Disclaimer: I don't own The Labyrinth or anything else in this story for that matter.
Sarah was admiring the reflection in her looking glass. There had been four winters since she had rescued Toby from the Labyrinth and for the first time in years she found herself thinking about the Goblin King. I mean, sure, he had crossed her mind on the occasional lonely night, but this time she was really thinking.
It wasn't as if she had ever been in love with him or anything. She had just been a silly little girl who had fallen for a character in a story book. She never actually expected to meet him in real life and when she did it was hardly the fairytale romance she had been anticipating. As a mature eighteen year old looking back at her childish past she wondered whether the whole thing hadn't just been a dream or a girlish fantasy.
She speculated as to whether or not he still watched her (which obviously he didn't because it was all in her head). It was a creepy thought, though, and she got up to shut her curtains just in case. There was an owl on the tree outside. There was always an owl on the tree outside.
It was ridiculous really; she had a wonderful boyfriend, a beautiful little brother, a loving father and a tolerable step-mother. There was no reason for her to stray into a make-believe world. So she decided then and there to throw away all her old toys that reminded her of the labyrinth. The statue of the goblin king, the Esher poster, the music box, everything. She started by emptying her drawers and that's where she went so terribly wrong.
You see, in the bottom of one drawer she found her old book. The Labyrinth. And she couldn't help but open it. And then she couldn't help but read it.
By five o'clock she had forgotten that she was supposed to be studying, by six o'clock she had forgotten that she was supposed to give Toby his dinner, by seven o'clock she had forgotten that she had a date that night and was supposed to leave half an hour ago and by eight, well, what can I say? She was lost.
When Sarah had reached the final chapter she felt a sudden breeze and looking up she realised that she had somehow left her bedroom without noticing. When she discerned where she was it was quite a shock.
It was the Labyrinth.
"You have got to be kidding me." She said, to no one in particular, since she seemed to be totally alone.
She wondered whether this was just another dream, but it felt eerily real this time. There was no sign of that little dwarf thing, what's-his-name. So she knocked on the doors herself.
"You are not seriously going to make me walk all the way there are you?" she yelled at the doors as she pounded her fists on them.
They opened. And somehow the Labyrinth seemed to have fallen even further into disrepair in her absence.
Feeling exceedingly aggravated she went through the first opening she found and took great cares to damage as many things as she could on her way.
She ran into several little goblins and found a fiendish delight in giving them a good kick if they got too close. She was, quite simply, over it.
She made doubly sure that she didn't fall into any Oubliettes especially since she wasn't sure that what's-his-name would be there to let her out this time. She wondered where the big hairy thing was too, and the little fox and his dog. But no one befriended her this time, no one helped her. Probably because she kept kicking them and all they were doing was trying to warn her.
Hours passed and Sarah was getting more and more agitated by the minute, why couldn't Jareth just show himself and get it over with? She was also starving but she didn't want to end up stuck in a weird dream-world-bubble again so she ignored the noises coming from her stomach.
Finally something happened, though, it wasn't particularly pleasant. The ground beneath her simply opened up and she found herself falling down a narrow tunnel. When she did finally reach the bottom one sniff of the air told her where she was. The Bog of Eternal Stench.
She hadn't fallen in, thank God, and she hadn't even hurt herself because she had landed on something big and furry. It was Ludo. He was looking a lot older than the last time she had seen him, his fur was turning grey and his face was lined with wrinkles.
"Ludo?"
He was a long time in replying.
"Sarah?"
"How long have you been down here?"
"Long time."
She shuddered to think, had he been here the whole time she had been gone? A whole four years living in this smell would drive a person mad.
"Friend?" he asked.
"Yes Ludo, I'm your friend. Sorry I haven't called. I've been pretty busy."
He didn't say anything else he just sat back down and stared at his feet.
She didn't bother talking to him anymore. She was sure he had been sent here for helping her. It was all her fault. She started to worry about what had happened to her other friends in the Labyrinth. They had surely been punished for their betrayal as well.
When she found that damned Goblin King she was going to have to give him a piece of her mind and her fist. So she headed for the bridge but, of course, the bridge wasn't there anymore and there were no rocks to walk across either. She wondered if Jareth hadn't ordered all the rocks in the Labyrinth to be destroyed. She wouldn't have put it past him.
Well, she thought, surely there must be another way out of here. And there was, of course, only poor Ludo wasn't smart enough to find it. In the other direction she found a path that led to a stream. Ludo followed her reluctantly, he had, it seemed, a fear of water and thus never ventured near the stream. If he had, as Sarah made him now, he would have realised the further he followed it the less he could smell the bog.
Finally they could follow it no further; the stream ran through a grate in a huge stone wall. Sarah waded across with her jeans rolled up to her knees. But Ludo wouldn't budge, no matter how she coaxed and pushed him there was no way she could get him to move. So she left him there. At least he doesn't have to put up with the smell anymore she thought.
Once she was on the other side of the stream she followed the stone wall until she came to an archway. Through the archway she could see the Castle. Somehow she had found a backdoor into the Goblin City. The streets were almost deserted. A stray, scraggily chicken here and there were the only living things she saw. If it wasn't for all the curtains closing and doors locking around her she would have thought all the goblins were gone. But they were there, they were just hiding.
When she reached the doors to the castle there was no way she could push them open without Ludo's help so instead she lifted up a grate beside the stairs and climbed in.
When she emerged from the tunnel she was in a tiny, cold, wet, stone room. A voice somewhere in the darkness said her name.
"Sarah?"