Hi Guys, I'm being so naughty, as I am currently writing the ending for Apres Ski, and the next mega chapter for The Night Garden, and both are on the way, but this is a little story I had lying around that I wanted to share, really just see if there are any other Labyrinth fans out there like me .
Jareth Goblin King was my very first crush and I was obsessed with the movie as a little girl. I recently watched Goblin the Korean drama, and it reignited all my old love for goblin lore and fair folk stories. Of course, I can't love a settling and story set up without imagining how Klaroline would fit in it. And this one... this one really works I think.
Heavily influenced by the movie Labyrinth, so not very original! Any quotes in italics are from the film, either dialogue or song lyrics... fav songs from OST to read the story to are As the World Falls Down, Within You and Magic Dance. Just a short mini story for fun!
Oubliette
Part One
It's only forever, it's not long at all...
In a stone and shadow city, in a kingdom shrouded in darkness, a velvet cape encrusted with stars, a lonely and cruel King sat on his throne of silver and bone, surveying his kingdom.
His head turned to the side, his attention stolen from his courtiers.
A voice from the world of men.
He had long ago given up on the mortal realm. Few believed in the old ways, so few sacrifices made to the Fair Folk anymore, even fewer changeling children left in the woods overnight. They were below notice as a consequence, such a pity, his father, and his entire line before him had looked to that very world for a bride, and he would be the first to be refused that right.
The first Goblin King without a bride.
The voice called to him again, he frowned as he conjured a crystal from air to look into.
"Show me the girl" he whispered softly, the crystal glowed in his hand.
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Caroline pushed her hair from her face as she struggled to clasp the car seat seatbelt. She let out a grunt of frustration, the damn thing wouldn't close, who designed these anyway? She fought the urge to curse, with Lizzie and Josie looking up at her innocently from a foot away. As the lock finally slid into place, she pulled back, already congratulating herself, when Josie's fat little fist shot out and grabbed a hanging lock of her hair, and pulled hard.
"Ouch! You little monster!" Caroline cried, trying to detangle the strand and ignore the gleeful expression in the twin's eye.
"No pulling" she said, for what felt like the 100th time that day. She finally shut the back door and walked around to the driver's seat and got in, letting out a loud exhale as she did.
Days like today were becoming more and more frequent, and she was tired of it. When was she getting her life back?
As she pulled carefully out the space and headed for home, the phone rang. She answered with the hands-free, and tried to keep her attention on the road.
"Caroline?" a voice asked, and Caroline gritted her teeth against its too friendly tone.
"Yes, Alaric, I'm here. I just picked the twins up." She said, glancing at the clock and holding back a curse as she saw the time.
"Right, thanks for that. You see, the thing is, Liz and I need you to look after them at home for just a couple of hours. I took your mom to that new spa hotel, she really needed a break" he said, and Caroline gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckled turned white. A baby started crying in the back, making the loudspeaker hard to hear.
"You guys just got back from vacation, a three-week long vacation, last week" Caroline said, her voice strained.
"I know, it's crazy that your mom can already be this stressed so quickly" his voice said, and Caroline scowled, wondering if he was deliberately trying to misunderstand her.
"I wish I could help, but I have rehearsal today, remember, I told you. I have to leave by 5" She said, feeling her heart drop as the phone was passed over.
"Hi Caroline honey. I'm so sorry, I totally forgot about your rehearsal." Her mom's soft voice said, and Caroline felt her resistance melt away.
"I just don't think we are going to be back in time, even if we leave right now –" her mom was saying as Caroline cut her off.
"Its fine. I'll catch up at the weekend. No worries, have fun" she said. The crying in the back escalated and she felt a migraine press behind her eyes, an all too common feeling nowadays.
"I've gotta go, we are home. See you later!" she said, her false tone jarring in her ear. She hung up and stared at the front on the house a long moment as both twins in the back started crying.
Feeling a sudden, overwhelming anger, she let out a short scream, and banged her hands on the steering wheel, the sudden pain distracting her from her irritation and letting out some of the suffocating feelings. She accidently hit the horn, and its loud beep silenced the twins for a moment, before they both started back up, with renewed intensity. Fighting the urge to cry, she called out to them, her voice shaking.
"It's ok girls, I'm here. I'm always here"
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That night, Caroline stood in front of the mirror in her room and stared at her reflection. Dark circles ringed her blue eyes, and her skin was pale, despite summer being over. Her friends had just gotten back from a group vacation to celebrate the end of high school. They had travelled around South America, and she had poured over their group messages and video chats, desperately wishing she had been with them.
But she hadn't, she had been here, looking after the twins, and she had still not managed to make her mom understand how much that had hurt her.
Her mom deserved happiness, Caroline knew that more than anyone, which was why she did everything the older woman asked of her. When her parents divorced, it had been like everything she had thought she'd known about love and relationships had been ripped away. She had been lost, adrift, for years really. She seldom saw her father now, he had another family and was happy. Her mom had been alone, for so long, maybe even given up the hope of meeting anyone else, when Alaric Saltzman had appeared in town, the new History teacher at the high school.
He was tall and handsome, in a boy next door way, and about 15 years younger than her mother. It had set a small town like Mystic Falls alit with gossip, and not only was Alaric much younger than Liz, he had two children from his previous marriage, over whom he had joint custody.
Caroline didn't know how she felt about Rik, but she did love the twins. Only 18 months, they were sweet and loving. However, they were also hard work, and with Rik and Liz working full time, it seemed to always fall to Caroline to take care of them. She didn't mind being the big sister babysitter, but she was too young to be a teen mom, which is what she was starting to feel like she was.
She wanted to go to school for broadcast journalism, and this summer, she gotten the lead in a local play, and hours being a runner at the local news station. The play would be good performance practise, and she was excited for it, but so far, she was barely making it to rehearsals. She knew the director wasn't happy, so she was trying to be super prepared and helpful when she was there, but sooner or later, something was going to have to give.
She just hoped it wasn't her.
She gripped her phone tighter and resisted the urge to look again. The latest group photo showed a particularly painful scene. Her boyfriend, well, ex now, Tyler, locked in a passionate tango embrace with a sultry dark haired Argentinian wasn't doing much to improve her mood. She had thought they were strong enough to survive a long vacation apart, but apparently not. He had called broken it off last week, no doubt so he could enjoy the rest of his holiday guilt free.
She turned back to the book in her hand. Her fingers tracing over the golden, spidery script.
The Labyrinth
It was the play they were doing at the local theatre. She turned to the end, her part as Sarah highlighted in pink. She always forgot this part, her brain was so scattered with everything lately, it was hardly surprising.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered…." She muttered, running her hands through her hair as she tried to squeeze the words into her overflowing brain.
A sharp cry from the baby monitor broke her focus as she picked it up to see Lizzie had dropped her dummy and woken up.
"Let this day end" she muttered as she wondered through to the nursery.
"Lizzie Saltzman! If you're not careful, I'll let the Goblin King come and steal you away and lock you in the Labyrinth, where you will never find your way home!" she said in a mock stern voice as she searched for the dummy in the cot, and popping it in the soft, open mouth.
"Be good little one" she whispered as she left the room and quietly shut the door, returning to her room and the open copy of the Labyrinth.
"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen" she recited as she settled back to finish memorising her lines. She would make it to rehearsal tomorrow, and everything would be fine, she told herself, though even in her head, she wasn't quite sure she believed it.
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The Goblin King watched the girl. He always did now, now that she had called to him, day and night. He saw her struggle, he saw her unhappiness. He felt her longing.
"Do you think she'll say the words?' a voice whispered in the dark corners of the throne room.
"How should I know? Maybe? But what will happen to us if she does?" another voice answered, doubtful.
They watched the King conjure endless crystals filled with her face, his eyes mesmerised by them.
"What will happen to us if she doesn't?" the other voice countered, even more fearful.
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"I'm sorry Caroline, I just can't hold the spot anymore, and Elena is always here, she knows the part. Opening night is only 4 weeks away" the director was saying over the phone and Caroline swallowed the jagged lump of bitterness that had blocked her throat.
"I understand, thanks for giving me so much time." She croaked, sure that she wasn't going to make it off the phone before she cried.
She let the phone drop to the bed and felt the first hot tears streak down her cheeks. It hadn't mattered too much, about missing summer vacation and all the fun memories she should be taking with her after high school, because she'd been working toward her future. Now, she'd missed everything, just to be a babysitter, and whether or not it made her selfish person, right at that moment, she didn't care. It hurt.
Her eyes were drawn to the page before her on the bed.
"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby. And the baby was a spoiled child, and wanted everything for himself, and the young girl was practically a slave. But what no one knew is that the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and he had given her certain powers"
She let out a bitter laugh at the words, as she heard the baby monitor go off again, grabbing it and seeing once again, the dummy bandit had spat out her pacifier.
She wandered through to the nursery, seeing rain streaking the windows, and heard the far-off growl of thunder. She walked to the crib and looked down. Josie started to cry as she searched for the pacifier, the noise loud and grating on her shattered nerves.
"Shhhhh! I'm looking for it" she snapped, her mind drifting to her mother and Rik, wondering how they possible thought it was ok to leave her in charge of the twins for endless nights in a row.
Lizzie started crying from the other corner, and she felt her patience snap. She stood up and clamped her hands over her ears.
"I can bear it no longer! Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be, take these children of mine far away from me!" she shouted, quoting from the book, her lines, fresh in her mind, ready for a performance she'd never make. As she spoke, lightening filled the room for one, long electric filled moment, and as her words faded from the air, thunder crashed, closer now by the sounds of it.
She sighed into the silence, pushing the pacifiers back into both girls' mouths, hearing them suck away gummily, returning to their snuffly soft dreams. She gently stroked the curve of Lizzie's rounded cheek, a smile coming to her lips.
"Hmmm, powers my ass. Sleep tight little monkeys, don't let the bed bugs bite" she whispered as she left the nursery, closing the door behind her and went back to her bed room.
Her costume was still handing on the back of the door, a long white dress, with fluted bell sleeves, fitted waist and full skirt. The bodice was embroidered with white roses.
She pulled off her top, leaving her jeans on, slipped it over her head, smoothing over her jeans as best she could. Elena would be wearing this on stage. She felt a tiny bead of jealousy form in her mind, and did her best to squish it. It wasn't Elena's fault she never made it to rehearsals.
She stood before the window and watched the storm descend, sending the trees that ringed the house thrash back and forth, a branch snapping off and hitting a nearby car, adding a shrieking alarm to the tempest. As she pulled the curtain back into place, the lights in her room flickered once, and she held her breath, waiting, and they flickered again, and stayed off.
"Perfect" she muttered as she opened the curtains again. A flash of lightening lit up her room as she groped for a lighter for the scented candle she sometimes burned.
The smell of jasmine and vanilla filled the room with the snicker of the lighter and she carried the candle over to the dressing table to double the pool of light.
She stood there in front of the mirror, and looked at her reflection in the candle light. She looked like the heroine from the book, ethereal and pale, a sacrificial lamb for the demon's table.
The baby monitor let out a beep, and she saw the camera flashing in the corner indicating that it had lost signal.
She picked up her candle and made her way to the door. It was quiet, except the storm outside, as she walked slowly down the hallway. She could see the twins' room from here, and frowned as she saw the door was standing open. She knew the house was locked up tight, so she didn't feel afraid.
She was sure she'd shut it, but mustn't have. She reached the door and slowly stepped inside. It was dark inside, suffocatingly so, she walked over to the window first, and slowly drew open the curtains, letting in the pale moon, diulated by heavy clouds. A white shape blurred past in the garden below, and she leaned her forehead against the cold glass to see what it was.
It was a dog of some kind, it almost looked like a wolf. Silver and white, it sat in the pouring rain and stared up at her. Though she couldn't see, she imagined it's eyes were golden.
As she stared she suddenly became aware of a small scratching noise behind her. The room was really very quiet except for that, and as she turned her head to find the source, it stopped.
She glance back down at the dog outside, which hadn't moved, and the sound started again. She glanced back around, and it stopped again.
And then, in the silence, she heard it.
A soft laugh.
All the hair on her body stood on end, and her heart suddenly started to pound. She started forward towards the crib holding the twins, planning on grabbing them and getting into a bathroom with a lock, and calling her mom, or the police.
She reached the cot and looked down.
It was empty.
"Lizzie? Josie? Where are you?" she whispered, feeling fear like she had never felt before reach up and choke her.
From the floor, a sudden pitter patter noise or tiny feet running shot from under the bed and into the hall. An animal of some kind? She was beginning to panic, she could feel it, like soda in her bloodstream.
"Lizzie! Josie!" she cried, feeling tears already tugging at the corners of her eyes. She dropped to the floor, just in time to see a dark shape disappearing into the wardrobe. She ran over and flung the door open. Nothing, there was nothing to see. Her hand went to her pocket and she grabbed her cell and started dialling 911.
As the operator answered, the sound of shattering glass filled the air and the shock made her drop the phone as she spun around to the window, her hands flying up to protect her face from the flying shards.
Her brain struggled to understand what she saw, to make sense of it, to rationalise it.
The French doors were broken, glass glittered on the carpet, and a man stood in the open doorway, his clothes old fashioned and dark as the night outside. Fitted black trousers encased his legs, and a black tunic, all covered by a long black cloak. Only his face stood out. Cruel and terrible beauty, was the only way she could think of to describe him as her eyes met his and she felt the shock of that contact in her soul.
"Hello, Caroline"