This piece was written after listening to 'The Death Waltz'. There will be a non-canon death, and the punishment may exceed the crimes, but not by much.
I do not own the Labyrinth, Jim Henson does.
The Labyrinth.
The living maze of the Underground that both served as a testing ground for Runners and as a home for all sorts of unusual, magical, beings.
The majority of these inhabitants were fun loving and relatively harmless; only meant to distract the Runners with their silly games.
However, some of the residents were more… sinister, in nature.
Most of the mortals that passed through went home without ever having met any of these darker, more dangerous beings, for these particular residents were rather reclusive in nature and kept far away for the Labyrinth's more traversed paths.
No, most mortals never had any inkling.
Nevertheless, the Labyrinth was a place of judgment, a test and a punishment rolled into one, and the Labyrinth had her own ideas about 'Just Punishment'
So occasionally, when She felt the mortal Runner was deserving of a more… permanent… fate, there was one, out-of-the-way, place She would guide the unsuspecting souls.
"Fate's Hand"
James murmured the name aloud, momentarily taken aback by the old fashioned stone edifice that sprang from the menacing tangle of trees around him.
It appeared to be an old time pub, like those often found in New England; a simple two stories of solid stone and half a dozen latticed windows. The sign swung idly above the sturdy plank door, and the gilded letters that spelled the name glinted ominously in the low light.
Though the lights inside appeared warm and welcoming, James hesitated in his approach.
Something he had quickly, and painfully, come to realize was that nothing in this unnatural place was as it seemed, but…
Quickly running a hand through his tousled blonde hair, James glanced behind him and realized with shock that the uncertain path he had been dumped on had disappeared, and the eerie trees were much closer than they had been several moments earlier.
This quickly made up his mind.
He swiftly yanked the door open and, faltering slightly, stepped into the warmth therein.