You know the usual disclaimer. Labyrinth and its characters and contents belong to The Jim Henson Company. The title comes from a song on Enya's The Memory of Trees, "Once You Had Gold" (lyrics by Roma Ryan, music by Enya).
In future installments, disclaimers will be placed at the end of the chapter to avoid spoiling anything.
Stick with the story until the end of the second chapter. That's when things get really interesting, I think. And no, I can't just chuck the first bit then, because it's needed for the story.
Originally written in 1999, I'm editing as I post here, so there may still be delays as life intervenes.
...the King climbs to the top of the skeletal platform looking for the Prince...he must rescue the Prince...the Prince is among Enemies...he must not allow the Prince to remain among Enemies...the King cannot pull himself to the top of the tower...something prevents him...the Enemies again, he thinks...he does not see them but they could be anywhere, everywhere...he grabs at the pile of thin metallic disks he sees in front of him on the top of the platform, snatching them before They realize he can reach them...he knows they are crucial...he must keep all of them...they are so sharp...do not let them separate...if he handles them carelessly they will cut him...but he cannot cling to the scaffold with only one hand free...he cannot hold all of the disks and land safely on his feet...magic will not save him...he loses his balance and lets go...somehow, not knowing how, he retains all of the disks and lands without harm on the dusty, hard-packed ground...time to go...he turns and runs from the enemy...
"Time to go."
Someone touched her arm. Alia opened her eyes and stared at the woman in front of her uncomprehendingly. After a moment, she recognized the nurse usually working in this ward, then glanced over at Cara sleeping peacefully in her bed.
"Visiting hours are ending. Time for you to leave now."
The nurse walked over to the television hanging on the wall to switch it off. A movie played with the sound turned down so low Alia could barely hear it. She thought she heard music playing and she could see a room full of stairs at every angle. The man on the screen stirred associations in her mind, but before anything surfaced the picture flared and went dark. Alia frowned to herself. She didn't remember turning the television on. After she fell asleep, Cara must have woken and turned it on.
Alia shook her head trying to clear the sleep from it and rose out of the chair. She looked around for her things. She had seen that face before; she knew she had. The teasing memory felt recent, but surely she would have remembered it if she had seen that face in the last couple of days. "Where did I see it?"
"Pardon me?"
Alia glanced up, surprised that the nurse had not already left the room and only then realizing that she had spoken aloud. "Oh. Um...nothing. Just looking for all of my stuff. I think I've got it all now." She smiled weakly at the nurse. She didn't know who she was trying to reassure of her sanity more, herself or the nurse.
She put on her coat and gathered her things. Books? Check. Papers? Check. Bag? Check. Keys in bag? Check. Alia gazed again at Cara's dark-haired sleeping form. Cara breathed deeply and evenly, simply sleeping, despite the seriousness of her illness. The doctors said the growth, which only occasionally affected her currently, would eventually take her life. "Good night. I'll see you tomorrow," Alia whispered to herself.
Her mind ran circles from one worry to the next: Cara's illness, her own graduate work and teaching assistantship, and now this face. She found her way to the parking lot without thinking, taking the same route she had walked so many times before. Her car sat alone at the far end, the closest free space when she arrived at the hospital earlier, during peak visiting hours. Alia managed to stop the endless circling in her head long enough to pay attention to her surroundings on the long walk out to her car. She had heard enough stories about what could happen to a woman alone in the dark for it to override all her other worries.
The light breeze blew cool and fresh from the clear sky where a few stars shone, barely visible beyond the brilliant amber glare of the parking lot lamps. Off to the east, the nearly full moon rose into the sky. The lamplight reflected off the beads of rainwater from the earlier storm, covering the few random cars left in the lot in their own individual jeweled coats. The pavement shimmered with its thin glaze of water and light. Puddles lay here and there, capturing the amber lamps and the pale moon with an oily iridescence.
Reaching her car, Alia got in and yawned. "I'm so tired. I can't believe I fell asleep on Cara," she thought.
Usually, even when Cara napped Alia still sat with her, working on paperwork or her studies until Cara woke or visiting hours ended. Alia started her car and headed for home.
She pulled into her parking space near her apartment. As she gathered her work from the backseat, she caught an unusual glint on the ground out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see what the flash was. There on the pavement of the parking lot lay a large rough rock, reflecting lamplight from its uneven facets. Wondering how it had gotten there, Alia picked it up and placed it in her jacket pocket to look at later. Then she turned back to pick up her books and papers to haul them up the two flights of stairs to her apartment.
Once inside the apartment, she dumped everything on the kitchen table and headed toward her bedroom to change, emptying her pockets as she walked. When she came across the rock, which she had already forgotten in her fatigue, Alia paused and then walked over to her desk to get a better look at it. She turned on the desk lamp and held the rock under it. It flashed red and violet as she turned it. It was just a rough stone, uncut and unpolished.
It could be some sort of gemstone – it looked fairly clear. On the other hand, it could have been just some student's mineral sample for geology class. College students dominated the apartment complex she lived in and she had certainly seen stranger – and more unpleasant – things left in the parking lot.
"I'll ask around or put up a sign tomorrow," she thought as she set it on the desk next to the computer and switched off the light.
After changing, Alia scrounged in the kitchen for something to eat. Finding real food grew more and more challenging. Between school and the hospital, Alia left herself little time to go grocery shopping. Alia turned to the pile on the table. Luckily she had gotten the most important things done before she fell asleep at the hospital because she could not bear the thought of working on them now. She hoped she had not fallen asleep when Cara was awake, though Cara must have woken up at some point in time, because someone turned the TV on. She could not remember doing it herself.
"Although, the way things have been going lately, I could have turned it on, for all I know," she muttered.
The scene playing as the nurse turned off the television flashed through her head. Was it a movie? A series? Maybe she had seen the actor in something else? Would have recognized him without the makeup and wig? She would look it up in the television listings tomorrow. It would take too much effort now, even for her insatiable curiosity.
Alia turned off lights, stumbled into her room, and slumped into bed. Despite that face running over and over through her mind, she fell asleep almost immediately. And dreamed...