I woke with a jolt as the latest popular pop song came blaring from my radio alarm. I closed my eyes for a moment, just so I could feel what it would be like to sleep without Jareth being on the other side of my eyelids. I wish I could dawdle with my eyes closed like that, resting while wide awake all day, but things had to be done. I opened my eyes and crawled out of bed to get ready for work.
Work… the bane of my existence… Before I had so rudely been abducted by the loony bin I was getting ready to pack up my things to go to NYU to study acting and theatre. Now no college would take me, and the only job I could get was re-shelving books at the library because of the permanent label of "crazy-schitzo" everyone put on me due to my three year stay at the mental hospital. Thank you Mom and Dad for making it so I can never support myself financially. I seriously thought about stripping as a vocation for a while. At least then I would make enough money to move out and possibly support Toby if anything happened to the parents. I hope I don't screw over my children this badly (if I ever have kids).
I shoved a snickers bar and my sketch book into my backpack before I hopped onto my bike and headed for the library. I hardly had an appetite for breakfast anymore… The parents filled it with more awkward silence then our awkward silent family dinners.
The day went the same as all the other days. I pushed around a cart full of books until I shelved all of them, then I got a new cart full of books and repeated. Biography, biography, biography, wheel over to fiction section, fiction, fiction, wheel over to non-fiction section, science, cliff notes, cliff notes, cliff notes, cliff notes, how-to, how-to, blaah, blaah, blaah, go back, refill cart, repeat.
My lunch break consisted of my snickers bar and doodling in my sketchbook. I had multiple sketchbooks full of images from my adventure in Labyrinth. Full of my friends, obstacles, Jareth (in both his human and barn owl form), and me in my dress… that wonderful shimmering silver cream ball gown Jareth put me in for his masquerade. I made some modifications to it when I drew it, but only to the sleeves (I did detest those puffy marshmallows trying to pass of as sleeves…). I let the short sleeves hang off the shoulders, showing off more of my skin in my drawings.
"I wish I could wear that dress again…" I sighed as I glanced up at the clock. Lunch break was over and I returned to my endless cycle of cart pushing and book shelving.
I returned home, noticing my backpack was suddenly lighter. I dug for my keys and immediately noticed what was missing. My sketch book. I knew I had packed it at the end of my lunch break… something wasn't right. I fumbled with my keys and swung the door open to find him on the living room couch… wearing a black tee-shirt and jeans…chatting with both my parents… flipping through my sketchbook. He looked up, seemingly surprised to see me.
"Sarah! It's so good to see you!" Jareth flashed a smile… it probably seemed warm and inviting to my parents, but it was all too cold and calculating. "We were just enjoying your drawings… it seems you have a fascination with barn owls… but I like this one the best." Jareth held up my sketchbook on the page where I drew us dancing at his masquerade ball. My face burned with embarrassment as I slammed the front door behind me, stormed over and snatched the book from Jareth's claws.
"Get out of my house!"
"Sarah! That's no way to treat your boyfriend!" my step mother gawked.
"He's not my boyfriend! He's one of the hallucinations you threw me in the loony bin for!"
"He's not a hallucination if everyone can see him. Besides, he's such a nice young man. I'm terribly sorry about Sarah's behavior…" My stepmother paused, as if she was struggling to remember his name.
"Jareth. My name is Jareth. No need to apologize. I'm quite enjoying my little visit."
"Oh! You're Jareth. Sarah talks an awful lot about you."
I wanted to slam my head into the wall out of frustration. I'd been telling them for years it was all real and they still didn't believe me even when the villain was sitting right in front of them.
"Jareth, can you please leave? No one called you, and no one wants you here."
"Oh I'm terribly sorry Sarah, but your… parents were kind enough to invite me to stay for dinner. They were delighted to let me stay after they tried some of the fruit I brought them." He smiled his devil's smile again. Dear God what did he do to my parents?
"He's going to cause me to have another psychotic melt down! Don't you see he's the Goblin King!" I pulled out the only weapon I had to get Jareth kicked out of my house: the crazy card.
"What are you talking about Sarah? You've never had a psychotic melt down in your life and…." she paused, trying to remember his name again, but decided she would continue on anyways. "And this young man is far too polite and generous to be… to be… whatever you just called him. He gave us a basket with some of the best apples and peaches your father or I have ever tasted!"
I spun around and glared at Jareth. He made them forget everything I had ever mentioned about the Labyrinth, and the fact that they had me institutionalized. What was he up to?
"Did Toby have any of the fruit?" I asked, suddenly panicked. I grasped the Goblin King by the scruff of his t-shirt, ready to shake the answer out of him. But his eyes flickered with a dangerous light, and I immediately let go, now afraid that I had angered him with my action.
"No Sarah. He didn't touch any of it. He ran straight to his room as soon as he saw me."
I ran up the stairs, too frustrated to reply. I quickly showered and changed into clothes I could easily move in, but were tough enough to survive the obstacles of the Labyrinth. I didn't trust Jareth being here for no reason. He was planning to get me back into his clutches… I glanced back at Toby's room. Would he take Toby again? No. I didn't wish for him to be taken… I did wish for that dress… is that what brought the Goblin King back?
I knocked at Toby's door. No answer.
"Toby? It's me Sarah."
The door opened a crack and I pushed my way in, closing the door behind me and embracing Toby like I would never let him go.
"It's him isn't it?" His voice was soft, but filled with something akin to defiance.
"Yes, it's the Goblin King, but no one called him this time," I replied, feeling tears of anger and fear rise to my eyes. No, I couldn't cry in front of Toby. Not at a time like this.
"Is he going to take me away again?"
"No. I will not let him. Not again."
Dinner was terrible. Worse than the normal awkward family silence I was used too. Toby and I remained silent while Jareth chatted up my parents. Toby kept glancing at me. I kept trying to give him a comforting grin that said, 'don't worry, everything will be fine,' but I could tell I wasn't convincing him. Jareth kept looking over me, flashing his pointed teeth at me like he had me right where he wanted me, or like he owned me. It sent chills down my back. After everyone was finished with their food, that's when the Goblin King decided he was going to make his move.
"Well Sarah, as much I enjoyed playing pretend with your parents for their sake, it is time to get down to business." Jareth stood, and his tee-shirt and jeans melted into his normal Goblin King regalia: grey tights that hugged him in all the right places, a flowing cream shirt that left part of his chest exposed, showing off his golden crescent pendent he always wore and of course one of his extravagant capes. "I have a preposition for you Sarah…"
With a wave of his hand he threw one of his crystal balls at my parents, and they were suddenly trapped in a cage (who didn't really seem to notice, as they were still under the spell from the fruit), and he had a frightened Toby by the wrist, who started kicking, clawing, scratching, whatever he could do to get away.
"What do you want Goblin King? I did not call you, and I did not wish for you to do anything for me," I answered as calmly as I could. I slowly rose from my chair, deathly frightened of his next move.
"Oh Sarah! Do you really think I exist to merely serve you and your girlish whims? I came here of my own accord…" He glanced at my parents, who were now poking the bars of their cage and laughing uncontrollably.
"Well, are you going to get to the point or am I going to die of old age first?"
"At first I wanted to come here to punish your parents for putting you in that horrible institution, but while I was sending one of the goblins that disobeyed me to the Bog of Eternal Stench, I realized I needed something more… I needed an heir…" the Goblin King smiled down at Toby.
"NO!" Toby screamed and renewed his vigorous kicking, swinging and even biting. The Goblin King didn't flinch. I could help but wonder if his bravado was just an act, if he was using magic to protect himself, or if he naturally was that powerful.
"You are not going to take Toby again!" I took a step forward, but I went no further, afraid that Jareth would whisk Toby away before I could reach him.
"I didn't come for Toby… although he would have made an excellent goblin…" Jareth's dark eyes suddenly looked into my own with extreme pleasure. "I came for you. You are going to be my queen Sarah… and if you refuse, I will take the child instead."
"You bastard!" I shouted at him with defiance, but I sank to my knees in defeat.
"Do we have a deal Sarah?"
I didn't care that I would never see my step mother again. I was trying to imagine a world without my father or Toby… never seeing them again would be impossible.
"I will accept these terms only if I get to come back to spend time with my family on Toby's birthday, and if you promise you will never come back to this world unless I call you."
"That's not part of my deal Sarah… if you wish to squabble over details, I will simply take Toby." Jareth turned and headed for the front door, which suddenly burst open, revealing the same maze-covered landscape I saw outside my parent's balcony all those years ago. Toby dug his feet into the floor and screamed bloody murder.
"NO! SARAH! YOU PROMISED HE WOULDN'T TAKE ME AGAIN!" Tears started running down Toby's face as he tried to pull himself out of Jareth's claws.
"WAIT! I'LL GO WITH YOU!" I quickly got to my feet and scrambled after him. I tripped on the rug, and my face hit the hard wood floor, but I kept going until my nose was a centimeter away from his tall black boots. It sickened me that I was groveling at his feet like a beaten dog, but I couldn't let him take Toby again. "We have a deal, just leave Toby here."
"Then let us depart." Jareth grasped my upper arm and helped me up. I looked back at my family, my parents now out of their cage, looking around the room as if they didn't remember how they got there, and Toby sitting defeated on the ground, beginning to realize he would never see me again.
"Sarah! Don't let him take you!" he cried as he struggled to get to his feet and chase after me.
"I love you…" I whispered as tears started to roll down my cheeks. We walked through the front door and I quickly turned to face the Labyrinth ahead of me, because I couldn't bear to look at Toby's frightened face any more, and knew that Jareth already closed the connection to my world.