Trapped Soul
Disclaimer: I wish to state that I own nothing! I have never owed any of the rights to Labyrinth. I don't expect I ever will so in short, PLEASE DON'T SUE ME!
Chapter Two
Sarah was stunned by Jareth's confession.
"You? You ran the Labyrinth? How long ago?" Sarah asked imploringly.
Jareth thought about how best to answer her question. "Almost a thousand years ago, give or take a decade," he answered calmly.
Sarah felt her knees go weak and suddenly found that she was sitting on the stone floor. "A thousand years?" Sarah was silent for a few moments, and then added, "For a thousand years old, you are looking pretty good for your age," she said half-heartedly. Jareth cleared his throat and brought Sarah's attention back to the more important thing; him. "Well, aging is not something that my people do naturally. All Sidhe are born with power and beauty," he said this rather smugly.
"Sidhe? Sidhe, Sidhe…Oh I know. You are one of the hill people from Ireland."
"Oh, so you have heard of my people. Well, it's nice to know that they are still interacting with humans." He sounded gratified and smiled a little at the thought.
"Um…No I don't think they are. I only found out a little bit about them from a footnote in one of my fairytale books."
Jareth's face darkened. "A footnote?"
Sarah stood and tightening the sheet once more. She walked over to Jareth. His face was angry as if this news disturbed him greatly.
"Have you been in contact with the other Sidhe lately?"
Jareth suddenly stood and headed for the door. He opened it, but just before leaving he turned to Sarah and said, "You are free to wander about the castle, if you wish. We shall talk more later."
"Jareth, wait! Why did you run the Labyrinth?" He gave Sarah a searing look then slammed the door as he left. The sound made the walls shake a little and fine streams of sand and dust slipped through the cracks.
Sarah stood looking at the door then said, "Well if you didn't want to talk about it, you could have said so," she said sarcastically.
Sarah made her way over to the wardrobe and looked inside. She found her shirt and bra hanging up. Nothing else was hung up, for in the bottom of the wardrobe all of her stuff had been dumped. "Where's my backpack?" she asked. She looked all around the room but could not find it.
"Well, I guess I can improvise." Sarah took her bra and shirt and put them back on.
Taking the sheet she had been using as a shirt, she proceeded to make a bundle.
"Sorry about that talk, Jareth, but I don't plan to stay here long enough for us to have it."
She pulled open the door to her room and stepped out into the corridor. She looked left and then right, then groaned. Both directions just kept going straight.
"Not this again," she moaned.
"Alright. I'll go left," she said. Sarah took seven steps then smashed her nose into the painted wall.
"Argh!" Sarah moved away form the wall and clasped her nose. She checked her fingers to make sure it wasn't bleeding. Okay then. I'll go right." Sarah put her hand out in front of her then headed in the opposite direction. A few feet from her door Sarah's hand touched the other wall.
"Then how do I get out of here?" she asked herself. She leaned against her door and concentrated on the wall in front of her. She socked her head then moved towards the wall. She was overjoyed when she stepped through the opening but that joy turned to shock and fear when her foot did not make contact with the floor. She fell forwards down the newly discovered flight of stairs. Sarah braced herself for impact put out her hand managed to grab hold of something and she was able to save herself.
"Whoa! That was close!"
Once Sarah regained her footing she looked to see what she had grabbed hold of. It was a large bronze claw. Sarah noticed that there was a lighted torch on the stair underneath it and that there were others like it leading down the curved stairwell. Sarah let go of it and watched as it stretched down trying to reclaim its torch.
"Oh you dropped that to help me didn't you?" The claw stopped its search then formed itself into a head shape, like you would do for a hand puppet. (Or Muppet as the case may be hehehe.) It nodded at her then pointed down to the torch. Sarah bent over to pick up the torch.
"Oh man! This thing is heavy! You hold this all the time?" The claw nodded at her. She pulled the torch up high enough so that the claw could take hold of it.
"There you go." The claw and torched bowed to her in thanks. "You're welcome," Sarah replied.
Sarah proceeded down the stairs. She past a window and stopped to look out.
"Hey, he put me in the tower." Sarah remarked, she then stuck her head out the window to get a better look. "Well, one of the towers, anyway."
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" barked a voice from underneath the window. Sarah looked down and came face to face with a disgruntled Gargoyle.
"I was looking around. I wanted to see where I was," answered Sarah
"Oh. Well in that case…carry on."
Unsure about what had just happened, Sarah returned to the stairs and continued to follow them down.
As Sarah approached the bottom of the stairs, she found that her passage was blocked in the form of two very small goblins. They were wearing armor that was at least two sizes too large and they smell suspiciously like fried chicken.
"Who are you two?" she asked.
"Snoond," answered the one to the left of her.
"Buttchen," said the other.
"Sarah. Nice to meet you. Now if you will excuse me," Sarah moved with the intension of walking between the two goblins; however they moved to block her.
"Um, do you two think I could get past you?" She asked in an unsure voice.
"I'm sorry missy, but the king has officially appointed us to be your body guards," said Buttchen.
Snoond nodded to his companion and continued, "So that means we are not to leave your side unless the king says otherwise."
Sarah looked from one to the other then up at the ceiling.
"Why does he do these things to me?" she asked.
"Do you want us to answer that missy?" asked Snoond innocently.
Sarah shook her head.
"No thanks. There are some things that I would rather not know. Hum, so you two are my body guards right?"
They nodded loudly.
"Well then could you help me to find the kitchen?"
The nodding suddenly stopped, and the goblins fell to their knees and began to grovel.
"NO! PLEASE!" cried Buttchen.
"ANYTHING BUT THAT!" pleaded Snoond.
Sarah was totally confused by the behavior of the two goblins.
"Well, I am going to the kitchen whether you help me or not."
Sarah hopped over the heads of goblins and headed down the corridor, hoping she would find stairs leading down. 'Kitchens are usually downstairs, right?'
Sarah had only walked a few feet when she heard the loud clanging of armor behind her. She turned around her and found that Snoond and Buttchen were following her. They did not look happy but they were honor bound to stay by her side and protect her.
"So when we get to the end of this corridor do we go left, right or through a wall?" asked Sarah jokingly.
Buttchen answered. "Right, then up the wall and through the door in the ceiling."
"Really?"
They nodded.
(0).(0)
Jareth stormed about his private chambers. He was pulling everything apart looking for something.
"Where is it?" Jareth fumed. He had gone through his magic wardrobe and pulled out clothing he had not seen in almost four centuries. Sarah's words kept running through his head.
"Oh so you have heard my people, well it's nice to know that they are still interacting with humans."
"Um…No I don't think they are. I only found out a little bit about them from a footnote."
He yelled out in rage and sent a chair flying across the room, where it smashed against the wall. He tried to calm down and leaned up against a wall and covered his face with his hands.
"It can't be true; they can't have all been wiped out," he whispered to himself.
Jareth felt his right shoulder shift and slid backwards into the wall. He quickly spun around to see what he was leaning into.
"Ah, so that's where you have been hiding yourself," he said to the newly formed door. He took hold of the handle and opened it. It was pitch black inside, so Jareth formed a crystal. Its soft glow filled the darkened room and revealed to Jareth the treasures within.
Hidden within this room were the hidden treasures of the inhabitants of the Labyrinth. Every creature that had wandered its ways had left something behind that the Labyrinth could take into itself and thereby hold that creature in some way to itself. As Jareth entered the room a small sparkle caught his eye. Sitting on a small flat shelf in the wall was the Labyrinth's latest acquisition, Sarah Williams' diamond ring. It sat atop a small piece of red and white-stripped cloth. Jareth picked up the ring and examined it in the light of his crystal. For a moment he thought he saw the figure of a girl curled up in the fetal passion floating inside its glittering depths. Shaking his head Jareth replaced the ring and moved deeper into the room's depths. He passed many small shelves; they were stacked one on top of the other like a catacomb. He passed many items that he recognized; several of them were toys belonging to children foolishly wished away. Every one of them had become a goblin. Jareth pressed onwards, knowing that what he sought would be further back.
When he reached a point where the dust on the floor was at least three inches deep, he began to carefully scan the shelves.
"There it is," he said softly. He removed a cloth-covered bundle that had slightly less dust on it then the other objects around it. He put it under his arm and headed back the way he had come. When he had exited "The Treasures Room," he watched as the door slowly faded back into the sand colored wall.
Jareth took the bundle to the window and blew the dust off it. Placing it on his bed, he then unwrapped it.
Inside was a simple set of clothes; Jareth held his breath as he reverently laid them out on his bed.
A pair of earthen green pants, a cream-color shirt, and a brown leather vest. The knees in of the pants were torn, the shirt had a few scorch marks and bloodstains, however the vest held the most painful looking scars. A slash mark cutting cleanly through the back of it and a hole made by an arrow.
Jareth looked upon these remnants of his former self. Then, picking the shirt up, he hugged it to his chest and tried to remember the face of the one who had given it to him. The face evaded him and the small ember of the memory faded away.
"I am Sidhe. My people were here underground before humans ever walked above, and we shall be here after the last human dies, for we are eternal."
Saying this Jareth carefully wrapped the garments again and placed them safely on the top shelf of his wardrobe.
"I wonder how long it will stay there before it is missed and reclaimed by the room again?"
Jareth looked about the room and noted that it was a complete wreck. He headed for the door but did not leave the room. He formed a crystal and tossed it into the middle of the mess. In a shower of light and magic the room returned to its original state. Nodding at his work Jareth then willed himself to his throne room and sat down.
The goblins that normally occupied the room stirred as their King suddenly stood in their lowly presence. They were all at attention, waiting for Jareth to tell them what to do. However, when Jareth sat down and reclined in his throne, the goblins realized they would not be called upon to do anything, at least not right away.
Jareth noted that everything was in order in his court, and then he summoned a crystal.
"Well, let's see what Sarah is up to."
V o V
After passing through ceiling doorway and locating the hidden sliding door, Sarah found herself tackling the backwards staircase: she had to walk backwards to move forwards. Finally, Sarah stood in front of the door to the kitchen. Behind her, Sarah could hear the sound of vibrating armor. Buttchen and Snoond were shaking violently.
"Are you two okay?" asked Sarah with concern.
"Yes," squeaked Snoond. Sarah shrugged then pulled open the door to the kitchen.
The fantastic smell hit Sarah like a wall of marshmallows. She sighed as she drank it in. One of her bodyguards whimpered. However, Sarah paid the two goblins no mind for she had her mind set on one goal. 'The cupboard,' she thought. 'If I had almost come through it before, maybe I can get back home the same way.'
Sarah walked boldly into the kitchen. It looked just as she remembered it. Junk strewn on the floor, exploded cauldrons piled in the corner, and old vegetable peelings shoved into the cracks in the wall, yet the kitchen was strangely deserted.
"The…It's the…the…SMELL!" came the terrified scream of Snoond. Sarah spun around just as the goblin passed out. Buttchen looked pleadingly at Sarah then pitiably at his fallen comrade. He began to shake his head frantically.
"No…no missy I can't…I just can't do it!" Buttchen took hold of his fallen friend and dragged him quickly from the kitchen door and out of sight.
Sarah was dumbfounded.
"What in the world has gotten into them?" Sarah asked.
"Don't ask! You don't want to know!" came and answer from her elbow.
Sarah jumped away from the voice in surprise. The voice belonged to a goblin dressed in the dirtiest chef's clothing Sarah had ever seen, and the face also looked slightly feminine.
"You scared me!" scolded Sarah.
"So?" asked the goblin.
"So, what do you say?" asked Sarah. She wanted an apology.
"So, what? Who really cares? Hahaheheho!" All around the kitchen the goblin staff, who had been napping and staying out of sight all joined in and started to laugh.
Sarah was not sure why they all found it funny; it wasn't even a good joke.
After a minute or so the laughter started to die down and the chef began to cough violently.
"Who are you?" Sarah asked.
"Weech, the finest chef ever to live in the goblin kingdom," she said proudly, her ladle held up in salute.
"You mean the only chef in the goblin kingdom," gibed one of the other goblins.
"Shut up, Nidbit!" Weech proceeded to chuck her ladle at the offending goblin, almost hitting Sarah in the process. With a loud thud Weech knew that she had hit her target.
"Let that be a lesson to the lot of you!" she shouted "Back to work!"
The goblins scurried off to do what ever it was that they usually did and left Sarah and Weech alone.
"Now then, what brings you to my kitchen, human?"
Sarah cleared her throat and thought about how she was to go about doing this. She decided on the direct approach.
"I would like to take a look at your cupboards, Weech."
)( v )(
Well that's chapter two finished. I'm sorry about the long wait. The first two weeks of school are all about getting into the swing of things again, right?
Anyways, I will try to be quicker with chapter three. I have a feeling that this story is going to take a while to tell. It started out as a simple idea, and now I have this huge thing growing in my head with new little things popping up all the time. Oh well so long as I stay here in "The Flush Room," I will be able to write in safety.
Meanwhile:
Sarah is jumping on her new bed.
Sarah: I love my new room! This is great Jareth; I've always wanted a balcony. Now I can pretend to be Juliet.
Jareth is leaning on the doorframe watching her.
Jareth: Well, you know, Sarah, if you think this room is nice you should see my room. In fact, if you ever find yourself scared and wanting, feel free to crawl in with me any night.
He winks at his co-star
Sarah: Um, how do I say this delicately? Not a chance in Hell will I ever, ever need to get into bed with you!
Jareth smirks at her.
Jareth: Sarah, you may not have a choice later. Did you read the summary at the beginning of the story?
Sarah stops jumping and runs over to her PC and looks up "Trapped Soul" on Action, Adventure…
Jareth finishes
Jareth: Romance
Sarah is quiet for a moment then screams.
"GOD DAMN YOU xXDFXx."
Note: The Character of Weech is from the book "Goblins of the Labyrinth" by Brian Froud, pg 86.