So...despite my better judgement, I couldn't help but start writing this story. I blame the dnd oneshot I'm writing for this Halloween, since it's partially based on the Labyrinth.
Anyways, I hope you like it and I didn't blunder too much with the folklore parts.
Please enjoy and leave a review!
Chapter 1: Let me tell you a tale
"His eyes were deep and mournful as he uttered his final plea: "I ask for so little. Just fear me. Love me. Do as I ask, and I shall be your slave."
The girl's breath caught and for a moment she found herself entranced by his expressive eyes. By the yearning in his gaze. But then she regained her bearings and…."
"And said yes!" A child's voice exclaimed excitedly. "She said yes and they kissed and they lived happily ever after."
"Don't interrupt, Lily," the storyteller scolded gently. "Now, may I go and finish the story?"
The little girl settled down again against her best friend, keen to hear the ending of their bedtime story.
"And spoke the final line she had learned from the book. The one that would set her and her baby brother free. "You have no power over me!" Yet, as he threw the crystal in the air and the world fell down around her, something niggled at the back of her mind. A feeling that told her she'd made a terrible mistake. She couldn't explain it, and so she stifled it. Buried it far in the back of her mind. And finally her world returned back to normal as the clock struck twelve."
"Whaaaat!" Lily exclaimed as she jumped on the bed. "Why! He loved her! She would be a queen!"
Sarah carefully pulled on Lily's braid and made her calm down again. Thankfully Toby had been so gobsmacked by the ending of the story that he had frozen on the bed. Those two together could raise hell if they wanted to.
"Because she still considered herself to be an ordinary girl. One that didn't belong in that wonderful, magical world — despite how much she wanted too — and certainly wasn't worthy of a King." Sarah tried to explain. It wasn't the truth. But close enough not too matter to two little children.
"So she left? That's not fair!"
Lily obviously still couldn't believe how the story had ended. Sarah smiled in reminiscence. How often she'd uttered that phrase in the Labyrinth alone. She'd tried to break the habit after, but clearly Toby's best friend had heard her say it enough to repeat it now.
"Life isn't fair. She thought she was making the right choice. She did have a little brother to think about, you know," Sarah tried to defend her choice to the agitated five year-old.
"But she ate." Toby had finally woken enough from his stupor to speak up. Seeing Sarah's baffled expression he repeated it. "She ate. The peach, she ate it. Aunt Karen said if you eat with the Fae, you hafta stay."
Sarah had no idea that Lily's mom told them about Fae laws when the children had a sleepover at Lily's house. But she suppressed her dread and put on a smile. "That might be true..."
Lily interrupted her. "Yeah! He should kiss her and then she would stay!"
Toby ewwed and Sarah blushed as she imagined what would have happened if He had. Trying not to dwell on the possibility, she firmly told the children it was time to sleep.
The children cuddled under their covers with minimal fuss. Despite their earlier outbursts they were quite tired and Sarah had babysat enough on them that she had well-established routine by now.
After tucking them in and singing one last lullaby, Sarah tiptoed out of the room and closed the door behind her softly before sliding down the wall as her legs refused to support her any longer.
She had of course done her own research once she got back. Well, as much as one could speak about research when dealing with vague myths and stories. The Labyrinth, and its king, had refused to fade from her thoughts and she had found herself falling back into memories at the oddest of times.
The memories had held her back from being interested in boys, despite Irene's encouragements to go out more. For how could a mortal boy, pimples and all, measure up to a Goblin King? How could adolescent girls forge the same bonds as those she'd fought with? There was simply no comparison possible. And her guilt for wishing Toby away had quickly transformed in genuine affection, so she did not mind spending all her free time with him and Lily.
The niggling feeling that had told her she'd made a mistake had not faded either, instead it had steadily grown stronger. It had kept her from attending a prestigious university far away and choose a local college instead, where she had majored in Literature.
The feeling had urged her to look up Irish and Celtic mythology and folklore. At first she had firmly placed Him in the Unseelie Court, leftover resentment clouding her judgment. However, as she was forced to examine her every minute in the Labyrinth and got a more in-depth knowledge of Fae/Sidhe/Faeries, her opinion changed drastically.
Sure He had tried to trick her and generally make her give up, but that was to be expected with Fae. Tricks and illusions were the first things stories warned about. If he did belong to the Seelie Court, or was associated with them, he could not simply have returned Toby. It would have been against the Rules. What exactly those Rules were she had no idea. But she had grown a sense for what was and wasn't Right. She had called upon the Goblin King to take away a child. It stood to reason that she could not just reverse her demand, even if she hadn't meant it. But…she had. At least in the moment she had meant it.
Sarah stood. Distracted, she walked to her parents' room and started pacing in front of the windows.
As for the food… That was the one thing she dearly hoped the stories were wrong about. Because if it was… But that couldn't be, right? He would never have let her leave if that law did indeed count. Nor had she had any contact with the Otherworld since she had gotten back. That's what she tried to tell herself at least.
She hadn't kept up the contact with her Otherworldly friends. They had been a constant reminder of Him and the offer she had foolishly refused. Seeing them, talking to them had hurt more than she was capable of hiding. In the end she had stopped calling them and had reasoned to herself that she was too busy anyway to alleviate her guilt.
However, as she began to read more and more about the Fae, she got into certain habits. She left out food and milk at night, hidden from her father and Irene and kept the house warm at night as well, citing poor metabolism and poor circulation as a reason.
She had noticed an immediate change. Misplaced keys found their own way back to their hooks. The shelves were never dusty and no spider webs had to be cleared away. Sarah could swear she could sometimes hear giggling. Also, if she forgot her offerings or they were found and removed, revenge followed instantly. Disappearing keys and wallets, eaten sweets and cookies, tripping over air, …
She could swear a white owl followed her if she was out after sunset. The animal never came close enough to determine if it was normal or not, but still left her a little paranoid. And warm on the inside, though she'd never admit that. She treasured the thought that Jareth might still care about her, that he hadn't forgotten either. That an ordinary teen might have left an impression on the Goblin King, even if it wasn't a very good one.
Those were the days she wished for a different ending. She'd told Lily that she had said no because she hadn't felt worthy. In truth she simply hadn't understood. Hadn't understood what He was offering. He had lived up to her expectations a little too well. In her innocence she had cast Him as the villain and had been unable to see beyond that. It wasn't until two years later she had understood His offer at last.
At fifteen He was the scariest and most intimidating person she had come across. At seventeen He was still intimidating, but also the most handsome. At twenty-two she wished for nothing more than the ability to turn back time and throw herself at Him as she accepted His offer. Well, perhaps not throw herself at him. She had too much self-respect and not enough courage to be so forward.
The clock chimed twelve, and with a start Sarah realized that it was exactly five years since she had refused the offer to become the Goblin Queen. A strange sound left her throat, half sob and half laugh. Five years and she was still hung up on her greatest villain and hero rolled into one.
"So I should have kissed you, huh?"
Seven years he had waited. An eternity spent in agony. Soothed marginally by following her around in beast form and having his goblins spy on her. Her new maturity and knowledge of his kind pleased him greatly, but also hit home how young she had been when he made his first offer. Enchanted as he had been by her inner fire and the beauty he had seen blossoming, he'd justified his actions by telling himself that his kind had taken brides far younger than her.
Most caved before his ethereal beauty and aura of power, her courage had risen at his very attempt to intimidate her; her stubbornness not allowing her to be frightened at his will. It had intoxicating for a Being used to others caving before him with a snap of his fingers. Her intelligence and compassion only sealed the deal further.
And though he despised the trickster ways to woo a mortal mate of his father's court, he too had fallen back on them when his attempts had been stonewalled by her stubbornness and youth. Ignorance of the law excuses no one. She was at fault for not doing her homework before using ancient words to summon him.
Still her had lost her; his attempts at intimidating her more successful than he'd thought and her innocence preventing her from truly understanding what he was offering. Not forever of course. His deceit had seen to that. But seven years felt like an age, when all he could do was follow her around and sent his stealthiest goblins after her. Not even her friends could give him updates, because she had stopped contacting them before the first year was over.
The past year had felt the longest. He yearned to have her in his arms. To finally cure her of her innocence. Because the Laws that bound him now bound her too. They would have kept her pure for him. Kept her close to home and her little brother, his heir. For as soon as Sarah had chosen to run the Labyrinth to save her brother, she was considered his mother. It didn't matter to the magic of the Lands that she had not born him. She had accepted responsibility to care for him; to face dangers untold and hardships unnumbered; called him child instead of brother. Like its natives, the Lands' magic was not straightforward, but riddled with trickery. It was alive in a way; sentient enough to understand intent and interpreted that to suit its own wishes.
Jareth watched the clock crawl towards the final hour. His impatience to see his bride and finally make her his slowing down time even more. Bored and irritated, he took out a crystal and let it seek out ancient. Every time mortals spoke those ancient words —once used in prayer and curse, but now lost and mostly forgotten — his crystals could make contact with them. Create cracks in the veil that separated their words, through which Jareth could spy.
A pleasing voice rang through the throne room, a voice he could never forget for it haunted him day and night. "And thus the girl called out: "I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now." And the Goblin King carried out her wish, for when she turned around the child was gone and only an empty crib behind." Ooh's and ahh's from children followed.
For a moment his heart stopped and he feared she had learned nothing from her story, but he wasn't summoned to the mortal world, nor did he feel magic doing its thing, and he realized she was merely telling a story, their story. Captivated he peered into the crystal to see his bride. She had been very careful to avoid any words that might summon her, so to see her now mere hours before he'd come to claim her… His irritation disappeared as did his boredom, and he settled in to listen her tell their story.
It was most certainly an eye-opener to hear her version of the events that had transpired between the two of them. That she found him attractive — her description of him didn't leave a doubt about that — and knew she had been wrong to refuse his offer. That she had wanted to accept, but thought herself unworthy. And had been far too innocent to understand what was offered. The last was left unsaid, but he saw it in her eyes, read it in her body language. It was a balm to his aching heart.
The children impressed him. His heir was, as expected intelligent for his age, though his diction could do with some work. Nothing that couldn't be remedied by Afon, his own former teacher. The girl, Lily, he did not recognize, but the bond between her and Toby was very strong for their age. Sarah tugged the girl's braid and for a moment her glamour shifted. How interesting. Now he wouldn't have to separate the two, which would undoubtedly pain both because of the strength of their attachment to each other.
Their exclamations amused him, especially Lily's. Not fair indeed. And her suggestion was a sound one. He wouldn't have acted on it seven years ago. He had some morals after all and he drew the line at forcing himself upon the unwilling. A bit hypocritical perhaps, since he had irrevocably bound Sarah to him without her consent, but she could still refuse him. Nothing could make her accept him and a second refusal would sever their bond.
Impatient, he listened to the clock ticking closer and closer to midnight as he watched Sarah pace in the room they first met in. He wondered what she was struggling with internally and silently hoped she was thinking about him.
Finally, the clock struck and he disappeared from his throne room and appeared behind his bride as a choked sob left her mouth. Seeing no better way to break the ice, he got straight to the point. "So I should have kissed you, huh?"
