6
Trapped Soul
For new readers: This story is the sequel to my first Labyrinth Fan Fiction, "Between Two Worlds." If you have not read it yet, you should. Trust me; you'll like it. It has lots of funny bits.
For everyone else: Thank you all for coming out to read my new fiction. This story starts right where the last one finished off. Thanks again. I love you all.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Labyrinth. They belong to the Jim Henson Corporation. If I were to one day become head of that company, I would own them, but until my legal education if finished, it is still just a dream.
Chapter 1Aboveground
As Sarah walked down the driveway, she could not seem to shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong with her. Everything felt wrong all of a sudden, almost like the feeling that you didn't unplug something before leaving the house. Only she felt as though she had left something outside. Sarah felt as though she were being pulled away by some force. Deep in her subconscious the reason was whispering to her, but she refused to listen.
'It was just a dream!' she told herself. 'My soul has not been taken from me!' She repeated the thought over and over again but her mind was not soothed or convinced.
Sarah was halfway to school before she noticed that she was being followed. She became aware of her pursuer when she heard the sound of claws hitting the pavement. She didn't bother to turn around; it was just someone walking his or her dog. Suddenly the dog got closer and Sarah realized she had only heard the dog but had not heard any human footsteps at all!
She looked over her shoulder and just about died of surprise and joy. Only a few feet away from her stood Sir Didymus astride Ambrosius. Sarah was speechless for a few seconds she could feel tears of joy sting the corner of her eyes.
"Sir Didymus!" Sarah cried out.
"My Lady," he said then bowed. However, he then did the strangest thing. He turned Ambrosius around and took off around the corner.
"Wait!" cried Sarah. She started to run after them. She followed them for several minutes. Whenever she thought that they had left her behind she would find them waiting just a little ways ahead of her.
"Didymus! Wait where are you going?" He didn't answer her.
Sarah realized that he was leading her to Bridges Park. She followed him all the way to her favorite rehearsal spot with the benches. He didn't stop there though; he took off into the forested area and vanished from sight.
The wind suddenly began to pick up and Sarah could feel the pull once more.
"Didymus wait! Please!" she called after him. She took off into the trees and tried in vain to find him.
"Maybe he left the forest already," she said. She started to head back the way she had come but found that the forest would not end. Within a few moments she was totally lost.
"Oh God! How does one get lost in one square mile of brush?"
A twig snapped.
Sarah's head shot up.
"Um, hello." Hoggle said nervously
"Hoggle?" whispered Sarah.
"Uh, ya. It's me."
Sarah started to move towards him, but like Didymus, he started to run away from her.
"Wait Hoggle! Please come back!" She took off after Hoggle.
'For a short guy he sure moves fast. What is going on here? Why are all my friends running from me?' thought Sarah. She didn't seem to notice that the trees had gotten older and thicker. She just kept following Hoggle.
Hoggle had just crested a hill in front of him and disappeared from view when Sarah became aware of what was happening. When she reached the top of the hill she suddenly forgot all about Hoggle. Spread out before her was the Dream Junk Yard. Just beyond that Sarah could see the Goblin City and the Castle at the center of the Labyrinth.
"No," she said to herself. She turned to go back, but the trees had moved! They had formed a wall of wood that she could not get through.
"Sawah!" Sarah looked down into the Junk and saw the large orange hairy beast waving up at her.
"Ludo!" Sarah cried. "Wait for me please! I'm coming down."
Sarah started running down the slope and she feared that she would lose her balance a few times. She finally made it to the bottom and ended up using Ludo as a crash pad.
"Sawah!" cried Ludo as he took her in his large hairy arms and hugged her. Sarah didn't mind; she was just relived he was not running away from her. He finally put her down.
"Sawah back. Sawah stay?" Ludo asked.
"Well at the moment I'm back but I don't think I'm staying. There's no reason for me to be here Ludo." Sarah then remembered. "Ludo did Sir Didymus or Hoggle come this way?"
Ludo had to think for a second.
"Brutha, and friend said wait for Sawah."
"Where did they go Ludo?"
Ludo pointed to the City.
"Some how I had a funny feeling that was where I was heading," Sarah said gloomily. Sarah took Ludo by his big hand and together they started to walk towards the Goblin City.
As Sarah and Ludo waked towards the gates Sarah couldn't help but notice that all the scavenger goblins were gone. Sarah looked over her shoulder and stopped dead in her tracks.
"Sawah? What wrong?" asked Ludo bewildered
"It's true; it was all real." Sarah's eyes were locked on the shape of the giant tree silhouetted against the mountain.
"New," said Ludo happily.
He suddenly began to move away from her and towards the gates. Sarah pulled her attention away from the sight and looked to where Ludo was walking off too. She could see the gates from where she was standing.
She jogged after Ludo until they were walking together again.
"Ludo, why didn't you wait for me?" asked Sarah. Ludo didn't answer he just continued to walk towards the gate.
Sarah had the sinking suspicion that Jareth was somehow behind the strange behavior of her friends. She mentally prepared what she was going to say to him when they finally met again. The words "spineless twisted sicko" flashed across her mind as well some other less PG rated comments.
When Sarah and Ludo rounded the last bend they were in for a surprise. The gates were thrown open and the guard was awake and standing up straight. Standing on both sides of the gate were lines of goblins. Sarah suddenly realized that she was alone.
"Ludo? Where are you?" he had just vanished; he had been there one moment, then gone the next, almost as though he had never been there at all. Sarah turned back to the gates and walked towards them. The goblins formed a path for her to follow. It was clear that the goblins near the gate were civilians for they were small and only a few had helmets.
The path took Sarah through the streets of the city in as straight a line as goblins could manage. In others words it went all over the place. However Sarah was positive she knew where it ended, for she could see the castle getting closer with every step.
When she was almost to the town square she found that she was now being surrounded by the goblin army, some were mounted on their foot dragons and others were standing at attention. They made a clear path for her right to the foot of the steps leading up to the castle. Sarah eyed the goblins warily and proceeded to walk up the stairs.
Standing at the front doors to meet her was Jareth in all of his glory. He was dressed in the same outfit that he had been wearing the first night they had met. Sarah stopped ten feet from him and waited. Jareth took a few steps towards her.
"Hello Sarah. Welcome home."
With these words the pull that Sarah had been feeling all day suddenly vanished, and her world went black.
TT . TT
Sarah slowly opened her eyes. She became aware that she was in a rather large bed with a white canopy and a white comforter. In fact, the whole color theme of the room was white. She also became aware of the fact that her top and bra were missing from her person.
"Were is my top!" she cried. She sat bolt upright and looked under the sheets.
'Well at least my jeans are still there.' She breathed a small sigh of relief.
"Ah Sarah. You're awake." Sarah jumped. Jareth was suddenly sitting on the end of the bed smiling at her devilishly. Sarah pulled the sheets up around her chest and glared at the Goblin King with as much contempt as she could manage.
"Where is my top?" she asked him in a calm voice.
"It's in the wardrobe over there." He pointed to the white wardrobe against the wall.
"And why is my top in the wardrobe and not still on me?" she asked angrily.
"So that the healer could examine you," he explained. Sarah looked like she was ready to rip his head off. "You passed out, Sarah, and I was concerned. The healer was called to come and have a look at you."
Sarah pulled the sheets up around her tighter feeling very self-conscious.
"Oh, Sarah, fear not," he waved as though he were swatting away her fears. "I was promptly shooed away after I had delivered you here to your new room."
"Wait, what do you mean my new room? I have a room back home."
Jareth suddenly took on an expression of seriousness and cleared his throat.
"Sarah, this is your home now. You going to stay here forever, you can never go home again."
Sarah was silent for a moment then screamed.
"WHAT? YOU HORRIBLE PERSON! I HATE YOU!" Sarah tried to lunge at Jareth with the intension of hurting him. He simply moved out of her way; he was not at all amused by her outburst.
Sarah took the sheet and wrapped it tightly around her chest then got out of the bed and once more made a move to attack him. He dodged her attacks easily; she was slow and did not know the first thing about hand-to-hand combat. Jareth took hold of both of Sarah's raised wrists and shoved her backwards. He forced her onto the bed and pinned her.
Sarah was out of breath and tears were streaming from her eyes.
"Why am I here, Jareth? Why have you done this to me?" she whimpered. Jareth released her wrists and held her head so she looked him right in the eyes.
"I haven't done anything to you Sarah. It has." He looked towards the balcony and at the Labyrinth beyond. "You solved the Labyrinth, and it is a very sore loser. It has taken from your mind its new shape. When the remaking was finished, it needed to take you into itself as the final piece to solidify the change."
"Then why am I here and not imbedded in a wall somewhere?" she asked with a sniff.
"Because as its master, I ordered it to leave you intact for the most part."
"What do you mean 'for the most part'? What's missing?"
"It took your immortal soul, Sarah."
Sarah suddenly remembered the dream she had had only a few hours before. She had seen herself ripped away from her very soul.
"Oh God," she whimpered. The tears began anew.
"In place of a soul, it has left you this." Jareth took Sarah's left wrist and turned it so that the she could see the skin on the inside part. Sarah's eyes widened and she pulled out of Jareth's grasp and brought the wrist closer to her face.
Jareth rolled off her and took his spot on the end of the bed once more.
"What is it?" Sarah asked. She was looking at a small round mark about the size of a coin. It was filled with tiny little lines and corners. Near the center was a cluster of tiny dots with a larger dot in the very center.
"The mark is a contract; it states that so long as the Labyrinth holds your soul it will support your body and mind and in a sense give you access to your soul. It also means that you are a part of it, you can pass through the Labyrinth without fear of confusion or detriments."
Sarah looked even harder at the mark and could just make out small details around the edge of the mark. She sat up and moved closer to the light coming from the balcony window.
"How long does this contract last?" she asked.
"Until the end of time," Jareth replied coolly. Sarah stopped the study of her wrist and turned to glare at the Goblin King.
"The end of time?"
"Or until someone defeats the new Labyrinth. In which case you shall be free to return to the land above and someone else will take your place." Sarah was about to reply but then stopped. The chance that she would return home someday filled her with hope but the idea that some other poor innocent soul would have to be taken made her uneasy. She looked at Jareth with a new questioning expression.
"How do you know this?" she asked softly.
"Sarah I will not lie to you. Only one other being has ever defeated this Labyrinth. It was me."
Hello everyone. Thank you for waiting for me. I am safe and sound in the Castle at the center of the Labyrinth. I have taken up residence in the only room that Jareth and Sarah would not dare look for me: the Flush Room. It is the perfect place to hide out and write because no one ever comes in here AND I have a quick and fun escape route. So this is chapter one of Trapped Soul. I'm sorry to leave you at an odd point, but I have been trying to keep my chapters to 5 pages each, give or take. I just felt that if I went on it would be another 5 pages.
Meanwhile:
A cloud of dust fills the main square of the goblin city. When it clears it reveals a very dirty and somewhat dented BMW. Jareth gets out on the driver's side looking cool as a cucumber and Sarah jumps out and starts kissing the ground.
Sarah: Where the hell did you learn how to drive!
Jareth: the official DMV of the Goblin City of course.
Sarah: There is a DMV here!
Jareth: Well there is now. I just made it.
Sarah looks at the car and then at Jareth.
Sarah: couldn't we have just, you know magically appeared instead?
Jareth looks down at her with a look of confusion.
Jareth: Why Sarah, then I wouldn't have gotten the chance to drive; it had been a fantasy of mine to drive ever since the car was invented. I just never had the opportunity before.
Sarah makes a noise like a growl and heads for the front doors. Jareth pulls out the keys and turns on the car alarm.
Beep Beep.
