(A/N) this is my first Labyrinth fic, (though I don't know why, this should have been done a loooonnnng time ago!) I love this movie and have since the first time I saw it, unfortunately I was at the tender age of four and a half so I didn't appreciate most of it until later… ; )
When I discovered that there was an entire section in the movies category just for Labyrinth….well, lets just say that I was swallowed whole by a plot bunny-it didn't matter what it took, I had to write this! SO I hope you all enjoy it!
P.S. - There are two flashbacks to the movie-both easily recognized, no they're not mine so please don't sue me.
DISCLAIMER: I-regretfully-do not own Labyrinth or any of the characters from said movie they belong to the Jim Henson Company, David Bowie, and lots and lots of other brilliant people who are not me... (obviously, otherwise Jareth and Sarah would have ended up together a long time ago!) but I do own the plot of this story
(The disclaimer you read up until 3:13 february 25th was a test...(bad,bad, badie, bad bad fan fic author: I accidentally disclaimed this to the wrong person...lol)
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CHAPTER I -
Fierce blue eyes surveyed the ruins with a lingering gaze. Once, this place had been a circular structure, with a high stone tiled ceiling supported by thick granite columns. It had been a sacred place, unsurpassed in its ability to channel magic, a place where the powerful once came to cast their enchantments and charms.
But that had been many years ago. Now it lay in ruin, crumbling and forgotten.
Or so Aunt Millie had told her when she first brought Sarah to see the it for the first time. It had frightened her then, that wilder scent on the wind like the smell of summer just before a thunderstorm, or the air in December just before it snows. She hadn't understood at the time that it was the scent of magic, where the barrier between Above and the Underground was at its most thin.
What was once the great stone ceiling was now empty air, the only covering now was the shade of the ever encroaching tree limbs. Large chunks of stone, once part of the ceiling, now littered the worn flagstones. The great marble colonnade were now nothing more than worn obelisks, some less than half their original height, so far advanced was their decay. The ornate carvings that had once decorated their surface had long since been worn smooth by the passage of time and the trials of nature.
Sarah Williams took a few cautious steps onto the flagstones, her dark hair was unbound and hung almost to her knees, swirling around her with each step she took.
Much of the floor was covered in a thick green coating of moss, and weeds poked up through the cracks in the stones. Dense black vines obscured what was left of the colonnades, while a heavy canopy of branches overhead effectively shaded the weak afternoon sunlight. The place had a quiet, almost secretive quality.
A few shafts of sunlight still managed to penetrate the ruin, falling in diagonal rays seeming surreal in their whiteness. The streams of light made visible all the dust motes and feathery seed pods that floated so gracefully through the air, purified as they passed by the bright light. All this combined to give the ruins an eerie ambiance of quietude.
This place had become her favorite hideaway since her return from the Underground. Somehow the library, the park, even her own room; none of them held the same attractiveness as they once did. The cares of her old life had paled, no longer as pressing and imminent as they had once been. Sarah found herself withdrawing from the world as her perspective altered, expanding in new ways to encompass a larger view than she had previously thought possible. It wasn't that nothing mattered anymore, it was just that everything seemed to matter equally at once, she saw the tiny connections she had always missed more clearly.
She realized that her friends had seen the change in her. Slowly but surely they had drifted apart. It was easier than she'd thought; she hadn't had many to begin with. Kathy hadn't bought a minute of it though. She'd never pressured Sarah to tell her what had transpired, only continued to watch her with that knowing look.
Of course Sarah had felt guilty for keeping her secret from her best friend. But what could she say-besides the ever popular, Oh, and by the way, the Goblin King abducted my brother so I had to run through his kookie maze and get him back, that's why I've been weird for the past few years…
Finally she couldn't stand it anymore. She had to tell Kathy the truth.
It was like breaking a dam inside herself. Once the first trickle started there was no way to stop until it was all out in the open. She told Kathy the whole story, the words pouring from her lips in a jumbled stream. Kathy was quite when Sarah finished her bizarre tale. She hadn't laughed or scorned her as Sarah had feared. She did ask to see the small, red leather book that had caused so much trouble.
How could she refuse? Kathy accepted it quietly and studied it for a few minutes. She hadn't made any move to open it-or read it, much to Sarah's relief-and handed it back without another word.
After that night, they had both put the conversation from their minds. Indeed, Sarah was sure that Kathy had quickly forgotten it.
She, however, was not so lucky.
Try as she might, Sarah couldn't seem to put the Goblin King and his strange labyrinth from her mind. That face had haunted her dreams and nightmares for the past four years.
Kathy had accepted her brooding silences without question. She'd been content to sit and read with her.
Sarah choked back a sob.
Kathy….what the hell were you thinking?
Sarah wanted desperately to be angry, to find a target, someone, something-anything!- to blame for the accident. But when it came right down to it, Sarah knew it was her friends pride that had been at fault. She'd pushed herself into riding the stallion; still young and barely green broke, both girls had been strictly prohibited from handling him, but Kathy never could resist a challenge…
Sarah had gone along with it. Kathy knew what she was doing, if she said she could handle it, then surely everything would turn out alright.
Things had been going so well. He'd behaved better than either of them had ever seen him do. Sarah couldn't help but smile at the memory of Kathy's ecstatic expression. She'd been almost done. Ten goddamn feet to the mounting block…But the wind had picked up, almost from nowhere, whipping a empty feed bag across their path.
Sarah saw it. It was strange how time seemed to slip into slow motion; there was time to do anything and everything, and at the same time no time at all. Even as she ran to reach Kathy, she knew she'd never get there quickly enough.
The young stud-colt had gone completely bonkers, he reared, throwing the girl off balance, then flew, bucking and kicking around the arena, trying to unseat her with a tantrum. His efforts worked, sending Kathy soaring over the fence to collide with the unyielding stone wall of the barn.
She'd been airlifted to the local hospital, while Sarah followed behind in Kathy's truck.
The doctors of St. Michael's had adamantly refused to let Sarah see her. Pointing out time and again the hospital's strict admittance policy, but she'd managed to glean from a passing nurse that the chances weren't good. Kathy was in a coma, her back was broken, along with her arm and four ribs, internal damage, the list went on and on. There was nothing left that could be done. That's what the doctors told Kathy's family; she was in God's hands now. There was nothing more that modern medicine could provide, it was up to her to heal, or so they said. The options had been exhausted. That was what they told her.
Sarah knew better, though.
She listened to their words, she nodded her head and agreed in all the right places, but silently she was calculating her chances of surviving what she had planned.
There was always another way, because things were not always what they appeared…
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The air in the immense throne room was still and deathly quiet. The revels of the inebriated goblins had long since ended and there was not a gurgle of ale or a malicious snicker to be heard. The wall sconces had been extinguished hours ago, the soft rays of moon glow were the only illumination as they streamed silently in through the open window. At first glance the cavernous room would have seemed as empty. But it wasn't.
If one took the time to allow their eyes to adjust to the gloom, then they would see a lone figure perched on the throne, it's wooden back in the shape of a crescent. In truth it was a stroke of luck that the figure was alone because the figure belonged to Jareth, the King of the Goblins, and he was at present brooding over his current situation.
Jareth slumped lazily in his seat, one leg draped over the arm of his chair as he tapped a riding crop rhythmically against his booted foot. His eyes seemed to slice through the shadowy gloom that was his throne room.
It had happened four years ago; ancient history really…Yet the girl continued to plague his thoughts. It was ridiculous really, that a mere mortal girl, hardly more than a child really, had managed to so thoroughly turn his world upside down.
To really understand this melancholy monarch you would have to understand the beginning of the story. Jareth had for many centuries been the sole ruler of his kingdom, and was very accustomed to having his own way. As one might imagine, over the years this had made him rather spoilt and he was not a gracious looser. When it came to challenges of reasoning and intellect he considered himself unmatched, so you could understand how being bested by a fifteen year old human girl at a game of his own design had been a sharp knife to his swollen ego. But that was only half of the story. You see, the small, red-leather bound book that had fallen into Sarah Williams possession had more truth to than anyone had guessed. The King of the Goblins really had fallen in love with the mortal girl.
Her refusal to see him as anything other than the villain from her own little twisted faery tale, her refusal to see his last minute offer for what it was, had wounded him more than anyone could have thought. And so he sat, night after night, in the gloom of the empty throne room, until he was exhausted from the storm of thoughts in is mind so that he would be able to sleep with out dreaming of her.
No, he decided, this would not end that way. The game would go on, he would find a way to bring her back, then bring her down, just as she had him. She would be made low. Then, and only then, when she had fallen as far as he had, would he be able to bring himself to forgive her. Yes. That would do nicely.
Jareth was no fool. He understood that his failure from the past had been brought about by two things. For one, he had seriously underestimated Sarah Williams. Of all the others in the past who had wished someone away-all of them, without fail-had eventually given up and chosen to accept their dreams. Be it through weakness or greed they had all given in to him.
But not her.
Through every twist and turn she had defied him; refusing to forget the babe and accept the reality of everything she'd ever longed for. In part it was her sheer determination, her refusal to be turned aside from her chosen goal, was part of what had made her so appealing. It wasn't until the last moment, when it was too late to change the game, that he realized just how far that appeal extended.
When he had made his offer, she'd assumed-naturally-that it was only a ploy to stall for time. She had never considered that he might have been serious. She had been too young to understand what he was offering, and had seen him as the enemy for too long to change her perspective in a moment.
His second mistake had been his lack of a true plan. He'd relied on his labyrinth to do his work for him, refusing to accept even the possibility that she might solve it. That was the difference between her and the others. Those who managed to wind up in his grasp tended to be dreamers, and they looked at the problem with a dreamers perspective, relying on instinct, not intellect.
Sarah Williams, however, was nothing if not logical. She had solved his game through pure reasoning, refusing to believe her instincts and choosing that which her mind told her was true.
Jareth understood his mistakes, and he would not repeat them this time. He would keep to his plan, and he this time he would win.
With a thought, a crystal formed on his fingertips, and he couldn't help the smug grin that spread across his features as he watched the image within. It seemed his plan would be set in motion sooner than he had thought.
If only she knew the consequences of the events she was about to set in motion….
….Such a pity….
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Sarah drew a deep shuddering breath to steady her nerves. She was ready, and it was now or never time. She was as prepared as she could reasonably expect to be. Her hands were empty of any traditional weapons; she knew that they would do little good against his magic. Karen was out of town, and Toby was staying with a friend for the next two days. Even Merlin had been sent to stay with one of her friends from the barn. There was no one left to come looking, no one left who might get unnecessarily involved.
She wasn't sure what she could offer, but she would think of something when the time came.
There was no mirror in the ruins, and she hadn't brought one. Though she used them to call to Hoggle, Ludo, and Didymus, Sarah was sure that he wouldn't need one. He was quite capable of appearing Aboveground all on his own.
She was ready. It was time. Her nerve was already hanging on by a thread, and Sarah knew that if she waited much longer she would loose it all together and collapse into a quivering heap. Even now the idea was appealing, but she couldn't afford to think about that just now.
Easy now, Sarah. You can do this you can. You beat him once and you'll do it again, because you don't have any other choice…
"Now or never," she muttered. She closed her eyes before she said the final words, afraid that nothing would happen, and afraid that something would.
"…Alright, Jareth, I admit it; I need you. Please come out…"
Now that she thought about it, Sarah wasn't quite sure how to call to him. Was there a protocol for this, or was merely speaking his name enough to get his attention? She certainly wasn't going to wish anyone away to him to bring him back.
She waited for a few minutes, eyes squeezed shut, afraid to see the results of this-probably stupid-endeavor. A few moments more, and she was starting to get impatient. Where was he? Knowing him, she would have thought that he'd jump at the chance to humiliate her, and yet…nothing.
"Jareth? Are you listening? I need you!" she called again, louder this time.
Sarah sighed. Unsure of what she had really expected. It had been four years; he'd probably forgotten her by now. She would have liked nothing more than to simply go me and forget the whole silly idea, but the memory of Kathy lying prone in a hospital bed seemed burned into her mind.
"Jareth! I know you can hear me, so don't bother pretending you can't!"
Still, no response.
Alright…here's to hoping this isn't the last thing I do… "Jareth, I wish you would come here and help me help Kathy, right now!" the whole thing came out in a single hurried breath.
Sarah sighed again. Perhaps it was better this way. There was no telling how he would twist her words to his own gain… She turned and strode through the rubble towards the path back to town.
There was only one step left until she would be out of the ruins. It was faint as it drifted to her, as though from far off in the distance, so much so that she almost missed it. The gentle breeze that had cooled her on the walk up to the ruin turned feral, wilder, catching at her clothes and whipping her hair across her face with startling ferocity. That's when she sensed it; that magic scent, it tasted of summer storms, and candle smoke, and things that were not but she knew had once been dreamt of. It was unique…and uniquely Jareth.
Oh dear…
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(A/N) -Well?! How did you like it?! Tell me!! Review me!! You know I live for it!!! Seriously, this is one of the few things I've ever written that I'm really nervous about…gimme some feedback