Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth or any thing affiliated with it. I do however own a fish named Bowie. This is my very first fanfic ever so I would also really appreciate any constructive criticism anyone has to offer. Thank you so much and I hope you guys enjoy it!
Chapter 1: Out of Her Dreams and Into The Fire
"And where was he yesterday?" he asked her with a small look of concern on his face.
"Gone" she replied. "Playing poker".
He quickly got up from the rock he was sitting on to sort through his thoughts. "Is this some sort of game?"
Adele got up as well to stretch her legs. They had been talking in the garden for two hours now. "Yes, but a very dangerous game. It involves money and my mom said he has lost too much of it in the last couple of months that's why things are so tight at the moment I think I might have to get a full time job next month. That means more work and less school".
"You would compromise your education for him?" His comments made her stop for a moment. Would she? She had been in school for two years now only one more year and she would have that degree no one else in her family had been able to obtain. Did she really want to take a break now?
"I will do what I have to do to take care of my mother".
"But why Adele?" He began to pace at this point. "She does nothing for you. She is undeserving of the respect and attention you bestow upon her. I have never heard of a more ungrateful wench in my existence". He could see his thoughtless observation was getting to her. Her face was beginning to redden and her mind was whirling.
"You don't know her like I do Jareth. You have no right to criticize someone you don't even know and…"
Before Adele could get another word out, Jareth stepped in front of her forcing her to look at him eye to eye.
"And? And what? When has she been there? How about the time your father threw you down the stairs? Was she there? Oh yes I forgot. She locked herself in her bedroom and pretended to sleep so she wouldn't have to put up with him that night".
He had hit a nerve that time. Her eyes were beginning to tear up and her mind began spiraling, forming a superior comeback. He walked towards her until he had her backed against a tree. She was slightly shaking; his aggressiveness was causing her to become uneasy. He was right in front of her now, his gloved right hand holding his balance. She took a deep breath and she could smell the magic he encompassed and it was choking her.
Adele regained her posture and fought back the tears and looked at him with sad eyes. "You're a king. You have told me many stories of your immense land and your great father and your loyal subjects. Suddenly the sadness left and was replaced with a look of anger. What do you know about my life? Absolutely nothing". Her sardonic tone surprised him. "You don't know how it feels to be scared every moment of every day, how it feels to be a prisoner in your own home? How it is to never feel safe. She dropped her head as if she was mourning for his lack of understanding in the matter.
"Adele I just meant..."
"It doesn't matter what you meant to say Goblin King… what's said is said".
Adele awoke to the buzzing of the small alarm clock that sat next to her bed. It was 9 o'clock already. She hit the button and slid back under the covers for a moment to collect her thoughts before rising. It was Saturday..
"Shit" she muttered to herself and turned towards the large window in the middle of her room. Adele hated Saturdays. She didn't have school and her father didn't work which meant the whole family was home together all day and this was not a good thing.
Things weren't always this way. Adele had memories of a happy family many years ago, she had a wonderful father, a loving mother and things could not have been better; but 7 years ago her fathers business took a turn for the worst. They had to move out of their beautiful penthouse in the center of Manhattan to a small townhouse on the outskirts of the city. When the business failed, her parent's marriage failed along with it and Adele felt as if it was she who suffered the most. Her father began drinking and doing all sorts of drugs which often caused him to become violent and he would often take it out on Adele. Her mother began drinking and taking pills in an attempt to ignore how quickly their family was falling apart. She had evolved into a hollow shell and Adele felt as if she didn't know her at all.
Adele didn't find comfort in much these days. She didn't have much time to think about it. She had not made many friends there on a count of she spent so much time taking care of her mother. The only thing she had left were her thoughts and her dreams and that is where Jareth came into play.
It started around two years ago; she had dreams about the same man every single night. He was tall and always wore tight riding breaches, elegant boots and a ruffled white poet's shirt. His hair was always wild and untamed and she had often teased him about it. She hadn't the slightest idea as to where in her subconscious she had created him, and she often wondered how she had managed to unconsciously create such an elaborate fantasy. They would always meet in a garden or near a lake and, He always had a new story to tell her. It would take him hours sometimes to tell her about his elaborate kingdom and his notorious castle that lie at the foot of a giant maze. He had informed her all about the duties of being a Goblin King and told her of the etiquette of living in the "Underground" as he called it. She hated to say it but the man that didn't exist was her best friend. She had confided everything in this "figment" of her imagination. When she had gotten the bad end of her fathers late night her mother didn't rush to comfort her or help her it was Jareth that was there long after she had fallen asleep. Unexpectedly she felt a nauseating feeling hit the pit of her stomach. "That is what he meant" she thought to herself. "He wasn't trying to be mean he was just stating the truth about her mother. She suddenly felt horrible about the way she had treated him. Then her mind snapped back to reality and she realized she was just being foolish.
"He isn't even real you crazy girl" she said to herself. She didn't understand why she was so worried about hurting the feelings of someone who wasn't capable of having them.
She decided she had spent enough time worrying about it and got up of bed. She still hurt from three nights ago when her father had got written up at work for being late. She walked over to her dresser and threw her dark red hair into clip and looked into the mirror.
"I look old" she thought to herself, disgusted with the worry lines that surrounded her eyes. "I am 21 not 41 right Bowie?" she said out loud as she tossed some food into the fish bowl that sat on her dresser. "Pretty soon I am going to look like you". Adele was a very pretty girl tainted by the stress that often over took her. She was tall and had beaming red hair she got from her mother. She had a small frame and radiant green eyes that consistently looked jaded. She crouched down to look into the tank. "It must be nice to not have to worry about anything but eating".
It was as if someone was watching and waiting for an ironic moment to occur. The minute she uttered those words she heard her father's voice down stairs screaming for his breakfast. With a heavy heart and aching body Adele walked downstairs in preparation for another day.
As she descended the stairs she could hear the clinging of pots and pans in the kitchen. She could hear her father mumbling but could only pick up every other word. She rounded the corner and took a deep breath and as she entered the kitchen. She found her father on the floor, he had pulled nearly every pot out of their small cabinet, and the anger on his face was enough to tell Adele this was not going to be a good day.
He grabbed hold of the side of the counter and balanced himself enough to stand. "Where were you?" he asked.
"I was upstairs" she replied standing her ground, preparing herself for what was going to occur next.
He slowly walked past the table holding him self up on a large wooden chair. "I thought we had a deal Adele".
His breath reeked of alcohol and she could smell it even though she was a good distance away from him. "We did and I was just coming down stairs to make you breakfast I just wasn't aware that you would be up this early".
She watched him slowly walk towards the counter and throw his cup into the sink. She walked to the refrigerator and pulled out three eggs and picked a frying pan up of the floor. "Just give me a couple of minutes and it will be ready". She cracked an egg and as soon as she let the shell fall to the counter she felt her fathers arm come around her shoulder, the whole weight of his body nearly causing her to hit the ground. "I am tired of waiting on you Adele" he said his face an inch away from hers. "I don't ask you for much. Maybe a little breakfast now and then, sometimes I ask you to clean up around here. I think I deserve a little respect".
"You do" she said. She didn't dare disagree with the man that was two times bigger than she was.
"You should tell that to your mother; she doesn't have the slightest clue about respect". He suddenly gripped the back of her neck with his large course hands causing her to flinch. "She doesn't know much about anything now that I think about it. It must be nice to sit up in that bedroom all day and not have to worry about anything". His hold on her was becoming tighter and tighter and she felt as if she couldn't breathe. Out of instinct she grabbed hold of the first thing that she could find and hit him square in the face with a hot frying pan.
His screams of agony filled the whole house and his hands dropped from her neck to tend to his scorched eyes. She ran as fast as she could up the stairs and down the hallway to her mother's door. She could hear his footsteps not far behind her.
"Mom! Mom! Open the door hurry". She frantically banged on the door waiting for her mother to respond. There was nothing. She heard him come up behind her but could not react fast enough. He grabbed her by the shirt and threw her into a picture that was hanging in the hallway causing the glass to shatter.
"Come here Adele" he screamed and she ran into her room slamming the door and locking the dead bolt. He frantically slammed himself at the door threatening the lives of the hinges with each blow. She pulled the small fish tank off the dresser and used the last of her strength to push the dresser in front of the door.
He finally stopped when she heard him say "Oh that's it Kathleen your daughters gone". She could hear him rush to his bedroom door and try to slam his way through the locked door just like he had done to hers. She quickly climbed on her bed and put her ear to the wall. She heard her father yell and her mother say something but she couldn't make it out. His closet door flew open and she heard a single shot that sent a rumble through the house.
"A shot where did the shot come from?" she immediately thought to herself. "That wasn't him" she said aloud. "That wasn't him". She ran to the dresser and tried as hard as she could to move the dresser but it was as if every ounce of energy had left her body. Panicking, she ran to the window flinging and made her way out onto the roof. She climbed over to her parent's window and tried as hard as she could to open it.
"Dammit!" she screamed and ran back to her room, reaching through her window, and pulling out a desk lamp. She grabbed hold of the head and slammed the base through the window as hard as she could. Pieces of glass flew everywhere and she didn't have time to think about the fact she had no shoes on. She climbed through the window catching her arm on a piece of glass. She hit the floor and winced in pain, before realizing there wasn't anyone in the room. She looked around her heart beating so fast she thought it was going to leave her chest. She picked a shirt up off the floor and wrapped it around a sliver of glass. She was ready for him. She stayed on her hands and knees and crawled around to the end of the bed still no one. She sat there for a moment catching her breath. "Where is he?" As she crawled around to the other side the horror of what she saw hit her like a ton of bricks.
It was her mother with the gun shot wound through her stomach.
"No, No, No" she cried as she crawled over to her mother's lifeless body. "Mama wake up, please you have to wake up".
Before she could say another word she felt something hit her in the head and everything went black….
Notes: Sorry I posted the first chapter of this story yesterday but I deleted it so I could put all of this in one chapter. That way we could get this one out of the way and then the next one will be filled with more Jareth and more magic. I Promise! Hope You All Enjoyed it so far!