Disclaimer: It goes without saying…I don't own the Labyrinth. Any new characters, however, are mine.
Chapter 1:
As the Worlds Fall Down
As the sun began its early morning assent a myriad of colors washed over what remained of the once mighty Labyrinth. Once feared and revered by even the most noble of the Fae, the Labyrinth stood lifeless, a testament to an event many simply referred to as The Great Defeat. Its exterior, for all intents and purposes, seemed unchanged, though a careful eye could see the crumbling façade and the many stones piled at its base. It was the interior, and the great Castle Beyond the Goblin City that caused the breath to catch and, even on a few occasions, startled cries to escape passer-bys and residents. Entire sections lay in ruin, disrupting what remained of a beaten path. Those walls that remained no longer moved of their own accord, their magic long gone. A sad wind blew across the wasteland, kicking up dust and rustling through the leafless trees of what had been the Fiery Forest. The wind moaned through the empty streets and alleys of the abandoned Goblin City, a diminishing patch of tiny and remarkably fragile houses. Only the youngest structures remained standing and even those looked as if they would fall at the next strong gust.
The sun crawled ever higher into the sky, its light losing its hazing undertones as it spread over the Castle. Its sharp, jagged shadow stretched across the dieing Labyrinth like the shroud of Death himself. What had been the great beating heart was now only a deteriorating masterpiece, as if Time had finally caught up with the ageless structure. Everyday the Castle changed as another part of it fell victim to the memory of the Great Defeat.
A great silence unlike anything the land had ever known hung like a heavy blanket, despairing those few souls that chose to remain. Most were beings too set in their ways to pack and leave for greener pastures like their children and neighbors had done without second thought. They were content to spend their remaining days observing the final fall of their home, voluntary witness to the end of an era. They would stay until the last stone turned to dust and then they too would pass into shadowed memory. Every morning they woke, surprised another day had come. Few did any work, blatantly aware of the futility, resigning themselves to the shadows and recording the final days either with ink or within their own minds. And, for the 1826th time, the Observers noted a stark white figure perched precariously in one of the castle windows. There he would stay, until the last of the sun's rays disappeared beyond the horizon, waiting for his world to finally cave in and take him with it.
Sarah wept openly, arms wrapped protectively around her swollen abdomen as she curled herself further and further into the corner of her tiny one-bedroom apartment. Pain tore at her but she was too weak to react to it with anything more than a whimper. Everything had gone wrong, everything since that night six years ago. The night the fairy tales shattered and she was left with nothing more than regretful memories. Emptiness so deep and pure had consumed her and not even her friends could bring comfort. Her soul ached, tugged and pulled to something she could not see, only feel on the edge of perception. It was like seeing something in the corner of her eye but every time she turned it was gone. Or maybe it had never been there to begin with. Either way left her empty, a zombie that had crawled thoughtlessly through the years. And this was what it had come to, laying alone in a rat-infested apartment, agonizingly aware of how her life and the life within her flickered with each wave of pain.
"Momma, Momma," she whispered, her voice a ghost of her former self. There was no Momma. There never was. There was only Karen and a handful of magazine clippings. Both had served as nothing more than glaring reminders of one more thing life denied her.
Another wave of pain ripped through Sarah's small frame and with it another tiny whimper. She felt her body shaking as she slid along the wall to the floor, her head hitting with a slight thud. In the beginning she had screamed and begged for someone to help her, but in this neighborhood screams were ignored. Resigning herself to defeat, the young woman pressed her face into the musty carpet, wishing it would simply end. She was done, she had had enough. Please just let it be done.
The tiny life within her stirred, pleading to the dormant mother within Sarah. How could she wish for death knowing it meant the death of this innocent being? It was not this child's fault things were as they were. She clutched at the carpet, a sudden burst of adrenaline pushing her to move. She would die, of this she was painfully aware, but she could not let the same fate befall the child. There was no plan, merely the knowledge that she had to save the baby. Hope rose as she felt herself inch across the carpet only to shatter with another burst of pain. She rolled onto her back, eyes focusing in and out on the water stained ceiling.
"Help. Please, someone…anyone."
Her hands groped the space around her, her mind hazy with pain, fatigue and a small voice crying. Sarah didn't know what she was searching for, just something, anything to keep her tied to this world. Her right hand glanced across something soft and instinctively she grabbed the small stuffed bear. It wasn't Lancelot, but it was comfort enough as she clutched it to her chest, body shaking with silent sobs. The room spun around her and she quickly shut her eyes, feeling her mind slowly leaving reality.
"As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you. Every thrill has gone. Wasn't too much fun at all. But I'll be there for you, as the world falls down", she sang, cradling the teddy bear as if it were her child. In her delirious state she had no idea what she was singing, or where the song came from. All she knew was suddenly the screaming within her mind began to hush. They were slipping, she could just barely feel it.
"I'm so sorry. I wish…I wish someone could have been here…to take care of you."
Sarah's head fell to the side, eyes losing focus. As she felt the darkness surround her she could not tell if those were boots or just her coffee table legs in front of her.
Great black clouds rolled over the Northern mountain range with an audible roar, waking the Observers from their empty reveries. Like moths to a flame they left what meaningless tasks that had undertaken for that day to gaze as one upon the encroaching darkness. A select few had been wise enough to bring their journals, written records of the final days, for only they could sense the finality within the unnatural clouds. No one spoke, no sound was made as the morning light was pushed back, allowing great shadows to cover the land.
Three Observers took their usual posts before the Labyrinth's great doors, the only ones brave enough to take such a precarious position.
"So, it has finally come," spoke the small fox, his regal clothes tattered and filthy, his speech no longer cultured.
The great rock singer whimpered beside him, his fur no longer the copper red his friends remember. "Sawah."
A great wind blew across the sand, a low scream that drowned out the steady scratching of the goblin's quill as he did his best to put to words the unfolding events.
"Aye, Ludo. Sarah."
Another wind, another guttural scream tore through the ruble that lay beyond their sight behind the last of the walls. As one, the three friends slumped their shoulders in accepted defeat. Before this day, they had spent their time in trying to come up with ways to stop what was now happening, to save their world, but they had not the resources to even begin such undertakings. And so they stood, waiting for the world to fall down around them as they had always known it would.
Suddenly, the wind stopped and the three turned their eyes upward. All around the Labyrinth the clouds had stopped their rolling to lie like a thick curtain over the sky. For what felt like years the silence filled their senses and quietly they wished it would just be over with.
As if agreeing to their request, the air around them began to vibrate and crackle with the last tired remnants of magic. A shrill scream erupted from the center of their world and with a snap that could be heard and felt the magic gave up its hold. Like a ripple in a pond, destruction radiated from the finally collapsing castle, consuming all. The Observers watched with sadness and relief as death swept out in a great wall of dust, claiming what it had waited so long to have.
Lord Z'har stood unafraid atop one of the great northern peaks, watching with sick satisfaction the destruction of his rival's kingdom. For eons it seemed he had tried to claim the land for himself. True, it was mostly desert and produced little, but the power it contained was immense. He always felt the Goblin King had wasted that power on his Labyrinth and child snatching. Greater things could be had with such power and it was Z'har's opinion that he was the only one capable of realizing the hidden potential. It would be his now, he had made sure of that. With a wicked grin he looked down at the bundle he carried so carefully, caressing the sleeping face with a single finger.
"You are my key, little Adriana. Such a pretty name your mother left for you," he cooed. He looked back up at the destruction before him, triumph written clearly on his ageless face before he turned and mounted his griffin. "Come, Misha, let us take this little angel to her new home. We have so much to do now." The griffin cried out in agreement, eager to leave this place of dieing magic, and leapt from the mountain face.
Behind them a single tower rose from the settling dust, a grave marker among the rubble. There were no Observers to note the ghostly white figure that remained perched in his window, still waiting for the sun to set.
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