Disclaimer: Is it too late for them to give us rights to Labyrinth? It is? What a shame.
'Nothing, nothing tra-la-la?' the blonde, 80's movie-star/actor laughed, whipping back his wild hair to throw the crystal down the tunnel, where it glittered in the center of the darkness before becoming a large, circular metal machine with knives all over it. Of course, this wasn't what Lucy was thinking about at all. Instead, she jumped up from her place on the couch and shouted, "You dumb bitch! Follow him! Gosh, she's just so stupid," pausing the Dvd. "I mean just look at those pants! Look at them! They're just so damn- ugh!" With that she collapsed on to the couch and pressed play, silent once more.
From the other side of the couch her sister sighed, leaning back against the seat and giving her twin sister a sideways glance. "You know, I don't think the point of watching this movie was to watch some creeper not wearing underwear." She said coyly, unable to hold back a smirk. Her and sister, though identical in looks, were not quite so similar in personalities. Where Lucille was rebellious and aggressive, obsessing over hot guys in movies, Lillian was more of the polite, thoughtful type. Still, they loved each other deeply; even if that meant putting up with Lucy constantly pausing and playing and pausing the movie and yelling about how sexy David Bowie (and his criminally tight pants) were.
The door opened and their father came in, a scowl on his face. "I'm on the phone, girls, and I would appreciate it if you would be a little more considerate of the other people in the house" he said, closing the door – albeit a little loudly – behind him. Lily called after him, "Sorry, daddy!" while Lucy mocked him under her breath.
"I'm on the phone, girls! Be more considerate!" Lucy muttered, crossing her arms, "He never used to care if we were loud. He used to let us run around the house in our pajamas, throwing pillows at each other and screaming at the top of our lungs. How was that considerate?" she asked, her eyes never leaving their flat screen, where Sarah was – as usual – asking stupid questions to the… thing named Hoggle. Lucy sighed, glancing up at the ceiling where she could hear the distant muffled whispers of their step-mother cooing her little toddler. Apparently the little brat was their sibling, though Lucy chose not to believe that was true.
By the time the credits rolled on the movie, their dad had come in and announced that him and their step-mom were going on a date and that they'd be back late. Until they got back, however, it was up to Lucy and Lily to take care of Carver. Lily nodded and smiled, "Of course we'll take care of him, we were going to stay in tonight anyway" she said, while Lucy rolled her eyes and muttered something along the lines of 'like we have a choice, being your slaves and all'. Lily kicked the side of her sister's leg. Lucy sucked in a breath as her parents left, but waited until they were out the door to retaliate.
"What was that for?" Lucy exclaimed, kicking her sister back.
"You were being stupid!" Lily yelled. "And anyway, I'm tired of getting in trouble with Anne because of something you did. She already dislikes us, so I don't see why you have to provoke her!" With a sigh, she started up the stairs, headed for her brother's room. "I'm going to check on Carver, so you make us something to eat" Lily said, already mid-way up the stairs.
"Oh, no no no no no! No!" Lucy exclaimed, taking the stairs two at a time to grab her sister's elbow and pull her backward. "Last time I cooked I nearly burned the house down. And I was boiling water. I'll check on the twerp and you make us something to eat- Oh! Make grilled cheese sandwiches!" she called behind her, leaving Carver's door open behind her. She walked over the carpet, lit only by the moonlight which streamed in through his bedroom window, and dodging his toys as she went. More than once she stubbed her tow on something sharp, hopping on one foot and screeching profanities.
This may have been a contributing factor to Carver's three-year-old self sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Wiwian?" he mumbled tiredly, "Dat wou?" Lucy sighed, coming to the side of his bed and pushing his forehead down against the pillow.
"No, but I look just like her so it's not your fault you got confused" Lucy snapped, pulling the quilt up to his chin. She wondered vaguely if she could tuck him in so tightly that he wouldn't be able to move but decided that even if she could it would take too much effort to make it happen. "Now be a good boy, go back to sleep and don't bother your sisters for the rest of the night. Capiche?" Carver stared up at her with wide brown eyes, hidden by loose strands of his mother's red hair. "Good" Lucy said turning around, "And goodnight."
Carver yawned, "Wead me a stowy, sistar" he said, sitting up again so that the blanket fell into his lap. Lucy ground her teeth, ignoring her half-brother and continuing her way out of the room toward the delicious smell of Lily's cooking. "Wucy! Wead me a stowy!" he said loder, sounding as if he were pouting. Lucy goaned, turning around and leaning against the frame of the door.
"You want to hear a story? Fine!" she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest and blowing a lock of strawberry-blonde hair out of her eyes. "Once upon a time there was a bratty little boy named Carver, and his favorite thing to do was pis- tick off his beautiful, intelligent sister named Lucille. Lucille, though pretty, was treated as a slave was by both her step-mother, and by her father. Though her father was once a kind man, and though he might have stood up for the girl once, before the death of his first wife, he was no longer good-hearted enough to help her. You see, when his wife died, so did his heart, and so he forgot about the love of his children and married the cruel and torturous witch named Anne, whom gave birth to the bratty little boy named Carver. Now. Do you want to know what happened next?" Carver, oblivious to what his sister was implying, nodded quickly, anxious to hear what happened to the pretty girl and her rude brother. Lucy nodded, happy to have drawn him in to her story. "Hm… well! One day, a Goblin King named Jareth came to the girl and admitted that he had been watching her for a long time and had fallen deeply, madly, passionately, adoringly in love with her. And he begged her – Begged! On his knees! – for her to become his wife and rule over the Goblin Kingdom. She refused, though! For she could never leave her brother to be left to be raised by such terrible people! For no matter how cruel he was to her, she loved him still, and wanted to be cared for and to be loved in his lifetime, even if it meant she would suffer for it. Still, that night when she went to sleep, she wished that the Goblin King would take her brother away so that nothing would stand between them. And when she wished, Jareth heard her. He came in the dead of night and stole the child, and the next day came to the girl and told her so. He told her that he would raise the child and turn it into a Goblin so that they could be together and she would be his Queen. And, knowing that the child would be among other Goblins who would love him so, she agreed to become his Queen. And in the early hours of the morning, just before sunrise, he took her away to his castle in the center of a maze and together they lived, ruling over the Goblins of the Goblin Kingdom, now including the once-cruel brother, who grew kind with years after becoming a short, ugly little Goblin with warty little hands. The end! Goodnight."
Carver gasped, "What happed after dat, sistar?" he asked, "Dids she- dids she get happeh?" he asked and Lucy sighed.
"Yes, yes. Very happy. Lived a long life side-by-side with Jareth, made lots of babies, ruled the world, etcetera, etcetera." She said, "Now go. To. Sleep! The story's over! The end! No more to tell! So sleep. I'm sure you tired after asking all these stupid questions" she said, pushing back against the pillow and pulling the blanket back up to his chin.
"Sistar?" he said and she groaned.
"What? What could you possibly have to say?" she demanded and he smiled at her, shutting his sleepy eyes.
"Tank wou for tewling the stowy" he whispered before drifting off.
Lucy sighed, walking to the door, "I shouldn't have had to tell you one at all" she muttered, "I should have just been able to have my mom tell me a story and go to sleep, not tell some other woman's kid one before tucking him in." She sighed shutting the door, "I wish the Goblin King was real, and I wish he really did love me, and I wish he would take you away" she said quietly before walking back down the stairs to the dining room where Lily was setting two paper plates on the table, each one with a grill cheese on top.
"What took you so long?" Lily asked, taking her first bite, eyes on her twin sister. Lucy shrugged, sitting down.
The twerp asked me to tell him a story, so I had to make one up" she said with a shrug, ignoring her sister's sudden stillness. She took a bite of the sandwich, savoring the flavor of melted cheese and butter.
"You what?" Lily asked, but Lucy didn't answer. She only shrugged, attempting to keep her attention focused on the sandwich. "Lucille! You know he gets scared easily – and there's no way you can deny it, sister, because you've scared him yourself more than a few times – and I know that all the stories you could possibly come up with would be about monsters in the closet or the boogie man in the basement or a serial killer who pretends to be a golden retriever under the bed! God! You're so- so impossible!"
And with that, Lily marched herself up the stairs. Lucy listened to her sister and rolled her eyes, taking another bite of her food. He didn't seem scared when I told it to him, she thought, He even thanked me so she can go and- she was interrupted by her sister yelling, "LUCILLE!" Lucy sighed, standing up and poking her head into the living room, glancing up to the top of her stairs where Lillian stood, hands on her hips. "Where the hell is our little brother? Did you lock him in the bathroom or something? Tie him up in dad's office?"
"What are you going on about?" Lucy asked, genuinely confused. Today she had been too lazy to do anything particularly vindictive against Carver, so why was she being blamed? Coming down into the living room, Lily glared.
"This isn't a joke, Lucille. It's not funny. Where's out brother?" she demanded to know. Lucy shrugged.
"For once, I have no idea what you're talking about" she said, "I left Carver in his room. In fact, I'm pretty sure he was asleep by the time I left. If he's not there, then he was kidnapped by pirates, or he went to the bathroom" Lucy explained. Lillian shook her head, unconvinced.
"I checked the bathroom and he wasn't there. Our brother is gone, sister, and you were the last person to have seen him. So what did you do?" she demanded.
"Wait. You checked the bathroom and you still accused me of locking him inside?" she shook her head, deciding that her sister was crazy but still playing along. "Ok, look. If he's not in his room then he's just somewhere else. It's not like someone came in through a locked window, you know how anal Anne is about locking the house up before she goes anyplace. So just take a chill pill and look around. Maybe he did get scared and hid under his bed or something."
The two of them returned to Carver's bedroom, where, sure enough, he was not in. "Huh. Well that's weird" Lucy said, ducking down to look under the bed, but unable to shake off the thoughts that her brother was such a pain for going and causing problems like this. He wasn't under the bed, so she slid open the closet door, where she was met with nothing but a pyramid of blocks and clothes organized by color. Anne is such a neat-freak, Jesus!
Lily squealed by the window, backing up and tripping on to the bed. "Did you see that!" she squeaked, pointing at the window with wide eyes. Lucille rolled her eyes as she faced her sister, "See what, crazy?" Lucy asked, following her sister's outstretched finger. She was pointing at the window, but there was nothing outside but the grey-blue clouds and the silver circle of light that was the moon.
"There's nothing there" Lucy announced, "Did you take your medicine this morning, sister?" she laughed.
"It isn't funny! I saw something outside the window! And you shouldn't be laughing after losing our brother!" she jumped up from the bed, getting in her twin's personal space. Lucy took a step back, raising her hands in an 'I surrender' gesture. "Lily, I have a personal bubble and you're dangerously close to popping it" she said, "Plus, I didn't lose our brother. He was kidnapped by pirates. Remember?"
Lily glared, but her eyes glanced back at the window with the same look of horror as a few seconds before, "There it was again. Outside the window. Lucy, there's something out there!" she said, clinging to her sister's shoulder, as if Lucy would be ok with being used as a meat shield between her sister and the imaginary thing Lily was seeing outside the window.
"Ok, crazy, listen up. There's nothing outside this window. Anything we could see outside this window would have to be able to fly- see?" At the last word, Lucy unlocked and pushed open the screen-less window, gesturing with her right hand, only to have a large white barn owl fly in over her shoulder. "HOLY SHIT!" she screeched, jumping back against the windowsill. Lily scream – at the top of her lungs, mind you – and sprinted out of the room, slamming the door behind her. "Some sister you are!" Lucy called after her, once the initial shock had settled, "Besides, it's just an owl- OhmyGod" because suddenly, it wasn't just an owl. It was a man, looking shocking similar to someone from the film she'd watched with her sister just earlier.
"LILLIAN!" Lucy yelled, "Get in here. Right. Now!" The door cracked open and Lily poked her head in.
"Who's that?" she asked quietly and the man laughed, throwing back his head of blonde hair and tossing his raven-feather cape behind him.
"You can call me Jareth, for that is who I am!" he announced, and Lucy stared. He looks like David Bowie! She realized, staring at him like a deer in headlights. "You're David Bowie" she said, "You look exactly like David Bowie! Holy shi- can I get your autograph?" Lily entered the room fully, standing in the door and staring at the David Bowie look-alike with obvious skepticism.
"Why do I feel like we've just walked ourselves into a sequel to Labyrinth?" she asked slowly.
"I am Jareth, the Goblin King, and am here to tell your sister that her wish has been granted. I have come here to take the child she asked me to, and I have. Now, you girls can go back to your sandwiches and movies and can-"
"YOU WHAT!" Lily screamed. "Lucille Clarabella Young, you had better have a damn good explanation for all of this or so help me God, I will kill you. I will shove you out that window and you will never see the light of day again because I will bury you alive in our backyard and I will-"
"If you'd allow me to, I can explain-" Jareth tried to say, but was interrupted by Lillian's rant.
"Shut up, Goblin King" Lily said, "I am really not in the mood. Now, Lucy, you listen and you listen good. You are going to tell me exactly what you told Carver, exactly what you did to him and the exact words you used in order to wish him away with a fucking Fairy King!"
Lucy glanced from her sister, to Jareth, and back to her sister. "Well… I told him a story about a girl being a slave and her brother being evil – kind of like Sarah did in the movie? – and I told him that the brother was taken away so that the Goblin King and the girl could get together. And then I tucked him in. And then he thanked me. Then he fell asleep, and when I closed the door ." She pursed her lips, hoping that by saying it so quickly her sister wouldn't understand what she said.
"You what?" Lily demanded, "Repeat yourself. Slower."
"Maybe I should just come bac-" Jareth tried to speak again, finding himself interrupted for a second time by Lily.
"Don't you dare, Goblin King. You're staying right there until this is settled!" Lily snapped, not even looking at him.
"Wow, Lil, I'm so proud of you!" Lucy gushed, "You're acting all adult-like and badass and- gosh, it's almost like you grew a backbone!" When her sister didn't laugh, she sighed, "I wished Carver would be taken by Goblins. But if it's any consolation, I didn't think it would really happen!" Not that I didn't want it to, but that's not the point.
Lily sighed, "Ok, Goblin King. Now you can talk, but keep in mind that if you don't give my brother back, I'll bury you alive, instead" she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Jareth cleared his throat, "If you want him back, you'll have to solve my Labyrinth" he said, gesturing at the window from which he came. "It's the rules, you see. You have 13 hours to solve the Labyrinth and if you cannot, then I keep the boy as a prize. If you succeed, you get one wish. If it so happens that your wish is to have your brother back, I will return Carver, safe, sound and human."
"Fine. Put us in the Labyrinth, we'll win our brother back" Lily stated, without even thinking it over.
"We will?" Lucy asked, "I was thinking maybe you would save him – be the heroine of this fairy tale, you know? – and I would, I don't know, finish my sandwich, watch A Hard Day's Night… you know, the usual." She said, but at the meeting of her sister's death glare, she knew that there was no getting out of it.
"Oh, fine, but don't say I didn't warn you!" she snapped, hand on her hip.
And with that they were there, outside the Labyrinth with the King of the Goblins and… a floating clock. Lucy continued to stare at Jareth. "Where do you buy those pants? They're just so tight and so-" she sighed wistfully and twisted a lock of strawberry blonde hair around her finger.
"Thirteen hours?" Lily asked and Jareth smirked.
"Thirteen hours" he confirmed, spinning his fingers counter-clockwise in front of the clock. Lily and Lucille watched as the hands of the clock spun to line up on the thirteen, "Starting now."
"Piece of cake" Lily stated, starting down the hill they stood on for the Labyrinth, and with one last suggestive glance at Jareth, Lucy followed in suit, wondering what, exactly, she and her sister had gotten themselves into.