***This is my first FanFiction story… Just saying…***
Sarah landed on the ground with a thump. She looked around, she was in a large space that seemed to have no end. There were stones, big and small, floating everywhere. She looked towards a doorway and he emerged from the shadows. Sarah was calm as she spoke.
"Give me the child" she said.
"Sarah beware, I have been generous up, until now. But I can be cruel."
"Generous." She mused. "What have you done that's generous?"
"Everything!" Jareth bellowed. "Everything you have wanted, I have done. You asked that the child be taken, and I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have re-ordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you! And I am exhausted from living up to your expectations. Isn't that generous?"
Sarah thought about this for a moment, and then she started to recite the words that would defeat the Goblin King. "Through dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way to the caste beyond the goblin city." She paused, Jareth started to back away from Sarah. "And my will is as strong as yours and my ki-"
"Stop!" Jareth interrupted. He stopped backing away from the 16-year old "Wait. Look Sarah, look at what I'm offering you." He held up his hand, "your dreams." a crystal ball appeared in his finger tips.
Sarah continued what she was saying before, "And my kingdom as great."
"I ask for so little, just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want." Jareth tried to compromise.
Sarah turned away, "my kingdom as great… damn! I can never remember that line."
Still holding the crystal ball, Jareth spoke, his tone sounding desperate. "Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."
Sarah turned away from Jareth. "My kingdom as great… my kingdom as great" She whispered to herself, trying to remember the last words that would defeat the goblin king, and get her baby brother back. Jareth was starting to become anxious. Sarah looked at the goblin king. She looked into his eyes, and spoke.
"You have no power over me!" Sarah exclaimed. Jareth lost his breath. The crystal fell from his hand as he fell to the ground. The goblin king had been defeated. Everything went black. Sarah felt the sensation of falling through a hole. The words she spoke rang through the air. She kept seeing clocks with 13 numbers on it and seeing what seemed to be pictures of her friends, Hoggle, Sir Didymus, and Ludo. Sarah looked down and saw the ground she was about to hit, and she saw his face, Jareth's face.
Sarah awoke with a gasp. Her face was wet with sweat. She looked around, and realized she was in her room. It was only a dream. She laid back down onto her pillow and started thinking about Hoggle and her other friends she had met in the labyrinth. She wondered if they were ok, or if they were even alive. She knew that if the goblin king was still alive, he would not be happy with the creatures that helped her. She knew that they would probably end up head first in the Bog of Eternal Stench.
It had been 7 years since Sarah had defeated the goblin king. And every time she came home for the holidays she dreamt of the last her last encounter with Jareth. But lately, the dreams have become more frequent. They started to happen when she was back at school in New York but they only seemed like a faded memory. This particular dream seemed so real, Sarah felt as if she were reliving the whole experience. She didn't want to go back to sleep, afraid that she might have the dream all over again, so she decided to read a book.
She walked over to her bookcase, and looked. She found a book titled "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum and pulled it off the shelf. As she did so, another book fell to the floor. She set the book she had in her hands on the side table next to her and bent down to pick up the book on the floor. Immediately, Sarah recognized the red leather cover and the gold lettering that spelt the title of the book. She gasped and threw it across the room. Sarah ran out of her room and went into the bathroom across the hall.
"This is crazy. No, I'm crazy!" she said to herself. "I shouldn't be running away from a book. It's a book for crying out loud. Ok Sarah. So you're a bit spooked by that dream but that's no reason to be throwing books around and then running away from them. You big baby. Gosh!" Sarah looked at herself in the mirror. Her brown eyes were looking at her appearance with disapproval. She took her comb and combed out her brown hair. She washed her face. Her purple pajama shirt had gotten wet from the water she splashed on her face, so she went to the laundry room and replaced her pajama shirt with a white tank top.
When Sarah had finally returned to her room, she went to the corner where she threw the book but when she went to pick it up, it wasn't there. Sarah became confused, she was positive that she threw the book at the corner. She decided that she'd look for the book in the morning and walked towards the side table where she set the "The Wizard of Oz" and turned towards her bed. She looked at the quilt on her bed as she was about to climb in and became shocked with both fear and curiosity. There was the book she threw into the corner, the book with the red leather cover and gold lettering. The book that caused all the trouble 7 years ago. The book titled "Labyrinth". And it was opened.
Sarah looked at the book. She was positive that she threw it at the corner by the window. How did it get to her bed? She examined the book closer. It was opened to a page she didn't recognize, which was almost impossible because Sarah knew that book cover to cover. She could recite it word for word. But she didn't remember reading this page. It was almost as though someone rewrote the book or added a page in. So Sarah read.
After the princess returned to her home, she went on living her life as if the whole experience in the labyrinth never happened. She continued doing her duties as princess and playing with her friends and going to balls and galas with her family. And then the day came where she completely forgotten the labyrinth even existed. The princess, who was once a young girl, grew into a woman. Her father thought she was at the appropriate age to be married, and have children who would one day rule his kingdom as his daughter will do so soon. He ordered his daughter to go to the neonatal nursery and learn as much as she could about babies from the midwives. And so the next day the princess left for the nursery. But once she arrived, there were no midwives to be seen.
"Hello" the princess called. "Hello is anybody here". Nothing but silence. The princess grew annoyed and turned to leave but stopped dead in her tracks when she heard a baby's laughter. The princess headed towards the laughter and poked her head into the room where it came from. She gasped and snapped her head out of the room. It was him. The man she defeated so many years ago. What was he doing here? She looked back at the man and saw he was slowly fading away. He didn't put the baby back. Then the princess realized someone must have wished the baby away. She couldn't let the goblin king take the baby! The princess ran from her hiding place and dived for the man's leg and held on with all her strength. She closed her eyes. She felt as if all the air was sucked out of her. She felt like she was whirling around and around until she felt queasy. Then she hit the ground with a hard smack. She opened her eyes and looked around. She was back in the labyrinth. Someone grunted above her. She looked up. He was looking down at her.
"What are you doing here?"
Sarah slammed the book shut. She couldn't read anymore. She didn't want to. She knew that if she kept reading something terrible might happen. She looked at the clock beside her; it was 5:26 am. Her father will be up soon to get ready for work. Sarah decided to surprise her father with breakfast and coffee. She got out of bed, put on her robe and headed down to the kitchen.
Scene Change
"Ouch! Damn that hurt! Stupid bacon grease!"
"Did someone say bacon?" Sarah's father came around the corner. He was trying to tie his tie while holding his brief case.
"Its 3 days before Christmas and the man is still working! Good lord!" Sarah thought to herself. "Ohh good morning dad. Surprise! I'm making you breakfast." Sarah smiled while holding up a pan on bacon and pointing towards a plate of eggs and hash-browns.
"Oh how wonderful! Thank you so much kiddo! Your mother rarely cooks breakfast around here."
"Dad, she's not my mom, and why am I not surprised." Sarah said coldly.
"Sarah, give her a chance. It's been over 10 years since I married her." her father reasoned.
"Which, by the way, I think was a mistake. And as soon as she quits treating me like garbage that came with the package, then ill give her a chance."
"Package? What package? There was a package for Darla?" Sarah's father joked.
"Dad, you're the package."
"Ohh honey I knew that. I was kidding around. What, did you forget your sense of humor back in New York, or did that expensive university your attending suck the funny-bone right out of you?"
"Neither, you're just not that funny." Sarah scolded.
"Ouch! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Did you not sleep well?" her father asked.
"Bad dream. Sorry dad." Sarah apologized.
"Its fine kiddo. Will you do me a favor?"
"Of course dad, anything"
"I need you to go over to the Benson's, Laurie recently had a baby and her sons don't think she's doing well. Will you go over there and see if she needs anything? I'm sure she'd love to see you."
"Sure thing dad I'll head over there around 11:30." Sarah put the bacon on the plate with the eggs and hash-browns and handed it to her father. Then headed upstairs to take a shower and get dressed.
Once Sarah had finished getting ready, she went down stairs. She could hear her little brother Toby and her step-mother Darla in the kitchen. Toby was slurping a bowl of cereal. Darla seemed to be trying to make breakfast, but by the sound of all her cursing and frustration, she wasn't getting anywhere. So Sarah headed toward to living room and turned on the TV. She switched it to the News channel so she could hear the weather for the day.
"Good morning Lincoln, North Dakota. John Higgins here with today's weather. Today's weather will be quite chilly as there will be 6 inches of snowfall with a temperature of -17 degrees Celsius. The wind will be blowing N at 6 km per hour. That's today's weather; I'll be back later with the rest of the week's weather. And for you folks that won't be hearing the rest of the weeks weather, have a Merry Christmas. Back to you Howard."
Sarah turned off the television and looked at the clock on the wall. It was 11:15. She decided that it was time to go to Laurie's. She put on her grey sweater, slipped into her white overcoat, tucked her jeans into her boot and opened the door.
"Bye Toby, bye Darla, I'm going to Laurie Benson's. I don't know when I'll be back. Don't wait up for me" Sarah called. She had a feeling this would turn into an all day affair.
"Bye-bye Sarah, love you" yelled Toby.
"Bye Sarah, and you better not be all day young lady my parents are coming for dinner and you need to be the respectable young wom-" Sarah closed the door before her step mother could finish her sentence. All Darla really cared about was how Sarah was going to act around company. Sarah really enjoyed embarrassing Darla in front of her friends and family members. But after last years Thanks Giving she only did it in private because her father had scolded her about how she was making Darla miserable and how she was taking it out on him. "Selfish. So, so selfish that father of mine" Sarah thought as she remembered the lecture.
A few minutes later, Sarah came to the door of the Benson's home. She knocked three times and the door opened, revealing a woman in pink pajamas with green polka dots. She had pink, fuzzy bunny slippers on her feet and a small towel that looked like it had a few puke stains on her shoulder. The woman had big, black circles around her dark brown eyes. Her face was long and pale and her mouth was thin. Her dark red hair was in curlers. She was holding a half empty baby bottle in her right hand and a worn out teddy bear in her left.
"Sarah! My goodness! You're all grown up! Where did the time go?" the woman exclaimed as she dropped the bottle and stuff animal and pulled Sarah into her arms for a hug. Sarah laughed, she forgot how much Laurie adored her, as Sarah was the closest thing Laurie had to a daughter.
"Hello Laurie. It's been a while, how have you been?"
"Ohh I'm good, but let's talk some more inside where it's warm. I'll heat up the kettle and make you some hot cocoa." Laurie suggested.
The two women chatted for hours, talking about Sarah's school, Darla and about Laurie's newest family member. Sarah had always seen Laurie as more a mother than a friend, she always knew the right things to say and always gave Sarah the best advice. Sarah realized that Laurie was probably one of the only people she could trust enough to tell about her dream or her experience in the labyrinth. Because Sarah was still bothered by her dream, and the passage she read from the book, she decided to tell Laurie about it. She decided to tell Laurie everything.
"Child, you have a very wild imagination, have you ever thought about writing a book?" Laurie chuckled.
"It's not my imagination!" Sarah exclaimed, "My dream is real, was real. At least I'm pretty sure it was. It was more a flash back than a dream. A flash back to something that did happen. And I'm not crazy." Sarah got up from the table, almost knocking over the cups of hot cocoa and walked over the window. It had started to snow and judging by how fast it was falling, it could turn into a blizzard.
"So your telling me that there is a man named Garret, a dwarf named Hogwart, a talking fox name Sir Dappymac, and a beast thing named Lapo?" questioned Laurie.
"Yes, they are real. And their names are Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo and his name is Jareth."
"I see. So if I were to say 'I wish the goblins would co-"
"STOP!" Sarah screamed turning away from the window. "Don't say the rest, please!" she pleaded. Sarah couldn't believe Laurie was about to say the words that could send her to the labyrinth. "Doesn't she take this seriously?"
"Sarah, sit down. Relax. I'm sorry I upset you. If you really take this seriously then I believe you." Sarah took her place back at the table and apologized for the way she acted. Laurie accepted Sarah's apology
The sound of a baby crying came from up stairs. Laurie looked up, and then looked back at Sarah. She put her head in the palm of her hands and muttered a few curses. Sarah could tell the baby stressed Laurie out. You would think someone who has had 6 baby boys already could handle a seventh.
"I can get him if you would like" Sarah offered.
"No that's alright, I'll be right back" sighed Laurie as she stood up. Sarah watched her walk towards the stairs and she noticed a picture on the wall beside the stairwell. She got up for a closer look. The frame was a stained wood color, and the glass was a little dusty but you could still see the picture. It was taken when Sarah was younger. She was with two of Laurie's sons and they were playing in the snow. Sarah chuckled to herself remembering the day. She then noticed her mother was in the background. Her smile faded and Sarah's heart filled with sadness.
"She looks so beautiful" Sarah whispered to herself. It had been 14 years since her mother died and Sarah's father didn't keep many pictures of her around the house. It was hard on her father when Sarah's mother died, they had been together since high school. All of a sudden Sarah heard loud thumping, a crash and a baby starting to cry coming from up stairs.
"Damn it! Why do I keep having kids! They're nothing but trouble and all they ever do is poop and cry and eat and cry and poop!" Laurie yelled. "I wish the goblins would come and take you away right now!"
Sarah's heart went still. "Did Laurie really just say that?" A loud boom from upstairs confirmed her worries. She took one last glimpse at the picture and ran up stairs. She went down the hallway into Laurie's room and found Laurie lying on the floor. Sarah ran to her and put her ear against Laurie's chest and became relieved when she heard the thump-thumping of Laurie's heart.