Disclaimer: I do not now, nor will I ever own anything related to the Labyrinth or any affliated studios that made this magic real for me as a child. That being said, please don't sue me. This is a pure work of a mildly deranged mind.
A/N: So I this story is a little nugget that refused to let me go until I put it to paper. Depending on the reception it gets, depends on if I continue this project.
That said, this is the second attempt at a fanfiction I have ever done, so please, be gentle on me.
Much Love!
From Ashes
The fire licked at the door to the bedroom that was holding a terrified Sarah Williams and an equally scared Tobias Williams. Thick smoke crawled under the door as the heat started to get unbearable in the room. Sarah had dragged her little brother to the window and opened it, looking for a way to at the least get Toby out of the burning house. Years ago, her father had cut down the oak tree that stood outside her bedroom window. He had said the tree had died, but Sarah suspected it had something to do with the beautiful barn owl that she would spot sitting there some times before she had moved out.
Seeing no way to safely get her baby brother out of the house, Sarah snagged one of her brightly colored scarfs and tied it to her window lock, letting it flutter outside. She hoped that would get the responding firefighters attention. She had heard the sound of the sirens getting closer, so she could only pray now.
In her arms, Toby shivered and trembled, clinging to his big sister. Soot smudge his little face. Sarah held him tightly, turning so she was between him and the door. She could hear outside the door, in the hallway, the fire raging. The framed photos were crashing to the floor, breaking and shattering from the impact and the heat of the flames.
If anyone had asked Sarah how she imagined she would die, she would have not said in a fire. She would have laughingly said at the hands of a fairy tale Goblin King out for revenge. But not this. Never this way. She was terrified to die, especially in a fire. She had once read that it wasn't the fire that killed you, it was the smoke. It would knock you out first. Then the flames would get you. And if by some small cruel twist of fate, the smoke doesn't choke you, the flames reach you and you stop feeling them once your nerves have been burned away.
Hugging Toby to her chest, she could feel him coughing on the smoke. Her t-shirt was getting wet on his tears and the wet towel she had hastily thrown over his head when the fire first broke out. She had hoped to get him down stairs. The flames prevented that.
So now the Williams siblings were huddled on the ground in Sarah's old bedroom. The heat from the fire was causing the paint on her walls to start to bubble, scorching her pale skin. Spotting something on her bed, she released Toby for a second to snag a little bear with a red ribbon around its neck. She pressed the bear, Lancelot, into Toby's hands before wrapping them up in a protective embrace.
"Once, there was a kingdom," her throat protected her raspy words, "and it was surrounded by a great maze. A labyrinth. In the center, there was a city."
"The … goblin city," her six year old brother muttered into the stuffed bear that started everything for them. "And a castle, stone and old, in the middle of the city. Right, Sarah?"
Coughing, Sarah hid Toby from seeing the tears on her cheeks as her eyes closed. "That's… that's right. And it was ruled by a powerful fae King. Do you remember his name?"
"Jareth, the Goblin King," Toby answered.
"Yes…" Sarah sighed, hugging Toby tightly. She could feel him weakening in her arms. The firefighters weren't going to make it to them.
Looking at the mirror over her vanity, Sarah crawled over, bringing Toby with her. Reaching up in the thick smoke, she placed one hand on the heated mirror.
"Hoggle," she called out weakly. "Hoggle, I need you! Hoggle!"
The image in the smoke waivered a moment before the images changed from Sarah's tear stained face to that of an old dwarf with white fly away hair. He looked annoyed.
"Sarah," Hoggle grumped. "I know you said you needed us, but we's just talked last night. I'ms busy right now."
"Hoggle," Sarah started coughing as the flames appeared now under the door. "Take Toby. Please. Save my brother."
It was then that understanding of what he was seeing hit Hoggle's brain. He was a smart dwarf, but not very bright at times. He could be brave, when he needed to be. And this was one of those times.
"Sarah!" he yelled out, his hands pressing against the barrier between them. She could see the frantic light enter his yellow eyes.
Over come with a coughing fit, she looked around the room. She was starting to panic herself. Hoggle was pounding his fists against the barrier that separated him from Sarah. Ever since that night a little over five years ago, none of her friends from the Underground had been able to pass the barrier except on Halloween. Now it was that very thing that was keeping Sarah and Toby from safety.
"Goblins!" Sarah shouted out, hoping that one of them, any of them that lived in the house, watching over Toby would come. "Goblins! Help! Please! Your prince needs you!"
Hoggle's eyes widen to hear Sarah admit Toby's standing to the goblins ever since he was a little babe. He watched as little faces peered out from under the bed and dresser, eyeing Sarah curiously. He watched as they started to panic completely when they felt the heat, one even yelping and darting out from under the bed to hide behind Sarah as the flames started to lick up the bedding.
"Take him," she was urging the goblins. Toby was limp and barely awake in her arms. "Take him to the city. Protect him! Please! I wish you would take my brother to the Goblin City!"
Hoggle watched, horrified as he watched Sarah make her wish. Toby was spirited out of her arms. She turned to look at him, a resigned horror in her eyes. He pressed his wrinkled hands against the glass.
"Just, you just hold on Sarah," Hoggle told her, his voice shaking. "I'll go get that no good rat Jareth, he'll come get you!" Even as he said that, he let out a scream as the burning ceiling suddenly collapsed, shattering the mirror and preventing him from seeing the worst.
But he could hear it. He would never forget the sounds of his Sarah's screams.
An eerie scream echoed in the night, making all citizens of the Goblin Kingdom look up and shiver at the sound. It would be followed by the mournful wails of some massive beast. The Labyrinth itself started to shudder, the walls closing in on themselves as howls erupted from the under parts. The sky darkened over with thick black clouds as a heavy rain began to pour down over the lands of the kingdom.
…
In the castle beyond the Goblin City, Jareth got to his feet. A shock wave went through his kingdom, confusing him. Walking from his study, he noted quickly how very quiet the castle was. That never happened except extremely late or very early mornings, when the goblins that bumbled around had passed out from either exhaustion or too much drink. A sudden clap of thunder shook the castle, startling the wild eyed Fae King.
"What in the name of the gods was that?" he murmured, walking down the silent halls.
Stopping at a window, the Goblin King leaned out to look upon his domain. Frowning, he noticed the lights in all the houses of the city glowing brightly even as the sky was dark as night. What else confused him was the lack of lightning. It was if the sky itself was weeping bitterly over something.
Or someone.
The last time his kingdom had been like this was at the death of the former king, his elder brother. The whole of the kingdom was plunged into mourning like this as the Labyrinth itself wept out its grief. A chill when up Jareth's spine, wondering who could have died to make his Labyrinth react so strongly. Fear followed the chill as Jareth walked swiftly to the throne room. Passing solemn faced servants alarmed him move, urging him faster. Just as he considered using his magic to transport him, he was there.
Throwing open the doors, the Goblin King was greeted with the face of his beloved mother. She was standing in the middle of his formal throne room. Not that messy thing he used when he relaxed with his subjects while a runner under took the challenge. This room was a room he rarely used unless it was for formal reasons, feeling much more comfortable in the other room with his little trouble makers.
Stopping dead in his tracks was the look on her beautifully eternal face.
The High Queen watched her only surviving son with red rimmed eyes. In her arms, she was carrying something, Jareth couldn't tell what. Only that his mother, the Queen of the High Courts, Empress of the Seelie Courts, Lady of Magic, was upset over something. Without a word, she turned to him and carefully re-adjusted her cloak to reveal the child of five summers in her arms. His hair was dusted with something dirty, maybe ash, and his eyes were closed. He looked to be asleep.
"Was there a wish away that I was not aware of?" Jareth asked carefully, his tone deceptively light. Something about this babe was familiar to him.
His heart began to beat hard in his chest.
"No," the High Queen Titiana said, lowering her teary gaze to the child. "Not a proper one. This little one… was wished to be taken to the city. Specifically, for the goblins to claim him and bring him here."
Jareth walked came closer, frowning and not understanding. The chill that went up his spine was settling in his heart now.
"No…" Jareth breathed softy, his mismatched eyes flicking up to his mother then back to the child.
Within the sleeping boy's arms, was a slightly burnt and ash smudge bear. With a red satin ribbon around its neck.
Lancelot.
Sarah's precious bear.
Sarah.
"Sarah…" Jareth forced the name past his lip, the air suddenly hard for him to draw in. "Tobias."
The High Queen nodded, lifting her eyes as a crystal tear ran down her cheek. The grief in her eyes tore at Jareth's heart.
"My son," Titiana started, stepping towards her son as he stepped back, away from her, shaking his head. "I am sorry, Jareth."
The echoing scream that had brought the Labyrinth to heel suddenly filled the room around the two Fae. Jareth spun around in circles, looking up.
"Sarah…" he whispered again, eyes wide. "Sarah. Where… Where is Sarah? That was her scream. Where is she?"
Slowly Hoggle walked into the room, dripping wet, head bowed. Next to him stood Sir Didimus, not on the back of his trusty steed for once. In fact, the animal wasn't in attendance. But the walking wall of red fur that was Ludo was. All of Sarah's closest friends in the Underground were gathered. None of them would look at their King. Jareth felt something hot well up inside him as he started forward, ready to demand what they were doing there, in the throne room. He wanted to demand answers. He never summoned them.
But then he saw what was clutched in Hoggle's hands.
A small red book.
"No," Jareth breathed. "No. No! Where is she? Where is my Sarah!? Where is she?"
"Jareth," his mother spoke, his broken scream echoing around the small group. "Be calm, my son. The Champion is not here."
The Goblin King stumbled back before dropping bodily onto his throne. Eyes wide, unseeing as he stared at the book.
"She is the one who made the wish," Titiana explained softly. She had come to see her son for dinner, a little something they did from time to time when the wish came in. She was there when the smoke covered goblins brought the injured babe to the castle.
The High Queen had quickly summoned a crystal to see where the child had come from, why did goblins have the babe. And she watched in a crystal as the fire took the room the Champion had been in. She saw… the source of the scream that echoed through the Underground. And she knew, that the dwarf grounds keeper watched it all happen.
"Sarah," Ludo howled out now, "gone."
Slowly, Jareth shook his head, once then twice.
With a roar, he changed forms and flew from the castle, the cries of his mother echoing behind him. He refused to stop. He would not stop til he was above ground. She had not said his name. He could not go to her with magic unless she said his name! His wings beat hard at the air as he soared into the sky, never stopping until he broke free of the barrier between the two realms. For a second, he stopped to gain his bearings until he smelled it on the wind.
The smell of smoke.
Turning, he flew as fast as his wings could take him to the Williams' home. And what he found nearly destroyed him. It was … gone. Burned out hull of a house. He watched as the firefighters slowly packed up to leave. Landing on a tree in the neighbor's yard, he listened, praying.
"Damn shame," one man sighed as he help rewind the massive hose. "All dead… just like that. Oh, things like this never make our job easy."
The second firefighter shook his head, turning to look at the house where a lonely colorful scarf flutters on the edge of a window frame.
"At least they went together," the young man whispered. Slowly, he took his helmet off and pressed three fingers to his lips. Jareth recognized the farewell from a loved one. "Damn it, Sarah…" the young man uttered, spinning away.
With wide eyes, Jareth flew to the room that once housed Sarah Williams, Champion of the Underground, Solver of the Labyrinth, keeper of his heart. Shaking, he shifted back to his natural form before dropping to his knees. She was still there. The heat prevented them from recovering her body. Not that there was much to recover. The ceiling had collapsed on her, pinning her as she burned alive. Next to her where the melted and broken remains of her vanity mirror.
With shaking gloved hands, the Goblin King reached out and shifted the charred black wood off his beloved. Shaking, her longed to pull her into his arms one last time. His hands hovered over her remains before he threw his head back and let out an anguished howl into the late night. Once he had returned to the Castle beyond the Goblin City, he secluded himself in his room, weeping bitterly and screaming in his grief.
No one ever found the body of Tobias Williams, nor did they understand owl that would be seen in the years to come on the anniversary of the fire. No one would ever learn what the unearthly sound that tore through the night was. In time, it was all forgotten.
Especially when the war came.
And the Veil came crumbling down.
