected beyond belief. "I have to save him. Perhaps I can plant a puzzle of some kind to trick the woman." He mused on this when he suddenly realized he was talking to himself.
Jareth looked around the hall but it was completely empty. Now where had Sarah gone?
Sarah looked around the throne room and peered into the mirror. "Show me Erik." She said.
The image faded into a nursery that had been previously an attic. There had been little effort to clean the room or make it pleasant for the baby. Sarah touched the glass only to feel a slight burning on the tips of her fingers.
Sarah spoke to the empty room. "I won't do anything. I just want to see that he's all right."
-Don't take him, Sarah. The wish must be made. For her own reason the mother has not wished. -
"Maybe she just doesn't know that the wish will work." Sarah suggested. "Please, let me tell her. I'm sure she will give him to us!"
The glass burned under her fingers when Sarah suggested breaking the rules. -No. You will not suggest this again, my child. She must make the wish freely. -
The glass stopped burning her fingers. -But you may visit. Do not take the baby, Sarah. That is Jareth's task. -
In the baby's small room, Sarah stepped out of the mirror she had created. Immediately, she went to the elaborate crib and peered in. Sarah snorted in disgust at the white mask that hid his face and she gently untied it.
Sarah cooed at the tiny boy with such intelligent eyes. He looked at her and smiled. Sarah couldn't see the malformed face, she only saw the baby that she could never have. Sarah cuddled him, sitting in a dusty rocking chair. It obviously had never been used. Together they sat in the darkness with the moon shining through a tiny window and Sarah was delighted. Erik was everything she had ever wanted in a child.
Erik's mother had been expecting a beautiful child she could show off to her friends and spoil horribly. Instead she got this little one and apparently didn't care whether it lived or not.
Sarah sat with the baby and sang to him. She sang about Labyrinth and the crystal moon, her beloved Jareth and the many friends she had, until Erik finally fell asleep in her arms.
"I want you, Erik. If this world doesn't want you, I'll take you." She told his sleep form. She felt tears starting. "Please, just don't forget me. I'll be back for you. One way or another, I'll come back for you."
She lay him carefully in the crib and covered him with a soft quilt. She kissed him on the forehead, but she couldn't stand to strap the mask back on. That horrible thing she left in a corner of the room.
Before stepping through the mirror that would take her home, Sarah looked back at him in the shadowed room. "I will come back, Erik."
Jareth was waiting when she got back, pacing in the throne room with his long arms behind his back. "Finally!" He said when she stepped through the mirror. "I feel like I've been waiting for hours! How was he?"
Sarah tried to speak, but she couldn't and ran into her husband's arms. Jareth caught her and held her silently until she could talk.
"It was awful, love." Sarah wiped tears from her eyes and she looked up into Jareth's beautiful mismatched ones. "He was just left in the dirty attic all alone. She's put a mask on him, I can't stand it! A horrible white mask. We have to do something."
"Shhh." Jareth stroked her dark hair and he tried to calm her. "We will do something, but we have to find a loophole. Labyrinth won't just let us take him."
Sarah broke out of his embrace roughly. "Labyrinth is wrong!" She declared hotly, ignoring the sudden angry rumble of thunder that echoed through the castle. "I won't let him stay there!" Her voice was raising with her fury as she began to pace angrily.
Jareth watched her irrational yelling and the temperament of Labyrinth was not improving with her rash words. Jareth blushed with some of the language Sarah was spouting at their creator. He had to do something before Sarah did something she would regret later.
Jareth created a crystal in his hand and launched it at his wife without warning. Sarah froze with her mouth open in mid scream and her fist raised as she cursed Labyrinth.
"She's going to kill me." He muttered. Jareth left her frozen in time and went to the Esher room, heart of Labyrinth.
He was instantly lifted into the air with the gentle pressure of Labyrinth surrounding him.
-Sarah is not herself. This child has affected her. -
Jareth was silent a moment. Could Labyrinth really not understand how much Sarah, and he, wanted a child of their own?
"She fears for Erik." Jareth started carefully. "The child's mother won't care for him and we both desperately want him." Perhaps the loophole was here.
-We have no claim to the boy until the wish is made. - The voice whispered into his ear.
"But, what if the wish is not made?" Jareth asked. "The child may not survive his childhood."
-It has happened before. - Labyrinth told him sadly. -Many children die when they are unwanted and not given to us. -
"Do you want this one to die, also?"
Jareth choked when his breath was suddenly squeezed out of him. -Do not anger me, my son! I never want a child to die. We can not break rules for every child who deserves pity or needs us. -
"Why not?" Jareth gasped as the words were squeezed out of him. "Erik won't survive without us."
Suddenly Jareth was lowered to the floor and room darkened as Labyrinth's voice became stronger, more forceful.
-I made the rules for many reasons. We can not break them. Find the loophole you are looking for, Jareth. Find it and I won't fight you. I want Erik as much as you do. -
Jareth left the room wearily. Now came the hard part.
Sarah was still frozen when he went back to the throne room and Jareth hesitated just a moment before unfreezing her. When he did this to mortals they never remembered what happened. Sarah was not mortal so there was no telling how this would affect her.
Unfortunately, she remembered everything. "How dare you do that to me?" She demanded when he released her. "You've never used you're power on me, how would you like it if I used my sword on you?"
Jareth held his hands out to pacify her. "Take it easy, darling. I wanted to talk to Labyrinth about Erik before you said something silly."
Sarah crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Well, what did it say?"
At least she was willing to listen. "We can't just take him." Seeing her gearing up for another scream, Jareth quickly continued. "But there is a loophole." Sarah closed her mouth. "It didn't say what the loophole is, but there is one, we just have to find it."
Sarah thought a moment and then smiled shyly. "I guess I did get a bit worked up."
"Just a bit."
"Forgive me?"
"Always."
They spent the next few weeks looking through all the books in Sarah's vast library and watching Erik through the mirror. Jareth came to visit Erik with Sarah at night and took delight in holding the infant and creating toys for him.
That stupid mother would never know how the strange toys appeared in the attic every night.
Finally, after nearly a month, Jareth found it.
There was no secret, really. It was just common sense. "All we have to do is wait for the full moon." He told Sarah one night while they sat in front of the fire.
"The full moon? Why?" She asked.
"When the moon is full it makes it possible for us to bring a mortal here, but just for one night."
Sarah frowned. "I know that." She told him. "But it'll only work for that one night. We won't be able to keep him."
Jareth deflated a bit at this. "It's the best we have. Isn't one night a month better than no time at all?"
Sarah wrapped her arms around him and gave him a passionate kiss. "Yes. It's much better than nothing. The full moon is only a few days away."
And so it happened that Erik was brought into the Labyrinth one night every month. They faithfully brought him into the mirror and gave the unhappy child a night of bliss filled with music, stories, and adventure. Jareth taught him to sing and gave him the voice of an angle.
Sarah taught him to read and gave him an excellent education in her library. She also taught him to fight, as she knew how cruel his world would be to him. Sarah had started to teach him to use a sword as she did, but Erik quickly chose his own weapon.
The Punjab lasso was a thin string that he could strangle within a heart beat. Frankly, Sarah was most impressed and pleased that he would be able to take care of himself.
As he grew Erik loved his visits to the magical land where no one noticed what he looked like and the people didn't like to look at his mask, they wanted to see his face. They never made him wear it.
Erik ran through the Labyrinth playing with the goblins and other creatures he found there.
Erik began to grow up and he wanted to explore his own world. He had never been wished away and they weren't allowed to tell him the secret words any more than they were allowed to tell his mother.
Unfortunately, Erik grew resentful at this.
"Why can't I stay with you?" He demanded as his monthly night drew to a close. Sarah and Jareth wanted so much to tell him, but there were the rules. He had to say the words on his own without guidance.
"I'm sorry, Erik." Jareth said softly. It was a conversation they'd had many times. "I've told you we can't just keep you. You belong to the other world. No matter how much we love you."
Erik snorted bitterly. "You would keep me if you loved me." He glared at his beautiful family. "I don't want to come back if I can't stay." He crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly.
Sarah went to Erik and tried to put her arms around the boy who'd become like a son to her, but he pulled away from her.
"Why do you bring me only once a month to Labyrinth?" Erik demanded. "Why can't I just stay. It's not like anyone would miss me in the other world. My own mother would weep for joy if I just disappeared."
"The rules, Erik. The rules." Sarah told him with tears in her eyes. She hated those awful rules. The rules she had been created to obey were keeping her from her child and she cringed from the terrible anger in his eyes.
Jareth knew this had been building for a while. The past few months, Erik had grown quiet and seemed so unhappy. It wasn't hard to figure out why, he felt like the only people who loved him were betraying him, somehow.
Suddenly, Erik burst. "I don't ever want to come here again if I can't stay!" And with that he jumped through the mirror that was his path to the mortal world.
Sarah burst into tears and Jareth held her while tears ran down his own face. There was nothing they could do if he didn't want to come back.
"We can't lose him." Jareth whispered into Sarah's hair. "We can't lose our son."
"What can we do if he doesn't want to see us?" Sarah asked him.
"We wait. Who knows, someday, he may wish to return to us."
Erik continued in his life in the mortal world with Sarah and Jareth unable to help from their side of the mirror. They watched him amaze crowds with his beautiful voice and horrify them with his face.
"I wish they would stare." Jareth confessed to Sarah. "It hurts him so much."
Years later, Erik was a feared magician in the court of Persia where he committed his first cold-blooded murder for the amusement of a queen. Sarah yelled for hours and threatened to throttle him. That was nothing compared to Jareth's reaction to the first time they saw him with opium a friend had given him.
"Opium? What's that boy thinking?" Jareth demanded, throwing his arms up. "He's smarter than that!"
"Erik!" Sarah screamed in horror. He fell to the floor of his dark home and Jareth reached out to the mirror as if he could somehow help.
"Labyrinth, please, let us help him!" Jareth cried. "He's our son!"
In the mirror, they heard the approaching mob, thirsty for Erik's blood. "Please, I beg you!" Jareth put his arms around Sarah.
Some distant part of Labyrinth felt a stirring in its soul. It saw its children crying and a child, who had graced them all with his laughter long ago, was in danger. But the rules...
In his dark labyrinth, Erik closed his eyes and wished softly to see his family one last time.
Jareth and Sarah found themselves in Erik's underground home. His own created Labyrinth. The knelt next to Erik and Jareth took his son's head in his lap.
"Father?" Erik's eyes fluttered open and he managed to focus on them. "Mother?"
"We're here, Erik." Jareth whispered, stroking his child's long, dark curls. "We've missed you."
"Loved her so much." Sarah turned her head and saw the girl Erik was talking about. Christine. She was pale and fragile looking with wide dark eyes. Sarah could see that she was trembling and the young man at her side was holding her upright. That would be Raul. "I can't let her die. Not here, like this." He was struggling for breath and looked at Sarah. "Mother, please."
Sarah reluctantly nodded, more for her son's peace of mind than the girl's safety.
There was a glow of light surrounding her and Christine covered her mouth to keep from screaming. When the light vanished, Sarah stood in her black iron armor with her massive sword in her hand.
"Just rest, Erik. I'll take care of your visitors." She reassured him as she pulled her visor down to cover her face. A mob of angry opera singers was really nothing to worry her. Sarah had fought demons and armies of the Faye.
When the mob reached Erik's home all they saw was a black devil swinging an awful sword. The demon roared at them and flew through the air at them. Everyone forgot the revenge they'd planned on the phantom and ran back up to the safety of the theater, convinced that Christine had been murdered by the thing from Hell.
Sarah stopped, just keeping herself from killing those who'd made her son's life miserable. They were waiting for her when she came back to them, Erik was still resting on Jareth's lap and now Christine was kneeling next to him. She was holding his pale hand in hers.
Sarah put her arms around Jareth and they let the two speak.
"I love you Christine. I have since I saw you in the chorus." Erik gasped out painfully.
"I love you, Erik." She whispered to him and Sarah knew this was probably the first time she had admitted it to anyone, even herself. "Don't leave me." Tears streamed down her cheeks and Erik reached up to wipe them away.
"Go now, Christine. Go and be happy so I can be happy." He looked passed her to Raul. "Take care of her, young man. She is to be treasured."
Raul stood behind Christine. "I know." And when he looked down at her all the love and admiration shone in his eyes for her. He loved her as much as Erik did and he would care for Christine his whole life.
Raul took Christine away while she sobbed and tried to get back to her dying love. When they had finally vanished down one of the darkly shadowed tunnels Sarah kissed her child on his cheek.
"My baby. My sweet, baby." She stroked his hair as Jareth had done. "Look how much you've grown." How had he gotten so old? He must be nearly fifty and Sarah had never noticed.
"I've missed you, mother. I miss the music and the dancing." A tear sprang from his eye. "I can see it all in my memory, you know. Every night, my whole life I see the tall green hedges and those awful little fairies. I can see the stars and the crystal moon high over the land. I feel Labyrinth in my heart and it was the only place I ever knew happiness."
Jareth was crying now, trying to soothe his son, his little Erik.
"But," Erik continued, as his voice grew softer and softer. "I don't regret my life. It brought me to Christine and I can never regret knowing her. She is my heart and I would gladly relive any pain for the chance to know her." Erik closed his eyes and went limp in Jareth's arms.
"He's gone." Sarah cried, gripping Jareth's hands tightly. Her heart felt like it would burst. "My baby is dead!"
Jareth was quiet for a moment and brushed the tears roughly away. "No! This can't be the end! I won't let him die!"
Sarah looked at her husband with reddened eyes. "It's to late, he's gone."
Jareth gave her a bitter grin. "You were dead once, also, but you came back."
In their arms, Erik began to fade. "What's happening?" Sarah asked as she tried to get a hold of him, but there was nothing to hold onto. "This isn't how human's die!"
"Hold him! Get him!" Jareth yelled, vainly trying to hold their son as Sarah was.
It was no use, Erik was quickly gone from sight and Sarah and Jareth were alone in the silent room. Suddenly, Sarah gasped and clutched her stomach. There was a strange sensation, not pain, exactly, but something very close to it.
"Sarah? What's wrong?" Jareth asked, worried. He'd just lost his son and now he didn't want to lose his wife in the same night.
"I don't know. We have to go home." She doubled over as another wave of pain hit her.
Jareth picked her up and instantly they were in their chambers where he lay her on the bed. Sarah was sweating and rubbing her tender stomach. "What's happening to me?"
Labyrinth's echoed voice answered. -My daughter, you wished for a child for so long and you wished for Erik. I grant you both wishes. -
Jareth spoke to Labyrinth. "What do you mean? Erik died. Why is Sarah in pain?"
There was a soft laugh. -Sarah will bear the child you have both wished for. The pain is from her body changing. I took your suggestion, Jareth. Erik will be reborn as your first child. -
Sarah and Jareth looked at each other with shocked expressions. Neither of them had expected this.
-He will look exactly as he did in this life and his personality will be the same. I will not curse him with the memories from this life, though. He will be as happy as you make him. He will be my child and will not turn into one of the goblins. One day, I will remake Christine for him. -
-Erik lives, Sarah, within your body. -
Sarah and Jareth smiled. Jareth reached out, almost shyly and touched his wife's belly.
END