LOCKED
Labyrinth Fan Fiction
Kristen Sweet
Disclaimer: I do not own any of The Labyrinth (although I would run it!) Reviews appreciated, cheers x
Sarah sat alone with her chin resting on her folded arms looking out at the rain that had seemed to lash down for an eternity. Her eyes lazily followed a drop as it meandered its way from the top to the bottom of the glass. She sighed. This was her life now: gazing out into the dank grey world from a room on the top floor of the hospital. She couldn't be sure exactly how long she had been there, the medication they administered had seemed to merge all the days into one. She hadn't spoken to anyone for months, silence consumed her. They had tried of course, but neither the staff or the doctors could get her to even squeak. Psychiatrists had talked to her, trying to pierce the barrier that Sarah had put up, but to no avail. She was the one mystery they couldn't unlock. Sarah, trapped and alone, had thought it best if she didn't open her mouth and tell the truth again for fear of what would happen if she did. The last time she really opened up her world fell apart...
It was the day after she got back from the Labyrinth. Sarah's parents wondered why there were errant feathers lying around their hallway. After his defeat, and in his haste, Jareth had dropped a few, and not noticed as he had fled the scene.
Sarah had thought about telling them a lie but she knew it would eat her up, so she sat them down and told them of her adventures in the underground. The fact that she had wished away her brother to the Goblins who had taken him, and the Goblin King who had challenged her to solve his Labyrinth to rescue the young boy. As her story unfolded, the tales of Hoggle, Sir Diddymus and Ludo made Sarah smile. But she frowned as the expressions on her father and stepmother's faces changed. Her father gave a worried look, her stepmother looking livid. Sarah was supposed to be looking after Toby not fantasizing in her room. As the story continued, her stepmother started to laugh wickedly.
"You are just like your mother!" she hissed. "Delusional!" she added. Sarah looked at her father, her eyes pleading for him to step up and rescue her from the torrent of abuse her wicked stepmother was throwing at her. Her father looked slightly guilty and shrugged his shoulders.
"Sarah, what are these stories? Why are you spouting such rubbish?" He always took Irene's side. She could never work out if it was that he was scared of his wife or that Sarah reminded him too much of the hurt her mother Linda had caused him.
"But I'm not lying," she shouted. "It happened."
Irene stood and bent down so she was a breath away from Sarah and hissed, "Get to your room and think on the amount of despair you bring to this house!" Her tone was venomous. She glared at Sarah who slipped silently from underneath her and ran upstairs. "I hate you," she cried with tears streaming down her face. "I should have stayed!" The door to her room slamming shut behind her.
In the confines of her room, she let out an ear-piercing scream. She picked up the gold music box with the figurine inside and wound the key. The high pitched melody filled the bedroom as Sarah flopped back onto her bed. Looking at the canopy above, tears started to fall. Then doubt started to creep in: had she really just dreamt it all? She closed her eyes, immediately images filled her mind. Hoggle, Sir Diddymus, Ludo and finally Jareth. Swirling around her head as the music played.
For the next two weeks, Sarah didn't speak. She didn't attend her school and she only came out of her bedroom to use the bathroom or to eat. Even when Irene threatened her. It was as if she had put herself on autopilot.
One night she sat in front of her vanity unit looking into the mirror. She took a deep breath and whispered, "Hoggle I need you." She sat for a minute gazing behind her reflection.
The last time she had seen him he had said she was only to call and they would be there for her. So here she was calling on her only friends. Nothing happened. "Hoggle, Sir Diddymus, Ludo I need you," she repeated.
Nothing.
"Jareth?" She didn't like the fact that she had used his name, but she missed her friends. Even him.
Nothing.
Anger and despair rose inside her, and with one fell swoop, she swiped everything that lay on her table onto the floor. Moving to the posters, she ripped them from their pride of place on the walls. Then her toys went flying across the room. Finally, she reached for the music box. She launched it with all her might at the door and on impact, it broke into pieces. As it hit the floor the melody started to play faintly and distorted. Sarah flopped onto her bed face-down and cried.
She must have fallen asleep, as the next thing she knew, her father and stepmother were barging in accompanied by two men in medical uniforms.
The room was a disaster with broken things strewn everywhere. As Irene stepped in she stepped on the doll that had stood in the music box. It crunched under her foot, broken forever.
Sarah sat bolt upright, pulling her knees to her chin. "Sarah," Irene said calmly with false sincerity. Sarah looked up and could see the viciousness in her eyes.
"You have to go with these gentlemen. You need help." Sarah just stared at the wall.
"Sarah, love it's only for a little while so you can get better. These ideas and delusions have been getting worse over the years. You have no friends at school and you go off on your own. You need some guidance and we can't offer that, you need a professional," her father continued.
The medics smiled sympathetically and stepped past her parents, moving over the debris on the floor towards the bed.
Sarah stood up, her arms held gently by the medics. Her brow furrowed in fury, flashing her father a hateful look. Then she spoke for the first time in weeks: "I know what happened," she screamed and tried to wriggle free of the hold but the medics tightened their grip. "Daddy!" she pleaded. Her father turned the other way.
Her voice lowered in angst towards Irene. "You have been trying to get me out since you and my father met." She struggled to get the words out through the tears that began to flow.
"You know you could have just wished me away!" With that, she was escorted from the house.
Robert put his arm around Irene as they followed, watching Sarah being put in the ambulance. Irene smirked and lay her head on Roberts' chest.
There were no windows in the ambulance so Sarah just gazed around inside not paying particular attention to the questions that were being asked by the medics.
"Sarah please could you answer me?" She blinked slowly as her eyes came to rest on a medic. He had kind eyes, she thought to herself but she wasn't ready to speak again just yet so she just stared.
Sarah had resigned herself to the fact that whatever had happened in the Labyrinth during those thirteen hours would stay buried within her.
Eventually, their destination, Higham sanatorium, came into view. A vast sprawling gothic building with towers and ornate gargoyles adorning the brickwork. The windows were high and barred which slightly reduced the charm of the otherwise resplendent building. Sarah looked and took in her surroundings. She was sure the gargoyle directly above the front entrance moved. She shook the feeling and was escorted through the big wooden doors into a spacious foyer. There was a large oak desk to the left and a grand staircase in front. The ceilings were high and dark with beams arching into the roof. The walls were painted a sickly yellow colour, and corridors led off to the left and right. Sarah strained to see as she was brought before the reception desk.
A rather rotund, middle-aged woman sat at the table, her dishwater brown hair in a tightly wound bun. Her face, though chubby, was smooth with slightly rosy cheeks. A pair of half-moon glasses perched precariously on the end of her nose. Sarah smiled awkwardly as the woman stood up.
The medic to Sarah's left gave the receptionist a clipboard. The woman took it and read. "Ah, Sarah Williams." She looked Sarah up and down and then picked up the phone.
"Doctor Fairchild your patient has arrived," she said. "Yes, of course, I'll get them to show her up." She placed the receiver back on the cradle. "Gavin, James, take her up to the third floor, the doctor is waiting for her." The medics nodded and ushered Sarah to the stairs. Sarah nodded to the receptionist who ignored the gesture and sat back down. Some people are just too rude! she thought.
Climbing the stairs she noticed a stained glass window where the stairs split into two, one going left and one right. The light that came through the glass threw beautiful coloured shapes onto the burgundy carpet. She was guided to the left and towards a darker, more sinister-looking part of the hospital. There were wooden doors with small windows at the top to her left and right all closed. Another turn to the right took them to a smaller staircase. They had to wait as a nurse dressed in white scrubs passed them and disappeared into one of the rooms.
As they approached the third floor no carpet adorned the stairs just plain grey concrete. Sarah likened them to the Escher room but this time there was no upside down stairs, baby or a Goblin King. Entering the next door brought a sudden contrast. This level was stark and painted blinding white, it was like a hospital corridor with a workstation and nurses milling around.
Now Sarah could hear noises. People noises. Screams, wails and shouting, though she couldn't see where they were coming from. She gulped and started to feel scared.
A man walked towards the group, smartly dressed in a brown woollen suit with a white shirt and brown zigzag tie. He had a name badge: "DOCTOR I. S. FAIRCHILD Psychiatrist." "Sarah, I presume?" he said in a welcoming and upbeat tone. Sarah just nodded. She wasn't going to give an inch.
"Thank you, fellas, you can go get a coffee now," he smiled. Sarah felt a gentle squeeze on her shoulder as James gave her a wink and wandered off with Gavin.
Sarah was startled by Doctor Fairchild clapping his hands. "Now then Miss Williams, your room," he beamed.
He guided her to the left past, numerous doors until they reached the end of the corridor. The Doctor fumbled with the large bunch of keys he was carrying and mumbled: "I can never find the right one straight away!" Sarah rolled her eyes and sighed. "Ah! Here we are", he said and turned the large key in the lock. With a clank the door opened.
The room was as white as the hallway with a solitary table and small single metal bed with grey and white sheets.
The room was completely bare with no pictures or other decoration only a small barred window on one wall. She wandered in and looked out. Down below, she saw a small graveled courtyard with what appeared to be stable buildings in a square around the outside.
The Doctor sat on the edge of the bed and said, "Sarah, my dear Sarah, please join me." He patted the blanket beside him. "I want to explain why you are here and what we offer," Moving to the bed, Sarah sat down next to him.
The Doctor looked at her and raised his eyebrows."Nothing?" he asked. He spoke as if trying to provoke her into talking. Sarah stayed silent.
"You are here because your parents are very worried about your behaviour. These imaginary Goblins and fairies and more recently your anger and then silence. They have another child and they feel it wise to protect him from you." Sarah frowned. Protect Toby from me? A look of sorrow enveloped her face and she turned to look out of the window.
"Well Sarah, until you talk there is not much I can do to help you. We will be running tests and examinations in the next few days to determine what treatment you will receive."
Sarah screamed silently inside. Why is this happening to me? All this because I had told the truth?
"Is it to be just silence?" He paused. "As you wish Sarah." The Doctor stood up and backed towards the door. "Get yourself settled in, and I will see you in the morning." The door closed with a bang and Sarah heard the key turn in the lock.
The room dimmed as the afternoon sun dipped behind a cloud. This was it. She had been locked away in an asylum because her stepmonster wanted her father all to herself! She flung herself back on the bed.
For several months the doctors ran test after test on her, finally coming to the conclusion that she had schizophrenia. The first course of antipsychotic drugs they administered turned Sarah into a zombie-like creature. The other patients had found her fascinating. Prodding and poking her and screaming in her ears while she ate in the communal dining room. Sarah locked her mind away from the outside world, her only release was her memories of the time she had spent in the Labyrinth.
She still hadn't spoken a word. Her birthday came and went but her only visitors were doctors. The effect of the drugs made the days fly by but then after around 6 months, the doctors had weaned her off them to try an alternative treatment.
The rain slowed slightly as she sat. The drugs were finally leaving her system. Doctor Fairchild had said that she needed a clear head once more to see if that would help her release whatever demons were affecting her.
But it's not demons that plague my dreams, she thought. It's the Goblin King and his subjects.
She gazed down to the rain-soaked courtyard below. From the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of a figure in black. She squinted her eyes trying to follow the form but it disappeared before she focussed properly on it.
This had been happening more and more just lately. She would sometimes wake in the middle of the night and notice dark shadows in the corner of the room, but as she looked they seemed to vanish.
The morning came and Sarah was having a new form of treatment to try and get her to open up, a form of hypnotherapy. Simon the porter had taken her to the room where she was strapped to the treatment chair, the restraints were tight and restricted the blood flow to her wrists and ankles.
Doctor Fairchild appeared along with a blond haired man wearing black jeans, blue shirt, grey waistcoat and matching bow tie. He doesn't look like a doctor more a teacher, Sarah thought.
"Now Sarah, this is Doctor Parks, a trained hypnotherapist. He is going to put you under hypnosis and see if we can't banish those demons!" Doctor Fairchild was always in a jovial mood. He had never raised his voice in all the time that Sarah had been there, even when dealing with very challenging patients.
Doctor Parks pulled up a chair and sat next to Sarah. He adjusted the levers underneath her chair and brought it down to his level. "Hello Sarah," he said in a smooth English accent "Let's go for a walk in your subconscious shall we?" He produced a pocket watch. It was silver with an ever decreasing circle design on its back. As it swung, it turned and Sarah caught a glimpse of the clock face. Thirteen!
Shocked, her eyebrows raised and fell as the watch swung from side to side.
"Sarah, precious you are feeling sleepy. Watch the clock spin and move. Picture yourself in a safe place." Sarah tried in vain to pull away from the watch but her eyes were drawn to it, swinging in half-circles as the doctor's soothing voice melted her resolve. She tried to fight it but her eyes closed as she succumbed and she found herself standing on the hill outside the Labyrinth.