The movie Labyrinth belongs to Henson Associates Inc. The book based on the movie belongs to A. C. Smith.
Notes: Hello everybody! English is not my mother language so if you find errors feel free to point them to me, I'll be grateful. I wanted to warn you: there will came a point in the fanfiction you could be asking yourself: why didn't she said it was a non-con (about it: it has been pointed out to me that this warning is not enough. Therefore I need to warn you again: this could trigger someone who had actually been in this type of situation, so be careful and don't go fourther if you think it can harm you)? All I have to say is this: keep reading till the end (nothing is as it seems) and, please, read the notes at the end too for they are important.
The beginning is easily recognized from the end of the movie and book; I tried to make it as less boring as I could.
I'LL BE YOUR SLAVE (FOREVER AND EVER)
The room was huge, it looked like it would never end and this impression was magnified by the stairs running on the walls, upwards and slantwise and by roofs that could become suddenly ceilings or walls. Trying to find a logic in that jumble of perspectives meant courting madness.
Sarah run down the stairs and up the walls (or were they floors?). Her breath was laboured and her side had been hurting for same time: her body was begging her to stop and rest or at least to slow down. But she wouldn't, she couldn't! She would collapse but she would not give up, she was never going to yield. She had to, had to find what she'd came for! And so she run, chasing that damn crystal that kept on bouncing on the bare stones refusing to obey gravity laws, without breaking, without stopping. In a cruel game of tag, that insufferable thing seemed to be laughing at her, deceiving her into believing victory was within her reach only to slip away to another level, rolling mockingly along the walls and then the ceilings, just over her head, and disappearing from view.
Reduced to tears, Sarah stopped on the edge of a ledge, bending in half and placing her hands on her trembling knees, her breathing uneven. She watched absent-mindedly over the precipice and gave a start. There! Her prize, what she has been chasing and looking for. So close by, if only she could jump. There was a possibility to land right beside it, resulting in her winning the game. But if she was to jump she was also guaranteed to break her bones, falling from such a height.
With a despairing whimper she stuck her head out and tried to see if there was a safer way to go down there but it was impossible, she would get lost at the first turn for sure.
At that moment she heard the sound she had dreaded all along. It reverberated deep, menacing and recurring. The clock rings announced that her time was running out fast, the game was ending and she was losing.
She closed her eyes: she couldn't stomach to see what she was going to do in her desperation. She jumped and her heart tried to burst from her chest through her throat, so great was her fear for she was sure the landing was going to bring her an unimaginable agony. She tried to prepare herself for that pain but the crash she feared didn't happen. Unbelieving, Sarah opened her eyes and she discovered that she was floating gently, light as a feather, and that the floor where she had thought she was going to crash onto with a snap of broken bones, was instead approaching slowly.
She touched the stone floor gently and looked around. She could recognize some elements of the room she had been in only some moments before but they were scattered here and there, like building blocks left around by a lazy child.
The cold floor where she was standing didn't seem to have walls, the room seemed to go on in every direction, into an impenetrable darkness where broken up and decaying parts of the castle were floating slowly.
Sarah twirled around, surprised. A slow-paced music was playing but it was unsteady and dissonant, like the one of a worn out music tape. Sarah tensed up in a panic: the game! She looked around frantically for the clock and then she glimpsed it, carried lazily by an invisible steam. The second hand was unmoving, that meant she had still time.
She heard a sound from behind her: shuffled steps on the stone. She turned quickly and she saw him.
The Goblin king emerged from the shadow of a broken archway. He wore light grey clothes and a cloak made of white feathers; it was as if his unconscious desire to flee the imminent defeat had manifested itself in revealing his bird-like features. He looked tired, she noticed with a deep satisfaction, barely snitched together and faded like worn out clothes.
Jareth instead thought the exact opposite of her. Even tired and sweaty after her race she was strong, her determination shone in her green eyes, these pale jewels he so greatly loved and that, he knew, could be so cruel. He feared her and for the first time in his long life, he realized he was going to taste defeat. She moved forward resolutely with her arms lightly distanced from her torso, palms turned in his direction. It could be mistaken for a pleading posture but there was nothing humble in her: to Jareth she looked like a conqueror, a warrior ready to deliver a final merciless verdict on an overpowered enemy. These ruby lips he longed so much to kiss opened and she begun to pronounce the words that were going to sentence him into oblivion.
- Give me the child.
No! It couldn't end like this, he wasn't going to surrender without a fight. He had to make her see reason, to make her understand.
- Sarah, beware! I have been generous until now, don't defy me.
She stared at him incredulously.
- Generous? When have you been generous?
How dare that insolent child! Was he to spell it out for her? Hadn't she noticed all the things he had done for her?
- Everything! You asked me to take the baby and I did, you asked for an opportunity to take him back and I gave it to you! You trembled in front of me and I made myself more terrifying! I reordered time!
With a dramatic wave of his hand he made the clock appear hovering over their heads, the hands were spinning madly backwards. Jareth lost suddenly the passion he had shown only a moment previously and he seemed to crumble into himself, dropping his shoulders and lowering his voice as his face filled with bitter disappointment.
- Isn't generous all that? I've stretched myself thin to meet your expectation of me, my sweet.
Confronted with that demonstration of frailty, Sarah hardened her own heart that had bleed in sympathy at his words. They were true, from a certain point of view: he took the baby because she asked him to, but the rest! She had never intended to really give away her little brother, she never would have believed possible he existed, much less fulfil her selfish wish, uttered in a moment of anger and discouragement.
She moved toward him, he who always had looked imposing and scary and who now instead was retreating in the shadows, a step backward for every step Sara was taking forward, as if he was weary of turning his back to her. All that power was intoxicating but Sara rejected that feeling of triumph: she had to stay focused on her target.
- Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin city, to take back the child you have stolen.
Jareth stepped back into the first step of the dusty stairway that had been hidden in the shadow of the archway, all which remained of the once glorious room it had belonged to. He kept on moving backward, retreating in front of Sarah's advance. She towered over him in a position of superiority reflecting the authority she now possessed. How they roles had reversed! Now she was the one terrifying and cruel. He offered her his hand, palm up, where a perfect round crystal appeared and made a last desperate attempt.
- Look at what I am offering you… your dreams, remember?
She didn't even bother to look at the crystal, her eyes had a far-away look, she was concentrating in remembering the words that would let her earn an overwhelming success.
- For my will is as great as yours and my kingdom is as great.
It was over and Jareth grimaced in pain, preparing himself for the last words that were going to proclaim the end of all his hopes and dreams. Words that, he realized with amazement, weren't coming. She had halted and these previously merciless eyes were now filled with panic and darted around as if the answer was written on the walls or the infinite darkness surrounding them.
Jareth trembled and breathed more easily.
- Kingdom as great… as great… Damnit! Why can't I ever remember these words?
He moved up the step he had took only moments before, then another, and another one until, even if still standing lower than Sarah, he was at her same height, so near he could feel the warmth of her blushing face through the cloth of his glove as the crystal nearly brushed her lips.
- I ask for so little…
He appeared to be begging, his eyes seemed sincere and his voice acquired a sweet and alluring tone.
- All you have to do is fear me, love me, do as I say and I… I'll be your slave!
At the word slave, Sarah's eyes brightened with remembrance and she stared into the eyes of her enemy as the words that were to grant her victory begun to fall from her lips.
- You have no power…
She was prevented to finish the sentence because with an unarticulated scream of terror and rage he hurled himself at her after letting go the now useless crystal. He covered the two steps separating him from her and reached out with his longer arms, wrapping them around her midsection, picking her up and pressing her to his chest. His lips crashed over hers, sealing inside her mouth the words she has been going to say and stealing her voice.
Sarah felt herself been pushed upwards and then falling down, enfolded by his constricting arms. She tore away her face from his, escaping his lips and wriggled trying to evade his grip, then at last gravity caught up with them and they fell, Jareth on top and Sarah underneath him.
Sarah gasped: the hard ground she landed on and the weight of the male body on her stole her breath. Everything around her become dimmer and her chest burned as she tried to fill her lugs with air.
Jared propped himself on his hands placing his palms on the shrivelled up grass of the meadow he transported them, searching her face. His eyes were panicked, he feared he hurt her: he heard the clank of her teeth when her head hit the ground and cursed himself for not having cushioned her landing with his own body. Then he relaxed when she finally started breathing again and her eyes, full of contempt and anger, focused again on him.
- Don't touch me! Get off!
She beat at his chest, snarling and yelling when she realized her struggling was fruitless and that he, instead of letting her go, was pressing on her more and more. Then he sized her wrists with one hand and loomed over her face. Sarah could feel the strength of him, his hands were relentless and unyielding like the rest of him and his body was cold, colder than a human body should be. Suddenly her rage and cockiness left her to make room for uneasiness as she become aware she had never before in her life been in such close proximity to a man, that he had kissed her, even if only to shut her up. Uneasiness transformed into distress when the pale and angular face of the Goblin king drew near, so near in fact that she could feel his breath against her skin. Her objections took a note of hysteria.
- What are you doing? Let me go!
He shook her violently, causing her head to hit again against the grass-covered ground. Weren't them inside his castle just moments before? What were they doing outside? Sarah had just the time to get a glimpse of the darkening sky before Jareth's face occupied again her line of vision.
- You should have accepted my proposal! Why you did not accepted my proposal? Why do you have to be so stubborn? All I want from you is your love!
Sarah could see closely, far too closely, his eyes and finally she understood what had always bothered her so much about them: not only Jareth's eyes had different colours, but the pupils were different in size. Now the smaller one dilated, becoming as big as the other one. They seemed black crystals and her mirrored image looked weak and defenceless. Jareth's face bore a maniacal expression and Sarah dreaded what he had in store for her. A terrible suspect, an intolerable theory was blossoming in her innocent mind. Was he going to…?
- Why do you not want to love me?
With a desperate groan, he kissed again and this time it was a real kiss. He started by placing tenderly his lips over her warm and softer lips. If only she would let him, if only she would accept the love he was offering her, he was sure that with her by his side he could be finally and utterly happy. With this thought in mind, he caressed her lips with his tongue but she disclosed her mouth only to bit him. He withdrew hissing angrily, grasped her jaw and forced her mouth open before kissing her again. Sarah fought, vigorously at beginning, trying to repel his invasion, to push him back but then she came to the conclusion that even using all her strength she would never be able to get him off her and gave up, sobbing in rage. In light of her surrender he become gentler, more enticing. The hand gripping her jaw relaxed although it didn't let her go, and he started to caress her cheek with his forefinger.
Sarah had to admit to herself it wasn't so awful, after all, even if her face still ached for the strength he had gripped her with and his body weighted uncomfortably on her preventing her from moving. Her tongue moved uncertainly, mimicking his. He moaned and became even gentler, kinder. Slowly the hand that had hold her wrists let them go and moved on her chest, grabbing lightly her breast and brushing her nipple. She jerked, breaking the kiss and lifting both hands to fed him off, making her objection know.
- No! Stop! I don't want this!
He was dissatisfied by her rejection and blocked both her hands with one of his, trapping them over her head.
- No? You did not want me to kiss you either, but then you liked it, don't you? You will like what is to come too, you will see. Give me a chance.
His voice was soothing, hypnotic.
- Leave it to me, my sweet. Let me show you how much pleasure I can give you.
Under Sarah's uncredulous eyes Jareth, using his too sharp to be human teeth, pulled off his left glove, baring pale skin and a thin a long hand equipped with long white nails as sharp as his teeth. He brushed her red lips with its fingertips, then her throat, the hollow where her collarbones meet and lastly the line of buttons keeping her white shirt closed. Like magic, and perhaps it was really magic, a confused Sarah thought, the buttons pulled out from their buttonholes. One by one, methodically, until her shirt was left unbuttoned.
Jared stared with consternation at the white cotton undershirt hiding her bra from his view. With a determined movement he swept his hand against her shirt and undershirt, pressing over her sternum and in a moment Sarah found herself bared from belt up, the dried up grass of the meadow pricking her back. She screamed her outrage and then, faced with his mischievous grin and his hand that was moving down towards her jeans, she shouted even louder.
- Don't you dare! Don't do it!
Her yell become shrill as what was left of her clothes disappeared too and she found herself naked and helpless under him.
Sarah paled, she would have wanted to cover herself up with her hands at least but he was keeping them captive. Jareth chuckle in merriment and turned his hand on himself, making his clothes disappear too. Sarah realized they were both naked, that it was really happening and that nothing she could say or do was going to deter Jareth from taking what he wanted from her. She felt hopeless and begun to weep and sob, wishing to move him to pity and save herself that humiliating experience.
- Please, I don't want this, stop, please…!
He ignored her and retraced the path of his fingertips. He kissed her throat, the chest, sucked and licked her breasts, rousing in her a new and overwhelming feeling that made her whimper. It felt like a burning thread linked every spot touched by him to that part of her body between her legs. Eventually he touched her there and she shouted again, in denial and rage because she was wet there in spite of herself and he seemed satisfied by it and that made her even more furious. Then he begun to caress her and she forgot everything in the verge of the pleasure his touch brought. Soon she was writhing and moaning and arching her back. Sarah tried to stop it but amidst her angry sob the pleasure crested and liquefied her limbs, turning them into jelly.
She laid there, weak and unable to move, her eyes closed. Two tears slid down her cheeks getting lost among her dark hair. Jareth noticed them and dried the twin dump trails from her skin.
- Hush my love, do not cry. Are you hurt, my treasure?
She didn't open her eyes but grimaced and turned her face offering him only the curve of her cheekbone to interpret her expression and gather by himself the answer to his question.
He seemed to find the answer he sought because, taking advantage of her unresponsiveness, he spread her legs and insinuated himself between her thighs, aligning their bodies and positioning himself. Sarah reacted at once, trying to sit up and push him away, him and that part of him that was pushing into her. He embraced her, immobilizing her within his arms effortlessly with his greater than human strength. He breathed haggardly against her hair, repeating over and over again that he wasn't going to hurt her, that she needed to relax, that it was going to pass soon and then, to her mortification, he pushed inside easily and without causing her any pain. Jareth stopped, as if to rejoice in the moment their bodies become one and then he arched his back to kiss her, attempting to infuse in his kiss all the love and the desire he felt for her.
Feeling her body quiver Jareth started to move, slowly and carefully at beginning but then when she begun to shyly meet his thrusts, he gained speed, getting lost in her, in her scent and her pliant and welcoming body and kissed her until he was breathless. Finally he reached the peak too, moaning uncontrollably and repeating the name of his most beloved as he spilled himself inside her.
He stayed like that, while his heart slowed down its mad beating, mindful of his weight heavy on her smaller frame, wanting nothing more than putting his head over her soft bosom and rest there.
In the end he rolled on his back, at her side. After some moments he turned towards her, caressing lazily her brow and sweaty hair. She was still, she only moved to close her legs.
Jareth cleared his throat, uncertain.
- Well, my precious. It went as you envisioned it?
Sarah lifted herself on her elbows and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
- Not exactly.
Then she rolled on her side and over his chest, putting her chin on her crossed hands. He caressed her cheek with the back of a hand, tenderly.
- Did I hurt you, love?
She snorted and then barked a laugh, amused.
- Good grief, no!
Then she amended her statement, bringing a pale hand to the back of her head.
- You could have been gentler, however. I could have gone without banging my head so many times. Had I been still a mortal girl, I would have had a concussion!
The king took her hand in one of his and kissed it reverently.
- Forgive me, my beloved. Tell me then, what is the cause of such a thoughtful expression on your lovely face?
She sighed, spreading languidly over his chest, placing her ear right over his beating heart.
- I was thinking of the person I have been, when I really was fifteen. About the first time we met, when I beat you and won back Toby.
She begun to drew circles with her forefinger on his smooth and too pale skin.
- I always wondered what would have happened if I'd accepted your offer, to love you, fear you and obey you, if you really would have become my slave.
He tensed up and his face filled with disquiet.
- If you really want to know… Something similar to this would have happened. I wanted you and I don't know if I would have accepted a no from you. Our relationship would have be vastly dissimilar to the one we have now, however. Probably I would have hold you captive inside a tower, never to let you out. At least without a lash. Occasionally.
She stared at him, her expression grave and when she spoke she pronounced her words slowly and clearly, so that he could understand her arguments.
- I would have hated you, possibly forever. I was fifteen and I was basically still a child. I felt a child. Moreover I was very innocent. Do you know? I'd yet to have my first kiss.
He interrupted her, pouting because that first kiss hadn't belonged to him.
- I am well aware of this.
She swatted him affectionately on the chest.
- Shut up and let me finish. You would have been unable to seduce me, I would have only been terrified, I would have felt horribly violated and afterwards I would have hated you and what you were doing to me forever and ever. It was fortunate for us that I had been the one victorious and not you.
He raised an eyebrow and retorted acidly.
Be honest: you are still very proud of getting the upper hand on me at my own game.
She rolled her eyes in exasperation: it was an old dispute for them.
- You are a sore loser!
- That is because I never loose!
She smiled flirtatiously at him, purposely batting her eyelashes in excess.
- Never but against me!
He threw his head back and burst into laughter, jerking Sarah from her perch on his chest.
- But against you, my beloved!
His expression become lascivious and his hand roamed toward her bare backside. His eyes become hooded and lustful and his voice sweet and suave.
- Love me, fear me, do as I say and I will be your slave.
She smiled but then her expression turned serious. She climbed on him, straddling him. Jareth was hard again and she grabbed him, making him moaning eagerly.
- You will be my slave? But if I fear you, love you a do as you say, would not be more precise to state that I will be your slave?
He fidgeted under her, his hand gripping convulsively her hips, arching his back in supplication. Sarah wasn't complying however and therefore he put some effort into giving her a coherent answer, explaining what he meant.
- Yes, you will be my slave, but at the same time I too will love you, fear you and do as you say. Therefore I, in turn, will be your slave.
Finally Sarah granted him mercy, guiding him into her body and starting to move sinuously and expertly over him.
- I'll tell you something Jareth: I don't think love works this way. If I love you, I don't need to fear you because I trust you never to hurt me. If you love me then I don't have to do as you say because you trust me and my judgment and you accept the fact that my thoughts and needs are sometimes vastly different from yours.
Sarah's breathing become laborious, it was difficult to speak among pleasure-filled moans but she felt the necessity of getting her point across. He had to understand.
- Two people in love don't have to be one the slave of the other because they have equal standing in the relationship, the same rights and the same powers.
With a prolonged moan she come, biting her lower lip and scratching the skin of his chest. Jareth, who had let her have her way up that moment, now took control, wrapping his arms around her hips and thrusting inside her in earnest until he was sated too.
Afterwards Sarah bent over him, kissing him tenderly before concluding her speech.
- That is the reason why, had you forced me to have a relationship with you when I was still a little girl, it would have never worked out. I was too young, too inexperienced and I'm not speaking about the sex. I knew nothing about the word nor what I wanted from my life. Our bond would have been unbalanced: you would have had all the power over me, I would have never be able to love you and you would have never saw me as your equal. That is why I am happy you waited for me. Now I can love you, and you can love me, in full.
Jareth looked up to the woman over him, her beauty in full blossom. He had courted her respectfully but unrelentingly for years before she accepted to marry him. He had always loved her, either fifteen years old or thirty or forty, it made no difference to him. He had always loved her: her fire, her determination, even her cruelty and her childish arrogance. He was old and he had been alive for so long that the age and experience, or inexperience, of his partner had never bothered him. Now he had to admit she had a point. He thought back to the innocent teenager she had been, about how she already had latently everything he hold dear about his wife. He recognized that if, in that day long past, he would had done what he just did then the amazing woman resting on his chest would have never existed. All that potential still in bud would have withered and died under his greedy hands and be lost forever. He felt lucky and hugged her tightly before uttering words he seldom said.
- You are right, my precious.
She laughed, picking a daisy from the grass, crushed by their vigorous activities, and put it playfully in his hairs.
- Finally you got it!
Their laughs rung in the meadow one more time then the Goblin king and queen turned into owls and flew over their kingdom silently, white under the moon and dark against the stars.
END.
"Nobody saw it [the owl] white under the moonlight, black against the stars". It's the last line of the book, translated from my Italian copy. If you have it in English and it's different then give me the right words, please (wink).
AN:
You have no idea of how difficult writing the central part of the story had been for me! I used the "she says no but secretly she likes it" stereotype, one I strongly disagree with. I used it only because I knew from the start that it was a game and she was a consenting adult. I hope it is clear for everyone that Jareth is enacting Sarah's fantasy, I hope that it is clear to everybody that she had control of the situation from the beginning: if she had stopped behaving like a frightened girl resisted him seriously stating that it wasn't fun anymore, he would have complied IMMEDIATLY. I hope it is clear that when I say that Jareth is stronger than her it is false, it is a game they are playing because she is not a human being anymore and she's as strong as him. I hope that now you understand why I say she was angry but never terrified nor in pain (personally I don't think pain is sexy). But rather I say she got excited against her will: this isn't they first time having sex and she is unable to fake it, unable to "stay in character".
I usually gravitate towards the non-con and I needed, for my peace of mind, to write a consensual piece, but in the end I didn't resist and used a dirty trick. What do you think? Tell me if it worked!
Author rumblings: When I was a teenager, so many years ago, I thought the line "love me, fear me, do as I say and I'll be your slave" very romantic and I thought that, if Toby's life hadn't been in denger, Sarah should have accepted what sounded to me awfully like a marriage proposal. Now I'm an adult and the same line sound ominous: fear, love and blind obedience don't go hand in hand. Not even the idea of having the Goblin king as a slave is appealing anymore. If you are looking for love you don't want a slave (it works on revert too: if you are looking for love you won't find it becoming a slave). Well, if you are a consenting adult and you know perfectly what you are getting into and your relationship with your dom/sub is healthy then go for it if it's what makes you happy.
What I'm trying to say is that once I found the "captive princess" stereotype very romantic, now I see it as a sick and unhealthy form of dependence and I can't imagine the "captive princess" as being very happy with her situation nor the villain doing the capturing caring for her in the long run. A man who likes to break his woman into a docile obedient mouse who always agrees with him would get bored fairly soon and look for a new prey.
Thank you for listening!
