Once again i try to battle my writers block true the 100 themes challenge. i think i started this last spring or maybe summer. Last night while the storm was blowing i got around to finish it. Its a bit dark but i hope you like it anyway.
10 Breathe again
The labyrinth had change a lot since she'd been here last, Sarah thought running thru the hedge maze as fast as she could while still being focused on the ground before her so she would not fall.
She was not really sure what she was running from, but out of the sounds it had made it seemed to have a really bad day.
Finding one of the almost invisible openings that even the hedge maze has she dodges in to it and hides, the ting that was chasing her grumbles past her hiding spot using a language Karen would have made it wash its mouth whit soap if she herd. Unable to resist the temptation Sarah peeks out of her hiding and sees something looking suspiciously much like a pink bow around a white fluffy tail disappear behind the corner.
Letting out a breath she did not know she was holding she allows herself a moment to relax, sinking down to the ground. Looking straight forward she sees the hedge before her start to blossom, big red roses start to show all over it, and wonder why there is roses when it is a box hedge.
Hoggle once said that in the labyrinth the simple rule was that the more beautiful something or someone was the more dangerous it was.
Taking a deep breath Sarah slowly got on her feet again and looked around her. The path to the right was blood red of roses already and the road to the left was almost rose free. Simple choice then, Sarah thought and started walking left.
She turned a corner finding a fountain. Not until she's almost beside it she sees the figure sitting on the other side, hidden behind the cascading water.
The figure sits very still and Sarah almost believes that it is asleep before he moves.
"Well well Sarah. What a surprise to find you here." Jareth says his tone of voice saying the opposite. "Still finding my Labyrinth as 'a piece of cake'?" Is he still grumbling about that? Sarah can't help but wonder.
"It has changed since last time." Sarah admits still a bit breathless.
"It would not be much of a challenge if I let you run the same path now would it?"His smile was razor sharp and would make grown women long to cut themselves on it.
"True" she said after taking a deep breath. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the road she came from had turned in to a dead end. Focusing forward she noticed that the way forward had changed, there was now roses starting to bloom in the hedge about ten meters in front of the fountain.
"What's the matter? I thought you liked roses?" He had moved the few seconds she had looked elsewhere and was now standing just beside her. She managed to look unfazed as her mind wanted to jump high and run.
"The roses are beautiful, the thorns seem deadly however." Sarah answers.
"Now what is beauty without a bit danger?" The Goblin King says and takes one of the beautiful red flowers that just starting to bloom from the nearest bush. He holds it in front of her a second so she can see the unnaturally long thorns it has before he gently puts it behind her ear.
"There, a beautiful flower for a beautiful girl." He says before he turns to disappear.
"Jareth!" Sarah finds herself saying before she can think it thru.
"Yes?" He says the word so innocently and still he reminds Sarah of a predator readying himself for the killing leap.
"How long must I run your labyrinth?" She says it quickly and waits the answer like someone waiting to be hit. The male before her smiles.
"Till you find the way out precious." He says smiling, one step forward and he is just beside her ear. "Or till you stop running." His dramatic cape flutters and the King is gone, a pale barn owl fly over the labyrinth walls.
Sarah feels tears threatening to fall from her eyes unsure of why. Angrily she wipes her eyes and turns around on the spot finding the roses withdrawing around her. There is two ways out of the fountain clearing now. Neither is the one she headed for when she entered.
Without thinking she chooses one and start running again. Just as she turns a corner and sees something that might be the crossroad before the gate out she hears her alarm clock. She desperately tries to hold on to the dream and to run faster.
As she wakes she is still out of breath. Not for the first time.
In her bathroom a few minutes later she sees something blood red as she glances at the mirror. The rose is still in her hair. When she tries to get it out she cuts herself on the thorns. Her blood is as read as the rose and she see in the mirror how the thorn that cut her get smeared with her blood for a second. It sucks up the red fluid almost instantly and then the rose seems to glow for a moment before the thorn falls of.