A thin, frail figure strode about the dark halls of the castle beyond the Goblin City. He muttered curses to himself. The profanities were heard by no one, for he had forced out all the castle occupants weeks earlier. He had it all to himself. A deranged smile splayed unto his lips when his eyes landed on the throne that stood vacant in the middle of a large room. He chuckled as he sat it in, savoring the taste of victory.
It was a throne fit for a king.
It was a throne fit for him.
He threw his head back, and unleashed a maniacal laugh. He had the Goblin Throne, but this was just the start. He'd get more, he was just destined for more. Soon, all of both worlds would bow before him. There was no one who could stop him.
Sarah quickly studied her reflection in the elevator door. Realizing she looked acceptable, she glanced at her wrist watch. She had to run to the bank to cash in her first check she received from her new job at the theater that was two blocks away from her apartment. After that, she'd have to attend a meeting at the theater to discuss a performance of a traveling troupe with her coworkers and supervisors. She frowned when she remembered the play. It was a child's play, the title she couldn't remember, but the summary sure caught her attention. The play was about goblins kidnapping a princess, and prince charming coming to rescue the damsel in distress.
Sarah had to restrain herself from going mad when she heard about the play. It sent a horrible message to the audience. Sarah personally felt it children shouldn't be taught such ideas. When reading the script for the play earlier, Sarah scowled when she read that the princess merely cried and sobbed once captured. Sarah was more than eager to tell her supervisors of her opinion.
The fact that the play involved goblins may have also fueled her displeasure with it.
She made a face. The word "goblins" gave her flashbacks. Deciding to humor herself, Sarah smiled at the reflection in the elevator door. She was alone in the elevator and there was no harm in trying. In the back of her mind she had always wanted to call them, but she never had the time for anything nowadays.
"Hoggle?" she called out expectantly. It had been a couple of years since she called him out. Somewhere in her mind, she convinced herself everything was a dream. But somewhere deep in her heart, she knew it wasn't. She felt conflicted on what was reality and fantasy that night, nearly seven years ago.
"Hoggle..?" the smile slowly dissolved from her lips and a straight, displeased line formed in its place. The elevator came to the lobby floor, Sarah stood there for a moment, as if frozen and still staring in her reflection. She then stormed out shaking her head. She couldn't possibly have been any more displeased or embarrassed with herself.
As she walked through the lobby a small, distraught voice called from the elevator.
"Sarah..." it whimpered.
Sarah took in her surroundings as she entered the bank. Everyone walked with purpose and in a fast stride. They wore serious expressions, like they were born with big frowns on their faces, Sarah noted. They also wore very sophisticated and high-end clothing. It seemed like everyone there dressed in business suits. Women there all wore blazers with padded shoulders, pencil skirts, and point toed pumps. The men there wore suits and all wore similar looking dress shoes that were so polished looking into them was like looking into a mirror. Everyone there dressed in the same, professional attire. Whether they were bank employees or account holders, would be impossible to tell. Everyone looked the same!
Sarah tried her best to keep from cringing when she looked down at her own attire. She wore simple jeans with soft leather brown slip-ons, and a loose-fitting and flowy cream-colored blouse, with short sleeves. She felt like an unsophisticated child next to these people. She sighed. Karen was right, Sarah would never really fit in with the New York crowd. Even when she was younger, Sarah never really dressed in the same contemporary fashion as everyone else did. She had been teased for that many times in grade school. Karen would always bicker at her to wear some pumps, or to get a perm.
She snapped out of her thoughts when a small group of young men wearing denim entered the bank. She smiled a little, Karen was wrong!
Sarah's smile fell straight to the floor when she saw one of those young men pull out a gun.
"Your Majesty..." Didymus whimpered, then let out a dog like whine. A gloved hand batted the air in a shooing motion.
"I'm well." Jareth grunted. It was an obvious lie. He brought his hand up to rub his temple. His eyes slid closed when the pain eased a bit. "And you, Didymus, know better than to call me that, especially now." Jareth's voice was laced with wry amusement. Didymus cringed deeply.
Didymus had always called him "Your Majesty", but now Didymus really didn't have to call him that.
A second passed, Didymus straightened his back and held his head high, or at least as high as he could. "I pledged my loyalty to the Goblin King in my younger days." Didymus began proudly. "And who was the Goblin King then?" Didymus grinned. Jareth's eyes opened at the question. Jareth turned his head slightly to meet Didymus's eyes. Jareth smiled. Didymus placed some more firewood into the fire as he waited for Jareth's answer.
"Well? Hmm?" Didymus turned to Jareth, the eyebrow above his eye patch quirked. Jareth chuckled.
"Me." Jareth answered simply.
"Yes, and I believe a pledge is a pledge! You have my loyalty! That insolent fiend," he spat the two words "may have the throne but he will never have the loyalty and respect from his subjects that you still have. Never forget that, Jareth. He isn't even a sixth of the man you are." Didymus ranted, disdain clearly written on his furry face. He quickly switched over to his usual, cheery self. "Well, I am off to retire to bed now, Jareth. Perhaps you would like another blanket? Or beverages to help you sleep?" Didymus waggled his eyebrows at Jareth.
"No, thank you Didymus. I'm, again, indebted to you. Goodnight." Didymus bowed his head and went to his room. Jareth smiled as he watched. Didymus was loyal to him, after all this time, even after assisting in Jareth's defeat, Didymus still had the utmost respect for him, strangely.
Jareth recalled a battle from long ago, when Didymus had barely grown out of his young pup stage. The Labyrinth and the Goblin City was under attack by unicorns. Though thought to be gentle and kind creatures, unicorns were actually blood thirsty monsters and were more than capable of murder. Jareth was busy fighting off a unicorn with a purple coat when he heard a scream behind him. Using the unicorn's confusion to his advantage, he quickly decapitated it, and then turned to see a fox creature nearly on his back, protecting him. Realization dawned when Jareth saw the fox's gouged eye, and blood on the horn of a white unicorn.
This fox, who Jareth had never even seen prior to that moment, had risked his life to protect him.
Jareth wrapped himself up tightly in the warm blanket Didymus had given him. Jareth smiled again, he found himself doing that since he arrived at the fox's home. He sat in a chair, that was much too big for Didymus might he add, in front of the lit fire-place. Earlier, Jareth had been wandering around the Labyrinth aimlessly when he had encountered a bridge that seemed familiar to him. It didn't take him too long at all to remember who he entrusted to guard the bridge in what seemed like ages ago. He was just about to turn around when the fox spotted him. The fox, upon laying eyes on Jareth, insisted on bringing him into his home to stay for at the minimum, a night. With the invitation, Didymus slightly bruised Jareth's pride, but he was very grateful for it none the less.
"Alright! Everyone on the ground now!" came the command from one of the four robbers, several shots went off. The loud pop left Sarah momentarily deaf with its volume. She frantically scampered the bank floor to hide behind a large decorative plant. Everyone dropped to the floor, and blood curdling screams cut the air. A millisecond later, another series of shots rang out. The bodies' of three security guards dropped lifelessly to the floor of the bank with a dull thud.
Sarah studied the leader of the group from behind the potted plant. She noticed he couldn't be any older than twenty-five. He had a pale complexion and ink blank hair. His big blue eyes reminded her of a scared wild animal. Kinda like the raccoon her father had found in their garage. A ten-year old Sarah had watched the wild animal with a burning curiosity. It knew it was in a bad place, but it was trying its best to defend itself in unknown territory. Like her father had said, the raccoon was more scared of her, than she was of it.
The leader's face skin was covered in perspiration. His cheeks were sunken in and there were bruises underneath his eyes. He was bone thin, the large white shirt he wore barely clung to his bone thin shoulders. The three other robbers, who huddled behind the leader, were in the same sickly condition.
An incredulous look appeared on Sarah's face. They're not wearing masks? The black-haired leader stuck out his gun and pointed to a feeble old woman behind the counter. Sarah hurriedly glanced at the other three robbers. None of them had guns! The black-haired leader's hand shook uncontrollably as he held the gun. With a shaky hand, he pulled out a black plastic garbage bag.
"P-Put the money in the bag, b-bitch."
Even from afar, Sarah could see a group of purple bruises on the robbers arm. Her eyes widened in understanding. None of those robbers had thought anything through, they didn't even want the money really, but the one thing they could buy with it.
Reckless putting her faith into how unorganized the robbers were, Sarah took her chances and slowly rose to her feet.
"Hey." she began in a firm voice. She held her hands up, showing she meant no harm. Those acting lessons sure helped her become a better liar. She seemed almost brave, despite every atom of her being shouting at her to get back down. The group of bandits turned to face her, but the leader continued to point the gun at the old woman. The four gave her the up and down. Something bloomed in their eyes that Sarah couldn't recognize.
"Listen, girlie, you don't gotta be a hero for these people." Blue Eyes said, the word dripping with disdain. Something in his face convinced Sarah that he really didn't want to hurt her.
"Please, just don't hurt anybody else. Look around you, you're surrounded by innocent people."
The leader scowled at her. His eyes narrowed. "What do you care if I killed these people?"
The question flooded Sarah's mind with thoughts.
"Don't you know right from wrong?" she retorted, not using a single one of those thoughts. The leader chuckled, and suddenly he just seemed like another tired person her age who was lost in the world.
"Markie," the leader called out, "get her outta here." He pointed at Sarah, black plastic bag still in his hand. One of the bandits walked up to Sarah and dragged her by the arm towards the bank door. She didn't put up a struggle until they were outside of the bank. Once outside, she jerked herself away from the so-called Markie.
"What are you doing, why is he letting me go?"
Markie looked at her with ashamed eyes.
"You remind us of someone we knew." and with that, Markie walked back into the bank.
Sarah ran a hand through her hair. She was bewildered at the bandit's impulsive decision to let her go. She scanned around for some police nearby. There were none. Sarah shook her head, not knowing what to do. She had to find a way to save those people inside.
"I wish someone would save those people." she muttered to herself as she paced around an alley near the bank.
Another gunshot made her stop in her tracks, Oh God, she thought to herself in a sudden realization.
It couldn't be...
Although dread began to pool in the pit of her stomach, she couldn't deny she was a bit hopeful, too. Somewhere deep down, she had hoped it was him. She wanted to seem him.
Jareth scowled at the young mortal in front of him. He had just gotten comfortable, too. Jareth felt compelled to kill the young man and save the other mortals inside the room he had suddenly been spirited away to. His scowl deepened when he recognized this compulsion.
"Sarah..." he growled.
Hello! Welcome to my first Labyrinth fanfic "Void"!
I'd like to point out several thing, just to help yall understand a few things.
I was born in 1996, and have lived in the Southern part of the US for most of my life. So of course anything really about the Aboveground world Sarah lives in will be based on what little knowledge I have of the time period and location. I apologize in advance in things seem a little... fake.
Now that I've got that off my chest! I'd like to thank you for taking time to read the first chapter of my fanfic. Earlier this week I had been reading Labyrinth fanfiction that was over a year old. I am truly, utterly in love with Labyrinth and thought what the hell, and decided to write my own fanfiction.
Disclaimer; as much as I'd love to, I don't own Labyrinth.