The Goblin King is Dead

The Goblin King is dead. And it was her fault. It didn't happen overnight. It happened gradually, over the course of a few years. Sarah completed his labyrinth. The halls are empty. The Goblins have all fled. The labyrinth still stands, but it's crumbling. The vines have taken over. Jareth didn't realize the energy that dispersed, when Sarah said the fatal words. He didn't feel like doing anything after that. The Labyrinth seemed empty, despite the population that lived within it. Sarah. Sarah. He had been sure she would have chosen to stay. That was the sole reason he took Toby to begin with, to lure her here. From the day he noticed her practicing lines he had to have her or die. The first hours after she was finally gone, he paced the halls of his castle. She had won, and she had gone home, end of story. Yes, true, he had put all of his eggs in one basket, he supposed.

It was very true also, that he hadn't played fair. That's bound to annoy anyone. She had been moving too quickly. Sarah was a very, very smart girl. How was he to know she would make 'friends' and charm everyone around her, just as she had enchanted him. He HAD to send her back to the beginning. He HAD to raise the states, didn't he? He HAD to be frightening, that was what she asked for after all. Wasn't he GIVING her what he had asked for?

He needed her presence, her light, her innocence. She must stay she had to stay. A peach. Girls loved peaches, yes? Well he did, it was his favorite fruit. Dress in your finest and tease them a bit, dance with them. Enchant them. Sarah was, sadly too smart for his good. That's part of what drew him to her.

In the end nothing worked. He whittled away, in mind and body his magic slowly disappeared. He couldn't control the goblins any longer, and found, that really he didn't have a mind to anymore either. He couldn't seem to find meaning in all the mischief he was doing. So he created a rose garden. Every kind of rose imaginable in every color of the rainbow. Perhaps he could lure her back once more with beauty. But there was a flaw in his plan. He was the enemy, and she was a teenager. Everything was black and white. Another point was she had the selfishness that can only be attributed to those years. Sure she was young, but she would grow and mature, would she not? He couldn't bring himself to back to the human world. He was not a whiner or a loser by nature, but she had sapped his strength, his magic, and his willpower.

He fell into a deep depression. Food meant nothing. He couldn't sleep, so he haunted the halls of the castle. He was his own ghost, he pined for her. He didn't scry on her. She was happier without him. What was the point?

He acknowledged that this was unlike him. Why couldn't he just get OVER her. Maybe he could send a messenger, but had the feeling he would be rebuffed and it would be like losing her all over again. That was something that would only hasten the inevitable. He couldn't make decisions. Perhaps if she hadn't sapped so much of his power, perhaps if she had shown that she cared, just a little what happened to him in the end. . . but no, she would make a life for herself and marry and have children of her own. Would she even remember him? He made sure to haunt a dream or two, but that was all. He felt a bit of magic return, a bit of vim and vigor, as though her interest had been piqued. All too quickly though the magic had faded, and his energy continued to evade him.

He didn't shape-shift. He didn't moodily sit. He didn't sing. Slowly, day by day, he began to fade. On the final day, his magic dispersed to glitter and air, and he was no more. The oubliette opened up. The Bog has dried up, the stench long gone.

Didymus and Ludo eventually were no longer needed by Sarah, and they fell by the wayside, too. No funerals, no ceremonies, just memories. Memories were the only thing that would carry on the Goblin King, that and dreams. The only place he existed now was in Sarah's dreams, and that was as fine a place to end up as any.

-FIN-