Disclaimer
Labyrinth and the characters of Jareth and Sarah© Jim Henson
All goblin information I use is drawn from Brian Froud and Terry Jones's book 'The Goblins of Labyrinth'
However Artistic Licence has also been employed in order to fit the story's needs.
And finally, All original ideas belong to me.
Well my Darling Readers, this week I have made the amazing discovery of the 'stats' button on the side Menu. I CAN SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE CLICKED MY FICTION! XD I have had 219 people come visit How lovely. But now, I want to tackle something important. Reviews. I found myself reading a few fan fictions last weekend and I seemed to notice the same message everywhere. The basic gist of them was 'Post a review or I'll stop writing'. WHAT!? Personally, as a writer I found this appalling. Yes reviews are nice to see, but if you're just writing for the reviews, why did you even start? Write for yourself, and don't give a damn if people decide to review or not. So Darling Readers, I'm officially taking the time to let you all know I WILL be finishing this fanfic no matter how few reviews I get, and I hope that so long as I do, those who are following this story will continue to enjoy.
Chapter the third
With a final 'Oomph' Sarah pulled her laces tight, shifting her weight onto her hands to get off the grass, only to find herself fall back a moment later when she had to raise her hand to block the sudden beam of sunlight that shot into her eye from…from?
As Sarah held her hand to her eye, stopping herself from going blind, a sphere made of the sky itself seemed to appear. It was faint at first, like a soap bubble travelling lightly, and slowly gaining weight as it approached. It was perfectly transparent, she couldn't even tell if it was turning or not. It's sparkling never dimmed, even as it broke into a second…whatever it was. Then a third, and finally a fourth. The forth one floated on top though, creating a spherical pyramid. The light jumped through and around it's surfaces, creating a dazzling display of light work which not even technology had conquered yet.
Sarah pushed herself off the ground now, she felt as if she was somehow stuck in a gravitational field pulling her towards the spheres. Her steps moved themselves, bringing her and the object closer, and even as her hand raised to brush against the smooth surface, she felt it was not under her own power. It startled her to find that the top crystal really was spinning and not still as she had first presumed. It's Presence was not bound by gravity, yet it felt that should they stop spinning, they would drop to the ground dully. They were magnetic to her, fascinating her in everyway. Eye-catching, mysterious, spellbinding-
"Sarah!" Irene said, watching the girl as she stood on the front lawn unmoving, her hand raised out horizontally. Sarah shot her a disbelieving look, as if she was obviously interrupting something important.
"Can't you see I'm doing something," Sarah hissed over her shoulder, as her other hand began to move towards the other, lifting up to clasp the globe.
"Sarah! Your father is waiting," Irene said impatiently.
Sarah bit down on her lip, glaring ahead, forcing herself to look away from the orbs and at Irene instead. The comparison between the two was so vast, it made her scowl even more. "Alright I'm coming," She said with a strong bitterness to her voice.
'What!" Jareth shouted, appalled that Sarah had somehow managed to avoid his magic. The ungrateful girl had pulled away from the sight he had sent her, she had walked away from it, not that she was happy about leaving, but she did all the same. Sarah's brown eyes glared at that cursed woman who had brought her attention away from the mysterious display. And yet they didn't even come close to showing the anger that flared in Jareth as he had watched his spell collapse. The crystals now spun slower in front of Sarah's home, gently disappearing in a fade, the same way his goblins had before.
"How!" He fumed, using his riding crop to move any goblin now in his way, kicking some too. "How did she do it!" No goblins walked in his path now as Jareth moved through the walls of the city and beyond them into the Labyrinth. He needed someplace to think, someplace he could find inspiration, solace, anything to take away the thoughts which now erupted in his mind. Where could he cast these thoughts?
"Don't go on," "Turn back," "go back, while you still can," The lying calls of stone faces awoke Jareth from his walking, he was somewhere near the beginning of the Labyrinth now.
"This is not the waaaay," "Take heed, and go no further," Jareth was on the path to one of the many oubliettes in the maze. Oubliettes, a place you put people to forget about them. Wait! A new idea formed in his head, why walk around the labyrinth trying to find something to take away his thoughts, when he could just cast them into the black darkness of the oubliettes.
His feet knew the way like he was following a path, and soon he was at the small door, making it grow in size to fit his own body mass. The darkness took his eyes for only a moment, before Jareth lit one of the few candles which had melted into part of the floor.
Now he could think. Sarah. Annoying, petulant teenage, who had somehow managed not to yield under his abilities.
It couldn't have been him, his powers were as strong as they ever had been, and they would continue to do so as he aged. The crystals were positioned in exactly the right way and under normal circumstances they should have worked perfectly. But maybe Sarah had knocked one out of the way with her hand. But magic was the strongest of bindings, it couldn't have been that. Irene was no cause for concern, she hadn't even seen them. Whatever it was, it was in Sarah, and Jareth wanted whatever it was. Had the spell worked, Sarah would have merely fallen into a heap briefly when both hands made contact with the crystal, and they would have vanished after. But after this little misfortune, he would need to use something stronger.
As always, it took Jareth only a second to conjure the crystal, but he seemed to be doing it more frequently of late. Sarah appeared, looking bewildered as things went appearing and disappearing about her home. His goblins were doing their job well, keeping Sarah guessing.
"I will catch you yet Sarah," He sneered into the crystal.
This time, he would do something more drastic, and he had a very good idea of what might work in this instance. He would send her one of his creatures now. Not a goblin, but something not easily forgot. But, it would take a few days to find it.
Finding his way to the creature was as easy as he had thought it would be, but the waiting was absolute torture. It lived in the forest behind the door knockers where the Furies sang and spiders spun webs of glitter and trees grew in his image. There in the depth of the trees lived Groeg. The bizarre creature which inhabited the world of dreams and truths and had the ability to warp truths. Under normal circumstances, his talents were to make what you thought was tea turn into coffee, and turning the butter you had brought, into margarine. But with a little instruction, he could be taught to use them on a much larger scale.
Groeg sat on something that flicked between being a bolder and a tree root. Weak minds would be only be able to see one first and then think it was the other a moment later, but Jareth's mind was not weak. He could see both.
He stood in front of Groeg, leaning on something that didn't exist before expressing his thoughts to Groeg. Which was hard considering he didn't speak English.
"I have a plan Groeg, but I will need your assistance in this matter," He began. Groeg looked at him and offered him a drink of lemonade which Jareth knew would turn to water a second later.
"There is a girl, I want you to influence her," He stated. Resting his chin on his gloved hand.
While Groeg couldn't speak English like some of the other goblins could, he knew what a question sounded like and what an order sounded like. He also knew what Jareth's orders sounded like. And with Jareth, it was his way, or the bog. The creature nodded his large head, bringing a wicked grin to the face of the Labyrinth's master.
"Don't fail," He said, stalking back to his castle and out of the forest. Now, he would get Sarah, and she wouldn't come out of this with a faint like last time. If Groeg did his job, she should need a physiologist for…at least a week.
Sarah, was sitting at the dining table. Irene was making desert in the kitchen, letting Toby lick the spoon of whatever she was baking. Sarah sat, she could still picture the images of that day on the lawn so clearly. As clearly as the spheres had been. Today was not going well for her, as usual. Everywhere she went, things kept disappearing and then showing up a second later in the first place she looked. Even as she sat trying and failing to draw what she had seen happening outside, she held on to her spare pencil tightly in case it too decided to walk off on her like everything did these days. The drawings were nothing compared to what she had seen, and she scrunched yet another ball of paper. At least they didn't seem to move.
A disgusted noise came from the kitchen then, it sounded like Toby had eaten something which didn't taste too good.
"Sarah!" Irene called from the kitchen, walking out to see Sarah looking up at her.
"Try this," she offered Sarah a small glob of the chocolate cake mixture she had been putting together. Sarah took her finger and dipped it in the brown goo quickly before sticking it into her mouth, hoping it wasn't poisoned. Her face crinkled up, and she ran to the kitchen, guzzling down a glass of water. "It's so salty!" she said, fetching a second glass.
"And who's fault is that Sarah?" said Irene, holding out a bag.
Sarah took the bag from Irene's hand, looking at the label. "You put in salt?" Sarah asked quizzically.
"No Sarah! This is the sugar you supposedly got for me this morning after your little scene about missing your Jeans,"
Another disappearing, reappearing act. The jeans had been folded up on her bed this morning, but they appeared in the laundry as soon as Sarah had gone to get dressed.
"I'm positive I got you sugar," She said confidently. Which was very true, Sarah had got her the cheapest, worst sugar she could find.
"So why does the docket say 'salt'?" Irene pulled out the receipt, offering it to Sarah.
"But…I don't," Sarah's face said everything she couldn't form into words.
"I know I picked up sugar!" she argued, scrunching up the piece of paper.
"Everybody makes mistakes, but this really is a waste of money Sarah, you should-"
"I didn't make a mistake!" Her brown eyes flared. Irene looked at her, not sure what to do. She sighed. "Well, maybe the grocer confused your purchases with someone else's then," She walked back into the kitchen, starting the sink running, cleaning up the wasted batter.
Sarah fumed, someone, something was doing this to her! Making her look foolish. It wasn't her, she knew it couldn't be.
'Yes it is' A little voice in her mind told her. Sarah shook her head and pushed that thought back, only to hear it come back stronger. 'What if I am this incompetent' it told her. ' Maybe I'm just spoilt and haven't realised just how much until Irene came along' It continued. No! Sarah was right, weather her subconscious thought so or not. In her heart she knew. 'Really?' It continued to prod. Yes! She told herself, making sure the voice didn't win over. Her mother had taught her that, self doubt leads to mistakes. If you think you can't do it, then you won't. If Sarah started believing she really was as inept as she seemed, she would only get worse. 'Irene has everything figured out about me, I'm petulant and spoilt. It's no wonder she likes Toby more. I should run away so they can be happy' What!? Her thoughts had never been this drastic. But part of her felt like a small drop of what the words were saying leaked in. But they weren't true! 'Aren't they?' They're not! 'Really?' How could they be! 'Why can't they be?' Shut up! She yelled at her head, stomping off to her room, putting a tape into her cassette and letting the sappy lyrics sink in as the terrible thoughts continued running through her mind like a dripping pipe.
